‘They’re based on Wall Street now,’ Shelton said. ‘It’s rumoured that within their corporate headquarters is a great library filled with books on the occult. They claim to be in touch with “Ascended Masters” – for which, in my view, read “demons”. They also operate a distance learning academy called the Arcane School, which sends out occult literature to spread their message to the world.’

‘What message is that?’ Ben asked, sensing he already knew the answer.

‘You tell me,’ Shelton replied with a mysterious wink. ‘The coming of the Age of Aquarius. World Goodwill. The sermon of a New World Religion. Which, given the name by which the organisation was originally founded, you can bet isn’t going to be a Christian one.’

‘This gets more and more fucked up,’ Wolf said.

Shelton spread his hands. ‘Hey, maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong. What do I know? I’m just a humble researcher, after all. Check it out for yourself, it’s all over the internet and I’m hardly the first to have made such connections. Could be these folks are just a bunch of harmless, well-meaning, very rich, very well-connected mystics and New Agers. But consider the bigger picture, gentlemen. There’s no disputing the fact that all across the board, from Dashwood to Crowley to Hitler to the modern age, the forces of Satan have been working behind the scenes for centuries to rot the fabric of our societies and distort people’s minds to hate and corruption. Today the power of evil wields its influence on a global scale. The enemy are into everything, building their matrix for total domination. It’s all coming together. How the hell did they get so organised? I’ll tell you how. Because, as the wise old saying goes, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing”. We’ve been sleepwalking into this nightmare for a long time, my friends. We broke our contract with God, and created a void that the dark forces wasted no time in filling.’

Shelton’s eyes were bulging with passion. He was in full-blown preacher mode now, driven by utter conviction and deep fear.