Victor had already left them in the dust.
“Doris, we have to escape this hellhole! We can’t live like this!” Eleni’s face was marked by desperation.
“To be what, to do what and have what kind of life? In what world? And stop calling me Doris!”
At that point, the ‘All Clear’ siren took over and ecstatic screens announced Victory. Amarantis was safe again. The stellar and earthly dusts had been hoovered up and squished into a special atramentous electromagnetic shielding cage.
CHAPTER 10 - Olfus’ Victorious Speech
‘Avenge Amarantis’ posters popped up everywhere. Feature films like ‘The Day the Sky Exploded’, ‘Anarchy in Amarantis’ and ‘Diaries of Two Rebels’ were already at the top of the must-see list. Screens all over Amarantis provided non-stop coverage on the dangerous dusts and their capture. Government representatives gave press releases and conferences.
Within 48 hours, all Amarants were summoned to assemble for Olfus’ official announcements. He made them wait. Finally, he appeared on his high podium at the entrance of the Olfus Hybrid, his back to the Emerald Tablet. He was also splashed on all screens—small, medium and super-sized.
The best image-makers had worked on him. He was wearing the latest and smartest in second-skin suits, arrived in his plush Aeromobile, and stood stiff and smug, ready to deliver Darkstorm’s latest virtuoso speech – apart from being Minister of Truth & Arts, Darkstorm was also Olfus’ speechwriter.
Thousands of Humans and Eumans turned up to hear and cheer—jeering, of course, was out of the question. SkEyeClops captured and diffused smarmy faces from all angles—especially Olfus’. It was a spectacular show! He even played a few notes on his electric guitar with some 3D holograms who were right up there jammin’ with him—cult Pop Stars like John Lennon singing ‘Power to the People’ and David Bowie singing ‘There’s a starman waiting in the sky’.
Olfus always started his speeches with fairy floss nonsense, before bombarding his infotainment junkies with more sweet-winded mumbo-jumbo, shaded with subtle echoes of speeches from Jesus to Mandela and spiced up with references to lofty ideals like ‘peace’, ‘prosperity’ and ‘freedom’. He remembered Darkstorm’s last words of advice: “It’s the silence that counts, not the applause. Anybody can have applause. But the silence before and during the performance – that’s the best of all.”[39]
“Have you set up the teleprompter? I don’t want the embarrassment of forgetting key phrases like last time.”
“Yep, all set up!” She patted him on the back and pushed him towards the stage. “Now get out there and break a leg!”
“Kiss me, Janie. Kiss me for good luck,” implored Olfus, getting all clingy.
Darkstorm pulled back. “Shall I be mother?” she chirped with a steely glint in her eyes.
“Treachery with a smile, heh?” Olfus’ jaw tensed up and his lips tightened. “Don’t stretch our—”
Darkstorm instantly turned white. Theirs was a union red in tooth and claw. “I’m sorry—just joking!” she cackled nervously. “You can’t go wrong Wolfie. They—We... We love you! Everyone raves about how articulate and photogenic you are. If anything wobbles... just... make it up as you go along! Next day on your dressing room they'll hang a star!”[40]
“There’s no business like show business! Right?” And he skipped onto the stage, wherefrom with religious cynicism, he made the dust fly. Here are some of the highlights:
“This city is a blessed city.
Amarants are special.
The world knows it.
In our innermost thoughts, we know it.”
[Wild cheering and applause from the crowd]
“In a way, D-Day was a blessing.
Crisis is often the path to happiness.
Decay and disintegration do not spell doom, but ascent and beginning. The powerful forces of PURE have united us all behind the future of humanity—eugenic revolution!”
[Wild applause]
“The terrorists have been arrested! PURE has proven how right our might is. We have carried on a ruthless battle against corruption! I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities. Never, never and never again shall this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another!”
[More wild cheering and applause]
“We live in extraordinary times! And extraordinary events force us to declare extraordinary measures!
Therefore, as of midnight tonight, the following measures will apply until further Order:
Movement of Humans is restricted to O-Zone 8.
