Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

10) Circling the Wagons

Victoria II canceled her remaining appointments for the afternoon as she went, surrounded by the usual phalanx of security including Sir Johann, over to the Victoria I Library.

The rest of the palace grounds were on lockdown and the black kilted guards were only letting in specific people from a very short list.

Victoria II was escorted to the second-floor infirmary where Ouihan had been brought no more than an hour earlier. She entered the room to see quite the tableau. Dr Darla Saba was finishing wrapping his chest with dressings while Sister was sitting to his right side near his head. She was holding his hand, tears streaming out of her eyes. To the other side was Elsie, in full rage, yelling at Judge Waldheim and Chief Bailiff Rodgers about how piss poor (her words) their security and procedures were.

Victoria II watched placidly for a moment and waited for Elsie to run out of steam. Inwardly she smiled with the barest hint of amusement, thinking of the full redhead effect Cooper has lassoed for himself. When she sensed Elsie had paused a moment to take in a deep breath, she cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

All heads turned towards her then bowed their heads. All except Dr Saba, Sister and Ouihan of course. She said, “Lady Elsinore, do please let these gentlemen go now so they can correct whatever grave deficiencies they must, upon pain of our displeasure.”

Elsie curtsied and said, “Of course, Your Eminence.”

Both the judge and chief bailiff bowed gratefully and hastily left the room. Judge Waldheim paused a moment by Her Eminence and said, “Your Eminence, I will see to all the corrections needed personally.”

She smiled and said, “Of course you will. We have the highest confidence in you Sir Henry. We also have confidence you understand what must be done if you fall short.”

When he left, Victoria II gracefully walked over to the far side of the bed Ouihan was in and stood next to Elsie who was looking across expectantly at the doctor and Sister. She could see the remnants of tears of rage and worry in Elsie’s eyes and her general flushed complexion. She placed her hand on Elsie’s as she spoke.

“Dear Elsie, I want to thank you for taking charge of this matter. I have the highest confidence you will task the right people to find out what had happened and why.”

Elsie nodded and said, “I will do my best Your Eminence. I am just having a hard time trying to understand why anyone would organize a professional hit on a 12-year-old boy.”

“As do I. Until we hear otherwise, we will be treating this as an attack on Our person and our family. So, you have all the Crown’s resources at your disposal for this problem at hand.”

Elsie was quick to reply. “Our honeymoon is another casualty of higher needs. I’m sure that burr under the saddle pad will boost Coops motivation and intensity.” She then curtsied to Victoria II and said, “If you’ll excuse me Your Eminence but I need to see to the other children as well. They need to know Ouihan is stable for the time being. Miracles of miracles.”

Victoria II nodded, and Elsie left the room. She then sat down on the stool next to the bed looked down at Ouihan who was obviously deep asleep. She then turned to the doctor and asked, “How is he doing?”

Dr Saba said, “Well I was able to remove all the bolts. I gave him a potion for his pain and to help him sleep. There is no apparent reason he should be alive. His wounds would have killed just about every demi I’m aware of. He is quite unusual. As a matter of fact, his worst wounds were already closing up by themselves before I applied the dressings.”

“Well, we’re not surprised. He had survived two arc light hits and several poisonous needler gun hits two months ago and here he is still.”

Dr Saba asked, “Are you sure he’s a demi, Your Eminence? His regeneration is far too powerful.”

“No, I’m suspecting he’s something entirely different.” The concern on her face was obvious.

Sister said absently as if to herself, “That’s because he’s Wingdama Aling, back among us.”

Both the ladies in the room turned to Sister in surprise.

Cooper had returned to the palace as soon as he heard of the attack. He knew he would be to be tasked to investigate why a child from the Children of the Crown was attacked. He knew Vicky would treat this as an attack on herself or a member of her immediate family. He was pleased to see the gates were closed and locked and there was a doubling of the guard.

Of course, the guards recognized Colonel Cooper and passed him through the gate. He entered the main concourse which led to the main palace, but he only followed it halfway, veering down a path to the right leading to the library and the children.

He saw a page standing just outside the library building.

“Reginald, is it?”

The page nodded gratefully because someone of importance remembered his name.

“How may I be of service, Lord Colonel?”

“If you would please, go fetch Captain Clancy and Lieutenants Corman and Harvey for me and have them report to me here in the library.”

“Yes, my lord!” he bowed and left.

Cooper entered the building and proceeded up the stairs to the second floor.

Elsie was upstairs in a common area adjacent to the stairwell where she was talking to the remaining children. She saw Cooper come up the stairs and hastily excused herself from the children. She met Cooper as he reached the top of the staircase.

Cooper could see her eyes were red and her skin even redder. He took her in his arms and gave her a tight hug and held her for a couple of minutes.

Whatever Elsie had planned to say seemed to be put on the back burner, as it were, when she accepted and returned the embrace.

After a couple of minutes, he held her out at arm’s length to look at her saying, “I’m so happy you were not hurt.”

“I only wished I could have gotten my hands on those bastards. They think it’s okay to try to kill a child of 12!”

Cooper thought for a moment he would almost feel sorry for them if she did get her hands on them. “Well let’s be glad you weren’t there. From what I’ve heard so far they were Shadowmen.”

“I thought you destroyed the Shadowmen when you burned down their house and all those in it?” Her rage was resurfacing.

“No, would that it be true. There are a lot more Shadowmen than we first thought. They have been steadily sending men to attack me day in and day out since then.”

“Oh, I thought they were just remnants trying to seek revenge.”

“So did I, but this operation shows there is still a command structure and some sort of planning being done.”

