Society Invitation

Eli Madden sat at his desk staring at the mysterious package wrapped in brown paper sitting in front of him.

What was inside?

He picked up the box and examined it.

It has heft.

The box looked and weighed about the same as a sheaf of printing paper from the office supply store. There were no adornments on the box, no stamps, no address. Just his name in carefully lettered print on the front, along with the word URGENT in capital letters.

Eli turned the box over in his hands. What could be so urgent? He wanted to know, but the mystery of it made him nervous.

He almost dropped the box when there was a knock at his door.

“Sir?” His assistant peeked his head in.

“Yes, what?” He placed the box impatiently back on his desk.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to check in about your meetings this afternoon.”

Eli flicked his eyes at the box again and then looked at the time.

“Yes. Okay.” He ran his hand through his hair. “When is my first meeting again?”

“You have an hour, sir.”

“Give me fifteen minutes and then we can go over the notes.”

“Got it.”

Eli sighed as his assistant closed the door. He needed to open the package now before the day got busy. The time for puzzling over who sent it to him was over.

He carefully peeled away the tape holding the package together at the top and pulled out a sheaf of papers. He flipped through them before turning to the first page to read it.

Mr. Madden,

The Society of Pioneers would like to invite you to dinner at my estate next month. We are interested in speaking with you. We have determined that the time of Earth becoming inhabitable is upon us. While we aim to invest in the technology to fix it, we are also working tirelessly towards the future colonization of space as an alternative option if our home planet cannot be saved.

Your feelings towards the colonization of Mars and the recent sale of X5 along with the formation of your current company, Dollar Dudes, contribute to your potential as a Society member.

This package contains all the information you need to make a decision. There is research on the inevitability of climate collapse with the various possible scenarios and their probabilities. Additionally, we have included information about The Society of Pioneers.

I arranged a charter to my private island for the weekend of July 15. That should give you plenty of time to make a decision.

I must warn you that The Society of Pioneers is a secret society, comprised of the richest and most intelligent people on the planet. While this means an invitation to join is a huge honor, it also means that exposing The Society means financial ruin. Do not share the information we have given you with anyone.

I look forward to meeting you in person soon.

Sincerely,

Roger Baas

Eli shook his head. He couldn’t believe it. Roger Baas was one of the richest and most powerful people on the planet. He knew of rumors of a proposal from Baas to create a group of leaders to improve humanity. But he dismissed them as just that.

And yet, the reality of the rumors now stared at him. And they wanted him to become a member!

Eli knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until he read through the papers.

“Andy.”

His assistant opened the door and peeked his head in.

“Yes, sir?”

“Clear my calendar for the day. Say it’s a family emergency or something. I don’t care. I’m going to go home.”

"Yes, sir. Is...everything okay?”

“Yes. I just have a matter of business that I need to attend to.”

“Okay.”

Andy started to close the door.

“Oh, wait, Andy. One more thing. Block off the weekend of July 15th for me. I’m going to go on leave.”

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This story is part of where the reality of my upcoming novel diverges from our current reality. The story takes place in the past, around 2002. You can read other short stories from the work I'm doing on the novel at the links below.