1. Armageddon in Barcelona (11 pgs.) – Champions Renaissance

ACT II - CHAPTER 1

ARMAGEDDON IN BARCELONA

Thursday May 24, 2018

Barcelona Spain

“What’s wrong Boris? Why did you want to see me so urgently” asked Alexandre.

“There is good news and bad news,” said Boris, “The good one is that we learned that Franco Gambino planted the bomb on Mr. Walker’s plane.

“How do you know?”

“‘The Invisible Hand’ gave the clues and my hackers confirmed it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Is that ‘The Hand’ that hacked your cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“And why do you now call it ‘The Invisible Hand’?”

“My hackers had baptized like that because there is no way to track it.”

“Is it helping us?”

“Apparently so, but it could be a trap.”

“That was the good one, which is the bad one?”

“My hackers discovered that four nuclear bombs will explode in the World Cup final in Russia.”

“What?”

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“They will explode in Moscow at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 15,” Boris added.

“But, what are you saying! Are you sure?”

“Confirmed.”

“With what probability of certainty?” Alexandre asked.

“Ninety five percent?”

“But, how can you calculate that!”

“It is the result of all the simulations that were done. That percentage is the average of all the algorithms tested. Some give ninety-nine percent and the lowest is ninety-two. I know it’s hard to believe. It wasn’t easy for me either. My contacts in military intelligence have confirmed this. I tell you again. There is a ninety-five percent chance that the bombs will explode by the World Cup final. For me it is a fact that it will happen,” said Boris.

“Then we have to notify the president of Russia to cancel the World Cup,” said Alexandre.

“Presidents have never ruled completely and even less so in important things. This is beyond their power. I only trust my hackers and network of friends in various intelligence services. They call them white hats. If we go to the president, they would arrest them all.

“How can they be so sure that the bombs will explode?”

“They are professionals and they have their methods. They cross information with other hackers from the intelligence services of other countries. They had a suspicion and I already told you that it was confirmed by several sources.”

“And do you know where the bombs are?”

“Close to Moscow, but not exactly where.”

“Do they have a clock to detonate in the World Cup final?”

“Yes.”

“Why not hack the clocks and stop them from exploding?”

“You can, but you need the codes.”

“What codes?” Alexandre asked and opened his eyes, “What? The pendrive codes?” he asked again.

“Yes, the last encrypted message that Ronald sent you before he died, do you remember what it says?”

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“Codes in pendrive” Alexandre responded, remembering the strange coded message.

“Ronald knew the codes would stop the bomb clocks. That’s why they killed him and Bolt, who was a contractor for the CIA and MI6. Do you get the connection? They met through the work they did in intelligence,” said Boris.

“So, Ronald never lied to me. He told me that he was trained by the CIA. Do you think he worked for MI6?” Alexandre asked.

“It’s almost conclusive,” Boris replied.

“Well, there’s no point knowing if he’s already dead,” Alexandre replied. “The important thing now is to find the pendrive with the codes to prevent the bombs from exploding. We cannot allow a nuclear disaster in the World Cup final.”

“It’s worse,” said Boris.

“Worse? What are you talking about?”

“Of the end of civilization.”

“What do you mean?”

“To the Third World War,” Boris responded, paused and continued. “We did several simulations of attacks and counter-attacks between countries that have nuclear bombs and they all conclude the same: ashes. The sequence of events is summarized like this,” he paused again and continued. “Four bombs a thousand times more powerful than the one in Hiroshima explode in the final in Moscow. It is wiped off the map and it is done as a false flag attack so that Russia believes it was China. Russia discovers the trap, but falls into another one: it believes it was the United States. Russia fires several hypersonic warheads from its nuclear submarines and wipes New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Silicon Valley, San Diego off the map, also Honolulu, Arizona, Atlanta, Indiana, Indianapolis, Denver, Austin and other American cities plus all of their military bases and production centers. The United States pretends to blame China to justify the attack and erases Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Shenyang, Harbin, Chengdu, Hefei, Zhengzhou and fifty other cities each with more than two million inhabitants, its production centers and military bases.

