Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  “I know…I’ve been able to find places to hide, I’m getting real good at being on the run.”

  “There is something else you should know,” She said with sorrow. “I’ve got a source inside the Bureau of Single Mothers and Children without Fathers…she’s been counseling your friend Kenny’s wife. He’s been seeing her against the wishes of his gang…and he’s been telling her things.”

  Wallace felt a surge of fear run up his spine. “Like what?”

  “Kenny has been telling her about a heist he’s gonna be pulling off…we shouldn’t talk about it now, but I can send you a full report of what my other sources have found. They’ve discovered that Kenny, has been contacted by our enemies…he’s agreed to do something for them…something that could assist them with the very thing we are trying to prevent from happening on Ailana.”

  Wallace sighed as he said, “I’ll try to speak with him. Kenny had no idea what he is doing, he’s only thinking about the short term gain he can get from cooperating with them. He has no idea how profound his actions might be…none of us had any idea of what we were doing when we started this”

  She said, “Wallace, I’ll be completely honest with you, had I known what was to happen to us for trying to defend our world, I would have never agreed to assist with Jacob’s cause.”

  He looked at her with sorrow in his eyes as he said, “No, Anna…you can’t talk like that…you can’t blame yourself…”

  “We should have thought for ourselves more…we should have been selfish…we should have never listed to him…we should have never did what he asked us to do…this whole thing with the Prisoners of Paradise has me absolutely terrified! What have we done?”

  “Look, you can’t blame us…we’re the victims here…”

  “There is no point in feeling sorry for what happened or how we got into this mess! What should we do, Wallace? This is getting really hard to deal with! I’ve been second guessing myself lately. You and I both know that Cutz causes people to develop delusions of grandeur. We started getting involved with this cause while we were at the University. Were we just susceptible to suggestion? Were we truly thinking for ourselves once we had all the facts straight…or were our thoughts and actions the result of the Cutz we ingested? Why do I think I’m going mad?”

  “Anna!” Wallace spoke softly, yet sternly, “You are not going crazy! What we are involved in is real and we have to be strong! There is still hope, just as soon as my contact inside the Ailanian government gets ahold of me, we’ll know what our next move will be. Until then, stay strong…and stay alive…for our sake and the sake of the Ailanian people…we cannot fail at this.”

  “I just hope that you are right, Wallace.”

  The bus came to a stop with the sound of heavy hydraulic squeaks.

  “We have to stop their evil plan! We can’t let this happen!” Wallace thought as he jumped out of his seat and ran off the bus.

  CHAPTER 33

  Location: Hana Paloi Federal Courthouse.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1100 Hours.

  High Senator Wram Karamotzain had spent over an hour hotly explaining his position. Moke remembered how he had clenched his teeth as Wram said, “Your honor, this man, who is supposed to be a servant of the people, has done great harm the government, which protects the people of this planet…from the immoral decisions of others. He falsely claims that the High Senate needs to be investigated because the so called… freedoms…of certain immoral people…have been infringed upon. We pass laws to protect people…he’s assisting those very villains, who claim we are tyrants, with their plan to destroy the very fabric meant to protect this planet and its people!”

  Everyone was relieved when the Judge finally called for a recess until after lunch.

  The defense had escaped to a secluded room to rest. Malia Egnudt let her hair down and scrunched her face up as she tried to stretch her neck muscles. Moke sat down in a soft leather couch across from her and said, “They think they have me backed into a corner. So, I assume your plan is to stalemate us into some sort of postponement?”

  Her eyes became fierce as her words became defensive, “No, I’m going make sure you keep your job.”

  Moke suddenly felt another twinge of nervousness within the pit of his stomach. “Malia, please…let’s just get the Judge to postpone this thing for bit more…we don’t have to do anything drastic.”

  “Moke,” Malia said with a bit of surprise, “come on now, Wram and his people bring you up on charges… simply because we refuse to do his bidding…and you’re going to run away from that?”

  Moke felt the need to speak softly. “Malia, I don’t want this plan of mine, to bring you down with me…it’s me they want…you still have a chance to get out of this free and clear…don’t do anything drastic…not for my sake.”

  “Moke, I’m prepared to go all the way now…I think we can beat them.”

  “Please,” Moke said with a soft look in his eyes. “Be careful, Malia…don’t get overconfident. You need to think about what this could do to your own chances for political survival.”

  Malia stayed quiet for a few moments, her eyes looking at the ground, her facial expression began to look less angry. She wet her lips and said, “Well…I guess, I might not get a chance to slay the dragon after all…if Wram has another outburst, like the one he had right before this recess and pisses off the Judge like he did, this case might just get thrown out altogether.”

  “Time is on our side,” Moke chuckled and said, “Please, Malia…don’t throw your trump card yet. Just keep confusing em’ with legal gobble-de-gook and trivial fluff until their heads spin, O.K.? I’d be tickled pink if the committee votes to give us a six month stay so that we can collect more evidence.”

