The Courier Ch. 19

Dukov held out a copy of the Danubian Constitution with a series of typewritten amendments.

"You will notice that the role of the Grand Duke will change under this proposal. The Grand Duke will become a public employee and will have to answer to Parliament. The Crown will become a public service position, with a contract and responsibilities. Failure to uphold that contract will result in dismissal. The Duke's ability to interfere with the affairs of Parliament will be abolished and, as I've stated, the Royal Family will become public servants, no better than someone like my son Vladik, or yourself."

Dukov turned the page: "Here I am proposing that all Royal Estate lands will become part of our National Park System. The Royal Family will retain an advisory role in the maintenance of those properties, but ultimately they will become public domain. Even the Royal Residence will become property of the National Park System. The members of the Royal Family will have the right to nothing except their regular salary and benefits. The household staff on all properties occupied by the Royal Family will be employees of the National Park Service and will not be under the orders of the Royal Family members. The right to hold custody over collared criminals will disappear."

Kim looked over the proposals. She knew enough of Danubia's history to understand the significance of what was about to happen. The Danubian Crown had ceded power to the Parliament over several centuries, always with the idea that if they made limited concessions at the moment, the nobility would not have to make deeper ones in the future. The process started in 1780, with further concessions by the Crown in 1895, 1946, and 1972. The concessions followed a time of crisis or change, but always resulted in further reduction of the real power exercised by the Grand Duke. After the reform of 1972, the Royal Family had managed to maintain the formal right to dissolve Parliament and to retain control of all its properties. Now, a new crisis had arisen thanks to the Grand Duchess, and the result would be a final set of reforms that would turn the Royal Family into ordinary civilians.

Kim had little doubt that the Grand Duke would go along with the Prime Minister's reforms. He really had little choice because the only alternative was for him and the Grand Duchess to face trial for the mistreatment of their servants. The charges would include rape, assault, human trafficking, prostitution on an unwilling person, forced pornography, violation of a position of public trust, and the violation of the integrity of personal honor. The scandal would shock Danubia and destroy the entire legacy of the Danubian nobility. There was no way the Grand Duke would be willing to dishonor his ancestors. However much he wanted to placate Grand Duchess Anyia, ultimately the reputation and perceived honor of the Royal Family would come first. Besides, the Grand Duke really cared little about exercising power. If he could continue undisturbed with his various leisure activities he would be content with his life. The problem would be dealing with Anyia.

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A few minutes later Prime Minister Vladim Dukov and Spokeswoman Kimberly Lee-Dolkivna decided to go for a walk. Dusk was settling over the city and already the streets were becoming quiet as the government employees left for the day. Without thinking about where they were going or what they were doing, eventually Kim and Dukov ended up in front of the Temple of the Ancients. They passed through the building and emerged into the forested park behind the Old Temple, into the holiest land of the nation, the spot where Danubia began thousands of years before. The weight of all that history pressed down upon them.

Kim suddenly felt the irresistible urge to something extremely strange, given that she was a public employee walking with the nation's leader. She grabbed his hand. He was surprised, but did not resist. She felt driven as she led him through the darkness to a bench near the river. It was the exact spot where she had been arrested almost a decade before. She knelt on the ground, precisely where she had been smoking marijuana when Officer Malka Chorno spotted her and pulled out her revolver. The Prime Minister knelt beside her.

"You know Spokesman Dukov; every time I come here it seems that something significant happens to me and to those I care about. The first time I was here, I got arrested. A year later I came back and Officer Chorno ended up losing her badge. I came back a year after that, and made up with my sister. I came back again and made up with Malka Chorno. I came here again with her, and her husband found her sister's body."

"Yes Kimberly, indeed...an interesting coincidence, if that is what it is."

Kim took a deep breath and continued:

"Spokesman, that is why I needed you to come here, so I can do something significant with you. I want to tell you that...you are the most important person in my life. Not my parents, not my sister, not my husband, not my friend Eloisa. None of them comes close to meaning to me what you mean to me. None of them comes even close to what you have done for me. I owe you my life. I want you to understand that."

Dukov pondered Kim's confession of her feelings towards him. Finally he responded:

"Kimberly, you will understand that my Path in Life as a Spokesman for the Criminal was to do for all of my clients precisely what I did for you. That was my calling."

"But you didn't see me as different? Unique in some way?"

"I did, Kimberly. Very much. That I cannot deny. Yes, you were one of many clients, but from the moment I saw you kneeling in my office, I knew that you were special and that because of you my life was about to change. That I did understand."

Kim was not sure how to respond. She was thinking about asking whether or not Dukov felt that her presence in the house might have had an impact on Anyia's behavior, but before she could think of how to put that thought into words, he continued:

"Kimberly, you feel that you owe me a debt. That is what you are expressing to me, is that not so?"