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But the United States also attacks the ashes of Moscow and other cities in Russia, including Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Saratov, Perm, Samara, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh, Ufa, Vladivostok and all the other cities including their military bases and production centers. Israel takes advantage of the confusion and erases Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran from the map. Pakistan wipes Israel off the map. The United States wipes Pakistan off the map and India attacks what remains of the United States. For their part, what remains of Iran, Russia, China, India and Pakistan erase what remains of Israel from the map. NATO, Europe and the United Kingdom cannot help but get involved and are wiped off the map along with London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Oslo, Venice and the other cities of Europe where only ashes remain. The entire northern hemisphere is devastated with nuclear bombs in a matter of hours. Our civilization as we know it ends in one day. Radiation and nuclear winter destroy crops and survivors. The armies of the best-prepared great powers along with an elite of super rich civilians survive in deep underground facilities and the smartest inherit the Earth,” said Boris.

“This is the nuclear extermination that The Family wants! Is that what they were referring to what we heard in the recording?” Alexandre asked, overwhelmed and thought, It can’t be true!

“Yes,” Boris replied.

“Is that what they meant when they said they were going to be reborn from the ashes after seeing the fireworks from the south?” Alexandre asked and thought, Victoria, you should go to Australia to your uncle house!

“Yes, that’s what they meant. When they said that people would beg to be put in chains to build the world for their children, it makes sense, because in a chaos like that everyone will beg for a strong government. Problem, reaction, solution. They always use the same formula. They create an artificial problem so that people beg for a solution that is what they wanted to do in the first place, but cannot be done under normal conditions. The northern hemisphere in ashes will have nothing normal and people will accept anything. The future that The Family wants is a fascist world dictatorship where they rule using a strong hand and artificial intelligence!” said Boris.

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“What are we going to do Boris? We can’t sit idly by! Are the clocks already activated for the bombs to explode?” Alexandre asked, frowning and opening his eyes so much that they almost popped out.

“Yes, they are activated,” said Boris, “the situation is really difficult, I don’t deny it.”

“Difficult? It’s catastrophic! Let’s go to the journalists! Let’s have a press conference! We have to do something!” Alexandre exclaimed.

“If the media gives you a platform, they will take you for crazy.”

“So, there’s no way out?” Alexandre asked.

“The only way out is to find the pendrive with the codes,” said Boris.

“Boris, you have to find the pendrive!” Alexandre exclaimed desperately and thought with tears in his eyes, Please find it!

“I’ll try,” Boris responded and there was a long silence, then he added, “Why don’t you go, Alexandre?” Take your loved ones to a safe place in the southern hemisphere.”

“And if you find the pendrive and stop the bomb’s clocks? No Boris! I cannot leave! I can’t leave my France teammates alone! They need me to win the world cup!” Alexandre exclaimed.

“What does a football World Cup matter?” Boris asked and continued, “Isn’t it better that you stay alive to rebuild what’s left of the world? Are you going to let your loved ones die when you can save them? Most likely I will not find the pendrive. Where to look for it? The haystack is very big and the needle is very small. And if I find it, it doesn’t guarantee deactivating the bomb clocks. Alexandre! This is an impossible mission! Better save yourself and go to Australia or South America!”

“I’m not going to live like a rat hiding from those psychopaths!” said Alexandre, “Don’t ask me more! If I have to die, I will die in Moscow with my people! I’m not going to abandon the France team! What if your hackers were wrong?”

“I’ve already told you this to the point of exhaustion. They are military intelligence professionals, the best hackers in the world and they have confirmed it in several countries,” said Boris, losing his patience.

“But do you have any evidence?” Alexandre asked.

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“Again? But I have already given it to you! I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ll tell you something else. Do you remember when the coup attempt occurred in Turkey in 2016?”

“Yes. It was news that appeared everywhere,” said Alexandre.

“NATO moved forty B61 tactical nuclear bombs from the Incirlik base to Romania and during the transfer someone replaced the enriched uranium in their nuclear warheads.”

“And was that theft confirmed?” Alexandre asked.

“Yes, and with all that uranium you can make four nuclear bombs, each one a thousand times more powerful than the one at Hiroshima. Do you understand the seriousness of the problem? We are about to see the end of the civilization as we know it and the beginning of a completely different world,” said Boris.

At that moment Alexandre thought that, under those circumstances, risking his life to write a book was ridiculous. What importance could a philosophical book have in the face of an imminent extermination?

“Do you think a book can prevent it?” Alexandre asked without realizing that he was asking something he shouldn’t have asked. Boris looked at him intrigued, as if he were not sure what he had heard, “What can we do to prevent the Armageddon?” Alexandre changed the question to hide the previous and thought, Under these circumstances will it make sense to keep the fact that we are writing the book a secret?

