The First Conference
Proteros, the same day. Early afternoon.
This was a building that was only used for storage before, beside the large tower, and around the presidential precinct's perimeter. It was just one of many such storage facilities surrounding it, some used by the guards to dinner, others to relax or even sleep when one couldn't just return home. Work could be difficult in the presidential precinct.
It had been a few weeks since the incident in Coalely. The people in Coalely were wary even after the event, fearful to go out even in the morning, let alone the night. Still, the city and surrounding ones didn’t diminish their activity, but the people were stressed out.
Usually, when these things happened, and to a much lesser degree of violence and… bodies, such that anyone remotely nearby could get an easy, great look and pictures of the massacre. The state government would hide the happenings as much as possible, cleaning the area before the masses could realize when and how badly something happened.
Whatever the reasons behind such actions, it would be a simple work after everything did happen. While Luis wasn’t a governor before, and his best aspirations achieved him a brief position in the Chamber of Deputies, he did know of the states’ work to keep these things… hidden.
Yet, this time, it wasn’t just an accidental slipup from the Coalely state government, the casualties of this criminal encounter were above the clouds. The entire country fell into shock, even for a day or two, when hearing it from a fifth source.
The rising mob of a renown criminal organization for the past decade was eradicated, with the news of another criminal group being involved in its extermination. Reports from civilians of cloaked figures going after people on the streets, executing them in awful, cruel ways independently of who was nearby weren’t few.
Some footage was seen across the internet before it was all taken down, mostly.
Now, weeks later, there have been many people who were hurt during both ‘parties’ run and chase. They wanted answers, in short. They wanted to be pampered, in other words.
Today, Luis’s announced conference was taking place. He had to respond to these people and give them what they wanted. Or else, with the endless podcasts, TV programs, and ‘informative’ videos on the internet destroying his image, he’d just be ‘dethroned’ way before the elections took place again.
As such, one of the garage facilities, the one with the least use as a storage, as supposed, and farthest from the presidential precinct, was selected to become the conference room. Luis hadn’t even come to any of these buildings before, but he knew he had to work it out somehow.
Standing in a small back room, with Roam beside him as a pair of attendants just left after checking his clothing and image, Luis sweated. Not a little. Roam stepped up to wipe the sweat from his face.
“Ah, thanks.” Said Luis. Roam nodded and gave him the napkin. Luis tapped his temples before cleaning his neck, repeating a few times until feeling his body adapting to not sweat anymore. He looked at Roam before saying, “How many people are there… out there?”
“It’s… best if you don’t think about it, sir.” Roam said, keeping his napkin and trying to keep the president calm. Luis sighed, “Aaagh. Will other nations watch this?”
“I don’t think so, at least not unless something else, and major, happens in the near future.” Roam said, trying his best to be honest and helpful yet cautious with his words. Luis frowned a bit, “Like what, Roam?”
“Well, perhaps you will inspire the reporters outside now, or not. But, in the future, if there’s an international situation where Lýmoca, let’s say, prevails high, other nations might be interested in knowing more of what’s been happening there, sir.” Roam accommodated Luis’s shoulders.
“Sigh. It’s nothing I can do about. As for inspiring them, can I do that?” Luis shook his head, feeling a bit dejected. Roam licked his lips before quietly expressing, “You were not so ‘friendly’ with them since that time, sir. I have to confess I see that difficult, but it can happen, yes.”
“Right, there might not be that many there…” Luis nodded to himself, easing his frown a bit, but he still looked troubled. Roam mentally sighed. There was nothing he could do, it was all on the president’s shoulders now.
“Are the blue bug’s things prepared?” Luis looked at Roam. The latter reassured the former with a nod, “Everything’s ready. The audience was kept to a strict minimum as well. The GHH wasn’t found breached in the shown evidence.”
“Good,” Luis said before lowering his eyes. He didn’t know if what was about to happen was the correct thing. If he could, he wouldn’t want to show these things, but he had to. Luis could only keep his absurd dreams ongoing with hope if he remains in this seat.
“Let’s go,” said Luis after convincing himself enough. He looked back at Roam, who held his jacket and put it on his shoulders. Then, Luis walked forth, opening a long, red curtain.
