The Passport

The real enemy is the lie which starts the war in the first place.

When Dani saw his soccer ball fly over the wooden fence, he had no idea that retrieving it would change his life forever.

A moment before, he had been kicking it against the wall in his backyard, taking penalty shots against England in his own personal imaginary World Cup final, escaping into a daydream while air raid sirens cried out in the distance and fighter jets tore through the smoke filled sky overhead. He was about to drill home a beautiful strike to the top corner of his homemade chalk-outline soccer goal when a nearby explosion shook the ground. The tremor caused his foot to slip just as he made contact with the ball, and his shot sailed clear over the fence.

Dani took a deep breath and let out a sigh of frustration. Overhead, his country’s flag rippled in the breeze at the top of a large flagpole. Behind him, he could hear his parents inside of their home, scrambling in frantic preparation. His father, a commander in the military, would soon be off to war, yet again. Their country would soon be on the news, if it wasn’t already, yet again. And he and his mother would soon be at the airport preparing to leave for safer havens, wherever those were, yet again.

Dani stared at the flag ruffling overhead while the sirens howled in the distance. He looked at the bright colors, and the sharp geometric shape, the unmistakable symbol of the country he had lived in all of his life. Another loud explosion went off nearby, shaking the ground and scattering a flock of birds, but the flag kept ruffling quietly, as if it to show the world how strong it was in the face of such adversity.

“Daniel! We leave for the airport in twenty minutes!” his mother screamed.

Dani looked at the chalk outline goal he had drawn on the fence. A cool breeze passed by, motivating him to zip up his jacket, which bore a metal pin depicting the symbol of his father’s military unit upon the right breast. Twenty minutes…more than enough time to beat England, provided he could retrieve his ball.

So Dani hopped the fence, landed on the other side, and dusted himself off. Then he began to search for the ball. It did not take him long to find it. It was rolling down a hill, tumbling over rocks and twigs. Dani pursued it, bounding down the grassy slope as quickly as he could. The ball bounced over a railing and into the yard of an empty school. There it continued, rolling through an open entrance into one of the buildings.

Dani followed.

The ball rolled through a corridor and then down a flight of stairs, bounding audibly on each step it hit, Dani right behind it. Then it rolled into the dimly lit school library, where it travelled between a series of dusty bookshelves, underneath several desks, and into a circular reading area, where it finally came to rest next to a tall man huddled over a large box. Dani stumbled into the room, searching for the ball. The man heard him and spun around, but Dani ducked behind a bookshelf before the man saw him. Then the man noticed the ball at his feet. He picked it up and began to examine it.

Dani’s heart raced. The school was abandoned, so what could this man possibly be doing here, especially when their county was under attack? He carefully peeked around the bookshelf to get a better look. The man was tall, with a thick build, and dressed in what looked like military gear with no flags upon it, like a masterless ronin waiting for his next sword fight. The box which he guarded appeared massive and heavy. Dani’s eyes combed over every detail, but his heart told him everything he needed to know. The man was dangerous, and was not here to peruse the fiction section.

Then the man spun around and looked in Dani’s direction. Dani panicked, darting behind the bookshelf, and as he did, he bumped into a large military backpack next to him, spilling the contents onto the floor. Dani looked at the items which had fallen out, and quickly realized that they must belong to the man. There were bullets, gun magazines, a small radio, and…a passport.

Dani picked the passport up and opened it, revealing the identity of a man he did not recognize. Even more surprising though was the symbol on the front cover, the flag of the country of origin. It was the flag of the country they were at war with; his nation’s sworn enemy, the country who his father would soon be fighting against in combat. Dani peeked around the bookshelf again. The tall man who currently held his soccer ball captive wore no flags of any sort. Yet what could explain the presence of this enemy passport? Did it belong to him? If so, was he somehow involved with the enemy? The face in the passport photograph did not look like the man, but Dani could not be sure. His heart pounded in his chest as his mind confronted the possibility that an enemy soldier was less than ten yards away from him.

