Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  Ignesia looked grateful as she got up from the desk and ran over to him. She noticed how Wallace was breathing hard and shaking as he locked the door. He turned around and started walking into her outstretched arms.

  She put her hands to his face and cried out, “Oh my gods! You have a black eye!”

  “It’s alright…our former friends decided to play rough at first. But Landra made them come to their senses.”

  She looked a bit relieved, yet worried as she said, “Did you get it?”

  Wallace panted and smiled as he said, “Yes….Landra was able to steal what we needed from them…she gave it to me…and yes, I have it with me.”

  “Thank the gods!” She said with a joyful voice.

  Wallace tried to control his shaking hands as he presented her with a small, metal box, which she took from him and immediately tried opening to no avail.

  “Here, let me see it,” Wallace said as he took the box from her and slid a couple of buttons towards each other. The box opened with a light hydraulic hissing sound. He looked inside and felt his face going numb.

  Ignesia felt the bit of joy that she had growing inside of her die as she heard his frustrated voice saying, “Shit! Ya gotta be kidding me…Landra tricked me! She only gave me this to get me off their trail! Goddamn it! This is bad, real bad!”

  She looked at him and said, “What’s bad? What do you mean? You said you got it…right?”

  He looked at her with cold eyes and said, “I did get it, but there’s a problem. It’s a universal lock decoder…those things they bought from Marco…they are not decoder specific.”

  “Oh shit…”

  Wallace’s green face was nearly pale as he said, “That means…those, things…that I helped them bring to this planet…can accept other decoders.”

  Her nervous lungs could barely take in air as she said, “Wallace? What are you saying?”

  He said, “Landra and her friends are the engineers…they tricked us to buy themselves the time they needed.”

  “But Wallace, you said they gave you the decoder…”

  “Yes, this is our original decoder…she gave us back the data we stole…the data we were hoping to show the world…now we have no way to prove what we know to anyone.”

  The guilt was about to make her cry as her quiet voice sobbed, “Wallace…we didn’t want any part of this…we just wanted to send a message…I never knew they were going to do this…”

  “I know Ignesia, I know,” He tried to remain strong for her as he said, “And the message we wanted to send is encrypted into this device. However, if they have another duplicate of this device with some basic modifications and safeguards removed…that means they now have a detonator…”

  “Oh my gods!”

  “Something terrible is about to happen…and I don’t think we can stop it.”

  She bit her lip with fright and closed her eyes as she said, “and our plan to save our world…should we just abandon it now? Wallace, we are in danger here…if we get on a space ship for Earth tonight we might just be able to escape with our lives…”

  “NO!” Wallace shouted as he threw the piece of computerized metal onto the floor. “We still have a chance to stop this!”

  CHAPTER 26

  Location: The level 32 parking garage of the Hana Paloi Federal Building.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0700 Hours.

  Moke bit his lip as he read the message on his com’s monitor.

  You cannot serve two masters!!“…time is running out for you. Someday, someone is going to find out that you are not suitable for this job because you are so morally corrupt. I would love to see the look on your face, when they tell everyone that you are in a position of authority, not because you are a hero of the people, but because someone pulled all the right strings for you. That makes you a PUPPET! Why are you not playing this game by the rules we gave you? Your time is running out! YOU better start making things right with the master who pulls your strings!!

  Moke’s mind flooded with the memory of bright lights shining in his face as a maniacal voice shouted at him, “Who is Fats Manawilli!? Who is Fats Manawilli?!”

  Moke clenched his teeth. “Damn you!”

  He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. Things were out of control. For a few seconds he remembered how Audrey had looked at him the night before. Her eyes looked puffy from either lack of sleep, or from weeping. Moke couldn’t tell which, but he knew she looked distraught and scared.

  “Moke,” she had addressed him on the beach when no one was around. “I joined the Ailanian CIA because I wanted to make a difference…and now, I’m not so sure I made the right choice. I don’t really know how to say this…I agreed to help you capture Jacob Colombe, even though doing so went against my better judgment. I agreed to help you in your efforts to undermine Operation Shade…and after those efforts failed…I have been doing everything you have asked me to in order to cover up our mistakes so that the Moralists won’t be able to hang us. And to top it all off, I helped you steal and decode a top secret Military medical file that contains information about Captain Harris…”

  Moke bit his lower lip as he thought about Harris and Audrey. He felt his pulse speeding up as he thought about how they looked alike, blonde, blue eyed. He closed his eyes as he thought about how loyal they both were. He took a deep breath as he remembered a certain paragraph he had read in the medical file;

  Loyalty: A feeling or attitude of devoted attachment. A trait which has found to be genetic in origin, with some subjects becoming less loyal as they begin to logically question the situation they have been forced to endure as a result of their service. Loyalty cannot be reinstated once it is lost.

