Chapter 10

Thank God Isaac and Seth had validated their parking. It was the only thing that saved them from going to jail. It was the thinnest possible excuse for plausible deniability, but it was enough to satisfy the Century Park security team, who stormed into the room where Isaac and Seth hid. Seth took the lead for Isaac when responding to the interrogation, excusing their trespassing with pleas of ignorance. They were lost! It was the largest underground parking garage this side of the Mississippi! What could they reasonably expect? It was an innocent mistake. But what made the lie extra effective was Seth’s over-the-top performance in the part of the rescuee, getting on both of his knees to thank the guards for finding them, claiming to be worried they would never ever get back to their car. They could have starved to death. But it wasn’t until the three giant security guards saw their validated parking ticket did they put away their guns.

Isaac could only offer an apology, which was so profuse that he didn’t stop blathering until they reached the security office. That’s where they received their lifetime bans from Century Park, a natural consequence after the guards did a background search on them and discovered Seth’s past transgressions and that they were both registered in the ISD (International Slytherin Database).

Finally, Isaac had the good sense to drop Mr. Lennox’s name. After all, they were the guests of the lead producer of the Super Jesus franchise, and they should not have to face this sort of harassment, even if they were Slytherin. The guards responded as desired. A quick phone call to Mr. Lennox produced the presence of Liz, who entered the room with the briskness of a bitter winter wind. She spoke to the head security guard in his office. Isaac watched them through a window cut into the door, and he couldn’t tell if she was more annoyed at them for getting apprehended by security or at the security guards for arresting them in the first place. She didn’t have time for this, god damnit!

Liz read them the riot act as she walked the two of them back to their car, warning Isaac that if he ever did something so dumb again, then he’d be off the production, but Isaac was more than happy to weather the storm since Liz was able to negotiate not only their release but also the return of their leftover Jon & Vinny’s garlic bread, which was confiscated upon capture.

“We have to go back,” Seth said as soon as he and Isaac entered their apartment. Isaac agreed. The only debate was how they would sneak in and avoid detection. Seth pitched the idea of going in guns blazing. But, to Isaac, that seemed a tad too extreme.

“You don’t understand,” Seth said with a grave voice. “It’s time to come clean. I haven’t been totally straight with you so far.” He paused while Isaac gasped in shock. “I didn’t want to come with you to CAA for moral support or to take a trip down memory lane, though those were both added benefits. I came to Century City Park because Century City Park is the center of all the known evil in the universe.”

“...”

“What do you know about the Illuminati?”

“Only what they teach you in school.”

“So nothing?”

Isaac nodded.

Seth narrowed his eyes conspiratorially. “Ever wonder why that was?”

“Yes!”

“Century Park ⁠— no all of Century City ⁠— is owned and operated by the Illuminati.”

“Century City? Where CAA — the most powerful talent agency in the world — is headquartered? Where Fox is? That Century City?”

“The very same.”

“Oh shit! So the place where I just got a job is part of the Illuminati? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Exactly. Doesn’t your job offer seem a little too good to be true? You’re not exactly a good screenwriter.”

“To be fair, you haven’t read my script.”

“I don’t have to. You’re no writer. I’ve never seen you in a coffee shop with a laptop. Where’s your Moleskine? Do you even Final Draft, bro? No one would even call you for a punch-up, nevermind hire you to do franchise work.”

“...”

“See, you get it. Let’s Occam’s razor this shit for a second. What’s the simplest explanation for everything that’s happened? Hollywood is run by a secret organization bent on world domination or that you’re a talented writer who deserves to write for the biggest movie in the world?”

“I never said that I was a talented writer. I’m not a writer at all. I’m a wizard.” Isaac puffed out his chest, inflated by the hot air of pride.

“Super Jesus Christ,” Seth cursed, palm to face.

“I don’t think we talk enough about the fact I wrote a prophecy. It’s a development that’s gone a little underrated.”

