The Not so Secret Agent Ch. 06

Remember, I'll always be better than you,

Arthur

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By the third week the Danubian language lessons were getting shorter as Arthur had less and less to teach. There was consequently more time to talk. While Laura wrote a letter to a friend, Arthur and Samantha traded stories about their families.

"Arthur, no offense but your family is so weird; I mean your sister seems just as odd as you are." Samantha smiled, intolerably smug. "I come from a respectable family in Claremont. Dad's been selling real estate there for years, my older brother's the high school basketball coach, and my mom is a guidance counselor at the middle school. We attend church every week; we're active in the community so everybody knows my family. My dad's even on the city council."

Arthur laughed: "Samantha, you cuss like my grandma. You're from a respectable family? What happened, were you raised at a truck-stop and later adopted?"

"Shut up, I'm trying to be dramatic here! Now where was I?"

Arthur stopped laughing, somewhat. "You were telling us about your respectable family, I believe."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Now they have to tell everyone that Samantha's not coming back for three years. She's a criminal. That's pretty fucked up for the daughter of the guidance counselor to be convicted of drug possession."

"Perhaps," Arthur suggested, "she could turn your situation into one of those motivational posters like: 'Don't do drugs kids or you might end up in a hard labor camp with a dog collar on your neck like Samantha.'" Arthur rolled about laughing.

Samantha leaned forward, slapped his leg hard, and frowned as he spasmed even more with breathless laughter. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm serious Arthur."

It was several seconds before he gathered enough air to respond in a voice high and breathless. "Serious! Well... that... that's half your problem right there. This is the most ridiculous place I've ever been, and I've been to Austin!" After seeing her annoyance at his continued interruptions, and feeling his own need for additional oxygen Arthur decided to shut up for a while.

"Okay, okay." Arthur rose up on one elbow. "Go ahead and give your dramatic speech, but make it dignified as you can," Arthur snickered, "while sitting naked in the dirt." He collapsed back, feeling small rocks against recent welts, not caring.

"Well, it's about fucking time," Samantha tried to gather her thoughts. "I was about to say how I don't want people back home to know what I've went through here." She looked off into the distance. "That letter was from my mom. She said that she knew I was innocent; that I didn't take drugs. She said they would fight for our release. She said not to give up, that we would get through this together."

Arthur caught his breath at last and gave an approving nod. "That story's got more drama than a Mexican soap opera, it has real potential. It would make a good made-for-TV movie maybe." Arthur framed the line out in his hands: "Innocent American girl imprisoned in strange foreign land; now that's a classic, although we might have to take some creative license with the innocent part."

"Arthur," Samantha prodded. "Have you ever considered professional help?"

"I had a coupon once, but I lost it."

"Well I'm glad that you find this situation sooo funny, Arthur. I for one didn't plan on spending my summer in a hard labor camp. I... I just can't believe this." Samantha's shoulders slumped and she absently ran her fingertips along her metal collar. "I don't deserve this. I mean... I'm not a drug dealer... or an addict even... I just wanted to party and have a good time. It was just a few pills..."

"Well," Arthur suggested: "Just look at it as a learning experience."

"Learning experience!" Samantha scoffed: "What the fuck did I learn?"

"Well..." Arthur was ready to burst. "You... um... you learned that sometimes Skittles come with handcuffs instead of rainbows! Ha!"

"God." Samantha groaned. "Maybe they should execute you."

"Oh," Arthur tried to stop laughing. "They'll probably get around to it eventually."

"Enough jokes Arthur." Samantha nervously glanced away. "There's something I want to know. The letter was mailed from Rika Chorna three days after my trial, so my parents stayed in the city to try and help us. Do you think they found out what that policeman did... you know what happened to me at trial?"

Arthur suddenly felt exhausted. Reluctantly, he gave her unwelcome news. "I hate to tell you this Samantha, but trials are widely publicized, there are photographs and articles in the newspapers about all the defendants, and at least some of your trial was probably on television. So if your parents were in Rika Chorna after your trial they surely know what happened."

