Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  “NO!” Kara shouted back, “you only care about your political career and the all-important ideology of the Moralist party. When will you admit it? I disagree with you because I know what you did to this planet was wrong!

  “Kara…”

  “And I will not sit here and be that good, Moralist girl you demanded I be! I will continue to think for myself, Auntie Ulu…whether you like it or not!”

  “Insolent child,” Ulu said as she sat back in her seat too exhausted to continue the argument. “Either you or your brother will be the death of me…if you don’t manage to bring about your own destruction with your egocentric foolishness! Mark my word, Kara, a new chapter in the history of our world is about to be written, and may the gods help you if you end up on the wrong page because of your careless actions.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Location: The HanaPaloiFederalBuilding…Polynea…Ailana.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0800 Hours.

  Captain Sprog Kanta, the biggest and most irritable Balguran in the Ailanian Civil Services, felt his eyes burning with rage as he watched the video footage of his police officers scraping up what was left of Jacob Colombe off the sidewalk and dropping the remains into evidence bags for the morgue.

  He expressed his displeasure the best way he knew how, loudly. “I never did like you or the way you do things Captain Kalapana, but this time you have gone too far!” Saliva flew from his lips as he bellowed. “I have every right to march into the High Senate this afternoon and demand your resignation!”

  The large, Balguran Officer saw how Audrey and Jack averted their eyes. Veins popped from his forehead as he realized how calm Moke appeared. To Kanta’s dismay, the Commander of the Ailanian CIA remained calm and collected as he said, “Sir, you were made aware of the request the Ailanian Attorney General made to Magistrate Hupo and that it was approved by the Magistrate himself…”

  “Worm shit!” Kanta shouted as he pounded his fists on the table.

  “Oh bring it on, big boy…” Moke thought as he realized how Captain Kanta appeared as if he wanted to leap out of his seat and grab him by his throat.

  Kanta sternly said, “Kalapana, you may have figured out which ass cheek our good Magistrate likes kissed, but you still had no right to do what you did that night without my permission!”

  Moke politely countered with, “The passage of the Magistrate’s Directive Orders Bill allows me that authority. We were doing this as a part of our own secret operation, which was approved and endorsed by the Magistrate’s office…”

  “THAT IS WORM SHIT! I HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE THAT CALL NOT YOU!”

  Moke felt his poker face becoming painful to wear. He tried to look as serious as he could while he said, “Captain Kanata, our investigation was in a sense your investigation, but in order to extract information from your suspect about government corruption, we needed to inquire into evidence that we believed he might have had…”

  “You have no probable evidence! This is worm shit!”

  Moke said, “We have a documented case where a transmission was made from an archive within the High Senate Library Network to a private computer. It was a transmission that contained information about a High Senator under investigation by the Ailanian CIA, and because of that, we automatically get first dibs on a suspect, even if, according to you, he is public enemy number one. We still have to find out what he knows about such evidence…”

  “Worm shit! My police officers would have been able to get any information he knew about that from him without YOUR interference!”

  As Moke looked at Sprog Kanta’s angry face, he realized that his own anger at this very moment, was real, and he no longer had to act. Moke’s voice became firmer as he said, “How in the hell could we have properly conducted OUR investigation if YOUR police officers roughed him up the way they did to his other co-conspirators who they had managed to capture? By the time your jailers got done with him on the first day of his confinement he would never have cooperated with us…and do you know why? It would have been due to the fact that all that he believed about the Ailanian government would have come true…”

  “Worm shit! Pure Poppycock! He broke into the High Senate’s network…”

  Moke realized that he was now at a point where he could start telling the truth. With a bit of relief, he pounded his fist on the table and said, “He did not break in. That transmission was sent to him.”

  Saliva sprayed from Sprog’s mouth as he yelled back, “Well then…WHO…sent it to him?”

  Moke remained calm as he replied, “We do not know who was responsible for that…”

  Sprog did not look impressed as he sneered, “again, you act without knowing what you are doing, or why you are doing it! It is this sort of action, Captain Kalapana that is getting you well on your way to getting indicted for official misconduct.”

  Moke swallowed with fear as Sprog yelled, “Your Aunt, Ulu Jinkua, might have a lot of clout as a High Senator, but you are quickly making enemies in the High Senate out of people who she can’t control! And while your good standing with Magistrate Hupo may have protected you so far, if you keep doing things like, stepping on my toes, that makes lots of other people start to ask questions about who’s side you are really on…do you understand what I am saying, Captain Kalapana?” His eyes narrowed with scorn and his veins pulsed with hate.

  Despite the threat, which Moke realized had a bit of legitimate importance, his face remained stoic as he said, “Believe me, I understand perfectly well, what WE…need to do.”

  Moke smiled inside as he realized that he still held most of the cards in this blind man’s bluff game of chance he had just decided to play. His internal smile then melted away as he noticed how Captain Kanta was giving him the evil eye.

  Kanta sneered, “This is not over, Kalapana…the fact is, thanks to your misguided actions, we know nothing about Jacob Colombe’s plans and motives. Why did this, individual, commit suicide? Was he simply crazy, or was he afraid that some secret plan, which his terrorist friends are planning, could have been compromised had we caught him?”

