― Charles Grant
Eve of Destruction
I know people talk about being authentic like it's some kind of virtue.
Well, I'm no Boy Scout but I try to speak the truth about what I see and think but that doesn't qualify me for winning a Nobel. I hate partisanship and don't hide behind institutions, but I'll tell you this―you can be in your truth and still suffer a lack, or denudation.
And right now plying Tom Faraday with booze I'm at the end of my patience. I've been here an hour and he's just making conversation. Guys like Tom are black holes. You have to watch you don't get sucked into their gravitation, devoid of light and any other point of reference.
"This is a bad business, Zach and nobody has a clue just how really bad it can get."
His eyes are glazed and I'm figuring another two drinks and he'll be unable to even hold a conversation. I think my credit card has disappeared down the rabbit hole of hops and Gordon's Gin chasers.
I try to guide him back to the solar storms and rolling blackouts across the European Union.
"Look Tom, do you really have a clue what's going on?"
"A clue―you're asking me if I have a clue when I I've got the scoop of the century?"
He's feisty now and filled with indignation. The booze has lit him up and I'm not sure if he'll talk or leave me high, dry and nowhere.
"Have you heard about Otto Baumann?"
I'm taken back. "The Nobel astrophysicist?"
He nods, "The same."
"Of course I've heard of him―the man's brilliant."
"Did you know he's dead?"
I didn't and his words stop me in my tracks. I have no idea where this is heading.
"What does Baumann have to do with this?" I ask.
"He and I have been friends ever since we met at a Y2K symposium in Munich. He confides in me, or at least he did until last Tuesday when he was killed in a hit and run incident in Berlin."
"I'm sorry for your loss, Tom. I had no idea."
"It wasn't an accident, Zach―there were no skid marks. He was killed because of what he knew."
"I don't understand―what he knew about what?"
He shrugged. "Let's put it this way―he was killed not just for what he knew about solar flares but his awareness of the plans of the New World Order."
I was prepared to indulge Tom's rants in the hope of gleaning some solid information about the blackouts and the world situation, but what he was saying sounded to me like some wild-eyed conspiracy theory.
I felt my hopes sink as I reckoned up the time lost listening to his ramblings and having to deal with the blow-back from Ben Church when he got his Visa statement showing my expense account balance.
I was on the verge of leaving when Tom said something that froze me to my chair.
"You know Otto had data going back thirty years that he was able to input into a computer program and predict solar flares. He told me about this series of flares two years ago and he said it would last nine months and cause world-wide blackouts and social disruptions."
"Otto knew about this two years ago?" I gasped, "Why didn't he alert the scientific community and the U.N.?"
"He received enormous grants for his research on the condition that he sign a non-disclosure agreement and not discuss his work with anyone."
"And what organization provided the funds and withheld this information from the world?"
"That's what I've been trying to find out," Tom replied. "All I know is that the group was based in Israel and had very powerful political connections."
Tom's disclosure shocked me. The fact that some organization had access to this information and withheld it for their own purposes sent a chill through me.
But what concerned me most was not just the implications for the world at large but the danger that possessing such knowledge posed for Tom and me.