Knabo, mia knabo, vi fartas tie? (CLOSED, MT, ATTN Zaras)

[Montogranda]

June 10, 2012 - Junio 10, AMP 125 (2012)
Kunet, Kunet Province, Montogranda
The Dukino Dora Hostel
6:15 pm

In a room, at the Dukino Dora Hostel, a Dainaréni spy, known to locals as "Vilhemo Shelley." He lived in a cabin north of the capital of Atendi, Atendi, just to the south of the border with Dainarén. It was only one floor, and his room was across... the family that came, apparently from Zaras. Of course, hee looked at the peephole, hoping for the family to leave their room. There were no keys, to any room, save for the exterior doors, so he could take the child. He smiled at the thought, believing that if he took this young child, he could indoctrinate said child in Dainaréni customs and culture and possibly... make the child a spy for Dainarén. Waiting patiently, he stared at the peephole, when all of a sudden, he saw the door begin to open...

[Zaras]

"I'm going out for a bit to get some snacks", said Peter Kelanys while standing in the half-open doorway, using his other hand to point outwards as if he forgot that his family already had a good grasp on the concept of "outside". "D'you guys want anything?"

Peter's wife Karin, currently on the bed, turned away from the TV to look towards him. "Hmm? Oh... well, honey, maybe you could wear pants first?"

Peter gestured as if trying to say "Wha-?" before looking down at himself, and realising he was only wearing underwear and a tank top with a sports-style logo reading "PARIS BRISSOTINS". If he at some point might've had a clue what it was supposed to mean or why he owned it in the first place, it had been gone for a long time already. Nevertheless, Peter ignored this philosophical dilemma of memory in favour of saying, "Oh... Oh right, I...". He facepalmed, and walked over to the closet. "God, I'm sorry, Karin... I have no idea why I forgot that. Geez, I can't even keep track of... my own self...", he continued to mumble while looking through his sets of clothes.

"Eh, don't worry, I've gotten used to it by now", Karin replied in a tone of mock-annoyance. This caused one part of Peter's brain to get stuck on pondering whether she was serious or not when making that statement. Fortunately, by now Peter had long learned mental multitasking, so he managed to retrieve a pair of garishly coloured boxers, decorated with all sorts of pictures of palm trees and the like for a kitschy "Hawaiian" feel.

Seeing him decide to wear those caused Karin to laugh. "God, Pete, you look like such a tourist!"

"Well, y'know, I always believed in truth in advertising...", he more or less mumbled, perhaps realising that it wasn't the sharpest comeback in the shed, before quickly changing the tack. "uhssssssssSO, are you sure you don't want to come along?", he said, while at the same time thinking, Damn, I gotta keep my metaphors straight.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just real tired", she replied, noticeably less sarcastically. "I'm just glad we get some ZTV here, 'cos I'm telling ya, hon, some of these Montograndan channels are unwatchable."

"Y-the Esperanto ones, right?"

"Yah, I have no idea what they're saying. It sounds a bit like someone who's been force-fed all European languages directly into his mind, and then thrown out of a building head-first, if you ask me."

"Right... uh, snacks?"

"No, no thanks, I don't want anything."

"Right... Sally? Do you want any snacks?", he slightly shouted in the direction of the balcony.

"No thanks, dad, I'm fine!", the reply came from the balcony.

"Okay, then, I guess I'll be off... then." He began to walk towards the door. "I won't be gone long!"

Karin giggled. "Don't worry, we won't go insane from missing you in the meantime."

Peter laughed, and added "I love you, dear."

"I love you too", Karin replied, smiling. Peter waved as he left the room, and headed out of the hotel (enjoying the nice weather and ambiance) to buy snacks. After a minute or two more of staying in bed watching TV, Karin rather theatrically dislocated herself from it and went to the balcony to spend more time with Sally, who was standing next to the balustrade with her hands crossed, her head placed on top, and her eyes mercilessly scanning the horizon of mountains, river, and Kunet.

Karin walked next to her, also looking directly forward, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "So, kiddo, are we having fun?", she said.

"Yeah, mum. But not nearly enough as I'll have when we get to swimming!"

