30-03-2019, 07:05 PM
Night Brings the Hunter Pt. 03
"Just another hunter, like a wolf in the sun.
Just another junkie on a scoring run.
Just another victim of the things he has done.
Just another day in the life of a loaded gun."
-Rush, "You Bet Your Life"
San Finzione One touched down in The People's Democratic Republic of Uongo. Helena and Colleen were dressed again (Colleen having to change into a spare uniform.), and Helena had invited her to the castle on her next trip to San Finzione and asked her address, telling the stewardess to expect a package soon. Colleen had definitely earned her new iPad.
Five limousines were waiting on the tarmac to take the Ultimados to the San Finzione embassy. Helena instructed Capitano Ramirez to accompany her in the next-to-last limo of the convoy. The embassy had called her on the plane, saying that Maria's captors had tossed a paper bag containing her signet ring and a flash drive over the wall outside from a passing car that didn't slow down enough to get the plate number. As they rode, Helena asked Capitano Ramirez if he'd been to Uongo before.
"Si, Contessa," he responded. "There was an operation once. You have clearance to know this." She didn't press for details.
"I have too. Your usual African dictatorship where the President For Life has five swimming pools and half of his people don't even know that clean water exists as a thing."
"People's Democratic Republic usually means a Communist-backed government," Ramirez replied, watching the passing people and noticing how many carried firearms.
"Yes. And like how that usually goes, they could hook a turbine to Marx's grave and power the whole country with his spinning."
"You do not seem very worried about Lady Maria," Ramirez commented.
"They sent the ring, not a finger. So they know better than to harm her. The flash drive presumably contains their demands or their manifesto or something. They want me to see it, and I imagine they'll be waiting for a reply. That they've chosen this way to contact me also means that I still have a wild card in play."
"They may have already killed her," Ramirez replied. "It may be an execution video."
"If that's so, then there's nothing I can do for Maria but avenge her, so that ISN'T so, do you understand me, Capitano?"
"Si, Contessa. We shall recover Lady Maria."
"That's not in doubt," she said as the gold leaf-covered minarets atop the Presidential Palace came into view. The embassy was a few blocks away.
"It may be the government that has her, Contessa."
"I don't think so. Supreme Comrade and President-for-Life Kiburi enjoys beating his chest on television too much to be this quiet about it. And he knows better than to cross me. There's a reason nobody stopped me from entering the country with sixteen men loaded down to start a war."
"So, the stories are true," Ramirez asked. "That La Contessa has a way of destroying the wills of men?"
Helena smiled sweetly at that. "Don't all women?"
"That is not what I meant."
"I know what you meant, Capitano, and I don't feel like having that conversation right now."
Ramirez nodded and the trip continued in silence.
* * *
"Just another hunter, like a wolf in the sun.
Just another junkie on a scoring run.
Just another victim of the things he has done.
Just another day in the life of a loaded gun."
-Rush, "You Bet Your Life"
San Finzione One touched down in The People's Democratic Republic of Uongo. Helena and Colleen were dressed again (Colleen having to change into a spare uniform.), and Helena had invited her to the castle on her next trip to San Finzione and asked her address, telling the stewardess to expect a package soon. Colleen had definitely earned her new iPad.
Five limousines were waiting on the tarmac to take the Ultimados to the San Finzione embassy. Helena instructed Capitano Ramirez to accompany her in the next-to-last limo of the convoy. The embassy had called her on the plane, saying that Maria's captors had tossed a paper bag containing her signet ring and a flash drive over the wall outside from a passing car that didn't slow down enough to get the plate number. As they rode, Helena asked Capitano Ramirez if he'd been to Uongo before.
"Si, Contessa," he responded. "There was an operation once. You have clearance to know this." She didn't press for details.
"I have too. Your usual African dictatorship where the President For Life has five swimming pools and half of his people don't even know that clean water exists as a thing."
"People's Democratic Republic usually means a Communist-backed government," Ramirez replied, watching the passing people and noticing how many carried firearms.
"Yes. And like how that usually goes, they could hook a turbine to Marx's grave and power the whole country with his spinning."
"You do not seem very worried about Lady Maria," Ramirez commented.
"They sent the ring, not a finger. So they know better than to harm her. The flash drive presumably contains their demands or their manifesto or something. They want me to see it, and I imagine they'll be waiting for a reply. That they've chosen this way to contact me also means that I still have a wild card in play."
"They may have already killed her," Ramirez replied. "It may be an execution video."
"If that's so, then there's nothing I can do for Maria but avenge her, so that ISN'T so, do you understand me, Capitano?"
"Si, Contessa. We shall recover Lady Maria."
"That's not in doubt," she said as the gold leaf-covered minarets atop the Presidential Palace came into view. The embassy was a few blocks away.
"It may be the government that has her, Contessa."
"I don't think so. Supreme Comrade and President-for-Life Kiburi enjoys beating his chest on television too much to be this quiet about it. And he knows better than to cross me. There's a reason nobody stopped me from entering the country with sixteen men loaded down to start a war."
"So, the stories are true," Ramirez asked. "That La Contessa has a way of destroying the wills of men?"
Helena smiled sweetly at that. "Don't all women?"
"That is not what I meant."
"I know what you meant, Capitano, and I don't feel like having that conversation right now."
Ramirez nodded and the trip continued in silence.
* * *
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