NationStates Jolt Archive

Gustav spoke, the princess would probably know him now from his voice.


"Yes? Who is this? How did you get this number? What is this, a joke? You do know that five hundred killed in Western Sahara, yes?"

Gustav spoke, the princess would probably know him now from his voice.


"Yes? Who is this? How did you get this number? What is this, a joke? You do know that five hundred killed in Western Sahara, yes?"

The Colonel continued, ignoring the man's questions.

"You killed twelve of my best men. I congratulate you. I look forward to seeing how you fare in this operation you have taken upon yourself to initiate. But that is precisely the reason I contacted you. Your talents pique my interest. If you survive, perhaps I could interest you in a job?"

Gustav shook his head, "I don't know... Maybe, what would it entail?"

Gustav shook his head, "I don't know... Maybe, what would it entail?"

"You do as I tell you, and in time all the wealth, power, and glory you could ever concieve will be yours. What do you plan to do after this is finished? You cannot expect to go back to your old job, not after this incident. No, you are already one of us now, even if you do not yet wear the uniform."

He shook his head, "I figured if I wanted to, I'd just go back to Mississippi, most people would support what I'm doing. Our people were outraged when they learned that bitch of a princess didn't even thank us for helping her. And now over five hundred of our brethren are dead because of our involvement in helping her."

"Indeed. An ungrateful whore. Revenge is sweet, is it not? Perhaps your revenge could go further. I will make a deal with you. The girl is of no use to you, but I have great interest in obtaining her. Deliver her to us, and I shall reveal the incentive to taking my job offer."

Gustav didn't like that idea, he didn't want to hand over anybody, even a bitch of a woman like the princess, to somebody he thought might harm her. He was just here to scare her or make her nervous, hell he wasn't really sure why he was here...



"Why should I give her to you?" he asked the man. Then adding, "And what would you do with her?"

Gustav didn't like that idea, he didn't want to hand over anybody, even a bitch of a woman like the princess, to somebody he thought might harm her. He was just here to scare her or make her nervous, hell he wasn't really sure why he was here...



"Why should I give her to you?" he asked the man. Then adding, "And what would you do with her?"

"She will come to no harm, I assure you, and the benefits will make it completely worthwhile."

"She will come to no harm, I assure you, and the benefits will make it completely worthwhile."



He then asked, "If you don't plan on harming her, why would you even want her? I'm not an idiot you know... Don't lie to me."

He then asked, "If you don't plan on harming her, why would you even want her? I'm not an idiot you know... Don't lie to me."

"I never lie. She will serve to appease my men, who are understandably annoyed with her for causing the death of a good number of their brethren. I will see to it that they do not kill her, however."

Gustav sighed, "I'll have to get back to you on that... Hold on... One minute."


He walked right to the side of the chair the princess had been pushed into and then he put his hand on her chin and lifted her head up so he could look her in the eyes, of course all she could see of his face was his eyes, wearing the face mask as he was.


He shook his head, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't deliver you to those people, it might teach you the virtues of respect and gratitude, and perhaps you'd even pick up some manners..."

"Why would you even consider denying such a simple request? Perhaps I can further entice you. I hold the world at my fingertips. Anything you desire, I can provide for you in return for the whore who so slandered your noble compatriots, now dead. You looked to her hoping to find a wife. Any number of beautiful, willing women can be yours. All are nobles, fitting your stature. They will satisfy you personally, and bring you honor among your countrymen. Should you chose to join us completely, however, I can promise you far more than this. Far more."

Gustav wasn't sure what to say, "I... I just don't know... I just wanted her to learn some manners and respect was all, I don't want to sell her to some international sex slave cabal that would most certainly result in her being harmed. I don't like seeing people get hurt, but I have even more seeing good men die for nothing, and I think this whole operation turned out to be a lot of nothing..."

Gustav wasn't sure what to say, "I... I just don't know... I just wanted her to learn some manners and respect was all, I don't want to sell her to some international sex slave cabal that would most certainly result in her being harmed. I don't like seeing people get hurt, but I have even more seeing good men die for nothing, and I think this whole operation turned out to be a lot of nothing..."

"International sex slave cabal? Far from it, my friend. I too hate to see people harmed, but occasionally we must accept it as a necessary thing. She has slandered you, and she must pay the price. It is not worth the loss of her life, but you are correct in that she must learn respect. She has spit in the faces of your dead compatriots, who died for you, and for her. surely you must see the need for her to do penance?"

"International sex slave cabal? Far from it, my friend. I too hate to see people harmed, but occasionally we must accept it as a necessary thing. She has slandered you, and she must pay the price. It is not worth the loss of her life, but you are correct in that she must learn respect. She has spit in the faces of your dead compatriots, who died for you, and for her. surely you must see the need for her to do penance?"



Gustav wasn't sure he totally agreed with that line of reasoning, "Yes, perhaps, but your idea of teaching her manners would involve brutal torture and unspeakable evils..."

The princess cringed, but kept silent. She didn’t notice it herself, but it was quite obvious, she was trembling horribly. She tried to speak, but no words came out, just a mere squeak.


Laurelin crouched down lower, hoping not to be seen or hit. She ran faster still, not breathing hard. She was a good runner and she was sure there was one way or another she could lose her pursuers. The Empress knew she could keep this up for a while, the forest went on and on, getting darker and more overgrown as you went farther in, but with night vision they’d see her soon enough. She zigzagged behind trees like a blur.

Gustav wasn't sure he totally agreed with that line of reasoning, "Yes, perhaps, but your idea of teaching her manners would involve brutal torture and unspeakable evils..."

"Torture? Who said anything about torture? To defile such a form as her own with the knife would be an unspeakable evil in itself."

Gustav slapped her across the face, "Answer me when I speak to you... Or are you too good to answer me? Maybe your silence is your way of trying to tell me that you want to be given over to the colonel and his men? Answer me?"

He slapped her again, "And don't moan and cry about being slapped, when I was a little boy, if I ever made a point to poor people that I was richer and by translation better than them, my father beat me, he said I should be thankful for my wealth, and not become corrupted and arrogant from it... His discipline made me a better person."





In the woods, the man with the thermal goggles had a pretty good idea where the empress was, looking at the tracks on the ground, the minute heat signatures left from her running. He ran off as fast as he could, talking over the com system to the other men, "Get some more thermal vision up here, we need as much as we can."




Out front of the palace, twelve of the MSAAS tactical vehicles had arrived and pulled up in front of the palace. They were rebuilding the doors and reinforcing them, readying for police to start a siege.

Along the gate, they had blocked the entrance way with quick dry cement and mobile steel barricades they had taken from one of their trucks. There were a few dozen men manning the perimeter of the palace wall, and a few dozen more inside on patrol on the grounds. Most were inside the palace itself.

A few sniper teams were in place on the roofs of buildings and in the trees. And still, a few Stinger and Milan teams were ready in the event there was any serious police presence.

"Torture? Who said anything about torture? To defile such a form as her own with the knife would be an unspeakable evil in itself."



Gustav shook his head, "No, I'm saying you'd defile her in other ways... You know full-well what I'm talking about, don't bullshit me."

The princess could barely speak, but held back her tears. All she could manage was a whisper. “No…don’t give me to them…please.”


Laurelin was running as fast she could go. She had always been fleet of foot, but she noticed she was making deep tracks. Cursing under her breath, she suddenly had an idea. All the MSAAS operatives were looking for her on the ground, perhaps she could hide out in a tree. She dodged behind one of the huge trees and started to climb.


The police figured out something big was going on at the palace, and rushed over there. The were equipped for street fights and that kind of thing, but nothing like a hostile takeover of a government building such as the palace.

The blocked off all the streets and surrounded that palace and radioed for a whole lot of backup. The police chief grabbed a megaphone and shouted, “This is the Eldanoran Police Force. We have the place surrounded. We order you to come out and release any hostages you may have.”

Gustav shook his head, "Tell me, why shouldn't I give you to them? You just expect me to just let you walk all over us... No... I think I will accept his offer and hand you over to them, you really need to learn some manners."




The man with the thermal goggles followed the footprints right to the tree, he knew what must have happened. He looked up and sure enough, he could see her. As he silently spoke into the comm for more men to move up, a few more men from his squad arrived and helped him surround the tree.


He then raised his MP-5 and shouted, "We have the tree surrounded, slowly climb down and we won't harm you, try to escape, and we may have to shoot you!"





One of the men near the gate looked for the nearest large police van, he turned and aimed his 7.62mm portable minigun at it, he shouted back, "You all better duck!" and about ten seconds later he opened fire on the police weapons and equipment vans, then he started to shoot up their squad cars.


One of the snipers on the roof put a 30'06 round into the kneecap of the police chief, wanting to neutralize but not kill him.

The princess whimpered. “No, no, please, please don’t!”


The Empress cursed. Ran right into a trap, she had. There was no escape now. Up or down, and if she went up, she had a feeling they would shoot.

She took a deep breath and continued up, higher and higher until she reached the very top, far, far above the ground. The men looked like tiny specks below her.


The police chief went down and hit the pavement hard. One of the officers dragged him behind a car. They all were out a loss for what to do. There was no way they could bring any of the snipers down.

Gustav shook his head and slapped her across the face, "Stop whining you little bitch! You think you're better than us all... Well are you? Tell me, are you better than any of us? Are we better than you? I think our behavior and attitudes are better than you, but does that entitle us to act like we are kings amonst peasants?"



One of the men sighed and then shot the branch the empress was on, moving to where he expected her to fall to, he was planning on catching her.





The man with the minigun then opened fire at any other vehicles he saw, and then finally he shot all the lights along the walls out, destroying anything that might help the police.

She trembled more, and shook her head. “No, I’m not better then you, any of you,” she mumbled, and looked down at the ground.


The Empress felt the branch snap beneath her feet, and down she fell. She fell throw the air at an alarmingly fast pace. She did the only thing she could, and reached for a branch. Her hand caught on one of the branches, and she felt it buckle. Before it could crack, she pulled herself back onto the tree, a place where the trunk split into two.


The police crouched down behind their cars, completely unsure of what to do. The Empress wasn’t around to issue orders, the police chief had been shot in the knee, and the Empress’s second-in-command was out of the country. In the end, they tried to round up some of her advisors and see what they could do.

Gustav then chuckled a bit, "See, you're starting to learn... Let me ask you this, you've never known a man, have you? Let me guess, you've never found a man worthy of you, well in your mind that is how it is, but I think it's just that you have an inflated opinion of yourself."



The man sighed and fired a burst from his MP-5 about six inches from her head, making it a point that he could so easily kill her if he wanted, but seemingly letting it be known he missed on purpose. At any rate, he shouted, "Climb down now or you'll be brought down! Ten, nine, eight, seven..." he kept counting.





One of the men in full crusader armor, with a minigun, walked out of the front gate and headed right for a group of a few dozen police, he shouted, "Boo!" and then opened fire at the ground in front of them, so it would end up spitting pieces of concrete and cement at them, rather than their getting hit with bullets and dying, they'd be pelted by flying pieces of concrete as the ground was torn to bits.

She snarled, “I’ve found many men worthy of myself.”


Laurelin knew she had no other option but to climb down, or stay where she was. She wasn’t going to give herself up. She stayed where she was.


The police all jumped up and scampered out of the way, hiding behind another squad car, except for one, who stayed where he was a raised his gun, a small pistol, with a trembling hand. “Don’t come any closer,” he said.

Gustav smiled behind his mask, "Really you have? I find that hard to believe, I read the profile on you before coming here, so I know you're lying... And again, I'm trained to know when somebody is lying, I can tell you're lying... Lying insults my intelligence, why do you insist on insulting my intelligence? Admit it, your personality, I mean lack of one, has succeed in chasing off any man that's ever shown interest in you? Yes?"




The man sighed and loaded a tranquilizer round into his gun, he then fired it right at the empress, hitting her in the back. It would take affect in a few seconds.





The man grinned at the police and shouted, "I'm counting to five, all of you drop your guns and kick them forward, and then move away, or else I drop you!"

She snarled again, “That’s not true! Perhaps I don’t want to be with anyone at this time!”


Laurelin felt the tranquilizer hit her back and it begin to take affect. She lost control of her body and slipped out of her senses. She fell off the branch and down towards the ground.


Two or three of the officers dropped their guns, but the others moved out and raised their guns instead of dropping them.

He frowned, "Fine, lie to me... I think the intelligence files don't lie, you however do lie... Would you be willing to answer those questions while hooked up to a portable big brother thought detection system? We could then tell for sure if you're lying or not..."

He then grinned a bit behind his mask as he chuckled, "I'm sure we could get you a lot of men though, be shipping you to the colonel I've got on the phone here..."




One of the MSAAS operatives caught the empress in his arms, he quickly restrained her hands behind her back with a pair of handcuffs a comrade tossed him. They they proceeded to carry her towards the palace, it would be a long walk, they'd run about twenty minutes into the woods, they'd gone at least four miles."




The man with the minigun shook his head at the cop who still had his gun, "Drop it... Now... I won't tell you again!"

The princess sobbed. “All right, all right, I haven’t been with anyone, please don’t harm me!”


The Empress barely felt herself being handcuffed or carried, she was too deep in unconsciousness to notice.


Outside, the police finally swallowed their fear and opened fire on the snipers. It didn’t do much use, though, their aim was off and they were too heavily armored.

Gustav shook his head and frowned, "Isn't that awful though, you're twenty-eight and have never had many friends except for your cousin basically, you've never had any male friends... Did you ever wonder why? Let me guess, you thought it was just everybody else around you, right?"

He sat down in a chair next to her, "Don't worry... I don't intend to harm you, but I do want you to realize that you're a rather rotten and selfish woman who is probably going to die a lonely old hag, so I don't need to harm you, you're your own worst enemy."





