Wednesday, January 8th, 2020
Sofía looked, disappointed, at the detained Ukrainian courier. Why had he been detained? Well, because he had refused to accept a free pamphlet titled Socialism: The Beauty in Equality. Which was a crime punishable by being rigorously searched to make sure there was no harmful propaganda on the perpetrator. During the search, the Naval Safety Department had found the couriers badge in his front pocket. To decide what to do, Sofía had been called in to Reggio di Calabria, which she hated, since there were no major airstrips on the island. She had to deal with either a shaky helicopter ride, or the choppy seas on a boat. Neither she liked.
"Seriously, dude?" She said, looking pointedly at the courier. "You couldn't have just... accepted the pamphlet? You didn't even have to read it! And now I could have an international incident on my hands." The courier sat in silence for a few seconds. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.
"Actually, sir, this is a good thing." Sofía looked quizzically at him. "Prime Minister Myronyuk directed me to deliver this to you." He handed Sofía the letter with the Ukrainian seal stamped on it. She stiffened. Normally, she didn't accept proposals from fascists, but Anzhela knew that. It had to be something that legitimately benefitted both of them. She opened the envelope. After looking at the letter for a few seconds, puzzled, the courier made a flipping motion with his hands, and Sofía flipped it over. It was in English. Oh, well, that made things easier. She didn't know Ukrainian. She had tried learning, expecting it to be similar to her native Greek, but it was not, and she had dismissed it as not worth the effort. She called the NSD agents in.
"Send this man back to Anzhela Myronyuk." She turned to look at the courier. "Make sure she knows I received the message. I have a decision to make." Sofia made a hand gesture where she started with a flat hand at the center of her chest. She brought the hand up as high as she could, made it into a fist, and swirled it in a circle. The NSD agents, not knowing what that was supposed to mean, just released the courier. Sofía started to head home, to Elafonisos. On the way back, she made her decision.
"Στην Άνxελα Μιρόνιυκ,
Δεν μου απέσει όταν κάποιος το κανει, ε, φίλε; Είναι ενοχλητικό να στέλνεται ένα μήνυμα που δεν μπορείτε να διαβάσετε. Ωστόσο, για διπλωματικούσ σκοπούς, το υπόλοιπο αυτού το μινύματος θα είναι οτα Αγγλικά. With that being said, our response to your proposal: It works for you. It mostly works for us. The part that works: You have a problem with people you don't want in your country, and we are willing to accept those people into ours. This works swimmingly. However, there is one change we have to make, which I'm sure you will have no trouble with if you keep true to your word. Now, we may be forgiven for thinking this given your track record, but believe it or not, we don't entirely trust that you'll 'collect,' for lack of a better word, these people non-violently. As such, we would like to request that a Unionist government official help oversee the process. More specifically, my brother, Dmitri Halilović. Now, if you didn't accept my counteroffer, we would have no deal, and us in the Union would just assume you have something to hide. We wouldn't want a rumor to start that you're committing genocide right under the nose of the international community, now would we? Because remember - rumors only grow.
Signed, Σωφία Χαλίλοβηκ
