King David hadn't been expecting any visitors to his office this Sunday morning. He'd planned a morning of work followed by a bit of a row on the Palace waters before attending an awards ceremony that evening for some local swordsmanship organisation with royal connections. He was therefore rather surprised when his Chief of Royal Household, Quinn Germaine, buzzed him to inform him
Alex Redfern was asking to see him. When Alex was in town he would often pop in for a chat but then he would phone ahead today he hadn't which automatically made the King slightly suspicious. "Send him in" the King instructed and sat back waiting.
Alex entered seconds later, he was dressed in DPM uniform and simply sat himself down on one of the sofas rather than bother with any of the military trappings one would associate with an officer meeting his monarch. The two were old friends having meet at University and at one time it had been Alex who had run access to the King not Quinn. "Oh come on in Alex, make yourself at home." David said sarcastically as he joined Alex at the sofa's having sat down opposite him. "So what drags you to Northfort?"
"I'm guessing you've seen
this" Alex tossed a translated copy of the Lodjian Times over at David. The King had seen the news as he had spoken with Stasya about the issue that morning. The Queen was Lodjain and still carried a deep affection for her homeland, she was also close friends with Klara and so it was only natural that she would be concerned.
"Yes I've seen it. I'm not sure why it drags you here though." David asked.
"Simple" Alex began, "A while back now Leopold rejoined the Lodjain military and has command of 800 men in the Zoyhan Defence Corps. He holds the rank of Brigadier and he has many old friends in the military, some stationed on the Isle of the Goddess. He's just called for the Queen to be replaced, we have a Conclave of dubious loyalty, a Queen who is practically AWOL and we know that at times the Lodjains can be a little.....well...." Alex was trying to pick his next word rather carefully not wanting to say anything that would be mean to Stasya. "Well corrupt. Hell we've even seen their Warriors of Gaia guard unit screw up protecting one Queen when Viktoriya was assassinated. I want, with your permission, to put in place something so that if Leopold makes some kind of move we can ensure that Klara is removed from Lodja if need be. I frankly don't trust the Lodjains to get the job done. I think we could pull off some kind of extraction from the Isle of the Goddess if we needed to."
David took a deep breath. "Its worth keeping in mind we've significant numbers of advisers there so maybe." The King got up and had a walk around. "The Lodjains though are allies and friends so I'm not sure planning what may be considered an invasion is necessary."
"Be polite, be courteous and have a plan to kill everyone you meet" Alex's mantra made both men smile and laugh a little. "We can put feelers out, put a plan in place and if we never need it we file it in the round filing cabinet" Alex pointed to the King's trash bin, "If we need it we go for it. However for what I have in mind I'd like to include the Cenneg. They've assets in and around Lodja too. I'd like it though to be back door if possible. As such I'd like to have
Fitz make contact with Prince Lennox and sound them out. So I'd need to brief James." Sir James Fitzroy had served in the Alpine Cadre with both David and Alex. The trio's ways had radically changed when first Alex had departed the unit to go to the nations elite Red Legion, then James had lost part of his leg in an IED explosion before finally David had inherited the throne and become King. They had kept a close friendship but for the last few years James had found himself dispatched to Lodja as their Ambassador, he was through their shared history a man both Alex and David trusted.
"Very well" David nodded. "Get a plan together, brief Fitz and then have him make contact with the Cenneg, Lennox is a good first call but give Fitz the authority to include any other Cenneg he thinks he needs to. I want a report before we do anything other than discuss things." Alex nodded that he understood before getting to his feet and leaving to put things into motion.
Sir James Fitzroy enjoyed living on the Isle of the Goddess. His quarters were lovely and he'd kept them as close to resembling a 16th century suite as possible. He had been surprised by Alex's phone call but after the discussion things made sense. The Palace was perhaps the ideal place for such things to be hashed out between nations as on a daily basis he bumped into the significant Ministers of Lodja and other ambassadors. He didn't consider Prince Lennox a friend but they had shared a few drinks over the rugby in the past and so James felt no concern about approaching the Cenneg. It was early in the morning as James went looking for Lennox, he knew the Prince would be his office as Minister of Defence later in the day but he'd like to catch him before he got there so the Lodjains wouldn't see them talking formally. It took James only about half an hour to find Lennox in the halls of the Palace and James waited for him to be alone. "Your Highness" James called to him before approaching. "Good morning Prince Lennox" James gave a small bow. "I have a favour to ask. My King has asked me to have a conversation with you on a matter so I was wondering if perhaps there is time on your schedule to meet for a drink in my quarters so I can fill you in away from your office. I hope that I can count on your discretion."