by Ryan McCall
Siobhan smiled. “The last treasury minister once told me that it was most thankless job in the world. How did he put it? ‘I grease the wheels of the whole country, control whether it stops or starts and yet I am never noticed.’ Honestly I don’t know how you stand it. I would go mad looking at pages and pages of numbers every day. Give me an aggressive diplomat anytime.”
“We all do what we are called to. I’m good at it and I enjoy it,” she replied. “Since I’ve finished complaining about my problems, why don’t you tell me about yours? Only four more days until the Galrian delegation arrives.”
Siobhan nodded. “For the first time in its history our biggest rival has deemed to send its us an official representative. To say I have a lot to do would be a massive understatement. But on the other hand this could be the best move to improve our relations with Galria.
In fifty years they have been nothing but aggressive and hostile. Look at the situation on the southern border near Sethain. More soldiers are stationed there than anywhere outside of Kangur. If we can relieve the tensions, I will make a mark no other foreign minister has made before.”
“Not concerned they are here for more blustering threats?” asked Tessa. “The Galrians are not averse to subversive tactics as you well know. Don’t forget Marant.” Marant was a town in West Maceon and five years ago a well-funded anti-government group had waged a guerilla war inside the town. Galria’s support to the guerillas had brought the tense conflict close to war.
“This isn’t subterfuge, I’ve been working on this for a long time. I know Envoy-master Rossiv, he wants the same as I do; a real, working dialogue between our nations.”
Tessa wasn’t convinced. “I’m sure he does, but it’s not him I’m concerned about. Galria isn’t Alkon, Siobhan. The ministers don’t have the same level of authority of their respective sectors as we do. If King Cyrus the Second of Galria decides he wants something done, then it gets done. Regardless of what his inner circle thinks. You know what they call him in whispers in the halls of Urdov, don’t you?”
Siobhan nodded. “Cyrus the Paranoid. He sees plots against himself everywhere. Given his upbringing and history can you blame him?” Siobhan was referring to Cyrus the First, first king of Galria and the current king’s father. He had driven the Galrian states together by mutual fear and hatred and the rumor was, he had run his own family the same way, terrorizing his wife and children.
“That reminds me. I have one more suggestion and then I’m done offering my opinions about your family” said Siobhan. “Talk to your brother, he’s also involved in Typhon and he doesn’t have the same ruthless streak as your sister.”
Tessa thought about the suggestion and replied, “He may listen to me, but even if I get him on my side for this, Tegan still runs the company. She’ll threaten him and he’ll cave, he always does.”
“He will? Because I could never get him to cave to me,” said Siobhan. When they were much younger, Siobhan had a crush on Luthais but he had never reciprocated. Tessa wondered if Siobhan had an ulterior motive with her suggestion. “He’ll be in the palace today, attending Alyssa Huntington’s demonstration of her new prototype.”
And she’s keeping tabs on him thought Tessa. I wonder if she ever truly let it go, or she simply learned to hide it better. “When is it due to start?” she asked.
“Eleven o’clock, I believe,” replied Siobhan. “You have plenty of time.”
“In that case I may go and see what new marvel Huntington has for our armed forces, then have a chat with my little brother,” she replied and stood up. “Good luck preparing for the delegation. If you need anything, let me know.”
The younger woman nodded. “I will. Now go, I need to get back to this. The emperor expects everything to run smoothly. And it won’t if I don’t get all of this in perfect order,” said Siobhan, looking down at the pile of documents in front of her.
Sometime later, Tessa found herself following the crowd of generals and security ministry staff into the demonstration hall for the new prototype. She made her way up onto one of the seats at the top of small stand, so she could look for Luthais.
The stand soon filled and she spotted her brother near the front, sitting next to General Airic Marnoch and what looked to be a representative from Culsyth Firearms, one of Huntington’s main competitors. Knowing Alyssa Huntington, she had only invited the Culsyth man and Luthais to her demonstration so she could show off. The woman was incredibly arrogant, but with her brain and talent for innovation she had good reason to be.
