"I always thought that the first time I'd be on my knees I'd be praying..." I held my breath lowering myself to my knees in front of him,
"Then worship," he smirked, "what do you desire?"
Being loved by the king of Socrates Academy is haunting, espe...
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After a few moments pass I get tired of Rune's constant rocking back and forth in excitement I decide to break my grumpy silence and actually attempt to understand his logic.
"So what's this grand scheme I hear about to impress, your uh....beloved," I ask lifting my feet up onto the seat,
"Well when we were in primary school she'd always bring with her these delectable Turkish delights, we'd always share them after class behind the building. We didn't have many friends when we were children believe it or not, but it was our own little silent promise to each other. Her father would drive all the way to bring her some even when we got to Socrates Academy but unfortunately, their relationship became strained just before he got ill and passed away." Rune narrates and his eyes soften in dismay,
"That's awfully sad, does she have any other family?" I ask him and he laughs sadly,
"She has me." He affirms sternly clearing his throat, "she'll never be alone."
"I'll try not to show my anger at you for waking me up in the middle of the night to drive to another town," I assure him and he smiles kissing me on the cheek in thanks.
"Thank you!" He beams gratefully.
"I know you're German but do you have any family that lives in Prague still?" I ask him,
"I have a few uncles who live here and they do visit sometimes but all my close family live in West Berlin. When the wall was built we had no way to see each other, it's difficult to get permits to visit so it's a fate I've simply come to accept." He tells me, "my mother and father work in the west but my sister Sabine and I live in the East."
"But the wall, it was built for the East Berliners protection, it was built to keep the Western ideologies out so we could improve our way of life behind the iron curtain. I hope you know that it was not meant to split apart families and homes, I have no idea why many people perceive it that way." I tell him but she shrugs in disapproval.
Just then the car door opened and there was Nik again, he caught onto the last bit of our conversation. "But it did anyway, you soviets never care to consider the millions of families you split apart after the petty construction of that wall."
"Niklaus leave it-" Rune begins but I cut him off,
"No, the Berlin Wall was built to protect and contain communist regime in peace," I argue but Klaus's eyes turn frustrated and I fear that I've said the wrong thing.
"It was built to imprison, to halt a mass exodus from divided Germany's communist east to the more prosperous capitalist west. Over 2.6 million East Germans escaped between 1949 and 1961, out of a total population of 17 million. And look at the immigration rates now after the wall?" Niklaus declares and I can tell he's trying really hard not to yell at me, "barely anyone manages to get out of there without being killed."
I never thought about all of this that way, when my father gave the order for the wall to be built this wasn't the narrative that had been pushed towards us. We were told that the wall was a symbol of protection for the Soviet side of Germany, we were told that it was a promise to the people, not a prison.
This was where my brother Dmitriy had been sent, he was to watch over the guards by the wall to make sure that....people didn't escape. I never truly thought about exactly what that meant, but thinking about it now I knew it didn't just mean telling people to go back the other way.
"I- I didn't realize-" I begin but Nik cuts me off by starting up the engine,
"It's not your fault little Nadya, your people never do." Rune sighs, "you come from a history of selective blindness."
☔︎︎☔︎︎☔︎︎
The first hour of the drive is silence with rune and Niklaus deliberately having a conversation in Czech that I couldn't understand. So I decided that two could play at the game of annoyance so I reached forward and tuned the radio to a music station. West coast by coconut records began to play through the speakers and I smiled, this is Nicolai's favourite song.
"Turn that retched noise off Nadya." Nik disapproved and I rolled my eyes at him,
"How about no?" I countered, "how about you dragged me here so I get to choose what plays in the car asshole."
Rune laughs heartily taking out his coronet camera and flashing it at us, "I love the way she's not scared of you, keep going!"
"Flash that lens at me one more time and I'll purposefully drive into the next building I see." Klaus threatens, "I'll drown your computer in the sink when we get home."
"You wouldn't dare?" Rune ponders, "that's my entire livelihood!"
"I heard a rumour that you hack government software." I disclose poking his shoulder, "care to tell me how you get away with it?"
"He doesn't tell anyone." Klaus laughs turning onto the next street, "fair attempt though."
"Actually I will tell you, Nadya." He proposes, "Klaus here just never asks nicely, this is for threatening to drown my computer in a lake."
"Let me guess-" I begin just as he leans in to whisper to me,
"Don't bother you'll never get it right." He laughs before disclosing the information I wanted, "I'm a white-hat hacker, the way it works is that I look for weaknesses in government software, send a notification to them about malware or a virus and that they have to download my software to fix it but little do they know that by following my link that they are unknowingly giving me access to everything stored on their database. I only do it for my own profit of course by accessing a company's network through these oversights, if not I sell that stolen information to others who're willing to pay for it."
I make a mental note of everything he just said, and store it in the back of my mind for later. The only reason he told me that information is because he made the mistake of looking at me and thinking that I know nothing, he judged the wrong book by its very convincing cover and he'd pay dearly for it.
