The Deceit

What was mr. martin playing at? elizabeth hadn’t a clue. Why had he told her about matthew stanler? It checked out. They bugged stanler and slipped him plans for a theft at the philmer building which was rumored to carry secret government documents. Within the day he had reached out to a phillip retter for an urgent meeting. From the pet shop across the street, elizabeth watched stanlers wait for landers and stroke his thighs nervously at a café with his coffee going cold. While landers had made quite a name for himself in the political arena, he had craftily avoided notice from the rest of the public. So he managed to blend in well with the crowd but elizabeth recognized him instantly from her brother’s stories. His coal black hair with well-trimmed graying sideburns and his jutting through the crowed with a confidence unusual for a man of his stature gave him away.

With regards to the true undercurrents of the recent political activities, elizabeth was fumbling in the dark for a light switch in an unfamiliar room. But she knew there was a light switch. The curfews, the censorship, the media shift, the war mongering: they were all too all of a sudden. nilbmah didn’t work that way and nilbmah politics most certainly didn’t work that way. Something else was going on. elizabeth knew it. All the top leaders in the scattered resistance knew it. But none of them knew what was going on. Like jacob, elizabeth knew landers could lead her and the resistance to the source of all this insanity. So why would martin give her such a huge lead? Was he just using her to belittle his rival? Maybe, but this lead gave her too much for that. Didn’t it? If everything worked out the resistance would finally launch beyond paper battles and into action. Why would he give up so much? He couldn’t possibly think she would let him go, especially after what he did. What was he playing at?

He certainly wasn’t going to play her. elizabeth, after all, was the richest person on Coralende. And what’s more, no one had a clue she could be that wealthy living in a socialist nation. And besides she had been planning this (well not quite this but near enough) since university.

Just like the rest of the hoolips of her generation she left university inspired by the ideal of the life of art and education. A revolution was in order! The state needed to supply more than just the basic needs to its citizens; it needed to nourish their deepest elements; it needed to cultivate the gods within. And just like the rest of the hoolips, she spent hours engrossed with not-even-greying anthropology professors in discussions about the transcendence of spirit or some other bouquet of academic lexemes. Just like the rest of the hoolips, she attended protests and yoga, rallies and modern dance workshops. Just like the rest of the hoolips she religiously journaled her dreams and reread chansky overpopulating the margins with notes and tangents. But while the rest of the hoolips majored in anthropology or comparative literature and spent their summers camping in the woods, elizabeth majored in economics, got internships with the chief of directors of the major nilbmah companies and studying at Foggistani universities. While the rest of the hoolips bought their outfits from the same three overpriced independent tailors to express their creativity, elizabeth was content with the clothes from the government retailers.

It was not that elizabeth enjoyed economics over anthropology or corporate networking over calibrating with nature. Just the opposite. She would have given her right hand for a 13th month to live in the woods and write an anthropology thesis. However, according to elizabeth’s thinking, if she truly wanted to realize social change the money and connections offered from an economics degree would be infinitely more useful than the books, rhetoric and methodology of the anthropology degree. So, just as elizabeth predicted, the hoolips graduated only to discover that activism couldn’t support their other interests and settled for less idealistic jobs. elizabeth, on the other hand, jumped into business as a junior executive for the cell phone company mobile 9. Within 4 years she was chief of directors.

But mobile 9 wasn’t how ms. garner made her money. Oh no. Not by a long shot. With nilbmah’s socialist policies, even the chief of director could not amass the magnitude of wealth that would let you nudge society. Through her study abroad connections, she began investing in foreign markets under the alias lilian miklan. More than a killing, she made a genocide. And better yet no one knew.

Having secured her financial clout, elizabeth began to knit a political network. Getting her brother elected in the last election was the first step. She was almost ready to nudge society towards the life of art and education when everything went crazy. Her university plans blew out the window.

