Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  “I shouldn’t be doing this,” His palms began to sweat as he bit the inside of his check and carefully looked into the darkness around him. Jack felt a chill go up his spine as he heard a crashing sound in the darkness. He let out a quiet sigh of relief as he realized that it was just a cat jumping off a garbage can.

  Jack gasped and held his breath as he felt the eerie sensation that someone was sneaking up behind him.

  “Assistant Director Bauman?” A voice called out from the shadows.

  Jack bit his lower lip and exhaled as he realized the voice belonged to the man he wanted to have a private conversation with. Jack leaned up against the brick wall as he said, “Greetings, Agent Charlie. I’m here to tell you that Kalapana wants to pull you off the case…you’re needed elsewhere. More murders like the Donny Sparks case are popping up all over Polynea…and we need your eyes and ears.”

  The man remained in the shadows, hiding himself as he said, “you have got to tell him that I am getting close to Makula Pilikoa…he’s getting nervous with all the gang violence going down…he’s asking for more bodyguards and they might just ask me to help out.”

  “Yeah, I like your angle…but Kalapana still thinks that we need to intensify our efforts in the Donny Sparks case…we’ve had quite a few people in Polynea die the same way he did.”

  Charlie hissed, “To hell with that Sparks case…it’s a dead end…I’m telling ya, I’m onto something. If they let me be a bodyguard, then that mean I’m going to be right next to Makula right when he starts spilling his guts about the illegal activities he’s involved in.”

  Jack sighed and looked away as he said, “If it was up to me…you’d be staying where you are. But we need some results and our current strategy hasn’t been getting us any. We need to make a major drug bust and soon. So far we haven’t been able to link Makula Pilikoa or Marco Giraudoux to any of the murder victims we’ve been collecting in our morgue…we need you, Charlie…someplace else.”

  The voice from the shadows hissed with anger, “you expect me to just pack up and leave? How? You go back and tell Kalapana that I didn’t send my wife and kid to Earth all alone to just give up now! I didn’t allow him to surgically implant all this spy equipment in my head for nothing! I have to stay! I am getting too close to getting us the intelligence that we have been waiting for so long to obtain!”

  Jack sighed and looked around. The night was silent; there was no one around to hear him defying his leader’s direct orders. Jack looked back into the shadows and said, “I’ll tell him we couldn’t meet…I’ll tell him you couldn’t get away from your obligations to your new crime family and I couldn’t give you the new orders. But you better hope that things start going our way real soon, my friend. The ugly fact is, our agents and police forces are getting spread really thin because of all that’s been happening lately. I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to help you get out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself into with that group of scumbags you’ve started working for…and if Makula finds out you’re a spy…”

  The man in the shadows said, “I’ll be fine…I can take care of myself…you don’t get into this game if you don’t have the balls to see it to the end.”

  Jack started to walk away as he said, “It’s not you that I’m worried about…it’s Kalapana that might not have the balls to see this thing through to the end. Now go get us some drug dealers, Agent Charlie…our boss wants to look like a hero when this shit is all said and done.”

  Location: The Hana Muli Kona Apartment complex…Downtown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0100 Hours.

  The monitor was showing a guerilla newscast by The Evil, while Jhett did his work. The voice in the background comforted him a bit while he waited for the chemicals to do their job.

  “Here’s something the newscasters at Mele Entertainment are keeping under wraps and away from the eyes and ears of the good people of Ailana. Did you know that another CEO of a Hydroplantation went before the High Senate to convince our lawmakers it was not his company’s fault that over a thousand people came down with bacterial food poisoning after consuming food that had been processed by his factories? When large corporations control the food supply, profit becomes the most important factor in the operation. Profit is placed above making a product safe for consumption or even making it healthy. Profit is placed above sustainability, thus so many Hydroplantations need constant influxes of government bailout money and other corporate welfare. When times are good, profit is still more important than providing workers with a living wage or health benefits…when the economy becomes sour…the need for profit gives these rich corporate executives an excuse to ruin peoples’ lives when they lay off their workers. And when large corporations are in charge of the food supply, product quality and the nutritional value becomes less important than the profit margin. Unlike a community-based agricultural model, which employs organic farmers, The Hydroplantation CEO is only interested in profit, not the needs of common people. We must realize what is happening to our planet and our people! The corporate interests that run The Hydroplantations are demanding our government make it impossible for us to take back our land and grow our own food! Their mantra is that no food shall be grown that we do not own! Please, people of Ailana, wake up and realize that corporations, who only respect profit, will do things in a manner that does not respect life itself!”

  A drunken voice from the sofa shouted, “gods, can ya believe these freakin’ people?! Interrupting my favorite T.V. shows so they can bore me their anti-government propaganda…screw them!”

  Jhett ignored the man on the couch. Despite the fact that the human part of his brain was fascinated by the voice coming from the monitor, the computerized area of his brain took over as Jhett stared at the test tube. The human parts of his brain soon registered feelings of disgust as he watched the contents turn purple.

  “You have got to be kidding me…Marco’s Cutz is ruined. It’s been cut and repackaged,” Jhett said as he glanced over at the skinny, red haired man on the couch. “Did Donny Sparks tell you to do this?”