  Moke was quick to say, “The government has no proof that any members of The Evil are actually terrorists.”

  “And you have no proof that they are not terrorists! And now, we have no idea of what they are up to.”

  Moke licked his lips as he focused on remaining stoic and unwavering. His thoughts raced with words he would not soon forget, “What is this all about? Entertainment on a grand scale! News channels that tell you what to think while television acts as a pacifier and numbs the minds of those good people who would want to start a revolution if they knew the truth! Those of us who live under the heels of our fellow man must rise up and show them the error of their ways. We must show our fellow Ailanians the illogical nature of their thoughts and give them proof that the decisions they make are not their own. We must show them that they constitute a majority only because a small group of influential people within the government has tapped into their fears and given them something to hate. Our oppressors have sown the seeds of prejudice and mistrust and are now growing those seeds onto food that will cause the sheep to move in one direction! And when the sheep flock to those voting booths, their shepherds will have a way to ensure that Ailana will never be a planet populated by people who truly understand what freedom really is! Good people of Ailana, it is time to wake up and realize that those who condone and desire slavery, should have the grace to call it by its proper name!”

  Moke closed his eyes and held his breath to keep his body from shuttering.

  “And now, because of what you did that night at Jacob Colombe’s apartment…we have no idea what the members of The Evil are really doing… what is your response to that, Captain Kalapana?” Kanta sneered again.

  “I guess only time will tell,” Moke said with a confident actor’s voice as he thought, “I might have really s
crewed up…and now I need make a major drug arrest, or find some real terrorists really soon to make up for this mistake. We’ve hit a string of bad luck and things need to start turning around for the CIA…or else I am going to be in some serious shit…think Moke…think hard…something big better happen soon.”

  Location: The Kalapana Family summer home.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 2300 Hours.

  Moke tried as hard as he could to open the door quietly. It had been a long day and he simply wanted to rest as he thought, “Well, I guess if I had to miss dinner with my mother, I might as well come over, get a few hours of sleep… and enjoy some breakfast with her before I gotta go deal with this shit all over again.”

  There was the crashing of breaking glass and Moke felt a surge of adrenaline that made his heart leap out of his chest as he stared walking as fast as he could towards the sound.

  In the next room, he found his mother, her forehead leaning against a picture on the wall and a broken wine glass at her feet.

  She was sobbing as she said, “he’s gone, Moke…he’s gone.”

  Moke felt his face melting with pangs of guilt and terror. As her sobbing filled his ears, he quickly backed away from her and went into the kitchen.

  “He’s gone, Moke!” Her voice trembled as he fumbled around in a cabinet until he found what he was looking for and strode back into the room where his mother was crying uncontrollably.

  He wrapped his arms around her chest and put his face into her cheek. “It’s alright, Mother. I’m here,” he said as he felt her salty tears on his face. He patted her gray hair and felt her forehead. He gently caressed her as he took out the air-syringe and pressed it into her neck. With a quick press of the button, a dose of tranquilizers made its way across her wrinkled skin and into her blood stream.

  “He’s gone, Moke,” She said as she went limp in his arms.

  “It’s alright, Mother,” he said as he cradled her. “Let’s get you to bed.”

  From the picture on the wall, the stern eyes of his father seemed to glare at him through the darkness that surrounded him.

  After the hired caretaker came over to the house and made sure that his mother was resting peacefully, Moke longed for some fresh air and decided to take a walk down to the beach. The stress didn’t melt away as he had hoped when he saw how the moon sparkled upon the dark, calm water.

  “Goddamnit!” He kicked the sand before he sat down and put his head in his hands.

  “I knew I’d find you here.”

  Moke cringed as he heard Audrey’s voice calling from the darkness.

  She sounded sad as she said, “I’m sorry that things didn’t go the way we planned…with Jacob.”

  “Don’t bother, Audrey…you and Jack did what you were supposed to do…it’s all my fault.”

  She couldn’t argue that point. The heated debate she had with Jack an hour ago, had made her realize just how precarious things were getting. Jack was very frustrated with the rule-bending they had been implementing lately and seeing the agent from Earth had only upset him more.

  “I know Jack…we’re getting ourselves in deep here…”

  Audrey licked her lips as she recalled the mood in the car that night, after the failed attempt to arrest Jacob. She felt her head hurt as she remembered how he had made it quite clear that he did not want to lose everything he had worked so hard to achieve, because of Moke’s egotistical disregard for protocol. Audrey decided she wouldn’t even mention the brief encounter with the white haired man from Earth, who had made her heart race with an unexplainable fear.

  Moke didn’t look at her as she sat down next to him. She wanted to change the mood of the moment and comfort him. There was so much she needed to talk to him about. However, she knew that he would want to avoid most of the topics they needed to discuss.

  She took a shallow breath and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you that your sister called me this morning…she said that she got the flowers you sent.” For a few moments, there was silence, broken only by Audrey’s curiosity, “Is she still angry…for what you did?”

