“Limitless.”
“Why use them against you? What’s his quarrel with you?”
“The key.”
I knit my eyebrows, confused. “You said the key would help you keep your family home. Has Kurt Ozzi set his sights on it?”
“In a way, yes.”
“OK… But shooting down your helicopter and attempting to kill several people just so he can get your house seems over the top.”
He says nothing for a while.
We eat our appetizers in silence.
And then, unexpectedly, he pulls his phone out and settles it on the table. “Let me show you something.”
He plays a video. The quality is poor as if it was filmed by a hidden camera.
In the video, a group of people are having an informal meeting. Looking closer, I realize I’ve seen some of them on TV or in the press. These aren’t random people. They are the world’s movers and shakers.
Theo points at a white-haired man in his sixties. “This is Kurt. He’s maneuvering handpicked heads of state and opinion leaders.”
“Maneuvering into what?”
“Watch.”
Kurt addresses his audience, “We will build a beautiful world where the masses do as they are told and trust us to know better what’s good for them. No more conflicts! No more famine! The global population will soon be a fraction of what it is now.”
“It’s a utopia,” a man in the back objects. “They’ll never let us reset the world like that. They’ll revolt.”
“Not if we do it incrementally.” Kurt approaches the man and winks. “We’ll take away one freedom at a time, one basic right after another.”
Someone titters. “If we’re careful enough, they’ll never know what hit them.”
“And we’ll always make sure there’s a good reason—humanitarian or public health—for everything we do,” Kurt adds.
A smartly dressed woman raises her hand. “The microchips you told us about earlier, I don’t see my fellow countrymen ever agreeing to that.”
“Nor will mine,” the man sitting next to her says. “We do that to cattle.”
“Are humans any different?” Kurt inquires.
Apart from a few obsequious giggles, the room plunges into an uneasy silence.
Kurt laughs a spooky laugh. “It was a joke!”
“My parliament will freak out if they hear about the microchips,” another participant declares.
“Get a new parliament,” Kurt mutters, before schooling his annoyed expression into a more pleasant one. “I’ll help you. Come see me after this meeting.”
“The change you want is too drastic,” the woman from earlier says. “There will be pushback.”
“Baby steps, my friend! Baby steps.” Kurt keeps walking among his audience and preaching, “Once my system is in place in one European country, the results will inspire the others.”
“The former Eastern Bloc won’t do it,” a man of about the same age as Kurt argues. “Communism is still too fresh in their memory.”
Kurt turns to him. “Good point. But the Western Bloc still dominates Europe. Our populations are trusting, drug dependent, and docile. Our leaders have the financial leverage. We’ll apply press to corrupt the East.”