Karin laughed mildly and ruffled her hair. "I'm starting to think all those swimming lessons you signed up for had an impact."

[Montogranda]

By that point, Vilhemo decided to open the door, and snuck, carefully across the hallway. When he reached the door, he opened it, and then crawled across, towards the balustrade. When he got there, he then seemingly transformed from a monkey, into a man. He then promptly had a split-second to figure out the mess. Vilhemo then snatched Sally and ran towards the door. As he was trying to escape, he landed some blows, and some of his clothes torn

When he reached the door to his room, he closed it, and opened the sliding glass door to his balustrade. He then carried Sally over the balcony, to the parking lot, and then kept her tightly close to him. Vilhemo then dashed to his 2010 RAM truck, placed her in the back seat, and drove northwards... However, some more parts of his clothes were torn off... Even the license plate on the back could almost be seen.

[Zaras]

It had all happened so fast, it almost felt like an out-of-body experience for Karin. As if somehow she wasn't the one who had chased the man who kidnapped her daughter and done her best to attack him and slow him down, but somebody else and she had only been a spectator to it. It was as if her body had acted more or less involuntarily to try and make up for the flood of emotions that she was experiencing.

Regardless, now she stood in the patio of the hotel next to the parking lot, her voice so hoarse from the yelling that she did not feel capable of speaking, her hands bruised from trying to force open a door, and her eyes reddened. Her daughter, the most important person in her world, has been kidnapped. All she had to show for it was a piece of the criminal's shirt that she had managed to tear off in the chaos, and the fact that he drove a truck whose license plate ended in "3177".

Peter? Peter was off buying snacks and he left his phone in the hotel room, so there was no way to reach him quickly, and Karin knew enough to realise that time was of the essence in this kind of situation (and she did involuntarily sneer at the realisation that all this time she'd occasionally followed kidnapping cases here and there and now had to draw on what meager knowledge she could remember, musing something about the randomness of the universe in the meantime). Her phone was also up in the hotel room, and that would've only meant wasting invaluable time. Still clutching the torn piece of fabric, she dashed out of the hotel barefoot, frantically searching for the nearest police station.

Running desperately down various streets without bothering to keep track of time or anything else that would distract her from the primary task at hand, Karin must have felt enormously grateful for Montogranda's bilingualism, since the lack of English signs would have only made everything harder to follow. When she finally found a police station she could not rush in there faster, stopping at the front desk to the surprise of the other people in the office who clearly expected a boring Sunday, and frantically yelled "My daughter's been kidnapped! You have to help me!"

Karin then stood still to deal with the exhaustion from the extreme effort she'd just endured, exhaling and inhaling very loudly. Her feet showed some noticeable cut marks and signs that running barefoot in a mountainous city might probably not be the best idea.

[Montogranda]

By then, the AMBER alert went on all forms of media, encouraging locals to find her. It was bilingual, Esperanto and English. However, after 30 minutes, just 30 kilometers north of Kunet, the pavement on the road to Atendi ended. There was a sign reading "Pavement Ends Here" and "Pavimo ĉesas tie." Below it was a sign, reading, "Atendi, 93 km."

Just 2 hours later, Vilhemo arrived in Atendi, and stopped at the gas station. The license plate had a code, the first letter of the Province in Esperanto, followed by four numbers. In the case of the Antaŭen, it is I, for Altiplano, it is T, and for Amikeco, it is M. Thus, it was A3177. He left the child in the car, and after he paid for the petrol, he then headed several kilometers north, to his home, near the border.

He then parked his car, picked up Sally, and locked the doors. His family moved in 1976 to Kenut, and he came along. In 1991, he returned and restored the family home.

He then took her to a spare room, upon which he took out some duct tape and tied around the waist, keeping the shirt and pants together. He then placed her in a closet in the spare room, closed the door, exited and then locked the door to the room. Vilhemo then had dinner.

[Zaras]

Suddenly, Sally missed the security she'd grown to take for granted in Zaras. After all, Zaran parents were so accustomed to the city's "smallness", omnipresent police forces and resulting low crime rate that they found other parents' paranoid worries about their children being snatched away by strangers nonsensical, so they never taught their children to beware of strangers. After all, if it turns out one is bad news, just run for a bit, police officers or off-duty soldiers are never far behind.

