Thank you everybody! Makes my day everytime I get notifications about faves, reviews and stuff :) (I also brag about them to my friends)
I have to say that when I asked if Icelandic Secret Service excist, the "no" reply came a bit suspiciously fast...
Second chapter: Higher secrecy
The first two weeks of studying went surprising well. Iceland's boss had decided to give the nation some time to get used for his new routines so there was no country business for him. Sadly that also meant that they had cut his salary but he still reserved enough to go on, though he was also starting to understand why students always looked so poor. It was because they were exactly that. He also understood that he couldn't expect to get so much salary when he didn't work like he normally would. But even when his work load was less, the school work nicely filled up all his free time.
"Does anybody have any idea which case we can use for this?" Julia asked with a slightly frustrated voice and stared at her computer's screen. They were sitting in lobby and apparently nobody was sure what they were supposed to do, but they knew they should be doing something. Tomas was lying on his back and kicking the wall, Carl looked like he was half asleep and Iceland just sat there and wondered why group works were so confusing.
"How about that one from last year?" Tomas asked, "the one with murder and lost money."
"The teacher said the case has to be at least five years old", Julia reminded him.
"So if we just go through some newspaper databases and see what will come up?" Carl proposed and yawned.
"That might work", Julia replied and started to type, "hey, Erik?"
"What?" Iceland asked after a bit too long silence. He was still getting used for his human name and it didn't really help that he rarely spoke with people. He had heard that the other students in his apartment building called him "that weird Icelander" and somehow Iceland was okay with that.
"You haven't said anything for while", the woman noted, "actually, you haven't said anything at all after shortly agreeing with doing this group work with us. Are you okay?" Tomas glanced at the Icelander who only shrugged.
"Yeah", he said, "just lot of new things to think about. You know."
"True, same here", Carl mumbled, "it'll take few weeks longer before I really get in the rhythm."
"Hard times", Tomas agreed, "hey, Juli, maybe we should take things a bit easy now and just hang out a moment?" Julia hesitated but after glancing at the boys who all looked exhausted, she sighed and closed her laptop.
"I guess that would be nice", she said, "so, anybody doing anything exciting?"
"Not right now", Tomas said and smiled, "but I'm going to start the Danish course soon. I should just sign up."
"Cool, I'll start too", Carl said and gave him a thumb up.
"We should go to the same class", Julia said, "I was planning about taking the course. I thought I would wait a bit longer, but if you guys are going I think I'll take the same class."
"That would be so cool!" Tomas cheered, "Erik, are you up to this too?" Iceland glanced at him and did his best to look friendly. He felt slightly bad about trying to push them away but the truth was that as a nation, he should not hang out with humans too much. Things happened when nations got too friendly with mortals.
"I don't need to take that", he said, "sorry."
"What?" Tomas said and gave him a surprised look, "but it's free and all. Only five hours per week."
"And I think it would be just right to try to learn the language while we are here", Julia added.
"I didn't mean it like that", Iceland said quickly before they could nag to him too much, "it's just that I already speak Danish." He was fluent in Danish, all thanks to Denmark and the years he had spent living under the same roof with that man.
"Really?" Tomas asked and Iceland nodded, "that's cool! Where did you learn it?"
"We all learn it at school back home", Iceland mumbled, "and my brother is a Dane so he kind of taught me everything. It's hard for him to shut up."
"I didn't know you have a brother", Julia said and Iceland nodded because they had no idea how much they didn't know about him, "but how he is a Dane when you're an Icelander?"
"He is adopted", Iceland said quickly, "we are nothing alike."
"Okay", the humans murmured and were clearly confused about the nation's quick statement. Iceland could have explained himself more but he felt his phone vibrating and he panicked a little. Only four persons had the number for that phone because it was the one for his personal use only. He had another phone for work. He almost dropped the phone while trying to get it from his pocket, and he felt relieved when he saw Finland's name on the screen. The Finn was so naïve that it wouldn't be hard to lie to him. Norway however was the problem and Iceland really hoped his brother would never call him. Somehow the Norwegian managed to see the truth behind of everything and even the most skilful lies couldn't fool him.
"Sorry, I have to get this", Iceland mumbled and accepted the call, "hey, Tino."
