Last Man in London, page 15
And then he remembered The Eiderberg Group who were behind everything. Would they go that far? And then he remembered the virus. What would be the point of introducing a virus that would reduce the population of the planet if that meant fewer people to sell their products to? Why would the Eiderberg Group be behind that? George was confusing himself even more. He reached into a pocket and pulled out his diazepam. Hugo, who was also deep in thought, casually accepted a couple of tabs, swallowed them whole and sipped on his Gazpacho soup. The pair of them would have to wait and it would be a very long afternoon.
Later that evening Vincent Baptist tapped on his hy-dev, opened his tracker application and watched as George and Hugo swiped their ident-cards at the entrance to the subway at Waterloo Hydrostation. A few minutes later he noticed that the pair of them had left the network at Putney Bridge and so he activated the Global Positioning System on Hugo’s hy-dev and followed them as they walked along Fulham Palace Road, in the west of the Complex, before turning left into Bishop’s Park Avenue. Baptist then activated the ‘associates’ feature and immediately recognised the name of Dr Solomon Abraham living at number 59.
He knew Abraham to be Hugo Gomez’s previous supervisor during his Advanced Supervised Preparation Program and so his curiosity was satisfied. Mentors were discouraged by the Corporation although personal relationships were not. They could be lovers for all Baptist cared and so he closed down the tracker app, pulled on his overcoat and walked along the road to his local pub. The fact that George Willoughby had accompanied Gomez was only a minor curiosity for now. But he did log the encounter onto their personnel files with a command to alert him of any reoccurrence.
George was nervous as they walked towards the front door. Hugo had sent Dr Abraham a message from Putney Bridge Station and so he was expecting them. He had already authorised access for Hugo’s ident-card at the entrance to the building.
The pair embraced warmly as Hugo strolled casually into the apartment, which left George feeling a little uncomfortable. He fingered his packet of diazepam in his trouser pocket.
‘George Willoughby, my dear boy,’ said Abraham after he had finally let go of Hugo. ‘I have heard so much about you over the years. I must say it is an honour to meet a direct descendent of the great Dr Willoughby, your grandfather I believe?’
‘Great grandfather, to be accurate,’ George corrected him.
‘Fine man, fine man,’ Abraham suggested. ‘Take a seat my dear fellows whilst I fix us a little drinkie.’
George studied Abraham with caution. He was a well dressed man in a very old tweed suit with a pale green shirt and a darker shade of neck tie. He must have been in his early sixties and was completely bald. He also had a round, red face and a pair of spectacles that appeared far too small for his wide head. He wasn’t a man for small talk and asides. He came straight to the point.
‘So, what is this project you are working on? I thought you were supposed to be writers?’
George had to think fast.
‘Oh we are sir. But we have been given a project to update the archive on past technologies. It covers a number of features including the devices writer’s used to use. Even typewriters from long ago.’
‘Not that long ago George, I still remember using one. Here, drink this whilst I fetch the laptop.’
Minutes later and he had returned with a contraption that looked just like Edgar’s.
‘There you go George,’ said Hugo. ‘It’s the old days. Isn’t it fantastic?’
George checked to see that Dr Abraham was otherwise engaged and popped a couple of diazepam into his mouth.
‘Thank you Solly,’ Hugo said.
The pair drained their glasses and prepared to leave.
‘Bring it back next week Hugo,’ said the Doctor. And don’t show anybody else in case it is taken for re-cycling. I mean, it is of no use to me, but it does have some sentimental value. I used to watch my father spending hours and hours on that thing. I would like to keep it. Even though it just sits up in the storeroom gathering dust. I don’t mind if it is taken in, otherwise I wouldn’t be lending it to you, but I would prefer to keep it dear boy, you understand darling?’
Hugo packed the laptop away into his bag and the pair made their way back to Putney Bridge.
‘Darling?’ George asked him.
‘Just his way Georgie boy, just his way.’ Hugo said without embarrassment.
‘Does he know what is on this hard drive?’
‘I doubt it,’ Hugo replied. ‘He said once he had hardly ever turned it on. In fact, did you notice it doesn’t even have a hydro-converter plugged into it?’ George hadn’t noticed. Minutes later and they were settling into the deep armchairs by the fireplace in Harry’s Bar. Tibha had been waiting and already had a bottle of wine on the table. She filled a couple of clean glasses as George handed Hugo the USB wireless power supply from Edgar’s laptop. Then, they sat and waited as the old thing booted up.
‘What’s Windows XP?’ asked Tibha as the logo appeared on the screen.
‘Another ancient operating system,’ said Hugo. ‘Don’t worry; I know how to work it.’
Ten minutes must have passed before the home screen finally appeared. There was nothing on it except a small panel asking for a top secret password. Hugo looked confused.
‘Did he have a dog?’ George asked him. ‘Granddad once told me that most people use their dog’s names as a password in those days, silly as it seems.’
