Frank and Alfred left the small hotel „Sunflower“ in the following days always alternating, in order to buy some food in the nearby supermarkets. They never ate in the small dining room of the hotel together with the other guests and avoided every contact to them. Only in their hotel room, they took their meals, which were usually produced by the “Globe Food“ grocery chain.
The television was on, all day long, and overwhelmed them with dull entertainment and repetitions of old movies, interrupted by the hourly news. In this context, it was interesting to see, how the World Government dealt with the renegade state of Japan. At an interval of a few hours, the newest reports came over the air.
Japanese were interviewed, who allegedly had left the country, „before Matsumotos firing squads could execute them“, because they had fought for „world peace“ and “freedom”. Ron Baldwin, the not very trustworthy looking advisor of puppet governor Ikeda, who had also been blown off the country, appeared in nearly each newscast.
He whined and stressed his „great sorrows about the new Japan”, that he had learned to love soo much, since he had come to the island in 2020, as a manager of the Greenbaum Brothers Bank
He tried to look dismayed and affected to convince even the ignorant viewers. Nevertheless, it was his job to lie in front of the telecameras and he seemed to be eager to play his role.
Eight great warships had been sent to the eastern seas of Japan by the GCF high command, in order to observe the situation. Furthermore, the World President had demanded an ultimatum to the island people. They had to return to the World Union until the end of the month.
“Otherwise, unpleasant consequences for the Matsumoto regime could follow!”, he threatened on television.
The media concealed that the new president of Japan had come to power by the will of his people. He had been voted by over eighty percent of the Japanese population. Meanwhile, the Japanese had abolished any further elections, and Matsumoto called democracy a “giant play of mass manipulation”.
Moreover, the new president controlled himself and let all representatives and ambassadors of the World Government leave the country. And Matsumoto did not lay a finger on them.
However, during the rebellion it had come to spontaneous lynchings by the furious people. Some Japanese had just taken revenge on those persons, who had exploited them for many years and had destroyed their country. The most “global parasites”, as many Japanese called them, had been killed in Tokyo and Osaka.
But the “fascist Matsumoto” was responsible for all this, in the eyes of the international media. Therefore, they unleashed a furious hate campaign against the rebellious Asians. Soon after, it changed to an irate and hysterical choir of slander and lies. A military intervention, however, was “currently not planned”, according to the words of the World President. The newscasters tried to calm the viewers, but the whole thing smelled like war.
„We will see!”, thought Frank.
„Now in your KCN-Shop! Call 070023456 and get him! Sergeant Powers, your supersoldier! He fights them all, yeah!“, resounded a pithy voice out of the television. A hand was waving with an action figure - Sergeant Powers. „Terrorists, fascists, evil people! Sergeant Powers finishes them all! Get your Sergeant now and annihilate the evil forces! Only 19.95 Globes, here in your KCN-Shop or in every toyshop, yeah!”, it came out of the tube.
Then the voice kindly told the kids, that they could borrow some money at the “KCN Bank for Children”, if their parents would not have the Globes for Sergeant Powers. But only for children, who were already six years old.
„Oh, shit!“, sighed Alf. „Turn it off!“
„In a few minutes, I want to watch “The Little Whisperer“ on KCN. I always wanted to have a look at this brainwash show for children.”
„Please not...“, answered Bäumer disgustedly.
Shortly afterwards, KCN (Kid Control Network), the biggest telestation for children worldwide, started its famous show, called “The Little Whisperer”.
Some years ago, KCN had started the series. Meanwhile, it had mutated to a blockbuster, which was also watched by the adult population and had extremely high viewing figures. Nevertheless, the actual target audience of the telecast was the younger generation. Since some time, the absurd show could be watched in innumerable languages and on all continents.
Frank and thereafter also Alf, who could not successfully hide himself from the acoustic irradiation of the television, stared eagerly, and at the same time distastefully, at the screen: Now it was time for „The Little Whisperer“!
A slimy presenter with flashing white teeth and an also flashing white suit, opened the show and the audience of little children cheered loudly.
„Hey, kids! I`m Funny Paul! Who of are you?”, he called ecstatically.
“We are the kids!”, roared the children and raved with great enthusiasm.
