Azula – The Prisoner
The Arrival of the Princess – Part II
"Where am I?"
"In the Village?"
"What do you want?"
"Information."
"Whose side are you on?"
"That would be telling. We want information...information...information."
"You won't get it."
"By hook or by crook, we will."
"Who are you?"
"The new Number 2."
"Who is Number 1?"
"You are Number 9."
"I am not a number! I am a free man."
A female voice laughed cynically at Azula.
* * *
"Number 9 has made a few meek escape attempts but given her importance to our cause we will not take any action – yet." A tall and very handsome middle aged woman rose out of the floor in the round chair and spoke to herself. She knew she would have her words recorded. Azula examined the Penny Farthing bike that stood permanently in Number 2's dome shaped meeting room. The meaning of most of the things she saw in the Village remained hidden to her.
"I wanted to make an effort to meet you Number 9." A slender woman in her mid forties spoke quietly. "You have a very interesting file and Number 18 has shown some concern for your mental health."
"Mother!?" Azula stared on in astonishment. Number 2 looked exactly like her mother and even carried herself in the same manner but wore the dull black and gray togs of the former Number 2 save a silver Fire Nation decoration to keep her hair in her familiar bun. "How did you come to be here?"
"I am the new Number 2."
"You look like Lady Ursa." Azula walked out from behind the bicycle. If the Village minders wished to keep her off guard this worked very well. "Exactly like my mother."
"You are Number 9." Number 2 stood up gracefully from her chair. "Do not forget your place among us."
"I have seen your Hospital and all the odd gadgets." Azula said quietly. "And yet no one can tell me how and why I came to be among you?"
"Would it make any difference?" Number 2 gracefully walked to Azula. "It doesn't matter to you how we work, only how you fit."
"I fit – out there – beyond this place." Azula asserted.
"You no longer have a place." Number 2 walked around the dome shaped room past the bicycle that stood as a fixture. "Has my predecessor not explained you can never leave here?"
"He has on many occasions." Azula snorted and because this new Number 2 reminded her of her mother she took a more casual tone and showed her contempt for the Village more openly. "That does not mean I have to believe him. The schooner can come and go. The helicopters leave and then return with passengers. He may say I can never leave but evidence suggests people can do exactly that."
"Not you Number 9." Number 2 spoke softly. "We have made certain our Villagers don't leave, don't have a chance to leave and in the end don't desire to leave."
Azula felt a cold chill run through her. Number 2 made a threat and in this place a very credible threat which for all of the soft and gentle composure she exhibited there remained a dutiful harshness. Number 2 had a duty to lead the Village and a fierce dedication to keep it working. Azula had no idea if fear kept the leaders in line. Azula had a vague sense of 'them' – others above Number 2 holding the Village under their thumb and using it to further their sinister purposes. In her former life she could have admired them. The Village had the gentle look of a Mediterranean resort – quite unlike what Azula had ever seen – but Azula appreciated it for what it appeared to be. Underneath that Azula had the feeling lay a nightmare she could not yet fathom. Number 2 returned to her chair and pressed the button that released the large double doors.
"You may go now." Number 2 gestured to the doors.
Azula said nothing as she stewed in her own rage but she walked toward the door.
"Be seeing you." Number 2 said cheerfully.
* * *
Azula's flat had a television set but no means of turning it on. She discovered the device emitted a nasty electric shock if she touched it in any manner – yet another way in which they controlled her. She found books but nothing of any substance to read. She came back from the Green Dome in a foul mood and decided to find out the exact nature of the black plastic boxes that had white labels on their spines. They looked about the size of large paper back books but the white label only had a number on it.
Azula had felt a shock from the television when she had touched it so she went to the kitchen and found a wooden spoon – returned to the living room and knocked the black plastic box numbered 3 off the shelf. The Village did nothing to engender her trust. A black box with a clear round window fell out of the box. Azula picked it up and read a plainly printed label in the bland red typeface. She opened the black plastic box and inside found another box with the same label.
