Today the family's reuniting... And discovering it's new member. Not everybody's happy with it...
Enjoy and thanks for your ongoing support and readership.
Interludes 38 Crazy men in flying machines
I
-°-oOo-°-
"So what? It could indeed very well be that we have within the next few years a method to lift tons and tons into orbit and that should push us to stop all research on heavier than air airship?"
Charles was not a man who spoke up very often but now his voice was showing a pinch of irritation.
"That's not what I said, Uncle," said William. "And you know it quite well. What I said is that I don't see why Charles Bingley, a man the Nation and the world needs alive and working, is at the brink of playing, once more, the test pilot!"
"My Rotoflyer is at least as safe as a hot air airship," protested Charles. "We did the last test last week and the beast is steady and efficient."
"I don't doubt it a second and I do have a lot of faith in your engineers, Uncle, but I won't accept that you go on taking risks no sane man should take if it isn't his job…"
"But it is my job, William. Don't you see that without me and my visions we would still use landposts and carriages to go from Pemberley to London? And with my Rotoflyer we will be able to fly that very distance in less the three hours! And we will be able to land and take off from this very terrace down there."
"Indeed and I'm as excited than you to see it done but the first flight of the first heavy prototype will not have a certain Charles Bingley as a test pilot, and that's my last word!"
Fitzwilliam couldn't help but let a smile brush over his lips.
He knew exactly why William was so adamant to stop Charles' attempt.
He had said quite exactly the same words to his young ward last evening. But the words were necessary and what's even important they were right.
He decided to come to his nephew's help.
"He's right AND you know it, Charles. We all know that piloting new airships is the thing which gives you the most pleasure but this Rotoflyer of yours is a brand new evolution in manned flight and that turbine of yours has not been tested for more than three months. It could explode while taking off!"
He went to his friend and put his hands on his shoulders while looking him in the eyes.
"We don't want to rob you of your pleasure, Charles, but we cannot afford to lose you. This Nation cannot afford to lose the man who's brought prosperity and wealth to a great majority of the people. This family cannot afford to lose the only man who's able to shuffle in enough funds to balance our women's tendency to finance every charity and good cause available. You gone, who would hold bankruptcy at bay?" He forced Charles to look him into the eyes. " And I refuse to even imagine a world where my best friend would no longer be at my side with his enthusiasm, his kindness and his marvelous gift to think outside the box."
"But…" whispered Charles with a tremor in his voice.
"I know, Charles, I know, you'd love to be the one who takes off vertically with a Heavier than air airship for the first time in human history. Like you were the first to pilot the Blue Bird. But just imagine that what we all fear happens and that this turbine of yours does something unexpected and kills you? Would your heirs accept to go on with what you do so well: finance the impossible? When said impossible would be responsible for their loved father and husband's death?"
Fitzwilliam knew that he had won when Charles looked at his feet and sighed.
"You're the man whose ideas and propensity to spend money on fantasies has given Mankind the skies in every form imaginable. The world will forget the name of the Blue Bird's first pilot but it will never forget Charles Bingley, the man who gave Mankind several new frontiers."
"You fight dirty," hissed Charles in a whisper.
"To save my best friend's life I'd fight even dirtier."
I
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"That one was close," said Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin while trying to hide a smile.
André Jacques, her husband, and the Company's Head Airship engineer, could only nod discreetly.
The Rotoflyer was ready or else he wouldn't let his wife testpilot it. But Bingley was a man who didn't believe in his own mortality and that, for a test pilot, was a bad thing.
Jeanne on the other side was the most fastidious pilot he knew. She would spend hours –literally- looking over a little noise only she was hearing before going on with a test. That hadn't been enough to avoid all the accidents but it had been enough to get her at the age of forty one without spending more than a few weeks in a hospital bed.
"You'll be the one who's going to test the Dragonfly…"
"We'll call the prototype the Damselfly now that it is mine…" smiled Jeanne while looking at the Rotoflyer.
It was an impressive airship with its four low rotors surrounding the central bubble where the two turbines –a demand made by Jeanne who preferred two engines to one, in case of a problem- were housed. It had implied a larger airship but –as usual- Bingley had accepted the extra costs without even frowning. Now they had an airship that was able to lift ten passengers and ten tons of freight straight into the air without needing an airfield. The passengers would be seated in the passenger compartment but for the test they had been replaced by six dummies and a steel bubble where the pilot would be protected in case of a turbine explosion.
