The Not so Secret Agent Ch. 08

Though countless properties were being destroyed in the fury of the storm, and they walked back through hail and driving rain, Arthur thought it was one of the greatest nights of his life. Not only had he gotten the restrictions removed but also during the rescue he had apparently broken at least one of the major's collarbones. She wouldn't feel like beating anyone for several months.

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The floodwaters dropped as fast as they had risen; the stream was back within its banks just four hours after the crest. At first light the criminals were put to work clearing storm debris off the roads and helping residents who requested assistance. Arthur and a few others were ordered to help the homeowners of a fairly large multi-family house that had an enormous pile of storm debris dumped against the front porch. The men were gone but two women and five kids were there, two of the older ones even assisted the criminal work crew with the cleanup. They had cleared most of the debris by noon when a group of female criminals came by to deliver lunch.

Arthur stood in the shade on the north side of the house and ate his lunch alone. As he ate he became aware that the two oldest kids were staring at him curiously and whispering. It was the boy and girl, probably siblings, who had helped some with the cleanup. Arthur turned toward the two children who had moved even closer and continued to look curiously in his direction. "Go ahead, ask your questions."

"We were wondering why you're standing over here eating all alone." The girl ventured.

"I'm eating alone because the guards don't allow me to talk to other criminals." In yet another humiliating episode Arthur had to explain himself to the eleven or twelve year old children. "As for why I'm standing... it's not real comfortable to sit down yet."

"Why do you talk like that?" The boy tilted his head to the side like a curious dog.

"I'm an American; I've been here since May. I'm trying to learn your language but it's difficult."

"I've never even seen an American before." The surprised girl exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Arthur wished these children would just go away. "I was arrested after my employer and I broke into a building to steal data from a computer in Rika Chorna."

The girl's eyes got wide. "You're the American spy that was on TV? You're Lik-kikt?"

Arthur really didn't expect to be recognized. "Yes, but my name is pronounced 'Lig-Gett'; everyone calls me Criminal # 88588 now. So you heard about me on TV?"

"Yeah, they showed the trial twice and they talked about you and that dead guy a lot on news shows."

"So, what did they say about me on TV?"

She glanced up remembering. "Um... they said you were an enemy and a spy, and... that you wanted to steal our stuff, and Um... that you would kill people for money, and they said you were corrupted by the Destroyer, and too dangerous to let loose..."

The boy interrupted: "My dad thought they should just shoot you!"

Arthur had that sinking feeling in his stomach. "Do you think most people know who I am? I mean... your friends, your neighbors; the people in this town."

"Yeah, you're famous. Everyone knows about the American spy."

Infamous would be the right word. Arthur was beginning to understand why even the Danubian criminals had been so unfriendly. "Thanks for the information kids, but your mother probably wouldn't like you talking to me would she?"

"I guess not," the girl said, "but you're not that dangerous any more are you?"

"No... No, I suppose I'm not." Arthur excused himself by saying that he had to get back to work.

The work crews returned to camp late in the afternoon. The barracks had a band of drying red mud up three feet on the sheet metal wall and the floor was covered in silt. Arthur used his bucket, which had filled up with rainwater and hadn't floated away, to scrub the sticky red clay off his skin; before he was completely finished there was the announcement he was waiting for. "Criminal # 88588, you are to report to the warden's office immediately." The electricity was back on again so the announcement came over the P/A system.

"Stand up Criminal # 88588." The warden had the manner of a disinterested bureaucrat; he turned in his swiveling office chair and pulled a yellow folder from a shelf behind his desk. He smoothed down his gray mustache with the thumb and index finger of his left hand, before opening the folder and looking to Arthur. "This is your file, we organize these by conduct, and you have a yellow folder because of the disciplinary violations you've had here at the camp." The warden took a drink of coffee from a gray mug with the Public Works seal on the side. "My second in command, Major Drazetka, spoke to me this morning about you. She believes that you have reformed your behavior, and should be returned to normal status here at the camp. Is that the case Criminal # 88588, will you follow all the rules and regulations, and respect the authority of my guards?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, sign this form. It certifies that you have met the conditions of the disciplinary action, and that you pledge to not violate any other regulations for your remaining time at this camp."

