The Freshman
Copyright 2005 by EC

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 # 99348. 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 fiancée 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 "haráshkt 
jettít", 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 it 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 later in the week, because the Prime Minister wanted 
to start resolving 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…

----------

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."

----------

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. Tiffany's hair was 
formally braided and wrapped around her head, but as a criminal, 
her hair was the only thing she could change to make herself more 
presentable.

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, 
but that once the official greeting was over, to expect Dukov to 
converse with them just like he would with anyone else. Maritza 
did not speak any English and the two children, Vladik and Anyia, 
spoke it badly, so there would have to 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."