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Overview
The Earth is heating up at an alarming rate. Governments are corrupt and terrorism abounds. More nations are on the brink of war than at any other time in history, and fear riddles the planet. The Group of Five are fed up, and they're doing something about it. In their quest to usher in a new way, the Group of Five is seeking to elect a true king, one who can restore balance to the world. Will they find a suitable king in time, or will political corruption and the Earth's imminent destruction win out?
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780986360008 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Moon Above |
| Publication date: | 01/23/2015 |
| Pages: | 548 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.22(d) |
About the Author
Randall Coleman grew up exploring the shores of Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake, which triggered his wonder of life at an early age. Instead of pursuing a college degree, he spent a year at a Zen center in California. This experience has remained the greatest influence in his life, even while clinging to his roof in Kamala, Phuket, Thailand during the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. He has extensive experience in television and was an early pioneer of the worldwide cable industry. Randall is an avid golfer and spends his time writing, painting, and creating music as well as creating new visions for the future. He currently lives in Asia.
Read an Excerpt
King of the World
A Novel
By Randall Coleman
The Moon Above Pte. Ltd
Copyright © 2007 Randall ColemanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9863600-0-8
CHAPTER 1
7.09.22
Little Dix Bay, St. John's, US Virgin Islands
With the completion of the Moon Hotel, Augusta, and the laying of the time capsule in sight, The Group of Five convened at Little Dix Bay, St. John's, US Virgin Islands, for the most important piece of business they had to conduct. Potential candidates for King of the World needed to be narrowed from a field of ten to three. Each of The Group of Five spent two years using every resource available searching the ends of the earth for the best possible candidates. Every three months, the group converged on Little Dix Bay to review the list of candidates, debate their qualifications, pour over personal histories, measure strengths and weaknesses, assess special talents, analyze character traits, intelligence and wisdom, evaluate personal situations, and last, and perhaps most importantly, appraise their worldly views.
The final meeting began at the crack of dawn. The Group of Five set aside an entire week to review the final list. It was an arduous, mind-bending exercise to select the final candidates for the first King of the World election. But there was a catch. Even though they had built the city the King would reign from, created a department of defense with formidable, well-qualified personnel, and held The Trump Card as the ultimate arbiter of international disputes, the King of the World would not be forced upon the human race.
The King of the World would be a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote on the Internet. It would be up to the people of the planet to decide if a king was the future they wanted. The Group of Five was confident in their vision and mission, and certain they could lay out a convincing rationale for a king, but the proof would be in the pudding—the vote.
Even if the world's populace agreed and elected a king, the biggest hurdle would be the world's governments accepting the will of the people. They'd created a checklist years earlier; it was hardly rocket science. How would the United States, Russia, China, India, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, England, Australia, Egypt, Israel and the rest of the nations on earth accept a "boss?" What purpose would the United Nations serve? How would nations that disagreed with the vote accept a "forced solution" in seventy-two hours or less?
How would the world's superpowers accept a nuclear facility on the Moon, one they couldn't touch, but one that could send nuclear warheads of any size to Earth, knocking out anything from a single building, to a city block, to a small village, to a small town, or any urban area on the planet? How would they accept a missile shield in space protecting Augusta? Would they accept the dismantling of every nuclear warhead on the planet and every military nuclear facility, not to mention shutting down the vile cyberspace spy programs of the NSA, the Chinese Cyber Center, the Syrian Army and all the rest of the demonically paranoid cyber nutcases?
The Group of Five realized there wasn't a lot of time. With the Earth heating up at a rate so fast that the point of no return was not far away, and with more nations at war or on the brink of war than at any other time in history, the establishment of a worldly, fair, strong, and compassionate king was long overdue, and the immediate impact would be enormous. The Group of Five knew it was now or never. Someone had to act. Someone had to step in and say to the world, "Time Out. It's over. Your sovereignty is now conditional; no more war, no more slavery, no more dictatorships, no more terrorism, no more corruption, no more flagrant abuses of power, no more unfair taxes, no more insidious politics, no more spending, and no more harmful nationalism. It is time for a new way of thinking and living, to bring about a true peace, on planet Earth."
But there was one catch, one final piece of business to take care of—getting the King of the World elected. The plan was thought through down to the tiniest detail; the election campaign was ready to roll, and even though they did not know their real purpose, all the best candidates for leadership positions in the King's Administration had been identified and hired, and the strategy to bring every employee Augusta would need had unfolded over the past two years in every major market in the world. Augusta, The Ninth Wonder of the World was "alive and breathing," and the first reservations for the Moon Hotel were about to be taken.
The purchase orders for every vehicle, computer, train, plane, nut and bolt, pen and pencil, and piece of original art had already been signed, and vendors had delivered massive orders. After years of meticulous planning, the last twelve months saw Augusta miraculously spring to life. She awaited only the unveiling of her real reason for existence, the announcement, the election, and the results. If the world's people gave the King a thumbs-down, Plan B was to turn Augusta into the world's model city. Either way, Augusta would flourish.
