"The Big Bad" and the Henchman Problem

One of the main problems with a lot of secret society conspiracy theories is the problem of personnel. I've never been in the military, but I've seen where operational security has been difficult. Groups like Delta and SEAL Team Six exist, and couldn't keep their existence secret for very long.

If you wanted to go deeper than that to a completely covert operation, you might be able to do it if it's very small. But if your organization seeks to do something as large as take over a government in a bloodless coup, that means you need thousands of people (at minimum) to be involved. You can't operate on that scale and go entirely unnoticed.

Someone will eventually talk. Someone will eventually stumble into your super secret meeting looking for someone to give them directions to the World's Biggest Ball of Earwax in Poughkeepsie. If you're a megacorporation like Umbrella from Resident Evil, you've got facilities that need guarding, staff to control, and reports that have to be made to authorities outside of your company.

You'd need to have workers in house to build your facilities and maintain them. You'd have to monitor your employees when they clock out, or never let them go home. If you've got any kind of public face for your corporation, you'd have to have procedures for making sure applicants don't tell anyone about what they saw, or risk hiring a new employee and convincing them not to leave when they see what's really going on.

It's a logistical nightmare to maintain absolute secrecy in an organization for any length of time. So how would they do it? You either have to show a public face and hide the real organization behind a curtain, or hide everything. To me, the first would be easier and less risky, to have a company where the majority of your employees don't realize what's going on.

Even then, you'd need an army of people who do know what's going on, and maintaining security is still a nightmare.

 

Private Contractors (AKA Mercenaries), Good for private army, and as long
as the pay is good won't sell you out, while keeping your internal affairs tight
and secure. Even carrying out assassinations of those the company deems an
internal threat. Who needs loyalty, when you can buy it and not have them ask
a whole lot of questions. They will instill fear into the 'workers', and keep them
from considering going against the corp.

Having a strong PR department will be the 'face' of the corporation to the public.
Spinning facts and denying accusations to the public. Would help if this group
is faithful to the company, but can be suspect if they deviate from the script.
As well as 'mysteriously' go missing, if the corporation feels that one of the PR
members decides to expose what is really going on.

Having an NDA for all employees helps. Though I am sure if they really wanted
to keep people tight-lipped about what they are doing, the corp. may go as far
as to dig into their employees personal lives that they can use as leverage against
them.

If they understand the 'Happy worker is a productive worker', then they will further
lower the odds of having leaks.

 

Bear in mind that not everybody needs to know the whole story. Depending on the nature of the conspiracy, very few people may know the full details. Cults and conspiracies of various kind have always had circles of information, and the ability to disown or cut loose people on the outer circles. The security guard at the front desk just needs to know that he works for a bio-tech company, the builder just knows he's building a lab of some sort, the IT guys just need to get the printer fixed and make sure the disused computers are scrubbed with no security leaks, the researcher just needs to know we need this culture refined by Thursday. There are a lot of people working in legitimate fields that are used to working on a need-to-know basis, who don't have any curiosity about the Big Picture of their employers, or who don't tattle about that mildly suspicious thing they saw because they signed an NDA and would quickly be looking for a new job if they did.

Conduct your illicit business somewhere that's hard to find or that people don't care about. Read up on what King Leopold got away with in the Congo Free State--much of that was because people just didn't care about what was happening in a corner of Africa, and many of those that had a clue were willing to hold their nose and deal with the Belgians because rubber was precious stuff.

Red herrings. The information age makes it much harder to keep secrets--but it also means it's very hard to determine the truth from the wall of noise. If you saw a Youtube video detailing the Terrible Truth About Area 51, would you believe it? Probably not, you'd just roll your eyes and assume the poster is in the same camp as anti-vaccine or "Princess Di's death was an assassination" kooks, and not bother to investigate enough to find out it's true. Alien autopsy? Yeah, nice CG there, but it's not up to that last found-footage movie I saw. People are much more suspicious and jaded, and that makes it easier to hide in plain sight. If a few people do know the truth, so what? Let them ramble on, and let the internet use their faces for "I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens." memes.

Lastly, it's easy to say someone would blab, but remember that the only conspiracies you've ever heard about are the failures.

 

If money were no object, I'd maintain an unscrupulous security force and pay them a king's ransom. I'd monitor every move of every employee in my group. I'd also offer an obscenely generous benefits package to employees, and get rid of them if they so much as sniff in the wrong direction. I like the idea of using NDAs, though really if they disclose anything to anyone, they're not going to have a legal problem so much as a being dead problem.