The bubble was also able to be expelled from the Rotoflyer and had been equipped by the latest heavy duty parachute André Jacques had been able to develop.
The bubble had been André's special project for the last three years. He had developed it in order to take a lot of kinetic energy out of an impact. He was quite sure that, if the bubble was balanced and bracken by the parachute, the bubble would be crunshed like a paper egg but the pilot would survive.
His wife would survive.
Just now the bubble was a rather ugly contraption added on the otherwise pristine alumina hull of the Rotoflyer but that was not a problem. Not when they were only testing the reliability of the concept and the turbines.
Once these points were secured he would take the bubble apart and install his reinforced tub-seat with jump contraption within the alumina hull. But not yet. Now was the time for the bubble.
I
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"And ignition…" shouted André while turning the switches.
Both turbines began to sing and he could hear the one hundred little bells beginning to vibrate.
His wife thumbed her approval and counted with her left hand from five to zero before engaging the gears.
The four rotors began to move. First slowly and then faster and faster.
The Damselfly began to shift from one side to the other like a ship moved by incoming waves and suddenly it hoped a few inches up.
And there it just stood as if stopped in time. All the bells calmed down and only the song of the turbines was to be heard.
Jeanne looked at her husband and pointed toward the sky.
He nodded.
A second later the Damselfly began a very slow rise toward the clouds.
I
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"How is it going?"
As usual Charles had been present at the first test and, for once, he was on the ground looking upwards.
André looked up from the image the telescope was projecting on his screen.
"Everything seems alright" he said. "The turbines seem to look as your engineers promised. It is astounding what we are doing quite now when I remember myself, ten years ago ,gluing paper strips together to build a balloon."
"Indeed we quite made a few steps in interesting directions. And with the Liepce's brothers' new invention we will get things into this planet's orbit before the end of the decade."
"As long as you're not aboard, Uncle," said William, "I can only agree with your prognosis. We will get there and we will have picture of the earth from the sky…" He smiled at his uncle. "And we will know where to look to get onto the last islands and lands we still don't know."
"And we will share them as it suits for allies," pointed Alexandre out.
William shot him a smile.
"We shall see, my friend, with these new airships we will be able to send people everywhere without ever needing an airfield again." He struck out his tongue. "Once more the British genius will give us the superiority."
"Your British genius uses a lot of French researchers, I notice," grumbled Alexander while shooting a dark glance at André Garnerin.
"Hey don't look at me like that, Your Highness" protested the later. "Nobody in France was willing to sponsor us and we had to go where we knew we could progress." He pointed toward the sky. "And look where it brought us! We…"
He was interrupted by a strong bang accompanied by a large light flash and a smoke eruption at the exact place where the Damselfly was hovering.
He was immediately at the biggest telescope.
"One of the turbines just exploded but the hull holds and the rotors are still rotating… She's trying to bring her down…" They could all hear the stress in his voice but he went on with his report.
"She is stable and coming down…"
"Coming down…"
The point increased slowly till they were all able to recognize the Rotorflyer hovering towards them.
"The turbine fire is out but she is clearly out of power," said André when the craft was near enough to let him examine the damage.
"What about the fuel tanks?" asked Charles.
"We fueled only the outer fuel tanks, the others were loaded with water. We will see how the turbine's explosion has damaged them. For now the smoke seems to come out of the broken turbine and the fuel tubing."
He stopped looking and whistled at the ground crews.
"Get the Firemen ready to smother the fire…" He looked at the guests. "And I don't want any of you out of the bunker before the fire crew has given us their report."
They all agreed while the Damselfly hovered the last yards to the landing pad.
As usual for Jeanne's piloting she did put her right on the spot.
Ten second after the landing the maintenance crews were all over the craft and Jeanne in her husband's arms.
As usual she wasn't even sweaty.
"Never flew anything more stable, love. And the second turbine was clearly enough to get her to the ground." She smiled at Charles. "That's another fine piece of airship we have there, boss! When we get the problem with the turbine resolved, we'll have the smoothest and easiest airship ever built… I can't wait to get another go at it!"
"You'll get one and you'll get it quite soon, I intend to use the Dragonfly to make the first extraction ever…"
"What do you mean extraction, Uncle?" asked William.