The men carried the empress all the way into the palace, setting her down on a chair in a living room, and then tying her to cuffs hands to the chair and then tying her legs to the chair so she couldn't escape. One of them then gently slapped her in the face as he whispered, "Wake up, wake up..."





The man with the minigun decided he had to act now, the police might kill his friends if they got a lucky shot to the eyeholes of the masks. He opened fire with his minigun and cut down any police he saw that there shooting their weapons.

“I have plenty of friends, I do. Male friends, too. Maybe I don’t want to get married yet. Who says I have to? Not many people marry that young in this country.”


The Empress slowly came too, and instinctively tried to move, and found she couldn’t. She tried to move again, but still no luck. Finally, her vision cleared and she could see. She was back inside the palace, and then she realized she was tied to a chair and there was someone right up in her face.

She moaned. She’d been captured, despite her attempts to evade it.


About four of them went down in the shooting, and the remaining officers jumped behind another car once more, breathing heavily.

Gustav almost laughed, "I'm sure you do have lots of friends... Anyway, let's go see for sure, you have a habit of lying..."

Two of the men tired her down to a chair and then another man walked into the room, setting a bag on the table he unzipped it and took out the portable DIS standard issue "Field Interrogation Scanner" designed to determine, via reading brain waves, if a person was lying.

A few minutes later, they had hooked her up to the machine.

Gustav chuckled a bit as he started asking questions, control questions about her name, age, etc, stuff that was certain, to see the pattern of brain wave activity when she told the truth.

Then came the real questions,

One of the other men asked her first, "Do you have any friends? Well any appreciable number... Do you even have more than one or two friends?"

The man who brought the machine into the room glared at her and asked, "Did you have any involvement in staging your kidnapping to get attention? And did you have any involvement in the bombing in Western Sahara? Do you care that over five hundred people, some of them civilians, children, died in a bombing caused by our rescuing you, do you even care?"

Gustav then looked at her and asked, "Did you need rescuing, do you admit you needed rescuing or do you think you could have handled it yourself?"




One of the men standing near the empress looked at at her, smiled a bit and then took out a combat knife, holding it close to her throat, he grinned, "You ran all around that woods, I nearly broke my leg chasing you... Can you think of one reason I shouldn't cut your throat right now and get it over with?"


One of the other men standing behind him shook his head and frowned, he didn't like the man threatening her, but he knew, or at least was quite certain, he was just trying to scare her.




The man with the minigun put a belt of special Depleted Uranium ammo into the minigun and then fired away, the rounds would more than penetrate several cars parked in a row. He fired for three solid minutes against any and all police cars he saw. Finally the weapon overheated right as it was about to run out of ammunition (A loader had constantly been keeping the ammo replenished)

To get more ammo, they'd have to walk back inside the gated complex and go to the ammo truck. He slung the weapon over his shoulder, drew his pistol and started to walk. The other men kept their G-36s ready.

“I have at least six good friends, fifteen or so friends, not really good ones, but still friends,” she answered. “I did not stage my kidnapping, I wouldn’t dare worry my cousin like that, I care about her.”

She paused then, and bit her lip. “I didn’t even know that those people did die, until just now! And of course I care, I’m not some totally uncaring person!”

“Maybe I did need rescuing, I don’t know.”


The Empress eyed the knife warily, but not with fear. “If you really want to, do it. I’ll give you one reason, though, you’ll never get out of this city alive if you do.”


The police, having no other alternative, pretty much fled. A handful of brave few remained, and fired at them, but it was pretty much useless. They ended up following their comrades in retreat.

The man sitting by the machine reading the results erupted with laughter, "Wow! This is off the scales! She's a serious bullshitter, she probably even believes her own lies she tells them like it is second nature, instinct. She is just... Wow... What lies. Although when you asked her if she staged her own kidnapping, she wasn't lying then. Nor was she lying about the bombing..."

He frowned as he kept reading the results, "According to this, she was lying about actually caring about all of our dead comrades... I'll remember that one when it comes time to decide who gets to kill her... I want to take the shot..."

Gustav sighed, "Nobody is going to kill her, okay?"

The man shook his head, "Well then I get to be first to have a go at her, right?"

Gustav sighed again, "Nobody is doing that either... Just... Watch your monitor screen there."







The man holding the knife to the throat of the empress smiled a bit, "You know something, your police are out there getting cut to pieces, we have an Mi-24 helicopter, and many tactical vehicles... We also have mortars with us, anti-air, and anti-tank weapons... We even have VX and Sarin shells for our motars, I could slice your throat open and walk out of this nation as easily as killing you would be... Although I think I'll spare you, for now... Maybe you can watch as we cut open your cousin, eh?"





The men decided to go hunting after they replenished their ammunition supplies. Twelve of them raced out into the streets and started shooting their long-range HK-91 rifles (they left their 5.56mm NATO G-36s in the weapons truck in favor of the 7.62mm NATO HK-91) at any police foolish enough to still be out. The MSAAS were shooting from at least 400 meters away, some 800 meters away, well out of range of any pistol.

The princess whimpered again. “What are you going to do with me?”


Laurelin didn’t move a muscle. “Like I said, go ahead, do it, I don’t care, just leave my cousin and my people alone, that’s all I ask…the police are just doing their duty, and the civilians haven’t done anything, and, my cousin, well, you probably have every reason to kill her, I understand you’re hurt that she didn’t even apologize for the death of your comrades, but she didn’t even know.”


The police raced down the streets of the city back to their headquarters, completely unsure of what to do or how to go about doing it, they just yelled at all the civilians to get back in their homes.

The one man at the monitor smiled at her and said, "After we all take a turn on you, each and every one hundred and six of us... Well except for the commander, he's a goody-goody... Well then we're going to sell you to the leader of the group that had you before..."

Gustav glared at the man, "There will be no such thing, no such thing! You aren't doing that!"

It was obvious the two were soon going to lock heads over the issue, probably a fight, possibly to the death. The one man was very angry, he'd lost at least two brothers in Western Sahara.




The man shook his head and pressed the knife a bit against her neck, not slitting her throat, but leaving a little mark and drawing a small amount of blood from the skin. He smiled, "I'm going to make sure your cousin doesn't die a virgin, you can watch, and then I'm going to gut her like a fish with my knife... As for your people, they're all swine, we're going to gas this city before we leave..."

Had Gustav been in the room to hear him and see him threatening her with his knife, he'd likely have shot the man on the spot.




Outside, the twelve MSAAS ran forward still, firing at any police they saw... They saw a police station, they were about four blocks from the palace. They decided to assault it. They readied to hit the station with an RPG and mortar attack and then they'd storm inside and shoot anything moving.

She sobbed slightly. “No! You can’t do that! Please, please, I’m sorry, please don’t do that, I’m begging you!”


Her insides went cold, but she spat right in his face. “You will do no such thing. My people are not swine, they are good, decent people and if they know about the bombings, which they probably don’t, they would care. And if you touch my cousin, I’ll see you gutted.”


A few of the police went down on the street, shot and bleeding. Inside the station, the officers were running around, trying to get in contact with someone who could help them, as well as some of the powerful nobles. Unfortunately, most of them were far away for the holiday.

Gustav sighed and left the room, he wanted to see what all the shooting outside was about.

As soon as Gustave left the room, the man watching the monitor smiled, walked over to her and started run his hands through her hair. He leaned in close to her and whispered, "I'm going to really enjoy you before I sell you... Whatever the boss says, the only way you'd a learn a lesson is spending a few decades in servitude... I hope you know that whoever we sell you to, the GE Colonel or Sam of Kahta, they're both sadistic from what I hear..."





The man holding the knife to the throat of the empress smiled a bit, "Ah, you know how easily we could gas this city, we'd bury you in gas if we wanted to... And you couldn't have me gutted if tried, admit it, we're in control here..."



Outside the police station, the MSAAS squad setup a mortar, which two men crewed and two men provided cover for. They began firing high explosive rounds into the police station. After a few minutes of this, the other 8 men rushed forward and through the blown out doors of the station, weapons blazing.

She tried to squirm away, tears starting to form. “Please don’t…please…”


“You won’t make me admit that. You leave my people alone, they haven’t tried to harm you. I don’t care about myself, just leave them and my cousin alone.”


Just about everyone felt the explosions, and most of them were killed as the building half collapsed upon them. There were only five of them left alive, and two were pinned under debris, hardly being able to breath.

The man kept running his hands through her hair, "Hmmm... I wonder if I give a discount to whoever buys you, if he'll let me have a few visits every now and then..."

One of the other men in the room frowned and shook his head, "I don't know if you should be pestering her, the commander might..." The other man cut him off, "Forget him! He's gone soft! He probably doesn't even care about our comrades who died!" Of course the commander cared, the man was just trying to justify what he was wanting to do.






The man holding the knife to her shook his head and laughed, "Oh, you think so eh, well did you know your hotel overcharged us, your cafes, shops, restaurants, they all took advantage of the fact that we had nowhere else to go while being here... We of course just paid because we have money to spare, but that isn't the point, your people cheated us since we got here and will likely keep cheating us if we let them. Your police pushed us around and a few we had to bribe to leave us alone. As for you, you'll quite likely live if you watch your tone, it is your cousin who is likely to be sold off or killed... If we sell her off, it won't be to nice people either."




At the police station, the eight men made their through, but then something happened and the sergeant didn't want to go through with shooting men who were trapped and thus no longer a threat to them (as if they ever were a real threat). But whatever the case, they helped the police out from the under desks (After securing all the readily available weapons). They lined up the wounded outside the ruins of the building on the sidewalk and then headed back to the palace.


Gustav was pacing around outside on the palace grounds, near the front gate, shouting, demanding to know the shooting had been about. They told him, "Nothing sir, police tried to get us, we just scared them off..."

She squirmed more, moving away from him as far as she could, and tears began to come. “Please, I haven’t done anything to you, have I? Please just leave me alone!”


The Empress scoffed. “My officers, nor would my people, do any such thing. I won’t doubt the fact that they’re all nice people, even if you can’t see that. And you’re not going to tell me what to do, if you kill me, you kill me, I mine as well say what I have to with the time I have remaining. And If you touch her, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”


The officers were stunned. They had all thought they had been done for. They didn’t know how else they could help their Empress and the princess now, so they resolved to wait for help, which they had called in for before. Eldanor didn’t have armed forces, really, but they had contacted whoever they could to bring help.

He pulled the chair she was on back closer to him as she tried to push away, but tied to the chair as she was, it was quite hard if not impossible for her to even consider getting away. "You were the reason our men got killed, and you never even bothered to thank us... I'm going to take my mask off, because you should at least be able to see my face before I kill you, even you deserve that..."

He slowly started to take his mask off, he tucked it away, his face had a long scar down the right side, presumably from a knife fight. He picked up her chair, with her still tied to it, and carried her into the room the empress was in.

He set it down and pulled out a pistol, cocking it and pointing it at her head, "Hey empress, watch this... I wonder how much her brains will splatter!"



As he was saying that, the man who was harassing the empress ran his knife across her back, slicing into the skin from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, not too seriously, but enough to cause pain and light bleeding... He then licked the blood off the blade and chuckled, "See how helpless you are to stop me... Your blood does taste good though, perhaps I'll have to bathe myself in it..."



As this was going on, Gustav came walking back towards the kitchen, he would have to pass through the living room on his way there from the door he'd used to enter the palace.

The Empress winced slightly, but didn’t move or make a sound until he licked the blood. She thought she might throw up. “How sick are you?”

Her eyes went wide when she saw her cousin, but they narrowed. “Don’t even think about harming her,” she hissed.

The man smiled and put two of his fingers on here back where the blood was dripping, he slowly licked the blood off his fingers, "Again, I can't wait to bathe in your blood..."


One of the men looked at the empress, then at the princess, and he clenched his fist up and punched the princess so hard in the face that the chair fell over, "I'll do what I want!" he shouted.


Meanwhile, Gustav was fast approaching the living room, he'd be there in about a minute, not much longer.

Her stomach completely turned upside down, but she pushed the feeling of nausea down. Instead, she looked to her cousin, who was crying on the floor, still tied to her chair, and whispered so that she could hear, “It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

Gustav heard a loud scream and a lot of noise, he ran forward. Looking at them, the princess in a chair turned over, crying, a man holding a knife on the empress.

"What the hell is going on here!" he shouted as he charged the man with the knife and threw him into the wall.


The man who had earlier been monitoring the screen of the lie detector, smiled nervously and said, "Nothing boss, nothing at all, sir... Her chair... It tipped over... We were just about to help her up."

Gustav frowned, "Well if any of you touch anybody again, you'll answer to me for it... And I thought I said no shooting the police, this is getting way out of hand... We should probably just leave now and forget this whole thing, getting attention to our comrades sacrifice isn't worth all this."


The man nodded his head, "Sure thing, sir..."

Gustav couldn't see from the angle he was at, but the man was reaching for a pistol concealed in a holster behind his back.

However, the empress could see the man in a nearby mirror, she saw what he was doing and it wouldn't be too hard to figure out what he was planning.

Knowing full well she’d probably get her brains splattered all over a wall, she said it. “I’d watch out for that gun he’s going for,” she said plainly.

The man immediately drew the gun as Gustav dove behind a nearby cabinet, unslinging his MP-5. The man had already fired two shots and missed.

The man then grabbed the empress, chair and all, and held the gun to her head, "You care about these anti-Mississippian hate mongers, these communists so much, what I killed one right now..."


The other men in the room weren't sure what to do, they just stood by, speechless, waiting to see what happened.


Gustav rose from behind the cabinet, "No.. Don't do that..."


The man then said, "Fine, drop your gun and I might spare her..."


He dropped his MP-5, and then took his pistol out of the chest pouch it was in and raised it up at the ceiling, readying to drop it. As he released it, the man pushed the empress out of his way and spun his gun towards Gustav... Gustav dove sideways, caught his pistol as it was still falling, and put three rounds in the man as th eman fired a burst at him. The bullets hit hard against his armor, Gustav suffered at least one broken rib, probably more. But he three rounds, one had hit the man in the throat, one in the jaw, and the other went through his right away.


