Chapter 4

January 4, 4:56 a.m.

Larson looked at the clock on the wall of the kitchen and wondered if he should open the second flash drive. Or just throw the damn thing in the what-not box in the basement of his house where he kept useless articles he thought might one day become useful. The first flash drive had told a ridiculous story without a shred of proof to support it. There were no secret societies or clubs in the world today especially one that had been around for more than a thousand years. How could such a society maintain its secrecy? Someone would have talked or written about it.

But not if it was secret, passed through Larson’s mind. Because how can someone write about a secret society if no one knows about it?

And this Paul Duffy, he’d never heard of such a person or his all-purpose chip.

Suddenly there was doubt in Larson’s mind. If the Hidden Society had bought Paul Duffy’s chip, and it could do everything Julian said it could do, the Hidden Society would certainly have kept it secret from the world.

That was a disturbing thought to Larson.

Because it implied that Julian Franks was telling the truth.

Larson thoughts went back to Julian Franks.

He didn’t seem like a foolish man who’d tell foolish stories. He seemed serious, afraid really. Then Larson remembered him saying he’d be dead within twenty-four hours. If he did die his death would be noted even in that isolated part of Illinois, and if it was then his story was fiction. But if his death wasn’t reported then maybe there was some truth in the fantastic story he’d just read. And if there was some truth in the story, then maybe all of it was true.

He got up from the wooden kitchen table he was sitting at and walked to the coffee maker sitting on the butcher block counter and poured himself another mug of coffee. He added two spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of half-n-half cream, and headed for his study.

The best place to start to see if the story was true was to find the town of Arden in Nevada. If it existed then there was a slim chance the story was true. If the Arden Chip Company existed that would imply that Paul Duffy existed. If they didn’t, then Mr. Franks’ story was a pack of lies.

He put his coffee mug on the coaster on the desk and walked to the bookcase on the wall opposite his desk. That’s where he kept the few reference books and atlases he used

when writing a novel. He was three months ahead on his latest manuscript so he had the time to waste on foolish quests. He found the road map of the United States on the bottom shelf. It was four years old.

Got to buy a new one, he thought as he carried the atlas back to his desk, sat down, opened it to the index at the back and found the state of Nevada, and scanned down the list of towns and cities at the top of the map. He stopped after about thirty seconds.

“Arden, Nevada,” he said. There was a slight touch of fear in his voice. He turned to the map of Nevada and looked at the map of Nevada and located Las Vegas which was easy. It was still the largest city in the state, and now the third largest in the country. “That drive said it was southwest of Las Vegas.” He looked carefully at the map southwest of Las Vegas. “There it is,” he said. “Southwest of Las Vegas just like Franks wrote.” He opened the center draw of his desk, took out a clear plastic ruler, found the distance scale on the map and measured the distance from Arden to Las Vegas. “A little over forty-two miles by straight line.” he mumbled to himself. “But by road it could be fifty-six miles.”

He closed the map, picked up his mug of coffee and took two swallows of the hot coffee. He was thinking.

Arden existed. If the company existed also, then there was a small measure of truth to Franks’ story. Whether Duffy existed, or did not exist. If the company existed then the measure of truth to Franks’ story grew wider. And if Paul Duffy existed also then the measure of truth to Franks’ story grew wider still. He turned right to his computer on the desk extension and started to go to the information section but stopped.

No, too dangerous if Franks is right, he thought. The best way to check on Paul

Duffy would be to go to Arden and find someone in the town’s hall of records who can find a record that Paul Duffy lived or is living in the town. He thought a few seconds more then decided, No, going to Arden might not be the wisest thing to do if Franks is right because this Hidden Society knows about it.

He turned to the laptop on his desk and decided to read the second flash drive. He removed the first flash drive from the USB port placed it on the desk and stuck the second one in its place, and began reading.

If you don’t know something evil exists how do you fight it?

“That’s simply,” Larson said. “You expose it.”

He continued reading.

Invisibility is the Hidden Society’s greatest strength, and weapon. Expose it, and it becomes helpless and worthless. All of its wealth and knowledge and soldiers will not avail it in the least bit. Because once the democracies of the world find out it exists, learn its history and what it has done and the power it possess in the modern world, they will descend upon it, and destroy it.

The Society’s members and soldiers know this and will defend to the death its secrecy and knowledge. Do not expect help from anyone within the Society. All of its members and soldiers know what will happen to them if they turn against the Society. But the Hidden Society, like all secret society’s past and present, has weaknesses. As one of the former leaders of the Hidden Society, I know its weakness as well as its strength.

And knowledge is both its weakness and its strength.

All the Society’s knowledge and secret codes are stored in three places about the world.

The first place is in the abandoned remains of Fort Zinder, an old French Foreign Legion Fortress two hundred miles south of the city of Algiers in Algeria. It is five miles west off the main highway going south. Go south for exactly two hundred miles till you reach the remains of a dirt road. Then turn right. And keep heading west until you see the remains of the fort. Inside the enlisted men’s quarters in the center of the floor is a trap door that leads to an underground chamber. Inside that chamber is the computer that possesses all there is to know about the Society. Fort Zinder appears only on French history maps printed before 1900. If the Algerian Government knows about it, and they probably do, it amounts to no more than the remains of a part of its history.

 The second one is in the Great Sand Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried in a man-made cave and carefully concealed.

The third place is in the State of Nevada in Eureka County. It is located in an underground chamber in the Simpson Park Mountains. And it is the most important of the three places because it is the only one that is checked upon once a week by a very loyal soldier. From it the other two places can be accessed. All three places are guarded by mobile robots who also clean and maintain the equipment. Anyone attempting to enter any of these places without authorization will be instantly killed by laser beams, and their body disposed of by the robots.

