The conference table was filled with tired, worried faces. Events were moving at a faster pace than had been anticipated. Two months of releasing videos in which high level government employees were filmed taking bribes, or colluding to destroy the lives of honest citizens, had thrown the government into a frenzy. The alphabet agencies were taking a beating via backdoor channels, mostly via the internet. The press, which was fully under control, was refusing to air the videos.
Carl Plante made the 'America's Most Wanted' list as a terrorist. Twice he had been reported killed resisting arrest, only to have him appear elsewhere, distributing videos of additional crimes. His picture appeared in grocery stores, movie theaters, and public buildings. It appeared on television several times a day. The reward for his arrest and capture was well over a million dollars, and was climbing every week.
Law enforcement agencies were baffled by how he was able to move around so freely. One day he would be in Los Angeles. Two days later, he would be in Miami. He met with community groups, farm organizations, literary circles, and conservative action groups. Each time, he'd tell the story of a government gone mad with power. His story would be backed up with videos of corrupt political appointees, middle level managers, and business leaders conspiring against the American people. He would ask them to post the video to as many places as they could before leaving.
People, horrified by what they saw, responded. The videos showed up on the internet. Videos were distributed by email. After thousands of downloads, websites would get shut down ... sometimes violently, as had been the case of a Nigerian website where the host facility had been bombed.
Attempts to limit distribution via the internet were not very successful. In much the same way that security agencies could not prevent malware from spreading across the internet, they couldn't halt the spread of the videos. NSA was pulling its hair out. Well ... the upper levels of NSA were pulling their hair out. Some of the lower level people weren't all that inclined to prevent the distribution of the videos.
Carl Plante had become a household name. The press was painting him as some kind of anarchist fanatic. Families argued over whether he was a good guy or a villain. Public opinion was slowly swinging to viewing him as being a modern day Robin Hood. In some ways, he was becoming a celebrity. His face was recognized by more people than those who could identify the Speaker of the House from a photograph. He was as well known as the most popular movie star in Hollywood.
Congress was besieged with letters to open investigations into the criminal acts captured on video. Of course, that was like asking the fox to guard the hen house. People began to realize it when the names of their representatives started showing up in videos. People started getting angry.
The public's reaction, at first peaceful, was beginning to get violent. The most publicized of the violent acts occurred during a riot, when a high ranking member of Congress died while in his local office. It burned to the ground, with him inside. That had sent shock waves throughout Washington.
That was nothing compared to what was happening to the heads of the government's alphabet agencies. They were being physically attacked by right-wing and left-wing extremists. Right-wing extremist groups were angered at what was being done to take away their freedoms and national identity. Left-wing extremist groups were furious that their efforts to save the planet were being used by corporations to take over the planet. Moderates were seething, but hadn't unloosed their wrath, yet.
The men gathered around the table knew that this was only the beginning. Worse revelations were soon to be released. Now that the government agencies were in turmoil, the next batch of videos focused entirely on elected officials at state and federal levels. The goal was to defang the government watchdog agencies and the lawmakers, so that they couldn't be brought to the dogfight that was to come.
Tom Farmer said, "I wish we had more time to set this up."
"We're ready, financially," the Banker said.
Large quantities of money, on the order of a trillion dollars, had been moved to where the wealth could do the most damage. It hadn't been easy. They'd had to move it in a manner that wouldn't be noticed. It required making small transactions here and there, spread over one investment or another, in what might be viewed as a random chaotic response to marketplace volatility.
"I'm not worried about the money."
"What are you worried about?"
Tom answered, "I'm worried about our production capabilities. We've always kept our companies in sixth, seventh, and eighth places for our individual industries. To leap up to number one, two, and three ... in a matter of months ... is going to be tough."
"Why such a jump?" the Weaver asked.
"The current top companies are going to go out of business. We can't allow the shelves in grocery stores to become empty. It would cause a mass panic. As a result, we have to raise our production levels to meet consumer needs. I'm worried we won't be able to do that," Tom said.
"It is a valid concern," the Smith said. "I know that we're barely keeping up with the demands for equipment. I'm not even sure if it will all be installed in time."
"We're working twenty-four hours a day. It is going to be tight," the Woodman said, also looking worried.
