The Phoenix Agenda: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 6)

by JC Ryan

  They were about to become entirely self-sufficient in electricity supply as well. There would be no need to take the risk of putting solar panels or wind turbines outside the caves. They could now provide excellent lighting throughout the caves and run as many electrical devices as they needed off their own power source.

  The first safe house

  That night, after everyone was well fed on Raj’s extra hot beef korma and in their beds, Alison and Owen had another brainstorming session. They were determined to figure out how to help Daniel and the rest to get to their new home. By midnight, they had what they thought could be a solution.

  Owen got up early and went to call them over for breakfast and to share the plan. When they were seated at the kitchen table, he began; “Daniel, Alison and I have what we think could be a good plan. It would not only get you guys to your families, but could also be a long term solution for the inhabitants of the Rabbit Hole and the resistance.”

  By this time, they were all ears and encouraged Owen to continue.

  “We thought that we should try and find some farmland to buy in the Big Timber area, as close as possible to the Rabbit Hole. We could then develop it into a safe house for people having to go in and out of the Rabbit Hole.”

  Roy was first to reply, “That sounds like a good idea, but let’s hear all the details. I’m particularly interested to hear how you think you’ll be able to get us all there in the first place.”

  Owen continued, “Well we've given it a lot of thought. If we can find acres with an old house in need of repair or even no house, we would have a good reason to move a lot of stuff up there by truck - for construction purposes, you see. We could use a few forty-foot containers, pack them with what we need and rent a truck to move it all up there. We could easily hide you in those containers.”

  Daniel replied, “That plan might just have some merit as far as I am concerned. Discovery would still be the risk, but if we pack the containers carefully. I think it’s much less of a risk than any other mode of transport we have considered so far.”

  By now, everyone was excited and wanted to say something but Owen interrupted them.

  “Let me just give you the last bit of our idea. If we can get the right farmland, and set it up as we envisage, it would be a secure safe house. Also, it could act as a good place to drop off supplies that you cavemen might need from time to time," he said with a smile.

  They had a lengthy discussion, and it became apparent that this could very well be the best way for them to get home. Yes, there were risks but, as Daniel noted earlier, a lot less than any of the other options.

  One of the downsides of this plan, they thought, was the time it was going to take to find the land. There’d be travel up to inspect it, buy it, and go through the legal process of transferring and to take possession. On the other hand, they also knew that more time could work in their favor, as the police would probably become less vigilant about them as new emergencies required their attention.

  After clearing it with Raj that in this case, where there was a perfectly logical reason to be on the Internet that wouldn’t raise suspicion, they helped him search for a property. They used the online satellite and topographical maps to get a good idea of what the various properties looked like in reality.

  Once they’d done that, they made a short list of some suitable places. One of the properties of interest was a few miles outside McLeod in Sweet Grass County, about twenty miles southwest of Big Timber. The almost hundred-acre property was advertised directly by the owner, which meant they didn’t have to go through a real estate agent. The land had an old farmhouse, which, according to the advertisement, required a bit of TLC. This, in reality, meant it was most probably in a dilapidated state and in desperate need of repair. For them, that was ideal as it gave them the excuse to have lots of construction activities going on, with trucks coming and going to drop off building supplies.

  The most alluring feature, however, was that the property bordered the Gallatin National Forest and was about 10 miles from the Rabbit Hole. The maps showed it was rather rugged terrain between the farmhouse and the Rabbit Hole, but not at all impossible for a human on foot or even on horseback. In adherence to their earlier Biblical analogies, they immediately named it Mount Ararat.

  Owen and Alison made a few phone calls to set up an appointment to inspect the property. He and Alison drove up to Big Timber for three days, and as it turned out, the owner of Mount Ararat was a very motivated seller. He and Owen agreed on a purchase price and payment via bank transfer. As soon as the money cleared into the title company account, the deed would be recorded, and then Owen and Alison could take possession. The seller was a jubilant man, and so were the buyers.

  On the way to Big Timber and back, although they were in a hurry, they scouted all the little towns in the vicinity. They included all the local tourist information offices collecting as much data, maps, and brochures as they could. This information was going to become crucial to their resistance movement in the future.

  Meanwhile, Daniel and the rest of the group went to the main house every night to watch the news on TV. The news about them still consisted of wild speculation and many questions. The Rossler Foundation was well known and in most cases a loved organization that had brought so much good to so many. There was a strong surge of doubt that this hype about them was indeed the truth. How could they turn so bad? Rumors of embezzlement and fraud were rife. Some even suggested that it could be about sensitive information harmful to the USA’s national security. Before long, they were branded not only as killers and kidnappers but also as traitors.