Every show of “The Little Whisperer” started in that manner. This was the German version, which could also be received here in Paris, together with approximately 700 other TV shows from all over the world. The camera swivelled around and showed alternating children of different nationalities. The „One-World“ - on television it was cute at first sight. Then, all candidates of today's show were presented: The little Tina from Bitterfeld, Tommy from Hamburg, Robin from Bremen, Gülay from Bochum, Kim Song from somewhere else…
Anyhow, the children screamed full of joy and Alf moaned: „Turn it off! Please!“
But Frank remained hard. At least, he just wanted to watch one show of the series, the two policemen had talked about, when they had transported him to “Big Eye” at that time. After a while, the presenter called for the little Tina, a sweet blondie with braids and a cunning smile.
“You know, Tina, officer Bark and I must always pay attention that people say no bad things about our World President. Therefore, we also need the many children here to help us. You have told us last week, that your papa has said something very bad about our uncle World President. And you want to win your pony today, right?”, said the presenter and grinned .
“Yes, please, Funny Paul!”, begged the little Tina and cast up her nice blue eyes.
„If you have caught your daddy, making a very bad statement, then officer Bark and I are more than proud of you, because you have really helped us“, whispered Funny Paul and turned to the audience. „Now, Tina will tell all these very bad words to our friend! And who is our friend?”
„The big Eeeeaaarrr!“, screamed the children and stamped their applause.
A big ear of plastic was brought on the stage and the small Tina uncertainly looked at it.
„Okay, Tina! The big ear is your friend, you can tell everything!”, said the presenter to the little girl.
„I...I will do...“, said Tina and smiled bashfully. „I will tell everything!“.
Then she whispered to the big plastic ear: „Daddy has said, the uncle World President is…ehmm…a swine and the World President…ehmmm…should be shot!“
She still told this and that, and apparently she had even written a lot of things on a small slip. The moderator encouraged her, to tell everything at all. It would remain their secret, and except for the audience and millions of other viewers, nobody else would ever hear it. Everything the little Tina said, was shown at the bottom of the screen.
„Oh!”, shouted Funny Paul. „Your daddy really said all this?“
„Hmmm..., answered the child.
„Then your dad is not healthy. He is ill. I believe, we have to help him, but we will ask him first. Now, we will ask Tina`s daddy!”, called Funny Paul and waved his hands.
„Jaaaaaaa!“, cheered the audience. Suddenly the cameras switched live to a room, in which Mr. Notmeier, Tina`s father, sat behind a table.
He apparently was not very happy and smiled fearfully at the telecameras. Then Funny Paul interviewed him to the remarks, his daughter wanted to have heard and her father tried to make some excuses. But he behaved more than bumbling and
finally started to stammer.
Shortly afterwards, some other candidates had a turn: Tommy, Kim Song and a few more. They told the big plastic ear all the “bad words” and politically incorrect remarks they had heard from their parents, neighbors or relatives. Then came the final.
„Who has been the best „Bad-Word-Detective“ of today`s show?”, shouted Funny Paul through the hall.
The children were allowed to vote and made Tina to the best „Bad-Word-Detective“ of this day.
„Tina! Tina! Tina! Tina!”, it resounded out of the tube. The little girl finally won a pony and fell down on her knees, bursting with joy. Her was casually told by Funny Paul, that her dad had to go to a “hotel” for a long time. The doctors would do everything to help him, assured the presenter.
But the joy about her new pony was much too big, and Tina probably heard this sentence only with half an ear. Then a man in a dog costume and a police uniform came down some stairs, went on the stage and welcomed his cheering audience.
It was officer Bark, who was hunting „bad words” all day long, in order to make the world a better place, as Funny Paul mentioned. He brandished his police club, his oversized hands of foam and his big handcuffs. The children yelled.
At the end of the show, he sang the “One-World-Song” with them. Funny Paul smiled at the telecameras and in the background, the little Tina was leaping for joy about her new pony like a bouncy ball. It all ended with some commercials for kids. Frank and Alf were disturbed.
In the night from 26. on 27. February, Frank and Alfred alternately kept guard at the window of their hotel room and checked the equipment. At three o'clock in the morning, they were finally ready to go. The rebels strapped their backpacks on, left the hotel room and sneaked over the dark corridor to the lower floor like two shadows. They parked the hire car some blocks away in a small side lane behind an old tenement. Both men would never return to the hotel after the bombing, and planned to drive from Paris to Compiegne as fast as possible. Their steps on the asphalt were quiet, while the “Sunflower” slowly became a dark and small spot behind them. This night was unusually cold, but fortunately it was not raining. Now they moved with still more caution than in the night, when they had explored the canalization. This time, even little mistakes could endanger everything.
If a police patrol had asked them about the content of their backpacks, the two rebels would have had more than just a problem. Apart from that, they had guns and knifes in their pockets. And even the stupidest cop would not believe them, that the were nothing but harmless tourists on a sightseeing tour.
