by Roadbloc
With that he kicked the organiser down, who was just getting up from the floor, climbed up onto the podium and ripped the microphone off its stand, cables stretching upwards to his hand where he held the microphone. The organiser moaned with pain, rolling on the floor.
"Enforcers," said Jordan, signalling the Enforcers which surrounded the room to arrest the man.
"Wait!" said Jessica, "Mr J, I'm assuming you have some sort of proposition or announcement for us?"
Both Jessica's and the man's eyes glanced towards Jordan. The man pointed slightly at Jessica, as though saying that he should stay on Jessica's invite. Jordan hung his head in submission and sighed.
"Okay then. Okay then... 'J' or whatever you wish to be called," said Jordan disgustingly, "Let's hear it."
The man, obviously known as J, smiled.
"Excellent. Now obviously I'm not that popular amongst... anyone really," he smiled in his false girly American accent, "But what you guys don't realise is, I'm like sex to you guys. Or air. You don't realise how much you need me until I'm gone, and if I do go, you will realise.
"So let's cast our minds back to when we were children. Our mommy's always used to tell us to enjoy life and not think about our little children-like desires, just go out with a ball and play with friends. But because your head is so full of a child’s desires that children have, you don't like what you have. You want the new toy. The new thing. All the kids want it and you all spend your time wishing your silly heads off that you have it.
"Now that you're adults though, and you have it, or could have it, you simply do not have the time anymore. Sublime irony really. The world is a bit of a darker place, you have other commitments, a job, children, etcetera. And you see your children, and they're miserable little morons! Miserable! Little! Morons! And you're like, 'why are you so miserable little Eliza?' And she replies a similar reply to what you gave when you were young. And it is only then! -you realise that you wasted your youth, thinking similar thoughts. It is only then, you realise what your parents were on about. It is only then, you realise you’re telling your little morons to stop worrying about what they don’t have, and start enjoying what they do have. Freedom.
“Then again, you guys now have your Happy and your Bliss and your Ecstasy. Taking that into account, it makes everything I’ve just said inert.”
J was an odd talker. Despite the falsetto American accent, every word was articulated and executed with brilliant precision. He left long enough gaps between his sentences so everyone could take in what he had said. Jessica found his intelligence pretty impressive, despite not knowing what on earth he was on about, or at least, what context his apparent metaphor fitted in.
“Myself however, I am a man of simple ideas-" he continued.
"Neo-terrorist," hissed Jordan through his microphone. The crowd behind him murmured.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought they were just bed-time stories made up by the press," J hissed back, licking his lips, "Ha, listen! I know why you do this okay. I know why you relentlessly day after day, stick up for our land's relentless father, okay? It's because, it's easy money. If ignorance is bliss, you guys must be in heaven by now."
The crowd of fanatic speakers started to look uneasy. A bit shifty.
"Ha! Oh come on don't look at me like that. Everyone knows it," he continued, looking somewhat forgiving and humorous, "Everyone knows that you listen to what the leader wants and then stick up for it in Speaker Sessions. Then, the leader, looking at the minutes, sees his idea and obviously likes it and goes forward with it, because it is his idea! This government is so corrupt, even a supermassive-black hole wouldn't swallow it up.
"And everyone knows it. The press know it. The public know it, or what’s left of them at least, I hear the requiem are doing a fine job of reducing the land’s population-" he started pointing at Jessica, trying to think of her name, "Jessica..." he paused to see if he was about to be corrected, "... knows it. Hell, even my nana knows it and she thinks I'm still six and sits in her rocking chair all day making up jokes about poo.
"No-one is convinced, not that you guys care. You get your fat pay packet and all of the land's troubles simply disappear. Well not for much longer. See, very soon, a mountain of poo is going to hit the fan- that's one of my nana's by the way -and when it happens, no-one will get out clean. Deimos? Hell, that's the start, our leader isn't going to stop his madhouse power craze. He isn't going to stop making stupid, selfish decisions that improve him politically in the greater scheme of things, but do not help them who are under his rule. He's going to continue wanting to live forever. He's going to continue what he is doing now, and that's seriously screwing up this land.
