On the Hippy Love boat:

Captain Carely, currently in charge of the pleasure cruise boat "Hippy Love" was at the helm.

Further away from the sea than the river school island, the river broadened out to a large almost lake. Even at low tide, there was a couple of metres of water, plus an occasional deep spot. And right in the middle of this open expanse of water floated the captain's boat, slowly making its way up stream, in no particular hurry.

"Rigth, dead slow, we've now got an hour of chugging along before making a turn." said the captain.

From his commanding chair, he could see the lights of the city and suburban areas, glowing along both shores. And between him and the lights, a flat expanse of black water, under a dark grey sky. It was early evening, and the party was just warming up.

He looked at the depth gauge.

"We're just coming up to the deep spot."

The water actually went down fifteen metres due to a narrow submerged gorge.

"Plenty of fish present." He could see them on the depth gauge screen.

He looked to his right, to see his second in charge.

"How's it going, Sue?"

"Fine, fine. Nobody's jumped off the boat yet, and the water is clear and free of any traffic right out to the shore."

She manned (or womaned, if you want) the monitoring cameras on either side of the boat and its stern. It was really bad for business to let people fall over the side and disappear, so the boat's company made sure this did not happen. She also kept close track of whatever showed on the surface radar. The company owners were just as keen about not crashing into anybody, certainly not with two hundred people on board.

The captain glanced to his left. The engineer made a thumb up sign.

"All systems in the green!"

He glanced further to the left, to the two people in charge of internal security. They sat in front of a bank of monitors, forever watching the party but never taking part in it.

"No more than the usual scuffles and fights. No one's in the brig. Yet." said one of them.

"We've already confiscated a couple of dozen bottles of alcohol, plus various unidentified substances." said the other.

The Hippy Love was an alcohol and drug free environment. It made the parties so much more pleasant. It also made the cleaning up one hell of a lot more pleasant. But the cost of this was eternal surveillance; there were always people trying to break the rules. The captain thoroughly approved of this measure. Although he always felt just a little squeamish at the fact that there were a few dozen private little rooms made available to the party goers. He supposed that consenting adults should be free to do what they like, etc, etc, but still... He was glad he was an old and married man. Such antics did not appeal to him at all.

"Whatever" he said.

"Hmm?" said Sue.

"Never mind. Still no boat traffic anywhere?"

"We have the entire expanse of the inland waters all to our little selves."

Blue:

A little flash back to the briefing.

"So, how are you going to ensure that the boats don't initially see each other?" asked Blue. Being a nerd, he was always interested in the technical details.

"Do you have some alien technology force field thingy that blocks radio and light and sound?"

"Sorry, we don't actually know how to do that. I'm doing it the old fashion way, with a wall. Imagine a wall with a camera on the far side, and a TV screen on the near side. Someone looking at the wall will see a vision of what is on the other side, at least where the TV screen is. So cover the entire wall with cameras and TV screens, and you end up with an invisible wall. The actual details are a lot more complicated, of course. And it's not all that very effective from close up, as you saw that first time with the delivery rocket. But it's good enough."

"I will be constructing, using some nanomachinery, such walls. They will be lightweight but rigid foam, tall enough and wide enough to obscure the boat's vision of each other. They will make themselves invisible and I will also be modifying the view projected onto their screens so that the boats on either sides of them are edited out. It will also block radar and muffle sound."

"Well, then, are you levitating the walls using antigravity." said Blue, hopefully.

Horatio made a show of patting Blue's head. "Sorry again, but we don't actually have that, either."

"Oh"

"The foam walls will float on the water, naturally. They will be held up vertically by fans on the top of it, and propelled along by underwater jet guns. Although, I would like to point out that the fans have their blades designed using my full advanced technical ability. They will be absolutely silent, no one will hear them."

"What a shame. So I suppose you don't have anti matter beams, either?" said Blue.

"Ha! Actually we do. I use mine to destroy any asteroids or space junk that may be on collision course with my vessels or, in the worse case scenario, with your planet."

"Well, that's something."

"Oh, I should also mention that I will be able to exert full control over each of the three boats, if need be."

Armed Soldiers:

So that is why, as the captain chugged upstream, he had no inkling that two navy riverboats were currently approaching each other, and him. One boat from each side. Each with a full complement of armed soldiers, and the each boat's cannon were also loaded and ready to go. And, in turn, they were totally oblivious of the cruise boat.

