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Back to Chapter 30
Chapter 31 - A criminal and a Prime Minister
The next day Cynthia came by the room being used by Cecilia and Jason
and knocked to wake them up. They had only slept for about four hours,
but Cynthia was unsympathetic. That day, their first full day in Upper
Danubia, would be a busy one for them. They had breakfast in the hotel
and then walked past the Old City Wall back to the Central Police
Station, where Kim already was waiting for them.
Jason and Cecilia spent the entire morning at Kim�s office. In that
building they came face-to-face with the Danubian justice system,
because they saw numerous naked criminals going in and out of the
Spokespersons� offices. Some of the criminals had very painful-looking
switch marks on their backsides. Whenever a criminal greeted a
Spokesperson, invariably they knelt and touched their head to the floor,
as required by the society�s protocol for criminals.
Jason and Cecilia had to push aside the sheer weirdness of their
situation and concentrate on their task at hand. Kim spent hours
briefing the couple on the Danubian system for trying criminals, how
testimony normally was given in court, how to address judges and other
court officials, and even much smaller details such as when to salute
and when not to salute. She then told them to type out their testimony
on the computer in her office and suggested corrections. She played
devil�s advocate, trying to make sure they understood clearly their
roles in unraveling the coup and how they should answer questions from
defense attorneys. Finally Kim had the two witnesses videotape
themselves practicing giving testimony in the booking room downstairs to
review the next day. Within a couple of days Kim planned to have Jason
ready to fulfill his Path in Life and speak clearly to the world about
what he had done to stop his father�s ambitions.
By the time they finished with the videotaping it was mid-afternoon.
They had a late lunch and then returned to Kim�s office, where Tiffany
Walker was sitting at a desk going over a textbook. Upon seeing Kim she
immediately stood up, moved in front of her and knelt.
�Good afternoon, Apprentice Lee. I am pleased you have safely returned.�
�Good afternoon, Criminal # 98946. I too, am glad that the Ancients kept
you safe through the night. Please rise, so we may serve our purpose in
life.�
Tiffany�s purpose in life became evident as soon as she was off her
knees. It turned out that Kim and Cynthia would need to spend the rest
of the afternoon helping translate the statements of several
English-speaking mercenaries. It was quite likely that duty would take
them well into the night. The departure of the Lee sisters drove home
the stark reality that Jason and Cecilia would have to make their own
lives in Upper Danubia as quickly as possible and not rely on Kim and
Cynthia.
Tiffany told them that she would escort them to the university, where
they would meet their Danubian instructor and get their first assignment
for studying the Danubian language. Oh yeah�that�s right. On top of
everything else, they had a new language to learn.
Tiffany asked Jason and Cecilia if they wanted to walk to the
university, which was about a kilometer north of the hotel, or take a
trolley. They decided to walk and enjoy the pleasant spring weather.
Tiffany walked alongside them, completely naked except for her collar.
She had a backpack full of books with her, but was carrying it, not
wearing it.
�Sometimes I wish I could just put this on and free up my hands, but of
course I can�t, because a backpack�s considered clothing. You know the
rule, that us criminals can�t wear anything except in the winter, when
we can wear boots.�
Tiffany�s statement about her backpack let Cecilia and Jason know that
she was open to talking about her situation and available to answer
their questions. At first the questions were general, about the
university, how hard was Danubian to learn, what was the study schedule
going to be like, but then gradually the questions shifted to Tiffany
and her own life.
Cecilia and Jason were a bit taken aback when Tiffany described her
former life in the U.S. as a stripper and meth user. She really had hit
bottom and was just beginning the slow process of the lingering death of
a meth addict when Kim showed up at the club's dance stage. The shock
was horrible; that afternoon when Tiffany saw the friend she had
betrayed sitting right at her feet with an infuriated expression on her
face and two dollars in her hand. Kim was absolutely cruel over the next
few minutes while �Willow� finished her dance, but out of that cruelty
came Tiffany's salvation. Less than a week later she was in Danube City
in a rehab program and beginning the long process of recovering from two
years of heavy drug use.
Cecilia had a question.
�I was wonderin� about something. Doesn�t it piss you off that Kim wants
you to get on your knees every time you say �hello� or �goodbye� to her?