The Historical Documents - Book 3: 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Azula looked that odd box. It had two white plastic indentations on the opposite side of the label.
The door hummed and Number 24 cheerfully entered Azula's flat.
"I'm not in the mood." Azula said blandly.
"You planning to watch a video?" Number 24 asked happily.
"Excuse me?" Azula held the black plastic book like object in her hands.
"You have a Betamax Videocassette in your hands." Number 24 pointed. "It holds movies."
"I have no idea what any of that means." Azula shrugged.
"Give me that." Number 24 motioned with her hands. Azula handed her the box and she pushed it into a silver machine with a slot that sat below the television set. Number 24 did not get a shock from the video machine. The black cassette vanished inside the machine and a door closed. The television set came on automatically.
Thunk! Click! Whir! Click!
A loud trumpet call came over the screen. Azula had never seen the television in operation before. A brightly colored Village logo spun in the middle of the screen as the motors inside the video player whirred. After a few moments the Village logo stopped and the screen faded out.
"Water, Earth, Fire, Air." The screen faded back in and Azula recognized the narrator as the voice of Katara or Number 18. "Long ago the Four Nations lived together in Harmony."
"Living in Harmony?" Number 24 took a seat on the chrome accented leather couch.
"My life as a farce." Azula watched the action unfold as she witnessed the animated version what had transpired the day she tried to kill her brother at the Western Air Temple. After the opening battle sequence she grabbed one of the black cases and stomped out of the apartment.
"A tale told by an idiot." Azula spat on the ground as she walked outside.
Number 24 continued to listen to the television as if nothing had happened.
"How did you do this!?" Azula slammed the plastic cassette in its black case on the polished curved desk of Number 2. The butler remained silent as he entered the room pushing his cart but he backed off and stayed out of the action. Number 2 rose slowly out of the floor on her pedestal chair.
"I ask again!" Azula thumped the videocassette case and spoke harshly. "How did you do this?"
"We provide entertainment if we feel the need to. The old Number 2 noted your dissatisfaction with the public entertainment." Number 2 answered softly. "We include these things in your file and when possible rectify them so you will settle down."
"My life written on a brown ribbon inside a black plastic box!" Azula pounded the table. "Entertainment?"
"As we have told you – we have complete files." The New Number 2 did not use an umbrella as a prop as the old one did. That nameless butler stood off to the side of the domed room waiting to receive orders – Azula wondered if he performed any of the duties of a real butler. He proved to be a mysterious and unsettling presence as he never seemed to stray far from the Green Dome. "What better entertainment than your past glories."
"But how?" Azula looked defeated.
"We have our methods." Number 2 remained seated. "If you do not find the selection of movie entertainment to your liking you may buy videos when available in the General Store."
Azula prepared to storm out but the double doors did not yield.
"You forgot this." The New Number 2 handed over to Azula the black case. The doors slid open with a hum, the butler did not move and Azula snatched the case out of Number 2's grasp.
* * *
The next morning as the band began to play Azula began to climb the bell tower. This morning felt cool and the clouds promised rain but Azula looked out to sea anyway. She saw only the gray dome of solid clouds and a stiff wind blew against her face. Azula snorted with contempt when she saw the black and blue robes of Number 18 standing in Azula's place glancing out to sea.
"I have seen my life on a screen." Azula stood at the top of the stairs.
"I hope it had entertainment value." Number 18 turned to face Number 9.
"You narrated the opening."
"They say I have a pleasant sounding voice." Number 18's intense blue eyes focused on Azula. "They have many uses for such a talent not only as comfort in distress."
"How?" Azula stammered and grasped Number 18's clothes and shoved her. "How did they record the intimate details of my life!?"
"You assume they had to." Number 18 tapped her forehead. "Perhaps you did the recording and they merely added the production values."
"As opaque as ever." Azula huffed and let go of Number 18 shoving her back rudely.
"You think our reach ends where your mind begins?" Number 18 laughed with contempt. "You willingly made known all those accomplishments during the War you took pride in. You opened the door – we merely entered."