The man slumped over, dead.


Gustav stood up, untied the empress and the princess, the other men present all finally came to their senses, they had cleaned up the mess in the room and then turned and left.


Captain Ernst frowned and looked down at the ground, "It wasn't supposed to be like this, no... How many more are dead now... Innocent police just doing their job..."


Gustav, still looking at the ground, said only, "I have tarnished the sacred honor of my ancestors. I should go and join my men. I apologize in advance for the mess..."

He took off his armor and set it aside, leaving all his equipment, MP-5, pistol, helment, mask, everything, in a neat pile, he then removed his shirt revealing a well-toned body, he drew his officers sword from the sheath it was in and walked into a nearby bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind him.



Meanwhile, outside, the other man who had wanted to kill the empress was shaking his head, "What the hell are we doing? Does it strike anybody as odd that we're leaving?"

One of the other men looked around, "Where did the captain go?"

Another man shrugged, "Who cares, does anybody care about anything anymore?"

The Empress and her cousin stood there, somewhat stunned. Laurelin finally shook her head and came to her senses and went outside, motioning for her cousin to stay where she was, not that she could’ve moved anyway.

“Your captain has, ah, well, I don’t know how to put it, honestly,” she said to all the men. “Now, I’d appreciate it if you and the rest of your people got the hell out of my country.”

In the bathroom, Gustav set his sword down, splashed some water over his face, picked the sword back up, held it firmly in both hands, shouted so loud probably everybody in the palace heard, "Hail Fabus!" then he brought his hands fast towards his body, driving the sword into his stomach... He gasped at first as blood started to come out his mouth... He watched himself in the mirror, he then began to lose his strength and he collapsed over. He'd missed the diaphragm and he'd probably slowly bleed to death. He silently cursed himself for not even being able to get it right.



Outside, the man shook his head and raised up his G-36, "What did you say? Where is he? I want to know, now..."

She sighed and pointed towards the bathroom. “He’s locked himself in.”

One of the men looked at the floor and saw his guns, "So, shoot the lock off... It's your palace, you must have a key, yes?"

She sighed. “Fine, I’ll go get the keys, they’re upstairs.” She turned and hurried up the stairs and into her room, she had all the keys in a box in a chest at the foot of her bed, she pulled them out and went back downstairs, and unlocked the door.

In vain he tried to push the door closed again, but to no avail, she got it open. He was lying there on the floor, blood flowing from his open wound as he struggled to say, "You have no right to interfere... My business..."

He then passed out as the blood lose was too great.

She glanced at the man who had told her to open the door. “Well, do you intend to help him, or not?” she demanded, not wanting to stand there and have him lose blood.

The man, the same one who wanted to kill everybody in Eldanor and go crazy on a spree, shook his head, "I think he's right... It's not the right of any to interfere."


He then turned and left. One of the men walking towards the bathroom, one who would help the Captain if he knew, asked, "Where is he?"

The man gently grabbed on his arm and pulled him along to the front door, "Captain is taking a crap, he'll meet us at the hotel later."

The man nodded and together they left the palace. Most of the rest of the MSAAS had already left or was packing up to leave.

She sighed and closed the door. Nothing she could do now. She turned to face her cousin, who was pale.

“I don’t know whether to hug you or shoot you, princess,” she said, no mirth in her voice.

The princess hung her head and stared at the ground. “Laurelin…you’re right. You were right. This was my entire fault. I will see everything is rebuilt, the wounded are cared for, I’ll apologize to everyone, on the media.”

The Empress nodded. “Let’s just go calm the servants down, reassure the people, it’s all we can do at the moment. All my advisors will get no holiday this year, unfortunately, I believe I’ll need them here for a while.”

The last of the MSAAS left the palace grounds, driving off in their tactical vehicles. The gates and doors lay blasted to pieces, a fews major breaching holes dotted the walls of the palace perimeter, anybody who wanted to, could probably get in.




Gustav had suddenly heard something that made him change his mind about wanting to die, he had heard the voice of his recently deceased great-grandfather, saying, "You are an honorable man, live with honor, honor the noble name of which you bear, serve Mississippi proudly..." they were the last words his great-grandfather had said before dying in a hospital bed, he knew it was a sign, it meant something special, more than just what the words appeared to mean on the surface.

He suddenly came back to consciousness, however little it was... He looked up at the door and knew he had to get help... He summoned his last reserves of strength and kicked the door as hard as he could, it made a loud, "Thump" sound, he hoped somebody heard it as he started to fade back into unconsciousness.

The phone of a certain Sergeant William Jones, the man who had sliced the Empress's back, began to ring.

"I'll keep it simple. Fifty billion dollars, American. Just bring us the girl."

The phone of a certain Sergeant William Jones, the man who had sliced the Empress's back, began to ring.

"I'll keep it simple. Fifty billion dollars, American. Just bring us the girl."



The man, Sergeant William Jones, the same man who had cut the empress with his knife and then licked the blood, a psychopath basically, answered the phone, replying, "What? American money? Fifty billion, hello, that's not even worth fifty million in Mississippian dollars... American money, we don't really even accept that in my nation, haven't since the mid to late 90s. Fifty billion American, that offer sucks."

The man, Sergeant William Jones, the same man who had cut the empress with his knife and then licked the blood, a psychopath basically, answered the phone, replying, "What? American money? Fifty billion, hello, that's not even worth fifty million in Mississippian dollars... American money, we don't really even accept that in my nation, haven't since the mid to late 90s. Fifty billion American, that offer sucks."

"Than make it fifty billion Mississippian. It matters little to me."

"Than make it fifty billion Mississippian. It matters little to me."



The man grinned, "Ah... What exactly do you want to do to the girl? Would I get to do it too? I'd like to teach her a lesson, she has a smart mouth on her... I'd like to see what else it's good for besides hurling insults... Also, I'll need to hire at least four more people from my team, those I know I could trust, I'd need to pay them each a billion at least."

The man grinned, "Ah... What exactly do you want to do to the girl? Would I get to do it too? I'd like to teach her a lesson, she has a smart mouth on her... I'd like to see what else it's good for besides hurling insults... Also, I'll need to hire at least four more people from my team, those I know I could trust, I'd need to pay them each a billion at least."

"Of course you will be allowed to teach her all the lessons you wish. It is only fair, after the wrongs she has done you. And with regard to the other four men, we shall cover their rewards as well. When the transaction takes place, simply give us an amount."

The sergeant smiled, "Fine... We'll need a while to prepare, everybody else is sleeping right now... We're at the hotel we've been at... Let me go wake four of my most trusted friends, we'll get ready and we'll go back to the palace tomorrow at night, the sun is almost out now, it's not advisable we do this right now, unless you think so... Should we just blast our way in or sneak in?"

The sergeant smiled, "Fine... We'll need a while to prepare, everybody else is sleeping right now... We're at the hotel we've been at... Let me go wake four of my most trusted friends, we'll get ready and we'll go back to the palace tomorrow at night, the sun is almost out now, it's not advisable we do this right now, unless you think so... Should we just blast our way in or sneak in?"

"If you want my advice, go now, while the guards and the girl are still reeling. With your equipment, you should be able to get in and out with little trouble. Normally I would tell you to go through Madrid, but this is a special circumstance. Get out of Eldanor, and get yourselves and the girl to Sofia, in southern Generia. I trust you've heard of it. When you arrive at the airport, your aircraft shall taxi to hanger C17, and we shall make the transaction. There may be something extra when you arrive, but move quickly."

The sergeant sighed, "There are no guards there, and they probably won't be tomorrow... We're all tired, many of the men had their armor take pistol rounds and they're a bit worn out from it all... I think it can wait until tomorrow night, right? The princess will likely be just starting to calm down and then..." he grinned, "We strike!"

I'd like to teach her a lesson, she has a smart mouth on her... I'd like to see what else it's good for besides hurling insults...

DA, what have you been REPEATEDLY told to stop posting?

The sergeant sighed, "There are no guards there, and they probably won't be tomorrow... We're all tired, many of the men had their armor take pistol rounds and they're a bit worn out from it all... I think it can wait until tomorrow night, right? The princess will likely be just starting to calm down and then..." he grinned, "We strike!"

"Fine. Get some rest, but be ready to hit hard and fast tomorrow night."

DA, what have you been REPEATEDLY told to stop posting?



Point taken, however to be fair I was told not to post anything explicitly graphic, the guy was just stating what he wanted to do, the criminals are all going to wind up dead before they get the chance to harm anybody.

"Fine. Get some rest, but be ready to hit hard and fast tomorrow night."



Jones smiled, said, "Okay then..." he shut off the phone and walked into the hotel. Little did he know he would soon be getting home in an orange bag, rather than the private plane he was counting on buying with all the money he expected to get from the job offered to him from the man over the phone.

There would be unexpected resistance to his operation plans, and his criminal gang would fail, but they could have no way of knowing that. The palace was without guards, Gustav had surely bled to death by now, who could stop them? Although he didn't know that part of the equation, mainly Gustav being dead, wasn't exactly as he planned...

The princess was just about to follow her cousin out of the room when she heard a thump. She looked around, and determined it had been from the bathroom. She ran after the Empress, stopping her.

“The man, the one in the bathroom, I think he’s still alive, we should help him,” the princess said.

The Empress looked back, and nodded. “Perhaps we should. I can’t just let him die here; I’ll never live with myself. Go and find a servant to help us, and get some medics down here, I’m sure there has to be a few wounded.

Her cousin nodded and ran off, while Laurelin went into the bathroom and knelt down, looking to see if he was dead or just unconscious. Surprisingly, he wasn’t dead.

The princess quickly returned with the palace doctor and a servant, who helped them move the captain on to a couch while the doctor examined him and did his best to stop the bleeding. As soon as he was done, she had him moved upstairs to a guest room and had someone watch him.

Gustav woke up about an hour later, he realized he was alive and wasn't dead. His body had healed surprisingly well, he must have had genetic modifications his parents failed to tell him about.

He sighed and looked around, his head hurt (he hit it on the sink after he fell from stabbing himself), his vision was slightly blurred. He was lying a bed, a rather comfortable one, just in his undershorts though. He wasn't quite sure where he was, nor did he know what had happened to his gear.


He called out meekly, "Hello..."

One of the servants who the Empress had instructed to wait outside entered. “Are you feeling all right?” he asked. “If not, I’ll go summon the doctor. Is there anything you want? Food?”

He shook his head, "No... I'm fine... What happened to my stuff? My gear, my weapons, I had two weapons, an MP-5 and a 1911 pistol, what happened to all my gear? Where did all my men go? Are they still here?"

The servant shook his head. “Your men are long gone,” he told him, then pointed to where they had left his gear, on top of a wooden chest. “Your gear is right there, I’m not sure where your weapons are. Do you need food or water or anything like that?”

He shook his head, "No... But... Yes..." He smiled, "Some water would be good, thanks. So, why have I not been arrested yet?"

“I don’t know why,” the servant said. “You’d have to ask the Empress herself, and I have no idea where she is, besides, that means she’s probably busy. I’ll got get you some water.”

He left the room and returned a few minutes later with a large glass of pure water for him to drink and handed it to him. “Do you require anything else, sir?”

Gustav smiled and accepted the water, drinking down the entirely glass in a few seconds.


He shook his head and then said, "I guess I would just like to speak with the empress as soon as the opportunity arises... Or any other top government officials or anybody who could explain to me what exactly has been going on and what news I missed."



He closed his eyes and looked down, "One more thing... How many people were killed from this?"

The servant nodded. “I’ll see if I can find her.”

When he was asked how many dead, he sighed. “I don’t know the exact number, but the local police force was basically wiped out, three of the palace staff dead, no other civilians dead, fortunately. We were spared heavy causalities.”

Gustav frowned, not knowing what to say, "Okay... If you find her, I'd like to speak with her. As for your wounded, perhaps our medics could treat them, yes?"

The servant shook his head. “They are all being cared for, most have already been treated, the others are making good recoveries. But I’ll go find her for you.”

He left, shutting the door behind him. He looked in the Empress’s lounge, her study, her bedroom, even the gardens, but no sign of her. The man stumbled across the princess by chance, she told him her cousin had gone outside and didn’t want to be disturbed, so she went instead.

The servant led her back into the room and told the captain, “The Empress is not to be disturbed right now, but you may speak to the princess.” He then left, and she took a seat.

"What did you wish to speak of?"

He sat up in bed, "First, I must express my deepest regret for the way things went. If you must know why, well with half a bottle of vodka and seeing images of blown up barracks in Western Sahara... It was too awful, I regret it all, this all never should have happened."

With his knowledge of how Mississippian justice worked, and certain that it was the same or basically the same around the world, he sighed and continued.

"Secondly, I must ask that after my conviction, I be given death by firing squad rather than hanging. I am still an officer and it is not appropriate for officers to be hanged."


"And thirdly, are you yourself okay? Were you harmed earlier?"

“I’m fine now, and I accept your apologies. I just saw what happened in Western Sahara, it was really horrible.”

She then looked at him a bit oddly. “You’re not going to get convicted, or tried for that matter. You and all your men are allowed to leave as soon as you can.”

He was shocked, "What? We can leave? You can't be serious, in Mississippi, if somebody did something like this, well firstly, they'd never have breached the perimeter of our Czar's estate, secondly, if they did try and were caught, they'd surely hang after confessing to any charges to get the torture to stop... You don't plan on locking me away in some cage and having your secret police work me over until I confess? Do you even have a judicial system over here? For that matter, do you even have secret police?"

She wasn’t the least bit surprised about his shock, and answered, “My cousin doesn’t care the least bit about what you do in Mississippi, we’re not locking you away, and yes, we do have a judicial system, and I have no idea if there is a secret police. Just be grateful she doesn’t kill you people.”