"I've got a message from Jane and she seems to be in a hurry to vacate the premises of Arabia."
William paled visibly.
"Is mom in danger?"
"Probably, Willy, she wouldn't have asked for a fast extraction if she had felt safe and secure. But she doesn't seem to be in a hurry. We have ten days to be there and I had hoped to be able to use the Damselfly to get her out of the Sultan's Palace."
"Is she fleeing the Sultan?"
"No, it seems that the Shahinshah's bully boys have been cut loose and are trying to find a way to destabilize the Sultan's new son in law?"
"Who's that?" asked William.
"Well it seems that Geffraan Khan has been offered the hand of the Sultan's favorite daughter Yasmina. Jane writes that she is a nice young girl who won't disgrace the next family meetings."
"Dad's marrying again?" The frown was there and the heir's dark eyes were proof enough that he wasn't really pleased.
"There are propositions a man who wants to survive to his next birthday should not turn down," said Fitzwilliam who had received a complete report written by d'Arcy. "Especially if he is journeying with two wives and five kids. And your mothers agree of the match."
"They agree?" He looked at his Uncles and they could see that he was wavering between incomprehension and anger. "But how could they agree with such a thing? He didn't need another wife. I don't understand…"
"Don't judge him, William," said the Regent. "You know Jane and you know Maureen. If they agreed they will have excellent reasons."
"You'll have the opportunity to ask them about those reasons, son," smiled Charles. "They are coming back with us, new wife included. And, to complete that little family chronical, it seems that Betty has won a suitor!" He clapped his hands and turned around to go towards the landed airship that the ground crew had just declared safe. "I hope they have ligthstocked him, I'm rather curious and excited!"
I
-°-oOo-°-
"The good news," said André while putting the bow on Charles' work table, "the turbines are perfect and it wasn't because of them that the explosion occurred."
"And the bad news?" asked Charles.
"The old pressure-tightness problem is back with a revenge."
"The pumps?"
"Exactly," said Jeanne. "They are too powerful for the piping. They have burst in two places and within seconds the mixture has immediately taken fire."
"Do we have means to solve that problem?"
Andre nodded.
"We have the usual small-scale method which is what I'm doing exactly now by asking my best craftsmen to put the pipes into others pipes and to weld the construct to the turbine's entry pipes. It will resolve the problem and give us the possibility to go on with the tests but, as you know, it goes against my construction philosophy. These turbines will never be usable again and I hate it to lose good engines because we were sloppy while building the aircraft."
"Let's not forget that it is a prototype," said Jeanne. "It could have been destroyed this morning and there would have been nothing to recover if I hadn't brought it down smoothly. You really can't demand that the first models are already perfectly balanced to be mass-built."
Charles could only nod.
"I have two teams on that tightness problem. We are searching ways to transform this Hevea juice into something more solid and reliable but it is a difficult endeavor and even Davy's amazing skills in chemistry have been unable to find us a material which combines elasticity, solidity and heat-resistance. We have materials which have two of those characteristics and they have been very useful for other creations, but the combination of all three has been, as of yet, impossible."
"Then we'll have to do it the ugly way which should cost us a passenger seat," said André.
"We'll go on trying to find a way to solve that problem," agreed Charles, "but for now just double the pipes and weld the thing to the turbines. Let's go on with the tests."
"We should be able to launch the Damselfly a second time tomorrow afternoon."
"I'll be present…"
I
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"Amazing how graceful the Damselfly is able to move," said Charles. "But isn't she a little slow?"
"She sure is, agreed André. But for now it's all we will get in the form of horizontal speed. We will have to add a third turbine and two vertical rotors to get the whole thing at a higher speed. As it is the only way to move forwards is to tilt the whole airship with the bow down and the stern up. The flaps are then used to push the Damsel forwards. It is not fast but it is efficient and she is able to move as fast as a civilian made airship. It should be possible to use this airship model in the same way seaships use dinghies."
"It is indeed interesting to have airships which are fast and easily steerable. I hope you'll be able to give it a try in Arabia next week. Shall we be ready?"
"We will go on with the tests and prepare and speed up the building of the second craft. We will even be able to test her before you take her aboard. But you should be ready to use another vehicle if we find out that there are other, not yet seen, defects."