I'd also pick a location that maybe gets attention, but is steeped in legend, like Area 51 or Cheyenne Mountain. That way any truth gets buried under all the crap about it. At the same time, my IT crew would be top-notch, and erase any evidence wholesale. For example, if somebody posted to a forum about the truth of my organization, I'd have my guys wait a few hours, then erase the entire site from existence in an attack that looks amateurish but thorough. Might even pin it on some troublemakers.

The other thing I'd do is spread my organization around. If I owned, say, 90% of STEM industries on the planet, the paperwork would not lead back to one parent company. I'd make sure other people owned those companies on paper. I'd have employees assume the identities of those people. "Here's $50,000,000,000. Go and spend it on golf and clothes and cars. Pretend to be this guy and give speeches and donate to charity and vote for people and spend money on swimming pools for the Boy Scouts or whatever."

As far as for the bloodless coup, my employees would run for office and absolutely win, but not necessarily by a landslide. My people will fiddle with ballots or what have you as needed, until we have elected a Congress and POTUS and everyone else necessary for us to control the government. As needed, we'll replace military commanders. It'll all be done using systems that are already in place, and we'll change what we need to accomplish what we want.

Of course, any evil I've committed as the head of this organization is for the benefit of humanity, so while we're at it, let's make a strong economy and improve the communities we're in. Keep them happy, and they'll be more blind to the wall we're building around the city "for their protection." I would prefer to use happiness rather than fear to keep people in line, but the nanosecond someone steps out of line, I'm not above taking them out very quietly.

 

I never saw Alias, but the video game Deus Ex has the main character thinking he's working for the U.N. when he's really working for Majestic 12, and I'm familiar with false flag ops. That would be ideal, to have the bulk of my workers thinking they work for benign companies on benign projects, when they're really working toward world domination.

 

Not sure where exactly you're going with this problem, but I just read that a bunch of legit activists on both sides of the political spectrum have discovered that their social media groups were Russian fronts. Make sure nobody in the front office has a clue what's going on, and bury the real stuff seventeen layers sideways. I'm convinced that Delta and the SEALS are just a distraction, and that the real heavy hitters are listed as farm safety compliance officers under the Department of Agriculture...

 

I was just thinking about what would cause people to do the bidding of someone and maintain absolute secrecy when you've got an organization of thousands. In my story, if I have the secret society control the government, then it makes controlling communication and the logistics of combat a lot easier to write. I just hadn't figured out exactly what would make thousands of employees work for a corporation they knew was corrupt.

If you're worried that I'm planning insurrection against the U.S., you needn't be.

ETA: I'm not saying Delta et. al. are corrupt, just to be clear. I only gave them as examples of organizations who sought to maintain absolute secrecy and were "outed" anyway.

 

Calm down, that is not what he is saying.

Subversion, lies, and denial. Those are the tools you should use, along with ignorance.

1. You need a resource that you cannot easily obtain in mass
quantities to fuel your companies product lines, and profit on
the consumption of said products. They have it way the hell over
there, and you can't get it here. And they won't trade with you.

2. Grease the palms of politicians that align/agree with your interests.
(In private)

3. Funnel oodles of money to companies that build weapons for military
use. (Make a donation, and keep it on the DL.)

4. With the backpocket politicians you have, using their influence to gain
support for your interests (by making them happy with more under the table
money). The further from allied country they are, the less you have to worry
about your own really saying much about how you conduct your business.
Your puppets will rally (for reward) for a reason to go and attack said
region of interest to you. If said country has been threatening, or has attacked
you this step becomes much easier.

5. Leave no trace of hard evidence anywhere. And if anybody comes a sniffing
around, bury them in litigation, have them arrested, or magically disappear.
Outside of a very small group who know your involvement, chances are they are
just as likely to have a similar plan in place. (And a cookie jar that is well stocked.)

6. Sit back and reap the benefits of knowing that you paid for a war (in part), you get
the resources you need, and rake in huge profits. Your workers have no idea that you
have done any of this, and it is just business as usual. The public has no idea, and
those outside of your inner circle have no idea.

This could be a decent theoretical platform for you that your Big Baddie could use.

 

Dude, you are so old.

...Just wanted you to know. No big deal.

 

Damn skippy, whippersnapper. I started playing computer games on a Commodore 64.

 

smashthestate

 

I started on a TRS-80 Model I. Lunar Lander, loaded from a cassette tape.

