Of Conspirators, Four — Stephen Donald Huff

Peddlers and snake oil, pimps and pornography, lunatics and paranoia… each pair travels the same darkened alleyways to service identical shadow-bound gates. We receive them by the backdoor, thank you, and always well into the evening. These are private matters undertaken and clearly marked by clandestine hush and furtive sidelong glance. Sometimes concealed in the open but more often hidden in a fog of disinformation, our every secret contains a kernel of truth wrapped within a burlap of proficient lies. Patience and due diligence may unwrap the enigma to decipher a hidden message, but let the interloper beware. Secrecy keeps company with slaughter. Of political overwatch run monstrously amok; of corrupt small-town cops playing god; of ancient treasures buried in the most obvious of sites, and of all the mysterious specters that play lethal games of government; such twisted threads weave life's strange tapestry. Of conspiracies, here find intriguing catalogs, and of conspirators, four.