Chapter 5
At the Crossroads of Destiny
Fedelis, Kiennar Federal Republic
12 Lesh BE 001
The Presidential Palace had three conference rooms where the President and her Cabinet would meet, dubbed the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. The Red Room was located in the bunker under the Palace and was reserved for times of dire national emergency. The Blue Room was for meetings intended for public consumption with extra room for the press and camera crews. The Green Room was somewhere in between these two extremes, for business that did not invite the public eye but not reach the level of existential crisis.
President Alessa Livy had campaigned on the idea of running an open and transparent administration, but while her opposition derided her as a hopeless idealist, even she knew that some matters had to be dealt with behind closed doors. It was a full house today. Along with her Vice President and chief of staff, all sixteen of the Cabinet ministers, the three Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff and of course her National Security Advisor were all present.
Playing on the monitor was a recording of El-Magrebi's coverage of the Rite of Sending for the so-called Child of Promise last Tuesday. Hundreds if not thousands of people where thronging about the sides of the road with probably half the kingdom's gendarmerie there holding them back. The Child and his blue-cloaked Protectors were being addressed by King Yahya all decked out for the occasion as he had been for that one state dinner last year.
The view switched from the King to the Child and the Protectors when Joule Verchout the National Security Advisor paused the video.
"There," he said. "This is the only shot that shows it."
"Shows what?" Vice President Cristensen asked.
Joule got up from his seat and went over to the screen, pointing with the remote as he said, "Right here, Mr. Vice President. You can see two of the Protectors slipping out of the formation."
"And?"
"The Protectors may claim they answer to a higher authority than any one world leader, but it makes you wonder why any of them would walk out on the King of Murabit while he's talking."
"Let's skip the foreplay, Mr. Verchout," Field Marshal Okum the Army Chief of the General Staff said. "Get to the point."
Joule narrowed his eyes at the Field Marshal before saying, "We have reason to believe the Child shown in the footage is a decoy and the real one went on ahead with his primary bodyguard."
"To echo the Vice President, and? Using doubles and decoys is SOP with any VIP escort. What makes this one stand out?"
"The fact that they are doing it at all gives us some insight into their tactical planning, Field Marshal Okum. This Warrior's Road of theirs has to at least be partially in the public eye, but whatever the religious nature of this pilgrimage, they are not simply trusting the Child's safety to God. We may be dealing with fanatics, but they are fanatics with some sense of practicality to them."
"I must have missed the memo," Joanine Pasquali the interior minister said. "Why are we discussing this, Mr. Verchout? What does, what does all this matter to anyone who isn't an Ahorazedi?"
"What do you know about the Prophecy of Solemein, Madame Minister?" Joule asked.
"Nothing," she replied. "I'm not Ahorazedi."
"About one in ten people in this country are, Madame Minister, so when they start getting stirred up about some three-hundred-year-old prophecy on the cusp of being fulfilled, it pays to know what they're going on about."
"Well then, why don't you enlighten those of us who didn't take comparative religion in uni?"
"'Three turnings of the three wheels and the sun shall hide his face from the earth. A child born of foreign seed shall tread the Warrior's Road to God's footstool. There, in union with the blood of kings, with a rod of iron in his hand, he shall break this Age of Penance and lead all peoples into a new age, an Age of Promise, when that which was lost shall be found, that which was broken shall be made whole, 'that which was dead shall be raised up to new life.'"
President Livy was impressed that Joule could recite the whole of the Prophecy from memory, but he had always been an excellent study. Not everyone else else in the assembly was as impressed by his performance, though.
"Lovely, Mr. Verchout," Field Marshal Okum sneered. "You can be one of them mo-bads if this doesn't work out for you."
"But what does all that mean?" Ms. Pasquali asked.