  The red haired man seemed oblivious as he said, “Look man, there’s nothing wrong with it. We just reprocessed some of it so we could make more. It still gets ya high. Might be a little bit harsher to smoke but it still does the job. Why would ya give Donny a bunch of Cutz if ya didn’t want him to cut it and make more?”

  “That is not the point!” Jhett said loudly as he looked over at another grease stained couch and noticed that a young Hokupi woman was passed out on it. Jhett stomped his foot and said, “This Cutz was not for you to reprocess and sell on the streets of Polynea! It was high quality stuff for rich assholes on Earth to buy!”

  Jhett turned his attention back to the woman, who was passed on the couch. He ground his teeth as he said, “And did you sell her some of this crap that you turned Marco’s high quality Cutz into?”

  The red haired man said, “Yeah…she’s my newest customer…she can’t get enough of it.”

  Jhett felt the anger growing as he said, “She looks like she’s been to University. Why is she here?”

  The red haired man revealed a smile that was missing several teeth as he said, “She said she used to be a scientist or something…till she got fired. Damn economy is making everyone want to get high. Oh Jhett, ya should have seen her earlier… it was the funniest thing dude…I just met her at a bar tonight. She looked at me and asked if I had any Cutz, and well, one thing led to another so we came back here to my place. And so, I get her high, and she starts going on this tirade, telling me all this shit about how The Hydroplantations are all a part of this huge, government run conspiracy to enslave the people of Ailana. She started babbling about how her boss was killed because he was trying to stop the government from turning us all into slaves. Then, she started getting even more goofy when she started talking about how she was in the process of remodeling The Hydroplantations so tha
t they would grow worms and other stuff that Ailanians used to eat…and then she got kidnapped or some shit.”

  Jhett felt a lump in his throat and his anger growing as he heard the red haired man giggling. Jhett felt his ears burning as he heard the red-haired saying, “But that ain’t the best part, Jhett. Yo! Check this out, dude! She started telling me about how the government started poisoning the food supply by subsidizing the genetically modified soybeans that The Hydroplantations are growing right now. It was totally whack man, she was just going off about guys in black suits and ties and shit. She almost had me convinced that my Zoppy’s chili was gonna turn me into a zombie or something, man…but I knew she was high so I didn’t think anything of it. She totally passed out before we had a chance to do it …ya ever have sex with a crazy chick on Cutz, man? It’s awesome! Hey man…she’s out cold…if ya want, we can take turns bangin’ her!”

  Jhett flexed him right arm and made a tight fist. The blade emerged from behind his wrist with a sharp, metallic hiss as his eyes gazed upon the red haired man, whose eyes became wide with fear.

  “What are you doing?” The scrawny, red haired man said as his face became pale with fright.

  “When the cops come to take you to the morgue…they can make sure that she gets to rehab,” Jhett said as he swung his arm and sliced the red haired man’s neck open.

  The fatally injured man struggled to stand upright for a bit as Jhett said, “What is wrong with you people?! There are prophets out there trying to save you, warning you of all these bad things that will happen if you don’t change your evil ways…and you pass them off as being lunatics who are spouting off a bunch of crazy talk? You are just someone else, who is part of the problem!”

  Jhett watched the man fall to the floor as he retracted his blade into his arm and said, “Well, in your case…I am proud to be part of the final solution!”

  Location: The Hukilia Hilton Plaza…Uptown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0200 Hours.

  Rex Broadstein was startled awake by the loud knocking on his door. He blinked the pain in his head away, reached for his bathrobe and made his way to the front of his penthouse suite.

  The light from the hallway was almost blinding. The scared voice from the other side of the door said, “Something terrible has happened, Andrea, Tango and the others have been captured.”

  “Come in!” Rex hissed as he grabbed the young Hokupi man and shoved him into the dark living room. Rex looked at the young man and motioned for him to sit down as he said, “Wallace, I gotta tell ya something…we got a huge problem on our hands…I think something really bad is going to happen on this planet…you and your group of scientists and journalists might be correct about this Prisoners of Paradise thing you contacted me about.”

  Wallace wanted to cry as he looked at his host. “Sir, I want to thank you for helping me out…”

  “Anytime, Wallace…you’re always welcome here.”

  “Rex, this is serious, you might want to think about leaving the planet as soon as possible…I gave Andrea some information and data the night she was captured. I think the government is onto us…people we know are disappearing because they know too much…some of us have even been killed.”

  “What do you mean? What’s happening out there?”

  Wallace tried not to sob as he said, “Rex…things are just so messed up now. We had a plan…most of us believed what Jacob was telling us. He acquired some merchandise from this man named Marco…the guy was a smuggler from Earth and he brought us something that we thought would help our cause. But now things have gone horribly wrong and you’re right…something terrible is going to happen. Jacob lied to us, he was simply using us, his people sold us out, and now they are in control. My friends found out about their plan and we tried to stop it…but we failed…”

  Rex shouted at him, “Well then, we better find another way to stop them! We are NOT leaving Ailana until their plan has been foiled and this terrible event has been averted. There is still hope, I know of someone on the inside that can help. You just have to make sure you get the message to them before your enemies figure out how to gain their trust!”

