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Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Chapter 4 Privilege Ones
Charles, the Viscount of de Chagny, sat in his car, enjoying the wind blowing to his face. He smiled. The sun was shinning, the sky was blue and building familiar. It was indeed good to be back in Paris, the capital of United Europe. Well, truthfully it had already been nearly three weeks since he and Harry returned from New Budapest, but after being kidnapped Charles truly appreciated the surroundings of home town. Also, here you really needed to have a death wish to be stupid enough of attacking de Chagny.
Charles father, Count Raoul, had become a famous war hero in the battle of Mazandera, the conflict that finally ended War World III, that took place when Charles was still very little. His mother always did tell him, that he was very lucky of not remembering much of those desperate times which had changed the world. Now that Charles had also lived a brief time of utter darkness, he started to see more clearly how right his mother was and still is.
However, he forced these rather depressing thoughts out of his head, when he saw a familiar figure of a young man, few years older than Charles, with blonde hair and blue army uniform walking on the street. Charles slowed down his car and drove near him.
"Are my eyes deceiving me or is it Philip Carriere himself I see?" Charles asked, smiling.
The blonde man smiled when he recognised the driver. "Charles, it has been a while, hasn't it?"
"It sure has. Are you on a vacation from army?" Charles smiled.
"Nope. Army is over on my part. I just got back in Paris" Philip answered.
"Really! Where are you headed?"
"Um…no place really. I haven't made many plans. Thought about taking it easy for a little while".
Charles smile winded. "Great! If you have time come with me! I was just about to meet some friends…to introduce them to someone you better know".
"Oh really? Who?" Philip asked, as he sat in passenger's seat.
12 minutes later:
"So this life saving Count is coming to Paris today, eh?" Philip asked.
"He is probably already here. But we agreed to meet today. I'm going to introduce him to my friends, since they all represent themselves and their parents. Count wanted to become involved with the society" Charles explained.
"So where are we meeting this mystery man?"
"In the Club House. I've rented a cabinet for our personal use only for this afternoon".
"Who all will be there?"
Charles smiled. "Well, you're just about to see" he said and parked his car.
Philip stood out of the car and watched the huge building. It was known as the Club House, though that wasn't its official name, and it was the place where only the privilege ones enters to talk, play and drink with others privileged ones.
Both young men walked in the extremely upper-class looking building, where a waiter led them to their private cabinet.
"Have the others arrived, yet?" Charles asked.
"All but the highly expected Count himself, sir" waiter answered.
Indeed, Charles saw when the doors were opened, that the cabinet was already occupied by six young people, two women and four men. Charles quickly scanned the room and registered who all had come.
The first one to draw Charles attention was his best friend Harry Hunter, who was currently talking to a young woman of Charles age. Woman had brown hair, with matching brown eyes, and a care-free air around her. Charles knew her very well, the young woman was none other than Maria Cholet, a dear friend of both Harry and Charles. They had basically grown up together. Maria had a very bohemian nature; she was an artist, who never wanted to be trapped in a cage her father had built her. There had been some rumours about an engagement between Charles and Maria but, as dear friends as they were, both knew that it would be a disaster.
On Harry's other side, sitting next to him on a sofa, was another young woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes: Megan d'Arcy, simply Meg. Most would probably describe her as an angel, with her pure, innocent looks. Charles knew Meg was a very good girl indeed, but she had made her mistakes. One night with Harry, too much alcohol and next week Meg's dad had practically ordered Harry to propose her. They had been "engaged" for almost five months now, still very hard trying to find a way out.
Charles looked around to another group of three. He saw two young me chatting. Other one he recognised as Winslow Leach, a skinny man with long brown hair and glasses. Winslow was a technology freak, who always had to know everything and anything new that came to the market. Also a schoolmate of Philip's. The man Winslow was talking with was Richard Firmin. He was tall, rather well build man, with oily black hair and small moustache. He was always dressed very officially, no matter the occasion. Except if he went to a beach. Charles had heard that Firmin had been promoted in the law firm he was working.
If Firmin is here, then very close should be…
And yes, Charles did find the last person in the room, Gilles Andre, sitting on a sofa near Firmin. The two were inseparable ones, though not one would believe it by looking. Andre was almost the complete opposite of Firmin: short, slightly over weight, dressed very loosely and constantly smoking. Andre worked as a reporter to the Parisian Network, and was very good, if not the best they had. Viewers, for some reason, seemed to love him.
It was Andre who noticed Charles and Philip first in the room. He jumped from the sofa, stumped his cigarette and walked to Charles. "Charles de Chagny, you two-faced, backstabbing, excuse of a friend!" Andre said, with a playful smile on his face.
"What? What on Earth did I do?" he asked, knowing that unless Andre was in front of a camera, nothing he said needed to take seriously.
"What did you do? Oh, nothing! Except you got kidnapped by one of the wanted criminals of New Budapest, saved by a mysterious masked noble man and you didn't arrange the exclusives for me!" he said, while playfully smacking Charles shoulder.
Charles turned his head towards Harry. "You couldn't wait for me to come and tell myself?"
Harry simply smiled innocently. Mari rose up and also punched Charles to the shoulder…not playfully. "You, dumpass! What do you go around, getting kidnapped by a bunch of weirdoes! Not even saying goodbye to me" she shouted, rather angrily. She then quieted down and hugged rather confused Charles. "Glad you're okay" she then said.
Charles smiled. "Always!" he said and then turned to Philip. "Look who I found, finally left the army behind, he did" Charles said. He started to introduce him. "This here is Philip Carriere, the guy who used to tutor me in the subjects that didn't interest me. Philip, you of course know Maria, Harry and Winslow already. These fine fellows are Gilles Andre, Richard Firmin and…"
"Meg d'Arcy" Philip said, looking at the blonde woman.
"You know each others?" asked rather surprised Harry, who had met Philip only couple of times in the company of Charles, and hadn't have the foggiest of him knowing his fiancée.
"Yes, we…Miss d'Arcy and I met before I joined the army. On that summer in Rivera, remember?" asked Philip, whose voice had a slight change.
"Yes, Mr Carriere, I do remember you" Meg said, looking Philip straight in the eyes.
Andre looked the two with interest. Hmm, I have a hunch these two did more than just met.
Winslow broke the silence that had appeared. "So, Charles. When will this protecting angel of yours join us?" he asked.
"Well, he should be here…" Charles said, but went silent.
The mood in the room had suddenly changed. He looked around and saw Firmin and Maria looking behind him, both also sensing the sudden mood change. Charles turned around and saw a tall, insanely thin figure, standing proudly on the door, dressed in an expensive looking black suit, with gold in it and wearing a white porcelain mask, covering his face, letting only his black hair fall to his shoulders. Two shinning eyes were scanning the room.
"I'm sorry for not knocking" said an amused voice behind the mask. "The door was open, you see".
To be continued…
