If Wilden had a great talent, apart from explaining world politics, then it was to get on the nerves of other people. He bombarded Frank and Alf with questions, again and again. They had to tell him everything about the Japanese war. After a while, they just hid from him. The other villagers were also proud of them and overwhelmed the two volunteers with praise and gifts.
Meanwhile, it was April and the Japanese war was slowly coming to an end. While the international media still reported about some minor victories of the GCF, the armies of the World Government left Japan piece by piece.
But the newscasters did not talk about casualties or dead civilians. Nevertheless, the number of them was high. It must have been millions and the war still raged in some regions. All in all, the Japanese were on the way to win.
Like Kublai Khan`s Mongols, who had ruled over a giant empire for centuries and had finally failed against Japan, the endless armies of the World Government had also been defeated by the stubborn island people.
That all was a real disaster for the Lodge Brothers who controlled the world. The sole and unchallengeable authority on earth, as they believed, had accepted defeat.
And for a world power which saw itself as invincible, there was nothing worse than a defeat, that destroyed the nimbus of invincibility before the eyes of mankind.
It had been the same with the mighty Persian Empire, when the Greeks had stopped them at Marathon and Thermopylae. And also the nimbus of invincible Rome had crumbled after the defeat against the Teutons in the Teutoburg forest. And there were still more examples in world history. Japan`s survival was a great success, without doubt. And the aftereffects of this war were much more important. However, even the best propaganda of the international media had not the power to change the facts: The attack on Matsumoto`s Japan had ended with a defeat of the Lodge Brothers.
But the successful defense of the only state which had openly defied the rulers of the world, was accompanied by endless suffering and an never-ending procession of the dead.
Even in Ivas, there was not just cheering among the inhabitants. The Müllers had lost one of their sons in the Far East and the same fate had overtaken the Dutch family Baastfeldt. Their Thomas did not return too.
And Sven Weber? Frank and Alfred had not heard anything from him since months. His war fever had been the greatest, at the beginning of this conflict.
Sven returned to his home village not until May 2032, and was no longer the same man. The young man had fought in many battles on the southern front and had also taken part in the great counteroffensive.
One day, he had been hit by a grenade which had mangled a part of his face and had mutilated his forearm. Thereafter, he had been in a hospital in Kyoto for several weeks.
Ultimately, the medics had just patched up his face as good as they could, but he had finally lost his left eye and an ear. Furthermore, three of his fingers had to be amputated on his left hand. The proud, young volunteer finally came back to Lithuania, disfigured and crippled. Frank and Alfred tried to care for him during the first weeks after his return. Rolf Hugenthal had been stabbed in the stomach with a bayonet, but he had survived the surgery. The other son of the Müllers remained unharmed. The Far East had given him back to his lamenting family.
“I`m sorry, that I`ve come so rarely in the last days, but your father is getting on my nerves”, said Frank.
Julia walked beside him on this sunny April day and just nodded approvingly.
”He lives only for his politics”, she said. “So he is, but he means no harm.”
”I know that. I like him too, but sometimes he just sees it all too theoretically. It was horrible in Japan. Certainly necessary and meaningful, and whatever. But I didn`t want to stay just one day longer in this hell”, answered Kohlhaas and sat down on the grass. Julia followed him.
”I have really missed you, Frank. And I was full of sorrow...”, she remarked quietly.
“Oh, I`m the hero of Paris...and now...of Sapporo and Okinawa. I`m just hard to kill...”, joked Frank and smiled.
“Idiot!”, Julia smiled back.
”I have thought of you too - every day”, whispered the young man and looked shyly at the treetops.
“But now you will stay here, okay?”, she said.
“Maybe, but if another oppressed nation calls for me, I will have to go. Anyhow, or your father sends me to the next battlefield, ha, ha!”, teased Frank the young woman.
“Then I will beat him with his favorite weighty tome about world politics!”, said Julia.
“You were always my brightest star...eh...in the sky”, murmured Frank quietly. Then he tried to behave like a real war hero again.
Julia blushed and smiled at him. Suddenly she put her arm around his shoulder and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. Frank cleared his throat and smiled to himself. Finally he got a grip on himself and kissed her too. This kind of “counteroffensive” had become strange to him in the last years, but now he just felt well and thanked God to be still alive. They stayed in the woods for a while and walked off then. Frank had missed her so incredible much and now he was with her. That was great!
