[The Tempest trilogy: Book 2] After the incident in Ostrava's Neoclash arena, Zoya faces dangerous challenges. Nightingale's uprising threatens to destroy the whole Europe, the racist Yeomen movement steps up their campaing against Castaways and Rya...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A week later. We are in Prague, following a long line of people aiming towards the Visegradian cemetery. It is a several hundred years old place which serves as the burial place of the most prominent people in Czechia. It's appropriate that Daniel Havel will be buried here today.
Not even pleasantly warm, sunny weather can fix our gloomy mood. The sadness is even stronger because we lost another important fight - a few hours after the voting booths closed, we already knew the results of the New European Council election. EUFRESA, Zeman's party, won the election with 42% of the votes. AMIPRO, the party Daniel Havel led, received only 28%.
A crushing, bitter defeat. And the dusk of the Castaways.
Immediately after the election, numerous Castaways started to emigrate to the states of DIANA which are free from Zeman's influence. I was, to be honest, thinking about the same. Then I realized how cowardly it would be. There are problems to solve and I can't solve them by running away.
The cemetery soon becomes crowded with people wearing black; Havel's family, his closest friends, colleagues from his party. I recognize Jaroslav Havel, the chairman of the Neoclash Committee, mourning over the death of his brother. He still looks freshly devastated even though it's a week after the attack.
I also notice the pudgy figure of Tomáš Zeman surrounded by several bodyguards - most of the famous people nowadays employ at least one Castaway in their personal guard. Zeman's squad is all Healthy. I feel a strong urge to take them out one by one and then kick that hateful scum they guard into the stratosphere. But if I did, I would disturb the sanctity of this place and go straight to jail, even though a lot of people would applaud me for this praiseworthy action.
"Mr. Havel," I rush to the chairman, closely followed by Ryan. "I'm so sorry for what happened. I swear to God I'm going to destroy Nightingale and her gang!"
"Zoya," he gives me a sad smile. "What happened can't be undone. However, losing my brother... he was my closest family after our parents died. I still can't imagine living without him, but it seems I'll have to slowly accept it. He was the younger of us - I was so proud of him when he started the political career and founded the most successful party which stayed the most successful until he died - how ironic. We could also closely cooperate because of my position in Neoclash committee. Now... it's all gone."
He looks so devastated he brings me on the verge of crying.
I want to speak to the chairman a little more, but I'm pushed away by a crowd of people who also want to offer him condolences. Even Tomáš Zeman joins them. Since they are both local, they speak Czech with each other, but I still try to observe Zeman's face as much as possible.
There is some trace of sadness in his expression, but I think that about twenty percent of his words is sincere. When I look at the whole event with his eyes, it brought him only benefits. His main political opponent is dead and he has another thing to blame on Castaways.