I mean, to see you do that, I just find kinda weird.�
�I�m a criminal. That�s what we have to do. It�s the way things are in
this country and I�ve gotten used to it. But I�ll add something, maybe
to make you understand why I don�t mind greeting Apprentice Lee like
that. I�ve been off meth for almost two years. It�s because of her that
I got off, and for that I�d lick her feet if she asked me to. If you
haven�t seen meth, you wouldn�t understand where I�m coming from.�
�I �spose I do know. I haven�t seen meth, but I have a brother who was
sellin� crack when I was in school. I saw a lot of what that shit does
to people, so I guess I know where you�re coming from.�
After a pleasant walk along a tree-lined street the three Americans
arrived at the university. Tiffany took Jason and Cecilia to the
instructor from whom they would be learning Danubian. She knelt and
placed her head on the floor when she greeted him, because a professor
was public official. Tiffany took an assignment out of her backpack and
handed it to him before introducing the two new students.
With that another part of Cecilia�s life in Danube City was finalized,
because the language instructor was the man who would be organizing the
exchange program with Cecilia�s university in Chicago from the Danubian
side. He would be setting up the orientation program and hiring the
instructors to teach a crash-course in Danubian to new exchange
students, the same program that Cecilia would be administering on a
day-to-day basis.
The first class was simply learning the Danubian alphabet and a few
short words to go with each letter. Jason and Cecilia left carrying
homework assignments; letters and syllables they would have to memorize
for the next day�s class.
Upon stepping outside, Tiffany took the two newcomers to a cafe at the
university's language school. The university was set up very differently
from a typical U.S. university, because instead of a large student
center, each department had its own cafe. The closest thing to a central
plaza was the courtyard in front of an old church that still was used
for worship services and formal ceremonies. However, the university's
social life revolved around the smaller cafes, not any centralized
location.
Another significant difference was the lack of a stadium. There were no
university-level sports teams per se, and the Danubian Olympic Team was
not associated with the university at all. There was an athletic
department, but its purpose was to run fitness classes for the entire
university. All students had to exercise throughout their university
careers by showing up for calisthenics sessions five days per week.
Another difference was the complete lack of dormitories. Almost all
students commuted from their homes or lived with relatives. The few
students whose families were too far to commute normally lived with
family friends, or if there were no other options, in hostels run by the
Danubian Church. Tiffany emphasized that there was no such thing as
"living together".
Suddenly Jason and Cecilia had a sinking feeling. No "living together",
huh? It was Jason who asked the dreaded question.
"Tiffany, I think we're both kinda curious. Has anyone told you...what
exactly our living arrangements are going to be?"
"Cecilia's probably going to be living with Victor Dukov's family, which
is where I'm staying. One of Victor's sons just joined the Army, and so
his room will be opening up in a few days. In other words we�re gonna be
housemates, and I�ll be helping her with learning Danubian. As for you,
I'm gonna guess you'll be at Spokesman Havlakt's place, since their kids
are all grown up and they'll have room for you."
"But what about getting a place of our own, just us together?"
"Nope. Not gonna happen. And especially not with you two, because of
your visibility. You're gonna have to put forth a good public image and
show proper protocol. They're very strict about that in the Duchy. I�ll
give you an example, me. I'm officially a member of Victor's household.
My fianc�e Vladik, even though he's a cop and Victor's nephew, still has
to come over to dinner on Sunday afternoons and formally court me. Even
though I'm just a meth head and a criminal, he�s still gotta do it. I
never did anything formal in my life before I left America. But, now
here I'm having to do all that formal courting stuff, just like any one
else."
"Shit."
"It's not that bad, really.�
�Well, it doesn�t sound all that good.�
In a lot of ways their protocol makes things easier. The Danubians
aren't as concerned about where you come from or what you look like as
much as they're concerned about "har�shkt jett�t", or "the proper way to
live". They want you to play by their rules. They're real big on that.
You learn their rules and protocol, and they'll treat you just like
anyone else. Once again, I can give you my own example. When I was
starting out in the drug rehab program�well you know, I was coming down
off both meth and heroin. I wasn�t a pretty sight and I had these
horrible mood swings. About a week after I started rehab, I snapped at
one of the doctors and cussed him out. I did it in English and I thought
they couldn�t understand me, which was dumb of me, because my tone of
voice made what I was saying obvious. The intern confronted me, but I
told him I never said anything to the doctor. What�s interesting was
that all of the other patients quit talking to me, because I broke
protocol and then lied about it."
