Cáel Defeats The Illuminati: Part 6

Hana finds a place in Cáel’s Amazon Life.

Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.

You never really know what you can't do until you've tried to do it and failed

I saw Iskender at least once a week, so I didn't know this was a bad sign. My superiors were wary to meet Iskender because intelligence types like their routines. When assets start acting strange, strange things happen. I knew this to be true. When your normally suspicious girlfriend suddenly acts all lovey-dovey,, she knows ~ she knows.

Iskender's face showed that he didn't much like this change to our meeting schedule either. Introductions went around. Odette was the only one to say 'Glad to finally meet you' and mean it.

"Cáel Nyilas," he finally turned to me, "I bear a request from the Great Khan himself." No beating around the bush with this crowd.

"What do you need?" I replied. Irrationally, I found myself hoping 'please say you need a second for 'beer-pong''.

"Here is a flash drive with the particulars, but the basics are that we need the United States and the United Kingdom to lend diplomatic support to our efforts to obtain war material and other equipment from other aligned nations," he said.

"Things like?" Addison asked.

"Ships from the United States, tanks from Germany, helicopters from France and computer components for Japan and South Korea," he replied. "This is a list of roughly five thousand items we are attempting to procure."

"Sure, we'll help," I volunteered.

"Cáel, before someone has an aneurism, why don't you find out what your team can do," Pamela burst my bubble.

"Sir, what exactly does your faction think we at JIKIT can do? We are a covert interim unit with limited authority and oversight," Addison stated.

"Wouldn't this be something you could accomplish through your own extra-ordinary resources?" Yum-Yum asked.

"We can only get so much through back channels and shell companies," he replied. "With the quantities the Khanate needs," he trailed off.

"You can't make that many purchases," I nodded. Even I knew an eighteen year old could buy a six-pack with little effort and a so-so fake ID. Buying five kegs was a totally different matter.

There was a silence.

"Iskender, give the team 48 hours to go over this data. We will either return it as if we never received it, or act upon the information on your behalf," Yum-Yum spoke with finality.

"I understand," he bowed his head. "I will await your response."

"I'll see you out," I told Iskender. "I get the feeling you knew this would be our reply."

"I didn't, but the Great Khan did," he gave a weak smile. "Honestly, I don't know what to make of the request."

"We do and I think we can get it done," I assured him. I escorted him to the elevator then returned to the room.

I didn't have to be told what was wrong with this. If your girl finds out you ate fast food with another chick, you can explain it away. If you got take-out, or breakfast at some nice nook, then you had trouble by association. By giving us their Christmas list, Temujin had told us more than what he needed. He was telling us what he didn't need as well.

This gave us incredible insight into Khanate economic and military policy over the next three years. See, you could go to Best Buy and purchase a 72" widescreen TV. It was what Best Buy did. You couldn't show up expecting to buy 500,000 TV's though. To get them you had to tell the manufactures they needed to build them because there was a market for that many systems.

In turn, they need to buy the various components they didn't build themselves. That meant you would need to smelt more copper, produce more plastics and mine more cadmium, because they would be needed. Therefore, what the Khanate was ordering was stuff they expected to get three to thirty-six months down the line. This went beyond the war with China.

As an example, the Khanate was ordering 265 Leopard 2A7 tanks from Germany to be delivered within two years. Germany didn't have those tanks lying around. They needed to build them. They had to expand the factories to build them and therefore produce all the components you needed for a brand new cutting edge tank at a faster rate than ever before.

This also told us the Khanate didn't expect to build enough tanks for their own use, much less export to allies such as Vietnam. Maybe they didn't have the construction capacity, or maybe they were busy building something else. We could figure that out by seeing what else they were purchasing abroad, things like cars, trucks, tractors and locomotives.

This was an excellent and powerful gift. It was also,

"This is poison," Addison began the next phase of the meeting.

"I disagree," Mehmet Ali Sharif (our State department analyst) countered. "This will provide JIKIT with exceptional insight into what the Khanate's medium term goals are."

"It is both," Yum-Yum nodded.

"The question is 'who are we going to share this with?'" I sighed. That was the critical juncture. After all, the UK and US had team of analysts whose sole job was to make forecasts like this.

"We decide that in 47   hours," Yum-Yum stated. "Mehmet, lets farm out 15% of this packet to different agencies and see what they come up with. Keep things compartmentalized."

"Will do. Addison, let's burrow through this data to see what we can send to who," he got to work.

"Cáel, what is your insight into the Great Khan's thinking," Addison turned to me. "Are we being suborned?" I had to think that over.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He's got six months to figure out who is friends and enemies are and he might as well decide where we stand right now. If we share this data, he gets hurt, but it will mean the end of our taskforce and the end of real hard information about what the Khanate is up to as well."

"Serving three masters never turns out well," Yum-Yum smirked. "Still, our regular intelligence agencies are months away from piecing together the inner workings of the Khanate and we have jack-off HUMINT on the ground. Our respective countries have 'back-burner-ed' Central Asia and now that's biting us in the ass. Barring an excessive NBC (Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical weapons) platform, I think we buy in."

That meant becoming a true intermediator between our respective governments and the Khanate. That also meant continuing to work with the Amazons and 9 Clans, because if we betrayed the Khanate at this juncture, how much could the others really trust us? No, to keep JIKIT going, we were going to hide this information, thus becoming complicit in what the Khanate planned.

We had already wandered past the point of intelligence-gathering and analysis to actual policy-making some time ago. This was the point of no return though. This wasn't plausible deniability. This was actively helping the Khanate achieve their national goals and meant moving beyond the realm of covert activities and into one of co-conspirators. I honestly thought we'd all buy in.

"So, what's next on the agenda?" I posed the question.

"Someone is late for their knife-fighting training," Pamela gave me a shark's smile. I smiled too. Finally I had something to do that I didn't understand, but didn't mind being ignorant about. If I fucked up, it would all be on me.

{9:45 pm, Thursday, August 28th ~ 11 Days to go}

Brooke Lee was many things, but being a cook wasn't one of them. What inspired her to cook dinner was almost beyond me. It had to do with that checklist women go through when seeing what a guy doesn't see in them. Brooke was gorgeous, fun to be around (if a bit snobby) and good in the sack. So, what made me closer to Libra and Hana than her? She wasn't trying to compete with the Amazons, thank God.

She was better looking than Libra (true) and just as much fun, and if Libra was a better lay she would have hung herself, so it had to come down to womanly stuff ~ things like housecleaning, buying stuff and cooking. House-cleaning was a continuous menial effort and she had a maid service for that. Buying stuff? She had that down pat.

Cooking? How hard could that be? very, but she hadn't accepted that, so here I was eating charred prime rib, rubbery asparagus tips, lumpy mash potatoes (made from real potatoes, I'd seen the peals in the trashcan) and some sort of Tomato salad. When she informed me she was cooking, I began looking for a reason not to come over for a late night rendezvous. Then she dropped the E-bomb.

"If you don't come over, it will be just me and Casper (Winslow) again."

"Casper's still in town?" I asked. Since that horrible weekend where I first met Hana (good for my life), her father (hates my guts) and her cruel brother Brennan (now dead by my indirect intervention), Casper's life had been one of healing from the worst kind of treatment (by Brennan's now deceased posse) possible. I couldn't treat her like a pariah.

"I'm coming over to see you, but it will be great to see Casper again as well," I elaborated/exaggerated.

"Great," she gushed. "I'll see you at nine."

"Make in nine thirty," I said. "I need to see a girl about a bed."

"You are horrible," she chided me playfully, clearly not believing me.

"No I'm not. I'm tucking Aya into bed. She has an early start tomorrow and she's going to be gone all weekend, so this will be the last time I'll see her until Monday night. I'll be at your place as soon as possible after that," I told her. Aya was going to Doebridge and I was making a habit of steering clear of that Amazon municipality. Their security and I had a disagreement last time I was there.

