and, shortly thereafter, executed. We were good at it, frankly-we could play the governments of the world like a pipe organ. Nor did it hurt that Sigma came to own an immense portfolio of companies, its ownership stakes hidden through various private equity firms. But a small inner circle came to believe that, in a new era, the answer wasn't merely to tack to the latest winds, cope with cyclical crises. It was to perpetuate a stable leadership for the long run. And so in recent years, one very special project of Sigma's came to the fore. The prospect of its success would revolutionize the nature of world control. No longer would it be about the allocation of funds, the directing of resources. It became, instead, a simple matter of who the 'chosen' would be. And I fought this."
"You had a falling out with Sigma," Ben said. "You became a marked man. And yet you kept its secrets."
"I say it again: if ever the truth were to get out, about how many of the major events of the postwar era were secretly manipulated, scripted by this cabal, the reaction would be violent. There would be riots in the streets."
"Why the sudden escalation of activity you're describing something that has unfolded over a period of decades!" Ben said.
"Yes, but we are talking about days," Chardin replied.
"And you know this?"
"You wonder that a recluse like me should keep abreast of what is going on? You learn how to read the entrails. You learn, if you want to survive. And then there is precious little else to occupy a shut-in's hours. Years among their company have taught me to detect signals in what would sound to you like static, mere noise." He gestured toward the side of his head. Even through the cowl, Ben could tell that the man's external ear was completely absent, the auditory canal simply a hole within an outgrowth of proud flesh.
"And this explains the sudden flurry of killings?"
"It is as I explained: Sigma has, of late, been undergoing one final transformation. A change of management, if you will."
"Which you resisted."
"Long before most were attuned to it. Sigma always reserved the right to 'sanction' any members whose absolute loyalty came into question. In my arrogance, I did not realize that my exalted position conferred no protection. Quite the contrary. But the cleansing, the purging of the dissidents, only began in earnest in the last several weeks. Those who were perceived as hostile to the new direction along with those who worked for us were designated as disloyal. We were called the angeli re belli rebel angels. If you recall that the original angeli re belli had revolted against God Almighty himself, you grasp the sense of power and entitlement of Sigma's current overlords. Or, shall I say, overlord, since the consortium has come under the direction of one... redoubtable individual. In the event, Sigma has run out the clock, so to say."
"What clock? Explain it to me," Ben began. So many questions crowded his mind.
"We're talking about days," Chardin repeated. "If that. What fools you are, coming to me as if knowing the truth could help you anymore. Coming to me when there is no time! Surely it is already too late."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's why I had assumed you'd been sent, at first. They know that they are never more vulnerable than shortly before the final ascendancy. As I've told you, now is a time for final mop-ups, for sterilization and autoclaving, for eliminating any evidence that might point to them."
"Again, I ask you, why now?"
Chardin took out the atomizer and misted his filmy gray eyes again. There came a sudden explosion, bone-jarringly loud, which propelled Chardin, in his chair, backward to the floor. Both Ben and Anna sprang at once to their feet and saw with terror the two-inch round hole that instantaneously appeared in the plaster wall opposite, as if somehow put there by a large-bore drill.
"Move!" Anna screamed.
Where had this projectile it seemed far too big to be a mere gunshot come from? Ben leaped to one side of the room as Anna jumped to the other, and then he whirled around to look at the splayed body of the legendary financier. Forcing himself to survey, once more, the horrible ravines and crevices of scar tissue, he noticed Chardin's eyes had rolled back into his head, leaving only the whites visible.
A wisp of smoke arose from a charred segment of his cowl, and Ben