"I have a plan 'B' but I'd love to use the Dragonfly to get them out. It would be very satisfying to be able to show off with my very last airship model."
"I don't doubt it for a moment but let's not forget that they are prototypes and if push comes to shove I would prefer you take the Damsel and Jeanne with you. She will be able to get her on the ground with near certainty. Another pilot? I wouldn't bet the passenger's lives."
"We'll decide the day before the departure." He looked at Jeanne. "If you believe you have an operating and safe airship then you are aboard and you'll be in for the extraction duty."
"No promise there," answered Jeanne. "It is a prototype and it is still in the test phase but I'm confident, she's the best manufactured prototype we ever had." She smiled at Charles. "Those are damn good craftmen you have at your service, Boss and it shows."
I
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"Thanks taking us with you, Unce," said William who was, like Alexandre and Lexi, sitting on Zephyr's bridge in what Charles Bingley called the Dress Circle.
"No problem, William. I know you are anxious to see what happened to your mothers and with you aboard I can, if the circumstances are favorable, induce a little improvised State Visit to the Sultan's Palace. We will stop in Cairo to get your mother's last instructions. Depending on her message we will fly in discreetly or with great fanfare." He winked at his nephew. "And I really have no idea which solution I prefer. Going in with flying banners with the greatest flying object existing on earth would have its upsides but stealing in and extracting your family would be so much more thrilling…"
"Whatever happens, we'll have fun, won't we?" asked Lexi.
"Indeed, dear niece, that's the philosophy I follow with all my heart. Let's have fun!"
I
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"No thrill for us, boys," said Charles while reading the telegraph. "We are soon enough to be in time for the Sultan's daughter's wedding. We are invited if we can proceed to the Palace without trespassing the sacred compound." He looked at Zephyr's captain and Jeanne Garnerin. "Can we?"
They looked at the pictures –aerial lightstockings taken by discreet airship whose job it was to get pictures from every place on earth- and both nodded.
"With the Damselfly I can get us in the Palace without coming near nor the compound, nor the City," said Jeanne. She looked at the ship captain. "How long to get here?" asked she while pointing toward a little point on the map.
The captain looked outside toward the air meters and the wind vane.
"With this wind we could be there an hour before midnight. And I could stay there in stationary flight for as long as you wish considering my fuel tanks."
Charles looked at Jeanne.
"Ready for a little night flight?"
"Without a problem if they prepare a little landing circle with bright lights within the Palace's gardens." She pointed towards the city. "But if we do it I'd prefer to have a lot less distance to fly." She shot a questioning look at the captain. "Can you unload me just over the city? It would mean a lot less distance to travel with very poor visibility."
"I can do it but I will have to retreat toward the rendezvous point before sunrise. You'll have to Chappe me instructions from the palace as soon as you arrive."
"Shouldn't be a problem" said Jeann. "I'm fluent in the Chappe night code."
"I'll chappe our answer to the ground and we can go on," said a smiling Charles.
I
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"Ready?"
Jeanne's voice was as steady as usual even if they were ensconced in a little alumina box that was just about to be launched in the middle of the night into perfect darkness.
"Well, we're here and we're here to join a family meeting, let's do this."
Jeanne smiled and switched on the two turbines.
There was a buzzing noise soon to be covered by the normal more whooshing noise of the fonctionning turbines.
The Damselfly lifted off and after a few yards of gliding over the Zephyr's deck, she began her smooth descent.
"Please look out for the light circle we are looking for," said Jeanne. "If you see it please announce its whereabouts by using the clock system I explained you. Twelve o'clock is now where I look at…"
"Je le vois, à sept heures, (I see it at seven o'clock)" said Alexandre after having seen a circle made out of a dozen flares.
Immediately Jeanne began to turn around the Damsel's axis and soon she was able to discern it.
"I see it, we are going down, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Here we go!"
I
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It was perhaps an unprepared family reunion but all involved did show pleasure and satisfaction to be, once more reunited.
Yasmina and her father were present but didn't intervene while the family was coming together.
The Sultan soon glided toward the Damsel and greeted the pilot –who was wearing goggles and a scarf- while admiring the smooth hull of the newest British airship.
"Superbe exemple de technologie aérienne, non ?(Quite an impressing piece of flying technology, isn't it?)."