Samantha turned away. "I think I'm going to go back to the barracks and lay down."

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Wednesday was the first of July, and there was a break in the routine. After breakfast the criminals were marched to a sports field at the city park. There were about two hundred male criminals and around fifty female criminals sentenced to the work camp in Novo Sumi Ris. The warden had all two hundred fifty of them take a seat in the small section of bleachers overlooking the field. Then the warden called forty-two names. Thirty-three men and nine women nervously approached him and knelt.

On the first day of each month judicial switchings were administered. To avoid disruption of work schedules as well and to minimize the travel time required for the judges, spokespersons, and police officers involved all criminals with scheduled punishments in a certain month received their switchings on the first.

Arthur sat in the bleachers with the rest of the work crews and watched as the warden made the forty-two criminals line up on the field. Next he ordered that the punishment tables be set up. The criminals themselves were required to set up the platforms that they would be beaten on. In pairs they carried the portable devices onto the field. The paint-splattered platforms obviously started out their lives as portable scaffolding, though some enterprising worker refitted them with bolted on leather restraints. The criminals raised the flat top, locked in the aluminum cross bars and extended the four legs firmly into the turf. After forty-two tables were assembled each of the criminals stood nervously awaiting the arrival of the officers that would beat them.

The officers who would administer the punishments were a combination of guards from the camp and police with Rika Chorna insignia on their uniforms. Five spokespersons and a judge took seats overlooking the scene. Although it did nothing but remind him of his own punishment due the next month, Arthur and the other criminals were required to watch the entire punishment. August first would be especially bad; Samantha and Laura would see him punished. Though in front of the girls he acted like nothing bothered him, Arthur badly dreaded of his next meeting with Officer Stashak.

The punishment began just after sunrise with the officers striking in unison. The tables were turned toward the audience so that the faces of the criminals were on display. Arthur recognized several faces from group 6 suffering down on the field.

Most of the forty-two criminals remained silent for the first half of the punishment, though after that their cries grew increasingly loud. Arthur reluctantly watched as the beaten criminals tried to deal with the mounting pain. Their breathing increased, their bodies became wet with sweat, and many clenched their teeth or pressed their foreheads hard against the tables. Later, as their resistance eroded, tears rolled down the faces of the abused criminals. They gasped and trembled and tried desperately to remain quiet. Finally they would cry out and lose all self-control right in front of the two hundred criminals they work with. The officers who administered the switching seemed to especially enjoy the cruel satisfaction of breaking a criminal in front of their peers.

Just about an hour later the beaten criminal's lined up facing away from the crowd to kneel and kiss the shoes of their tormenters. After the judge certified the punishments the warden had them assemble for group photographs taken from both the front and the back. With the completion of the judicial punishments the beaten criminals had to walk back to their barracks. Arthur and the remaining criminals were chained and marched off to work.

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The Fourth of July, Arthur's favorite holiday back home was just another miserable day at the work camp. No hotdogs, no black-market fireworks, no beer; nothing but work; loading rocks for twelve hours in the summer heat. The high temperature wasn't doing much for the foreman's personality either. He expected group 6 to work as hard in the midsummer heat as they did in the spring. Like a line of fifty ants they carried loads down the hill, deposited their loads then marched single file back up the slope. After an especially hot and grueling day of work the crew returned to camp.

Arthur cleaned up, ate supper and then went to meet with Samantha and Laura. He waited for several minutes but neither one appeared. That harpy must be making them work late, Arthur thought. He decided to go sit in the shade while he waited. A few steps later there was a loud voice that sounded an awful lot like the before mentioned harpy. Turning around, his suspicions were realized. This guard's bad temper made her notorious for terrorizing the female criminals under her watch. In a scene eerily similar to what happened a month earlier the head female guard approached him with his students following behind.