They were building factories in the middle of nowhere. None of them were licensed or inspected as being food production facilities. They were just random buildings, Quonset huts and block warehouse type buildings, going up in the desert or in cornfields. Even the men working on the buildings had no clue as to their intended use.
"Can't we delay it for a month or two?" the Weaver asked, worried that they were rushing into making acts that could destroy the Pfand.
"We have to act on the current schedule, or we will have to delay everything for a year."
"Why a year?" the Weaver asked.
"It's harvest time," Tom answered.
"I didn't think about that."
Tom said, "I'd love to delay it a year, but we can't. Our farms won't be in business a year from now."
"The Landowner is right," the Scholar said.
"They are moving faster than we thought," the Banker said.
The Scholar said, "They are reacting to Carl Plante. His tapes have devastated the leadership of several government organizations they were relying upon in their plans. They have to move now, or lose the whole game."
The Innkeeper said, "Can we hurt them enough?"
"Yes," the Banker said. "We've got a trillion dollars tied up in this."
The Drover asked, "You're moving around a lot of money. Is there any chance they might get suspicious?"
"No. They think it is a bunch of small players trying to anticipate their moves," the Whore said.
"How do you know that?" the Drover asked.
"Some of my family were at a party with the leadership of that group. We heard them talking about the lack of market volatility in light of some of the recent scandals. We know their attitudes about people outside their group," the Whore answered.
"I'll accept that," the Drover said.
The Banker said, "Actually, it would appear to be a lot of small investors moving money around. All of our holding companies are actually small investors in their way of thinking. The fact that it is about eight thousand holding companies, just reenforces their opinion."
The Whore said, "The leadership of that group is more concerned about Carl, and what he's doing to them. They are frantically trying to get rid of him. They aren't even being circumspect in how they talk about him, anymore. He's stopped being 'the pickle guy'. He's being named by name."
"That's good, isn't it?" the Woodman asked.
"They've put a ten million dollar contract out on him," the Whore said.
Tom groaned as he said, "What are his chances of survival?"
He knew that Carl was in constant danger of getting caught. If caught by the government, he would disappear. If caught by mercenaries, he'd reappear as a mangled corpse. The odds were not in his favor. Of the ten members of the Bauer family set up to publicly fight the enemy, two had been killed, one had disappeared at the hands of the government, and another three were in hiding overseas.
There were now nearly a hundred members of the Pfand families tucked away in a lot of remote places in the world. After continued harassment by the government, all of Carl's immediate family had been moved out of the country. His parents were touring China. His sister and brother-in-law were taking a tour of Russia searching for antiques that could be shipped back to the states when everything was over. Samantha's immediate family was taking a cruise down the Amazon river. Jennifer's family was stashed away in a nudist resort in Australia. Hammond's family was visiting with close friends who owned a rather old and large gun company in Italy.
The Watchman answered, "Better than you might think."
They had a lot of Wache family members watching over Carl and the others traveling with him. Every public appearance had Wache family members scattered throughout the place to make sure that no one would harm them. They had become a well oiled machine in getting into and out of appearances.
The closest they had come to getting caught was a checkpoint that had been hurriedly setup after one of their public appearances. The car that was stopped had been one of several alternatives, one in which Carl had never even been in. There had been the other time when he had ridden past a roadblock as a passenger in a firetruck with sirens blaring. No one would know that the firetruck had been built by a Schmied firm and was being delivered to another town by a Wagner.
That wasn't to say that all of his exits had been by automobile. Carl was becoming personally acquainted with the sewer systems of several of the larger cities in the country. Considering the number of cameras located throughout large cities, it was amazing that one could still weave a path of several miles without once being caught on camera.
"We haven't had any problems in moving him around the country. Not one of our trucks has been stopped or even questioned," the Drover said.
Long distance trips were taken in the back of shipping trucks. The trips weren't ever comfortable, but they managed to get him from one place to another without being observed. No matter how bad the trip might have been, Carl never complained. When asked, he would reply that he was a stag and was gutting the wolf.
The Innkeeper said, "No one has even suspected that he's staying in our hotels or motels."