The premiers and their generals had carefully picked the crews, and given them explicit orders.

"Take these men and do a patrol of the waters. You will go fully armed." said one Premier. The other said something similar.

Of course, there are explicit orders, and there are implicit orders. The men had no trouble in deciphering the implicit orders.

"Pick a fight! Don't back down! We expect something worthwhile to happen tonight."

The soldiers on each boat were silent, grim, determined. And eager to engage the enemy. Hands holding their weapons, they looked forward over the expanse of empty water, waiting.

"Still no signs of anybody." said the skipper of one boat.

"They're supposed to be out there, somewhere, aren't they?" said the skipper of the other.

"I can hear some muffled music..." said one of the crew.”It must be from one or other of the shores. It sure carries a long way over the open waters, doesn't it?"

The Boats have an Incident:

Back on the Hippy Love.

The sound engineer cranked up the volume. In the main party area of the boat the first of the strip teases was starting. There was another, outside area, at the stern of the boat. This was also packed with people dancing and eating, and to make sure they did not miss anything, a monitor screen was showing the stage, and the lady going through her routine.

"This is where the audience starts their chant..." said one of the people in charge of internal security.

"Just as well we are in the middle of nowhere..." said the captain -

"What the hell is that!"

Earth Watch Prime had carefully manoeuvred everyone to their correct positions, without them realising it. He now neutralised the invisibility walls; they dissolved into fine mist and rapidly dissipated.

One of the attack boat skippers yelped and stared at the suddenly appearing boat. Garishly coloured with bright lights, loud music blasting out, filled with people moving all over the place, and straight in front of them. He yanked the helm over and applied full power, driving his boat around and towards the stern of the intruding boat.

The skipper of the other reacted similarly, only he tried to steer to the bow of the Hippy Lover. His hands were almost yanked off the helm as it inexplicitly moved in the opposite direction.

"What the!" Having no choice, he rapidly copied the helms direction.

Now both boats were aiming just past the stern of the Hippy Love.

"Fucking Hell!" said Sue. Since she had her eyes on the side monitors, she had seen the full action. She did not apologize for her language.

"They both missed us by mere metres!"

Artfully choreographed by Earth Watch Prime, the two navy boats veered and swept pass the large boat. One ended up pointing in the same direction as the large boat, and the other ended up pointing straight towards the first. Its skipper tried to reverse thrust, but he must have tripped or fumbled or something, as the throttle flipped all the way to maximum forward thrust. At full power and moving fast, one navy boat rammed its bow straight into the side of the other.

Thumps and bangs. Sounds of tearing metal. Not to mention swearing soldiers. Nobody fell overboard, although it was a close thing. Several men on both sides pointed their rifles and tried to fire, only to end up swearing even more as nothing happened.

They rapidly went through their memorised routines to fix an unresponsive rifle - but still nothing happened when the trigger was pulled. And then one of them noticed:

"Argh! The boat is sinking!"

The boat that had been rammed was obviously tilting and getting lower in the water. And as it got lower in the water, since its bow was firmly implanted in the other boat, that boat's bow was also sinking, thus causing its stern was to rise out of the water.

They stopped trying to kill each other and started trying to save themselves.

"The water is only metres deep, there should be no problem!" shouted someone.

"You idiots! We are currently over the only deep spot in the whole inland waters. Its fifteen metres down!" said the skipper of the boat that was sinking.

"Well, start your bilge pumps, you incompetent fool!" said the other skipper.

"I have tried! The complete electrical system seems to be down!"

In fact, as both skippers discovered to their extreme discomfort, both boats were completely dead, neither the diesel motors nor the electrical systems gave the slightest sign of life.

The crew were well trained, even for situations like this. The ones on the sinking boat flipped open the manual cranks, which were on the deck, and began to crank the bilge pumps manually. The sinking slowed down, but did not stop.

"You mob, get over there and help them!" said the skipper of the boat that had done the ramming.

Since both boats were identical models, the other crew knew exactly how to help.

Working frantically, side by side, crew from both boats worked the bilge pumps. The boat stopped sinking and began to slowly to rise.

During all of this, the Hippy Love crew had been monitoring their antics; they had a ringside view via the security cameras. The boat's diesel engines rumbled as the captain pulled the throttles to neutral, then to reverse. The Hippy Love slowed, stopped and began to go back to the two stricken boats.