"Yes, Spokesman. I guess that's what I'm trying to say."

"Very well, Kimberly. Then there is something I wish to burden you with. I will tell you something that I have told no one other than Maritza."

"Yes, Spokesman?"

"You will understand that it was during the Fall Equinox the year after you finished your sentence. It was when my son participated in the Day of the Dead procession with Criminal # 98946. That night, the dead chose to speak to me, and I witnessed something that haunts me to this day. After all this time, I still have nightmares about it. It remains in my mind constantly. Every time I sign a law, or sit with my cabinet, or negotiate a treaty I think about it."

"A vision, Spokesman Dukov?"

"Yes, Kimberly. A vision of what you alluded to when we were conversing in our office. I had a vision and this is what I saw. I witnessed the death of our nation, the end of Danubia. Not only the demise itself, but also how that demise was to transpire. It wasn't just the end that I saw, but also the changes and events that led up to it."

A frightening change came over the Prime Minister's expression. He was trembling and clenching his fists. Sweat trickled down his face. It was obvious that he was tormented, but he forced himself to speak.

"I saw what would become of our country if we ever were to submit to corporatist globalization. I...I saw Danubia as an impoverished, polluted, deforested wasteland. Danube City's historical buildings were torn down and its smoky streets jammed with cars. I watched as street gangs roamed freely, attacking at random. I saw desperate pensioners as they stood outside the dilapidated Parliament Building clamoring for what little the government could provide them in food relief. I walked through the plazas and parks. They were full of drug addicts, and the hospitals full of AIDS patients. Billboards and advertising for foreign products filled the landscape, but from all the closed stores and factories it was obvious our people no longer were producing anything, not even food. As my mind traveled through my vision of our country, it seemed the only industries doing well were casinos and sex tourism. That was what I saw, Kimberly."

"In other words, what we've managed to avoid so far, thanks to your government."

Dukov continued:

"What I saw was what you mentioned, but then an even more frightening scene filled my mind. My soul was carried east to the recently deforested mountains of Rika Chorna province. I watched as heavy rains washed vast amounts of mud from nearby hills into the Rika Chorna Reservoir. Suddenly, huge landslides plunged into the lake, breaking the dam and sending floodwaters downstream. The wall of water annihilated provincial capitols and many villages. Then it completely leveled Danube City. My last vision was of a Danubian flag floating in muddy water, among thousands of corpses. I caught a fleeting glimpse of King Vladik's empty throne, and then I came back to the Realm of the Living."

Kim said nothing while she waited for the Prime Minister to calm down. He took a deep breath and concluded:

"To this day I do not know if what I saw is an event that is about to transpire, or an event that could transpire if I do not work to prevent it. The Creator has not revealed that to me yet. But I can tell you that flood was real, as real as us kneeling together at this moment, here in the darkness. I could feel the raindrops on my face...I could smell the river...I could hear the screams of the dying. I watched the Danubian people die as a nation. When I looked back upon that event, I understood that our death really did not come with the flood. Before our people died, everything that was good and worthwhile about Danubia already had passed into memory. The society that vanished in the flood was but a shell of its former self."

Finally, Kim felt that she could respond.

"You know Spokesman, when I was marching the year before, I also saw something. I knew what was going to happen to you, but I was afraid to say anything because I didn't want to spoil it. I saw you a bit older, speaking in the Central Plaza to thousands of cheering people. I realized that the Creator had something much greater in store for you than just being a Spokesman."

"I do not believe that being a politician is greater than being a Spokesman, Kimberly."

"Then...I'd think that must be the reason why the Creator made you the Prime Minister. Precisely because the Creator knew it wouldn't go to your head."

Dukov felt uneasy with the compliment and decided to change the subject.

"Kimberly, you will understand that I am determined to remove your Colombian client from my daughter's house. I regret that she had to go there at all, in the same way that I regret that the other servants have gone there. My hope is that the dishonorable treatment they are receiving will cease by next week. If you wish to take my hands, we can make a request of the Creator. We should ask that by this day next week Criminal # 101025 will be returned to your custody and again will sleep in the house of my brother."

"Yes, Spokesman."

For a very long time Vladim Dukov and Kimberly Annette Lee-Dolkivna held hands and prayed. The request was simple, that the Ministry of Justice would find justification to remove Criminal # 101025 from the household of the Grand Duchess. After they finished praying, the former Spokesman and his former client walked to the river's edge to contemplate the moon and its reflection on the water. They stood quietly for a very long time, not saying anything because they both understood that words were not needed.

Finally they left the shoreline and walked back through the woods to the Temple. As they passed through the main chamber, Kim saw the Priestess to whom her client would confess within a couple of days. The two women exchanged glances and at that moment Kim knew that her prayer with the Prime Minister would be answered.