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Subject: +*+*+*+ Solomon's Private File #135 "Cabal" +*+*+*+
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2016 23:28:21 -0500
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Solomon's Private File #135
These stories about Stephen and Solomon take place starting in
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 19 in this story, in the Spring of 2046.
Solomon's Private File #135 "Cabal"
START Page
Kam is pregnant. Only our S Kids and Rangnorik know I had to help a
little with the genetics. Rangnorik, the father, isn't completely
human. The boy would have been a idiot but for the gene sequence for
genius I activated before the fertilized egg split. That will remain so
in future generations. The Regent is caught between a mix of feelings,
mostly horror, shame, pride, and amusement. They're keeping it a
secret, but the expecting parents are overjoyed. It's expected that
Galya and I, and our extended families, are to mostly raise the boy.
Could be interesting.
Daren came to me and said, "Problem. Earth's economy isn't what it's
supposed to be. Somebody besides us is messing with it, and has been
for centuries. Can't find them." I said, "Try an insulation scan. Look
for shielded rooms." He did, and said, "Wow! How did you KNOW?" I said,
"Simple. Logic. If you can't find something where you're looking, look
where you couldn't see." He poked me and we wrestled. He said, "I think
there's more. That secret group has been around for a LONG time. Been
one of them?" I said, "Yes. Wasn't bad then. Mostly for study, self
improvement, and charity. A lot of what passed for scientists in those
times, belonged to it. Different now. Van persecution could have caused
it after my last life with them ended. Now they deal in arms, and not
the kind with wiggling fingers. We really hurt their revenue with the
drug interdiction." He said, continuing to look, "They are getting a
lot of profits out of money laundering." I said, "Quality detergent."
Pokes. He said, "They are a Christian group in name only." I said,
"Deliberately fanning the Islamic extremists to engage in more violence
is NOT Christian. But those aren't the original founders or mission.
The current group is descended from those who worked for them as
scientist's and sorcerers. Real Templars, who still exist, wouldn't
stand for what they're doing."
He said, "We have to stop them." I said, "But not in the open. Let's
do it financially. They own banks. Influence other banks to not deal
with them. Ones they only partially own, take them away from them by
trickery. The arms they sell will have problems. Bad gunpowder, for
instance. Or bad sights and electronics, explosives that fizzle. Make
that group so unreliable that even very bad people won't deal with
them." He said with a grin, "Like making their knives have dull blades
and sharp handles." I looked at him in admiration, "That was one
terrific saying!" Hugs and kisses. We had an action team meeting, and
gave the briefing. One said, "What if they begin to suspect us?" I
said, "Opinions?" Galya said, "Give them diapers?" Laughter. I said,
"Actually, yes. REALLY give them the message, practically insuring
they'll be used." Chuckles. I said, "But only near the end. And for
their er, ends." More chuckles. One said, "What if they ask for our
help?" I said, "In private, we tell them to go jump in a lake. Full of
itching powder." Chuckles. I said, "If they ask in public, we return
with time research, and then discuss the lake. If they want to make
trouble for US, they lose all their powers, and have some restrictions
installed." One said, "That's bad. Maybe we should warn them so they
can choose to stop on their own. Oh, I just realized how stupid that
was. They'll never believe anything we say." We agreed. Then we worked
out some plans for messing with their activities. Daren said about my
ideas, "That's really bad! You're making 'twisted', jealous! I love
it!" Chuckles.
So that's what we did, something like a campaign of terror, but more
like anti-terror. Metaphorically, the wine they sold became bitter. And
they had a lot of trouble banking the sales, too. Then the Enterprise,
using different organizations and companies, acquired more banks and
assets. The Cabal became desperate in a relatively short time. One
member wanted out. They killed him. Or so they thought. Faster than
they could detect, I did a substitution. They killed a copied body that
had never lived. In a shielded meeting place, I met with that man by
remote. He couldn't see or sense me. I said, "Your friends killed you,
or what they thought was you. Comments?" He said, "Who are you?" I
said, "I asked you for comments about what happened to you. If you have
them, so state." He said, "Am I on trial here?" I said, "You are on the
path to make it so. Continue on that at your own risk." He gulped. He
said, "Nobody leaves the group alive. They were going to kill me." I
showed them a video of it actually happening. I said, "They believe
they did kill you. Your current situation is apart from them. Your
future is yet to be decided. If you would like to have some influence
in that decision, I suggest you act like it. We did not save you just
to kill you. We have been called many things, but not in good accuracy,
stupid. Or wasteful." He was very relieved.
