Post by redsycorax on Jan 11, 2022 23:17:07 GMT
In 2072, the former United States had been ravaged by the tyrant and mass murderer Doom, leaving only isolated metropolitan areas able to subsist individually. Any pretence of residual unity and individual freedom was crushed in those hermetically sealed and paranoid communities. Some prohibited books, such as Fahrenheit City, others were controlled by computer totalitarians like Alpha 60 in Alphaville, while others, such as Ultrapolis, were more rigid and authoritarian than even that, where love, laughter, music and art were all capital offences. The anarchic Prankster, assisted by his ally Professor Hiram Grave, is a voice of resistance who defies the dictator Bane's regime...
Note: This is nonprofit fanfiction. Guy Montag is a character from the late Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Lemmy Caution and Natasha Von Braun have been similarly taken from Jean-Luc Goddard's film Alphaville (1965). No copyright infringement is intended.
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ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I'm afraid it's not good news, Oswald," said Professor Hiram Grave to his gaudily dressed associate, Os (the Prankster) Loomis, "while Lemmy Caution's extraction and nullification mission in Alphaville was successful and he managed to get Natasha Von Braun out of there before the Alpha 60 computer there succumbed to the virus that he implanted within it, Fahrenheit City was only partially damaged in the nuclear strike that targeted it. The Firemen there have been reasserting control and the Bookbinder dissidents are on the run."
"So, you win some, you lose some. Damn. I wonder how long it'll take to occur to Bane that if you want to eradicate abstract concepts like love, laughter, music and art, you need to encourage a post-literate environment. The last thing Ultrapolis needs is to make common cause with other tinpot tyrants across the FUS."
"Yes, well, we've been fortunate so far. Wraff's own ambitions are eroding Bane's trust and he wasn't exactly an ally of the trade and commercial relationships we had with Fahrenheit City. It is imperative that these successor city-states remain isolated from one another, but that resistance within them is enabled to co-operate and thrive."
"Prof, do you ever miss the way the world used to be?"
"We have a contact from the Bookbinders arriving shortly. You'll like him, Oswald. He's a fellow dissident named Montag. Guy Montag."
It was nearly midnight before Guy Montag stepped over the doorway and gratefully sat down:
"Montag. Good to see you."
"Thanks, Professor Graves. Oh, and Caswell Faber sends his regards."
"How is the old fellow? I haven't seen him in years."
"You'll be pleased to know he's alive and well. I managed to talk him into getting onto a bus just before the nukes hit. You must be Ossie Loomis. Guy. Guy Montag."
"Is it true your City Fathers tried to enforce the complete obliteration of books?"
Montag nodded, as a wistful expression came over him: "I...lost two women I loved. One of them was a teenager, Clarisse, who started me down the dissident road."
"And the other?"
"My ex-wife, Millie. She was so fixated on her precious 'walls' she betrayed me to the Firemen. She died when Fahrenheit City was partially destroyed. We were together for years, but I never really knew her. It's that type of society."
"I've never been married. Although the regime here is much more unpopular, given its outright puritanism."
"It's good to get away from there, anyway. We thought we were safe, but no, the Firemen were redeployed to fallout shelters and the Bookbinders were massacred. Only a few of us got away."
"At least the Firemen don't have Fahrenheit City to tyrannise now, however high the price. And with Alphaville gone too, that only leaves the Homestead in what used to be Ilium, New York and the One State. Despite how it may seem, we're winning, albeit slowly. You know, at times I wonder what the heroes of yesteryear, like Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle, Nightshade, Peacemaker and the Question would make of us today."
Montag looked puzzled: "None of those names are familiar to me."
"That's because memories of their existence have been erased through neurosurgical abuse. Or censorship, in the case of regimes like Fahrenheit City, Alphaville and the Homestead. They were costumed adventurers, Guy."
"I see, Oswald. Like you, you mean?"
"Flatterer. Yeah, we know about their existence here. We even use the Peacemaker and Blue Beetle's technical apparatus in our own operations."
