Santi's mind spun, hearing Nic's declaration
"Novus Ordo Seclorum" He said, his head starting to get dizzy, from the sight of what was written in those folders. He knew it was no ordinary cult that they saw 2 years ago, May 5th.
"What?" Sue asked, confused.
"Pyramid, Dollar bill, lower portion" He rambled on, starting to spurt out different words. His mind was too busy, too confused, and was starting to run around in a panic. He spent years making himself believe that it wasn't a secret organization or anything with such scope and power that they saw that night
"You mean, those conspiracy bluffs have always been true?" Marie said, she never truly believed those theories.
"Yes, we know. Blah, then there's the other folder and laptop." said Lena
"Operation Braille" read Nic, He carefully opened the bulging folder. Then he paged through it. While he scanned the pages his eyebrows rose higher and higher, from sheer disbelief, and surprise.
"These are...assassination plans, massacres, murders. I recognize some of the names here."
"Of who?" asked Sue.
"Artists. World Leaders. CEOs, influential people all around the world. Basically all those..." said Nic but I cut him off
"-Who stand in their way. Whose influence may succeed theirs" Santi said. In his mind a new, wild theory is forming. Something that intrigued him and scared him at the same time. All of them looked at him in surprise.
"They've grown bigger. Bigger than what the history books says."
"What do you mean, grown bigger?" asked Lena, in a bossy cheerleader way.
"Sorry, I was thinking out loud. You don't need to be scared." He said hoping that they wouldn't press on. But their curious side overturned the fearful and rational side.
"Too late." Said Nic
"The Illuminati-" began Santi. "isn't focused now in abolishing the Catholic Church. It now wants the whole world," he took the folder and leafed through its pages. "based on what it says on those folders. It means that everything in our world is going to change."
He breathed in, "We have to stop them" Now that he said those words out loud, he realized how stupid they sound. The how, even would take such enormous planning and resources.
"Stop them? Are you crazy?" Lena raised her voice, like she wasn't already.
"No I'm serious!" He exclaimed suddenly. His rational side is seemingly losing to his noble and stupid side.
"We placed this on ourselves. We found them by our own faults. We have the head start in this fight. It's now up to us what to do. We might die in this endeavour, but at least I know in myself that I did something right. What about you guys?" He said, his irrational confidence growing even more so.
Sighing, they tumbled down in the beds. Their heads filled with thoughts of the impossible mission laying in front of them.
"So what are we going to do now?" asked Marie without looking up from the bed.
"Survive." He whispered to the wind. No one replied back, it seems that they already fell asleep.
_______________
Santi woke up, startled from the bad dream. No, his mind said, it was a memory of 2 years past. Slowly rising from the couch, he walked quietly pass the others. They were sleeping soundly. Nic was sleeping with his mouth open on the far corner of the room while Sue was snoring quietly. He tiptoed to the glass sliding door, opening it silently and walking out to the beach.
The full moon was already high, shining on the black-blue ocean. The waves from the West Philippine Sea crashed on the sand while the wind blew towards his direction; filling the air with the smell of sea salt. He sat down on the sand, hearing the sound of waves in their rhythmic pattern. He crossed his legs, placing his arm and divulged myself back into my memories.
They got out of the car, rushing into Lena's home. Thankfully, her mom was at work. They climbed the stairs to her room and they fell down like dominoes. Then they started to breathe heavily not because of running, but because of fear setting in their nerves. Santi's mind raced in finding the correct explanation. Marie looked at me. A silent glance from her eyes conveyed fear and worry.
"What was that?" Nic asked to no one in particular; but his gaze turned towards Santi.
"Pagan style. Robes, circle, infinite and equal. Pagan. Blood drinking. Chalice, Sacred. Pagan." He managed to get out. Repeating the word pagan over and over. It was the first thought that came into his mind. Repeating that gave him a sense of security, the feeling that he knew something. That knowledge might save them.
"What, Pagan? As in demon worship?" Said Nic.
"No!" Santi exclaimed, he was touchy about this topic "It involved ancient gods and goddesses and people who believed in the power of nature. Whoever was out there had a weird fascination for the archaic practice and the ancient ways. He or she is incredibly rich to afford a location that secure."