"Hei, Is!" the cheerful voice replied, "oh, sinä et ilmeisesti ole kotona, kun kerta käytät tuota nimeä?"
"Joo, olen kaupungilla", Iceland replied and automatically switched to Finnish. It wasn't the most usual language for him but he could speak it fine enough.
"Okei, ajattelin vain soittaa ja muistuttaa, että Pohjoismaiden neuvoston kokous on ensiviikolla", Finland said and Iceland grimaced. He knew about the meeting but apparently nobody had told the other Nordics that he wasn't going to attend.
"Sori, Tino", he said, "minä en ehdi sinne tällä kertaa."
"Oh", the Finn muttered and sounded slightly disappointed, "no, nähdään sitten joku toinen kertaa. Pitää mennä, moi moi!"
"Moi", Iceland said and closed the call when he heard the beeping. He placed the phone on the table and found three curious humans staring at him.
"Was that Icelandic?" Tomas asked, "it sounded funny."
"No, it was Finnish", Iceland replied without realizing that speaking Finnish might be a weird thing. It was just so normal for nations to be multi-lingual and Iceland had never met any that didn't speak at least four different languages.
"What?" Tomas almost yelled, "you speak that too? How many languages you can speak?"
"Yeah", Iceland replied and thought the question for a moment, "seven, I think. But I'm not really good with Swedish. Sví… My brother always says it sounds too much like Norwegian. Also, I have forgotten most of my French." He got more confused looks.
"Dude", Carl said, "why you didn't just take the linguist program? You could be a pro with that."
"I didn't really think about it", Iceland shrugged. The real reason was that he had chosen the program whit a lottery. His boss had frowned at that but let the nation to do what he wanted with that.
"Who you were speaking with?" Julia askes and Iceland realized too late that it was a dangerous question.
"It was just my brother", he said.
"The Danish one?"
"No, the Finnish", he told them.
"You have a Finnish brother too?" Tomas asked with an excited voice, "damn, that is cool."
"Um, yeah", Iceland mumbled, "it is just because he married my brother. You know, we are only brothers by marriage."
"So he married your Danish brother?"
"No, my Swedish one", Iceland said and frowned, "which kind of interrogation this it?"
"Just curious", Julia said and smiled sweetly, "how many brothers you actually have?" Iceland thought about it for a moment and tried to quickly decide which kind of family he would make up for himself this time.
"I have three plus the one who married into the family", he finally said, "they are all adopted though, one is Norwegian, one Swedish and one a Dane." Tomas let a low whistle.
"That's so cool", he said, "you can even call yourself a Nordic family!"
"Yeah", Iceland muttered and stared at the wall, "that's exactly what we do."
Few hours later Iceland found himself walking around the city without any reason. He was just too restless to stay still and he had also found out that the girls living upstairs liked to play music too loud and the life at the student commune was way too much for him. He had got used for the peace and having his own space and even the weirdly rude puffin and over-active Dane couldn't prepare him for the horrors of student life. He sighed and let his legs to take him where ever they wanted to go. It was risky for him because this was Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and the nation itself could be anywhere.
"Well, he is probably bothering Nore anyway", Iceland mumbled. The good thing was that Denmark loved to spend time with the Norwegian nation so it was almost more common to find him in Norway's house than in his own. Norway might find that annoying sometime but Iceland was happy because it made keeping the secret much easier.
But he should have guessed that his luck run thin, because when he turned around the corner, just avoiding the group of tourist almost blocking the way, he saw the nation itself. Fortunately, the Dane was standing the back on him and talking loudly with a flower seller so Iceland had just time to realize it was him and hide behind a trash bin.
"What the hell he is doing here", he mumbled almost angrily and then sighed, "oh, right. This is his land." The Icelander bit his lip and wondered how he could escape without being noticed. If the Dane even got a glance of him, there would be questions. For sure Denmark would be okay with him being there, though it was seen rude to enter in other's land without telling them first, but Iceland didn't really have any good excuses. He glanced around and checked that the Dane was still busy with the conversation before he carefully stepped away from the trash bin and almost run to another street. He didn't even dare to breathe before he was in good distance.