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HALLS:
Captain Walter Wraff was not lookihg forward to his latest debriefing with Bane, and truth to tell, he was growing increasingly frustrated at the head of state's erratic and arbitrary behaviour. Certainly, he accepted that the loss of law enforcement knowledge following the fall of the old United States contributed to the reason why he could not apprehend the Prankster. Although he had tried on one occassion, it had turned out that the maniacal anarchist had substituted an android replica for himself and had thus eluded capture again. And the problem was, Bane was Great Doom's duly appointed surrogate leader and representative in Ultrapolis. Moreover, the sad fate of Fire Chief Beattie, murdered through flamethrower administration from the renegade Fireman Montag, and Alpha 40, fed a virus by resistance operative Lemmy Caution, were stark reminders of what could ensue if the chain of command were ever broken or questioned. And as a result, the kindred Enclosed Urban Enclaves of Alphaville and Fahrenheit City were no more. Well, it wouldn't be allowed to happen in Ultrapolis! Not if he had anything to do with it.
For his purposes, Bane was unaware of the seditious thoughts from his law enforcement chief, although their thoughts were on convergent lines. Personally, he resented the infringement on his absolute authority within Ultrapolis by the surviving leadership within Fahrenheit City. They had gone too far in their post-literate censorship and book burning excesses and infantilising the population hadn't availed them later when the nuclear attack on their city occurred, even if they had partially redeemed themselves by razing the Bookbinder rebel encampment outside what remained of their city to the ground. The problem now was, Fahrenheit City and Alphaville might have refugees and they might be adjacent to Ultrapolis. While Alphaville had been run along eugenic lines like Ultrapolis and its survivors could be assimilated, as usual Fahrenheit City was going to be a headache. The City Green Guard would have to shoot to kill to prevent any of the Fahrenheiter extremism spreading there, with the growth of dissidence as a consequence. Dear Doom... there had been thousands of the Bookbinder rebels!
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I've intercepted computer mediated communication from Bane's headquarters," Professor Graves said to Montag and the Prankster, "and it looks like there's no honour amongst thieves. Bane wants the City Green Guard to kill any Fahrenheit City refugees because the compliant ones might cause an unwelcome extension of 'extremism' that would endanger his own personal rule."
"Wonder if we could drive a wedge between Bane and Wraff over this?" The Prankster mused.
ULTRAPOLIS CITY CENTRE:
"Sir, you should see this..."
Captain Wraff's face became thunderous. It was the Prankster again, and what was worse, the dissident scum had defaced a building with fluorescent phase paint, only visible at night, but able to reflect his latest aberration in technicolor. What was worse were the sentiments expressed:
"Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." He knew full well that was a literary citation, no matter that it was also historical fact- former Protestant Bishop Hugh Latimer had said it to a colleague as both were being martyred by Mary Tudor five centuries ago. He knew what it meant as well. It had been cited by an elderly woman in Fahrenheit City shortly before her self-immolation in defiance of the Firemen. It was meant as an implicit defiance of the authority of Bane and the Green Guard and it would not be tolerated.
And then there was the smaller subscript: You'll never win, Wraff. You can't peer into our minds.
The Prankster and the other dissidents were trying to entrap him. No, Bane must not go that far. Who cared what happened in the privacy of their minds as long as it was not publically expressed?
But as it turned out, Bane had other ideas.
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HALLS:
"Wraff, have you read the Kallocain Report from Varldsstat?"
"No, Your Authority. Isn't Varldsstat in Sweden, though?"
"Yes, one of Great Doom's Thousand Points of Light city-states founded to preserve civilisation after the collapse of the decadent oldworld. ...You do know what kallocain is, though, Wraff?"
"Of course. I believe it is related to ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, potent short or intermediate acting hypnotic benzodiazepines such as midazolam, flunitrazepam, and various short and ultra-short acting barbiturates, including sodium thiopental (under the brand name Pentothal) and amobarbital (formerly known as sodium amytal)? We do use it in the Green Guard, but there are active questions about their use in a proper randomised, controlled study. The available data suggests that such so-called 'truth sera' lower inhibitions to the point where the subject states anything, true or otherwise. There have been no peer reviewed studies on the efficacy of kallocain that I am aware of."
"Does it matter?"