Movement of Eumans is restricted to O-Zone 7.
Residents of O-Zones 7 & 8 may not leave their homes between the hours of 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Any individual, whose activity interferes with programming and/or psycoding or is otherwise considered a threat to security and public order, will be recycled.
And remember folks! This is the greatest place on earth! You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide.”
And on that last note, amidst the frenzied cheering, whistling, stomping, chanting, flag-waving and confetti, Olfus saluted his fans, all stage lights went down and he himself disappeared like a hologram. The stage was bare. The crowd shuffled off with their half-drunk sodas, their red, shiny candied apples and sticky pink fairy floss. The circus was over.
“What bull dust!” Victor murmured from his languid sofa as he zapped the screen. “I can’t believe he had the gall to plagiarise Mandela of all people”.
As he swigged on his daily gallon of artificial milk he ruminated over his missed golden opportunity. It slipped through his hands into the hands of the most unlikely hero: Telemachus Swift (nicknamed ‘Hound Dog’). It was this 13-year old Human that sniffed them out, in a Pokémon treasure hunt organised by GROM n° 33! During the hunt, SkEyeClops furtively hovered nearby. Everything happened so quickly! Before Telemachus could savour his victory, SkEyeClops agents hoovered it up right under his nose!
“But all’s not lost,” thought Victor. “Not yet!” As he downed the last drop, he suddenly had a flash. What if he turned the criminals loose, only to recapture them himself? He was the Cage Master, was he not? Then he could negotiate a bigger reward.
He tossed and turned all this in his mind, the whole night through, and in the early hours... Bang! Wham! Shazam! Victor’s relishing rat trap dawned on him.
CHAPTER 11 - Birds in a Cage
The dust mixture slowly regained consciousness and realised the cruel extent of the gritty situation. Panic set in, as all efforts to recompose seemed impossible. How did they get there? How long had they been there? Total absence of recall, total loss of sense of time! Astellaria struggled to remember Luna’s advice on her ‘dispersion’ and ‘palpitation’ measures... or was it ‘oscillation’... ‘pulsation’?
“What are you straining your speckled mind about?” asked Pharaona with a scoffing tone.
“It’s all gone... Luna was right. She told me to be focused and disciplined but I wasn’t, and—well, here's another nice mess I got you into Ollie!” Astellaria took on a plaintive whiny ‘poor me’ tone of voice. She reminded Pharaona of Whimpering Stan, head scratching, tearful eyes, quivering lip and all.
“Yes, here’s another nice Dust Soup you’ve gotten me into!”
“You mean Duck Soup!” Astellaria jumped in with a frivolously cheerful correction. Then, after a quick reality-check, she plunged deep into her crystals in search of Luna’s precious pearls. ‘Rhythm’ measures?”
“You go girl! Shake it up!”
“Well, it’s worth a try!” sighed Astellaria. “This cage is a tomb! You were right. There are worse things than Death! If I were mortal, I’d be suiciding as we speak! Hmm... maybe she said ‘vibrations’?”
Pharaona offered cheerleading support—I'm pickin' up good vibrations (Oom bop, bop, good vibrations).[41]
Good heavens! Oh, those false notes!
/> “Oh please Ra, I can’t concentrate!”
Then, the Pharaonic gloater had to gloat again... of course! “He who understands the Principle of Vibration has grasped the sceptre of power! Oooh! Maybe she said ‘transmutation’! That rings a bell! In fact, I remember distinctly that I instructed H.T. on the matter, when he was writing the Emerald Tablet. Not only that, I insisted that he call the work ‘All is Mind’ but he—”
“Yeah, never mind the whole story, let’s just stick to the All is Mind part,” said Astellaria, cutting off her garrulous cousin. “All is Mind, we’re all part of the universal, infinite, living mind... Everything moves, everything vibrates! Straight out of the Emerald Tablet! And come to think of it, since I have the power to manipulate light and electromagnetic stuff, I must be one hell of a hacker!” On that note, Astellaria hit her own triumphant soprano notes, ‘O sole mio, Sta ‘nfronte a te’... and a star was born.
