Dark Shadows

by Sibel Hodge

  ‘So go on, then!’ I elbowed him. ‘Tell me how you know Toni and this Vigilante.’

  Warren looked off into the distance with a haunted look on his face for a moment then looked back to me. ‘I can’t tell you that bit. If I do, it’ll open up a whole can of worms that have managed to stay firmly closed.’ He looked into my eyes, and I could see he was torn between wanting to tell me and not. ‘Maybe one day.’

  ‘Okay. Fair enough.’

  A white VW drove up behind us then, and I watched its approach in the rearview mirror before flicking my gaze to Warren.

  He gave me a reassuring smile and reached for the door handle. We got out and rounded the car, waiting for them to park.

  A short, stocky guy with a shaved head exited the driver’s seat. Toni got out of the passenger side. The Vigilante’s fierce gaze scanned about the surrounding area before they walked towards us.

  Warren shook the Vigilante’s hand then turned to Toni, who stepped forward to hug him.

  ‘Good to see you,’ Warren told her.

  ‘And you,’ she said softly.

  He pulled back and smiled warmly. ‘You’re looking much better than the last time we met.’

  She laughed. ‘You, too.’

  I watched on, wondering what to make of it all. Wondering how the hell Warren knew her. Knew them. Maybe I’d tease it out of him one day, but for now, we had more important things to do.

  I stepped forward. ‘Hi. I’m Becky.’

  Toni smiled at me, and although she was in her early twenties, there was something about her—a presence, a maturity that showed behind her eyes—that made her seem older and wiser.

  Mitchell grinned. ‘We know.’

  ‘Looks like we’ve both had a busy time.’ I smiled back.

  We stood and discussed what we’d both been doing, laying out what evidence we had.

  ‘This goes right up to the prime minister and beyond,’ the Vigilante said. ‘My guy’s found intelligence that shows the elite establishment are actively working on a smart grid that they want to be connected to the human mind, and which will be centrally controlled by them. There’s an actual government commission working right now on recommendations about how all aspects of implantable nanochips will be implemented. They want it up and running by 2030.’

  My mouth fell open. It felt like my rib cage was being squeezed. As if all the air was being sucked out of the atmosphere.

  ‘We’ve got classified memos, emails, and documents that prove the prime minister gave the go-ahead for Regen Logistix to develop this nanochip in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence, ready for when the grid is up and running, and for the security services to protect them.’

  Carter whistled out an angry breath.

  I swallowed to moisten my dry throat. ‘What the hell? The prime minister?’

  ‘But he’s just a prostitute puppet, having his strings pulled by the real people who run the country—the shadow government. The global elite who’ve controlled the world for decades behind the scenes.’ The Vigilante’s voice was hard, laced with disgust. ‘Regen Logistix isn’t just a biomedicine company. They’re a subsidiary of Davenport Systems.’

  ‘Who do what, exactly?’ Warren asked.

  ‘They’re a major global defence company. They make bombs, military aircraft, ships and vehicles, electronics, and chemical and biological weapons. But they’re all incestuously linked with all the industry players involved here—big tech, big pharma, big global finance cartels.’ The Vigilante’s top lip curled up. ‘The world’s gone to shit. We’re controlled by lunatics under the guise of democracy, when really we’re all living in a totalitarian state. Trouble is, most people don’t realise it yet.’

  ‘How are they intending to implant people on mass with these chips?’ I asked, my voice trembling.

  ‘This is where it gets even more depraved. Davenport Systems have developed a toxic biological weapon that creates a virus. Their intention is to release it and cause a pandemic that ensures their goal for mass depopulation of the planet.’

  I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘The elite believe the world is overpopulated. They want a mass cull of people. Genocide. But the virus isn’t the real killer. The new technology they’re rolling out globally right now in every public space, in schools, and attached to people’s housing is a direct energy weapon that connects to the nanochips. And thousands of studies show that the electromagnetic frequency and microwaves involved produces radiation exposure and can kill people. The elite-controlled media’s remit is to bombard the public with false data and propaganda about a virus to create mass hysteria. Then the puppet masters who create the heinous crisis will sell the lies and hoax to sell people the cure. And once the public are terrified and panicked they’ll agree to things that go against their core survival. It’s the basic psychology of problem-reaction-solution. Their solution will be mandatory vaccinations, which just happen to contain a tracking nanochip inside.’