"Yes, Your Authority, it does. The Green Guard uses narcoanalytic 'truth' drugs only sparingly and under strict clinical conditions. Not through misplaced leniency or toleration of such illegal nostra as 'civil liberties' or 'human rights', but in the interests of precision within law enforcement."
"What if I were to order you to use kallocain in your interrogations from now on?"
"I would ask to see the clinical studies that you based your decision on, Your Authority."
"You dare to defy me, Wraff?"
"Sir, it is my duty to protect you and the institutions of government from dissident assault. Who suggested this to you?"
"This is intolerable! My word is law in Ultrapolis! Beware, Wraff! I do not have to justify my reasons for a given action to you!"
Flustered, Walter Wraff backed away from the irate, histrionic Bane. He was now very concerned about the mental stability of the ruler of Ultrapolis and his irrational response to Wraff's legitimate and valid evidence for the limited forensic efficacy of truth drugs. Was kallocain any different? It hadn't even been written up in Ultrapolis or other Thousand Points medical or professional journals. What was wrong with Bane? Why couldn't he accept the need for precision in law enforcement? And not for the first time, the thought occurred to him: Was Bane fit to hold office?
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I'm not sure I like this. It's like a red blanket to a bull, whatever that metaphor means." Montag confessed.
"Ah, but there's method in this madness, Guy."
"What, so Bane tries to introduce a dangerous narcoforensic tool into Green Guard use here?"
"But that's exactly the point, Guy. You heard what our bugs disclosed yesterday- a very heated conversation between Captain Wraff and Bane over the scientific basis for kallocain and other so-called 'truth' drugs. Bane's getting desperate. He must realise that his repressive, arbitary authoritarian rule isn't securing the popular consent he wants, so he's going to mandate the use of the questionable drug in question to enforce it." Professor Grave replied.
"And are there any clinical studies about kallocain's efficacy, one way or the other?"
"There are, in Swedish, and not translated into English- and they corroborate Wraff's caution. It isn't a magic bullet."
"So its use has been what? Discontinued in Varldsstat?"
"Its own inventor acknowledged it in that study. But of course, Bane is bullheaded enough to ignore that blunt disavowal."
"Does it matter? Even if it does lack efficacy, it's still another tool in the hands of a brutal authoritarian absolute ruler."
"True, but there's one thing that neither Bane or Wraff are aware of- that there is an antidote to kallocain and that it's been slipped into the vaccination programme, given its efficacy for other medical uses. Kall himself told us that about a year ago. The intent of introducing the suggestion to use kallocain has placed Bane and Wraff at loggerheads. Bane thinks his every word should be obeyed no matter if there is no factual basis and Wraff is an inflexible martinet dedicated to precision and effectiveness in law enforcement. Kallocain doesn't provide that degree of precision. Something's going to give very shortly."
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS:
"Wraff! Why are kallocain supplies being held at the Ultrapolis city heliport without distribution? This delay is intolerable!"
"Because, Your Authority, we need to examine whether the supplies that we received from Varldstaat have adulterated or substituted. Surely that is a reasonable precaution to take?"
"Do not take that tone of voice with me! This drug is an ideal solution to dealing once and for all to the dissident scourge facing our city-state."
"All the more reason to be careful that we do have the right drugs when they are distributed, Your Authority?"
"Are you sure it is not because you have deliberately decided to obstruct their distribution?"
"No, Your Authority. It is precisely because I want this to succeed that I want to insure the efficacy of these drugs. Unfortunately, that cannot be done without proper clinical assessment from our Department of Pharmaceutical Approval and Use."
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"Uh oh..." Prankster indicated their viewscreen, intercepting the regime's satellite feed from high above Ultrapolis. It showed a convoy of refugees from Fahrenheit City closing on the main approach road from the devastated settlement.
"Poor bastards. You do realise what's going to happen next? Bane will show no hesitation in massacring those people, no matter how badly wounded or in need of medical treatment they are." Montag commented.
"We can't just let that happen. Isn't there any way that we can help?"
"I think we might have a plan." From the doorway came a cracked and world-weary voice. A middle-aged man in a trenchcoat and a bright-eyed woman stood, hand in hand:
"Lemmy and Natasha Von Braun?"
"Actually, it's Natasha Von Braun Caution these days."