"Then why let me live in this place?" Azula clenched her fists. "Break me and steal what you want if you can read minds!"
"We can enter open doors." Number 18 brushed off her clothes as if an untouchable had violated her. "We can't so easily force those locked to us."
"How can that be?" Azula stepped back feeling violated and unable to come up with words to express her rage. They had taken her bending – in a way they had castrated her and read her mind then as a final insult they turned her life into a children's cartoon.
"It does not matter." Number 18 stepped forward. "You hope to see that schooner return? You hope for escape? You hope to leave this place and return to your old life?"
"That would be telling." Azula grinned sarcastically as she began to recover her mental discipline.
"Have it your way." Number 18 walked past Azula. "No one escapes but you may become labeled a deviant if you continue to refuse our help."
"I stand out already!" Azula shouted and held out her vest and arm. "I wear red – no one else does!"
"How fortunate." Number 18 began walking down the stairs followed by Azula. "Perhaps you are still – you."
"And why are all the taxi's white? Why do we have curfew at night?" Azula gave up as Number 18 walked out of the bell tower. She looked out to the sea and saw nothing. She went into the General Store and saw another selection of records on sale – they changed them often. This day featured pieces by another composer named Bach. With her always good work credit card she purchased five records.
Azula returned home and the door opened. Number 24 sat on the couch happily watching The Historical Documents with her feet on the polished coffee table and sipping tea. Azula placed the records on the kitchen counter.
"How did you get in?" Azula asked abruptly.
"We have a peaceful community in the Village." Number 24 sounded happy. "No one locks their doors so I can come and go where I please."
"Even the Town Hall?"
"Within reason." Number 24 laughed as she relaxed on the couch and as Azula watched her conquest of Ba Sing Se unfold in the small confines of the television screen.
* * *
Azula had convinced Number 24 to show her how the video playing machine worked. Like many things in the Village it operated on the mysterious principles of electronics which Number 24 could not explain. Azula had not encountered this technology but it seemed to serve mundane functions – reproducing sound and video. Azula did not wish to think about the hideous technology that could break minds. A useful thing the ability to read memories – Azula could have broken many enemies with such power. The intentions of her enemies made transparent by some technology.
Azula placed a disk labeled Bach Brandenburg Concerti 1 – 3 on the record player. Unlike the video player or television she could move the record player around her flat and plug it into the wall where she wished. She had placed it on the coffee table so she could lay back and blot out the ever present noise of the Village.
She found the music had a strange precision to it although it took a few moments for her ear to adjust to its density and linear counterpoint but she had nothing better to do on a dreary afternoon. She lay back on the couch and folder her arms against her chest and let her mind dream of escape.
She heard a knock at the door but refused to answer.
Whir! Click!
The door opened as it always did for Number 2.
"Brandenburg Concerto # 1 in F Major by Johann Sebastian Bach." Number 2 folded up a colorful umbrella. "I wonder if Bach had any idea of the scope of his genius during his career as the Cantor of Leipzig?"
"I had never heard of him before today." Azula refused to get up off the couch. "My doctor the good Number 18 show some concern?"
"She does fret about her charges but that makes her a great physician." Number 2 stood over Azula with her arms crossed.
"In the Historical Documents we see you went quite mad." Number 2 continued speaking loudly over the music.
"You do realize you have barged in on me?" Azula asked impatiently.
"That right comes with the title of Number 2 and with my position in the Village. You have a bad habit of ignoring your telephone and not answering your door." A cold and damp breeze came in through the still open front door. "We can discuss your rudeness later."
"You talk of rudeness!? You have my memories on videotape." Azula growled. "I have nothing to add and I cannot help you further."
"Memories do not give us reasons." Number 2 asserted herself in a manner quite unlike Lady Ursa. "Do we trust the recollections of a woman driven insane by the stress of War? We would like to know all of what happened."
"You will let me know when you find it." Azula sat up on the couch. "Perhaps you can send me a letter once I leave this place."