  Irrespective of the ludicrous allegations, the reality remained that Brideaux and his co-conspirators had absolute control of the media. It was just a matter of time before he would take over the world - there could be no doubt about it. It still bothered them that Brideaux apparently knew about each and every Rossler Foundation employee and their families who’d disappeared, but that never reached the media. The world and the Rosslerites were oblivious as to what was about to hit them.

  Liberté Egalité Fraternité

  A few days after Owen and Alison were back home, the news broke.

  World leaders at the G20 summit in New Delhi were taken hostage. Gunshots were heard but no one knew who, if anyone, was killed or wounded. Very little of what happened during the coup d’état was shown on the news. In fact, the details were never shown, and those who survived never spoke about it.

  Only those who witnessed the event in person knew about the carnage in that room. The facts were that politicians, reporters and photographers who walked out of there alive were those who were warned ahead of time and were a hundred percent in support of the new world order.

  The media showed dead bodies of more than a thousand security force personnel outside. It appeared these people had dropped dead without being able to move a finger. It was immediately apparent to the world that the group who implemented this mission had a weapon with unknown and unequalled killing power.

  Within days, the death toll across the world reached hundreds of thousands as John Brideaux’s forces completed their move and took control of all world governments. Brideaux’s face and those of many prominent world leaders were on the news 24/7 calling for calm amongst the populace.

  They kept on hammering on the fact that the world had become one of corruption, inequality, and inhumane conditions. More than eighty per cent of the world population were living in poverty and starvation, while twenty per cent owned almost ninety-five per cent of all wealth and were living in sinful luxury and abundance. This, they stated, had ended. The new order was likened to the French Revolution but this time it was for the whole world. All speeches started and ended with the quote originating in the French Revolution in the late 1700’s, liberté, egalité, fraternité, - freedom, equality, and society.

  The theme of all news was the end to poverty, hunger, crime, corruption, income inequality and environmental waste for every
one. Peace, health, and prosperity were the right of every human being, and under the new order that was guaranteed to everyone. The constant propaganda of the benefits of the utopia quickly expanded the ranks of the 'Kool-Aid drinkers'. It spread first amongst the journalists and broadcasters, followed by prominent political leaders, and in staggering numbers amongst the populace. Quickly, only the voices of advocates of the new order were heard. Antagonists disappeared never to be heard of again.

  The dawn of the new world order caught the Rosslerites both inside and outside the Rabbit Hole by surprise. This was what they all expected- it was the reason they were all in hiding - but it certainly happened much, much faster than anyone of them could have imagined. Brideaux and his followers must have been preparing for this for much longer than they’d anticipated.

  In the days following the takeover, Daniel and his group sensed that the tide might have turned and they would now have the opportunity to be reunited with their loved ones. Now, the police and everyone who were looking for them had much bigger fish to fry. The Rosslerites didn't matter anymore to anyone. Mark suggested that it might be time to send out another dove to see how far the water had receded.

  Owen and Alison took another trip to town to gauge the feeling of the locals and check out what the sheriff’s office was up to. They found that no one was talking or looking for the Rosslerites any longer. Only the new political climate was on their minds.

  Everyone was frightened and confused. What could they expect? Who was this John Brideaux? What did the future hold for them?

  Some were talking about resistance and going underground, but many more had already fallen victim to the effect of the Kool-Aid dished out so liberally in the media. Believing the new world would at last bring them long life, prosperity, and peace sounded wonderful.

  Owen and Alison visited the sheriff’s office in Redvale to find out what they recommended should be done, how to act, and what to expect. They found the local law enforcement community in chaos. The cops had no idea what to do. They weren’t sure who their bosses were anymore or even if they'd be paid. Worse, they didn’t know which laws to enforce or not. For the moment, they were focused on preventing looting and vigilante actions, and that was about it.

  Owen wanted to know, “What about those killers? Are they still on the loose?”

  The officer replied, “Yes, they are, as far as we know. But no one seems to care or worry about that anymore. They aren’t around here anymore, even if they ever were.”

  When the couple got back to the farm and reported what they'd learned, everyone knew the time had come. The water had receded, and they could now put their plan into action.

  They’d already decided it was best to make the move in two groups. Roy, JR, Max, and Raj would be the first group to make the trip to Mount Ararat. Daniel, Mark, and Doug would follow a few days later in the same way.

  Two empty forty-foot containers and truckloads of furnishings for the new place as well as farm implements and supplies were delivered to the farm, and they started packing. Inside the containers, they constructed four small but comfortable cubicles, with enough room for a person to lie down and headroom to move. The cubicles would be entirely concealed by the building material once they were done with the packing. The next few days was a beehive of activity in Owen’s shed, while JR was posted on a hill behind the house with binoculars to make sure no one approached the farm unexpectedly.

  Owen arranged for a transport company to move the containers. He and Alison would be following the truck all the way and be there when they arrived to unload it at the right spot.

