David-Michael Harding - The New Illuminati: Return to Power, Part 2

"Federal officers are assembling at your office, Denti. SOCOM is standing by at MacDill. We'll have teams hit Campiano's house and business by end of day. Forensics will take it from there."

"SOCOM?" Cal said as he stood up. "Special forces don't executive the search warrants yield."

The name sparked Jack, who was demonstratively agitated - a short step from normal for him. "John LaRoy don't strike me as a guy who watches anything from the sideline," he said. "You're wildcatting this, aren't you, Nuary?"

"Oh, you know LaRoy? I thought so."

"We've met."

"I bet you have."

Alyn was up and at the door and Cal was being pulled by an invisible rope. He looked back at Jack and held his pinkie and thumb to his head as a phone and mouthed that he'd call.

"Go have your fun, Agent Nuary," Jack shouted toward the door. But you can't use Navy Seals as your private SWAT Team. That dog don't hunt. Not even in Washington! LaRoy will put your ass in a wringer and I'll work the crank."

Alyn stopped and spun. Her earrings caught in her hair. "This is a Federal investigation. You' done. Understand? If you need help with the big words I can make it clearer. Pull back. Drop out. Or I'll have you charged with obstruction."

Cal was easing Nuary to the door. "Fight nice, Alyn. Let's go."

Nuary actually pushed Cal away. "You too, Denti. You want to spoon feed the locals and cut me out? I'll transfer you. You'll be scanning mail on the Canadian border. Sonofabitch."

Marcus was stunned. Cal was embarrassed for the agency and moved around Nuary to the door. "I'll call you, Jack."

"Jesus H. Christ. You are something else, Nuary. A goddamn bleached blonde meat grinder, aren't you? You better go back to Atlanta and play cop on your fancy ass phone there. You're not going to like Tampa. It gets hot down here."

"Go fuck yourself, DA."

Alyn ducked out the door. Calburn was some distance up the hall headed for the parking garage. She pulled her cell phone out and began typing. Behind her, Marcus stuck his head out the door then looked over his shoulder back to his boss.

"What was that?"

"That, Petey," Jack said as he leaned way back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head, "that is a rare animal. Exotic really."

"What?"

"Silicone bitchium botoxius."

~~~

The New Illuminati:
Return to Power, Part 2

By David-Michael Harding

I was so happy to have received both parts of this story at once. Part 1 had introduced us to The New Illuminati, which had been started by just one man, a computer genius, who had brought down politicians who had taken criminal actions to get what they wanted, purely by destroying them financially and publicly. And then went on to other actions similar in nature.

Soon he had been joined by a man who put muscle behind the threats...to people who chose the criminal way rather than doing the job they were chosen to do, effectively and honestly. 

But the concept took off and now across the nation, civilian vigilantes were acting and using the same reference and symbol for their actions. Of course, by that point, readers do not know whether all such actions had been done in the true spirit of the New Illuminati!

Part 2 begins the official investigations that had already begun and merged them into a coordinated effort between the FBI, and the Tampa District Attorney and his lead investigator. Since events had spread beyond Florida, the FBI was leading that coordinated effort. 

I must stop and commend the author for presenting such a diverse, captivating set of characters in this second book, especially the one FBI Director Alyn, who we quickly learn to hate. I wish I could say that she was just a victim of the Peter Principle, but this little lady  had willfully and actively used her sexual favors to get to where she was. For me, she that's woman that every professional woman wants to have fired because of her incompetence, like she should have been, instead of bedded and allowed to continue playing her games... Her latest lover is feeding everything on the case directly to her...the only reason...to bed her... and the deal runs as long as their trading satisfies her...

"No, I don't think her claws are retractable and I like my eyes where they are."

"She doesn't want to get in your pants, Petey. She wants to get in your head. Despite what she said, she wants what we have--the Tampa skinny on Rand and this new character. Ciampiano."

..."You're going to wrinkle your skirt, Director," he said as he slipped the car in bear.

Nuary left her thigh exposed. "Try to keep your eyes on the road. Drive."

Calslammed on the brakes and shoved the car in part as he spun toward Nuary in one motion. "Look, Alyn. Everyone knows your game, but don't play it on me. Why don't you go back to Atlanta and let us run this? You have no idea what you're doing."

Nuary reached over and grabbed Cal's crotch. He was stunned but peeled her hand away instantly and shoved her hard across the seat and away from him.

Alyn tossed her head back and laughed through a veil of her messed up blonde hair. She adjusted her breasts blatantly. "I knew you've been wnting to feel these for years, but not so rough next time."

Cal glanced at her in disbelief. "What is wrong with you?"

She ignored him. "If you grab my pussy, you'd be fired by tomorrow."

