Foreign Correspondence: Posthaste
Chapter 2
by
Mo
Disclaimer: The X-Men and Alpha Flight belong to Marvel. The movie belongs to Fox. Hotmail belongs to Microsoft. Belarus is an independent country and belongs to its citizens, mutant and otherwise. Bryn Mawr is a private women's college founded in 1885. It belongs to the women, mutant and otherwise, who have lived and learned there for the past 116 years. The Miami Herald is a real newspaper but AFAIK has never had an Adam Greenfield on staff. I do feel like Scott and Logan are a little bit mine since I've been borrowing them for so long.
Scott ran down the stairs. The urgent, excited tone in Warren's voice had left him unconcerned with his somewhat disheveled appearance. Logan was right behind him. When they got to the main floor they found the rest of the inhabitants of the Saskatchewan outpost gathered around the television, tuned to an all-news channel.
"Someone got out," Warren said, excitedly, standing up and coming over to Scott. "A Belarussian mutant. They're saying he escaped from one of the resettlement camps. The story broke just about an hour ago, when his plane landed at JFK. He was supposed to be meeting with United Nations officials. They were planning to hold public hearings. The Belarus delegation to the U.N. is objecting strongly - it's not clear whether they'll get support from Russia or any of the other Security Council members. So, they aren't sure whether the U.N. meetings are even going to happen and they decided to just go public. They're about to have a press conference right in the airport. It's our first chance to find out what's really going on there." He put his arm around Scott's shoulders, ignoring the look Logan was giving him.
"Are we recording this?" Scott asked.
Warren nodded. "Sorry," he said, looking at the television where the news anchor was filling in time by reviewing the history of the "mutant cleansing" in Belarus. "I guess you didn't have to rush." He turned to look at Scott, an amused smile on his face. "You could have taken the time to put on a shirt. You must be freezing." He wrapped a wing around Scott. Then, with a glance at Logan, "Both of you. They said the press conference was starting right away. I don't know what the hold up is."
"They don't seem to know either," said Jean-Paul. "That poor guy is running out of things to say." He gestured at the increasingly flustered-looking news anchor. "I don't think I can stand to hear another run down of the history of the Republic of Belarus. And I'm not sure he can stand to say it again."
"When did all this happen?" Scott asked. "Who is the mutant refugee? What do we know about him?"
"Hardly anything," Wendy chimed in. "They haven't even given his name. They were going to introduce him at the press conference. There was no advance warning that any of this was happening - I've been following the news from Belarus very carefully. When it started, we channel-surfed to see what we could find, but all the news outlets have the same story. Or the same non-story. The whole thing's really frustrating."
"So what do we know?" Scott asked again.
"There's an American reporter who smuggled him out of the country," Warren answered. "See, that's him over there," pointing at the head shot displayed on the screen now. "Adam Greenfield, from the Miami Herald. He apparently got him a counterfeit passport and fake reporter's credentials, passed him off as a colleague. Without the approval of his newspaper, they keep saying. But obviously there's more to it than that. That's just the end of the story. How did he get out of the camp? How did he meet up with Greenfield in the first place? There had to be somebody local helping him, too. Maybe there's even some sort of underground network."
"But underground for how long? Now that the story's out, I wouldn't bet on the survival of any underground mutant escape route." Arthur spoke for the first time. "There's going to be a crackdown in Minsk now that makes what's gone on so far look like child's play. I don't know that going public is going to help the mutants left in those camps at all. The backlash may outweigh any advantage that comes from popular support for the mutants in the camps. If we even see popular support. Americans don't care about violence to mutants at home. Why would they care about mutants in a country most of them have never even heard of? The U.S. isn't going to pressure the U.N. to do something for the mutants in Belarus."
"Oh, I don't know," Wendy said. "Maybe publicity on what's going on will influence public opinion, and then there will be more of an outcry. Maybe some human rights organizations will get involved. It doesn't have to be the U.N. handling this, although I still hope they don't back down. Amnesty International or some group like that could hold the hearings."
Logan snorted at that. "Thanks for the contribution, Pollyanna," he said. "But Amnesty and those other international human rights organizations don't even consider us human. They haven't said a word so far - they didn't even weigh in opposing the Mutant Registration Act."