"Okay, he didn't see me", he sighed. The good thing was that for sure the Dane would yell and run after him if he spotted the Icelander. Now there was no yelling or running to Iceland decided he had survived the close call. However, this made him think about the risks. He couldn't avoid the public places all the time and Denmark was well known for being all around the place all the time. That meant that there was very high risk of Iceland stumbling on him by simply accident. He grimaced for the thought.
He sat down on the bench and wondered how he could solve the problem. One solution would be call the Dane and somehow get his daily plans so Iceland could simply avoid the places where the Dane would be. That plan was still tricky because sooner or later the Dane would ask why Iceland was so curious about his plans, and also calling Denmark all the time would increase the risk. Iceland played with a coin in his pocket while thinking and then his fingers found a piece of paper. Slowly he took it out and looked at the numbers that had turned a bit smudgy after being in his pocket so long, but were still visible.
"Well, why not", he mumbled and opened his phone. It took only few seconds before the call was picked.
"Íslenska leyniþjónustan", an unfamiliar voice answered, "how can we assist you?"
"You really start the call with telling that?" Iceland asked and there was a brief silence before the voice replied.
"So we do", it said, "please, identify yourself." Iceland hesitated for a moment but ended up with the conclusion that they already knew about him and if they didn't, they would just think he was kidding.
"I'm Ísland", he said.
"Wait for a moment. We'll need to confirm that", the voice replied and came back only after few minutes, "the agent Puffin had confirmed, how I can assist my nation?"
"Agent Puffin?" Iceland asked and frowned. He had a bad feeling about this agent Puffin.
"Yes, he is our special agent working near you", the voice replied.
"Okay, this might sound like a weird question", Iceland said, "but have you ever meet this agent Puffin?"
"No, I haven't", the voice said, "agent Puffin has the highest security priority and therefore he will not be shown in the office. Was that all you wished to know?"
"Oh no, I was just wondering", Iceland said, "I kind of wasn't aware that I have a secret service until few weeks ago."
"I can assure you that the Icelandic Secret Service is the best in the world."
"Really?"
"Per capita, of course." Iceland smirked. They were always best with everything. Per capita. Thought apparently they didn't know that their best agent was probably a strange speaking bird. Iceland made a mental note to call to his house and ask the puffin about that later.
"Okay", he said, "I need help with something. You know Danmörk, right? I mean the personification, not the land itself."
"Of course", the voice said patiently, "we have files of every person near you, including your family."
"That's great", Iceland muttered, "can somebody keep him on eye? I have to avoid him but it's bit hard here." Iceland heard the person typing on computer and after a brief moment he got an affirmative reply.
"We can send an agent to follow him", the voice explained, "but spying on personifications demands a higher approval and more often missions like that are reported to be failures. We can't promise accurate results and might be forced to abandon the mission in case the personification or his government finds out about it."
"That's okay", Iceland said, "if he finds out, I'll take the responsibility."
"Sure", the voice said, "I'll forward your request and send the information about the decision later on. Have a good day."
"You too", Iceland replied and closed the phone. Few hours later he got an e-mail stating that his request was fulfilled and from now forward he would be informed if the Danish nation was going to be near the places he usually spent time. Iceland felt more relieved but it worried him a bit that the document was also signed by the Danish officers. That sounded suspicious, but he decided to not think it too much. He had lot of other things to worry about.
Will Iceland get in to problems with spying on Denmark? Will the classmates find out too much? Who exactly is agent Puffin?
So Iceland's class mates have no find out about his weird family and strange language skills. The Finnish part wasn't so important btw. My word crashed when I started to write in Finnish suddenly. I guess it was too much for it.
oh, sinä et ilmeisesti ole kotona, kun kerta käytät tuota nimeä? = oh, you are apparently not at home since you use that name?
Joo, olen kaupungilla = yeah, I'm in the city
Okei, ajattelin vain soittaa ja muistuttaa, että Pohjoismaiden neuvoston kokous on ensiviikolla = Okey, I just wanted to call and remind you that the meeting of the Nordic Council will be held next week.
Minä en ehdi sinne tällä kerta = I'll have no time to come there this time.
No, nähdään sitten joku toinen kertaa. Pitää mennä, moi moi = So, let's see another time then. I have to go, bye bye.
And the absolutely truth is that Iceland is the best with everything. Per capita.