Fanis the bodyguard episode 30 Circuitous routes

                Fanis is hanging out in London where he lives with his cousin and employer Kera.  Kera is an international Chinese artifact dealer and Fanis is the best person that has a combination of willingness to drop his life for her and would never betray her for any sum of money.  Despite assumption that may be made about them, neither Fanis nor Kera have any genetic or territorial ties to Britain or China as their ancestors as far back as they know are from Greece.  They each were born and raised in America and are still American citizens.

                As the whole world was interested in American politics, Kera and Fanis were no exceptions as they sat on the couch watching the impeachment hearings.  The Democrats are excited because the US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, is going to testify.  Fanis is a little confused as to why since it was Sondland that told Bill Taylor, who was also a witness and was the most vocal against Donald Trump about his phone call with Ukrainian Zelensky, that there was no quid pro quo and President Trump didn’t pressure the Ukrainians in any way.  He had seen the text messages that completely refuted everything the Democrats were saying.  He didn’t have to wait long as Sondland told the intelligence committee on national television that he could confirm there was a quid pro quo with Ukraine.  After this news, Kera glared over at Fanis who groaned and rolled his eyes.  He pulled up the text where Sondland unequivocally said no quid pro quo.  Kera cried out, “Fake News!” in response.

                Fanis then showed her sworn testimony in which Sondland mentions that he called President Trump and Trump told him he wanted Ukraine to do the right thing and didn’t want a quid pro quo.  “So, is he lying then or is lying now?”

                “This is under oath”

                “So was the sworn testimony I just showed you.”

                “Come on!  You know the Greek guilt trick.  ‘I know you’ll do the right thing’ is saying that you’ll do what I want.”

                “Yes, because you’d disappoint your parents if you don’t”

                “Ukraine doesn’t want to disappoint America just like kids don’t want to disappoint parents.”

                “Whatever, when you change your story, it doesn’t make for a credible witness”

                As they keep watching, Sondland will tell people that the aid was not tied to investigations into Hunter Biden and Burisma.  It was Fanis’ turn to glare at Kera and ask, “So what exactly was the quid pro quo?”

                “Like you said, he’s not credible.  Besides, it’s about bribery not quid pro quo.  That’s what Pelosi said”

                “Oh okay, well Radcliffe addressed that when he said that in 35,000 pages of sworn transcripts in the closed door sessions, the word ‘bribery’ only appears once and it was in reference to Joe Biden’s actions not President Trump’s.”

                “Look, I’m not a lawyer.  We’re not litigating this.  All I know is that we have to go.”

                “Where we going?”

                “Hong Kong”

                “Aren’t they a little pissed at China right now?  They really want to buy Chinese artifacts?”

                “Yes.” She simply declared

                “Oh” he responded because he didn’t know what else to say

                They get on the plane and head toward Hong Kong.  From the plane, they are still watching the hearings.  As Vindman, who is a member of the National Security Council and is a lieutenant colonel in the army, continues to deny knowing anything about Ukraine, Fanis picks up on something.  He volces, “If Colonel VIndman is the primary go to guy on Ukraine, then why was he not consulted about Ukraine or know anything about major scandals that were occurring.”

                “What do you mean he wasn’t consulted?”

                “He stated that he never talked to the President about Ukraine.  That means the president sought counsel from someone else.”

                “No, it doesn’t.  For all we know, Trump could have just unilaterally decided about Ukraine and didn’t consult anyone.”

                “True, yet nobody is making that allegation.”

                “Maybe he should’ve contacted Vindman”

                “Not what I’m seeing.  He wasn’t even aware of anything about Burisma and Democrats or Hunter Biden payments.  He doesn’t know about the pressure on Ukraine to not prosecute people that former ambassador Yovanovich already confirmed in her testimony.  People are aware of the DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa meeting with then-president Porchenko to dig up dirt on Manafort yet Vindman had no idea.  Does he not read any press clippings whatsoever?  What does he actually know about Ukraine?  It seems we all know more about Ukraine than he does.”

