About Wes

Including Ashley Jordan, Rouzbeh Aryana and The Cloister of Akhenaten

   

MainMenu

 

 

   

Whats New...

Revised Website

I am currently upgrading this entire website, to include my music, music videos, and a Blog.

   

 

   

Seeking Producer...

"The Methuselah Man" and "Sacrament of Fear" - Screenplays

If you are a movie producer or a literary agent with contacts to movie producers, please contact us via this website or will.dresser@yahoo.com regarding these two properties! You can download them here for review at your convenience.

   

 

   

Upcoming Events...

"Website Changes"

I am revising my website to reflect new material.

   

 

Wes, A. J., Aryana...and The Cloister of Akhenaten

 

Wes Franklin

Born: October 1965, to James Franklin and Sandra (Wood) Franklin – English/Scottish
Age: 48 (in 2013)
Ht: 5’ 11” +
Wt: 175 lbs, slight and muscular, good body strength and flexibility
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Brown
Features: Culturally vague, blends easily in other cultures with modest augmentation.
Marital Status: Single; emotionally committed to Ashley Jordan
(see A.J.'s profile below)
Principle Associate: Rouzbeh Aryana, long-time friend, bodyguard, private investigator

(see Aryana Biography below)
Education: Off the charts, child prodigy. Harvard – Ph.D. History (1985, age 20); Ph.D. Biology (1987, age 22); M.D. (1989, age 24).
Religious Affiliation/Proclivity: Eclectic agnostic. Has studied all the major religions of the world and appreciates the best in each. Personal ethics and morality are Aristotelian in nature, i.e., moderation in all things. He has an intuitive sense of the infinite but with no pretense at absolute understanding or direct knowledge of same.
Languages: Fluent in Dutch, German, and Italian; competent in French; conversant with phrases in Russian and Slavic dialects; modest abilities in Middle Eastern dialects, ordering food and drinks and the like. Functional sphere of mobility,
Hawaii to Moscow
.
Financial Status: Complete financial independence achieved from: family inheritance – substantial real estate holdings, trust funds, and insurance from untimely death of parents (automobile accident, 1979), and is highly compensated for investigative services.
Special Affiliations:
The Cloister of Akhenaten
, a clandestine worldwide resource network, primarily academicians, but not exclusively so. They have no government or state accountability or association. Fees earned are commensurate with hiring party’s ability to pay (thus, from negligible to considerable compensation for services rendered).
Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), consultant, fieldwork in
Africa and South America
several months each year.

Personal Idiosyncrasies: Consumes a special Cognitive Enhancement drink each morning, comprising various natural berries and juices, combined with Hydergine, Piracetam, Aniracetam, BMY-21502/BMs-181168, Minaprine, Oxiracetam, and Pramiracetam. As a student of religious ceremony and ritual, he has participated in various cultural practices involving the use of psychoactive and psychotropic substances, resulting in extensive expansion of brain function.

Favorite Expression: Truth never happens in real time.

Favorite Drink/Sweets: Bailey’s & Decaf, extra hot, and dark chocolate.

Favorite Reads: J. K. Rowling; Clive Cussler; Dr. Thomas Roberts (NIU) Psychedelic Medicine.

Ashley Jordan (A.J.)

Ashley Jordan is 36, eight years junior to Wes Franklin, and is his one true love and partner in life. A.J., too, has an extraordinary IQ, with her area of expertise being computers and communications technology. She is a brunette (though sometimes blonde) with an athletic body, and is well-practiced in martial arts. She has been a partner in Wes’ adventures since their initial meeting eight years earlier.

 

Rouzbeh Aryana

Aryana has been Wes Franklin’s right-hand man for fifteen years. Aryana is a few years older than Wes, 6’2”, and 225 lbs of muscle. He is an arms expert but prefers to keep things simple, calling mainly on his throwing knives, which are dispensed by a high-tech arm sheath of Aryana’s own design. On more than one occasion Aryana has thrown himself into harm’s way to save Wes’ life, repayment for an earlier life-debt that Aryana will never forget. A dime-sized swirl of uneven flesh on his chest and back was caused by a 9mm bullet meant for Wes, and is a permanent reminder to all of Aryana’s complete and total dedication to Wes Franklin.

