Chapter 26
Life's a Beach
12th of Seventhmoon, 6 Charles 9
Davidi, Wellsley, People's Republic of the Malvinas (South Malvina)
Most days, Root would think he had it pretty good lounging about on a private beach, sun in the sky and drink in hand, but his enjoyment was spoiled by the fact that there were more important things that needed to be done.
Almost as soon as they touched down in Arturo, the Byrandian delegation was whisked away to the resort town of Davidi by order of President MartÃn. Davidi was the site of one of six presidential retreats that was not only intended for the First Family's recreation but also that of visiting dignitaries. It was a common diplomatic tactic to lavish hospitality on your guests to butter them up for more favorable negotiations. Unless you were Vlatoskan, apparently.
President MartÃn's people said that either the President herself or an appropriate substitute would be along shortly, but it had already been four days with no word. Sir Armand insisted that they play along for the time being and not get too antsy about their schedule. There were three more stops on their trip, but none of them were as important as South Malvina. Kasshu hardly counted and the only advantage to getting Barsouk or Marsouk on their side was to put more pressure on the Palatinians. So long as they could get one or both of the Malvinas, Byrandia's neighbors to the south wouldn't be able to keep up the fight very long. With them out of the way, it would just come down to finishing off the Tungese and the Palatinians and this war would be over.
And so Root was sitting on the beach, drink in hand, waiting for Malvinan hospitality to turn into something a little more useful.
"Come on, Root," a voice said. "Are you just going to sit there all day?"
It was Anne. Without even looking at her, Root replied, "I've been thinking about it."
It had taken her a while to recover after what happened in Gandoh, but the beach seemed to do wonders for shaking her out of her shell-shock.
"Oh, come on," she said. "Swim a little."
"Now, look, swimmin's not really my thi—"
As Root turned his head, his train of thought was derailed. It took him a moment to right himself.
"Anne, what are you wearing?" he asked.
The past few days Anne wore a fairly typical swimsuit, not too different from what she would wear for competitions. However, today what she was wearing looked more like underwear, and not particularly modest underwear either. Only by the fabric could you tell it was intended as swimwear.
Striking a pose like you would see in the magazines, Anne said, "You like it? Margarita said it's the latest fashion. Feels like it might come right off if you really went all-out swimming, but I don't think they were thinking about athletics when they designed it."
"I would think not," Root replied. "Your father would kill you for wearing that, you know, and he'd kill me for looking at you in it."
"I don't think a cat would have lives enough if Daddy'd kill me all the times you said he would, Root. Anyway, guess that's a good thing he's not here. Besides, it's not like you haven't seen me in less."
Root remembered the time in Gandoh. Then he tried not to remember it.
"A bath is a little different than parading around in public like this," he said.
"I hear there are a lot of places where people swim nude, so what's the big deal?"
"Well, this isn't one of those places."
"What, are you going to tell me to go change?"
Root considered it.
"Hmph," he grunted. "You're not a child."
Anne smiled slyly.
"I'm glad you're willing to acknowledge that."
"Don't push your luck, kid."
"You not going swimming?"
"Azuki can go with you."
Azuki, who was standing by Root, said, "I am not good at swimming, Mr. Root. You know this."
Azuki was wearing a more conventional swimsuit, a black one-piece that managed to do a good job of showing off her figure without revealing quite as much skin. Of course, for someone like Azuki, she wasn't exactly shy about running around naked when the situation called for it.
Looking at her, Root said, "I guess you're not really built for it."
"You can float at least," Anne quipped.
"Go on, you two," Root said. He held up his glass. "I've got important things to attend to here."
"How many of those have you had, Root?" Anne asked.
"Just the one so far," Root replied. "You gonna report me if I go over my limit?"
"Drink away," Anne said. "Get you loosened up and maybe we can actually have some fun."
She teasingly ran her finger down the bridge of Root's nose before skipping off toward the water. Root motioned with a slight jerk of his head for Azuki to follow. Azuki sighed.
"I do this for you, Mr. Root."
"And I appreciate it," Root replied.
