Now I am what you called a woman married to her job. This morning I went and prepared everything that's needed for today's task. A liberating, easy to move in clothing, in black of course. An earpiece connected to my smartphone. Completed with a gun strapped near my hips but away from prying eyes, hidden behind a slim fit jacket.

Today is going to be an interesting day. There was an early warning from my superior. They said there will be a meeting this afternoon at J-MEF. Something about the fate of our country, or whatever.

That piece of early information might be very interesting to many, but not for me. I have something else this afternoon to take care about. Let's just say, The Republic didn't just compensate me with money, but also power. Power over a little man with no hope of living, straddling on a thin thread of hope that his family is still alive.

Foolishness truly have no bound. Hope is a poison for him and I'm going to be his antidote. You can interpret that however you want, but what matter is this leash I have around his neck. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Madam Cat

Wake up, Mister Sukkot. There is something that we want to show you.

A man crawling up in a blanket was sleeping on a futon that we gave him a month ago. His name Sukkot, someone that I will hold dear in my heart. In my own way, different from everyone else.

He was sleeping for 10 hours straight, waiting for his time to be released, which will not ever come as long as he is still "him". A special agent from another country, one we might call "enemy", behind the closed door.

I'm looking at him from a little opening that's attached to the prison door. That is some cute bed hair, feels like a blessing for the rest of the day. Judging from his looks, he isn't in the mood to shower. A faint manly musk emanates from his body. A perfume to my nose, made me feel jittery.

Sukkot

Fuck you.

I smiled in reply. The guard beside me, posted 24/7 to always guard his cage's entrance, opens the door slowly. I step in to assess his room. It's clean and everything is neatly placed in order, just how I like it. He's became disciplined after a month of being taken care here. After all, the reward for being a good boy far outweigh the feeling of cold showers and nasty feeling foods.

Madam Cat

Come here doggy, or I will call off the search for your baby.

He reluctantly got out of his futon and stands up. Both of his hand is already in a position for me to easily put a handcuff on. Despite obeying every order like a docile animal, there's always this gaze of disapproval that's present since the beginning of his stay. Not that I mind, nothing feels more rewarding than taming a wild animal after all.

We are walking towards a special room that's quite far from his cell. You can call it an auditorium, mostly used by good-natured inmates to watch movies in their spare time. They even have a movie club which helped a lot to curb their aggressiveness, readying them for civilian life. But today, it's empty by no mistake of anyone. We reserved it exclusively for him.

I starts a conversation with him. Something light, to break the ice.

Madam Cat

Do you like movies, Sukkot?

Sukkot

Are you going to control that too?

Madam Cat

You shouldn't think like that doggy. I already am in control of every aspect of your life. Getting all defensive and souring the mood, surely won't give you anything but bad omens.

Sukkot

Fuck you.

Madam Cat

Haven't answered my question.

He replied with silence. But after a second or two, he gives me something to work with.

Sukkot

Officers. We officers have access to contraband, especially movies from your land.

Madam Cat

Oh really, what kind of movies do you like?

Sukkot

None of your business.

He throw his face away from me. I'm not about to give up on this conversation. This is some juicy details. It's not as if we aren't aware of contraband in Milium. But we are lacking in personal story of ex-officers.

Madam Cat

Come on, we are talking about movies here. Not some exclusive, your eyes only, death of the universe, kind of government's secret.

Sukkot

It was... It was mumble mumble

Madam Cat

What?

Sukkot

I told you! It... It was mumble mumble

Madam Cat

Do I need to hire an interpreter here? Please talk to me in a language you understand.

Sukkot

It was Hover Over My Heart!

The security guy that's guarding Sukkot turns his head around to him. Not even him expected that answer. I'm quite shocked, that's some particular choice in movies for any man. Let alone a militaristic man like him, which tends to inject his body with a metaphorically large amount of testosterone.

Madam Cat

Oh. My. God.

Hover Over My Heart?! Seriously I love that movie too! Reiner Gosling was such a sweet heart! Him acting as a sweet husband with relationship trouble with Ame Minerals is unforgettable, I'm sure you agree. The sequel-

Sukkot

Sequel?! Shut the fuck up.

Madam Cat

Yeah, seriously. The sequel is so good at tying up loose ends and also expands a bit about their relationship even after the end of the movie. Like for example, the character portrayed by-

Sukkot

shutup.

