TWISTED DESTINATION - TRIMVIRATE
CHAPTER 13
AT MR. FREEMAN’S COMPANY
THAT SAME MOMENT
Gabe had already taken over his rightful position at the company. With his knowledge and bold attitude, the company doubled its income. Privately, one thing was
bugging him. – What was inside the Red Box? Why his father would give him a Box without its key. – The only time he tried to open the mysterious box, as a form of self-protection, a very strong electric discharge went through the axe he was handling, struck him and he fainted for 7 hours. He started to wonder if his father was paranoid or that he could never open it or even that somebody else was to give him the key at the right moment. But then he would think: why not just give me the Box and the key at the same time?
One day, his girlfriend, Ms Jessica Rothschild, the daughter of Mr. Rothschild, the Central Bank magnate, told him to meet her at a very fancy restaurant he had never gone because he said places like that smelled arrogance, boringness, discomfort and the last time he asked for malaguetta pepper everyone stared at him as if he had asked for a Panda meat.
Jessica was special so he went. It was a place where men without a proper suit could not enter. His grooming was quite satisfactory but in comparison, although a comparison between men and women is unfair, she was mesmerising. She had worn a black dress custom-made as it was customary to her. He pulled the chair for her and then pulled his. When the sat down, everybody in the room got out. He asked, “Did you book this entire restaurant so that we could stay alone?”
“No,” Jessica answered, “It’s my family’s restaurant and it’s already time you know certain things.”
“What are you specifically talking about?”
Before he finished talking, the table and the chairs they had sat on, started to go down like an elevator. It was actually an elevator. A more sophisticated one, for they descended for about 50 meters below sitting on the chair. Gabe kept asking what was going on and all Jessica said was for him to be patient. Finally, they got to what seemed to be a huge subterraneous compound. It was neat and sophisticated like his biggest and most expensive yacht. She guided and gave him a cloth that covered all his body and face. Nothing that could identify him wasn’t covered.
The scene shifted to dreadful scary but he was privately enjoying a joke, all he thought about was that Steve would say that he was dressed like Darth Vader. – What was with Secret Societies and dark demoniac outfits anyway? – She took him to a huge hall and it looked like an assembly. At the top, there was a man standing. As soon as he entered, the man switched everybody’s attention and spoke directly to Gabe.
“We have a new member today,” The man said, “As customary when the father falls, the son rises. This man before you knows nothing about us but his father was one of us. Let’s welcome him.”
Someone gave him a glass full of blood and everyone went through him and drank from the glass. For a moment, he was scared and he couldn’t see Jessica anywhere. She had worn as everybody else. When she drank it, he knew it was her because she had this peculiar habit of doing everything with elegance but he didn’t react. When everybody had drunk the liquid, the man in charge that wore no mask, not because he was special but because he didn’t have a face to show, approached him. With a very big and sharp knife cut the inner part of his hand and made sure his blood entered the glass. Then he went back to the altar, and addressed, looking to the skies, not to the ground where the Devil is believed to live.
“If the boy’s blood to you belongs,
As gold will the liquid remain
If the boy does not
His blood will be as putrid stain,”
When he took the knife out, it was still golden so he spoke again, “To become our brother in blood, you must first drink from the calices of Life.”
Gabe, without knowing what to do, drank from the glass. The man chanted a ritual in Latin and one by one, the men in black started to disappear. When everybody had gone, Jessica arrived, went close to him, kissed him and he fainted. He woke up at his home, his bedroom. Jessica was by his site with tea in her hands.
“Jessy, tell me it was just a dream.”
“It wasn’t!”
“What was all that?”
Jessica left the tea on the cupboard, stared at him and started to explain, “Alright. I guess I can tell you now. Gabe, your father was part of a very powerful secret society that has allies everywhere. I started attending the ceremonies 2 years ago when my father died because I have no brothers. My father was part of it so when he died, I had to fill in. It’s how it works, only one substitute to a dead person, most of the time a son but unfortunately my brother died. The day I arrived, it was scarier than your first day. They sacrificed a babe. I know I will regret telling you this but I have come to love you.”
“I want no part in it.”
“You have no choice. Neither did I. If you don’t do as they say, they will kill you in front of everybody as a warning to those who have second thoughts as well. Then they will make sure it seems like you died of natural causes.”
“You seem to know a lot.”
“I am curious. For example, I know that each one has a pentagon-like picture in their offices and normally behind it, there’s a safe. Your father also kept one. Only you have clearance to open it.”
“How do you know all that? Are you that involved?”
“I am descendent of the man who invented the group 5 hundred years ago.”
“I can’t believe it. So that is why you can’t leave? It’s a family business.”
“Gabe, please, I beg of you. Don’t go against them,” She said a bit worried, “No one hides from them. They are everywhere. Even the person who cleans your toilet could be one. Everyone works for them. Even the biggest figures of every religion, the biggest nations on earth and the most powerful men on earth are their puppets. If one is seen as an enemy, he’s already dead. There’s no place he can hide.”