The captain had briefly tried to find a radio channel to talk to the navy boats, but had given up. There was nothing on the emergency bands, or on the usual public river traffic bands, and he did not have a clue as to how the navy boats usually talked to each other anyway. So he resorted to a PA loudspeaker, one mounted on the stern of the boat.

"Hi! You two! We've contacted the river police, but in the meanwhile, we can tow you out of the deep water."

Also during all of this, the strip tease had been building up to its destined climax. The crowd were cheering and chanting. Those who were in the stern party area, and could thus see both the show on the rear facing big screen, and also the two navy boats sinking; even they were mainly concentrating on the screen.

Which means, when the crew on the two boats had finally got the sinking under control, and had started to adjust to their situation and taking note of their surroundings, well, what was the first thing they saw?

The stern of a big flat-bottomed boat, with flashing coloured lights, fifty or so people sitting or standing, all cheering, and a big screen showing the finale of the first act of the night, taking off the last of her clothes.

"What. The. Hell." said one of the skippers.

The stood or crouched where they were, and looked at the spectacle, blank looks on their faces.

They were supposed to be doing serious stuff here, like attacking and maybe even killing each other. And all they end up with was this?

"Why, how dare they..." said some one else.

Yeah, how dare they spoil their fun, ridicule them like this, make them look like a bunch of wusses.

Nobody said this, but that was the dominate thought going through their minds. At least until they realised that the boat was sinking again, and the wash from the bigger boat was sending little sprays of water splashing over the almost sunken deck of the sinking boat.

"Arrrgh! Get back to the bilge pumps!" screamed one of the navy skippers.

Two minutes later, the Hippy Love was towing the two locked together smaller boats out from the deep trench. As it towed, the pressure from the moving water must have changed something in the area of the gash on the side of the sinking boat, since it stopped sinking and started to ride higher in the water. So the crew did not have to work their guts out turning the bilge pumps.

Unfortunately, this meant they were free to look around. Mainly to look at the big screen, where the artiste for the second strip tease act was progressing through her routine.

The deep trench was not all that wide, but the Hippy Love was towing the two boats at the slowest pace possible, to prevent any further mishaps. And so the two navy crews had plenty of time to watch the second act all the way through to its conclusion.

Half an hour later.

The two navy boats, still firmly locked together, were sitting on the river floor; in water all of one and a half metres deep. The crew members had retired to their own boats, and were glumly standing on the deck, ankles getting wet, staring at each other and waiting for the river police craft from both sides to arrive. For some reason the help had been delayed, and were only now getting on the move.

The Hippy Love went back to its scheduled run. The last of the strip tease acts was coming to a close.

"I'd love to know what the hell all of that was about!" said the captain.

"Honestly, I never saw a single sign of them until they were almost upon us." said Sue.

"Apparently neither did anyone else, including them." said the engineer.

"The navy inquiry into all of this is going to be so much fun." said one of the security people.

"Thanks for reminding me." said the captain. "Inquiries are always such fun..."

"But, at least the crew of those navy boats got something to entertain them as they were towed out of danger!" said Sue.

"Hmm, but were they be all that thankful?" went the captain, but only to himself.

Rebecca:

"Well, even if I do say so myself, that all went very well. And exactly to plan." said Horatio.

Various expressions of congratulations from his audience.

"Molly and I will now start composing our videos."

Pink said out loud, to the ones present in her house: "But, what exactly is the point of those strip tease acts?"

Blue shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't a clue."

Martha kept a straight face and hoped that they did not ask her over the radio link.

Rebecca and James looked at each other with faint smiles. They did know. But still:

[That switch is going to stay off!] said Rebecca, direct to James.

[Ok, Ok, dear.]

Molly:

Earth Watch Prime and Molly got to work. In an hour's time, their first video hit the internet. It was now latish evening, prime time for people to be at home, surfing the web for that one last interesting piece of news, before retiring for the night.

It started off seriously. Molly got straight to the point.

"Earlier this evening, our two wonderful premiers each ordered a small navy river boat, one from each side, out onto the inland waters. Their crews were fully armed and, basically, given orders to kill each other."

A view of two boats, shrouded in darkness, taking off from either side of the lake. This video courtesy of Earth Watch Prime's hidden spy cameras, but of course, Molly did not say so.

"If their plans had gone as they expected, some of these men would have been dead now."

A list, in alphabetical order on surname, of names and mug shots scrolled down the screen.

"Perhaps you know some of these soldiers? May be they are in your family, or your next door neighbour's family?" Bringing home the personal consequences, encouraging the watchers to emphasize with them.

