‘Not our finest hour,’ the President said, well aware of the now — public nature of the CIA’s more extreme programs of the previous century. ‘How does this all tie in with the United States government admitting culpability in all of that?’
‘A man named Frank Olson,’ Jarvis said, ‘one of the CIA operatives involved in MKULKTRA who witnessed a terminal interrogation in Germany under Project Artichoke, resigned his position and was later found dead after a suspicious fall from a Manhattan building. He was buried without autopsy and his death ruled a suicide, but the family fought for and won an exhumation and an independent autopsy which resulted in a coroner stating that Olson died before the fall. In 1975 our government admitted that Olson had been dosed with LSD and that the CIA and the state of New York had been covering up the details of his death for a quarter of a century. The government settled with Olson’s family out of court.’
The President fell silent for a few moments as he digested what Jarvis had told him.
‘What’s the connection between MKULTRA and this new threat?’ he asked finally.
Jarvis gestured to the screens.
‘The direct threat to our country’s security comes at the moment from this man,’ he said, ‘Abrahem Nassir. However, we believe that he is only one component of a much larger threat that’s been operating behind the scenes for many decades. Our agency has labelled this threat by the name it has used in the few documents that attest to its existence: Majestic Twelve.‘
The President’s eyes narrowed. ‘Go on.’
‘Majestic Twelve is a cabal of powerful industry and military figures,’ Ethan explained after Jarvis gestured for him to speak. ‘They were supposedly formed in 1947 via an executive order issued by President Harry Truman to control the recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft after the alleged crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.’
‘So we’re back to aliens again?’ the President asked.
‘Roswell, if it actually happened, was merely the catalyst the formed the group, which was attached to the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations,’ Lopez said. ‘The FBI actually took the existence of MJ–12 seriously enough to look into its existence some years ago, but they came up with nothing and reported that the cabal was likely a hoax of some kind. Chances are, the OSI simply ensured that the Feds could gain no access to any data supporting the existence of the group, the funding of which is reckoned to be either private finance or our government’s own Black Budget.’
‘That sounds too easy,’ the President said. ‘We can’t sit here and pretend that the FBI couldn’t get anywhere, that anything amounting to evidence of a conspiracy must remain hidden because it’s in the Black Budget. That’s how conspiracy theories start.’
Jarvis smiled. ‘However, now we believe we know why they found nothing,’ he said. ‘We have evidence Mister President, that the FBI is at least in part tied — in to operations conducted by Majestic Twelve.’
The President leaned back in his seat, his eyes fixed upon Jarvis. ‘You’re accusing federal agents of being part of a conspiracy against this country, perhaps even against me?’
‘I know how it sounds,’ Jarvis admitted, ‘but the evidence is mounting against the agency for harboring at least one individual who is working for, or perhaps a central figure within, MJ–12. It makes sense that a cabal dedicated to subverting United States policy for profit would ensure at least some of its members or affiliates occupied high office within the government or the administration. Such high — level intelligence would be invaluable to their success.’
‘And how would such a cabal coordinate their actions?’ the President asked. ‘If they’re so secret, how could they exist in a world where even our most trusted agents, such as Edward Snowden, can steal sensitive data and transmit it to the media of the world?’
‘I’ve come to believe that the Bilderberg Group and its annual meeting is to some degree the vessel through which Majestic Twelve coordinate their activities,’ Jarvis said.
‘Bilderberg?’ the President echoed. ‘I’ve attended that meeting every year since I took the presidency. It’s no conspiracy meeting!’
‘No,’ Jarvis agreed, ‘but an annual gathering of the world’s most powerful men, and one into which the world’s media is not just uninvited but actively prevented from reporting on, does make the perfect location for men of power to conspire does it not?’
The Bilderberg Group, formed by Joseph H. Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was charged with the post — war take — over of the democratic process. The measures implemented by the group provided general control of the world economy through indirect political means. The meeting itself allowed each of the hundred or more participants to speak their mind freely because no media representative was permitted inside; nor would there be any news bulletin about the meeting or the topics discussed. If any leaks occurred, the journalists responsible were “discouraged” from reporting it. Bilderberg took its name from the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland, where the first meeting took place in 1954.
‘Bilderberg represents the perfect meeting point for the members of MJ–12,’ Lopez said. ‘And we think that we’ve identified one of them.’
‘Who?’ the President demanded, directing a stony gaze at Jarvis once more.
‘Director LeMay of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,’ Jarvis replied.
A long silence filled the bunker as the President stared into the middle distance as though frozen in time. For what felt to Ethan like hours he merely sat in silence as though reflecting on some memory, and then he spoke with a soft, almost resigned tone.
‘And what is your evidence?’
Ethan took the lead, aware of how Jarvis had put himself in the spotlight by revealing LeMay’s suspected involvement with MJ–12.
‘For some time now, Nicola and I have been pursued in our work by a man named Aaron Mitchell, who seems both well connected and financed. We knew that he was working on behalf of MJ–12 but we had no idea who was handling him, so to speak, who was giving him his orders.’
Lopez picked up the story.
‘A few months ago, a man named Stanley Meyer was murdered and for a time Ethan and I were suspects in the case, which was pursued with extraordinary determination by the Bureau despite being an otherwise unremarkable homicide. During our investigation we were able to determine that Mitchell had been at the scene of the crime.’
‘How so?’
‘Because as it turns out,’ Ethan replied, ‘Mitchell has supposedly been dead for a couple of decades. He’s a former Marine and Navy SEAL, and having met him twice now I can personally vouch that for a dead man he’s in surprisingly good mettle.’
Jarvis joined in.
‘The FBI investigated Stanley Meyer’s crime scene and analyzed the blood found there. That analysis reported that no DNA match was found in any government database.’
‘So?’ the President challenged. ‘Doesn’t that prove that he wasn’t at the scene?’
‘No,’ Jarvis replied, ‘because the FBI Agent in charge of the investigation for some reason decided to take a second sample that she did not send to the Bureau and instead had tested by a private lab. And guess what they found?’
The President folded his hands on the table before him. ‘Mitchell’s DNA?’
‘Alive and kicking,’ Lopez replied.
‘How does that tie this Mitchell to Director LeMay?’
‘Ethan and Lopez were dispatched to Abu Dhabi on another mission that again concerned things of interest to MJ–12,’ Jarvis explained. ‘They were being pursued by Mitchell while I was in a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting with LeMay. The Director wanted to know where Ethan and Lopez were, so I gave him their location — except I made a deliberate mistake and sent him in the wrong direction. As expected, Mitchell turned up with agents at his side exactly where I’d informed LeMay that Ethan and Nicola would be.’ Jarvis sighed. ‘He’s involved Mister President, and Mitchell is the agent he uses to get his dirty work done for him. Two men were killed at the site in Abu Dhabi, one of them crushed to death beneath a twenty ton shipping container. Neither Mitchell nor LeMay care whose lives they take and now we have a situation where Majestic Twelve may have reason to allow Abrahem Nassir the chance to slip through our net and attack you directly.’