Flash, flash, flash…
Immediately, Luis was bombarded with many yet small, rapid flashes from oh so many cameras. The few video cameras transmitting this to the entire country through TV and the internet moved as he walked to the notable, slightly large podium.
Hushes and questioning remarks sounded as he walked the ‘long’ way to the damned podium. Luis thought, ‘Why is it positioned so far away? Is it even supposed to be at the edge? Seriously.’
“…We- welcome!” Luis greeted the large number of seated reporters, each separated in smallish groups of 2 to 3, and others individually sitting. Luis’s breath choked when he noticed there were more than 100 different seats waiting for him, everywhere before him.
One of them were a pair of news reporter and a cameraman. The news reporter was a young woman with milk, pale white skin, with long black hair and big, intense eyes. Her hot damn body was impossible to miss when glancing remotely around her.
Her cameraman was a young man with darkish brown skin, short black hair and eyes. He was taller than her, but only at a regular height, and in comparison, ugly. However, it was these two who didn’t seem to have the same face as at least 7 out of 10 news anchors here had.
“Thank you for coming here, I was expecting only grumpy faces, but I see a few only indifferently looking at me, haha…” Luis’s silly introduction finished as quickly as it was invented in his head. “Ahem, cough. We’re here to talk about Coalely, right? Please, let us begin.”
“President Luis, I’d like to ask just what were you doing when the city was attacked by terrorists? This is just about a month ago.” A slim, young white woman with black hair covering her forehead stood up and asked without further ado.
Luis gulped, which became apparent, before the silly man, president of the nation, rested his wrists on the podium sides to answer. “I was working in the presidential precinct, just dealing with some issues regarding the country’s intelligence safety.”
“Could it be known what it was about? Was it more important than the people’s lives who were lost?” The same news reporter asked before sitting down. Luis looked at her with a complicated expression, thankful that Lesly put the rule of only 2 questions per reporter.
“Well, I couldn’t tell the specifics even if I wanted to. This concerns something more than my doing as a president, but the country’s safety. However, as soon as we knew of the situation in Coalely, I reunited with my cabinet for a security meeting.” Luis felt the bit of sweat forming around his forehead diminish before it could continue.
“After the massacre in the center’s alleyway, many people were injured and even killed during a chase where these criminals drove towards the poorer districts. Has the government thought about giving them any compensation for the uselessness of the police, and their nonexistent response?” A tall white man with a delicate, elegant outfit stood up and asked, grabbing a microphone.
“Yes! Yes, we did that.” Luis jumped to answer, as if content someone asked this. He calmed down quickly after, looking at Roam behind the curtains, who gave him a signal with his eyes and his head lowering a bit. Luis’s eyes widened, remembering what to do.
“The families who lost their members that day have been contacted and informed of the procedures. Some of the government’s civil workers have also visited the respective families to offer immediate support. All of them were given at least 10,000 credits to spend… and all their expenses to bid their members farewell will be on the government. There are also some programs they were introduced to respectively, according to their needs.”
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“What about the criminals and their accomplices? Have the city’s districts been investigated properly after giving home to these terrorists?” The man asked after receiving his first answer.
Luis’s face went inexpressive for a second. He realized of something. Suddenly, he spoke up with a sudden burst, “First of all, I let it pass before, but those people weren’t terrorists. The situations presented in that day are not what claims those to be recognized as such. They are organized crime groups who seek to grow and fight between each other for the control of one thing or another. No terrorists, so do not use that word.”
“Now, answering your question. There’s… no need to investigate. I don’t know what kind of information you have, but there are no such things as those districts helping these criminals. They were the most affected! The city’s center wasn’t damaged as much, except the situation in the alley. Why would the government investigate them?” Luis concluded.
“Well, I do have intel that-” The man spoke with knitted eyebrows, but Luis swung his hand in the air as a female attendant walked over to the reporter to take the microphone away. “I’m sorry, you’ve already used your 2 questions…”
There was a bit of clamor as soon as he said that. Luis looked around as the ruckus became a little louder. He saw the man struggle with the attendant, holding her wrists tightly, making him twitch his eyebrows into a frown. Luis added, “Let others have the opportunity to participate.”