Since it seems quite likely Eldanor isn't coming back, I shall soon be posting the updates to this we had been working on, hoping that she does indeed return, but it remains yet to be seen.

He was bit confused, "What? So you're not going to kill us? You're just letting us go? What sort of example does that set?"

“Example? We’re not going to make an example of you. Look, I have no idea the reason behind the things my cousin does, you could go ask her, but she’s busy.”

Gustav sighed, "Nevermind... By the way, what happened to my guns? I'm not so much concerned about the MP-5 as I am the 1911, my grandfather gave that to me when I was eight, I'd like it back, please."

“Ah, don’t worry, my cousin took them, she didn’t want anybody to take them, but she said she’d give them back. When she comes back later I’ll have her get them for you, all right?”

He smiled, "Thanks... Oh one more thing..." His tone was a bit uneasy and he seemed to have an odd and slightly worried look on his face, "I'd watch out if I were you, you might be in danger, that sergeant, the freak, you know the one I mean? He's a nasty man who doesn't let anything go... And whoever it was that called me on the phone about you, probably contracted that sergeant as well... So just... Be careful.”

The princess nodded. “Yes, I know, I’ll be plenty careful, my cousin has people following me around now, she’s gone completely over the edge with this whole thing.” She sighed.

Gustav shook his head, "No, she's not going over the edge, you could be in serious danger... And believe me, even if you had twenty or more guards, that sergeant could easily dispatch them, he's a very dangerous man... He was... Well I'd rather not go into his past, let's just say he got kicked out of the MFL for being too crazy and violent, that should tell you something right there, eh?"

She shook her head. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, but I’ll watch my back, regardless. All right?”

The captain sighed a bit, "I guess... But I mean it, really watch out... You want a gun? I have another one in my gear bag, it's yours if you want it..."

“No, no, I’m sure I’ll be all right,” the princess told him nervously, she didn’t really like guns at all. “I just…well, don’t worry about me, listen, I’ll be fine.”

He sighed again, "At least take my civilian style crusader armor, the long sleeve shirt in there, it's only two pounds of weight, it'd keep you safe if somebody tried to shoot at you... Are you sure you won't take a gun though, it'd keep you even safer yet."

She sighed. “I’ll take the armor, thank you.” She took it out of his bag, it wasn’t heavy at all. “But no, I don’t want or need the gun, okay?”

He nodded his head, "Okay... Well actually wear that, it doesn't work if you just shrug it off and toss it in your closet which is what I suspect you might do..."

She smiled. “I’ll wear it, if it fits that is. I promise I won’t throw it in my closet.”

He smiled back, "Okay, thanks."

“Is there anything that you need? There’s plenty of food downstairs, I’m sure they could cook something up.”

He shook his head, "No, but if you could get me a pack of cigarettes, I quit years ago, but could really go for some about now. I'd really appreciate it."

She frowned slightly. “I’ll see if I can go find a pack, I don’t know about that, if not, I’ll send someone to the store. Anything else if I’m going downstairs?”

He shook his head, "No, just stay alert and keep safe."

She smiled. “All right,” the princess told him and left, going down the stairs and into the kitchens, trying to find a pack of cigarettes.

After about fifteen minutes, she still hadn’t found anything and she’d asked at least a dozen people, so she sent a servant to the store. Once he returned, she brought them up to his room and handed them to him.

He smiled and accepted the pack, "Thank you, thank you... Do you have a light?"

She had picked a matchbook up in the kitchen somewhere; she fumbled around in her pockets then found it, and pulled a match out. She lit it and handed it to him.

He took the match and lit it, inhaling deeply on it, as he exhaled, away from her, towards the window, he asked, "Want one?"

She shook her head. “No, I don’t smoke, thank you.”

He nodded his head and ashed it in a nearby ashtray he'd found, "Okay, well thank you for getting those for me... So, what is going on around here now? Are there media and what not just itching to get in here and grill me alive?"

She shrugged. “They showed up a while before, we gave them the short version of what happened, told them we were going to allow you to go home if you didn’t cause any more trouble. We chased the ones who stayed off.”

Gustav was a bit uneasy, "I'm sorry about what our media said about you earlier... I guess that your media is probably saying some rather nasty stuff about my land right about now, eh?"

She sighed and nodded. “Yes, I guess they are, I only listened to about half of it. We didn’t give them your names, though.”

He chuckled a bit, "Hmmm. Doesn't matter either way I guess, if they want to know who I am, I'll tell them, all they have to do is ask."

“I doubt they’ll even get near you, my cousin isn’t fond of the media in the least.”

Ernst smiled, "Ah, well see the media is okay, so long as they do as they're told and keep quiet about what they're not meant to talk about..."

She sighed. “It’s not that she hates what they talk about, she just hates to have people constantly badgering her.”

Gustav nodded his head, "Yes, I know what you're talking about, my father had to put up with the media, as does my brother Wilhelm, they can be quite annoying... Anyway, I'm probably boring you, I'm sure you have more important things to tend to, yes?"

She shook her head. “Not really, it’s a relief to have an excuse to get away from my work for a little while.”

He smiled, "Ah, so what is it like being the princess, and heir, of a nation such as this? What does your work entail?"

“Not that much, frankly, no one expects me to take over, as soon as the Empress has children I’m no longer the heir. I mostly handle making sure the palace is fully staffed, do some of my cousin’s paperwork when she’s too busy, and occasionally fill in for the second-in-command when she’s away.”

He nodded his head, "Yes, well it sounds a lot better than my job..."

She smiled, “So, what is your job like?”

He sighed and frowned, “Hmmm… Well, basically, sadly, just killing people. That is my job. The MSAAS has many functions, ranging from VIP protection, to long-range reconnaissance, to rapid response for dicey situations, to sabotage, but our primary purpose is efficiently killing. I wish it was something else, something that bettered things in a more positive way…”

“I see. Why don’t you just quit then, if you don’t really like it that much?”

He sighed again, "I don't know... It's all I really feel good at, and I do make a lot of money, but what good is money I suppose, I've already had enough money... But I don't know what else I'd do."

She smiled. “I bet you’d be good at something else, and money doesn’t buy happiness.”

He frowned, "Yeah, I guess it doesn't... My father had tried to teach me that, amongst other things, I never really learned that part of the lesson though."

“Perhaps I should leave, you need some rest. Do you want anything before I go?”

He shook his head, "No, I'll be fine, just remember, watch out, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious... If you see anything out of place, come get me, okay?"

She nodded and stood up. “I will, I’ll watch my back carefully. If you need anything or want to talk to me again, just ask a servant, all right?”

He smiled, "Okay, well I'm going to try to get some sleep, perhaps we'll talk later?"

She nodded. “Yes, later perhaps, just ask a servant to find me,” she said, and walked out the door, closing it tightly behind her.

A bit later, the princess and the Empress were talking about what Gustav had told her. The princess was still fairly optimistic about the entire situation, while her cousin was not.

“I think he’s right,” the Empress sighed. “There’s still a lot of danger existing for you.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I doubt they’ll be a third attempt.”

The Empress stood up and walked around. “You never know. We need to keep our eyes and ears open, as well as our minds. There’s a possibility. Just be careful, promise?”

She nodded. “Yes, I promise I will.”

A few hours later, as the sun was setting, two of the five men snuck over the wall, silencing four patrolling guards with their silenced pistols, getting head shots. They quickly moved to the front gate, silenced the other guards present, and the other three men moved in through the front gate, one stood at the gate dressed in a guards uniform to make it appear everything was all normal.

A truck was driven right up to the palace, two men dressed as delivery men, but wearing their black "ninja" clothing underneath, as well as their armor, knocked on the door.

One of the servants, who had been waiting for something to arrive, opened the door and greeted them. “I believe you have a package for us, yes?”

The man nodded his head, "Yes, but I've been told only to deliver it to the princess herself, may I come in, please."

The servant frowned. “I don’t believe the package isn’t for her, besides, she’s sleeping, it’s perfectly fine if you leave if with me.”

The two men sighed, one of them shoved a silenced pistol in the man's face, "Are you going to let me in or not?" he asked.

The man struck him over the back of the head with the gun and then tossed the unconscious man in a nearby closet. He and the other man dressed as a delivery man quickly stripped out of their disguises, now in black gear, joined by the other two, the last man still at the gate, the four made their way towards the princesses quarters. Two of the men also decided to split up, one wanted to kill the captain, the other wanted to kill the empress.

They decided to go after the empress first. As they were walking by the room Gustav was in, he was opening the door to go outside into the hall and look for a bathroom, when he saw their figures in the darkness, he immediately dodged back into the room and silently shut the door. They walked right by, two headed for the princess’s room, two for the empresses.

Gustav quickly loaded three magazines for his Walther PPK after he took it from his bag, he also took two ballistic knives.

Meanwhile, two of the men picked the lock on the princess’s door and just walked right in. One holding a silenced pistol, the other a silenced MP-5, the one with the pistol tucked it under his arm and clapped his hands, hoping to wake her up.

The Empress was feeling uptight, and the hairs on the back of her neck were standing right up. She could tell something wasn’t right. She was pacing back and forth.

In the princess’s room, Cuilánie was fast asleep, completely unaware that two men were hovering over her.


When she failed to wake up, he walked over and slapped her across the face, as he laughed, "Rise and shine, we've got a plane to catch!"

She jumped up and shrieked. Cuilánie tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go.

In the empress's room, one of the men just kicked the door in, raised his MP-5 up and shouted; "You're done for!" he was about to fire.

The Empress was taken completely by shock, but recovered and jump to her feet. Looking for somewhere to go, she rushed into one of the connecting rooms, her lounge, actually, and locked the door, and searched for something to barricade it with.

The man just raised up his MP-5, quietly blew the lock off the door with the silenced weapon, and then kicked it open, stepped in and raising the gun at her, he raised it and nearly pulled the trigger.

Suddenly and with no warning, he dropped to his knees, a knife blade protruding through his chest, he'd been hit by one of Gustav's "Ballistic knives" the blade had shot out of the knife and gone through the man's armor, which was never intended to stop a knife. The other men spun around, trying to lower his pistol towards Gustav, but a knife blade quickly flew into his neck, he collapsed to the ground and was dead a few seconds later.

Gustav walked over to both men, checked them for a pulse, gave them each a good kick, he then took the man's MP-5, his magazine belt, and then he asked the Empress, "Are you alright?"

Laurelin was breathing hard, but mumbled quickly, “No, fine, we’ve got to get to my cousin, she’s probably in danger.”

He nodded his head, "Yes... Do you know how to use a gun?"

She nodded. “Yes, I do. Look, we need to hurry.”

He handed her his pistol and ran forward. As they were arriving at the princess's room, they realized she was gone, they could hear her shouting as the men were pushing her towards the front door on the first floor.

Gustav jumped over the side of the stair railing, landing hard and most certainly breaking at least something, but he had a clean shot on one of the men, he took it, drilling the man through the back of the neck, the fool hadn't been wearing neck armor. The other man shoved the princess, her hands tied behind her back, out the door and into the truck, he then turned back and walked to the porch, intending to ambush whoever came out.

The Empress raced down the stairs, luckily she wasn’t wearing a dress so she could run fast, and looked around for her cousin. Not really thinking she ran outside and searched for any sign of her.

Gustav knew better of this and so he fired through the wall when he heard the man's boot hitting the porch floor, the man returned fire through the wall, the two men kept firing, neither seeming to hit each other. Finally the heavily armored man realized Gustav likely had no armor, so he just walked through the door and shot him in the kneecap as he was turning to limp away for cover as he heard the man coming.

The "guard" at the gate, raced for the palace, jumping in the truck and locking all the doors, he'd open one if the guy inside made it out okay.

Meanwhile, in palace, the man shot Gustav in the other kneecap, he was now on the ground, stifling the screams of pain most others would be letting out with full intensity. The man trained the gun on his head, "Beg me not to kill you" he said.

The Empress spun and raised the gun she’d been given. She hesitated for a second, then pulled the trigger.

The man turned around, the round had hit his neck armor, he'd worn his... He then smiled and swung his MP-5, readying to fire. Gustav jammed his combat knife into the man's achilles tendon.

The man collapsed to the ground, firing wildly in a vain attempt to hit somebody, anybody. Gustav crawled onto the man and started punching him and stabbing him as the man tried to draw a pistol, his submachine gun being too unwieldy in this hand-to-hand battle.

He drew his own knife, and flipped Gustav over and onto his back, trying to drive the knife into his neck.

Gustav, using both hands and all his might, managed to force the man to bring the knife down on the ground, not onto his neck. He then twisted the man's hands and finally, with great effort, managed to drive the knife into the man's chest.

The man gasped, "No... How... How..." Gustav pushed harder, saying, "I'm better than you, that's how..."

The Empress was still searching outside for her cousin. “Where did they take her?”

The man in the truck started the engine and floored it, heading in reverse, trying to get to the gate. Gustav hearing the vehicle, looked around quickly, hoping to find it. He did, a remote switch near the front door for closing and shutting the emergency gate. He pressed it, the gate slammed shut and the truck slammed on it's brakes, the drive knew he couldn't crash through it.

The man climbed into the back, training a pistol on the princess as he shouted through the slightly lowered window, "Open the gate or she dies!"

Gustav managed to limp his way outside, crawling part of the way, MP-5 in one hand, pistol in the other. He called for a nearby guard who was responding to all the noise, "You, lad, carry me... Carry me..."

The man carried Gustav forward and basically propped him up.

Laurelin was at a loss for what to do, and could only stand and watch at what happened.

The man in the truck, the sergeant who had always wanted to kill his captain, saw his chance; he pushed the princess aside, kicked the back doors of the truck open and jumped out shooting. Hitting Gusav in the stomach, coincidentally right where he'd stabbed himself earlier. And hitting the guard holding him up in the shoulder and arm and a grazing shot against his side.

