Chapter 34
The Puzzles
Nina was in the shower, closing her eyes and just enjoying the hot water falling on the back of her head. She squeezed the tooth paste and started brushing her teeth, holding the breath and pushing her face into the steaming water. She grabbed the soap and rubbed her body. The foam spread, and her muscle got relaxed. She sighed with relief.
Nina got out, the floor was slippery, and her feet slid a little. She took a towel and started drying her body. She stared at the mirror, looking at her teeth, touched the silver tooth where her cavity was. It was bugging her for weeks, giving a sharp pain from time to time. She touched with her finger, rubbing and tapping it. She felt fine now! It didn’t hurt at all. She grinned at the mirror.
From the hallway, Sarah just entered the receiver’s tower, and saw Paul.
“Dude, there is a STD bill under your name.” said Sarah, laughing at Paul, holding a paper and waving at Paul’s face.
“No, it is not, get it out of my face,” grumbled Paul.
“It contains the word inflammatory and something close to your thingy. Now I’m curious, how did you get laid? Is there your secret move that I’m not aware of?” teased Sarah, squeezed Paul’s cheek with her hands, and pull his head like a turtle neck.
“Fuck you,” murmured Paul, blushing.
“Well, today’s briefing is complete, will you be my good boy, and take this to Nina?” said Sarah, winking at Paul.
“No… You do it,” said Paul like a stubborn child. Sarah laughed, stood up and messed up Paul’s head. She departed to Nina’s office. At Nina’s office, Sarah opened the door and said,
“Hello my little angel, here’s today’s shit…”
Sarah froze as Captain Stein was leering at her. Nina waved at Sarah, smiling.
“I mean… admiral. I report… Uhh… this is today’s briefing,” said Sarah, saluting. She put the paper on the table and awkwardly stared at Stein and Nina for a moment, and hurriedly got out of the room. Nina was discussing with Stein about the secondary protocols for the operation. Stein nodded and took a note. He exited the room after it was done.
After Stein left, Nina spread the puzzles on the floor, matching the pieces. She groaned at its complicated structure. It wasn’t just a puzzle, it was a 3D puzzle made by Krieg and Jessica for when they were in college. The goal of the puzzle is to connect the pipes. As the one builds the pipes (or tunnel) from the center, it was exceedingly becoming harder to keep track as it gets bigger. The puzzles forming a furthest layer look like a brownish terrain; it covers all the pipe pieces except one which leads into the mountain.
When Nina was playing with the puzzles, Captain James came in, saluting at her, saw Nina with her puzzle. Looking at James’s baffled look, Nina giggled.
“When I connect all the pipes, it is supposed to look like a volcano. And this little guy here,” said Nina, showing him a dinosaur toy with the rail wheel attached on the bottom, “has to get through all the way without crashing!”
Nina winded up the spring of the dinosaur and placed it on the railroad. She put the dinosaur on the railroad. It made a clicking sound and moved along the trail. The dinosaur wiggled its tail, mumbling its jaw and went into the tunnel. It made a squeaking sound inside the pipes, shaking the overall mountain. A moment later, they heard a bump. Somewhere inside, dinosaur started crying.
“And oops, I did it wrong.” Nina said, scratching her head. “This is great. Jessica will make fun of me now.”
“Admiral, the units are in place, Veron is gathering an army, increasing security. He will bomb us right into our face to eliminate us. If we infiltrate our unit now then…” said James, but interrupted by Nina.
“How are we doing on our ground unit? Is the suit ready?” said Nina.
“The progress is good, admiral. The suit is good to go and we are running the underground factories to product the right quantities…” muttered James but again, interrupted by her.
“That’s good, I’ve tried the suit before, and it is pretty awesome. You should try it too James.”
“So, what are we going to do now?” James sighed with frustration.
“Well, there is no problem so far… Oh yes, get all the ghosts out from the enemy lair,” said Nina. James was bewildered, raising his eyebrows.
“But admiral, at this time? Veron will sense what is going on, and we will be left in the dark! Then it would all be over!” shouted James.
“That is precisely why, Captain, I won’t risk my men’s lives there. I want them all out. And that’s an order,” said Nina. She was adjusting her puzzles, breaking it all down to find a dinosaur.
