The memorandum was silent on details, referring instead to another document dated eleven days earlier. He rummaged through the remaining pages and found no copy of that communication. But he did find a report, from the secretary of Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, to the president of the United States, dated January 26, 1937. This, too, had been referred to in Howell’s book.
More unsubstantiated fact there.
Now here it was.
Per your presidential order, the one dollar bill was redesigned in 1935. The changes incorporated at that time were as follows: On the obverse, the blue numeral 1 was changed to gray and made smaller; the gray ONE to the right was removed; the Treasury seal was made smaller and superimposed by WASHINGTON, D.C.; and a stylized ONE DOLLAR was added over the Treasury seal. The reverse was also modified to include the Great Seal of the United States. Per your specific request (as noted on the next page) the seal was depicted with its reverse side to the left, obverse to the right.
He flipped to the next page and studied a copy of the bill’s image, noting that Roosevelt had both approved and specifically asked for the seal to be depicted as noted.
He turned his attention back to the memorandum, which explained that the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, as it appeared on the redesigned $1 bill, featured a barren landscape dominated by an unfinished pyramid of thirteen steps, topped by the Eye of Providence. At the base of the pyramid were engraved the Roman numerals MDCCLXXVI, 1776. At the top stood a Latin phrase, ANNUIT COEPTIS, which meant “God favors our undertaking.” At the bottom of the seal was a semicircular banner that proclaimed NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, taken from Virgil, meaning “a new order of the ages,” a reference to the new American era. A string of thirteen pearls extended outward toward the bill’s edge.
The obverse of the Great Seal featured a bald eagle, the symbol of the United States. Above the eagle was a radiant cluster of thirteen stars arranged in a six-pointed star. The eagle’s breast was covered by a heraldic shield with thirteen stripes that resembled those on the American flag. The stars and stripes stood for the thirteen original states of the union. The eagle held a ribbon in its beak reading E PLURIBUS UNUM, “Out of many states, one nation.” In its left talons the eagle grasped thirteen arrows. In its right talons it held an olive branch with thirteen leaves and thirteen olives. Together, those represented the opposing powers of war and peace. Another string of thirteen pearls extended outward toward the bill’s edge.
Your question relative to a message hidden within the Great Seal was considered. The fact that drawing lines between letters A M S O N on the seal’s reverse side not only forms a six-pointed star, but also provides letters that form the word MASON cannot be explained. The Great Seal was created over a 23 year period, starting in 1776 and ending in 1789. Many designs were considered and rejected. Symbolism abounds throughout the seal, especially with the repeated use of 13 in much of its art. But all of that was intended to reflect a patriotic flavor, a celebration of the newly formed United States of America. No evidence could be found of any intentionally inserted secret messages.
The latest redesign of the one dollar bill occurred over a period from late 1933 to the end of 1934, per your order. Many career Treasury officials participated, most of whom were hired when Mellon was Treasury Secretary, but no influence from him on the redesign has been uncovered.
The remaining copies dealt with the 1935 redesign, the reasons and justifications given for each artistic inclusion. Nothing seemed particularly relevant. Then he came across another report.
More recent.
Dated in the last ninety days.
From Paul Larks to the current secretary of Treasury.
THIRTY-THREE
ZADAR, CROATIA
Isabella climbed down from the small plane, Luke Daniels already on the tarmac, his sunglasses gone. The weather had steadily worsened on the flight across the Adriatic. The splendid sunshine of an Italian morning had been blotted out by the black curtain of a Balkan squall blowing in from the east, along with a noticeable temperature drop.
The flight had been quick and uneventful. They should be about an hour ahead of Malone. The ferry’s docking terminal waited seven miles away, on a narrow peninsula that accommodated Zadar’s town center. She’d never visited Croatia, her overseas travel confined to central Europe and England and always work-related. She never took vacations. Her accrued leave time had ballooned off the charts, so much that her supervisor had told her she had to start using it. So far she’d ignored that directive.
“I saw some taxis on the other side of the airport as we approached for landing,” Luke said. “You need to know that the Chinese and North Koreans may have assets here, on Kim’s trail. We could run into them.”