Tessa noticed her brother was looking across the room to where Huntington and her employees were setting up. He had a look on his face that she had seen before.
Creator help me, tell you didn’t Luthais she thought. But her brother had never shown good judgment when it came to these matters.
Her brother was involved with Alyssa Huntington and was starting to develop an infatuation with her. On top of dealing with her sister, Tessa did not want to see the family in a scandal involving one of the richest women in the empire. She would have to wait to deal with this, the demonstration was about to start.
As Emperor Lawrence and Minister-General Kodiak entered the hall, Alyssa urged her assistant to hurry. One of them carried a man-shaped straw dummy to the other end of the hall and placed it in line with whatever was under the large, white sheet.
The emperor took his seat and asked, “Mrs. Huntington, are you ready?”
The woman nodded. “Yes, Your Imperial Majesty, we are,” she replied.
“Then by all means proceed. I am most curious to see what wonder you have to unveil.”
Tessa was curious as well. Alyssa’s last military contract had netted her half a million crowns from the royal treasury. Tessa was not looking forward to having to dole out more to her.
Alyssa nodded and walked over to the prototype. She grabbed one end of the sheet and said, “Your Imperial Majesty, ministers and generals; may I present to you the Huntington company’s Fleming-1730 mechanized gun. Developed by myself and my top gunsmith Ewan Fleming.” The dark-haired man next to Alyssa dipped his head in acknowledgement.
She pulled hard, the sheet coming off. Sitting there was a long barreled gun on wheels, in a similar fashion to a cannon. However the barrel of this was far different; in fact it was not one barrel, but a multitude of them, put together in circular shape. At the rear end of the barrels was a hand crank and on the other side of that, a long magazine of ammunition.
Alyssa addressed the room. “The Fleming operates with a cyclic multi-barreled design, which aids in cooling as well as keeping the firing and reloading sequence synchronized. Unlike a cannon, it can be operated by a single gunner. Though in order to keep up continuous fire, ideally there would be at least one additional gunner to feed ammunition. It uses the 8-08 rounds that are also used in the heaviest of rifles and can fire at a rate of four hundred rounds per minute,” said Alyssa, pride in her voice.
There was a slight gasp from the attendees. Four hundred rounds per minute was astonishingly fast, no other gun in the world had ever reached that rate of fire, the volley guns of Culsyth Firearms had been the highest at one hundred rounds per minute. Until now that is. Tessa looked over at the Culsyth representative. He had a hideous scowl on his face. If the Fleming-1730 performed as promised, his company was about to take a large hit.
“And now, Mr. Fleming will demonstrate exactly what it can do,” said Alyssa and she stepped back. Fleming bent onto his knees behind the gun and placed his hand on the crank.
When he turned it, all Tessa could hear was the rapid noise of hundreds of bullets. It deafened out everything else in the hall. Tessa watched in amazement as the straw dummy was slowly torn apart by the hail of bullets.
Fleming didn’t let up, he continued firing for several minutes until the dummy was nothing but a wooden pole with a few stray strands of straw hanging off, the rest strewn on the floor below.
When the firing stopped, Tessa shook her head, tr
ying to get the ringing out of her ears. Tessa saw many of the military figures with beaming smiles on their faces and the biggest was plastered on the Minister of Security, Austin Blake.
Of course thought Tessa. A war hawk like him would be more than pleased at a weapon that is able to slaughter the enemy in matter of seconds.
Emperor Lawrence applauded boisterously and Huntington and Fleming both bowed before him. “Fantastic work Ms. Huntington and Mr. Fleming. This gun is an engineering marvel.”
“Would you like to try Your Imperial Majesty?” asked Alyssa.
She’s bold thought Tessa. She’s going to let the emperor try out a prototype weapon? For a brief moment Tessa fantasized about what would happen to Alyssa if the weapon back-fired on the emperor.
“Yes,” he replied “I most certainly would.” The emperor stood up and walked over towards the gun.