  “Whatever it takes, just as long as we get these guys impeached someday,” She said with fire in her eyes. “I refuse to stop fighting just because the rules aren’t fair.”

  “I want to make love to you,” Moke thought. “But that might make for a conflict of interests.”

  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as he said in a soft, comforting voice, “I’ve always loved to watch you work, Malia.”

  “And I’ve always loved saving your ass,” Malia said as she wrapped her hair back into place and put her shoes back on. “Let’s go get em’…tiger.”

  Location: Studio F11…Mele Entertainment Headquarters.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1130 Hours

  The words on the monitor were unapologetic.

  “Why do some people get to be so rich? Whose ass did they kiss? Who did they screw over to get all that money? Surely, people with such tremendous wealth, could afford to share it, even if it was just a bit more. Christ, the money they spent on lobbyists alone…ya know, the money they spent so they could legally bribe the High Senate into passing laws that kept em’ from paying all those taxes…shit, the money they spent on lobbyists…holy shit, that alone could have been their damn tax cut! Don’t they realize, or even care, that if each one of them, would simply agree to pay themselves a few billion dollars less each year, then everyone on this planet, that we call our Great Village, would be able to make a few hundred more dollars a month…that’s all we’d need, is just a few hundred more and we’d be making a great living…we’d be making a living wage. There would be more, equality, if the workers got to own the company, and if all the voters had a real say in what our government does. Financial and political freedom…these are very hard things to achieve when those who espouse those values find a way to deny them to the ones whose blood, sweat and tears helped make this planet a place where they could succeed. It is disgusting to see how these so called Capitalists cry for freedom just so they can deny those in the class systems below them the chance to experience the same success and riches they kissed so much ass to get.”

  “They kissed so much ass? What does this guy mean by that?” Jal
apo smirked and put his feet on his desk while he finished reading the words typed across his monitor, “What the heck does this guy mean anyway? Why don’t we figure out a way to spread the wealth around? What is this guy mean by that? Why does he keep asking questions like, ‘why does the CEO get a Penthouse while I am forced to live in the slums?’ Tell me, Veronica, what does that guy mean by all this? Do you catch my drift? Do you know what I mean?”

  “Oh baby…I know what you mean…jealousy breeds hate. Jealousy breeds the destructive desire for altruism and makes the poor want to bring the rich people, who they are jealous of, down to their level. What this guy is advocating…it’s a slippery slope to tread down since altruism is a threat to rich people, who are individuals, with bright ideas and a sense of free markets and free love…or something like that. I didn’t pay attention in Scriptures Class when we started to cover the testaments of the Prophet Ayn…I was more into the cult of Venus.”

  Jalapo raised his eyebrows in annoyance. He pressed his lips together as he began watching his desk monitor, with hatred in his eyes, as he said, “I mean…it just blows me away when ya hear of all this talk about how rich people are evil. Rich people allow for new technologies to be developed. Long, long ago…on Earth, they had these things called railroads…it was rich people that built the railroads and prosperity followed because of it. Billions of new dollars were generated and millions upon millions of people had their quality of life improved because of the railroads. It’s the same thing principle here on Ailana, rich people have the resources and ingenuity to bring about the products and corporations which make our lives better. Rich people create jobs and they give to charities…why should we devote any of our airtime defending those who want to simply tear down the rich out of jealousy?”

  “Sure, Jalapo, I agree with you…but I believe this guying is trying to simply point out, that in certain cases, rich people make our lives worse. Sometimes, in their selfish quest to make money, they do immoral things out of greed. Throughout history there have been many examples, when rich people made decisions in order to make money, which caused millions upon millions of people to lose their jobs, their businesses, their homes and their life savings. Stock market crashes, investment schemes, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, investment bubbles that burst…war…imperialism…these are all examples of decisions made by rich people that affected the middle class and poor people in very adverse ways.”

  “But, Veronica…rich people work hard…they invest wisely…that’s why they are rich…”

  “Poor people work hard as well…and they often stay poor because of social situations created by rich people. Middle class and poor people work hard so they can do things like save up a bunch of money for the purpose of making investments that could improve their lives. They work to save money so they can send their kids to University. It was the decisions of rich people, which caused this recession on Ailana, and made all those middle class and poor people lose their stocks, bonds and life savings. And to make matters worse, the rich get richer because they have political connections which legally allow them to cheat poor people out of wages and benefits. On Ailana, it seems that the rich are getting richer because they have the government to help them out when times get tough…but during a recession…the poor get poorer because the rich claim that they need to cut their hours or lay them off. The poor get even poorer when their Unions get dismantled because the government claims it needs to cut the budget. The poor get even poorer because recessions cause a budget crisis that don’t affect the rich, but greatly affect the poor when the government is forced to choose between bank bailouts and social programs. It seems that social programs designed to help the poor are always receiving cuts while the government always has money to give to rich people in the form of bail outs or investment incentives.”

