The Unraveling
By
James R. Clifford
Table of Contents
Title Page
Praise for the works of James R. Clifford
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Praise for the works of James R. Clifford
Blackbeard’s Gift
Double Daggers
Ten Days To Madness
A Griffin In Her Desk
The Unraveling
Double Daggers
Double Daggers by James R. Clifford has placed as an Award-winning finalist in the Historical Fiction category for the National Indie Excellence Awards.
“Double Daggers is very strongly recommended as a complex, superbly crafted, thoroughly entertaining novel from beginning to end.”
– James Cox, Editor, Midwest Book Reviews
Double Daggers was one of seven books selected by the American Numismatic Association as a notable and great read.
“James R. Clifford has been graced with a fertile imagination. This is one novel that will refuse to be forgotten long after it has been put to rest on one’s bookshelf, as Clifford’s characters linger in the readers’ minds as well as his scenes that have an icy clarity to them.”
– Norm Goldman, Editor, Book Pleasures
“History is evoked in James R. Clifford’s novel of intrigue and suspense. Anyone with a love of history will thoroughly enjoy this carefully researched and splendidly told story that spans the centuries.”
– Alan Caruba, Editor, BookViews
“If you want to read something edge-of-your-seat-engaging, historically fascinating, and really well written. This book would make wonderful book club fodder, it is well written and intriguing to the end.”
– Michelle Boucher-Ladd, FrontStreet Reviews
“An attractive, enjoyable novel that even provokes thought in those who go for that sort of thing.”
– Seabrook Wilkinson, Charleston Mercury
“Double Daggers is a fascinating story revolving around the infamous Eids of March coin. Combining history with a touch of the paranormal, Double Daggers is an original, well-crafted-and dare I say strange-story that will be enjoyed by all.”
– Mayra Calvani, co-editor, Voice In The Dark
Ten Days To Madness
“Ten Days To Madness is an intriguing twist of psychological fiction. Highly Recommend.”
– Midwest Book Review
“Ten Days To Madness is a fascinating story and extremely entertaining with may unexpected twists and turns. Mr. Clifford, created an exceptional psychological thriller with a paranormal Native American flare.”
– Tome Tender Book Review
“It’s a fast paced, page turning madness.”
– Jeff Reichenberger, E-Sylum
5 Stars: “This is a great read. IT is well written, with a great story … and some really cool twists.”
– Goodreads
A Griffin In Her Desk
A Griffin In Her Desk was an Award-Winning Finalist in the Children’s Fiction category for the National Indie Excellence Awards.
“A magical excursion form the classroom into the realm of monsters Greek gods and fabulous treasures.”
– Virginia Barrett, National Committee for Latin & Greek
“A Griffin In Her Desk is creative education at its best.”
– Diane Donovan, Editor, Midwest Book Review
“Mrs. Moneta makes the classics, ancient history, Greek mythology, and reading fun and educational, with her own magical twist.”
– Kerry Wetterstrom, Publisher, The Celator
“What a fun story and truly wonderful way to bring ancient history, mythology and numismatics to life.”
– Elizabeth Hahn, Librarian, American Numismatic Society
MORE REVIEWS, BIO AND BOOK INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT:
WWW.JRCLIFFORD.COM
JR Rutherford Books
Cover Design by Toprotyoe
Cover Image by Jacob Atienza
jacobarts.weebly.com
Copyright © 2016 James R. Clifford
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is dedicated to the new Axis of Evil:
Washington, DC
Main Stream Media
The Federal Reserve Banksters
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws”
– Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
Prologue
Frankfurt, Germany 1806
Mayer Rothschild walked down the cobblestone streets of Frankfurt sidestepping animal waste and eluding vagrants begging for scraps of food. A sudden chill surged through his body. He shivered and stared off at the darkening autumn sky. Streaks of fading sunlight filled the horizon and the brilliance of the solitary rays of light amongst a sea of perpetual gray provided Rothschild a temporary comfort.
He couldn’t explain the distress that plagued him but he had felt odd for the last couple of weeks. Even though he couldn’t identify the source of his anxiety, it felt like he was being watched by some unknown entity.
The queer sensation had distressed him so much that it had begun to affect the most sacred thing in his life, his business affairs. Rothschild was a dealer in rare coins but his career was branching into a potentially lucrative but more dangerous path. Most people hated upheaval but not Rothschild. He understood that chaos and uncertainty brought vast opportunities for men who were able to rise above the masses and seize upon the fear of others.