Sanya tried to stop him, “Uh, Your Imperial Majesty, perhaps in a more controlled-”
“Oh don’t fuss Sanya. I trust Ms. Huntington’s mechanical skills implicitly.” He looked at Alyssa. “It won’t back fire on me?”
“Of course not, Your Imperial Majesty,” said Alyssa. “It has been fully tested and approved for production. I would never show equipment unless I knew it would work flawlessly.”
“There,” said Lawrence. “Ms. Huntington’s word and reputation is more than enough assurance. Now Mr. Fleming, how do I operate it?”
The gunsmith then proceeded to show the emperor how to fire. Then he reloaded the gun’s cartridge and stepped back. The emperor knelt down and fired at what remained of the dummy. He managed to split the wooden pole into pieces as he fired and it collapsed to the floor, nothing more than splinters.
When he stopped firing, Tessa shook her head again. The ringing lasted slightly longer this time. She was starting to regret coming here, she had no taste for guns and while the generals saw a new toy to kill the enemy with, Tessa saw only an engine of death.
After the demonstration concluded, Tessa pushed her way down to try and catch her brother. He was making his way over towards Alyssa and her crew, where they were packing up the Fleming gun.
“Luthais,” she said, when she was within earshot.
He turned around with a surprised look, “Tessa? What are you doing here? I didn’t think you had an interest in firearms.”
“I don’t,” she said. “There is a matter I wanted to discuss with you and I heard you would be here.”
“Let me guess-Siobhan told you? That girl has never been able to stop mooning over me. Can’t say I blame her of course,” and he chuckled.
“She isn’t the same teenage girl that had a crush on you. She’s a government minister, a position which entitles itself to information. Particularly involving the comings and goings of certain individuals to the palace and the ministry.”
“Whatever,” said Luthais. “What do you want Tessa?”
“I’d prefer to talk in private if you don’t mind. My office?” she said.
“Fine,” he replied, throwing up his hands. “Lead the way. This better not take too long, I have business to get to, you know. Especially now that Alyssa Huntington has impressed every senior military officer. I don’t know how my armaments division can compete with that gun.”
When they arrived at her office, Luthais commented, “Tidy and neat as usual Tessa. How much of the empire’s money is flowing through the books in this office?”
“That’s not what I want to discuss with you,” she said and she sat at her desk.
“Accounting was never my strong suit,” he said. “So, what was it then?”
“I need you to talk to Tegan. This business with the LRC is not good. Not for Typhon and not for my position here. You have to convince her to negotiate with them.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Luthais voice rose in disbelief. “You want me to tell Tegan what to do? Why would she listen? She’s the one in charge the company. And even if she wanted my input on business matters, she certainly wouldn’t want to hear anything about negotiating with protestors and socialists.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now, she mentioned she was dealing with the problem.”
“What? What did she mean?” snapped Tessa. She didn’t like the sound of that.
“How in the hells should I know? She didn’t go into detail and I didn’t ask her. Quite frankly I couldn’t give a pig’s shit what she does, as long as it doesn’t affect my guns.” Luthais crossed his arms and stared at her, a sign of his growing annoyance.
“Then I want you to find out exactly what she did mean and tell me all about it,” she replied.
“And why should I do that? You know what Tegan’s like. She finds out I’ve been running my mouth to you, she’ll cut me out of the company altogether,” said Luthais. He looked to his left, taking in the large collection of files on the nearby shelf.
“That’s why,” she said and threw a brown file into his lap. He moved quickly, stopping it from falling to the floor. “You forget the power I have in my position, little brother. I can help you get the naval gun contracts inside that folder, by greasing the right wheels. Should ease the creeping fear you have about losing to Huntington with the Imperial Army.”
Luthais opened the file and thumbed his way through the thin pages, smiling as he read the contents. “This would be helpful to me. I haven’t been able get into the navy contracts for two years.” He closed the file and looked at Tessa’s face, his expression deadly serious. “Alright Tessa. I’ll do what you ask. In fact if you can get these contracts I’ll even try and point Tegan in a different direction with regards to the union and the LRC. But don’t blame me if she finds out you’ve been meddling in her business.”
