Gris is in a good mood since he's had a few days of sleep, the speed is completely out of his system, and the tug has safely coasted into orbit five hundred miles over Earth, within the Van Allen belts. A game of dice with a crewman has earned Gris a whole half-credit, while The Actual Captain Stabb is all chummy with him after confirming that Gris has some sinister plans for Heller.
"I've been watching you, Officer Gris, and if I read the signs right, we're going to get a crack at that (bleeping) (bleepard) Royal officer, ain't we?"
I felt good enough to be witty. I whispered back, "I heard you very extinctly."
Is Gris making a bad pun or being stupid? I don't know either.
Later Gris joins Heller in the lounge again, the former eating lunch while the latter pores over the briefings, Turkey visible in the viewscreens. Gris gets to show some competence by pointing out and named the surrounding seas and the capital of Istanbul, while Heller is more interested in the Caucasus Mountains due to that whole Prince Caucalsia garbage. The Apparatus agent has to explain that the Caucasus is a no-go area, controlled by nuclear-capable communists (as if Heller would know what those are) who are in turn ruled by a secret military police organization.
"Like the Apparatus?" he said.
"Yes, like the Apparatus! No! I mean you can't go there. Now will you pay attention?"
So. The KGB-ruled Russia is an insane and dangerous country. Just as bad, in fact, as Voltar's Coordinated Information Apparatus. Which was "inspired" by the American CIA. Wonder if there's a country Hubbard does approve of?
Gris then points out the city of Afyonkarahisar, which is where the Apparatus has set up its base. Heller is more interested in the fields of flowers, and Gris has to lie about what the poppies are for. He explains that the local mountaintop is actually an "electronic simulation" that opens right into the Apparatus' underground hangars, undetectable to local "wave scanners." Presumably no one's tried to hike up the thing lately.
Some trivia: the town's name literally means "opium black castle," and the top of the mountain is an ancient fortress. Could this be the Fortress of Evil in Black Genesis? From the looks of it, it's probably the mountain depicted on the other covers, though what the Hagia Sophia or Blue Mosque is doing nearly two hundred miles from Istanbul is anybody's guess.
The Apparatus has thoroughly infiltrated the area, taking over the local Agricultural Training Center for Peasants (really?), a satellite tracking station, and even an archaeological dig. And how can they pass as locals?
"Listen, these are very primitive people. They breed heavily. They have disease and babies die. Typical riffraff. So for over half a century, when a baby is born, we've made sure the birth is registered. But when it dies, we've made sure the death isn't registered. The officials are corrupt. That gives us tons of birth certificates, more than we could ever hope to use."
This is only aided by Turkey's willingness to invite foreign workers. The Apparatus even goes along when Turkey calls for a draft, and since the country is run by its military there are Apparatus officers in Istanbul. And Heller, the book's hero, is genuinely impressed by this deception. "Then we kind of own this little piece of the planet."
Interesting. No objection to the country being ruled by the military, though he is distraught at the thought of the Caucasus in the hands of a country run by the Earth version of the Apparatus. And no objection to the country being infiltrated by the very Apparatus he's comparing the KGB to, either. No indignation when Gris calls the Turks a bunch of impoverished primitives. No problem with the Voltarian Confederacy ruling these backwards Earthlings.
He thanks Gris for his information and leaves, while Gris exults how Heller will never leave Earth alive, etc.
Back to Chapter Four
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