Carlos clapped his hands together and rubbed them hard, drawing friction-produced sparks before spreading them out on the table. "Old-school," he said, placing his hands flat on the tiled surface and causing the map of the world to begin to appear in a shimmering glaze on top of it. "They don't give a rat's ass about a building in downtown L.A. if it burns. They probably dangled that CGE building in front of us as the first lure, hoping we'd charge in there and bust the place up-but we didn't."
He moved his finger down the shimmering replica of the coastline and then wiped it away. "Fires, primarily focused here in San Diego where they sensed us, but they couldn't get an accurate bead on us because we haven't come out for weeks. But when I took that drive to get Damali some grub, they were all over my trail like flies on shit. That's why the worst of the wildfires are down here in San Diego. Just like in Athens, these were started by arson, aka the darkside."
As Carlos went through each geographical barrier, he made a section of the country disappear. "The Gulf-flooded out before the San Diego fires, 'cause they were still looking for us, not sure where we were. Droughts, twisters . . . but what hasn't been hit?" Carlos looked up with a hard smile."Motown, Motor City.Otherwise known as Detroit. Why?
"Strategic location to quickly fall back to Canada from the United States, if you've got a music label in the States, plus that area's got the whole music legacy thing going on . . . besides, what was the most positive music influence talking about love?" Carlos looked at Damali and smiled.
"Rhythm and blues," Damali said."The last castle. You take R&B, jazz, neo-soul, and turn those positive genres negative, hey . . . you affect a lot of people. We already saw what the effects of negative hip-hop did-the positive artists are fighting to hold their own. But Detroit has a lot of history, a lot of psi in the plus column that would be hard to overwrite."
"The Underground Railroad history alone would be hard to track over," Marlene said, glancing around the group. "Blacks, whites, and Native Americans came together up there-they'd have to blot out the energies of Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass . . . naw.Wouldn't happen that fast up there. Plus all the love songs that came out of the Motownempire , it would take them some time to wear that down."
"But the economic crash hit Detroit hard," Yonnie argued."Had a lot of depressed mugs up there.Murder rate through the roof. Be real. Detroit has issues, all love train music aside."
"Right," Carlos said, adding continents to the shimmering mosaic on the countertop. "But it's bigger than that . . . if you follow the money." Yonnie pounded his fist. "Negative music lyrics, movies, and news broadcasts coming out of CGE are just the conduit to create depression, lowered resistance to negative vibes, loss of hope, and to let the shadows in-but they started with music because music is so pervasive and is the universal language. But this bigger picture is all about the Benjamins and world domination."
Satisfied when the team nodded with understanding, Carlos pressed on. "First of all, a weak dollar internationally means that foreign countries can easily gobble up real estate in the United States, especially places compromised by natural disaster. So, Canada, Britain, Ireland, France, Japan . . . Dubai, anywhere their currency is stronger than ours at the moment, can start to make a serious down payment on America. And what will that do?"
Carlos looked around the group and then answered his own question. "Start a national panic. Americans, already feeling stressed by wars, natural disasters, hate crimes, breaches in justice and national conscience, conspiracy theories, unchecked government wrongdoing, whatever, will fall back into some serious hateration of other nations. Look at what happened when oil prices shot up more than three dollars a gallon; Americans lost their minds. When people panic, they don't think. We've seen that happen time and time again-that's how the Patriot Act got passed and now everybody's civil liberties are in jeopardy. Fear is just another dark entity that breeds mob thought, coaxes out insanity. This whole game is being levered by oil and drugs-the wine, yo."
"Youain't never lied, man," Shabazz said, looking at Carlos.
Carlos nodded. "This bullshit is about to be a house of cards, economically-and yet, our allies can't really afford to have us as a superpower fall. We're the army for half of the so-called civilized world. But sooner or later manipulating interest rates won't fix what's broke. Meanwhile, those on the darkside with an agenda are already invested in war.Oil, drugs, and everything that goes with that-and getting paid, lovely. C'mon, Blackwater is just one example-they ain't even being coy with the names anymore!"
"Just in your face,blat-ow ," Yonnie said, opening his arms. "Like letting dirty motherfuckers off the hook in broad daylight that woulda got you and me triple life, slim."
"Then they'll be a call for unified currencies and a collective world leader," Shabazz said, rubbing his chin, "just like prophesied."
"So this takeover of people's minds is more than about just getting us out of hiding," J.L. said, his eyes roving over the faces around the island counter.
"It serves multiple purposes, like I keep saying," Damali said flatly.
