NEW YORK “John Astor the founder of the Astor dynasty,” asked Hudson, “or John Astor the Internet spook everyone’s talking about?” “The latter,” said Elmes. “And he’s more than an Internet spook. Much, much more. The FBI have a strangely serious interest in him and he’s rumored to be connected to some kind of cult.” “One of these fanatical religious groups?” asked Hudson. “This is where it gets confusing. Some reports link him to Blind Faith, the fundo-Christian group, others with a group calling themselves the Simulists, some kind of science-based Doomsday cult. They’re behind the we are becoming ‘graffiti’ you see all over the place. Remember how they found the billionaire Samuel Tennant starved to death in his Park Lane penthouse?” “I remember …” “Tennant was connected to the Simulists. There’s a rumor that, just before he did his Howard Hughes act, he claimed to have gotten his hands on a copy of Astor’s book, Phantoms of Our Own Making.”