Though his spoken Danubian had improved considerably, Arthur hadn't learned to read or write Danubian any better in the past two months. Arthur pointed to the three blanks at the bottom of the form. "Ya negat rozumigukt." (I don't understand). The warden explained: official name, former family name or given name, and date. Criminal # 88588 filled in the blanks and the warden dismissed him.

Arthur finished washing the mud out of his hair and then went with the other criminals to eat supper. It would be good to sit down at the table and eat like a human being again. He soon reconsidered; the judicial switching had only been a few days earlier. Arthur decided that standing by a table like a human being is pretty good too though.

About an hour later Arthur spotted some of the female criminals, they had been busy preparing meals and then cleaning up the mess hall. The Major had agreed to return Samantha and Laura to normal status as well and Arthur was anxious to see them. A chain link fence on the east side of the mess hall separated the two female barracks from the rest of the complex, though during the day the gate in between was usually open.

Arthur and about half the other male criminals waited by the gate for the women to arrive. He wondered what it would be like to date a Danubian criminal. Back in the US every girl he had ever gone out with made him wait; wait for her to get dressed, or get her makeup on, or get her hair fixed. Even without being allowed clothes or makeup and hair already braided, Arthur decided, being women they would come up with some other delay, it was a law of nature. He almost didn't recognize the two American girls; their hair was in braids instead of the ponytails they used to wear.

"Hey... nice braids, you two look older, more sophisticated."

Samantha smiled. "The other women kept telling us how important it was to have our hair styled right but the major wouldn't allow it after we got in trouble. Early this morning the warden called us into his office and said that the restrictions were lifted and so a couple girls braided it for us before lunch. I guess your restrictions are lifted too huh?"

"Yeah, I'm reformed too." Arthur said. "I decided to tone down the corrupting influence, for a while at least. The warden must have noticed all my good behavior. I kept my buckets immaculately clean and the chain in good condition."

"Arthur," Laura excitedly whispered. "Did you hear that Major Drazetka's gone? They loaded her up in an ambulance last night. They said she fell or something and was hurt pretty bad. Too bad it didn't break her stupid neck."

"Yeah, I heard something about that."

"Oh my god," Samantha had noticed all the new welts across Arthur's left side. "What happened to you?"

"I had a run in with a guard who had a bad temper and even worse aim." Arthur shook his head disapprovingly. "I guess there's just no attention to detail anymore."

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Following the flood the three Americans were treated like ordinary criminals, which was harsh by most standards, but better than before. The work crews spent their days repairing the extensive damage done by the storm. They patched roads, removed storm debris, and rebuilt all the breached sections of the levy system. Arthur and the girls met every day after supper in the usual spot; while they met under the pretense of more language lessons it was mostly just to talk.

After an especially rough day in late August Arthur went to meet the girls. They had been waiting for him under the shade tree. As he approached he really hoped they wouldn't notice his condition but of course they did.

Samantha taunted: "Well it's about time the teacher shows up, I'm going to have my..." Samantha stopped in mid-sentence. "Damn, Arthur!" Arthur's cheek was starting to bruise and there was a cut on his upper lip. "What did they do?"

"Oh my god..." Laura gasped at the sight of all the red swollen lines crisscrossing Arthur's back and shoulders. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Arthur looked away for a second and forced a smile. "Don't worry about it, a guard just got a little angry at me.

Samantha cringed. "Does that hurt? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine." Arthur assured them. "I'm alright... really."

"What happened?" Laura asked.

"Oh, there's not much to tell... just got slapped around some but never mind that." Arthur sat down and tried to get comfortable. "There's something we need to talk about."

Thin limber Samantha sat upright with her legs tightly folded and crossed, and Laura reclined against the tree with her legs outstretched, Arthur could never seem to find a comfortable way to rest and fidgeted constantly.

"You know," Arthur began, "last night, I was thinking about how much time we've got left. It's nineteen days for you and twenty for me. This stuff's going to be over with soon and we can go back to Rika Chorna. It's going to be a lot better when we get our custody transferred back to Spokesman Ralkliv.