Again they crept from one dark corner to the next, crossing a lot of empty streets. Their faces were partly hidden behind broad baseball caps, under which four wary eyes examined the vicinity, everywhere suspecting enemies or curious observers. They were like two predators, always ready to catch their booty.
Some cars drove past them. At the end to the “Rue de York”, when they lurked in the shadow of an empty shop, they suddenly saw a police car, bending around the corner. Frank and Alf were shocked, nevertheless, they tried to saunter inconspicuously about and acted, as if they did not heed the police car.
The sound of an humming engine became louder and the tension rose to the extreme. If just a single policeman would have asked them for their particulars or wanted to look into their backpacks, then Frank and Alf would have had no other chance than killing him. And in case of emergency, also every other witness in sight.
No one had guns and NDC-23 by the kilo, who just wanted to visit Paris. The police car approached and seemed to drive more slowly now, but it didn`t stop and no cop stepped out. Probably, the driver only wanted to take a brief look at these two strange guys. But this city was full of people like this. It was luck for the two bombers, but probably also luck for the policeman, because they had not hesitated to use their weapons, if necessary.
„Lucky you!“, whispered Frank quietly.
„Come on!“, said Alf. „We are just good citizens.”
„With some NDC-23 in our backpacks…“, Kohlhaas giggled and seemed to be relieved. Except for some tramps, the streets of Paris were empty in this part of the city. After a further short walk through the dark lanes, they had finally reached the gully cover in front of the abandoned factory, which Alfred had duly closed again, after they had returned from the canalization. They entered the underworld again. But this time it was no more disgusting but otherwise harmless scouting expedition. This time, it was deadly serious.
At the very thought of staying in this stinky vault until noontime of 01.03.2029, and even to sleep down here, the two men shuddered.
What would be, if they suddenly stood in front of some new grids, which had been repaired in the last days? Or even in front of some policemen? No, there was no more room for surprises. They had to keep their eyes open to react on changes. Now it was the same way again, and rats and spiders appeared as a greeting committee in the dark tunnels once more. When they had reached the first larger room, they examined their equipment, in order to be prepared for all possible incidents.
Frank absently looked at his knife with the serrated blade, which John Throphy had organized for him on one of his trips to Belarus. Then he put it back into the pocket. The red crosses which Alf had sprayed on some walls, were still there and the two men were glad about this. Also the destroyed grids had fortunately not been repaired, after their first walk through the canalization. Frank and Alf decided not to stay in the direct proximity of the event overnight. If policemen would scan the passages before the celebrations, then within this range. They finally chose the closed metro tunnel, that they could reach through the dug hole in the wall. The air was much better here and from somewhere seemed to come a refreshing breeze. Nevertheless, it was cold, scary and dark there.
„What will be if people walk around here again?“, whispered Frank.
„One of us must stay awake and keep guard, while the other one sleeps“, answered Alf. „I will begin if you want!“
They searched the pit for some fire wood and found all kinds of flammable waste after a few minutes. Probably it were the inheritances of some tramps. Shortly afterwards, they kindled a small campfire, a tiny place of warmth and light in that endless, yawning pit. Kohlhaas accepted Alf`s offer, tucked himself up and slept on the uncomfortable ground beside the rails, after he had put a few dry boards and an old plastic foil there. However, this night was terrible, all alone in the darkness of this old tunnel. Frank started to freeze.
Two hours later, his friend woke him up and asked him to take over the next night watch. Tired and nervous, Frank straightened up and sat down at the glowing fire. It lasted only some minutes, then Alf was sleeping and began to snore.
That was the only sound in this eerie vault and Kohlhaas was happy to hear it after a while. The darkness stared at him from a distance and sometimes he believed to hear a silent coughing or weeping somewhere, but in this night, the metro tunnel was empty.
It was at 6.00 o`clock in the morning. Frank and Alfred had a pitiful breakfast and started with their reconnaissance. They slunk quietly and slowly forward and still did not see anybody at this early time. No grids or barricades had been repaired by any workers or had been placed by the police. At least, not on the first day in that hole. On 27.02.2029, the two men played card games or spent their time with various conversations at the campfire in the closed metro tunnel.
Later they explored some new passages and finally returned to their hiding place. They preferred the old metro tunnel to the canalization. Not only because of the better air and the campfire. Apart from the bigger halls with the water reservoirs, the narrow canals were no places, where they wanted to stay longer than necessary. The hours seemed to be endless, down below in the underground of Paris. Again, a long and uncomfortable night was waiting for them and Frank decided to be on guard at first, while Alfred tried to sleep.
