« 039: Liz Kimbrel | Main | 041: The Numbers Stations » May 04, 2003

040: The Lunar Society

Liz Kimbrel is a member of the reformed Lunar Society, though they don't call themselves by that name. The actual Lunar Society was formed in secret during the Cold War. You see, it plays out like this:

Georges Maratres was a member of the French Resistance during WWII and, due to some specialized background, was deemed useful to an American organization which was following the troops as they took back Europe. This organization -- we'll call it ACE for now -- was tasked with determining just how much occult influence there was in the Nazi regime and whether or not it was something creepy and actually effective or if it was just a brutal and misinformed hobby of the guys in charge. With the end of WWII and the dissolution of any Nazi-based occult organization, ACE returned to the US and brought with them a number of the useful tools which they acquired during the retaking of Europe, both material and personnel.

Georges got a job with the US government and did basic signal intelligence work for them as he settled down and started his new life in the States. Probably a decade or so went by before he started to tumble to something which gave him pause. Something which he had worked on in the Resistance was the interception and deciphering of Allied transmissions. Some of these weren't part of Enigma and were never cracked, deemed either too inconsequential or inconsistent to be worth time and effort or they were exceptionally careful and utilized one-time pads as they should. Either way, Georges has stumbled upon the Numbers Stations which are broadcasting on shortwave bands in the States and recognizes them as the same transmissions which they couldn't break during the war.

He tells his supervisor about his concerns and, a few weeks later, is told to ignore them. The Numbers Stations are part of the jurisdiction of the CIA and other national security agencies and are nothing which he needs to concern himself with. Georges, no stranger to the bureaucratic brush-off and the informal warning which is imbedded in such a "don't worry your pretty little head about it" mandate from management, nods and keeps his suspicions to himself. He starts to listen in private, spending hour after hour in his attic room scanning the shortwave bands where he discovers that there is more than one Number Station.

After a few years of quietly keeping notes and his ears open, Georges discovers that he isn't the only one who is wondering just what in the hell these strange transmissions are. Other members of the private sector are also listening and, unlike George, don't have the same security clearance concerns which he does. They're talking to one another. The core group call themselves the Lunar Society and refer to each other with code names taken from names of lunar geography.

It is a few years before Georges is able to gain their confidence enough to meet some of the members of the Lunar Society. And, once they learn who he actually works for, they begin to consider the possibility of a more active agenda: using Georges and his access to governmental data to figure out what the Stations really are.

This is, of course, where things go wrong. Someone on the other end doesn't want to be found and, as these amateur sleuths start turning up where they shouldn't, the people who know react. The members of the Lunar Society are systematically hunted down and killed.

Georges has no idea that they've been removed. Not yet, at least. He's been trying to get his head together these last thirty years. Trying to dodge the radical treatments, the frontal lobotomy, and the pharmaceutical recovery options. Georges has been locked in a nuthouse for three decades, and he doesn't know that he was the link that got the Lunar Society killed.

Nor does Daniel Caretti. His father was "Tycho" of the original society. He was young enough that he didn't really remember his father's death, but he does know that his mother has always believed there was a larger conspiracy afoot. She pined and died eventually and Daniel came into possession of his father's belongings which included a sealed trunk. Inside the trunk were all of his father's notes about the Lunar Society.

When Georges gets out of the insane asylum and tries to contact his old friends, it is Daniel who recognizes the call sign.

Posted by Teppo at May 4, 2003 02:21 PM

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