JACK
The Secret of the Jack of Clubs Circle
A short distance from St James Park
underground station, down a narrow side street, so narrow and nondescript, with
an entrance almost hidden by a tree, that most people miss it. Going down a
short flight of steps, you enter a short street, leading to the park dominated,
on the left-hand side, by a late 18th century terraced house. Some
well-worn steps lead to an imposing black door, but this is not the interesting
entrance. No, if you walk a little further on, to the right side of the main entrance
there is a short metal spiral staircase leading to the basement. Should you
walk down these stairs you would come to a dark green door. This used to be the
entrance to the servant’s quarter, but now it serves as a meeting place for the
Jack of Clubs Circle.
I have deliberately omitted the name of the
Street or the number on the door, since knowing these small details could put
your life at risk. Indeed, I may have already told you too much, and should you
choose to read no further I will understand.
So, you are still reading this, I assume then that
you are not, as they say these days, risk averse, good. For all the inherent
danger of passing on this information it is, I think, a tale that needs to be
told.
I am aware of only 19 people who know of the
existence of the club, other than myself. Of these, 18 are current members, one
was a member and he is now in hiding. - There were another two members, but
these have died in circumstances that I will come to shortly. - He, for the
club is exclusively male, is the source of the information I am about to provide.
For this narrative, I will call him Oscar, Oscar Myers.
The club was established in 1780, its members
drawn from the very rich and very powerful. A minimum level of wealth was
required for membership, £10,000 in 1780, £10 million in today’s money.
Membership was only obtained by risking your entire fortune on a single ‘venture.’
Should this venture fail then it was
expected that you should commit suicide. Thus, to join you had to stake your life.
Prospective members would be given just this bare information about the club, on
the understanding that any attempt to disclose this approach would result in death.
Indeed, one early ‘prospect’ who attempted break this undertaking, - by
informing the Pall Mall Gazette, - met his end falling under a passing mail
coach. Only a very view prospects have followed this path, for prospects were
chosen carefully. Needless to say, all died in unsuspicious circumstances.
Originally members were only admitted if they
were British and of ‘noble birth.’ Over the years these requirements have been
steadily relaxed. Currently the membership is extremely international. Though
most members are still, at least ostensibly, resident in the UK or have become
British citizens. What has remained constant has been the requirement of access
to great wealth.
So, what precisely are these ‘ventures?’ Well, they could be anything from engineering
the overthrow of a government by coup or revolution, the undermining of a major
currency, the election of some nondescript soul to major office, the fixing of
an election or the instigation of a ‘natural’ disaster. Morality or any concern
for human life do not enter consideration. In fact, the more outrageous a
proposal the more likely it is to be accepted. Though proposals for ventures
with ‘positive’ outcomes are not actually discouraged, provided they are
interesting enough. The more outrageous and ambitious a proposal the better.
For example, one, fortunately failed, proposal was to bring about a nuclear war
between India and Pakistan.
When Oscar was approached, he was a very rich
man, having made a large fortune in Silicon Valley. An expat who had lived in
New York and Los Angeles, he had large homes in both and had just divorced his
wife of five years, - though with a solid pre-nuptial agreement and careful
structuring of his financial affairs he had managed to keep his fortune intact.
He had recently moved back to London, since it was a more convenient hub for managing
the large-scale contracts with the British and German governments which he was
seeking to conclude.
After
his divorce, he had started gambling a little, though had found casino’s
uninspiring and lacking in the kind of excitement he was seeking. He had also
been exploring the opportunities afforded by the ‘dark web.’
The British contract finalised he had been
invited for a celebratory lunch with a senior cabinet minister Terence Harding.
As this minister, had not been involved directly in the negotiations Oscar had been
surprised at the invitation, but thought it politic to accept.
Just short of 60, though still retaining some
traces of youthful good looks around his mouth and eyes, he was 25 years older
than Oscar. Dapper, in an expensive suit and though showing some signs of overindulgence
around the waist, still slim enough not to put an undue strain upon his
expensive jacket. He had been in politics since his late twenties and now had a
substantial career behind him. At one point, he had even been mooted as a
possible leader of his party and thus prospective PM, but that point had now
passed.
The meal went amicably enough, with lightweight
conversation about the contract and the current political situation. It was
only when desert and brandy arrived, they had already consumed two bottles of
fine wine, that the conversation had taken a strange turn. For the minister,
had proceeded to tell Oscar a string of highly personal details about Oscar’s life
and current lifestyle, including his playing on the fringes of the darker side
of Internet commerce. He still remembered clearly the words used by the
minister on concluding this litany of his past activities, misdemeanours and
occasional breaking of US law. He had ended by reference to Oscar’s recent
dalliance with the roulette wheel.
“Don’t be offended, we always do our homework
on individuals involved in sensitive contracts. And as you can see, we have
turned a blind eye to many, let us say minor, infractions. And I am also sure
you engage in similar background checks on any person or organisation with whom
you are exploring doing business.