Somehow, this logic broke down in Montogranda even though it had even less of a population to police.

Sally had been afraid, though, that couldn't be denied. But she'd done her best to suppress that and instead make a nuisance of herself to her kidnapper, even though there had been a very real fear in her mind that she might push it too far and end up getting herself harmed... or killed. Certainly pounding on the window to attract bystanders' attention while Vilhemo was inside the gas station and repeatedly trying to kick away at the handbrake or otherwise force the car to derail, in some other situation, would've been actions that had pushed the line too far. Earned herself a threatening talking-to at gun point for the psychopath, or horrifying declarations of sexual interest.

But after being thrown into a closet with only some duct tape around the waist? Sally now grasped an important point: This guy's a fucking moron.

She neglected to listen to the little doubty voice in her head that was trying to tell her that she might be overestimating the situation, though.

As soon as she heard the spare room's door being locked, Sally pushed herself up against the wall until she was back on her feet, and immediately began pushing her arms apart with as much force as she could muster to try and rip the duct tape off. She managed to vaguely give herself some small room to move her hands, but it became apparent rather quickly that "ripping off the duct tape" would not be a valid option.

The closet itself was small but oddly lacking in any clothes, and noticeably old: its atmosphere in particular was dusty, leading Sally to do her best to suppress her coughing without being able to cover her mouth. She glanced around the darkness tentatively, and saw that a small splinter of wood had been broken off and dangled from the closet's right wall. She moved towards the splinter, positioned herself properly and managed to cut through the duct tape without hurting her hands, silently thanking the observation skills she'd learned from her love of LucasArts adventure games.

Sally then opened the closet's door as quietly as possible, and saw the spare room, which was mostly empty except for a bed. A window was to the right. She went to check the window, only to discover that the room was, in fact, above the ground floor.

"Well...", she mumbled to herself. "Do I risk jumping to my death, or try to find another way out? Mum 'n dad surely talked to the police by now.."

[Montogranda]

The following day, Vilhemo headed up the stairs. Whilst asleep, he decorated it with pictures of Eràn and flags of Dainarén. Now, he was ready to teach Sally.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice. After he tickled Sally really hard, he strapped her onto the bed, and began teaching her the history of the country which occupies Antaŭen Province to this day, in their own bias, of course. He explained their culture and that they shall one day liberate Zaras and Montogranda.

At noon, he then gave her slop, and then tickled her some more, before he headed back to Atendi to buy a DiGorno pizza. As he did so, the townsfolk in Atendi were familiar, but he saw someone, suspiciously looking like a "Signalite," a Zaran soldier stationed at Signal Hill, walking behind his car, and entered the shop at the petrol station.

"Saluton, mi estas Vilhelmo, sed mi devas reiri hejmen," he said, and then got back in his truck, heading back home.

He then placed the pizza in the fridge, and then watched TV when he saw an Amber Alert on TV.

"Fuck those assholes. They travelled to Occupied Dainaréni territory, from another and larger Occupied Dainaréni territory," he muttered, but could be heard from upstairs.

[Zaras]

Not just any kind of moron, thought Sally. The kind that can't cook worth shit. Oh, and a biased one too, but screw that, it's not like she was really listening to whatever the fuck he was blabbering on about. Some crap about those dictatorial pricks we seceded from anyway, it's not like it's anything to care about. And seriously, tickling?!, she thought in disbelief. What's jerkwad here playing at?

She could hear from downstairs that he was in front of the TV, and mumbling something, probably about how he gets off on dictatorships or whatever. The TV was loud enough for her to hear that an alert had been issued for her disappearance, news which made her predictably happy.

Okay, dickface's downstairs, time to see if I can help this along..., she thought while turning to the bed she was still strapped to. She fidgeted around with the restraints, trying her best to find a way to undo them. Considering how easily she'd left the closet yesterday, she expected to find a way out as well, except this time she would take her chance and try to leave through the window.

---

Meanwhile, at Signal Hill Base, a division of soldiers on their lunch break also saw the announcement of Sally's kidnapping. Comments ensued among them, mainly about the heinousness of the man who committed such an act, and hoping that she would be retrieved safely.