Prankster nodded: "I agree with Guy here. We can't just let those refugees die. Or let Bane massacre them."
"Which relies on a firm chain of command between Bane and Wraff. Which is under severe stress. One wonders what could cause it to finally snap..."
ULTRAPOLIS/FAHRENHEIT CITY BORDERLANDS:
Around the city-state of Ultrapolis in all directions were the thousands of survivors of the nuclear attack on Fahrenheit City. They were not beyond help yet- those who had received third degree burns and lethal radiation poisoning had already been quietly dealt with by the Fahrenheit City Green Cross euthanasia providers in their encampments around the affected area. And, as Bane had feared, and as the Prankster, Professor Grave and Guy Montag had all hoped, their ordeal and the failure of the Firemen to protect them from the misery, despair and suffering that had ensued since the sudden surprise attack had made the survivors of Fahrenheit City a fertile constituency for rebellion and revolution.
Wraff had his orders and he intended to carry them out. Unfortunately for him, the Prankster and Professor Grave had substituted a defective round of guns with an exhausted supply of energy cartridges within them. Resultantly, after he had gunned down several of the more reluctant Green Guard who had had relatives in Fahrenheit City, to his horror, he found that the energy blasters and cannons that he had assembled to slaughter the incoming refugees weren't operational. As they saw the weaponry pulses die down to exhaustion, the front lines of the refugees took courage and began to surge forward. Despite being equipped with riot shields and batons, the sheer strength of numbers told against the Green Guard. As he watched his men and women fall beneath the hands and fists of the mob, Wraff wiped blood away from his visor and came to an erroneous conclusion. This was Bane's doing. He had provided the men and women of the Green Guard with inoperative weaponry and had cold-bloodedly thrown them to the wolves. Why? Because of his insanity and paranoia. And in that moment, resolve possessed him. Bane was unfit to rule Ultrapolis. Bane would destroy Ultrapolis if he was not stopped.
Therefore, Bane must be assassinated before he could reach that point.
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS:
With the Green Guard unable to intervene, the people of Ultrapolis were taking to the streets, smashing surveillance cameras and overhead drones, overturning Green Guard riot control vehicles and making common cause with the Fahrenheit City refugees. As he walked across the Ultrapolis Government Precinct covered in blood, the Prankster, Montag, Professor Grave and Lemmy and Natasha Caution watched as Wraff ignored congratulatory applause and calls for assistance for the detachment of Green Guards at the main central government precinct gates. It would have been obvious to the more wary of the Green Guard that Captain Wraff's obedience to his erstwhile ruler had finally snapped. Unfortunately for the regime, its henchpeople had been selected on the basis of loyalty and blind obedience, not independent reasoning capabilities.
"Bane!"
"What is the meaning of this, Wraff?! Why are you not defending the city entry points from the Fahrenheit City rabble outside?!"
"I have followed you orders faithfully, "Your Authority" and yet you sought to have me killed. I have watched good women and men fall this afternoon. You are no longer fit to rule this city. Your insanity and paranoia has brought it to the brink. I take no pleasure in this, but it is time that you were removed."
"Guards! Guards! Traitor! Subversive!"
From beneath his robes, Bane produced his own blaster. Taking aim, both men fired at each other at the same moment. Instants later, their charcoaled corpses hit the white marble floor of Bane's inner sanctum. The Green Guard tyranny was ended. Ultrapolis was free.
LIBERATION DAY, 2072: ULTRAPOLIS:
"So what will you do now, Oswald?" Professor Grave asked as the Prankster shouldered a backpack. Behind them, the unused kallocain stockpiles for the defunct regime burnt in a fitting funeral pyre:
"I've been talking with Lemmy, Natasha and Guy. Ultrapolis may be free now, but thanks to that madman Doom and his infernal Thousand Points of "Light" strategy, there are far too many other surviving dictatorships spread across what used to be this country. It's time that people were able to live in freedom and a just society again, not this hell's ring of murderous dicatatorships. Fahrenheit City, Alphaville and Ultrapolis were the first dominos to fall. It's up to us to see that they won't be the last. What did that woman say in one of those old books you gave me to read? 'None of us are free until all of us are free?' The two men embraced, for Grave had been elected Ultrapolis City Mayor in the first free elections held in the city for many years and would not be accompanying them on their greater mission. The SST passenger car began to accelerate away down the disused Pan-American Rapid Transit Network tunnels, a forgotten relic of unity and resolve from the past now turned to new uses but still dedicated to the same original goals.