                “He knows the stuff that’s not in the news”

                “Fine, but he should also know the stuff that is.  He should be a reference point on if they’re valid or not.  He’s not giving his opinion on their validity either way. He denies he knew about them at all, which is a problem when you claim to be an expert on Ukraine.”

                They land in Hong Kong and take the train into the city.  As they go over the water, Fanis gets a kick out of seeing the Hong Kong version of Disneyland.  Hong Kong is a strange city in that you think with the Buddha statues and clientele that’s it’s got an old history like China.  The reality is that everything in Hong Kong is new.  It’s not a mixture of the modern skyscrapers with old temples because the temples date back to the late 80s.  Fanis, at 35, is older than the Buddha statues in Hong Kong including the famous one on a mountainside on Landau Island.  Fanis still wants to go because he enjoys the skyride through the mountains on the way there.  They take the Starr Ferry through the harbor and go to the Peninsula Hotel.  Fanis immediately goes up to the top floor to use the bathroom at the café.  He goes not because he has to but because they put the urinal in front of a gorgeous view of the city and harbor.  After dropping their stuff off, they take the Starr Ferry back to Central, which is appropriately named.  This is where the real Hong Kong is.  Tourists are normally scared off because it is a layered city, which means that simply walking down the street requires you to get on an escalator to get to the next level of the street or sidewalk.  It then circles back on itself.  The odd thing is describing how Hong Kong is laid out is extremely confusing but somehow when you’re there, it just seems to make sense and you can reach your destination logically.  Fanis never understood how he could rationally figure out just how many escalators to go up before circling back but he could.  If one is willing to take the adventure, you will find fabulous food for a fraction of the price as the area around the Peninsula Hotel and tourist areas.  When people complain about how expensive Hong Kong is, it’s because they stayed solely in the touristy areas and didn’t venture into the layered maze that is central.

                After a fabulous meal for a couple of dollars, they get egg pies for dessert.  They then head to the bar area of Hong Kong and bar hop before returning to their hotel.  The next day, Kera heads back to Central for her meeting and Fanis is close behind.  While tourists fight over taking the Peak Tram to the top of a mountain for the best views of the city, Kera and Fanis know that you can take a cab to the exact same place for less than ten dollars, which is cheaper than the peak tram that you have to crowd into a platform and then pack into a train car like sardines as it goes up the mountainside amongst greenery so even if there weren’t several people blocking your view, you couldn’t see anything anyway.  Fanis has an ear piece in so he can always hear Kera.  That is why he elects to wait outside and look at the view of the city rather than sit inside.  After fighting his way to the front, he remains there as tourists jockey for position.  He couldn’t care less that he’s blocking their view as Asia has no personal space and it’s no holds barred for spots.  There is no common courtesy and nobody is even going to bother asking you to move so they can get a chance to look.  That only happens in the west because an Asian person would never give up their spot that they had to fight so hard to get.  Someone does stand next to him and comments, “You look American.”

                “There’s a good reason for that.”

                “Then you are?”

                “Yup”

                “You’re more cultured than most Americans.  Well travelled.”

                “And you know that how?”

                “You haven’t given up your spot or even looked behind you to see if you’re being inconsiderate.”

                “When in Rome.”

                “Exactly, you know enough to know that this is doing as the Hong Kong people would.”

                “I guess I’ve been known to travel every now and then.”

                The man smiled but kept going, “Alas, you’re on the other side of the world, and some random Asian is going to ask you about America.”

                “Trust me, I’m used to it.”

                Again he grinned as if to remark, ‘I told you so.’  “The Colonel Vindman testimony, I’m not quite sure what to make of it.  He emphatically denies that he didn’t leak the phone call but then he says how he told a bunch of people.”

                “Well, if you were listening, Jim Jordan called him out on this exact thing.  He didn’t tell his supervisor but he told a bunch of other people including the Whistleblower.”

                “Whom he doesn’t know.”

                “Right, he told his brother and George Kent and then told someone that he can’t tell us because he may reveal someone’s identity that he doesn’t know himself.”