"And when this colossal amount of faecal waste hits the turbine, when the final straw has finally been pulled after many years of it being tugged on; the people of this land are going to turn to those who lead this mighty land to destruction. And they're going to find you. And they'll make you squeal. And they're going to have your balls on a plate."
A murmur of discomfort swept through J’s audience as they envisioned what he had just mentioned.
“What is it you’re proposing then?” asked Jessica, staring at J.
He licked his lips. “What I’m proposing is rather simple. We, hurr- kill the leader.”
“You’re insane!” someone called out from the fanatical crowd. Pretty much everyone chuckled in disbelief in what J had just said.
“You think?” asked J, running his tongue along a set of nicotine-stained teeth, “And our metal monster of a master isn’t?
“Ha. Listen, if we don’t sort this mess out now; our Jordan here,” he pointed at Jordan and paused, as though waiting for acknowledgment that Jordan was his name, “Won’t even be able to scrape a rupee from his nana. She’ll be with the rest of them, hunting you down. Oh, and you all will be hunted down. And he’ll let it happen. You’ll be this season’s game. You’ll be the land’s scapegoat.”
“If killing the leader is so apparently simple, why haven’t you done it?” asked Jordan, rubbing his monster of a nose.
“Ha. What makes you think I want to do it voluntarily?”
“What do you want?” asked Jessica. Another murmur of outrage tsunamied its way through the room.
“Hurr- the land. The entirety.”
A moment of laughter took place in the room, during which, J pushed down the organiser who was just about to get back up.
“Mr... J,” chucked Jordan, flicking his blonde hair to one side, “Seriously? You want us to aid you in a mass revolution to put you in charge of our land? Seriously? The biggest neo-terrorist in our land, and you want to us just to step aside and let you take charge?”
“Hurr- yeah. What other choice have you got?” asked J, stepping back onto the podium, “I urge you to take a leap of faith. Otherwise, you have guaranteed annihilation, of both yourself and this land. And don’t pretend you don’t. You know you do. I ask you. What have you got to lose?”
“Nothing will be lost,” said Jordan, “If, your so called theory does become a reality, you forgot to take into account that I can simply move to a place of different hegemony.”
“Ha!’ screamed J, “Hegemony? You think by just moving out of the land to a place of different jurisdiction, you can avoid what’s to come?
“Sure, move to Union. We all know how much they hate us. We all have to deal with the crap they do every day. Hell, what would you do without Union? Our land would have nothing to blame your mistakes on. I’m surprised you haven’t laid the blame of Deimosgate on Union. Not that anyone would have believed it, because no-one believed it the last fifty million times you blamed Union for bad events. It’s got to the point where people won’t even believe it when Union do actually do something! For instance, flooding the market with literal crap.
“Listen to me. And I advise you listen, very, carefully. If you can make it across the wasteland, by all means, get to Union. It won’t make a shadow’s worth of difference. They have
problems of their own. Quite a lot of them worse than what is going on here. Trust me. I’ve been there.”
Another chuckle of disbelief echoed its way through the room. Jordan smugly laid his head into his hands.
“You’ve been to Union. Right.” chuckled Jordan, “And Sugarcandy Mountain exists I suppose yeah? Well I thank you for your generous proposition Mr J, allow us all to consider it whilst you live behind bars. Enforcers, take this loon away.”
Everyone in the room began nattering on the excitement that the land’s biggest neo-terrorist had been caught. Jessica sighed. She had really hoped that he’d be able to make a difference, instead of babbling on like a loon. The Enforcers began their approach.
The Enforcers were nearly there when J cleared his throat in the microphone, “I don’t think you want to be doing this.”
The room froze. The nattering stopped almost immediately.
“Good lord,” muttered Jack, lost for breath, “He’s said it.”
“Erm- and why is that Mr J?” asked Jordan looking genuinely concerned.
The Enforcers had reached J, and were now handcuffing him.
