Scene 31

Secret Headquarters of the KLF

As the meeting broke up, I walked over to the man that David had identified for my team. “Michael, right?” I asked, extending my hand.

“Right,” he answered, shaking my hand. I examined his tattoos. Each of his arms was covered with tattoos. I also saw tattoos peeking out from the edges of his shirt. They all seemed to be of bees over a honeycomb.

“Impressive,” I said.

“Thanks,” he replied. “They’re symbolic.”

“Of what?”

“I was imprisoned because I couldn’t keep up with the fashion changes and the KLF rescued me. I swore my allegiance to them. I also decided that I would never fit into Ivana’s perfect image and that I would cover myself in tattoos to make sure of it. There’s no way that Ivana would ever let this many tattoos become part of her image; it’s too permanent.”

“But how is that symbolic?”

He pointed to the bees on one arm. “Each bee represents a person, one that I helped free from Ivana’s fashion tyranny. I chose bees to represent how we freed them from the hive mind of fashion obedience.”

I looked at his arms. “There are so many.”

“Too many,” he said. “For every one we have rescued, there are thousands more.”

“But you’re doing everything you can,” I protested.

“Maybe, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s enough. For every person we liberate, we lose two from our forces, and every month more and more people are imprisoned. We may win battles, like when you were rescued, but I fear we’re losing the war.”

“You’re not thinking of giving up?”

“No, I will keep fighting to the end, but I’m afraid it won’t be the end we’re fighting for.”

I looked around the room. Every face I saw was not the face of a soldier certain of victory. Every person I saw looked weary, exhausted from their efforts. Each looked like the last soldier of a lost cause; someone who knew he couldn’t win but was determined to fight to the end.

I had to find some way to give these people hope.