Tanya thought the man standing beside Kennedy to be fairly good looking, if a bit grim. He was wearing a light brown suit that had obviously seen better days. "Madam President, it's an honor."
She nodded as Viktoriya shut the door. "This is a first for me, Mr. Collins. Usually when I meet a terrorist it's at the end of a gun."
"Michael's no terrorist," Kennedy said quickly.
"I'm a patriot," Collins said.
"And I'm a war hero, at least here in Prussia. Go visit Parissee and they'll call me something else. Probably a bunch of something elses."
The only furniture in the room was a single poker table surrounded by four wooden chairs. Tanya sat down and the others all followed suit.
"I was very surprised when you requested this meeting, ambassador," Viktoriya said. "I had no idea you had any connections to the Celtic Republican Army."
"No one does," Kennedy said and ran a finger along his collar. "I am hoping we can keep all this just between us. Any hint of involvement with the CRA would mean the end of my career as a diplomat."
"And maybe your life," Collins said.
"Well, you don't need to worry about any leaks from our side," Tanya said. "If the British found out about me agreeing to meet you it might affect their high opinion of me." She offered Kennedy a faint smile. "Just to be clear, are you acting as a representative of the Unified States government right now?"
Kennedy crossed his hands in front of his face. Their setting was appropriate as this felt like the beginning of a high stakes game of poker. "No. Neither the President, the Secretary of State, nor the government in Washington have any knowledge of this."
"Which makes you a traitor to your country," Tanya said with a cheerful tone. Viktoriya gave her a sideways glance.
"I don't consider myself to be anything of the sort. I've never done anything to hurt my country, and I never will. Michael isn't a criminal in the Unified States and the CRA is not banned there."
"Nevertheless, you're using your position as an American ambassador to further your own political agenda without authorization from your government. A lot of people would call that treason."
"Joe is a Celtic patriot doing what he can to help his people," Michael Collins with a stern grunt. "Millions in the Celtic Isle and America would call him a hero."
Tanya shrugged. "Hero, traitor, it's all in who you ask. I just wanted to make it clear that you're acting on your own and not in your role as ambassador."
"I'm not entirely on my own," Kennedy said. "There are a lot of Celtic Americans who support independence for the Isle. A number of very influential men are behind me and Michael."
"Yes, it's always safer to be behind the people on the front lines," Tanya continued to sound jovial. "Well, you asked for this clandestine meeting, what did you want to talk about?"
Michael and Kennedy shared a quick look. It was Collins who spoke. "Me and my people want the British out of our country. Since the first English bastard stepped foot on our soil they've been treating us like we were their slaves. They've made us second class citizens in our own country. They own everything. Every factory, every shop, every business has an English owner. Go out in the country and it'll be Celtic hands working the soil, but only as tenant farmers, all the land belongs to British gentlemen who never even bothered to pay it a visit. They treat the Apostolic Church and all our sacred beliefs like we were pagans. Every year there's some new law making it harder for us to follow our beliefs. And if you want to make a name for yourself with the people in charge you need to be a Reformist to even get in through the door. They-"
"Yes, yes, yes," Tanya let a little irritation show. "I'm sure it's awful. Maybe I should fetch a violin and play a sad tune for you."
Michael Collins frowned. "I just wanted to have you understand what's going on in my country."
"Mr. Collins, let me make something clear to you. I don't doubt what you say is true and things are very bad there. But you see, I'm not Celtic and I don't give a damn. Not any more than I care about the Punjabi, the Iberians, or the Africans living in America. I'm an Imperial. It's the Imperial people I care about and no one else. Now please do spare me your sad tales and tell me what you want."
"What I want is freedom. Freedom for me and my people."
"I hate to break this to you, but that's not something I can give you. You would need to talk to Prime Minister Cromwell, though I doubt it would go very well."
"We already know that to get our freedom we'll have to fight for it."
"You people tried that right after the war. It didn't go well did it?"