One of the soldiers, Steven Aurdán, focused on the announcement about the car's license plate, and suddenly realised that he had seen one earlier at a gas station which matched the description. He hurriedly left the room to pick up the nearest phone and call the police.

[Montogranda]

As he heard it, he quickly ran up the stairs, and opened the door. There she was, fidgeting.

He then ran to his room, got some duct-tape, but this time, strapped her entirely on the bed, and taped her mouth shut. Bit by bit, he does that to her, smiling as he went. After he did it horizontally, he then did it vertically.

"Madam, you are not GOING to leave until you turn twenty-one, and when you do, you are heading 'up north'," he said, referring to Dainarén. He did it really tight this time, to prevent her from escaping. He did it, to a point where it will cause her a lot of pain to even remove her hands from this position. With a smile, he then duct-taped the window. Minute by minute, he was trying to make life a living hell for her, and he seemed to be succeeding. He then left the room, when the room was entirely dark, with no sunlight getting through, and then locked the door.

As he did so, he heard the familiar siren of the Royal Mounted Police, a car coming by. He could hear it, from Atendi, the car that is the only one stationed in the entire Province of Atendi. A 1993 Ford Crown Victoria was coming.

He then drilled a hole in the door, and then connected it with a pipe to the truck, on the driveway. The door was ajar, however. Once connected, he saw the dot getting closer, a police car from the Royal Mounted Police. He promptly started the ignition, and carbon monoxide began going into the room...

Promptly, he ran up, but took a sticky-note. He then wrote in Esperanto, and attached it to the doorknob:

"Tiel longe kiel Montogranda kaj Zaras ne estas libera, ni neniam estos kaptita viva.

-Vil"

He then locked the door, but soon, he heard footsteps. The ignition was turned off, and he desperately ran into the closet, moving the mattress into the closet that she was in. The door was then locked and he was quiet. The TV was still on...

He then placed the mattress upside down, with her lying between the mattress and the floor...

[Zaras]

The first couple of hours after a kidnapping are always essential. So it was that, when Peter and Karin Kelanys first heard the news that Vilhelmo Shelley had been located and police had been dispatched to apprehend him, they reacted with something approaching ecstasy. There was a light at the end of the tunnel after all, and soon everything would be over. It was something they kept reminding themselves to stave off the nagging doubt, the worrying panic that something, somewhere, somehow might go wrong...

In Atendi, three police officers stepped out of the car and approached Vilhelmo's house, with their weapons drawn in case the kidnapper tried to do anything risky. One of them quickly ran to the truck parked nearby, shut off the exhaust and broke off the pipe. "Sir!", he gestured to his superior. "I don't think Shelley is going to give in peacefully..."

His superior grimaced. "Well, in that case, we better prioritise the rescue. Alright, people, keep moving, but keep your eyes open as well. Call for backup, too, who knows what's in store."

The third police officer reached for the walkie-talkie with his free hand to request backup.

Once at the door, the superior positioned himself properly and kicked the door open. The three then entered the house, and paused to scan the ground floor.

"Nothing, sir."

"Okay, then, that only leaves one option...", the superior said as he looked upward. The other two nodded in silent acknowledgment. He continued, "I want a first floor sweep, standard procedure. Let's hope we don't need backup to handle this..."

The three climbed up the stairs, and approached the door to the spare room, where they saw the sticky note. As the superior read it, his eyes widened. Some struggling noises and muffled breathing could be heard from behind the door.

"He's in there! Break in! Go, go, go!", he yelled.

After one of them kicked in the door, the officers burst into the room, and forcefully opened the closet where they found Vilhelmo and Sally. Sally was quickly pulled away to safety, and one of the police officers cut her restraints with his pocket knife as his colleague and superior cornered Shelley.

"Vilhelmo Shelley, you are under arrest! Hands where I can see them!", the superior yelled as they pointed their guns at him.

Shelley did not react.

"You alright?", the other police officer asked Sally in English (with a heavy Montogardan accent). "Any signs of carbon monoxide poisoning?"