Madam Cat

No, anyway Ame-

Sukkot

SHUT UP! I DON'T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A SEQUEL SHUT UP!

Hook line and sinker. Thank god I watched that happy-feely-movie some years ago. Didn't think I'm going to use it against an Officer from Milium. Fate drove is in very weird ways.

Madam Cat

Oh so you're afraid of some information huh?

Sukkot

shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup shutup

Guard

We are here madam.

Madam Cat

Indeed we are. See, walks is much more enjoyable when no one is in each others throat. The light banter helps too. Come in, gentlemen first.

He walks in before me to the auditorium. Inside, there are rows of empty vertically foldable chairs. Such thing commonly seen in your local cinema. I reflexively walks to the center of the auditorium, tagging the best spot against a large projected screen.

Behind me, an operator is sitting in the projector room. Right now the screen is showing a blank uninet browser. The operator seems to wait for the moment it needs to display the program, which should be up there in a minute.

Sukkot sits beside me with his hand still handcuffed. The guard doesn't look at the screen and watch every movement that Sukkot made. He's a guard after all, anything funny that Sukkot is doing will fall under his responsibilities.

Madam Cat

Henry! Is the program ready or do we need to put another movie in between?!

Yeah, that's his name. The projector operator is called Henry. Don't really know his full name though. It doesn't matter, really.

Henry

Yes ma'am, I'm working on it. The broadcast should be up any second now. There, straight from J-MEF.

He's replying to me in a loud voice, understandable because he's behind a huge wall and

Sukkot

J-MEF?

Madam Cat

Oh now you are interested in something?

He ignored my remarks, continuing his train of thoughts alone. His eyes is fixated to the screen, like a child in a zoo full of strange animals. Henry finally able to get the broadcast on his computer then projects it to the screen.

Sukkot

Holy shit they actually gone through with it...

Madam Cat

What are you talking about?

He slowly turns away from the screen and directing his eyes towards mine. That's the stare of someone who really wants to convey something. An information so important you wouldn't think twice to give him a chance to say it.

Sukkot

The first phase of a prophecy is here. A great war will come and everyone will feel the destruction of what's to come. They said, the only thing left unharmed will be those that have no souls. This war will be bloody.

Madam Cat

The broadcast just started, what the hell are you talking about?

Sukkot

You'll see soon enough.

It has been half an hour since the start of the broadcast. The cameras are still pointing at an event-less conference room, with press and guest surrounding a long table, like it's an old school theater. I ran out of patience and decided to bring some snacks into the room. Sukkot is munching on a fried potato right now. Meanwhile, his guard is still closely watching him, not eating.

Madam Cat

Aren't you hungry?

Guard

No, ma'am.

Madam Cat

Suit yourself then.

Someone talks over the noise of the broadcast. A presenter only recognized by her voice. She is describing what's currently unfolding right now.

Broadcast Lady

The representative of every country is in the room right now, except for the people from Milium side. Our president is sitting in the south side of that table with a note on his hand. The president of The Federation is also here, sitting in the east side of the table. The atmosphere in the room is quite tense, no one is talking more than they should've, very uncharacteristic for every press in the room.

bzzt

Viewers, we're getting a confirmation that a representative from Milium just arrived at the north side of the building. They should be here any minute now. In the mean time, we must inform you about our broadcasting method. Because of the potential historical significance of this moment, we have enacted several precaution in case there were any disturbances to our broadcasting cameras and audios. We ask everyone to stay tune with us, as we decide the fate of our land, Ha.

Here they come.

The double door in front of them is opening with the help of two men that's standing beside it. The ray of light from outside of the building peers inside with the swing of those doors. Two pairs of leg came in. They look incredibly professional, both wearing a full suit, male and female. The woman is holding a single paper file within her arms. The man beside her is not holding anything but a cane, even though he doesn't look old enough to use one. He is walking steadily towards a chair that's prepared for him. Steady, but with a limping rhythm to his feet.

The moment he sits down, everyone else also does. Far away from here, yet I can still feel the rising of anxiousness in the air within the confine of those white brick wall.

Sukkot

Fools.

Madam Cat

What?

Sukkot

I was right. They truly will go with the prophecy.

Madam Cat

Stop your non-sense Sukkot. Prophecy doesn't mean shit. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Sukkot

Correct. But I'll this is one of those times.

