Residence of Goran Cyril
Hrabské, Jelšava
Azura and Montemayor
"I'll see you when I get home, alright Eliska?"
Goran Cyril said farewell to his loyal friend for ten years. The pearly white Samoyed, despite being seventy in dog years, was as energetic and lively as a dog half of her age and showed no sign of slowing down soon. Goran cared for the dog deeply, being the only one he had left to talk to during the evenings after coming home from a long day at the office. His wife had left him seven years ago after finding someone else who had a better job and more money. This had been before he began working in government, though, and he often thought about if anything would have been different had he started working their sooner. His wife wasn't the only one to leave him either, his three children were no better. After the divorce, which was, by all accounts, an ugly journey, his two oldest sons decided that they would be able to do just fine by themselves and moved halfway across the country, one to Lyuben and one to a small town in Kremnica. His youngest, his only daughter, went with his ex-wife. If only they could see me now.
His life had significantly improved after being appointed by the Prime Minister as Minister of Defense. With his new salary he was able to purchase a new upscale townhouse in downtown Hrabské. It was rather spacious, but then again, it was only him and his dog who were in residence. Along with the raised income, he also gained the status and respect that came with being a cabinet minister. Country clubs and other high-end businesses were all too eager to be able to say that they had the Minister of Defense as a member, and because of that his membership fees were significantly lowered.
"Get down!" he said, somewhat annoyed, as Eliska jumped up to try and snag the piece of toast he had in his hand. "I put two scoops of food in your dish half an hour ago, go eat that if you're hungry. You're getting too spoiled."
Disappointed that her attempt for toast failed, she sat down and stared up at Goran with a sad look, a look that he couldn't refuse. Releasing an audible sigh, he caved. "Alright, fine. Take it," he said, throwing the half eaten piece of toast to the floor in front of her. She ran for it immediately and in seconds it was gone. Laughing at the speed at which she devoured it, he turned, briefcase in hand, and walked out the front door of his house, making sure to lock it after he was outside and the door was firmly closed. Locking the door was somewhat of a habit he had. He didn't have to lock the door, being one of the four cabinet ministers out of fifteen that got protection from the Federal Protective Service. Two men were always outside of his house, watching to ensure that no one attempted to break in. It was two of these agents that took him from his front door to the two running SUVs that awaited him.
One ahead and one behind, the two men kept pace with him as they walked the twenty feet that separated the front door from the street. Upon reaching the SUV that Goran would be riding in, the agent ahead of him opened the door and moved out of the way to allow him to step into the armored cabin.
"Thank you, Gentlemen," he said as he stepped in and sat down.
"Any time, Mister Minister," the man who was holding the door said as he swung it closed.
Turning to the two agents who occupied the front seats of the SUV, he greeted them as he turned the dials on his briefcase to open it. "Morning Aleš, and... I'm sorry, I don't think I've met you before."
The driver of the SUV was new, a young, physically fit man with short black hair and sunglasses. "Tomaž, sir. I was just appointed to your detail two days ago, but I was unable to begin until today."
"Well nice to have you working with me Tomaž. And what of Jaromír?" Goran asked. Jaromír was the name of the agent who normally drove his SUV and someone who he thought of as a friend.
"He was reassigned, sir. Some kind of promotion I believe."
"Well good for him. Now let's get going, I have an early meeting."
"Will do, sir," Tomaž responded as he pulled away from the curb and began to drive down the road. There was something about his accent that made Goran feel uneasy. It was like he was trying too hard to have an Azuran accent instead of having one naturally.
Brushing it off as irrelevant, Goran opened his briefcase and pulled out a file that was marked 'Top Secret.' The file contained a report of a Shalumite spy that had been discovered inside the Ministry of the Interior. How he had gotten through the background checks and the other processes was beyond Goran, which was why he was meeting with the Director of the Internal Security Services this morning. He found something like this unforgivable, and he wanted to make sure there was no threat of other incidents like it that may not have been uncovered yet. The last thing that the country needed at this point was to find out that multiple levels of government had been infiltrated by foreign agents.