                “Funny how that works out.”

                “Absolutely mind boggling.”

                Sarcasm has been very present in their conversation.  The man opines, “I did see Nunes call him out on that.  He asked him straight up if he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is, then how can he expose it.  Then he says he can’t talk about people in the intelligence community when he’s in a hearing to the House intelligence committee.”

                “Ah, so ridiculous and déjà vu.”

                “Why déjà vu?”

                “Well, the Democrats say that Vindman is corroboration for the Whistleblower”

                “Yes”

                “We know the whistleblower didn’t have any first-hand knowledge.  He heard it from someone that was on the call.  Vindman was on the call and then he told someone who can’t be named.  They all but said that he told the Whistleblower.  If Vindman told the Whistleblower, then he’s not corroborating the whistleblower, he’s the whistleblower’s source so it’s the same information.”

                “Still don’t see why it’s déjà vu.”

                “The Steele Dossier.  It was said that the media reports corroborated the dossier but really Steele co-wrote the dossier and leaked the dossier information to the press.  Both came from the same source so it’s a circular reference and not corroboration at all.”

                “Wow, I never thought of that.  That’s good.  Vindman didn’t really say anything at all then.”

                “Not true.  He just didn’t say anything that helped the Democrats.  He admitted that the President sets foreign policy not the NSC advisers.  He admitted that President Trump didn’t bribe the Ukrainians.  He admitted that the president has a right to ask Ukraine to investigate and he admits that he had no first-hand knowledge of the aid but heard it in the press reporting.” 

                The man laughed and then Fanis heard Kera’s voice in his ear as she was leaving.  Fanis said good bye to the man and then went to where Kera was meeting with the clients.  Kera sees Fanis and walks up to him and they take a bus back down to the city.  Kera and Fanis walk around the park that has turtles that like to stack on top of each other.  There is also an animal sanctuary in the city with gigantic tortoises and birds.  They take a short break to go to Mak noodles and enjoy how restaurants in central come with free tea.  Kera declares, “With these hearings, the Republicans are in trouble.”

                “I don’t know which hearings you saw.”

                “I saw the truth not your right-wing conspiracy spin.”

                “Yea, well apparently Republicans missed the memo because GOP fund raising has skyrocketed this week setting a new record of 61 million dollars.  This impeachment hearing is uniting the party and calling them to action, just like they did in 2016.”

                After they eat, they go back to the park and walk and talk.  Soon, day turned to dusk and then nighttime.  Kera had been to Hong Kong several times and knew her way around very easily.  Seemingly out of nowhere, Fanis is ambushed by a group of Asians.  Fanis tries to fight them off but there are too many of them.  They force him to his knees as one Asian grabs each of his arms holding him while a third holds his head up.  With the self-preservation, he hadn’t notice where Kera was but that’s why the third Asian was holding him.  He was focusing his head on Kera who was on her back.  Just like Fanis, Kera had multiple Asians holding her down.  The difference was, she had one Asian for each limb holding her in place as she squirmed.  A fifth Asian straddled her and grabbed her shirt by the collar and snapped his hands to the side ripping it down the middle.  He grabbed Kera’s breasts and smiled revealing decayed teeth.  Fanis took a deep breath as he realized they wanted to make him watch them rape his cousin.  He struggled knowing that his restraints would pull him back thinking that he would move forward.  That was why it wasn’t hard when Fanis jumped back and used their pulling momentum to flip himself around.  The two Asians lost their grip on his arms, which Fanis extended and wrapped around their necks as his full 220 pounds snapped them back.  Fanis put out his knee and the back of their necks slammed against his knee causing them to writh in pain on the ground holding their heads.  The third Asian stared at him dumbfounded and Fanis took out his knife that he always carried and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. 

                As Fanis approached, he heard Kera and her assailants screaming at each other.  Fanis knew that Kera was fluent in Mandarin but Hong Kong natives speak Cantonese.  If Kera was communicating with them, it meant they were not locals but Chinese.  The men holding down Kera got up to shield the rapist from Fanis.  Given that she was no longer restrained, Kera put up more of a fight with her rapist. 