James was looking at this little girl playing toys before him, desperately holding his tongue. She didn’t seem to be disturbed at all, ridiculously relaxed.
“Ok, admiral, I’ll send all units into the base,” said James, boiling with anger.
“Oh, there you are!” exclaimed Nina, grabbing a crying dinosaur.
“Will you get me a juice captain? Oh and cookies?” giggled Nina.
“Of… of course admiral,” said James.
Nina smiled, grabbing a piece and fitting it with the rest. But James couldn’t hold his anger anymore. He was getting sick of her childish behavior. His head was about the burst. James turned around and shouted.
“Admiral, our force is outrun by more than ten to one! If Veron finds out that we are scheming against his regime, they will wipe out our entire headquarters. The officers are in doubt and questioning, admiral! There are fears of losing everything and… Everyone is just…” shouted James but he stopped, petrified, seeing Nina’s soft gaze.
“Well, Captain James, I think you have a misunderstanding,” said Nina.
“Like what, admiral?” said James, talking back to her.
“Well… Let’s see, it’s hard to explain…” murmured Nina, tapping her head with her finger. “Oh yes, this might be a bad and far-fetched example… But hopefully it will help.”
James stared at Nina with puzzled and disconcerted look. Nina gazed into his eyes.
“Tell me James, do you know how the big corporation makes money?” said Nina, smiling.
“Big corporation, admiral?” said James, bamboozled at this totally random topic.
“Yes, the big corporation in a capitalist society,” said Nina, continuing with her puzzles. James breathed in deeply.
“Well, make a good product cheaply and produce them massively,” answered James. Nina shook her head.
“The corporation is there because people want them to be there, in order for the corporation to give what people want, they need to know what they want,” said Nina.
“Uh huh, yeah, that is basically what I said,” murmured James. Nina ignored him and continued.
“So, if the big corporation has all the resources and brainpowers to do everything they can to improve biological enhancement of the human body, then how can the small business survive?” asked Nina.
“Uhh… work hard? Oh yes, specialize by sector,” said James.
“No, James, you are just quoting from some dumb textbook. Don’t make me regret that I made you a Captain,” said Nina.
“I’m sorry admiral,” apologized James, half-heartedly.
“They view the human being as a function James. And it is not a bad way to describe what we are, the sums of functions. And in order to satisfy those function, what the big corporation can do is to start from the existing variables, in other words products, rather than start from the unknown,” said Nina.
“Yes…” muttered James, puzzled.
“So if the existing functions can be summed and improved by a slight manipulation, then it is possible to make television from radio and Smartphone from television. People would think that it is a new thing, but actually it is the same thing. Nevertheless, whichever product offers more enhancements has more value. On average, therefore, people tend to buy more Smartphone than radio,” said Nina.
“What are you try
ing to say, admiral?” said James.
“James, if one really wants to make money in a legal way. All you have to do is to identify which no one has yet identified, and control which no one has ever been able to control it before,” said Nina, looking at her puzzle piece again.
“So, identify and control, it is good to know. Then what does that have to do with Veron?” snapped James, impatiently.
“The truth is that Veron is a function too, James. Although it is such a pain in the ass, but still, it is just a puzzle. As long as he is a human, he will have an input and output and do what other human does,” said Nina. James fell into a silence, blinking. “So, theoretically, if I know all the function, then, there is no way he can win this game. But the problem is that it is impossible to know all the functions and even more impossible to control them.”
“So are we too, is your specimen and lab rats?” growled James.
“No, I just said it is impossible to control, why are you saying that?” said Nina, scowling.
“Because I think you are controlling us!” shouted James.
“James...” Nina frowned, becoming angry at him. “It is just a theory. Are you mad? And it doesn’t matter whether we know all the variables or not, because we will be doing the exact same thing!”
“I don’t know Nina! I’m ready, I can go into Veron’s headquarter now! What do you want me to do? Are you just going to make us hang in the air forever?” questioned James.
“James, do you really think I’m the only one who knows about this?” said Nina, coldly.
“…”
“Veron knows this too! Tell me, how do you think Veron became a puppeteer and made people in Cassandra his puppets?”
“I…” James murmured.
“If I lose a step, then we lose the battle. James, and in this very time, the single misstep will cost the whole war,” said Nina.
“…”
“James,” said Nina, with calm voice, there was a little shadow on her face.
