From the high walls hung Nazi and Black Sun flags and banners, with Latin and Germanic inscriptions etched quite elegantly into the concrete. In the middle of the giant chamber was a round table, the likes of which would have made Himmler envious. There were seven places, but one would remain forever unoccupied. It was once the seat of Dr. Lehmann, now deceased. When they were all seated, a tall gaunt younger man entered. His name was Jan van den Berg, and he was the facilitator of these meetings. The pale man looked rather curious by normal standards, his black, Brylcreemed hair flattened on his head in a painfully neat middle parting. Above his thin lips, a long, narrow flat black strip made for a moustache, and with his tuxedo he appeared like a specter from the 1920s horror film.
“Good evening, gentlemen. I would like to thank you for attending this, the 243rd convention of the council to discuss the fate of David Purdue, captor of Renata not more than a year ago,” he declared. His shrill voice bounced off the cement walls and got lost in the vastness of the emptiness around the gathering.
“Present here tonight,” he announced, casting his eyes to each of the members, more out of rite than for record, “the Aryan patriarchs welcome Samuel Haasbroek, Kees Maas, Francois Debaux, Jaap Roodt, Alexander Karsten, and Izaak Geldenhuys. Hail to the fathers.”
“Hail to the fathers!” the collective reply came from the seated men.
“Now that we are all convened here, the matter at hand will have to be decided on this night. David Purdue abducted Renata and held her captive after he promised to deliver her to us, the council, upper chieftains of the Order of the Black Sun. I would ask that each of you cast your reasoning to the gathering here as to his lot,” the gaunt fellow requested. From his belt he pulled a golden scepter and passed it to the first chief to his right, Kees Maas. The elderly man looked at his colleagues through eyes heavily laden with drooping lids, but his full head of gray hair attested to his well-kept health.
“David Purdue is still a member of the Black Sun, thus he deserves at least some leniency. However, for his impertinence, he should be demoted to a lower-level rank,” he said. Some of the men shook their heads while the gaunt Jan van den Berg took note of each member’s suggestion like a proper old-world secretary, taking minutes.
None of the men, no matter their disagreement, were allowed to interrupt the man holding the scepter at any time. This avoided a babbling of disagreement and assured that each man was given a chance to speak his piece with the full attention of the others. Kees handed the golden staff to Alexander Karsten, who had a slightly different perspective.
The short man with the tubby midriff moved his glasses lower on his nose and surveyed the others carefully, before he started speaking with a snort, “Esteemed chiefs, I see this man Purdue as a danger to the organization as a whole. It would not be the first time he has interfered with the endgame of the order, as he did in Parashant and lately with the abduction of the leader of the Black Sun.”
A few nodded in agreement as he continued, “Therefore, I suggest we make him disappear.”
Nodding next to him was Samuel Haasbroek, the meanest looking of the bunch. His beady eyes, deep-set in his face, only made his long face look more impish as he took possession of the staff. “As far as we know Purdue kept Renata as a bargaining chip against us and that is just treacherous to a fault. Look what happened! Now she is missing even from him, God knows where, in God knows what condition. All the while the Black Sun is at a standstill until we can recover and depose her for the rise of a new leader. All this because of his bloody greed for power, and perhaps even to destroy us altogether. Kill the bugger!”
A resounding affirmation came from those left to speak.
“Whether we kill him or not, we will never find Renata. She was taken by a third party from his capture while he was gone,” said Izaak Geldenhuys. “I suggest we proscribe him and elect a new leader for the order. She was only a power-hungry menace even to our own, was she not? Look at that empty seat, my brothers! Lehmann’s seat is vacant because that ingrate took her position to a place of arrogance and ineptitude, setting all of us in danger of discovery and running the order as if it were her own funhouse!” Izaak was red in the face, shivering with rage at Renata’s misuse of authority.
“I have a proposal that would eradicate all our problems in one,” the next chief said smoothly, his voice like a velvet devil. It was the drawl of Jaap Roodt, the financial mogul of the group, and as conniving as Loki himself. He smiled as he took the staff from Izaak with a tranquil dip of his brow. “We need a new leader for the Black Sun. We need to get rid of David Purdue for his audacity, but the man is a technological genius and, let’s not deny it, a billionaire at that, making him a very special brand of boil on our asses — one that will not go away.”
The other men sat listening to the charming eloquence of the suave financier, wondering how he could be so serene about this, the first serious problem blasphemous enough to their tradition to merit such a gathering. His eyes shifted from one to the other as he continued his calm address, “Brothers of the council, I propose that we inaugurate David Purdue as Renatus.”
A stunned silence ensued.
Then, at once, an overwhelming rush of protests, insults, and outcries rose among them. Jan van den Berg rose from his seat and called the meeting to order.
“Chieftains! Brothers! Please, consider the protocol before erupting in such a furor again! Each member has his time and we will consider all possibilities after each suggestion has been laid before the council,” he cried out above the roaring voices of some.
Jaap Roodt still held the scepter, “Please, brothers, think on it. He will be forced to serve the Black Sun or die mysteriously, instead of being a spear in the cogs every time we almost attain domination. If he is Renatus, he will have to steer this ark for us. I implore you — think carefully of the benefits here.”
The staff went to Francois Debaux, the French delegate. Under his untidy white eyebrows his eyes blinked a few times while he prepared to formulate his suggestion. His crooked nose sniffed a few times as the men fell silent in anticipation.
“Renata has done an appalling job of her reign and I don’t think she even deserves to be recovered or deposed. Strip her of all rights in the Black Sun, should she still be alive, which I doubt, given the hands that took possession of her — the Brigade Apostate,” he declared at the astonishment of his fellows. “Oui, oui! I have it on good authority. So with her out, Jaap’s suggestion does make a lot of sense to me. I concur, it would erase two problems at the same time for us to induct Purdue as the new Renatus.”
After some heated debate and several calls to order, the vote was cast. Four men, Francois Debaux, Kees Maas, Jaap Roodt, and Izaak Geldenhuys explicitly supported the idea of making Dave Purdue the new Renatus of the order. The others were reluctant, as he was seen as a traitor and needed to be ousted or killed. Becoming Renatus, in their opinion, would not be a suitable punishment for his bold move.
“Brothers, we have to admit that the idea would save us a lot of effort and time, especially now that time is drawing short for the world order under our command,” Jaap Roodt told the council after the vote was cast in favor of his proposition. He was fanatical in his articulacy and delivered his speech with resolute sincerity and urgency. “It is almost time for the old ones to be ushered into our dimension to destroy all enemies of the master race. Hitler and Himmler failed. We will not. They, who had dominion of the earth before man, will reign once more and we will flourish, cleansed of flaws and filth locked in ages of subhuman genetics.”