As soon as the social media notification had popped up, alarm bells had started ringing, wagons were being circled quite quickly, in truth these were the moments Rion was paid for and her instinct was usually spot on, they needed to act fast, one bit of fortune was in their favour, the watch signal was still stationary. She smiled as the plan formed in front of her, this was a bold move for Charles to make not to mention a risky one so it must be an important step, she needed to know his endgame perhaps there was a way to turn this to her advantage. Step one set the stage, step two get Asuna back, step three watch and wait like the lioness watching its prey. However first she had a trip to the morgue to attend to, it wasn't that much of a walk from the operations floor to the morgue but it was long enough for her to get orders out, waiting for Rion was
Elena Walsh, the Justicar medic. On the slab was a body that looked like Asuna. "Go on." Rion said
"This is the body of an unknown female found at a farm on the outskirts of Artaxia following a call to local police, as you will observe she bears a pretty much exact resemblance to Asuna. Cause of death is gunshot wound to the head, there are other other injuries a gunshot wound to the back of the right leg and what appears to be bruising suggesting shes been beaten prior to death." Elena said "Time of death about ten last night. Someone went to an awful lot of trouble to make us think this is Asuna."
"Didn't Su Mai try this trick?" Rion asked
"This is a whole lot more sophisticated than Su Mai." Elena said "I took a DNA sample, it's not exact but this girl shares a significant amount of DNA with Asuna."
"This isn't science fiction." Rion said
"Never said it was." Elena said "At a guess this girl is a year maybe two younger than Asuna, similar height, similar weight. IVF does explain this, but how the samples were obtained..."
"Between having Asuna and Lucius" Rion said "Beatrice had a miscarriage, surgery was involved in the aftermath so that's one half. Charles was in charge of the health side of the family bet he could have got what he needed."
On the Azukishima Kayleigh was on the phone to Relkin at Abstergo doing so from her own quarters so as to not give out the sensitive nature of what she was doing even though this was taking a huge leap of faith. "Mr Relkin this is Kayleigh Pryde head of Royal Security at Pyrena, I need you to block Rokkenjiman intelligence access to the smart watch signal this is for the safety of the family and to prevent prying eyes from looking where they need not look, do you understand?" she waited for Relkin to confirm it was done before hanging up, they'd gotten a little bit lucky but they couldn't now show their hand, not to a compromised intelligence entity. Leaving her quarters she found her colleague
Tori Baker.
"How bad is it?" Tori said
"Bad." Kayleigh said "Charles is making moves and I don't like it." she sighed "I'm ordering
Farthing Wood." it was code for an evacuation of the Rokkenjiman Imperial Family, a protocol she'd put in place when she'd taken over and one she'd hoped to never to use. "Josiah and Lucius first. I'll arrange Evanthe's transport."
"Designated White Deer Park?" Tori asked
"Ivyfield Priory." Kayleigh said "Go tonight."
"Understood." Tori said
Elsewhere Emerson sighed "I wish I had something to say, but this isn't about her this is about what we do now." he said "Minister, Admiral Forrester has been asked to compile a list of personnel, when she has done so I need you as part of the defence posture review move those personnel to home bases within Rokkenjima, let's have the bad apples where we know they are." he turned his attention to Kyoko "You're the politician in the family, you know how the game is played, let Charles show his hand, we neutralise his plan and then we deal with him."
Gemma wasn't happy as she sped her car across Ravensbridge, the path that linked Icebridge island with Aelmoorr, she knew the risk to Asuna was now greater than ever, if Charles was prepared to have her death staged then it was possible to suggest that Asuna was now expendable or very close to being expendable, glancing at her onboard computer she could see that she was closing in on the now moving signal "Crystal to control." she said over her radio "Just coming off Ravensbridge."
"Have that." Rion said "Take the B17, you're about fifteen miles back but clearly going faster."
"What's the action?" Gemma asked
"We're going to thunderwave the car." Rion said "It's you against three maybe four targets."
"Lovely odds." Gemma said "On my go?"
