by Fox J Wilde
“Truth be told, I still don’t.” Matt replied glumly. “So, what does that mean, then? I mean, it’s certainly useful. But...”
“Okay, okay. Part two.” Mr. Collins said, bouncing in his seat. He was obviously gaining excitement as he was speaking, and this made Matt slightly nervous. “Let’s say you had something to gain by a series of actions. You would take those actions, right?”
“Of course.”
“In Game Theory, we have two types of games. The first is Zero-sum: that is, non-cooperative games where my opponent has to lose in order for me to gain. Think warfare over geography, or finite resources. But the second type is cooperative games, where the goal is to average out our potential gains so that even though I personally make less, we as the collegiate whole can produce more with the implied sum of our efforts, rather than the rote sum of our parts. On the international playing field, we accomplish this in three ways: dominance, reciprocity and culturalism.
“Dominance is explained by Russia and the GDR in the context of the Soviet bloc. The GDR is less powerful than Russia, thus, they have to take what Russia gives them whether they like it or not. To balk is to risk military action, and thus risk destabilizing equilibrium.
“In reciprocity, or ‘tit for tat’—generally between two reasonably equal powers—we all agree to compromises. This is where the US and Russia are, even though it doesn’t appear to be so, since we are still currently working out those geographical and economical compromises. The benefit is that everyone gets room to breathe. The detractor is that you have to give up space here, or resources there, and no one ever wants to do that.
“Enter in culturalism, where people factor in the identity of their country, and their individual moral values. What would their ‘God’ tell them to do, in order to remain an example of their religious institution, and thus sway others to their line of thinking? What manufacturing practices would we be willing to give up, in order to take the effects of global warming into account? What about maintaining the existence of a small native tribe of people who don’t contribute economically but do contribute culturally, especially in a historic context?
“In other words, if I can convince you, my opponent, that we can both identify as a cultural union…say, members of the now-defunct League of Nations, or the UN Defense council...maybe that inclusionary identity is worth more than merely identifying as a dominant nuclear superpower.”
“Alright…I’m following.” Matt said, scratching his head.
“You lie!” Mr. Collins teased. “Now, what would I have to do to harness culturalism, to get you to take an action that benefited all parties involved, even if it put you in a slightly worse-off position?”
“Explain the worth of it to me, I suppose.” Matt said. “But how would that be possible here? We have two ideologically opposed entities. US and the HVA hate each other—mostly because America and the GDR are politically opposed to each other.”
“First off...” Mr. Collins winked, “I don’t think we and the HVA hate each other that much. We may be on opposing teams, but we’re still in the intelligence community together. That makes us part of a single culture, even if we have opposing goals and methods. I know this because you were able to quickly facilitate a working relationship with both Patrick and Open-Wide.
“Second, you didn’t account for the HVA case officer, whom I strongly believe has a different cultural standpoint than that of his agents. He may work for the HVA, but he only utilizes its methods when he has to. He knows, based off of experience, that their tactics work well for the short-term game; whereas his tactics are far more sustainable, even when he receives resistance.”
“How do you know that?” Matt asked.
“Because Sunshine, Analog, Patrick, Grips, Open-Wide and the rest of our network are still alive.”
“Fair enough.”
“He also appears to support the GDR, but only appears to. His actions, if I’ve read them right, say that he probably believes in the community of socialism, rather than the GDR the community resides within. He probably believes that, if left to its own devices—and free of both the HVA and the Stasi— the socialist community would choose to thrive, and his GDR would be its own country, which as we both know is their main goal.
“He likely feels that the real opponent to the GDR is actually Soviet Russia, because the Soviet Bloc actually works against the GDR becoming its own country. He correctly sees that capitalism has its benefits, and that the various incarnations of socialism do too. But while he himself extols socialism for its benefits to the community, he reviles communism, seeing it part-and-parcel as intellectual and economic genocide. He views the Soviets as an equal threat to both America and the GDR. Thus, he’s willing to work on our behalf, so long as it works against his real enemy: the Soviets.
“I know this, once again, because Sunshine and all the others haven’t been summarily murdered, which would have cut nearly all of these games short. Instead, we took his bait—Sunshine—and his threat—Analog—and threw them right back across the wall as an obvious dangle. He has seemed to oblige us by not only keeping them alive, but— and would you believe this—scheduling another show with your band and hers.”
“Seriously?!” Matt yelled, slamming the table. “He really did?! You can’t be serious?!”
“Oh yes, Matt. He did. Like walking ransom notes. In truth, he likely feels that our network can actually benefit the socialist community of his country by working against the GDR’s Soviet taskmasters—provided he can control their information flow. Which is precisely what I would do, if I were in his position.” Then Mr. Collins assumed a sly grin as he continued, “That is, if I had received the same nonsense counter-intelligence that I’ve been sending him.”
“What do you mean?” Matt asked.
“Let’s just say that the only true information in the ‘Top Secret’ files that Lord Piggy had in his briefcase were a few fly-fishing techniques.”
“Are you serious?”
“They were pretty blatant too. Well, to anyone that fly-fishes, at least.”
“So what now?”
