Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  She paused, and tapped her fingers on her desk as she said, “Moke refuses to talk to me about how his life changed after his mother was committed to the institution due to the inner demons that haunted her after her husband’s death. This was apparently a dark and painful time for Moke. He doesn’t want to talk about his teenage years. He has told me that he and Ronald were sent to a private boarding school when they were both thirteen years old since they no longer had parents to care for them. They stayed there until they were eighteen…and then, something happened to their friendship…an event…that changed them both, forever. I do not know the circumstances which caused Moke and Harris part ways, but I am beginning to suspect them as being pivotal to the chain of events that are to follow. “

  She sighed with a bit of frustration, anger, and a sense that what she was doing was wrong. But at the same time, she felt she needed to get these feelings off her chest. “All I know is…that I better watch Moke carefully. I believe that these attitudes he carries, will affect our prime directive of eradicating Cutz dealers and smugglers on Ailana…I fear things may go badly…but I need to keep his trust in me…I need to get closer to him…and as for Harris…hopefully in time…Moke will tell me more.”

  Audrey took a deep breath, ran her hands over her face, and through her wavy, blonde hair. She pressed a few buttons on her console and sent her document on its way.

  In the hallway outside her office, Van Dien was staring at the captured words on his com’s monitor screen.

  and as for Harris, hopefully in time, Moke will tell me more.

  “All too easy,” he grinned as he saved Audrey’s testimony into a file. He clicked off his com and began walking. He walked past offices and robots delivering coffee and sandwiches. He walked past people with agendas and schedules to keep. He took a couple of elevator rides and walked some more, until he reached an obscure office. Every door opened simply because he appeared to wish it so. He walked right in without even glancing at the secretarial staff, or asking anyone for permission. The door shut behind him as he saw a group of distraught Ailanian men, who looked as if they had been awake, and chain smoking, for the last several days.

  One of the distraught men said in a panic, “I can’t believe the son-of-a-bitch lost! How could Rammy Klunka have lost this election?!”

  “What are we going to do, Brawnsworth?”

  The chubby Ailanian man shook his head as he said, “I don’t know!”

  “Is our plan in jeopardy now because of this?!”

  Brawnsworth gasped as said, “I don’t know…at this point, I’m just glad we got those morons Glik and Semnor off the hook because it’s their votes that are going to push this Operations Shade thing through the High Senate.”

  “I want to know why Kalapana isn’t cooperating! Why isn’t he upholding his end of the bargain?”

  The men, who had been nervously questioning High Senator Brawnsworth, froze as they realized who was in the room with them.

  “Excellent,” Van Dien thought as he gave everyone in the room a confident look. He raised his hand and showed them his com. He pressed a couple of buttons. Sweat began to form on the men’s foreheads as a large monitor, positioned over a large meeting table, sprang to life.

  The men’s faces betrayed their shock and horror as they realized that they were now looking at video footage of themselves, talking to someone in a small room. The person, who had taken the video, had been able to do so because they had a camera installed into their skull.

  Her voice was smooth as she said, “Gentlemen…I can assure you that everything is going to plan and we are on top of everything…so there is no need to take any further action into your own hands…”

  There was buzzing and static as the video was interrupted, and when it started again, the men realized that they could hear the woman screaming as they saw Marco Giraudoux’s angry face and heard his high pitched voice shouting, “What the hell is this? Ya got a camera in your head?!”

  High Senator Brawnsworth shuddered as he thought, “Oh my gods…”

  The video turned to static as the public officials appeared to be getting sick to their stomachs.

  Van Dien gave them all a serious look and said, “First lesson…never send amateurs to do a job meant for professionals…and second lesson…although I do appreciate your attempt to help Loko save his ass…never do anything like this behind my back, ever again.”

  All the men in the room were silent, some closed their eyes in shame while others simply looked at the floor while Van Dien said, “And let me remind you…this video…is something that you surely don’t want anyone to see. I have it encoded in the Hana Paloi computer network, and only I know where it is. I am the only person on the planet who has the ability to erase it.”

  One of the men trembled as he said, “Sir? What do you want from us?”

  Van Dien spoke in a calm, cold voice as he said, “It seems that there are all these…things…happening on Ailana all at once. So far, I’ve learned about all kinds of activities that I did not give permission for. Once, a long time ago, I invited you gentlemen, and Loko Kalaheva, to participate in a plan that is so very important to me…because it is so very crucial for the survival of this planet. And now, it seems that I have discovered how Loko planned to repay me…the power and money I allowed him to have, wasn’t enough…so he had to go and concoct a complicated scheme…which, I suspect, involved teaming up with Marco Giraudoux, a smuggler who came to Ailana with the hope of finding some investors, to help him finance a grandiose scheme to steal narcotics from Makula Pilikoa.”