�So what happened?�
�I had to take a switching, and that was my first lesson about the
values here. What happened was that at the hospital they switch you for
stuff like disrespect, but in my case they were going to cut me some
slack because they thought I didn�t know what I was doing, you know,
being a foreigner and not speaking the language. I thought about it and
figured: screw it. Just 'fess up, take the consequences, and get it over
with. Once I apologized and took the strokes, that was it. It was as
though it never happened after I admitted I was wrong. That�s all they
wanted, just for me to say I was wrong.�
Once they returned to the hotel, Tiffany stayed with Cecilia and Jason
to help them with their language exercises. Finally Vladik Dukov showed
up to take Tiffany home, and also came with the news that his father was
coming back the next day. The first trials would start within a couple
of days, because the Prime Minister wanted to resolve the situation of
the mercenaries as quickly as possible.
Once Tiffany and Vladik left, Jason and Cecilia went to the pool for a
swimming lesson, and then back to the hotel room. They spent a long time
making love, first by massaging each other, then with a round of oral
sex to bring her to orgasm, then a straightforward round of sex. Best to
take advantage of the hotel room while they could, because they doubted
they would be spending any time together in Victor�s house.
A very depressing thought�
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The next day Jason reviewed his testimony on video while Kimberly Lee
suggested changes and other ways to improve making himself
understandable to a Danubian audience. He would have to speak in English
and she would translate for him.
Cecilia and Cynthia also would have to testify, but Jason�s statements
would be by far the most important of the three. Cecilia would testify
about relaying the phone call and Cynthia would testify about her trip.
However, Jason would need to explain what set off his curiosity about
his father�s conversations, how he recorded the cassettes, and how he
got into his father�s office and scanned the information. He would
identify the six cassette tapes and three CD�s and state when he
recorded each one. Identifying the recordings in turn would allow the
prosecutor to use the items as evidence against the three Mega-Town
employees; one of who was conversing with Mr. Schmidt while Jason was
recording his voice.
Jason did have one problem. He had to protect Rita, the maid who opened
the door for him. To do that he would have to claim he got the door open
without any assistance, but to that Kim countered: �Just don�t say
anything about how you got the door open. I bet that question won�t even
come up unless you bring it up yourself. You went into the office.
Period. If they ask you whether the door was locked you�ll tell them it
wasn�t, which is true. Precisely at the moment you went in, that door
wasn�t locked.�
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Late that afternoon Kimberly Lee relayed the news that she and her
sister, as well as Jason and Cecilia, were invited to have dinner at the
Prime Minister�s official residence. Vladik and Tiffany also would be
there, to allow Tiffany fulfill to her social obligation to dine every
so often with her future in-laws.
The dinner was going to be strange one, because so many things were
going on at once. Dukov genuinely wanted to have a social gathering and
get together with his family, the Lee sisters, and Jason and Cecilia to
chat with them socially, but unfortunately, there was important business
to resolve as well.
Late in the afternoon Kim told Cecilia and Jason to put on their best
clothes. For Jason that meant choosing which suit looked best, while
Cecilia simply would wear her Danubian dress and shawl. The Lee sisters
showed up in formal dresses accompanied by Tiffany who, as always, was
completely naked.
Shortly afterwards, five Americans, four of them formally dressed and
the fifth completely undressed, made their way around the Old City Wall
towards the Prime Minister�s official residence. Kim explained to Jason
and Cecilia that they would follow her lead and salute the Prime
Minister and his wife when they came out. However, once the official
greeting was over, they should expect Dukov to converse with them just
like he would with anyone else. Maritza did not speak any English at
all, while Vladik and Anyia spoke it badly, so there would have to be
pauses for translating.
The residence was a very pleasant 18th Century Mansion, full of antique
furniture and portraits of past Dukes and Prime Ministers. Once they
arrived, the guests stood at attention, waiting for the Dukov family to
come out and greet them. Vladik opened the door and held it for the rest
of his family. Once Dukov was in sight the others saluted him, with the
exception of Tiffany, who dropped to her knees and touched her head to
the ground. Dukov returned the salute and asked Tiffany to stand up.
That was it for formality, and a few seconds later everyone was inside
seated at the dining room table.
There was the obligatory �how was your trip� part of the conversation,
followed by the Prime Minister�s description of his trip to Greece. He
gave an update on the status of the prisoners and mentioned his
negotiations with other foreign leaders in his efforts to get rid of the
lower-ranking fighters through repatriation.