I said, "Why were they going to kill you?" He said, "We were doing
bad things to the world. I knew that, but it didn't affect me. I was
only concerned about profit and exercising power. Then we began to have
problems. Some of which were unexplainable. I was sent to different
places to try to find the cause. There, I saw the death and destruction
we were causing. It was the little children that affected me the most.
We should STOP that! We have the power! We can make just as much profit
doing good things, and feel better about it, too. They didn't want to
listen to me. Are you causing the problems?" I said, "We are. How do
you feel about that?" He struggled with his feelings, and then said,
"Tell me, I have to know. Are you like us in motivation?" I said, "No.
We are more like a government, but not political. We act for the
general welfare, not specifically for monetary profit, but we find that
we do acquire that, to an embarrassingly large degree." He almost
smiled. He said, "So I was correct." I said, "You were." He said, "I
have no life with them now, literally. I can't even access my own money
and possessions. They would discover that and kill me again, as strange
as that sounds. May I join your group?" I said, "How could we trust
you?"
He said, "I think I know who you are. The body transposition and
video is evidence that you are either Solomon, or one of his group. You
would know how I should be trusted, and enforce that." I said, "Such a
group would have been in existence for many years, and would have
business interests. Adepts care as much about administration, as much
as they care about, well, nothing. That's just about the worst." He
chuckled and said, "You ARE Solomon!" I said, "No need to shout. I
already knew that. We have the largest corporate network in the world.
That's how we noticed yours. We don't need your help in taking down
that one, but in operating ours. Willing?" He said, "Ethical?" I said,
"Absolutely!" He said, "I suspected that. I will be watched?" I said,
"We all watch each other, not in suspicion, but in love. However, the
result is the same,"
He said, "Well said! If I could be accepted, I would serve with
honor." I said, "The position isn't without generous benefits.
Strangely, few of our civilian employees indulge in them. Doing good,
with good people, makes you feel good. We have to actually force some
people to take holidays. When they come back with more great ideas to
implement at work, we wonder if they took the office with them." He had
to laugh. I said, "You will have one day in this fully stocked
apartment to think this over, and organize your requests. The computer
will access the internet, but will not send any information out but
basic anonymous requests for web pages. Your phone won't work here.
After that day, you will be contacted by one of us, who will start the
process of creating a new life for you, as much as you wish it to be,
that we deem reasonable and can accomplish without being noticed. This
apartment is shielded against psionics, as I'm sure you've noticed.
It's for your safety."
He said, "Would I be allowed to keep my ability?" I said, "Yes, if
you agree to an implanted command not to engage in criminal activities
with it. All our employees have similar commands implanted as a part of
the requirements for hiring. Actually, so do our Adepts, but we can
overrule them if we need to. So far, we never have.'" He said, "I can
review the command before agreeing to it?" I said, "We insist on it,
and you will be fully aware of the process. Part if it is to keep our
secrets. Much of what we do for the world needs to be in secret, or it
could cause more damage than help." He said, "I'm beginning to
understand that. Will more of my former group change enough to join
you?" I said, "I don't know. And to be honest, nor do I know that your
change isn't temporary. We can only work with what is, when it happens.
But we do hope that more of the group can be saved from themselves. If
it happens, imagine their surprise when they find out that you are with
us before them." He said with a grin, "I hope to see that. I don't know
how to thank you but with my future dedication." I said, "You're
welcome. Now get to work." He grinned and did just that.
The Cabal was watched closely. We acquired another recruit. Then
their own former customers tried to kill some of them. We "encouraged"
the media to run with that, and they exposed the whole Cabal. It
collapsed. They tried to escape justice. We didn't let that happen.
Their exposed businesses that could be made legal and good, we acquired
through shell corporations registered in Belize. Some we fixed and
sold.
