Chapter 1 | January 1, 2666

They called it the miracle of the twenty-seventh century. It was the grandest of miracles in the modern world. It was the one and only miracle to put the entire world back together after the unknown explosion occurred. It was noted in the tenth volume of the New York Daily Inquire of Science that this could not have possibly happened to the world without the destructive nature of Jason James O’Connell and his company.

The headlines in every newspaper read, “EVIL AMONG US: How the Greatest Genius Destroyed the World.” The headline was everywhere. On the news stations, it was even more horrible. The NWN Network News said, “The world has just experienced something we thought would be totally impossible for our generation to survive. The explosion of 2666 has brought the world to its knees. We are no longer safe in the world. The scientists say that our world will no longer be livable in the next few years. Our analysts and top reporters say that this was done at the hands of one many once said to be a great genius. He is now a wanted man. Jason O’Connell is now where to be found. Where is he? Will he be brought to justice? Find out at the ten O’clock news.”

Jason did not pay attention to the news, but what he did know was that the news and other media outlets made him the scapegoat of the Omega Organization’s evil plan. He was in hiding and did not want to take the credit for saving the world. If he would have he would have been a marked man [for life] or would face the consequences, death. If it was not for his damn cousin, Leonardo Luke O’Connell, telling the world that this was his entire fault at the end of the previous year, he would have been welcomed as the hero he was meant to be.

Yet now it was not to be. He was not to be the hero he was supposed to be. He was to be congratulated by a huge crowd of millions. He was to go on a journey from here to eternity and back again. He was a marked man for a “crime” that was not even a crime. The biological clock of the world did it. The world was meant to explode to show the world that it needed to get its priorities straight and in order.

Still, in his lab, Jason walked back and forth to try to quiet his mind but he could not. He looked at his life’s work. He saw that nothing in his past would prove his innocence. He tried to look at his life’s story. He found nothing. He looked everywhere. He did not find a single damn thing to clear his innocence.

He was still in the doldrums of his self-pity for not taking the offer that was handed to him by his cousin. He could have stopped this from happening to him. He world have been a hero. It would not have made a difference any way you looked at it.

Jason saw his past and believed that something bigger was at work shaping his future. He did a little digging into his family’s affairs. He found out it was his family’s own organization was somehow shaping and chipping away at his true future.

Later, that day, he received a mysterious phone call. The caller just said, “Your father is alive. The Omega Organization has him. You thought everything was perfect, but you were wrong. There is corruption in the inner workings. They have been working on something big. They want to take over the world once again.”

Jason tried to wrap his mind around the thought of his father being alive. He could not because, not surprising, they wanted to take over the world again. He called his brother, Jacob, and told him to meet him at the lab. He told his brother that their father was alive just before hanging up the phone. He did not tell him anything else.

Jacob came over as soon as he got the news. He looked at this brother and said, “Who called you about our father?”

“I do not really know who would have called us about our father,” Jason answered.

“What about this taking over the world non-sense,” Jacob inferred.

“Well, they tried to do it once before. It was the day after someone in your family was shot and killed. It was called the Great Thirty Years War. After that, the world government was established,” answered Jason.

“I know that much, it is in the history b…o…o….k….s…” Jacob’s voice faded.

“Remember, Remember, What your father told you…” a voice inside Jason’s head told him, “Just remember about the day you were born…What you were meant to be.”

Jason looked at his brother. He remembered what they were born to do. They were to take control over another secret society that was established by their own father. This society was known as The Brotherhood Society. This society was fashioned after the old revolutionaries of the eighteenth-century. It was created to take on the big societies and countries of the modern world that held too much power.

Jason, in the shadow of the night, ran for the edge of his piece of the world. He jumped off into the direction of where the society’s headquarters was located. He landed in the old city of Rome. He walked over to the Great Coliseum, opened the great doors, and walked to the underground catacombs. He walked into the only place that the old tourists were not allowed in the old rundown attraction.

As he delved into the catacombs, he found himself going down newer looking stairs to a metal enforced door, opened it, and did not know what was behind it.

As he passed through the door, something happened to him, he was transported to a distant memory of his father’s. The day his father “died”…

…In the memory were clues to who killed his father. He looked down upon the top floor of the Omega Organization. He looked into the building. He saw his father sitting at the desk that his grandfather once sat in. He was CEO at the time, but on this night there was something was different about him.