Finally, Dukov discussed two important issues affecting the country. The
Parliament of his country�s southern neighbor finally ratified the
border treaty negotiated earlier in the year and a signing ceremony was
slated for then end of June. Teams of surveyors already were setting up
markers along the areas were the border was being changed.
The second announcement was the apparent capitulation of the EU over the
trucking route destined to bisect the eastern part of the country. It
turned out the coup attempt swung public opinion in many countries in
favor of Dukov and other leaders felt forced to meet his demands. The
road would be built, but paid for by the EU, not Upper Danubia. Only
Danubian workers would be used in the construction, which pretty much
would resolve the unemployment situation in the eastern provinces. What
was even better, the EU had re-issued its invitation for Upper Danubia
to join, but with several major concessions not included in the original
treaty. It was clear that Dukov had played on a feeling of international
guilt to obtain maximum advantage for his country.
�There is one concession I needed to make to my counterparts,� concluded
Dukov, �and that was my promise not to execute any of the prisoners we
convict from the coup. In the beginning it will be very difficult to
explain that concession to the Danubian people. The citizens of this
country are very angry and wish to paint the streets with the blood of
our attackers, but now will be unable to do so. It is a dilemma for me,
but perhaps one less than people think. Through our laws, I intend to
resolve the dilemma to the satisfaction of the Danubian nation.�
Dukov moved on to Jason�s situation. He was very grateful to his young
guest and made that quite clear. Then he questioned the college student
about what he knew about Mega-Town Associates and his father�s role in
the coup. Dukov did not understand what a lobbyist was, so Jason and
Cynthia spent several minutes educating the Prime Minister about that
aspect of U.S. political life.
Jason�s host was curious to understand his reasoning for turning against
his father, since doing such a thing was not at all common in the Duchy.
It was Cynthia who had to translate, not the English, which the Prime
Minister understood very well, but the more intangible language of
honor, fairness, and idealism. She explained that Jason felt his father
had dishonored the Schmidt family by becoming involved in the coup plot.
Jason�s motivation for helping the Danubians stemmed from his belief
that he needed to redeem his family�s honor. Jason believed that his
path in life was to restore the honor of his family, by undermining the
dishonorable actions of a member whose soul had become damaged by greed.
It was very strange for Jason to hear his own motivations translated to
allow a foreign mind with a different way of viewing the world to
understand them. Jason simply would have said �I didn�t think what my
dad wanted to do was fair.� However, he realized that the words Cynthia
used for expressing his motives were just as true as his own words would
have been, just phrased differently.
Jason realized something else at that moment. His concerns went way
beyond his own family�s �honor� and what he saw as �fair� and �unfair�.
He hated the corporate culture and ideology of greed that his father and
Mega-Town Associates represented and defended. He decided to add another
dimension to Cynthia�s explanation about his motives, trying to use the
Duchy�s values to explain himself.
�Prime Minister Dukov, there�s more to this than just the honor of my
family. I think we�re also talking about the honor of the United States.
I don�t want the people of Upper Danubia to think that everybody in my
country likes what�s happening. I think that most people in the U.S.
don�t like it at all, what these corporations are doing to the world,
but we don�t know what to do about it. Corporations like Mega-Town�like
you�d put it� are poisoning our souls and dishonoring our people. What I
did was to try, as an American, to prevent something that would have
made the whole country look bad�or�I guess as you�d say it, dishonor
us�I mean like�dishonor America. And�I mean�when I go to court�I want to
tell you�and tell the world�that we Americans aren�t all like that.
We�re just not. We�re not all like those Mega-Town CEO�s. That�s just
not the way most of us think. I want you guys to get that��
�So you consider what you did much more than just an issue of your
family�s honor?�
�A lot more, Sir. It�s about all of us, all of us Americans who just are
sick of the big guys always getting their way, and making the rest of
the world think we support them.�
�Very well, Jason, I believe your thoughts are something our people
should hear. You will honor us if you provide that statement in court. I
think those words, coming from you, will help begin to heal the hurt and
the anger of the Danubian people against the United States. To me you
seem a person of great honor indeed, and I believe that not only the
Danubian nation, but perhaps also the American nation, will ultimately
be blessed by having you walk among us.�
The
Freshman - Chapter 32
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