Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(11)

“Are you referring to the factions?”

Garrett turned his head and she could tell by his face that he was pleased that she was paying attention. “Yes, I am referring to the factions. Around nineteen sixty-one, various people in the Council and the Tribunal began having severe disagreements. There were several members that felt that the Trust should go public, that we should not be in hiding anymore. They fought for years internally about this, until a young man whose family was one of the Descendants, decided he had enough. In nineteen eighty-seven, Nathaniel Livingston convinced many members of the Trust to leave and start up their own organization, with their own rules. Approximately, twenty five hundred Actuals left the Trust, and started up an organization called the Cine Tofa.”

“Cine Tofa.” She repeated, letting the strange name roll off her tongue.

“The Cine Tofa is a complex ideal. They feel that with our greater numbers, now is the time to take over and go public. They want us to be the protectors and feel that the average human cannot protect themselves. The Cine Tofa feels a moral responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves.”

“And the Trust does not?”

Garrett shook his head. “It is not exactly like that with the Trust. The Trust, well, they have more faith in humanity, I guess. The Trust helps, but is very discreet in how they go about it.”

Caitlyn snorted. “Well, the human race survived fine for all these years.”

“True. But there are now more things than ever that separate the Trust from the Cine Tofa. About three years ago, there was an alarming discovery. The amount of Potentials that we can see has skyrocketed.”

Caitlyn raised her eyebrows. She thought it was amazing that ten thousand people could still have a secret society. “How many?”

“How many people have appeared fuzzy to you over the past month?”

Caitlyn thought about this and realized that most people she found out of focus were young and just starting their college careers. “About seven or eight?”

He shook his head. “Now, don’t you find it strange that there are only ten thousand of us spread around the world no less, but yet, there are eight potentials in this one zip code alone that you have suddenly noticed?”

Caitlyn nodded but she did not put it fully together. “That does seem rather odd. So exactly what are we talking about?”

“We are talking about a large amount of the younger generation that is going to Awaken. Most people Awaken between the ages of twenty-one to twenty-five. The Trust and the Cine Tofa have been taking random censuses of areas for the past three years, and based on the data, they have estimated that five hundred thousand people in the world’s population are going to Awaken within the next five years. And some consider that a low estimate. We now call this event, the Inception.”

“Five hundred thousand?” The number was staggering to her. She knew that it was not even close to a half percent of the world’s population, but still. “And I can only guess that number is going to increase.”

“Exactly. We can only assume that the younger generations are going to follow suit, and this as well is going to pose problems.”

Caitlyn could imagine all the ramifications that this would cause. The next fifty years of the world’s history is going to be filled with strife and prejudice. “So am I part of this Inception?”

He shook his head. “No. In fact, you are the calm before the storm. Per a treaty that we established in 1989, The Trust and the Cine Tofa both have designated areas that they recruit new Potentials from in North America. It appears that there will be perhaps twenty five of you that we know of that are going to be Awakening over this next year on the Trust’s side. I am guessing the same on the Cine Tofa’s end, which is a lower than normal number. But in the next four or five years, we know will start to see an astounding number Awaken. This causes a lot of problems on both ends to say the least.”

Caitlyn thought about that for a moment. “So this must be bringing together both factions to work on a solution.”

“In some small ways, yes, but in reality, it has divided them even further.”

She couldn’t picture how it would. They would need to band together. “How so?”

“Well, both acknowledge that it is going to be virtually impossible to hide our existence. So both factions are using the time now to establish how they are going to handle the Inception. The Trust has taken the stance of staying the course. They have been placing members of the Trust in high levels of Government for the past several centuries. They feel when the Inception occurs, they will have enough influence to avoid conflict. The Cine Tofa, or should I say the head of the Cine Tofa, has been taking a more radical approach, thinking that this is the time they have been waiting for to come out. They feel that that now is the time to position themselves as the guardians of the human race. Protect those who cannot protect themselves. And by protectors, I mean that if necessary, they will take over governments to ensure a peaceful world.”