~~~

Of course, she was also being left out of the case by the good ole boys who accepted what she was and were not able to do anything but go around her... But would it work, even when she was fired by the FBI leader?

It was quite logical to make the assumption that since the events had started in Tampa, that the instigators lived there... In fact, it was quite easy to pinpoint two potential men who had the knowledge and/or background to achieve what was being done.

That, to me, was the first mistake that had been made by the New Illuminati team...would it prove to be their downfall?

I enjoyed most the DA who frankly had a hard time not being thankful for what these men were doing. He had seen so many true criminals go free due to bribes, false testimonies, etc. But when it came down to it, as he talked with the lead of the FBI, with whom he became friendly, what had started and happened were criminal actions and they were hurting people who had not been formally convicted and therefore were civilians requiring police protection.

A disturbing love situation also entered the story, as the lover of one of the two men who were now "most wanted" had warned him of what was coming, which allowed him to escape... But evidence was coming forward about what she'd done, and things became worse when she discovered she was pregnant and the timing was telling...especially to Director Alyn who pretended to befriend her...

Harding places readers exactly where he wanted us to be...Are we supporters of The New Illuminati? Are we tired of things as they have traditionally been, with little improvement? Or are we strictly law and order proponents waiting and expecting law enforcement to handle all required actions? Personally I could deal with a little of both...but when the murders started happening... Well, that places readers in a very provocative, thought-provoking situation, doesn't it? 

So, bottom line, what you have is a novel that pits citizens against politicians. And police work to investigate and protect, while some of those officers have and indeed indulge in their own agendas... Gee, it sounds alllllll toooooo familiar!

Remember Sam? He's the one I had hopes for from Part 1...

Maybe he's our hero??? Or...Not... Can things ever change???

Harding certainly caught my attention, given our daily news sharing the murders and other atrocities happening across the world. I may not have gotten an answer, but the author has presented a book that, in my opinion, is certainly a must-read. It's excitingly familiar, but provocative enough to taunt readers: What are you willing to do to protect your home and life?

Harding also caught my attention for his writing in his first book I read. His command of the language and his genius in weaving words into a truly literary masterpiece is well above the average, moving him into one of the top writers now sharing his work around the world. If you haven't read him...do so now. 

I do want to point out that you cannot possibly get the full impact of The New Illuminati without reading both Parts of the book. I highly recommend you start with Part 1 before you even consider Part 2. You know, the one thing I'd like to know...How would you like to see the second book end? Let me know your thoughts and let's talk! Harding  has given us much to digest... or regurgitate... This two-part book is definitely on my top personal favorites list!


GABixlerReviews

David-Michael Harding is a life-long writer whose work has appeared in national publications and has been recognized by the international writing community. He is a collegiate writing instructor and former semi-professional football player. His experiences provide readers with well researched, crushing fast-paced action. Most of his days are spent writing from the cockpit of his sailboat, Pegasus, somewhere off the Nature Coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thankfully...The New Illuminati...is Here! David-Michael Harding Writes on Today's News

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-american-voters-on-trump-clinton/

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

--Plato

...A gratefully quiet evening in a busy life had been in pleasant predictable bloom. But it was shaken by twenty-three seconds of airtime, inadvertently captured from a local channel, as Clayton surfed while he waited on the soft white foam of his beer to fizzle itself into oblivion. Sealed indictments had been opened and implicated a local commissioner in a bribery scandal. A land developer had donated forty-five thousand dollars to the commissioner's election campaign following his own failed attempt at pushing a housing development plan past the Regional Resource Impact Committee. Weeks later, with the freshly minted commissioner at the helm of the impact study appeal, the decision was reversed and chainsaws began immediately biting into cypress trees that had provided shade and relief for peoples as widespread as the Seminole Indians, Spanish conquistadors marching inland from sandy beaches, migrant workers, citrus growers, and tourists of six decades. Seven seconds of video showed the site with a voiceover describing the incalculable damage...In the background, a mountain of two hundred year old cypress scrub pine, and oak, choked with brush, burned violently as it raced to consume the evidence. The fire triggered a reminder in Clayton of the flame of Wyatt's Torch and he knew--as an epiphany--that it was time for Atlas to shrug again...

...By the time the news loop broke into its new cycle with a new painted face, a straightforward plan had emerged from the yellow pad. Clayton re-read his work, made the last of his simple choices for the night, and put the pad aside.

"To those whom much is given, much is expected. Something like that," Clayton said stiffly as he stood and stretched an ache which had settled into his back compliments of the awkward dangling leg. "Yes, much is expected, you sonofabitch," he poignantly directed while the mumbling television went quiet as though it had committed the crime and had not simply been the messenger. "And tomorrow comes the accounting..."