THE END
Note: This is nonprofit fanfiction. Guy Montag is a character from the late Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Lemmy Caution and Natasha Von Braun have been similarly taken from Jean-Luc Goddard's film Alphaville (1965). No copyright infringement is intended.
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ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I'm afraid it's not good news, Oswald," said Professor Hiram Grave to his gaudily dressed associate, Os (the Prankster) Loomis, "while Lemmy Caution's extraction and nullification mission in Alphaville was successful and he managed to get Natasha Von Braun out of there before the Alpha 60 computer there succumbed to the virus that he implanted within it, Fahrenheit City was only partially damaged in the nuclear strike that targeted it. The Firemen there have been reasserting control and the Bookbinder dissidents are on the run."
"So, you win some, you lose some. Damn. I wonder how long it'll take to occur to Bane that if you want to eradicate abstract concepts like love, laughter, music and art, you need to encourage a post-literate environment. The last thing Ultrapolis needs is to make common cause with other tinpot tyrants across the FUS."
"Yes, well, we've been fortunate so far. Wraff's own ambitions are eroding Bane's trust and he wasn't exactly an ally of the trade and commercial relationships we had with Fahrenheit City. It is imperative that these successor city-states remain isolated from one another, but that resistance within them is enabled to co-operate and thrive."
"Prof, do you ever miss the way the world used to be?"
"We have a contact from the Bookbinders arriving shortly. You'll like him, Oswald. He's a fellow dissident named Montag. Guy Montag."
It was nearly midnight before Guy Montag stepped over the doorway and gratefully sat down:
"Montag. Good to see you."
"Thanks, Professor Graves. Oh, and Caswell Faber sends his regards."
"How is the old fellow? I haven't seen him in years."
"You'll be pleased to know he's alive and well. I managed to talk him into getting onto a bus just before the nukes hit. You must be Ossie Loomis. Guy. Guy Montag."
"Is it true your City Fathers tried to enforce the complete obliteration of books?"
Montag nodded, as a wistful expression came over him: "I...lost two women I loved. One of them was a teenager, Clarisse, who started me down the dissident road."
"And the other?"
"My ex-wife, Millie. She was so fixated on her precious 'walls' she betrayed me to the Firemen. She died when Fahrenheit City was partially destroyed. We were together for years, but I never really knew her. It's that type of society."
"I've never been married. Although the regime here is much more unpopular, given its outright puritanism."
"It's good to get away from there, anyway. We thought we were safe, but no, the Firemen were redeployed to fallout shelters and the Bookbinders were massacred. Only a few of us got away."
"At least the Firemen don't have Fahrenheit City to tyrannise now, however high the price. And with Alphaville gone too, that only leaves the Homestead in what used to be Ilium, New York and the One State. Despite how it may seem, we're winning, albeit slowly. You know, at times I wonder what the heroes of yesteryear, like Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle, Nightshade, Peacemaker and the Question would make of us today."
Montag looked puzzled: "None of those names are familiar to me."
"That's because memories of their existence have been erased through neurosurgical abuse. Or censorship, in the case of regimes like Fahrenheit City, Alphaville and the Homestead. They were costumed adventurers, Guy."
"I see, Oswald. Like you, you mean?"
"Flatterer. Yeah, we know about their existence here. We even use the Peacemaker and Blue Beetle's technical apparatus in our own operations."
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HALLS:
Captain Walter Wraff was not lookihg forward to his latest debriefing with Bane, and truth to tell, he was growing increasingly frustrated at the head of state's erratic and arbitrary behaviour. Certainly, he accepted that the loss of law enforcement knowledge following the fall of the old United States contributed to the reason why he could not apprehend the Prankster. Although he had tried on one occassion, it had turned out that the maniacal anarchist had substituted an android replica for himself and had thus eluded capture again. And the problem was, Bane was Great Doom's duly appointed surrogate leader and representative in Ultrapolis. Moreover, the sad fate of Fire Chief Beattie, murdered through flamethrower administration from the renegade Fireman Montag, and Alpha 40, fed a virus by resistance operative Lemmy Caution, were stark reminders of what could ensue if the chain of command were ever broken or questioned. And as a result, the kindred Enclosed Urban Enclaves of Alphaville and Fahrenheit City were no more. Well, it wouldn't be allowed to happen in Ultrapolis! Not if he had anything to do with it.