                Fanis pulled out a gun and opened fire killing two of them quickly but as they charged, they overtook him before he could get all of them.  He dropped the gun and started avoiding swinging arms with his.  He knew that he needed to stop them from being on either side of him.  He spun to his left and shoved the guy on his left into the other one.  The fists came quick as Fanis blocked or ducked what he could and then struck when they opened themselves up.  As they had four arms and Fanis only had two, some blows connected but as it continued, the restrainers were getting slower and more hurt.  Finally, Fanis reached both his hands out and grabbed them by their ceratoid arteries.  He dragged them over to Kera, whose rapist had her pants off but she was kicking him trying to stop him from penetrating.  Fanis swung his right arm and drove the guy’s head into the rapist’s back.  When he turned around Fanis grabbed the left restrainer and drove the top of his head into the rapists face.  When you control the neck, you control the body and Fanis was using the restrainers as weapons.  Kera got up and struggled with her pants.  The rapist punched Fanis in the stomach and since his arms had around 100 pounds in each of them, he was unable to block.  He dropped the restrainer and found another punch across the face by the rapist.  Fueled only by hate, Fanis spun right back and delivered a punch of his own.  The rapist blocked it and drove his shoulder into Fanis driving him back. Fanis fell back and kicked his right leg up flipping the rapist over him and on to his back.  Both of them got up and they circled each other.  The rapist called out, “You Americans think you’re better than us but 100,000 children are being detained in the US.”

                “That AFP story was retracted because they realized it wasn’t current numbers but the numbers in 2015.”

                “But Trump wasn’t president then.”

                “Exactly, that’s why they deleted the story instead of just attack Obama for the same reason they attacked Trump when they thought it was him.”

                “So it was Obama?”

                “Not really in one point in time but it was an accumulation of his eight years in office.”

                “But Bernie Sanders….”

                “Bernie Sanders is a liar.  I know he parroted the point but he knows it’s a lie but he won’t retract his statement like AFP did.”

                “

 

                The rapist took two quick steps forward and Fanis kicked at his right knee anticipating his would plant his leg to stop himself.  The rapist anticipated Fanis would make a defensive move, not attack.  The kick collapsed his planted leg and he knee buckled as his entire body weight was transferred to his left leg.  Naturally, Fanis quickly kicked at his right knee buckling that.  He then grabbed the back of the rapists’ hair and drove his face into his right knee repeatedly.  He turned to look for Kera and saw the men he had by the throat moments ago had run off.  Kera stood there with the gun Fanis dropped in hand.  Fanis knew she was not proficient with a gun but nobody else did.  During the Hong Kong protests for China’s surveillance state of Hong Kong, it was common to see protestors waving American flags and chanting the American national anthem.  As Fanis looked up, he saw an American flag on the ground.  He let go of the rapist’s hair and the rapist feel flat on his face barely conscious in a crimson mess.  Fanis walked over and picked up the American flag.  He looked at the rapist face down and at the flag and scowled as rage filled his face. He walked over to the rapists and jammed the pole into his butt twisting it as it dug his pants into the crevice between his butt cheeks deeper and deeper.  The rapist cried out and Fanis walked toward Kera.  Kera had her pants on but her bra was still exposed as her shirt was ripped.  She took Fanis’ hand and they walked toward the street to hail a cab. 

                Fanis was a little woozy but he was more concerned about Kera.  He had gotten there in time as nothing penetrated any orifice of Kera’s body.  Still though, it was close.  The next day, they got on the plane and headed back to London.  Kera inquired, “You should get that looked at when we get home.”

                “Yea, I’ll make an appointment and maybe in a year, they’ll see if I have a concussion.”

                “The NHS is transporting people to temporary units in movie theaters to help with demand.”

                “That’s for surgeries not concussions.  They are severely understaffed because with universal health care, there’s no incentive for medical care professionals to work in the medical field.”

