Endworlds - Nicholas Read [1]
I have used the unseized remnants of Raef’s not inconsiderable fortune to pay a writer and his team that are most likely to grasp the subject matter. Masters of a hundred worlds in their own right, they are sworn to confidentiality lest too much leak too soon. I leave it to them to make sense of all the moleskins, blogs, videos and stolen files that took more than a decade to assemble, and turn them into something easily digested. A writer’s pseudonym is thus applied that serves as both aspiration and invitation. “Nicholas”, meaning victory to the people, is my heartfelt aspiration. “Read” is my invitation to you. I pray you will read, and act, and that the outcome will be a victory for us all against the threat you will read of herein. “Nicholas Read”: never did a nom de plume have more intrinsic meaning for a book.
Some hand-drawn maps will be added from our notebooks; a mix of direct observation and the debriefing of others. To bring you deeper into the action, artists will paint some scenes as described by those who were there.
Conspiracy nuts will find validation in this book, but not even their musings have cracked the larger nut. The truth goes deeper than anyone could have guessed. None have come close to hitting bottom. But I have seen it. I know its depth and form.
While this story is already told across the Internet for those who know its clues, the time for being cryptic has passed and the time for enlisting help is now.
All these different source files, mountains of Wikileak documents, press clippings and arcane reference books would make dry reading for even the most ardent among us, therefore I have decided it should be written in narrative form, a manner most easily accessible to you as a reader. In doing so I risk convincing you that this is all a fantastic fiction. It is fact. You decide what you’ll do about it. Will you pass this off as mere entertainment, or will you put it to the test and join The Hunt? It is said that those who have ears will hear their inner voice calling. You will know what to do.
As for me, my fate is tied. A man hunted by day. A man haunted by night. Perhaps it is you who will bring the dawn.
W.H.
DISCLAIMER
THE PUBLISHER WARRANTS this is an original work, provided as delivered in manuscript form to our offices.
While our researchers have validated certain historical and scientific facts presented herein and summarized these as footnotes and appendices, it remains unclear if this is actually a work of fact or fiction given the wild subject matter it contains. Deliberations over which non-fiction Dewey category it best fits (and finding it suits multiple classes yet none at the same time) have led to a decision to publish this categorized as fiction. In the publisher’s judgment this will expose the work to the widest audience in the shortest time, which is the ultimate desire of the group whose tale it tells.
We have established the identities of certain characters by cross-referencing commercial and government records. However few of the people were available for comment and since making our inquiries, most can no longer be located. Attempts to validate information with military liaisons produced initial cooperation followed by denials and then a cessation of correspondence. The same applies to the research institutes, airlines, police, banks and other organizations whose records obtained under international Freedom of Information Acts (where such are honored) show certain events did occur as reported here. We are left to wonder with you if this is a wonderfully elaborate hoax, or a ‘puzzle box’ of true events? It is