The
Tyrant of the country was sitting at her desk. She was fuming. She
was staring at a letter she had just finished reading. It was from
the Prime Minister of a neighboring country. The Tyrant's General was
on his way. The monitor on the Tyrant's table beeped. She pressed the
button. The voice of her Armed Forces Assistant came on.
"General,---."
She interrupted the voice, "Send him in."
The
General entered, cap in hand. "Come in, General. Sit." The
General sat in a chair at the desk, opposite his boss, the Tyrant of
the country.
"General,
I know there are escapees from our country to other countries. What
is so special about this escapee that warranted a special
correspondence from that Prime Minister?" She indicated the
letter on his desk.
"Madam,
as you are aware, we have secret agents in many countries to take
care of traitors who escape us here. I admit we have not yet dealt
with all the traitors. Give me the information that Prime Minister
sent, and I will apprise you within the next hour of where we are
with that traitor. Madam."
"That
Prime Minister, General, does not give any specific information.
Here."
She
handed the letter to the General. The General took it and read it.
The Tyrant waited in silence until the General had finished reading
the letter.
"General,
for a traitor or traitors to warrant this kind of special
correspondence, the matter must be of critical importance. Is there
someone of particular urgency to us who has escaped us here, General?
Who is at the top of your wanted list?"
"There
is someone, Madam. A week ago we secretly entered the office of a
Government worker who was on vacation. We do this routinely, Madam.
We entered the computer files and discovered encrypted calculations.
The worker had been trying to access the commands at our Okeyredge
facility, Madam." "Trying, General?"
"We
do not know how far the attempt got, Madam, because the calculations
self-destructed when we reached a certain depth." "Have you
taken the worker into custody." "We tried, Madam, but could
not find her when we went to the vacation venue she had listed. They
said they had not had anyone there by that name. We discovered the
name was fake." "Fake? She worked for us by a fake name?
For how long?" "Two-and-a-half years, Madam. Incredible. We
do background checks on every worker every six months."
"Has
Okeyredge changed all its codes?" "We alerted them within
seconds of that program self-destructing, Madam. It will take a day
for them to change all the codes."
"General,
assume that worker has escaped to that country." She indicated
the Prime Minister's letter. "Take the most extreme measures to
protect Okeyredge." "Will do, Madam." The General left
the office.
A
few hours later, the Armed Forces Assistant alerted the Tyrant to an
incoming encrypted message to her from Okeyredge. Only the Tyrant
knew how to access and read the encrypted message.
All
Okeyredge's codes had been frozen. None could be accessed to be changed.
In
that Prime Minister's country, Geraldine Harlow, she preferred Gerry,
was having breakfast in her one-bedroom rented apartment. She was
twenty-two years old; single; alone; no family. She had reached the
milestone she had planned seven years ago. She had saved a huge sum
of money from her paid work, and now she could embark on the next
phase of her plan.
However,
she had read in the morning's newspaper an article that was tempting
her to change her original plan.
Her
original plan was to enroll in a Trade School to earn a study-at-home
diploma in a science qualification in order to enter a new line of
paid, secure, employment. She had attended Government-advertised
career information sessions. All informed that the Government's Outer
Space Exploration was providing opportunities that are forever,
mostly, unfilled. The Government's Space Exploration industries were
so desperately in need of qualified workers, students enrolled in
Trade School programs were being offered jobs long before the
students graduated.
And
now this new opportunity presenting itself that morning. A distant
County was offering free ownership of homes to be built to applicants
who would live in the County for the next thirty years, at least.
This was doable with her savings and at-home studying. There was a
minor hurdle, though.
The
County's offer was to only married couples.
Gerry
smiled to herself at her cunning thoughts on how to overcome that
hurdle.
She
knew that with her beauty and Miss Universe figure she would not find
it difficult to find a suitable man who would agree to marry her.
Indeed, she already knew of one man, in her age range who would have
every reason to accept her proposal.
After
breakfast, she walked to the Government's Political Refugee Center. A
few feet behind the front desk, was a steel-mesh fence. The three
persons staffing the desk were in uniform. They were extra polite,
and friendly. They informed her that her request to speak with a
refugee was accepted, but had to be carefully scrutinized because all
refugees were forever in danger from secret agents from hostile
countries the refugees had escaped.
They
asked for her reason to speak with the refugee she named. She said
she was in the audience at a Trade School auditorium where the
refugee had addressed students. He said his name, Josh Wuhan, had to
be not his real name as long as he was a Stateless person. She said
she wanted the Mister Wuhan to know that when his Stateless status
was removed, she would be there to help him acclimatise in his new
country.
She
was allowed to sit at a table with him. They spoke. She offered him a
marriage contract that would eliminate his Stateless status; and put
her on the course of accomplishing her plans for a fairly successful
life.
Of
course, he was suspicious. She could be an undercover hostile agent.
He asked if she would allow her life and background to be
investigated. She agreed.
In
the next few days she was visited and questioned by Government
Officers. When they heard the full history of her life, they
expressed doubts about the success of her marriage, if her husband
discovered what her first seven years of employment had been.
When
she invited them to officially secretly check on her marriage as
often as they wished, they approved, and offered to help arrange the
wedding. They added, Gerry would have to be prepared for unhappy news
because they had lost contact with Josh Wuhan in the last few days.
On
a six o'clock television World News Gerry was watching while having
dinner at home alone, it was reported that the Okeyredge Industrial
Complex had been utterly wiped out by a number of explosions
generated from within the Complex itself. Fatalities were expected to
be hundreds. The tyranny had collapsed.
The
Tyrant and her accompanying General had been assassinated. The
assassin had been killed on the spot. His name was Josh Wuhan.
Gerry
paused in her dinner. She was in shock. She was astounded by thought
of the disastrous step she had been about to take.
Contact
Ezra (Unless
you
type
the
author's name in
the subject
line
of the message we
won't know where to send it.)
