By edRogers
Mary and Tom were taken through two doors and seated in chairs and their hoods were removed. From behind a table, two bright lights shone on their faces. All they could see of the man across from them were his feet under the table.
“Welcome to Russia, Mrs. Cahill, Mr. Warring. Just what do you think I can help you with, my American friends?”
“You seem to know who we are,” said Tom. “We wish to speak to ‘S.K.’ Is that you?”
“Yes, I am the person you are looking for. You may call me Stepen. Why has Cahill’s daughter-in-law shown up on my doorsteps, with an American reporter? I hope you are not thinking there is some connection between Cahill and Russia in the matter of that murder!”
It had crossed Tom’s mind that the Russians might have had a hand in the killing, but it wasn’t something he was willing to admit out loud. “No,” he said. “I can guarantee you, we in no way intended to give that impression. John Cahill never said anything about your being involved in the killing. He said he met with you, and that is about all. We are hoping you can fill us in. The murder was, after all, a terrible thing.”
“First off, Mr. Warring, you assume that everybody thinks it was a terrible thing, but there are a lot of people around the world who would disagree with you. Outside the United States, your President did not have many friends.”
“Maybe so, but they didn’t kill the President – Cahill did.”
“No, they didn’t kill your President; Cahill did. But I have no idea what he had in mind when he did it. Not once did we discuss killing anyone, least of all the President of the United States.”
“Well, what did the two of you talk about? Because he sure gave Mrs. Cahill the impression you would have all the answers.”
“I’m sorry you have come all this way, expecting something I cannot give you. I will be happy to tell you what I discussed with Mr. Cahill. But as for the killing, I know nothing about that.”
“Well then, tell us what you do know, and maybe something will jump out that will make some kind of sense to us. We are not sure what we are looking for. Cahill went from a good father and a patriot to an assassin almost overnight. There had to be a reason for this change. You saw him up close when he came to Russia and spoke to you. What was Cahill’s state of mind? Was he upset before or after the two of you spoke? We are just hoping that something, somehow, will come together.”
“Very well, but I don’t see any of this helping you. I told John about a secret group of men who plotted to rule the world back in the 1700s. They were known as the Illuminati. Their founder, Adam Weishaupt, had come up with a plan by which he thought he could rule the world by using a small group of men placed in key jobs within administrations around the world. These men would influence the political and financial affairs of the country they were in. Adam Weishaupt realized that the real power was with those who controlled the seat of power, not with the one who happened to be sitting on the throne.
“The group Cahill was interested in,” continued Stepen, “go by the name of ‘the Brotherhood of Bones.’ The name is just that – a name. These people are your power brokers – they would be who and what they are under any name that would allow them to gain power. Place people like this under one banner and unite them under one purpose, and you have an enormous power base. Many groups have tried to rule mankind in the past. Their mistake has always been that they used force to subdue the people. Well, sooner or later the people get pissed off at being subdued, and they kill their oppressors.”
Stepen paused for a moment before going on. “Understand that I have no proof that the Bonesmen were behind most of the things that I will tell you, but I do know they were the sole benefactors. You have to choose what you want to believe.”
Tom, who still felt the story of the Brotherhood was a waste of time, asked, “Then, if you have no way of connecting them with anything, why waste Cahill’s time with the story?”
“Cahill knew a lot about the Brotherhood. He had been on their trail long before I met him. He really had a thing about them.” Stepen looked intently at Tom and said, “I know that Professor Hofer must have told you something, Mr. Warring, or they would not have killed him.”
Tom interjected, “You and the Professor give a lot of credit to a group of people that, in all my days of reporting, I have never heard of them controlling anything. I should have run across a group this large at least once or twice. There cannot be an organization this powerful and no one knows about them.”
“On the contrary,” said Stepen, “Adam Weishaupt said, ‘Be the power in the dark.’ When a king loses his crown, find a new king. They kill the king, not the unseen power behind the throne. The Bonesmen learned this lesson very well, and have used it with great success. If the world knew of their power, they would not have it.”
Stepen stopped. “Where are my manners?” Then he said something to the Russian behind them. The lights were turned away from Tom and Mary’s eyes, and across the table from them sat a man who appeared to be under six feet tall, a little overweight, with a receding hairline. Within a second, Tom and Mary each had a glass of vodka.
Stepen raised his glass. “As our friends the English say, cheerio.”
They all had some vodka, and then Stepen put his glass down and said, “Mrs. Cahill, forgive me. I’m sorry for your loss. Your father-in-law did not seem the kind of man to do something like he did. He was looking for something he could use against the people in the White House. I told him that that snake had many heads, but he didn’t seem to care. He knew your President was part of the Botherhood and he wanted to know how they operated. I told him all I knew. He did not seem upset enough to kill anyone.”
Tom wished Stepen would get off the story of the Brotherhood. “I don’t see how any of this crap about a brotherhood could help Cahill or even help us.”
