NationStates Jolt Archive

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Official Governmental Memorandum - Office of Public Prosecutions
The Eternal Republic of Holy Xirnium

Ad Vitam Aeternam! – For All Time! - Tárië Aicassë Laë Nainányéna!
To: Dr Jules Lamont
Minister of Justice
The Democratic Soviet Republic of Kahanistan

From: Vincent Temaeus SC
Director of Public Prosecutions
The Eternal Republic of Holy Xirnium

Greetings, Dr Lamont, from the Eternal Republic.

In order to assist the Xirniumite State with the ongoing investigation of a criminal matter (the specific details of which need not, at this point in time, trouble your government) we request the opportunity to interview certain former members of the 3rd Humanitarian Brigade (2nd Battalion) of the VI Corps, Kahanistanian Imperial Marines. The military formation in question was involved in a brief skirmish with Xirniumite troops during the short-lived Xirnium-Kahanistan War, and it is in regards to this incident that our enquiry refers to.

Our department is especially eager to speak with the following individuals concerning ancillary events pertaining to the incursion:

1st Lieutenant Bisham Abu Kamel
Major Boris Uliavov

Of course, it needs hardly be said that we would be more then comfortable with allowing the appropriate Kahanistanian authorities to closely monitor the interviews as they are conducted.

Any assistance that you could provide the Office of Public Prosecutions with would be greatly appreciated by the government of Holy Xirnium.

We await your timely reply with interest.

[Signed]
Vincent Temaeus SC
Director of Public Prosecutions
The Eternal Republic of Holy Xirnium

DEMOCRATIC SOVIET REPUBLIC OF KAHANISTAN
Ministry of Justice

Major Ulianov and Lieutenant Abu-Kamel have received notices that the Office of Public Prosecutions wishes to interview them. While we have no power to compel them to appear at a foreign investigatory hearing, the notices strongly encourage them to comply.

We hope that this matter is solved to the satisfaction of the Eternal Republic.

Signed,
Jules Lamont,
Minister of Justice

---

Al-Qamar, Kahanistan

International Airport

Two days later

Major Boris Ulianov had requested and been granted leave from his duties in order to interview some Xirniumite politician. A lower officer, a Lt. Abu-Kamel, had accompanied him. Ulianov racked his brain trying to remember where he had met him before, the man seemed vaguely familiar...

Then it hit him. Xigrat. The Xirniumites must want to talk to him about the battle. No problem, it wasn't like he had never told war stories about it. He just wasn't expecting to be pulled off of work to do it. What could they want to talk to me about?

The plane headed toward Xirnium, the two officers aboard barely conversing, each wondering what the OPP wanted, but too aloof from each other to discuss it meaningfully...

Naerath,
The Eternal Republic of Xirnium

‘They’re doing what?’ asked Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Burnsworth, a mixed look of incredulity and annoyance on her face. Samantha returned her exquisitely crafted porcelain teacup to its saucer and pushed it away from herself, suddenly no longer very interested in drinking anymore. Absentmindedly drumming her well manicured fingernails on the inlaid, green leather panel on top of her oak desk, the Detective briefly surveyed her office, glancing at the rows of antique (yet carefully cared for) books which occupied the major part of one of its walls.

‘That’s right, madam. The Kahanistanians are sending their people over here,’ repeated the Detective Sergent, rechecking his memo as if its contents might have changed. The heavy grey overcoat worn by the man hinted at the fact that he had only just recently come indoors from the freezing wind outside.

‘Damn it. How could the Kahanistanian justice department be so incompetent?’ Samantha asked quietly.

‘It’s possible that the OPP may be to blame,’ suggested the Detective Sergent with a shrug. ‘Maybe they weren’t clear enough?’

‘Useless bureaucrats…

Now that the witnesses have been forewarned of our intentions to interview them, they have ample opportunity to collude with one another, to get their stories straight,’ explained Samantha with an exasperated sigh. ‘It will make it nearly impossible for us to catch out a lie and to tell fact from fiction!’

‘Well… I suppose it will save us the trouble of going all the way to Kahanistan,’ suggested the Senior Investigating Officer’s subordinate.

‘Unless we can’t find all that we need from these two, and need to interview some of the others who served in 2nd Battalion,’ replied the Chief Inspector bitterly. Recently re-opened due to the help of the OPP, Burnsworth and her team had had high hopes for finally solving this cold case, but mistakes likes this were not helpful.

****

The Kahanistanian witnesses were greeted by paramilitary officers of the Xirniumite Frontier Police ( http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e221/Xirnium/frontierpolice.jpg) at Naerath International airport, and promptly brought to the National Police Central Headquarters ( http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e221/Xirnium/nationalpolicehq.jpg) of the Eternal Republic. Constructed in the mid-19th Century, the towering building had been built in the "Gothic Revival" architectural style typical of so many structures in Holy Xirnium.

By the time the Kahanistanians had arrived at the central office, the morning’s frigid wind had finally ceased, only to be replaced, however, with a depressing drizzle that fell mournfully from the grey Xirniumite skies. Turning the collars of their overcoats up against the rain, the Frontier police constables reluctantly left the dryness of the car and showed the witnesses into the building, quickly walking up the granite steps to the vast main doors of the headquaters.