"It is sweet of you to keep up with that little girl you were kidnapped with," she cooed. "You are a cool, great guy."

"She's a special kid. We share a bond," I said. That was true and then some.

"I'll see you at nine-thirty. You won't be disappointed."

And so I was at Brooke's at nine-thirty, getting ready to eat a largely indigestible dinner. Casper had stammered a greeting while looking at me happily. The smoke from the kitchen was warning enough of what was to come. I made light of the charred disaster. I didn't point out that two hours at 350 didn't equate to an hour and a half at 450. It just didn't.

Brooke made up for her culinary inadequacies by looking good enough to eat off the plate, off the floor, or between the covers. She had on an Aqua tank top, black bra and khaki shorts with open-toed sandals on her feet. Casper was in the same general get up, except her tank top was white as was her bra.

I carved up the beast while those two stood around drinking wine. The roast beast (original species uncertain) was as dry as leather, but the knife was sharp. We discussed Brooke's job hunting lack of success. The jobs she was qualified for didn't pay enough, required her to ignore too much leering and were generally an insult to her intelligence. Basic 'intern' stuff really.

I mentioned Libra's job with Hana. She created some excuses about making her own way in the world then followed that up by asking if I could use my newfound influence to send some job offers her way. 'Surely not everyone at Havenstone was that way'. No. She had seem them being polite. They could be much, much worse.

"Why don't you become a consultant?" I suggested.

"That would be nice," Casper said. Brooke had become her closest friend.

"What would I consult in?" Brooke inquired.

"Employment," I mused. "You know networking and you know people who are looking for specific kinds of jobs. Start your own business."

"I like that idea," Brooke grinned. "I could create a web page and get business cards, raise the start-up capital and start getting listings and finding clients."

"I know some people who could help out," I offered, "as long as Central Asia is an acceptable location."

"What kind of work do you think you can find?"

"Well, they need to build a government," I worked on my idea quickly because Brooke was literally dripping with sex. I was thinking 'tapping that booty all night long' sex.

Women love sex, romance and sensuality. They also want to love their lives, feel successful and have just as much independence as they fantasize to be a good thing. I was coming through for Brooke yet again. I'd bolstered her when her former fiance's life imploded, casting her aside. I'd later given her the strength to make a moral stand for Casper and now I was helping her out of her career doldrums. God, she was going to let me fuck her silly. She was going to be freaking animal.

But first we had to pretend to eat before we somehow shuffled Casper off to bed. The tomato salad was edible. It turned out to be Casper's contribution to tonight's festivities. I made sure to compliment her on it, while not mentioning the rest of this disaster. Brooke didn't mind. Midway through the meal, she stood up and paced about while calling her parents. Her Mom answered, so she gave that woman the good news first.

My name came up, to her father, and not in a bad way, which was rather rare.

'Yes, I was engaged to Hana Sulkanen. I was also her friend as well as Libra's.'

'I had friends in the Khanate, where business opportunities were aplenty.'

'Security concerns? No. She knew some people (my Amazons) who did that kind of work. Besides, it wasn't like she was going there.'

"You might want to consider going there and meeting some of their people on the ground before sending your friends to that part of the world," I whispered.

'Oh, I'll probably go to,'

"Astana."

'Astana, their capital. Father, there are extraordinary opportunities there. I'll be fine.'

"I'll hire you some private security," I suggested. I wouldn't use the Ghost Tigers I had guarding Hana. That would be inappropriate. I couldn't use Amazons for that kind of work either.

I was thinking about using Captain Delilah Faircloth of Her Majesty's MI-6. They had all kinds of contractors they'd used in China who would be looking for work now that the shooting had temporarily stopped. For all I knew, Lady Yum-Yum could use Brooke's new business as a cover to insert British operatives into the former capital of Kazakhstan.

Now that I thought about it, that was a good idea. Brooke would have her hand in an espionage operation and not even suspect it at first. Later on, she'd probably love the peripheral risks and experience was experience.

'Cáel can hire some private security using his government contracts.'

'I know you know people in the government Papa, but Cáel’s people actually kill people.' Which went over like a bamboo hut in a tidal wave, but Brooke was irrepressible. Her parents wished her luck, Brooke did a happy dance and Casper snuggled close to me.

"Hey Casper," I put an arm around her. I was relieved she didn't flinch. I remained a good guy in her estimations of such things. I'd also hack my own hand off if it tried anything overtly sexual. "How are you coming along?"

"Better, day by day and my therapy group is good, very caring."

"Glad to hear it. If there is anything personal that I can do, don't hesitate to ask. It is not a matter of debts to one another. You are worth it."

"I'm glad you still think so," she stared up at me. I could easily dismiss her being needy. She was truly a damsel in need of a shoulder, a warm hand and a kind word. I didn't owe her because of Brennan and Anima. I owed her as a fellow human being.

"Isn't he the best guy in the world?" Brooke beamed. "We need to find ourselves one just like him." I couldn't see how that was going to happen. I was born in the wrong neighborhood, went to the wrong school and hung out with a different brand of friends. The convergence of me with Trent, which then led to Libra and Brooke, had been beyond bizarre.

Felix was such an idiot for not buying into Brooke instead of stupidly trying to use her against me. Even that had backfired when I sucker-punched him in front of nearly a hundred Amazons. I'd knocked him out cold because he had shown more balls than brains in that one encounter. I wouldn't get that lucky again. I'd have to figure a way a new way to kick his Alpha-male ass.

"I'd argue with you, but I'm a hell of a guy. I'm a prince among men," I joked. "I mean that literally, I'm a Prince of Hungary and Transylvania."

"Does that come with one of those cool sashes and lots of medals and ribbons?" Brooke teased.

"I'm sure the Hungarians are working on that right now," I chortled.

"Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege" Casper murmured. "I read it in USA Today. They said it was something the Romanians gave you, but I wasn't sure what it was."

"In Romanian it is "Prinţul Ungariei şi Transilvaniei", I clarified. "Prinţul is,"

"Is what?" Brooke said after a moment's lapse.

"When I went into battle with the Romanians, that is what they called me. It was a jest of sorts, not real," I sighed, recalling that dark day. Casper patted my hand.

"Is Magyarorszag the name for 'prince'?" Brooke requested.

" Magyarorszag is the name the Hungarians call their homeland," I clarified. "Hercege is their word for prince, but let's not buy into the hype. I'm just a guy with a job that entails greater risk than a pizza delivery driver."

"A Jewish pizza delivery driver in downtown Gaza, Cáel. Every time I see you, you are sporting a new scar, or scratch. What do you have for me this time?" she gave me a sultry 'come-hither' look. I caught it and liked what I saw. Casper caught it and sighed slightly.

"I'm sleepy," she yawned. "I should be going to bed."

"Oh no," Brooke protested. I almost believed her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll take an Ambien then be out like a light," Casper said before giving my hand another squeeze.

"You don't have to do this," I whispered into Casper's ear. "I'll brave another one of Brooke's home-cooked meals to spend time with her." Casper giggled.

"Hey now! What was that about?" Brooke pouted. She was definitely going to be wrapping those scrumptious lips around my sceptre in the next three hours, of that I was certain.

"He, ah, was wondering if we could do this again real soon," Casper babbled, caught between fright and comedy.

"Soon," Brooke shot me more of the 'sexy'. "He hasn't even made it out of the door yet."

"I like the way you think," I winked to Brooke.

"What do you think is on my mind," she was provoking me. I didn't say a word. I chose to undress her with my eyes instead. She knew what I was doing too.