"On your go." Rion said
Gemma kept driving, as she did so she sent Asuna a message
When the car stops turtle up., hitting send as she closed to within two miles she kept her foot down, biting her lip, she'd never really considered her role as anything more than Asuna's bodyguard but she knew that from the Rokkenjiman perspective hers was a sacred duty as much as it was a professional one,
What do you know I've turned into Captain Sisko the thought went through her head "Rion stop that car." she said
"Good luck." Rion said
What happened next happened fast, first from the skies above an
Emolga jet swept down, it was a very special aircraft for many reasons this time it was because it was the test platform for 'thunderwave' an emp device designed to stop a moving vehicle by frying onboard electronics, granted anything from earlier than the mid seventies was immune but in this instance the conditions were met, the aicraft closed in needing to be within two hundred metres did make this somewhat impractical in other scenarios but on home soil with no countermeasures to worry about it was perfect. The car ground to a halt, the driver got out of the car just as Gemma's car came roaring down the otherwise deserted road, slamming right into the driver with lethal force, casting him aside much like a rag doll, Gemma checked her rear view mirror, three more getting out of that car one appearing to have Asuna. Gemma steered her car into a tight handbrake turn before much like a knight in the lists setting off for a second lance, this time she ran down one more target before skidding the car to a halt, pistol drawn she got out of the car and ducked behind the engine block bullets flying above her head, two to go Jason Renback and Akane Fujimoto the latter holding Asuna. Popping up she let off two rounds and ducked again as Renback returned fire, predictably with an automatic weapon, the only other sound was of Asuna struggling with Akane, shots were exchanged as Gemma shifted position eventually getting enough vantage to down Renback, now she moved again chasing down Akane who was trying to get away.
"Let her go Akane." Gemma said taking a firing stance as Akane put her gun to the back of Asuna's head "Don't..."
"Drop it." Akane said "You pull that trigger I kill her."
"How far you've fallen." Gemma said "You put a gun to the blessed of Islyna's head? I am to her what Lucinda Hadley is to Beatrice and what you were to Cecelia, I am her guardian, my sworn duty is to protect her, I'm not about to put my sword down. Try me but you will die before you land a blow I promise you that." Akane sucked in a breath, as if steeling herself, one drop of the shoulder from the one time Anausa and Gemma fired, the bullet slicing through Akane's neck dropping her instantly "Don't turn." Gemma directed Asuna as she moved up and fired twice more to make certain, "Fiver secure. On our way back to burrow request air transport." she said over her com as she holstered her pistol and a split second later Asuna was hugging her. "I've got you." Gemma said kissing the top of Asuna's head "It's ok."
At the Marble Palace, Rion's report of Asuna being recovered prompted unconventional cheering in the Round Table room but that was soon quelled as they moved to the relevant of what to now do with Asuna.
"Speaking tactically." Rion said slowly looking around the table "I suggest we keep it a secret. Everyone thinks she's dead, the only people that know otherwise are our people and Charles. He wanted the world to believe her dead for a reason let's give him the rope. We should inform certain people but Rokkenjiman intelligence is a compromised entity so we shouldn't go there."
"Is Kyoko to be trusted?" Serenity asked
"This is where we have a problem."
Mark Sharpe said "We're all of the opinion that Charles has planned this for a long time, he was viceregent and Lord High Steward, he visited Rishiri on multiple occasions, he's met Kyoko when she was Lucretia Marino. It looks suspicious."
"On top of that this all started with Kyoko being dragged out of the woodwork by Charles and now she's Empress." Rion said
"Counter argument?" Serenity asked
"Asuna is still alive." Alex said "Third party surrogate IVF to fake a death is a lot of needless effort if Kyoko is on Charles's side of the equation. You'd just kill Asuna in that instance, staging the death implies they still wanted her for something."
"Leverage." Rion said "Dangle the hope of getting Asuna back alive in front of Kyoko and she'll play ball."
"Sounds familiar." Mark said
"Because it is." Serenity said "It's Cecelia all over again. Major Kirby sunstrike update."
"All data has been uploaded and everything has been packed we can close the embassy and render Antares inoperable within an hour of the order being given." Kirby said
"Nettie what does Charles have access to right now?" Serenity said
"Nothing much, he's mostly a bean counter, he can't order anything militarily but if he can compromise Kyoko..." Nettie said
"And there lies another issue." Mark said "To sustain this, Charles has to have his fingers in a few pies in particular the military. Remei Nine, the Peniche incident they indicate a possibility that he has some military support."
"I'm all for letting this play out a bit in order to discern the extent of his corrupting influence." Serenity said "But if he starts throwing the IRN around that will change. Rion notify Lucinda that Asuna is alive, she can tell Beatrice, but I do not want it public we keep a tight lid on it. Sally you do the same for our allies, Asuna is alive, we can prove that but we're not advertising it because it puts us ahead of Ofdensen and strongly recommend they cut Rokkenjima out of any intelligence sharing agreements."
"Understood." Sally said
"Charles will probably move quickly but not rashly." Rion said
"We have the upper hand now." Serenity said "Ok that's it see you all in six hours I need to go tell Euphy the good news."