“We’re going to accept his riposte to our parry, and throw it back in his face.”
“How?”
“You, my young charge, are going to play a show with Lena and Vivika.”
“So you are going to bring her over?” Matt asked, surprised.
“I’m going to try, Matt. But remember our priorities: first comes Grips, and with him assurances about the safety of the network. After that, the most important thing is Sunshine. Once those points are dealt with, everything else is fair game.”
“Thank you, Mister Collins.” Matt said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank you for honoring my stupidity.”
“Oh, don’t you even think I hadn’t planned for this weeks ago.” Mr. Collins said dryly. “A good case officer always takes into account that his agents aren’t eunuchs.” With this, Mr. Collins glared at him with a very stern look, before adding, “Yet.”
“There won’t be any need for that, Mr. Collins,” Matt gulped. “But what then? What happens after we bring them over?”
“Well, then I take their case officer off the board, Matt. Check and mate.”
In Schadlicher Weise
It was past sundown as the small tour bus rolled through Checkpoint Charlie. Unlike before, they weren’t held up with very much fuss at all. The GDR Soldiers yelled, and the American’s yelled back, but they once again seemed to be fueled more by personal entertainment and appearances than any real effort. If she were of a mind to look hard enough, she might have seen two soldiers on opposite sides of the fence laughing as they bellowed at each other.
She wasn’t paying that close of attention, however, as she was far too lost in her thoughts. Here she was, the great Madeline Dangerbunny, alone in a van being driven by ‘Victor’ to places completely unknown to her. Sh
e was also quite preoccupied with not stabbing him in the back of the neck to consider much else—so much so, that she had only recently realized that she had no musical equipment—or a band—and no set list for the night. All she knew was that she was supposed to be doing an impromptu show with The Dead Weights…and that Vivika wasn’t part of that arrangement.
When Lena’s thoughts drifted to Vivika she really didn’t know what to think. Their relationship had taken on a whole new meaning so quickly that she hadn’t had time to process it. Before they could really set about formulating a plan, Patrick had acted. The two had been separated by ‘Victor’ who had picked her up at Little John with very little information. Once Lena had found out on rather short notice that she was headed west of the Wall—without the only remaining member of her band—she was sure that this was more his doing than Grandfather’s. Grandfather was a much better planner than this. The deck was stacked against her, and she didn’t like that one bit.
“So, are you excited?” Victor asked cheerfully.
Lean only responded with a curt “Yup.”
“…Gonna get to play with your buddy Matt...” he said awkwardly, trying to break the tension, “You get to play another show! Two in less than a month? Not too bad, eh?”
“Uh huh.”
“I think it’s pretty cool.” he said. After a few more moments of silence, though, he sighed awkwardly.
It was almost like a bad date—one of those horrible first dates where it becomes obvious within the first five minutes that you absolutely hate each other. Hands are wrung, looks are cast elsewhere for help, things are said purely because silence is death, and every word brings the mood closer and closer to extreme discomfort and utter failure. Then sadness. Suddenly, suicide seemed an attractive alternative to the next five moments of seat-shifting and staring daggers.
“Yup.” Lena finally said.
“Yeah…pretty cool.” he said again.
The two rode in silence as the night-time lights of the city skyline cast colors across the insides of the van. Lena knew she should really just keep her mouth shut. Absolutely nothing she could possibly say would improve the situation in any way. But ‘Victor’ was just so stupid. He had to know. He had to know that this was a scheme of such diabolically poor planning that it was doomed to failure. He had to know that it was his fault, and he had to know that she knew that. Even as the moments ticked on, Lena desperately tried to remind herself that in 24-hours, it would all be over regardless of how it played out. But minute after laden minute, she lost a measurable amount of ability to hold it all in. Finally, she hazarded a question.
“So what am I supposed to be doing, again?”
Victor winced when she asked it. Clearly, for some god-forsaken reason, he had figured he wouldn’t have to answer any of the hard questions. “You’re gonna play a show with your boyfriend.” he tried to tease. Lena just stared at the back of his neck, hating him until she saw the red flush of embarrassment start to spread—he knew his joke wasn’t very funny.
“No, seriously.” Lena said acidly, “What the hell am I supposed to be doing? What is the plan?”
“I don’t know…you know…musician stuff. Like, maybe you two could play an acoustic show or something?”
“Musician stuff? We’re punk rockers. What sort of acoustic music do you think we are going to be playing?”
“Well, I dunno...” he said, shifting in his seat. “You know, maybe…I mean, maybe he’s got a few things figured out.”
Oh, this was intolerable. This plan had been so poorly formulated, he hadn’t even bothered to work out the details of her cover, let alone the reason for reuniting with Matt York in the first place. It was so ridiculous, she almost hated him more for this than any of his other previous sins.
“You have no idea what we’re doing, do you?” Lena finally asked. “Like, you genuinely hadn’t thought any of this through.”
“Of course I don’t know what you’re doing!” he exclaimed, “This is all last minute, and you know that. Let’s just get through this and do what we have to do, okay?”
“And what do we have to do, Patrick?”
“Victor.” he corrected, but Lena wasn’t in the mood to play stupid secret-agent games right now.