Although he had read it multiple times already, he read down through the report one last time to ensure he had all of the facts straight before going into the meeting. He was about halfway through the first page of the report when he heard three pops. Having grown up around firearms and now being the Minister of Defense he knew what a silenced shot sounded like, and that certainly was it. Jerking his head up, he was fast enough to see Aleš slump over in his seat grasping at his side before letting out one heavy breath and remaining silent. It had only been a few seconds, but a large amount of blood was already flowing out onto the seat.
"What the hell was that!?" he screamed, turning to Tomaž.
No answer came, and Tomaž was now pointing the gun as Goran. He tried to say something but was silenced before anything came out, having three bullets inserted into his body, one of which pierced his heart.
Three miles down the road the SUV veered off of the street and into a tree. Anyone watching from the outside would have thought that something had happened to the driver, making him lose control of the vehicle, but the one remaining person alive in the SUV knew otherwise. Having purposefully driven the SUV into the tree, he had braced himself ahead of time and was, for the most part, unharmed. He quickly managed to open his door and stumble out. Met with FPS agents who were in the SUV following his, he acted unsteady and told them to get to the others inside. Knowing it would only take them a few seconds to realize that the two men inside had been killed from bullets rather than the crash, he began to sprint away when he thought none of the agents were watching him, trying to disappear into the crowd that was beginning to form. He had almost cleared the crowd when he was tripped by one of the onlookers, whether purposefully or not he didn't know. As he fell he did not have time to brace himself. His jaw impacted the concrete sidewalk causing his teeth to slam together. One of these teeth was not as it seemed, though, and cracked open as it was partially crushed. The ampoule inside the tooth was broken open and the fast-acting poison inside began to seep out. By the time the Shalumite agent realized what had happened it was too late. He was dead within six minutes.
Parliament
Hrabské, Jelšava
Azura and Montemayor
"-and after that you will be meeting with the Speaker to go over the bill proposals that will be brought to the floor tomorrow during the first session of the day. You'll also have to attend a conference call with the Emperor this afternoon with the leadership of the other parties. Oh, and I heard something about a female member of the parliament going rogue. Something about her accusing the Emperor of abusing the budget and having an overly lavish lifestyle. I don't know much about it, but you might want to get someone to see what that's about."
"Thank you, Vanesa. When we get to my office make sure to put a copy of the schedule on my desk. As for the MP who's going off about the Emperor's lifestyle, get someone to find out what party she's a member of. If she isn't a conservative there's nothing I can do."
"Of course, Madam Prime Minster."
Radka Martínek had been Prime Minister for the last two consecutive years, this year making her third if she managed to keep the party together. She had some experience with that, though. Although only being Prime Minister currently for two consecutive years, she had been Prime Minister from 1975 to 1984 as well, only losing the Prime Ministership to Nationalist Leader Eugen Zlatica for the two years of 1985 and 1986. She had no intention of losing it again anytime soon. Although at the moment her party was somewhat dysfunctional, having to be in a coalition with the Nationalist Party in order to get the majority and even then only having a slim majority. She hoped to keep it together long enough to reach the next election, which by all polls was expected to yield good results short of some catastrophic event.
Flanked on all sides by her protective detail, she made her way down the elegant hallways of the parliament building on the way to her office. With her was her assistant Vanesa. Vanesa had been working with her for around two years now, taking the place of her old assistant who had passed away due to complications during an open heart surgery. The death of her old assistant hit her hard, and it took her a long time before she felt like hiring a new one. Vanesa had seemed like the perfect fit at the time and proved to be a good addition to the team.
Approaching the doors to her office, Radka took her bag from Vanesa. Above the doors a gilded plaque read "Prime Minister Radka Martínek," a plaque that Radka thoroughly enjoyed looking at. She had a similar one at her residence from when she was Prime Minister from seventy-five to eighty-four. She had suggested that they just use that one instead of making her a new one, but because of some obscure reason they decided to make her another.