Young punks these days....

 

No, I didn't think you were trying to overthrow the government , I just wasn't sure what was happening in the context of the story since the post was in the form of a muse rather than a question. The failure to keep Delta and SEALS etc secret is one of the newer generation, I'm afraid. People are far too eager to get their names out there these days. @big soft moose probably knows why the most dangerous thing you can do in the SAS is to grow a mustache....

Navy SEAL training these days....

 

Gotcha. I do worry sometimes if I'm going to get a visit from Uncle Sam, but I think that's largely Writers' Paranoia.

In 1947, along with the founding of the U.N., I've decided The Pantheon Group was formed in secret to prevent World War III. They've taken a cloak-and-dagger approach, but after the War on Terror was expanded in 2032 to include rogue and pariah states, The Pantheon Group decided it was time to take a slightly more direct approach.

Using a number of means from overt campaigning through various organizations to covert assassination and bribes, The Pantheon Group began to insert its people into government. By the time Pantheon employee Alexander Déos was elected POTUS in 2048, Pantheon controlled the bulk of the government. Because of the economic crisis of 2032, they were also able to buy many companies, primarily with an interest in STEM and military R&D.

By the time President Déos is elected, Pantheon owns Colorado Springs, with Cheyenne Mountain as their headquarters. They employ most of the city in one way or another, and pour a lot of money into improving the city. They occasionally fudge the details, like when they submit the idea for a wall to be built around the city. The citizens vote against it, but Pantheon reports a 56% vote for the wall, and builds it anyway, as a deterrent to outside invaders.

Meanwhile, one power-hungry, over-zealous Pantheon general, Michael Sterling, forms his own biological weapon program called Green Strike. The idea is to create a weapon as devastating as a nuclear bomb and as stealthy as a warrior with a knife. Green Strike could be covertly deployed to an enemy nation, and the resulting epidemic would distract the enemy nation from waging war. It's hard to wage a war when your soldiers are eating your citizens.

Pantheon is, for all intents and purposes, a benevolent dictator bent on a non-nuclear world. They've seized an opportunity for world domination, but don't condone Sterling's actions. They don't know what he's up to, but when Green Strike gets out into the city, Pantheon sends in its private army to quell the "zombie" uprising. To cover his own ass and gather intel on the weapon, Sterling sends in his loyalists, the Hellions.

Vincent and his crew are stuck in the middle between The Titans, The Hellions, and Zed.

Because Pantheon's hands aren't exactly clean, I was wondering what would make people loyal to them, rather than jumping ship at the first sign of corruption. So far we've put together ideas on payment, fostering ignorance, using NDAs, and punishing those who step out of line. Compartmentalize the hell out of all of it, don't let the right hand see the left, keep people happy, and put the complaint department on the end of an 7.62x51 M40.

 

A couple of jobs ago I was in a civil service position and my occupational specialty was called, I kid you not, "Miscellaneous Administrative".

I wasn't a spy or part of any conspiracy, but if you did need a place to park some spies/conspirators that always seemed like a good thing to call them.

 

You know this gave me the idea to just have a department named : The Junk Drawer

 

I took a writing class once from a former CIA agent who said budgets aren't used well enough in spy novels. He said the Bourne movies were entertaining fiction, but if the CIA had that kind of program, it would be hidden under budget items like, "Hey, we need an extra $100,000 for paper clips, and over here we need an extra $500,000 for copy toner, and over here we could use an extra..." until it added up to what they need for their special project.

He said that after 1976--when the CIA was officially prohibited from assassination--they had some interesting increases in other budgetary categories. It gets further confused because the intelligence agencies basically get shown a big pile of money, then they spend the fiscal year stabbing each other in the back to get to it. He hinted at the fact the hundreds of agencies steal from each other all the time.

 

I'm currently working out how to make Pantheon obscenely rich. I got the idea of them negotiating debt forgiveness, wiping the slate clean on the money America owes and is owed. Perhaps they'll move to a universal currency as part of the deal, all done electronically. From there, because Pantheon has such powerful technology, they can add ones and zeros to their bank accounts as needed. If money only existed in computers, why not?

 

Well, if they did it too much it could cause hyperinflation and eventually their currency would be worthless.

 

Good point. I'm not enough of an economic anything to know how all that works. I figured somebody would chime in and say, "Uh, that's not how that works..." Thank you.

As for the black market, that's not a bad idea, @big soft moose. Thank you.