The Atlantis Prophecy

44

CONRAD DUG a channel around the globe with his hands while Serena brushed the surface protruding from the dirt with a rag. Soon the outline of North America, etched across the northern hemisphere, came into view.

"Look!" Serena said excitedly. "This is clearly the terrestrial globe-it shows the land, not the stars. How do you open it?"

"Like this." Conrad pushed the blade of his knife under the edge by the equator and pressed hard. There was a crack and the hemisphere began to move beneath his hand, opening like a lid to reveal a sealed wooden cylinder. "Here it is."

They climbed out of the well and knelt on the dirt floor of the cave. Conrad removed a scroll from the wooden cylinder and began to unfold it.

"You're smudging it with your dirty hands," Serena scolded. "Let's get out of here and look at it someplace safe."

"Your hands are just as dirty as mine, Serena." He refused to budge. "And no place is safe until we know what this thing says. Right here, Serena, right now. Information, not preservation."

She flashed a light on the document. "I hate you."

"Get in line, it's a long one." He angled the document to the light.

The paper was like the star map, almost a parchment. But this was no map. Rather, it was a formal document, written in English, with a bold sort of preamble. Certain dates and titles from 1783 had been amended and initialed in 1793.

"A Treaty of Peace," he began to read, "concluded this Present Day ye eighteenth day of September One Thousand Seven Hundred amp; Ninety Three between the Regency of New Atlantis and its Subjects and George Washington President of the United States of North America and the Citizens of ye Said United States." He looked at Serena. "The Regency of New Atlantis?"

"The Alignment," Serena said. "A regency is simply a person or group selected to govern in place of a monarch or other ruler who is absent, disabled, or still in minority."

"So they're saying there's some new Caesar waiting in the wings to take over the world?"

"We in the Church prefer to call him the Antichrist."

The preamble was followed by a series of articles Conrad had a hard time following. He handed her the treaty and took the flashlight.

"You're the linguist and expert on international treaties, Serena. What's this New Atlantis?"

"The federal government," Serena said, scanning the articles. "This treaty says that the federal government has the right to secede from the United States on July 4, 2008, and form its own entity, New Atlantis, the very superpower that Sir Francis Bacon predicted would arise in the New World through its technology and power. The United States of America would be dissolved and power would be returned to the states."

"Holy shit. If it's legal, this thing's nuclear."

"You mean neutron: the regimes would change, but D.C. and all public lands acquired by the federal government since its inception-about one-third of the country, mostly in the West-would remain as territories of New Atlantis, including all U.S. military bases both here and around the world. Meaning the New Atlantis would have the means to enforce its will on the former United States and the rest of the world."

He shook his head. "The U.S. Supreme Court would never back it."

"How could it?" she said. "If anything, this Charter is not only unconstitutional, it's anti-constitutional. It clearly holds itself as both the precursor and successor to the U.S. Constitution. But it definitely looks genuine. As such, it's an embarrassment to America and casts doubts on its very founding at a time when its critics are wondering whether the world is better off without it. No wonder every president since Jefferson has been after this. What I can't understand is why Washington would ever sign such a thing."

She handed it back to Conrad, who looked at the bottom. There was an endorsement of the articles dated April 23, 1783, by George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. Lastly, there was a second endorsement dated almost a decade later, September 13, 1793. This was followed by the signature of President George Washington and the official seal of the United States of America-or rather the front of the seal. Opposite thereto, were twelve signatures and the reverse or "New World Order" side of the seal.

One seal, Conrad thought, and two Americas.

"I can see why he'd sign it," Conrad said, the years of American history drilled into him by his father kicking in. "Put yourself in Washington's boots in 1783."

"But to endorse it as president after the U.S. Constitution was ratified? What was he thinking?"

"He was thinking like most Americans that the federal government and its lands were all of a few square miles of marshland on the Potomac, dwarfed by the giant states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. He had no idea it would consume the continent as an empire with warships controlling the seven seas and military garrisons around the world and in space."

Conrad looked at the two seals, the eagle and talons for the United States and the pyramid and Lucerific eye for the New Atlantis, and recalled what Brooke had said: The Alignment wasn't merely a shadow government, it was the government. Or, rather, the other side of the federal government. It always had been; it just hadn't come to light-yet.

"What's wrong, Conrad?"

"I know why the Alignment signed this and why Washington had to go along at the time. And it's obvious why every president aware of its existence has tried to keep it from coming to light, if only to preserve the Union. But to a large extent the Alignment has already succeeded beyond its wildest dreams and the federal government is so strong-taxes to boot-that in a de facto way America IS the New Atlantis. So, aside from some historical or perverse moral justification, what possible reason could the Alignment have for risking its agenda to grab the treaty?"

"I can think of twelve, Conrad."

She showed him the signatures of those representing the Regency of the New Atlantis.

Conrad looked through the signatures. Members of Congress, American patriots, Founding Fathers who supported a strong federal government. "Holy shit. These names."

"Some of the most famous in America, along with some I've never heard of," she said. "These are the ancestors of those who are going to make the Atlantis prophecy happen one way or another. This is what Washington was trying to warn us about, and to do it he used L'Enfant's layout of the city and Savage's portrait in the National Gallery and the letter to Robert Yates for you to open more than two centuries later. To lead us to this Newburgh Treaty and its signatories. So we could know the families, trace them to the present day and have a fair idea of who its leaders are."

Conrad said, "Which means if we can find their descendants today…"

"We can find out who is behind what's going to happen-who Seavers is really working for-and stop them." Serena paused as she scanned the treaty, her face pale.

Something had struck her, and Conrad realized it wasn't in the body of the charter. Rather, it was one of the signatures.

Conrad brushed off bits of loose dirt that had fallen onto the treaty from the ceiling. He looked at the names again, starting with Alexander Hamilton, and one in particular, the designated Consul General of the Regency, jumped out at him: John Marshall.

Conrad's mind whirred. Marshall, a lawyer at the time of the Revolution, became chief justice of the Supreme Court within a year of Washington's death and over the next 30 years did more than anybody else to expand the powers of the federal government. Then he made the connection:

Marshall was also a cousin of Thomas Jefferson and, as such, the sitting president's great-great-grandfather on his mother's side.

"Holy shit!" he said as the walls began to shake violently. "We've got to get out of here."

Serena grabbed her backpack as the roof of the cave started to collapse. Suddenly smoke filled the cave. Then everything went black.