Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Things didn’t quite work out the way she expected. As she slept the night before she was due to return home, a sinister plot unfolded. A group of highly trained Yellow Caps scaled the hotel wall and entered her room silently and kidnapped her. They slipped a specially designed kidnapping bag over her head, equipped with its own oxygen supply, and scaled back down with her. Of course, she had a stomach upsurge on the instant, which wasn’t at all pleasant, despite the inoffensive nature of the substance produced. The kidnappers had been sent by country A, which wasn’t thrilled with the result of the contest. Her struggles and screams did no good, as the bag was sound-proofed. She was whisked away to country A under the noses of UFIS security people, who were preoccupied with a football match on the TV. Needless to say, this was all very frightening to Amber and she suffered a good deal of travel sickness on the journey.

Over in A-land she was not mistreated; they needed to keep her happy and healthy. The guards seemed embarrassed to have her there, if anything. The main problem was that she was being filmed continuously, which made her feel very self-conscious. Officials from the government explained why they had kidnapped her, or “re-located her for reasons of state”: it was to induce her to reverse the verdict that had gone against them. This was to be done by asserting that she had been collaborating with elements of the B-land government to rig the whole thing—the puke farce, as they called it. They wanted her to make a statement to this effect to be broadcast world-wide and to commit to their side. She tried to explain to them that this wasn’t so, though she thought the whole procedure as silly as a kangaroo in shorts. In her opinion there was nothing to choose between the two sides. But truth was clearly not their concern—“perceptions” were. How things could be made to look.

She refused to do as they asked. She refused to lie. She might make herself sick. This did not make her kidnappers happy—far from it. Her chief interrogator, a pale red-headed man with oily eyes, assured her that they were going to start the war again anyway. Her cooperation was a necessary condition of the “peace process” reaching a satisfactory conclusion. Still, she refused. As you can imagine, all this was not good for Amber’s stomach situation; it rumbled audibly and spat out whatever went into it. The blue became speckled with crimson and black, and it hurt more when it came out. Her captors filmed her while being interrogated, displaying the new color scheme. They insisted she could control her vomiting at will. Meanwhile she vomited uncontrollably. The result was predictable: she lost more and more weight, became thinner and thinner. She grew pale and her hair started to fall out. Things were not looking good for Amber, not at all good. The world watched helplessly as she faded away.

Towards the end of the third week, she felt herself to be close to death. The war had started up again and many people throughout the world wanted her to capitulate to her captors. If she did, she would be released immediately and in one piece. All she had to do was tell a lie that everyone knows is a lie—and is that really a lie? The delirium of starvation added to her confusion. She knew that escaping this place, with these people, was her only hope of survival (UFIS was helpless to help her, they said). So, she gave in. She would utter the words they wanted her to utter and she would be free. Everyone would know it was a sham. With her eyes half-closed and her speech slurry, she said: “I accept what they say. It was all a plot to take what belongs to them. I was part of it. I’m sorry.”  As she uttered these words, she felt a new sensation in her gut—a sort of cold emptiness. She could feel no pain in that space, only numbness. It was as if something living had been replaced by something dead. She felt like a different person.

The kidnappers released her, as promised, and resumed their conflict with neighbors. She returned home.