Project Liberation (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3

September 24^th 2013

08:08am

Daegal’s eyes snapped open. The rain had stopped falling, but the sky was still black with cloud. Daegal sat up, rubbing his eyes. He stretched and turned to his pack. Everything was in its place. He looked around. Nothing. Daegal led and rolled out from under the fern tree into a patch of soggy mud. He sighed and stood. He looked around again. Nothing. He relaxed, slightly.

Suddenly a twig snapped from behind him. Daegal turned and drew his pistol in one swift movement. An SDO agent stood with his back turned to Daegal, treading through the bushes, holding a sub machine gun. “Drop it!” ordered Daegal. The soldier span around and threw the gun to Daegal. Daegal caught the flying weapon with one hand and placed it onto the ground. “Hands…”

The soldier raised his hands slowly. Daegal looked down at the nametag on his uniform. It read: ‘Sgt. Alvar.’ Daegal looked up.

“Sergeant Alvar?” addressed Daegal. The soldier nodded. “Why does my Uncle want me captured? Come on! I haven’t got all day!”

“The high General does not discuss such details with field Agents,” replied the Sergeant bluntly. “But I simply do what the project tells me.”

“What project?” queried Daegal

“Project Liberation. Its aim is to restore Sweden to its former glory.”

“And where does my family come into this ‘Project Liberation’?”

“They act as the snowball,” grinned the Sergeant.

“What?” interrogated Daegal.

“Their deaths will spike the start of the new revolution.”

“They’re going to be killed!?”

“December sixth. Stockholm, in the pyramid courtyard.”

“Why?” questioned Daegal, tightening his grip on the pistol.

“The revolution will destroy the enemies of Sweden one by one. Your family threatened to stop us… We had to… remove them.”

“Who’s the patriarch of this revolution?” growled Daegal. The Sergeant grinned.

“High General Dagmar Procoughski.”

Daegal gulped. “You said they will destroy the enemies of Sweden. What does that mean?”

“Just over two hundred years ago, Sweden planned to take over the world. The SDO troops were trained in secret with the most brutal martial art practice for two centuries. Sixty-five thousand troops from the SDO, fifty-five thousand from the navy, one-hundred and twenty-five-thousand troops from the army and the home guard gave another six-thousand troops. Over a twelve year period, Sweden began ‘testing’ its troops, weakening the forces of the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, France and Denmark. Military giants. The troops were considered successful and Sweden began a long conscription process. Sweden planned to announce their plans on the sixth of December in 1814. All of the arrangements had been made, plans were crafted… But our plans slipped into the hands of the Norwegians, and they attacked us first. Despite winning, we never followed through with a counter strike. The plans were buried and supposedly never found. Until nineteen years ago when they were unearthed by two SDO soldiers – Albert and Dagmar Procoughski. The plans were labelled Project Liberation and hidden in Sweden’s most secure underground vault. The high General wants to have the plans repeated.”

“He wants to take over the world…” murmured Daegal in disbelief. The Sergeant nodded. “You support this plan?”

“I do not,” admitted the Sergeant.

“Then why don’t you do something?” interrogated Daegal.

“I’m afraid I have no choice.”

“Kill or be killed…” acknowledged Daegal, looking down.

“Exactly.”

Suddenly there was rustling from where the Sergeant had emerged. Daegal dived for the fern tree. Two more soldiers pushed through the bushes. Daegal gulped, looking to the Sergeant, through the branches. The Sergeant turned to face the two new soldiers.

“Have you found anything?” he questioned.

“Nothing, sir.” Replied one.

The Sergeant nodded, bending down and picking up his gun. “Let’s fall back. Everyone else is reporting negative, and if that kid’s got any sense he’s probably gotten himself out of the woods by now.”

Daegal watched from underneath the fern tree as the Sergeant led the two soldiers back through the bushes.

After a while he relaxed and crawled out, a pack on his back and a case in his hands. Time to set out. The sun had pushed its way through the clouds and the sky was lit up like a Christmas tree. Daegal silently pushed his way through the bushes, making for the path. He ducked under a branch and hopped over a trunk before pushing through onto the beaten dirt track.