One of her agents quickly went inside her office to ensure that no one had slipped in when no one was looking and in a few seconds came back out, holding the door open for her so that she could enter. She and Vanesa entered the office while the men protecting her stayed outside, securing all of the entrances to the office. She placed her bag down on her large oak desk and went around to sit down in her red leather chair. Pulling files and binders out of her bag she looked up at Vanesa. "Would you go get me some hot tea? Get some for yourself if you want as well."
"Of course, Madam Prime Minister," Vanesa replied, slipping out the door.
Knowing it would be a few minutes before Vanesa returned with the tea, Radka began to spread her thing out on her desk so that she was able to see everything well without having to shuffle all of her papers around every time she needed a different one. She too had a file marked 'Top Secret' that detailed the infiltration of the Ministry of the Interior by a Shalumite agent. Already having spoken to the Director of the Internal Security Services she was confident that there weren't going to be any other problems. The Director had assured her that this was an isolated incident and that the chances that other infiltrations had occurred were slim. Either way, she had assigned him with the task of going through all other applicants to government jobs around the same time frame to make sure that this Shalumite agent didn't have any friends who came along with him. She hadn't heard anything back yet, so she assumed everything must be fine. She was aware that the Minister of Defense had also requested a meeting with the Director today, although unsure of the time.
Picking up a stack of envelopes addressed to her she began to flip through them. She liked to open her mail herself, even if she got an earful from the head of her detail every time he saw her opening it. Protocol was that she would have her mail opened for her to protect her from anything harmful that could be shipped in the mail, but instead she had it scanned and sent to her office so that she could open it herself. Picking up a dagger shaped letter opener off of her desk she opened the first envelope and pulled out the folded papers inside. It was a bill from her television company, a television company that charged far too much. I'm going to have to switch to a cheaper company.
Moving on to the next envelope, she slid the letter between the seal and cut it open. This one was not a bill, thankfully. Pulling out the three pieces of folded paper inside she recognized her sons handwriting. Although he was able to call her whenever he pleased, he had a thing for sending letters. Sometimes she wished he would just call her, but she never had the willpower to say anything about it to him, if he enjoyed writing them who was she to tell him he shouldn't?
Intently reading the first page of the letter, she sat the letter opener down on the side of her desk. Dear Mother, the last few weeks have been quite a ride... As she reeled her arm back in close to her she managed to hit a ceramic statue that sat near the corner of the desk, knocking it to the floor. Although I've only been here for a short time, I've already met some wonderful people and expect to meet many more... Having been fixed upon the letter, she did not realize she had knocked the statue off of the desk until it thumped against the floor. "Oh!" she said, startled at the noise. Setting the papers down, she got up and went around to the front of the desk. The statue had landed on the carpeted floor, but the head of the statue, a figurine of the first Emperor, had come off, and little pieces of debris littered the floor.
Bending down to try and clean up the small pieces of ceramics best she could, she had just started when she heard the door open. Figuring it must be Vanesa back with the tea, she started to explain. "Can you believe this? I knocked Erik off of my desk and his head came off. I'll just have to see if I can find another one online that I can buy."
No response came. Having the largely intact body of the statue in hand, she stood up straight and went to turn around to face Vanesa. As she turned around she was able to get a glimpse of the silhouette standing before her when something hit her face. The burning sensation was quick to manifest as what could be nothing other than the tea she sent Vanesa to get hitting her face. Blinded and disoriented from the sweltering liquid, her free hand went to her face as she tried to cover it from anything else that may be on the way. Within seconds she felt something else. This time it was not a liquid being poured on her, but rather hands being wrapped firmly around her neck. The pressure that was being exerted on her airway was something she never could have imagined, especially when enough tea was out of her eyes in order for her to see that it was, in fact, Vanesa who was the one applying it. Not able to make a noise to call for help, she felt trapped as she was forced to the floor. It took her a few seconds to realize that she still had the statue in her hand. Pulling it back as far as she could, she used all the strength she had to smash the body of the statue over Vanesa's head. The ceramics shattered upon impacting Vanesa's head. The hands around her neck loosened and she managed to pull away. Feeling as if her neck had been smashed, she was able to let out a quite and desperate cry for help.
On the other side of the door a muffled voice could be heard. "Ma'am, is everything ok in there?"