"Bedtime," Casper put both hands on the table then stood. "Thanks for coming over tonight." I stood as well, hugged her then briefly watched her walk away. Just because she was 'handle with care' didn't mean she wasn't a handful. My miniscule number of rules included not doing it with girls not in their right minds. I wanted them to be free to hate me when the time came.

Brooke saw Casper off to the bathroom for her meds and the whole pre-bedtime ritual stuff while I cleaned up the dinner table. Five minutes of work now meant not waking up to the smell of ruined food later. The only thing in need of saving was the salad. I Saran Wrapped the rest of it. I was going to claim I was taking it into work for breakfast then dispose of it at our HQ ~ One MiMA Tower.

Once I was finished, I puttered around noisily until Brooke came looking. I could have gone to her bed and stripped naked, eagerly waiting for sex. Since Brooke was trying to play in the same league as Hana, she might have misconstrued that as me taking advantage of her. If not tonight then in the morning when she replayed the encounter. Brooke liked to be 'in charge', so I fed that instinct.

I had come here for sex. We both knew that, but we could pretend we didn't. Brooke could then want to have me and got to make sure I wanted her with or without sex, so we could have guilt-free sex together. Brooke was not overly complicated, for a girl, and she was hot enough to be worth having to go through these sorts of games.

"Whatchya thinking about?" Brooke said as she sashayed into the kitchenette.

"You," I met her gaze. She licked her upper lip.

"I've been thinking about you too," she moved within my comfort zone. I obliged her aggression by placing my hands first on her hips then, as I pulled her close, to the small of her back. We were groin to 'growing' and I was very aroused by her presence and her scent.

"Are you going to toy with me some more so that I go home tonight stiff and moaning with lust?" I groaned.

"I like toying with you," she snickered. "You are fun."

"You are fun and sexy. We need to try another beach weekend with less drama before the season ends," I played to her amusement.

"I don't think I can wait for the weekend," she protested by shimmying her hips against me. "While you were out saving the world, I've been all alone."

"Oh hell no!" I hissed. "What brought that on?"

"You are a hard act to follow," she teased. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," wasn't a total lie. I hadn't been celibate by a long shot. That didn't mean I didn't miss her.

"How about we do a little bit less 'missing'?" she suggested.

"I'd like to have you on the sofa," I pressed into her.

"I'd like to have you in the bedroom ~ my bed is bigger," she grinned. My eyes shown with anticipation, which was what she was looking for. Brooke took my hand and led me through the living room and around the corner to her bedroom.

She cat-crawled onto the bed while I hurriedly stripped down. She languidly lay back on the pillows, hair billowed around her in a dark halo while she hungrily watched my physique being revealed to her. Brooke's left hand traced a line down around her breast to her pubic mound where she started playing with herself. Her eyes fluttered, her lust blossomed into womanhood and I was beside her in a flash.

Instead of falling in beside her (she was close to her side of the bed), or to her far side, I came at her from the foot of her bed. I spent only a few seconds kissing her toes, shins and kneecaps. While my kisses made moist lip-prints up her thighs, I unbuttoned her short shorts and undid the zipper. Brooke raised her hips so I could pull her clothing down ~ no panties.

To change things up slightly, I finished the removal by turning her over onto her stomach, then pulling on her hips until she was in the doggy-style position. She looked back at me, her eyes framed by dark lashes and darker eyebrows on her tanned flesh. I pressed her shoulder blades down until her breasts were squeezed against the bed.

After that, I slid down until I was on my belly. Using my shoulders and neck, I began licking her labia from the hood to the anus. That got her going and before long, I was drinking from her nectar and loosening up her asshole with some quality rimming. Brooke had prepped for me carefully and cleanly and this made me attack her nether regions with renewed gusto. Butt sex was in the offing.

Not yet though. I got her all nice and gushing, but I wanted to try something more. I kept my tongue action going on while I coiled my body behind her. With a quick, graceful repositioning, I rose up on my knees, her thighs resting on my shoulders while I made furious suction actions onto her.

"Yep, Yeah!" Brooke exhaled. "This is, aha, new."

True to my predations, while I worried and nibbled her accoutrements, Brooke took one hand (the other she was using to pull her hair aside) and began stroking me. Her tongue touched my spongy head several times before she stopped the outright teasing and placed her lips upon me. She didn't suck it in. On no. She sucked on my angry red helmet, running her lips right to the edge then back again, as if I was a Popsicle.

I was leaning back on my haunches because of the awkward hold on hips with the weight I had to support. Not that Brooke was at all heavy.

"Crawl forward," I mumbled from between her legs. It took her a few seconds to figure out I wanted to return us to our starting position. She made a great display of slithering forward. My tongue stayed in her cunt until both her knees hit the comforter.

At that stage she was ready to go and my forcefulness lifted her knees temporarily off the sheets.

With my third lunge, Brooke reached back and stopped my rocking motion. I stilled which allowed her to reach over to the side table, open the drawer and pull out a designer bottle of lubricant.
"I know this is what you like," she panted in anticipation. I knew this was what we both wanted by the way she ran her fingers along my palm before making the hand-off.

This was one of those bottles with the glass stopper, so it make a slight grinding sound as I opened it. Brooke want down onto all fours, her palms resting on the comforter. Her head was down and her waist-long black hair masked her features, but not her sounds of pleasure.

"Arch your back Brooke," I said as I inhaled her intoxicating aroma. She did so willingly. I let the oil pour down in a thin stream and rubbed it in with my thumb.

I had to carefully aim my phallus because Brooke hadn't been lying about her lack of sexual attention. She was tight and hadn't been plundered by anyone in my long (for me) absence. Hell, this long and I was normally back to 'make-up' sex. I certainly wasn't going to be ramming my rod home with any great passion for a few minutes.

I didn't want to cause her (too much) pain nor have her anal muscles constrict the skin off my love missile.

"Oh," she moaned. "I love it when you are gentle, Cáel. It reminds me how much you care for how I feel." She punctuated that statement by rolling her hips, driving in my entire length in her lubricated alternate option. Her body tensed up then bucked. I popped out.

"Put it back in," she gasped. There was so much to love about Brooke and her enthusiasm. Once back in, I rested my left hand on the small of her back to keep her back arched while I reached around with my right and began twisting and palming her right breast through her shirt and bra. As I was slowly twisting and thrusting, Brooke's arms gave out and she went face first into her pillow. Her breast pressed my hand down on the comforter and her repositioning drove a full inch of me suddenly into her.

Brooke gave out a strangled sob followed by a whimpering sound. My left hand took my weight. My right came around and pulled her hair away from her face so she could breathe easier and I could judge her pain through her facial expressions.

"Oh God," she spat a strand of hair out of her mouth, "It feels like you are going to split me in half."

"Too late to back out now," I teased her.

"I can, hiss, take anything you can give me, Cáel Nyilas," she taunted me through clenched teeth. I gave her another inch for her impertinence. She tried to crawl forward before she surprised me by thrusting up and back.

"God damn!" she howled. "You're huge!"

I imagined that I would feel like a fucking Sequoyah shoved up my ass if I pulled off a stunt like that too. Brooke was game for more. I had enough in that now I could start a rhythm  without fear of popping out. Her hands bunched up the comforter around her head as she hung on for dear life. This felt so good that squeezing my last bit in felt rather inconsequential after all the physical and erotic ground we had covered up until then.

Brooke's stomach clenched up as her spontaneous ecstasy jumped her and me. Every muscle in her body spasmed, including her rectal ones. I was shooting off into her bowels inside a second. My heat only made her climax come that much harder. I kept humping away like a chimp on crack while Brooke began to squeal out between baited breathe.

"Damn, that was intense," I remarked as I fell to her side. Brooke was still face down/ass up with her eyes squeezed shut, still riding through her own aftershocks of her sensual seismic waves.

