08-18-2023, 12:21 AM
Contrary to the opinion of the most important man in Thousand Branches, Lily Nils was not an idiot. A woman with a strict, sometimes inconvenient moral code yes, but not stupid. After all, she’d been studying the inside secrets of the Branchian nation for years. She knew this world from the inside out. Which is why she’d taken such painstaking precautions sending the letter into the Bugle.
In fact, the letter was intended to act as a long and winding wild goose chase. Sure, the chase would catch up to Lily eventually, but she was reasonably confident that the long trail of increasingly irritating clues would not be solved by the time she was long gone. She had also, for several years now, ensured that the police had no other paths to finding her. She had cut connections with dozens of old friends, spoken nothing to her coworkers or her leaders for nearly a year, and constantly changed where she shopped at. She had been about as thorough as you could be.
•••
3 Weeks Ago, a Remote Cabin in the Woods
Mel Kines, editor-in-chief of the Branchian Bugle, sat at a rickety wooden table, paging over the most damning exposé she had read in her almost 14 years of working at the Bugle. Evidence of biological weaponry, hired assassins, spy networks spanning across the world, and crazy, sick leaders. Mel was not perhaps as naive as most of the country. She’d been an investigative reporter for many years and she’d uncovered several secrets the government perhaps did not want her publishing, but this was an entirely new level. This would destroy Thousand Branches and expose… more than she could’ve possibly imagined to the world on an enormous scale. This was… incredible.
“Why are you showing me this?” she asked, looking up from her reading
Lily smiled, rocking her chair back and forth. “I know you. I know you would never dare to sit on something this huge.”
“You’re right. I need to publish this immediately.” she said, gathering up the papers hurriedly
“No.” came Lily’s voice from the corner
“No? I thought you just said-”
“We can’t publish yet. I’m obligated to give a chance for the government to come clean before I ruin them.”
“That’s… stupid!” yelled Mel, completely flabbergasted
“Maybe, but that isn’t all. What do you think happens when we publish this? Andy and I? I give us maybe a 20% chance of living through this debacle. But if you publish this in your paper? You join us. You put your life on the line. You expect to come out of this dead. You have a family Mel, and a life. You need not die for this cause.” Lily said, coming to sit across from Mel
Mel mulled it over, flipping idly through the pages again as she considered what Lily had just told her. Part of her knew Lily was right, martyrdom was silly, but if this exposé was lost before it could reach the public she could never forgive herself.
“Why did you take me here then? If you didn’t want me to publish this?” asked Mel
“Because I want you to publish this.” Lily replied, brandishing a small white envelope addressed to the BB, “My final ultimatum to the government.”
“Wouldn’t this get me in just as much trouble?” asked Mel
“The worst they’ll do is interrogate you. The beauty of it is that until this exposé is published, the facade must be maintained. And that means they can’t get rid of you. They can’t take the article out of circulation. They can’t stop you because it would be entirely too obvious, even for as gullible a population as ours.” replied Lily
“Sure, but if you were trying to convince me that was acceptable, you probably shouldn’t have shown me the page about how government interrogation is just torture.” said Mel with a chuckle
Lily waved her off, continuing. “ They won’t have to go that far. Torture is a tactic for people who don’t tell them everything they want to know. You’ll tell them about the exposé, us, the cabin, the letter, and even what I’m saying right now. By the time this letter is published in a few weeks, we’ll have long since abandoned this hideout. We’ll have wiped this place clean. And everything else you have to say is what they already know. Torture only really works if the subject is hiding something.”
“What happens after the exposé surfaces?”
“You get the hell out of this country as fast as you possibly can. Andy and I can probably give you a certain amount of refugee protection in Zongongia, assuming of course that we make it out alive.” Nils said, suddenly deadly serious, “You’ve got three weeks before I send this letter to the BB. Get your family ready to get the hell out. Get yourself ready to get the hell out. That is, if you’re willing to take that risk.”
Mel mulled it over. On the one hand, her reporter side couldn’t possibly let something like this go, but on the other hand, how could she allow her family to be put in that kind of danger for the sake of her job? But as the options weighed in her mind, she knew one thing: her wife would never forgive her if she gave up something this big for her sake.
“Alright. I’ll do it. But if this doesn’t work, I want you to know you’re not a hero. Your morals may be your morals but if they cost this country or my family their lives, that is on you. And nobody will give a damn about your morality.” Mel said
Lily sighed, “I know.”
•••
Present Day, Office of Tulen Levensky
Neil Sanderson, head assistant to the president, stood at attention as Tulen Levensky relayed his orders to him. It was a daily grind working here. He wouldn’t wish it on anyone in a million years but damn it, it paid the bills and at the end of the day, that was all he needed to be content. The orders began to swim in his head – “Call Linda, tell my maid to clean out the fucking trash can, tell Jacques to fuck off if he comes asking again, call a press conference” – it was the same things he heard every day and sometimes he just sort of zoned out and remembered them all later.
“Hey!” yelled Tulen, “Are you listening to me? This shit is important for fuck’s sake.”
“Yes sir. Attentively.” Neil responded, knocked out of his stupor, “When did you want that press conference?”
“Give it let’s say… four days. I want to make sure we have all the press gathered too, and I mean everyone you can possibly contact,” replied Tulen
“Does that include international agencies?” asked Neil
“Are they fucking reporters you clod? E-ve-ry-one. It’s not that hard.” he growled
“Yes sir,” responded Neil through gritted teeth
“Good. Now get out of my sight.”
It was odd to Neil. Tulen was never particularly kind. His cold and distant demeanor was well documented. But this was new. He’d very rarely been yelled at, certainly not so openly. He must have been in a bad mood, and it wasn’t really any surprise. After the bombshell in the BB, everyone was on edge, it definitely didn’t surprise Neil that the accused felt much the same. Neil supposed that was likely what the conference was for too. But damn was it gonna be a long day ahead.