Gustav immediately fell down, as he did, he unleashed a burst from his MP-5, two rounds landed harmlessly against the man's chest and neck armor, one round found the mark, the back of the man's head splattered into the back of the truck as one round had torn through his left eye. His lifeless body collapsed right in place.

Gustav sighed, "That was...." and then he collapsed over.

Laurelin finally moved from where she had been standing, she dashed towards Gustav and lifted his head up. “Are you all right?” she asked.

He was unconscious, not responding, he had a strong pulse though, and was breathing.

The princess had gotten up and came over. The Empress told her, “Stay with him, I’ll go get someone.” The girl nodded and stayed with him while her cousin ran inside and came back out with the doctor who examined him before.

He checked all the vital signs, and stood up. “Get him inside, he’ll be fine,” he said, and looked at the mess. “Someone should clean that up.”

The Empress had them move him back inside as the doctor instructed and the mess cleared away.

A short while later, Gustav regained consciousness, lying in bed, he looked around, meekly saying, "Hello, is anybody there?"

The Empress was sitting in a chair across the room; she’d been in there reading from quite some time. She looked up and smiled. “How are you feeling?”

He shook his head, "I guess okay... I, my legs feel very weak... I need a doctor from Mississippi... I don't think I can walk."

She frowned. “Are you sure? The doctor said you would be all right, why not give them a few hours, see how they feel?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, I guess that is okay... How is the princess, is she well?"

She sighed. “She’s fine, she was here a little while ago, but I sent her back upstairs, she needs to rest.”

He nodded his head again, "Okay, what about security, might I be permitted to make a call to some ex-MSAAS I know, very loyal men, about twenty, they'd be happy to provide security, especially for what I'll offer to pay them."

She shook her head. “Don’t worry, we’ve made sure the last of the MSAAS that you brought with you are out of the country, I’ve already brought in some extra security.”

He sighed, "I don't want to offend you, but I don't think your security is adequate, it's been breached how many times now?"

She scowled. “It’s fine now, I can assure you know it won’t be breached again. There’s never been anything like this happened in the last two hundred years, until you showed up.”

He shook his head, correcting her, "Remember, it was those Generian terrorists who started all this..."

“They didn’t breach palace security. My cousin was out at night, not here. The palace is fine, believe me.”

Gustav chuckled, "The palace is not fine, it could be infiltrated or stormed by children with pellet guns! I ask that you allow me to handle increasing security."

She stood up, she was visibly angry. “Fine, think what you want, but I’ll handle things myself,” the Empress said, and left the room in a huff.

He rolled his eyes and laid back down in bed, knowing he was right, but realizing he had been tactless in his explanations of the palace security to her, he'd try again later.

A few hours later, Gustav tried to step out of bed, his legs immediately gave out and he collapsed to the floor, shouting in pain as he heard the bones snapping, it was a spine-chilling scream, he knew he wouldn't be able to walk, he was lightly sobbing as he struggled to climb back into bed.

The Empress dashed in, along with two servants and the doctor. The servants helped him back into bed and the doctor examined him. “I think we’ll have to get this X-rayed, there's something seriously wrong with this."

He shook his head, "X-ray? Are you crazy? Radiation is deadly! I need a Mississippian doctor, they can scan my leg with proper and safe devices, not stuff from the dark ages!"

The Empress bit her lip. “I’m afraid to say we’ve banned travel between Eldanor and Mississippi. I’m sorry, I didn’t expect this to happen.”

He was shocked, his jaw dropped, "What? So does that mean not only can't I get a doctor to come here, I can't go home?"

She shook her head. “We’ll let you go back, it’s a special case, but I can’t allow a doctor to come here.”

He sighed, "I can't walk, how could I get back?"

“A wheelchair, perhaps?” the Empress suggested.

He shook his head, "No, that would make me look weak."

She frowned. “No one here is going to think twice about it.”

He frowned back, "Well in Mississippi they would..."

“Well, it’s the only way you’re going to get home. I’m not letting another Mississippian into to my country,” she told him.

He sighed, "You do realize there are several dozen Mississippians here already, for instance, a relative of mine, he even works in intelligence, a one, Edward Ernst, he is marrying an Eldanorian, are you going to let him stay or kick him out?"

She frowned. “You can’t be serious, are you? I don’t know how that could be, most Eldanorans don’t even travel to Mississippi.”

He sighed and in a hick tone, said, "Heck, you obviously ain't done no reading lately..." He said it like that to make the point that her preconceived notions, like her probable stereotypes about Mississippian grammar and dialect, were wrong, then in a normal tone said, "There seems to have been recent increases in tourists from Eldanor visiting Mississippi and his Commonwealth."

She scowled. “I don’t believe that is true. And you don’t need to insult my intelligence, you know.”

He chuckled, "Not to offend you, but do you work closely with Mississippian immigration department officials and internal security officials?"

She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

He smiled, "Exactly... I do, and I know that last month, over ten thousand Eldanorians were in Mississippi, and about twenty thousand were in the Commonwealth, it seems that all the incentives for tourism, mainly in Western Sahara, South Africa, and Mississippian Egypt, have been paying off... Either that or your people just never saw a race riot and had to rush to Western Sahara to see one firsthand.":

She frowned. “It’s possibly the fact that it always is cold here, I doubt they traveled all that way just to seem stupid race riot or something like that.”

He laughed a bit, "I don't know, that riot was a good one, plus for fifty dollars, tourists got a permit, a rifle for a week, and a weeks worth of ammo, and were allowed to shoot rioters."

The Empress scowled deeply. “My people happened to be much more civilized then that. I’d like it if you’d drop the subject.”

He couldn't contain his laughter, "I'm sorry... It's just well, I did an intelligence analysis report, and at least forty groups of about five each, from Eldanor, were seen taking up police on the offers to help them hunt rioters... I guess everybody likes a good hunt now and then, eh?"

She jumped up, quite angry. “That is completely untrue; my people would never do anything along those lines. I don’t care what the hell your reports say, I’ve never known Eldanorans to be violent people like Mississippians!”

He gasped, "Ah, so you show your true colors towards us, you're as anti-Mississippian as most others... Violent indeed... We're all violent, yes, we're monsters, that's why I can't walk now and you and your cousin are safe and well... Your people don't even have the ability to be violent in self-defense, your police hesitate to respond and don't act aggressively enough, a little violence on their part would help them overall."

She scowled and hissed, “Anti-Mississippian I may be, but I have every reason to be, don’t you think? I’ve tried to cooperate with you before, but it’s pretty much blown up in my face. And my people may not be violent, but personally, I rather like them that way.”

He shook his head, "Remember, that it is your lack of ability to defend yourself that allowed this all to first happen with the Generians, you need strong people to help you defend your nation, admit it."

She didn’t appear to care. “It’s none of your business, anyway, why should you care?”

He sighed, "Well if I just leave, you'd all die, and I've not gotten shot full of holes for nothing... You and your cousin are going to live, and you're going to lead your nation into a golden age, I think you owe that much to all the men in Western Sahara who are dead."

She frowned. “Tell me, what do you mean by that?”

He didn't know what to say, he thought it was obvious, "I'm saying you're only alive because many good folks are dead, you owe it to their sacrifice to lead a good life.”

“I don’t doubt that I will lead a good life and lead my nations as well as I can, but I do doubt that I owe very much to those who did die.”

He sighed, "Will you at least admit that I saved your butt back there?"

She sighed. “Yes, you did, and I thank you for that.”

He smiled, "And I thank you back there, for giving me the needed distraction when he was about to shoot me."

“You are welcome. I guess I do owe something to you, at least, you did save my cousin and myself.”

He smiled, "Not at least, that was a good accomplishment, nothing to be spoken lightly of. You two are both royalty, saving you was something that I considered an honor to do."

“Look, is there any way I can repay you?”

He shook his head, "No, none at all."

“You’re absolutely sure, then?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, I'm sure."

She sighed. “All right then, I guess you’ll want to be getting home soon, do you want me to make arrangements for you to leave in a few days?”

He sighed, "I guess so, I'll probably be arrested..."

She frowned. “Why?”

He sighed, "I've killed other Mississippians, active duty soldiers... That is a serious offense."

“What would happen to you if you were arrested?”

He shrugged, "Not sure, the least, a few hundred lashes, the most, hanging or something like that."

She frowned. “I couldn’t do anything to help, could I?”

He shook his head, "Nah, it's really my problem, I have to solve it on my own."

She still seemed concerned. “You’re sure then?”

He nodded his head, "Yeah, I guess, so, it's really my problems anyway, I've made my bed, now I can sleep in it..." he frowned as he realized something, "I'm sure there are some folks back in Mississippi who will want to see me sleeping, permanently..."

“Who? And why?” she asked.

He chuckled, "Hell, anybody who thinks it's wrong to kill your own soldiers under any circumstances..."

She frowned. “Well, we think you did the right thing. Not that it matters to you what we care, does it?”

He shook his head, "No, it does matter... What made you think otherwise?"

“I just wouldn’t expect you to care.”

He shook his head, "If I was the type who didn't care, you and your cousin would be in quite dire straits, and I'd be back in Mississippi..."

She smiled slightly. “Yes, I guess you’re right. We’d both be in pretty bad condition.”

He smiled back, "So, you finally admit it, eh? You're glad I came here to help you, aren't you?"

She sighed and glanced out the window for a moment, before replying. “Yes, we did need your help, we needed help from someone, I’ll have to admit. I was being a bit prideful when I said I didn’t.”

Gustav smiled, "That's all I really wanted to hear, I'm glad you were finally able to admit it... You're not upset though, about all that's happened, I mean the whole, well, all that, you know, crap and hostility and such..."

“A bit upset,” the Empress said. “But who wouldn’t be? I’ll get over it soon enough, as will hopefully everyone else.”

Gustav nodded his head, "Well... I guess that doesn't leave much else left to do except for me to head back to Mississippi when I can walk eh?"

She smiled. “I suppose. There’s really nothing good for you here, anyway.”

He nodded his head and closed his eyes a bit, saying, "Don't worry about me though, I can take of myself... yes, take care of..." he started to drift off to sleep.

She smiled. “I’m sure you can,” and stood up. She watched him go to sleep then crept out silently.

A few hours later, he started tossing and turning in bed, shouting and screaming in Spanish before he drew his pistol out from a holster and started shooting, he ended up hitting the fireplace, putting three rounds it. He jumped up, awake now from his nightmare/flashback, screaming.

The shots woke just about everyone in the palace up, and a bunch of servants were converging nervously outside the door by the time the princess and Empress got there. The Empress moved through them and opened the door, her cousin following her in.

Laurelin went to his bedside, while her cousin stood at the foot. “Are you all right?” the Empress asked.

He was breathing heavily, "Forgive me... I'm... I was... I... Sorry, I shot your fireplace..."

She shook her head. “No, its fine, I’m asking if you’re all right.”

He forced himself to nod his head, not wanting to bother others with his problems, "Yeah... I'll be okay..."

Laurelin didn’t seem at all convinced, nor did her cousin. “People don’t often have such bad nightmares then end up shooting things, at least not that I know of,” the princess said softly. “You can tell us your concerns.”

He shook his head, "I'm sure neither of you wants to be bothered with my problems... I don't want to... I don't... You'd just be troubled by them, I can... I have to... It's something I have to deal with."

The Empress was still persistent. “You can tell us, it won’t trouble us, perhaps we can help you. You have to tell someone, at least.”

He sighed, "It was in Colombia, three years ago, drug interdiction, we were assigned for a six month campaign... Out of the ninety-eight of us in the unit, only twelve of us made it out of the there alive and unwounded, twenty-four of us were carried out by the twelve who could still walk, the rest, their bodies were taken out later... One night, after six constant days of ambushes and fighting, we were exhausted; we had gotten careless and posted only a handful of guards... They attacked us that night, catching us off-guard..."

The Empress leaned back, a thoughtful expression on your face. “So you’re having nightmares about how horrible it all was, then?” She shook her head. “I’m not sure what to tell you, except not to blame yourself.”

He frowned, "But it was my fault, I was leading the unit that was out front, the first line of the defense for the rest of the company, many died because my unit had largely all fallen asleep..."

She sighed. “It’ll haunt you forever if you keep blaming yourself. You just need to forget about it.”

Gustav shook his head, "But it was my fault..."

“Well, if you’re convinced of that, there’s no way I can help you,” she said. “And I want to help you.”

He was shocked, "I thought you didn't like Mississippians, particularly me and the other MSAAS?"

She sighed. “As I whole, I don’t like Mississippians or the MSAAS, but you’ve helped my cousin and me too much for me to dislike you.”

He nodded his head, "I guess I can accept that... But I've done some dumb things as well, you just can't gloss over that fact..."

She nodded. “But we all do stupid things, you can’t be perfect, you know.”

He sighed, "I guess you're right, but it seems I do try too hard to be sometimes, eh?"

[b]“Perhaps, I wouldn’t really know.”

Gustav frowned a bit, not happy to be asking for help, "Say, you don't have any, well, jobs open around here, do you?"

“Maybe, why do you ask?”

He nervously asked, "Well, if I get kicked out of the MSAAS, it seems I'll need a new job, and all I really know is security and military matters... That and business management."

She smiled and nodded. “I’d be willing to give you a job, you could handle security for the palace, you would like that, yes?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, very much so."

The Empress stood up. “Well, that’s settled then, perhaps you should rest again, or do you desire anything?”

He shook his head, "No, nothing that I could think of off-hand..."

He looked over at the princess, "I didn't bother your sleep with all that noise, did I? If I did I'm sorry. I probably did disturb both you and your cousin, yes?"

The princess shook her head. “It’s quite all right, I was already up.”

