A few months ago I got a call from one of my former students, Jackie Lee. I was extremely surprised because I had not seen nor heard from him in 30 years, which would make him approximately 50 years old. I was surprised but delighted to hear from him.
"How did you get my number after 30 years?"
"Professor, there's no number in the world that I can't get." "What have you been doing dear? " I asked.
"I've been living in Sybella and working for their government."
"Doing what?" I inquired.
"Well," he said, "It is a long story." I affirmed, " You remember me, I love to hear stories."
"That's why I contacted you, Professor, it's the longest story one man ever inscribed." He explained: "Professor, I'm going to tell you a saga. I want you to be honest with me and tell me what you think about it." Jokingly, I said, "Absolution? Sure, Jackie. Everything is a story. Everything is designed. Nothing is ever as it seems outside of a man's imagination."
He continued: "They came for me when I was about thirty years old and living in New York; I was a copywriter for the largest advertising corporation in New York. I had made over two billion dollars for my company. Not only was I a scriptwriter, but I became the greatest salesman in the world.

I am fluent in Sybellin, so I worked in the international community as well.
You taught me to be creative." I said,
"Of course Jackie, that's what I was there for. Those early years in New York were amazing. Some of my students have done remarkably well. I'm so proud of you because you were my best student." He continued:
"I am an American, however, my family, as you remember, are immigrants from Sybella. Their government engaged me and several other Sybellaian-Americans to join a think-tank. Two days after they engaged me, I was taken on a luxury government plane to Sybella. I headed a coalition of twenty young Sybellaian - American psychologists, economists, historians, philosophers, poets, filmmakers, scientists, and scriptwriters. We were to be a think-tank. Our supposed theoretical problem was, how to conquer an enemy country without firing one bullet. Of course, the question was purely hypothetical. Unfortunately, it was easy for me because I had a successful background in scenario writing. Our living quarters were luxurious, but we were sworn to silence. We wanted for nothing, but we could not contact our families or loved ones; yet every month they sent our loved ones a considerable check. In the inception, every month, one of our think-tank members disappeared; I was lucky because I was a researcher, and I had studied, finance, history, psychology, philosophy, and the whole nine yards. I was able to synthesize all elements of our theory. I'll give credit to you. Remember what you said, Professor? If you want to be a writer you should be proficient in all the subjects in the world. Well, I put together a plan to overthrow a country without firing one shot. I called you today Professor to tell you that not only did I write the scenario, but the Sybellian government successfully carried out my Strategy for Destruction.

Twenty years ago, when we arrived, our handlers told us that they wanted to avoid Biological Warfare. They said the fate of the world lay in our hands. I was committed to not allowing that to happen. Before I go on Professor, I want you to remember something. Do you remember my classmate lien de Kooning?"
"Of course I do dear."
"The character in her screenplay acquired something." "Yes, of course, I recollect it, I never forget a student's story."
"Okay," he whispered, "Don't repeat it now, but remembered it." He proceeded, "My dream was to be a scriptwriter, name up in lights, and all that sort of thing, but my reality is I have become the most brilliant Machiavellian the world will ever know. I just brought down the most powerful country on earth. My strategy destroyed the country and most of the people in it without firing one shot. The protocol was called, The New Art of War, or how to covertly take down a country without firing one bullet. Our priority was to be the word 'art.' They wanted creativity. So I relied on my scriptwriting skills. I depended on the elements you taught me. With that, I composed a hypothetical scenario: invading, conquering, and controlling a country without firing a shot. Yet, like Orwell's 1984, it all came to pass."
The New World Order? You did that?" I whispered. "Affirmative." He confessed. "First I wrote the end of the story, "world domination for Sybella." Unconditional submission. The New World Order with Sybella controlling the world. Likewise, I wrote how we were to achieve it. Remember when you said, 'A country is only comprised of the psychology of its people?' That part was easy for me. My first questions to myself were, what is the zeitgeist of this country? What do they hold dear? What is the deficiency of the country? How does the economy work? How do you bring down a man professor?"
"You specify his flaws, and undermine him with them," I said.
"It was so easy, it's embarrassing," he said. "You see this country had three deformities. The biggest one was racism; the second one was greed, and the third one was the naivete of the privileged. They believed what they heard on the radio and what they saw on television. They had lost their ability of self-sufficiency, to think for themselves. They assumed what they heard on social media was true, and they believed what movie stars told them. So, one component of my plan was to control the media."
" Impossible, how could you control the media in an entire country?" I said.