 

The Cloister of Akhenaten

The most concise description of The Cloister of Akhenaten, the clandestine intelligence network of which Wes Franklin is a member, is provided by Wes in the first book, Sacrament of Fear. The Cloister was founded by a group of five archaeologists in the 1920s upon the discovery of the Pharaoh Akhenaten’s tomb at the Amarna excavations. The discovery of this hitherto unknown pharaoh ushered in a period of great fascination for Egyptian history that lasted through the 1920s and ‘30s. Reflecting the reality that all disciplines expand their understandings over time, and that at any given point in time, what we believe to be completely true may suddenly change because of some new discovery, the group gave themselves the motto “Truth never happens in real time.” The more these archaeological scientists learned about this incredible pharaoh, the more they realized how far reaching was the influence of his short life. James Henry Breasted, the noted American scholar, described Akhenaten as ‘The most remarkable of all the Pharaohs….’ James Baikie, the famed British Egyptologist, characterized Akhenaten as ‘an idealist dreamer, who actually believed men were meant to live in truth and speak the truth’. Akhenaten was a revolutionary king and a man of visionary humanitarianism.

Over a period of about ten years, the ranks of the Cloister of Akhenaten grew to nearly twenty, with representatives from several countries: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Russia, Austria, Greece, Morocco, Libya, the United States, and of course Egypt. The membership started with archaeologists but grew to include other disciplines as well. They gathered under a banner honoring the spirit of Akhenaten, united by a dedication to uncovering truth in all its forms, wherever it was to be found. Although the Cloister of Akhenaten was never intended as a clandestine or covert spy network as such, they maintained a very low profile, believing the uncovered truth was always more important than the person uncovering it.

In the years leading up to WWII, the group’s efforts were primarily focused on matters dealing with medicine, science, and mathematics. But the war changed all that. It was apparent to the membership that learning about things like microbes and atoms would be of little value if the world’s powerbrokers turned that knowledge into weapons that could destroy civilization itself. So, during and after WWII the efforts of the Cloister of Akhenaten – or Ankh network, as it came to be known – expanded to include social and political truths, as well. The members have always remained anonymous and their work largely unheralded, but this anonymity helped to make their work easier. And, considering some of the things they got into over the years since WWII, it made it a lot safer as well.

Membership in the Cloister of Akhenaten has always been strictly by invitation of an existing member. Wes Franklin was brought into the Ankh Network by Dr. Britomar Handlon Lathrop, a Psychotherapist from Berkeley, who passed away in the mid-1990s. Like new members before him, Wes traveled to Egypt for a special induction ceremony at Tell el-Amarna, the site of the original excavation. The ritual was simple and solemn and usually began with a reading of a poem written by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, Where The Mind Is Without Fear. Following this reading, all members – both old and new – affirmed their commitment to Akhenaten’s fundamental concepts: truth, freedom, idealism, non-violence, and the resolution of disputes by means other than war. The ceremony was brought to a close by the reading of another poem embodying their universal brotherhood, this one written by the thirteenth century mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi. At his own induction, Wes Franklin had the distinct honor and privilege of reading the poem aloud to the assembled group and, it has continued to serve as a guiding light for him ever since. That poem is as follows…

 

Ihold to no religion or creed,

Am neither Eastern nor Western,

Muslim or Infidel,

Zoroastrian, Christian, Jew or Gentile.

I come from neither land nor sea,

Am not related to those above or below,

Was not born nearby or far away.

Do not live either in Paradise or on this Earth,

Claim descent not from Adam and Eve or the Angels above

I transcend body and soul.

My home is beyond place and name.

It is with the beloved, in a space beyond space.

I embrace all and am part of all.

 

     One final truth about the Cloister of Akhenaten remains to be said. While the group might represent a fascinating concept, it is, in fact, strictly the product of my imagination, created solely for the purposes of my ‘Wes Franklin’ novels.

 

 

   

Past Assignments

 

Highlights, major assignments…

 

(1995, age 30) The Netherlands: Wes works with Rob Kuijpers and The Hague for the first time on Operation Dual Band investigating corporate espionage in the telecommunications industry during a symposium in Paris; first meets Frans Roobeek, Gwen van Driel, and Michael Vannier.

