AN: I am working on Somewhere in Midgar: Two Children - and thank you to all those very kind people who have reviewed that story.
This is just a one-shot that appeared out of nowhere.
Please R&R.
The Life and Crimes of Ruben Shearer
By Marika Parks
A Sequel to Power Play
"This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely" - deliberate, thinks Tseng, turning the glossy paperback over to consider the cover again. The illustration is a monochrome photograph of an executive office dominated by a huge desk in the foreground. Ceiling-to-floor windows look down onto a blurred, anonymous cityscape. A man's hand rests on the surface of the desk – a hand that is pale, slender, youthful. An expensive-looking signet ring bears the entwined initials R. S. The cuff of the sleeve of a suit jacket is just visible at the edge of the picture. The suit is white. Across the top of the photograph the title is bold and blood-red.
Tseng shakes his head. This time, Ms. Parks is demanding their attention. There is so little attempt to disguise the target of the book's bitter satire that it's laughable – although he doubts the author is laughing at present, down in the holding cells in the basement of the new Shin-Ra building where she has been detained at the president's pleasure since two nights ago.
Marika Parks. Not even a pseudonym.
Always meticulous in his research, Tseng has read every word of this book, along with Ms. Park's earlier, less successful novel Power Play. Although the Shearer Cooperation – a global power company - featured in the first book, the references were much more guarded: the satire subtle. Of the two novels, Tseng prefers the earlier work by some way, admiring its elegance and restraint. But there's no doubt Ms. Parks knew what she was doing when she abandoned that oblique style in favour of direct critique: this new work is starting to attract reviews – journalists are interested – readers are spreading the word on-line. Perhaps the author calculated that the new post-meteor world was safe enough to take a risk that would have been unthinkable when the old president was alive. Shin-Ra has lost much of its former influence over the press, and market-share is a term to be reckoned with now. But if that's Ms. Parks' thinking, she doesn't know Rufus Shinra nearly as well as her clever portrayal of 'Ruben Shearer' might suggest.
Tseng picks up both novels along with the slim file on Marika Parks and heads for the elevator. In the lobby outside the president's office, Tseng meets Reno who's on his way down from the rooftop helipad.
"Hey boss," Reno grins, casual as ever. He notices the novel on top of Tseng's pile and raises his eyebrows. "The Life and Crimes of Ruben Shearer" he says, sotto voce, eyes on the president's door. "I read that, yo! Kinda close to the bone though – all that stuff about the S-Force and the Shadows! She's got some nerve, huh? Do you think the boss knows?"
Tseng just looks at the books and the file in his arms, and back at Reno, who pieces it together instantly and nods, as abashed as Reno ever gets. "Right. So, what – she's in custody?"
"Need to know, Reno," Tseng replies - which they both know is a yes.
Reno's good mood is gone, and Tseng understands the anger that ignites suddenly behind his green eyes. "Thought that was over, yo! New shiny Shin-Ra…" He sounds disgusted. Tseng makes no comment, but his expression is sympathetic. Reno shrugs. "Rather you than me," he says, turning to go. He looks back at Tseng as he reaches the elevator doors though, and adds – "Good luck in there, Boss."
"Thank you, Reno."
Entering Rufus Shinra's office Tseng is forced to suppress a smile acknowledging the similarities between the scene before him and the cover of the book he's here to discuss. Rufus is not at his desk; he's over by the window looking down at Edge – Shin-Ra's phoenix city, twice risen from the ashes of Midgar.
"You would have thought people would be grateful," sighs Rufus, turning towards his Director of Administrative Research.
"In my experience," offers Tseng, "People are usually quicker to blame than to praise."
"Hmm. Human nature… Have you read the book?"
"Yes, Sir."
"It's a portrait of a monster. We can't allow it to circulate further than it already has. Ever since meteor, PR's been shot to pieces – this…travesty…could be the last straw."
"Sir, it's a crude parody." Actually, Tseng believes it's a lot better than that, but his aim here is to temper Rufus's anger and sooth injured pride. If there's one thing Rufus has never been able to cope with, it's personal criticism.
"The allegations she makes!" Rufus exclaims. "This – Shearer –" the president spits out the name like poison – "Everything he does is based on self-interest and greed. And S-Force? She might as well have named every member of SOLDIER individually! We have to stop this being widely read."
