Location: Somewhere in Ecskana
Time: 4:19 AST
Akane threw the stack of papers at the man the very moment she walked in the door. "Unacceptable is the word of the day, simply unacceptable on all levels. We handed you a golden opportunity, provided all the avenues to see our mutual aims achieved and...." she made a motion with her hands, "you squandered it. The Imperial Courts have rejected your petitions, public opinion is shifting toward the Empress, and somehow the INIS was capable of positioning Kyōko as an asset to the Imperial Government. She was our ticket to the Throne, to the heart of power in Pyrettania, and all of that is now gone. Now I have to rely upon other plans, assets and methods I'd had hoped to not employ, and it's all because of you. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"I played my role..." he quipped. "The role of an amateur, apparently!" she snapped back in anger. "Tell me, after all the years I invested in placing you in a position to be a man of consequence, how did you turn into one so inconsequential, carrying a legacy barely worthy of remark, and the one time you could have done something to change the course of history, you end up fumbling it? You've nothing to show for your efforts, not to me and certainly not to the Rokkenjiman People. I have no patience," she said as she walked behind him, "for useless things." In one swift motion she wrapped fishing line around her hands, placing it across his neck and pulling with all her might. She ignored the blood and the gasps from Mr. Walshs' neck, as she maintained pressure until his body had stopped moving, dropping the wire before taking his head between her hands.
"You won't be causing anymore failures," she said before spitting in the face before her, then throwing his body to the floor. Akane then pushed a button and, moments later, one of her agents had arrived. "Clean this mess up, I don't need him stinking up this room. He's been enough of a nuisance, I don't need him to become one in death. Disposal options are at your discretion and no, before you ask, we don't need to tie his death to Evanthe. He's already failed enough times that killing him would be of no benefit to her, and I don't feel like undertaking the effort to tie his death to her hands as it is. I just don't wish to see that face again."
"So we're proceeding with the fail-safe?" he questioned. "Don't ask too many questions, you'll know what you need to know when you need to know it, it's as simple as that. Right now you've some garbage to tend to, so do as I asked. Also," she paused, "I'll need our file on one Lucinda Hadley. I won't have any variables threaten our mission and, while she may be my successor, her loyalty to the lesser Anselmos is a liability which must be addressed in short order. They perverted her daughter, Charles saw that and recognized what must be done, and if there is one thing I will ensure in this life it's that the great mistake is corrected. Now, do your duty, stop asking questions, and trust your Lady has all in hand."
While Walsh had been a carry-over from Evanthe's time in Somerset she had hoped the role he would play in the game before them would have been greater. He had been privy to information she would otherwise have not had access to, however, one simple task was beyond his competency to execute. Had he succeeded in his role the Empire would have been in play sooner yet, with this unsatisfactory result, other methods were forced to be called upon.