"Oh Number 9." Number 2 laughed as if entertained by a small child's odd statements. "I find it sad Number 18 doesn't enjoy your wit."
* * *
"The Black Widow is due in at 10 am tomorrow morning." The old chess master Number 118 said calmly to Azula. Azula had returned from her daily trip to the bell tower. At least this morning she could enjoy partly sunny skies and a view out for miles. She saw nothing.
"You play an irritating game of chess." Azula said. "Few people can stalemate me."
"I have had time to learn much about chess." The old chess master lived in what the Village called The Old People's Home and Azula and the chess master met at a table set out in the sun on the lawn between the home and something called The Stone Boat. Neither she, nor the old man knew why it stood there above the high tide line but the odd villager went onto it to sun themselves. Azula found it laughable that the Village needed a retirement home since she couldn't believe many people lived to a ripe old age without becoming broken shells.
"The Black Widow? Are you expecting something important?" Azula leaned over the chess board.
"Always important – the arrival of the Black Widow." The elderly man laughed. "It brings new things in and takes old things out. We depend on it – the Black Widow."
"New things like the New Number 2?" Azula questioned further.
"New things we need." The old man answered quietly. "Checkmate. You didn't pay attention to your bishop."
"I see." Azula appeared irritated but decided the old man need not have the satisfaction of a victory made complete by a show of her irritation. She stood up slowly and looked out to The Stone Boat.
"Be seeing you." Number 118 made that strange gesture as he bid Azula farewell. Azula made her daily trip to the top of the bell tower climbing slowly up the stairs for she heard someone moving about up there.
"Hello. This isn't Number 18?" Azula shouted out.
"Number 8." Came a pleasant male voice Azula did not recognize.
"Come to spy on me?" Azula shouted back as she neared the top of the stairs.
"No." The voice had a warm sounding accent although she could not place it. "I came up here to enjoy the Sun."
"Welcome to the Village." Azula sneered. She found the voice belonged to a young male with long blond hair in a neat pony tail. He looked thin but tall and had an angular face that reminded her of a young version of the old Number 2. He wore mustard yellow and black but detail for detail his clothes looked like hers. He had the blue eyes of Number 18 and yet he looked rather young to have responsibility for anything in the Village.
"May I ask your name?" Azula stood at the top of the stone stairwell.
"You may not." The man replied. "I am Number 8. All to know – all I can tell you."
"How did you come to end up here?" Azula asked.
"Innocent bystanders can witness things not meant for their eyes." Number 8 replied. "I saw things at my University I had no permission to see. I ended up here because I knew too much."
"What did you know?" Azula did not approach the young man.
"I wish I could remember." Number 8 placed his hands on the stone rail of the bell tower. "It must have mattered to one side or the other. It doesn't matter now because they keep me here for my talents now that they have all they need to know."
"What kind of talents?" Azula asked quietly and hoped for something she could use or exploit.
"Computer talents." He answered back. "They need people like me to tend to the machines that make this Hermit Dictatorship function."
"What kind of machines?" Azula lowered her eyebrows.
"I have said far too much to a stranger." Number 8 rushed past her. "They watch and hear everything."
Azula stood to one side as Number 8 pushed past her and ran down the steps. Below her a gardener decorated the base of the bell tower in beautiful gold marigolds. Shew watched Number 8 rush away from the bell tower and across the lawns in a brisk walk. Azula did not wish the Village to know her to well but she followed the young man until he vanished from her sight.
"I cannot be kept." Azula hissed hoping someone would hear.
* * *
The Black Widow turned up on time as scheduled.
"Ten in the morning." Azula watched it dock from The Stone Boat hoping to become invisible among the villagers out to enjoy the sunny morning. The Black Widow looked decidedly low tech compared to what Azula had seen elsewhere in the Village. It appeared to look like a simple sailing vessel – the kind Azula knew how to pilot. The Village suspected someone might attempt to use it in a plot to escape and had a half dozen armed guards posted to protect it as the crew unloaded wooden crates onto the dock.
