Page 167 - Chronicles of Darkness

he could translate at least part of the message that awaited much to the consternation of governments and commercial
him when he first activated his machine. He confided to his broadcasters worldwide. Also known as “numbers stations,”
friends and colleagues that he would soon have a spectacu- the devices transmit today, and can be heard on conventional
lar announcement to make. But he died three days before the shortwave receivers. According to Hughes’ apocryphal state-
event. Following the directives of his recently rewritten will, ments, their intended recipient is “the ruler of Mictlan, the Mayan
his attorney removed all references to the mysterious signals Tartarus.” What Hughes believed would happen when the
from Hughes’ notes and records. Aside from the comments proper signal was received is not known.
and testimonies of those who knew Hughes, the only extant
reference left is among the final pages of his diary: “What of the Second Children,” I asked the angel.
“Do they ever make their presence known to mankind?”
“Long and painful hours, months, years, have brought
me to this. But a small fraction of a greater whole, made “Their influence is widespread and insidious,” the
finally clear to my understanding. And yet these few words, angel said.
I cannot bear to hear. Let them reach no other ears. Let what As the premier political power on the American
is fallen remain fallen.” continents, the United States acquired much of the secret

In the century since his death, some of Hughes’ notes have knowledge that had been plundered by Europeans in South
come to light. In the early 1950s, a group of amateur shortwave America. Its capitol city was laid out according to geometric
radio operators claimed that Hughes had not only decoded principles of Aztec cities, such as Tenochtitlan, as interpreted
the signals but had left diagrams of a machine that would reply by European freemason architects. The lines of the streets are
to the code. Though no one could locate the signals Hughes oriented to channel energy from the Earth. Numbered and
described, instructions for building Hughes’ “responders” were lettered boulevards allow power to be ritualistically directed
widely circulated, and hundreds of the machines are believed for various purposes. The result has allowed a country of
to have been built since. They continually transmit automated farmers and immigrants to grow into the most powerful na-
sequences of numbers, words, tones, music and other sounds, tion on the Earth.