The entire city of Frankfort, especially the merchant and noble classes, had thrown themselves into a state of panic as the French usurper Napoleon had invaded Germany and was pushing toward the city.
But Napoleon’s march into Germany had created a once-in-a-lifetime proposal from Prince Wilhelm Landgrave. The Prince was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and he wanted to employ Rothschild with the task of hiring Hessian mercenaries to halt Napoleon’s advance. The Prince agreed to pay Rothschild a hefty commission if the Hessians were successful in pushing Napoleon out of Germany and back to France.
It was a risky proposition and Rothschild knew he was playing a dangerous game. If he sided with Landgrave and was successful, then Rothschild would finally have the financial resources to embark upon his obsession of building a family dynasty.
However, if he failed incarceration or worse were sure to be his fate. So he made a wise business decision and hedged his bets secretly lending support to both Landgrave and Napoleon. He even devised a plan to play their forces against one another, to further strengthen the need for his services and loyalty.
Rothschild would never allow himself to be guilty of the greatest flaw of men–to blindly swear allegiance to others. Over the years he had carefully crafted an outward appearance that ad
hered to societal norms of the time but in truth he did not trust or believe in any religion, country or leader. His loyalty was aligned only to his interests and all his actions were solely for his own greater good.
Rothschild abruptly stopped walking and wheeled around, certain someone was following him. No one appeared to take notice but still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. Rothschild hurried into a dark alley and peered around the corner trying to locate his pursuer.
A swooshing noise from behind gave him a startle. He turned and hesitantly inched his way down the building’s stone wall trying to locate the source of the strange noise.
An unnatural flickering rippled through the air causing him to stop dead in his tracks. He stared for a moment at the disturbance before fright drove him out of the alley and back into the street. He hurried home, wondering if he was suffering from some type of brain ailment or mental condition that might be causing his growing paranoia and disturbing visions.
Upon arriving at home Rothschild retired to his quarters where he drank a large quantity of brandy to aid his sleep. Despite his harrowing experience in the ally he climbed into bed where he instantly fell into a deep slumber.
He tossed and turned through the night tormented by queer dreams about the light in the alley. During the darkest part of the night Rothschild opened his eyes. He sat up against the headboard and a ripple of light appeared at the front of his bed, but unlike the episode in the alley he was not scared. In fact, a sense of tranquility filled him. The flickering of light swayed and grew more pronounced and Rothschild was hypnotized by the light.
A translucent human form emerged from the aberration of light and spoke to him. A sense of knowledge filled his soul and Rothschild understood that this glorious entity was an angel sent by God. The angel explained it was the Keeper of the Records and that Rothschild’s family had been chosen to serve The Source.
If he followed their commands then for as long as man lived on the earth, the Rothschilds would be granted wealth and power beyond their widest imaginations. But more important than even the earthly riches, glorious immortality with The Source was to be their ultimate reward.
• • •
Rothschild awoke early the next morning and sprung from bed. He felt a sense of clarity, an energy that he had never experienced before. He knew what the Angel had commanded and what his destiny would be. Rothschild gathered his family and commanded the following to his sons:
Solomon would leave for Vienna where he would become a leader in the Austria-Hungary Empire.
Nathan would leave for London and take control of the Bank of England.
James Jacob was to settle in Paris and establish a Central Bank.
Carl was to leave for Naples and create a banking cartel.
And his last son, Amschel would remain in Frankfurt and help his father oversee the creation of the Rothschild Banking Dynasty.
The Rothschilds had been chosen to perform God’s work, and in return, the world would be theirs.
“Just a Banker doing God’s work.”
– Lloyd Blankenfine, CEO Goldman Sachs
Chapter 1
He stumbled, then heaved the empty vodka bottle against the wall. The bottle missed the target from point blank range, ricocheted off the wall and struck him in the left shoulder.
“Goddamn it,” he cursed. Was it possible he was that drunk?
“Yes he was.” He answered his own question as he burst out laughing, even as his shoulder began to throb. But the hilarity of his drunken idiocy quickly faded as he rubbed his aching shoulder. Despite the massive amount of alcohol flowing through his system, he understood that his head, and now his shoulder, was going to hurt like hell tomorrow.
He ripped the intended target off the wall and stared at the framed journalism award with his name, West Collins, raised in fancy gold lettering. It was just one of many awards he had won early in his professional career as an investigative reporter back when he was a hotshot journalist for the Wall Street Journal.
West stared at the award with that all too familiar sense of self-loathing. During his time at the Wall Street Journal West’s specialty had been reporting on the great Wall Street crashes, the financial collapses, the currency wars and the almost complete systemic corruption of the economic and political systems.