No Villagers went near the boat.
It suggested escape to Azula. She knew she could handle the half dozen guards, navigate the boat to a civilized port and escape if she didn't attract the attention of Rover and the Minders. She decided to make her move in the evening after curfew.
"Hoping to take The Stone Boat out to sea?" The New Number 2 approached Azula.
"You will not let me leave this place." Azula faced Number 2.
"You have an appointment with the Labor Exchange." Number 2 held a file folder in her hand. "Maybe we can find something constructive for you to do."
"Number 8?" Azula did not move. "How did he come to be here?"
"You have no experience with our mainframe systems." Number 2 replied. "Number 8 does an admirable job keeping our computers running."
"How did a man my age end up here?" Azula asked quietly.
"Come along." Number 2 took on a more commanding tone. "We have all we need on file but the Labor Exchange prefers to conduct interviews in person."
"Welcome to the Labor Exchange my dear." A middle aged woman with brunette hair greeted Azula as she walked into the Labor Exchange. Number 2 followed quietly behind her. "Number 9?"
"If you say so?" Azula said unhappily.
"If you will follow me please." The woman unlocked a door to the side of the long counter. "We have some routine tests and the Psychologist will interview you to determine your skills."
Azula followed the woman into a large domed room with a circular desk in the center. A meek looking elderly man with silver hair and thick glasses sat quietly as he played with a mechanism made of plastic Lego blocks. The Village seemed to have an endless supply of balding gray haired men. Azula wondered ifthey had a series of standard models like him they trotted out when they needed a post filled.
"I have brought you Number 9." Number 2 said quietly. "I have her file."
"We won't take long." The man said as he turned a piece on the strange Lego sculpture and the whole thing moved. "We merely need to know your fondest desires in life."
"Escape this place." Azula answered.
"Achieve the respect due her." The man wrote down on a notepad. "We can find out what motivates you, what failures you find most troubling, and what makes you tick emotionally."
"I have a series of ink blots." The psychologist said calmly as if he had not heard the tirade. "Tell me the first think that comes to mind when you see them."
The psychologist held up a legal paper sized card with an inkblot on it.
"Escape." Azula chirped.
"Duty to the village." The psychologist answered.
"And now." The psychologist held up a second card.
"This place reduced to ashes." Azula said loudly. "If you have all you need on file why subject me to these petty humiliations?"
"Loyalty to the Village." The psychologist answered.
Azula stormed out of the room and nearly took the front door off its hinges. Number 2 shook her head when she heard the door slam shut. Azula walked past the band stand and into her apartment and did not quit pacing for some time.
* * *
The Cat and Mouse pub opened after sunset and stayed open until curfew. The Palace of Fun offered Village entertainment – the Cat and Mouse, a penny arcade and a small theater. Azula didn't drink and the pub did not offer alcohol but she wanted to show her observers that she was up to something entirely ordinary. For all the strangeness of the Village – the pub looked rather mundane. It had a long oak bar along the back, a bar tender with a handle bar mustache and like bars in her realm, a dank and dark interior. She drank ginger ale and thought quietly to herself about the challenge she faced. She had to avoid capture and make it to The Black Widow and overcome the guards.
"Life is for living!" Number 24 plodded up to Azula's table with what looked like a deck of cards.
"If you are blind how can you play cards?" Azula asked quietly.
"I know where they have cameras." Number 24 said coyly.
"Escape is not possible." Azula stated blandly
"True." Number 24 stood up held out the Ace of Spades and left the deck of cards on the table. "Be seeing you."
Azula placed the deck of cards in her vest after she had made certain no one had her under surveillance. She placed her empty glass on the bar and left a few minutes after Number 24.
"Curfew in 15 minutes...Fifteen minutes to curfew." The inane female voice announced.
"Walk this way." The familiar voice of Number 24 rang out from behind a bush on the side of the building that housed the Cat and Mouse. "I will lead you down to the dock."