  His mind returned to the image of her sad face and the sound of her disappointed voice, “Moke…I never once questioned the orders you gave me…but I’ve committed a felony for you, Moke…please tell me why I’m doing this.”

  Moke remembered how he gazed at her for a moment, and how she looked like she was about to cry. She looked as if she was locked in a battle with her conscious, which she was beginning to lose. He remembered looking at her and thinking, “but you can’t cry…it’s not something you can do…it’s not who you are.”

  He remembered how he had a complete and utter sense of mental torment as she took a shallow breath and said to him, “Captain, I understand your dream to end corruption in the High Senate…and I understand your desire to stop crime on Ailana without help from Earth…but Moke…as I’ve been doing the things you have asked me to do…I just can’t help but think that you have some sort of ulterior motive…”

  He suddenly remembered thinking to himself, “I do, Agent Winters…I have a plan which you can’t know about just yet…I’m playing a deadly game which I can’t let you in on…I’m dueling with an opponent who I can’t let you know anything about…and I am so very afraid to let you know the truth about this fight I picked…I don’t want you to know…that I’m losing…”

  Moke was interrupted by the beeping of his com. He looked down at it and read the message that flashed across its screen.

  IT’S TIME TO GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE.

  Moke felt the blood burning underneath his skin. The door of the black hover-limousine slid open with a slight hydraulic hum, almost as if a curtain was being drawn open on a stage.

  “Captain Kalapana,” The ominous voice from within called out. “I’ve been expecting you.”

  With a cold, angry look on his face, Moke entered the vehicle. The passenger compartment of the hover-limousine was dark. The floor was aglow with a dim, blue light. Moke fidgeted as he sat on the soft leather seat that conformed to every curve of his tightly wound back. A wave of nervousness washed over him, his palms were sweaty, and his nostrils flared as he breathed. Moke stared straight ahead with angry eyes that felt as if they could not blink lest they miss something c
rucial. The lit end of a cigarette burned brightly in front of him. The space between him and the white-haired man, who was wearing the black business suit, seemed infinite.

  “Captain Kalapana,” Van Dien said in a low pitched, almost soft and calm voice, “It has come to my attention that your agents, are no longer allowed to speak with my people. Why?”

  “I think you know why,” Moke shot back in a stern voice. “You are full of shit. You’re just playing a mind game with me to keep me off your trail. There is no bomb.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I’m real sure we know who The Evil would want out of the picture,” Moke said in a stern voice. “High Senator Glik was giving a speech at the Kanunai Convention Center…it turned up clean…there was no bomb…my lovely Aunt Ulu was also speaking today in Lulukia…the auditorium turned up clean…no bomb…Rammy Klunka, oh we had a couple of bomb squads assigned to him…there are no bombs any place where he was scheduled to be at…we currently have the entire island continent in the highest state of security you could imagine right now…there is no bomb.”

  “So you are thinking that you can just go and pat yourself on the back, eh Captain?” Van Dien sneered. His voice became lower in tone as he said, “but trust me, this is hardly over…because you have already broken the first rule of the art of war.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Know thy enemy.”

  “People like Jacob are not the enemy!” Moke hissed, “The enemy consists of those people who banned

  Jacob’s work and censored his ideas so that they could mislead the citizens of this planet with their lies! I am just about able to prove that there is a faction in the Ailanian High Senate, who benefit from our peoples’ poverty. You and I both know that the Economic Revampment Program, which is being offered by the Aurorian government, is designed to make this special, little group in the Ailanian government very rich at the tax payers’ expense…and I will expose them for the crooks they really are!”

  “Captain,” Van Dien said calmly, “Have you ever once given any thought to how Wram Karamotzain and his friends might want to expose something about you?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Come on now, Captain…I know all about your past. Tell me…what do you think would happen to your credibility, and your career, if certain High Senators found out about the skeletons in your closet? What would happen if the whole world was informed of a few tragic events that you willingly committed with one Captain Ronald James Harris as your accomplice?”

  Moke felt his face freeze with anger and fear. “Don’t bother,” he said sternly. “I’ve taken steps to ensure that you can’t go there.”

  Van Dien said calmly, “there is really no need for me to…I mean, why dig up the distant past, when I can just comment on what you have done quite recently… such as your habit of freeing Immorals from prison. Why have you been undoing the work of your fellow law enforcement officials by allowing all these Immorals to go free after they go through all the hard work to put them there?”

  “I free those people because our jails and prisons…as well as your high tech Penitentiary, are full of people who didn’t do anything wrong and you know it.”

  Van Dien was coy as he said, “And by the way Captain, does the rest of your CIA staff know that it was your decision to free Ted Bobson from The Penitentiary, just so that he could proceed to hang out in bars and do drugs?”

  “That is none of your damned business.”