"Nothing better ever built, Your Majesty," answered Jeanne. "Not a very long range yet but very useful to get in and out of a transport airship without having to make it land… It will save a lot of time when it comes to deliver postage and other commodities."
"And could be quite interesting to bring a few elite soldiers into a closed compound," whispered the Sultan.
"There are other ways to get that done," answered Jeanne. "But this is the only one who's also able to get said elite soldiers out. I'm sure the elite soldiers will love it…"
"Indeed! And how does this little impressive piece of British technology work?"
"Smoothly," answered Jeanne while shooting a glance at her boss who nodded his approval. "It is built around two turbines that…"
"Turbines?"
"Well, it is a rather simple physical theory, let me exp…"
I
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"And allow me to introduce my fiancée, Yasmina Hosmanli Hanedani who happens to be the daughter of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire."
D'Arcy was very aware of his son's reluctance –he had been warned by Charles' early dispatch- and he was trying to look relaxed and confident.
Charles bowed and the boys soon followed suit while Lexi curtsied.
Yasmina not really used to social interactions with males and having never learned to curtsy made a bow of her own while joining her hands Indian style.
"I am pleased to meet you all…" said she using the sentence Jane had taught her just for that occasion. Then she looked toward Jane and said another sentence.
"She's sorry that she has not yet learned enough to speak English…" translated Jane. "But if you speak slowly she's quite sure to understand most of what you say."
She looked at her husband and pointed with her eyes toward the house.
"I believe William has something to tell you about, dear. Best not to let it linger any longer."
I
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"How could you?" said William in a low voice. He was angry but he was also very aware that he couldn't show his anger freely.
"Easily," answered d'Arcy. "I wasn't looking for another wife but finding one wasn't a nightmare and it was even easier because of your mother."
"How so?"
"I would have refused –reluctantly I will confess because it would have endangered Great Britain's Eastern strategy - but your mom convinced me to accept."
"Why would she do that?"
"I suppose because she wanted me to get Yasmina out of a harem and safe with a kind husband?"
"Don't blow your own trumpet, dad, it's vainglorious."
"I agree but those were my wives' arguments, son, not mine. As said I won't pretend that getting a third wife was giving me the willies but I did hesitate because I didn't want to risk my good relationship with your moms. Maureen was a little more reluctant than Jane but she soon was convinced. You know you mother with a cause to fight for, don't you?"
"I do," agreed William. "But are you sure it won't alter your…" he hesitated. "Threesome?"
"I had my fears but I'm quite reassured now. It will change my relations with my wives but it will be for the best, I'm sure. Yasmina, you'll see once she's able to speak English fluently, is a great scholar and a woman of many intellectual skills. She seems to be perfectly complementary with Jane's social abilities and Maureen's down-to-earth temperament. And the wedlock with the Sultan's daughter will make me one of the Ottoman Empire's dignitaries. In view of Fitzwilliam's plans for our Eastern possessions, it couldn't be better."
"So it is only politics?"
"Not at all, it is politics since it is because of her father's political decisions that she came to be with us, but it is also very personal. She's a kind and rather frightened girl who was dreaming of finding a husband who wouldn't smother her intelligence and abilities to just see her as a sexual plaything. We, and that includes Jane and Maureen, we will give her what she was looking for."
"But isn't there a risk that she…" he hesitated, the walls could have ears. "How about her adaptation to our very own climate?"
"That could have been a problem since she's a fragile little thing, that's for sure. But Jane made the first move and arranged everything in advance. It helped that Yasmina caught a bug and already got sick three days ago." William's frown –which showed his father that he had quite grasped all the implications-, was loaded with irritation but he managed to stay silent. "It took all of your mother's healing abilities to heal her. But she was back on her feet as soon as the following afternoon." D'Arcy's smile became quite smug. "And you've seen her she's quite radiant these days. Nothing to fear for the ceremony, she'll be in the best health possible. It quite scared Jane to imagine it happening four days later, it would have been much more difficult for her to heal Yasmina while journeying westwards. As it happened," insisted d'Arcy, "it was for the best."
William couldn't help but shook his head. He loved his father and –no need to deny it, he admired him quite a lot- but, from time to time he had to look at his many shortcomings and, each time, it was giving him an image he didn't like.
"I suppose I'll have to accept the fact that I'll soon be step-son for another woman…" he sighed.
