To Honor the People's Army
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Defense minister Alexander Bílý was sitting in his office thinking. The latest developments saddened ministers face. Soon many of his friends in the army would be left without a job as the depolitization of the army will come into effect. "And what is a soldier without proper political education good for anyways?" thought the minister to himself.
Not to mention the government's steps in other fields and the cancellation of military parade he worked on. To add on the ministers bad mood nothing came out of Nicoleizian Culture minister Taylor Swift calling him "gorg", and he made sure to wish her a happy morning and good night every day over text.
Bílá was sitting in a chair reading letters from disgruntled veterans complaining about the way the armed forces were heading and asking Bílý if he can act to somewhat stop these developments. He just opened another letter with his knife when the door to his office open.
"Good morning comrade minister," it was the actress Albína Reiserová "I am here for another lesson, as you said."
Bílý put his hands on his face and exhaled "Yes, good morning comrade, please follow me, I am about to give you a lesson you couldn't get anywhere else, the studio will be surely amazed with your performance after this." he said and got up his chair, it was obvious from his walk that he was quite stressed.
They walked together for a while until they arrived at a gathering of some militants and veterans, where colonel Voda was waiting.
"Is everything ready?" minister asked and Voda silently nodded. "Well let's not wait any longer comrades." Bílý continued and nodded himself. He started walking again as Voda started yelling orders at those gathered. "After all I didn't swear loyalty to any person, but to a socialist system and the people's army, which is under a threat, and my promises are not empty words." Bílý mumbled to himself.
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Reiserová was sitting by the window, with her face in her hands. "Why did I chose to follow this lunatic?" she thought to herself while taking a quick look at the minister. He was just sitting in his chair reading letter after letter and smiling. Reiserová was both stressed and bored. She couldn't go almost anywhere because the streets were blocked by barricades and guarded either by police or militants. And she was afraid what could happen if Bílý's objectives failed. And to add insult to injury, she wasn't learning anything for her performance anyways. Bílý spent the last two days by reading letters and occasionally calling with somebody. She sighted and pulled out her notepad to write what she would say to the police or possibly even to a judge if Bílý failed and she would be accused of having a part in the coup.
"Comrade Reiserová, would you be so kind as to make me a cup of coffee?" Bílý suddenly asked.
"Of course, comrade minister." Reiserová responded and went to a kitchen.
"Now look at this, comrade colonel, another veteran is expressing his thanks to us, for not letting those right-wing maniacs from destroying our country!" Bílý handed a letter to Voda who took it from him. Both men filled with pride, as they were receiving a large amount of praises from the letters sent by army veterans.
"Now let's see what what this one has to say." Bílý said as he took another letter into one of his hands and opened it with the knife he held in the other hand.
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Radek Šedivý was, like so many other members of the CPCS, shocked by the death of Alexander Bílý and Josef Voda. Their death meant that the People's Militias and other supporters of Bílý were now without a clear leader, something that if they were to succeed they needed. For that reason he decided to leave the city of České Budějovice in Suuth Bohemian region for Prague together with a group of militants. Despite never coming close to being a leader in the CPCS before the current crisis, the party was now largely shattered. Černá remained the chairwomen but the party was broken and many members supporting Bílý were critical of Černá for agreeing with the former oppositions terms in the first place.
Once in Prague Šedivý rushed directly to the Office of the Government where he met with Albína Reiserová. "Good afternoon comrade. I must applaud your wise decision to not yield to the demands of that rodent Houba, it gave people hope!" he greeted her.
"Good afternoon comrade governor, I'm pleased to meet you. I hope you won't object to a security check before I invite you inside. We can't have another incident like what happened yesterday." she responded, clearly still shaken by what happened yesterday.
"Of course not!" Šedivý nodded as militant guarding the building approached him to search for any weapons. But as Šedivý had no weapons on him, he was let inside.
"I couldn't agree with giving up the control of the streets to Houba. Everything suggests that he is behind the assassination of comrade Bílý, he can't be trusted with our lives." Reiserová explained her position. She no longer believed that she was in the biggest danger by appearing on the side of Bílý, but rather that the biggest danger to her, and perhaps even her kids, comes from the murderer or murderers who must be brought before justice.
"A wise decision indeed, as I have previously said." Šedivý replied "but I must ask, can we be absolutely sure that Houba is the one behind the assassination of comrade Bílý?" he continued as they walked into the main room together.
"Everything we know suggest that Houba is indeed behind this heinous crime." a voice from the room responded to Šedivý's question. Šedivý turned his eyes from Reiserová to the source of these words and he saw Karolína Vicanová, an StB agent.
"Ah, good afternoon comrade." Šedivý greeted Vicanová and smiled. Yet he was not overtly happy about seeing a secret police agent here, he considered secret police in its current form and its actions as a mistake of the socialist regime, that needs to be fixed. But now there were larger problems, and he knew well that they will need any help their need.
Vicanová's smile on the other hand was quite genuine, more genuine than her words. She had no evidence that Houba was behind the assassination of Bílý, but she knew that saying so is necessary for the socialist forces not to completely collapse. Before this moment she considered destroying the evidence of her being an StB agent, but now she was determined to fight for her place as a secret policewoman and for the secret police itself. Little did she know that she is looking into eyes of a man that also wanted to strangle the StB.
"Please comrade, sit down and tell us why did you come here." Reiserová told Šedivý, and he obliged.
"Well firstly it is important to talk about the danger that the armed forces present to us, if they stay true to the ultimatum they issued to us, they will start moving towards Prague to pacify us today". Šedivý said.
"The StB is working on that problem." Vicanová replied.
"And I also think there can be little doubt that the party and the system itself will need reforms, if we want to prevent a similar situation happening in the future. We must consider what worked and what didn't work, we must admit the mistakes that were done to ourselves if we want to move forward. Sadly the leadership of comrade Černá lacks the capabilities to do so." Šedivý continued on with his second point. "The job is left for us to do. I am no usurper, so I believe that it is the job of us present here, not just mine, to try to handle this task." Šedivý finished. He didn't believe that Reiserová and Vicanová were necessarily the women for the job, but they were the ones present there with him, and he truly had no desire to usurp the power and the responsibilities for himself.
Both women stayed silent for a moment. Was it time for television actress to become an actress in the political field? Was it time for a secret agents to step out of the shadow and influence things publicly? In the end both women accepted Šedivý's proposition and all of them begun planning on how to move forward.