Well, all of those three organizations probably have the same goal: to maintain the peace between Ostania and Westalis, but the problem is their ways to reach that same peace. All of those ways are just questionable.
WISE is an intelligence organization from Westalis that operated several missions in the neighboring country, Ostania, and almost all of those missions have questionable methods, like manipulating people, betraying people. stealing some items, forging some documents, honey trapping, etc. In short, they have a good goal, but their ways are just wrong.
The Garden is an assassin organization that targeted all people who threatened the peace between the two countries. I know that all of their targets probably are bad people, but still... killing people is just... not good as well, and definitely not a suitable job for a young girl (I'm talking about when they first recruited Yor, so yeah).
The SSS is a counter-intelligence organization of Ostania that protected the country from all things which could threaten the peace, but they scared all of the citizens. They captured the terrorists, but somehow, they terrorized people.
In short, all of them are not really good organizations.
Summary: Twilight is caught by the SSS. While trying to find a way to escape, Loid finds he is running out of options.
Twilight didn't know how he ended up in some dark shady basement, but he knew that he was in one. What had he been doing before waking up here? His hands were in chains up. The metal cuffs wrapped his wrist harshly. With his hands above his head, he could already feel his fingers starting to go could.
There was a door across from him. It was a gray, metal door and it was only seven or eight feet away from him. Pulling his body down, Loid tried to see if he could touch the door. When he came to the conclusion it was not possible, he pulled his legs closer to his body.
As Loid looked around, pieces of what had happened started to fill his mind. Bond and him had been doing a simple mission for his handler. Just grab some Intel and get out. Something had messed up the mission when everything had gone black. Where was Bond? Had he gotten away? Loid hated to admit it, but Bond had become one of his closest friends. Where was his dog?
Without a way to get the answer to where Bond was without escaping, Loid tried to focus on assessing the room. With the way the door hinges lay, the door opened in. That could be a useful detail for Loid's escape. The room had no windows and was only lit by a small lamp in the corner of the room. Going for the lamp, Loid used his feet to try to move it closer to him.
When that failed, he decided that he had to remove the chains first. Without anything else, Loid needed to dislocate a bone in his thumb to be able to free himself. Looking at his hands, the spy made the decision to start with his left hand.
The process of dislocating your thumb in a way to be able to force your hands out of handcuffs, was one Loud knew well. He could visualize the 27 bones that were in his hand. The first CVC joint needed to be dislocated so that he could move the metacarpal out of the way of the cuffs. He knew the exact angle and amount of pressure if took to dislocate the joint. He knew exactly how to relocate the bone and how many times he had pulled this painful trick out of his sleeve.
It would get easier as time went on and as he did more damage to his joints. However, sometimes damaging himself was the only way to escape. Loid was always careful with went he dislocated his his right thumb. That hand was his shooting hand after all.
Before he could do anything, Loud heard footsteps in the hall. From the sound of them, the suspect would be about six feet tall and around 180 pounds. They wore slightly healed shoes so likely they were some kind of business shoes.
When the door opened, it was silent. The light from the hall, hurt Loid's eyes. The man was quiet at first. He walked in and shut the door. As Twilight had expected, the man fit his expected description. He had auburn hair, fair skin, and green eyes. But that wasn't the first thing Loid noticed. The man wore an SSS uniform.
"Damn it" Loid thought. This couldn't be good.
"Hello." The man had a deeper voice. "Twilight."
A chill ran thought Loid's spin. How could he know? How did the SSS learn that he was Twilight.
"What?" Loid's surprise came easy to him.
"It is Twilight right?"
"Who is Twilight?" Loid slipped parts of his own fear into his voice. "Where am I?"
"Where you are, is of no concern to you. As for who is Twilight, you know the answer."
"I don't know! Why am I here!?" As they argued, Loid tried to figure out how the SSS had uncovered him. Has they uncovered him as Loid Forger? Where Anya and Yor okay? Bond had been with Loud when he was caught. Where was he? What kind of gun did the agent have and where did he keep it? Loid was confident he could kill him if he could take him by surprise. Where did Yor think he was? Would he be able to get any assistance from WISE?
It took Twilight a moment to realize he had been so quick to worry about his 'fake' family. He really did care about them. Hopefully, they hadn't been wrapped into his discovery.
"You are Western spy. You're Organization is WISE, no?"
"No!"
"Well then, who are you?" The SSS agent walked towards him, confidently.
"My name is Leon Thorn." It had been a long time since Twilight had used tears as a way to try to convey innocence.
"So is that what you go by now a days?"
"What?" Loid let his voice break. "I'm not a spy!" Tears fell down his face. However, the agent had given him the answer of 'did they know Loid Forger was Twilight?'
As the agent kneeled, Twilight swept his feet out from under him. Then he lunged forwards. As the enemy grabbed his gun, Loid tried to get it into his hands. As the SSS agent raised the gun, the spy went to kick it away from him.
