“Indeed. You shouldn’t be that surprised. This type of zoophile plot is typical for many nations, including the European ones. Remember Leda and the swan, the abduction of Europa by the Jupiter-bull… You’re not thinking the bull took poor Europa across the sea just to walk with her in the meadows?”
“No,” the Lawyer laughed. “I don’t!”
“In Japanese art, the subject of the intercourse of a woman and an octopus is very popular. Starting from 17th century, there were multiple netsuke, drawings and engravings, dedicated to the subject. One of the most famous is ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife’ created by the great artist Katsushika Hokusai two hundred years ago. In that engraving, a naked woman is depicted experiencing an orgasm from the caresses of two octopuses. The larger one is giving her cunnilingus, and the smaller one is kissing her on the lips and stroking her breasts with its tentacles. When I was in Japan, I specifically went to the museum of Hamato to see this masterpiece.
“How disgusting,” the Lawyer cringed.
“From the European point of view, it is of course disgusting. From the Japanese point of view, it’s a grace of gods. From my point of view, it’s a warning, a fatal sign,” Kold frowned. “According to Buddhist canons, nothing in our lives happens without reason, bychance. All events, things, actions and symbols carry a deep meaning, which only truly devoted people can figure out. I have spent a lot of time in meditations and contemplation of eternity. In Hawaii. Middy and I used to spend hours sitting in the lotus posture back to back, sinking into blissful relaxation. And I understood that poor Ama Tamatori, who dared to challenge the octopus Ryūjin is me! I stole pearls from the octopus and now he sees me as his prey. It was a warning for me but I didn’t heed it…’
“What are you talking about?” the Lawyer didn’t understand.
“Banning’s fate. You know that after the investigation and the court he stated that he want to start hormonal therapy and change his sex in prison? It’s all because he was raped by the octopus! Banning is also Ama. He also stole a pearl but made an error – the tentacles got to him. And it looks like they’ll get me too…”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Kold, you know – you’re safe here.”
“The hour of the octopus is coming,” Kold murmured, not listening to the Lawyer. “On the Yesibu islands people believe that octopuses rise from the depths in the gloomy hour before dawn. They entwine the fishermen’s boats with their tentacles and drag them to the bottom. The hour of the octopus is coming… The morning is coming,” Kold took the flat watch with a metal bracelet off his wrist and put it on the table in front of him. “There’s no progress.”
“Are you assuming the worst?”
“Of course. They will fly to Russia. I am actually sure they are already here! And they will come here, enter this room, will state me my rights. After that I will demand my lawful right for a telephone call and will get in touch with my father. I will tell him… I’ve thought it all through already: I’ll tell him that I’ve never been a traitor and everything I’ve done, I’ve done for America and for the sake of America. Then they’ll put handcuffs on me, will throw a coat over my hands and walk me to the elevator. We will go up, leave the terminal through the staff only exit and head to the USA in a military plane. Interrogation will begin in the air. They will try to find out what I have passed to your special forces, what I have told them. And of course they will not believe that I had other purposes, that I am not a defector but a whistleblower who has opened to the world the truth about them… about their crimes.”
“Calm down. Have some water,” the Lawyer filled the glass and put it in front of Kold. Kold, without even looking, slid the glass to one side, stood up, walked across the room to the wall and back and rubbed his chin nervously.
“I don’t know if I’ll have enough courage to finish myself off,” he said hollowly. “But I don’t want… I can’t… go to American prison!
“That’s not a constructive attitude,” the Lawyer noted. “One needs to fight until the end. Besides. I’d like to say that an American prison is usually more comfortable than, for example, a Russian one. That, of course, still doesn’t make it a desirable choice. But if the circumstances develop in this way…”
“Torture…” Kold moaned. “You still don’t understand… I read the secret reports about Banning’s interrogations, do you understand?! Of course, Banning, his actions, the passing to Cassandzhi of almost a thousand documents stamped top secret, has become one of those drops that overfilled the crucial cup! But when all the Rubicons were crossed and nothing could be stopped, I came across those files, those reports… It’s awful! Awful…”
The Lawyer nodded with understanding.
“Mr. Kold, I still would like to remind you that even in the event of failure and your – lets call things for what they are – extradition to the USA, you have guarantees, and your persona and everything related to it will be under the close focus of the lawyers and journalists of the whole world. Finally, I will make every effort…”
“What do you think?!” Kold exploded. He jumped up and pulled off his glasses. His face was red and drops of sweat appeared on his forehead. “Do you think they use a Spanish boot, a funnel and a machine for crushing joints? Oh, the art of suppressing a man’s personality and acquiring information has moved unimaginably forward since the Middle Ages, although the word ‘forward’ is out of place here. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, what this method is called, but its essence is to completely destroy the personality of the suspect, to change his mind so much so that the values and beliefs he held, would have no meaning to him. Do you understand what I am talking about?”
“More or less,” the Lawyer shrugged. “It has happened in our own history. After a few months in jail defendants in the open hearings of the 30s would become completely different people – not only readily confessing to everything they’d been charged with, but thinking in a completely different, strange paradigm. There was a time I used to study the complete texts of the trial transcripts, which, by the way, were published here with large cuts. I was always interested how they achieved it and couldn’t work it out. Of course there was an ordinary physical influence – in other words, people were violently beaten up – but it looks like it wasn’t the only thing. Maybe hypnosis, some kind of psychotropic drugs. Inside the NKVD there was a secret society carrying out this kind of research. But it was already too far from us. Officially torture is prohibited in your motherland and a huge number of human rights organizations, not to mention the state control bodies, are keeping watch on it.’
“First, Banning is kept on the military base in Fort Meade and he is being tried there. It’s impossible for human rights organizations to control what’s happening in there. Secondly, I repeat again – strictly speaking it’s difficult to define torture. Everything begins quite innocently. Using simple tricks, the detainee is led to minor violations of the prison regime, so then, absolutely lawfully, they impose a penalty on him and transfer him to an isolation ward. After that they apply psychological pressure on him – turning music on, using certain frequencies and rhythms, with a special vibration stand to create vibrations in the floor of the cell. They spray special aromatic components that provoke physiological reactions in the human body, and also introduce certain foods and chemical drinks containing drugs that affect the mind.
After a few days in these conditions, the detainee becomes irritable, and shows aggression – and is provoked to a serious offence – for example, an attack on a guard. Of course, nobody is talking about a serious attack: just a simple push, a touch or any physical contact.