Then the tall man spoke, breaking the silence with his deep voice.

“Come out, come out…wherever you are.” he said. Dani remained motionless. He could hear the man walking towards him, getting closer with every step. Again the man spoke.

“Come now, I believe I have something you’re looking for,” he said, holding up the ball.

The sharp, punctuated footsteps grew closer and closer, piercing Dani’s ears. He was completely defenseless, and his only escape route was directly in the man’s line of sight. With no where to go, Dani held the passport close, hoping that if it was valuable to the man, that having it in his possession might provide him with some leverage in this situation. Then he took a deep breath and jumped out from behind the bookshelf into plain sight where both he and the man could clearly see each other.

With the bookshelf no longer occluding his viewpoint, Dani could see the man much more clearly now. He wore dark grey utility pants, thick boots and a black hooded vest. He carried several handguns in different holsters on his body, and what appeared to be a tactical combat knife as well. His face was scarred and brutal but there was a distant hint of humanity somewhere in his cold eyes. It was quite obvious that he was in the military, but in a different sort of way. The lack of flags or recognizable symbols or any sort of allegiance made Dani wonder whose side this man was on.

“This must belong to you,” the man said, holding up the ball. Dani stepped back, holding the passport to his chest. The man grinned. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

Dani shrugged, too scared to speak.

The man looked Dani up and down, and then noticed the passport he was holding. His face grew stern. “I need you to give that to me,” he said. For a moment, the two of them stood there in the library, the giant man towering over little Dani, like some recreation of David and Goliath. Dani held the passport close. He had an odd feeling that as long as he had it in his possession, it gave him some bargaining power with the man, which might help him get out of here, perhaps even with his soccer ball.

“What’s your name?” the man asked. Dani answered honestly, and then asked the same of him.

“You can call me…Nobody.” he said. “Now Dani, I need you to give me what you have in your hands.”

“What are you doing here?” Dani asked, his curiosity slowly growing greater than his fear.

Nobody stared at Dani, and then noticed the pin on his jacket. He stepped towards the boy, and then, perhaps to diffuse the situation, pulled up a nearby chair and sat down in front of him.

“That pin you wear, it’s very special,” Nobody said. Dani nodded his head in agreement. “Did your papa give you that?” Dani nodded again. Nobody smiled. “So then your papa is off to go fight in the war, yes?” Dani began to nod, but the reality of the situation slowly began to break him. His father had taught him to be tough, but his father was now off to combat, to fight against their county’s sworn enemy. Yet here he was, holding a document belonging to a member of that nation, and maybe even talking to one right now. Dani began to cry.

Nobody glanced at his watch, and then looked at the box behind him. Then he looked back at Dani. Something in Nobody softened; some part of his soul that he had forgotten about was suddenly calling to him, as if to offer him a chance at redeeming himself for something he deeply regretted from long ago. Nobody spoke again, but his voice was softer now.

“Do you like it that your father goes to war, Dani?” Nobody asked. Dani shook his head from side to side, a vigorous no. “I don’t blame you. I never liked it when my father went off to war, either. Every time he went, I always worried that…”

“That he won’t come home,” Dani said, tears now streaming down his face.

“Yes,” Nobody said, his face hinting at a sorrow that had not been there before. “Do you know why men go to war, Dani?”

Dani looked up at the man with his innocent eyes.

“No,” he said.

“Come,” Nobody said. “I will show you.”

The two of them walked over to the large box. Nobody unlocked the top and threw open the lid, revealing a dazzling bundle of wires and fuses and chemical containers, all connected to a digital keypad with a countdown timer.

9:14…9:13…9:12…

Dani looked up at Nobody in horror. “Is that a…”

“A bomb? Yes.”