"Oh, oh, oh," she panted hoarsely. "I want to, (pant), do that again, real soon."

I spanked her ass loudly and prepared on shaky legs to remount her.

"No," she moaned. "Give my ass a minute's rest. Can't we do something else for a while?"

"How about I get cleaned up and get you a hot wash cloth?" I suggested as my nostrils flared.

"I'll just lie here and feel sated," she murmured. Her knees slid down until her stomach was down on the bed. I gave her abused backside another tender spank then slid off the bed.

 I quick-stepped it out of Brooke’s room, and nearly tripped over Casper who had been out in the hall watching us.

"I," she stammered. I shut the door then crossed the hallway from her.

"No problems, Casper. I was hoping that we wouldn't wake you up," I coaxed her down the hallway to her door, and away from Brooke's room. I noticed her eyes constantly flicking down to my crotch. "Hang on," I held up my hand. When she nodded, I quietly sprinted down to the living room, grabbed up a throw pillow then sprinted back. Now I could be covered up.

"Why didn't you get a towel out of the bathroom?" Casper whispered.

"I'm an idiot," I shrugged. She sniffled then giggled.

"You make Brooke very happy, but,"

"But?"

"But you are engaged to Hana Sulkanen."

"I'm a Love Monkey," I shrugged. "I find it difficult to be with just one woman. It is never that a woman isn't enough for me. It is that there is something wrong with me that is never truly satisfied so I keep roaming."

"Don't you, worry about the women you are with?"

"I'm not a wonderful human being, Casper. That is all I can think to say."

"You aren't like Brennan, not like that, hold on." Casper retreated to her room then came back with a folded up piece of news print. By the size it was one of those articles you found on page 17. "Here," she handed it over. "It was delivered here in an envelope with my name on it."

I looked it over. A 'Jane Doe' had been found in Charleston harbor, SC, dead from an overdose.

"Three days before I got that, I got a call from Anima," she told me. "She told me," Casper gulped. "She told me that she was very sorry about all that had happened. She was sorry. That was it."

"Oh."

"Anima is dead now, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I think so," I noted sadly. "Does that change anything with you?"

"I don't know. I mean, Brooke told me that you would make sure none of those people would ever be around to bother me again, but, was this you?"

"No and yes. I told someone with the power to make a difference what happened to you and who was responsible. After that, I never heard about the matter again. Anima did stop by once, crazy with fear but unrepentant. I honestly feel that how she ended up feeling wouldn't have made a difference on whether she lived, or died. I don't know what to make of her call."

"She, it doesn't help. I still have to take a sleeping pill to keep the nightmares away. I haven't told my therapist about the death, or how everyone else is either dead or disappeared. I don't know what to think. I was hoping you would."

"I'm not normally the person people go for answers. I'll make up an answer, if that's what you want."

She reached up and touched my forearm.

"I prefer honesty," she smiled. "I guess I was hoping for you to be more, perfect than you are. That was unfair of me."

"You wouldn't be the first person to mistake me for a decent human being," I joked. "Usually that misconception only lasts a week or so. I promise you... I'll be living down to your expectations in no time."

"Brooke thinks highly of you, and so do I. We've known you more than a couple of weeks," Casper feebly jibed.

"I've been behaving myself," I teased her.'

"Brooke sounded," she trailed off. I waited. "You two sound like you enjoyed one another."

"That's how it is supposed to be. You'll feel that one day too. You'll meet someone who thinks of your pleasure first. And, if he doesn't, you will have to train him to do it right."

"You make it sound so easy," Casper sighed.

"Do you really think I'm that unique?"

"A prince, avenger, soldier-of-fortune, titan of the bedroom?" she lightened up. We'd crossed a barrier. I was 'joke-able'.

"We have union meetings every third Wednesday," I grinned. "We kick back, drink a few beers and figure out what hot spots and hotties we need to concentrate on for the next month."

"I, thank you, Cáel," she smiled.

"For what?"

"For not disappointing me. You are a nicer guy than you give yourself credit for."

"Thank you, Casper," I reached over and hugged her. She didn't flinch. "For treating me like I can make a difference."

"I need to go to bed now," she yawned. I hugged her again then stepped back. She walked to her door and began to shut it. I swore I heard her whisper 'you do', but I wasn't sure. I had to hurry to the bathroom, heat up a wash cloth while cleaning up, before finally getting back to Brooke. I found her reclining on the bed, totally naked.

"Sorry I took so long," I told her.

"I know. It is okay. I heard most of it," she glowed happily. "Casper needs someone, someone who isn't me. I'm not the most patient friend in the world. I sort of feel responsible for her and she needs someone to talk to about normal stuff, but I miss going to clubs and hanging out with friends who talk back." I sat on the bed and began to run the warm cloth up her thighs.

"What was it like, that fight in Romania?" she asked as we switched off with the washcloth. She tenderly worked over her abused anal region.

"The battle? A skirmish really,"

"Yes," she paused. "Between that and being kidnapped, you've had a mentally draining time since we last spent some time together. You act like you haven't changed much, but,"

"It's okay. I know it sounds clich , but it is hard to explain those things unless you've lived thru them."

"If you don't want to talk about it," Brooke gave me an out. I could tell this was a part of my life she wanted to be a part of; my manliness on display.

"I'm okay. I can't really say I was scared for myself either time. During the kidnapping I was concerned for Aya. All of the normal human stuff came later, after the crisis was over. During the kidnapping, there isn't much to talk about. As for the fight, at the time I had a plan and was waiting for the opportunity to implement it. Bullets were flying. Men around me were getting wounded. I can't recall seeing any of the men on my side getting killed."

"Did you get shot?" she stroked my abdomen.

"Bruised, though my flak jacket had to do its job once or twice," I sighed. I could almost hear the sounds of the bullets whizzing around me once more. Wounded men hadn't screamed out when they were hit. They'd grunted. The cries would come later when the enormity of their pain sunk in.

"I made sure the main bad guy ~ the Boss ~ didn't get away. I think I wounded one guy. That was it; my contribution to the battle."

"It was your plan that won the fight though, right?"

"Yes. I did what leaders are supposed to do, but that didn't mean I could save all my guys and gals."

"You are very courageous," Brooke cuddled in. "You don't back down often, but you are not an ass about it. You are the least 'macho-asshole' macho-man I've ever met, and I'd like to see more of you," she purred.

"I'm already naked," I played naive. Brooke pushed me down and straddled my lap.

"I guess I'll just have to appreciate the naked you some more then," she chortled. Brooke took charge long enough for me enter her then we combined our efforts, her moving with her thighs and me with my hands on her hips, to engage in some serious love-making.

This is not a political commentary, public personalities have been butchered in order to make the story light-hearted


{4:45 am Friday, August 29th ~ 10 Days to go}

"Hey," Brooke asked softly, "can I join?"

I was halfway thru my clean up when she'd opened the shower stall door, but I had some time. "Sure. I'll wash your back if you wash mine," I offered.

She gave me a sly grin as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. I signaled her to turn with her back to me (never a safe position), poured some liquid soap in my hands and began lathering her up.

"Did you think you could leave me with only a kiss," she said as she backed up against me.

"I thought you were asleep when I kissed you," I whispered into her ear.

"I was. You are such a romantic, I assumed you kissed me because that's what you always do. You have a light touch."

"We were up late," I teased.

"You are up early," she let her left hand travel down between us until she could wrap her fingers around my cock.

"Being with you, it is hardly a surprise," I chuckled.

"Are you implying you like me?" she serpentined her body against mine.

"Me likey, me likey a whole bunch," I told her as I nibbled her ear. Brooke responded by pulling my phallus around like a clock arm until it was fixed between her thighs and rubbing up against her. We left it there a while, she rocking her hips back and forward while I soaped up her front the way I had lathered her back. After all, this was foreplay.

