Interra (Awakened Series Book 5)

by Harley Austin

The President sat down with his executive team and a handful of his top military brass who were seated in the underground war room of the Pentagon.

  “Alright, General. We’re here. What’s all the excitement about?” the Commander-in-chief leaned back in his chair.

  “We know what your administration has been up to, Mr. President.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You asked me to take over for the last Joint Chief who’d served flawlessly in this position before me, and also served through several previous administrations. A decorated war hero. Then all of a sudden he’s a traitor.”

  The president scowled. “Did Rigel put you up to this?”

  “I have no idea who that is.”

  “Really? Diane, is he lying?” the president asked his Attorney General.

  “No. He doesn’t have a clue.” She assured him. Diane was smiling wryly at the only other empath in the room, seated across the table from her.

  “You’re right, General. I got rid of the people who were standing in my way. So what?”

  “I ought to put a bullet in your head right now.” The General lifted his weapon from its holster and leveled the barrel.

  The President lifted his fingers in a kind of mocking gesture. “And what would that solve at this point, General? Until I appoint a new veep, you’d be putting a buffoon from the opposing party in the White House.”

  “Better a buffoon than a traitor.”

  “Yep. You’re right. Only right now, a traitor is the best chance you got of not having the gods rain hellfire and brimstone down on this nation.”

  The general lowered his weapon. “You’re talking about the Seven?”

  “You see. There are smart people here. All of you. The fact is, General, I’ve known about your little group of patriots for weeks; ever since the Sentinels thwarted the last attack of the Seven.”

  “You launched those missiles.” The general accused.

  “Nope. Dead wrong. Operatives of the Seven within the Chinese government did. I had no idea that it was going to even happen until I saw it in the news.”

  The general raised his weapon again and took aim at the lying bastard.

  “WAIT.” The woman sitting across from Diane lifted her hand. “He’s telling the truth. For once.”

  The general lowered the weapon’s barrel again, clearly disappointed.

  “Put that thing away, Harold.” Another of the Joint Chiefs stood. “How long have you known about these, Seven, Brett? And don’t bullshit us; we have our own empath, as do you, apparently.”

  “Alright, Gentlemen. I’ll put my cards on the table. I was put into office by the Seven. At the time, I had no idea who any of these people were. They gave me money and one helluva campaign staff. We won.”

  “Barely,” someone else in uniform grumbled.

  “You didn’t know they were Ra?”

  “A few years ago, people, I couldn’t have told you what a Ra was, or a Sentinel or a even who one of these Seven were. If you’d have told me that some group of ancient gods were putting people into office to control governments, I would have laughed you out of my office.”

  “But you knew you were a puppet. Bought and sold by these people, whoever they were,” the general who’d been pointing his gun at the president argued.

  “Every administration since our inception has been a puppet, General. With few exceptions. And those exceptions all died in office with a bullet. Most of them anyway.”

  “Brett,” the Joint Chief looked frustrated, “why didn’t you do or say anything?”

  “What the hell, John? What was I supposed to do? The Seven control the media; they place their own people in our departments; the benefits were over the top. I played along, like a good little employee.”

  “You are one treasonous bastard, you know that, Brett?”

  “Yea, but I’m a rich bastard now. Sans the treasonous part.”

  “How can you say that? You provided aid and comfort to the enemy!”

  “What enemy?”

  “These, these Seven, whoever they are!”

  “General,” the president began calmly, “in case it slipped your notice, I have faithfully served the owners of this nation flawlessly.”

  “Owners?! The people are the owners of this nation!”

  “Not. True.”

  “I cannot believe what I’m hearing. I cannot believe a sitting president of these United States would even say such a thing, Democrat or Republican.”

  “Both of which are run—by the Seven.” The president offered congenially.

  “You son of a bitch!” The Joint Chief began removing his weapon again.

  “Harold! That thing comes out of it’s holster one more time, I’m having you removed. Now sit. Down.”

  The Army Chief glared at his Naval counterpart. He re-holstered his gun and retook his seat.

  “Apparently, we need you more alive than dead at this point, Brett. More’s the pity.”

  “I wish I could be of more help to your cause, here, gentlemen, but under normal circumstances, no one is ever aware of the real owners who fund and administrate our nations. It’s been that way for the past ten thousand years, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.”

  “I cannot believe I’m even listening to this,” the Army Chief grumbled.

  “He’s got a point, people,” the empath for the Joint Chiefs chimed in. “Both the Sentinels and the Seven have been raising up nations for millennia. You’re not the first to recognize the Oligarchy here. The Egyptians and Persians and later the Romans weren’t too happy about it either.”

  She took loud glares from several uniformed and suited people in the room, but none of them actually said anything.

  “The question is,“ the Secretary of the Navy spoke up to the group, “what do we do about it?”

  “What can we do about it?” someone else asked.

  The president opened his hands. “Now you see my position, people. These gods are intelligent; far smarter than we ourselves are. They build our governments, with the same ease that we build companies.”

  “Companies?” someone questioned.