There would always be local police stopping by with questions after a public appearance in their town, but that was of a general nature with hotels all across the area getting the same treatment. After a few cursory questions the police would leave to hit the next hotel in the area. The low-end 'rent by the hour' kinds of places were questioned more than any of the Grun family owned places.
Tom said, "That's good to know."
"I know you're worried about him," the Scholar said.
The Weaver asked, "How are the Bauer family members holding up?"
Tom answered, "That's kind of hard to say. The current chaos in the government agencies has reduced some of the pressure on us. That has helped morale more than you can imagine, but not enough. The automated systems are still churning out threatening letters."
"Are people worried?" the Watchman asked.
"You bet. A couple of the government agencies have a generic form letter denying the appeal of any past decisions. One of our farmers will appeal a decision, but they are immediately sent a letter back saying that it was denied. It's obvious that no one even looked at the appeal. The legal process is still relentlessly moving forward with the intention of shutting them down.
"The recent chaos means that they don't have inspectors dropping in on them everyday. Of course, they can handle inspectors. That just starts a legal process that they know they'll lose, but that's survivable. They fear the appearance of Federal agents on their doorstep.
"Every time some farm house gets raided on the suspicion that the farmer and his family are right-wing extremists, there are deaths. Every farmer knows that. It doesn't matter what they say or do; the odds are good that they and their family will die.
"In some cases, farmers are resisting and they are doing it in the most nasty way possible. The Federal agents have no idea how many dangerous compounds are on a farm. In one raid, thirty agents were sprayed with pesticide mixed with liquid fertilizer that was pumped through the irrigation system. It was a lethal combination and the agents had no idea of the danger they were in.
"We know that it is just a matter of time before our families are facing federal agents. With the exception of the farmers we asked to stand up against the enemy, we've stayed below the radar. The Pfand prohibition against being too demonstrative of religious beliefs and political action has protected us for the most part. Too many of the so-called right-wing extremists were active in their churches."
"Our ancestors were very wise," the Scholar said getting nods of agreement from the others.
The Weaver turned to the Watchman. "How are members of the Wache family doing?"
The Watchman sighed. "We're spread thin. There just aren't enough of us to provide the level of protection and investigation that's required of us. We've got members of the Bauer and Damenstern family to protect. Carl alone requires incredible resources. The problem is that we can't trust anyone with the appropriate security skills who is not a member of the Wache family.
"I know that our greatest fear is that we're going to fail. Each death in the Bauer family really hits us hard. Each time we find a Damenstern dead, it's like ... I don't know ... it just hurts. It doesn't matter that we've lost members of the Wache family in protecting our charges, we still feel like we aren't trying hard enough.
"I will say that the Landowner did well in selecting Carl Plante. He is a wonderful young man. He follows commands without question. He listens in on planning sessions and asks good questions. He walks into confusing and disorienting situations without losing his cool. You couldn't ask for a better person for the job he's doing."
Tom said, "Watchman, we appreciate everything members of the Wache family have done on our behalf. You have lost many more people that we have and we feel each loss. Tell your people, that..." he swallowed, "we would have already lost if it wasn't for them. All of us in the Pfand, owe you and yours a great debt."
"I second that," the Whore said.
The Weaver asked, "How are the members of the Damensterns doing?"
The Whore was silent. "They are afraid. The worse things go for the enemy, the worse things get for us. In public, these people are suave, controlled, and charismatic. In private, these people have no restraint. Our young men and women have been beaten. A few have been killed."
Tom said, "Perhaps it is time to pull back."
"No. I've issued rings."
The Watchman swore, "Shit! That's bad."
"Rings?" the Drover asked.
Having helped create rings in the past, the Smith answered, "Poisoned rings. The ring can be used to kill an enemy, or to commit suicide when there exists no alternative. The stone setting can be removed by unscrewing it. That reveals a thin needle containing a poison."
"All of us wear our rings at all times."
"No! I object!" Tom shouted.
"I agree with the Landowner," the Woodman shouted. "That ... is asking too much of them."
The Weaver said, "You're going too far. Pull back."
Several discussions broke out around the table. The Whore raised a hand to quiet everyone. It took a moment for everyone to quiet down.
She said, "All of you know the motto of the Damensterns – 'We are all whore, part diplomat and part spy.' That is what we are, and what we do. I am proud of what I am, and of the contributions I have made to the Pfand.