  “Jesus Christ, Audrey…why do ya have to be like this?” Moke felt annoyed, but he knew that he had to give her something. “I just gotta keep stringing her along…I need her to believe…”

  Moke raised his head up and gave her a look that he hoped would make her feel sorry for him.

  Audrey held her breath with anticipation. The desire to help him was overwhelming her.

  “Yeah, she’s still angry with me,” Moke said as he thought about how his mother needed drugs to sleep and secretly wished that Audrey would just go away. “You can tell her that I don’t exactly approve of the way she is living her life either. With all that Liberal political ruckus she has herself all entwined in, she just might be the one who causes our poor mother to have a stroke someday.”

  Audrey’s face froze for a quiet minute as she thought to herself, “it is just awful how the Kalapana family has been torn apart, because of pride, bruised egos…and arrogance.”

  Audrey took a deep breath, she had been beating around the bush and now she realized that nothing that she could say was going to put this man into a better mood, thus, she might as well get straight to the point that she had to make. “Captain…I just received word that the Moralists in the High Senate are rallying to give the final series of approvals for Operation Shade. We can’t stop kidding ourselves anymore. This thing could really happen, and we have to be ready for it.”

  Moke felt his teeth grinding as he said, “They can’t approve Operation Shade if High Senators Glik and Semnor, who we are investigating for corruption, are behind bars.”

  “Yes, this is true, but we should really take into consideration they might get to vote anyway…”

  Moke became impatient, and interrupted her, “Don’t forget that High Senator Rammy Klunka might not get to cast his vote, if he loses his seat to Mr. Keiki Karatau in this upcoming election.”

  “Yes, but we can’t assume that Mr. Karatau is going to win…” Audrey sighed as she realized that he was not paying attention.

  Moke seemed optimistic in his anger as he said, “But Karatau might beat Klunka! The Moralists have had a stranglehold on Ailanian politics for decades, but we have a new generation of voters out there. And we have a whole lot of people who are getting fed up with the way the Moralists have been operating in the High Senate. If Glik and Semnor go to jail, and if Keiki Karatau wins, that would break up the majority the Moralists have maintained in the High Senate for so long. Karatau is very popular with the Independents and Liberals and he is gaining followers among all those unemployed people who have realized that the Unions are not going to be able to give them their former jobs back.”

  Audrey sighed and said, “Moke, we have been ordered to start finding potential targets for this Special Forces Team that is coming from Earth…and we have to be able to follow our orders if it does.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Moke said and bit his lip and thought to himself, “I just can’t believe it…Ailana, my home world, has become such a den of thieves, that the Earth’s government offered to help us by sending an elite, military strike force to plant some bombs…and blow the bad guys, who are selling Cutz, to kingdom come for us…why is this happening? Where did we go wrong?”

  Audrey started to feel as if he refused to believe what she was saying was true. She wet her lips and said, “You seem upset.”

  “Sorry,” Moke sighed. “I guess seeing a guy light himself on fire and jump out of a window tends to make me a bit edgy. What do you think he meant when he said he would rather burn his temple than let it fall into the hands of those who would desecrate it? Was he talking about his own body…or something else?”

  “You wanna talk about something?” Audrey said trying to get his mind focused, “anything at all?”

  “Why?” Moke asked sarcas
tically. “You want to use that Doctorate degree in Psychology that Liberal University gave you?”

  “Yeah, I do. I happen to have a lot of talents besides the ability to kick a bad guy’s ass,” Audrey said in a sarcastic tone. She felt irritated, yet determined to give him the help she knew he wanted from her. “Come on Moke, you’ve known me for five years now. You can tell me anything on and off the record. I’m not adapted with a cranial computer. I can’t record our conversations…no one can hear you bearing your soul. I think you need to, and…I think you want to.”

  Moke slowly felt his defenses melting away. He took a deep breath, and softy said, “That guy, Jacob. He was just trying to prove a point. And yeah…maybe he wasn’t real polite about it…but he did what he did, because he was a true believer. Jacob organized street protests…he edited The Evil’s online magazine, created blogs and contributed to mischief that made the Moralists angry…and maybe they should feel uneasy…because they are not entirely in the right either.”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “Don’t be…ya see Audrey, it’s things like what happened with Jacob…that make me wonder what I’m here for. Sometimes, I just sit and wonder what my life might have been like if I had done things differently…if I hadn’t made such stupid, selfish choices. But sometimes, those feelings go away…and I realize what I am here for. I am here to protect the people of Ailana from harm. I may have been chosen for this position in the Ailanian government because I can lie with a straight face…but I truly believe…that I am in this position…because I wish to protect the people of this planet.”

  Audrey realized that Moke was becoming more emotional than she had ever seen him before as he dropped his head, trying to hide his face. She felt pity for him as she said, “And you think you have failed, because of what Jacob did?”

  “Exactly,” Moke said with confidence. He found himself looking her square in the eyes as he said, “I am supposed to protect all the people of Ailana, whether they are native or human, male or female…Moralist or Immoral…I’m even supposed to protect those who violently disagree with the Moralist majority.” He saw her looking back at him, with sympathetic eyes that held a great amount of conviction in them.