Kohlhaas was also very tired and nibbled boredly on some chips from
the supermarket. Meanwhile, the darkness around him made the young man more nervous than ever before, and so he decided to look for some more wood for the campfire. Soon he had discovered another pile of broads near the tracks. After a while he cowered at the campfire again - but suddenly he startled up.
Something had shown its head in a dark corner beyond the pile of firewood. It had been a ghostly, pale child, pressing its finger to the lips, as if it wanted to remind Frank to be silent.
„Pssst!“, he thought to have heard. Then the darkness returned again.
He felt the adrenaline burning in his veins. Kohlhaas hastily fetched his flashlight to examine the place of the spooky appearance, but there were only stones and garbage. Nothing was to be seen of a child. He thought about waking up his friend to tell him about the ghost, but he did not do it. There was nothing. Nothing at all.
After two hours, Frank was damn glad about the fact, that he could hand over the night watch to Alfred now. Then he immediately fell asleep. When it was his turn again, in the early morning, he initially illuminated the strange place with his flashlight. But there were no ghosts at all, only garbage. Franks nerves were raw and he started to search more thoroughly. But it must have been an illusion. Shortly afterwards, the young man left the spooky place and hoped that the panic would die down again.
The fire flickered and fought against its extinction for a while. Finally Kohlhaas had to return to the eerie corner to bring some more firewood. He was still scared and looked around, waiting for the coming of the ghostly child. But it did not come and left Frank alone in the cold darkness.
On the next day, at half past eight, Alfred heard voices. „Calm!”, he hissed and touched Frank lightly. „Hey! Don't you hear that?“
Kohlhaas startled and sharpened his ears. Bäumer was right. Now he heard the voices too. Someone was shouting in the distance, and the calls resounded in the tunnels. They had to be vigilant now.
„I take a look!“, said Alfred quietly.
„Damn! Be careful!”, answered Frank and slapped on Bäumer`s shoulder.
Alf jumped up and crawled through the hole in the wall into the sewer corridor. He ran to a bifurcation and went into the next passage. In his corner of his eye, he could see one of the red crosses, he had sprayed on the wall before. The voices became louder. They probably came from the larger hall with the control room. After some minutes, Alf had advanced far enough into the tangle of sewers corridors and had reached the room with the water basins. Again, he heard someone call in French. He turned off his flashlight and disappeared in the darkness. Then he sneaked towards to the source of noise. Someone had put on the lights in the hall and the old, high vault was weakly illuminated now. Bäumer dared not to go further and huddled in a corner of the corridor, which led to the hall. The voices still became a little louder and came out of the small room beside the hall, which could be reached over the stairs.
Finally a man came out of the chamber and called his colleague. These men were workers of the public utilities of Paris, and made their daily inspection round here. Alf hoped that they would not come too often.
After he had observed them for a while, and one the workers had examined a water basin, the two men walked away and disappeared into a sewer corridor.
Alf heard them talk loudly. Then their voices faded away in the distance. The rebel turned around and sneaked again towards the closed metro tunnel.
„I just hope, they haven`t noticed that we have opened those grids and that steel door“, he said quietly to himself.
But the workers had made a calm impression. This was obviously just an usual inspection round, that they made repeatedly, and with not much eagerness. And even if they would repair something, Frank and Alfred could still destroy it in the next night again. Kohlhaas was waiting at the small campfire and was relieved, when he saw Alfred creeping through the hole in the wall.
„Damn! Where have you been? Thank God, it was your flashlight. All right! I have already pulled my gun!”, said Kohlhaas.
„It were just some workers“, explained Alf and sat down beside his friend. „Let`s see, who will come down here tomorrow!”
„Do you know, that they have found a full-grown alligator in the canalization of Paris some years ago?”, interrupted him Frank and smiled grimly, looking at his comrade.
„I still prefer alligators to cops, Franky!“, answered Alf.
This time, the night, that could only be differentiated from the day by a look at the clock, was almost relaxing for the two rebels. It was a bit like in the good old schooldays, before a classwork, after a long time of learning. They knew that the big showdown was inevitable now.
Tomorrow was the day of their final paper. Maybe a little more bloody and dangerous as a class test. Frank and Alfred kept guard once more and no ghosts or shades appeared.
At 6.30 o'clock, Alfred`s DC-stick beeped and woke the two men. The campfire was still glowing, otherwise the cold darkness had crept into each corner of the metro shaft again.