"I do fear so, son," said d'Arcy. "And whatever you think or feel don't forget she's not the one responsible for all this. She's her father's pawn in a bargain where we are all in to win a lot more than we hoped for."
"And your bonus will be a third wife…"
"That's no bonus, son," protested d'Arcy. "That's a price to pay." He clapped his son on the shoulder before embracing him. William made no difficulties to answer to his father's embrace. "And, as you'll discover once you be caught in wedlock, one wife is quite enough to give a man a lot to think about."
I
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"I was quite surprised to see you, Your Highness," said the Sultan while sipping his fruit juice in his little reception room where he had invited Alexandre Bonaparte and his fiancée.
"Lexi was coming," he took Lexi's hand and kissed it. "I couldn't let her go without me and I must admit that I was rather interested with meeting you."
"Meeting the defeated enemy?"
"Meeting the man who out of defeat and chaos was succeeding to build a new modern nation," countered Alexandre. "After everything you've lost, your disappearance was much more likely than what happened."
"I lost the greatest part of my Empire and, I concur, there were a lot of opponents who wanted my skin. But thanks to your father, most of the very dangerous ones were already dead. The others, I dealt with immediately."
"It was the move to make," agreed Alexandre. "Had you been pulled down, the Ottoman Empire would now be a province of Persia."
"You believe so?"
"Indeed, many times we have considered the fate of your Empire with William and the Regent. We have very good information about what takes place in most developed countries and we soon discovered that you were the only one who could hold the Empire together."
"And you tried nothing to put me out of my misery?"
"We spoke of it but Fitzwilliam Darcy was adamant that a Ruler could not and should not lower himself to use methods of common thugs. Nations have their own codes and diplomacy is much more efficient than assassination to resolve problems between two empires."
"I would have loved to see you use diplomacy with us before skinning my Empire…"
"Father made a choice," answered Alexandre who had discussed the problem with his father, with d'Arcy and with the Regent. "He choose France and since, I must remind it, the Ottoman Empire was already France's enemy, an alliance with Russia was the path to follow to ensure the most territorial rewards. And "liberating" those poor Christians suffering under the Muslim yoke was good for my father's image."
"They never suffered…"
"They were second class citizens," insisted Alexandre. "Today, in France's Empire, every Muslim has exactly the same rights than a Greek Christian or a Catalan Catholic. A third of the Senate's members are Muslims and there is not a whim of rebellion anywhere in those late Ottoman Regions we have included in the Empire."
The Sultan could only nod.
"You are right but sooner or later the Religions will strike back."
"We have included all clerics as paid public servants into the Imperial Civil Service. We have the means to use Religion to promote the Nation's policy and not the reverse."
"There will be clerics who refuse to adhere to your sham…"
"It is no sham and there were such clerics. No longer!"
"It looks very much like an Autocracy to me…"
"Father is a Monarch and he has, nobody will deny it, concentrated in his own hands a lot of regal power. But so do you and you even claim yourself as the Commander of the Faithful. We do the same as you but with more modern methods. Faith is a fundamental private domain of every citizen of the Empire. Faith has no place within the public sphere were all citizens must have exactly the same rights and duties. As long as we are able to warrantee those rights to our citizens –and feed and house them decently of course- , they will be satisfied."
Alexandre smiled at his counterpart.
"And since we have included those parts into the French Empire, the wealth of everybody has tripled everywhere. Le Caire is now a thriving city of more than five hundred thousand satisfied people. And Alexandria is with Marseilles the greatest sea port of the Empire. I don't want to gloat, but I'm quite sure that nobody regrets the Ottoman Empire where we took its place."
The Sultan nodded once more and smiled.
"How old are you, Your Highness?"
"I'm fourteen, Your Majesty…"
The Sultan couldn't help but snicker.
"And at fourteen you're better informed and trained than any of my adult sons. I was already in admiration with your father –apart that I loathe what he did to me and my Empire- and now I find myself envying him his heir…"
Alexandre decided that now was not the time to make a comment.
I
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"What is the British Empire's heir doing in Medina," asked the Shahinshah.
"He's the Khan's step son, and he came with the rest of the family, his sister's fiancé included," answered his eldest son. "They have probably been invited to join the Sultan for the wedding."
"We have both heirs of the most powerful Empires at point blank, we could obtain the Sultan's demise without even taking a shot at him. How would both fathers react should something happen while they are the Sultan's guests."