His father did not seem to be his old joyful self. He seemed to be in some kind of trance. His father, the great, John James O’Connell, felt that he was about to die. So, he called the Brotherhood and another organization to say, “My brothers, tonight I am about to die. You know what you have to do. You must protect my four boys from harm. They are the future of this world. They are the four that will forever shape the future. I will no longer be living in the next few moments. I do hope you have everything ready for my departure; the end in nearer then ever my friends.”

His father, John, stood up from the chair, walked to the door, proceeded to walk down the hallway. He knew that he was walking into his final conflict of his life. He walked to the elevator, pushed the down button, he was waiting for his final breathe was to come very soon.

The elevator doors opened, he went down to the bottom floor, and what he saw was his brother standing there with a gun in his hand. He was surprised to see his brother down there. He knew something was up, yet he did not look back. He walked into the unknown to protect his little boys from suffering for the rest of their lives.

John walked over to his brother, an unseen tear ran down his face, and he, finally, said, “Nice to see you again! I guess it is time for me to die, father.” John knew that it was not his brother who wanted to kill him. It was his damn father who wanted him dead because in a few days the Omega Organization would have closed, thus securing his son’s futures.

Jason’s grandfather, James Leonardo O’Connell, revealed his face to his son. He looked into his eyes and said, “This is just good business for the safety and well being of this organization.”

“You do not have any idea what you are about to do to this family, father. You will forever destroy this family’s true destiny. I hope you are happy, you’re about to kill your first born,” John said to his inconsiderate father.

As his grandfather pulled the trigger, on the gun, Jason looked away. He did not want to see what happened next. He did not want to see the bullet perching his father’s chest. As he heard his father dying, he heard something that his father never said before, “My life is complete. I have nothing more to live for. My task in the world is complete. May, my family not suffer what I had to endure to help protect them from harm. I am at peace…”

…The memory faded and Jason was finally home. He went into the room and he entered into a world that was still full of secrets. He looked around the room and saw four pictures. Each one was of him and his brothers. He looked behind him and the door was gone and someone was behind him.

“Hello, Jason, welcome to the Brotherhood,” a strange, but familiar voice told him.

“I guess… That I am… Finally home. I want to know one thing, uncle, Leonardo Luke O’Connell. Why did not you save my father?  He was your only brother.”

His uncle replied, “Well, Jason, it was your fucking grandfather, my damn father that stopped me from saving him. He told me to go and do something for him. I should not have gone, but I did. For that I am sorry about your father, my brother.”

The one thing that Jason was still curious about was that he and Jacob were not alone at all. There were two more of them in the world. He walked over the wall, looked at the photos, and examined all of them for their truthfulness. He looked at all of them, one stood out. His cousin apparently was his brother, Jonah James O’Connell.

There was only one photo that made his mind turn on end, the one of his dead brother, John Leonardo O’Connell. It was not a disturbing photo. It was one that did not really make any sense to him. His uncle walked up to him and said, “The Brotherhood was formed to protect you guys from our father. We did not want you to run the Omega Organization. It is an evil breeding ground of psychopaths. Your brother, Jonah, was at one time our spy, but now he was gone rouge and will stop at nothing to destroy us.”

“How do you know all of this?” Jason asked.

“Well, your grandfather took your brother to a chamber within the organization’s walls he had them and planted some kind of virus into his system. The virus destroyed all tethers to outside world. His memory was erased and deleted. He, also, took your other brother to the same chamber and killed him. Now, there are only three of your left, but one is alive but dead to us.”

“So, Leo did that speech because of grandfather. That damn bastard. He should pay for what he did to our family!” Jason shouted.

“Do not get ahead of yourself. You are so much like your father. You did get a message from someone about your father being alive. Well, he is alive; he is somewhere within the organization. He will be calling us soon to invade the organization to destroy it from the inside,” his uncle told him.

Jason looked in his uncle’s eyes, he said, “My brother, Jacob is in danger. I must go get him and bring him back to the safe house.”

“The safe house is in your library, there is a direct link to our headquarters. Good luck, you are going to need it, my boy.”

Jason was then transported back to the Statue of Liberty. He walked in and his brother was gone without a trace. The unknown set in…To Be Continued

-Jon McKay

(O’Connell Family Historian