[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...
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"If we want to eliminate both threats, we need a plan," I elaborate. "Maybe it sounds strange, but I think it would be easier to deal with Nightingale. If we cut off the head, which is Valentina, the rest would, without guidance, descend into chaos. The army would fracture and it would be easy to eliminate. We would have to find their hideout, get inside and dispatch Nightingale."
"But it would also work with Yeomen, if we killed Zeman. Wouldn't it?" Svetlana asks.
"With Yeomen, the situation is tricky," Ryan explains. "Nightingale is openly aggressor and terrorist. Yeomen are more or less a political subject. Getting rid of Zeman wouldn't cause the party to fall into chaos. It would make him a martyr. Someone else would take his place and they would have yet another argument to justify their campaing. It would only make things worse."
Svetlana tilts her head to the side. "So... how else can we defeat the Yeomen?"
For a second, we stay silent. Then I speak. "The main force of Zeman and his henchmen are the common people who support his cause and act on his behalf. They look up to him, accept him as their leader. Zeman has their trust. And this trust is something we can use against him."
Ryan smiles. "I think I see where are you going."
"With a militant group like Nightingale's army, it's enough when the leader dies. But what's the most efficient way to smother a political ideology? To discredit the man who embodies it. Show his followers their leader is not what they think he is. The devotion of the followers to the leader is powerful, yet fragile. It doesn't take much to destroy this trust and turn the followers against the leader. All it takes is a little push."
"Oh!" Svetlana cheers. "So you say that if Zeman gets involved in some kind of scandal, the Yeomen would turn against him and his campaign ends?" She puts on a serious face and looks at the floor again. "I'm ready... to take a sacrifice. I mean, I've already done it with Nightingale and it would be my chance to... redeem myself. What would Yeomen say if they found out their leader had an affair with a Castaway?"
I'm shocked by the girl's courage and devotion to our case. Would she really do it...?
However, she sighs in relief as Ryan shakes his head. "I'm afraid it won't be enough. I doubt that a sexual scandal would shake Zeman's position, even if it was with a Castaway. It would have to be something which would destroy him as a person, as a politician and as a leader. Some kind of betrayal, or even treason. But it seems Zeman is too careful to have such skeletons in his closet."
"So it means Yeomen can't be stopped and they will prevail?" Svetlana frowns.
"No. Maybe. I don't know," I say. "I'm sure we'll figure something out. The fact is that Zeman's campaing is slow and methodic and it will take a while before he manages to push all his anti-Castaway laws through. I know, the Castaways are already attacked and victimized by the Yeomen, but so far, they don't have any official legal support. Nightingale is the imminent danger. She can - and she will - soon perform another attack similar to London. And that's what we have to prevent since her attacks will cost lives."
