| Subject: Mea Culpa 3 |
Author:
Rox
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 08:41:49 12/09/01 Sun
In reply to:
Rox
's message, "Mea Culpa (Sequel to Unto Death)" on 16:09:49 12/07/01 Fri
Upon his arrival at Paris University, Michael discovered a world full of new and wonderful ideas, but along with the flowering of his intellect came the unsettling discovery that the world wasn’t as good and wonderful a place as he once had thought. His soft heart was full of moral outrage at a world which spent more on war and death than on starving children and poorly paid workers. As any idealistic youth, Michael saw the world as black and white and chafed at the seeming indifference of his fellowman to the evil around them. In short, Michael had begun to realize that life was terribly unfair.
Extremely unfair.
Two years after he started university, Michael’s parents were killed in a horrendous train wreck as they traveled to Paris to see him. The accident was caused by the deterioration of a railway bridge. Just months before the tragedy, railway workers had called for a strike to protest the lack of structural improvements to tunnels and bridges. The strike was largely ignored, until the passenger train, carrying 108 passengers and crew, dropped 55 feet into a rain-swollen river, killing all aboard.
Insurance settlements due the victims were immediately tied up in lawsuits, so at 19, Michael found himself the head of his family with no one to help him until he met his friend, Rene.
Michael had met Rene at a college protest rally. Shouting slogans against the government neglect and corruption that had caused the train tragedy, Rene drew Michael like a magnet. He made Michael see that he must do something about what had happened.
“Show you care! Stop it from happening ever again! Force the government to do what they are paid to do! Make them listen!”
Like all idealists, Rene refused to let reality get in the way of his worldview. Whether the world wanted -- or needed -- changing, Rene decided it would change as he dictated, by force if necessary. He saw in Michael someone pure in heart -- a true believer in every sense of the word. Michael had honor and vision and all the other virtues of a knight on an impossible quest – all the necessary attributes to subjugate hell in order to reach a noble goal.
“Join us, Michel.” Rene held out his hand to him. Michael took it.
“L’heure Sanguine -- the bloody hour?” Michael asked when Rene handed him a flyer.
Rene shrugged, with a wry smile. “Gets your attention, doesn’t it? Besides, it’s better than Sans Culottes!”
Michael cracked a smile at Rene’s reference to the French Revolution. “So, we are the L’heure Sanguine. Now what?”
“Now we take the war to them!” Rene said gleefully.
For years Michael would relive the moment when Rene first suggested building the bomb and wonder what kind of insanity had induced him to help. At first, all Rene did was talk. Then, as time slipped past, talking became planning. Building the bomb seemed more like working on a science project than the first step towards mass murder. The bomb was only a political statement, Rene had assured him. It would get them attention. It would force change!
It never occurred to Michael that he and Rene were about to become terrorists, just as it never occurred to him that real people might die as a result.
Real people -- like Michael’s little brother, Etienne.
"Michel! Where are you going?" Rene called out to him from above.
Michael looked up and waved. "To meet Etienne at the lab. He called to tell me a letter just arrived. He thinks it might be important. It's from the university!" Michael paused on the staircase with a huge grin.
Rene frowned. “It isn’t a good thing to be over at the lab today.”
“Why?”
Rene checked to see that they were alone before continuing in a softer voice. “Marc and I planted the bomb in François’ locker. We were careful not to be seen, but none of us should be anywhere around that building until it’s all over.”
“What?” Michael’s heart nearly stopped in his chest. “We agreed not to bomb the building during the day!”
Rene smiled. “Of course. It’s all right.” Calmly Rene began to descend the stairs. “I set it to go off early tomorrow morning, about three. The building will be empty then.”
But Michael’s face went another shade paler as he looked at his watch.
“Three?”
“Oui. What’s wrong?” Rene asked, losing his smile as he reached Michael on the stair.
“Mon Dieu! Rene! That timer isn’t a twenty-four clock! It’s five to three -- get to a phone!”
Only one member of the L’heure Sanguine was ever arrested for the bombing of the campus science building. Only Michael, who had watched in horror from a distance as his brother walked innocently towards the doomed building. He ran to Etienne, ran screaming to warn him, pushing startled students out of his path as he sprinted hopelessly across the crowded campus grounds -- as the last seconds of his normal life ticked away…
It was only then that Michael realized what he had done.
The explosion exceeded Rene’s fondest expectations, leveling the second floor and sending lethal shards of glass hundreds of feet in all directions. Shards that impaled Michael’s classmates and decapitated his little brother, Etienne.
Clutched in his brother’s hand, when Michael reached him, was the letter that would have changed their lives for the better. It said “Congratulations!” -- that Michael would be graduating Summa Cum Laude in his field of chemical engineering. It promised a bright future. It meant his parents’ working-class sacrifices had finally paid off. It meant his father’s struggle to pave the way for a better life for his children against a hostile and uncaring world had triumphed!
But in an instant, that bright future had shattered, leaving Michael’s orphaned little sister completely alone. God had shown some mercy -- she had stayed after school to help a friend with a project.
When the police found him, Michael was mad with grief, pleading with his brother to forgive him and trying to put his head back onto his body. Witnesses testified that Michael was screaming about a bomb prior to it exploding, but even with overwhelming evidence to convict, there had been no trial because Michael confessed all, taking sole blame for the bombing. It didn’t matter that Rene had planned it and planted it. Michael had built the bomb, using the materials François had developed. In his mind, no punishment could be enough for what he had done, so he shouldered his punishment as well as that of Rene and Marc.
Michael told his first lie that day. “I alone am responsible.” But to Michael, it had been the purest truth.
It had been that willingness to take responsibility for his actions that had brought Michael’s case to the attention of Operations. Taking responsibility in a day and age of ‘it being someone else’s fault’ was unusual, and it indicated two things about Michael: One, he had no fear of death since that was the penalty for terrorism in France, and two, he suffered from true remorse. Both, Operations knew, could be assets if handled properly.
* * *
Section One, January 29, 1985
Madeline folded her hands on her desk and regarded Michael with a pleased expression.
She had confessed her crimes yesterday to make a point. She wanted him to know that he wasn’t the only one who had ever made such a grave mistake and that Section would allow him the opportunity to atone for his crimes. She had pointed out that, besides his brother, 55 other people had died that day. Many others were seriously hurt. Many more had been left grieving. All because of one bomb and one angry young man.
“You can use that education your father struggled so hard to give you to do some good in the world, Michael. Help us stop other terrorists from killing and maiming other innocent people. You still have a sister -- what kind of world do you want her to live in?”
Now as she looked at him, she saw the light of determination in his expression. Michael wanted and needed absolution. He also needed a reason to live. Madeline had offered him both, and she saw that he had accepted.
* * *
Madeline sighed and shook off the memories. She understood the need for absolution; in many ways she and Michael were a lot alike. They certainly had ‘things’ in common.
In three days, Operations would return. Hopefully, Michael could pull himself back together by that time. Whether Nikita would help him or hinder him, Madeline didn’t know. But she trusted Michael’s instincts. He had risked the Section’s wrath for love once before and learned the pain of losing that love. He rarely made the same mistake twice.
But Michael was human, and he was hurting. And while Madeline knew he loved Nikita, the question remained: Did he love her enough to give her up?
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 