  “Companies are not half as complex as governments.”

  “Not true. They’re about the same. The only difference is one has the power to tax and raise armies.”

  “Dominion isn’t a government, and they have an army,” someone offered.

  “Dominion isn’t just another company, people; Dominion is run by the gods,” the president stated flatly.

  Murmuring took up within the room.

  “Believe it or not, Brett, we’ve only just recently learned that ourselves. The influence of these Ra seems to be deeply pervasive throughout most if not all of our largest enterprises.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me in the least.” The president made eye contact with everyone seated at the large conference table.

  “Well here’s something that might, Brett. Several buildings across the U.S. with ties to Dominion have been vacated. Know anything about that?”

  “Nope. I heard about it. But we don’t know why.”

  “Apparently, your handlers like to keep you in the dark, Brett.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time, trust me,” he snorted.

  “What do you know about the obelisks?” The Naval Chief continued his quasi interrogation.

  The president raised his eyebrow. To his knowledge he had only been aware of one. Still, Rigel had said there were dozens, though none of them in the Administration had ever found any more. “Not much, unfortunately. We found one in the Cascades. Apparently they’re hollow, but breaking into one …” He shook his head. “We’ve never been able to.”

  There were nods moving across the table.

  “I take it your people have found one of these as well?”

  “A few of them, Brett. Apparently these buildings being vacated by Dominion, they’re made from the same material as what we found in the mountains by Seattle. In fact, there’s another one in Se
attle.”

  “Do you know what they do?” the president asked.

  “Just speculation at this point. We thought you might know.”

  “I only know what I’ve heard. The Seven were very interested in getting inside one. Evidently these towers are somehow connected to the power of the gods.”

  “Why would they be shutting people out of them now?”

  “Maybe they’re locking them down?” the president suggested.

  “But why? Why now?” another asked.

  “The Shekinah Glory of the Temple in Bethlehem has faded, Brett. That tower was evacuated days ago. Now it no longer glows with the glory of God. God has abandoned this nation because of you.”

  The president visibly rolled his eyes.

  “I think we need to hold our personal religious views in check for now, Terry,” the Naval Chief politely scolded. “What we need right now are facts.”

  Others at the table nodded their agreement, although, it was likely they held the same religious opinions.

  “Brett, we’ve been watching your administration for years now. We’ve watched you murder political adversaries, destroy and torture decorated career military. You created the enhanced soldier program; then mothballed it. What happened to those people you awakened?”

  The president said nothing.

  “I thought so.”

  “You don’t know what the hell you’re dealing with, Admiral.” Diane chimed in. Her awakened mind was easily connecting the dots. “You think being empathic or enhanced is somehow your salvation against these gods, the Ra. You are sorely mistaken.

  “From our reading of history over the past ten millennia, every time groups of enhanced have gathered, monumental disaster happened. The mixing of Ra and Human DNA might seem like a good idea—it’s not. I’m awakened. Trust me. I know first hand, and so does your own enhanced staff.” Diane nodded at the woman sitting at the table across from her.

  “She’ll tell you,” Diane didn’t know her name, “the prophecies of the Ra consistently show what the end will be for the halfbloods, and it’s not pretty.”

  All eyes were now on the well-dressed female adviser seated next to the Army Chief.

  “Well, Megyn?” the Naval Chief asked.

  The nice-looking brunette nodded. “She’s right. Throughout history the halfbloods have been hated. Called all kinds of names, given all kinds of different labels, the fallen, bastards, what have you. Hated by the Humans because they were powerful and despised by the Ra for being half-breeds. Diane is right. It’s an ugly picture.”

  “You didn’t bring all of us down here to have a discussion about my politics, John,” the president probed, looking at the Admiral. “What’s really on your mind?”

  “People are disappearing, Brett. First these buildings are being abandoned. No one can get into them. Now suddenly we’re seeing an increase in all kinds of missing persons reports, from all over the globe. People in real positions of power and leadership are vanishing. We don’t know where they are or where they’ve gone.”

  “We’ve been seeing the disappearances as well.”

  “The media don’t seem to be interested in them,” another seated at the table offered.

  “No. They won’t be running those kinds of stories,” the president assured. “Anything tied to the Ra will get ignored, buried; to the point that people here still don’t believe that a quarter of Shanghai was leveled. I challenge you to find even one image online of the devastation. You won’t.”

  “What’s happening, Brett?” the Admiral asked.

  “We don’t know. Rigel has been real quiet lately. Like he’s too busy with something bigger to talk to the little people like me. What are you hearing?”

  All of them looked around the table. No one opened their mouths.

  “Look people. If you want to keep my administration in the dark, fine. I get that. But it seems to me that you’re just as not happy about these Ra as we are.”

  “You’re still working for the Seven, Brett,” the Naval Chief lamented.

  “And who are you working for, John?”

  “The American people.”

  “Bullshit.”

  All eyes were now on the president who got up from his chair. He was slightly taller than the Naval Chief.