This was kisses planted along her shoulders, neck, ears and, as I turned her head around, on her lips. Brooke was whining with need after our last French kiss, so I pushed my hips back and pressed her down with a hand on her mid-back. At the perfect angle, I let her slip me in.
"Ah, this is never going to get old," Brooke moaned. She punctuated her statement by rolling her hips back and forth. In the interlude, I cut off the water so it would cease to be a distraction. Then my hands went to her hips and the rhythm began. It was a slow steady wave-like motion.

Brooke had one hand against the tiled wall while the other reached under to play, as I went in. This was an excellent symmetry we had developed.

I pulled out suddenly.

"No," Brooke protested. She turned around to see me pull a condom from behind the shampoo and quickly apply it. Brooke giggled. "Thank you for that, but don't you think it is a little late in our night together?"

"Would you rather I went without?" I smiled.

"No," she sighed happily. "It is so you." I took that as a sign to slip back in. I felt her fingernails run over the condom as I pressed forward. This time around, I let Brooke do all the work. I placed my torso onto her back so I could worry her shoulders and neck (yes, I gave her a hickey) and fondled her breasts.

"No fair," she whimpered. "No fair, I wanted you to, cum first."

"I'm working as fast as I can," I huffed. Her fingers were strumming furiously, I was picking up my pace, pounding her with growing ferocity, and her breath was coming in labored gasps.

"No!" she howled as her climax gripped her. She bucked up once, twice, then a third time, holding herself tightly against me.

"I'm cumming," I growled and I did. Brooke's groans became longer and lower. She wiggled her cute ass against me, urging out every spurt of my semen into the condom. As I was pulling out of Brooke, she stopped me.

"Wait, I want to try something," she told me. She turned around and went to her knees.

Brooke rolled off the condom and made deep, meaningful eye contact before tilting her head back and draining the contents of my condom down her throat. Oh, that was so sexy.

"Yummy," she gulped down my seed.

"Wow, that was so, unforgettable," I stroked her cheek.

"I've been reading some porn and wanted to try, oh, it has an aftertaste of spermicide. At least I think that is what it is," she snickered.

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged.

"Let me find out," she gave me more of that sultry eye-contact. She put her hand around my turgid phallus, stuck out her tongue then slipped it past her lips.

"No," it was my turn to moan. She was getting me hard again and I had a date I couldn't be late for. Maybe. The moment her gag reflex kicked in, I pulled her up into a kiss. My hands cupped each ass cheek, I raised her over and impaled her in one rapid motion. Face to face, I began bouncing her hard and deep.

{8:00 am}

I wasn't late, but it was a close thing. I had arrived with three minutes to spare, only to find Hana and Libra waiting for me at Amy's Bread on 9th Avenue. Over some coffee and scones we soaked up the city's morning ambience. I was in my biker clothes with my bike locked up within sight of the counter.

"So," Libra started off after the initial hugs and kisses (Hana on the lips, Libra on the cheek, no titty snuggle for me at the moment), "how was dinner with Brooke last night?"

I didn't believe Brooke had given anyone any details in the period between since we'd had our last round of high octane love-making at one a.m. and before I grabbed my shower, or the two quickies in the shower, or feeling her up at the door. I had kissed her before leaving and she had been out like a light, naked and curled up with my pillow while resting her weary head on the other one. I had whispered a farewell to Casper, but not looked in. After that, I had biked over to Havenstone for my six o'clock firearm's practice.

There, I had picked up my current minder, Juanita Leya Antonio Garza. She was a mocha-skinned Dominican, twenty-nine years old and a brand-spanking new member of the Isharan House Guard. She came to me by way of Havenstone's Buenos Aires' Acquisitions department. Juanita had earned her spot as my guardian by qualifying for that office's Rapid Response Team. (She had been good enough to qualify for that team's lead. Since there were not enough Security Detail (SD's) to staff all the satellite offices, the offices made do with teams trained by the SD as part of their normal career training.)

She had spent the past week as part of an ad-hoc training program addressing how to bodyguard from on top a bicycle. (The SD had actually been planning this since I had been kidnapped.) Juanita had been identified by Buffy and Halen as a Runner to be brought into House Ishara and she had a seal of approval from both Buffy and Rachel as a bodyguard, so I was more than willing to put up with an aggressive road buddy.

"Entertaining," I grinned. "Definitely something we are going to have to work on together next time."

"Next time?" Hana regarded me studiously. "Was last night that good?"

"We are not going to go there, Hana. I'm doing my best within my limited Code of Sexual Misconduct. I'm trying to be discreet."

"Hana," Libra added her voice, "when you first met Cáel, he was simultaneously dating me and Brooke. At the same time he was also seeing that police officer,"

"Nikita," I clarified, "and we are keeping it at the 'strictly friends' level right now."

"I was hoping to have something more than just a part-time husband," Hana stated softly. Hana wasn't whining. She was testing our boundaries, for the long term control of my being. After all, wasn't that what marriage was all about?

"At this point in my life, I'm not that guy," I pushed back. Most of the women I'd been with hadn't been happy about sharing my attentions, often violently so. Those who did found ways to emotionally blackmail me into spending more time with them. Up until now, that had never worked.

"When I saw you with  Annela, I realized that you are much more than some sort of playboy," Hana countered.

"I'm learning to like kids," I shrugged happily. "I never thought I would, quite frankly. I wasn't called 'Captain Condom' for nothing."

"I'm not on birth control," Hana enlightened me. Oh shit!

"Good thing we are getting married," I joked feebly. "So, does  Annela want a baby brother, or sister?"

"Would there be a problem with a boy?" Libra asked.

"Not anymore," I guaranteed them both. "I couldn't,"

"Couldn't?" Hana requested what I had let slip.

"What used to happen to Amazon boys?" Libra pressed.

"Not something that I feel at liberty to discuss," I hedged.

"That doesn't sound good," Libra mused.

"Would our child be at risk if something happened to you?" Hana worried.

"No," I reached over and squeezed her hand. "There are plenty of people that know how I feel and wouldn't let anything happen to my children," I didn't quite lie. Honestly I had never talked over such things, even with Buffy. Would my sons be okay? Would my daughters?

I needed to reexamine my future plans, which is to say I needed a plan.

"So how would we deal with your grandfather?" Hana redirected my thoughts.

"Oh," I had been worried about my Amazons, not my family.

"I will find a way to deal with Alal," I promised her. What a bold-faced lie. I hadn't a clue how to counter the man yet. I was still playing catch up with several thousand years of what he had already accomplished, much less plumbed the depths of his future conspiracies.

"You big liar," Hana smiled warmly. "That man has your number, even though you don't see it yet. We will have to work on something together."

"I'll help," Libra offered. "That guy weirded me out."

"He did?" I looked her way. I'd been good at avoiding ogling her cleavage for Hana's sake. "I wish I could clarify how I feel about him."

"That man is evil," Hana insisted. "Don't you see that?"

"It isn't that simple for me," I shook my head. "It is, I can get inside his head and figure out what motivates him, and sometimes it is scary. In a way, he's lost faith in humanity. His friends have all long since died and he has carried on alone. I get the bizarre sense he is even looking forward to having something he's never had before, a family."

"What about your, umm, aunts?" Libra challenged me.

"They don't count because he," I couldn't say 'made them in a lab'. "He never knew them as children, only after the fact and they have always lived in his shadow and under his control. This time, with me, us, things can be different."

"He doesn't deserve a family in my book," Hana shook her head. "Not my family."

I had to think about Katrina and Aya. How different was Katrina, who purposely sacrificed Aya to achieve her long term goals of screwing over the Seven Pillars of Heaven? Aya would bear a permanent scar of that betrayal, and Katrina had an ironclad faith I would save us both, a faith I didn't have in myself. I liked Katrina and even trusted her somewhat. Could I afford to feel the same way about Grandpa Cáel?