Arthur scratched at the side of his head. "There's one thing I'm concerned about though. I've thought about our situation at this camp, especially everything that's happened since we got in trouble on the fourth. I don't know for sure but I think that some of the abuse went well beyond what the law allows in the treatment of criminals. From the way the Major reacted I figure that the guards don't want news of what goes on here getting out. I just don't know, but we should think carefully about our options and come to a decision."

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked.

"Well," Arthur explained. "I only see two options. The first is that once we get back to Rika Chorna we could go to Spokesman Ralkliv and tell him everything that happened to us. And the second option is that we keep it secret."

"Maybe it could help us get out!" Laura said. "Like, reduce our sentences or something."

Samantha was also enthusiastic at the thought of release. "Yeah, like... the US government could do something or the UN, you know, could pressure them to let us go."

"Yeah, well... I want that too," Arthur said. "But we've got to be pragmatic here. We have some serious credibility problems. I mean... to Danubians I'm the corrupt enemy spy and you two are the spoiled American teenagers that sneaked illegal drugs into their pure and wholesome country. Who would a judge believe? On one side there would be several respected officials of the Ministry of Public Works," Arthur gestured, "and on the other side there would be us."

"But what about Spokesman Ralkliv," Laura asked, "he would be on our side, right?"

"Not necessarily... see, spokespersons are not our lawyers, there's no confidentiality. They're part of the Ministry of Justice, so any information you volunteer may as well be said to a cop."

Arthur sighed and stayed silent a while, thinking. "I'm also skittish about telling Ralkliv because of that whole Danubian honor code thing." Arthur made a baffled expression. "They've got the craziest ideas. I mean, at one point, Spokesman Ralkliv actually thought that I would rather be beaten than lose honor by telling a lie, and that's not the case at all! By the way, don't tell him that like I did." Arthur shrugged. "He means well but... it's just that we very different priorities."

"See," Arthur said. "If we tell him everything, I'm afraid that he might set something in motion that we're going to regret. I'm not particularly interested in defending my honor if it means more beatings or chains on my neck. If we make accusations without any evidence we might be the ones who get in trouble; charged with slander, perjury and who knows what else."

Samantha looked fragile as glass. "You think we should keep it secret?"

"Yeah." Arthur felt uncomfortable bringing up the next part. "There's something else you don't know about. After that confrontation with the Major, she had me taken to one of the back rooms in her office and she... she wanted to force me to admit my guilt. I tried to... I mean... I..."

Arthur swallowed hard and looked down. "She made me sign a statement. It said that I had you two spread lies about the guards and the camp. I'm sorry." Arthur started to say something more but stopped. He remained quiet, staring down miserably; now they knew how weak he really was.

"Arthur." Samantha had tears in her eyes. "Arthur, look at me. It is not your fault."

"We heard it that night," Laura's voice quivered. "And I saw you," Laura wiped tears from her eyes. "You were coming back from work... they hurt you so bad." Laura doubled over crying hard, Samantha leaned and hugged her friend tight, sobbing pitifully as well.

All the emotion Arthur normally set aside broke through then. He couldn't stop it this time, Arthur sat with his face buried in his hands and cried too.

Arthur realized how fortunate he was to have friends that stood by him. He thought of some of his friends back home too, at his old job, or playing baseball on Saturdays. He cried about the old life he had enjoyed: his refrigerator full of cold beer, his comfortable tennis shoes, that cool office chair he found beside the highway. He remembered trying to sneak into his apartment without exciting his dog, watching TV shows, playing video games, and eating potato chips.

He remembered his old girlfriend Charlotte leaning against her beat up green Nova with a cigarette in her fingers. Arthur thought about the black guy next door who always wore a leather jacket with no shirt who let Arthur borrow his motorcycle a couple times. It had been a great life before his arrest and he threw it all away for money.

Then Arthur thought of his sister. Strangely, he remembered something that happened many years ago, when they were both in the same school: it was one of their pranks gone terribly wrong. Who knew the old wild animal in the locker trick would be so hard to pull off? When Arthur closed his eyes he could still see his twelve-year old sister running down the school's hallway trying to corral a terrified groundhog.