The chairman of the Council of the Elders stared at him with penetrating eyes and his face changed to a mask of malevolence. The World President coughed slightly, trying to ignore the steely glance of his master. But he was not able to escape his look.
Some months ago, he had demanded Matsumoto's head, and now, his brothers in the Council of the Wise seemed to demand his own.
”There will be no nuclear strike against Japan. Our troops will just leave the islands in the coming months. A victory against Matsumoto is no longer possible in the present circumstances.
We won`t forget Japan and in the next years, we will start another, still greater assault. But at present, this war endangeres our further steps”, said the chairman, while the World President frowned.
“And if the media just make a victory out of it all?”, he asked then.
“Nonsense!”, grumbled another member of the Council. “Our lies are good, but not that perfect that they can accomplish this. Japan is still independent and Matsumoto rules over the country. Well, these facts will remain. No matter, what we tell the masses...”
“Is the Great Plan in danger?”, enquired a Lodge Brother with concern. “What do you think?”
The Chairman shook his head and replied with obvious anger: “No! Of course not! This defeat won`t influence the Great Plan. We will just go on as before!”
“We should focus on the implanted Scanchips! This is the most important step of all. Japan will remain isolated, for now. This is all we can do at the moment!”, remarked a gray-haired man at the end of the large table.
“I agree...”, muttered another.
“And we should just accept this defeat? Why don`t we conscript another, greater army?”, asked the World President who was getting angry.
“No! The war is over! Our new strategy should be to ignore Japan basically. We won`t mention this country or Matsumoto in our media again. Now, it would just be foolish to call this state back to the minds of the people.
If we can`t destroy it, then we pretend that this state has never existed. In a few years, we will prepare another attack”, explained the chairman and straightened his tie.
His cold eyes stared out of his old face, fazing the World President again.
“Our perseverance has brought us global dominance, and also in the case of Japan, we will prevail in the long run”, he assured.
“Nevertheless, it doesn`t alter the fact that our brother has made a lot of mistakes in the last months. He has harmed our image and we have to talk about that!”, hissed a bald gentleman in a fine suit and pointed at the World President.
His fellow gave him an angry look, but he swallowed his rude answer like a sip of poison.
Then he twisted his mouth and said: “Well, I would like to come to the next item on the agenda.”
The chairman of the Council of Wise nodded and looked around. T
hen he played with the golden ring on his finger and waited for the reaction of the others.
“We will still talk about some things, brother!”, snarled one of the councilors and gazed at the World President.
“That`s enough!”, said the chairman and banged on the table.
The head of the World Government was seething inside, still staring at the documents before him. His hand gripped some of the papers, while he tried to suppress a tantrum.
This conference was more than unpleasant for him and he cursed the Japanese in his mind with all his malice. The secret meeting continued, because there was still much to discuss. The next steps for the total enslavement of mankind had to be well prepared.
Alexander Merow`s “Prey World” books (Part 1-3, German version):
Available in all book stores and at Amazon!!!
Prey World I - Citizen 1-564398B-278843
The year 2028. Mankind is in the stranglehold of a worldwide surveillance state. Frank Kohlhaas, a petty citizen, lives a cheerless life, working as an agency worker in a steel plant.
One day, he gets into a conflict with the tyrannical system, because of an unfortunate accident. An automated trail convicts him to five years of imprisonment and Frank disappears in a detention centre, where he suffers under a cruel system of brainwashing and reeducation. After eight months of pain, the authorities decide to transfer him to another prison. On the way there, something unexpected happens. Suddenly everything changes and the young man finds himself caught between the fronts...
Prey World III – Organized Rage
In the year 2033 the economic situation in Europe is more hopeless than ever before. The World Government still loots the nations without mercy and holds them in its iron claws.
Artur Tschistokjow, a young dissident from Belarus, takes over the leadership of the Freedom Movement of the Rus, a small group of rebels that fights against the Lodge Brothers in the underground.
While a big economic crisis starts in Belarus, the rebels form a growing revolutionary movement. Frank, Alfred and an increasing number of discontent Belarusians join Tschistokjow`s organization. They finally follow the Russian dissident to a point of no return.
Prey World IV – Counterrevolution (Coming soon!)
www.alexander-merow.de.tl
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends