In the Secret Bunker Beneath the Swiss Alps -
A thick, horror-filled silence followed Lord Ashworth's confession of Cthulhu's awakening and the true meaning of the "Eye" that had ruled humanity. The younger members of the Thirteen Families, Tanaka and Herrera among them, looked at each other with blood-curdling understanding. The pieces of a much vaster and more sinister puzzle were beginning to fall into place in their minds.
"Now it all made sense," Herrera thought, Ashworth's cold logic resonating with other truths he and his faction had discovered, truths they had believed to be their own secret advantage. He stood, his face pale but with a new, grim resolve.
"Lord Ashworth, Baron Von Hess," Herrera began, his voice surprisingly firm. "Your confession about the Eye Entity and your... extreme measures... is monstrous, yes. But perhaps, in our own blindness and ambition for a 'new order,' we too have been pawns in a game we are only beginning to understand."
He turned to address the entire council. "For generations, our families, especially the younger and more technologically inclined branches, have maintained discreet, almost clandestine contact with a non-human intelligence. They called themselves the 'Umitas.'"
A murmur of surprise and renewed alarm rippled through the room. The Elders were familiar with the legends of the Umitas, often dismissed as misinformation or eccentric cults.
"They came to our grandparents, and then to our parents," Herrera continued, "with promises of a bright future for humanity, one based on logic, science, and 'optimized planetary management.' They offered us advanced technology, solutions to seemingly insoluble problems, visions of a rational utopia." He paused, his gaze hardening. "And they spoke to us, with increasing insistence as we gained influence, of a 'power in the shadows,' an 'archaic and superstitious influence'—your All-Seeing Eye, as we now understand it—that, they claimed, held back true human progress and kept it bound to cycles of fear and servitude."
"At first," Herrera admitted, "many of us who now lead the 'reform' faction believed their warnings about this 'hidden power' to be nonsense, a fantasy meant to impress us, or perhaps an elaborate manipulation by another Earthly faction seeking to discredit the Old Guard. We dismissed much of it."
"But as the years passed," Tanaka chimed in with his precise, cold voice, "and each of us began to take control of our respective families, the Umitas became more... persuasive." He briefly described how that power grab had come about: "In my case," Herrera said, "my father clung to 20th-century economic models, to political alliances that insulated us from the new, emerging centers of power. The Umitas provided me with... 'geostrategic data analysis' and 'systemic vulnerabilities' of his internal rivals, which conveniently allowed me to orchestrate a restructuring that left him in a well-compensated 'early retirement,' but without real power."
Tanaka nodded. "For me, it was similar. My grandfather was paralyzed by tradition and a fear of radical technological change. The Umitas offered me prototypes of 'adaptive artificial intelligence' and access to 'zero-point energy sources' that my internal competitors in the family conglomerate could neither match nor comprehend. The 'generational transition' in my family was... remarkably smooth, aided by their 'technological advice' on our board meetings and the timely filtering of certain... 'errors in judgment' by the old guard."
"With each of our promotions," Herrera continued, "the Umitas grew closer. They offered us visions of a 'rational,' 'optimized,' future, free from the 'chains of the past.' And they gave us more and more... 'proof' of that secret power they claimed truly pulled humanity's strings from the shadows, that 'Archaic Eye' to which you Elders were so irrevocably bound, whether as its high priests or its jailers."
Von Hess, who had listened with a mixture of disdain and a growing, terrible suspicion, interrupted in a harsh voice. "These... 'Umitas'... these alien benefactors of yours who whispered in your ears and helped you overthrow your elders... Did they have a leader? A main spokesperson, a coordinating intelligence with whom you dealt?"
Herrera and Tanaka exchanged a glance. The color seemed to drain from their faces as a new and horrifying understanding began to form, connecting the dots of the recent, terrifying revelations.
"Yes," Herrera said, his voice barely a thread, the arrogance of before completely gone. "There was one. The one coordinating your 'assistance mission' to Terra."
The one who outlined for us the vision of a future 'liberated' from the old superstitions and 'archaic controls' that he claimed your Eye represented."
"His name," Tanaka added, his voice shaking for the first time, raw emotion breaking through its facade of cool efficiency, "the name the leader of the Umitas gave us... is Amitiel."
The air left Lord Ashworth's lungs with an audible hiss. Von Hess clutched his chest, his wide eyes fixed on the young men. The other Elders shrank back in their leather seats, their faces turning ashen white. A cold panic, deeper and more visceral than any they had felt before Cthulhu, gripped them.
"Amitiel!" Ashworth gasped, his legendary composure finally broken, his brandy snifter falling and shattering on the marble floor. "The Supreme Commander of the Netlin... the brother of Cthulhu... was he also your guide, 'Ummita'? Impossible! This is madness!"
Von Hess spluttered, speechless, pointing a trembling finger at the youngsters.
"We've been... we've been toys!" he finally cried, his voice cracking with terror and realization. "All of us! Both factions! Our disputes, our ambitions, your 'ideals' and our 'tradition'... all manipulated by the same... cosmic puppeteer!
The Thirteen Families' bunker, the pinnacle of secret human power, was plunged into abject terror and crushing realization. They realized, with soul-chilling certainty, that their infighting, their grandiose and selfish plans for the world—all could have been orchestrated, or at least exploited, by a single, incredibly cunning Netlin intelligence playing multiple sides. Amitiel wasn't just in space with his legions and allied with Cthulhu; he had been whispering in the ears of the next generation of world leaders for decades, preparing them, perhaps, for this very moment of global chaos he now purported to "order."