The State Security Service was smart enough to send a skilled agent. The green eyed man grabbed his ankle and slammed it into the ground so hard it broke. Suddenly Loid's ankle was bleeding and there was a gun in his rib cage.
Trying to pull his hands down, Twilight jurked himself forward. The pressure only hurts his wrist as he was slammed back into the dark gray wall.
"Twilight."
Loid didn't answer. Instead he just stared at him, hate in his eyes. Yet no amount of hate Loid could have in his eyes would match the storm going on in the agent's. It was like a witch's cauldron.
"After all this time, you've finally been caught." Jabbing the gun further into Loid's Ribs, he continued to talk. "I didn't believe my colleague when he said he believed he had seen Twilight."
With every problem Twilight had to face, he found himself wondering about Bond more then anything. "Where is my dog?"
"Really? That's the first thing you say? How the hell should I know?!"
Bond had gotten away. Maybe he would go and find Franky? However, it was unlikely. Bond would likely be taken to the pound as a stay where they would call the apartment.
Twilight didn't answer.
"Now, Twilight, you can answer my questions or we can do this the hard way. While it may not look like there is much I can do to you in this room, I have a few methods and a few items outside of this room I can bring in."
Again, Loud stayed silent.
"This is your last chance." The gun was jammed further into Loid's side. Blood started to seep through his clothes. The pain forced him to have a physical reaction to it. Using his legs, Loid attempted to shove the agent. He was lucky the gun didn't go off. Instead the agent stood and slammed it over his head. "You'll regret that."
The man turned around and started to walk to the door. "And don't think you'll slip your hands out of those cuffs; they are meant to stop your kind."
"Let's see if you remain fealty to your country." As he opened the door, he started to yell at someone Loid couldn't see. "Find the damn dog that was with him and figure out who 'Leon Thorn' is!" The door slammed after him. Loid could only hope they would leave Bond alone.
Loid wasn't sure how long it had been. Normally, he was good with time. He lay with his back against the wall. There was little feeling in his hands. All he could feel was they were cold and they hurt. Everything hurt.
The man feared footsteps in the hall. It had been a long time since he had truly experienced fear. Twilight had been water boarded, burned, starved and beaten. Multiple of his bones had been broken. His WISE pin stabbed into his chest, over his heart. A knife had been drug across his body, creating rivers of blood on his skin. One stab wound in his left hip had gone down to the bone.
Blood poolled around Twilight. The man was shivering, his breathing was quick. His eyesight was blurry as he looked around the room. Looking at his hands, he tired to pull them to a place where he would be able to hold some injuries. However they were to close to the wall.
Putting his left arm over his head, Twilight tried to pull his hand down hard enough to dislocate his CVC joint. The force was to much and tears formed in his eyes. The thoughts of death that Loid had tried to avoid broke into his mind as he started to shake worse. The taste of salt unnerved him. As he started to cry, his tears mixed with his blood and got caught in some facial lacerations. After trying to dislocate his thumb for a moment, the man gave up and laid his arm back on the wall.
As Loid pulled his legs a bit closer to him, the door opened.
"This is your last chance." The agent spoke harshly. Loid breathed heavily, tears still following from his eyes. Air didn't seem to want to go into his lungs. The pain he felt, was something he learned he could have only imagined. "Tell us the locations of WISE's hideouts or you die."
Loid stayed silent other than his soft cries.
"Fine, have it your way."
Was this it? Dying in some dark room in Ostania? Loid thought about Anya and Yor and Bond. He hoped they would be okay. There was nothing left for him to do. The SSS agent sighed as he pulled out his gun. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to shoot you in a way you'll die quickly."
"Whats-" Loid coughed. "Your name?" The only tactic that Twilight had left was humanizing himself.
"Funny."
"I want to know the name of my executioner." Twilight squeezed out the words.
"Thomas."
"Hello Thomas."
"Hello Twilight."
"Good job, everything hurts." Loid tried to laugh but ended up quietly whimpering.
Thomas gave Loid an amused smile. "I know what you are doing. Don't bother."
"Okay." Loid realized just how badly he was shaking. He was terrified and it wasn't death that scared him. "It's cold."
"That's the blood loss."
"I know."
The man walked over to Loid. "Goodbye Twilight." Loid met Thomas's eyes. He let out a shaky breath as he realized this really was it.
The dead in Loid's eyes surprised Thomas. He saw the pain, tiredness and worry that must have been around for years. He sighed. "Do you have a name?"
"Loid."
"I'll take your dog to a shelter if we find him."
"Thank you. He-" blood came out of Loid's mouth; "has a tag. My wife and daughter, know nothing."
"Okay. This really is your last chance." Thomas's voice was lower then it had been. Loid hadn't remembered that while they were enemies, harsh facades could fade.
"I won't."
"Then-" placing the gun over the spy's heart, Thomas continued; "Goodbye Loid." Then he shot.
How powerful is the SSS: A discussion on Ostanian politics
This is a long guesswork on why the SSS doesn’t give a fuck about the powerful families, and the politics behind. Spoilers ahead.
