NationStates Jolt Archive

A phone rang, its loud trilling piercing the night air. A large hand slaps at it blindly till it finally grasps the thing and lifts it off of its cradle.

"Hello, Edgewood here." a deep voice muttered wearily. There was silence. "Yes, I'll be right over." The phone once again rested in its cradle.

"What is it honey?" a female voice sighed.

"The Minister of Finanace has been shot." the rich baritone voice of John Edgewood muttered has he rose to a sitting position. The female made a sympathetic sighing sound. "Vacation over." he adeed.

"What!?" Lisa shot up at this deathknell to their beautiful weekend. "What can you do about the Minister of Finanace being dead. You're an Imperial Guardsman!"

"He isn't dead. But he soon may be. He's in John Calvin Memorial Hospital." Edgewood informed her, struggling through the fog of drowsiness in which he operated.

"Where are you going? What are you going to do!?" Lisa Rubini harangued the drowsy man. Edgewood simply continued to button his shirt as if she didn't exist. "If you walk out of here without telling me where you're going, don't expect to see me here when you get back...or EVER!"

"Lisa..." he sighed, about to explain, but then closed his mouth and knowingly opened the closet door. He reached in, and off of a hanger, he took a black uniform Jacket and placed it over his shoulders. It wasn't just black, it was jet black, with silver piping. The armband close to the top of the arm read "Napoleon IV" in Cursive Lettering. The Imperial Eagle, superimposed on top of three curled Asp snakes, the symbol of the Imperial Gendarmes, was clearly visible on the left lapel of the jacket.

Lisa opened her eyes in horror. "John! You're a Gendarme?"

"Yes."

"Why did you lie to me!"

"To protect you." John sliped on the uniform pants.

"God will protect me, but the Gendarmes...you...do nothing but spy, harrass, and kill!"

Still completely naked, Lisa threw on what clothes that she had rather hurriedly and stormed out of the room. "I will send for my things!" she shouted.

"Another one down." John muttered to himself as he walked into the garage, bypassing his normal white sports car and instead settling into his professional vehicle, the Iconic Black Mercedes.

The Car started, and he was off.

As Edgewood drove out of his small residential neighborhood, he noticed that the streets were quite empty. Beyond empty infact. They were deserted. An order for immediate curfew had gone out from King Joseph the moment the news of the shooting fell into his ear. The only people on the streets tonight were the Imperial Guard, the Royal Army and Police, and of course, the Imperial Gendarmes. As he reached the top of Corinth Hill, the 3rd highest of the city's five hills, he could see very clearly the lit torches atop Fort Murat and Fort Tiberius, the two oldest functioning forts in the city as well as from the newly built Imperial Guard base, Fort Carson which guarded the approaches to the Imperial Palace, which was accross the Sauvegaarde River and on the western outskirts of the city.

The torches served as a symbol of readiness that had been held over from the times when these forts were not merely bases for infantry, but fortresses which controlled the city. Obviously, the same information had been communicated electronically moments earlier, but in the Capitol of Tradition, nestled in a land whose fibre was made of it, the old ways would never go away.

He had to take a detour to avoid a Royal Army Column that was heading south along the Via Victoria, so he took a roundabout shortcut, and driving at 90 miles per hour made it to the hospital in good time. The Royal Army held the Imperial Gendarmes and to a lesser degree, the Imperial Guard in great suspicion, and any interface that Captain Edgewood had had with them had taught him that they did nothing but slow the progress of his work.

He quickly slammed the door of his Mercedes and it locked tightly behind him. Moving as quickly as he could, he rushed to the front entrance of the hospital, waving his credentials to the Imperial Guardsmen who had cordoned off the building as he passed. Another Black uniformed Gendarme ran out to meet him, "Captain he's gone into shock from bloodloss, they are operating now to close off the damaged arteries!"

The moment the two broke through the front doors, it was apparant that their excitement and energy was in great contrast to the dark cloud of immobility and depression that hung high in the air. They both looked around frantically searching the faces of all who were gathered around for an explanation. "He just died." an exasperated doctor muttered.

(more llater)