Gustav nodded his head, but wasn't sure, "Are you sure I didn't disturb you?"

She nodded. “No, it’s all quite fine, don’t worry yourself over it. It isn’t a big deal.”

The captain gave her a disbelieving glance, "Okay, if you say so, I don't know though, I just hope I've been too much of a hassle around here..."

She shook her head. “It’s fine, like I said, don’t worry yourself.”

Ernst nodded his head, "If you say so, Excellency... Is there anything you need me to do? Perhaps you want me to go contact some friends from my old days in Colombia and hire them as security?"

The Empress nodded. “Yes, I’d like that, if you know they are to be trusted. But for now you should rest, all right?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, okay, if you say so, I shall rest... As for the men, the ones I have in mind, I'd trust with my life any day of the week."

She smiled. “Good to know,” before getting up.

As they were leaving, he called to the Princess, "Excellency, a moment of your time if you would please."

The Empress left the room, but her cousin remained and went over to him. “Yes?”

He looked up at her, "You're sure you're not upset about the disturbance? What about the recent, hmmm, unpleasantness of the past days?"

“Upset, yes, but not with you,” she told him. “It’s not your fault, I was kidnapped, I have right to be a little upset. But the disturbance was nothing, really.”

He nodded his head, "Thank you, Excellency... Tell me, what are your well, plans, I mean are you just going to stay here in the palace, or will you be well, I mean, what are your goals for the future if you don't mind my asking?"

She sighed. “I have to admit I don’t really know. Get more involved with matter of the state and politics, perhaps.”

Gustav yawned a bit, "That's always good, getting involved with government... Tell me, are there many well politically undesirable people here?"

She shrugged. “I don’t know, my cousin would be better to ask then me.”

He then asked, "Any plans for well, I suppose you being the princess you'll want an heir yes? And you can't do that by yourself... I guess I mean, do you have any plans for settling down and getting a family going?"

The princess shook her head again. “No, I’ll get married and have children when I’m ready. I don’t feel ready yet.”

Gustav nodded his head, "Hmmm... I see, but tell me, how long do, well... You're nearly thirty yes? You don't have a whole lot more time do you? I mean I'm not sure how long Elven women are fertile, but human female fertility drops drastically as time goes on..."

She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter with Elves. We only have two or three children at most. We don’t always get married early.”

Gustav nodded his head again, "I see... Interesting, I had no idea, see in my nation women typically have between twelve to twenty children."

“Ah, well, nothing of the sort has ever been heard of here.”

He seemed interested to know more, "So you're saying large families just don't happen here?"

She nodded. “Correct, most of the families here are fairly small."

He yawned a bit again, growing increasingly tired from his earlier wounds, "So tell me, what do you all do for fun around here?"

She smiled. “Horseback riding is one of the most popular pastimes.”

He smiled, "Ah, I love horses, I was considering going into the horse cavalry for a time. Did you know our nation still uses horse cavalry?"

She nodded. “I recall hearing about it somewhere, I can’t remember precisely when or where it was.”

The captain smiled, "Ah well you'd love to see them on maneuvers, it is quite a sight to behold."

She smiled. “Sounds quite interesting would be nice to watch.”

He then suggested, "Perhaps you'd like to come see the parades sometime in Mississippi, eh? I'd be glad to take you to one if you'd like. The cavalry is on parade often, the people are so proud of them."

She smiled wistfully. “Perhaps, but I doubt that I’ll be able to.”

He was a bit confused, "Why not? Wouldn't you be allowed to go to Mississippi?"

She sighed. “My cousin, well, she would probably be afraid I’d place myself in danger by going there.”

He shook his head, "No, you'd be fine, especially with the protection I could arrange, a dozen or so ex-MSAAS, buddies who I served with in Colombia, standup guys."

She nodded and told him, “That would be wonderful. And once you feel better, you can come and see my cousin’s black stallion. He’s quite pretty.”

Gustav smiled, "I haven't ridden a horse in months, that would be quite wonderful..."

The princess smiled back. “I’m sure you’d enjoy it, there’s quite a handful of horses you could ride.”

Ernst nodded his head, "Yes, I learnt to ride at a rather young age, as did you probably, yes?"

She nodded. “Oh yes, I started when I was seven, although my cousin began when she was four, I believe. She’s very talented.”

Suddenly the phone rang, Gustav wondered who would be calling this room in particular, he asked, "Should I answer that or do you want to?"

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it,” she said, and walked around and picked it up. “Yes, who am I addressing?”

The man got right to the point, saying in a rather heavy-handed tone, "This is Field Marshal Wilhelm Ernst, Commander of the Department of Internal Security, you are holding a member of my family hostage, a one Captain Gustav Ernst... I demand you release him immediately!"

The princess was a bit surprised he had gotten the number, but handed it right to Gustav. “It’s one of your relatives.”

Gustav took the phone, whispering, "Did he say who he is?"

“Wilhelm Ernst, I believe,” she told him.

He sighed, and started to talk, "Yes Wilhelm... What do you want? No I'm not being held hostage... No, not unless you consider torture being treated well and given anything I've asked for... No, I'm sure I'm not being forced to say this... Okay then, I'll take care, you take care to..."

He hung up the phone.

He looked to her and said, "Wilhelm can a bit, well, over-reactive..."

She smiled slightly. “I see. Well, at least you know he’s concerned for you.”

He nodded his head, "Yes, it's good to know people are concerned..."

She remembered something, and asked, “Do you know how he would have gotten this number, though?”

Gustav chuckled lightly, "Ah, yes, Wilhelm, he is the commander of the Department of Internal Security, the most prominent and well-equipped intelligence agency in Mississippi..."

“I see now, then,” she said thoughtfully.

He nodded his head, "Yup... Wilhelm could probably find out anything he wanted to know."

“I understand. So, is there anything you need right now? Or do you just want to rest?”

He shook his head, "No... I'm quite fine. I much prefer talking with you to sleeping anyway."

She smiled. “Oh, thank you for your compliment. I doubt I’m that interesting.”

He immediately replied, "You're much more than you give yourself credit for... You're too hard on yourself."

She looked down. “I don’t know,” she replied meekly.

He shook his head, "Trust me, I've met many women back in Mississippi, few could measure up to your beauty, you're perhaps one of the most lovely women in the world, although some might challenge that, they would be wrong."

She blushed. “Oh, I doubt it.”

He shook his head, smiling, "No, trust me, you are."

She blushed even more. “Maybe, but I don’t think I am. Thank you for your compliments anyway.”

He suddenly stood up, leaned close to her, took her in his arms and kissed her, then he drew back and shook his head, "Forgive me, Excellency, I was... I wasn't thinking right..."

She couldn’t help but smile. She had to admit she’d liked it. “No, please, it’s all right, I, well, I liked that.”

He smiled, "Really? You're not just saying that are you?"

“No, no, of course not!” she said.

He took her back into his arms and started to kiss her again.

This time, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, deeply.

After about a minute of kissing, Gustav then said, "Cuilanie, that was your first kiss, wasn't it?"

She smiled and nodded. “Yes, it was.”

He smiled back, "Did you like it?"

She nodded. “Yes, very much.”

He smiled again, "I hope it was just the first of many to come..."

She nodded in agreement. “I do as well,” Cuilánie said.

He glanced over at the clock, a bit nervous and unsure what to say, "Hmmm, getting a bit late, eh?"

She nodded. “Yes, perhaps you should get some rest, then?”

He nodded his head, "Yeah, probably, unless there is anything else on your mind you'd like to talk about, I can listen for a while, but not talk much, I'm sort of tired..."

Cuilánie shook her head. “No, I’m not troubled by anything, fortunately,” she told him, and smiled at him again.

He smiled back and kissed her on the cheek, saying, "That is good..."

She smiled more, then said, “Just tell me one thing, do you love me? Truly?”

He nodded his head, "I came here for you... That is why I came here, not for adventure or anything else I said before... I came thousands of miles here for you... That is why."

She smiled. “I’d hoped so,” the princess told him.

He smiled back, "I'm glad everything worked out in the end, things turned out pretty well, eh?”

Cuilánie nodded happily. “Yes, they all turned out for the best.”

He yawned again, "Yes, everything turned out for the best..." He started to trail off as he fell asleep, too tired to stay awake.

She smiled and covered him with the blankets, then kissed him on the lips. She then stood and left.

In the hallway, one of Gustav's friends was being led into the house by a servant, she could see over the railing and down to the first floor where the man was being told to wait while the servant went to go see if he was accepting visitors.

She went down the stairs, kindly thanked the servant, and went over to the man. “I am Princess Cuilánie Manener,” she said, extending her hand. “And you are?”

The man stood up and extended his hand to shake, "I am a member of the MSAAS, well I was, Gustav and I served together in Colombia... When I heard what happened, I just had to make sure he was okay... Is he okay?"

She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you and he’s doing pretty well at the moment. He’s upstairs resting.”

He nodded his head, "Hmmm, so I should come back later then?"

“No, you’re welcome to stay here if you wish,” she told him. “I don’t think I caught your name.”

He smiled, "Thaller... Conrad Thaller, formerly in SRGIO and the MSAAS..."

“Well, like I said, it’s very nice to meet you. Do you want something to eat perhaps?”

He shook his head, "No thanks, I ate on the plane, but if you could suggest a good hotel, I'd be grateful."

She smiled. “You’re welcome to stay here, but if not, I can recommend several nice places.”

He nodded his head, "Okay, I'll stay here... Oh, I brought some stuff with me, and some friends, we're all from Colombia, the same unit... When we heard what happened, we figured Gustav would want some security around here, you know?"

The princess nodded. “Yes, we were talking about that before.”

He pointed towards the front, "Well, there are twenty-two folks here, they'll pull security for you all if you're interested..."

She nodded. “Yes, that would be excellent. Thank you.”

He handed her some forms, "In addition to the twenty-two men I've brought with me, I have six men who were former secret police, they'd like authorization to arrest people, detain them, recruit locals into the secret police, etc. The unit probably won't get bigger than a few hundred, just enough to assure immediate local security for you and the empress."

She looked over the forms, scanning them quickly, and frowned a bit. The princess looked up. “You’ll have to speak with my cousin about this.”

He nodded his head, "Yes, I thought as much. Is she currently up?"

She nodded. “I believe so, would you like to speak with her now?”

He eagerly said, "Yes, please."

She proceeded up the stairs, beckoning for him to follow. Cuilánie led him through the mazes of corridors and finally reached the study of the Empress. She knocked gently.

“Come in,” the Empress said.

The princess led the man in and left, making sure she closed the door.

The man snapped to attention and saluted, and then introduced himself, "I am Duke Conrad Thaller... From Mississippi, here with a detachment of 22 ex-MSAAS, and 6 ex-DIS to form the cream of the new internal security apparatus for your state, and your new bodyguard unit."

She smiled and gestured for him to take a seat. “Good, but you don’t need to salute. Now, what is it precisely we need to speak about?”

He handed her the papers, "Excellency, we wish to form a secret police unit, relying heavily on native Eldanorians to join, locals mostly, from this areas, those who can be readily trained, learn fast, and have proven loyalty to your regime."

She frowned and glanced over the papers very briefly. “What’s this about a secret police force, then?”

He continued to explain, "We have twenty-two ex-MSAAS, twenty-four counting Gustav and myself, but we feel you need a force of secret police out in the community, to keep taps on what is going on, so you're really safe, you know what I mean?"

The Empress still continued to frown, troubled by this. “I understand what you mean, sir. To be frank, I don’t like that idea. At all.”

He sighed, "Empress, you need to take precautions to assure your safety and that of your cousin... How about we make all the windows here bulletproof, mine the perimeter just inside and outside the wall, erect automated miniguns, and have attack dogs wandering the grounds?"

Laurelin sighed. “I could possibly go for the first two. As for the last ones, I don’t care what you may think, I will most certainly not do it.”

He frowned, "Don't like dogs?"

She shook her head. “Dogs are perfectly fine, but I don’t care for attack dogs much.”

He then swept his hand to illustrate his grand idea, "I've got it... We'll hire, mercenaries from my nation and other nations, tens of thousands of them, we can make your nation totally secure... Hell, better than secure, we'll arrest all the traitors and anybody who doesn't like your government, eh?"

The Empress stood up angrily, scowling. “No, how about we don’t?” she said angrily.

He frowned, "Well then how do you propose we deal with those who won't back your regime, they're a threat to internal and national security."

She sighed. “You obviously don’t understand,” the Empress said. “I don’t intend to do anything about those who ‘don’t back my regime’. Let them keep their opinions and their free will.”

He shook his head, "No, no, no, that just won't work... But I guess it is indeed your nation, if you insist... Can we at least get a battalion of mercenary paratroopers here, they can operate out of the airfield we're building in the woods we're going to clear, the ones on the palace grounds... They can jump anywhere in the nation, a rapid response force."

“No to the airfield. Not here, at least. And I will consider the paratroopers, does that please you, then?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, sounds fair enough... How about we form Eldanorian versions of the MSAAS and SRG, led by ex-MSAAS and Ex-SRG officers from Mississippi, it'd be a great thing, it'd put people into work, and keep you and your regime safe."

She shook her head. “No, I’d like to keep things mostly as they are now. Perhaps in the near future I might, but not now.”

He smiled, "Ah, so tell me, we can use your bunker to store our supplies in, right? Where is the entrance to the bunker? I wasn't able to find it in my searching the palace grounds..."

She had already taken her seat again, and was shuffling papers. Laurelin didn’t even bother to look up. “There is none.”

He gasped, "What? No bunker... Oh my, we can fix that right away, I'll contact the same people who built the bunker at our leaders estate, it's one thousand feet under the ground, well nearly one thousand feet... It's got four floors, each about fifty thousand square feet, massively large, it can hold well over a regiment of guards. We'll get you and your cousin a nice bunker, let me handle it, don't worry."