  ‘It sounds like Nazi Germany all over again.’ I threw my hands in the air and looked at Warren, who was shaking his head to himself. ‘So what do we do with it all? Who can we take it to? I mean, there must be some decent, honest people in the government that can help us.’

  ‘Yeah. There are. But a handful of honest people can’t fight what’s now become such an insidiously corrupt political system. The honest ones will be either quashed, subjected to a smear campaign, or mysteriously die.’

  ‘Then how can we make them accountable?’ I looked back at the Vigilante.

  ‘We can’t,’ Toni said.

  ‘There is no happy ending to this,’ the Vigilante added. ‘There won’t be a superhero swooping in to save the day.’

  I blinked at them. ‘We have to do something.’

  The Vigilante shrugged. ‘If this was a movie, we’d hand everything over to the press, and they’d do what they’re supposed to do—present unbiased journalism to the public and make them aware of what’s been going on and the danger they’re in. But that’s not an option when the mainstream media is systematically filtered by the powerful and dangerously biased interests of those that own, manage, and fund it.’

  ‘Even if you could get a national paper to say they’ll cover it, any publication would be shut down on orders of national security,’ Warren added.

  The Vigilante snorted. ‘National security? National cover-up, more like.’ He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Look what’s happened in the past. You’ve got politicians committing war crimes and multiple crimes against personal freedoms, human rights, and humanity. And while they’re walking around free, laughing their heads off, the whistleblowers who’ve exposed them have been thrown in prison to rot. And Regen Logistix and the CEO, Paul Hughes, and his cronies will never be held accountable with a criminal prosecution—corrupt corporations hardly ever are, even when their products have caused multiple deaths. They’re too powerful. A company that makes bombs and biological and chemical weapons for a living doesn’t give a fuck about the sanctity of human life.’

  ‘Just like the bankers were too big and powerful to jail.’ Warren growled. ‘They haven’t just created the monsters. They’ve well and truly fed and nurtured them.’

  The Vigilante showed his agreement with a tilt of his head. ‘Well, again, they’re part of this bigger plan. The impending financial apocalypse is about to hit the fan because the bankster terrorists have been allowed to get away with their weapons of mass financial destruction with the complicit governments. The virus will be the tipping point. The catalyst that exposes what was already in place. We’re going to see a financial collapse to rival the Great Depression. There are multiple agendas that have been cleverly engineered here, and a so-called pandemic fits every one of them. Their objective is imposing emergency laws under the guise of protecting people that will really strip away all our human rights without being challenged. On top of that, the chaos created will justify them seizing
your bank accounts and using a cashless society connected to the smart grid that they control.’

  I let out a short, aggressive burst of laughter. The pressure, enormity, and sheer horror of the situation was getting to me. ‘The chief constable called me a conspiracy theorist. If he thinks I’m one, I don’t know what he’d make of you.’

  ‘That’s just a contemptuous and pejorative term used to belittle someone who doesn’t agree with the official, lying narrative of the state.’ The Vigilante’s eyes narrowed slightly, and although his voice was calm, something very dangerous lurked beneath the surface. ‘A way to deflect the truth, yet again, by trying to portray someone as crazy and therefore unbelievable. It’s not a theory if it’s real. And as you’ve found out, this is very real.’

  I looked up at the sky, gnawing on my lower lip, anger coursing through me. A hush seemed to settle around us. The wildlife fell silent, like even they felt a defeated tremor passing through the air.

  ‘So we’ve done all this for nothing?’ I looked into the Vigilante’s eyes. There was a dark intensity there, a simmering anger bubbling away.