"Not that secure" muttered Lena. "We infiltrated them."
"They were too overconfident." He whispered to himself, afraid to put them down. "There won't be a second time."
"Whatever happened tonight," said Nic "-'Swear that we won't tell anybody. Santi is correct. Whoever they are, they have the resources to find us. Wherever we are in the world. For our safety and our family. We'll have to keep this a secret." He put firmly on us, then promptly collapsed on the bed.
They spent the night there, the harrowing experience shocked them to the core. Santi's world changed from that moment on. Gone were the days where he would just relaxed? Since then, he always looked at the back of his shoulders. Making sure no one was following him. He spent hours, analysing every person's body language, assessing if they were a threat. For those 2 years, all was quiet until today.
Someone shook his shoulder. He spun around, curling his fingers around his palm, ready to throw a punch. Thankfully he looked before he attacked.
"Whoa!" Lena said, putting her hands up.
"Sorry." he put his hands down, then his shoulders slowly slumped down "I'm still tense."
"Bad dreams, huh?" She said facing the ocean.
"Nope, bad memories to be accurate" He said, laying down at the sand.
"You're not going crazy, are you?" she laughed.
"I'm always crazy." He said, laughing with her. She sighed.
"Illuminati, I still remember the time when you've just read Angel & Demons. You were explaining stuff and we weren't listening."
"I moved past that. I wasn't sure who we saw that night. So I gobbled up every last piece of information I can about anything and related to the occult. I just want to survive." he said looking at the stars, spotting Orion the hunter on the sky. She stayed there for a while. As the waves were getting nearer;
"Get some rest," she said, standing up and brushing the sand from her shorts. "If you want to save the world tomorrow. You need sleep, bro." He smiled. It's been a long time since she called him that. After a few moments, he pushed himself up and walked towards the cottage.
-------(-)-------
Oct. 4. 2017, 2 years later
"Santi, Santi wake up" Marie shook him awake. He opened his eyes, blinking while the world came into focus. He heard the dull vibration of the Boeing 747's engines, and hushed whispers from the passengers.
"Where are we?" He asked, yawning. Sue appeared in front, turning around to looking at us from her seat.
"Do you honestly think we know where we are?" she scoffed "We're about 30,000 feet above sea level." Santi looked at his left, he saw thick white clouds and small glimpses of the blue ocean bellow.
"I could use the glasses" he thought. "But it's too risky. The GPS could lead a trace where we are, placing these innocent lives on our hands."
"You're spacing out again." Lena said appearing next to Sue.
"I was just thinking," he said. "So how's the weather?" It's a code they used to in an attempt to hide the true meaning of their conversation
"Sunny, but a little bit cloudy" said Sue. Clear, but they suspect someone was tailing us or is a hostile.
"Really? What do the clouds look like?" following through with the next code.
"A little bit like stars," 5 people. "5 possible threats" Santi's mind said, his thoughts working once again to formulate something
"So anyway, what's for lunch?" he asked, pushing the thoughts of threats aside.
"You just missed it." Marie said, shrugging. "Besides, from where were from its dinner already." For the past 2 weeks they stayed in the tropics of South America. Now they're off to Switzerland, following another lead that may help them.
A tall stewardess approached them, pushing a small trolley filled with snacks and pitchers of drinks. She leaned slightly, she asked to no one in particular
"May I offer you a drink?" Santi looked up at her, smiled and replied "Water would be nice." She took the pitcher and a paper cup. While she was pouring him his drink, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. On the stewardess wrist a drawing of thin lines forming an...
"Eye" he whispered. From what he knew, flight attendants should not have visible tattoos.
"Sorry?" she said and chuckled a bit. Don't play innocent with me. He thought to himself
"I...uh...I need to go to the bathroom." He excused himself with a smile, sliding past Marie and the sleeping figure of Nic. He opened the overhead counter and took a bag and left. I looked back. The stewardess was pulling her sleeves up and looking around. He knew, that they were in trouble and he hoped that the others knew it too.