"I'm alright... no, I don't feel any...", she said in a slight daze. "Fuckhead here put me in a position where I couldn't breathe anyway", she laughed.

"That's nice to know, but I still think we should test, just in case."

"Sure."

The other police officer and Sally left the room.

"Are you deaf?! Hands where I can see them!", the superior yelled.

Shelley cowered, and raised his hands with a look of resignation. The superior retrieved a pair of handcuffs and went to apply them to Shelley's hands.

[Montogranda]

As for the test results, it revealed, it was at 200 ppm (parts per million) of Carbon Monoxide. In any case, Vilhemo was then put into prison in Kunet. Just a week after, he was tried, and sentenced to... yes, life in prison, for high treason (he confessed to spying for Dainarén) and kidnapping of Sally. He would have a minimum sentence of 25 years before release. The judge sarcastically offered him to be "target practice" for the "Signalites," referring to the Zarans stationed at Signal Hill. Needless to say, Atendi locals headed to their home and egged the house.

One even left maggots at the doorstep.

A month after, the home was torn down.

[Zaras]

The Kelanys family ultimately finished their vacation without incident and returned to Zaras.

Some time later, Garán Hannes, Zaras' foreign minister, was studying the details of the case in his office at the Government House. Reading the details couldn't help but make him cringe. "Oh great", he said to no one in particular, "it's not as if our relations with Dainarén are already nonexistent." He cringed at the thought that this would inevitably come up in either the media or the next cabinet meeting, then turned around his desk to prepare an official statement of gratitude for Montogranda's invaluable help in resolving the situation, coupled with the usual sentiment about standing up to Dainarén's tyranny as steadfast allies.

The next day, the Kelanys case did indeed come up in both the media and the cabinet meeting. The cabinet meeting ultimately resolved that there was nothing really much for the government to do besides issue an official statement of support for Montogranda and condemnation for Dainarén, and the furor in the media ended rather quickly since Zarans were already used to thinking that Dainarén were pretty much evil. The ADR did find a new angle for their propaganda, though: depicting Dainarén as being led by a genocidal, psychotic regime that doesn't think twice about going as low as trying to kidnap and brainwash people, even though it hadn't yet been proved that Shelley was working in cooperation with the Dainarénis.

[Montogranda]

The Kelanys family ultimately finished their vacation without incident and returned to Zaras.

Some time later, Garán Hannes, Zaras' foreign minister, was studying the details of the case in his office at the Government House. Reading the details couldn't help but make him cringe. "Oh great", he said to no one in particular, "it's not as if our relations with Dainarén are already nonexistent." He cringed at the thought that this would inevitably come up in either the media or the next cabinet meeting, then turned around his desk to prepare an official statement of gratitude for Montogranda's invaluable help in resolving the situation, coupled with the usual sentiment about standing up to Dainarén's tyranny as steadfast allies.

The next day, the Kelanys case did indeed come up in both the media and the cabinet meeting. The cabinet meeting ultimately resolved that there was nothing really much for the government to do besides issue an official statement of support for Montogranda and condemnation for Dainarén, and the furor in the media ended rather quickly since Zarans were already used to thinking that Dainarén were pretty much evil. The ADR did find a new angle for their propaganda, though: depicting Dainarén as being led by a genocidal, psychotic regime that doesn't think twice about going as low as trying to kidnap and brainwash people, even though it had never been proved that Shelley was working in cooperation with the Dainarénis.

There however was significant evidence, a personal telephone link to the capital of Dainarén was discovered, as well as flags, and even documents from their government to him. They even would reveal that Shelley had a gun which was revealed to be a genuine Dainaréni gun.

In response, the Royal Mounted Police shared the information with the Government of Zaras, via Signal Hill Military Base, which functions as a Zaran military base, thereby following Zaran legal customs, as well as Montograndan legal systems.

[Zaras]

The new information from the Montograndan police that Shelley had in fact been working for Dainarén gave the ADR some very welcomed vindication that their accusations had been proven true, but beyond issuing a strong condemnation of Dainarén the Zaran government really could do nothing more. After all, Zaras and Montogranda, to be technical, are in a distinct position of weakness compared to their much larger neighbour, so threats are near-impossible to back up in any meaningful way.