The Election Read Online Free

waited for his two partners. He could relax because his part of the plan was in place. His trip to the West Coast had been successful. He would report to his partners that the technicians at the research and development division had completed the newest software in the Apollyon arsenal. A smile formed as he remembered the clever name he had given the new software: Cannibal.
    The access numbers assigned to users could now be required each time they wanted to purchase groceries or gasoline, go to the doctor, or pay their utility bills—whether using the Internet or not. The user number would become the most important set of numbers in a person’s life, more important than a social security number, a driver’s license number, or a telephone number. It would become a person’s signature, or mark, and soon every person in the world would be unable to even purchase basic necessities without it.
    That is, if the Federalists accomplished their mission. And Randolph Winston was determined they would do just that.
    The opulent conference room at Apollyon was dimly lit at Randolph’s direction. He couldn’t tolerate much light. He sat at the end of the conference-room table and sipped his coffee. His expensive taste was evident from the décor. The furniture was the rarest antiques. The paintings that lined the walls would make the curators at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York envious. Randolph’s father had once told him that to be successful, he had to look successful. Randolph considered the room. He certainly looked successful. His father would have been proud of him.
    â€œMr. Winston,” the receptionist’s voice interrupted over the telephone intercom, “Mr. Montgomery is here to see you.”
    â€œSend him up,” Randolph ordered. Finishing the last of his coffee, he walked toward the conference-room door to meet his compatriot.
    Pierce Anthony Montgomery was slightly taller than Randolph, and his navy blue double-breasted suit was tailored to fit his tall frame. Unlike Randolph, Pierce managed to maintain his athletic physique. Racquetball three times a week at the athletic club downtown helped him stay in shape, he had told Randolph. Even though Pierce was nearing fifty, he still combed his black hair from front to back and kept it in place with a styling gel that gave his hair a wet sheen.
    Pierce was the founder and controlling stockholder of TransWorld Communications, Inc., the world’s largest telecommunications and media conglomerate. Pierce, a self-made billionaire, was confident, bordering on arrogant. He was shrewd. Driven. The current Mrs. Montgomery was his third wife. And Randolph knew she would soon realize, like the ones before her, that Pierce was actually married to TransWorld, or, more accurately, to the Federalists.
    Through holding companies, subsidiaries, and foreign corporations, TransWorld had secretly acquired satellites that controlled 60 percent of all the world’s wireless communications and 80 percent of all Internet and broadband communication cables. The communication companies TransWorld didn’t own were insignificant and would dismantle soon after the Federalists’ ascension to power.
    Telephone calls from New York to London either traveled through TransWorld’s cables or were relayed through TransWorld’s satellites. News events that happened in France or South Africa were disseminated through TransWorld’s media outlets to the rest of the world. The Federalists had at first planned to isolate allies through TransWorld’s infrastructure but then realized that complete isolation would be virtually impossible. But Randolph convinced his partners not to worry about the fact that each country maintained its own secure communications. He had demonstrated that TransWorld could create a temporary disruption in communication among world leaders, giving the Federalists time to fully implement their plan. Creating such