“Yes admiral,” said James.
“I know what I’m doing, you might call me delusional and traumatized but I can tell you I’m far from suicidal. This isn’t about revenge, do you understand?” said Nina, boldly. James opened his mouth but was unsure what to say.
“Then what is it admiral? Are you seeking justice?” asked James.
“No, I’m not exactly a saint, James. And I’m not in a position to judge anyone. What I want is the truth,” said Nina, calmly.
“What do you mean, admiral?” asked James.
“The truth is that there are good men in this world, those who won’t sell anybody else for their own sake,” said Nina.
“…” James looked at Nina, painfully.
“And we shall not kneel, Captain,” said Nina.
Nina is now coiling the dinosaur. She put it on a trail again. The dinosaur jabbered its mouth as it went into the tunnel. It shook the whole volcano mountain and eventually it popped into the top of the volcano shaped hole. Nina caught it in the middle of the air.
“See? I can do this,” Nina smiled. James breathed in slowly and finally relaxed.
“Very well, admiral,” muttered James.
“So, bring cookies and juice please? I’m going over to Krieg and Jessica that I’ve solved the puzzle,” Nina smiled.
“Of course, admiral,” said he, smiling weakly. James got out the room.
After James left, Nina just lay flat on the floor, breathing deeply. Nina was discomforted as the conversation reminded her of her past, when she was vulnerable against Veron’s regime. She was thinking of the person called Daniel Merson. Although Captain Stein seemed to think that Daniel was her lover but he wasn’t. Nina hated him for the most of his visit, and even when they talked, Nina was acting out of pity rather than love. It was a dark time, where Veron tried to take everyone under his command.
The militants attacked the village, the village people need to bow down every time he and his army passed among them. When they call people he needed to run as fast as they can to get to him. Daniel was one of the soldiers under Veron. She could imagine his hardship, but still she didn’t like him. Like in the orphanage, the soldiers gathered at night and beat their subordinate for the wrong things they did. In the daytime, they spat on people, yelling and thrashing people to the ground to work faster. Furthermore, in order to “reproduce more” and cumulate the labor forces, they raped women and girls.
In the village, people needed to make the list for what they did for the day and report at 10 p.m. The people needed to memorize the names of their assigned officers and high ranked officers in the country.
The assigned officers could treat the people under his command whatever they want. They are allowed to make fun of them and made them to do things that are humiliating and cruel. They entertained themselves in most grotesque way they could think of. Daniel was assigned to Nina’s house, but he didn’t do any of those things the other soldiers did.
One day when armies distributed food, they beat up the boy so bad that he ended up dead. The soldiers explained to the superior officers that they happen to hit a boy because he was trying to get the food twice. “It was just an accident,” they said. In reply, the superior officers encouraged them about their great service of keeping the order in the nation.
Daniel couldn’t laugh or entertain with his comrades in presence of other officers. On the weekend, the officers made their subordinate to look at the wall for a whole day. So those subordinates did nothing else but to stare at the wall for hours and hours.
Nina just talked to him when he came to the house, because he brought useful news and stole some of the meal from the high ranked officers. She was sick of him being around here because she hated Veron and he worked under him. But as the time went by, she and he became a friend, so she greeted him when he came. He always muttered foolish words which weren’t even funny. And as he was uneducated, Nina couldn’t even talk about her area of study, which she learned from her pupils hired by Simard Polchinski. Daniel even tried to propose to her, saying that he loves her, which Nina plainly ignored him. Nevertheless, he came to visit Nina to bring her the meal he stole from the base.
But the things didn’t go well when Veron tried to extract information from Simard Polchinski. Daniel went cold on the ground in the hand of Veron’s army while trying to stop the soldiers from getting to Nina.
When Nina saw him for the last time, before he was killed, he ran toward her house, blushing and muttering unfunny jokes as usual and finally said to her, “I will never forget you, or the first time I met you… I love you,” and kissed her and ran away. And that was the last thing she remembers about him. After Veron raided the house and killed Simard Polchinski, Nina escaped and stayed at Alvin Caravel’s shelter. Captain Stein came to the shelter shortly after and told them about the village was completely burnt down to the ground.
Nina sighed, looking at the dinosaur, and lay herself down on the floor, whispering to herself.
“That crazy bastard…”
And she closed her eyes.