Both Ehawee and Batty came over to the couple and Cooper pulled them in for a hug. He kissed them both on the tops of their heads then kissed Elsie and said, “Well, I better go do what I do best.”

As he turned, his countenance changed to the juggernaut that so many had recently come to fear.

As Cooper entered the library, he saw three officers in black uniforms and a nondescript looking woman in bland street clothes.

As soon as Cooper was able to, after being promoted to Colonel and Commander of Her Eminence’s Special Service, he reorganized it from the top down. He expanded the mission to be not only Her Eminence’s intelligence gathering organization, but also to have criminal investigative and troubleshooting functions as well. It has become much like a combination of the FBI and CIA from Cooper’s world.

While Cooper had retained direct control of its intelligence functions, he appointed Captain Clancy as head of the Criminal Investigative Services. He then sought out two singular lieutenants. Each was to head a “Special Action Team”. These teams were to train and function as trouble shooters for any problems that were to arise.

Fortunately, the groundwork for the teams was laid down by Cooper long before the coup attempt but their mission was in dispute between Cooper and the previous commander of HESS.

The woman in front of him was Captain Danielle Randolph. She was Cooper’s assistant for the intelligence arm of HESS.

Cooper looked at the four officers and said, “Alright, lady and gentlemen, we have some dirty work to do…”

3 am, the witching hour. Across the city there was an uneasy quiet. It was as if the city itself was holding its breath and waiting for the next shoe to drop.

On the south side of the city by the docks along the Regal River was a bar that, if one were to look up the definition of a “Dive” they would most likely see a picture of this bar.

This bar didn’t have clientele but rather denizens. These denizens were those which the bravest and toughest of the street toughs feared going near without good reason. This night the denizens were quiet. Not because they had drunk themselves into a stupor but rather, they too had a sense of trepidation for what was going to happen next.

Through the double doors in the front of this dive a cylindrical object was tossed by an unseen hand. The people inside were barely able to register the object was tossed in the room when it erupted into a bright flash and a loud, concussive bang that blinded and stunned all in the room.

Suddenly, through both the front and back doors men in black uniforms came rushing into the room each carrying heavy bolt guns, shot guns and other specialized clockwork weapons. The lieutenant in the lead yelled, “Special Service, everybody freeze!”

Across the city a similar raid was taking place. Only this time it was at a warehouse and not a bar, but the denizens were of the same caliber.

Two hours later, at a hidden location not far from the palace, several prisoners were shoved, dragged or otherwise forced into a large room. They all had their wrists shackled behind their backs.

They were made to sit cross legged in the center of the room while armed and deadly looking men surrounded them. The prisoners were sitting there trying to look tough and dangerous, however, if one were to look closely one could see the trepidation in some of their eyes.

Into the room Captain Randolph walked wearing a black trench coat and fedora while carrying a metal briefcase. She walked over to one side of the room where there was a single chair and a metal table. She placed the briefcase onto the table and opened it revealing several glass and metal syringes filled with green, blue and red liquids.

She turned to look at the prisoners and said, “Alright, who’s first?”

Charlemagne was standing in his study looking at his clockwork globe trying to figure out why the sector allocated for Ouihan was misbehaving. It would move forward three to four cycles then spring back to reset itself. This, needless to say, was throwing the rest of the works around it out of kilter.

He looked over as Murielle Alexander came strolling into the room carrying a cup of coffee and saucer. He asked, “Are you certain your man was successful in killing the demi?”

“I tasked my best man for the job. He assured me he fired 28 bolts into the demi’s chest. No one, not even the most powerful demi could survive. Especially with the type of poison my man used.”

Charlemagne looked back at the globe and even though he was an automaton, his face was animated enough for anyone looking to not help but see the consternation on his face.

When he saw the look of puzzlement on Murielle’s face, he checked himself and tried to change his expression to a more placid look then he said, “Well something is not right here. I need you to investigate it.”

“As you wish master.” She placed the half cup of coffee on the table and turned to leave when a messenger dressed in black entered the room carrying a piece of paper.

Murielle accepted the message and opened it up. It was her turned to look consternated and she turned to Charlemagne and said, “Two of my caches of men were raided and captured early this morning. Over thirty men were taken prisoner.”

Charlemagne simply waved his hand vaguely and said, “Oh a counterstroke was to be expected. I have factored it into my plan.”

Murielle knitted her eyebrows together and asked, “And when were you going to tell me?”

He looked at her thinking, ‘she does not realize even she is expendable’ but what he said out loud was different. “If you did not think this was going to happen, you made a flaw in your calculations. I should not have to tell you what I expect you to already know. Remember, no matter how many resources we expend on this project, we will reap far more in return.”

She appeared to be mollified and knocked back on her heals metaphorically for the moment then she said, “Well, I better be off to see what I can find out about the demi.” She smiled and left the room.

Charlemagne was thinking, “Perhaps she’s beginning to outlive her usefulness.” He looked again at his globe then shook his head and said to himself, “Then again, perhaps I am still going to need her for a little while longer.”

Lady Kali said as she entered the room, “If you deem it so master. But I have some more news that might concern you and confirm why your plans are going off kilter. Rumor has it a new immortal has come to Zahn. My agents who are watching Colonel Cooper’s network say Michael Blake has been housing a mysterious woman whose identity no one has been able to confirm. It is apparent she showed up two weeks ago from nowhere.”

Charlemagne nodded thinking, “A new immortal might explain why the matrix of the plan has been misbehaving”. What he said out loud was, “I see. Perhaps we need our dear Murielle to look into this as well?”

“I’ll let her know.”