The SSS makes the decision that they should simply storm in, even if there are children of powerful people on the bus. Many said the SSS head has made the wrong decision because important families would pull out and cease to support the government.
The question is, does the SSS care about the current ruling party?
We often stress upon the fact that Ostania carries out heavy surveillance on its people, and we do know how difficult it must be for Loid because he is a spy, and the SSS goes after spies. But there's something we don’t see in the series but the SSS does serveil important officials and big companies. In fact there is a high chance that they are always involved with confidential issues - one would imagine they are the people who are always closely monitored by the SSS. If you don’t like upsetting powerful families, becoming an SSS agent is probably a bad choice.
It IS a high-stakes job. We probably could not grasp how dangerous it is to be involved in politics while taking the risk of doing the dirty work and upsetting everyone. If we think the SSS somehow is loosely based on the Stasi, here is a quote about the “lives” of Stasi agents: “There was only one way to leave the MfS without being haunted for the rest of your life. You either retired, or you died. After you signed up, if you did not agree with policies and said so openly, you were finished. If you didn’t land in prison, or worse, you became an unperson. It happened to several thousand. In a way, they too were victims of the oppressive regime.”(1) Yuri is very courageous to speak up for Anya, and incredibly lucky to only be tied up.
Secret police organisations are products of a certain political system. Although throughout history these organisations have often been linked with one-party states, we probably can imagine that it is the political climate in Ostania, instead of any particular political party, that gave birth to the SSS. Thus, the SSS serves the state, not the government. There is a subtle difference between it.
We know that there are at least (and most probably only) two rivalling parties in Ostania - the current ruling party and the National Unity Party led by Donovan Desmond. We might think that the current ruling party is better purely because it has a higher tendency to preserve peace with Westalis. It doesn’t, however, loosen its grip on the surveillance on the Ostanian people. It would be hard to imagine how Desmond would abolish the SSS if he regains power, because up until now, we are still led to believe that Desmond holds a radical political view, and whoever is really in control of the National Unity Party is most likely the evil boss of this story. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge. They will need the SSS if the system doesn’t change.
It also leads to another question. If the SSS agent must agree with the policies, who makes the policies? This probably is a political game the head of the SSS has to play.
The heads of secret police organisations are always important players in politics. They are often involved in plots to overthrow leaders of the state. They are contenders for the head of state. Their political views don’t have to be aligned with the current political leader and can have their own political agenda. Of course this is a dangerous game to play, as it’s not uncommon for them to fall from grace.
As mentioned, there are two political parties, and then there are the SSS, the City Hall and the Garden. We know the goals of the Garden now aligns with the current government/ruling party. One of the members, Matthew McMahon, works as the Director of Policy in the Berlint City Hall, and if he has any political affiliations, my guess is he would be supporting the current government. Endo dropped another hint in the latest arc when Yuri’s captain warns Yuri not to leak the info to the City Hall. It is reasonable to think that there is some sort of conflict between the Director of the SSS and the Mayor, both traditionally considered as strong candidates of the next head of state.
It would be boring (and unrealistic) for the SSS and the City Hall (and the Garden) to stay completely loyal to the current government although the current head of state IS their boss. This is also not Endo’s style to have everything so straightforward. If Endo hinted how the City Hall and the Garden share part of their goals with the current ruling party, is the SSS as loyal to the government as we assume it should be? Is the Director of the SSS a supporter of the National Unity Party or does he have a different agenda? The SSS policy does echo the statement Donovan Desmond made in Chapter 38: if it is true that people will never truly be sympathetic to each other, why bother negotiate?
Finally, maybe the biggest questions are, If there is a friendly connection, or even a political alliance, between the SSS and the Desmonds, is Donovan Desmond informed of this incident? If the Garden caught wind, I assume it means Matthew McMahon would also know, and vice versa. Either way, is there other hidden connections (like the relationship between Henry Henderson and Martha) between the Garden and the government? We see informants of the SSS and WISE are basically like CCTV in the modern world. How well-connected is the Garden? And most importantly, does Yor know?
(1) Koehler, John O. STASI: The Untold Story of The East German Secret Police. London: Hachette UK, 2008.
Okay the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy are great and all, but have you heard of *drum roll please*
The SSS, the Slightly Sinister Superheroes!! A team dedicated to redeeming and rehabilitating supervillains to the point that they are fit to officially join the Avengers (Of course you haven’t heard of the group, I just made it up)
Current Members:
Erik Killmonger / Killmonger
Agatha Harkness
Karli Morgenthau / Flag Smasher
Baron Helmut Zemo
Ava Starr / Ghost
Hela Odinsdottir
Sylvie Laufeysdottir
Nebula
Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster
Wenwu
Maya Lopez / Echo
(Past graduates)
Gamora
Loki Odinson
James Bucky Barnes / The White Wolf (formerly The Winter Soldier)