Arthur laughed even as he cried. Tee would find this so funny, her big brother sitting naked on the ground, crying like a baby. There'd be no end to her jokes. He missed his goofy sister. Would he ever see her again? Arthur cried about that too.

Though not one of Arthur's proudest moments, he knew it wasn't unusual at all. Nearly every night, when the barracks was quiet and still, there was the underlying sound of quick ragged breaths, muffled cries of the desperate and lonely. Arthur had seen big, tough looking, grown men sit on the ends of their cots doubled over, weeping miserably into their hands. Some criminals curled up tight on their sides like scared children hiding from the world, weeping until they fell asleep. They tried to be quiet but everyone knew. It was so commonplace that Arthur didn't pay much attention to it anymore, slept right through it, just another noise you heard at night, like crickets in the grass.

When Arthur regained some self-control he refocused on the point he had been trying to make. It took a few more minutes for the girls to stop crying.

"So," Arthur began the awkward transition from bawling to business. "Everything's out there now, and we have a decision to make, in the next couple weeks anyway."

Laura folded her arms, pulling her knees in tight, looking down sadly. "So you don't want us to tell the truth, I don't know... what if they catch us?"

"I'm not asking you to lie," Arthur said. "Just don't volunteer any information that might be used against you. We're foreigners who haven't been here long. It's plausible that we wouldn't know that the guards crossed the line. We'll be out of this camp in less than three weeks. If we just keep our mouths shut and don't get into any more trouble our lives will improve. It has to get better doesn't it? You're what 18?"

Laura nodded and Samantha shook her head. "I turned 19 in April."

"Then you'll be released when you're 21 and 22, then you can go back to the US and start your life again. Survive these three years and then you can leave. I just don't want you to risk having your sentences lengthened. If you decide to report everything to Ralkliv I'll stand by you, but I just think that there's way too much to lose and nothing to gain from making those charges. Think about it, okay?"

The girls nodded and then excused themselves to go back to the women's barracks. Arthur sat alone beneath the big oak tree and wondered if it was right to try and keep the girls silent about the abuse they had suffered. He couldn't tell them about the agreement he made with Major Drazetka. The Major would hold the confession over his head to make sure he kept his word, but that also meant that the document wouldn't be used against him, unless they tried to challenge the guards. It was best to simply move on; Arthur didn't believe in moral victories anyway, those were just defeats by another name.

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The next evening Laura left class early, supposedly to go rest, but maybe to spend some time over at the fence that separated the men's and women's' compound. Samantha had her suspicions that her dark haired friend enjoyed all the attention she was getting from the Danubian men, perhaps one in particular.

Now that he and Samantha were alone Arthur unlaced his left work boot and took out a small flat object wrapped in cloth. "I wanted to show you something."

Samantha tilted her head curiously. "Why are you whispering? Nobody here knows English."

"Um... It seemed appropriate," Arthur shrugged. "I guess this is one of those sharing a secret type of things."

"A secret?" Samantha's eyes glowed with interest. "Ooh, tell me!"

Arthur looked around dramatically then resumed whispering. "Today I found this rock, one small enough to sneak out." Arthur unwrapped it and held out his hand. "Check it out!"

Samantha took the flat gray stone, three inches long. "Kinda looks like Idaho."

Arthur waved his hand. "No, the other side!"

"Oh... It's a... a fossil?"

Arthur pointed to the shiny black part. "Trilobite. That's the cephalon, its head... see the eyes? There's the thorax, and the pygidium, the rear end."

" Cooool." Samantha held it close, examining it carefully.

"Keep it," Arthur said. "I want you to have it."

"Really?" Samantha grinned. "Awesome... but where'd you get it?"

Arthur pointed a thumb backwards. "There's this outcrop beside the railroad track where we worked the last few days; you should see it... it's just full of fossils. I look through it every once in a while when I get the chance." Arthur shrugged. "I tried to sneak a bigger rock out yesterday but one of the guards saw I had something in my hand. It was that tall skinny guy with the thick glasses... that dude doesn't miss a thing.