Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  “Oh my gods!” Her memories included seeing the horror on someone’s face as they were locked into a white-padded cell. “They are locking us up in these pods! What are they doing to us?”

  “Cindy?” Tavin’s voice had a bit of concern in it as he said, “What do ya say…”

  “Not if you were the last recently reformed criminal on Ailana, pal. I’ll see ya later.” Cindy said as she took the soap and walked away.

  “I could scrub your back for you…or at least get those spots that ya miss,” Tavin said as she quickly walked away. Upon realizing that she was now someplace else and hearing the sound of a heavy door shutting her out of his life again, Tavin sat back down and thought, “Wow, tough crowd around here. Oh well, it’s a good thing I was able to get some more security clearances from Audrey…now I can hack into the Mele Entertainment adult entertainment channel…all a man can say at a time like this is thank the gods for good, old-fashioned internet porn.”

  Location: The 12A Laser Highway…Downtown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0230 Hours.

  Van Dien sat back in the limousine’s comfortable seat and exhaled a cloud of smoke as he listened closely to the voices that were coming out of his floating monitor. He tried to remain calm as he thought, “now, you little brat…is there anything else on your computer files, that will be of assistance to me?”

  The voices from the monitor were from a conversation that had been recorded earlier by one of his agents. One of the voices had a tone that was cocky, “the name is Marco…a friend of yours told me about your organization and its needs. What can I do for you and your most worthy cause?”

  “My name is Jacob…and I understand you have the ability to obtain certain items that most people can’t get their hands on.”

  “That depends…what do you need?”

  “We need something convincing…something that will get the attention of certain people.”

  “Oh, I have just the thing…in fact, I am so glad that our paths crossed, I think a relationship between your people, and my people, could be quite beneficial to both of us. Ya see I have these warehouses…with all kinds of…merchandise…inside of them.”

  “What kind of merchandise?”

  “Just a bunch of stuff that I seem to be able to get my hands on and that other people seem to want. However, there are a few items in one of these warehouses that I don’t want just anyone to get their hands on. So, this plan of yours, would be quite beneficial to me as well…let me show you something…”

  The data on the monitor suddenly came to a halt indicating that his agent lost contact with the two men. However, the monitor flashed a different color as another segment of data began. Van Dien suddenly felt his heart racing with feelings of joy and intrigue as he realized that the monitor now had video images in addition to the other data. “Holy shit! Jacob was adapted, and he recorded this…”

  His lips curled into a sinister smile, and his eyes became wide with a heinous sense of joy, as he realized what Marco and Jacob had both been looking at.

  “Oh my gods…so that’s what Marco was referring to as his…merchandise…” Van Dien’s eyes narrowed with vengeful thoughts. He chuckled and then whispered to himself, “This fits into my plan perfectly…now I just need to find a few more key components…and another man to take the fall.”

  Location: The Hukilia Hilton Plaza…Uptown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0900 Hours.

  Rex Broadstein coughed as he poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down to a breakfast of dry toast. He was exhausted from staying up all night. He had been watching the news around the clock hoping his friends were still alright after the events of the week.

  He was about to get lost in another round of watching the monitor, which was mounted to his kitchen wall, when he heard his wife’s voice as her high heeled shoes made their way across the floor.

  “Rex…I’m leaving.”

  For a few moments Rex didn’t even hear her. But within a few seconds, the gravity of the moment sunk in as he said, “What? Margie what are you saying?”

  She was calm as she said, “I can’t handle this anymore, Rex…I’m going back to Earth. It’s bad enough that I have to live on Ailana…and I certainly don’t want to live here anymore with a man who is so hell bent on destroying himself.”

  Rex shook his head as he said, “What do you mean? You can’t leave now…things are just about to get better!”

  “No, Rex…things have only gotten worse…I mean look at you. That beard is atrocious and you’ve gained so much weight that you look like an egg with a bald spot. I thought I could love you no matter what… but this…mission…that you have given yourself, has just torn our marriage apart.”

  His jowls jiggled as he said, “Margie don’t you understand what I am trying to accomplish here on this world? Without people like us fighting this corrupt system, Ailana will continue to have a division between rich and poor that the people of Earth have not experienced since the Gilded Age. You can’t just up and leave me now…”

  “Rex!” She clenched her fists and stomped her foot as she said, “you are never home! You are running your business into the ground and pissing people off. I can’t show my face at celebrity events anymore because all those Moralists with power and money look at me like I am trash because of your misguided activism. We used to run charity events and we used to have friends that were rich and powerful like us…but we’re basically outcasts now because of the people and politics you have decided to support!”

  “We need Keiki Karatau to become a High Senator. He’s rich, he’s a businessman just like me, but he has a heart! He realizes that this society is not sustainable and we have to make some changes!”

  “Keiki Karatau is just a man with a handsome face and a nice demeanor. The common people find him physically attractive, which is bad enough because good looks can get you pretty far with the ignorant populace. But what’s worse is the fact that he has been on television telling everyone how he wants to raise taxes for the rich…that’s us Rex…he wants to raise our taxes! And he’s good-looking enough to convince people of anything!”

