Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 57

This chapter came after a prayer simply because, in my mind, I'd completely lost track of time and thought I was a week behind. Suffice it to say, my prayers have been answered in more ways than one. I thank God for his help with this element, and I thank all of you who have been steadfast readers and reviewers for providing me the motivation to keep working.

Also, a bit of a side note, on Watt Pad, my title is the inverse of my original title. The reason being was I made a big mistake in formatting with the initial draft and had to restructure. However, the penname is still the same. Sorry for those of you who couldn't find it quickly before.-Pagliacci-11.

Akiko was immensely tired as she boarded the flight to Moscow. It had already been a long day, and she knew it was only about to get worse. Anthea had sent her into what could only be described as a leper colony, at least that's how most of the boys upstairs viewed Moscow. To many of them, it was an old city, an old city with callused and ever-remembering scars. What bothered the boys upstairs was that all of them knew Moscow never forgot. It never forgot its traitors, phantom business ventures, teachings, and, most importantly, its students.

One such student was the man Akiko was sent to go see. As he was known to upstairs, Malik, or his real name, Henrick Shaulitz, was, in many regards, a master designer and computer engineering expert. Shaulitz was seen as the father of Russian digital communications by lesser floors of the Politburo until receiving his due. hH had been elevated due to his merits and contributions. Shaulitz didn't follow the immense aspects of fervor that swept most of the Soviet Bloc with the fall of the Wall. No, he stuck to his principles, stuck to the regime that he knew well in many ways, and had grown up alongside.

The times were different, the rest of the world would say this. However, to Shaulitz, time only changed in terms of its literal passage. He knew that the machine he served would undergo the same overhaul the same changing out of parts, as the traditional firearm. This was not by accident; it was merely the way of things. This process was to, as he believed, "suit the situation in which one finds oneself."

In many ways, Shaulitz was so dedicated to this view, that many around him thought him crazy; that many considered him as he lovingly joked, "The stick in the mud." However, to him, to be aware of reality, aware of what truly was despite sensationalism and fervor, that was pure power. Shaulitz maintained his position, continued his work, keeping all of his crucial work secret while merely going through the ebbs and flows of the restructuring of the "perceived norm."

The boys upstairs had recruited Shaulitz once they'd dug enough into the records, they had their infiltrators steal from the Politburo in their various actives. The top brass, as they were prone to do, didn't see him with any particular degree of merit at first. However, upon mentioning his direct name within the information they had attained from their 'cousin's' spy, Dimitri Polyakov, they took him a bit more seriously. Shaulitz in time was evaluated; Once his work and projects were found to be of genuine worth for their purposes, he was brought in to covertly monitor the Carthage project.

In many ways, Akiko knew the boys upstairs simply wouldn't admit they'd fumbled with their lack of oversight on Carthage. Even if made known, Akiko knew that upstairs would have been only slightly devasted anyway. Not even devastated somewhat, truth be told, more inconvenienced. Failure as far as upstairs was concerned, 'never really happened.' The only reason they believed this was they had their suppressing methods and repressing much in terms of 'negative exposure.' All that was needed, especially as Akiko could see the ins and outs, was simply bury the central aspect of their 'failure' with as most sleazy investment bankers would say, the bigger, better deal.