‘Ahh, Major Ulianov, Lieutenant Kamel. Welcome and thank you for taking the time to come and speak with us,’ announced Detective Chief Inspector Burnsworth before introducing herself and the rest of her investigative team to the two Kahanistanians. Once again, the police constable was drinking tea from a porcelain cup, and searched around aimlessly for a suitable nearby table to set it down before shaking the hands of the two men. ‘We sincerely hope that your help will prove invaluable to our ongoing investigation.

Lieutenant, would you at this point come with me, please?’ asked Samantha, preferring to come straight to business. ‘Major, the police constables here will show you to a waiting room until we are ready to interview you. Don’t worry, we shan’t be too long.’

Chief Inspector Burnsworth marched down a corridor towards the interview room, the thick carpet muffling the dull sounds of her high heels striking the floor. Samantha and the Kahanistanian past by row after row of busy (yet orderly and efficient) offices and meeting rooms before finally coming to the right door.

‘Take a seat,’ Samantha muttered distractedly as she ushered the Kahanistanian inside. The ambient sounds of photocopiers, ruffling papers and ringing telephones were replaced with the ubiquitous drone of the room’s air-conditioner as the door clicked shut.

‘Would you like a drink?’ asked the Chief Inspector ah she took a whiskey bottle from a nearby wooden cabinet and unscrewed the cap, pouring herself a glass. The interrogation room may not have been quite what the Lieutenant expected, and exuded a rather inviting air. It was furnished with comfortable leather office chairs and well-lit.

'You were a member of the Kahanistanian military formation (consisting of elements of the 3rd Humanitarian Brigade, VI Corps) which took part in the Kahanistanian incursion into Holy Xirnium prior to the Xirnium-Kraven War,’ Samantha noted, opening up a folder. It was a statement, not a question.

‘Do you recognise this man, a Lieutenant George Tate of the Xirniumite Frontier Guards?’ asked the Detective, sliding a large photograph across the face of the wooden table. The image was a group portrait, with the Frontier Guard’s face circled in red. Besides him were people who were obviously members of his family - a wife of approximately thirty years of age and two children aged around five.

‘Please take your time and think very carefully, Lieutenant Kamel. This individual apparently met with your detachment’s commanding officer just prior to the time of his death.’

The Kahanistan first lieutenant nodded his head briefly. Whiskey would not help him concentrate, so he set his drink down, untouched. After about thirty seconds, he nodded again.

"Yes... He held us up at the frontier near Xigrat. Colonel Levitt lost her patience with him, she had expected it to be a quick drop in, grab the refugees, get out. He said something about the missiles being disassembled, the Colonel raised her voice, she was getting more irritated by the second. We'd taken them apart for transport, these people's lives depended on getting them out of there. Finally, he said, 'Sir, you'll have to wait until we determine that the missiles work,' or something like that, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back for her."

"She was trying to save 300,000." The lieutenant finally took a large gulp of the whiskey. "She may have been ignorant of Xirniumite terms of military address, but she wouldn't kill someone for that. She was cross that she was being held up and those lives depended on her, and it was the last straw."

‘Mmm,’ hummed the Detective Chief Inspector thoughtfully, rummaging through a mass of declassified military documents.

‘Your formation, the 2nd Battalion, was attempting to execute an illegal transaction that would have delivered disassembled nuclear warheads to the Quikzos junta,’ read Samantha with a pensive frown, having found the correct file. ‘These weapons were to be used by the rebels against the loyalist Parliamentary factions, who were at that point in time busy in the process of rolling back the modest royalist gains. The Quikzos cabal had, of course, staged an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt bare months earlier, and was finally crushed two months after your incursion – having lasted less than half a year. I am not exactly sure how much information you and your group were given by your superiors at that time as to the situation in Xirnium,’ added the police officer with a shrug.

‘Anyway, such concerns are outside the scope of our inquires,’ explained Chief Inspector Burnsworth, with a slight wave of her hand. The detective picked up her glass and took the minutest of sips before continuing.

‘So, after the conversation that you mentioned, your commanding officer, Colonel Levitt, was quite frustrated,’ summarised the detective. ‘She was, indeed, already in a highly agitated state due to the pressures of her military assignment, which placed great stress on her, requiring that she evacuate a certain number of civilians. She was also then further aggravated at being addressed as “sir”. Simply put, your commander was mad. In her moment of anger, quite understandable given the extraordinary circumstances that she was placed in, she responded by shooting dead one Lieutenant Tate. She killed the man, not out of an attempt to defend others or herself in danger, but because she was upset. As you said "it was the last staw", she was "cross".

‘There was, of course, no premeditation in her actions – what instead transpired was something which occurred as the result of a "spur of the moment" decision.

‘Is that all correct, Lieutenant Kamel?’

The Kahanistanian Lieutenant nodded his head. He did not feel comfortable at all about the position he had been placed in.

"Yes, Inspector," said Kamel. "She's always had a temper on her." That was an understatement, even many in the General Staff of the Imperial Marines saw her as unstable or just plain mad.

"She's a nice lady, though," said the lieutenant. "You just don't want to piss her off, irritate her or anything." While such actions would normally not get someone shot, General Levitt was known to have rearranged the face of a man who groped her in a bar, and placed a whoopee cushion with a stink bomb in the chair of a senior general who had crossed her. The conference hall had been cleared out after that debacle and nobody had pinned it on her.

"What are you going to do with her?"