I’m working on a new song. I wish I could find a guitar so I could really get into the nitty-gritty of it, but I’ve got some good ideas in my head at least. It’s a song about who we are on the inside. About how, for a bunch of reasons, we’re perceived very differently from who we are. Some people try really hard to make people think that, but even the people that don’t are thought to be something they’re not. It’s not a new or revolutionary idea but that’s why music is the truest and greatest form of art.
Want proof? There are a million songs about getting your heart broken, and there needs to be a million songs about getting your heart broken because each one speaks to people in different ways. With music, the same basic message in a different package really is something different because it hits people in a different way. You can’t achieve that with any other medium.
If you’re into mountain climbing, you may read a bunch of books about climbing Everest but one is all you need to get the message. The other ones are just entertainment. With literature, the same story is the same story. Maybe one writer is better than the other or there’s one perspective that you identify with more, but you don’t need more books about the same thing like you do with songs.
Paintings and sculptures and drawings and things like that can evoke feelings and ideas but it’s open to interpretation. Maybe the artist intended those three red lines to signify the sunrise but you see what you see. When I look at ‘The Poetess’ by Joan Miro, I have a strong reaction, but it’s one that I can’t really explain. When I hear Etta James singing about how she’d rather go blind than see her man walking away from her, I know exactly what she’s talking about.
The point is while that song speaks to me, maybe someone else really feels it when Janis Joplin is telling them about someone taking a piece of her heart. And maybe another body feels it when Otis Rush is telling them. They’re all singing about the same thing, getting hurt by love, but we need all those different ways to say it because everyone is different. Music speaks to the soul in a way that other art doesn’t. Sorry other kinds artist, but as a singer I’m better than you. At least you’re still better than horrible non-creative types.
Fred (editor’s note, she means Frank) told me that Duke Eaglevane is in a prison in German East Africa. When I suggested that the world’s most wanted man being captured and put in jail was something that would have been in the papers, he said that they don’t know that’s who they have. According to Fred, a few months ago the Pecos military launched a missile attack at a guerilla camp in southern Mexico under the impression that in residence at the time was an international criminal by the name of Miro Viga, wanted in connection with several violent uprisings in South America. Miro, who either wasn’t there or survived the attack, in retaliation, tried to enter the Pecos Republic intent on blowing up several government buildings. There was a battle at the border in which six men were killed and thirty more wounded before Miro was taken into custody by one of the only PR NBH operatives, Justice Ranger – which is a terrible name.
Fred claims that Miro Viga is none other than Duke Eaglevane. As Fred tells it, the good Duke has many different personas that have been constructed and maintained with such detail as to be practically different people – hence why the Pecos authorities don’t know who they really have. He said that this is at least the third time the Duke has been captured without the authorities knowing who they really have. Seems pretty far-fetched to me. I asked Fred if this was so super-duper secret how did he know about it, and he said that he was part of an “op” that broke the Miro Viga identity back when he was still in the good graces of the US spymasters.
“If this is true, why didn’t your government tell the Texans who they had?”
He half-shrugged “I don’t know, I’m not in the loop anymore. Maybe they did and the Pecos authorities didn’t believe it. Or maybe they like having one of the Dukes identities that no one else knows about. There are a lot of angles they could be playing.”
I glanced at Martialla “So all we need to do is get to German Africa once we wrap up this other thing.”
Fred looked somber “Get there quickly is my advice. As I said, this has happened before – the Duke’s minions always break him out in a couple of months. That’s the whole point of these supplementary personas, if they knew who they had, Duke Eaglevane would be in some black site where you’d never find him. Actually, he’d never be taken into custody in the first place, if they had him in their sights they’d kill him. But Miro is just an ordinary terrorist wanted by fifteen world governments, so he’s merely in a normal maximum security facility. If you want to kill him, this is the best chance you’re going to get.”
“Do you know any of his other identities?”
“I did, but it doesn’t matter, the Duke knows those ones are burned. Miro Viga is the only one that’s still active that I know about.”
While I was thinking, Martialla gave me a look “I think you’re overlooking an obvious course of action, Ela. Half the world wants the Duke dead. The safe bet is to give this information to someone who has the juice to make sure he goes down.”
I shook my head slowly “No. It has to be me. He has to know I’m the one that got him.”
Martialla frowned “But he doesn’t even know who you are.”
“He will. For a few seconds.”