  The men in the room began to fidget, Van Dien could tell he had them exactly where he wanted them as he said, “I don’t really care what their plan was…from what I gather, it involved stabbing…someone…in the back and then making a lot of money from some stolen narcotics that Loko planned to smuggle to Earth every time he sent one of his hapless, untalented musical acts on tour there. All I know is, Loko got himself far too deep into the dealings of the underworld…and so, as I have come to conclude, he needed some…protection…and that’s when you granted these, morons, who are now lying in the morgue with their throats slit, a free pass onto my planet. Apparently, this red-haired trollop in the video, had also been enlisted to assist Loko with some kind of hair-brained plan to steal from Makula Pilikoa…and then cut Marco out of the deal entirely…again, I don’t really care about the details of this plan…because it failed.”

  Everyone in the room took a deep, nervous breath as Van Dien felt a bit of pride swelling up in his chest as he heard a collective gasp. He remained calm as he said, “And gentlemen, I know the only crime you are guilty of here, is accepting bribes from Loko, which I probably told you was alright…but I never once gave you permission to allow these amateur spies and hit men a free pass to come to this planet to conduct their illegitimate business with Loko…and now that they are all dead…they’re blood is on your hands…oh how that poor red-haired woman must have suffered.”

  The men began to shake with fright as Van Dien said, “So back to the business at hand, I have digitally recorded evidence that you spoke with the red-haired spy, and the only way that I will erase it, is if you cut me in on your deal that you have made with a certain, yet to be identified person, who has schemed up a way to make themselves rich and famous beyond their wildest dreams.”

  Brawnsworth seemed troubled as he said, “Sir, who are you referring to?”

  “Don’t kid yourselves, Gentlemen…I know that there is another player in this game…I know that there is someone else, working behind the scenes to manipulate the events, which recently took place on my planet, for their own, selfish purposes…and when I find them…I plan to make them pay dearly for what they have cost me.”

  “Sir, I can assure you…we know nothing…Loko came to us with a problem…we really didn’t want to know all the details, we simply did a few things for him
and looked the other way…we don’t know anything else…”

  Van Dien’s eyes narrowed as he said, “You see, gentlemen, the only reason why I am going to allow you to keep breathing after what you did, is the simple fact that, this ingenious, little plan, which you have unknowingly assisted, will benefit me greatly…if you simply allow me to find out who is behind it, so that I might convince them to allow me to be in charge of its execution.”

  One of the men began to sob as he said, “Sir, again…we assure you…we don’t know anything.”

  Van Dien could tell that the men in the room were sweating because they honestly didn’t know who they had been doing these illegal activities for. They had simply been following orders and didn’t actually know much of anything. After seeing the looks on their faces, Van Dien decided to start applying even more pressure.

  “Gentlemen…I can assure you of one thing…and that is, I know about almost everything you did for this person whose identity you claim to be ignorant of. I know about those hit men from Earth and Loko’s plan to get rid of Makula Pilikoa…but I don’t quite understand how these events are helping this unknown person who wants fame and fortune. I am willing to bet that they promised to cut you in on the deal if you did what they asked you to. I know how you got Loko out of the picture and I know how close you got to Marco Giraudoux before this unfortunate incident happened. I know about the members of The Evil that you allowed to be murdered. I know why you did it…I know how you did it…and now, I am getting close to finding out who you did it for.”

  All the men could do was swallow their fear and hold their breath as their thoughts became panicked. The Ailanian men became stoic, and the human men simply froze as they tried not to betray their emotions and torrid thoughts.

  “How did he find out?”

  “Who spoke with who?”

  “Who caved to the pressure first?”

  “Who’s in charge of this and how do I get out of this bullshit they talked me into?”

  “I bet we were set up…or is he just blowing smoke up our asses to scare us?”

  “Who knows who we can trust now?”

  The men felt their hearts racing as they saw the white haired man standing in front of them exhale a calm cloud of smoke, “I know why you are trying to cover up what you have been doing on Ailana. You know about my plan…and you are trying to secure yourselves power and wealth before my plan ends this world as you currently know it. I know all about what you are doing in order to help this person, who you have apparently not even met. I know you are helping them become rich and powerful beyond their wildest dreams. I know that times are getting desperate on Ailana…especially for you…and any chance to hold onto your power and wealth seems worth taking. However, gentlemen, I can assure you that the deal I am about to make with you, will have quite a few less strings attached to it.”

  The Ailanian men appeared to sweat. Their faces began to turn white with fear.

  Van Dien said, “I need you to cooperate with me so that I may benefit from your misguided actions, and save all of you from the terrible fate you might be running into. I want to know the name you are trying hide from the rest of the world, gentlemen…that way I will have the last piece of the puzzle to complete my plan. I hope remember our deal that we made all those years ago, gentlemen, and I hope you remember what I can do to you all if you decide to back out of our deal and not keep your end of the bargain. I take my job very seriously, gentlemen…do not mess with me.”

  Brawnsworth stood as tall as he could before saying, “I can assure you, sir. I just got here…I was only just now informed of this fiasco these men got themselves into. And I can assure you, that Loko had planned everything…Loko was the one who spoke with this individual you seek. Loko never told any of us the identity of the individual he had spoken to in order to hatch the plan he was part of…believe me, sir…Loko is dead because he dealt with this person, who you seek…if we knew who this person was…wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that they would have killed us as well, so that we would not be able to disclose their identity?”