  Rex tried to sound profound, yet not profane, as he shouted, “It makes sense to raise our taxes because we have the money! The elite and rich people of this planet don’t use their extra money to create jobs and better the peoples’ lives…they use it to invest in risky speculative schemes hoping to get a quick, high paying return! It’s almost like gambling to these people, except the casino takes the money that these rich people lose, out of the hands of Ailana’s working class people. Speculation and poor decisions by the rich, in terms of how they invest their money, has been happening on this planet for over fifty years and all it has done is created bubbles that cause the economy to crash again. Think about it! The Hydroplantations caused a big agricultural commodities bubble, which burst and sent the economy into the toilet. The same thing is going to happen again with this proposed Aurorian tourist industry! Our lack of paying taxes is about to make the government of this planet default on its deficit…”

  She waved her finger at him and said, “Oh come on, Rex, like you know anything about economics…this is about our freedom, and a free market is essential to our freedom…”

  “Freedom? How can there be freedom or equality in a society when the rich control all the available wealth and credit with nothing but their own personal gain in mind? The rich people of this planet stand to gain all kinds of money when the Aurorians come here, but common Ailanian citizens are going to have to foot the tax bill, if all this speculative investing fails again. When are we going to learn that high taxes can actually cause people to stop putting their money into risky investments? When are we going to learn that government deregulation, all for the sake of giving the common man the illusion that government values liberty, is bad when it allows the rich to eat up the savings and
checking accounts of the middle class and the poor? What rich people do with capital and credit affects working class people, who are hoping to earn an honest living…we have a social responsibility to not piss it away with speculative investing!”

  She picked up her com and threw it at his head as she cried out, “you Liberal-loving asshole!”

  “What the hell!” Rex shouted as stepped out of the way just in time while the com crashed into the wall.

  She jabbed her finger in his face as she said, “Speculative investors, who had a bunch of extra cash that they weren’t forced to hand over to the government, funded our successful business, which you seem to be hell bent on destroying, Rex!”

  “That’s not the point, Margie! The point is, we need fundamental financial change on this world if it is to survive! Do you realize what kind of change the poor instituted in France, a few hundred centuries ago, because the rich kept getting richer at the expense of everyone else?”

  “Rex, this is just too much…change…for my liking. I was born into wealth and privilege…and seeing you piss away the company and the money both our fathers worked so hard all their lives in order to give us just makes me sick. We had a chain of stores that used to make a lot of money, but now our investors are pulling out because our stocks are in the toilet…you’ve gone too far with your support of these Liberal activists…and who was that Wallace guy who was over here so late the other night? Is he another low-life Immoral looking for a handout cause he doesn’t want to work for a living? That’s where the money we will pay in taxes will go if Karatau and his people have their way, our rightfully earned money will right to those poor Immorals who will piss our money down the toilet!”

  “Come on, Margie, most of the Capitalists didn’t earn the money they made here on Ailana! They didn’t go about obtaining their money with honesty and integrity…think about all the unnecessary tax cuts they lobbied for and government loans they accepted and never paid back! Not to mention all the bribes and the kickbacks they gave and received…most of us who got rich on Ailana didn’t make our money honestly, we’ve cheated and stolen from our employees. We’ve oppressed the common people. We’ve convinced civic leaders to literally give us tax money from community coffers as a way of incentivizing our choices to set up our businesses and get them running. And then, when we ran our businesses and banks into the ground because we were stupid with our finances, we were still smiling all the way to the bank because we had convinced the High Senate to write legislation that would force the government to bail us out! And we did this all for what? So we could get out of paying taxes that could have been used to fund schools, build fire departments and help some deserving people in need? Is that brand new hovercar out in the garage worth it, Margie? Several people on Ailana could have used the money we spent on that car to satisfy some basic needs like food and medicine for their kids…”

  “My gods, Rex, you sound like a bleeding heart Liberal!”

  “The point is, Margie, it was Wallace who pointed that out to me. He’s not an Immoral, he’s a friend of mine…”

  “And he’s in trouble, Rex!” Margie shouted, “He’s in trouble because he is a member of that group, who the Moralists want put in prison for all the trouble they have caused…and I don’t want to be here when the police come and take you away as well! I want a divorce, Rex! I want what is left of my money and my life so that I can live on Earth around some people who are not terrorists!”

  “Margie! How can you be so selfish? There are people on this planet who are so poor they can’t afford to buy food! They have to beg the government for food stamps so they can purchase the scraps from The Hydroplantations while we eat steaks from endangered whales! We have access to the best doctors so you can get a boob lift while there are people dying in emergency rooms because they had to wait for someone to give them treatment for a heart attack that was caused by eating the processed foods The Hydroplantations grow. The very food we sell in our stores is killing people, Margie! We can’t allow this to keep happening on Ailana!”

  “That is why I am going to Earth, Rex,” She said as she started walking out the door. “I am going back to our apartment in New York to start over. My lawyer will be sending the divorce papers over here tomorrow. Please take a shower and make yourself look presentable when he arrives.”