“But why…how…” Dani asked, looking at the bomb. He opened the passport again, looking at the photograph of the mysterious owner and the symbol on the cover, the flag of the enemy, trying to piece together the terrible puzzle now unfolding before him. His head was filled with chaos and panic, wondering both why Nobody had planted a bomb here and furthermore why he had chosen to show him. He turned to look at Nobody again, but when he did his heart skipped a beat. Nobody unzipped his vest, and then pulled back the lapel on one side to reveal a uniform underneath. There, as clear as day on the man’s shirt, was a patch that bore the flag which flew above Dani’s home, the flag that defined his country, the flag that his father was currently fighting for, the flag of his nation.

Dani stared at Nobody in shock, quietly attempting to comprehend why a solider would plant a bomb in his own country. Then Nobody spoke, and what he had to say stayed with Dani for the rest of his life.

“This bomb will explode in less than ten minutes. It will destroy a large portion of this school, but because it is abandoned, no one will be hurt. There are other people like me in other parts of this country doing the same thing, other Nobodies…but not all of those places are abandoned, and in many of those places some people will be killed.”

“But how can you…” Dani began, but the man continued.

“When this bomb goes off, it will be on the news. Provided that the passport you hold, which bears the flag of the country which we are at war with right now, is found nearby, our government and the people on television will immediately blame that country for the bombings. People will be outraged, angry…they will want revenge…they will want….”

Then Dani interrupted him. “More war,” he said.

“Yes, exactly. And you see, war is a very big business in this world. Many people - people with influence and power - they make fortunes off of war. Do you understand?”

Dani nodded.

“And these fortunes, they allow them to gain more control over the world, which allows them to create even more wars.” Nobody paused, glancing at a map of the world which hung upon the wall at the other end of the library. He took a deep breath, looked at Dani, and then asked him a very important question.

“Do you think war is a good thing, Dani?”

“No,” Dani said.

Nobody smiled, his eyes alive in an almost childlike way. “Good, Dani, good. It’s very brave of you to feel that way. Don’t ever let anyone change that, ok?”

Dani nodded and looked up at the man, smiling.

“So you see, Dani. The real enemy in any war is not the other flag or the people who live under it. The real enemy is the lie which starts the war in the first place.”

The two of them stood there, looking at the bomb. There were eight minutes left until detonation. Then Nobody closed the lid and locked it, and turned towards Dani and held out his hand, gesturing towards the passport he held. Dani hesitated, wondering why, after confessing such important truths about the nature of the world and his role in the crimes which drove its perpetual conflicts, Nobody would still want to go through with such a heinous act.

“I know,” he said. “But I must do it. I am bound by an obligation you would not understand. If it makes you feel any better, know that the only people who will die in this incident will be us if we don’t get out of here soon. So, may I please have the passport?”

Dani looked at Nobody, still clutching the document in his hand. Nobody, sensing his hesitation, kneeled down in front of him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

“Dani, do you remember when I asked you about how you felt when your father went off to war?”

“Yes,” Dani said.

“And you said that you didn’t like it, because you always worried that he would’t come home?”

“Yes,” Dani said again.

“Do you know why I asked you that?” Nobody said. Dani shook his head slowly from side to side. Nobody continued. “Because one day, when I was your age, my father went off to war, and he never came home again.”

Dani looked deeply into the man’s eyes in a way only a child knows how to do. Then he threw his tiny arms around him and hugged the man tightly. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s too late for me, Dani,” Nobody said, pulling Dani close to him. “I must do what I have been ordered to do, as much as I do not want to do it. But you can change things, if you want. The world is tired of war, Dani, and if you’re brave enough, perhaps you can find a way to help end it forever.”

The two pulled away from each other. Dani handed the man the passport, and Nobody handed Dani his ball. Then the two parted ways, Nobody off to who knows where, dropping the passport as he left in a place where it could be easily found later by the authorities, and Dani back to the rest of his life, his heart filled with truth and a burning desire to shine it upon the rest of the world.