  ‘Far from it. But the biggest problem the general population have is thinking someone else will save them, when in reality they’re the ones with the power, not a few thousand politicians and a handful of corporations.’

  ‘You and me—us—we can’t make them accountable,’ Toni said. ‘But collectively, the public can. We are billions.’

  ‘So we’ve come up with the only plan available to us,’ the Vigilante said. ‘A while back, I was going to expose a VIP paedophile ring online that went to the heart of the UK establishment. In the end, I abandoned that idea because I found a better way to deal with it.’

  I glanced at Warren, wondering what the hell he meant—what his ‘better way’ had actually entailed—but Warren kept his gaze fixed on the Vigilante as he carried on talking.

  ‘But this time, there is no better way,’ the Vigilante said. ‘It’s not just an exposé; it’s a public warning. So we upload everything we’ve got and put this out into the public domain, and let the people be responsible for their own safety. Because the governments and security services are sure as hell not. We’re going to grab the public by their virtual throats and give them a wake-up call.’

  ‘You mean like a Wikileaks page?’ Warren asked.

  ‘It’s not enough for it to be just on one website,’ I said. ‘This needs to go viral. It needs to be everywhere.’

  ‘Wikileaks is good, but it relies on people searching out the website to find out what they’re exposing,’ the Vigilante said. ‘This is more like something the Anonymous hacktivist group would do. What we have in mind is going to be far more wide-reaching. It’ll be on millions of websites across the globe. Some of the technical data that shows exactly how this works will be redacted, for obvious reasons, but the rest of the evidence will be out there for the world to see. We’ll name names.’ His smile was laced with razor blades.

  ‘But they’ll shut any websites down as soon as they find out,’ I said.

  ‘They can try. But they can’t police the whole internet. And my guy and his team are good. He still does work for government agencies. He’s got a backdoor into their systems. He’ll see when they’re making their moves and counter every attack they make to keep it out there. But that’s just for starters. Anyone with an email address or a phone will get a message exposing this. Anyone using a Windows, Apple, or an Android system will get a notification as soon as they log on to their computers or phones. A post will appear on every social media site under individual accounts. Every smart TV or device connected to the internet will show the same thing when it’s switched on. Every electronic billboard will be hacked. This won’t just go viral; it’ll go stratospheric.’

  ‘Seriously?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah.’ The Vigilante nodded. ‘For years, they’ve wanted everyone addicted to their phones and computers to get the public so distracted they’re blind to what’s really going on in the world. They’re gambling on the fact people won’t look up from their screens for long enough to lose the apathy they’ve carefully been conditioned to feel, but the elite can’t have it both ways. We’ll take the technology they’ve already tried to use to brainwash us with and use it against them instead.’

  ‘How quickly can this be done?’ Warren asked.

  ‘My guy and his team will need maybe a week. There’s a lot of work involved, as I’m sure you can imagine. All we need now are your files.’ The Vigilante’s gaze searched my face.

  I looked at Warren, sending him a silent message with my eyes. Can we really trust this guy? Is he stable?

  Warren nodded at me. ‘This is the only way.’

  I felt dizzy for a moment. It was all too surreal and disturbing. I rested a hand on the boot of the car to steady myself and took a deep breath. Then I retrieved Klein’s original files from my backpack and handed them to the Vigilante.

  He gripped them in his hand. Five blue folders. Five lives sacrificed. This had to end with us.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ the Vigilante said. ‘I’ll let you know when all hell’s about to break loose.’

  DAY SEVEN

  “Life is an echo. What you send out comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you.”

  ~ Zig Ziglar

  EXTRACT FROM THE HERTFORDSHIRE GAZETTE

  Fifty-three-year-old man a victim of drowning in River Lea

  A local man identified as Professor Brian Klein appears to have drowned in the River Lea at Ware.

  Just before 1.00 p.m. on Sunday, Hertfordshire Constabulary received a call about a possible drowning from a jogger who frequently uses the embankment path that backs on to Klein’s home. The witness spotted a body snagged on some vegetation and attempted to drag Klein out of the water, but by then, it was sadly too late, and Klein was pronounced dead at the scene.