“How would they know where Kim is?”
He shrugged. “Probably because they’ve been watching him, too. Just keep alert.”
“I always do.”
“Yeah, like you did back on the dock in Venice.”
“Did saying that make you feel better?”
“Actually, it did. But let’s get real, okay? How much experience do you have facing down a kill squad? This isn’t a bunch of high-steppin’ tax evaders. These folks will really hurt you.”
She stared him down. “I know how to use a gun. I can take care of myself.”
He chuckled. “Lady, you got no idea.”
“Just follow my lead,” she said, “and we’ll be fine.”
“Here’s a news flash. Pappy doesn’t take orders.”
“Pappy isn’t in charge. I am.”
“Since when?”
Male abruptness seemed an occupational hazard. Of late, though, the female kind had begun to raise its ugly head. Her last two partners had been women, both loose cannons, both trying to stand out in what they believed to be a man’s world. So they took risks. Made mistakes. She hated the description a man’s world. Women could succeed. She was living proof of that, now working directly for the Treasury secretary on a top-secret mission. All you had to do was play by the rules, do as you were told, and deliver results. That always paid dividends, regardless of your sex. Everything about this mission had been explained to her in detail. She got it. The stakes were high. And she knew what had to be done, this Southern cowboy and a retired guy named Pappy be damned.
She. Was. In. Charge.
On the flight over she’d managed to learn a little about Luke Daniels. Washington had emailed that he was ex-military, special forces, decorated, with several overseas tours. He’d worked for the Magellan Billet going on two years and had the good fortune to be the nephew of the president of the United States. Which dropped him several notches on her list of respect. No one had ever helped her climb the ladder, and she resented any and all who took shortcuts.
“We need to get to the ferry dock,” she said. “Before this storm arrives.”
* * *
Malone waited for Howell to explain.
“Larks told me about an original sheet he found in the Treasury archives, all crumpled up. As soon as I heard what he had to say, it all made sense. We know that Mellon met with Roosevelt on New Year’s Eve 1936. That comes from the diary of David Finley—one of Mellon’s closest people—published in the 1970s. The meeting was to finalize the National Gallery of Art, but Me
llon gave something to Roosevelt, which the president crumpled up and tossed away.”
“You think it’s the same piece of paper?”
“If not, it’s one heck of a coincidence.”
He couldn’t argue with that.
“That page has random numbers on it. Larks scanned it and sent it to me.”
“Then it’s within Larks’ email account, or on a computer at Larks’ house?”
Howell shook his head. “The old guy was paranoid as hell. He told me he sent it from somewhere else. He didn’t say by whom or from where, and I didn’t ask. All my email accounts are under false names. A copy is stored on one of them. It’s some kind of code, but I couldn’t crack it. I really wanted to see the original, so he brought it over. That’s part of what that Korean just took with him.”
Which called into question his decision to allow Kim to walk away. Stephanie and the president’s orders had been clear. Retrieve the documents.
“There’s also a copy of a 1913 report from the solicitor general in that satchel. Larks sent me a scan of that, too. It’s significant because it tells the secretary of state that he can pretty much do whatever he wants relative to declaring a constitutional amendment valid. It references a previous memo from the solicitor general. That previous memo, I believe, is the smoking gun. It’s the one that lays out all the problems. But Larks never could find it in the archives.”
He understood. “You think Mellon took it?”
“It’s entirely possible.”
“How in the world do you know about any of this? It seems all of the important information was sealed away. How did you piece it together?”
“I first read about this on the Internet. There’s a lot of crazy stuff about the 16th Amendment. For decades people have tried to convince courts that the income tax is illegal. Was Ohio a state at the time the amendment was ratified? Some say no. I disagree. It was. Others say that the amendment did not specifically repeal previous contradictory clauses of the Constitution, therefore it’s invalid. That’s ridiculous. Still more say that the filing of a tax return violates the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination, or that it’s a ‘taking’ and cannot be imposed ‘without just compensation.’ One guy argued that the 16th Amendment was unconstitutional since it violated the 13th Amendment’s prohibition against ‘involuntary servitude.’ Original, but nuts. None of those are the way.”