“Hurr- well, you see Jordan, I can’t take no for an answer. The only answer I will accept is- yes.”
“Well, I’m afraid I’m in no professional position to honour your proposition. I don’t think anyone is actually, so I’ll tell you what, why don’t you get your little neo-friends to honour it. After your lifelong prison sentence.” And with that, Jordan left the podium, the Enforcers began attempting to drag J away, and the causal chatter in the room began again.
“Ha. Hurr- Mr Jordan? You will say yes. You will honour my proposal. You all will. It’s not a matter whether you agree, it’s a matter of when you will agree-” J managed to say before being dragged off the podium. The microphone dropped from his handcuffed hands and scraped on the floor.
“Wait!” this time it was both Jessica and Jordan who said it, the casual chatter, yet again, stopped. Jordan signalled with his hand to the Enforcers to give J the microphone. A weedy looking Enforcer picked up the microphone and held it in front of him.
“Why?” asked Jordan.
“Ha! There is a large section of this land which is susceptible to flooding. And for as long as we all can remember, the Ares Flood Defences have been protecting this large section of the land from the outside waters. You don’t need me to tell you the percentage of this land’s population that will die if the Ares Defences were to- fail. So here is the prognosis. If the leader isn’t overthrown and me put in his place by six...” J paused, “...boom!”
The rattle off his handcuff chain as he attempted to mime an explosion with his hands, echoed in the silent room.
Jordan cursed.
The silence was followed by an almost instantaneous uproar, people either shouting threats, panicking or furiously trying to exit the building. The Enforcers dragged away J, who was licking his lips and chuckling to himself, to an awaiting cell in an Enforcer building not far from the House of Speakers.
A sense of panic descended on the room. Jessica turned to Jack.
"Go," she said, "Go get your family and get them out of the area. Don't tell them anything, don't let on anything. Just get out of here and get your family safe."
"What about you?" asked Jack, through the noise of the rapidly panicking amass of speakers.
"It doesn't matter about me, just get yourself out of here. As fast as you can," said Jessica, she then moved her lips close to Jack's ear, "Do it for me. I've not nothing to lose."
"I was warned never to dip my pen in company ink," Jack whispered back, hugging her close.
Jessica chuckled sadly. And with that, she pushed Jack away, and yelled through the noise of everyone else, "Go!"
Jack turned and joined the painful looking bottle neck at the exit. Jessica slowly looked around at the scene. In the blink of an eye, things had turned from potential chaos to actual chaos. It was heart-breaking for her to see her land slowly tear itself apart. A sudden wave of nausea hit her, she had to get to the convenience cubicles.
She turned and made her way to the cubicles, which were positioned in a small room, accessed behind the centre of the Speaker benches. Sitting down in a cubicle, she quietly wept for some time. Until she heard a male voice in the cubicle next to her.
"Jessica?" It was Jordan's voice.
"Jordan?" she replied, trying to snuffle down her sobs.
"We need to sort this out you know," he said, his voice reverberating off the cubicle walls.
"We do?"
"Yeah. Listen, yourself or myself could attempt to quash this alone, however, I doubt either one of us would succeed. We need to utilise our resources, we need to team up. We need to, work together for once," he said.
"You just want to stop the press from getting hold of this don't you?" said Jessica, wiping her red and puffy eyes.
"Correct. And unless I'm mistaken, you wish to stop this J guy for good don't you?"
"Don't you?"
"Naturally. And I of course wish to ensure that he does not blow up Ares Flood Defences. We need to work together with this one. We need to roll with some punches Jessica. We need to start now," persuaded Jordan, “Not to mention we may have another Mahusay Na Mundo on our hands...”
"After everything you've done to me," Jessica started sobbing again, "After everything you've put me through, after the many lies you've blatantly told; you just want me to forget all that and team up with you?"
"Yes. Because we are better than that loon. Do you seriously want this 'J' guy to succeed and get power?"
"Maybe it's for the best," sobbed Jessica, "Things were hardly changing with our current leader.
