Saving the Republic

[Nentsia]

Hidden in the maze of narrow streets of the Petrean capital Halas was a government building, which had a small sign by the door that stated ‘MAIN OFFICE OF PERSONNEL AND LOGISTICS, MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS’. Throughout the capital and in other parts of the country, there were other buildings belonging to the ‘Office of Personnel and Logistics’ of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was one of the most poorly kept secrets in the Republic that these offices were in fact the offices of the secret security service MSBR (MAIN SECURITY BUREAU OF THE REPUBLIC). The security service had for decades one primary focus – the threat of Communism. Since the rise of a colossal communist state on its borders, the Petrean security service deemed communist espionage, and foreign-aided communist subversion from within Petrea to be part of one major threat against the Republic. Therefore it basically had two main operational departments; C1 – counter-espionage, and C2 – Communist subversion.

The irony of the service was that it was so fixated on the threat of communist spies and sabotage that it was completely taken by surprise by the rising tide of separatism in the country. Although loyal to its tradition, the service quickly suspected the hidden hand of communist operatives in fanning the flames of separatism. Trying to compensate for a lack of information, Bureau interrogators tried to beat it out of arrested separatist militants, leading to further political embarrassment and polarisation.

General Aranthur Axunei sat at the head of a long table in a cramped office buried deeply inside the headquarters of the Security Bureau, the walls being covered by a grey spongy substance designed to absorb all sound, preventing anyone from eavesdropping on what was said within that room. Furthermore, the walls were further reinforced by electronics and metals to prevent any device inside from making contact with the world outside, or even from operating properly. Present in the meeting were some 20 people, including the heads of various departments, Axunei’s staff, liaison officers from other government branches, intelligence officers and other civil servants.

‘‘As soon as they’ve been filtered, the reports are ready to come your way, General.’’ A young man with a large beard said. ‘‘They will provide you with the details of the increased communication traffic we have picked up between our country and the Socialist Union. It’s incidental traffic, and it is impossible to crack so we cannot see what is being communicated, but we are not in doubt that this is well planned and very secure communication taking place between people in our country and the SU. This is very likely their intelligence service communicating with assets here. We will keep monitoring it and try to crack it, but it may take years.’’

The General nodded at the young man, a liaison from a brother agency that outgunned the Security Bureau in terms of manpower and budgets by a landslide. Shifting his gaze, he asked one of his own staff members for a situation report.

A rather heavy bureaucrat with a round face and a balding head reshuffled his papers and adjusted his spectacles before speaking. ‘‘Several sources inside the Communist Party have reported that some SU’s officials from its embassy have begun appearing at meetings of the party, speaking to various members within the executive ranks of the party and enquiring about the financial situation of the party and its views about the Civrai affairs.’’
‘‘Now this is very interesting,’’ responded the General, also as a way to snub the previous speaker and his rather vague reporting of sinister communication patterns.
‘‘One of the SU diplomats also approached a vocal hardliner within from the Civrai regional party committee,’’ the heavy bureaucrat continued. ‘‘we believe this hardliner to be an agent provocateur working for the Civrai branch of the Republican Guard. If the Republican Guard ruins it, they may scare off the SU before we have the opportunity to see what they’re up to.’’

Some deep frowns emerged across the table. The Republican Guard was a military police organisation, in charge of all security operations against Civrai Separatists. Especially the local Civrai Communist Party was a bulwark of informers, agent provocateurs and moles. On some days it was harder to find a genuine member than a government agent within its ranks. The General had heard enough, however.

‘‘The signals point to increased clandestine activity of the Socialist Union against our country. The Civrai issue may attract their unwanted attention. I shall alarm the leadership of our country about this new dimension that the separatist threat is developing, and urge them to find a solution.’’

Some men in the room already suspected however that with ‘leadership’, the General wasn’t exactly referring to the Prime Minister or even the cabinet. He would personally brief someone else, someone distant, someone living far away from the capital, waiting for the right opportunity to rise to the occasion of saving the Republic.