"It is not unknown for 'congress of trade' to turn into 'congress of rape.' When that occurs too frequently, or becomes habit within a particular group, we issue rings. The ring makes it possible for us to survive. It is a tool in our arsenal."
Looking around the room, the Watchman could tell that people were still against the idea. Personally, he was against the idea of sending members of the Damenstern family into danger like that. He did appreciate that they at least had a means of self defense. He'd prefer if they had a Wache watching over them, but in matters of this nature it often boiled down to client and whore alone together.
He said, "You engage in 'congress of trade.' May I ask a question?"
"Yes," the Whore answered.
"Are you getting more, or less, out of the trade than what you're giving up?" the Watchman asked.
Rather than address the question directly, the Whore asked, "Is the continuance of the Pfand worth more than the life of one or two of us?"
Absolute silence answered her question. Everyone looked everywhere else except at her while they considered the question. Stated that way, it was hard to answer no, but each of them felt the answer had to be no.
The Scholar said, "Let me bring reason to this matter."
"Please do."
"As the Whore has stated, the enemy is getting increasingly more violent with each setback. It is approaching the point where their violence is liable to spin completely out of control. You will not be bringing back information if you continue as you have in the past. You will be bringing back broken bodies and corpses. That does not help assure the continuance of the Pfand."
"I agree," Tom said.
"I disagree. One piece of information, the right piece of information, can assure the continuance of the Pfand," the Whore said.
"No," the Scholar said.
Staring at the woman seated across from her, the Whore said, "Let us put it to a vote."
"Okay," Tom said.
"I cast my two votes to continue," the Whore said.
Since this was a matter concerning the Damenstern family; she, as the head of the family, was given two votes. With ten members, a vote could easily become a tie. Allowing the head of the most affected family two votes, served as a means to prevent a tie and to prevent a family from being railroaded into something that was against that family's interests. The extra vote didn't matter. Only the Innkeeper had sided with the Whore. The final tally ended up eight to three against continuing.
The Watchman said, "It is settled. Your family shall withdraw from engaging the enemy."
The Whore asked, "What are we supposed to do? You've taken the only way in which we can contribute."
"The Weber family has been unable to contribute in any significant way throughout this situation. You will do as we have done, and support the others. The Wache families are in need of moral support. Can you not provide them with a respite from their burdens?" the Weaver asked.
"We can," the Whore answered sadly. It was not the kind of contribution she felt was the purview of the Damenstern family line.
Tom said, "Then please do so."
The Weaver asked, "How are the members of the Goldstein family holding up?"
"We're doing well, all things considered. I must say that this is the kind of challenge that occurs once in a millennium. Members of my family are enjoying the challenge," the Banker answered.
"Are they not worried?" the Woodman asked.
"Of course they are. We're the most risk adverse people in the world. That doesn't mean that they are losing sleep over it. The thrill of moving billions of dollars undetected through the markets of the world is what keeps them awake at night."
"You're enjoying this?" Tom asked.
"Well ... yes."
The Weaver asked, "How are the members of the Curador family holding up?"
"The members of the family involved in law have never had such heavy workloads. We've got at least nine thousand lawsuits pending. We've had to hand off the nuisance lawsuits to members of our firms who are not Curador."
The Watchman asked, "Isn't that a risk in security?"
"No. Most of what they are doing is rote procedure. Besides, we're talking about junior members of the law firm. They think that if they win a stupid lawsuit on some obscure technicality that it will bring them to our attention," the Scholar answered.
"If you say so," the Watchman said.
"It's not like they are going to figure out anything if the lawsuit they are handling arose because someone cut their finger on an improperly stapled stack of papers from a government organization."
"Who would file a lawsuit like that?" Tom asked.
The Weaver answered, "A member of my family."
The Smith asked, "Do you expect to win any of them?"
"No. They're nuisance lawsuits. The idea is to tie up their resources answering them. You might think they have infinite resources, but they don't. It adds up when you include our nuisance lawsuits, our real lawsuits, the lawsuits others have filed, and the lawsuits they have filed," the Scholar answered.
"I'll want to talk to you later about it."
The Weaver asked, "Do you have anything else to add?"