  ***

  Since the inception of Enigma many months ago, everyone involved had gathered and stored large amounts of information on computers, external hard drives, flash drives and even Blu-ray and DVD’s. In each case, it was related to their own fields of expertise and interest. With Raj and Stuart’s zest to keep up with technology developments, combined with Roy’s brilliance, the three of them developed a mindboggling storage capacity. This was approaching one zettabyte, hosted on a few nanotech hard drives the size of a briefcase. When they evacuated the Rossler Foundation offices that night, the collection could easily be imagined to have copied the entire Internet, plus a few other sources. Ryan and his team of electrical experts finally had a few of their steam driven electricity generators going, and it was now time for Stuart to start up the servers.

  Getting Sinclair and his translators going again was vital, and setting up the ‘public library’ was just as important. Everyone who provided data was responsible to create a proper file and index structure and to create master indexes to make it easy to search and find information. When Stuart reported to the steering committee that he and his team of enthusiasts had completed the program, relief swept the leadership team. Here at last was something to occupy the large majority of the group that had just been marking time until they could resume the activities they’d been hired to do. The committee decided there and then that this accomplishment called for a celebration, and arranged for a formal opening of the new library.

  Bess and Sinclair, as the oldest members of the group, would have the honor of giving the opening address. The 11th Cycle Library was to be dedicated to the late Nicholas Rossler, Bess's husband, a distinguished scholar of archaeology and ex-university professor. He was Ben's father and was grandfather of Ben's three boys – Daniel, Aaron and JR – and to his high delight, great grandfather to the young Nicholas Rossler who was named after him.

  As expected, the presence of the library contributed significantly to changing the growing somber mood amongst the people in the Rabbit Hole. They now had access to vast amounts of academic and non-academic information, music, and videos that many of them didn’t even know existed before they arrived at the Rabbit Hole. Sinclair was also happy to get back to the work he loved so much – the translation of the 10th and 8th Cycle Libraries.

  Within a few days after Stuart had the servers up and running, Sinclair and his team were back in business. What was becoming more crucial, and something Sinclair had been wondering about for a long time, was how to speed up the translation process. He'd mentioned it on a few occasions, but up until now, they had just been poking around in the library, searching for topics of interest. Then again, in many cases, it had been done in response to some crisis or other. In other words, they'd not been working systematically through the library. He believed that the quicker they could get the full picture of what was contained there, the better for their security and safety. He and everyone else at the Rossler Foundation, and of course John Brideaux, were convinced that those libraries held information about technologies scientists and science fictionist writers hadn’t even dreamt of.

  That wasn’t speculation; their convictions were based on their experiences of the past, when the 10th Cycle Library provided answers to many of their issues during crises. Those libraries, in all likelihood, had locked up in them the solution to the world’s current and future problems. Therefore, Sinclair had the full support of the steering committee to investigate when he walked over to Stuart’s computer center to discuss his ideas and requirements.

  Stuart was a brilliant young mind and he agreed to immediately start looking at how it could be accomplished. He told Sinclair that according to what he understood about the process, it could very well be possible to automate it. However, it would take time to develop the programming. If and when Raj was back, things would obviously be able to move along a lot quicker.

  Eyes in the sky

  Luke and Salome called in Ryan’s help and managed to get two of Roy’s hummingbird mini-drones airborne. With a bit of practice, they learned how to control the devices, and with Stuart’s help, they got them linked to a computer screen via Wi-Fi and sent the ‘birds’ outside. Stuart assured them that the Wi-Fi connection was secure and would only broadcast up to 2,000 feet. When they had the drones up, they found that at a thousand feet they had a very clear three hundred and sixty-degree
view for more than two miles around them. This satisfied them that until Roy and Raj turned up to help expand the surveillance area, they'd be able to take short trips close to the caves.

  Luke was the first to venture outside on a reconnaissance trip to gather information about the area where they thought it would be safe to wander around. On his first trip, he found a stream about three hundred yards away from the cave opening and investigated. He was smiling broadly when he got back and told them he’d found a very nice fishing spot in a secluded area amongst the trees and bushes, where the trout were standing at attention when they saw him. This was great news for all the fishing enthusiasts amongst them.

  Sarah and the leadership group decided they’d have to create a timetable to let everyone have a chance, as part of a small group, to go out and enjoy the outdoors each day.

  The fishermen would get their turn in the early mornings and evenings which, according to them, was prime time for trout fishing. Of course, this was with the understanding that everyone would share everything they caught. They had no problems with that, as most anglers do it for the kicks and excitement, not for the meal they might have in their hands at the end of the fight.

  This new freedom to be able to move around outside notwithstanding the limitations, brought much-needed relief to Rebecca and Salome, who were responsible for the psychological health of the group. This was another significant victory in the battle against the sadness that already had firm hold of more than half of the group.