The Lottery Council- Chapter VII: Councils Within Councils

After weeding out the usual nonsense, David set about reading the emails he believed held the most promise. The best, unsurprisingly, came from his hacker buddy. It began with: 'Are you sure you really sure you want to know about this?' Oh boy, he thought, now I'm in for it. It went on: 'It's set up like the Council of Foreign Relations, The Council of 300, The Club of Rome and the other similar organizations. It's councils within councils. There's a core group that's in charge and it goes out from there. It's set up vertically and laterally at the same time. One person at the first level has a job. So do others and although they all do pretty much the same thing without knowing exactly what the guy beside him is doing. That keeps the guy at the next level safe.' David shook his head. He was used to this kind of thing, so he understood the fundamentals of what his friend was saying. It went on...

'From the top, orders come down, filtered through the other layers, so the guy at the next level down doesn't know exactly where it originated. That keeps the guys at the top safe. It's kind of like the Mafia,' his friend wrote, 'the Godfather never orders a "whacking" himself... it goes down through the ranks to the button that pulls the trigger.' Great, thought David, I'm dealing with the Mafia. He chuckled to himself. Somehow he just couldn't see his brother-in-law as a "button man." His friend went on to write...

'The organization you're asking about is very secretive and it's going to take a day or two for me to crack it. I got through a couple of layers but their encryption is very sophisticated. There's a lot of money and power behind this group. This tells me that they're up to no good. Most legitimate groups that are out to do good in the world are fairly transparent... only their financials are encrypted to prevent theft. These guys are encrypted from bottom to top, but I can do it- it may just take some time.'

David wrote back that he had a little money saved and he would be happy to pay his friend for his time. He took a walk to clear his head and went to the house for something to eat. It was late enough that the kids were upstairs so he made a sandwich and joined Jim and Ann in the den. They were watching TV, some sit-com or other.

"How can you watch this stuff?" he asked with a grin. He was doing his best to act normal and not arouse suspicion.

"It's funny," said Ann. David admired their relationship. They'd been married for nearly 15 years and they were as much in love as they were in the beginning. He guessed it was true, that some people were meant for each other. Whatever came from his investigation, he must keep them safe. Jim was a good man and he knew that he wouldn't willingly take part in anything that would harm anyone.

"I've got tickets to the ballgame tomorrow, Dave. Ann doesn't want to go, so I thought you might want to come. The Red Sox are playing the Yanks."

"I hate baseball," Ann wrinkled up her nose. "It's boring."

"I'd love to," said David. It might give him a chance to learn something. He said goodnight and went off to his rooms above the garage. When he got there, he had an email from his hacker buddy. It informed him that his friend wouldn't take any money for his work... an opportunity to take down some bad guys was payment enough. It ended with... 'you owe me one pal! One other thing... see if you can get me any names.'

David went to bed feeling not quite as bad as he had before. His main objective other than finding out as much as he could about the council, was to keep his sister's family safe... that was priority one. He didn't care about himself, but his sister was another story. He went to sleep thinking about the ballgame tomorrow. It might turn out to be an interesting day.

https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-introduction
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-i-seminar
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-ii-elation
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-iii-back-to-work
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-iv-david
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-v-the-beginning-of-the-end
https://steemit.com/fiction/@richq11/the-lottery-council-chapter-vi-the-plot-thickens