"Time for payback," he said to both the note pad and his keyboard. He adjusted his monitor slightly, though he was alone in his home, and absently and foolishly leaned to the side to see for certain if the monitor filter was in place. At the extent of his lean the screen went to black then he turned his fingers loose...

~~~

The New Illuminati

Part 1

By David-Michael Harding

I have enjoyed reading this author since his novel, Cherokee Talisman was published. then enjoyed an anthology The Cats of Savone:  8 Short Novels for Busy People. But nothing could have prepared me for his two-book novel The New Illuminati. I have a great respect for this author's work. It challenges, excites but presents such a wonderful literary tale that you can't help but become completely involved with his story. The first book, which is covered today, is devastatingly awesome! I mean--as I place it on my personal favorite list for 2016, I must declare it the top of that list!

Many of you will have "suffered" through the politics for this election year... Hopefully, you may have seen the segment on Sixty Minutes this week where a group of "average voters" were polled. If you didn't, click on the top link if you want to grasp the tone of this new book...

And the tone of the feelings for many of us, including myself... Got to admit right up front...Loved this book! It feels like it was written for me...for many of us who are tired of the corruption, the loss of a reliable justice system, as well as the pure bureaucratic nonsense we routinely see, without being able to do anything. One politician follows another term after term, without change to the underlying problems... it has reached a crisis stage...

That's when and how the New Illuminati arose... There have been other historical groups with the name Illuminati, but I found the inclusion of the Boston Tea party in the book to be a better reference for most of us to remember and understand from American history... Have we reached the point for another tea party? Read this book...

Before very long, all who had been involved with a recent decision to destroy decades old cypress to clear a space for development, which had been approved through financial bribes, were not only indicted, but all of the money involved and more, was gone. 

Luke 12:48

"I know. I know. But not here. Not now. This is the time. Today, I am the one. Tomorrow someone may come along who knows it better or more or differently, but not today. Not today. Today I write the programs that protect nearly ever one of the Fortune 500 and the feds. They come to me. My company is creating this stuff--recreating, updating--every day. Even the military comes to us. Hell, they're the ones who put the bank vault door on my house." It was Clayton's turn to breathe. "Now's the time, Ralph. We hold all the cards. And that DA friend of yours is just another asset."

~~~

A top computer genius, who created software for the government as well as private corporations, along with three child-hood friends, had learned a shortened version of a scripture from a local newspaper salesman (and numbers bookie, which is now run as the lottery) and had taught it to his son and friends when they were young. They all had accepted those words as a slogan for their lives. Now, each of them, in their own lives were looking around and seeing what was happening with government corruption, bribes of political officials, and so much more. It was the genius who first decided to act... and we see how he uses his computer expertise to bring a certain commissioner and those who worked with him to justice...

The New Illuminati had been born... He started with the eye on our dollar bill and soon developed the symbol that he would use to let people know... We are watching and your actions have been discovered...

The second member of The New Illuminati became my favorite character. He had been taught by the Army to maim and kill and had served in Special Forces without any type of identity or recognition. Then when his automatic reflexes through training resulted in him roughing up a guy at a local bar, he was promptly kicked out and ignored...hidden as a soldier who, on paper, had had just a regular time in service, with no special contributions... How cruel the armed services can be after soldiers can no longer efficiently comply with directives...

Sam had seen what had happened to the commission, et.al., and recognized the symbol and words that had been left... Without any words necessary, he talked to Clay and they both knew he would become the muscle behind what would happen next...

A mayor and a senator were the next to be targeted by the watching eye...

Let's face it. We want to read a book that gives us the justice, the vigilantis we believe are needed...since nothing else seems to be working...

David-Michael Harding gives us just that in Book 1! By the time the book is moving toward the end, people all over the country are taking action. I had to broadly smile when a citizen kicked a certain politician in a place he loves to display...

"Have you read the Constitution lately?" Clayton asked.

"Not lately. Why?"

"How about the Declaration of Independence?

"Same."

"You know the part, 'When in the course of human events...' and so on and so forth?"

"Sounds familiar," Raphael answered with measured hesitation as though being lured into a trap.

"A few lines below that there's a sentence that's stuck in my head. 'That when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.' Do you know that part?"

"It doesn't mean what you're making it out to mean. It means alter--change--as in voting them out or making amendments, provisions, guarantees."

"Vote them out?"

"Yes."

"You're the one who's being naive. You can't get them out. It clearly says 'abolish.' Politicians are like ticks--they sink their teeth om the public tit and you can't get rid of them unless you kill them."

"So, that's how this ends, Clay? You kill everyone?"

"That's not the end. "That's the beginning..."

~~~

This is a recommended Must-Read for me. Watch for Book 2: Return to Power.

GABixlerReviews