"Why do you wish to escape with me me?" Azula followed Number 24 as they took a torturous route from the Palace of Fun to the dock.
"I don't." Number 24 whispered.
"Why not."
"I do not like to think what they might do to my parents." Number 24 led Azula to a spot below the dock. "They would punish them severely."
"Why help me?" Azula asked suspiciously.
"You have no family." Number 24 pointed up at the dock. "I hear the guards talking."
Azula grabbed the deck of the dock and hoisted herself up. She met a guard halfway down the dock and punched him in the groin and tossed him into the water. A second guard came at her but misjudged the distance between him and Azula in the dim moonlight. She slammed his head into the dock and he fell unconscious. She now had the adrenaline flowing and rushed to the ropes that tied off The Black Widow. She untied the boat and jumped on board.
She jumped the guard in the pilot house. He didn't expect such a ferocious attack. She tossed him through the large glass window and he fell over the side into the dark cold sea. A fourth guard came up from below deck and tried to knock Azula out with a truncheon. She grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back and took the truncheon from him. With a swift block to the back of the head she felled him and propped him against the side of the pilot cabin.
A siren went off in the village but Azula had the small inboard engine revving up and had begun to pull away from the dock. The Black Widow did not have great speed – the inboard engine provided enough power to propel the vessel at around ten knots when the wind failed. She knew Rover and the speed boats could move much faster than this ship. On the other hand Azula knew she had an advantage because she had a much larger boat.
"Orange Alert!" The Village speakers announced. This time a male voice came over the public address system.
Azula could make out the outline of a silver speed boat rushing toward her. She turned the boat sharply to the left and tried to ram the speed boat. She missed but the pursuing boat flew past her and turned across her path. She saw two guards and a driver in the speed boat and knew they would attempt to board The Black Widow.
The white balloon known as Rover flew toward The Black Widow at immense speed. She had moved about two kilometers out from shore but this did not trouble the menacing while ball as it skipped along the surface of the water. She didn't think it could get in the pilot cabin but it had no problem catching up with the boat. It hovered over the stern of the ship and moved toward the wheel house. Rover could not enter the small wooden pilot house but it did a very fine job of instilling terror in the usually steady nerved Azula as it bounced along the deck of the small vessel.
Azula made a sharp turn to ram a second power boat but the wheel locked and the engine stopped. The boat stopped dead in the water as two speed boats rushed around it. Rover roamed the deck of the ship and so she could not leave the wheel house to rig the sails. The controls moved on their own and the wheel badly bruised her hand as it turned. The speed boats roared around her boat. Rover had her trapped in the wheelhouse and she could not work out how the controls could have stopped working.
She could see the lights of the Village come into view as The Black Widow turned once more toward land. The sails unfurled and filled and she found herself bound for the Village. She tried to work the controls but the ship had no power and the wheel turned on its own.
A quarter of an hour later the ship pulled up to the dock and the guards tied it off. A stern looking New Number 2 waited for her to exit the ship. Rover left the ship and vanished in the night with a terrible roar.
"You broke curfew." Azula found it hard to believe she wasn't hearing her mother talk.
"Is that all?" Azula said as two guards hauled her off the boat.
"What will it take to convince you that escape from the Village is not possible." Number 2 stolled along side Azula as they left the dock.
* * *
She doesn't suspect Number 24 is her observer?" Number 2 asked the Supervisor as they watched Azula walk across the Chess Lawn. The Chess Lawn consisted of a green lawn about the size of a tennis court. It allowed promising tyrants to play chess on a grand scale using the Villagers as living pieces. Thirty two people played the black and whiter pieces – they held up a wooden placard with their piece and their color. Thirty two white plywood squares set out on the lawn formed the chessboard with alternating grass green and white squares. Azula had witnessed several games but had not been recruited to play.
"I couldn't tell you for certain." The Supervisor pushed his wire frame glasses up his nose. "Given her nature she could suspect a good many things. Perhaps you should speak with the good doctor."