He is getting irritating now. There's something that I'm not aware of. Yet I can't do anything about it because I'm sure Sukkot doesn't know anything either. He's spouting his mouth off to make me lose focus, I bet. But I can't help but ask what kind of card is on his sleeves.

Madam Cat

What made you so sure about this anyway?

Sukkot

That guy is not from our leader's community. Therefore he's not one of the important ones.

Madam Cat

Then why would they put him there in the first place?

Sukkot

No one in their right mind would give the best of their best and chuck them into enemy territories. See that paper file, it contains every single possibilities of what to do and what to say in every case possible.

Madam Cat

Then why is it so thin? That's barely 10 pieces of paper.

Sukkot

That means he's here not as a representative with complicated dialogue and lines of "what ifs". That guy is just a messenger. I told you war is coming. This is inevitable, my government have too big of an ego to notice the path of peace. People will die after this meeting. They said, "no one will remember the dead because the story is told by the living". So they won't even pretend to save face.

Madam Cat

That's some dark quote.

Sukkot

Live long enough among smart-asses and you'll find one of them a true poet.

The conference goes on for a while. Opening statement about each countries, licking each other balls for sympathy, and eye contacts towards every camera to make sure everyone care about you. Then comes the part where every word count. Every action count.

Madam Cat

Henry, turn the volumes up! The good part is coming!

Henry

Yes ma'am, right away.

There he is, the representative of Milium finally talking. The man and woman in suit. Not even the broadcast gives us his and her real names, so let just call them suits. The girl beside him opened up the paper file and gives it to him. He starts to put his eyes on the first word on that paper. I don't like where this is going. It seems something inevitable is going to happen. Sukkot might be right, those opening statement is nothing but a preamble. Anything we have or will say won't matter, he's reading a literal script.

Male Suits

Our wish is to be free and prosper. That have never changed since the dawn of time. The incidence that have happened before, regarding the kidnapping of our scientist to the soil of The Republic, is the last straw in our immense barn of forbearance.

Sukkot

God, this guy really did say "immense barn" and "forbearance" in the same sentence.

Madam Cat

I thought you guys are good with writing. You know, with all of the propaganda and media training you must've gone through.

Sukkot

Shut up.

The man in suit continues to read the next paragraph. His hand is visibly shaken, even our president noticed it. The broadcast layout is split into three videos. One for each representative faces. They don't want to miss a single sweat from those men's skin.

Male Suits

Therefore, in the spirit of upholding our responsibility as a citizen of Milium, we must fight back with any mean necessary to take back what is ours, punish all evil that is The Republic, and demand our much deserved reparation fee, which have been demanded for decades since our last confrontation.

We will fight back with the technology blessed by our holy government. To push back the wretched beings that have occupied our old land. To kill those who are responsible for what happened at the first of Juno.

Those dishonest and unacceptable behavior towards our sovereignty and freedom of speech will not be replied by a stand still. The people of Milium and its government will fight back tyranny to the last molecule of blood that we can drop.

This is our stance, what may be your reply?

Madam Cat

Tyranny? Cat calling the dog a biter. They don't even want to acknowledge their own doings.

Don't get me started with the story behind the founding of our country and why we are fighting Milium in the first place. It's a political discourse that require years of study and historical tard-wrangling to even understand it in high level of what truly happened.

What the Male Suits is doing right now is what we called "lying". We don't owe them anything. Not a single piece of land, let alone an exorbitant amount of reparation fee for i-dont-even-know-what. They killed their own kind, framed it as if we're the one that did it, and then asked us reparation money. Greedy, is what I imagine them to be. Guess that hasn't changed since then.

Sukkot

Not like your country fare much better. The Republic killed a lot of your own people behind the scene. We know what you've done.

Madam Cat

Well, killing spies -your spies- and organized criminal entities isn't exactly something we're proud of. But that's the last thing we could do to stop them, most we just train and rehabilitate to a new household under our watch. Unlike you, we're a society made of love and prosperity, not death and carnage.

Sukkot

Your mouth should be welded shut. Those are honorable men and women you've tossed to the cutting board! No government shouldn't have a say about who to kill and spare!

Madam Cat

Could say the same for yours. I don't want to debate about our long and extensive legal process we did before killing a person. There's a reason we don't have an uprising since our inception. Because we actually care about our people, and use our tax money for the people.