The Belfast Rebellion had begun with the seizure of the city by CRA soldiers armed mostly with rifles and a few machine guns and homemade bombs. The British had responded with RAF bombers and aerial mages. It had been a slaughter. The rebels were quickly driven out of Belfast and tried to carry out a guerilla campaign. Veteran ground troops poured in and scoured the countryside, hunting down rebel units. Sympathizers were arrested and subject to summary execution. Most of the local population was cowed and kept their heads down. The fighting continued for about two years before petering out, a formal peace was never actually made. The remaining fighters were either killed or forced to flee the country. Michael Collins was the sole survivor of the original leadership and the living symbol of the Free Celtic movement.
"We made a mistake then," Collins said. "We thought if we could hold Belfast we'd inspire the whole country to rise up. We wanted a symbolic victory to show the English and the world what we could do. That was stupid. All we did was make ourselves easy targets. A lot of our best men got killed right at the start of things. It was a damn fool thing to do no matter how brave it was. You can't beat the whole fucking British Army that way."
Tanya nodded. The British were damn good soldiers; brave, professional, and tough. And she had great respect for their aerial mages. The Royal Aerial Corps were among the best mage forces in the world.
"We had more luck when we fought as guerillas. Having a great stand up army and air cover doesn't help so much with ambushes and bombs."
"True, but you still lost."
Collins grimaced and nodded. "That was 'cause we didn't have the whole people behind us. Folk have always hated the English, God knows they've given us enough reason to. We all assumed people would rise up on their own. But when the bastards leveled half of Belfast and started pouring in soldiers people got too scared to do anything. Worse, too many of them turned out to be fucking traitors and sold us out."
"Amazing what thirty pieces of silver can do." Collins, Kennedy, and even Viktoriya stared at her in confusion. Tanya realized that that reference was from a different world. But having grown up in an Apostolic orphanage where liturgy had been drilled into her she had no problem coming up with this world's equivalent. "I mean ten gold denari and a stout hearted horse."
Everyone nodded, getting the reference.
"Yeah, there are always traitors," Collins agreed. "Even in the Celtic Isle where the people should know better. But we've learned our lessons, the British were our teachers. No more stand up fights, no more symbolic victories. We'll fight hard and dirty right from the start. We've had years to get ready for this, and you'd bets believe the English have traitors on their side too."
"Things have been much worse in the Celtic Isle since the Depression hit," Kennedy said. "British landowners are sucking every penny they can out and leaving nothing behind. People are going hungry, in some places it's getting close to starvation."
"And in the cities anyone lucky enough to have work keeps having their pay cut," Collins said. "There's no dole to help. The Celtic Isle is supposed to be part of the United Kingdom now, but only when and where it suits the government. If you're out of work in England, Wales, or Scotland they'll at least make sure you don't starve. But if you're Celtic?" Collins jerked a thumb and used an English accent. "'Go and get a job, Mick!'"
"Everyone is desperate and hungry and ready to do whatever it takes to get the English out," Kennedy said.
"Which I hope leads to why you are here now."
Collins and Kennedy again shared a look. This time it was Kennedy who spoke. "We've raised funds to buy arms and other equipment. Given the state of the arms market right now there's no shortage of suppliers for small arms and ammunition. But certain other, 'goods' are much harder to acquire."
Tanya sat there and said nothing.
Kennedy took a deep breath. "We need military grade computation gems and flight equipment."
"I see," Tanya said with a blank face. "How many are you in the market for?"
Kennedy hesitated. "We want fifty."
Tanya's eye widened and her eyebrow jumped. The surprise wasn't feigned. "Fifty?! That's enough for a whole battalion!"
"That's how many men we've got with the ability," Collins said. "Some of them are Great War veterans who can train the rest. All they need is the equipment."
"And just what will you use them for if I do give them to you?"
"We'll kill a whole lot of Englishmen."
"Care to be more specific?"
"No," Collins shook his head. "You don't need to know."
That earned him a smile of approval. "Well, maybe you have learned a few things. But that still doesn't explain why I should help you."