They slowly got up and ate a few toasts for breakfast. The slices of bread tasted like nothing, this cheap and lousy grub from „Globe Food“. But it could still be used as a possible last meal.
„We must go to our target area now. If some cops come down here today, then in the morning hours. We must keep everything in sight“, explained Bäumer and examined the equipment on completeness.
He checked the time fuse of the bomb several times. Then he hid the explosive under a pile of debris to avoid that any derelicts find it. Meanwhile, Frank Kohlhaas looked at his DC-stick. He wanted to make no mistakes, although they had already gone the way twice. Like canal rats, which had meanwhile become accustomed to their wet and dark home, they silently crept through the sewer corridors and were particularly careful in the bigger halls, which hardly offered any cover.
They groped in the dark of the tunnels, mostly with just one flashlight in use, in order to cause no all too big light cones. Shortly afterwards, they came to the larger vault with the water pumps, that reminded Frank of „Moria“ from the old film. Now they saw that the steel door was still open. Kohlhaas beheld the lamp. It looked like the blinde eye of a Cyclops, staring at him. Nobody seemed to have been here or nobody had recognized the destruction of the door. Both men breathed again.
After a walk through several sewer corridors, they had already come close to their goal. Now they squatted in a dark corner and waited. The “Temple of Tolerance“ and the metro station „Charles de Gaulle“ were near. They heard a metro rumbling in the distance. Cars could not be heard today, because the “Avenue of Humanity“ had already been closed off since a few hours. Suddenly human voices came nearer and the two men looked at each other. What was that?
At this very second, a cone of light shot directly above their heads. Frank`s and Alfred`s hearts dived. But the ray fortunately found no target, except for rusty pipes and the dark throat of a sewer corridor.
A policeman of the GP, the “Global Police“, approached and scoured the environment for something.
„There is nothing here!“, he shouted at one of his colleagues, obviously also no Frenchman. The other man answered in a strange sounding jargon.
„Okay!”, it resounded out of another sewer tunnel in the proximity of the “Temple of Tolerance“.
„This job is fucked up!“, said the cop near Frank.
Obviously he had no greater desire to crawl through dark and stinky sewers.
„Check the tunnels in your area!”, shouted the second GP officer in the distance.
The policeman pointed his cone of light at the opposite tunnel. Meanwhile, the two men were scared to death and crouched in the brackish water, that flowed beneath them. The policeman was only about fifty meters away from them and mumbled something into his radio.
„Let`s disappear from this hole!“, hissed Frank quietly.
„But carefully…“, whispered Alf and tried to turn around noiselessly, while the cop babbled with the other one.
Frank and Alfred prepared for a quiet retreat to another sewer corridor. They carefully crept away, but Frank suddenly slid on the wet ground and slipped into the dirty trickle. A quiet „Plop!“ resounded out of the sewer, which still increased the noise.
Now the two men were gripped by fear and tried to escape from the danger zone as fast as possible. The head of the policeman turned around and his flashlight with him. A light cone immediately jumped towards the tunnel like a furious lion, but there was nobody anymore.
Frank and Alf were already on the run to the next reservoir room and the cop only heard quiet steps and the lapping of water. A ray of light bored itself into the dark tunnel and illuminated its forepart.
„Is there somebody?”, shouted the policeman into the black hole. „Hey, give me a sign!”, he added.
Then he went back to another place. His radio croaked and he tried to give an answer in English.
“I thought, I have heard something. But I think it was only a rat!”, he said.
In the meantime, Kohlhaas and Bäumer had reached another sewer corridor and the cop made no move to follow them through the ugly passage.
“Don`t know! Shit!“, Frank heard him curse quietly.
He finally walked to another area of the sewer system. Both assassins breathed again. Totally unprepared, they had been surprised by that man. This cop had almost seen them. Both still waited for another hour in the protection of the smelly darkness, until no more voices could be heard in the distance. On the way back to the closed metro tunnel they did not encounter any other policemen. Nevertheless, their nerves were still raw.
These GP`s, who had been recruited in many different countries, just like the GCF occupation troops, obviously had no bigger references to the French culture. However, their interest to explore the famous historic sewer system of Paris was limited.
They just did their job and examined the direct area below the square in front of the “Temple of Tolerance”, that was all. Policemen, who solely made “their job”, just arrived at the right moment in the eyes of Frank and Alfred.
When they came back to the metro tunnel, everything was still at its place. Also the NDC-23 - which should have its great performance in about two to three hours.
Bomb-happy...