Sukkot

That's a lie.

Madam Cat

You'll see, once you get out of this prison.

Sukkot

IF I get out of this prison.

Madam Cat

Ouh, don't be such a cranky-little-person. What a cute and crushable face you have.

I'm pinching his sulking face. He immediately throw his face away from me. Childish.

President Dana

The Honorable Representative of Milium, your accusation of what we have done and what's actually happening is far from the truth. We don't owe you any reparation cost for what you've done to your people. Since the formation of our country, we don't have a drop of blood on us in which we didn't disclose, especially if they're not one of our own. Yet we can't say the same about Milium, the country that you tout as a transparent one.

We will not give up any of our territories. None of our people want to live below your regime. Trust me, we did a poll on this one.

But alas, our country truly and sincerely crave for peace. No one will be benefited by physical confrontation. Milium may want to fight us, but The Republic will assure those who become our enemy, that they will regret their choice. Both of our country have gone through this. Our fight for freedom from our oppressor is the basis of The Republic.

President Dana finishes his brief remark then sit back down. That's the unwritten rule of international meeting such as this one. If you want to speak, you need to be the only one who stand in the whole room. Beside the press of course.

ZE-RAG!

The whole room fell silent. That's the sound of someone slipping when trying to stand from his seat. Every camera points at the source of that sound. The male suit did it, he actually slips from his seat. He look nervous after that, the paper on his hand is visibly shaken. He starts to read from it.

Sukkot

He's on Plan B, this is not good for our image.

Madam Cat

Your country's image?

Sukkot

I know this routine, he might look rather confident here, but no confident man will ever look to their papers. I can sense his nerve even from here, something is wrong.

Madam Cat

Of course something is wrong, we are in a verge of war here!

Sukkot

Heh, someone like you won't understand the intricacies of our mannerism and professionalism.

I got distracted by what Sukkot was saying. I should've listened to what the suit said but looks like I'm not missing much. Some mumble-jumble about defending the sovereignty of Milium, which he did touch upon minutes ago. But something is different about him.

Another half hour have left the building. The suit is still talking to himself, loudly to the room, not letting anyone else a chance for a rebuttal. His mouth is saying these pre-trained lines like it's second nature to him. Which says a lot about his training, it must've been hell knowing he's still talking for 30 minute straight. They are long, filled with a lot of details about the greatness of Milium and their people. But any human being can see past through the facade of this one sided dialogue.

There's this air of uneasiness, emanating from his expression. He is the only one in the room that feels hot, the temperature not sexiness. Those high intensity lamps that light the room starts to highlight his forehead. A glowing skin with stripes of icicle dropping down his cheeks. Even his then clear and clean collar starts to darken, soggy with sweat.

I think even the suit's assistant beside him have realized that we are seeing someone that's struggling. A man that can barely keep up with his own words, let alone standing still. His feet moves around, body language is all over the place. President Dana is rightly confused by the suit's behavior, he raised his hand with his palm forward. A stop sign to this long one sided conversation.

President Dana

I think the right honorable gentleman of Milium should also let the other party to spe-

Male Suits

SHUT UP!

Now that is one way to stop the conversation. The silence that follows speak louder than his shout.

Madam Cat

Was that one in the script?

Sukkot

I don't think so.

Male suits is now visibly distraught, his eyes are that of a devil, this is off the script stuff. The camera is splitting its attention to the other two representative, they looked very surprised and is speaking with their respective assistant. Everyone is now whispering among themselves trying to make sense what's happening right now. The press reporter that usually speak over the meeting fell silent, I think we all know that this is historical.

Suddenly, he is now on top of the table. His hand is raised up, fingers symbolizing the number one. There's this visceral scream, like the one you get from falling off a great height without parachute. None of us understand what he is saying, but I can barely understand his words over the noise of the crowd whispering.

Male Suit

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS ABOUT

THE WAR IS A DISTRACTION, YOU ALL WILL LOSE

YOU ALL WILL DIE, DOES NOT MATTER WHO DIED IN THE WAR YOU ALL WILL LOSE

WE WILL PREVAIL, WE WILL BE REBORN

ONE!

ONE!

ONE!

ON-

She shot him, point blank. The female suit that is standing beside him shot a bullet right past his skull. Chaos ensues, the first televised murder, a perfect opening for an all new, Modern World War.