“Hold up. You dreamed about a generic-as-fuck cat and a place you drive by once a week to see your mental health professional. Congratu-fucking-lations! What is that? Not a prophecy. It’s more plausible that you visited the museum in a past life than you’re a prophet.”

“But the cat is missing, last seen in Super Jesus’s neighborhood. So that’s why we need to interrogate Super Jesus.”

“Forget that noise. All so we can save some cat? We need to focus on the conspiracy.”

“The cat is probably dead. True. But what I want to know now is if I’m a wizard or not. Also, if I don’t find this cat, I’ll be cursed for a thousand years.”

“The cat is dead?”

“Either that or he was resurrected.”

“Right,” Seth paused, “kids are dying! And it’s up to us to take the Illuminati down. And unlike you, I have evidence that the Illuminati is real, and they’re headquartered out of Century City.” Seth showed Isaac his smartphone. The screen showed a photo of Century Park from a bird’s eye view, and it was the same image as the opening shot from his script/dream. Isaac was no longer surprised. The two triangular buildings, the Twin Towers, were there and so was the triangular park they bordered.

“Is this the evidence?”

“You don’t see it?”

“I see the park where we were today. I see the park from the script.”

“Not that. Do you see it now?” Seth used his phone to search for images of the Masonic compass and the Illuminati pyramid, the one with the Eye of Providence, the one you can find on the back of a dollar bill. “These are the markings of the Illuminati.”

“They are? I thought those things were just American symbols. Like Ben Franklin’s face or whatever.”

“Exactly. Here, look at this. This is the real tour Dan would never show you.” Seth next googled “Century Park Illuminati” and pulled up the second image in the search return. The photo showed how the park’s design perfectly incorporated both the Masonic compass and the pyramid, one within the other. It could not be a coincidence.

“It’s probably a coincidence,” Isaac mused.

image [https://i.imgur.com/uVot9Jr.png]

“A coincidence?” Seth scoffed, “I bet you also think jet fuel can melt steel beams.”

“It can’t?”

A guttural sound escaped Seth. “You really need to stop watching movies and take some time to learn about the world around you, Isaac. Do your own research. I’ll send you some forums I’m active on. Suffice it to say that the Illuminati also did 9/11.”

“...”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“It’s all connected. Look.” Seth pulled up more images on his phone, this time matching the twin towers of New York City with the twin towers of Century City. Again, they were nearly identical, except one set had palm trees in front, and one did not.

“Another coincidence.” Isaac found it easier to play dumb than admit he was now working for the Illuminati. He didn’t want to work for the Illuminati.

“The Century Plaza Twin Towers were designed by a guy called Minoru Yamasaki. He built all the Illuminati buildings.”

“He did?”

“Want proof? He was the only jap not interned during WWII. How he’d manage that, you ask? By doing the bidding of his CIA masters in exchange for his freedom. He built all sorts of top-priority projects on the down low. Federal Reserve buildings, synagogues, military installations, and even colleges. Do-dooo-doo-dooo-dodoo-dee-dooo,” Seth imitated the theme song from the X-files.

“Uh, what was that second thing you listed?” Isaac tried to interject, but Seth pressed on, steamrolling the conversation.

“But, wait! There’s more!” Seth said in his best Billy Mays impression. “He also built Pruitt-Igoe, a federal housing project in St. Louis that also doubled as a secret laboratory.”

“A laboratory for what?”

“Social experimentation. The study of crack cocaine, of course. Not production, mind you, but distribution. They flooded drugs into this high-density, low-income African American project called Pruitt-Igoe to see what would happen. And what happened was that the place resembled Escape from New York in less than two decades — drugs, crime, rape, you name it. It was so bad they had to knock the place down to cover their tracks. Then they exported the project to New York, LA, and places beyond. St. Louis still hasn’t recovered to this day. It’s a pattern. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that most Yamasaki-designed buildings tend to get demolished soon after they’re built or fall down.”

“He made London Bridge?”

