The Flowers of Keiwha
Page 16
over normal U.S. society. Would Germany and Japan even build a materialistic society as America did? One would think automobiles would be a fraction of what they were in German-Japan led worlds. The caste (race classification) systems would be stiff, unyielding; though their contradictions would eventually lead to the downfall of 3rd Germany, nevertheless it would be taken for granted that certain biological lines were capable of leadership and others less so. And so in 1960s-era Volkswagen type cars, Keijo’ would still plod along as it did, complete with Indian elephants but high definition television screens, the streets packed with swarming Third World Society but the overhead magnetic trains whisking the elite from skyscraper to skyscraper.
Why was JOHANN here? A trained SS assassin, his mission was to kill the Governor General of Korea , a notorious anti-German who diverted government funds to burn German farms in Pretoria. 3rd Germany had fallen, but like John Wilkes Booth, JOHANN would sacrifice his life to revenge the lives of colonists in white SudAfrika. [This is Philip K. Dick.] Alternatively, KANYE was the key political figure. A charismatic and rising Seaboard public speaker, the authorities wanted to more closely study somebody identified as critical to management of that neutral territory. JOHANN and TUSK were colleagues, pushing around KANYE merely to better understand his psychologies. Although KANYE constantly retreated to black music to avoid the socially-painful stimulus, nevertheless it was understood that in ten years’ time KANYE would be Chancellor of Seaboard.
There are other, more divergent, possibilities. Perhaps KANYE was not black but Indian. He could have been either assassin, counter-terrorist, or rising political star. The stakes could have been surprise nuclear assault on Hiroshima, assassination of high government figures in Tokyo (a plot surely doomed to fail), or perhaps something more subtle, more aligned with events as they are.
We live in the post 9/11 world. The other possible read on the situation is that KANYE, JOHANN, and TUSK, all foreigners, are all members of a radical Hindu terror cell. If Imperial Japan Commonwealth (IJC) is the USA of counter-world, then KANYE, JOHANN, TUSK are cell leaders for the history-changing plot, controllers for a twenty-person team that will fly directly into the Mitsubishi buildings in Shin-Shinjuku. Neo-Tokyo erupts into flames; the great battle between Elephant and Red Sun Rising begins, and here reality planes collides into other planes; the result is only a line of commonality, after which everything falls away. It was a vision that had everything to do with Ganesh; and nothing to do with Shiva; the dance the electronic musicians played was the swan-song for a dying world, and in the aftermath, pieces or scraps of meaning would be collected like food by scavenging foragers; data had become manifest.
"Take Red team, Red team, Red team.”
In hours, the counter-force police of the Kempeitai had reasserted control over Keiwha’ campus. The terrorists, their plot exposed early, were now confined to three sites on campus, the grad dormitory, the giant underground student center, and then the undergrad dorm, all the way at the top of the hill. Each one was a unique problem.
"Gold team, we’re barricaded and safe.”
"Black; no movement.”
Communicated by encrypted burst-transmission radio, the three terror leaders remained in constant contact throughout the whole ordeal. But they knew from the start they were doomed; it was a trade off of numbers versus global attention.
"We are transmitting live from Keijo’, Japan where a radical Hindu terror cell RAKERJEE are currently holding over seven thousand college students hostage. Their demands include full independence for India , where demonstrations are continuing against Japanese rule.”
The television screen showed the flashing strobe lights, the red and blue police blinkers that gave the salivating public its share of unfolding entertainment.
"Three separate elements of the terror group are holed up at Keiwha’ Womans University , where they remain in possession of four different campus buildings including two dormitories, the student union, and the labor affairs building. Their actions are believed to be held in coordination with radical labor in Keijo’ and the Chinese mainland. The Japanese government has promised a firm response…”
"Reports are trickling in that the hostages include a white Seaboardian educational delegation…”
"Conservative media in Japan are directly laying blame for the incident on the reforms of Prime Minister Fukuyama, whose Multicultural Reforms policy has unleashed Hindu nationalism across all of the Subcontinent…”
Of the three sites, the graduate dorm would be the first to fall. Far too open, far too many entrance and exit points, the students, sequestered in the basement, would be largely liberated through the use of stun-grenades and sleeping gas, with one particularly brave hostage actively fighting the terrorists before being shot and eventually martyred into a figure of legend. But sites 2 and 3 would prove far more difficult counter-raid targets. Indeed, the holding of Keiwha’ Student Union would enter the annals of history as one of the most epic hostage situations ever.