  A police spokesman said that a suicide letter written by Klein was found inside his home and that he’d weighted a backpack with bricks before wading into the river sometime in the early hours of Saturday morning. Klein’s family and friends have been unavailable for comment.

  His death is not being treated as suspicious.

  AFTER

  “A single bee is ignored, but when millions come together, even the bravest run in fear. The one thing the government fears is the day we stand together.”

  ~ Author Unknown

  Chapter 60

  Toni

  I pulled my car up outside the electric gates to Lee’s secretive hideaway. The building wasn’t visible beyond the high wall topped with barbed wire, and there were no signs at the front. Nothing indicated what happened inside. But this was where everything was about to explode.

  Mitchell had wanted to be with me, but it was his and Mum’s three-year anniversary of being together, and she’d organised a romantic dinner for them both. After all the times I’d dragged him away recently, he could hardly say no. It would’ve made her too suspicious.

  I waved at the CCTV camera on the wall and waited for it to slide open, then I drove inside and parked in front of a nondescript industrial building. From the outside, it looked like a throwback from the ’80s, all stark concrete and small windows, with a nothing-to-see-here aura, which was exactly the point.

  By the time I’d got out of the car, Lee was walking down the front steps to meet me. His intelligence had been instrumental in finding my location when I’d been kidnapped, and even though I’d met him in person several times since, there were never enough words to say to the three people who’d saved my life. Never enough to express the gratitude I still felt. Instead of thanking him again, though, I hugged him tightly, asking how he was.

  He patted my back. ‘Bloody flat out, as you can imagine.’ He broke away. ‘Good job I work well under pressure. And you? I see you’re getting into all sorts of trouble again.’

  ‘What can I say? I’m busy trying to save the world.’ I smiled.
‘Has everything gone to plan so far?’ I followed him inside the lobby towards a lift in the centre.

  ‘Yes.’ Lee pressed a button for the top floor. ‘We’re good to go.’

  We exited the lift into an open-plan office, where Lee’s trusted team of people were sitting at desks, staring at screens, or typing on keyboards. All of them had multiple monitors in front of them in what could be some kind of NASA control system.

  When we walked in, some of them glanced up and smiled at me. All of them looked crumpled and tired. They’d been working round the clock to get the mammoth technicalities of the task ready.

  ‘Five minutes, everyone,’ Lee said as we strolled past them.

  The door to a side office opened, and a man with a telephone headset looped around his neck stepped out in front of us.

  ‘All sorted, Jeff?’ Lee stopped and asked him.

  Jeff grinned. ‘Yes. It turned out I wasn’t needed in the end.’

  ‘Good.’ Lee took my elbow and guided me towards his office. ‘Jeff’s been standing by for another important job going on right now.’

  We entered Lee’s glass-walled office at the end of the room. He grabbed an extra chair and positioned it beside his. He sat at his desk, laden with more monitors, and I followed suit. I watched Lee tap a few keys that brought up lines of computer code on several of the screens.

  ‘What do you think will happen next?’ I asked. ‘I mean, yes, we’re exposing them, but will that really stop others from using the same technology to do the same thing all over again?’ I seriously doubted it would.

  ‘Maybe not,’ Lee said. ‘But all we can do is make the public aware. In the end, they’ll have to protect themselves against it happening to them. Information is power, and don’t underestimate the power of angry people. I reckon there’ll be riots. Civil unrest is going on all over the globe at the moment, but in most places, it’s not even being reported on. The Hong Kong student riots have been going on over five months. The Yellow Vests in France have been rioting for over a year. People have had enough of corruption and abuse of human rights and power. They’re being pushed to the limit, and now they have to take back control. Historically, every single empire from BC to present times has fallen for the same reasons—the powerful few get too corrupt, too greedy, and too complacent. We’re reaching a critical period in our lifetime for another catastrophic failure. Things have to get drastic before they become the catalyst for change. And no one ever got their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people oppressing them.’