City of 4,000 Spies
The resort city of Lell lies on the remarkable Lake of Many Colors, where 100,000 fragments merge and re-merge into billions of patterns. One can spend multiple lifetimes watching its fantastic, ever-swirling waves and never (not once) see a representation repeated.
However, no one comes to Lell to watch the Lake. Lell is an international city where guests from a million different sectors are fully welcomed, as long as their cash holds out! It is where one comes to mine the most precious mineral of all — the mineral of information. They say that the resort city of Lell has over 4,000 spies. That’s not counting the taxi drivers, the hotel staff, the Farqat dealers in the casino, the Unie barkeepers, the Antonine fortune-tellers, and the ever-present Koopsie girls, any one of whom will gladly gather whatever information that is requested, for a sizable tip.
“Rarrko, the second son of the Great Nobleman of Sassko, was probably Lell’s most recognizable spy. He was handsome, athletic, and ingenious. He wore flashy high-end fashion and drove a speeder that broke 1.75. He was seldom seen without a bevy of beautiful females and was often described with that old-fashioned word “playboy” (although no one knew what it meant).
He looked the part of a spy. He moved in the nuanced way that spies moved.
If you asked him, “what is your occupation?”, he would smugly smile and say, “I am a spy, of course.” If you would follow up with another question, “who are you spying for?” he would again smirk, “Who ever pays me the most.”
However, he was already wealthy beyond imagination.”
Audio Stories
Beast
Dusko Rarrko, the second son of the Nineteenth Great Nobleman of Sassko, was probably Lell’s most recognizable spy. He was handsome, athletic, and ingenious. He wore flashy high-end fashion and drove a speeder that broke 1.75. He was seldom seen without a bevy of beautiful females and was often described with that old-fashioned word “playboy” (although no one seemed to know what it meant).
He looked the part of a spy. He moved in the nuanced way that spies moved.
If you asked him, “what is your occupation?”, he would smugly smile and say, “I am a spy, of course.” If you would follow up with another question, “who are you spying for?” he would again smirk, “Who ever pays me the most.”
However, he was already wealthy beyond imagination.”
Recently, his routine changed. Now, every morning, he rose early,and took the pleasure boat out to the small Island in the remarkable Lake of The Many Colors. He brought with him a sack lunch and a hat to protect him from the intense solar radiation of the Blue Sun.
During the quadracycle of the Blue Sun, most residents of Lell stayed indoors fearing the epidermal effects of the solar radiation. Dosko Rarrko had the extremely fair purple skin so typical of the people of Sassko. It would have been prudent for him to stay indoors. Venturing out posed a danger to him.
Yet, every morning he took the pleasure boat to the island and paid his admission to the now decrepitate zoological garden.
There, he would sit on a particular bench for an hour or so, slowly eating the contents of his sack lunch.
After finishing his sack lunch, he would take the boat back to his hotel and continue with his regular daily activities.
In a posh city where you can get any pleasure, recreational opportunity, drug, potion, or experience, Dusko Rarrko, the avoid spy, had selected one of the very most sedate of the City’s opportunities.
I am JooN-ie
Rona:
“Cadet Squad Leader Rona EN Beelzie reporting as requested, Sir.”
Commander:
“You may stand at ease Cadet Squad Leader.
“I have been reviewing the performance of this epoch’s graduating class. I am pleased to share that Squad CVZ-678 had the overall highest marks, and most importantly, the highest rate of graduation success of any cadet squad.
“Congratulations on your excellent leadership.”
Rona:
“Thank you, Sir. We have worked extremely hard to perform at the level that the Empire Sha Yot expects for its military officers.”
Commander:
“Based on your outstanding performance at the Military Tactics College, I believe you will prove to be an excellent officer for the Empire.”
Rona:
“Thank you, sir. Your commendation means a great deal to me.”
Commander:
“I see that your specialization is intelligence.
“Cadet, you are about to receive your very first military assignment. It is an assignment that is of utmost importance to the Empire. It is an assignment against our most hated enemy, the Kingdom Gje.”
“However, because of some pathetic treaties that some traitors to the Empire foolishly signed, we cannot deal with our hated enemy by direct military action. We must address the matter through clandestine action.
“Do you understand my intent, Cadet?