"Because," he said: "everything was for sale, so we bought it, media, government emissaries, assimilating narratives, and nomenclature. For great nations, like Sybella, money is no issue when it comes to obtaining world domination. There was no limit to the cost of my suggestions. Billions upon billions were poured into them. Dummy companies were set up. Other great nations thought they were dealing with independent contractors for trade. Conversely, all those companies were under covert government supervision. So, in the end, Sybella had acquired the preponderance of the other countrys' stock, property, wealth, and media. Newspapers, TV journalists all read scripts that I wrote for their daily news shows, so I could make the citizens believe whatever I wished. At first, so many ideas were coming to me that I couldn't catch them. But then I remembered what you told us when writing a scenario, sit quietly, get your coffee and your cigarette, (if you smoke), and then list the ideas randomly as they come to you. I did that, and it came to me as easily as changing a baby's diaper. You throw the old one away and you put a new one on of your choosing. This is the way it came to me. ' Cut off the head of the snake you fear'. In this case, a president. 'Accordingly, through propaganda, make everyone hate him.'
I remembered the writings of Machiavelli. It's a catalog of how new rulers controlled the world. Hitler was an evil man, yet he almost manipulated the entire world, through propaganda and war. But Sybella wanted to do it without war. Hitler said, 'If you tell a lie big enough everyone will believe it.' So, I begin to think up unbelievable lies, and the people of the target country started to believe them. By then, we had destroyed their old president and we bought a marionette. We started by previously pumping money into him and his family like gas, over a billion dollars. I researched and found the government representatives of the country that were up for sale. 75% of them were. I knew this because I knew a substantial one of their weaknesses was greed. So our infiltrators went to work polarizing the country. We established highly paid political operatives in high places. This country was known for racism. So, we got the people to call the president and everyone who thought counter our agenda, a racist. I figured out, that Germans, after the extermination of their Jews, carried subconscious guilt. I use this psychology relating it to this own countries guilt. It was psychological, emotional, and economic warfare. Powerful countries became my marionettes. Day-to-day we put forth narratives that made this nation hate itself. At the climax they were fighting among themselves, screaming at their mothers, sisters, and brothers, naming them Hamas and the Taliban terrorist. Their central intelligence was arresting anyone who rejected the then-New Alive Politics, none of which was factual; I created it, all of it. Now tell me, Professor, what do you think of that?" "At that moment I heard danger in his voice. My thoughts began to burn; I knew what I was about to say to him would have to last him a lifetime. "Jackie," I said, "You are a hero, you protected the world from Biological Warfare for over 20 years. your handlers betrayed you."
"Thank you, Professor." He said.

Before I could respond, silence; he was cut off. I heard scuffling. I heard Jackie shouting "no no no!" Similarly, I heard what sounded like a bullet. Someone cut the line and the phone went dead.

I had worked with many dramatists on strategies, scenarios, and plans. So I realized exactly what had just happened. Regardless, I recognized that Jackie had sent me a message. For days after that call, I went over and over de Kooning's story. The story was called The Package. It was a puzzle. A Chinese-American double agent sent a package to a friend before his death that would save America. The problem was that she had to find the package.

For months after that call, I kept thinking that any moment Arnold Schwarzenegger would break into my house as The Terminator and say, "If you want to live, come with me!"

Nevertheless, in 6 months I started to search for the package. I realized Jackie had written a restorative protocol. There is no thesis without an antithesis! I had to find it; my homeland could be saved...
© China Clark