"Hana, I'm not looking to give you a sane reason for dumping me, but my family is more than a little fucked up," I began. "I have to face the fact that right now, I really can't stop Alal from doing what he wants. That doesn't mean I accept the situation, yet it is what it is. When I have a chance at putting him away, I'll take it and that decision goes beyond my family. He needs to be stopped. As you said 'he's evil'."

"Will you let us help you?" Libra inquired. 'Yeah right, what can you do versus a 5000 year old criminal mastermind' wasn't the appropriate thing to say. The truth rarely is.

"What would you suggest?" I did say. "Considering the resource gulf between what we can bring to bear versus his legions of followers and unspeakable power, what chances do the three of us have?"

"Is that a concession, insult, or genuine inquiry?" Hana questioned.

"Genuine inquiry," I answered. "I hardly feel I know it all. And the more insight I can gather, the better my long-term chances are."

"We can start by finding a way to get rid of my Irish 'minders'," Hana gave me a quirky grin. "They are very good at fitting seamlessly into the background, but I can spot them."

"Keep them around for a while, because all we can accomplish right now is getting a few more we can't identify," I pointed out. "The Ghost Tigers?"

"Oh, they are out and about," Libra snorted.

"They stop by long enough in the morning to get my itinerary, then, I guess they are out there somewhere," Hana told me. "A few times they have acted on my behalf, so I know they are close by, and that people really are trying to kill me. But they work their way, and that includes not being seen with me, it seems."

"They are assassins, so I guess I should have expected that," I shrugged. "Still, while they are on the job, you are safer than you realize. None of the others ~ groups ~ will bother you while they know those two are close by. It is two, right?"

"I've seen two. A young woman and an older man," she elaborated.

"They both come across as diligent sociopaths," Libra added. "I've never seen them emit a single emotion, and they don't like my sense of humor."

"I'd rather have you two alive than have them chucking at your innate comedic talents, Libra," I smirked. "Besides, the things they find funny you might not appreciate."

"Good point," Hana nodded. "Some of the Great Khan's people certainly have an odd sense of humor, things that don't translate over well."

I had an alternative to telling what I knew about the Earth & Sky and why they were so grim: that they saw their father's lifetimes, their own and that of their children filled with warfare and struggle. They were geographically trapped between two of the world's greatest powers ~ Russia and China. At best, they had been pawns in the Great Game and even independence had not brought forth a promise of hope. Too many of their kin remained prisoners in other lands.

No, I really had an out, and I took it, like the big coward that I am.

"Casper's sense of humor is coming along well," I sighed. "She looked somewhat at ease last night. Her salad was the highlight of the meal."

Libra looked out the window while Hana looked down at her plate. Libra had not been as good a friend to the girl as Brooke had been. For Hana, it was the pain her father had gone through over her half-brother's death.

As I had predicted, it brought our breakfast to a somber close. Hugs, kisses and I/we were off to the office. Juanita tapped me at a stoplight. Immediately I looked for a possible tail.

"What did you say at the end of breakfast?" she asked. "Whatever it was, it went over like finding a severed head in your luggage."

"Someday I will have to tell you about a girl named Casper."

She mulled that over.

"I know about Casper Winslow," she confessed. "You did the right thing. Some people,"

"Doing the 'right' thing doesn't mean I did something that caused the least pain. I'll live with what others did at my behest, but I'll never celebrate it," I looked her way.

"They were right," she nodded. "You are complicated."

I took that wonderful assessment into the office.

(JIKIT 2:00 pm Friday)

Any great teacher, or professor, can teach you lessons that you carry through your later life. They open up your eyes to ways of thinking and to ideas that change who you are as a person. It should never be forgotten though, that those lessons are learned through the lenses of the scholar. It was that way with the memories of Alal in my head. I wasn't reading the Book of Alal. I was experiencing things he had experienced, colored by his perceptions at the time.

At one time, Alal had been a man of great superstition and faith. Over time, his belief in higher powers had soured into a hatred of all things divine and a contempt for those who devoted themselves to otherworldly powers. He wasn't an atheist. He acknowledged that there were things beyond the normal senses of mankind, yet denied they were anything but selfish and precocious.

So, when I was talking strategy with the likes of Addison and Lady Fathom, I had to remember whose advice I was taking. I also had to take into account the invisible hand of the supernatural beings he despised. Temujin was a mortal man with an immortal pedigree. That gave him an outlook like Alal's, in that he thought long term.

It was more than a five- or ten-year plan. It was the surefire belief that if this generation failed to do something right, the stage could be set for the next generation, or the next. It also effected how he viewed allies and enemies. For the Mongol-Turkish civilization, only the Han were sworn enemies. One could not be powerful while the other was.

Outside of that, everyone had a choice. Too often, you only got one chance at being on a friendly basis. And all other enemies would be dealt with in time. That wasn't an overly rational world view, but it was Temujin's and it infected the upper echelon of the Earth & Sky. JIKIT's problem was getting our respective governments to see things that way.

In the Post-Cold War, nations had squabbles and disagreements. Today's belligerent was tomorrow's regional bulwark. The Khanate didn't think that way. India had gained an ally that would be multi-generational. Pakistan and Iran were running in the other direction, and that meant the Horde would eventually come calling.

The original Khanate of the thirteenth century had been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic conglomerate. Turks, Persians, Russians and Tibetans were all present in that Mongol court. Power resided in the powerful Mongol clans, but their subject peoples wielded real power as well. In the end, it was the Mongols who tore their empire apart. And as it fractured, the parts then made war on one another, or so Alal remembered. It was that 'lenses' thing once more.

Alal admired the original Temujin and his successors ~  gedei, G y k, and M ngke who established the prototype for his own plans for world domination, the Pax Mongolica. That admiration influenced and led me down some dangerous pathways. The knowledge that came with those viewpoints was the other reason why I was on JIKIT, and the main reason they needed me on daily meetings.

(Thailand and the Three K's)

A wise television character once said, 'the avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote'. The avalanche had already started in Asia, but a few pebbles still insisted on voting, with their feet. For that matter, four 'peoples' were voting with their feet and with their firearms. They were the Karen, the Karenni, and more important to us at the moment, the Kachin groups in Myanmar plus the average working man/woman in Thailand.

The first three groups were involved in a long-running ethnic civil war with Myanmar, and were losing. For the Karenni and Karen, there was always the refuge offered by the Thai border, behind which refugee camps had sprung up. Also, since those two ethnic groups controlled the overland land routes between Myanmar and Thailand, they had access to a small amount of 'self-financing'.

The Kachin had no such luck. They were stuck in the northeastern part of the country with their back to Yunnan province in China, except the PRC didn't control Yunnan anymore, the Khanate did (it was their overland accessibility to the Republic of Vietnam.) No one much cared about the Kachin either, except the Dali Lama who, now that Tibet was free, began concentrating on gathering aid for his people abroad and bringing to light the conveniently forgotten humanitarian disasters around the globe.

Then the Army of Myanmar launched a campaign to push the Kachin resistance off its last legs and into the grave. The Kachin had fled over the border to China in the past, and the Chinese had always sent them home to be subjected to the blood-stained hands of the Burmese. When August 14th rolled around, the Burmese offensive was in full swing and once more the Kachin were fleeing north into China, only this time, they walked right into the path of a Khanate mobile patrol heading south.

'Why are you here in our territory?' the Khanate leader asked thru his local translator. He was the commander of a Zuuns ~ 100 men (now slightly reduced) but the Khanate military prided itself on initiative among its non-commissioned and junior officers.

'We are being slaughtered in our homeland,' the people wailed.

'Well, we don't have the resources to take care of you here.'