For his purposes, Bane was unaware of the seditious thoughts from his law enforcement chief, although their thoughts were on convergent lines. Personally, he resented the infringement on his absolute authority within Ultrapolis by the surviving leadership within Fahrenheit City. They had gone too far in their post-literate censorship and book burning excesses and infantilising the population hadn't availed them later when the nuclear attack on their city occurred, even if they had partially redeemed themselves by razing the Bookbinder rebel encampment outside what remained of their city to the ground. The problem now was, Fahrenheit City and Alphaville might have refugees and they might be adjacent to Ultrapolis. While Alphaville had been run along eugenic lines like Ultrapolis and its survivors could be assimilated, as usual Fahrenheit City was going to be a headache. The City Green Guard would have to shoot to kill to prevent any of the Fahrenheiter extremism spreading there, with the growth of dissidence as a consequence. Dear Doom... there had been thousands of the Bookbinder rebels!
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I've intercepted computer mediated communication from Bane's headquarters," Professor Graves said to Montag and the Prankster, "and it looks like there's no honour amongst thieves. Bane wants the City Green Guard to kill any Fahrenheit City refugees because the compliant ones might cause an unwelcome extension of 'extremism' that would endanger his own personal rule."
"Wonder if we could drive a wedge between Bane and Wraff over this?" The Prankster mused.
ULTRAPOLIS CITY CENTRE:
"Sir, you should see this..."
Captain Wraff's face became thunderous. It was the Prankster again, and what was worse, the dissident scum had defaced a building with fluorescent phase paint, only visible at night, but able to reflect his latest aberration in technicolor. What was worse were the sentiments expressed:
"Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." He knew full well that was a literary citation, no matter that it was also historical fact- former Protestant Bishop Hugh Latimer had said it to a colleague as both were being martyred by Mary Tudor five centuries ago. He knew what it meant as well. It had been cited by an elderly woman in Fahrenheit City shortly before her self-immolation in defiance of the Firemen. It was meant as an implicit defiance of the authority of Bane and the Green Guard and it would not be tolerated.
And then there was the smaller subscript: You'll never win, Wraff. You can't peer into our minds.
The Prankster and the other dissidents were trying to entrap him. No, Bane must not go that far. Who cared what happened in the privacy of their minds as long as it was not publically expressed?
But as it turned out, Bane had other ideas.
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HALLS:
"Wraff, have you read the Kallocain Report from Varldsstat?"
"No, Your Authority. Isn't Varldsstat in Sweden, though?"
"Yes, one of Great Doom's Thousand Points of Light city-states founded to preserve civilisation after the collapse of the decadent oldworld. ...You do know what kallocain is, though, Wraff?"
"Of course. I believe it is related to ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, potent short or intermediate acting hypnotic benzodiazepines such as midazolam, flunitrazepam, and various short and ultra-short acting barbiturates, including sodium thiopental (under the brand name Pentothal) and amobarbital (formerly known as sodium amytal)? We do use it in the Green Guard, but there are active questions about their use in a proper randomised, controlled study. The available data suggests that such so-called 'truth sera' lower inhibitions to the point where the subject states anything, true or otherwise. There have been no peer reviewed studies on the efficacy of kallocain that I am aware of."
"Does it matter?"
"Yes, Your Authority, it does. The Green Guard uses narcoanalytic 'truth' drugs only sparingly and under strict clinical conditions. Not through misplaced leniency or toleration of such illegal nostra as 'civil liberties' or 'human rights', but in the interests of precision within law enforcement."
"What if I were to order you to use kallocain in your interrogations from now on?"
"I would ask to see the clinical studies that you based your decision on, Your Authority."
"You dare to defy me, Wraff?"
"Sir, it is my duty to protect you and the institutions of government from dissident assault. Who suggested this to you?"