"But, fortunately, by amazing good luck, no one was hurt."

Molly went on to describe the incident, complete with high quality video. Most of which was shot from angles that could not possibly correspond to any location on any of the three boats.

She segued into a lighter, mocking tone.

"And look at what those soldiers were watching as they were being towed to safety!"

Video shots of them staring, blank faced, at the big monitor facing the stern of the Hippy Love. And shots showing what was on that screen.

"Yes, the big boat is called the Hippy Love. You know, from way off in the sixties, last century. Make love, not war, was the slogan."

"I'm sure you all know what my previous occupation was, after all the premiers constantly remind you. And a few times, I have had the pleasure of starring in those strip tease acts on the Hippy Love. Actually, they were fun!"

At this point, she did a few dance moves.

"Course, I'm past all of that now. But, don't you agree, those soldiers look like a bunch of teenage boys, seeing a naked lady for the first time?"

"Personally, I think the two sides should have just given their soldiers a ticket to the Hippy Love and let them enjoy themselves!"

"What do you think?" Followed by details on how to cast an online vote.

The Two Premiers:

The two premiers had not had any intention of saying anything about the abject failure that was the attempted raid on each other. So to say they were annoyed at this display of journalism would be a vast understatement. Their mood was not improved as they watched the results of the online poll. Within half an hour tens of thousands of people had already voted. Mostly in favour.

The two premiers realised that there was no way this was going to be kept quite.

"General! I want a full report on this, this debacle, within twenty four hours!" said the Premiers.

"Yes sir."

And I want that horrible little prostitute arrested as soon as possible.

"Yes sir."

After a day or so, the reports came back. They were almost identical in details, and so - strange - that the premiers decided they had no choice but to arrange a mutual meeting. In total secrecy, of course.

As for arresting Molly, well, of course, she was nowhere to be found. The premiers bruised their hands by thumping their fists hard on their desks. And the generals were just a touch uneasy at how effectively Molly managed to avoid their attempts to apprehend her.

A week later.

They flew out, in their respective helicopters, just the premiers and their generals. And, of course, their helicopter pilots. They landed at the point on the common boundary of the two sides, which was the furthest away possible from the city. The river was no longer in evidence, the border was just an imaginary line on the ground, skirting a small runway, a small hangar, and a portable building that served as the air port's operations centre, on the occasions that it was in use.

The two helicopters landed a respectful hundred metres apart.

The two generals had a brief look into the hanger, and found it empty. "You two," said General Paterson, "Push the copters into the hangar so that no one can see them."

"Yes sir."

The premiers and generals disappeared into the ops centre, and the two pilots ended up sitting on some ancient chairs, next to each other, in the now cramped quarters of the hangar.

"The circumstances are extremely suspicious, not to mention downright weird." said General Patterson.

"I agree," said the other general. "Furthermore, I believe the crew members when they say they don't have a clue as to how it all happened."

"Yeah," said the first. "No one, on any of the boats, knew of each other until right before the almost collusion. And they all had crew on watch, and radar."

"Hmm. And the fact that this almost collusion was so - coincidentally exact, so as to cause the maximum embarrassment to us, but without endangering anyone's life, I find extremely interesting." said Premier Johnston.

"I find it hard to imagine that it was all purely coincidental. Someone must have planned it." said the other premier.

"And if it wasn't the crew members of both our boats, acting in concert, then who?" said the first.

"Precisely. I'm beginning to think of them as the third party. And unknown third party, with its own agenda, who can somehow interfere with our own plans, and do so with laughable ease. And we don't have a clue as to who they are. Or how they do it." said Patterson.

"I'm forced to agree with you." said the second general. "I only hope they are not listening in to us this very moment."

A small silence.

"That's an alarming thought." said Premier Watson.

"Hmm" said Johnson. "We have taken the maximum amount of precautions we are capable off. So, so, if, in spite of all of that, they can still listen in, then its game over for us. But..."

"Yes, but, we're not just going to roll over and play dead here, are we?" said Premier Johnson. "So, we shall just have to assume that we are secure, and proceed with plans until proven else wise."

Agreement all round. "It's not as we have any choice in the matter." said Watson.

"Of course, I'm sure that everyone has made the connection to some of the other mysterious events?" said General McIver.

"Yeah, like the de-fusing of that suitcase bomb, and that containment foam, whatever the hell it is." said General Patterson.