Not to be undone, elizabeth recovered from a decade down the drain by launching herself into the resistance movement. Even though the resistance wasn’t exactly what she planned, she couldn’t have been better prepared. With her clout and connections she was emerging as the guiding light to all the scattered resistance operations. And that brings us back to landers and the set up snitch matthew stanler with his cold coffee.

stanler excellently delivered the false information and received an envelop with 1,000 schifels for his services. With things to do, landers quickly walked across the street and headed through the crowded side walk in the direction of the pet shop. elizabeth did it on a whim. She slipped past lizard cages and rushed out the door to be walking towards landers 4 meters away. The gap narrowed to only 2 meters and both individuals stared straight forward refusing to focus on the other closing in. 1 meter left. Of course neither one stepped aside. Their shoulders knocked like hammers scattering both of them off their original trajectories into other people who cursed their negligence. elizabeth kept walking forward heart racing and trying to keep from running off the adrenaline but landers turned and glared at elizabeth’s non-descript brown jacket. A stream of people nudged past him, but he continued to glare until after he had lost the brown of elizabeth’s jacket in the sea of other coats.

Later that night, the magistrate’s men hid waiting in the philmer building when a box of fireworks crashed through the window of the main hall and began to erupt inside. While reserve security from the rest of the government campus were called in to help stabilize the philmer building, elizabeth and two other confidents slipped into the palace of the politburo and copied 3 drives of confidential government documents. It was a major victory. Those drives would become the life blood of infant resistance and elizabeth knew it.

_____________________________________

“lander’s information was bad. He didn’t have the right contacts. The philmer building was a diversion. My guess is they took something from the palace. There’s more information about resources they would want there. I would check all computer activity there. That’s what I would do.”

It was 4 in the morning, 2 hours after the commotion at the philmer building. The magistrate had once again jumped jacob while he was sleeping. This was the first time he had seen the magistrate since the reprimand for failing to start a war. The magistrate told mr. martin about the recent events and asked him for his opinion. The lights were still off.

“You’re quick mr. martin. 3 dives were copied from the palace at 10 minutes after the explosion in the philmer building. What have you figured out about our insurgents?”

“There is something going on with mobile 9. Lots of strange expenses and meetings. Presumably leading to garner.”

“Look into that.”

It took jacob about three minutes to realize the magistrate had left. He then got up and fried eggs with bacon and a smirk. landers was probably not having such a nice morning.

jacob was back and on top.

In Unison

Estonia and Latvia swirled back into reality amidst a burst of blue sparks. “Where are we?” said Estonia.

They were in a vast green field, next to a tall concrete tower. “I don’t know,” said Latvia, “but why aren’t we with Lithuania?”

“I told you I haven’t got a proper hold of this teleportation thing,” Estonia snapped. “But she must be somewhere nearby.”

The sky was a swirling dark gray, chockfull of thick, impenetrable clouds. “This place sucks,” said Latvia simply.  

“I feel too exposed out here in the open,” said Estonia, eyeing the tower. “Should we…?”

“Go in?” Latvia glanced around, still expecting to see Lithuania, somewhere. They really were just out in the open. The edge of a forest could be seen in the distance down south, but the tower they were next to was squat in the middle of a vast meadow that, except for the distant forest, extended as far as the eye could see. “Something isn’t right,” Latvia said.

Estonia tugged at the large iron door to the tower. Then tugged again. It wouldn’t budge. “If we just teleported here,” said Latvia. “I’m sure we can make it through a door.”

Estonia looked the door up and down, sizing it up. “Alright, let’s see if this works.” She placed her palm flat against the door and closed her eyes.

Latvia crossed her arms. “You trying to teleport through that?”

Estonia frowned, brows furrowed in concentration. “Not quite.”

“Well you’re not leaving me on the wrong side of the door if you are,” said Latvia, grasping Estonia’s hand. Instantly, the door disappeared in a swirl of blue sparks, reappearing with a dull thud as it landed on the grass several feet away.

“Crap,” said Estonia, looking at where the door had landed.

“Sweet!” said Latvia surprised, releasing her sister’s hand and looking at the now doorless entryway into the tower. “You just teleported that thing away!”