Arthur knelt down and nervously waited for whatever trouble was headed his way.

Major Drazetka marched a couple paces from where Arthur knelt, the terrified girls dropped to their knees and waited behind her. "Criminal # 88588 what have you been teaching these dishonored animals?"

Arthur chose his words carefully. "Officer, I have taught these... young women to speak and write some simple Danubian phrases and how to count..."

"Is that all that you teach them?"

He felt this woman was laying a trap, so Arthur remained cautious. "I do not understand what you are asking me officer."

"You are the spy aren't you? Your name is Liggett, is it not?"

Arthur paused trying to figure out this angry woman's motives.

"You will answer my question now!"

"Yes, officer. I am Arthur Liggett and I was convicted of espionage."

"You have taught these two deception. I have something for you to read. Sit up."

She handed him a couple photocopies of pages that were removed from the notebook they shared. Each was part a letter written in two different hands; obviously they belonged to Laura and Samantha. Arthur grew apprehensive; surely the girls realized the government was examining their mail. He knew not to write or say anything that could be used against him.

"Officer, I don't think it's right to read a person's mail without their permission."

Arthur knew he would pay for that, but after a hard day this guard was really getting on his nerves.

She pulled her switch out. "Stand up spy; turn around. Get your hands behind your head." She struck hard then made her point. "I do not need permission." She struck again. "You are nothing but a dishonored criminal." She punctuated the last word of her sentence with another vicious swing of the switch. "These girls are nothing but dishonored criminals." She swung her switch. "Criminals are property." Arthur clenched his teeth and tried to deal with the pain of the latest brutal strike that burned across his skin. "This is my camp, you are property of the Duchy, and I am your custodian." She paused, breathing heavy, after the fifth stroke of the switch.

"Criminal # 88588 turn around and face me."

Arthur blinked to try and force the tears from his eyes before turning around to face the guard and his two students.

The Major tapped the end of her switch on his chest and stared as if daring him to refuse. "Read the letters."

He glanced at Samantha and Laura. They nodded subtly, and Arthur gathered up the papers off the ground. There were excerpts taken from a longer letters and photocopied onto the two sheets. Arthur read through the first page.

There was nothing that immediately drew his attention. It had to be one of Laura's letters since Arthur and Samantha were mentioned in the text. Arthur assumed that it was written to a family member from the context. There was a description of the camp and some of the people that she worked with. Then there was an account of some of the abuse they had suffered since arriving. Though she used some ill-advised words it seemed fairly accurate from what he had seen.

The next page was a collection of three excerpts from Samantha's letters. What stood out to Arthur were the vivid descriptions of her mistreatment at the hands of the guards. It confirmed Arthur's suspicions that some of the male guards were sexually abusing the young women.

Arthur was disgusted with the guards, the police, the whole damned country, but most of all with the officer that stood before him. He dropped the papers to the ground.

"Criminal # 88588 what do you have to say yourself; why have you taught these dishonored animals to spread lies?"

Arthur stood and remained silent. His hate filled stare seemed to amuse her.

"Such anger." The Major taunted. "Go ahead, attack me; I would like nothing more than to see you before the firing squad. Perhaps these deceitful girls would be punished as well." She moved close and spoke in a mocking tone. "Is it true that you don't have any opinion on the lies they spread about my guards?"

"As you say officer, I'm government property. Property has no opinions."

"Don't play games with me criminal #88588; I am giving you a rare second chance. Admit that you had these criminals spread lies about my guards."

"It was not my friends who lied, officer."

As soon as the last word was spoken Arthur knew he made a mistake. By provoking this woman he had probably made both the girls' and his own life more difficult. There was always a high price for calling someone a liar in this country, especially for a convicted criminal who had minimal legal standing. The guard in question was also second in command behind the warden, so in this camp her word was as good as law.

Arthur glanced at Samantha, there were tears, but there was also a slight smile on Samantha's face. This act of defiance did feel good for the time being, later would come the consequences.