Time of the Octopus: Based on the True Story of Whistleblower Edward Snowden

03:55 A.M._

“You constantly call the system you confront an octopus – why? In my opinion it’s more of a spider’s web,” the Lawyer waved his hand in the air. “Nets, nets, which envelope the whole world.”

“The Japanese,” Kold said, slowly rolling a glass with a few drops of whiskey in the bottom, “have a big appetite for marine creatures. For them, seafood is the main source of protein, and it had an effect on their folklore and traditions, just like for us, people of European civilization, stories connected to the ancient agricultural rituals had their influence.

One of the main figures in Japanese mythology is Ryūjin, god of the seas, lord of the water element, defender and protector of Japan. It was Ryūjin who raised the famous divine wind Kamikaze which sank the invading armada of Kublai Khan. All rivers and lakes, all winds and sea currents, are subject to him. He has countless treasures, and owns all treasures from wrecks and all the pearls of the world.

Ryūjin has two hypostases, two images: light and dark. The light one is a powerful and just sea dragon, the protector of the weak and the saviour of those in distress. The dark one is a gigantic octopus – no weaker but mysterious and incomprehensible in his thoughts. Indeed, it’s an octopus and not a squid! It’s important, because for the Japanese, the squid represents something completely different.

Ryūjin-dragon is fair, honest and brave; Ryūjin-octopus can be crafty, cruel and libidinous. There is an ancient legend from the seventh century about the founders of the powerful Fujiwara samurai clan – about Fujiwara Kamatari and his son Fujiwara Fuhito, in which the octopus appears in all its beauty.

According to the legend, Kamatari’s daughter was married to an emperor of the Tan dynasty. When old Fujiwara Kamatari died, the emperor sent three unbelievably beautiful pearls to Fujiwara Fuhito as a sign of mourning and grief. When Ryūjin has found out about this, he became enraged, because he considered all the pearls in the world to belong to him.

Turning into an octopus, he attacked the ship carrying the treasure, and stole the casket with pearls. Fujiwara Fuhito had to lead the search for the pearls, or it would’ve been disrespectful to the emperor.

In one of the villages, he met a young a beautiful pearl diver called Ama Tamatori and married her. Soon they had a son. The happy lovers remained living in the village since Fuhito couldn’t return home without the emperor’s gift.

Ama Tamatori was the most skillful pearl diver in all Japan. For her beloved husband and son, who deserved a better life, she swore to return the stolen pearls.

She reached the bottom of the ocean, and found Ryūjin’s palace among the underwater rocks, guarded by the sea dragons. Ama began to play the shamisen and her music sent the guards to sleep. Then the brave girl entered the palace and stole the pearls from the casket. Ryūjin soon discovered the loss.

He turned into the octopus and chased after Ama. The girl cut her breast and hid the pearls in the wound… And after that versions of the legend differ. Are you interested?”

The Lawyer nodded.

“Very interested, Mr. Kold, especially since I suspect you’re telling me this story for a reason.”

“You’re right – I do have a reason. So, according to one version, the more ancient one as I understand, the beautiful Ama escaped, because the blood spilling from her wound created a veil in the water and the octopus lost her trace. But after getting to the shore and giving the pearls to her husband and son, she died from blood loss. Since then all pearl divers in Japan are called ‘Ama’ and they always dive with naked breasts… well, topless, in memory of brave Ama Tamatori, and the Kamatari clan became one of the most powerful in the country.

According to the second version, the octopus caught the poor girl, wrapped her in his tentacles and was just opening his poisonous beak to tear her, when he was so dazzled by her beauty that he at once entered into sexual intercourse with Ame.”

“The octopus?” the Lawyer was astonished.

“Indeed. You shouldn’t be that surprised. This type of zoophile plot is typical for many nations, including the European ones. Remember Leda and the swan, the abduction of Europa by the Jupiter-bull… You’re not thinking the bull took poor Europa across the sea just to walk with her in the meadows?”

“No,” the Lawyer laughed. “I don’t!”

“In Japanese art, the subject of the intercourse of a woman and an octopus is very popular. Starting from 17^th century, there were multiple netsuke, drawings and engravings, dedicated to the subject. One of the most famous is ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife’ created by the great artist Katsushika Hokusai two hundred years ago. In that engraving, a naked woman is depicted experiencing an orgasm from the caresses of two octopuses. The larger one is giving her cunnilingus, and the smaller one is kissing her on the lips and stroking her breasts with its tentacles. When I was in Japan, I specifically went to the museum of Hamato to see this masterpiece.

“How disgusting,” the Lawyer cringed.