Stepen held up his glass to be re-filled by the man beside his chair. “History has a way of repeating itself, Mr. Warring. Cahill was well aware that what happened in Vietnam had the fingerprints of the Brotherhood all over it. He wanted to know the history of the group. That is what he and I spoke about. If you don’t want to hear it – that is fine with me.”
Mary spoke up, “I want to hear it. We didn’t come this far to get only half a story.”
Tom nodded his head. “Okay, Stepen, please continue with the history lesson.”
“Very well, Mrs. Cahill, Mr. Warring. The Brotherhood started organizing right after World War I. The Bonesmen met on the Inland of Malta, where in five days they wrote a constitution and set up a ruling board. The members of the board represent the five nations France, America, England, Russia, and Germany. The highest-ranking Bonesman in each of these countries has a seat on the board or, if he chooses, he can appoint a representative.”
Mary raised a hand. “Aren’t any of them women?”
Stepen replied, “It is true that women have been leaders in the world. But they were not Bonesmen. Membership comes from the fraternity, not an election.
“After the First World War, with the royal families out of power, there was a vacuum and a need for quality people to fill the void. The Bonesmen made sure their Brothers were the ones asked to serve. Now power flowed from the five board members to the whole world. What the Illuminati could not do, the Bonesmen made look easy.
“Before President Benton took office, power was shared among the Brotherhood. Loyalty was to the Brotherhood first, and then to the rest of the world. You belonged to the Brotherhood of Bones, and then to your country of birth.
“A good example is the Germans. Before and during the war, they were doing business with their brother Bonesmen in America. ITT, Ford, and many other companies were playing both sides. ITT received payments for its telephone service throughout Germany all during the war. You could pick up an ITT telephone anywhere outside the United States and call direct to Berlin. I don’t even want to go into all the companies in Germany that Ford owned controlling stock in during the war. The American corporations, like Ford, which owned controlling interest in Messerschmitt, and ITT, which owned all of the commutation service in Europe – they had a gold mine. The Bonesmen, along with Fritz Thyssen, who was the architect of the Third Reich, were big fans of Hitler, and they had been financing him since 1924.
“The balance of power on the board was never the same after the Second World War. The Germans had started the Brotherhood and had been very powerful within it – backing Hitler cost them dearly and led to a very explosive situation. The Germans should never have been voted off the board for not being able to kill Hitler. That left four members. The other countries had made a lot of money dealing with Nazi Germany. Now, with Germany off the board, there was no tie-breaker. France and Russia voted together, and England and America voted together.
“Then the unthinkable happened. Overnight, Russia was broke. Gone was our beloved Motherland. With the fall of the USSR, the balance of power changed overnight. America was the head of the board at the time, and after Russia’s fall, they refused to give up the chairmanship of the board. With England forming a coalition with the United States, France was standing alone, or they had to join Russia, which was unthinkable. Now there was no one to stop the Americans from taking over control. They were the only superpower still standing and the Bonesmen in power in America saw no need to ask anyone’s permission for what they wanted to do. The two previous Presidents were testing blocks for the Bonesmen. By the time Benton came along, they had control of the government. The now four-member board no longer shared control over world affairs. World affairs were instead controlled by the Americans and the group behind the President.
“Have you ever heard of the president of one country endorsing a presidential candidate in another country? No? That was what happened in the last election. The American presidential candidate did not ask for the endorsement, the Bonesmen demanded it. I don’t think Putin wanted to endorse Benton, because he could not stand the man. You can think of it as kissing the ring. With the endorsement from Russia, France knew there were three votes on the board that would go America’s way every time. England was happy to be in America’s back pocket. Without the USA, they would have gone under long ago. Don’t forget, Germany should have been back on the board by now, but the USA kept vetoing the move.
“Don’t think Russia liked being pushed around, or France. You don’t steal that much power without making enemies. Everybody knew that if America controlled the oil in the Persian Gulf, they controlled the price of oil worldwide. It would be the world dominated and controlled by America’s military power. Their goal after that would be cornering all the world’s strategic raw materials.
“Now, all this would be good enough reason for a lot of people to want your President dead. But none of it is personal enough for Cahill to have done it. I know we all saw it on TV, but, Mrs. Cahill, somehow I don’t think your father-in-law knew what was happening.”
Tom broke in. “Look, I’ve seen the picture of Cahill and the President blowing up so many times I can sketch the scene for you. Cahill did it!”
“I agree he did it,” said Stepen. “I just don’t see him putting something like that together, Mr. Warring. Cahill may have been a smart man, but can you tell me how he got invited to be part of the welcoming crowd and got past security with explosives? And where did he get the explosives?”
“I have a better question,” said Tom. “Why did Cahill come to see you? Other than to get a history lesson, you have told us nothing.”
“Why he came here – that I can’t tell you, Mr. Warring. That is, unless he thought I knew more than I do. There is one person I told Cahill about who might have been able to get all those things for him. But I just don’t see Cahill going to the mob for help.”