‘Phew…’ Roam cleaned his forehead’s sweat with another napkin as the president’s words made the room gradually fall quiet. Luis also felt his ass relax after squeezing them cheeks. Meanwhile, the female attendant frowned and walked away, holding her reddened wrists after escaping the crowd’s eyes.
She began crying up a little at the corner, but their eyes were no longer on her, although Luis did look at her a little longer before facing the crowd. Just then, a brown man with an easygoing expression stood up, with a short afro, and commenced.
“President Luis Heartez, going back to that subject, I think it’s important to know what happened. I know we should all have the right to know it. Were any commoners with the criminals who injured more than 100 people that day?” He sat down after asking.
“…” Luis felt a seed of rage threatening to burst in his chest, but he quelled it.
“What commoners? Watch what you say. No matter how strange your information might be, and I can’t possibly ever know where you got it from, those are our fellow countryfolk who… Suffered a tragedy!” Luis berated the man a little. This time, while most reporters looked ahead as if ignoring it, some looked at the reporter questioningly. They said nothing, but their gazes did.
“No person aided those criminals. The cloaked figures with red masks are not known to be from an organized crime group. They seem to be…” Luis thought for a moment before responding in the Lys’ native small language, “Sicarios experts in the arts of weaponry, transport, and infiltration. We now know they were contracted by the criminal lord to get rid of another such group trying to rise in his territory.”
“Then, why did the police not respond? Many citizens from those poor districts walked to the location in an hour or 2, but the police were nowhere to be seen even 5 hours later. There was also a police car hidden nearby, with 2 corpses in it, cops shot from a military grade ‘small pistol’. What do you have to say about it, president?” The brown man said before sitting on his bum with a frown. Acting a little spoiled, even.
“…” That was a cheating question, asking about the general things of the event. But Luis had to answer it. Besides, this was meant to last at least an hour, so if he refused to answer questions before even 10 minutes passed, then what was the point of him being here? Yet, that did not take away the point that Luis couldn’t just say ‘because the cops were corrupt, or too scared to do what they’re trained to do and funded’. When they do ‘just that’ with innocent civilians, abusing their power, known across the country, albeit varied.
“What I have to say? I have nothing to say. I’d like to be able of commanding the police to help with situations like these, or know that they would do their job well. I always believed they would. But that day, they showed me it wasn’t the truth, and that, as much as it hurts me, I was fooled.”
Luis suddenly went a bit… smooth. He seemed confident, even if just a bit of a ‘slightly’ amount. He went on, “There will be responsible people who will attest to that day’s awful execution of their job, but that’s something concerning the police in Coalely… and the Supreme Court Justice.”
“This is why, from today, I’m presenting a new initiative. I’ll bring the national guard to the front, more than before… It has…” Luis looked at the side, where Roam nodded at him like a chicken pecking on rice. Luis continued, “For 200 years. It has been weakened and kept like a pet, insulting the security of our country. Now, with this initiative, the national guard will expand to the Lys needs, working only for the sake of the people’s safety, nothing else! As intended from the creation of Humane Key.”
Clamor, clamor, whispers…
Luis felt something else, something different, when he saw the reporters before him no longer as much as snakes and henchmen like before, like just now. For a moment, he felt… he was understanding his role?
So far, he hid himself in the presidential precinct or behind cameras after his first re-election term. But now, there he was, saying something that made sense to them… to others.
The brown man sat with his arms crossed, looking at the president a little hatefully. At that moment, before anyone could calm down from the shocking news, if a bit, another young white woman stood up.
“President Luis Heartez, I am Angelina, and I’m here with my partner Eduardo. We are from the BLF news anchor. Good afternoon, President. I’d like to first ask of the situation with the investigation on these… 'cloaked figures'.” Angelina stood up and politely introduced herself before speaking to the president with a blatant smile.
Luis tilted his head, feeling respected for the first time by a news anchor. He knew it was politeness, but it felt good, still… Eduardo, her ‘partner’, on the other hand, looked at her with glints in his eyes. He thought, ‘Is she feeling in a good mood to introduce me like this? Heh heh, thank you.’