(1996, age 31)
Middle East, April: Wes, with Egypt’s Faoud Sadat and Saudi Arabia’s Mustafa al-Faisal, both Cloister of Akhenaten members, broker peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel. As a result, Yasser Arafat urges PLO to drop its clause calling for removal of Israel. The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause re: the existence of Palestine. Talks are ultimately unsuccessful but represent future hope.

(1997, age 32)
Italy: Wes, with Roberto Assagioli, foil Libyan terrorist group’s plot on the life of Madeleine Albright, paving the way for her first foray into diplomacy abroad as the US Secretary of State. Leads to meeting of all 16 NATO leaders in Madrid to discuss expansion of group right up to Russia’s borders.

(1998, age 33)
UK: Wes, with Ian Crombie and Rob Kuijpers, brokers deal for US and UK to try Lockerbie suspects in The Hague and lift sanctions against Libya. Hailed as significant step in lessening tensions between Libya, PLO, US, and UK.

(1999, age 34) Bangkok: Burmese dissidents seize Burmese Embassy, taking 89 hostages, including one American. Wes and Aryana, with the aid of Thai police, secure the hostages, killing several dissidents in the raid. This is the first time Wes has killed anyone.

(2000, age 35) Wes goes into isolation following the
Bangkok raid, refusing all requests for his services during the year. He spends time on peaceful travel and soul-searching over the killing in Bangkok, including three months at an ashram. The following year he will meet Ashley Jordan.

(2001, age 36)
US: Nuclear Regulatory Commission has Wes investigate a private nuclear energy research group for fiscal irregularities. Negative findings. This is his first mission with Ashley Jordan (age 28); they are an item from this mission forward.

(2002, age 37)
UK: MI6 has Wes investigate their own for double-agent vis-à-vis Heathrow security investigation re: Saudi businessmen. Operation Saudi Corp is a difficult mission leading to first serious injury to Wes, giving Ashley Jordan her first real sense of danger in their “business.”

(2003, age 38)
South America: Colombian Justice Minister hires Wes to uncover plot by Medellin Drug Cartel to assassinate judges. Aryana seriously wounded taking a bullet intended for Wes; 9mm slug narrowly misses his lung and spine. Small swirl scar remains as emblem of Aryana’s absolute loyalty to Wes.

(2004, age 39)
Thailand: A bomb explodes outside the Top Ten 2004 karaoke bar and Marina hotel, injuring 28 people. No group claims responsibility but Wes and Aryana uncover an Islamic militant group. They leave no survivors, and attacks in the Sunhai Kolok District in Narathiwat Province fall off to zero. Wes is wounded in the attack, which steels his resolve that in some situations violence is the only option, but should always be employed with extreme reluctance, then executed with complete commitment.

(2005, age 40)
Bulgaria: Chief financial intelligence official has Wes investigate allegations that the Irish Republican Army is laundering cash through his country. Wes exonerates them. In a late night encounter, a drunken Bulgarian soldier attempts to rape Ashley Jordan. Wes comes to her rescue and accidentally kills him when the soldier falls into an outside stairwell.

(2007, age 42)
Colombia: MSF (Doctors Without Borders) medical camp raided by local militia group that intimidates locals seeking medical aid. Aryana is again wounded defending Wes, but this time not life-threatening. Wes receives Frans Roobeek's call to come to The Netherlands because of the death of his friend, Rob Kuijpers.

(2007, age 42) The
Netherlands: Frans Roobeek, Deputy to Minister-President of the Netherlands, calls in Wes, who uncovers Operation Khubz taHeen, a plot by Syrian businessman Osman Ghazi to launch terrorist attack on Europe as act of revenge disguised as terrorist group. (Wes is nearly killed by an extreme psychotropic drug). This will become known as Operation: Sacrament of Fear.

(2008, age 43)
US: Secretary of State has Wes initiate investigation of Vice President, and uncovers dossier on The Methuselah Man, a plot to assassinate President, as well as world nuclear leaders; tangential discovery of Operation Star Cover involving Russian member of the Cloister of Akhenaten, Anzhela Starkova
   

 

   
contact us bookmark