“I can handle Tegan. I’ve been doing it since before you were born and I will continue to do so, with or without your help.”
Luthais stood up and made for the door. Tessa spoke again as he put his hand on the handle. “Oh and one more thing Luthais, I would be careful with Alyssa Huntington if I were you.”
He turned around, a look of fury on his face, “Who in the hells told you that?”
“No one little brother. I figured it out for myself. It wasn’t difficult, I saw the way you were looking at her today. You need to practice maintaining a better poker face,” and she pointed at him. “A good example would be right now. As soon as I mentioned her name, your emotions washed all over your face. You couldn’t contain your anger, confirming my suspicions.”
“Who I fuck is none of your business,” he said coldly.
“Fine, fair enough,” she replied. “Just giving you some advice. The way family is meant to look out for each other. Alyssa Huntington is doing nothing more than using you and you should know better. She’s done it before, so I my suggestion is get out before you get stuck in her web.”
“What if I’m using her? Did that ever occur to you?” he asked.
Tessa laughed out loud, annoying Luthais further. She brought her laughter under control, not wanting him to get angrier. “I’m sorry Luthais, I truly am, but no one ever uses Alyssa Huntington. She’s the most intelligent and ruthless person in this city and she doesn’t do anything unless it serves her own interests.”
“Is that it then? Is that everything or do you have more sisterly advice? Like where I should buy my next set of shoes or what I should wear to business meetings?”
“Luthais,” she replied, her voice holding genuine sympathy. “I’m sorry. Be careful.”
“I will,” he said. “I’ll get back to you after I see Tegan and tell you all about whatever plans she arranged. You concentrate on greasing those wheels you mentioned. Goodbye Tessa.”
“Goodbye Luthais,” she replied as he exited. She was concerned about him. Luthais had always been the one she could talk to and she would hate to see him humiliated by Alyssa Huntington.
The woman was cunning and she had gone to extreme lengths to get information on her competition before. Tessa doubted she would think twice about se
ducing the head of Typhon’s armaments division to find out what they were working on. On the upside Luthais allowing a competitor to seduce company secrets out of him would enrage Tegan enough for her to boot him out of the company. He would be away from her dominating control.
Luthais being humiliated would be a small price to pay to get him away from Tegan’s influence. The more Tessa though about it, the more she decided to keep an eye on the situation. If Alyssa Huntington truly was using her brother for more than sex she wanted to know, so she could be there for him when it went bad. She didn’t have direct contacts in Huntington Mechanics, but her paramour Thomas Hamilton did. She would ask him about it tonight.
Chapter 27
A watch officer pulled Victor Shepard out of his cell and in a gruff voice said, “Get up. You made bail.” The officer led him past the other cells, hooting sounds of support emerged where his comrades were still locked up. The officer smacked the bars with his nightstick and yelled, “Shut the fuck up unless you want me to teach you how to be quiet.”
They still continued until Victor signaled them with his hand. “Be patient comrades. You will be set free soon, I promise you that.”
The officer looked annoyed that Victor had been able to keep the prisoners quiet when his own threat had no effect. He walked Victor out of the cell block and over to the transfer desk.
“Please get Mr. Shepard’s personal items,” he asked the clerk, who then spent several minutes fussing around until he found the right compartment and handed the items over.
The officer handed them to Victor and said, “Mr. Shepard you are free to go.” He handed him an official slip of paper. “This is the date and time of your court appearance, please do not be late.”
“Of course not officer, I look forward to it.” It was true. Victor relished the opportunity to present his cause in an official forum. Each time he did, his support grew.
As he exited the watch station, Victor Shepard smiled as he saw his friend and fellow revolutionary, Robert Argyll. Robert was dressed in a pale blue suit. With his pale skin, bright red hair and fine clothing he could have not looked more different from Victor.