"Yeah, and since coke is doing better than the Dow Jones, like oil is king, and we know who runs that," Yonnie said, pointing at the shimmering map, "then whoever controls those product lines is who buys up most of the shit and leverages the hell out of this war game, causing market crashes and panics at will-herding people worldwide like sheep to get 'em to do whatever."
"Correct," Marlene said, leaning in. "So, South America just has people-madness happen, but is spared most of the natural disasters in its coca-producing and oil-generating regions. Africa is already plugged into the oil game from Nigeria, but is riddled continentwide with the blood-diamond wars, AIDS, drought, starvation, and every kind of disease known to humankind-"
"But like Asia," Damali said emphatically, "it has enough bodies to feed off of. Look at the water crisis in India-the Ganges is a cesspool and human disease is about to ravage that region if it doesn't get the situation under control. Things are so crazy there that the macaque monkeys in New Delhi are going mad, getting aggressive enough that they killed a high-level government official-made the man fall off a freaking balcony at his home! Monks are getting clubbed to death in Burma . . . and look what happened in Pakistan-they assassinated the former prime minister over there and innocent people are dying. That region is being hit hard, like Africa, to keep it from being a dissenting voice with any real strength behind its massive populations."
"Feeding grounds, sis.That's all it is," Yonnie said in a weary tone. "None of those nations and continents you listed, including South America,are contenders to run the world because of their chaos. Unfortunately, they're the breadbaskets for the world, but are also ripe feeding grounds for the Apocalypse troops."
"So, think about it," Carlos said, using his finger against the shimmering surfaces. "If South America, Africa, Pakistan, and India and developing nations are political noncontenders for world domination, but can fuel it like a resource bank for blood, oil, and drug cash crops, and bodies . . . with the Caribbean only a tidal wave away from being gone if they dissent, and Australia not being militarily strong enough to get in the mix, then that leaves the United States to polarize with Western Europe and Canada against Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia-with the catalyst to kick all this off being the good ole Middle East."
"Book of Daniel, chapter seven," Marlene said, shaking her head. "Remember his vision. . . . The lion-bodied eagle-which we know can only be the newly aggressive U.S. and Europe alignment, versus the four-headed leopard dragon-which I'm sure are the four main nations in Asia-North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and China, versus the bear-which is nothing but Russia and the old Eastern bloc. Then comes the fourth one with iron teeth-guess who that belongs to? The New World Order leader, which crushes them all . . . and we don't need to sayhis name in this house."
J.L. nodded and looked up from the counter at Carlos. "Dude, I stay on the news watch, right. How about the United States and Europe just came together over Iran as a rallying point in a meeting in Tokyo . . . but Russia disputed their findings and doesn't want them to put U.S. missile defenses in Poland or radar base stations in the old Czech Republic areas."
"My point exactly.It's already under way. I know chessboard moves, bro," Carlos said, nodding. "It's all coming down to the big three zones, with the United States, Canada, and Europe banding together as a singular superpower against the others-watch. Then you-know-who defeats each of the three weakened, bickering blocs of nations and creates the fourth one . . . which isthe New World Order ruled by the darkside."
Damali traced her finger down the eastern seaboard of Carlos's shimmering map. "All right, so that's the big picture. But for now, we've gotta focus on whatever little bit we can do to stem the tide. So look at this move . . . Detroit to Toronto, then come down to Rochester, then Buffalo, to New York City, past Philly, to Washington D.C., Chicago and Ohio are in there, too, but the way I traced is a more direct route."
She stared up at the team. "With all the disasters, look at what hasn't totally burned yet or completely flooded out . . . human madness is what has those areas in their grip all the way down the East Coast to Florida. But notice how they aren't jacking it up? The darkside is shifting the psi in the heavily populated, but strategic, areas of the strongest contender for the new world order-here."
"Proverbs eight," Marlene said, nodding, and then high-fived Damali. "Wisdom is personified as a woman in the Good Book . . . that was based on Ma'at, check it out, fellas. Our girl is on."
"No lie. D is on and poppin'. The Pentagon is on that route, so is Cape f**king Canaveral, yo," Yonnie said, folding his arms. "If you're gonna take over the world and be a potential host nation for the Antichrist, you ain't messing with your key locations."
"And the Kennedy Space Center-where missiles could be launched-is on that route, too," J.L. added, glancing at Carlos.
"This Detroit to Canada thing makes sense," Marlene said after a moment of contemplation. "It's still Nuit's North American province if he moves into Canada . . . much more wilderness with direct access for all the new vamps he's made to retreat back to a hemisphere that literally goes into darkness for six months a year."