Azuki followed after Anne and once the water was about at her ankles, she reached up to pull on the straps of her swimsuit, transforming into some sort of eel or sea snake as she left the empty suit behind and wriggled into the water.
"This isn't going to end well," Root muttered to himself, taking a sip of his drink.
"She's the King's daughter," a woman whispered into his ear.
Lieutenant Juliard.
"I'm aware," Root said.
"How long are you going to keep flirting with her?"
"I'm not doing a damn thing," Root insisted. "She's doing it all on her own. Don't I get any credit for holding back?"
"No. It's what you're supposed to do. Actually, you should be putting a stop to it. You leading her on like this is only making it worse."
"How the hell am I leading her on?"
"Same thing for the Gandohese woman," Lieutenant Juliard said, not really answering Root's question. "The longer you indulge them, the bolder they're going to get. They can come at you all they want. All it takes is for you to lower your guard once."
"You make it sound like I'm under siege or something."
"You are under siege, Colonel. Could you try not kicking holes in the damn palisades?"
She snatched the drink out of his hand and spilled it out on the sand.
"Hey!"
"The least you can do is stay clear-headed."
"What kinda lightweight you take me for?" Root objected. "One drink ain't gonna bring down the damn fort."
"What assurance do I have that you'll stop at one?"
Annoyed, Root asked her, "Why exactly are you harpin' on me like you're my damn mom? What business is it of yours?"
"You're the King's special aide-de-camp and the commander of the military liaison of this expedition. Surely you can understand the damage that would come of you being compromised, so you can bet it's my business."
"So General Boyer sent you all this way just to hold my leash? What exactly did you screw up to get stuck with this?"
"I didn't screw anything up, Colonel. I'll have you know that I volunteered."
"And why would you want to do a crazy thing like that?"
"This mission will help decide the fate of the whole world. It's an honor to serve."
"Ugh, an idealist," Root groaned. "I'm impressed you can still say stuff like that at your age."
"You can try to play the cynic, Colonel, but you believe in this too or else you wouldn't be here."
"I'm here because the King told me," Root said. "I'm just followin' orders. Don't go pinnin' any higher motivations on me than that."
Hearing this soured the Lieutenant, who then told him, "You know, if you'd talk to the Princess and that Gandohese woman this way, you wouldn't have to worry about them pursuing you."
"And yet I can't seem to get rid of you, Lieutenant."
Before she could object to this, Captain Tsai appeared, looming over Root. She was wearing a long-sleeved, long-tailed white shirt as a coverup over her swimsuit, as well as a wide-brimmed sun hat and rather large sunglasses. As if that wasn't enough, an orderly was shading her with an umbrella. It was almost like she was terrified of the sun and it was a wonder she came outside at all. The first day she showed up at the beach dressed like this, Root asked about it and she said, "The sun is a woman's worst enemy." In that case, she was putting up quite a defense in the fight.
"Colonel Maartens, I need to speak with you," she said.
"Speak away, Frau Kapitän."
"I said I need to speak to you, Colonel."
Root glanced out the corner of his eye to Lieutenant Juliard and said, "Seems like Frau Kapitän doesn't want an audience. Get movin', Lieutenant."
In a harsh whisper, the Lieutenant said, "Colonel, I swear to God, if you're—"
"Don't even start on that shit," Root said, keeping his voice low as well. "Now get."
With that, Lieutenant Juliard withdrew, but not in a direction where Root could actually appreciate her swimsuited appearance. Apparently you couldn't have everything.
"Well, now it's just the two of us, Frau Kapitän," Root said, figuring the orderly didn't count.
Captain Tsai looked around, almost like she was expecting someone else to be burrowed in the sand, before saying, "I want you to be aware of the situation. The Fleet has been recalled."
"Recalled?" Root asked.
"This planet is not the only one in the Lord Admiral's area of responsibility and something has come up elsewhere."
"Why are you still here then?"
"Our mission here is still ongoing, Colonel. We simply no longer have the full support of the Fleet. We only have a light cruiser, a couple corvettes and a few scout ships."
"That could be a problem if someone wants to try something."
"In the grand scheme of things, it changes nothing," Captain Tsai said, "but on an individual level, our position is very delicate. If there would be another incident like before..."