“Perhaps the extermination is inevitable. Anyway, I’ll try to find the pendrive,” Boris told him, still surprised by his previous question and thought, Why did he mention a book? Could my suspicions be true? Then he said, “I’ll tell you something else. Although my hackers and networks are trained intelligence agents, they are scared. I never saw anything like this before. Nobody knows who to trust. There are infiltrators and spies everywhere,” said Boris, still surprised by Alexandre’s question about the book.

“What other evidence do you have of this probable extermination?” Alexandre asked.

“There is something else and I am going to tell you. It happened last year and even though it appeared in all the newspapers, no one gave it any importance. Sometimes I think the rulers are asleep and the ruled behave like sleepwalkers,” Boris said.

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“What appeared in all the newspapers?” Alexandre asked.

“Russia made public the news of a large-scale nuclear attack drill. They mobilized the entire civilian and military population to hide hundreds of meters underground,” Boris said.

“Like the Moscow and Saint Petersburg subways, which are very deep?” Alexandre asked.

“Yes. The nuclear Armageddon drill was to prepare for an attack with fifty megaton warheads.”

“Fifty megatons? Like the Tsar bomb?” Alexandre asked.

“Yes. A Tsar bomb is three thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Can you imagine the damage that just one can cause?”

“No. Tell me.”

“The pressure under the explosion, is more than two hundred thousand kilos per square meter; the temperature at the explosion site is close to 300 million degrees Celsius, fifteen times higher than the temperature of the sun; the intensity of the light is so powerful that it can be seen from more than a thousand kilometers away, and the shock wave can char anyone within a radius of one hundred kilometers; the mushroom, is seven times higher than Everest; its shock wave, breaks the windows of buildings within a radius of nine hundred kilometers. Now I must go,” said Boris, he stood up abruptly from his chair and thought, This is a torture!

“But aren’t we going to do anything?” Alexandre asked.

“I’ve told you everything I know. You will have to make your own decision. I will look for the pendrive and contact you if necessary. Locate me with one of the SOS devices I have provided if you need help,” Boris said and thought, How sad! Maybe it’s the last time I see you!

“Okay, goodbye Boris,” Alexandre said and realized that perhaps it would be the last time he would see him.

Boris began to walk away and after taking three steps he stopped and stood still with his back to Alexandre who was looking at him. It was a long pause as if he was thinking about something to make an important decision. He turned around, looked into his eyes, walked and stopped in front of him. He extended his right arm and placed his giant hand on his left shoulder.

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“Alexandre, looking for the pendrive, is urgent, that is my mission; finishing the book, is necessary, that is yours. I would kill the man who didn’t,” Boris said with a solemn expression and without taking his eyes off him. After a pause removed its hand from his shoulder, turned on his heel, and walked away from him.

Alexandre couldn’t move when he disappeared behind the front door.

An avalanche of questions invaded his mind, competing for his attention, as he paid the bill and left the store towards the streets of Barcelona.

How did Boris know he was writing Ronald’s book? Had he threatened to kill him if he didn’t finish it? Yes.

More questions appeared in his mind. If Ronald worked for MI6, had he been killed because he knew the codes would stop the bombs from exploding? What urgency was there in finishing the book in the face of an imminent nuclear holocaust? Was it worth continuing with the philosophical meetings? How important could philosophy be at a time like this? Would he flee to hide to the south? Flee? That word was not in his DNA.

He continued walking through the streets of Barcelona and its octagonal corners. He did not want that city he loved to suffer the same fate as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And London and Paris? Thinking about it was a nightmare that made him sad. He had to try something, but what?

Lost in his thoughts, he felt like he was in the middle of a tunnel with no exit, until a faint light appeared at the end of it, and the light began to get bigger and bigger. He imagined a society educated from below, capable of electing rational rulers and a middle class that educated itself on scientific premises. That was the role of the book and he agreed that Boris would kill him if he didn’t finish it.

He remembered the look of fury in Ronald’s eyes, which would have made the demon himself flee from hell, when he had told him that he would put an end to the secret societies and their mystical hypocrisy, and that they would not see him coming. The philosophy book he wanted to write was the tool for each family to educate itself. Now I understand what you wanted to do, he thought.