At this point Vanesa had retreated a few feet back to the desk. At first Radka couldn't figure out why, but then she was what Vanesa had in mind. Gripped in her hand was the dagger-like letter opener. As Vanesa reproached her, this time with a more lethal object, she managed to let out a scream. The doors to her office burst open, three armed agents coming into the office. Seeming to make one final, calculated attempt, Vanesa made a lung for Radka with the letter opener, aiming for her heart. She did not make it the whole way, though. A bullet pierced her side as she made her way to the ground. Landing on Radka, she lay almost motionless. Scrambling out from under her she was quickly grabbed by the head of her protective detail and pulled along out of the office.
Still disoriented, she could hear other members of her detail who were running alongside talking into their radios. A collection of, "Duchess is down," and, "Initiate protocol gallop," were being shouted to whoever was on the other end. Looking down at her dress she saw that there was a large stain of blood on it. Vanesa's blood. Something had gone terribly wrong.
Čachtice Palace
Váhom, Nitra
Azura and Montemayor
It was a cool, crisp morning in Váhom. The sky was clear and the sun was shining down upon the sprawling city. A slight breeze made its way across the land, lowering the early morning temperatures slightly. Although it was a morning in the late of May, the weather for the month had been unusually cool. While the mornings were usually cool, the temperature would normally rise gradually throughout the day to around seventy or eighty degrees, but lately it had stayed in the high sixties or low seventies. Drahoslav couldn't complain though, he enjoyed the cooler weather. The heat of the summer was not something he looked forward to, having a slight sweating problem. His precipitation was a little more than those around him, and at times it showed. There was nothing he could do about it though, it ran in the family.
Stepping out onto his balcony, the ninety-one year old Emperor of Azura and Montemayor embraced the cool air that hit him. Although he was ninety-one, he was able to get around on his own relatively well and had no problem doing most things on his own. He knew that he was lucky, many of the previous Emperors had died much earlier than he had. His father died when he was seventy-seven, and his grandfather had died at the age of thirty-three, although his death was not caused by natural causes. Many had been happy when his father had died. The man was a devout socialist when it came to certain policies, at least as socialist as you can get when you are a monarch that doesn't want to give up his power. The Socialist Party flourished under his reign, and the nation entered the Great Northern War under his leadership to assist their northern neighbor Acrea in fighting the Shalumite and Azzie menaces. It was not a popular war, but a war that was fought nonetheless. He himself had some distaste for his father's policies. His father had spend most of his life paying attention and grooming his first-born for the throne, indoctrinating him into his way of thinking. Drahoslav's brother would have been an identical match to his father when it came to policy had he taken the throne, but that never happened. His brother had died in a car accident one winter when his car hit a patch of ice and slid off of the road and into the icy waters of the river. He never made it out of the car. The loss hit his father hard, and instead of trying to move to his second son who would now take the throne, he seemed to withdraw from family life altogether. Drahoslav had turned out to be a relatively centrist, but right leaning man when it came to policy, and whenever it became obvious that he was not like his father, the Socialist Party lost the traction it had and lost power shortly after his reign began.
Sipping his morning coffee, he took a seat at one of tables that lined the balcony railing. It had rained the day before and much of the balcony still had puddles on it, but the chair he sat in was dry. Looking out over the river and the city beyond that, he relished the feeling of being so fortunate. He knew that many only dreamed about living the life he did, and he didn't blame them. Sitting his coffee cup down on the table in front of him, he opened the book that he had been holding in his other hand. It was a fascinating story, an alternate universe where a country was having elections for President. The front-runner of one of the parties was a complete buffoon, a borderline fascist who had terrible hair. He never said anything of substance but somehow he still managed to keep the lead in the nomination for his party. There were so many instances where he messed up and sounded like an idiot, but people still voted for him. Thank God that nothing like that takes place here.
About halfway through the book, he found it entertaining. Unsure of what the outcome would be, he wanted to skip to the end and read the final pages, but he couldn't push himself to do it. He had managed to read to the next Chapter before being interrupted. The buffoon had managed to achieve a great victory on what they called "Super Tuesday." "Your Majesty, may want to begin to get ready. You are scheduled to leave in half an hour."