"Well, not yet," Wendy countered. "It doesn't mean it won't happen. Amnesty International totally discounted human rights violations based on sexual orientation just a few years ago and they came round on that issue. They even have a Gay and Lesbian issues subgroup now. Maybe they'll do the same for us eventually. I don't think I'm being a Pollyanna to hope for that."
The phone rang at that point. Wendy was nearest and picked it up, then handed it to Scott. "Yeah, we're watching it right now," he said. "No, I didn't know anything about this until about five minutes ago. I hadn't heard any news yet today. Most of them have been watching for the last hour. But I gather there haven't been a lot of details released. Do you know anything more? Since it's sort of a local story?" Then, after a pause, "We thought of that. We're recording right now - we'll get the press conference, if they do have it. Wendy's friend is arriving tomorrow. The one I told you about, whose mutant power is languages. If he speaks in Belarussian, we'll ask her to do translation for us. Maybe Laura will pick up some nuances the official translators miss. Oh Charles, it looks like they might be starting. I'll call you later."
The news anchor was looking relieved, announcing that they were switching to the reporter on site at the press conference. Adam Greenfield, the reporter from the Herald, was at a lectern in what looked like a makeshift conference room. He looked younger than he had in the head shot, and a little nervous. Greenfield tested the mike, adjusted his glasses, and then kicked off the press conference by apologizing for the delay. He said that the man he referred to as his colleague was not well and that they had considered calling off the press conference. "He's insisting that we go ahead with it, though. My colleague is the first mutant to escape from the mutant resettlement camps in Belarus and he has an important story to tell. We will both be reading brief prepared statements - mine in English, his in Belarussian. And then we'll take your questions."
Greenfield's statement briefly recounted having met a young Belarussian man during the course of his interviews. The man, to whom he referred only by the initials "N.I.", had asked Greenfield to help him smuggle a close friend out of the country. The friend was a mutant, he confided, and had been active in the nascent mutant rights movement there before the crackdown of the past few weeks. Consequently, his friend was in great peril in Belarus. Greenfield had agreed to help with false identification and transport out of the country. He had assumed that the mutant friend was passing as normal and that he was trying to get out of the country before he was discovered and sent to the camps. When N.I. told Greenfield that he was planning to help his friend escape from a mutant resettlement camp, Greenfield worried they'd both end up in prison or worse. But he hadn't backed down from his commitment and had participated in the rescue effort, which was ultimately successful. The full story of the dramatic rescue, he added, would be available to anyone reading tomorrow's Herald.
After the plug for his upcoming article, Greenfield finished his statement. He said that his colleague would be speaking in Belarussian, and that they had a simultaneous translator available. All the outpost residents watched intently as a haggard-looking man walked, shakily, up to the podium, leaning on the arm of a young woman who was apparently the interpreter. Greenfield introduced the man as the colleague he'd been speaking about, praising the courage and perseverance that had brought him here and that fueled his insistence on going ahead with the press conference. He gave the mutant refugee's name for the first time: Aleksandr Cherevko.
Cherevko's appearance was a dramatic contrast from that of the robust-looking reporter. The mutant looked frail and sickly. Much too thin and with shaking movements, he was wearing ill-fitting clothes. He had a vacant look in his eyes. There was no way to guess his age. He had the appearance of an old man, but an old man who might have been young a few short weeks ago. Scott mused on the sameness of refugee appearance - Cherevko could have stepped out of a photograph from the liberation of World War II concentration camps. "Plus ca change; plus c'est la meme chose," he thought, sadly.
Cherevko hadn't yet begun to speak. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and put it on the lectern in front of him, smoothing it with jerky movements of his hand, clearing his throat. The weak-looking man tried a couple of times to begin his statement, but no sound came out. All the outpost residents leaned closer in anticipation, hoping they would be able to glean something from his tone in addition to the interpreter's words.
They all leaned in, that is, except Jean-Paul. He was sitting back and shaking his head sadly, looking at the screen with tears in his eyes as Cherevko was still trying vainly to speak. "Mon dieu," Jean-Paul said quietly. "What have they done to you, Sasha?"
All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of these materials in any form is expressly prohibited. No money is being made from this archive. All images are also (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities; they are not mine. This website, its operators and any content used on this site relating to the X-Men are not authorized by Marvel, Fox, etc. I am not, nor do I claim to be affiliated with any of these entities in any way.