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He realized that only parents who discovered the value of reason would be able to promote reason to their children, that is, educate their children to live in objective reality and be able to elect rational rulers. The education of children had to begin in the privacy of each family. Rational parents raising rational children was something much more powerful than thousands of nuclear bombs or an army of irrational secret societies, mystical sects based on faith and sacred texts, corrupt politicians and judges. But the problem was that there were no rational parents or people interested in understanding objective reality. What man or woman was interested in learning objective philosophy to teach it to his children? Nobody! How were they going to educate their children in objective philosophy if they did not educate themselves first? Did they realize the problem? Were they interested? No! They didn’t have time! It was more important to have a social life, just for the sake of having a social life! Educate one’s own children? No. But wasn’t that a thing of the Ministry of Education? Wasn’t it a matter of having enough money to pay for the best school or the best university? Or maybe go to church every Sunday and listen to the preaching? In different countries around the world, were Ministries of Education, colleges and universities interested in teaching objective philosophy? Was it business to teach how to think based on objective reality? Were young married couples interested in this or perhaps they were too worried about working to pay the mortgage, the car payment or the last vacation trip? What social impact would it have for the human species if rational parents raised their children to be rational? Would it ensure a rational future so that rational children and grandchildren could elect rational rulers? Would that be a real and honest humanity proof of corrupt irrational politicians? The human being was an ape that had recently climbed down from the tree, that had made a lot of technological progress, but in rational moral terms, almost nothing. But, even if the human being realized his moral stagnation, rising to his best possibilities was not easy, since it took a lot of courage to unfreeze the prejudices, dogmas, beliefs and irrational aspects of the culture where he was born. If they managed to unfreeze the irrational, then they had to choose new premises and refreeze new rational habits and critical thinking, even if it was against the current. These things in the Ministry of Education, a school or a university? Pass an objective philosophy test to renew the license of a rational citizen authorized to vote?

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Candidates for president of a country, senators and others having to pass the same tests that are given to candidates running for the position of a company? A law that stablished that all presidential candidates have the same budget for their campaigns? Sometimes he was pessimistic about a rational future for humanity, because of the social pressure that punished those who thought for themselves, and because the rulers, propaganda, financial manipulation and secret societies were not going to allow it. He realized that Ronald had understood the dimension of the problem that was repeated in history and that was why he had decided to write the book to solve the origin of humanity’s problem once and for all. Alexandre realized that, more than a book, Ronald wanted to create a new self-taught educational system and put it in the hands of the ruled, not to be rule by the rulers but to rule themselves, to become the sovereigns of their own minds.

The book, perhaps together with a board game with question cards, an idea that had been brewing in Alexandre’s mind, would be a self-educational system that would provide the philosophical keys so that each human being could sculpt its character to become the best version of themselves, the best a man could and should become as a human being. Educated parents would educate their children in the privacy of each family, playing a board game that would become part of the culture. He had a vision of a rational and heroic humanity. Alexandre imagined the Ethical Rational Olympics as a sports competition between different planets. Once again, he thought that the man of the new renaissance had to be educated not in schools but in the privacy of the home, and those educated children of educated parents were the man who would conquer the cosmos, otherwise the Earth would export philosophical garbage to other planets.

He felt the urgency to finish the book and launch it at the opening of the World Cup, in many languages, so that many people would buy it before the bombs exploded. He knew that there were only three weeks left until the World Cup final and the last philosophical meeting was still missing. Would it be enough? Launch the book together with the game? But the game was just an idea! He had to create it! In three weeks and busy on the eve of the World Cup it wouldn’t be enough time! He thought, Forget the game and publish the book now! Take advantage of the World Cup publicity to sell it!

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He was sorry didn’t have more time to create the game. But the book had to be published at the inauguration of the World Cup, because people would have a month to buy it before the Armageddon. The plan was simple. They had to hold the next philosophical meeting, polish the book and publish it hopefully together with the opening of the World Cup on June 14, that is, they only had three weeks. Nuclear Armageddon would be July 15, in seven and a half weeks. If they published together with the inauguration, there would be a month to advertise it together with the World Cup and sell it all over the world. The survivors who managed to buy it could rebuild a better world with it. When he arrived at his apartment, he wrote the plan and work schedule that he would share with Arturo and Ricardo at the next philosophical meeting that would be in Athens.

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