“What is your question regarding this?” Luis nodded, with only his left forearm supported on the podium. Angelina’s hot figure gained eyes from everywhere, especially through the cameras, making quite some homes suffer a couples’ fight or wolves’ calling.
“It’s truth they made a horrible, tragic event out of a normal day spread in one of Coalely’s cities, but I have information from the people itself about their situation for the last 10 years. I have been answered with rueful, uncomfortable, and even fearful answers. Even from kids, President.” Angelina halted before breathing in and continuing.
“It’s not like I’m trying to… put you, sir, in a tough situation, but you’ve governed our country for 10 years after breaking our Humane Key’s personal emblem— no re-election. I’d like to ask ‘how come there has been little work in the country despite you having been elected twice in a row’, but I’d rather get a solid answer from something recurrent.”
“The citizens I interviewed were terrified, but they also went out to work and school in the mornings. Those who return late at night nowadays are also planning more hangouts to celebrate during the night. Could it be that the cloaked figures, which are also more commonly known as ‘SA’ and ‘SAs’ in plural, as ‘Special Agent’ on the internet, be part of an unknown organization? Do they serve whoever has money, and do they take more tasks than dealing with organized crime, or the ‘crime world’?”
“Because, President. There’s been sightings of more people like this who hide their identity and have these… strangely ‘mighty’ capabilities that we don’t even see in our real world’s movies,” Angelina smiled, a bit mocking. “They’ve been seen rescuing people, but also doing the kidnapping themselves. Even past events like the fruit of nature now show signs of the involved people infiltrating the museum’s guards and knowing the museum’s infrastructure and schedules. My second question is, are we seeing something else in this world? A new involvement that we are only recently discovering but has existed since time ago?”
“…” Luis looked at Angelina with fully open eyes, quite speechless but calm from her bombardment of words and words, and 2 questions, supposedly. He felt dizzy for a bit before processing everything. “Yes, okay. Let me respond to that…”
A few crackle and mocking giggles sounded in the crowd, but Angeline remained standing, giving the microphone away, staring directly at the president.
“We know some things. As a matter of fact, let me show you someone who has been working with us for the last few weeks, trying to build for Lýmoca what hasn’t been done in decades and decades.” Luis started without answering the question, first indicating behind him.
Step, step… clamor~! A second later, the curtain was lifted by a person, followed by 2 people walking into the crowd’s eyes. There was a commotion. Of course there would be one. After all, of the 2 people, an adult man and a young man, the former was a renown criminal lord since 30 years ago, at the very least.
The other was most likely his son. The reporters went mad with the camera shots before they received instructors to pipe down. Luis nodded at them before continuing, “This man is Emanuel, the man who has dominated the crime from one of Coalely’s cities, and one of the largest organized crime groups in the nearby states.”
“This is his son. During that day, this man contracted this… ‘group’ of people. Please, come and speak what you’ve been helping us with. Just a bit will be enough,” Luis motioned for the man, who nodded and stepped forth to take the podium. His son remained behind, docile and calm.
“When I received a lot of information from some of… the moles I planted in a new mob, planning to take my son to demand for half my people and guns, I desperately needed help. Through some means, which I won’t explain, as it’s classified information, I contacted this ‘group’. I knew nothing about them, only that as long as I paid money, they might be able to help me save my son and finish off this new… competitor.”
The man’s words gained silence everywhere, including those watching behind their screens.
“When the day came, I was told to wait a few days to see how things went, and to aid them. I did. The mob I was targeting had… they managed to trick some cops from believing nothing was happening. I’m sure not everyone here knows, but we already have and know how to use tech to listen and even block transmissions between PPOs, among other facilities.”
“Yet, when the day started, I heard news of a situation arising somewhere near the center of the city. All I know is that they found an opportunity to act quick, and I could only wait to see what happened. By the end of the day, as my enemy was being hunted after moving through the city, openly and devastating anything they ran across, my son was brought to me.”
“They said he was tortured by my enemy before getting a hold of him…” The man looked down, seemingly thinking of many things that nobody could guess. “The truth is, I started trying to take over the city for… a multitude of reasons. None of them were my family, but now I know I was quick to act. The criminal world is experiencing a strange enriching, and I couldn’t keep up.”
…