  “Trust is in very short supply,” Wallace gasped and said, “We’ve learned that we have more problems and more enemies than we previously thought. Jacob designed this plan to be carried out by a sleeper cell in case he got caught. However, there in another problem with this plan that Jacob had presented us with…someone else now knows about it. We believe that Jacob’s plan was discovered by someone else before we had a chance to steal the merchandise from him so we could stop him from going through with it. Someone else is involved in this game now and we believe that they using what Jacob knew for their own purposes.”

  “My gods,” Rex said with a confused voice. “Who could it be? Someone in the government perhaps? Didn’t Jacob receive some data from someone who was within the government before he killed himself?”

  “We don’t know exactly what Jacob got from that unknown insider…we are still trying to find out…more than likely its documents involving government corruption. All we know is that Jacob’s people are carrying out this plan and someone else knows about it and might be using Jacob’s plan for their own purposes. We did manage to get some pictures from the file Jacob obtained. But the files were incomplete and the pictures were fuzzy, and out of focus. But they point to something…we think that those files contain evidence that suggests someone wants to use Jacob as a scapegoat, and we think he is a man with white hair.”

  “A white haired man?” Rex’s thoughts raced with confusion and fear as he swallowed his disbelief. “Are you sure? You need to think about that Wallace, my sources have been telling me that the government is involved, are you sure Wram Karamotzain is not the one responsible for Jacob’s demise. He’s a white haired fellow. Let’s stop and think here, there are so many politicians who could benefit from Jacob’s plan being exposed. Are you sure about this latest theory of yours?”

  Wallace swallowed his fear and said, “I really don’t know exactly, I have to get back out there and gather some more information, I have to talk to some people who might know something…and then, I have to warn the others before it is too late.”

  “My gods, Wallace…what have you gotten yourself into?”

  Wallace’s face was full of fear as he said, “I don’t know! I don’t know who is involved in this, Jacob has followers, who I have never met, and all I know…is that we don’t know who to trust. But if we don’t stop this chain of events that Jacob unknowingly set off…something terrible is going to happen on Ailana. And we have to act fast!”

  Rex sighed as he said, “are you sure you won’t stay the night? I can hide you again if you need me to.”

  “I can’t my friend…I have to keep moving…it’s the only way to keep from getting caught.”

  “Well,” Rex said softly as he reached into his pocket. “This came for you today…”

  Wallace took the folded piece of paper from Rex’s round, pink hand and took a deep, fearful breath as he read the shaky, hand scratched note;

  To my esteemed colleague…

  Beware the “Engineers” of this dark plot…

  Location: Cellblock Four…HanaPaloiFederalBuilding…Downtown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0230 Hours.

  Tavin looked out of his cell door with a sheepish look on his face as he heard the cellblock door closing at the end of the hallway. He perked up as he realized that one of the people he shared this minimum security living space with had just gotten off work. He tried to make it look as if he were simply lounging inside his cell and wasn’t looking for a chance to flirt.

  “Ah Cindy…back from the salt mines I see.”

  The young, human woman wore her dark hair up in a ponytail. Her faced always seemed to have a frown on it. Her face didn’t change expressions much as she said, “Oh
hey…Tavin. Your name is Tavin, right?”

  “That’s my name,” Tavin said with a smirk. “How may I be of service to you, my lovely lady?”

  Cindy tried to make her facial expression match her disinterest as she said, “ya got some soap? It was a rather bloody night at the morgue…and I just ran out.”

  “Yeah…I’ve got soap you can have,” Tavin motioned towards an empty chair in his cell and said, “I’m just watching a little TV. I got all the basic channels now, well, at least the one that Mele Entertainment offers. But after a while, when you’re watching all the commercials and political advertisements…don’t ya just get the feeling that we are being lied to? Don’t ya just wish there was a way to make all this…mind-numbing media just go away…even though ya can’t seem to take your eyes off it, since there is not much else to do around here?”

  Cindy stared at Tavin for a moment as she thought, “Why does this guy look familiar to me? I can’t put my finger on it…but there is something about him…”

  “So,” Tavin said with suggestive eyes, “You wanna sit down or something?

  “Yeah…I mean no,” Cindy said with a bit of annoyance and urgency. “I mean, yeah I agree…the media is annoying as hell. Can I get that soap? I really just want to hop in the shower and get the blood and other bodily fluids off my skin.”

  Tavin noticed her demeanor and walked over to his locker and retrieved what she wanted. “Ya know…you and me should spend some time talking. So far, it’s just you and me in this cell block…”

  Cindy felt her teeth clenching in disgust at the sight of his face and the sound of his voice. This sudden feeling of displeasure caused a chain of chemical events in her brain to spill forth memories of people screaming as she recalled the sounds of the doors of her house being broke down. For a moment, she saw a blur of men dressed in black body armor rushing into her living room. She could hear the sounds of her friends screaming. The black blur soon became a white blur as she realized that peoples’ faces were fuzzy. She had fleeting memories of long, metal boxes being placed over people, who were strapped to large, rolling gurneys.