“Sorry…” Lena apologized, realizing that she was now walking rather quickly.
She slowed to a normal pace, attempting to follow a conversation she could barely hear above her raging fear. As soon as she dared, she looked behind her to see if Patrick was following. Thankfully, he appeared to still be searching the crowd.
“Whew. If I can just make it inside and onstage, I’ll be safe. For now, at least.” Silently, she thanked Vivika for the serendipitous lesson in losing surveillance agents.
“So, what’s it like being a big rock star?” one of Lena’s female companions asked.
“It’s gotta be so sweet!” the other girl said.
“Oh, it’s wild.” Lena admitted, “It’s a lot crazier than you might imagine.”
Dragon Lady stared imposingly at Vivika. Her face was a mixture of triumph, hatred, and an inquisitive energy that bordered on lustful. It was a particularly alien form of emotion that she had a hard time placing. Truthfully, however, Vivika didn’t really feel the inclination to try. This was a vile, subhuman excuse for a person, and Vivika wanted no part in anything she represented. With that understanding firmly in place, a picture was beginning to paint itself in Vivika’s mind—the picture of a new paradigm. What if… what if… oh, the picture just wasn’t complete yet, and Vivika wasn’t able to articulate it fully. She had to test the waters first—and she would have to placate this monster to do so.
“Please… please don’t hurt me,” Vivika winced.
“Oh, we are far past that, little girl.”
“Wh-what do I have to do?! What do I have to do? I’ll do anything!”
“There’s nothing you can do!” Dragon Lady practically salivated, “I already know that you work for MI6. I already know that Lena does as well, and I know who Matt works for. There’s nothing you have that I want.”
Vivika cowered, but it was all an act. The Dragon Lady had her facts wrong—and it made Vivika wonder what else she didn’t know. Perhaps Vivika could take a page from this horrible woman’s book, and play into her fantasy a little bit. Perhaps if she could completely switch the Dragon Lady into a different line of thinking, she could talk her into revealing her hand.
“I’m so sorry!” Vivika said, as tears began to well up, “I didn’t know what to do… I didn’t want to, but he was so forceful about it!”
“That doesn’t excuse you!” Dragon Lady responded acidly, “You could have told someone, but you didn’t! You kept it secret. Now look at the damage you have caused!”
“I know, I know! I’ve been terrible!” Vivika looked her in the eyes, “He offered me money… he offered me free passage into the West! I didn’t really believe him, but… oh, I shouldn’t have!”
“Of course you shouldn’t have. How in the world could he have gotten you across the Wall?”
“It was ridiculous to even consider! I’m so sorry I’ve caused so much trouble!”
“Not as sorry as you are going to be once we leave here.” Dragon Lady smiled.
“Why would I even think that Patrick had that much power?!”
The Dragon Lady kept her composure, as if she knew who Vivika had been talking about all along. Yet there it was… the slightest hesitation. For a second, she seemed to stumble, as if wondering if Vivika had misspoke.
“The stupid Soviets and their stupid mind games!” Vivika wailed quietly, “All they do is threaten, and threaten, and threaten! ‘We’ll kill you if you don’t do this… we’ll torture all your friends if you don’t do that… We’ll kill your parents… We’ll gouge out your eyes… After you get threatened, and beaten, and raped and… and… then Patrick was doing it too, so…” Vivika was crying openly now, which drew glances from a few casual onlookers. Yet inside, she was cheering roundly. “The evil bitch is buying it! Yes!”
“Wait just one second,” Dragon Lady started, but Vivika was having none of it.
“And then Lena… oh, that was just too much.”
“What happened with Lena?” Dragon Lady asked, confused.
“Wait, you don’t know?”
“Well… of… of course, but…” Oh, the sight of Dragon Lady stuttering might have been the most satisfying thing that Vivika had ever seen. Vivika had her in her sights, and was about to pull the trigger. Oh, and how good it was going to feel… oh how good, indeed.
“You didn’t know about Lena?”
“Of course, I knew about Lena.”
“Really?” Vivika asked, feigning confusion.
“What, do you think I’m stupid?”
“Then you knew about her Grandfather?”
“How did you know about her Grandfather?!”
“Because Patrick told me!”
“What did Patrick tell you about her Grandfather?!”
“H-hold on a second.” Vivika stuttered, “That’s what I thought this was all about.”
“What are you talking about, dear girl?” Dragon Lady said in a tone that dangerously bordered on ‘polite’, and Vivika realized that the next words she said would have far-reaching implications. Perhaps even better, the words would likely be taken at face value… at least for the moment. Slowly, Vivika cocked the hammer back, and fired a lie straight into Dragon Lady’s face.
“About Patrick trying to get me to spy on Lena and her Grandfather for the Americans?” And there it was, dawning the way a tsunami dawns on a small fishing town in the middle of the Pacific ocean: the look of complete and utter paradigm apocalypse.
“Excuse m-me?”
“What?” Vivika asked, innocent-as-could-be.
“Y-you… y-you must… you must be absolutely sure about what you just said.”
“W-what did I say?”
“You know what you said!” Dragon Lady yelled, slamming her hands down on the table, which drew the attention of nearly everyone in the small cafe.
“What? About Patrick working for the Americans? Wait, you didn’t know that?!”
“I knew it!” Dragon Lady howled. “I knew that little prick was up to something!”
“Well, that’s why the Soviets were forcing me to spy on Lena and Patrick! Or, at least I assumed so, anyways.”
“Alright, kid, you’ve had your fun,” a voice said, as a man slid into the seat beside Vivika.
This new person was the one that Lena called ‘Red Hat’. Vivika had guessed at least one HVA agent was around somewhere, but she hadn’t figured out where. Now that it was this agent, however, Vivika swallowed her heart. This one was almost as cruel as the Dragon Lady, and probably smarter.
“You heard that, right?” Dragon Lady asked.
“Yes, yes, I heard all of it.”
“Do you think it’s true?!”
“Honestly, no I don’t.” he replied. “I think our little friend here is lying through her teeth.”
“Check… check…” Lena said calmly through the microphone as the crowd cheered.
As soon as Lena had snuck into the venue, she had made her way to the most populated area she could find, which happened to be backstage. The place was frenetic with pre-concert activity. At first, she couldn’t think of anything besides Patrick. He had to be somewhere—especially since he knew precisely where she was going to be in less than an hour. She genuinely considered running as far West as she could possibly get and… well, she didn’t really have much of a plan after that. Of course, once the Dead Weights showed up, well, she almost forgot her troubles.
Strangely enough, Matt was nowhere to be seen; yet the Dead Weights seemed to be rather nonplussed about the whole arrangement. Honestly, Lena couldn’t tell if they were in on the whole situation, or if they were just going with some artistic flow that she herself wasn’t privy to. It may have been a few good, solid hits off of the backstage peace pipe—but as long as they had a lead singer, it seemed, they didn’t particularly care who it was. A few cuss-laced introductions, a few hits of teen spirit, a few shots of liquid courage later, and the troubles were absolutely forgotten for the moment. The plan was simple: just make it up as they went along. At first, Lena reacted to this plan with a note of horror. Yet, as the hits off of the peace pipe became more frequent, and the familiar wooziness it imparted settled pleasantly at the base of her neck, well… I mean, you know… whatever, man.