"You gave them what they wanted, Howard.", Sarah said, the moment we entered the jet.

"You think they really wanted to croak?", I replied, amazed.

She rolled her eyes and looked at me as if to say 'Well, duh!', and said, "Come on, Howard! Just about everyone in the room had to have smelled the suicide. They all know that's instant death! I'm just surprised none of those three told that Night Operator their plan, or maybe he was in on it too. Do you know what suicide by cop is?", she asked, powering up the plane's engines and pointing it out the door.

"Never heard that term before.", I replied.

"Suicide by cop is when normals threaten or in some other way force police officers to shoot them dead. Since normal police have to shoot first or risk dying to criminals, the technique usually works. Suicide by Dominator, obviously, has the same effect.", she replied, as she flew the jet out of the hangar and into the sky with the usual thoom of acceleration. Illuminated extermination has to be pre-emptive. I simply can't afford to let them live if they oppose me. The suicide, then, is advertising it in public.

"You actually might be right. But it's been said- never attribute to malice, or anything else for that matter, what can be adequately explained by stupidity.", I replied. It's possible- but unlikely- that they could have been consciously preparing for their own deaths.

"Actually," I pointed out, "it could have been both. They finally get the chance to tell you off as much as they want right before they croak. All of them probably already knew that Damien's death was because of stupidity- they didn't want to admit it, but they probably knew it- but after that and the fact that their popularity was getting dangerously low already, they might have just said 'Fuck it, life's not worth living anymore, we're broken and our lineage is destroyed, let's go.' Or maybe they even thought you wouldn't dare to kill them." For a normal, that would probably be the obvious idea, that I wouldn't dare to attack first level Illuminati in a gathering like that. Such an approach in this case would be utterly idiotic- especially since Herber knew enough to craft a speech about how dangerous I am, and provoked me in the process. He literally walked into it with eyes open. "But watch it, some of those other guys might have faking the cheerfulness and might be gunning for you now." That's always a possibility. They sure as hell wouldn't have said anything after I butchered those idiots. But I can't believe that intelligent Illuminati would want to try to depose me over the termination of people who nobody really wanted around.

Of course, even smart people have stupidity bursts. "Hmm... maybe I'll look up examples of their crap, have some ready if someone thinks twice.", I said.

"Howard... wait, something strange about all this. Those guys.. aren't really Illuminati." There's hard sense in there, and I want to find it.

"Ha! How so?"

"Well, for one thing, you said they knew how to work together. They don't, Howard. They were just mumbling assent, like sheep. I don't even think any of them really thought about why it happened or what could have been done to prevent it, or what those three did wrong. And... well, it just seems silly!" Billy's words were like a drink of fresh water when all I've been drinking is muddy, silty river water. I've always assumed that Illuminati plan and pontificate over their decisions, manipulate and calculate, and then make decisions based on what they've really thought about doing, making contingency plans for eventualities all the time. With regard to normal-world operations, they do, they have to. What if they don't- or more importantly, don't know how- for intra-Illuminati politics..?

"Billy, these are the first rational things I've really heard in three straight days. Details."

"It's like they don't know what they're doing, Howard. They don't know. I don't really get it either, but you were right, it is a game. But if they all already control the world, then why do they keep fighting over things that don't exist? I looked it up that back in 1991, Herbert wanted to get a news organization to get people protesting the Persian Gulf war? Well.. why? Who cares if there's hippies or there's loyal Americans? If they're all sheep, why does it matter?" If Herbert had been acting on anything but plain greed, 'Advanced recursive encompassization' would have been the answer. Get the normals fighting each other- doesn't matter over what- and control both sides. Unfortunately, although I'm certain he pretended, The Bastard was not a serious practitioner of it. His operations themselves were flawlessly executed. His strategy- the Illuminated poltiical reasons for conducting his operations- was badly flawed. His ego got in the way of his thinking, and that's what killed him.

My mind had constructed the full explanation, and so I gave it to him. "Heh, heh, heh. Billy, now you see it. You see, this organization was founded on one thing alone, ego. The founders knew that, eventually, the organization would fall if people came in only pretending to understand it. So what they did was they prepared for it. They wrote all the texts, so that even if they all didn't know what they were doing- which a lot of them don't- the organization would still function exactly as planned. But at least one person does have to know, and that's what I'm here for. They are fucking around, Billy. They want to gain and grow and manipulate in an environment where some of them can't really do that anymore, not because of their own lack of talent but because of the steady, consistent-growth plan. They're living in the past, a lot of them. They want to do more mind control than is needed, just so they can say 'Hey, these people follow me, see how great I am.' They want to make a difference where only time, steadiness, and cooperation will make a difference- so they do meaningless shit like that instead. They want to just jump out with some marvelous plan that will completely control everyone, where there already is such a plan. They fight among each other because they want respect, and that's what scares me."

"Scares? Why?" I wasn't sure why Sarah chuckled when Billy said that.

"Because like I said, power doesn't really exist. Respect doesn't really exist. It's all just in the mind, Billy. They're fighting for emotions, and if they don't watch it, their petty feuds will fuck this whole organization to shit. And that's just what they are, petty. They can pretend to know, and they can say the knowledge, and they can practice manipulation and their multiple-layer shit, but too many of them don't really understand it. Too many of them can't control their own egos for the life of them- they can control almost everybody else, which makes them Illuminati, but the tail's wagging the dog. Normally, the Dominator would step in with recruitments, and try to show these people the way again, but he didn't, and for a reason. One reason is the partially-engineereds and the other reason is the implants."

