164 | John W. Warner IV and suchI soon began to smell a fascist rat, but I went along out of curiosity, you know me. Weird Thule Society rituals in the buff, satanic magic crap in spades, so I began to read up on the occult and German secret societies, a local Theosophist guy I knew via my Uncle Terry loaned me rare books on the sly. Wasnt.. .pretty reading. After some verbal scuffles, I threatened to expose them in the school paper, then some of the hard-boiled Bone boys began to threaten me with death after I quit in my sophomore year, no one quits, they said. Guess Im the only one alive who did. Of course the paper wouldnt have printed my expose anyway, but like I said I was really a naive pup back then. One night later that fall, some hooded thugs beat me and my girlfriend with baseball bats into pulp in the pitch dark near the theater; gang raped her, the cowards, left us for dead out cold in a pool of blood. I barely made it, Allan. So I took Dads advice and quickly joined the Marines for two years with a broken arm and collar bone, grew up a lot during the Boxer Rebellion as a shavetail, you remember all that. Anyhow, Amy.. .Amy died of internal injuries and complications around that time in the hospital, she had underlying heart issues already, I held her tight to the last second the day before I shipped out. No one was charged, it was all covered up by powerful Bonesmen parents; my own wealthy family could do nothing, we rank lower on the Illuminati totem, harsh internal politics…something like that. Learned a big fat life lesson on that one. He lowered his tone. Anyway, the threats followed me. Dad said he knew big people in the Navy who could silently protect me, so it was off to the Academy to learn something useful with you, Tommy, Matt, and Derek when I came back from China. I guess.. .those kind and understanding admirals still watch over me. Simpson softened his tone. Shit, I didnt.. Jesus…Im so very sorry, Bern. Right, right, I met you at Plebe Summer before we were cadets, the Annapolis Malt Shop. Daily egg creams with rum. Now I remember. Im sorry I pressed you, its none of my Forget it, water under the keel. Bernie placed his Cokes bottle cap on the sharp edge of the metal desk and popped it open with a fist. You were saying about Botta? Yeah, Rico…Rico. Marshall told him to forget reading any and all history books back home, theyre all full of bullshit, disinformation, and outright lies like you said, so Bottas on his own for research, but hell get help from the Theosophical Society eggheads. That really sobered me up when I heard that. Anyway, we might put him in