Azula did suspect Number 24 and during her walk around the Village her thoughts turned to a strategy to keep her minders off guard and using Number 24 to her own ends. In her former life she could terrify most people into compliance but in this place she held no sway over anyone. She walked toward The Stone Boat taking in the sea breeze and the partly cloudy morning.
Number 24 could detect deception in most people although Azula could lie far better than most people. She didn't know what they had stripped from her. They knew she had planned to escape but she had let no one know – not even Number 24 so that made the blind girl an obvious leak. Even Azula found the use of a young blind girl cynical and cold – but then again if Number 24 grew up here she might have grown to accept this as the natural state of things and learned to live within it.
"Greetings Number 9." Number 18 walked with her toward the Shop at the edge of the Village. The Shop changed from time to time to offer novel goods to the captive population of the Village. Last week they offered clothing accessories and bathing clothes. The Shop offered books for sale this week and Azula wished to see what selections they offered in this place.
"Why do you always seem to have spare time to talk to me?" Azula spoke with some irritation.
"You are my patient." Number 18 laughed. "One of my more interesting ones."
"Because I have interesting mental health issues?" Azula opened the door to the Shop and a brass bell tinkled.
"You do try our poor Number 2." Number 18 sounded in good humor. "You tried to escape again but once again our defenses proved efficient."
"Number 24 ratted me out?" Azula sorted through a stack of paper bound books. The Shop offered a selection of new and used books in various displays.
"You ratted you out." Number 18 sounded severe. "Don't blame the poor blind girl for your rebellious nature."
"I being poor." Azula paraphrased from a tattered paperback. "Have only my dreams."
"Yeats." Number 18 stood next to Azula.
"If I am a prisoner of war." Azula continued. "If this place exists to hold those captured by the other side – don't those held in this place have a duty to escape whenever possible."
"Your War ended before we brought you here." Number 18 countered. "You did not come here as a prisoner of war."
* * *
"How did you find a gardening spade?" Number 24 asked cheerfully as she ate a banana. "You know we are not permitted to have tools we could use as weapons."
"I stole it off a gardener's cart outside of the Old Folks Home." Azula explained calmly as she continued to dig. "I will put it back later."
"Why do you have your radio?" Number 24 picked it up and held it in her hands.
"I plan to bury it." Azula dug stubbornly at the base of a rhododendron.
"Why?" Number 24 asked. "We are not allowed to shut them off."
"We shall see." Azula answered. "I hope they are watching me. I hope my efforts send a message to them!"
The Village Voice announced the weather forecast. Number 24 appeared puzzled by Azula's behavior but said nothing.
"I have tried breaking them." Azula stepped back as she examined her hole. She expected someone to come along, a guard, Number 2 or some official and stop her but so far as she could tell no one paid attention. "They bring in someone to replace them. I tried cooking them in the oven – evidently that does something to cut off the gas supply. Stuffing it into the refrigerator merely causes them to jack up the volume."
"Should we say a few words as a eulogy?" Number 24 shrugged and handed the box to Azula. "I have no idea why you want to bury the speaker but I feel like I am at a funeral."
"Good riddance." Azula tossed it into the pit and began shoveling dirt over it.
"Electrics ma'am." One of the generic, slightly overweight men in a small white cart like a golf cart with a tacky canopy announced himself not more than a minute after she had finished burying the speaker. The front door of Azula's flat opened and he placed the speaker on the counter and it began sounding.
"She has taken to burying the speaker in the flower beds beside her block of flats." Number 2 sat in her throne. "I have not witnessed such imagination in a very long time."
"You know she could pose a danger to our order. " Number 18 asked quietly.
"She has talents we can use." Number 2 pushed a button on the console and an image of Azula appeared on the screen. "Electrics will replace the speakers and she will give up in time. We have an ample supply of speakers."
"If the other Villagers see her damaging property it might send the wrong message." Number18 stated the obvious.
"We all need a hobby." Number 2 smiled slightly.