"I doubt we would get at them, let's not forget the five men who went in to get at the Khan's daughter. None came back out and there wasn't even a commotion around the Khan's apartments. We clearly don't have the men able to do this type of job."
The Shahinshah sighed and sat back on his pillows.
"You're probably right and I doubt the French would stop at our border if they arrive to Baghdad. They are greedy dogs and their First Consul is the greediest of all."
"But we still could invite both heirs to a meeting. They are both mere boys and boys have wishes we could perhaps fulfill…"
"That's a good idea, son. Try and get them for an informal meeting. At least we will remind them that their enemy's enemy is probably the ally they need."
I
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"One does not decline an invitation of a man of importance, William," said d'Arcy. "And it is probably a good sign that you are both invited. The Shahinshah wants to impress you and remind you that Persia is now a very interesting potential ally. You'll learn a lot by speaking with him."
"We don't speak Persian, it won't be a very interesting conversation."
"You'll have translators, it will be enough, you'll see. You are not there to broker a treaty but to show that you are both interesting young men who have a clear understanding of what's at stake."
"Have we?" asked Alexandre with a smile.
"I hope so and if not, just play the part…"
I
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"I'm so glad you could come to visit me…" said the Shahinsha without standing up but while bowing –slightly- in their direction. "Forgive the simplicity of my surroundings but I'm a mere guest here and I don't have at my disposal everything I would have in Tehran."
Since it was only a rhetoric affirmation destined to push them into speaking ill of their host both boys only nodded while smiling.
"Thank you for your invitation, your Majesty," said William. They both had decided that he would be their spokesman since he was the eldest and the one who would become King first. "We are proud to have been invited in the presence of the Head of the oldest reigning dynasty of central Asia."
"It is only natural, your Highness. If I remember well your own Monarchy is more than a millennium old. Nothing to compare with my three millennia but then," and he looked at Alexandre, "way better than some others twenty ridiculous republican years."
Alexandre's smile increased.
"I won't be there when my Dynasty celebrates its three thousand years of ruling over half the world but I'll let instructions to my heirs to not forget inviting your heir when the time comes…"
The amazement of the man was obviously visible and both boys saw in his eyes that he was balancing between anger and humor.
The eyes clearly chose anger while his throat mimicked laughter.
"You are young but you are quick at repartee. Which shows a smart and swift mind. Do you play chess?"
"Indeed, I do…" Alexandre looked at William. "We both do…"
"Who wins when you play against each other?"
"He wins," said William. "Most of the time. I'm too impetuous and he always outwaits me during a game."
"So you are the champion, young friend."
"Only against William, Your Majesty. Against other members of the Darcy family I'm only number four."
"And who's best?"
"Geffraan Khan wins nine times out of ten," answered Alexandre. "He's not only very patient but he studies his opponent's game until he knows him perfectly. After that he's invincible."
"He wins also against your father?"
"He wins against everybody but my father," said Alexandre. "But that's because my father doesn't like chess. He says that if he wants to win a battle he has soldiers and armies to do it. And finding an idiot somewhere who has illusions about his value as an army commander had always been too easy."
William chose that moment to intervene. He had seen the Shahinshah's smile disappear. It was perhaps time to change the subject.
"He also often says that he has no time to waste at silly games, Alexandre. He's a very busy man, your father."
"Rulers are often busy men," pointed Alexandre out taking out the hand William extended. "They don't have a lot of free time…"
The Shahinshah, though, was not in the mood to change the subject. He made an imperious gesture and two servants came in the room carrying two chess tables.
Within two minutes the boards were prepared.
"I'm a rather good chess player and I must admit that these last weeks, while we were negotiating, I was quite bored and played a lot. Mind for a chess lesson?"
"At our age," said William, "it is always a good idea to take lessons from the bests."
Alexandre shot him a dark look but agreed nevertheless.
"Let's play then…" said the Persian King.
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William had been swept aside ten strokes before but Alexandre was resisting. He very soon had fathomed that he would not win. His overture had been too sloppy and he had lost a few important pieces too soon in the game. He could have struggled longer but he felt that not winning was a better political choice than winning and he had fought as long as necessary to give his opponent a fair fight. But not more.
Clearly Alexandre would not let the Shahinshah win without giving everything he could.