“No, you idiot. He built two elementary schools, but those were demolished ages ago. There aren’t even pictures of those. That’s how bad it was, whatever that went on down there. And not only was he the architect for the World Trade Centers, but he also designed the very airport terminal the 9/11 hijackers flew out of in Boston. But that’s gone now, too. What are the chances?”

“...”

“Yamasaki’s first building in Century City was the Century City Plaza hotel, otherwise known as the western White House.”

“But I thought the Annenberg’s Sunnylands complex was called the western White House. That’s what Dan said during the tour.”

“No, Dan said Sunnylands is the western Camp David. It’s all the same anyway. Do you think it’s just another coincidence that the Annenberg Foundation, and their Pittsburgh ties, are all wrapped up in this?”

“Pittsburgh?” Isaac felt as if he were drowning. “Pittsburgh, too? Not Pittsburgh.”

“You poor fool. You pathetic rube!” Seth was exasperated. “Of course, it’s about Pittsburgh. It’s like I’m talking to someone who drinks fluoridated water.”

“I do drink fluoridated water. You haven’t noticed?” Isaac flashed Seth his white teeth.

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Seth slapped the smile off his face. “You don’t drink that shit anymore. You got that? Starting today!”

“Why not?”

“Flouride calcifies your pineal gland.”

“A pineal gland?” Isaac felt around his groin, looking for it.

“Ever hear of your third eye? Well, the pineal gland is the scientific name for it. Fluoride hunts it like a heat-seeking missile. It binds to it, blocking any signals coming in and out and blinding you from the light of the world. It’s mind control.”

Isaac clapped a hand on his forehead, accidentally striking his third eye. “Fucking Pittsburgh.”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“Wait, what did Pittsburgh do again?”

“It’s home to the Annenbergs. And what are they famous for? Publishing and journalism. They’re the propaganda arm for this whole conspiracy. And Pittsburgh is also the home base for Alcoa. So you think it’s another coincidence both Alcoa and the Annenebrgs ended up here?”

“Alcoa?”

“Alcoa. The aluminum company of America.” Seth smiled, delivering the line as a revelation, but Isaac’s face didn’t change. The conclusion escaped him until Seth explained how fluoride is integral to aluminum production and how aluminum was another brain-altering chemical, one closely associated with Alzheimer's. It all came back to mind control.

“I didn’t know that,” Isaac admitted.

“You don’t know anything! So it’s safe to assume you don’t know who built Century City.”

“...”

“Alcoa.”

“Aluminum companies build cities? That doesn’t sound right.”

“Haven’t you ever wondered why everything in Century City looks the same?”

Isaac shrugged. “A tough HOA?”

“It’s all aluminum. Every building. You would have known that if your pineal gland could still receive signals. Before Century City was Century City, it was the backlot for Fox Studios until Elizabeth Taylor — God bless her soul — worked inside the system and single-handedly sabotaged the evil Fox studios by bankrupting them with her Egyptian epic Cleopatra. Fox Studios then had to sell their land to Alcoa to stay afloat. They’re partners.”

“Pittsburgh!” Isaac raged. “Tell me everything you know.”

“It’s a cosmic death cult,” Seth warned, “The Century City twin towers combine to be 88 floors high of aluminum, the same number of constellations in the sky. All of the street names in Century City have celestial origins: Avenue of the Stars, Galaxy Way, Constellation Blvd. In the middle of Avenue of the Stars is a fountain in the shape of an eye, and the Century Plaza Hotel is its brow….”

“Pittsburgh!” Isaac bit his tongue. “Wait, what does this have to do with the missing kids? Where are the kids?”

“That’s what we have to figure out, but the Annenberg Space for Photography has something to do with it.”

“Wait. You don’t even know?”

“Isn’t it a little suspicious that in the middle of a high-end business park is a free-to-the-public museum with the city’s best parking validation? What a perfect excuse to invite buses full of poorly-watched kids to your premises. Dan told me that most of their school tours come from title-1 schools, the type of kids that no one in the media will cry about if they go missing. Amber may be a color, but Amber alerts aren’t for the colored, as the popular saying goes.”