"Because you won't even need the normal Illuminati anymore, will you, Howard? They'll just be your motherfucking servants. Divide and conquer." It's so nice to be understood.

"Bingo. But the problem is, I have to get this planet implanted before they tear us apart- I'll probably, hell, I'll almost certainly do that, but Murphy's Laws should always be counted upon."

"You're a trans-manipulative bastard.", Billy said, and I instantly picked up his meaning.

"Thank you, Billy. But it's not as bad as you think. It's some of them, a lot of them, not all of them. You know all that murmured assent? A lot of that was just cover for other, real plans. Because some of them really do have an interest in the total control of the world." I have that conclusion not only from recorded evidence but from irrefutable logic. If too few of the Illuminati had a real interest in the organization's ultimate goal and almost everyone was mired in petty feuds and the like, the Illuminati would have disintegrated shortly after its inception, and I would be nothing more than a wisp of imagination for normals to scare each other with over the Internet. "Because some of them really do have an interest in the total control of the world. Now that those five are gone, their resources can be taken. For instance, I know that Herbert ran several major news organizations, and they'll probably go to some other Illuminatus specializing in that field. If a single Illuminatus is in charge of one sort of thing- which is ideal- he can orchestrate cover-ups with more efficiency than is done automatically for secrecy's sake. He could fix mistakes more quickly, he could target select groups of normals with experiments more easily and not have it reported, he could do a number of things. He could turn a 'bad' locale into a 'good' one where other Illuminati will find things easier to do. And then he'll have his respect anyway."

"And it's those guys who really run the organization.", Billy understood.

"And it's those guys I'll be counting on. Besides, the next batch of Illuminated children are almost all genetically engineered. In other words, they'll be several cuts above most of those guys. So, I probably won't be using the implants on the morons. Actually.. none of em."

"Yeah, it's better if you don't. Let them die out on their own and then get people who know what's going on. Damn, then you really will have the world. Six thousand of you deciding what to do with everything... ugh." Will it really be like that? With genetic engineering, it's inevitable.. will secrecy end first? How exactly am I going to do this? I'll think about this some other time.

"There is one more thing I'm trying to understand..", Billy said.

"What?", I asked. I hope it's as intelligent as the last one.

"They were suggesting all that stuff at first. A lot of those same people that we saw in there. Some of them wanted you to do yadda yadda yadda suggesting that what you did was horribly wrong. And yet now we hear the cheering. What am I missing?" Paul looked at Billy briefly and just shook his head. He didn't get it any more than Billy did.

"One word- context. They're afraid of me in person, you know that; also they were appeased by me coming to speak to them. That and they didn't understand it completely at first. When they heard word of even that bastard's son dying, they got scared because all they really knew was the bare facts of it. But when they find out that the course of actions would lead to those four getting the kibosh...", I explained.

"They realized that the danger didn't extend to them and they could breathe easier.", Billy replied, oversimplifying it.

"In theory. It's complicated. We have an unknown number of people acting on emotions. We have an unknown number of people acting on reason. We have an unknown number of people just trying to get by and not really caring who croaks. We have an unknown number of people who really do trust me completely. And, since these are Illuminati, we have an unknown number of people who really want X, who are pretending to really want Y, with their facade being that they want Z. Now, that last number is probably low, as it's hard for a normal brain to pretend to want too many different things and do too much manipulation without just losing track and majorly screwing up."

"..is this just more of that multiple-layer shit you were talking about before?"

"Yes. It is. And on top of all of it, we have people with varying degrees of egotism, varying degrees of loyalty, and varying degrees of stupidity," Billy smiled at my use of 'stupidity' instead of 'intelligence'. Few have intelligence, many have stupidity. "all of which may fluctuate in any given length of time."

"Yes, I have noticed this before, so don't laugh this time- this is an annoying business.", Billy stated with professorial judgment. Paul, Sarah, and I all nodded.

"And now you see why I've adopted my philosophy.", I said. "If I need to, I'll appease them with gestures and whatever tokens they need to ensure I'm really on their side after all. But I cut through the bullshit. I don't have the patience to try to figure out what every last one of them is doing." Hell, I don't even bother to memorize their names for the most part

"Hence the inevitable use or direct threat of physical force.", Billy replied.

"Ehhhhhh-xactly.", I said. It's like trying to navigate an ever-changing maze. You can't really think your way out, no matter how smart you are- there's always some other little thing that you didn't know about that can fuck you up. So I pull out my super-strength entrance maker and just blow through the walls. Unintellectual, yes, but extremely effective.

There was a few more things I wanted to do- I checked out the twelve-year-old second level. Alfred Williams. Partially engineered, runs politically-affiliated organizations, long-distance sniper and expert at ping-pong. I checked out some other random details about conversations afterwards.. most of them had begun their communications right after I finished speaking. It was all affirmative, approving. They didn't want to be there and most of them were glad- even gleeful- that I exterminated Gladstone and his whores where they sat. Of course they could just be pretending.. forget it. This is exactly what I told Billy I take the direct approach for.

I eventually started drifting off, and fell asleep in my seat.