  “Captain,” he said as he gave Moke an intimidating stare, “People who drink all day…and then proceed to attend protest rallies, just so that they can hurl rocks at police officers, belong in jail. And those who have proven themselves to be repeat offenders, well that is what The Penitentiary is really for…it’s a treatment center full of wonderful technology designed to simply fix what is wrong with their brains so that they may think for themselves and come to the correct conclusion as to how they should behave toward their fellow man.”

  Moke clenched his fists and said, “And you are so lucky I’ve decided to concentrate my energy on reforming The High Senate…that should buy you enough time to voluntarily pack your bags and take the business you conduct in The Penitentiary to some other planet.”

  Van Dien narrowed his eyes as he said, “How dare you stick your nose into my business and then tell me how to run my planet. And by the way, Captain, it is my business to tell you that you had better straighten up and start flying right…the only thing you have proven to your superiors is that you are still rebelling against your Auntie Ulu’s Moralist ideology. Let’s get real here, Captain, you have been known to go to the Gladson Penal Unit and free Immorals by the thousands.”

  Moke gave him a serious look as he said, “Yeah, well our overly harsh laws tend to put high school honor students in prison for a first time drug possession. Sometimes people just make stupid mistakes…I believe in giving second chances…and those drunken protestors, who I’ve freed by the thousands…you might want to take into consideration that we have legions of unhappy citizens on this planet thanks to the way you, and your people, have been running the government and our economy into the ground.”

  “Such a brave statement from a man who wished he had such moral high ground to stand upon.”

  Moke snarled as he said, “You can’t lock everyone up just because they are unhappy with their government!”

  Van Dien said, “Well, that may very well be…but I understand that some of these people, are set free with the condition that they serve out the rest of their sentence, as CIA employees?”

  “Make your point already…”

  Van Dien’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared as he said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I did some research of my own and showed Wram Karamotzain, and his Moralist supporters, that you not only freed Ted Bobson, but also freed Jacob Colombe?”

  Moke’s face froze.

  Van Dien said calmly, coldly, “Imagine how the public, and your superiors, would react if they found out that you freed a man who later orchestrated a terrorist action on Ailana?”

  “Fuck…” Moke’s blood became inflamed as it coursed past terrified nerve impulses. His voice remained stoic as he said, “There is no way you could.”

  “Of course I could, Captain, I can make anything happen. And even if I couldn’t convince them that you freed Jacob from The Penitentiary before his treatment was complete…are you positive that you could convince a committee, which investigates humanoid rights abuses…that Ted Bobson died in a normal fashion?”

  Moke bit his lower lip and realized that his fists had relaxed and that his hands were shaking.

  Van Dien’s eyes narrowed as he said, “Captain, what did I tell you about sending untrained soldiers into battle? I’m sure there are Liberals, and Conservatives alike, who would not approve of what you do to obtain your intelligence…”

  “This is getting real old, real quick!” Moke snapped. His mind burned with the desire to place his hands around the white haired man’s throat and squeeze tightly. “Why did you call me down here? You’re wasting my time with your banal comments!”

  “You are correct, Captain,” Van Dien said calmly. “There was no bomb…at the KanunaiConvention Center…or any of those places you looked at. Hell, I thought Ulu, being the stingy killjoy that she is, would surely be the target of those who despise Moralism and all its nebulous implications. My people were able to decode this today, Captain…however, it is too bad that my people have been barred from talking to your people…it might have been nice for them to have had this information sooner.”

  The monitor rose up a bit and turned toward Moke’s face. Moke felt his heart rate jump as he read the words on the floating monitor’s screen. Something was going to happen today, at seventeen hundred hours.

  “Kaiser Field, that’s in the township of Waihenalu,” Moke sa
id with a bit of scared confusion in his voice. “But that makes no sense. My Aunt Ulu is speaking in Uptown Polynea today. Wram Karamotzain is in Nekula campaigning for a recount of the votes between Keiki Karatau and Rammy Klunka’s High Senate race, Klunka is at his country home in Manaluku sulking…who could that possibly that leave as an assassin’s target? As far as I know the only thing that would be happening there would be a sporting event.”

  “Or a concert…”

  Moke’s face went blank, “Chief Tipsy? Oh my gods! Kara!”

  “Oh yes, I understand your sister became one of his followers recently, yes?” Van Dien said with an evil grin. Moke didn’t even look at him as he jumped out of the limo and began running away.

  Van Dien lit another cigarette as he closed the limo’s door with the push of a button. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his com.

  A few seconds later, a soft voice answered, “Yes? How can we help you?”

  “Things are back on schedule…and Kalapana, is back on the right track. I’ll keep you posted, things might seem to be a little out of hand…but lucky for you, I am in complete control of the situation again and everything is going as planned.”

  Van Dien hung up his com and smiled as he thought, “and just to ensure that I win this game we are playing…I deceived you, Captain Kalapana…there is actually more than one bomb…I believe that there are more than likely three of them.”

  Location: 2000 meters above Polynea.