Fantasy Whatever Gets You through the Night by TMaskedWriter
#52
"Violeta, My Count." She responded with an attempt at a curtsey. The Count bowed in response. He then walked over to Hernando, looked at Violeta, and whispered to him.

"Don't let go of that one." He told Ramirez. "She's got a spirit."

He smiled as the Count shook his hand again. The Count then guided the Generalissimo toward the door.

"So, Armando, tell me more about the new recruits." The Count said as they approached the exit.

"Well, My Count, there is not a lot to say..." Santori said, holding the door for him.

Then it closed, and The Count was gone.

* * *

"He wasn't able to keep that promise; to make our careers boring." Generalissimo Hernando Ramirez said to Contessa Helena de San Finzione as she sat in the royal robes, listening intently. "The next year, 9/11 happened. The year after, Kiburi came into power in Uongo. Other threats came, and he ended up needing to send us to other countries after all. If he ever brought the subject up again with Santori, forgot, or simply never found the right moment, I do not know."

"I know he remembered you. It never came up, but I know. Your name probably came up occasionally when Vincenzo had to speak with him. Santori enjoyed taking credit for the things he ordered others to do and he'd have noticed that Vincenzo had his eye on you." Helena replied, making use of the box of tissues she'd taken from her desk during Hernando's story. "Vincenzo would have wanted to avoid connecting you to the subject, because that would only have landed you on Santori's shit list."

"Si. And you changed this policy the moment I brought it to your attention on my first day as Generalissimo. And once I'd altered it to make it possible to accomplish, Santori's 'special training regimen for women' became the standard that all must pass. As we all suspected back then, without the tests being rigged, it made them better Ultimados than we ourselves."

"I know that before Armando brought shame to it; the name Santori meant something in this country. Most of the military supported him because of what the family did for San Finzione back then. After, like Whyte, he had an Old Boy Network to dismantle."

"This was why I only dared pursue the matter so far. Every time I saw the Count again, he would be officiating a parade or on a tour of the base. I never got another chance to speak to him. If the man I met and the man you married were the same, he meant the words he said to me that day until his last. And I know what he would have to say about things like imposing curfews and setting up checkpoints at every corner. All are meant to feel welcome and safe here. How can The People make others feel welcome if they must fear their own government?"

She lit a cigarette as she took it all in. She thought about how often her friends had said that she took things too far. How she'd never liked rules, so she always made her own. Ramirez, having spoken to her friends often now, guessed that this was what was on her mind.

"Principles are an inconvenience." He told her. "Often, that is precisely their point. Dietz had a long list of lives for which he must answer before he added Eliot Silverman's."

Helena took another drag. Listening to Ramirez now, it occurred to her that she'd been to the crime scene, but she hadn't gone into Eliot's home. She'd have to go take a look around.

"Ok, then." She told her Generalissimo at last. "No terrorizing the populace to get him; sound advice. Thank you. So, what's MY next move? You're my advisor, advise me."

"You have already told the best, most capable people I know and Mander what to do. The best thing that I believe La Contessa can do now is consider her next move. Because I have learned that this is a thing that SHE is best, most capable of doing."

Helen took a drag of her cigarette once more before smiling at the man.

"I knew there were reasons I let you live after Uongo, Ramirez. Glad I listened to them."

"As am I. La Contessa gave the right orders in that room. I needed to know that they were for the right reasons."

"Ok. Maybe we don't need to bring the Nessuno Family in on this." She relaxed a bit and drank some of her cocoa. "Luc seems unaccustomed to being listened to." She told him after setting it down.

"He has some issues with his supervisor. It is nothing."

"Hernando, you just finished telling me a story about how Vincenzo wouldn't let something important go with 'it's nothing.' We've got a little time now; I need to go get changed again and Nunzio or someone else needs to take this stuff back to the Vault." She stepped behind the screen to change. "So, tell me what the problem is with his supervisor."

* * *

La Contessa and the Generalissimo returned to the War Room. Maria, Luc, and Mander were the only three left in the room, as the others had gone about their tasks.

"You didn't have to wait for us." Helen told them.

"We were talking." Maria replied. "Luc says we should release the real sketch of Dietz now instead of the fake."

"Oui." Luc agreed. "He knows we're on to him, there's no point in trying to deceive him otherwise. Having the citizenry looking out for him now would be a good move." He turned to Maria. "I shouldn't worry about your boyfriend, Lady Maria. He's told La Policia everything he saw and given them Dietz's description. The damage has been done and he would reason that Stavro and the boy are under protection. He now has nothing to gain and everything to lose by trying to silence the witness or take revenge."

Helen agreed. There was no point trying to fool him now. She texted LeGrasse to release the real sketch to the media. She got a text in reply and set the phone down.

"Martin says that Scott's residence has been secured if you'd like to see if you can find anything more there, Luc." He nodded and looked to Ramirez, who did the same. "I'd like to check out Eliot's house as well. So far, we don't even know what Dietz wants except that everything seems to revolve around the movie. Mander, we can do that while they're checking Scott's."

"What should I do, Great-Grandmama?" Maria asked.

Helen turned to Maria and hugged her. She'd done so four times since saving her from the tank.

"What I need now more than anything from you, Dearest One, is to know that you're ok. Take a nap, call Stavro to the castle; I'll send a car. Hell, bring the whole Poldouris family, too. They've never gotten to really see the place. Or go online and pick out your new car; something around the castle." Helen took a breath. "Right now, Maria, it's your Contessa who needs you to be the unworried princess." Maria nodded. The three of them rose. Luc and Ramirez left to check Scott's residence and Maria went to find something to do that wouldn't add to her Great-Grandmama's problems.

"So." Mander said once they were alone again. "We're gonna do some B&E?"

"E, yes." Helen replied. "B, not needed. La Contessa, remember?"

"That's gotta take the fun out of a lotta shit."

"It totally DOES!" Helen said as they walked to select a less-smashed vehicle from the Autorimessa to drive. "I mean, I don't take things anymore; if I see something I really like, I'll buy it from them. But you know how it is; sometimes you see a really nice house and you gotta see what kind of STUFF they've got in there, ya know?" Mander nodded in agreement as she continued. "Then you fuck up and set off an alarm and the cops show up and they're all 'Oh, it's you, Contessa, our apologies.' At LEAST fuckin' book me! It's not the same if I gotta TELL you to do it!"
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RE: Whatever Gets You through the Night by TMaskedWriter - by Ramesh_Rocky - 13-09-2019, 07:46 AM



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