From an early age, Jay Burns knew the truth could destroy you. He witnessed his dad sacrifice his job, his friends, and finally, his family for the truth and get nothing in return but crippling debt, ridicule, and eventually suicide.
Jay wasn't going to repeat his father's mistakes, but he was as dedicated, if not more so, to exposing the truth, regardless of cost. For Jay, the truth wasn't a choice; you couldn't take it or leave it. Truth was like oxygen or carbon – a fundamental building block of life itself.
It all started back in 2020, during the first pandemic when Jay and his sister were kids, too young to understand what depression was or psychosis or divorce. All Jay remembered was the screaming and crying and dark clouds over the dinner table.
When he was older, his mom sat him down and told him about how his father, laid off, had fallen victim to conspiracy theories online. She'd sought help from friends and professionals, but her words only fuelled his paranoid convictions.
She pleaded with him to stay, but he left on Christmas Eve, screaming about pedophile rings and child sacrifices and a cabal of global elite. It was his sickness, she said, an addiction.
She did her best, bringing up two kids on a nurse's salary during the Great Recession, but Jay was raised mostly online, sitting in front of a screen until she came home late at night. He learned fast, searching for his dad, finding plenty of surrogates, and going deeper and deeper on his quest for the truth.
He became an expert at exposing bullshit. His intuition led him to some of the new millennium's greatest scoops, and everyone clamored to know who he was. He hacked under the handle toto, and it didn't take long for everyone to know his moniker.
With fame came scrutiny, and he had the Feds, Mossad, and the MSS on his ass by the time he was sixteen. But he also caught the interest of other big players, the rich privateers of the silicon bubble. And that's where Mary Osmond came in.
Mary Osmond became the world's first trillionaire when she was 57. Her company – Oz – had its ignominious start selling clothes online from a single garage. Twenty years later and she was regarded as the most successful internet entrepreneur of all time, with ventures spanning e-commerce, entertainment, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, healthcare, politics, defense, and space exploration.
The rumors abounded concerning the world's wealthiest person. She was relentless, ruthless, and agonizingly secretive. The more the world wanted to know, the more she retreated. She built a vast complex on a 10,000-acre estate in Northern California and battened down the hatches, growing richer and more powerful every year.
The only concession she gave was a single gathering every year, a party held on the anniversary of the Oz launch. Two hundred and fifty of the world's most influential people were invited inside the walls of her kingdom. Behind the fences and walls, guard towers and searchlights, the world's most influential people gathered for one night of secrets and revelry.
Very little was actually known about these parties. There were strict non-disclosures signed by every attendee, and the entire place was off-grid. A digital blackout encircled the site that ran on an internal, impregnable network.
But this did nothing to quell the rumors. The internet was aflame with conspiracies, from New World Order to sex rings and death cults. Jay could remember his dad, including Mary's parties often and viciously in his dinner-table sermons.
The more adamantly people claimed to know what went on, the more you could discount their voices. Amid the hubbub and chaos, there was never actually proof; no hard evidence came to light. Nothing except the golden suitcase every attendee received, containing a golden bracelet and a set of purple hooded robes.
A Saudi prince posted a photo of his suitcase, robes, and bracelet, and millions saw the posts before it was deleted. Mary neither confirmed nor denied having invited the prince, but the story stuck around, spreading Illuminati jokes in its wake.
Jay Burns didn't believe in the Illuminati. Instead, he saw the whole thing as an ugly necessity of modern-day society. No one wanted it to be true, but powerful people need to be allowed to make decisions with no accountability. Elections, senate hearings, the free press – it was all there to provide the public with an illusion of power over their leaders.
But an illusion was all it was. The powerful people ran the show, and that's the way of the world. The sooner you accepted that fact, the easier it was to move forward. Jay didn't care about power; all he cared about was the truth. He'd go after a pawn just as fast as a king.
To be honest, he spared very little thought to Mary Osmond or her gatherings and was relatively surprised, therefore, when an obsequious Ozbot knocked on his door and delivered a golden suitcase one sunny afternoon in early July.
On Friday the 13th, a self-driving car drove Jay to the airport, where a self-flying plane waited on the runway. After a four-hour flight across the country, he transferred to a pilotless helicopter, which whisked him up the West coastline.
He looked out of the window at the breakers and beaches. The sun was beginning to set over the water, and the sky went from dark blue down to an orange horizon. The helicopter veered inland, and they passed over green hills covered in shrubs and lone trees. Then they were flashing over towering redwoods as they approached Mary's estate.