I asked to see the Secretary General of the UN, privately. I said,
after polite things, "I represent a company that has a problem. They
asked me to ask you to help. They think you will listen to me more than
another person." She grinned and said, "True, and I agree in advance to
help. You wouldn't do this if it were a bad thing." I said, "Well,
can't we have a little debate, just for fun?" She laughed. I said,
"You've heard of a big multinational Cabal that went down in flames
recently?" She nodded. I said, "We caused that." She said, "Good! For
the world, thank you very much!" I said, "Er, you're welcome. Well,
this company I'm here for, acquired much of their assets, again with
our help. We didn't want bad people to start that horrible mess all
over again. The unfortunate result is that company has a LOT of extra
money it doesn't know what to do with. It was suggested that this
organization could and should benefit from that. So, could you help us
dispose of this money?"
She had a confused mix of intense emotions. I said, "I have to say, I
really like doing this to people for good things." She had to laugh.
She said, "I will NOT complain. In your speaking around it, I
understand that you created the company for this purpose." I said, "I
think it's a good idea, for legal reasons, that I don't admit that, or
that we have done this many times. We who don't need money, tend to
come across it in embarrassing amounts all too often, in our
development work." She said, "I was aware of that. And that you could
destroy the economy by importing materials from space." I said, "Yes.
We have to be careful not to make things worse here, even in choosing
what inventions to release. That's more important than our lives. We
could have used rare earths from space, but instead we improved how to
obtain it on Earth. One of our founders died in the sabotage in
Mexico." She said, "Oh! I didn't know! I'm very sorry." I said, "Thank
you. He didn't care about that, actually. I offered to tell him how he
died, after. He wasn't interested. He's since been reincarnated into
one of our group." She said, "Wow!" I said, "He'll probably say that
when he's told." She said, "Are there more of er, you, er, back in your
group?" I said, "Yes. I'm VERY happy that Chad has returned as my
daughter. We don't know if any of them will remember any of their past
lives, but it sure is causing some interesting speculation. Please keep
this all private." She said, "I will." I said, "Here are the specifics
of our proposal. We place no restrictions on how it should be spent,
and require no oversight, but you know we will be watching, and if
necessary, making er, corrections." She tried not to grin.
She said, "We have a problem that you might be able to help with. Our
peace keepers sometimes fall victim to the violence they try to
prevent." I said, "We aren't enough in our group to personally protect
them. That wouldn't be at all like protecting politicians who rarely
encounter violence outside of their bedrooms. Yes, that actually
happened. In programming the background watch, I hadn't considered that
some weapons could be used er, recreationally." She laughed really
hard. She said, "A shield like yours?" I said, "The shield is a very
complicated thing. Our own people, even after they become full Adepts,
aren't able to use the shield until they have more training. And there
is another issue. If I gave your people individual shields, like the
environmental pendants, they couldn't protect them from everything,
without isolating them completely from the environment like they would
be on the Moon. They couldn't work that way. It needs a skilled Senior
Adept to operate them usefully. And nobody not one of us, uses them
without one of us managing them." She said, "But restricted to just
bullets?" I said, "That could be done, but where do the bullets go when
they bounce off? And you might as well say to all the criminals in the
world, 'Here, come kill and steal them from my people.' You would have
a lot of stabbed peace keepers." She said, "I understand more now, how
careful you have to be about these things."
I said, "But you suspect something." She grinned and said, "I would
not wish to jeopardize that help by possibly unwanted comment." I said,
"Between us in private, that is not unwanted, but we should be careful
about what could be repeated under oath. As more of us are born, and we
are trying very, er, hard to make that happen, more of us will be
available to assist the world, and some individuals, avoid some dangers
in their good work, but not enough so that it becomes noticed, and so
place them in even greater danger. All things must balance, and in the
proper order, to cause optimal results. All lives can't and shouldn't
be protected, but sacrifices WILL be rewarded, eventually." She said,
"More than ever, I realize how careful you must be, and how hard it is
for you to live with that." I said, "You understand that more than
most, with what you do here." We hugged with love.
END Page
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Grant
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