The Scholar said, "Now our researchers are absolutely overwhelmed. They're digging into all kinds of records, news stories, and official reports. You can't imagine how much material is out there that is relevant to our efforts. Foreclosures, lawsuits, criminal arrests, regulations, and ... I could continue all day on the valuable sources of information we're gathering.
"We've got so much material that we've tasked the juniors and seniors at our private schools to gather material from the internet on our behalf. They're monitoring support groups, chat rooms, and other places where people are liable to identify what is being done to them. They're doing good work and learning something in the process."
Tom said, "Interesting."
The Scholar said, "The Bauer kids are looking at farm foreclosures, reports of crop disease, acts of violence against farmers, and tracking 'futures' markets. One of the kids discovered that four firms controlled eighty percent of the beef market. Did you know that?"
"Yes," Tom said.
He also knew that one hundred corporations owned one percent of the land in the United States. The federal government owned thirty percent of the land and leased much of that to the same one hundred corporations. Approximately forty-one percent of the total area of the US was dedicated to agriculture which makes the amount owned by the one hundred corporations sound small. However, it mattered whether it was prime or marginal farmland.
Forty-six thousand farms, out of over two million farms, accounted for fifty percent of the total sales. Interestingly enough, the government considered any property that produced more than one thousand dollars worth of crops, to be 'a farm.' What did this mean? Seventy-six percent of the farms produced less than one hundred thousand dollars worth of crop. Furthermore, forty percent of all farms were classified as residential/lifestyle properties.
He also knew that the farm statistics were over a decade old. The situation had only gotten worse for the family farmers. The enemy group was targeting the twenty percent of the farms, that produced less than half a million dollars in crops.
"We're thinking of adding a research project like this to our curriculum," the Scholar said.
The Weaver asked, "Anything else?"
"No."
The Weaver asked, "How are the members of the Schmeid family holding up?"
The Smith answered, "Well, we're producing food equipment at a blistering pace while trying to maintain our existing contracts. We're stretched a little thin. We won't actually have to report our production and sales figures for a while, so all of our work is currently 'under the radar.'
"However, we have had to report the increased employment numbers required to make the products. I think we have accounted for the majority of the improvement in the employment statistics for the entire country. While that is good for the country, I'm not sure that it is what the people in power actually want."
The Woodman interrupted, "We've experienced that same growth in employment. That put us on someone's radar since construction starts are way down. Questions have been raised."
The Smith continued, "Essentially, morale is good, but we are worried about getting everything in place."
The Woodman said, "That's the same as for our family."
The Weaver asked, "Do you have anything more to add about the members of the Wald families?"
"No," the Woodman answered.
The Weaver asked, "How are the Wagner families doing?"
"Our families are spread rather thin. We're personally making the deliveries from Schmeid facilities to the Wald work sites. We're also ferrying a lot of people around the country. Some of us older folks haven't driven this much in years. It's amazing how much bullshit our drivers have to put up with. Other than that, we're doing fine."
The Weaver asked, "How are the contracts?"
The Drover answered, "We've got the majority of them signed with the necessary conditions added. To keep from harming some of the other small firms, we've subcontracted some of our business to them. We're losing money on them, but that was to be expected."
"That's good," the Weaver said. "How about the Grun family?"
The Innkeeper answered, "We're entertaining about four thousand unregistered guests from the other families. They are spread out over all over the country. It feels good to have the occupancy. It's a shame that it has to be under these circumstances.
"So far, our facilities have not drawn any real attention. We have had a few that were checked by local government folks wanting to assure themselves that we were collecting room use taxes from all of our guests. Nobody really watches motels that charge fifty dollars a night that closely except when it comes to collecting a cut of the money. Our books satisfied them, but we've stopped hosting folks at those locations where people tend to ask too many questions.
"We've also made sure not to host folks where too many government officials use our rooms for their affairs. That cuts down the risk of discovery significantly."
The Whore smiled. "There will always be 'congress of pleasure.'"
"Indeed," the Innkeeper said.
"Is that all?" the Weaver asked.
Tom smiled. "You forgot your family."
"That's right. A lot of us wish we could contribute more. We've served as witnesses to a number of events. We've helped outfit the Damensterns for their engagements with the enemy. We've been watching the surveillance videos. Outside of that, we aren't doing much."