  “But Veronica…isn’t it better if the government just gets out of the way of rich people and allows them to do their business without restrictions and intrusions? And all these poor people, as you call them, are they not in fact leeches who simply wish to feed off the system instead of getting a real job?”

  “The statement, which we in the media love to make, about government getting out of the way doesn’t seem to apply on Ailana because our government is at the beck and call of rich people. Our High Senate has passed all kinds of laws and looked the other way so that some very rich people can make money illegally when they don’t pay their fair share in taxes or do immoral things, like overcharge for their services and then don’t even perform those services in a fair and honest manner. Think about it, baby, those railroads might have improved the standard of living for a certain number of people…but many other people were also exploited for their labor as well as injured, maimed and killed while they helped to build them. Not to mention all those poor, helpless indigenous people, who were displaced or even subjected to genocide, all in the name of the progress those rich people desired. And personally, I don’t think that there are enormous groups of people on Ailana who wish to live as leaches and bum a free meal off the social welfare system. We Ailanians love to toss around words like, freedom, austerity, and make comparisons between what we call self-made people versus second hand people, but we don’t do it objectively. We love to call social programs communist and label people on welfare as moochers. We hail rich people as winners who worked hard and got what they deserved because they are intelligent and full of great ideas.”

  “It’s called spin, baby!” Jalapo smiled as he pointed his thumbs towards himself.

  “And we need to rethink what we are doing in this newsroom because on Ailana, big business is only getting bigger because of government sponsored bank bailouts. Our world is experiencing a tremendous amount of inequality due to the fact that government deficits are getting so huge because we keep giving the rich tax breaks that don’t create jobs. We have to keep using terms like self-made people and second hand people…because if we don’t, all the normal people on Ailana, might get suspicious and start asking questions. We live in an era where government makes partnerships with corporate crooks, and when the planet’s economy goes down the shitter, because of bad decisions made by selfish, greedy people with wealth and political connections, we in the media go and blame it all on welfare mothers and the bad decisions made by Immorals…how long can this rhetoric really last? We’re reaching a point in history where the status quo might be causing us to go over a cliff…is it any wonder that people might start to ask the question, ‘what the fuck is really happening on this planet?’ And that’s what Keiki Karatau wants to point out when he comes on your show tonight.”

  “Well, he’d better not use the word, fuck. And can you explain this to me, Veronica? Is it true that this newly elected High Senator, Keiki Karatau, or whatever his name is…did he blatantly asked Wram Karamotzain - to his face mind you - ‘are you just an asshole or what?’”

  “Well, people have wondered if Keiki Karatau was even legally elected, but I believe he had the right to say anything he wanted to Wram at that dinner party, but Wram told our reports that Mr. Karatau threatened him with a pastry knife.”

  “But wasn’t Karatau serving him a piece of cake at the time?”

  “Yeah…chocolate, I think.”

  Jalapo chuckled and said, “I admire you, Veronica, as a news producer, ya walk a fine line between Objectivist Moralism, and a corrupt need to spread worthless gossip.”

  Jalapo leaned back in his chair and tried to wiggle his toes to get his the circulation in his legs going again. He had to stand almost the entire time during his last show and his feet hurt because of it. “So what do ya think, Veronica, should I ask that guy Kalapana for an interview? Ask him something like, ‘Hey buddy, are you going to assume responsibility for killing all those worms or not? The buck has to stop somewhere!’”

  “No, baby, don’t!” Veronica begged, “Grant has put strict limitations about doing stories that involve law enforcement right no
w.”

  “Oh come on! What the hell is that guy’s deal anyway? What is he thinking?” Jalapo whined in a loud, authoritative voice. “Someone has to get to the bottom of all the murder and mayhem and worm death that has been happening around us! Alright, you win…I know that saying anything about how Loko Kalaheva jumped off the roof is off limits. And the bomb attack at the concert…you know I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole. But you and I both know that the government is up to something crooked and I really don’t care what they are trying to cover up…we’re paid to spin the story, not tell it accurately and honestly. But please, Veronica, baby…if I could ask Kalapana about the worm farmers, and if he told me – the air- that they are a bunch of idiots, my ratings would just skyrocket!”

  “Oh, Jalapo…that would be just hitting below the belt at that point…”

  “Are you kidding me, Veronica? The Hydroplantations owners would love it if we told some ugly truths about how disgusting organic food tastes. I mean, who in the hell really wants to eat worms and organic vegetables that get fertilized with worm shit? This is a great chance to show how much more nutritious and great tasting Zoppy’s chili is! Come on, ya know ya like the idea!”

  Veronica looked at her nails and said, “I don’t know what Grant would think. He’s been so unpredictable lately…he fired one of the vice-presidents yesterday because he didn’t like his tie…and he’s demanding that the writers to put the word ass in more of the sitcom scripts.”

  “Jesus…I guess having power means getting to do whatever you want without consequences for your actions,” Jalapo scoffed. “And to think, I once got reprimanded for using the word, ass…in one of my interviews.”