"Yes, yes, I know. Can't I get any time to myself around here?" he responded, annoyed at the interruption. The truth was he didn't know. He had forgotten completely about the event he was supposed to attend this morning. The speaking engagement was not something he was looking forward to, talking to a bunch of teenagers about the importance of being involved in the process of government. It was a necessary evil that came with the job. In all honesty, Drahoslav didn't like speaking to large crowds. Most of his national addresses were recorded and sent out over television. He would often mess up during these recordings and have to restart, the main reason he did very few live. He didn't want to make a fool of himself on live television with the whole nation watching.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Your son sent me to make sure you were ready. He said he didn't want you to be late to another event. People complained last time."
"Complained? They should be happy they get to even see me. It isn't everyday that you get to see the Emperor. I should be able to make them wait as long as I want to."
"Of course, Your Majesty."
"Get out of here," he said, shooing the servant back inside.
After the servant had disappeared back inside Drahoslav stood and grabbed his book and coffee mug. Making his way back into his room, he went into his bathroom and dumped the remainder of his coffee down the sink. Turning the water on full blast, the coffee was rinsed down the drain as he prepared his toothbrush.
Going through is normal morning routine, he got ready for the day. Brushing his teeth, changing into a clean suit, and combing his hair. He had already stepping into the bath shortly before he had got his coffee and went out onto the balcony, so after all of this he was clean and ready for the day. Making his way out of his room and down the hall he was met by his personal assistant who immediately started chastising him and reminding him of the time.
"Would you shut up already? I know what the time is I don't need you reminding me about it every damn second," he rebuked, waving his hand as if to dismiss his assistant.
"I don't think you do, Your Majesty. You are supposed to be giving your speech in fifteen minutes and the venue is ten minutes away."
"Yes, and that gives me five minutes to spare, or are you going to say that my basic math skills are failing as well?"
"No, no... You'll still have five minutes." His assistant gave an audible sigh at this, knowing full well that the Emperor would take none of his comments seriously. He was too high strung.
"Exactly, now make sure you tell my press secretary to tell the press that I won't be taking any questions at this, the last thing I need is to be goaded over by reporters asking stupid questions."
"Of course, Your Majesty. I'll make sure to let him know."
"Good, now tell these drivers to take their time," he said, walking out of the main entrance of the palace. Going carefully down the steps, he met with the head of his detail who opened the door of his limousine for him. Stepping into the limo, he sat down on one of the leather seats and waited.
The drive took under ten minutes. It was obvious to Drahoslav that his assistant had not told the drivers to take their time. If anything he had told them to go faster. Damn kid, I'm going to have to get rid of him later.
Waiting patiently as his protective detail and police outside secured the area he pulled out the paper that had his speech written on it. He tried to use the papers as little as he could when giving a speech, but with his age sometimes his memory failed him and he had to resort back to them.
The door opened and he was given ample room to exit the vehicle. Stepping out, he put his papers back into a pocket on the inside of his suit jacket and waved to the crowd of pedestrians and reporters who stood to the side. They were kept back by a line of barriers that were protected by police officers to ensure no one rushed at him. His limousine had pulled rather close to these onlookers, perhaps too close for his liking. He worried little about it though, beginning to walk towards the door that would lead him into the building he would be speaking at.
He had made it almost halfway to the building when there were three loud bangs. Being as old as he was, his reactions were slow, but his pain receptors were not. He felt a agonizing pain in his upper thigh, a pain that was big enough that he crumpled to the ground. To his right the crowd of onlookers were caving in on themselves, seeming to surround a point, or perhaps a person, in the middle. The police officers who were standing at the barriers had jumped over them, weapons drawn, and were yelling at the people in the crowd. His protection detail had surrounded him almost instantly, minus one person who was lying on the ground near him, a noticeable puddle of blood beginning to form. He was picked up quickly and almost thrown back into his limousine. The door was slammed shut and he could feel the speed increase as the limo took off down the road.