"Yes, Sir."
"Why is she still writing? Didn't Veld have orders to deal with her after that Power Play thing, when I was VP?"
"Yes. We felt that if she disappeared it would cause more interest than simply allowing the book to sink. We owned a much larger section of the press then of course. There were several very negative reviews…"
"But the world's moved on since then. And this book isn't getting negative reviews, is it? No, Tseng. I want this dealt with. We pull this book – buy up every copy and destroy it. Make it clear to the publishers and the press that no more will be printed and that we don't want it mentioned. Send Reno to the publishers…A bit of good, old-fashioned intimidation – he's always been good at that. And the others can sort out the journalists and the rest of the press."
The Director can see the plans forming behind Rufus's pale blue eyes. It's the reason Tseng's still here – in spite of everything. Rufus may be all that Marika Parks claims that he is, but he's also a man of vision – someone who sees a direction for the world to go in, even after all that's happened. Tseng has no idea whether that vision is the right one, or if it will be enough, but he believes with his whole soul that some vision is better than none – that order is preferable to chaos. Reno might argue the point with him – but then, Tseng can't imagine a world run by Reno's rules.
No – Tseng is with Rufus now, for better or worse. He tries to check Rufus's wilder excesses – aims to provide moderation and stability – but Rufus is always the boss, and always will be.
"The author?" Tseng asks.
"That's simple enough," replies Rufus coolly. "Either the book dies, or she does. Give her the chance to vanish quietly. If she won't – "
"Yes, Sir. Understood."
Marika Parks is thirtyish, with a rather child-like round face and long, dark hair. According to her file, her parents both died in Junon when Genesis's forces attacked the town – innocent bystanders killed by indiscriminate fire from Shin-Ra robots. She was in Midgar, studying journalism, at the time. She has no other family.
Marika looks up as Tseng enters the cell. She's afraid, but defiant: so far she hasn't been physically mistreated – just kept here on fairly meagre rations without access to a lawyer. She informs Tseng of that fact, firmly, but without hysteria. "I have a right to a lawyer," she states.
Tseng remembers the old scripts – is loath to use them now. You have no rights. This is Shin-Ra. We make the rules. Lines he had hoped never to have to use again. Instead he says, "I read your books, Ms. Parks. If they reflect your true attitude to Shin-Ra, you can't seriously be expecting a lawyer."
"Touché." She smiles, then shakes her head. "There I go, sounding like a bad thriller writer again. Not a good habit…" She looks at Tseng, handsome in his immaculate dark suit. "You're not exactly what I expected…" she says. "So, what did you think?"
"About?"
"The books? I'm an author – I need to know what my readers think!"
"I preferred the first. It had a lighter touch. Subtle."
Marika Parks actually laughs at that. "Thank you! But that's not hard compared with The Life and Crimes… Making it obvious was rather the point."
Tseng smiles – but it's his old smile; cold and dangerous. "Well – you got our attention. I'm afraid that usually isn't a good idea."
"Why – what are you going to do? Kill me?" Marika doesn't smile, and Tseng realises that she has always known this is a genuine possibility. He finds that he admires her more for that.
"I hope not. But we can't allow your novel to circulate – for reasons that must be obvious. We're going to remove it from the market – comprehensively. You will have to agree to go away – move to somewhere quiet and give up writing. Refuse to give interviews. We'll provide a script detailing what you can tell the press. You will be retiring from writing for 'personal reasons', of course."
Marika says nothing for a long time. At last she looks up at Tseng. "You seem like a cultured man," she says. "Not the Shin-Ra thug I'd imagined. Doesn't destroying books bother you at all? Don't you know any history – all the regimes that have suppressed free speech; burned books? The Knights of Gaia, the Junon Empire in the sixteenth century? What about the Huo dynasty in your native Wutai? Do you want Shin-Ra to be remembered like that – as a repressive virtual dictatorship?"
"No," Tseng concedes. "But I do want the world, and what we have built since meteor, to survive. I think your attack on the president jeopardizes that, without offering anything constructive as an alternative."
"If a ruler can't accept criticism, how weak he must be!" she counters. "What a tenuous grip on power, to be so afraid of words!"
"I thought the pen was mightier than the sword?" comments Tseng.