“Frittata, signore e signori?” Pharaona’s sands lit up with pure delight!
“I’ll scramble Egghead’s chips and psycodes—”
“Tortilla de Patatas! OK Aria, let’s see how mental the Universe is! Shake your dust and let’s get out!”
“Aria?”
“Well, if you can call me Ra, I can call you Aria... It’s kind of poetic, don’t you think? ‘Ra’ plus ‘Aria’? The Song of the Sun God?” Pharaona chuckled light-heartedly, also momentarily dropping the gravity of their predicament.
“Well, it is one way of saying we’re finally in harmony,” retorted Pharaona.
And as the two dusts zinged their specks, tiny sparks cast light on the walls of their cage. It worked! The light was getting so strong that it started to pierce the steel turning parts of it into a sieve.
They continued with greater fervour until they heard footsteps.
“Stop... Someone’s come in the room!” Pharaona whispered. “We’ll have to wait! There’s no point escaping just to get hoovered again!”
Astellaria decided to take a peek, through the new minuscule peeping holes.
“Hah! It’s a guy wearing a Superman T-shirt!” she reported. “What d’you make of that?”
“What can I say? Life is stranger than fiction!”
CHAPTER 12 - To Catch A Thief
Victor sprang out of bed drenched in cold sweat. He rushed to his fridge and gorged up a bucket glass of water. As the last bead of perspiration rolled down his forehead, he looked at his precious dust bag. Suddenly he felt the urge to check his bounty. Feeling his way to the hoover bag, and plumping it lightly like a delicate pillow, he was relieved. The velvety dust was still there.
All was well.
However, things are rarely as they seem—
The neon light sneaking in through his bedroom window made Astellaria’s dust shine. His face mellowed. He was bewitched. Something compelled him to open the bag. Astellaria lost no time. Whoosh! She sprung up like Botticelli’s Emergent Aphrodite and stood in front of the raider’s captivated eyes.
Victor panicked and promptly sealed the bag again!
“About time!” Astellaria said indignantly. “What were you waiting for all this time?” She scolded him with brassy speech and grandiose naivety.
Victor was entranced, possessed and totally star struck.
“What are you standing there for? Let her out!” she mandated pointing to the bag. “Can’t you see she’s suffocating in there?”
“I don’t get it. Are you real? I mean, are you living things?” he stuttered.
“Naturally! Everything around you is alive! Open your eyes! I mean, really open your eyes! Now take a good look at me. What do you see?”
“A golden girl?” Victor stumbled over his words.
“Hmm... I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a girl playing on the sea-shore—”
“Why does that remind me of somebody?” he smirked.
“Oh, so you know that one... What I really mean to say is—and whoosh she pulled Annie Lennox out of her dusty memory—
“Oh I'll show you something good.
When you open your mind
You'll discover the sign
That there's something
You're longing to find...”
You see, I’m not just a glittery object. My golden amber eyes are rich with magical images, the greatest poems of all time, pebbles and seashells, sunsets and rainbows, tears, laughter and the miracle of love!”
Astellaria blushed and lowered her gaze, feeling that perhaps she had overdone the self-marketing. The truth is that Victor put a little twinkle in her apple too. As their eyes met again, he was swept away into another space and time. He was hopelessly lost, helplessly happy. When he returned from blissful oblivion, Astellaria smiled at him and gazed at the bag. “Well?” she said. He nodded and opened the bag.
As Pharaona began to regain her shape, she started cursing everything and everyone: “What goons! No respect for someone of my aeons... Oh well, young man, I suppose I should thank you!”
Victor was overawed by the sandy grandstand appearance.
“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” she asked him brazenly. When the cat returned his tongue, he asked: “I suppose you’ll tell me why they’re after you. Although I guess I know. You’re the ones who stole that Top Secret stuff. But what did you steal exactly?”