"Aid wouldn't be so forthcoming."
"You are a primitive, Colonel, but you seem to have good instincts. What do those instincts tell you about our current situation?"
The words just sort of spilled out as Root thought about the worst-case scenario.
"The high-value members of our delegation separated from our escort, isolated and incommunicado. Entertained and distracted to keep our guard down."
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it sounded. He sighed.
"Dammit. I wish she hadn't spilled out my drink."
"Have you made contact with the ship?"
"When we tried to check in the day we arrived, they said a storm knocked out the radio tower before we arrived, Phones are down, too."
"And they have not been restored."
"Not as of yesterday."
"Does that not concern you?"
"I wanted to think I was just being paranoid."
Root scanned their surroundings, noting the conspicuous uniformed members of the Republican Guard providing security and a number of apparent civilians that seemed to be watching the foreign visitors a little too intently to just be casual people-watchers. None of this was particularly out of the ordinary, but if their purpose was of a more sinister nature...
"It is not paranoia if it is based on solid reason, Colonel," Captain Tsai said.
"If we're really being held hostage, they don't want us to know it," Root said. "Not yet, at least."
"Surely they would imagine their game would not last long if we did."
"Unless they know about your people pulling out."
"How could they possibly know that?"
"The walls have ears, Frau Kapitän," Root said, tapping his own ear.
"The Malvinans could not possibly have bugged them."
"Maybe, but bugs aren't the only way to hear what someone doesn't want you to hear."
Captain Tsai bit her thumb. It would seem she was so confident in her technology that she didn't even consider old-fashioned methods getting the better of her people.
"We do not know that for certain," she said.
"We don't know much of anything for certain, Frau Kapitän," Root replied. "This could all be perfectly innocent."
"I do not think you believe that, Colonel."
"Not anymore, I don't. Ah, dammit."
"The Malvinans may have the good sense not to do any harm to us, but there is no guarantee for you and your people." the Captain said grimly.
"I don't imagine you'd be willing to stick your neck out to protect us."
"Your people are, at best, a tertiary priority," the Captain said.
"What's the first priority."
"The Empire, His Imperial Majesty, and the honor of both."
"I had a feeling you were gonna say something like that."
Captain Tsai took a moment to size up Root before asking him, "What do you intend to do?"
"You're askin' me and not Sir Armand?"
"You are the one better equipped to deal with situations like this."
"Well, thank you," Root said. "Anyway, I don't think we should make any dumb moves. We don't even know for sure if anything's wrong. You just keep your people on their toes and I'll do the same with mine."
"I will have you know, Colonel, that I have worked on the Reclamation Project for fifteen years. This is my sixth Lost World... Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"There's a first time for everything, Frau Kapitän," Root said. "You might want to grab yourself a drink. You're probably gonna need it."
"I think I may."
With expert timing, the sour mood was spoiled by Anne calling out from some twenty meters out.
"He~~~y! Turns out I was right about the suit! You think you could help me out?"
Now she decides to be shy. Root almost wondered if she did it on purpose.
Frowning, Captain Tsai said, "Lieutenant Detrois, was it? Is it normal in your country for subordinates to be so familiar?"
"Oh, yeah, all the time," Root replied.
It seemed like Captain Tsai didn't catch his sarcasm. Instead, she started looking around, saying, "Speaking of overly familiar subordinates, where did Anju get off to?"
In another example of impeccable timing, Anne cried out, "Oh, shit! There's a big damn snake here! Root, hurry!"
She wasn't even trying to maintain her cover. Yes, she was busy freaking out over snake-Azuki, but a little more awareness would be nice.
"Stay calm and don't be thrashin' 'round!" Root shouted back to her as he got up from his beach chair. "I'll be right there!"
"Sea snakes are highly venomous, are they not?" Captain Tsai said.
"This one should be okay," Root replied.
"I would not go out there," the Captain said.
"Yeah, well, chalk it up to differences in our leadership styles, Frau Kapitän."
And so Root was off to the rescue. He was hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself, but a little embarrassment would be a small thing compared to the very bad turn that might be waiting for them.