'Please don't send us back. We will be raped, tortured and even murdered.'

And since that commander had been told to ally with the local ethnic minorities in this part of Yunnan (who also happened to be kinsmen of these Kachin), he showed his initiative. "I'll go down the road and talk to these Myanmar troops so they will stop attacking you until our Tumens commander can work something out ~ say mediate a cession of hostilities", he told them. And off he went.

A roving Myanmar helicopter saw a light armored column rolling south in the middle of a stream of Kachin heading north. The pilot assumed they had crossed the border, so he attacked. The helicopter had the misfortune to kill one of the 86 remaining Khanate troopers. As he wheeled around for a second pass, a Khanate soldier wielding a 9K333 Verba SAM blasted him out of the sky.

Even as it died, the helicopter was being told that a Khanate column was coming down the valley to exchange bona fides with the Myanmar commander. Since both sides were conversing in Cantonese, there were definitely confusing communication issues going on:

Myanmar commander: 'Be careful, we have a helicopter in the area.'

Khanate commander: 'We are aware of that. It killed one of my men.'

Myanmar commander: 'Where is our helicopter now?'

Khanate commander: 'There seems to be a misunderstanding. You killed one of my men.' In modern English slang ~ 'It is so on!'

Before rolling down into the valley, destroying one mobile column of Myanmar light infantry and then annihilating the closest town garrison, the Khanate commander called up some air support. Amidst the ground carnage, the six Khanate Mig-35's escorting twelve S U-25MS's jumped four Myanmar Mig-29's, shooting down three of them.

By midnight, the tiny Khanate force had retreated back over the border, leaving the Burmese wondering when the Khanate would come stampeding south in even greater numbers.

The next morning the Khanate Commander of a Thousand explained to his Myanmar counterpart that this matter was settled, unless he wanted to take it another step. For both sides, the announcement of an upcoming truce between the Khanate and the PRC hung heavy in the air. Myanmar opted to forget the issue and the outside world was unaware how close the two came to war.

No one gave the Kachin the memo. They immediately came, hat in hand, to the Khanate's Yunnan provincial commander, who was looking for a way to not get squeezed between a hostile PRC and Burma, and he had plenty of former People's Liberation Army equipment he'd just taken from disarmed Chinese troops lying around. So he gave the Kachin a few thousand assault rifles, grenade launchers, SAM's and mortars, plus some men to train them in how to use said weapons and in 'proper' insurgency tactics, some of which was 'on the job' training.

Now why would that mean anything to anyone at JIKIT? Recall the other two K's? They both bordered Thailand and on August 26th, massive 'Red Shirt' (not the name I would have chosen for a pro-democracy movement) protests broke out in some of the country's largest cities and towns. There were strikes and work stoppages. The country was on the verge of grinding to a halt.

Late on the 29th, the regime's military began violently crushing the opposition. Hundreds died in the streets. What few understood was that the majority of the military leadership came from the populous Eastern District, which bred some resentment in the other's commands. Early on August 30th (Thailand was a day ahead NYC), someone killed the commander of the Royal Thai Third Army. His Chief of Staff took over and immediately declared his support for the 'Red Shirts'.

Why did this matter?

Several thousand Karen and Karenni fighters joined with the 3rd Army theater leadership in hopes that a democratic regime would take a hard line stance against Myanmar's (almost a dictatorship) junta and support their ideas for independent states. These highly trained veteran fighters were desperately needed by the Thai rebels. Still, why would most of us care?

To add to the confusion, the battle in Thailand wasn't even about democracy. The various General-Princes were jockeying for power and the Red Shirts were giving the players with less power a way to express greater influence. The current 'dictator/President-for-Life/Prime Minister by Popular Acclaim', Prayut Chan-o-cha, had taken over a few weeks earlier, using his hand-picked legislature who were part of the new Constitution he had created.

He had left his rivals out in the cold with little to show for their past loyalty when, as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, he had launched his surprise coup in May. In June, he had created a new Constitution which gave him virtual control of every aspect of the country's life. On the 24th of August, he was unanimously appointed Prime Minister. He was now leader of the Army, the only allowed political party and the country's governmental apparatus. Three for three.

The new Prime Minister had been rounding up dissenters and officers who opposed the coup. His surviving enemies hadn't waited for their time to come. They took to the streets in large, if disorganized mobs. Still, until the Third Army switched sides, these down-trodden citizens had no real chance to create change. The military had been a tightly organized, unified body and the army's size was up to the task of controlling the populous. Now an actual civil war was in the offing.

Most people couldn't tell you what the ten nations of Southeast Asia were, much less where they were. The odds of knowing how democratic or how corrupt they were was even more unlikely. Suffice it to say, the countries at the bottom of the heap were Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, though Myanmar was in the same pack. So the fun geopolitical part was, the Black Lotus wanted the autocratic Khanate to ask their ally Vietnam to put pressure on their neighbors (Laos and Cambodia) to support the pro-democracy side, i.e., the most repressive regimes supporting the cause of freedom (in someone else's country).

To add to the bizarre, the world's leading democracy, the United States, was pressing for calm, which would doom the pro-democracy side. The US was supported by the PRC (People's Republic of China), Russia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The World's largest democracy, India, was supporting the Red Shirts. The other regional entities (big Indonesia and tiny Brunei and Singapore) were sitting on the sidelines.

The rest of the world? The European Union wanted the UN to put forth a cease-fire and have the differing sides to sit down together. The government of Thailand wasn't going for any intervention impinging their sovereignty, because they couldn't see the world of hurt that would be coming down the pipeline. Prayut Chan-o-cha was thinking he was still in pre-Khanate Asia. At worst, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos would send terse letters and withdraw their ambassadors for consultations at home.

Vietnam and the Khanate (by way of JIKIT) were thinking invasion with a blitzkrieg before the rest of the world could slap down some sanctions hard enough to hurt. All they had to do was lure the Royal Thai First and Second Armies into a climactic encounter, crush them, then set up free, UN-sanctioned elections. Would this foster true democracy? I hoped so, yet I had the impression no one else (except for Rikki maybe) was thinking along the same lines.

Addison and Lady Yum-Yum told me upfront that they didn't give a fuck. All they cared about was that the new Thailand would be a regional ally for the Khanate, and thus Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It was harsh, global reality setting in. Laos and Cambodia had anemic economies and weak militaries, while Thailand had a strong manufacturing economy and a powerful army. Vietnam's military was bigger, but didn't share a border with Thailand. When the war with China broke out again, the Khanate would need its southeastern flank and Vietnam to be safe.

To do this meant regime change. Neither Vietnam, India, nor the Khanate were ready to intervene in Thailand, yet they had to act while the iron was hot. That meant going with what they had handy passing over the less than stellar road and river networks through Laos and Cambodia. They would be fighting a war along a very fragile logistical train, so they needed to win decisively and fast. An answer to this problem was the sea, the Gulf of Thailand to be precise.

The Thai Navy was more powerful than the Vietnamese Navy to the point where Vietnam's option to arrive by or be supplied by sea was virtually non-existent, so the Indian Navy was finally going to have to get their hands dirty, except I love and hate that word, the Royal Thai naval commanders might not want their biggest bargaining chip ~ the size of their navy ~ committed to a risky battle at sea.

The Third Army wasn't alone in its stand either. Given the opportunity to stay neutral, the Fourth Army and Royal Thai Air Force were both pledging to stay on the sidelines. That still left the Third Army in an uneven struggle. The First and Second Army were both individually larger, except they sat over a restive, repressed civilian populace who now had a trickle of military hardware coming their way.