  “You’re all just as mired in this mess as we are. You can put a bullet in me, Harold. I’ll be dead. Just how long do you think it will take the Seven to install another one just like me, or worse? One day. And once I’m dead, how long do you think it will take their empaths to drill down and find all of you? A week maybe? Probably not that long. And all of you will simply disappear with a more than rational and plausible explanation any 4-year-old would buy. Because that is how much more intelligent they are compared to us. Am I right Megyn, Diane?” He looked at the two most intelligent people in the room with enhanced IQ’s.

  Both were nodding.

  “The truth is, like it or not, we all work for them. The Ra. And their all-powerful oligarchy. They built this government, stocked it with their employees, using their own money. We think we’re in-charge. Bullshit. We’re not in-charge of anything they don’t want us to be in-charge of.”

  “It’s the One-world Government,” someone posited. “Just like Jesus foretold in Revelations.”

  There were nods all across the table.

  Diane rolled her eyes, but held her tongue—barely.

  “Have none of you been hearing any of what I’ve been telling you? Pull your heads out of your asses, people. There has always only been one global government!”

  The president looked around the table at the silent blank stares.

  “Oh!” he whirled in frustration. “God damn, you people are dumb as bricks.”

  “Brett.” John walked up to him.

  The president glared at him, still irritated.

  “We’re not dumb as bricks. We see what’s happening. We’re just powerless to stop it. Most of us here have deeply held faith and that religious upbringing is being turned upside down at the moment. You’ve known about this for years.”

  The president nodded.

  “We’ve only just become acquainted with who these Ra are. We’re not happy about it, trust me.”

  The president released a deep sigh. He nodded.

  “I’m not sure what to make of these abandoned buildings at the moment, people,” the Naval Chief continued as both he and the president retook their seats. “Or the disappearances.”

  “It’s prophecy, John. It’s in the Bible. Why can’t you see that?” the Army Chief pressed.

  “I do see that, Harold. What do you want us to do about it? Start building more churches? Assembling prayer teams? What?!”

  “I—I don’t know,” he admitted after some long moments.

  “Admiral,” Diane began, “The prophecies we see in Revelation are bits and pieces lifted from earlier fragments handed down from the Books of the Gods, the Books of Ra. We have many of these fragments intact, most of them in Phoenician and paleo-Hebrew. All of them well predating the first century.

  “What we have are the Ra predicting what they see happening prior to some great conflict they knew would occur at some point. Apparently that ‘some point’ is rapidly approaching.”

  “Then Jesus is coming soon now,” someone interjected.

  “Is this a bad time for me to point out that Jesus’ family were halfbloods? Half Human and half Ra. Demigods,” Diane leveled. “Because most of the Hebrew prophets were.”

  More unhappy murmurs broke out around the table.

  “People.” The Naval Chief raised his hand. “Can we keep the religious connotations out of the discussion, please? We’re looking for facts here, not our pet doctrines to be put on display.”

  “Well, frankly, John,” the president began, “I don’t know that you can separate the two. These Ra have been an integral piece of Human evolvement for tens of thousands of years. Not just in our culture but in our genetics as well.”

 
“These Ra are demons. Sent by Satan to deceive the elect. That’s why they’re here!” Harold scolded.

  “And General,” the president continued, “thank you for proving my point. Their own lore, the history of the Ra, even their own prophecies, are deeply embedded within our own cultures. We can’t seem to get away from them.”

  “We have already had this discussion amongst ourselves, Brett,” the Joint Chief nodded. “Some of us are still wrestling with the notion that new information is clarifying our religious traditions.” John looked Harold in the eye. “I think most of us have begun to understand that the Earth isn’t exactly flat anymore.”

  Now Harold had had enough. “Well all of you Scholars here can mince and retranslate words all day long, but Armageddon is coming. The Antichrist is gathering his forces, Gog and Magog will join him against—”

  “Bad translation, General.” Diane interrupted.

  “What translation! It’s right there in the Bible! Plain as day!”

  “We have an original MSS of the last battle; it’s between Ra and Ma-Ra, the gods and demi-gods. It has nothing to do with Humans.”

  “And that’s why we don’t let you scholar types into our Sunday School classes,” the General fumed. “You don’t get it. You don’t have the Holy Spirit’s discernment.”

  Diane rolled her eyes, visibly shaking her head in her hands now.

  “Harold.” John broke in again.

  Harold got up from his chair. “I’m not listening to any more of this BS. You people can all drag yourselves into hell if you like. I’m not going there.”

  They watched as the General fumed out of the meeting.

  John sighed. “Now you can see, Brett, Diane, Frank, what all of us have been struggling with. Harold’s a good officer; a decent, level-headed guy. But all of this end-times stuff has left not just him, but all of us pretty upset. We’re all trying to make sense of what’s happening.”

  “I get it, John,” the president sympathized. “Some on my team as well. No question.”

  “We just don’t know what to do.”

  “Nothing.” Diane dropped onto the table.

  “What do you mean, nothing?” the Admiral met her gaze.

  “Tell me, what you’re going to do, Admiral?” she asked.

  The Admiral said nothing.