In fact, the letter was intended to act as a long and winding wild goose chase. Sure, the chase would catch up to Lily eventually, but she was reasonably confident that the long trail of increasingly irritating clues would not be solved by the time she was long gone. She had also, for several years now, ensured that the police had no other paths to finding her. She had cut connections with dozens of old friends, spoken nothing to her coworkers or her leaders for nearly a year, and constantly changed where she shopped at. She had been about as thorough as you could be.
•••
3 Weeks Ago, a Remote Cabin in the Woods
Mel Kines, editor-in-chief of the Branchian Bugle, sat at a rickety wooden table, paging over the most damning exposé she had read in her almost 14 years of working at the Bugle. Evidence of biological weaponry, hired assassins, spy networks spanning across the world, and crazy, sick leaders. Mel was not perhaps as naive as most of the country. She’d been an investigative reporter for many years and she’d uncovered several secrets the government perhaps did not want her publishing, but this was an entirely new level. This would destroy Thousand Branches and expose… more than she could’ve possibly imagined to the world on an enormous scale. This was… incredible.
“Why are you showing me this?” she asked, looking up from her reading
Lily smiled, rocking her chair back and forth. “I know you. I know you would never dare to sit on something this huge.”
“You’re right. I need to publish this immediately.” she said, gathering up the papers hurriedly
“No.” came Lily’s voice from the corner
“No? I thought you just said-”
“We can’t publish yet. I’m obligated to give a chance for the government to come clean before I ruin them.”
“That’s… stupid!” yelled Mel, completely flabbergasted
“Maybe, but that isn’t all. What do you think happens when we publish this? Andy and I? I give us maybe a 20% chance of living through this debacle. But if you publish this in your paper? You join us. You put your life on the line. You expect to come out of this dead. You have a family Mel, and a life. You need not die for this cause.” Lily said, coming to sit across from Mel
Mel mulled it over, flipping idly through the pages again as she considered what Lily had just told her. Part of her knew Lily was right, martyrdom was silly, but if this exposé was lost before it could reach the public she could never forgive herself.
“Why did you take me here then? If you didn’t want me to publish this?” asked Mel
“Because I want you to publish this.” Lily replied, brandishing a small white envelope addressed to the BB, “My final ultimatum to the government.”
“Wouldn’t this get me in just as much trouble?” asked Mel
“The worst they’ll do is interrogate you. The beauty of it is that until this exposé is published, the facade must be maintained. And that means they can’t get rid of you. They can’t take the article out of circulation. They can’t stop you because it would be entirely too obvious, even for as gullible a population as ours.” replied Lily
“Sure, but if you were trying to convince me that was acceptable, you probably shouldn’t have shown me the page about how government interrogation is just torture.” said Mel with a chuckle
Lily waved her off, continuing. “ They won’t have to go that far. Torture is a tactic for people who don’t tell them everything they want to know. You’ll tell them about the exposé, us, the cabin, the letter, and even what I’m saying right now. By the time this letter is published in a few weeks, we’ll have long since abandoned this hideout. We’ll have wiped this place clean. And everything else you have to say is what they already know. Torture only really works if the subject is hiding something.”
“What happens after the exposé surfaces?”
“You get the hell out of this country as fast as you possibly can. Andy and I can probably give you a certain amount of refugee protection in Zongongia, assuming of course that we make it out alive.” Nils said, suddenly deadly serious, “You’ve got three weeks before I send this letter to the BB. Get your family ready to get the hell out. Get yourself ready to get the hell out. That is, if you’re willing to take that risk.”
Mel mulled it over. On the one hand, her reporter side couldn’t possibly let something like this go, but on the other hand, how could she allow her family to be put in that kind of danger for the sake of her job? But as the options weighed in her mind, she knew one thing: her wife would never forgive her if she gave up something this big for her sake.
“Alright. I’ll do it. But if this doesn’t work, I want you to know you’re not a hero. Your morals may be your morals but if they cost this country or my family their lives, that is on you. And nobody will give a damn about your morality.” Mel said
Lily sighed, “I know.”
•••
Present Day, Office of Tulen Levensky
Neil Sanderson, head assistant to the president, stood at attention as Tulen Levensky relayed his orders to him. It was a daily grind working here. He wouldn’t wish it on anyone in a million years but damn it, it paid the bills and at the end of the day, that was all he needed to be content. The orders began to swim in his head – “Call Linda, tell my maid to clean out the fucking trash can, tell Jacques to fuck off if he comes asking again, call a press conference” – it was the same things he heard every day and sometimes he just sort of zoned out and remembered them all later.
“Hey!” yelled Tulen, “Are you listening to me? This shit is important for fuck’s sake.”
“Yes sir. Attentively.” Neil responded, knocked out of his stupor, “When did you want that press conference?”
“Give it let’s say… four days. I want to make sure we have all the press gathered too, and I mean everyone you can possibly contact,” replied Tulen
“Does that include international agencies?” asked Neil
“Are they fucking reporters you clod? E-ve-ry-one. It’s not that hard.” he growled
“Yes sir,” responded Neil through gritted teeth
“Good. Now get out of my sight.”
It was odd to Neil. Tulen was never particularly kind. His cold and distant demeanor was well documented. But this was new. He’d very rarely been yelled at, certainly not so openly. He must have been in a bad mood, and it wasn’t really any surprise. After the bombshell in the BB, everyone was on edge, it definitely didn’t surprise Neil that the accused felt much the same. Neil supposed that was likely what the conference was for too. But damn was it gonna be a long day ahead.