Yeah. I like prequels so I think this is a good question. My guess is that they belong to some group or club from college. I think they might have gone to separate colleges but alot of collegiate groups and clubs are nation wide. I imagine some thing like "Radio Free Albemuth" by Philip K. Dick, who's works I consider to be modern apocrypha and Nostradamus like. In that book he states that the dictator who turned America into a dictatorship belonged to a secret organization of communist sympathizers and agents when he was younger. This dictator character hid this from the public and, as I recall from reading it he had changed his name to further distance himself from the group. Once he came to power as a sleeper cell Manchurian candidate however he quickly locked up his opponents in camps and put group members into key locations.