"Oh," Marika says, with a little, scared smile, "Would you be using a sword? I'd imagined a gun."
"Yes – it would be a gun. But neither will be necessary, I take it?"
Marika swallows, but looks Tseng right in the eyes. He knows, then, what her answer is. Instead of stating it aloud, she says, "In my book the Turks were the hardest for me to write – because there's so little available information. My Shadows were more downmarket than you seem to be – more full of gangster types and mindless yobs. But I guess the end result is the same. In one scene I called them the enders of stories. Got that much right, didn't I?"
"I remember that scene. Bullets make the most emphatic full-stops."
"You can quote me! I'm flattered."
"You got many things right." Tseng imagines Reno now, probably doing a good impersonation of a mindless yob as he ensures that the publisher will agree to erase all traces of the book from the records and hand over every remaining copy. "More than you know." He looks at her frightened, resolute face. "It can't be worth dying for," he says. "Won't you reconsider?"
"Freedom is worth dying for," Marika says, grimacing. "Shame it's such a cliché – but I can't think of a better way to put it."
Tseng takes the pistol he thought he wouldn't need from inside his jacket, and loads it deliberately slowly, hoping to scare her into changing her mind. For one moment he considers going back to Rufus to ask him to reconsider. But some things are just a waste of time.
Tseng knows that he would die for Rufus without a second's hesitation. But killing for him has become harder over the years. He tells himself that this will be the last time – that after this Rufus will be secure, and there will never again be a need –
But he knows that this is a lie.
Marika's voice breaks a little as she asks, "What's going to happen to me – officially, I mean? I'd…like to know the end of the story."
"Some kind of accident usually," Tseng tells her. "Possibly a gas explosion."
"Ah," she says, with a tremulous smile. "These new power sources, huh? So much less reliable than mako!"
"I'm giving you one more chance to change your mind," says Tseng. He's never longed for anyone to back down before. Marika shakes her head firmly, and starts to cry. "Damn!" She says. "I promised myself I wouldn't."
"Everybody does," says Tseng. His eyes are sorrowful, and almost kind.
"Oh, do they?" says Marika, trembling a little. "I never wrote a death scene where they did th-"
.
She was right. Bullets do make the most emphatic full-stops.
When Tseng reports to Rufus the only visible sign of the president's shock is the slight compression of his lips. "A woman of principles, at least," he says.
"Yes."
"Have all the associated matters been dealt with?"
Tseng pictures crates of books being pulped in dark factories – imagines long-ago soldiers throwing volumes onto blazing pyres in city squares. Heresy – dissent – truth.
"Yes, Sir," he says, calm and efficient as always. "It's all been taken care of."
A few days later Reno appears in Tseng's office holding a book. Power Play.
"I read this one too Boss," he says, pointedly. "Got it at the publishers. Better than the second, I think."
"I agree with you," says Tseng mildly. "But you probably shouldn't keep it."
"Might hang on to it all the same," comments Reno. "Don't suppose it'll ever be part of a trilogy now, right?"
Technically that's classified information, but Tseng looks at Reno and nods once. Reno's eyes are hard as he says, "No. Thought not. Ah…fuck it all to hell!" He throws his hands in the air as he walks away, but he'll be back. He needs Rufus's vision as much as the rest of them do.
It's a month later that the on-line file goes viral: The early death of Marika Parks: a victim of Shin-Ra.
Tseng is constantly on the phone fielding calls from every TV station and newspaper hack on the planet. Rufus is furious and as frightened as any of them have ever seen him. Rude and Elena are keeping investigators out of the building, and Reno's working on ways to disable the service providers who refuse to take notice of Shin-Ra threats soon enough. But it's all too late – the story is global news.
When Tseng finally gets time to read the story Marika must have written days before they arrested her, he smiles slightly even as his heart contracts at her vivid description of the bullet entering her own brain. The man with the gun is a dead-ringer for Rude, and the official story about her death is an auto smash rather than the house fire they decided on, but otherwise the details are uncannily accurate.
Or perhaps it's not so uncanny. After all, Tseng reflects, this has all happened so many times before. The Knights of Gaia. The Junon Empire in the sixteenth century. The Huo dynasty in Wutai.
And Shin-Ra.
Thanks for reading.
Writers long for feed-back, even at gun-point...
Don't we?