The Project 04 - Black Harvest

worried sick. Something was wrong with the wheat. He and Billy had worked all morning on the machinery back at the barn. Now they stood by the fence, looking at the fields. Four days ago the wheat had been green and healthy.
    Things had changed. Long patches of sickly yellow and brown fanned out into the crop. It kept spreading, whatever it was. He'd put in a call to the local office of the USDA. Someone was coming out today.
    "Shit, Bob. Don't look good."
    "I can't figure it. It's not insects. More like some kind of blight. There's never been anything like that around here."
    "The USDA guy will know what it is."
    "I guess so. Even if they've got something to stop it, it looks like I'll lose half the crop."
    "You got insurance, don't you?"
    "Yeah, but not enough if I lose it all. And the bank won't give me a break."
    "That's for sure."
    Like everyone he knew, Bob walked a fine line between profit and loss, survival and bankruptcy. The bank ruled his life, and the less said about it the better. It used to be different, back when things had been local, run by people who understood what farming was about. But then the economy tanked. His community bank was gobbled up by one of the big corporations. Now decisions about his life were made by people thousands of miles away who'd never been closer to a farm than a supermarket. It was hard enough being a farmer, what with the weather and pests and cost of things like diesel and fertilizer and insect control. Now this.
    Bob didn't want to admit it, but the hollow feeling in his stomach felt like fear. Fear for his livelihood. Fear for Mae and his kids. Fear he would lose everything.
    The day was crisp and sunny. A fresh, strong breeze blew across the Nebraska plains. Bob's land was in the heart of America's bread basket. Fields of wheat and corn spread for a hundred miles in every direction. Winter crops coming up, crops being planted. An ancient cycle, one he understood.
    Bob loved his life. He loved farming. He thought few things were more beautiful than the silent fall of snow covering the fields during the winter, or watching towering clouds and lightning build on the far horizon in the heat of summer. Listening to the crops rustle in the wind. For Bob, amber waves of grain was a lot more than a line in a song. It was the American dream come true.
    The spreading darkness in his fields was a different kind of dream, an American nightmare.

CHAPTER FIFTY

    AEON meant forever.
    400 years before, AEON had been born in the political unease of eighteenth century Europe.
    AEON had always been about the accumulation of wealth. With wealth came power. With power came control. With control came more power, more wealth and the ability to shape the destiny of nations. With the ability to shape nations came the plan.
    The ideology embraced by AEON was the ideology of power. Democracy or Fascism, right or left, it was all the same. Over the centuries AEON had learned how to manipulate them all. Political systems were merely a means to increased wealth and the creation of rigid economic separation between worker units and rulers.
    The goal was in sight. The infrastructure to identify, track and contain dissidents, the corruption of government agencies across the world, the control of world finances, all were in place. Demeter and Black Harvest were the opening gambit in the final implementation of the plan.
    The council had nine members, held to strict rules of accountability. There were two Americans, one member from the UK, and one each from France, China, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Japan. Meetings were held by teleconference via state of the art encrypted technology. The criterion of success was rigidly applied to each member. Mistakes were not excused and meant expulsion with unpleasant results.
    Harold Dansinger was the newest member of the inner circle. He was still on probationary status. He could express his view, but could not vote when decisions were made.
    The raid in Texas was a personal disaster. Dansinger needed to reassure the others that things could be brought under control and that exposure was not a remote possibility. He needed to reassure them that he himself was not a liability.
    Malcolm Foxworth was the member from England. Foxworth owned a media empire that encircled the globe. Foxworth was the Supreme Leader of AEON, but he preferred the title of Chairman. It was so much more democratic sounding.
    Foxworth began. "Harold, help us understand the current