Completely ignoring the Field Marshal's comment, Joule answered Ms. Pasquali, saying, "The three turnings of the three wheels are three full cycles of the calendar, or 360 years. The sun hiding his face is the total eclipse scheduled to appear over the Temple of Ahorazed on New Year's Eve. The child of foreign seed means that the Child of Promise won't be from Zand and the union with the blood of kings means that the Child is to marry into the royal family. The Shahzadi is right around the Child's age, so if you were inclined to think that way, you might be under the impression that all this is according to plan."
"Okay, but why do we have the President and the whole Cabinet here discussing it?"
"Because the Padishah of Zand is, in title at least, the ruler of the world, and if he can claim to have orchestrated the fulfillment of a prophecy that is believed by about one in six people worldwide, what do you think that might mean for our sovereignty?"
"What, is the Padishah going to march his armies to all four corners of the globe?"
"He won't have to," Joule replied.
In a rare instance of Field Marshal Okum actually being on the same wavelength, he added, "They say it only takes a dedicated three percent of the population to foment a successful rebellion. Here nearly twelve percent of the population are those damn fire-worshippers."
"Comments like that are needlessly incendiary, Field Marshal," Maxime Boulangier the Minister of Defence said. "Pardon the pun. Don't get caught making comments like that in public. One more controversy out of you and you're out on your ass. Is that clear?"
"We're facing the very real risk of an insurrection and you're worried about PR? Did your balls drop off when you traded your uniform for that cheap monkey suit?"
Before Mr. Boulangier could dress him down further, President Livy intervened, saying sharply, "Field Marshal, you're a good soldier. I don't have to remind you of the chain of command. You answer to Mr. Proudmore, who answers to Mr. Boulangier, who answers to me. If you heard a lieutenant talk to one of your colonels the way you just spoke to Mr. Boulangier, what would you do?"
The Field Marshal scowled and said, "I'd have him strung up by his guts."
"I am not quite so severe, but I want you to submit a formal written apology to Mr. Boulangier's desk by tomorrow morning. Do that and we'll put this episode behind us."
"Yes, ma'am," the Field Marshal said grudgingly.
President Livy was admittedly not well-versed in military matters, but she knew the Field Marshal's reputation and also knew that a talented field commander was often a poor choice for a staff officer. His appointment came at Mr. Boulangier's own recommendation, however, partially as a favor to his old classmate from the Academy and partially as a projection of strength both within Kiennar and to its neighbors. His blunt manner of speaking and impolitic attitudes had already caused plenty of headaches for the Ministry, but even he seemed to understand there were some lines not to be crossed, and insubordination directly to the commander-in-chief was one of them.
Perhaps as much to break the tension as to get the conversation back on track, Callum Fearghal the information minister was next to speak up, saying, "In coordination with Ms. Bertrand and His Excellency the Archbishop, the official line of this government is that while we are happy for our Ahorazedi neighbors in this time of hopefulness, we take no position in favor or opposed to activities related the Child of Promise or the Prophecy of Solemein. I suggest you avoid speaking to the press at all on this matter, but if you feel pressed for a statement, that's what you should tell them. Please refrain from any public statements of private sentiments, whatever they may be."
Mr. Fearghal eyed the Field Marshal in particular as he said the last part. Archbishop Wheaton, the Minister of Religious Affairs, chimed in next.
"The Church's stance is to warn the faithful against any prophecy that is not recognized as being divinely inspired, but we also counsel against needlessly antagonizing our neighbors of other faiths. We are to be a light to guide the sheep outside our fold, not a scourge to chastise them."
"So what I'm getting from all this is essentially that we say nothing and do nothing," Ms. Pasquali said, "so once again I have to ask, why are we here?"
"While it may be prudent to say nothing, at least not in public, doing nothing it the last thing I would recommend," Joule said. "The Child of Promise could prove to be a threat, possibly even an existential one, to this nation. We should act accordingly."
"What are you suggesting, Mr. Verchout," Ms. Pasquali asked, "that we launch a drone strike on some fifteen, sixteen-year-old kid?"
"The President would never authorize something like that, so I would not even think to suggest it, Madame Minister," Joule replied.