“I can’t be part of it,” Gabe said while remembering the ritual and the men on the highlights, as Jessica came to confess, an ancestor in her blood line. There was a myth that he’s the man that invented the cult.
“I simply can’t. Why did you drag me down into this rabbit hole anyway?”
“It was compulsory. I had to do it,” She started explaining, “They gave me the task 6 months ago. There was no addiction to the members and it is a rule that the last member introduces the new member. Just like I introduced you, someone introduced me; someone else introduced the person who introduced me, etcetera. You should not tell anybody, even your mother.”
“I see. I want the name of the person who introduced you.”
“Be careful, I see where you plan to go with this. Down the line, you might get killed. No one knows the person who introduced his introducer. It is against the rules.”
“Fuck the rules. Would you just give me his name please?”
“Ok, ok. His name is Dr. Ghilberg, Dr. Leonard Ghilberg. He’s a financial genius.”
“Thanks,” Gabe left the room with determination. Then he stopped at the door and asked, “Was this the only reason why you appeared in my life?”
“Gabe, first, no, and second, it doesn’t matter how people enter your life, what really matters is that they decided to stay, forever, because you are special. And please don’t get yourself killed!”
Already outside the bedroom, he shouted, “I won’t. I know Kung Fu.”
That day, he went through all his empire thoroughly: Documents, certificates, reports, bank accounts, receipts or the lack of them. It had been there in front of him all this time. He discovered how big his inheritance actually was. His father had scandalous billionaire schemes. It was not just banking. It was part of every business, big or small. It was part of an even bigger scheme to control the world. He found out that his father lived a rather humble life to the money he actually had. He was so absurdly rich that he couldn’t u
nderstand why Bill Gates was doing at the top.
And he saw, right in front of him, as he sat on his father's chair in desperation, the painting his father loved the most and had implicitly told him not to touch it for it was very sensitive, and yes, it was in a form of a pentagon. He wondered how many paintings he had seen had the form of a pentagon and the number was zero, and now one. He strategically removed the painting and there it was the magisterial safe. As soon as he took the painting off and touched the glass behind it, a laser-like beam of light analysed his face and eye retina. He shouted:
“What a fuck”, a voice echoed in precisely the same way “what a fuck” and a female voice started to speak to him, “Fingerprint recognition complete. Retinal recognition complete. Face recognition complete. Voice recognition complete. Analyse complete. Welcome, Mr. Gabriel Freeman. The directive was changed by Mr. Eliot Freeman 556 days ago to recognise only his son, you.”
Gabe was impressed and as in amazement as when he saw Steve’s ship, “What are you supposed to do for me, again?”
“I retain very important information inside this safe only you have clearance to have it.”
“Then show me.”
“To open it, you must answer a very particular question installed by your father.”
“Ah, there’s always a catch. Ok, what’s the question?
“The question is, what was the activity your father loved the most?”
Gabe thought for a while, - running his business?! Family?! - But the answer couldn’t be simpler. He remembered what his father had said in his last moments, “It is fishing. He loved fishing. That was the only father-son activity we ever had.”
“The answer is correct,” The voice said. And the safe opened.
Inside, there was just one single thing, the key to open the Red Box. He smiled to himself, took the key and put the painting where it was, exactly like it was and headed home.
When he got home, he went directly to his father private study where he had left the Red Box. He took and put it on the desk, drew his key out of his pocket and inserted it into the locker, a bit afraid of taking another electric discharge of 200 volts and this time end up dying. But this time, the Red Box opened almost instantaneously. Inside the box, there was just one single thing, an old notebook. He took it and opened it. On the first pages, there were just names and locations. He kept going through the pages and up to the last page, there were just names.
He managed to recognize some of them for they were the most powerful man on earth. There were multinational businessmen, the Pope, the Khalif, the most wanted terrorists, Presidents, dead powerful men, and other familiar names. Jessica’s father’s name was the first one on the list with a special side note: Stay away, son! The last man on the list was Mr. Freeman’s and the written location was Mr. Freeman’s summer house where Gabe and his father used to go fishing. – What did that mean?
While going through the notebook, Jessica entered the room. He managed to hide it in his pocket before she could see it. It was not as if he didn’t trust her, it was just an involuntary reflection. The Red Box had its hatch closed but it wasn’t locked. He took a deep breath when he saw that it was her but he kept the notebook in his pocket. He didn’t want to drag her into this. She went close to him and said, “What is this?” Pointing at the Red Box.
“Nothing,” Gabe answered with a smile, “It is just an old box my father put some important company documents. I thought I would find anything about the Secret Society but there is nothing. Let us go back upside, I am starving.
They went to the kitchen and Gabe ate something. After eating, he told Jessica that he had a place to go and that he would not take much time. This time, he told his bodyguard and chauffer Marcus that he was going to take his old car, his Ferrari. He had to do this trip alone. It could be his last so he couldn’t bring anyone along.