The Embassy - Part I

A journalist from a fictitious country attracts the attention of powerful forces that he does not yet fully understand

One of my greatest fears when crossing the border is to be detained by law enforcement. I have read too many accounts of people held for hours and hours without clear cause, and learned too much about how the War on Terror at the turn of the millennium has shaped airport and border security. What is bizarre, and frankly quite terrifying, is that border crossings are this kind of gray area where the normal rule of law does not apply.

For example, at the U.S. border you only have the right to a lawyer if you are a U.S. citizen. Border officials have the right to search through your digital devices and copy whatever is on them. If you refuse, you will likely be held for much longer and your devices can be confiscated. This is something of particular importance for journalists, who often hold very sensitive information or information that is critical of the government. Since there is a high likelihood of me carrying either around with me, even if only as a hastily scribbled part of a fictional story in a notepad, the possible risk to myself is something I have been acutely aware of for a while. While encryption can help keep the government out of your personal files, I reckon that in such a scenario it will probably only raise suspicions and get my devices confiscated. Therefore, I make sure to move any sensitive data off my devices before I cross the border, and would encourage anyone, but especially those with the most to lose, to do the same. My solution for making sure my notepad does not get me into trouble is as simple as it is devious: just make sure that no one can actually decipher your handwriting.

Anyway, all this means that I do not ever cross the border without going over all these things in my head, and because of that there’s not a single border crossing that I do not still vividly remember. This is probably why exactly such a crossing is the subject of this part of The Embassy.

There is a block coming up, marked with ✋, which gives a brief description of what happens in the prologue of The Embassy. If you have not read it yet, do not read ahead. Instead click on the link to the prologue directly underneath this paragraph.

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The story so far...  

✋ DO NOT READ BEFORE READING THE PROLOGUE ✋  

Looking back at the prologue from two weeks ago, which you can find here, we saw the president hint at resistance to reforms he promised. It remains unclear what kind of resistance he is currently experiencing, or who is responsible for it, but what is clear is that he thinks it is related to reforms he intended to implement. We are left to fill in the blanks ourselves.   

Only recently did I realize that Trump’s recent presidential inauguration could be one way to interpret these events, which would give the developments in this story a whole other layer of meaning. After all, the past years have seen immense efforts expended by his opponents to keep him from assuming the presidency again. Yet while each reader is free to interpret the story whichever way they like, those kinds of similarities are also why I deliberately chose to use a fictional country for my setting. One of the main strengths of fiction is that it can let us sidestep those associations and political leanings which can keep us from considering certain ideas or viewpoints. Besides, the snippets revealed so far as well as in this part of the story suggest that the youthful president’s situation bears many more similarities to the histories of other countries.   

The Embassy - Part I