AETERNUS EST ORDUM NOVO
Translated into English, the inscription read:
THE NEW ORDER IS FOREVER
Johannes Gutenberg sat in a dark leather chair in the spacious high-ceilinged library of the château, holding a crystal snifter containing a generous helping of Louis XIII cognac. The polished wooden floor was covered with a fine Persian rug that had once graced the Shah's palace. Rain beat in intermittent gusts against the tall windows of the library, blurring the view of the river flowing by. For a brief instant the sun broke through the dark clouds roiling the afternoon sky and bathed the room in storm light glow.
Gutenberg swirled the smoky amber liquid in his glass and held it to his nose. He inhaled and smiled. There was nothing like it, a distinct aroma that spoke of age and the skill of the master distiller who had created it. It spoke of educated taste, of wealth and power. Wealth and power were two things of great concern to Johannes Gutenberg. Not the getting of them, he had plenty of both. It was the application of them that concerned him, as it had his predecessors in the organization.
AEON had gone through many changes over the centuries. The latest incarnation had emerged during the 1700s but the organization traced its beginning to the time of the Knights Templar. Once it had been part of the Templars but that changed in the thirteenth century when a faction of the order had broken away. Their successors had manipulated the Pope and the King of France to launch the 1307 persecution that shattered the Templars' hold on power. True power lay in the shadows, not on the throne. It was still that way, all these centuries later.
A small group of the original Templars that called themselves the Guardians had escaped the King's soldiers, well aware of who had betrayed them. They still existed and were led by a man Gutenberg knew only as Adam. Their purpose was the defeat and destruction of AEON. It was a hidden war that had been going on for seven hundred years.
The Guardians had never succeeded. If Johannes had his way, they never would. They were troublemakers, all of them. Because of them, plans had been disrupted, important plans. They were the ones who had alerted that American woman's group to AEON's existence.
Gutenberg sipped his cognac. On the other hand, if it weren't for the Project, I wouldn't be in charge.
The thought pleased him. Before the Project got involved, there had been nine leaders of AEON, nine wealthy men scattered over the globe. Leadership of the group had always been based on success and the consent of the others. Failure had only one result: death. Interference by the Project in AEON's operations had reduced the leadership board to seven and opened the way for Gutenberg's ascension.
The attrition of leadership could not be allowed to continue and the rules had been changed. Success was still the criterion for remaining as chairman but the death penalty for failure had been rescinded. It made for a more congenial atmosphere. The current board had achieved a good working harmony under Gutenberg.
Success with the Russian operation more than made up for the recent failure in India. The samples of plague stolen by the Russians from the Koreans were safe in Krivi Dass's pharmaceutical laboratories in Zurich. When a vaccine to prevent the disease and a drug to cure it had been found, the next phase of the plan would begin.
Krivi Dass was one of the ruling seven and a close ally of Gutenberg's. Johannes felt comfortable with Krivi. Even his wife liked him. For Gutenberg, that was an important litmus test.
If Johannes had a weak spot, it was for his wife Marta. In Marta's eyes, Johannes was a successful businessman who happened to own one of the oldest banks and greatest fortunes in Europe. Marta saw him as a philanthropist who gave freely to numerous charitable causes, a man with heart. It was doubtful that any of the millions of desperate people who had been pushed further under by Gutenberg's rapacious policies would have agreed with her.
Gutenberg never allowed his feelings for her to interfere with business. Marta would be horrified if she knew what AEON did and what his role was in guiding it. But she would never find out. Johannes was careful to make sure of that.
Johannes Gutenberg was addicted to the use of power, a drug he found more powerful than the finest opium. The application of power brought unfortunate results for some, but that was inevitable when you were building a new world order, where everyone would know their function and place. A world ruled by AEON from behind the scenes. The time was coming when events would make that world possible. Success was closer than it had ever been. Of course there were obstacles that needed to be taken care of before then.
One of those was the Guardians. Johannes sipped his liquor and thought of the trouble they'd caused in the past. The interference of Adam and his group could not be tolerated. It was time to remove them as a factor.
Another problem was Harker's group. That might prove more difficult, but Johannes enjoyed a challenge.
Gutenberg lifted his glass to the rain-swept windows.
To the New Order, he thought, and drank.
CHAPTER 9
It was six in the morning of a freezing February day. Three inches of new snow covered the grounds outside Project headquarters.
Stephanie was early for work, anxious to go over the surveillance report of the North Korean bio weapons facility. The report covered a period of several days before the raid and ended two days later. The computer had compiled a sequence of video shots taken from a hundred and twenty miles up by the NROL-67, the latest in a string of sophisticated spy satellites that formed the U.S. Space and National Reconnaissance Surveillance program.
The videos were astonishing, clear and sharp in every detail. The satellite provided a bird's eye view of everything. Most of the Korean complex was invisible, hidden inside a mountain. A paved road led up to the facility from a broad valley at the foot of the mountain. Anti-aircraft missile batteries were mounted in strategic positions around the complex. The computer identified the missiles as Chinese copies of the Russian V-750, using the obsolete S-75 Dvina launching system. It was the same system that had caused trouble for U.S. pilots over Vietnam. It was an old design but still deadly.
A high fence barred entry to the complex. A guardhouse and gate fronted a wide courtyard and vehicle park. The satellite was programmed to note activity at the compound and capture details of individuals and their movements. Rank designations on sleeves, collars and shoulder boards could be identified. Documents presented for inspection could be read, if the angle was right. Facial features were clear and could be matched by an analyst against a known database of personnel, Korean and otherwise.
Stephanie began watching the videos. She didn't expect to find much before the raid itself but she liked to be thorough. She was looking for anything unusual. Civilian workers left at the end of each day and returned early on the following morning. She noted routine guard changes and the regular arrival on alternate days of a white van. The van would come to the gate, pause for inspection, then be permitted to enter the compound. Two men in white utility uniforms and white caps would get out, unload boxes of produce from the back of the van, and cart them into the unseen tunnel leading into the mountain. Twenty or thirty minutes later they'd reappear with trash, load that into the van and drive off.
Nothing ever seemed to happen at the base except for the civilian traffic, the van delivery and the changing of the guards. She came to the day of the raid. The van pulled up at the usual time. A guard emerged from the hut for the inspection, as he always did. Then everything changed.
It was like watching a movie on television with no sound. A hand holding a pistol came out of the window of the van and fired. The guard stumbled backward and fell. Men in black balaclavas piled out of the van and began shooting at whoever was inside the guard shack. Stephanie saw the windows shatter. One of the men in black was larger than the others. He gestured and the others followed him into the complex.