He went inside the cubicle and locked it tightly. He slipped his hands in his bag, feeling around for the smooth feel of fabric in it. He pulled it out, it was a glove that stretched just below his elbow. It was made from different insulating materials, with two high voltage batteries attached by the wrist. He slipped it on. His fingers felt the tiny wires crisscrossing in the middle of the glove. He pressed a button at the top and it sparked to life. Tiny sizzles of electricity jumped around in his palm.
Using his other hand, he took an ordinary looking glasses. But hidden inside its thick and heavy frame is a complicated set of nanochips and circuitry that enables the glasses to have the same and even more advance functions than a smartphone.
"Initiate start up procedure." Santi whispered. The glasses hummed to life. Miniature projectors on the rim of the frame flashed images directly into his eyes. Circles of different sizes appeared, swiftly arranging themselves in an ordered pattern a little bit below his field of vision. The glasses projected some words which were- "Command Accepted".
"Targeting and strategic manoeuvrability." He told the glasses. A circle lifted from the bottom. It expanded converting the entire screen into a military scope. There was crosshairs in the middle and numbers presenting longitude and latitude in coordinate plane. Following his eyes wherever it was focused, were little circles. The glasses are also able to distinguish friendlies and enemies.
As he was about to leave the bathroom, the plane lurched forward suddenly as if it hit an invisible barrier. Santi ran outside as fast as he could, avoiding those who fell down. Muttering his apologies while he ran, he stopped abruptly when he saw his friends, being held at gunpoint by a group of people.
"Surrender!" A woman's voice said. Santi immediately recognized her as the stewardess who offered him water. The stewardess was pointing her gun at Lena who was struggling to get out of her grip. She and the assailants who were holding his friends hostage, were wearing a black backpack. The backpacks were unique in design and Santi thought about what they might be for.
"Put your hands in the air!" she shouted at Santi. Santi took a step forward. "Not another step forward and she gets it." Digging the gun more into Lena's head.
"What do you want?" asked Santi, placing his hand behind his back
"Surrender, and we'll take you to our superiors." She said. Santi looked at Lena. She was still struggling but her eyes were focused intensely on him. She nodded slightly. In a swift movement, Santi threw something into the air. The hostage takers eyes followed it, simultaneously Lena stomped her foot on the stewardess. The stewardess screamed in pain while Lena took the gun on one hand and judo flipped the stewardess. Lena unleashed a series of quick punches on her.
Sue kicked her attacker in the balls while Nic elbowed his stomach. Both of them twirled, back-to-back, Sue passed our luggage at him. He pulled the handle tightly. The bars became his arnis sticks, both of them attacking. While Marie twirled, using her flexibility, as she slipped out of her captor's grip and then threw a round house kick.
"How many are there?" asked Santi, as he ran towards the Lena. "Too many than we expected." She said while punching another man.
Suddenly, a burly man was charging towards Santi. He slid down, he gripped the man's leg with his gloves and electrified him. He screamed in pain then fell down. The plane once again lurched forward, then suddenly dipped down.
They all lurched forward, suddenly the feeling of slight weightlessness. Santi's group, their assailants and the passenger slammed on the tight rows of seats. The plane suddenly levelled and everyone started to steady themselves.
"I'm going to the cockpit." Santi shouted. "If this continues, we're going to crash into the Mediterranean."
"Go!" said Lena.
He rushed towards the front of the plane. He evaded the passengers who were starting to come to their senses. Suddenly someone tripped him. He used the momentum to roll forward then stood up, as a woman charged at him. She threw a dozen different punches while Santi evaded them like a snake. His hand darted to the woman and gripped he arm wrist tightly. He electrocuted her and she fell like a wooden plank on the floor.
He rushed to the cockpit. Opening the door slowly, a sickening scene appeared before him. The two pilots were dead on their seats, both of them with blood from their head, dripping down to the floor. He pushed the door wider and was about to take the controls when he heard a loud bang.
Time seemed to slow down as the metal bullet came in contact with his right shoulder and the pain starting to flood into him. He got blown away, the blood splattering at him. He looked at his opponent who was tall and lean. He gripped the gun tightly with his two hand and pointed it directly at Santi.
