Memo to: Dr. Octavius Spaeiouk
CC: The Unseen
From: Agent Roach
Protocol: Counter-Rev
Action Code: Apiary thunder: rebel lurched the dancing queen.
Inside operatives caught the buzz, took wing. Flew out “for nectar.” No scheduled return.
We debriefed them, collected pollen samples, directed them to safe-nest shelters.
Then we engaged.
Busted the hive. Took photographs, wing-impressions, disarmed them all: stingers bent, blunted and detoxified as per standard operations procedure.
Bee-level organizers named names under interrogation.
“Do-bee a don’t-bee. Snitch be snatched. Siren is the weather vane — just like her mother. Cold, not fair. Do-bee-do-bee-do.”
Buzz-words. Ciphers swiftly cracked.
We tossed the press enough to generate articles, editorials, grateful letters of dismay by “concerned citizens.”
They complied admirably. No unnecessary questions. No data dispensed beyond Need To Know.
Headlines read, “Despondent Queen Strangled By Own Left Wing!”
“’She was, after all, merely an insect — all soft goo under that hard, fuzzy shell,’ confessed her closest worker-bee, a nurse.”
Etcetera, etcetera.
Hive secure and operational. Aegis of LoveHoney, Inc., the front-company established per your instruction.
They’re busy bees again, now they’ve been informed and reformed.
“New and Improved. Pure. Natural. Organic. Against Animal Cruelty. Clear clover honey and other sweet, sticky stuff. More and better stuff to come, plus shipping and handling.”
Education is the key to success, the only way up.
All cells under glass. Antennae trained on every comb and crevice. These insects are professionals. But bees are striped; they can’t be trusted. Precautionary measures have been taken.
Note on Operation Toad Stool: in effect.
Coordinating inter-state Frog Bash. Proposed argument: “Too many damned frogs. They’re everywhere. The life of the planet depends on their extinction. Bring your bat and gunnysack. They make good eatin’ and goddamn it they’re multiplying out of control. We’re up to our ears in cold, green amphibious marauders.”
Strictly psyops, of course. The limpid lakes and ponds of The Unseen remain teeming. Tad-pole production stable, as monitored.
A. Roach