“From the European point of view, it is of course disgusting. From the Japanese point of view, it’s a grace of gods. From my point of view, it’s a warning, a fatal sign,” Kold frowned. “According to Buddhist canons, nothing in our lives happens without reason, bychance. All events, things, actions and symbols carry a deep meaning, which only truly devoted people can figure out. I have spent a lot of time in meditations and contemplation of eternity. In Hawaii. Middy and I used to spend hours sitting in the lotus posture back to back, sinking into blissful relaxation. And I understood that poor Ama Tamatori, who dared to challenge the octopus Ryūjin is me! I stole pearls from the octopus and now he sees me as his prey. It was a warning for me but I didn’t heed it…’

“What are you talking about?” the Lawyer didn’t understand.

“Banning’s fate. You know that after the investigation and the court he stated that he want to start hormonal therapy and change his sex in prison? It’s all because he was raped by the octopus! Banning is also Ama. He also stole a pearl but made an error – the tentacles got to him. And it looks like they’ll get me too…”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Kold, you know – you’re safe here.”

“The hour of the octopus is coming,” Kold murmured, not listening to the Lawyer. “On the Yesibu islands people believe that octopuses rise from the depths in the gloomy hour before dawn. They entwine the fishermen’s boats with their tentacles and drag them to the bottom. The hour of the octopus is coming… The morning is coming,” Kold took the flat watch with a metal bracelet off his wrist and put it on the table in front of him. “There’s no progress.”

“Are you assuming the worst?”

“Of course. They will fly to Russia. I am actually sure they are already here! And they will come here, enter this room, will state me my rights. After that I will demand my lawful right for a telephone call and will get in touch with my father. I will tell him… I’ve thought it all through already: I’ll tell him that I’ve never been a traitor and everything I’ve done, I’ve done for America and for the sake of America. Then they’ll put handcuffs on me, will throw a coat over my hands and walk me to the elevator. We will go up, leave the terminal through the staff only exit and head to the USA in a military plane. Interrogation will begin in the air. They will try to find out what I have passed to your special forces, what I have told them. And of course they will not believe that I had other purposes, that I am not a defector but a whistleblower who has opened to the world the truth about them… about their crimes.”

“Calm down. Have some water,” the Lawyer filled the glass and put it in front of Kold. Kold, without even looking, slid the glass to one side, stood up, walked across the room to the wall and back and rubbed his chin nervously.

“I don’t know if I’ll have enough courage to finish myself off,” he said hollowly. “But I don’t want… I can’t… go to American prison!

“That’s not a constructive attitude,” the Lawyer noted. “One needs to fight until the end. Besides. I’d like to say that an American prison is usually more comfortable than, for example, a Russian one. That, of course, still doesn’t make it a desirable choice. But if the circumstances develop in this way…”

“Torture…” Kold moaned. “You still don’t understand… I read the secret reports about Banning’s interrogations, do you understand?! Of course, Banning, his actions, the passing to Cassandzhi of almost a thousand documents stamped top secret, has become one of those drops that overfilled the crucial cup! But when all the Rubicons were crossed and nothing could be stopped, I came across those files, those reports… It’s awful! Awful…”

The Lawyer nodded with understanding.

“Mr. Kold, I still would like to remind you that even in the event of failure and your – lets call things for what they are – extradition to the USA, you have guarantees, and your persona and everything related to it will be under the close focus of the lawyers and journalists of the whole world. Finally, I will make every effort…”

“What do you think?!” Kold exploded. He jumped up and pulled off his glasses. His face was red and drops of sweat appeared on his forehead. “Do you think they use a Spanish boot, a funnel and a machine for crushing joints? Oh, the art of suppressing a man’s personality and acquiring information has moved unimaginably forward since the Middle Ages, although the word ‘forward’ is out of place here. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, what this method is called, but its essence is to completely destroy the personality of the suspect, to change his mind so much so that the values and beliefs he held, would have no meaning to him. Do you understand what I am talking about?”

“More or less,” the Lawyer shrugged. “It has happened in our own history. After a few months in jail defendants in the open hearings of the 30s would become completely different people – not only readily confessing to everything they’d been charged with, but thinking in a completely different, strange paradigm. There was a time I used to study the complete texts of the trial transcripts, which, by the way, were published here with large cuts. I was always interested how they achieved it and couldn’t work it out. Of course there was an ordinary physical influence – in other words, people were violently beaten up – but it looks like it wasn’t the only thing. Maybe hypnosis, some kind of psychotropic drugs. Inside the NKVD there was a secret society carrying out this kind of research. But it was already too far from us. Officially torture is prohibited in your motherland and a huge number of human rights organizations, not to mention the state control bodies, are keeping watch on it.’