"This is intolerable! My word is law in Ultrapolis! Beware, Wraff! I do not have to justify my reasons for a given action to you!"
Flustered, Walter Wraff backed away from the irate, histrionic Bane. He was now very concerned about the mental stability of the ruler of Ultrapolis and his irrational response to Wraff's legitimate and valid evidence for the limited forensic efficacy of truth drugs. Was kallocain any different? It hadn't even been written up in Ultrapolis or other Thousand Points medical or professional journals. What was wrong with Bane? Why couldn't he accept the need for precision in law enforcement? And not for the first time, the thought occurred to him: Was Bane fit to hold office?
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"I'm not sure I like this. It's like a red blanket to a bull, whatever that metaphor means." Montag confessed.
"Ah, but there's method in this madness, Guy."
"What, so Bane tries to introduce a dangerous narcoforensic tool into Green Guard use here?"
"But that's exactly the point, Guy. You heard what our bugs disclosed yesterday- a very heated conversation between Captain Wraff and Bane over the scientific basis for kallocain and other so-called 'truth' drugs. Bane's getting desperate. He must realise that his repressive, arbitary authoritarian rule isn't securing the popular consent he wants, so he's going to mandate the use of the questionable drug in question to enforce it." Professor Grave replied.
"And are there any clinical studies about kallocain's efficacy, one way or the other?"
"There are, in Swedish, and not translated into English- and they corroborate Wraff's caution. It isn't a magic bullet."
"So its use has been what? Discontinued in Varldsstat?"
"Its own inventor acknowledged it in that study. But of course, Bane is bullheaded enough to ignore that blunt disavowal."
"Does it matter? Even if it does lack efficacy, it's still another tool in the hands of a brutal authoritarian absolute ruler."
"True, but there's one thing that neither Bane or Wraff are aware of- that there is an antidote to kallocain and that it's been slipped into the vaccination programme, given its efficacy for other medical uses. Kall himself told us that about a year ago. The intent of introducing the suggestion to use kallocain has placed Bane and Wraff at loggerheads. Bane thinks his every word should be obeyed no matter if there is no factual basis and Wraff is an inflexible martinet dedicated to precision and effectiveness in law enforcement. Kallocain doesn't provide that degree of precision. Something's going to give very shortly."
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS:
"Wraff! Why are kallocain supplies being held at the Ultrapolis city heliport without distribution? This delay is intolerable!"
"Because, Your Authority, we need to examine whether the supplies that we received from Varldstaat have adulterated or substituted. Surely that is a reasonable precaution to take?"
"Do not take that tone of voice with me! This drug is an ideal solution to dealing once and for all to the dissident scourge facing our city-state."
"All the more reason to be careful that we do have the right drugs when they are distributed, Your Authority?"
"Are you sure it is not because you have deliberately decided to obstruct their distribution?"
"No, Your Authority. It is precisely because I want this to succeed that I want to insure the efficacy of these drugs. Unfortunately, that cannot be done without proper clinical assessment from our Department of Pharmaceutical Approval and Use."
ULTRAPOLIS OUTSKIRTS:
"Uh oh..." Prankster indicated their viewscreen, intercepting the regime's satellite feed from high above Ultrapolis. It showed a convoy of refugees from Fahrenheit City closing on the main approach road from the devastated settlement.
"Poor bastards. You do realise what's going to happen next? Bane will show no hesitation in massacring those people, no matter how badly wounded or in need of medical treatment they are." Montag commented.
"We can't just let that happen. Isn't there any way that we can help?"
"I think we might have a plan." From the doorway came a cracked and world-weary voice. A middle-aged man in a trenchcoat and a bright-eyed woman stood, hand in hand:
"Lemmy and Natasha Von Braun?"
"Actually, it's Natasha Von Braun Caution these days."
Prankster nodded: "I agree with Guy here. We can't just let those refugees die. Or let Bane massacre them."
"Which relies on a firm chain of command between Bane and Wraff. Which is under severe stress. One wonders what could cause it to finally snap..."