  “Margie!” Rex shouted, “No Margie, don’t go! Don’t you realize that it is hypocritical of us to call the Immorals deadbeats and losers when we were the ones who outsourced their jobs? We are to blame for this too Margie! We have to do something! Come back and help me do something about this mess we’ve helped to create! Please!”

  But it was too late. She was already out the door and halfway to the elevator. Moments later, the elevator doors opened and Margie took a deep breath as she saw the man in the black business suit and tie smiling at her. His gleaming white hair seemed to glow in the light of the elevator as she took her place beside him.

  She closed her eyes and said, “He doesn’t know where Wallace is…I believe his friends in The Evil think he has become a liability and have kept him out of the loop…I couldn’t find out who Wallace is currently looking for. I tried to get him to tell me the location of the warehouses you asked about. He knows nothing. He’s simply going mad with guilt in that penthouse…he hasn’t been to the office in days.”

  Van Dien pulled a cigarette from his suit coat and said, “I doesn’t matter if he can’t supply me with any more information…I need him for another reason…a good reason.”

  “Can you make sure my divorce papers are processed quickly?”

  Van Dien smiled as he put the cigarette between his lips. “Oh don’t worry about that…I’m going to make sure that you end up with everything…even though you did nothing to deserve it.”

  Chapter 11

  Location: The last stop…Ailana.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1230 Hours.

  “Life is so unfair,”Marco Giraudoux sighed as he sat back on the silk pillows that were propped up against the headboard. He had been imbibing drugs and alcohol, and watching the monitor for almost two straight days. His eyes hurt from the strain of being awake so long, but his insomnia and the Cutz he had just smoked didn’t allow him to sleep. He had been on edge ever since the incident that had happened at the nightclub a few nights ago. Back then, Marco had been feeling on top of the world. He had a good stiff drink in his hand and a half naked woman dancing on the stage next to his table. Her words were etched into his memory.

  “Why did you have to run out of the nightclub so fast that night? What happened in there?”

  “The shit is starting to hit the fan…”

  All those good feelings he had at the nightclub disappeared when Marco turned his head to the right and saw a man, who looked like something right out of a nightmare. It had been like making eye contact with a shark. The man in black gave Marco a brief, mysterious look, and then slowly walked out of the club, disappearing into the night almost as quickly as he appeared.

  Marco remembered how he whipped out his com and made a frantic call to one of his cyborg bodyguards.

  “Jhett,” Marco had said with an obvious hint of fear in his voice. “Did you see him?”

  “See who?”

  “That son-of-a-bitch who we believe was sent to kill us that’s who!”

  There had been a nervous pause, “uh…no, I didn’t see him.”

  Marco bit the inside of his cheek and said, “Call everybody up, and get them over here, and get my car ready…I WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE RIGHT NOW!”

  It was at that moment Marco sadly realized his days on Ailana were now numbered and his grandiose plan had to be changed. In the dead of night, he had his bodyguards drive him, and the red haired woman, who had been dancing for him, to a secluded location, so that he might keep a very low profile for a while. Marco had given the woman one thousand dollars in cash, and asked her to acco
mpany him, because he knew he was going to be lonely at this retreat for the damned. Now, he was wishing he had been a little more selective in whom he had chosen to spend these last few days on Ailana with. She had been nagging him all day long.

  “Why don’t we go outside and do something?” The sexy, red haired woman asked him as she ran her fingers over his arm.

  Marco tilted his head to the side, and felt his neck cracking. “I told you already,” He said as he ran his fingers over his mustache and beard. “I have to hide out for a while. There are people out there who wish to do bad things to me.”

  “Are we stuck in here because of those men tried to kill you outside the nightclub? Why do they wish to do such bad things to you?”

  “Because I did bad things to them,” Marco said as he ran his fingers through his long auburn hair. “Stupid bastards, I’ll never make deals with these savages ever again.”

  Marco sighed as he thought about how redheaded stripper was good in bed. He closed his eyes and shook his head as he realized that he couldn’t have sex all the time. In between bouts of self-gratifying pleasure, Marco amused himself with the monitor, particularly the news. Right now, he was thirsting for information.

  The unsettling television program featured a staunch and angry Keiki Karatau as he gave his point of view to Jalapo, “Are you telling me that the course of action the government is currently taking is actually working?”

  “And are you telling me it’s not, Mr. Karatau?! Why are you so selfishly trying to shove your beliefs and opinions down our throats when we currently have good people in the High Senate working so hard to help us out of this economic mess?”

  “O.K. Jalapo, let’s examine the word selfish for a moment shall we? The government on Ailana is extolling the principles of Capitalism…which essentially says that government needs to keep its regulations out of rich peoples’ business so that they can make money, so that it may trickle it down to the common man. Capitalists refer to regulation as an attack on freedom and taxation as theft, but don’t you realize that we have been sold a pack of stinking lies? There are multitudes of rich people on this planet, who became rich because they lobbied the government to create laws and regulations that make it legal for them to steal from the common man.”