’They did have a dog,’ Hugo remembered Dr Abraham mentioning it more than once. ‘Stanley, Sidney, Henry? It was something like that.’
‘Try them all,’ George suggested.
Hugo tapped away at the keyboard for a few minutes before announcing,’ you have to be kidding me. Sidneyhound is the password, we are in.’ All three sat and watched the screen as it slowly revealed the icons that would lead to the filing system. George was immediately drawn to the one that was called gvbus. ‘Could that mean government business? He asked.
‘One way to find out,’ said Hugo as he clicked on the icon and waited until the hard drive revealed hundreds of files.
‘Oh no,’ complained Tibha, ‘this could take days.’
George and Hugo ignored her and scanned the list until they found what they were looking for. It was a file marked ‘incorporation.’
‘You beauty. Are you sure Dr Abraham doesn’t know what is on this hard drive?’ George asked.
‘I am not sure of anything, but he said he had never used it.’
George had his doubts but kept them to himself for the time being. ‘Open it,’ he said. ‘Let’s see.’
Hugo moved the cursor across the screen and selected the option to open the folder. Again, there were thousands of documents inside. Tibha groaned again, sat back in her chair and reached for the wine.
‘That one,’ George pointed. ‘Open that one.’
Hugo hovered the cursor over the file called ‘takeover meetings,’ and clicked the open option.
’Oh my goodness,’ gasped Hugo.
Tibha quickly sat forward and George began pulling gently on his earlobe as he read through the names in the list of documents until he saw the words ‘Eiderberg Group.’
‘Who are they?’ asked Hugo.
‘They were a group of the most powerful and influential businessmen, bankers and military officials who appeared to be running democratic governments all over the world before Incorporation. They, it seemed, were really in charge and made such a mess of things that it lead to the downfall of economies, democracy and ultimately themselves.’
‘How do you know that?’ asked Hugo.
‘Some people know some things darling, whilst others know other things. Few people know everything,’ replied George.
‘Very funny, open the file.’ George did as he was asked and inside was a memo dated 26th July 2009 and entitled;
‘Eiderberg Group Operation New World Order, Final Stage by DA.’
‘That one, that one.’ Hugo pointed to the file.
‘Who is DA?’ George asked.
‘David Abrahams, Solly’s father, Lord Kingston. That was his name before they knighted him, or lorded him or whatever it was they did in those days. That’s him, open it and see what it says.’
Chapter Ten
Memo for Eiderberg Group Meeting July 2009.
It is clear now that western governments have finally been brought under our control. The financial collapse of the International Banking System last year has severely weakened all western economies, many of which will fail without the support of our members. It is now time for the news feeds to begin the process of conditioning the minds of the people into willingly accepting our proposals for a new society and better form of government.
Thanks to the student loan initiative every young member of society is now either in debt or receiving benefits. Their generation will be no threat to our future initiative once we announce that all outstanding loans will be cleared and they can start again, debt free. They already blame their governments for these debts. The generation prior to them are almost all in debt to our banks and credit card companies. Many of their houses are being re-possessed, thanks to the mortgage loan crisis, and they also blame their governments for this predicament. Once again we will announce that all outstanding debts to our banks and mortgage companies will be wiped out.
All we need now is for our scientists to finalise the development of Hydrogen Energy and reports from the Large Hadron Collider Committee have revealed they are only a few years away from achieving this. As soon as they do we can initiate Operation Z, the final stage. Once the communities are debt free, all energy needs are completely free for everybody, in the same way the wireless internet networks have been provided, then we can begin to ease their governments out of power. Our studies have revealed only limited resistance from the population, as long as our news feeds continue to lead them in the right manner.
Once this is achieved we will leave Coalition Governments in place during a transitional period before doing away with them altogether. The second phase of the structured takeover of Western Society has been agreed as follows;
1: the regulation of the world-wide internet and the control of public opinion through the use of planned electronic broadcasts.
2: All free media platforms and social networking sites will be either banned or severely regulated in the interests of national security. Co-ordinated terrorist attacks blaming those networks for operational communication should be enough to convince the public that they are a danger. We should consider banning YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and any other feeds that the enemy use to direct their efforts against us.
3: There will be one single currency called the Amero. (AmericanEuro)
4: The phasing out of countries as sovereign states. There will be one Western identity.
5: An engineered zero growth economy leading to zero prosperity for the workers and, therefore, greater prosperity for the Eiderberg members and associates.
6: A standard tax on all citizens of the New Order (the West).
7: The end of the Welfare State. All citizens must either be in full time education or full time employment. Those who are not will be drafted into the Military or moved onto controlled accommodation facilities, with immediate effect.
8: NATO will be disbanded and the one single western military, known as the Department of Security, will replace it. It will be directly controlled by this Board.
9: The proposed de-population initiative will take immediate effect. A sterilisation program will be rolled out by the Human Resources Department to those who are known as the Welfare Generation. It will also be included in all aid packages to foreign countries, including our allies. This sterilising agent will also be added to the standard inoculations and immunisations for all new births. We would expect to see the world’s population decrease by 75% over the next fifty years. That is the primary target.