Daegal looked to his left. He knew that the directions had reversed and that he was now looking towards the village. He turned around. People! But they had their backs to him. ‘SDO?’ he considered, looking over their jeans. No… The SDO were too uniform proud to disguise themselves. They must be tourists! But Daegal wasn’t sure. He silently padded after them, careful not to attract their attention. One had brown hair and the other had black hair. They were both male. The brown haired boy turned to the black haired boy, and Daegal was now close enough to listen.

“So… Josh…” started the person with the maroon brown hair.

“Why do I have a terrible feeling you’re going to ask me something, Harry?” replied the black haired boy.

“Well… You never said…”

“Never said what?” sighed Josh.

“You never said what the name of that girl was…” hinted Harry.

“Which girl?” grumbled Josh, stopping.

“You know…” grinned Harry, gesticulating wildly.

“No I don’t! Which girl?” questioned Josh.

“You know! The one that when I asked: ‘Who’s that?’ you said ‘an old friend of mine’.” Smiled Harry. 

“When the hell was that?” asked Josh  aggressively, frustrated.

“You know! At the airport!” hinted Harry.

“Oh my… Which airport?” questioned Josh.

“Err… Oh! You know! Err… Err… Luton!” Harry stated excitedly.

“Luton?” queried Josh.

“Yeah!”

“Luton.”

“Yeah!”

“Oh m… That was two days ago!”

“Yeah!”

“How can you even remember that?” questioned Josh. Harry shrugged. Josh rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.

“Who was she?” queried Harry. Josh sighed. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“What? No!” denied Josh.

“Josh…” teased Harry. Josh sighed loudly.

“If you must know, her name is Helen. She used to work at the technician’s desk at work, before she was made redundant!”

“Oh yeah?” questioned Harry, raising an eyebrow.

“You think we dated, don’t you?”

“Mmmhmmm.” Nodded Harry.

“Well, we didn’t! Plus, she’s like sixty. I never even knew her that well…”

Harry puffed air loudly, attempting to change the subject. “Is it just me, or is this town too quiet… I mean: no night clubs, no parties, nothing… They could really use some excitement here!”

Daegal grinned; that was his cue. “How would you two like to earn five hundred krona each, in five minutes?” he offered, pulling a handful of banknotes from his back pocket and spreading them. Harry raised an eyebrow.

Daegal explained the situation in his best English.

“War?” questioned Josh. Daegal nodded gravely. Harry shrugged.

“Oh well! Can we have our money?” he asked. Daegal nodded, counting out the banknotes.

“I don’t believe you! And we only take honest money! Come on Harry…” growled Josh.

Daegal ran after them. “Wait!”

“We don’t believe you!” shunned Josh, continuing regardless.

Daegal stopped, watching as they walked into the distance. Suddenly, the two tourists stopped and turned back. “What did you say that the military were called?” questioned Josh.

“The SDO.” Replied Daegal. Josh and Harry looked at each other.

“Okay, we might believe you now…” gulped Josh, standing to the side. Daegal looked ahead. Seven black soldiers marched towards them in perfect unison. Daegal turned and knelt by the metal box, flipping it open.

Daegal reached into his back pocket and threw Cal’s handgun to Josh. Daegal turned back to the box and pulled a long metal staff from the box. He pushed past Josh and Harry and stopped opposite the soldiers. The SDO soldiers drew thick, metal batons in reply.

“Daegal Procoughski,” started the lead soldier. Daegal noticed two green-gold stars on the man’s uniform. Lieutenant. “You are all under arrest for the assault of two staff members. Do you have anything to say?”

“All of us?” queried Daegal.

“Yes. They are your associates, I presume? You are all under arrest.”

“Over my dead body!” he growled, lifting the tip of the staff slightly. The Lieutenant waved his hand. Two soldiers drew batons and slowly walked over to Daegal. “Du gamla du fria…” he whispered.

The soldiers were just outside the reach of Daegal’s staff.

That's the end of chapter 3. I could really use some critical evaluation.