The meeting at Little Dix Bay began with of The Group of Five presenting their final list of candidates, ranging from CEOs of giant, global corporations to former diplomats, former heads of state, religious leaders, university presidents, and private citizens. The mix was evenly split between male and female candidates of all races. The selection process was grueling; candidate after candidate was dissected inside and out. Not a detail was left uncovered. How big did they think? How open was their mind? How much value did they put on heart? How much had they traveled the world? Did they or did they not have political experience? Did it matter? What were their views on the world's religions? What did they know about macroeconomics? What was their sense of fairness? How did friends and associates view them? If they had enemies, how were the enemies acquired? How did their enemies view them? How had they handled pressure? Did they have a family? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, would their character suit being King or Queen of the World?
After extremely diligent examinations of every qualification of each candidate, it was time to fly in the top five finalists for a final interview and narrow the field to three. So it went; the final five were brought to St. John's under the guise of meeting with The Group of Five to discuss, for the last time, a unique personal and global opportunity. One by one, each candidate was presented by the member of the group who had "discovered" the candidate and treated as king or queen with ultimate power to rule the world, and one by one, each of the candidates responded.
During those six days, with one exception, a distinct pattern arose; each of the candidates, when presented with the possibility of absolute rule of the planet, responded with a nearly identical set of governing criteria, all of which were rooted in establishing one bureaucracy upon another. Even when pressed to create an avant-garde approach to solving the world's problems, virtually every candidate simply drew upon past approaches even though such approaches had brought the world to its current state.
Surprisingly the two candidates with global corporate backgrounds didn't come up with any fresh approaches for managing the planet. They broke down countries like corporate divisions, headed by people like themselves so "the world would be in tune." It was hardly the strategy The Group of Five had envisioned. While the finances of the world were of utmost importance, including the elimination of poverty, running the world as a giant Proctor and Gamble was not what they were looking for. The entire human race as "shareholders" had an appeal, but it simply wasn't the kind of empowerment factor they felt the citizens of the world would aspire to.
And while the final, lone female candidate was very impressive, her goal to put gender equality at the head of the list of priorities was too much of a personal, feminist agenda for a world in turmoil to swallow. Try as the group did to persuade her otherwise, she would not relinquish the importance she put on upgrading the status of oppressed women worldwide. At the end of the day, the group concluded she would make an outstanding leader for the eventual King to include in his administration, so she could undertake her desire to "liberate" the women in the world, but she would not be their choice for Queen of the World.
The fourth candidate, a former diplomat, head of the United Nations, and successful arbiter of several peace negotiations, was so entrenched in the art of negotiation, it caused the group to doubt his ability to make a sweeping, forceful decision. Despite the fact he was known and respected globally and had a Rolodex that included the heads of state of at least half of the world's countries, the group concluded his character was forty-nine percent leader and fifty-one percent bull shitter.
While their intention had been to field three final candidates, there was only one candidate that had high marks in every single criteria of critical importance: creativity, honesty, integrity, a worldly vision, fairness, open mindedness, common sense, inner strength, intelligence, wisdom, business acumen, and last but not least, no family ties ... because the King of the World could not afford to be vulnerable to attacks on his or her family.
The Group of Five realized the selection of a single candidate to put in front of the world was a huge risk. They had, for years, been of the mind the world needed at least three choices. That had always been the plan, but, in the end, it was crystal clear, after years of searching, there was only one viable candidate. Paul Phillips had brought him to the group's attention just a month earlier. Try as they did to elevate several of the candidates to the top, no one compared to Paul's candidate. They didn't want to put two obviously weaker candidates on the ballot because it would not only create suspicion that the election results were fixed, but the whole concept would lose credibility. In the end, they decided to roll the dice with one candidate, one very strong candidate, with a worldview broader and more enlightened than any they'd ever encountered, including their own.
Thus, that fateful day at Little Dix Bay, the plan to implement an unprecedented political campaign on a global scale was officially launched. From that day forward, the sole mission of The Group of Five was to get their man elected, to change the way the world order functioned, to establish a final, decisive arbiter of all global matters, and to save the world from itself. They had the money and resources to pull it off. They would do their best to persuade the people of the world, but in the end it would be decided by an election.
The Internet would be the voting mechanism; one valid, personal Internet account per person age fifteen and above would be allowed one vote. Eligible account holders and the world's ISPs would be screened and validated thirty days prior to the election. Voting would take place over a single twenty-four hour period. A King of the World Internet website and mobile website would be launched to facilitate pre-election voter feedback in written and video form. Anyone who wanted to express his or her opinion would be free to do so.