Rona:
“Yes, Sir I do. My loyalty to the Empire’s new leader is absolute. I will do all that is within my power to fulfill our national ambitions, to destroy our hated enemy, to restore the fallen honor of the Empire Sha Yot.
“I am ready for this assignment.”
Commander:
“Good. Now, Junior Intelligence Officer Rona EN Beelzie, you are due a vacation, a celebration for your hard work, an extended party, two weeks of pure fun, in the beautiful resort city of Lell.”
Information is Expensive
PNB7Q knew Noble Son Dusko Rarrko from many eons of clandestine work together. Their relationship was as close as a data device and a sentient being could be.
The PNB7Q knew that what was left unsaid was often more important than what was spoken. Many times, a whiff of intuition had more value than volumes of specific, and detailed information.
There was a reason why Noble Son Dusko Rarrko wished to travel to Lell without informing the PNB7Q. Intuition told the PNB7Q that this was not a need for recreation, down time, as Rarrko had called it. It was a trip where Rarrko wished to travel incognito. Not hidden from others, but, rather, hidden from the PNB7Q themselves.
Remember, the PNB7Q was a set of separate data devices organized into a single, systematic vehicle for sharing necessary information among agents and designated decision-makers in real time. Sharing was the operational word. Anyone with the appropriate access would be able to query the PNB7Q and learn both where Rarrko was going and what his purpose was for going there.
The PNB7Q not only created opportunities for quickly sharing information, but also the necessarysupports for collaborative activities. With the assistance of the PNB7Q, Sassko’s agents and its decision makers could act as one organic whole. Sharing pertinent, real-time information, and becoming, as a result, unified for decisive collaborative action.
However, on this occasion, Noble Son Dusko Rarrko was deliberately withholding pertinent information from the PNB7Q.
There was information about this trip to Lell that he did not want shared with others.
The unsaid was more important than the explicit.
PNB7Q was certain that Dusko Rarrko was travelling to Lell for reasons other than re-charging his personal batteries. The PNB7Q decided to monitor his status on a private channel, one that no one would notice, a maintenance utility.
The Mineral of Information
“It was not his first time visiting the City-by-the-Lake. Indeed, he had been coming to Lell ever since be began his career as a professional spy, some many assignments ago.
But, this time, it served his purpose, to appear to be a first-time visitor, a wide-eyed provincial from the distant, rural sectors. He even chose a cover name that aptly expressed his new identity. His identity device now gave his name as Bruzch Jes Bumpkin, a purveyor of exotic materials, traveling from a sector of no military or economic value. A nobody from a nowhere place.
On many previous trips, he had been easily recognizable as Dosko Rarrko, the second son of the Nineteenth Great Nobleman of Sassko. His arrival was always a media event. He wore the latest, very flashy, high-end fashion. He was nearly always accompanied by a bevy of beautiful females. He moved in the nuanced way that spies moved. He was frequently seen at the gaming tables, wagering many hundreds of thousands.
However, this time he was not coming to Lell as probably its most noticeable spy.
No, this time he came to the lovely City by the Lake as a bumpkin, truly named “bumpkin.”
It was a Rarrko joke. A typical Rarrko joke. One that only he could appreciate.
He knew that the old English word “bumpkin” came originally from the Old Dutch language, where the word “bum” meant one’s rear end, so “bum kin” implied someone who was from the very most anal of realms. In its later English derivation, it came to mean one who was a ‘block of wood.’
So, Dosko Rarrko was coming to Lell as a bumpkin, a block of wood, from the very most anal of regions.
A Rarrko joke. One that only he understood.”
Trip Home
In this episode, Noble Son Dusko Rarrko is in the very distant Ganna 40 Sector on a very hush-hush assignment of an unspecified nature He is working for a sponsoring entity that carries out actions of an indeterminate kind.
Then, he receives a secret message from PNB7Q. “Return home immediately on first available transport.”
Unfortunately, the only available transport is a very slow cargo klunker, designed for carrying extremely heavy loads to and from the mines. It carries passengers only as a necessary courtesy. Sixteen seats. No food. No drink. No entertainment.
Rarrko must spend the next 96 earth revolutions trapped in a 20-meter by 20-meter, very bare-bones passenger comparment with fifteen strangers, bound together by their boredom and monotony.
It turns out to be, as he says later, “a most eventful trip.”
Big Chief
Coming soon.