  Van Dien’s voice became forceful as he said, “And you expect me to believe that?”

  The men all took in a collective gasp. They bit their lower lips and looked at the floor in fear.

  Van Dien made a fist as he said, “someone here is not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’ll give you one last chance to resolve this matter. Talk amongst yourselves if you need to, but rest assured, you will soon have to tell me what else you have done behind my back to benefit this plan I must uncover. And very soon, you must give me the identity of this person, who promised you wealth and power beyond your wildest dreams, in exchange for your help with their illegal operation, which is still in progress and taking place on Ailana as we speak. If you do not cooperate with me and help me find the answers that I seek, I am going to make your lives, both political and personal, very, very unpleasant right up until the moment I end them. Do we have an understanding, gentlemen?”

  Every man in the room began to nod their head in fear.

  Van Dien gave the Ailanian men a confident look and turned around. With easy steps, he left the office and began walking down the hallway again. His stride, and the slow clicking of his footfalls, suggested a leisurely pace. The hall seemed to have echoes of confusion, and sorrow. After a walk through a sea of faces that looked angry and hopeless due to their candidate’s loss, he stepped onto an empty elevator lift, and proceeded to ride it down as far as it could possibly take him into the depths of the HanaPaloiFederalBuilding, to a place where very few people were allowed to go. As he felt himself physically descending, he felt his once confident frame of mind deteriorating.

  “Why did Klunka lose to Karatau?” He thought glumly to himself as he took his com from his jacket’s inner breast pocket. “This could change a few things…this could be bad.”

  He started looking at footage from Rammy Klunka’s final attempt at a campaign speech to win over the voters he so badly needed. “Ladies and gentlemen, good moral citizens of Ailana, we now stand at a crossroads in our history. Now is the time when WE must think of what it means to be an Ailanian, a member of a great and now modern society. And now, at this point in history, the people of our planet must know the meaning of one word, they must know the implications of one word, and the power of just one word, and that word is WE.”

  Rammy, waved his short, and stubby arms in the air as he spoke. “WE must not let this opportunity to save our economy slip away! WE must now work as one mind and one body to bring forth new prosperity for everyone. WE must not toil selfishly just for ourselves, but toil for the good of all our fellow Ailanian brothers and sisters…WE must toil for the benefit of all our people. Together, WE must welcome this new chance WE have at prosperity, WE must accept ourselves, and each other for who WE really are, WE must try to make ourselves look acceptable in the eyes of our fellow Ailanians and our fellow citizens of The Alliance, and to do this WE must make individual and collective sacrifices and compromises. WE must impress upon them our willingness to serve the needs of all, WE must accept what the Aurorians are offering, and then WE must work toward what should be everyone’s goal! A unified planet with unified people!”

  Van Dien felt his heart rate and blood pressure rise a bit, as he realized that while Rammy Klunka was speaking, someone else was getting or word or two in edgewise. Some successful computer hackers had been able to imprint some large, blue words that had scrolled over the screen during his speech. No one knew where the words came from, but their effect had been huge.

  LIAR!! TRAITOR!! This man lies!! If Klunka is re-elected to the High Senate THEY will only ensure that SOMEONE, other than the Ailanian people, will be allowed to reap the great rewards of the dirty, corrupt Ailanian political machine! Don’t believe the lies! THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT WILL BENEFIT FROM Klunka’s PLAN is other rich, corrupt assholes LIKE KLUNKA! T
hey claim their plans for the ‘new economy’ are our only hope for a new chance at prosperity, but they lie! WE CAN DO BETTER! Their plans are going to do nothing but force the Ailanian people to become more dependent on our ruthless government and the corporations that fuel its morally corrupt members with campaign money! With this dependency will eventually come an existence that is nothing short of serfdom! AILANA WILL NEVER BE A FREE PLANET, with free people AS LONG AS MEN LIKE KLUNKA ARE IN POWER! WAKE UP PEOPLE OF AILANA, AND REALIZE THAT THOSE WHO WANT SLAVERY SHOULD HAVE THE GRACE AND THE CIVILITY TO KNOW IT BY ITS PROPER NAME!

  “THE EVIL”WILL CONTINUE….

  “That speech the old man gave was just a trick. They didn’t disband after all. Someone will have to die for this,” Van Dien angrily thought as the elevator stopped. The doors slid open, and he began walking, for what seemed to be forever. He traversed along leaky concrete walls, and dimly lit ceilings. He stopped in front of a metal door, whipped out a key card, and slid it into the electronic lock. He had the power and authority to unlock hundreds of doors such as this one, but since the Ailanian government could not afford the software upgrades, it seemed to take a small eternity for this one to open.

  It gave Van Dien time to reflect, he had done routine interrogations of suspects arrested by the local police many times before, but after he had intercepted and read Agent Winter’s memo, one such encounter began to stick out in his memory.