"Some time later we got to the place, Island. How I regretted not having my phone with me. When we got there, Greszczyszyn rented a car and we drove to Rangárþing Eystra, a small town in the South of Iceland. It was so small anyone there would have being unnoticed. It is understandable they chose Iceland. In his house they barely see the sun and everybody is at home, where it's warm, and not meddling in anyone's business. We got into a house in Skógar, with just twenty five citizens, and none of them seemed to bother to look our the window. In the house we found a boy with glasses they called G, a woman referred to as M, and another one they called GB. I knew that one. It was Prussia."
"Prussia! I think I studied him in high school."
"Yes. He was a nation."
"Wow! And what was he doing there, with all those guys? Was he infiltrated too?"
"It seems so, but I had no idea. I was petrified when I saw him. I did nothing but ask myself if my eyes were not betraying me. I had heard rumors that Prussia had been forgotten and died. He hadn't been seen in some time. I heard some consider him the first victim of the One World Nation Movement. And at that moment I had him right in front of me and I asked myself: was that really Prussia or was the jet lag making me imagine things? He stared at me too, but soon played his role. 'Did you catch this fish in the ocean, IG?' he asked with a grin, pointing at me. 'This is JC. Boy, this is GB. G is for Git and B is for Bastard', he replied. He was joking. They hugged, like good friends. Greszczyszyn told me good things about him. He told them everything about our incident with America. Prussia and his partners praised that we got out of there alive.
» We waited for more people to come. Fifteen minutes later or so, two people with Oriental looks appeared. One of them was Kazuki Ogura, Japanese, and the other was Yao Da, Chinese. 'Where are the others?' asked the woman who called herself M (we knew afterwards her name was Martinez and was from Spain). 'Arrested. Dead' Ogura replied seriously. And like an hour later the African representatives appeared. They were four: Dejen Kirabo, from Zimbabwe; Adisa Cabdiraxman, from Madagascar; Idur Wafula, from Mozambique, and Kagiso Kato, from South Sudan. Things seemed to be going a bit better in Africa. They told us with an enthusiasm that made me shiver how they were focusing on destroying the ancient history of Egypt and overthrowing Morocco's king.
»It was then when Ughetti showed up. It was...a bit like if Darth Vader had come into the Death Star, if you know what I mean...She was a woman with a very...modern look. I don't know how to describe it. Punk, maybe? She was shorter in person, the shortest of the bunch in there, but her presence made everybody go quiet. I even saw some who felt uncomfortable. I felt like that myself.
» 'Good night', she greeted us. 'We all know why we are here, right? It's the Triumvirate'. The only mention of that name created a tense feeling in the air. Now, I thought, if they found out I was not only a country but America's brother, they would tear me apart with their own hands. 'We tried to storm the Kremlin and the damned Russian sent his troops to shoot at us' Wafula said. 'You shouldn't have done that' M intervened. And they looked at her as if she was crazy. 'Why not? They've intervened in countries of our continent to break up our network', they told her. 'He works with China, who has killed our people' Da added. 'And America has been (...) us and it won't be long till he shows up, and Russia will put him a red carpet', Greszczyszyn said by my side as he lit a cigarette, which he shared with Prussia. 'You've put innocent lives in danger', M insisted, and they repeated the same to her: those people deserved it. 'Some collateral casualties are unavoidable' Greszczyszyn said coldly. 'I understand we have to face Russia, China and America, but they blew up the Pont des Arts in Paris yesterday! There were five people wounded! Innocent people!'."
» It was then when Ughetti gave her opinion and made me shiver. 'For what we've seen, we haven't achieved our objectives only with arguments. The idea of nationalism is still too rooted in people's minds. Same with religion. We have tried to do this the gentle way. We tried reaching Japan's elections and they have silenced us. We demanded attention from the media and got it, but the great majority is on their respective nation's side and they have mocked us. If we want to get something done, if we really want changes, it seems we can't trust those from below. We have to start from above, from the highest spheres. And how do you reach the highest spheres? Kicking out the ones in it. And how do you do that?'. 'What you are proposing, U', Ogura told her, 'is a series of coups d'etat. Like the Kremlin's.' 'How acute' she replied. 'But more organized, of course.' 'Of course', then Prussia spoke. 'Losing no more time destroying antiquities. There will be plenty of time to do a clean up once we are all a single country. Now it is time to get control. I can see it.' I couldn't believe he was saying that. Prussia is a great actor, I'm telling you, Phil. He gave me the chills, hearing him talk with such conviction.
» M was outraged. Coups d'etat mean disproportionate violence. The group had no army, only volunteers armed with whatever they could build themselves or buy against the law. It was crazy. She was not the only one who saw it that way. Kato also thought the first thing to do was to educate the youth in the values of the movement, so the population itself would overthrow kings and presidents. Slower but more effective. As for G (Paul Grech, Maltese), he said it had no sense to try to stop deaths for political reasons and doing an armed fight, but he debated himself and ended up joining Ughetti. 'If you want, M, we can vote, but let me tell you something' Greszczyszyn said to her, 'if you want a burger, you gotta kill the cow.'
» I tried to avoid making a decision as much as I could. We separated. Apparently, M wanted to see how the other two members were doing with Germany. That was how I found out they had him too. I had some time to talk to Prussia alone. I asked him what the heck he was doing there and he asked me the same question. I think it took him a while to remember who I was, he only knew I was a country. When I told him I was Canada, he shook his head. 'Great, America's well-behaved brother. If they find out who you are, they're going to tear you apart. What were you thinking about, getting into this mess?', he asked me. What about him? He allowed his younger brother to be captive, I replied. 'He can take care of himself. I'm on it, okay? Look, let's do this: since you have your government covering your back, I look for an excuse for you to have access to a phone and call them. I will take care of Liechtenstein and Germany. These guys trust me. I can approach them with any excuse. We will get them out of here together.'
"What happened next?"
"Greszczyszyn took me aside, to talk to me while we had something to eat before going to bed. 'First they want to ask Tero. She is small, but she should be able to decide'. I wanted to ask him who Tero was, but then he spoke to me in lower voice: 'Hey, W and I have been talking. About GB. Tomorrow morning try to have an intimate moment with him, will you?' I told him sure. That night we slept at the house and the next morning, right after getting up, I saw Prussia and Ogura were having breakfast together. 'Hey, GB, can you come here for a second? Something happened to the roof last night'. It was a very silly excuse, but it was enough to approach him. We put our coats on and got out. 'Is something happening?', Prussia asked me. I took him to the back of the house, a bit away from it. Wafula and Greszczyszyn were waiting in there. 'JC says there's a problem with the roof' he commented to them. Greszczyszyn spoke after a moment of silence. 'Did you know O worked for the press office of the Japanese nation? He told Wafula and showed him photos of his house'. 'Ah, so that's what Japan's house looks like form inside. That should be an advantage, heh? Somehow' Prussia said. There was something in Greszczyszyn's face I didn't like at all. He kept smoking calmly, as Wafula gazed at us. 'In one of those photos there was this'. Wafula approached and showed us a photo of a living room where Japan was using a laptop. His finger pointed at one of the paintings hanging from a wall. I felt my stomach touch my feet.
» 'The guy in that 19th century portrait looks just like you, don't you think?'. I looked at Prussia. His face didn't show any change, he even smirked. 'I'm much cuter', he giggled. Greszczyszyn smiled. And then Wafula and him grabbed him violently. They asked me to help them, to silence him. I had no choice but to do it...