“First, Banning is kept on the military base in Fort Meade and he is being tried there. It’s impossible for human rights organizations to control what’s happening in there. Secondly, I repeat again – strictly speaking it’s difficult to define torture. Everything begins quite innocently. Using simple tricks, the detainee is led to minor violations of the prison regime, so then, absolutely lawfully, they impose a penalty on him and transfer him to an isolation ward. After that they apply psychological pressure on him – turning music on, using certain frequencies and rhythms, with a special vibration stand to create vibrations in the floor of the cell. They spray special aromatic components that provoke physiological reactions in the human body, and also introduce certain foods and chemical drinks containing drugs that affect the mind.

After a few days in these conditions, the detainee becomes irritable, and shows aggression – and is provoked to a serious offence – for example, an attack on a guard. Of course, nobody is talking about a serious attack: just a simple push, a touch or any physical contact.

The next stage – and again completely legally and lawfully! – is a more serious punishment with use of special measures. The detainee is transferred to a tiny – one metre by one metre – cage and completely undressed. They don’t turn the light off for days to keep him constantly awake. And they show him so-called ‘educational films’ in which pictures of violence and aesthetically unbearable scenes are interwoven with sudden sounds and bright, colorful combinations of geometric figures. It’s called ‘dissonance therapy’.

Drained this way psychologically and physically, the man falls into a state similar to a trance and his brain loses the ability to comprehend reality. At the same time, the zones responsible for the long and short-term memory slacken. To put it simply, the detainee begins to rave. That is when specially trained psychologists enter the game, and pull the information they need out of the man using leading questions.

The notorious ‘truth serum’ gives the same effects. But after using the ‘serum’ there is a high chance a man will turn into a vegetable – and how can you show someone like that in court? Modern techniques don’t leave such obvious traces and the fact that the detainee may forget that he was a man or lose the last twenty years of his memory – well, that is a small side effect, a triviality, which doesn’t bother anyone. I will tell you more!” Kold lowered his voice to a whisper. “Nobody knows what they do to the man, when he falls into a trance. Maybe Bannings was raped in order to develop his feminine side? Maybe he was forced to have oral sex and drink urine while he, in a changed state of consciousness, took it all for granted. In Guantanamo even worse things are being done to the detainees…”

Kold went silent as if regretting saying too much, then sharply burst out:

“Damn it! I won’t go to prison. It’s better to have asylum in Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, here or even in North Korea – or let the killer with a poison stiletto come for me.”

“Trust me, Russia is far from being the worst option.” the Lawyer said. “And you shouldn’t treat us with such distrust. There is another option for the development of your odyssey. I have some insider information that during the negotiations, the Russian side received an offer in regards to your future from unnamed but quite influential international organizations. Under the pretext that you have no documents, it’s suggested that you are returned to Hong Kong, where you came from, and where official representatives of the National Security Agency of the USA are waiting. They’ll meet you on the runway and might even board the plane. Then you’ll be transported to the United States and put on trial – but not in Fort Meade like Banning, but in Washington. Moreover, the trial won’t be just open but it’ll be extra open – journalists will be allowed to the hearings, and there’ll be internet streaming, etc. During the hearing, the court will hear about unlawful actions by the NSA and CIA against governments and citizens of sovereign countries and also against the USA’s NATO allies and even against Americans themselves, including prominent politicians, top officials, senators, congressmen and members of the president’s administration and even the president himself. The result will be to turn the process against you into a kind of new Nuremberg Tribunal, during which it’s not Joshua Kold who is being judged but the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and those members of the United States government who contributed to the creation of this situation. The main blow will be inflicted on the President of the USA, his team and his politics. What if the system was created long before Obama? It’s very simple – he, when taking up his role, couldn’t know about all these actions, but he’s done nothing to stop them. The result could be impeachment, a scandal worse than Watergate, the coming to power of the Republicans’ most conservative wing, the Tea Party, and the halt of behind-the-scenes political powers.

“And what… what will happen to me?” Kold’s voice cracked.

The Lawyer shrugged his shoulders.

“In my childhood, I watched a movie directed by Sydney Pollack several times. Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin played in it. In my opinion, the name of this movie expresses some kind of principle often used in politics for people who serve no purpose to the elite, quite well. Do you know what film I am talking about?

“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They”, Kold whispered.

“Neither me, nor the Russian leadership approves of these principles,” the Lawyer spread his arms and quoted the Bible: “But am I my brother’s keeper? I think, Mr. Kold you should change your attitude towards Russia. The empire of evil has long gone. To be more precise, it never existed.”

“Yes, I guessed that everything is not so one sided,” Kold nodded. “And after that book by Dostoevsky you gave me, I thought, how little we know about each other. But Orwell wrote this for a reason: ‘…men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves”. You know, he visited me before I left.

“Who did?” the Lawyer didn’t understand.

“Mr. Jenkins.”