The world would react to the invasion, there was no doubt. The problem was: there wasn't much to respond with actually in the military theater. Pro-PRC Myanmar had a house full of internal problems, plus they had border issues with India (~ 'just because' ~) and with Bangladesh, who was supporting the Muslim minority in the west of the country that the Myanmar government was also oppressing. Myanmar had more problems than any other country I'd ever heard of, oh, and they thought their military junta ruled by popular consent. With their predilection to shoot dissidents, I could see how they won that opinion poll.

Malaysia could attempt to intervene, but they would be mobilizing against the neutral Fourth Army, unless they wanted to risk the sea approaches as well and their navy was in no way up to challenging the Indians either. The US didn't appear to have the will. The PRC wouldn't want to anger the Khanate this soon into the cease-fire. This wasn't Russia's fight, so all she would do was send words. Besides, she despised the U S, U N and E U for all the sanctions she was suffering through because of the 'problems' in the Ukraine.

Yet again, this was on the far side of the globe so why would we care? How could we make any of the key players give a damn?

It was all about the Benjamin's. See, there were plans on the drawing board for a canal traversing Thailand's Kra Isthmus, connecting India's Andaman Sea to the Gulf of Thailand, which would greatly shorten the distance for sea trade from India to the rest of Southeast Asia. If a Thai-Indian consortium controlled that canal, it would be worth untold billions for both those nations. Such trade routes would put Vietnam much closer to the global market place, further boosting their economy (as well as Cambodia's). It took my Alal-mind just over three hours to figure all that out.

Much to my continuous chagrin, young men and women would be dying to make a handful of rich entities richer. It was sometimes difficult for me to understand that most noble fights happened amid the dim perceptions of polite societies. In practical terms, brothers fought for brothers, their families and clans ~ be they tribes, battalions, or unnamed fraternities. Compared to the elected technocrats that ruled, I was finding myself drawn to the starkly brutal organizations most like my Amazons.

Many of the women who had voted me into a lifetime of slavery were chomping at the bit to join their sisters in this urgent struggle I had brought about. I still knew I should hate them. I also prayed for their success because it was what we all so desperately needed. My children's lives were on the line. All our children's lives were on the line and in that, we were united in bonds closer than blood.

After gifting JIKIT with my insights, Lady Yum-Yum's first response was to call some 'friends' in some of the larger news outlets in Great Britain to make sure they could splash the pro-democracy crackdown as the lead story/front page news because, the Khanate was going to assure Thai independence the same way they had made sure democracy reigned in Tibet ~ just like Tibet was the theme. That was for the Thai populous as well as for foreign consumption. The Khanate would come, then go.

Khanate armed forces? Four whole Tumens and a 120 combat aircraft were sitting in Yunnan. They could be riding trains through Vietnam's rather dysfunctional railways on their way to the Cambodian/Laotian/Thai border.

'Was this for real?' the newsies wondered.

Was Lady Fathom Worthington-Burke a member of the shadowy JIKIT, which may/may not have been something more than a mere research body?

Should those news outlets put their people on the streets of Bangkok?

Should they hire some stringers?

Yes and yes, and she could also imbed them with the Khanate troops closest to the future conflict, maybe with the military mission to Vietnam itself. No one had been on point with the Khanate military machine before; and being in the front lines with the rawest footage was what the 24/7 was all about.

I must have looked pretty stunned at her audacity, because she patted me on the head like a prized Irish Setter. The moment she finished her fifth phone call, Addison confronted me with a similar list of news agencies that would need a favor for a favor. She knew less people, which at least meant fewer requests I had to make of Iskender.

All the women around me were happy, my co-workers insisted I was doing a fantastic job and people in powerful places thought I was doing the world a great service. The only way I could have been happier was if I really understood what I was doing, or we had a bathing suit attire dress code, that would have been pretty cool too.

(... and she brought a spear)

I left work early. I had this sneaking suspicion that yet more people around the globe were going to die and I had advance notice of this calamity and could do nothing to stop it. I could tell myself that people had been, were, and would be trying to kill one another with no help from me. That didn't assuage my guilt much, so I decided that I could extinguish some of my self-pity by going to the Full-Blooded gym and convincing someone to kick my ass.

I imagined I would have plenty of takers. Despite the opinions of Pamela, Katrina and Rachel, I was still largely a pariah, and unwelcomed intruder foisted upon them by forces they could not question, their Ancestors. The fact that I was dragging that jumped-up Runner, Juanita Ishara, along with me only added insult to their injury.

It definitely didn't help that Juanita didn't take guff from anyone. Sure, the House Amazons were warriors trained from a tender age to be lethal killing machines, but Juanita was the baddest of the bad, the hardest, fastest and most determined of the roughly 20,000 Runners that existed alongside the Host. She didn't resent the House Amazons because that would have been counterproductive to her survival. Also, before I came along, she knew she had virtually no chance of joining their exclusive club.

Now that she was a 'House Amazon', she absolutely insisted that she be treated like one and woe to the fool who chose to deny her that hard won right. To add to the unpleasantness, she had the 'Buffy-ist' ideal that no one could disrespect me in the slightest. I tried to take my chiding in good humor. Juanita was having none of that. Ten minutes into my stress-relieving workout, Juanita called out some dingbat to the mat.

I could have let her go alone and be gang-jumped. That would have been unfair to her and something Buffy would take me to task over, once it was all said and done. So in I went, and when two Amazons joined the first opponent, I blindsided them. It was the Amazon thing to do. I didn't get to enjoy my victory because my intervention was the cue for the grand pummeling to begin.

Letting us both be beaten black and blue made no sense. I grabbed Juanita by the waist and hurdled her into two others, spilling all three off the mat (and out of play).

"Stay!" I commanded, pointing my finger at Juanita. I wasn't going to have her sense of outrage spoil my selfless gesture.

Into this eye of the storm a calm settled. It dawned on my twelve assailants that what they were doing looked bad even by Amazon battle-ethics. Twelve Amazons to beat up one male? That was hardly the conservation of resources they practiced. They were trying to juggle down their numbers when someone decided to help them along in the decision-making process.

They had numbers. She brought a spear, plus she was one of the five scariest combatants I had ever encountered. I would have been happy if it was Pamela, or Saku (maybe), I would have been highly suspicious if it was Saint Marie, the Golden Mare and de facto leader of the Host. If it had been Alal, I would have been horrified (that Havenstone security had been so fatally compromised).

No, I got number five, which left me both somewhat elated (I liked watching her fight) and somewhat confused (she was normally kicking my ass). It was Elsa, and none of the others could stand against her. Soon we had cleared the mats, partially out of skill and mostly out of fear (of Elsa).

"Good to see you again," I tested the waters.

"I wish to be alone with Ish, Wakko Ishara," Elsa announced. Only Juanita hung around. Since I doubted they had actually met before,

"Elsa, I've never asked you what your house was," I struggled through the introductions. "This is Juanita Ishara, of the Isharan House Guard. Juanita, this is Elsa, commander of the SD (Security Detail) in Havenstone."

"It is Elsa Zorja," she clarified. "It is normal protocol to not inquire into the house of a member of the SD, as we stand outside the House political structure."

Zorja was the Slavic amalgam of the Two Guardians ~ the Morning and Evening stars. I hoped it didn't mean the whole group was bi-polar aka Super-Bitchy and Super-Bitchy Possessive. That would be unfortunate for Yours Truly.

"I know who she is. She is on our 'Must Watch' List," Juanita stated.

"We have a 'Must Watch' List? How come this is the first I've heard of it?" I questioned.

"Buffy has made a roster ~ a rather long roster ~ of people we can't trust to be alone with you," she explained.

"You mean it is an anti-girlfriend list," I protested. "This is not happening, no way, no how."

"And, if you wish to defy the list you have to take it up with Buffy, in person. Phone calls and e-mails won't do," Juanita finished.

"What about Facebook? Twitter?" That didn't warrant a response.

 To be continued.

By FinalStand for Literotica.