“I’m not sneaking back in there if this is just some hunch. All the more reason we do it my way. We take it slow. We go to Super Jesus. We don’t need to rush the case. How long have they been operating if it’s indeed the Illuminati? Thousands of years? So, what’s another couple of days?”

“They date back to at least the time of Egypt. Cleopatra.”

“Exactly. What’s a couple of young adults in the face of a millennium or more of killings? We have to get this right because if there’s one rule I learned to live by, it’s if you go at the king, you best not miss.”

Seth snorted.

Isaac chose to ignore the slight. “The other benefit of taking our time is that it’ll allow me to figure out my wizard skills. We’ll need my powers to take down the Illuminati. I got to level up. I need a movie montage. Wait a second — you can be my mentor!”

“Me?”

“You’re a wizard, aren’t you?”

“Only if you’re talking pinball, my friend.”

“Really?” Isaac was dumbfounded. “I thought since you were also a Slytherin….”

“I’m getting a strong urge to slap you again. Forget that Dr. Rousseau garbage.”

“Why?”

“He’s in on it.”

“In on what?”

“In on the Pittsburgh plot! That’s why I keep working with him. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I beg you, Isaac, start setting that third eye free. Look at it from all angles. Who’s encouraging you to continue to write your script? Who forwarded your script to CAA and Fox Studios, both fronts for the Illuminati? Your job was a setup.”

“Not every coincidence is a conspiracy.”

“What if I told you that every coincidence is a conspiracy? It’s no coincidence you go to Dr. Rousseau, is it? Ten bucks say you didn’t find him on Angie’s List one day.”

“Well, no. I’m financially obligated to go to him.”

“See?” Seth’s eyes brightened. “How did that happen?”

“It’s a condition of the trust fund my parents left me. Dr. Rousseau was a family friend. He’s more than a therapist to me. He’s supposed to be like a stand-in for a guardian angel or godfather. My parents left me in his hands when they died.”

“How did they die?” Seth asked suspiciously.

“A car crash caused by sudden onset, violent sternutation.”

“Sternutation?”

“Sneezing. All it took was that quarter of a second when my dad closed his eyes. That’s all the time the 405 needs to ruin your life forever.”

Seth chuckled but tried to be polite about it. “This has been preordained. You’re a pawn. You get it? You need to stop going to him until we figure this all out. He’s in on it. I’m sure of it. The longer we wait, the more time he will have to sniff us out.”

“I can’t do that. Dr. Rousseau’s the only one who will know what’s going on with me! And I have to keep going for the reason I just told you. My checks are contingent on my appearance.”

“You’re acting like you can’t finesse these circumstances a little. Fake an illness, go on a ‘vacation.’ You’re a wizard, right? So, say you got tickets to the Magic Castle that night.”

“Enough. You’re going to have to go without me.”

Seth crossed his arms, “I can’t. Taking on the Illuminati is at least a two-person job.”

“You mean that you can’t do it without me? You need me,” Isaac taunted.

“Fine,” Seth settled. “Have it your way, Burger King.”

“We’re going to be a team,” Isaac said and, in a show of good faith, sent a text message to Dr. Rousseau. It stated that he would be unable to make his next appointment. He had two tickets to the Magic Castle that day.

But that night, Isaac struggled to fall asleep. His head was buzzing with anticipation and anxiety for the next day, his first day writing for Super Jesus 3. He was overwhelmed. He hadn’t written a word since he delivered that script to Dr. Rousseau. It would be impossible to fool them forever, especially Liz, who seemed hyper-competent. And if Seth’s conjectures turned out to be correct, that Isaac was working for the Illuminati, then he’d be wading into a world of trouble.

Isaac should just quit the job before he even clocks in. That would be the sensible thing to do. But, instead, he was about to go swimming with the sharks. The thought that kept him awake the most, however, was this: if every building Minoru Yamasaki ever built fell, how long would it be before the Century Plaza Towers fell? And would Isaac and his wizarding powers be responsible? He dreamed of it.