The Watchman said, "Don't forget that you're also scouting locations for us. That's an important job."
"Point taken," the Weaver admitted.
The Weaver asked, "Are there any major problems that haven't been addressed?"
There was silence around the table.
"I guess not," she said. "Will we need to meet again before the big day?"
The Watchman said, "Not unless some problems arise that require us to change plans."
"Let's get out of here," the Woodman said.
The room slowly cleared, until only Tom Farmer and the Whore were left.
"How's my wife?" Tom asked.
The Whore answered, "She's over in England dealing with some of the money men over there. So far the pressures in the States haven't reached there, yet."
"That's good. I worry about her," Tom said.
"That's only natural. She's doing a good job," the Whore said.
"Just how bad are they?"
The Whore was silent for a moment thinking about the question. It wasn't an easy question to answer.
"We are dealing with sociopaths and I don't mean the Hollywood kind. I think that is the only way to describe them. They are slick, polished, controlled, and charismatic in public. In private, they have temper tantrums, are abusive, abrasive and lack any kind of control. The majority of them are bisexual with most of the remainder being homosexual. A significant number are pedophiles, with a preference for young boys.
"You know that we do not judge a person's sexuality. Our business is sex and we cater to all forms of it. We do abhor 'congress of rape' and that seems to be common amongst these folks. One of our women reported that her client had told his assistant, 'Bring me a boy. I like the way they squeal.' That just about sums up their mindset. There's a streak of cruelty here that is like 1643 all over again."
"My God and you want your people to stay in that environment?" Tom asked.
The Whore nodded as she said, "I have read the biographies and diaries of every head of my family starting from Helga Damenstern through my predecessor. Never in the history of our family have we seen a time in which so many people in power have the same kind of mindset. It is as though everything in the way our society is structured enables individuals like that to rise in power. A normal person, without the charisma of a sociopath, is viewed as stupid and incompetent. An honest person gets steamrolled by those who are willing to tell the big lie and force others to support it.
"Damensterns are very moral. Although there are some who would argue otherwise based on the fact that we engage in 'congress of trade', we have a well developed moral sense. We have been shocked to our core by the depravity that we've observed. It is truly appalling.
"As bad as they are, it's incredible just how easily they get away with it. It was only a few years ago that it was made public that a congressman had a young man running a homosexual prostitution service out of his home. The clients included individuals in the White House, Congress, and government agencies. That congressman is still in office and has gained in political power. No one has questioned if he's still involved in male prostitution. It is absolutely amazing.
"Damensterns understand what can be learned from clients. We are part diplomat and part spy. What we are doing for the Pfand, others are doing for their governments. There are women from all over the world servicing our political leaders and high powered corporate executives. We're talking about countries like China, Russian, Korea, Israel, Japan, and the Middle East. Yes, there are Middle Eastern women servicing men in the US.
"Even if we get beyond this current crisis, I fear that others are headed our way. There is a huge amount of corruption that has nothing to do with what is going on.
"To tell the truth, I'm worried. World-wide, there are about six thousand people who need to die. Just saying that leaves a foul taste in my mouth. They have to die to protect six billion people from them."
Tom said, "You paint a pretty negative picture."
The Whore said, "To tell the truth, I'm ashamed. We should have spotted this trend sixty years ago. In our defense, we were distracted by a world war. Still, we knew about this group when they were only a hundred people and we discounted them. We ignored the signs that they were exhibiting less self-control in private. We even were taken in by their charisma. Each time they talked about a 'New World Order' we assumed that it was a nice catch phrase rather than a real end towards which they were working.
"Now we know what they mean by a 'New World Order.' They want one world government which they run. They want total control of energy, food, and water. They want to reduce the world's population to a third of its current value. They want to pack people into super-cities and leave the wide open spaces for themselves.
"What kind of person thinks that is reasonable? I really can't imagine it. The Pfand has always been about live and let live."
A shiver went through the Whore's body. She got control of herself.
"You wonder why I'm willing to risk my family members. It's only because I don't want to live in the world that they envision."
"I can understand that," Tom said thoughtfully, then added, "The entire Pfand owes you for recognizing the crisis that is upon us."
Edited By TeNderLoin