They both skirted around that little fact that, by now, they had both deduced that it must have been the premiers, acting in concert that set it up.

"Definitely a third party involved there." said McIver.

"A very high tech third party. How that foam works and how it is made still defeats our best scientists and chemical engineers." said the other general.

"But the third party must have some connection to those detestable teenagers. Especially that pink haired weirdo." said a premier. "What that boy sees in her completely defeats me."

"And, of course, there is the prison outbreak of the three girls. It still doesn't make sense."

"And, that reject of a prison guard, with his report of a three metre high spider straight out of the Lord of the Rings."

"And, not to mention that prostitute, who can escape our attempts to capture her with ease, and generate high quality, extremely detailed and researched videos within a very short time frame."

"And, don't forget, Blue somehow managed to survive a fall down nine stories, without injury."

Running out of steam, they sat in silence for a while.

"You know, I wish I could just bomb those river island buildings. Do it in the middle of a working day, and we can get rid of those teenagers for once and for all. Not to mention those two police officers, who also seem to be involved up to their necks." said Watson.

Johnson nodded his head.

Both generals looked concerned.

"Ah, I think that is going a bit too far..." said one.

"Yes, yes, we know. Mustn't disturb the people too much." said Johnson.

"Ok, then bomb the buildings on a Sunday." said Watson.

"Still, we need to give the people adequate warning..." said the other general.

Sigh. "Ok, of course."

"Actually, that could be a way to start our campaign." said Watson.

"Yes, why not?" said Johnson. "We pave the way with suitable propaganda, something about how certain sections of the river island community are posing security risks, endangering our community, etc etc."

"Our propaganda teams can fill in the details. But, yes, it certainly would be a dramatic way to start. And grab the public's attention. Something irreversible, something that results in a lot of damage, even if no lives are lost." said Watson.

"I agree." said Johnson.

"And what about this presumed third party? Remember, when the soldiers tried to fire at each other, their rifles did not work. Which is also something very strange." said General McIver.

"Well, hmm, I suppose we will have to do our best. Import some brand new weapons to do the bombing. Check them carefully. And proceed as if we will succeed in our efforts." said Watson.

The two premiers looked at each other.

"And if we succeed in getting the ball rolling, we can assume that the third party is impotent after all against our actions."

"Yes, and we can then proceed with our original plans, to test each other's strength."

The two premiers smiled slightly at each other across the table. Cold smiles. The walls behind each premier frosted over with a thin layer of ice, so cold were the smiles.

"And if the third party does succeed in stymying our efforts?" asked a general.

"Well, then, we'll just have to take it as it comes." said Johnson.

"You know, have you ever seen two mobs of birds having a territorial dispute?" said General Patterson. "And then a cat comes along, and the birds forget their differences and combine to mob the cat?"

"Ah, so?" said a premier.

"I think he means, once we have proof of a third party, our only choice of action is to re-merge our military resources and provide a united front. It probably won't make the slightest difference, but for sure we can't succeed separately." said McIver.

"Hmm. I guess so." said the other premier.

"But, anyhow, for now we can just ignore that possibility. Until proven else wise."

They made a few arrangements, fixing the Sunday (two weeks ahead) and the time (midday).

"It has occurred to me that there will be protests, probably organised by Molly." said McIver.

"Well, let them." said Watson.

"I'm sure our propaganda teams will be able to cope." said Johnson.

"Yeah, let them."

"Maybe they'll protest on site, at the school and police station." said Patterson.

"Fine, fine. We'll let them. But we will make sure that everyone knows that the bombardment will start at 12:00pm, precisely." said Johnson.

"Wouldn't it be great if those teenagers stayed on?" said Watson.

Ha ha. "Trying to stop the bombs with their lovey dovey talks! Trying to appeal to our better natures!" said Johnson.

Both premiers laughed. The generals smiled, but only so as not to be seen to be critical of their master's attitudes.

"Don't forget that prostitute! And why not throw in those two police officers!" said Watson.

More laughter.

They finally brought the meeting to a close, and moved out and back to the hangar.

One of the generals, having a small suspicion about what might be going on in the hangar, unobtrusively walked ahead, and opened the side door to the hangar with a loud clatter. When they all had walked in, the two pilots were standing beside their machines, and there were two chairs leaning against the wall. Both generals noted that the chairs were not in the same location as they were at the start, but said nothing.

They flew out into the night, back to their respective headquarters. All ready to carry out their little plan.