The bracelet Jay wore glowed, chirped, and grew warm on his wrist. He looked out the window and saw a huge gap cut through the forest like a firebreak. There was a fence, a wall, then the forest again. The helicopter began to descend.
They landed in front of a giant mansion straight out of The Great Gatsby. The house was lit up and made the giant redwood trees around it looked small. Ten thousand windows stared down at Jay as he stepped down onto the lawn. As the rotors threshed to a stop, he heard a band playing and the sound of people laughing in the warm air.
He climbed the stairs to the huge oak doors which stood open. Into view came the world's most important people. In the glittering ballroom were the richest, most infamous, celebrated individuals that the twenty-first century could muster.
Jay saw rappers, movie stars, and politicians, the heads of industry, banking, and media, CEOs, artists, and innovators, all mingling under a glittering network of service drones that were zipping around, carrying trays of champagne. Over to one side, a jazz band was playing; their brass instruments caught the light.
The band stopped playing when Jay appeared. There was silence and everyone looked at him. And there she was, Mary Osmond, wearing a big smile, bearing down on him in a gold pantsuit with a purple cravat at her throat. She extended a hand, and he shook it and didn't see anyone else in the room.
She totally engrossed him. Her bright green eyes trapped him and held him. She was so happy to see him. They were all waiting to meet him. He found himself floating through the crowd as Mary told her guests all about him.
He felt a little dizzy after finishing his third glass of champagne and Mary introduced him to the Zoltar franchise director Forest Applebaum. Jay couldn't tell if it was because he was face to face with his boyhood hero, the champagne, or the immensity of the situation, but he found he had to take a seat on the golden tile floor and lower his head between his legs.
He felt hands under his arms. He was pulled up and into the center of the room. A group of people worth over a trillion dollars helped sit him down in a chair. Mary stood before him, and a drone lowered down, carrying a plate.
'Take this and eat,' said Mary. Jay tasted it. It was good. It tasted like chicken but with a softer, smoother, creamier texture. Another drone descended, this one balancing a cup.
'Take this and drink,' said Mary and Jay drank from the cup. The drink was lukewarm and thicker than water with an unusual taste, slightly metallic but not unpleasant. Jay felt a little better and leaned back in the chair. Mary addressed the rest of the people. Jay noticed the room was totally silent.
'My friends,' said Mary, her voice loud and authoritative. 'We meet once again. The earth has revolved around the sun once more, and we have progressed along with our plan. With your help, we have succeeded more than any previous year.
'The people are crumbling. Their freedom is shrinking. Our power is gaining and gaining and gaining. All over the world, strife and conflict reign supreme. Humans are being battered by natural disasters, pestilence, conflict and war.
'Our work is succeeding. We have nearly taken control!' There were sounds of triumph. People clapped and pounded their feet.
'So, my friends, we gather here today to honor the memory of those who came before us and to give thanks for their ultimate sacrifice. We are here to renew our faith so that in turn, we may renew our crushing control over this world.'
Jay couldn't think straight. His head was heavy on his neck. The room seemed to weave back and forth like he was on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
'Will you join me, brothers and sisters, in sacrifice and renewal. Will you join me unto this last?'
A great hissing rose around him, and Jay blinked and tried to focus. Everyone seemed to be standing. They were all wearing robes; purple hoods hid their faces. He tried to speak, to rise, but he couldn't move in the chair.
'My friends, look.' Mary towered above him, her voice emanating from beneath the lowered hood. 'Look at this pitiful example of humanity. Look at the fear in its eyes. Can you see? Look where their measly endeavors get them. This specimen is one of the most ardent believers in what they call truth.
'And look where it's got you, Jay Burns. Look where your master, the truth, leads you now. The truth is no master. The truth is our slave. It serves us, bends to us, breaks to us.'
Mary reached up and pulled down her hood. Spines protruded from the top of her head. The skin on her jaw, cheeks, and snout had become shiny green scales. A forked tongue flickered out between rows of sharp teeth. Her green eyes were now the large unblinking eyes of a reptilian monster.
Jay tried to run. His limbs wouldn't respond. His eyes moved and they flicked back and forth. The circle closed. But the people... Each one was pulling down its hood, looking at him with the glassy evil stare of those too-huge saurian eyes. Their forked tongues flicked in and out.