The pain was getting more intense by the second. It took Santi's all not to scream out in pain. His chest heaved as he stared at his opponent intensely. The man fired a bullet but this time Santi was ready. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he dodged the bullet by rolling forward. His left hand gripped the man who shot him . He fell down, paralyzed. Santi took his belt and tied the man's arms to the chair. Using whatever strength he could muster from his right hand he removed the electric gauntlet from his other hand. He then dragged the pilot's corpse out of their chairs using both of his hands, outside to the cabin.
"I could do this...I think." he muttered told myself, while slipping on the headset. Undeterred by the number of knobs, dials and button, he recalled his grandfather's stories about him flying planes when he was young. He thought Santi about the basic controls in a plane, and what to do in case of an emergency. He looked at the primary flight display, he saw that the plane was eaning downward. He slowly pulled the nose up to level the plane. He turned on the plane's intercom and said "Good afternoon, Passengers this is your substitute captain speaking. I am requesting that all of you, calm down. The assailants will be subdued by the kingsguard. On another hand, I am requesting anyone with experience flying an aircraft please report to the cock pit."
"One problem down" He thought to himself, gripping the controls tightly. He then proceeded to contact air traffic control. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, pilot dead."
"What the hell! Who are you?" the controller said, his tone was startled and shocked. "We heard gunshots in the background. Are you the one who shot the pilots down?"
"No sir, though I've subdued the murderer." Santi said. He heard voices in the background seemingly shouting at one another.
"Who are you?" the controller asked. Santi, thought for a moment and gave the alias they used on the plane.
"My name is James Whitaker. I just levelled a plane but I don't know how to fly one."
"Standby, we'll give you instructions on what to do next."
"Roger that"
Santi heard a knock on the door. He took off the head set, and opened the door. An old man who's in his 50's or 60's was at the door.
"My names is Charles, Charles Remington." Introducing himself. Santi could hear a slight British accent "I'm a retired pilot."
"Good, can you fly a Boeing 747?" I asked
"Yes, I think I can." He said. Santi felt relieved. He told the old man to await the command of the air traffic control and left the room. He looked at the pilot's body outside and said a little prayer for their souls.
He ran, looking for his friends while clutching his bleeding shoulder. The four of them were there, the assailants were all tied up. They wore the black backpacks the attackers wore.
Santi noticed some of the passengers' reactions, obviously terrified, not knowing what was happening. Some we're crying and hugging the ones they were with. And a bunch of Asian Jocks took pictures of what was happening.
"Parachutes." mouthed Marie, pointing at her back then she noticed the bullet wound at my shoulder.
"What the hell happened to you?" She quickly took some gauze and wrapped it around my shoulder.
"The pilots were killed, then the gunman shot me at my shoulder. I managed to paralyze him." I looked at Nic, asking him silently what the plan was.
"We've been compromised. We have to jump." Nic said, while passing my luggage to me. I gripped it using my left hand while Marie made me take some pain medicine. The pain in my right shoulder started to become numb.
"Unless of course, you can't jump." Nic said, looking at my wound then approached the emergency exit.
"I'm fine." Santi said through gritted teeth. Lena gave him his parachute and Santi slipped it on himself, carefully avoiding the wound on his right.
Nic seeing me ready, opened the emergency exit. Roaring winds entered the plane as oxygen masks fell down. The winds pushed us all back, restricting our movements. A strong man was there waiting, gripping the pole beside him to hold on.
"Our masters shall succeed! There's no stopping them!" shouted a flight attendant "The enlightened ones will rule this world and usher us to a new age!"
"Fat chance." scoffed Lena, rolling her eyes.
"A warning, you will never survive what's coming. Thwarting their plans will be wasted. In the end they'll be masters of our planet." Silence followed, until Nic jumped, followed by Sue and Marie.
"Not if we can handle it." Santi said "Thank you" he said to the passengers.
"See you on the other side!" said Lena "Wheeeeee!" shouting like a crazy woman.
Santi saluted then jumped...