"Well I guess it all comes down to whether or not you want to see England bleed. 'Cause they're going to bleed either way, that much I can damn well promise you. If you say no we'll go somewhere else."
"Good luck with that," Tanya said. "The Republic, Ildoa, the Entente Alliance, none of them are going to risk pissing off the British Empire. And only nation states produce computation gems and flight equipment, same way they're the only ones to manufacture panzers and military aircraft. The only ones who might help you would be the Rus, and they'd probably only do it if you agreed to make your country communist."
"We aren't fucking Bolsheviks," Collins spat.
Kennedy shook his head. "That's absolutely impossible. The whole point of this is to give our people back their freedom. We're not kicking the British out just to take over ownership of everything ourselves. And if we agreed to it all our supporters in America would turn on us."
"Which means Vorshilov will tell you to piss off."
"So you're not going to help us? Is that what you saying?" Collins asked. "You afraid of them too?"
"Yes," Tanya said without embarrassment. "You're not the only one who's fought them. Anyone who isn't frightened at the prospect of going to war with the British Empire is a moron."
"So you won't help us?"
"I didn't say that. But if I should help you it has to be done in a way that it can never come back to me. Making Britain bleed sounds wonderful, but only if my own hands stay clean."
"No one knows about this meeting except the three of us," Kennedy said. "And it will stay that way. If you agree to help us we can have the money and the goods go through intermediaries who won't know who the deliveries are made to. Believe me, President Degurechaff, neither of us want this to get out either. It's in everyone's interest to keep this a secret all the way to the grave."
Tanya eyed both men. To the grave, she thought. "You do understand that if you start this the British are going to come down on your country like a hammer. No matter how bad things were during the rebellion this will probably be much worse."
"We're ready to do whatever it takes," Collins said.
"You know Mr. Collins, I believe you."
"Does that mean you'll help us?"
Tanya leaned back in her chair. "The price for each computation gem and matching equipment will be ten thousand US dollars, so for fifty sets that will be half a million. You willing to pay that much?"
The blood drained from Kennedy's face. "Ten thousand is ridiculously high."
"It sure is, but that's capitalism for you. It's a seller's market and you have exactly one supplier. Oh, and I don't want to be paid in US currency. Convert it into precious metals, gold and silver."
"Buying that much gold and silver at once will drive up the price!"
Tanya grinned. "Which only works to my benefit. Oh and you'll have to give me the quantity equal to the fair market price as of today, regardless of what the cost is when you actually purchase the gold and silver."
Kennedy looked ill but nodded.
"It so happens my inventory has gems and flight equipment from all different manufacturers; Rus, Republican, Ildoan, and Prussian of course. I'll sell you a mix of all of them, that way it will look as if you had to scrounge and get what you could from all over the place."
"So long as they work I don't care where they're from. We've got a deal." Collins stood and held out his hand.
Tanya rose to her feet and shook it. "I wish you the best of luck. I pray god watches out for you."
"Thank you, and I pray the same for you."
"Right," she said and let go of his hand.
XXX
"Was this really a good idea?" Viktoriya asked following the meeting.
"Of course," Tanya said. "Anything that weakens the British is good for us. And even if this thing ends in total disaster it's fine so long as it costs the British a lot. If it succeeds we have a new ally who'll be vehemently opposed to the British Empire. Either way we win. Plus we get a good supply of precious metals that will help strengthen the reichsmark. And all it costs us is equipment that we were going to replace anyway as we rearm. There's literally no downside for us."
"Unless the British find out."
"True, but we're good at keeping secrets, and the Celtics are too or else Collins would have already been in front of a firing squad and Kennedy in an American prison. Anyway, only those two know about our deal and it's in their own best interest to keep it a secret."
"I suppose that's true," Viktoriya admitted.
And besides, Tanya thought to herself. I doubt those two are going to live very long. Collins is a marked man leading a revolution. And as for Kennedy there are always accidents.