The governments of the world would be monitored by the Augusta Department of Intelligence and Defense. Any attempt to undermine the election would be verified and published so the world's voters could see the real intentions of any government trying to disrupt or discredit the concept or the process out of their own self-interest. The Group of Five was hell-bent on transparency and would reveal any verified, whether covert or not, ill-intentioned actions of any government, political party, corporation, organization, or individual trying to take away the right of the world's people to elect or not elect a king.
Above all, they would accept the will of the people as the final word. Even though they were convinced that only a single, global authority, backed up with money and unstoppable weaponry, could put the world back on track, end all wars and poverty, create equality among races and gender, and put an immediate stop to regional quarrels, they would, in the end, trust the people of Earth to make the final call.
CHAPTER 28.06.22
Changi Spaceport, Singapore
By seemingly some quirk of fate, the impossible became the possible when Emmett Taylor, the international development director for the Clarkston Lifestyle conglomerate, sat down in seat 12 K on Air Rocket Flight 27 from Singapore to New York. He pointed his air pen to the Wall Street Journal icon on the seat-back screen in front of him and stared at the headline, "Israel in Final Preparation for War on Iran—World Markets Plunge."
"Holy shit," he thought to himself as he read the first paragraph. Twenty-four hours earlier, Israel had told the world it had irrevocable proof that Iranian radicals had provided the small nuclear device (SND) that was detonated in the town of Asbah by the radical group, Jihad Ali, which killed nearly one thousand Jews, two hundred Christians and a handful of Muslims. An entire city block had been evaporated. Not a single structure or living thing remained where the bomb had gone off. And although a small radioactive cloud was created, most of the radiation had diffused into the atmosphere.
He read the second headline, "China Threatens War with Japan," and the third headline, "Rebels Kill Thousands in Darfur," and the fourth, "Russia and Canada Exchange Gunfire at the North Pole," and the fifth, "South America Ponders Military Action Against the United States," and the sixth, "Terrorist Cells Uncovered in Seventeen US Cities."
As an old, leather briefcase interrupted his vision, he looked down at a pair of old, beat-up canvas shoes with thick soles, then up at an old, Hopi Indian beaded belt, an old, worn, white shirt with a clipper ship in full sail for a logo, and up to a ruggedly handsome face and a full head of thick, layered, sun-bleached hair. The guy sat down and closed his eyes. He sat, motionless, for several seconds, and then opened his eyes as the flight attendant came by, gathered sport coats, and took drink orders.
Emmett could sense that the guy was tuning into him and the news headlines. He knew that the guy was about to say something; he could feel it. The guy pointed his air pen at the seat-back screen in front of him and clicked on the Wall Street Journal icon.
"You gotta be kidding. Another war in the Middle East? China and Japan, war in Africa, about to start at the North Pole, and North and South America ready to fight? Terrorists everywhere. Nuts. The world is nuts."
Emmett quickly glanced away as the guy stuck out his hand. "Paul Phillips. Nice to meet you."
"Shit," Emmett thought to himself, as he saw the protruding hand in his peripheral vision. A forced smile on his face, he stuck out his hand. "Emmett Taylor, nice to meet you."
"What do you do?"
"Lifestyle business. Basically, travel the world observing people."
A slight smile creased Paul's lips. "Me too."
Emmett hoped for a one or two question exchange and the flight pleasantries would be over with. "Who you with?"
"I guess you could call it a private placement group." Paul paused a second. "Clarkston, right? I've heard of it. You manage to stay clear of the politics and the terrorists?" He was half kidding but half serious as well.
"The terrorists, yes, so far at least. Impossible to avoid the politics. How did you know I was with Clarkston?"
"I have a sense for things."
Emmett pondered the comment momentarily then nodded towards the Wall Street Journal headlines. "What's your sense of that?"
"It's over the top at this point, out of control, has been forever. Other than Singapore, I don't think there's a country left that isn't politically corrupt, totally. These idiots have so much money and power they are accountable to no one. Money and power, power and money. That's all they understand. What about the people? What about the planet? You know what this world needs?"
Emmett raised his eyebrows anticipating the answer. No answer came.
"That was a question." Paul was serious.
Emmett suddenly felt put on the spot, not to mention the fact, despite having the same concerns everyone else on the planet had, he felt powerless and knew his opinion was worthless. The flight attendant appeared. "Saved by the drinks," he responded, as the flight attendant handed them their drinks. "Cheers," and he toasted Paul's glass. "Here's to finding the answer," and that's when it suddenly hit him. "Yes, actually. I do know. It just dawned on me."
Paul couldn't tell if he was serious or not. He slowly cocked his head as he awaited the answer.
"A king." The look on Emmett's face was like a little kid who had just learned to multiply. "A benevolent ...," he searched for words, thinking out loud, "fair, but tough," he added quickly, "strong, honest, wise ... king." Emmett half-smiled as he began to think through his realization and awaited Paul's response. He looked at the screen. "A king could put an end to all of it."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from King of the World by Randall Coleman. Copyright © 2007 Randall Coleman. Excerpted by permission of The Moon Above Pte. Ltd.
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