She sighed a little bit, but figured it was for the best. “All right, I suppose, it doesn’t need to be that big, though. And don’t go tearing up big chunks of land to build it, either,” she warned.

He nodded his head, "Don't worry, the bunker will rival the palace in size, and it will be luxurious, Curtis spent over 500 billion decorating his bunker and estate by the time it was all done... I trust you've looted enough from your treasury to cover such, yes?

“Looted from my treasury?” she hissed. “I’ve done no such thing.”

He shook his head, "I meant borrowed, hehehe. Yes, borrowed..."

She scowled angrily and replied in a poisonous tone, “Borrowed, then? I haven’t done that either. It so happens that I would never do something like that.”

He sighed, "Okay, well, nevermind... How much money have you managed to amass from feudal dues, poll taxes, kickbacks, and business agreements, etc?"

“Feudal dues? Poll taxes?” she asked scornfully. “I haven’t, if it’s a surprise to you.”

He frowned, "Well... How do you get money?"

She smiled. “Oh, inheritance mostly, I own some stock in important Eldanoran companies, I have a partnership in a business…”

He chuckled a bit, "Well, I tell you what I'm going to do, I've got a bunch of relatives that aren't married, I'll set you up with one, they're all rich nobles, so whichever one you pick, he'll take care of your financial issues, eh?"

Her mood changed very rapidly. Laurelin’s face suddenly grew very dark. “I have no financial issues, and my finance is my business, anyway. And,” she said, pausing, “I do not desire to marry someone simply for money. Not that I feel like getting married yet.”

He nodded his head, "Well, I'll see to it your bunker is started tomorrow, of, we're going to be conscripting about eight thousand local convicts for labor, okay?"

She sighed. “No, that won’t work. Besides, I don’t know if there are eight thousand convicts in the local prisons. There are plenty of companies that would be willing to do the work.”

He shook his head, "Don't worry, we can arrest the necessary number of laborers, we'll just arrest poor people, nobody of consequence, after the bunker is built, we'll let them go."

The Empress was furious. “No, you will not do any such thing! Is that clear?”

He sighed, "Fine, we'll pay people, is that okay?"

She scowled again. “I’ll tell you, then. You better give them decent wages.”

He frowned, but then smiled, "Ah, decent is an opinion... Well, isn't it?"

She frowned. “Just don’t underpay them. They have families to provide for. They can’t do that when they’re underpaid.”

He sighed, "Fine, sounds good to me..."

“Very well,” the Empress said. “Anything else we need to discuss?”

He shook his head, "Oh wait, one last thing. We're going to be starting up a chemical and biological program, so riots can easily be contained, we'll have enough VX and Sarin to go around, plenty."

She put it bluntly. “Absolutely not.”

He was shocked, "What? Why not? Well if you don't approve that, then you're never going to go for the nuclear program, and we've already given them the go ahead..."

She was completely outrage. She stood up and almost shouted, “You’ve given who the go ahead, may I ask? This is my country, and I haven’t given you authorization for any of this! Eldanor has a tough anti-nuclear stance and it will stay that way!”

He sighed, "No, just the go ahead for the people to draw up the plans... It was originally going to be ten civilian power plants, and over time perhaps a few hundred missiles."

She shook her head vigorously and crossed her arms over her chest. “No, no, I won’t have it, and that’s final.”

He sighed, "Find, but at least accept our plan to stockpile VX and Sarin, they're useful crowd control agents."

She shook her head again. “No, I won’t budge on that either.”

He frowned, "Okay, how about mind control machines? We can reprogram citizens who are disloyal..."

Laurelin stomped her foot this time. “No, no, absolutely not!”

He sighed, "Fine, so let me get this straight, you're sure you don't want us to even build one gulag?"

She shook her head. “No, that’s a horrible thought. I won’t allow it. Not here, not in Eldanor.”

He frowned, "Fine, so we just shoot the dissenters and bury them in mass graves, rather than using camps?"

Her eyes blazed furiously. “You will do nothing of the sort,” she hissed, “nothing like that at all. Do you hear me? When and if there are dissenters, I will give you orders. Most likely they will be to leave them alone.”

He was shocked, "Wow, sorry... I just, wow, I'm so used to doing things the Mississippian way, and cultural differences I guess."

She nodded stiffly. “Big cultural differences,” she muttered, so only she could hear it.

He nodded his head, "So, your nation conducts business a bit different than us, eh?"

“Yes, I suppose so,” she replied.

He then smiled, "I've got it, a peaceful solution to security, we put a microchip in every poor person, so we can keep an eye on them at all times, eh?"

She shook her head once more. “No, I don’t intend to do anything about them, they’re fine the way they are, all right?”

Conrad nodded his head, "It's your country, isn't it?"

“Yes, yes it is,” she told him.

He nodded his head again, "Well, I'm tired, I'm going to go find somewhere to sleep.. My men have deployed in a perimeter around the palace and they'll shoot dead the first son of a bitch that sets foot on your property without your approval, so don't worry."

She sighed. “Don’t shoot them unless they’re armed, otherwise just called me up here to see if they have authorization, all right?”

He nodded his head, "Okay, if you say so, sorry, we're just so used to shooting first and asking questions, well, never... This will take sometime for us to get used to, operating in a place like this, it's so, peaceful..." He said peaceful like it was a dirty word.

She smiled. “Good, I like peaceful, and I want to keep it that way,” Laurelin said.

Conrad chuckled, "Well if you want peace, you know what they say, eh?"

She looked up. “What do they say?”

He smiled, "Prepare for war."

“Oh, really,” she muttered.

He nodded his head, "Yes, does it make sense to you? Those who are aggressive will prey on those who are weak and overly-peaceful, be strong and keep the peace."

She shrugged. “Perhaps, but I prefer the way things are.”

He shook his head, "That is why we're here, to do what you can or will not do, the tough stuff."

She sighed. “All right, then. Is that it?”

He nodded his head, "Yeah, I guess so... I've got to get to bed, but not before getting some brandy, you got any around here?"

She frowned, thinking. “No, I’m sorry to say we don’t.”

He sighed, "Oh well, any opium?"

“None of that, either,” the Empress told him.

He frowned, "Any cocaine?"

“No, it’s pretty much banned here, and I’d never let any of that come inside the palace,” she informed him.

He frowned, "Hmmm, well it is often prescribed by doctors in our nation, I've a prescription, does that affect anything?"

She sighed. “In that case, if you can acquire it, I’ll allow it, but I don’t know anywhere you can find it around here.”

He shook his head, "Don't worry, probably a few of the guys I brought with me have some on them..."

“All right then. Is there anything else you need?”

He shook his head, "No, not really... I'm good."

“Good. I’ll have a servant show you to your room,” Laurelin said, and went out into the hallway and instructed a servant to show him to his room.

He followed the servant to his room, looking around he shook his head, "These walls, they'd never stand up to even a 9mm, let alone a 308 rifle or a 20mm cannon..."

The servant, a young woman, asked him, “Is there anything you need, sir? Or do you just wish to rest?”

He shook his head, "Nah, I'll be fine... Thanks for asking though... Tell me, how many terror attacks are there on average per year here?"

“I’m not sure, sir,” she replied somewhat timidly. “Not a lot, not more then three or four, I believe.”

Conrad nearly laughed, "There's no need to be afraid of me... I'm not some maniac, speak with confidence, not as though somebody is holding a knife to your throat, okay?"

She nodded weakly. “Yes, sir,” she said, with a little more strength then before.

He smiled, "That's better, so tell me, what is your name?"

“Erendis, sir,” she said with a little smile.

He nodded his head, "Conrad Thaller... I've got a brother who you might like to meet, he's a nice guy, single, and he's a civilian, well I don't know if that’s a plus, but it seems to be around here."

The servant girl smiled. “Oh, thank you sir, but I’m afraid I’m not looking to get married.”

He nodded his head again, "Ah, I understand, well then, I'm a bit tired, I'm going to turn in now, thank you for showing me to my room."

Erendis bowed her head respectfully as she left. “Good night, sir, feel free to call me or another servant if you need anything.” She left the room a bit quickly.

Conrad shut off the lights, locked the door and stripped down to his under shorts and then climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep.

In the morning, Gustav was helped out of bed by a comrade who had stopped by, and together, the two were wandering the halls, well more like Gustav was being carried around by his friend.

The princess bumped into the two of them as they made their way past and smiled. “Do you want breakfast or anything, either of you? Or, if you’re looking for Laurelin, she’s outside.”

Gustav smiled and nodded his head, "That would be great, yeah."

She smiled and led them down to the dining room, and helped them sit down. Then she went into the kitchen and had two servants bring out some platters of food right off the stove.

Gustav yawned a bit, covering his mouth as he did so, "Hmmm, that bed was so comfortable, getting up was harder than I thought... So, what's for breakfast?"

Cuilánie smiled. “Eggs, sausage, bacon, some toast on the side and pancake. Does that suit your tastes well enough?”

He nodded his head, "Yes, of course. Thank you."

“Well, if you need me, I’ll be outside with my cousin. Otherwise, if you desire food or any such other thing, just ask a servant and they’ll be willing to provide it.”

Gustav smiled, "Okay, thank you... Maybe I'll get to talk with you later, eh?"

She smiled. “Hopefully,” the princess said. Then she walked out of the dining room and went out to the grounds.

Conrad Thaller had since gotten up, and he was sitting outside on a step, smoking a cigarette, he turned and saluted her, "Excellency" he said as she walked by. Then he asked, "Gustav is up, yes?"

Cuilánie turned around and nodded to him. “Yes he is,” she told him before continuing to walk off.

Conrad stood up, tossed his cigarette on the ground, and walked inside to go talk with Gustav.

The princess joined the Empress outside in the stables. Laurelin was already carefully grooming her horse and she smiled when she noticed her cousin. “Ready for today?” The princess nodded and saddled up her horse while the Empress did likewise.

As they were getting ready, a black cadillac pulled up to the embassy front gate. The ex-MSAAS guarding the gate stopped it, training G-36s on it. One of them radioed the empress, asking her, "Ma'am... We have some folks here who are asking to see you..."

The Empress sighed and picked up the radio that she had set on a ledge. “All right, I’ll be right there,” she said, and swung herself up on her horse. She trotted her stallion over to the gate and halted in front of the man that had radioed her. “Yes, what is it?”

The two men stepped out of the car. Immediately a half dozen ex-MSAAS, friends of Gustav and Conrad, trained their rifles on them, shouting, "That'll be enough! Hands on the hood!" The two men complied and their pistols were taken after they were searched, along with a half dozen ballistic knives on each man, which were also taken. After that, all the other guards who had just seemingly came out of nowhere, returned to their concealed positions. The gate guards stayed put.

The two men were dressed in suits, jackets, ties, with long black trench coats, and dark sunglasses. One of them walked over to the empress and flipped a badge, saying, "DISFB, we have a few questions..."

She remained sitting on her horse. “Yes?” she asked, her face unreadable. “Why, may I inquire?”

The man got to the point, "We wondered if you knew about the secret intelligence war being waged in your nation, it appears that the interests of several competing Mississippian intelligence agencies, have caused some tensions... Already a few dozen, mostly agents, have died... We want your help to end it all."

She cocked an eyebrow. “No. I was uninformed of all this. Tell me, exactly why is this happening here of all places? Why not take it back to Mississippi or wherever you people come from?”

He shook his head, "We had to follow a man who came here, a one Edward Ernst, DISDB..."

Her face remained unreadable still, but inside her curiosity and concern were roused. “Tell me why he is here, if you seem to know so much about this.”

The other agent stepped forward, "He is here with one of your women, it seems she seduced him into agreeing to marry her... That would probably explain why a Mississippian nobleman would come to a place like this with one of your women, no offense..."

The Empress’s jaw clenched tightly. Rage began to build up. “Oh really?” she said, a little too coolly for comfort. “If you want to tell me something, do it without insulting my country or my people. Who is this woman?”

The agent sighed, "I'm sorry, forgive me for my words, they were hasty..."

The other agent then answered, "Her name is Falathiel Almarea, I wouldn't expect you to know of them, they're not upper class, are they?"

Her eyes narrowed. “I know Falathiel. She happens to be one of my ambassadors, and it happens that I take pride in trying to know each of them very well. And Falathiel would never ‘seduce’ anyone.”

The other agent responded, "Well how do you figure a top Mississippian nobleman coming back here with some foreign whore... I mean foreign woman, how do you explain that?"

Her scowl deepened. “No offense meant? I take deep offense to that. And what’s wrong with my people? They can marry whoever they want. Now, if you have nothing else to say to me besides how whorish my women are, you may leave.”/b]

The man shook his head, "No, we don't mean anything like that..."

The other man stepped in and tried to save the situation, "Hmmm, what we mean is that your women are fine, but for your men, you know? They shouldn't be mixing in with our people."

[b]Her eyes began to flame again. “What’s wrong with my men?” she demanded. “There’s no way they can be any worse than you.”

The man chuckled, "I'm sure you'd know more about your men's flaws than I would, but anyway, really, your people are what, not even people, elves, right? Can you even mate with normals… You know, people, humans."

“Oh, so this is what it’s all about,” she said, and let her black hair fall back to reveal pointed ears. “I see. You are quite ignorant.”

The man nodded his head, "Yeah, so you didn't answer my question, can you all mate with normals, and what sort of offspring would it be?"

She rolled her eyes. “Half-elves. Besides, Ambassador Falathiel is quite human.”

The other man made a V sign with his fingers, as though on Star Trek and laughed a bit, "Hey there Spok, beam me up..."

The other man started to laugh at his friend's star trek joke, "Oh, that was good..." he said, hitting him on the arm.

One suddenly realized something, "What? She's human, how?"

The Empress sighed. “Not everyone here is an elf. Four percent of the population are possibly human. I suggest before you come here you take some time to learn about this place.”[/b

The man yawned, saying, "Meh, not like I wanted to come here, I have better things to do than come to a land full of faeries."

