Chapter 2

The White Room

IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN IS AN island that does not appear on any map, and never will.

It has no official name. Those who have visited call it The Isle.

Protected in the embrace of an ocean, then sand, then five miles of trees and camouflaged razor wire, is a building made of concrete and steel. If you flew over it, you'd see it as a flat gray plateau dotted by misted square skylights. Their glass is so thick, a missile could ram into its center, detonate, and only leave its own bits and guts littered against the ground.

Two planes have crashed directly into it but left no mark besides the faint black ash that still coats the taller tree trunks. Both planes ventured off their course and found themselves lost in the airspace of The Isle, and after spotting the strip of open space between the trees, attempted to make emergency landings. This proved impossible: the plane in 1998 was tangled by razor wire on its descent, and the plane in 2014 malfunctioned as it entered the magnetized security zone and its electrical systems overloaded.

Neither casualties were intentional.

The Isle has no human operators and runs as its own machine. Through two vault doors protected by password and retinal authentication, there is an elevator that descends deep into the ground and opens to the White Room.

The future of your planet is decided here.

THE MOST TERRIFYING FEAR OF SOMEONE WITH POWER IS LOSING THE POWER THAT MAKES THEM SOMEONE.

Your leaders — regardless of your opinion of their character or ability — have all surpassed every imaginable threat to become who they are today, whether by merit or conspiracy. But the humans they govern are easily swayed by emotion and instinct, and your leaders will not risk their life’s work on the whims of manipulatable minds.

For this reason, we meet in the White Room.

Its ceilings are eight feet high and the walls are made of crisp, smooth white stone without any decoration. The room is shaped in a perfect rectangle with only the elevator as both entrance and exit. Once the door seals, there are no lights inside nor electricity to power them. It is a smothering darkness experienced only in the deepest of caves, and if not for candles, it would drive the sanest person into fits of madness within days.

In the center of the room sits a table and chairs made entirely of transparent glass. From anywhere in the room, you can see everything that is happening.

The transparent table ensures that no recording devices are hidden in the hands and that secret notes are not written. The nondescript walls of stone deep beneath the ground protect against devices embedded in the body or any communication with the outside world.

Even the participants, regardless of if they are presidents or queens or owners of multinational corporations, immediately strip of all belongings and leave their clothing in the elevator. They don robes as white as the room that surrounds them and carry only a thick candle through the doors — its wax is scanned before entry.

Despite all of these precautions, every person who enters is required to investigate the room from top to bottom. Trust does not exist in this place, even amongst friends and allies. None are offended: being wary is honesty. All in power are ruthless and know better than to trust others like themselves.

They come to the White Room not for secrecy, but for the truest of freedom. Things discussed in the White Room will never be revealed, seen, nor heard by anyone who is not present. Anything can be said or done in the room without fear of repercussions, retaliation, or risk to a leader's claim to power. Decisions can be made for the betterment of the human species without any worry of persecution from the very humans they gather to protect.

THERE IS NO FREEDOM FOR THOSE WHO PROTECT THE FREEDOMS OF THEIR BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

If what is said and decided inside the White Room was to ever reach the ears of anyone outside, the entire structure of this planet would be upended by civil war. The human species is easily swayed: it thinks reasonably when at ease but acts erratically when under pressure. Humans react before understanding the complete repercussions of their deeds, following instinct with little regard to what their actions might affect in ten or a hundred or a thousand years.

Thriving empires have fallen at the hands of its own people. By the time they see what they have done, it is already too late to go back.

The Illuminati is free of this restraint. Decisions made in the White Room are not bound by belief or allegiance or generation, but are on behalf of all humans on the planet now and in the future. These decisions are made to ensure the survival of all as a collective, no matter how unpopular they might be if put to a public vote.

There are no political parties or prejudices in the White Room. Outside its walls, those present may fight wars against each other that end the lives of scores of their kin; but inside the room they are all cogs in a Universal Design that is bigger than their petty, temporary differences.

There is no animosity inside: all are equal, and all have a duty to fulfill. Everything decided within the walls of the White Room is for you.

You may think that a room of people you do not know, and who are humans like yourself, should not make decisions regarding your life. Are you merely a pawn in a game being played by others? Shouldn't you control your own life?

Do not allow yourself to be convinced that freedom is what you desire because this is how you and those who live around you are controlled. You are told that you have freedom while freedom is defined by those with power.

TRUE POWER BEGINS WITH THE RELINQUISHING OF CONTROL.

True power grows from the comprehension that while one’s place in the universe can be microscopically small, it is still immensely important. True power thrives on the understanding that while freedom is naturally desired by humans, it is merely a placebo to alleviate feelings of chaos — a chaos that can only be harnessed by order.

A skyscraper may tower over a city but it is only as tall as the molecules in its materials. The Illuminati may thrive but we are only as strong as the people we protect. We were born as one of you; we will die as one of you.

The safeguards of the White Room are not devised to keep you out. You know you are different from most others who surround you, though civility requires you to keep such thoughts to yourself. But there are many others whose decisions are still under the reign of their animal instincts. Their lack of understanding would cause them to rise up and wage war against all that keeps their species intact, wrecking the Universal Design that has allowed the human to rise above its animal counterparts.

The safeguards of the White Room are for your protection and the sanctity of the decisions made inside. Many seats remain empty at the table, awaiting those who are willing and able to claim them. If you strive for greatness, and seek out the Light that glows steadily brighter in the distance, you too will be invited to enter its hallowed, white hall.