“The mob?”
“Well, during World War II, America got in bed with the ‘The Black Hand,’ later to become known as ‘The America Mob.’ The Bonesmen, being in the American Office of Strategic Services, met many of these fellows, and after the war they used their influence to get these wise guys into the States. These gentlemen turned out to be the heads of some of the largest crime families in the world.
“The Bonesmen and the CIA have been dancing with the crime families for a long time. Remember the attempt on Castro’s life? And everybody has heard the rumors that the mob put the hit on Kennedy. There were a lot of people your President Benton pushed too hard on. The one I told Cahill about was not a man you wanted to mess with.” Pushing a piece of paper toward Tom and Mary, Stepen said, “Here is the information I gave Cahill.”
Carlo Veneto, Italian American second Generation. Born: upper New York State January 10, 1968. Made his bones in 1989 at age 21, spent three years in Italy after killing the head Don of a West Coast Family. While in Italy, became part of the Azeglio Family.“Sergio Azeglio has been running the drug business for the Brotherhood since his father died in 1971. At seventy-two, Sergio Azeglio is a non-touchable. The power he wields runs all the way to the capitals of several countries.” Stepen took a sip of vodka. “Carlo Veneto is now the ambassador to the Confederazione – a group of drug families from around the world.”
Stepen held his glass up and his man filled it and the two other glasses. Neither Mary nor Tom made a move to pick up theirs. Stepen drank his and said, “The Confederazione is headquartered in New York City. Carlo’s job is to see that the wishes of Don Azeglio are implemented without question. By his word, people are made rich and people die.
“The big shots from President Benton’s administration demanded a seat on the board of the Confederazione, or they would find someone else to handle the distribution of their drug products. Here they were not messing with Don Azeglio alone, but with every crime family in the world. The only reason I don’t think it was Carlo Veneto is that the only one killed was the President. Carlo would have taken them all out of the picture.
“The Benton people never got the seat – the President died before that happened. There does not seem to be any link between the death of the President and this group. However, I am sure they were happy to see the President go, and they would have aided anyone who wanted to pursue that outcome. Like I said, Don Azeglio can get you anything, but I just don’t see Cahill having anything to do with these people.”
Tom liked the mob tie-in – that would sell newspapers. “Cahill had to get the explosive somewhere,” Tom said. “This Azeglio sounds like a good bet to me.”
“Like I said, he may have got in touch with the mob, but that doesn’t explain how he got invited or got past security. Your President came from a long line of powerful people who had never cared how they made their money. I would think the list of people who hated the Benton family is very long. Power does that. You cannot have power without enemies. I have more than my share of enemies. I think you may be digging a dry hole, Mr. Warring. The why or how of your President’s death – that answer died with Cahill. You and Mrs. Cahill should be lying on a hot beach someplace instead of wasting your time buried in the snows of St. Petersburg.”
Stepen placed both hands, palms down, on the table. “When you write your story, Mr. Warring, please be sure and let the world know that Russia had nothing to do with the killing. Whatever drove John Cahill, it did not come from our conversation. The information John Cahill got from me is the same information you have been getting. No more and no less.”
Tom said, “There really wasn’t anything else?”
“Well,” said Stepen, “he did ask me a question I could not answer. He asked me about an enormous amount of money in Iraq. I know nothing about any money in Iraq. I told him, however, about an old friend of mine who might know about the money. This friend is retired in a small village an hour from here, and Cahill spent some time with him. I do not know anything about their conversation. When I learned you were coming, I sent word to him that I was meeting with you. My people will take you there if you wish. I don’t know if my friend will want to talk to you are not, but there is a small hotel in the village for you to stay the night. He has your telephone number if he wants to call you.” Stepen got up from his chair and said: “Have a good night and a safe trip home.”
Tom spoke up, “Ha! Well, you certainly haven’t told us anything useful.”
Stepen stopped and said, “You may not think it is useful, but I will tell you this. The king is dead, but the power in the dark is still there. I would be careful what rocks you kick over.”
Two men came up behind Tom and Mary and put the hoods back on their heads. They helped them up and started out the door. Tom felt Mary reach out for his hand. After a forty- or fifty-minute ride, the car stopped and they were pulled out into the cold air once more. Tom took Mary’s hand in his and held it while they were marched into a building and up some stairs.
One of the Russians said something and then their footsteps could be heard as they walked back down the stairs.
Tom said, “I think we can take these hoods off now.”
They stood before a door with a key in its lock, so Tom opened it and turned on the light. He looked around and thought, man, what a dump. There was one light, one window, one chair, and one bed.
Mary asked, “Where do you think the bathroom is in here?”
“I’ll bet it’s down the hall,” said Tom. “But I’d better walk down there with you.”
_______________
[Editor’s Note: The novel from which this excerpt is taken can be ordered from Amazon, as either a paperback or a Kindle book.]
| Copyright © 2017 by Ed Rogers |
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