“Pay attention Sugar Plum! We could be accused of lots of things, but not of stealing that egghead’s featherbrained secrets! In any case, the biggest secret here is that this PURE freak show is a PURE lie. Every horror story that Olfus has rammed into your face—or into your psycodes, EmotMems, and what have you—is nothing but lies, lies, lies! The only thing we’re guilty of is... no sense of direction! We’re here only because we got hijacked by that slimy Coiled Snake”. Pharaona was so disconcerted she had steam—and dust—coming out of her ears.
“Impossible! An entire government, an entire nation based on a lie? Why? What’s in it for Olfus? And how do you fit into the picture?”
“Why? I dunno... Why does a dog bark? The real question is cui bono? cui prodest?”
“Hello?”
“Don’t your psycodic Clouds teach you any Latin? Who profits from Olfus’ Freedom World?”
“Everyone. Our creed is: ‘A nation must be governed in the common interest, and its laws must be directed toward the good of its best people’. You’re the one not paying attention!”
“Ahem... Key words being, ‘the good of its best people’!”
“We can’t fight natural laws. Of course, with you being unnatural and all, that must sound a bit harsh... Hah hah... So go ahead! Hit me with your apocalyptic revelations. I’m all ears!”
“My dear fellow, we all know that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes a truth; and the bigger the lie, the more it will be believed! But, you can’t fool all people all the time!”
“I think he gets it Ra,” said Astellaria sheepishly.
“How is Olfus to govern as he does? By telling the truth? And what is he to say? Now listen here folks, Welcome to my nightmare, I think you're gonna like it?”[42]
“With all due respect ma’am, methinks you’re stretching things a bit!”
“I tell no tales! Your Emperor has no clothes! And that’s where we come into the picture. He needed a useful enemy—just in case psycoding and the rest of the rigmarole bungled up... So here we are! The enemy!”
“Conspiracy theorist, hey?”
“Yeah, because King Rat would never do anything ratty, right?”
“There’s no point Ra! It don't compute... Must be something in the water they drink...”[43]
But Ra wasn’t about to give up.
“Look at Twinkle Toes here! Who do you think gave the order to star-blast her to Kingdom Come? You think you get him? Hah! The only one from your lot who understands that crack-head is Ddd... argh!” Pharaona started coughing and choking on her own sands. Remember that she’s not allowed to directly intervene in human a
ffairs. But there were only so many riddles and signs she could come up with. What else was she to do? Slash her sands?
“Are you serious?” Victor retorted loftily. “Olfus doesn’t need you two to throw dust in our eyes... I mean, even if you did steal and/or leak Top Secret information—whatever that may be. Memory can be wiped and replaced. And even if it couldn’t, nobody here cares about anything—”
“...apart from being entertained. I get it. My dear boy, Olfus is a fraud, a liar, and a hypocrite... Mon Dieu! He can’t even replicate a tomato—you know, one that feels, smells and tastes like a real tomato, a tomato with soul! That dunderhead tried to clone himself thousands of times—and even that was a disaster! Look at Ddd—”
Another oops moment! Pharaona almost let the same cat out of the same bag! Astellaria muzzled her tout de suite. “No! Stop! Think of the Soothsayers Code!”
Pharaona’s big fat gritty mouth gnawed away at Astellaria’s muffling dusty hands. “Talk about a stuffed-up immaculate conception!” she mumbled loudly. She was out of control. A squealing battle-axe!
“So much for the Code of Conduct!” Astellaria moaned. She then hurried to swerve attention away from the Pharaonic blunder, steering the spotlight back on Olfus through her own little song: “He is the eye in the sky, he is the maker of rules, dealing with fools... and he’s cheating you blind!”[44] However, Pharaona was unswerving—straight on course and still on a roll! “Yes, in the words of my good friend Charlot: “Your knowledge has made you cynical; your cleverness, hard and unkind. You think too much and feel too little. More than machinery you need humanity—”
Victor gaped at Pharaona’s untouchable folly and then burst out with, “That movie is banned here! You could be accused of High—”
“High treason? Oooooh... My sands are trembling! I shall turn into quicksand! Listen, we didn’t start this, but by God we will finish it!”
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