All three of these places were established by the Hidden Society in 1993 without any of the governments of the three countries knowing about them. The ones in Algeria and Canada are checked on once every five years when the equipment in them is updated.

Information comes to these three places from hundreds of satellites that revolve around the Earth. The Society doesn’t own or control any of these satellites they just use them. Because the leaders of the Society and the Council of Twenty can access those satellites any time they wish. The nations that own these satellites have no knowledge the Society uses them, because the Society has secret codes in each one that allows it to use them.

If you are an American and you are reading this information, the third place is the best of the three places to locate and easily entered. There is a stone door in the flat side of the mountain the information center is in. First it is easier to reach and second it controls all information going to the other two places. Get into the information center in Nevada and download the information there on the World Internet and you will automatically download information from the other two centers. But be aware, though the three places appear as a natural part of the terrain, all three are monitored and will go into a defensive mode and will shut down if any unauthorized persons attempts to enter making entry impossible, and the leaders will be notified immediately. And they can, within a matter of an hour dispatched soldiers to track down and kill whoever attempted to enter either place.

To reach any of the three places, remove this flash drive from the laptop, open it, and remove the chip in the center of the drive. Place it in your computer-cell phone, com-cell, next to the operation chip. It will fit and immediately adjust itself with your com-cell’s operation chip, and lead you directly to the places. The chip is a computer processing unit with software information programed into it. This program will assist you in locating and getting into the information centers.

Your com-cell will begin to vibrate and/or hum when you are within five hundred yards of either place. Open your com-cell and type ‘map’ on the keyboard. A map will appear and direct you to the entrance of the places. Then type ‘open’ and the door to whichever place you are at will automatically open. Once inside your com-cell will automatically display another map with information showing you exactly where you must go and what you must do to download the information stored within the center to expose the Hidden Society.

The chip will also shut down all the defensive systems. You don’t have to do anything except get into the information center alive.

Do not worry about the Society’s control of satellites to track your com-cell the chip is undetectable.

If you are as intelligent as I think you are, you will carefully check out the information from flash drive one. When you do, you will meet a person. Use the phrase Cherry Wood. If this person is still alive, you will find a very powerful ally.

Remember Paul Duffy.

If you think all that you have read is a fairytale, then the Society will one day make its presence known to the world. On that day, the world and every person and thing in it will belong to the Hidden Society. And freedom on this world will be dead, and a dark age of tyranny shall envelope the world. And only God will know how long it will reign.

Larson reached for his coffee and finished it in one long drink. He placed his mug on the desk next to the laptop and wondered why me? I’m just a former high school history teacher who writes fiction. Why did Julian Franks choose me? How did he know about me? He didn’t have answers to his questions. But Larson decided it wouldn’t hurt to check out some of the information on the first flash drive.

He looked at the clock on his desk. It was 5:20. And he was tired. Long distance driving in winter or anytime of the year was not something he enjoyed doing. Because it tired him out.

Larson started to turn off the laptop and go to bed, but stopped and thought,

It wouldn’t hurt to put that chip in my com-cell just in case Julian Franks isn’t some lunatic. And if it fits like he said it would -?

He removed his com-cell from the brown leather com-cell holder on the left side of his belt, placed it on his desk, and slid open the back revealing the battery inside. He removed the battery and saw a blank metallic plate with the ID and serial numbers of the phone. He was reluctant to remove it since his knowledge of com-cells was like his knowledge of computers. He knew how to use them only.

I come this far, he thought and opened the center drawer of the desk and took out a letter opener and used it to pry up the metallic plate. He spotted the processing chip in the center of the com-cell.

Then he looked at the information on the laptop, memorized the information, removed the chip from the drive port, and using the letter opener pried it open. He looked back at the information that was still in the laptop’s ram drive and on the screen then looked back at the open drive. The chip was exactly where the information said it was.

He carefully removed it with his fingers and placed it next to the processing chip in his com-cell like Franks had written, and it fit, then reattached the metallic plate, the battery, and the cover on the com-cell.

“My God,” he whispered as if he was afraid of being overheard. “The damn thing fits.”

Larson turned his com-cell on.

The words Hidden Society immediately appeared on the small screen.

He pushed the display button and everything that was on the chip appeared on the screen. That disturbed him. So far Franks had been correct about Arden, its distance from Las Vegas, and the chip from the flash drive fitting into his com-cell.

Madness, raced through his mind as he turned off his com-cell and returned it to the holder on his belt. Then he reassembled the flash drive and turned off the laptop, closed it, and slipped it into the bottom left hand drawer of his desk. He put the second drive and the first drive in his left hand pants pocket, turned off the light on his desk and walked out of the study. He went to the basement and into a storage room filled with a lot of old stuff he didn’t want to throw away where he opened a trunk he hadn’t opened in years and placed both flash drives after wrapping an old, but clean, white face clothe around them in the bottom right hand corner of the trunk. Then he closed the trunk and thought of locking it but couldn’t because he didn’t know if the lock still worked. And if it did, he didn’t know if he had a key to it.

Fifteen minutes later he had brushed his teeth, stripped down to his shorts, and gotten into bed.

Just before he drifted off into a deep and welcomed sleep, he thought, I’ll go to the library tomorrow and check out the information on the first flash drive. That means looking for this Paul Duffy guy. He lives in Arden, Nevada. Remember Paul Duffy. What did that mean? He yawned and went to sleep.

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