                “And they want to bring it to America.”

                “So you admit it’s a bad idea.”

                “Yes, I live in London.  I know how hard it is to see a doctor here.”

                “Normally people blame the wrong source”       

                “Trust me, you can’t live with you and not know why it’s the case.”

                “Well, it’s hard to undo all the indoctrination from your public school education.”

                Kera shot him a dirty look, “You know, even though you went to private school your whole life, you’re not very good at acting like a rich kid.  Don’t try to be a snob, it doesn’t suit you.  Besides, how ridiculous is it that you work for this public school product?”

                “It’s odd, I must admit.”

                “Yea, it’s not fair that rich people get a choice for schools.  Some areas really have shitty schools.”

                “That’s why conservatives advocate for Charter Schools”

                “Yea, but they hurt public schools”

                “How?”

                “The drain money from them.”

                “That’s a nonsensical statement.  Charter schools are public schools so you can’t drain from one and give to the other.  They’re both supposed to be paid for by taxpayer money.”

                “That’s the point though.  You have to pay for two schools with the same amount of money.”

                “With $40,000 a student, you can afford that.”

                “So then why are they attacked?”

                “Charter Schools aren’t union.  The teachers unions hate them because they don’t get the cyclical cash flow.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “The city gives money to public schools.  The public schools have to pay union dues so they pay the union.  The union then donates to Democrats that run the city.  In effect, the money comes back to them, which is why the school is neglected.  They know that parents have to send their child to the public school so there’s no competition, therefore no incentive to make it good.  If there was a competing school that was independent of union money, then they’d have to invest in their school before getting it back because everyone would just go to the Charter School.”

                “It still sounds like draining to me.”

                “Do you call it draining when families move to cities with better schools?”

                “No, that’s just leaving.”

                “So is going to a Charter School except you don’t have to buy another house or go through the hassle of moving your entire household.  You just take your kid or have your kid taken elsewhere.”

                “I got to think about that.  I don’t really see a reason why parents shouldn’t be able to choose where to send their kids.”

                “Do you call it sabotaging public schools when a parent decides to send their kid to private school?”

                “No, if they can afford it, then more power to them.”

                “So, it’s not draining the community or the schools because instead of sending them to private school, you don’t’ have to ‘afford’ the alternative because it’s free.  It’s just not supplemented by the government but by private people independent of the union.  That’s why it’s better.”

                “I don’t know enough about this to argue.”

                “Alright then”

                They arrive in London and go back to their flat.  As Kera unpacks, she snaps, “Do you have any problem with Trump?”

                “Yes, plenty.  The big one is the national debt has increased 50% under Trump.  He’s signed two omnibus bills when he said after the first one he would never do it again.  Yes, he’s proposed budget cuts but the House always refuses them.  He should’ve just let the caps expire so there would be a 15% reduction across the board.”

                “Why didn’t he?”

                “Across the board also meant the military”

                “Ah, yea he couldn’t have that” Kera remarked with venom in her voice.”

                “I mean, our entire GNP is $ 20 Trillion a year and we owe 22 Trillion.  That’s like making 50,000 a year and owing $ 52,500.  Eventually people are going to stop lending to you.”

                “ Or jack up the interest rates.”
                “Yea, there’s no good option.”

                “That is a pretty big criticism.”

                “I agree but every president in my lifetime added to national debt, including Clinton every year, so it’s not something unique to him.”

                “Still bad”

                “I said that already.”

                Fanis and Kera are worn out from a stressful trip so immediately go to sleep.  As Fanis lied down, he wondered if Kera’s deal was worth going to a country that was in the middle of political strife.  That wasn’t his place.  His place was to protect her no matter how precarious of situations she put herself in.  He was able to fend off eight people from raping her so by that measure, he was successful.  The fact that they got so close and got her exposed to her bra and underwear worried him immensely and he felt guilty though he shouldn’t have.  Either way, they were safe at home and Kera wasn’t very shaken up by it.  All in all, a successful trip for Fanis.