President Livy noted that Joule did not say that he had not considered the idea, only that he would not suggest it to her. He was always very precise with his choice of words, never lying outright but rarely telling the whole truth. His thoughts would often go to dark places, but he almost always kept it to himself. She had to draw him out of those dark places and get him to walk in the light, loath as he was to do so.
"You are quite right that would not authorize such a thing," she said. "The threat the Child of Promise represents is still a theoretical one at this stage. We should not ignore that threat but neither should we sully our hands and the good name of our Republic out of fear and paranoia of what might be. I believe we should monitor the situation closely, using whatever resources are necessary, and if the potential threat shapes up to be a real one, we can meet again to discuss appropriate countermeasures. All in favor?"
The vast majority raised their hands in assent, but in the interest of fairness, she gave the other side their chance to be counted.
"All opposed?"
No one raised their hand, which meant there were a few abstentions, most notably Field Marshal Okum. Despite his reputation for being contentious, he was not without some sense of prudence, and after the earlier reprimand, he probably realized he had pushed his luck about as far as he could for the time being. They did say discretion was the better part of valor, after all, and it would seem that he was capable of appreciating that. Of course, even if he were to stridently pose his opposition to the President's proposal, it would not amount to much more than a footnote and perhaps that was the real reason he did not go farther than he did.
"It appears to be decided then," Joule said. "My people are already on the case, but I will be coordinating with other agencies to funnel some additional resources into this particular operation. If there are no further questions, comments or concerns, shall we adjourn?"
Judging from many of the faces in the assembly, there were in fact further questions, comments and concerns, but no one appeared willing to voice them at the moment.
Joule then said, "I intend to put together a taskforce of the ministries most directly affected by all this so we can save meetings like this where we have all hands on deck for went we really need it."
The ministers whose work was less relevant looked relieved, while those who knew they would be involved had a more complex range of expressions. No doubt many of them wanted to take more direct, definitive action to eliminate the threat, but if someone like Field Marshal Okum would not advocate for it openly, neither would they.
President Livy worried that some overzealous individual might think to violate her orders, all in the thought that they were serving the greater good of the Republic, but that sort of thinking had no place in her administration, nor the Kiennar of the future that she meant to build.
"I know some of you are feeling a lot of apprehension right now," she said, "but I am asking for your patience. If we were to do something rash, it could put our Republic at greater risk than the threat you fear. We are not a people governed by fear. We are governed by the rule of law and our goal is the common good not just of our own citizens but all people in the world. If we were to forget that, we would no longer be who we are, who we ought to be. We would become something else, something far worse. I want you all to remember that."
"Thank you, Madame President," Joule said with a slight bow. He then told the others, "Let's all keep those words in mind as we face whatever awaits us on the horizon. Meeting adjourned. Good day, ladies and gentlemen."
The assembly rose from their seats and rendered courtesies to the President after their respective fashions before filing out of the room. Just Joule and Shanna, her chief of staff, remained. After a few moments of silence, President Livy sighed and said, "People will say I'm not doing enough." She eyed Joule. "You'll say I'm not doing enough."
"A good soldier follows his captain's orders, Madame President," Joule replied.
"But you're not a soldier," the President replied, "and you know how I worry."
"As always, I will do everything I can to make the Kiennar you dream of become a reality."
"It's that 'everything' I worry about. There are angels who would make themselves devils to build a paradise they have no part in, but that's not what I want for you, Joule. I want you to have a place in the paradise we are trying to build."
Joule simply bowed. His silence was deafening, but there was not much more the President could do. She had already heard her share of rumors about the activities of the National Intelligence Directive and as much as she did not want to believe them, she could believe Joule had a hand in it if he thought it would accomplish his goal of realizing her dream. She knew he was the sort who believed the ends justified the means no matter how many times she would argue that the means are what give the ends their virtue. While Joule would be watching the Child of Promise, she would be watching him and praying that he would not prove to be the sort of man she feared him to be.