Each time Alexandre looked at him William tried to message him to give it up and to let it go but Alexandre wouldn't listen.
After more than an hour extra time between the Persian King and the French heir, the Shahinshah smiled at William before beginning to speak. More for himself than for the two boys it seemed at first.
"Do you know that it is extremely difficult for a King –or any other ruler- to find honest men around him? And I use the term 'men' knowingly because I never encountered an honest woman at all." He sighed. "Most of the time you have two sorts of people gravitating around a throne. There are the greedy cowards who believe that being honest is going to put them into too big a trouble to survive. And then there are the greedy politicians who always choose to give the ruler what they believe he wants. Most of the time they have no idea at all but then they are so sure to be right that they really never overthink what they have done." He placed his Knight at a position where he was threatening Alexandre's Queen. Alexandre reacted by retreating her to a place where she was safely threatening the Persian fool.
The Shahinshah went on with his little speech.
"And probably all of them don't look at a game as what it really is. They believe it is a way for the King to ascertain his power. He plays, he's the King, he wants to win. So they let him win." He shot a glance at William. "Some after having built a rather credible defense to give Him a faked but acceptable victory. Those are the politicians." He winked at William. "Or, if foreigners, let's call them the diplomats. The others will just make a show of playing never ever making any efforts to win. And doing so they do waste their ruler's time. Very rarely do you find a man who has the guts to stand up and put up a fight that is worth the King's time. So, dear opponent, you should give your father following message from a Persian Chess addict. Playing chess, for a man of power, is not about winning the game. We have already won the game! Playing chess is about gauging the people you work with. Believe me when I say that in one hour you know everything you need to know about the man you are facing. You know if he is worth the time you've invested in the game and you know to what that man will be useful for the Empire."
He made another attack with his Knight but Alexandre parried it with a clever Fool movement.
"Of course what I just said is not true when two foreign rulers are facing each other. Those will try to win because losing is not an option, even within a game." He looked at William. "You made a bad choice by letting me win. I have now a psychological advantage over you which when added to the fact that I'm older and already a ruler would give me the overhand should we have something to trade for." He looked at Alexandre who was clearly at his highest concentration. "Your friend here will not wield, that at least is clear. I will win, that's not a question, but he will give everything he has till the bitter end. And after what looked like a simple game I will have learned more about him, his father and his Empire than a hundred spies could have espied for me." His eyes drifted again toward William. "You, on the other side I will not know because you've cheated." His smile was back. "Which gives me quite another sort of information about you, your Regent and your Empire."
One hour and twenty two minutes later, Alexandre accepted, finally his defeat. He wasn't happy about the outcome but he was satisfied about his resistance.
This time the Persian King stood and bowed at them.
"You owe me a revenge, Your Majesty," said Alexandre just before exiting the room.
"As long as it isn't on a battle field, you're welcome, Your Highness."
"Tomorrow?"
"I'd be happy to give you another lesson, my young friend."
Both boys bowed and went toward the door.
Just as they were to be left out, the Shahinshah called out.
"You said that Geffraan Khan wins nine games out of ten, the tenth who wins it?"
"Those go to two different persons who win on a regular basis against him and almost every time against me."
"Would one of these be present in Medina?"
Alexandre turned around and smiled at the King.
"They are both here, would you like to try a game against them?"
"Indeed, it would be my pleasure to, at least find real opponents."
"I'll tell them…" said Alexandre. "If they accept I'll bring them with me tomorrow morning."
"That would be very kind of you…"
William made a little gesture and the Persian King invited him to speak.
"What I don't understand is why you don't ask us to come with Geffraan Khan? He is the family's champion."
"That's probably true but he is the only one I won't play against and if you think about what I told you during our games, you'll probably understand why it can't be the case."
Both boys thanked once more and followed the servant who was there to guide them.
"Do you think they will accept?"
"Of course they will," answered Alexandre. "You know as well as I how they are proud of their Chess skill. They will jump on the occasion. But I'm not sure the Shahinshah will be pleased when he sees his opponents."
"He never said he didn't play against women," pointed William out. "And, for once he won't have a politician or a coward, Maureen will make no gifts. She'll want him skinned and gutted like all her opponents…"
"And Lexi will want to show off before her mother… I know a Shahinshah who's in for a bad morning!"
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