“Erm, not quite,” said Estonia, rubbing her palm. “I think you did.” 

“What?”

“It didn’t work until you touched me.”

“But I didn’t even know what you were trying to do. Is that what you were trying to do?” she asked, pointing at the fallen door.

“Yes, but—” Estonia was perplexed. “I didn’t really feel any sort of… power surge, until you touched me.”

Latvia looked at Estonia, then the entryway, then the door, then back at Estonia. “Shit.”

“Shit?”

“Shit.”

“What?”

“We need to find Lithuania, now.”

“No shit.”

“No,” Latvia snapped. “I mean, we really do. Like, now. This bad feeling I have… And the fact that mom asked us to teleport here… And you teleporting that door away right when I touched you… Don’t you see?”

“No.”

“I think—I think we’re stronger when we’re close together.”

“Uh huh,” said Estonia, her voice still flat. “And when you get bad feelings, something bad usually happens. Which means we have to find Lithuania so we can deal with whatever bad thing is coming.”

“Right.”

“Clever.”

“We’re in danger. Your monotone is inappropriate.”

“You don’t say.”

“Latvia!” came a voice from inside the tower. Both girls whipped their heads towards the darkness inside. “Latvia! Estonia! I can’t believe it’s you!” From the darkness came Felix Sombrero, eyes wide open and laser rifle at hand. 

“Felix!” cried Latvia, relief washing over her. She gave Felix a quick, warm hug. “We need to find Lithuania, right away.”

“Like hell we do,” said Felix, staring off to the forest edge down south. “We got separated—there are explosions going on all down the tunnels.” He seemed on edge—unsure. “How’d you get here?”

“Later. What tunnels?” said Estonia.

Felix nodded, pointing all around him. “Tunnels are all under these fields, going in tons of directions to other towers just like this one,” he said, indicating the present northern tower with a nudge of his chin.

“So what can we do? How can we find her?” Latvia asked.

“We go south, above ground. But we need backup. I believe we’re being ambushed—or at least, the southern tower is. And that’s where Lithuania’s at. Every tunnel leading her way is either blown or under attack.” Latvia’s face went pale, and the worry in Felix’s expression wasn’t helping. “Come on; follow me below ground really quick. I need to rally some men. We need to head off now.”  

Felix led the way, and in a matter of minutes they were all underground, weapons at hand, backed by a group of five Foggistani soldiers. “You girls shouldn’t come,” Felix warned.

Latvia held her gun like it was poisonous, while Estonia held hers with such exaggerated confidence it was clear she’d never shot a gun in her life. “We need to go,” Latvia said firmly. “Lithuania needs us.”

“Me and my men will do the best we can. We’ll save her.”

Latvia shook her head. “No. We have to go too.”

“I’m not putting you two in danger,” said Felix, his voice growing authoritative. 

“I hope you don’t think you’re going to tell us what to do,” said Estonia, straightening a little.

Then they heard footsteps. Quick footsteps coming from down the tunnels. Everyone pulled their guns from their holsters. And a second later, Isa and Winfry were bursting into the dimly lit room. “Thank God we found you three!” said Isa, breathing heavily.

Felix opened his mouth to speak, but Winfry cut him off. “Latvia and Estonia, your sister needs your help now. We don’t have time to explain. We have to act now.”

Latvia and Estonia stared at the newcomers, confused and at a loss for words. And then— “Do you feel that?” said Latvia, looking Estonia in the eyes.

“Erm…” Before she could call her sister crazy, Estonia started feeling a strange tingling sensation all throughout her body, like she was slowly becoming enveloped in static. Then the darks became darker. The lights became lighter. The blues became bluer, and everything felt brighter. The taste of her own tongue. The odd smell of sulfur, mold and sweat. The imperceptible specks of dust, lingering in midair. The sound of Latvia’s heartbeat, against the blood pulsing steadily through her own scalp. “Oh my God,” Estonia said.

“We can do it!” cried Latvia.

“We can totally do it!” said Estonia.

“What?” said Felix.