[b]Laurelin could no longer control the rage within her. It spilled out, in the form of a hard punch to the man’s jaw. “Faeries indeed,” she sniffed.

The man shook his head and touched his jaw, "Hmmm, you folks need to learn to hit better... I'd hit you back, but I ain't never hit a woman yet, and don't reckon I'll start, I suppose I did have that coming to, eh?"

“Oh really? I wasn’t hitting that hard. And you most definitely had that coming. Now, leave unless you have anything of value to say to me, not this trash that keeps coming out of your mouth.”

The other man smiled, "I have one thing to say."

“Well, say it. I have things to do.”

He immediately drove a hard blow to her temple, as he chuckled, "That's what you get for hitting my friend!"

No sooner had he hit her, than he was tackled to the ground by two of the ex-MSAAS guards, they immediately started clubbing, macing, and tazoring him.

The other man stepped back, "Hey, I didn’t do anything..."

The blow came quickly. It left her a little dizzy, but otherwise she was fine. She scowled at the other man. “Get out of here, and take the other Mississippians who are causing my country trouble with you, too.”

The man nodded his head, "Yes ma'am..."

“Good. Now, like I said, away with you. I don’t want to see you again, is that clear?”

The two guards just kept kicking and beating the man, already he was coughing up blood... One turned to the empress, "Shall we kill him and hang him from the palace walls?"

She spun swiftly and said in a loud tone, “No, don’t kill him, let him be. Send him off with his friend, hopefully he’ll have learned his lesson.”

The man coughed and gasped, saying, "Thank you..." As the two men stopped beating him

His friend lifted him up and helped him into the car, and then he ran to the driver's side, got in and they floored it out of there.

She thanked the guards and turned back to her horse, patting him. He stood there, occasionally shifting his weight from foot to foot. The Empress swung herself back into the saddle.

The men resumed their posts, standing at the ready with their G-36s slung so they were ready to be pulled against the shoulder in a seconds notice.

The Empress watched them return to their posts, then turned an galloped off, around the gardens and towards the forest.

One of the guards suddenly jumped in front of somebody walking by on the sidewalk in front of the palace grounds, shouting incredibly loudly, "Where are you going! Who are you! What is your business here!"

The princess had since then come over on her dainty horse, and saw the man yelling at the soldier. “You there, leave the civilian alone,” she shouted.

The man looked back to her, "Are you sure ma'am? He might be a terrorist?" he walked over to the princess and whispered, "He looks out of place, something seems wrong about him..."

She frowned. “Perhaps it’s just you. He looks quite normal to me.”

The guard sighed turning back, saying, "I guess so..."

“Good. Have you seen my cousin?”

He nodded his head, "Yeah, after that DISFB agent hit her, we beat them up and she rode off that way..."

Suddenly one of the men shouted, "RPG!" as the man who the guard had been harassing threw open his coat and went down on his knee, immediately firing an RPG-7 he had tucked under his coat. The guard tackled the princess off the horse and to the ground as the rocket sailed by, it missed, ending up crashing into a tree. Immediately the man had over a dozen holes in him as guards in concealed spots brought him down.

The guard stood up off the princess, helping her up, "I'd be willing to bet that was DISFB, see, I told you he was out of place... Who wears a light trench coat in the winter? It's a concealment coat..."

She dressed herself off and moved to control her frightened mount. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted it. Why are they here?”

He sighed, "It's one of those intelligence wars... You know, back in Mississippi the DISFB often gets into shooting wars with competing intelligence agencies, often the wars spread to anywhere operatives from the warring agencies are working..."

She groaned. “Oh, it’s just not fair. They’re going to scare everyone in the country out of their wits.”

The man nodded his head as a few blocks away a truck bomb went off, parked outside a cafe owned by a CIC (Commonwealth Intelligence Command) operative.

She heard the noise and looked around wildly. “What was that?”

The guard frowned, " Truck bomb..."

“That’s it, I’ve got to go and find my cousin,” the princess said, getting back onto her poor horse, who was terrified. She galloped off along the pathways.

The man shouted, "Hmmm, perhaps if Gustav or Conrad contacts the Czar or Czarina, they could end this?"

She twisted her head. “Yes, do that! Or, once I find my cousin, she can call.”

The man went off to go find Gustav.

Meanwhile, the Empress was making a speedy return to the front of the grounds. She had heard the noise and tried not to panic, but instead turned her horse and galloped through the gardens and towards the gate. She and her cousin almost collided. The princess gave her a hasty explanation, and they drove their horses to the stable. Laurelin gave her horse to a groom and dashed up the polished stone steps and inside the palace, her cousin trailing behind.

Gustav and Conrad were both in the front room, waiting for them. Gustav called out, "Over here...

She ran over, not breathing hard at all. “What is it?”

Conrad stood up, "We've contact the Czarina, the problems here should be over shortly."

She smiled. “Good. They better be. I’m tired of this, all of this. I never should’ve stepped up to the international stage. We were all perfectly content before all of this.” She waved a hand around her.

Conrad nodded his head a bit, "So, how exactly did all this start, what did you do that triggered all this?"

She shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve done my best not to harm a single living soul, be concerned with the welfare of others, but I give up. It’s completely useless. It’s blown up in my face time and time again.”

Conrad chuckled, "Yeah, see what happens? You need an army, eh? And we're the ones who can help you with that."

“No. I don’t want an army. My ancestors got on just fine without having an army.”

He shrugged a bit, "Meh, I guess militarized police, you know, SWAT sort of stuff, could handle it, eh?"

“No. They didn’t even have that. Normal police teams were fine. Rarely did people try to harm one another.”

Gustav yawned a bit, covering his mouth as he started to speak, "I think... hmmmm... Excuseme... I think that we should respect the empress's wishes, it is her country."

“That is quite true. Whether or not you like it, I refuse to form an army. Absolutely refuse.”

Gustav yawned again, again covering his mouth, "Yes, yes... Hmmm huh... I say we should..." He fell asleep right there in the chair.

Conrad smiled nervously, "Hmm, he seems to be a rather tired man, probably still recovering from all the combat earlier, eh?"

They both nodded, princess and Empress. “I suppose,” the princess murmured.

Conrad smiled, "I'll put him to bed then, yes?" He stood up and lifted his friend into his arms.

“Yes,” Laurelin said. “If you need anything to eat, tell us, all right?”

He nodded his head, "I will, thank you."

“Have a good night, then,” the princess said.

The man chuckled, "You mean morning, it's still morning, hehehehe... But for him, I guess yeah, it is night, might as well be."

The Empress rolled her eyes skyward as her cousin blushed. Laurelin looked at the clock. “Time to get to work,” she muttered and glided off. The princess shrugged and went to her own study.

Conrad carried Gustav up to his room and set him down in his bed and then left after he placed a glass of water on the stand for when his friend woke.

A few minutes later, Conrad walked off down the hall, looking for somebody to talk to, calling out, "Anybody here? Where'd everybody go?"

It was the time of day where everyone was up, but either outside or quietly working.

Conrad walked to the first room he saw and tapped on the door, "Anybody there? Hello?"

It was the office of the High Lady Alasse, but she was away on diplomatic business.

Conrad walked over to the room he thought the princess would be, tapping on the door saying, "Hello, Excellency, are you in there?"

The princess had been reading a book out on the balcony, but when she heard someone knocking she ran over to her desk and stuffed it in a drawer, not wanting to be caught neglecting her paperwork again. “Yes, you can come in…”

He gently pushed open the door and walked in, saying, "Thank you for granting me an audience... This is primarily about Gustav, perhaps if itsn't my business but he is my friend and I noticed you looking at him in a well, you know what I mean. Do you like my friend?"

Her cheeks flushed. “Actually, yes, I do. I’m surprised you noticed.”

He nodded his head, "Yes, well in my line of work, I was in SRGIO, you have to have a keen eye and notice things."

“It’s a good skill, then. Your men have definitely put it to use quite well,” she noted. “Is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?”

He shook his head, "I was just a bit bored, and wondering if you were planning to hire him on as head of security here?"

She nodded. “I believe my cousin intends to. But…well…no, I shouldn’t speak of that.”

Conrad smiled, "Ah, but technically you could hire him yes? It's in your power? I was wondering if it's also in your power to approve security changes and such, for instance I would like to propose nobody be allowed within four blocks of the palace without prior approval. That should keep the palace safe from RPGs."

“Yes, I actually have a good deal of work to get done,” she sighed. “But I suppose you’re bored, yes? You’re not used to the lifestyle we lead here.”

He nodded his head again, "Yeah, I guess you could say that..."

The princess smiled. “Finally someone who agrees with me about that. I find it all extremely dull.”

He took a small silver cigarette holder out of his pocket, "Do you mind if I smoke?"

She took one look at the cigarette holder and wrinkled her brow. “I’d ask that you don’t.”

He shrugged, "Not a tobacco fan, eh?"

“Not at all.”

He nodded his head and tucked the holder back into his pocket, "Hmmm, so what do you do for fun around? Any shooting sports?"

“No, not in the way you mean it.”

He frowned a bit, "Hmmm... So what do you do around here? I've noticed lots of horses, your people must be natural riders eh?"

She nodded and her eyes twinkled slightly. “Oh yes. Most of us don’t go a day without being with our horses.”

He smiled, "Ah, like Mississippian nobles and cadillacs I guess, or the peasants and their pickups."

“I presume so, if that’s what you say. I prefer to walk the short distances myself, as does my cousin.”

He smiled again, "Ah, well lots of folks walk in Mississippi but why walk if you have a chauffer, you know?"

He added, "Besides, most nobles live miles from the nearest significant sized towns."

She nodded. “So do the nobles here. Laurelin wishes she could be anywhere but the city.”

He chuckled a bit, "Ah, cities can and often are headaches, eh? For instance, Fabus City on Fabus Island is just an awful place to live. They say you can smell Fabus Island before you see it, when approaching it by a boat, because for years the government dumped raw sewage into the Gulf of Mexico and it collected near the island. They're working on solving the problems.

“Well, we pride ourselves on our clean cities here…but Laurel, she just despises it all. Too crowded, too many people, not enough open space and fresh air, that’s what she thinks. I don’t really agree.”

He yawned a bit, making sure to cover his mouth as he did so, "Hmmm, I'm tired myself, I think I'll go upstairs, seems like everybody here is just getting tired, eh?"

She nodded. “All right.”

He turned around and left the room, heading off to his room.

A few hours later, Gustav limped out of his room to look around; promptly collapsing in the doorway after he opened it, walking was still a bit too hard.

One of the nobles who had been visiting with the Empress passed by the doorway and saw him. He was tall, and well built. “Do you need help?” he asked, holding out his hand so Gustav could pull himself up.

Gustav smiled and accepted his hand, "Thank you..." he said as he struggled to get up.

The man helped him to stand up properly, and then commented, “Perhaps it would be best if you sat down.”

He nodded his head, "Yeah, you're right, thanks..."

He helped him into a nearby chair and took a seat next to him. “You all right now?”

He nodded his head again, smiling, "Yes, thank you... Say, what time is it, lunch yet?"

He nodded. “I was just on my way to get a bite now. Should I have a servant bring something up for you?”

He shook his head, "No, I'll wait until one of my friends is around, do you know where Conrad Thaller is?"

“No, I’m afraid not. I’ve been talking with the Empress since I arrived, which was about an hour or two ago.”

He nodded his head, "Hmmm, would you be so kind as to see where he is?"

He nodded. “I’ll see.” Then he walked off.

Gustav leaned back in the chair and lit up a pipe, it was a sweet and aromatic, a fine smelling tobacco, and the price it cost it should have been as well.

The man, who has a Grand Duke and the older brother of the High Lady, wandered the halls of the palace searching for Gustav’s friend. He couldn’t seem to find him.

A few minutes went by, Gustav wondered where Conrad was, he managed to use some crutches that he remembered Conrad had brought for him earlier and he walked out into the hall and down the first corridor he found, still smoking his pipe.

The Grand Duke sighed and turned around, and met up with Gustav. “I’m afraid he’s nowhere to be found.”

Gustav nodded his head, "Hmmm, where do you think he might be? Should we ask the empress or princess if they've seen him"

He shook his head. “The Empress is not in a very good mood, and the princess is…well, she’s kind of disappeared.”

Gustav seemed a bit concerned, "Disappeared? Is she alright?"

He smiled. “She always disappears at midday; she slips off when no one’s looking. We still haven’t figured out where she gets off too.”

Gustav nodded his head, "Hmmm, I see, should we look for her?"

The Grand Duke shook his head. “No, it’s not worth the effort.”

Gustav sighed a bit, "Ah, well just as long as you're sure she's not in danger."

“She’s not, don’t worry.”

Gustav nodded his head and then turned to head back to his room as he said, "Then I'll just go lay down for a bit longer."

“All right, if you need anything, feel free to tell anyone who’s near.”

He nodded his head one last time, "Yeah, thanks, if you see the princess though, tell her I was looking for please."

“I will gladly do so,” he said, before walking off, wondering why he need to speak to the princess so badly.

Gustav went back to his room and got into bed, he took out a book Conrad had brought him, one of Curtis's books on the 1984 Civil War.

A little while later, the princess knocked on the door, she’d been told he wanted to see her, and asked, “You awake?”

He set his book down and said, "Yes, come on in."

She smiled and entered. “I heard you wanted to see me.”

He smiled, "Well can you blame me, who wouldn't want to get to gaze upon such beauty? So, off hiding somewhere eh? The Duke told me you were off, where nobody knows..."

The princess blushed. “Thank you for your compliments. Besides, I haven’t told anyone where I go. Better to keep them searching.”

He grinned, "Ah, a woman of mystery, that is interesting, your Excellency."

“No need to call me your Excellency,” she said.