“Patrick.” she said aggressively, “I’m being serious! What am I supposed to be doing? Am I supposed to tell Matt something? Am I supposed to hand something off to him for you or someone else? What do I say when he asks me questions you know he’s going to ask me? This is your job to figure all of this out, not mine. You are supposed to coach me. So coach me!”
“Look...” he replied, “I’ve got a lot to work out here, so just...”
“Oh, you have a lot to work out?!”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Lena, you have no idea what...”
“Oh I think I have plenty of ideas.”
“What?!” he yelled. “What ideas do you have? You have no idea how hard all of this is to manage! Sometimes we just have to take the hand that we are given and run with it, okay? So just…I don’t know, go do whatever you ‘band people’ do. I’ll do what I have to do, and...”
“Oh, so that’s what this is!” Lena yelled. “This is you having to do stuff. So why the hell am I here, Patrick? Why are you having me along for your stupid games?!”
She had finally got to him. He had been backed into a corner, and simply trying to dance his way out of it wasn’t going to work. Unless he was prepared to earn more of her wrath than he already had, he would have to pony up an actual response.
“Because I need a hostage, you idiot.” he finally said, in a completely different tone than before. “You’ve messed things up for me and your precious Grandfather. And now, once again, I have to fix everything while holding your hand through all of it. Well, I’m not going to, this time. For once, you are going to carry your own weight and figure something out while I go out and fix the rest of it.”
“Oh, fuck you!” she yelled. She didn’t have any follow-up to that, but she said it anyway.
“Sure, sure.” he said, blowing her off, “Whatever you say, Lena. I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, but I’m here. So, let’s just follow our orders, okay? You go schmooze with your boyfriend, do drugs, and I’ll do all of the work. Then, you can return to our country with everything just peachy as if nothing even happened.”
“I know about Vivika.”
Oh, she really shouldn’t have said that. She really shouldn’t have. But she had wanted to for the entire ride…desperately she had wanted to feel the poison-soaked utterance escape from her mouth to hit him square in the face. Miraculously, the words not only felt just as amazing to say as she had hoped, but they seemed to even have the desired effect. He looked stunned…whipped, even.
“...oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh’.” Lena menaced.
“That…she shouldn’t have...” he verbally flailed, “She…that…Lena, it’s...”
“I’m telling Matt.” Lena said. “The second I see him, I’m telling him. I’m going to tell him everything about it, in every single detail. And then we’ll see what happens.”
“Y-you shouldn’t…you shouldn’t do that.”
“Why? Why shouldn’t I? How did you think that this was going to work out? That she somehow wouldn’t tell me, and that I wouldn’t do everything I could possibly do to make you suffer for it? What could you possibly have as a backup plan? You raped my friend, you lowlife piece of shit. And now I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure you suffer for it.”
“I seriously wouldn’t do that,” Patrick said in a positively freaky tone. “Just you remember, you wretched little bitch, Vivika is on that side of the Wall, and you are on this one. I have both of you as leverage, and that means I can make one of you disappear quicker than you could possibly imagine. The only reason you are alive is the same reason we are headed i
nto the West: to broker a meeting. If you tell Matt anything, I’ll kill you. If our negotiations don’t go well, they’ll kill her. And if you don’t play my game exactly how I want it to be played, I’ll make sure I see her long before you do.”
“You know what I think?” Lena responded, blankly. “I think Matt already knows. Which means that Mr. Collins already knows.”
“What of it?” Patrick responded, swallowing.
“...and you know what else?” Lena continued, ignoring him, “I think Grandfather knows to.”
“...well, that doesn’t...”
“And I know Grandfather. I know how he feels about rape, and I know how Matt and Mr. Collins do, as well. I think you are backed against a corner and you think I’m going to be your trump card against all of that. But you know what? I know you too, Patrick.”
“Oh what the hell do you know about me?!”
“I know that you aren’t as smart as you think you are. But more importantly, I know you are just smart enough to realize who’s really in control. I know that whatever Grandfather has in store for you, it’s nowhere near as bad as it would be if you laid even a single finger on me. I know that the second we get to the venue, Matt and Mr. Collins will protect me and you will be powerless. I know you are meeting with Matt, and I know that he knows what you did to the woman he loves. And you know what? I’m looking forward to seeing who beats the shit out of you first…and who picks up whatever is left of your stinking carcass and finishes it off.”
“You’re god-damned right I raped her!” Patrick screamed. “She had it coming! And you know what? I don’t care who knows! Because you aren’t the only one on this side of the Wall now. Now I’m over here too—the HVA can’t touch me. If things go sour, I can hold out as long as I need to, and I’m far better equipped to do that than you are. What’s better, I have a hostage: you.
“If you think for one second that I’m letting you out of my sight, or out of my control, you’ve got something else coming. And if you think that was the last time I’m prepared to make an example of some worthless little bitch, you haven’t realized who you are locked in a van with, in a strange and foreign country where little girls like you and Vivika disappear every single day. This is the West, you pretty little idiot…no one here cares what’s happening to you. And once this is all over, I’ll show you, so that you never forget.”