ULTRAPOLIS/FAHRENHEIT CITY BORDERLANDS:
Around the city-state of Ultrapolis in all directions were the thousands of survivors of the nuclear attack on Fahrenheit City. They were not beyond help yet- those who had received third degree burns and lethal radiation poisoning had already been quietly dealt with by the Fahrenheit City Green Cross euthanasia providers in their encampments around the affected area. And, as Bane had feared, and as the Prankster, Professor Grave and Guy Montag had all hoped, their ordeal and the failure of the Firemen to protect them from the misery, despair and suffering that had ensued since the sudden surprise attack had made the survivors of Fahrenheit City a fertile constituency for rebellion and revolution.
Wraff had his orders and he intended to carry them out. Unfortunately for him, the Prankster and Professor Grave had substituted a defective round of guns with an exhausted supply of energy cartridges within them. Resultantly, after he had gunned down several of the more reluctant Green Guard who had had relatives in Fahrenheit City, to his horror, he found that the energy blasters and cannons that he had assembled to slaughter the incoming refugees weren't operational. As they saw the weaponry pulses die down to exhaustion, the front lines of the refugees took courage and began to surge forward. Despite being equipped with riot shields and batons, the sheer strength of numbers told against the Green Guard. As he watched his men and women fall beneath the hands and fists of the mob, Wraff wiped blood away from his visor and came to an erroneous conclusion. This was Bane's doing. He had provided the men and women of the Green Guard with inoperative weaponry and had cold-bloodedly thrown them to the wolves. Why? Because of his insanity and paranoia. And in that moment, resolve possessed him. Bane was unfit to rule Ultrapolis. Bane would destroy Ultrapolis if he was not stopped.
Therefore, Bane must be assassinated before he could reach that point.
ULTRAPOLIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS:
With the Green Guard unable to intervene, the people of Ultrapolis were taking to the streets, smashing surveillance cameras and overhead drones, overturning Green Guard riot control vehicles and making common cause with the Fahrenheit City refugees. As he walked across the Ultrapolis Government Precinct covered in blood, the Prankster, Montag, Professor Grave and Lemmy and Natasha Caution watched as Wraff ignored congratulatory applause and calls for assistance for the detachment of Green Guards at the main central government precinct gates. It would have been obvious to the more wary of the Green Guard that Captain Wraff's obedience to his erstwhile ruler had finally snapped. Unfortunately for the regime, its henchpeople had been selected on the basis of loyalty and blind obedience, not independent reasoning capabilities.
"Bane!"
"What is the meaning of this, Wraff?! Why are you not defending the city entry points from the Fahrenheit City rabble outside?!"
"I have followed you orders faithfully, "Your Authority" and yet you sought to have me killed. I have watched good women and men fall this afternoon. You are no longer fit to rule this city. Your insanity and paranoia has brought it to the brink. I take no pleasure in this, but it is time that you were removed."
"Guards! Guards! Traitor! Subversive!"
From beneath his robes, Bane produced his own blaster. Taking aim, both men fired at each other at the same moment. Instants later, their charcoaled corpses hit the white marble floor of Bane's inner sanctum. The Green Guard tyranny was ended. Ultrapolis was free.
LIBERATION DAY, 2072: ULTRAPOLIS:
"So what will you do now, Oswald?" Professor Grave asked as the Prankster shouldered a backpack. Behind them, the unused kallocain stockpiles for the defunct regime burnt in a fitting funeral pyre:
"I've been talking with Lemmy, Natasha and Guy. Ultrapolis may be free now, but thanks to that madman Doom and his infernal Thousand Points of "Light" strategy, there are far too many other surviving dictatorships spread across what used to be this country. It's time that people were able to live in freedom and a just society again, not this hell's ring of murderous dicatatorships. Fahrenheit City, Alphaville and Ultrapolis were the first dominos to fall. It's up to us to see that they won't be the last. What did that woman say in one of those old books you gave me to read? 'None of us are free until all of us are free?' The two men embraced, for Grave had been elected Ultrapolis City Mayor in the first free elections held in the city for many years and would not be accompanying them on their greater mission. The SST passenger car began to accelerate away down the disused Pan-American Rapid Transit Network tunnels, a forgotten relic of unity and resolve from the past now turned to new uses but still dedicated to the same original goals.
THE END