Isa and Winfry had enough experience with the quilaire and the librem now to know that things sometimes just got weird. Also, whatever was making the sisters act funny was probably Isa and Winfry’s fault anyway—so what the hell.

Estonia then snatched Latvia’s hand. Latvia instinctively took Isa’s hand. Isa was already holding Winfry’s hand. And that was when the room went up in blue light.

Everyone reappeared above ground, surrounded by fire, laser beams and mayhem. In an instant, Felix and his men had pushed Latvia, Estonia, Winfry and Isa to the floor, formed a circle around them, activated their magnetic shields, and started shooting at the surrounding enemies. They were out in the open, completely exposed, and AssMachenstani creatures were swarming all around them. They would never find Lithuania—at least not with their eyes.

Estonia closed her eyes and knew immediately what to do. Her skin still tingling, she suddenly felt as if she could see everything without looking. Latvia to her left. Isa and Winfry next to Latvia. Felix and his five men. Estonia could feel the laser beams erupting from Felix’s gun. She could feel the blades of grass, swooshing back and forth to the sonic blast of the explosions. She felt every strand of her hair as it moved through space—every strand of Latvia’s hair—she could feel the enemies, flapping their wings up above—the AssMachenstani Demon Prawns, crawling through the valley—Estonia’s senses were suddenly in tune to everything, everywhere.

“Lithuania’s moving around like crazy,” she said.

“She’ll be within our circle any second now,” said Latvia, eyes wide and body pressed close to the ground. She didn’t know how she knew Lithuania would appear. She just did. And she knew even less what exactly it was she was feeling—some sort of extreme caffeine high that made her feel in tune, somehow, with every life force around her.

Meanwhile, Winfry was scribbling something quickly into a little book. “You heard Latvia,” said Isa, as she read what Winfry wrote. “Don’t finish the word until Lithuania is here.” Winfry nodded, the tip of his pen pressed firmly against the page. “Any second now.”

Suddenly, Latvia felt a darkness. A life force, giving out. A second later, one of Felix’s men received a purple beam to the face, his skull exploding and brains splattering about.

The girls shrieked, and Winfry almost finished the word in his book. “WAIT!” said Isa, stopping his hand. Felix and his men were firing madly into the swarm, but it was only a matter of time before everyone died.

And then, a splash of blue sparks, and Lithuania and Timoteo were somehow right within the circle. “NOW!” said Isa. Winfry finished the word and slammed the librem shut. Just in time, a glowing, translucent wall materialized all around them, soaring high and protecting them from a catastrophic explosion that would have meant the death of them all.

“Timoteo then grabbed Lithuania’s hand, thrust it into Latvia’s, and yelled into Latvia’s ear, “Stop everything. NOW!”

She knew what he meant. The touch of Lithuania’s hand threw Latvia’s extrasensory experience into overdrive. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, felt a sudden and enormous surge of energy—

And then let it all out.

Everything went quiet. Everyone within the circle was wide-eyed, breathing quickly. The magical wall shimmered peacefully now, no longer receiving beams and blasts and bullets. Latvia opened her eyes. She felt weak. Timoteo helped her to her feet, while Estonia, Winfry and Isa also rose. “What the HELL?” said Felix, his rifle still at the ready, magnetic shield still up. Latvia looked at the world outside Winfry’s magical wall and gasped.  

Everything, as far as the eye could see, was frozen in time and space. Billowing smoke, laser beams, magical energy bursts and flying AssMachenstani assassins—all were completely motionless and still. “Did I do that?” said Latvia weakly.

“Yes,” said Timoteo. “And no.” He turned from the scenery to face Latvia and Estonia. “I’ll explain later. What matters now is we’re together.”

Latvia and Estonia simultaneously looked at Lithuania. Lithuania looked back at them. She immediately choked up with emotion. “Oh you buttheads!” she cried, falling into their arms and pressing them tight. Tears streaming from their eyes, the sisters hugged, and hugged, and hugged, and if only for that moment, everything felt like it would turn out to be just OK.