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.

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“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.