10: All religion, of any form, will be banned.
To say we are striving for a one-world government is exaggerated at this time but not entirely unfair. We will begin this initiative in the western countries only. Those of us in Eiderberg feel we could not go on fighting and killing one another forever. Rendering millions of people homeless and starving at this stage in the program would be to our disadvantage. We have to be seen to be improving the lives of ordinary people in order to gain their trust and support.
By the time anybody notices the de-population initiative it will be too late for them to prevent it. Department of Security Special Agents (DSSA) will also roll out the program among our enemies and trade competitors from day one. Small capsules of a sterilising agent regularly dropped into clean water reservoirs, and included in vaccinations and aid packages, will take effect immediately. The world’s population is expected to drop significantly over the first ten years of the initiative.
Further information will follow through the usual channels.
DA
George, Tibha and Hugo sat in silence, gawping at the memo. Finally George spoke.
‘But that still doesn’t make sense, why would the Eiderberg Group want to de-populate the west, or the world. Why reduce their marketplace?’
‘Maybe this will make more sense,’ said Tibha who was pointing to another file called ‘Eiderberg Disbanding.’
Memo Following Eiderberg Group Meeting. June 15 2016
Due to the negative news coverage and ongoing activism from misinformed conspiracy theorists it has been decided that The Eiderberg Group should be disbanded with immediate effect. It is obvious that the public would not support Eiderberg Group initiatives at this stage. This announcement will be made through the authorised news feeds next weekend. Regular delegates who are invited to make media comments are asked to confirm that security concerns surrounding our annual meetings have rendered them no longer worth having.
The cost of policing tens of thousands of chanting protesters outside meetings make them no longer worthwhile, or safe for members of the public. You may also want to mention that over five hundred protesters were treated by medical services for sun-stroke, de-hydration and anything else you can think of. The term ‘Eiderberg Group’ should no longer be used by any executive or official news feed other than in the past tense. It no longer exists. As far as everybody is concerned, the protesters and demonstrators have prevailed; we have disbanded under the pressure of protest.
Next year’s meeting, on the second weekend of June, will be organised by the existing Steering Committee and invitees will be notified of the arrangements one month in advance. Executive jets will collect each delegate from their local airport and proceed to a secure military airfield where a chartered airliner will be waiting. Its eventual destination will remain unannounced but please be assured that everybody will be guaranteed the usual comforts and security.
In the meantime our preparations and central policies remain unchanged.
Sincerely
Steering Committee.
’That’s not disbanding, that’s re-branding,’ said a shocked Hugo.
‘Wait a minute,’ said George. ‘You said Dr Abraham had never used this, but he showed you how it worked and so he must have. Do you think he wanted us to see this?’
‘I have no idea,’ Hugo replied. ‘But one thing is for sure and that is the Eiderberg Group did not disband at all, they just melted away into the background and wrote themselves out of the news feeds. The main participants still ran just about everything in western society. Only without a name or known meeting place there was nothing and no-one to protest against anymore.’
‘Clever move,’ said Tibha. ‘These were clever people.’
George re-read the final line of the memo out loud. ‘In the meantime our preparations and central policies remain unchanged.’
‘You know what this means don’t you?’ He asked. ‘These people were behind the Incorporation. The same people everybody thought had disbanded had not gone anywhere after all. It means they went ahead with their sterilisation policy. That was no virus guys, that was a deliberate sterilisation program, worldwide. Starting with the Welfare Generation and criminal classes and then extending right across the world to reduce the populations of their enemies. And from I can see that included the followers of religion, particularly Islam. They won their war by giving it up and then, instead, started reducing the populations of the enemy. It was a long term plan, a two or three generation plan to put a stop to the fall of the Western Empire and ensure it didn’t go the same way as all previous Empires.’
‘Ruthless bastards,’ said Hugo. ‘Creating a utopian society, that everybody of our generation, a mere two along the line, would be glad of having, but by using distinctly dystopian methods. That’s genocide.’
‘No it isn’t,’ said George. ‘They didn’t kill anybody. They just prevented the majority of society from reproducing.’
‘Apart from those chosen by themselves, to continue the Human Race,’ added Tibha.
‘Those who had something to contribute,’ agreed George. ‘Such as my granddad.’
The three of them sat in silence for over half an hour before George finally said, ‘open that file Hugo, the one called ‘background information.’
Hugo clicked on the icon and read the heading to the others:
Study of Public Opinion towards Democracy, Government and Society in General in 2015.
The general public are distracted, fragmented and disorganised. Although they should still be allowed, every four or five years, to come along and participate in a democratic election. This should continue through the transitional period of coalition governments wherever we can achieve one. And they should still be given a little choice among the candidates we select for them. It will make no difference to the group’s long term initiative.