Historical television show: “Of the three sites, the Student Union had the fewest hostages, but despite that reason, the terrorists would hold the building for no less than five weeks. In the end, the Black team made the largest impact for the cause of Hindu nationalism, holding summary executions daily for six weeks and eventually precipitating the downfall of the Fukuyama government. As the terrorists hoped, the next administration adopted draconian measures in India and that in turn inspired a mass populist backlash, forcing the Japanese out of India for good. The first Hindu empire was born.”
Student Union was held for six weeks, but the imagery from the Grad dorm was ultimately that which lingered in public imagination for years to come. Its design facilitated piecemeal action; with pillars in the central quadrangle, but vantage points that allowed stretching of shooting from three hundred meters away it and the sniper-on-sniper skirmishing of the Student Union became the defining actions of urban terror for the unstable decades to come, and all sides believed that with “just one little extra push,” things would be settled for good. And meanwhile in the working class quarters, where the light from workers’ shacks spilled out onto soft evening streets, from time to time the festivals would be held, the sweet jasmine scene and incense a reminder of home away from home.
"We represent contacts from the Fifth Directorate.”
"We know you are an officer for the Indian Liberation Army.”
"Give us names, faces, places.”
"This is your last chance for cooperation.”
The thing of course is that they could have been control elements, pawns or proxies, or just simply the representatives of representative nations, peacefully attending a conference. Like the military delegation that was briefly seen on Student Union, ground level, week 2, there was always another conference to go to.
"So that was vision 1.”
"That was vision 3. Vision 1 was the first week. An especially evocative dream that felt like an echo from the future, a cry-call for help from someone who never had a chance.”
"Explain.”
"Radical Islam had merged with a Latin-American guerilla movement. Busloads of women and children coupled to a huge gasoline bomb driven up to U.S. bases. An adopted Mexican boy living with U.S. soldiers just in time to see suicide planes crashing into cities and a NCO firing his anti-aircraft gun in the air, this is serious he wouldn’t do that, wondering, ‘did anyone in past years care? did anyone in past times ever want anything but cheap pleasures such that we had to live in this hellhole?”
"Seems a bit more realistic.”
"Seems entirely possible. Thing was how real it felt; a cry from the future. It was about values; our present and our now, and how the choices of those in the past give us freedoms or limitations today.”
"And vision 2”
"And vision 2 we discussed.”
SHINO SUGIHARA took off her apron and wa
lked out to her white cube car. She drove to her office, where her assigned tasks typically included light clerical work, scheduling, and occasional reception duties. She could see that her career at the company would last about ten more years, after which she would be moved to the back office as an embarrassment. Her implicit duty was to get married, but she had no intention of doing so.
Why was this. This was because SHINO SUGIHARA was a complete sexual pervert. She had a dungeon in the basement of the house she had inherited from her parents and in the basement of the dungeon was a little Zainichi American boy who had annoyed her very much during her studies in Korea. The little Zainichi had actually believed SHINO when she sent him an email inviting him to come to Japan to be her boyfriend, but as soon as she took him to her house, she stunned him with a zap gun and then put him into the cage. Every day she stuck little hot irons into the cage. He kept begging for mercy and finally to just be killed, but she would not let him off so easy.
"Ha, ha. How do you know it isn’t true.”
"Indeed it possibly may be.”
The boys had agreed on end states, probable futures, but what remained undiscussed was why JOHANN in the end liked TABUN and why TUSK liked AKEMI (more than TABUN). AKEMI was unusual claimed TUSK; “she actually