"Seriously? You think J is going to somehow improve everything?" asked Jordan, "My dear Jess, please don't say you really think that."
"Of course I don't," snapped Jessica, through tears, "I just feel that something has to change. This isn't it though."
"Jess, we've disagreed on a lot of things, and will probably continue to do so. But we both agree that this J guy cannot succeed, either way. Neither the Ares Flood Defences can blow up and neither can he be leader. We both have the minerals to stop him. Do we have an accord?"
"Okay then, yes," muttered Jessica, "But two things. Don't ever call me Jess again and I think your nose is massive."
"I think I can take that for the sake of our land," Jordan grinned, leaving his cubicle. Jessica followed, they both left the convenience cubicle room.
The house of speakers was now mostly empty. There was a disgruntled looking cleaner picking up a load of discarded papers off the floor.
"Have you got a plan in mind then?" asked Jessica, as they headed towards the exit.
"Well, the first port of call is to swear everyone who was present in this room to secrecy. The press cannot know about this," said Jordan.
"How will you do that?"
"I'll page the leader. He can page every Speaker to tell them everyone will remain silent and no evacuation will be taking place."
"You have the leader on your pager?" said Jessica in total awe, "God, our land's leadership corruption is worse than I thought. Moving off that however, a full search of the Ares defences must be conducted by Enforcers and an explosives disposal team if we have such a thing."
"Our Enforcers are more than capable of disabling explosives," said Jordan, pushing past the unhappy cleaner, and pulling out his pager from a pocket, "Mean time, you and myself can go interrogate our 'J' friend down at the Enforcer station."
"Which one is he being held at?"
"Highfields."
"Shouldn't the Enforcers really be questioning him?"
"Unless our meetings minutes guy was really efficient," said Jordan, tapping on his pager, "Which I seriously doubt, our Enforcers will have no clue what went on apart from them who were surveilling the meeting. Our expertise is needed there. Trust me."
"Trusting you is the last thing I wish to do," smiled Jessica, as they left the b
uilding.
Outside, the world was cold. The icy air slapped them like an angry woman. Jessica thought back to when the disappointing Deimosgate speech took place. It had been warm and sunny. The weather was now cold and harsh, a surprising change in such a small space of time. The press and creation scientists thought it was something to do with 'profanation of the local environment'. Jessica had no idea what that meant or entailed, all she knew was that if it was a more serious issue, the government would simply deny its existence.
Across the street was the central Enforcer station, the main one in the land. It was the heart of the entire Enforcer unit, and despite this, rather small. It was a small building with at most five offices and a couple of holding cells. No doubt that a cell was already being cleared for J.
"How long until six?" asked Jessica as they crossed the busy street, ignoring pleas for money from a beggar.
"Ten," replied Jordan, putting away his pager, "All the speakers will be requested to go to Landis House. They will be held there until this is all over. I trust you've told your personal aid just to go home."
"Naturally," replied Jessica, hoping that Jack was getting him and his family out of the area, "God, I never thought I'd be trying to cover up something like this."
"Sides reshuffle when a new opponent is introduced," smiled Jordan, opening Highfield's door, "After you."
"Always a gentleman," Jessica smiled and entered the building.
Jessica was about to ask some weedy looking loser at the reception where J was, but Jordan just pushed right through the spinning barrier. Jessica followed, looking pitifully at the receptionist who looked authoritative-less and confused.
Jordan burst into the first office. Inside a group of three Enforcers were stood around a few cluttered desks and appeared to be arguing.
"Right, we have ten until the Ares Defences supposedly go up in smoke, so what have you guys got?" barked Jordan, the Enforcers looking stunned and confused.
"If you are on about this apparent story that some of my on duty Enforcers told about the neo-terrorist codenamed J, the very guy that you guys wanted to claim was fictional, but somehow now in my custody, walking into your little circle jerks and threatening to blow up the Ares Defences unless he comes the new leader; very little," said a bold and bald guy with big lips, wearing his Enforcer uniform with pride, "In fact, we are very sceptical about the entire thing, as we have found no detonation device on his person."