But it is not however your history that interests
me, but your present predicament. In short you have far more money than you
need, you are one of the fifty richest men on the planet. You continue to
engage in money making because that is what you have always done. However, the
buzz and excitement of the early years are gone, the risks now minimal. In
short you are bored and looking to regain the zest for life you enjoyed in your
younger days. You want to gamble, take risks, but the casino’s and similar
forms of gambling feel anaemic and unsatisfying. Well I have a possible
solution. Though if you chose to follow through with my proposal there can be
no turning back,” the minister paused, then added melodramatically, “you need
to understand that you will be placing your life on the line.”
He then sketched out broadly the outline of
the kind of gamble and the nature of the stakes involved. He never mentioned the
club by name but suggested that he knew of a circle of like-minded and equally
wealthy men who would provide support for any scheme he might propose. As an
example of the kind of proposal that might be of interest was the overthrow of a
regime in Central America, the ‘elimination’ of a dictator, or the election of
a political outsider to a significant public office. “The options are as wide
as your imagination, though the bolder, the more difficult, the more dangerous
the better.” However, he had emphasised that joining was not a decision to be
undertaken lightly and he should take time to think it over.
At this
point he drew the conversation to a close, stating very strongly that this
conversation had never taken place and that, should he decide not to accept the
invitation to participate, he would be “well advised to erase all memory of
this meeting.” If he did try to communicate with anyone else about this matter
his life would not just be at risk, it would be over. He had then smiled
softly, “but I am sure that I can fully trust your discretion. Don’t try and
contact me, I will be in touch shortly, after you have had time to decide
whether to proceed with this matter or not.”
With hindsight, Oscar realised that it was no
accident that the conversation had ended the way it did, since it served to make
it clear both that he was already compromised and that he was being closely
watched, which emphasised that the threat contained at the end of their meeting
could easily be carried out.
It helped that the conversation had a surreal
melodramatic, even farcical character about it, which enabled him to push its
contents to the back of his mind. Though he was intrigued and thought it would
be amusing to say yes and see where this led. Despite the sinister character of
the conversation and the threat presented at the end he did not feel greatly
perturbed or at risk, - and he had recently done business in Russia and was not
blind to the risks posed in dealing with certain individuals, that is of
operating in a world in which people could be easily made to ‘disappear.’ And, after
all, the person to whom he had been talking was a British Cabinet Minister, albeit one who had perhaps drunk a
little too much wine and brandy.
Just over a week later, literally just as he
was preparing to leave for Berlin his phone buzzed in the tone reserved for
important contacts. It was the minister. The conversation was short. The
minister asked simply, “have you considered the proposal? Are you in or out?
He had paused, hesitated for the briefest of
moments, staring into the contents of his semi packed flight bag. “Yes,” he
said, “I’m in.” This, he said some time later, “had been the greatest mistake
and the most expensive three words of my life.”
2
In Germany, there had been some last-minute
problems before the contract could be signed, and these had pushed the strange
conversation and the curious commitment that he had made from his thoughts. It
was only when he got back to London that he was confronted by the fruits of his
hesitant ‘yes.’ It came in the form of an envelope left for him at reception in
the Hilton.
Inside the envelope was a business card
however only with an address date and time printed on it. Underneath were the
initials, handwritten, of the minister. He slipped the card into his pocket and
followed the porter to his room. ‘Was there still time to back out?’ It was a
question that he was to ask himself many times over the coming months. At the
time curiosity, had got the better of him, and, of course, he had no idea what
he was getting himself into.
Thus, it was that a week later he hailed a
taxi and gave the address on the
postcard. It was a grey September night; the meeting was scheduled for eight p.m.
with a steady sticky drizzle of rain falling. The Taxi took him as far as Petty
France, traffic restrictions barring him from dropping outside the address.
He paid of the cabby, feeling more ridiculous
than fearful, embarrassed by the cloak and dagger nature of it all. For that morning,
he had found another note waiting for him at reception. It read simply: -
‘Knock three times rapidly in succession. When
the door is answered say I am here for Jack.’
It took
him longer than he had expected to find the little side street, its entrance
obscured by a flourishing oak tree. He had then made his way down the spiral
steps and followed the instructions he had been given.
The shock he experienced when allowed to enter
the room almost unnerved him. For the room contained so many faces that were
familiar to him. Some he knew personally, such as Alexei, with whom he had only
recently been doing business in Moscow. Peter Thorn, executive director of a high
street bank, and Georgia Miklos who headed up one the Europe’s largest hedge
funds.
Others were faces he recognised from the news
or financial magazines. The tall man in the corner in jeans and blue sweater,
he recognised as the founder of one of the most successful social networking
sites.
He felt a hand upon his shoulder, it was
Petrov, the Russian oligarch, come fixer who he had first met in Kiev, where it
had been rumoured that he had a hand in certain changes in Ukrainian government
policies, which also happened to benefit one of his corporations. They had only
met briefly in Kiev, but later, on several recommendations, he had hired Petrov
as a consultant. His services had proved invaluable. “So, you have finally made
it to Jack, welcome, I am sure you will find your time as a member of our
little club interesting.”
JACK is currently available at the Amazon Kindle store.