But his writing style with the Journal was not pure economic reporting. Early in his career he had developed a knack for spicing up what normally would have been dry business articles with a human interest angle that seemed to captivate and entertain a large reader base.
Specifically, he wrote articles about people who were ingrained with the personality traits that seemed to have infiltrated most organizations in the United States. West had called it the New Axis of Evil and its members included Washington, DC, the Main Stream Media and the Federal Reserve Banksters. His theory was that the single most important character trait needed in order to succeed in today’s world was to be a Machiavellian sociopath. The ends always justified the means.
Early in his journalism career West had understood the concept that every good writer needed a villain to keep their reader’s interest. Bram Stoker created Dracula and the Vampire myth from a real life historical person named Vlad Tepes who slaughtered both friends and foes during his reign of blood-thirsty terror during the Middle Ages.
So West had simply copied Stoker. But instead of using bloodsucking creatures that haunted the night, his modern day monsters–the evil creatures humanity needed to dread and fear–were the smiling politicians, the greedy Banksters and the corrupt media.
For a while his stories made him a star and despite his constant demonizing, the more shit he wrote about the criminal ruling class the more they wanted to associate with him. It was a type of group psychosis with those people that any attention was good attention. So he ran around with all the power players -hedge fund managers, Wall Street traders, TV pundits, celebrities, union bosses, crooked politicians, shady businessmen, Mafioso’s and all their assorted groupies and wannabes. They were all his friends, for a while.
They say timing was everything and for a few years West happened to have the right job, with the right writing style where he was able to fan the public’s growing outrage.
But in reality he had been nothing more than a naïve schmuck. He really had thought it was his talent that had earned him all of the accolades and attention, but the truth was he had morphed into the same narcissistic sociopathic mentality of the people he had been writing about.
Years later he understood he had simply been used as a propaganda tool during the upheavals that seemed to shake the world on an almost continual basis during the early twenty-first century.
The creeping disintegration of the United States had begun much earlier, but the time bomb’s fuse was really lit in dual events–first in 2001 with the World Trade Center bombings and in 2008 with a financial meltdown that almost collapsed the world’s banking system.
The bombings ushered in a warfare/surveillance state, and the financial crisis exposed and then accelerated the centrally planned crony capitalist system. The Stateist’s managed to hold things together and the world stabilized for a while until a series of events moved the world closer toward the edge of the abyss.
The European Union splinted then collapsed under its own corrupt bureaucracy. The Middle Eastern and African wars raged unabated for decades. The long promised economic recovery never materialized, which finally plunged America and the world into its second Global Depression. Years of economic hardship sowed the seeds for widespread domestic terrorism and the rise of a surveillance-police-fascist state headquartered in Washington, DC.
Of course, the events that led America down this path took decades to play out and it eventually led to, for all intents and purposes, the suspension of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights still existed on paper but they offered no protection for the average American against the tyrannical nation-state regime n
ow simply called DC.
And with Armageddon at America’s doorstep on almost a nightly basis the one thing West could never understand about his fellow Americans was the complete apathy towards the corrupt institutions that basically controlled their lives in every way.
It was as if America had raised a white flag and traded its freedom and liberty in exchange for promises of a false stability at any cost. America had surrendered to the unholy alliances of big government, big business, state controlled media, a failed education system, and a too-big-to-fail financial system.
West figured he and the rest of America got what it deserved, which was a rogue fascist state that claimed the power to impose its will on its citizens at its discretion with no rule of law. George Orwell had been proven right when he said, “If you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stomping on the face of humanity, forever.”
So as one financial crisis morphed into yet a larger one. As the wars that weren’t wars raged on. As Americans willingly gave up more and more of their freedoms and rights, and as the parade of career politicians lied to the public with smiles on their faces, the one thing West could never figure out was how delusional could a nation become?
At the time it was pretty obvious that the country was rapidly rotting from the inside out and his articles had evolved into scathing diatribes about the systematic destruction of the United States by psychopaths. They were psychopaths who didn’t wield knives or knotted cords but wore suits and were articulate and well educated.
Somehow America had–either through idiocy, laziness, stupidity, apathy or some combination of all those factors–let the alpha rats rise up and take complete control of everything.
The world had been locked in a slow-motion death spiral for years now but the doomsday prophets had been wrong at least on this point: there had not been a sudden collapse but more of a slow crumble. America’s decline was reminiscent of the Roman Empire whose civilization deteriorated slowly over hundreds of years until Rome suddenly collapsed in the West, ushering in the Dark Ages.
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