August 13th, 1990
The small town of Posterum, just inside the Amestrian border, was as remote and dusty as Ted remembered the region to be. It was also nearly as abandoned. They had little trouble slipping the entire caravan of trucks across the border. Not that Ted didn't expect their tracks to be noticed, coming in off the desert, but by the time anyone tracked them down, he hoped to either be long gone, or have documents permitting him to bring five Drachmans and dozens of exotic animals into the country legally.
He refused to let them be arrested with him, however, if it came to that. So, he had made them park over a mile outside of town to wait for him. At least, that was the plan, until Gavril Mihalov insisted on coming with him. :I can prove who I am,: he insisted, pulling out his wallet which did have all of his identification. :Refugee or not, I'm valuable and your government knows it. I'll take the risk.:
Ted hadn't argued. For one thing, he didn't think it would do any good. For another, it made him feel mildly better not to be going alone, and to have someone to corroborate his story. Gavril Mihalov's face had been all over the news, even in Amestris. Surely the story would be believable. The question was, what did the military think of him?
He would know shortly. While there wasn't a full military garrison in Posterum, there were several mines in the area, including the mining town of Yous Well, to the south, that had military oversight. This meant that like most towns in Amestris, there was a military office, even if half of its business was local recruitment.
Posterum's office was near the train station, which was also convenient.
Ted hadn't taken any clothing that looked even remotely like an Amestrian military uniform with him, so he'd had to settle for the cleanest set of civilian attire he had with him that might even remotely suggest the part, which was a pair of dark blue denim pants, and a button-down white shirt. He had shaved that morning, so at least he didn't look like a refugee, and debated for several minutes what to do about the shaggy mop his hair had become in the past several months. He hadn't bothered cutting it in Drachma. On a whim, he tried pulling it back the way his grandfather did. It wasn't nearly as long of a tail, but it was long enough it didn't look like some stupid fashion trend. It also made Ted look—he felt—even more like Edward Elric. Right now, he'd take every advantage that might give him.
"Here we go." Ted did not hesitate as they walked up to the building, and he opened the door, leading Gavril inside.
It was a very small office, consisting primarily of a front counter, which boasted recruitment materials, and a couple of desks behind it. There were two officers in evidence, one male, the other female, one second lieutenant and one first. Just his luck, he outranked them.
"Good afternoon, sirs," the female first lieutenant came forward to the counter. "What can I do for you?"
This was it. Ted nodded. "Good afternoon, Lieutenant. Actually, I'm hoping you can do something very important for me. Lieutenant Colonel Ted Elric, Proteus Alchemist, military ID four-five-nine-alpha-theta-gamma-six. I've been undercover in Drachma for the past four months and I need to place a secure-line call to Central command. It's a matter of International urgency."
To their credit, neither officer stared at him for more than a few seconds. He could guess what was going through their minds though, from the disbelief, to the risks of not believing him, to the risks of believing too readily, to wondering why anyone would make up such an outrageous story, to how to have him prove his identity. He had just provided his full military title and ID number. No one else should have that information besides his own ranking officers. A remote post like this would probably need to call Central to verify that number.
It was the first lieutenant who recovered first. "I'll need to verify your identification. I don't suppose you have any of that on you, if you've been undercover in Drachma."
Ted shook his head. "I do not. Though if you dial Central Headquarters extension six-four-five-eight you'll reach General Calvin Fischer, Whitewater Alchemist, who is my direct superior officer and he can verify my identity."
She looked skeptical, but she picked up the phone at her desk, and dialed, waiting while it rang once, then again. Ted desperately hoped Cal was in his office. It was only two in the afternoon, but who knew what meetings he might be in these days with Drachma imploding.
After six rings, the other end picked up, and Ted could barely hear Fischer's familiar tones.
"Good afternoon, General Fischer. This is First Lieutenant Sarah Flinn at the military office in Posterum." She listened, then nodded again. "Yes, Sir, Posterum. I'm calling in regards to a man standing in our office who claims to be State Alchemist Ted Elric."
For a moment, Ted thought Fischer might have dropped the phone, given the startled noise he heard on the other end, and a moment of silence.
Flinn continued a moment later. "Yes, Sir. He gave his ID as four-five-nine-alpha-theta-gamma-six." She listened for a few more seconds, then her eyes widened slightly, and
she held the phone out to Ted. "The General would like to speak to you."
Ted tried not to grin as he took the phone. "Lieutenant Colonel Elric speaking."
"What in bloody freaking' hell are you doing in Posterum, Proteus?"
"It's nice to hear your dulcet tones again too, Sir."
The sputtering finally ended in a snort of laughter. "You're still an ass. Now answer my questions, because your answers are very much going to affect how much deep shit you're in."
"Yes, Sir. To answer your direct question first, I've just circumvented the border by leaving Drachma through the desert, with very precious cargo that the President and the Assembly are going to want in their possession immediately."
"And what cargo is that, Elric?"
"Former interim-Drachman-president-in-exile Gavril Mihalov."
The two people in front of him looked like they were going to fall out of their chairs staring at Gavril, who just smiled and held out his wallet for their inspection.
On the other end of the line, Fischer had gone dead quiet. "You're serious."
"Dead serious. I was the head of the team that pulled him out of Karmatsk after Savahin's soldiers."
"Does that mean you have more people with you?" Fischer asked warily.
"Yes, Sir. I have four civilians, and several truck loads of expensive exotic zoo animals we liberated before they could become lining for Savahin's bank account."
Another moment of silence. Ted suspected Fischer was almost regretting this call. "Zoo animals?"
"They were on our way out. The civilians with me are some of their keepers that were being forced to prepare them for sale. It's a really long and complicated story. So long story short, none of them are Savahin spies, most of us are injured, and I need to get a very important person to Headquarters. Everyone is willing to submit to being taken under military guard. They're mostly just concerned about their animals. You could probably lock them in cages in the zoo and as long as they could take care of them, they wouldn't complain."
"It might come to that. Damn it, Proteus. Why'd you have them call my number?"
"Because I like to make your life complicated, Sir."
Fischer grumbled on the other end of the line. "If your timing weren't so damned perfect, I'd tell them to lock you up in Posterum for a week."
"But my timing is perfect." Ted wasn't sure what for, but he would bet it was their ticket to Central.
"Yes. So perfect it's a little scary. Well, I'd better do this right. Put Mihalov on. I'm going to have to be able to tell Heimler I actually talked to the man."
"Wise choice." Ted handed the phone over to Gavril as he stepped out of the way. Fischer and Mihalov had met during the brief and hectic rescue and retreat out of Karmatsk before. "General Fischer would like to say hello."
"I'd be delighted." Gavril smiled as he reached for the phone. "Good afternoon, General. It's nice to speak with you again."
Ted could believe his luck, though he smiled as he considered that Anika was probably going to be both relieved and irritated that he'd squeaked through again. At least, they were getting into the country.
Gavril and Fischer spoke for several minutes, until Fischer was convinced that Gavril was in fact, the same Gavril Mihalov he had spoken to in Karmatsk. Then the phone passed back to Lieutenant Flinn, and then once more to Ted.
"I want you to bring all of them in to Posterum," Fischer ordered. "There's a train leaving Posterum tonight for Central and I want all of you on it. I've already got staff calling the railroad and ordering them to clear cargo cars for your trucks. If you have weapons, you'll be turning over all of them to Colonel Hawkens when she arrives from Yous Well in four hours. She, and the officers she brings with her, will be escorting you on the train here on a non-stop route straight to Central. You will be here by Monday evening, ready to give a full and detailed debriefing and all of the information you've gathered in the past several months. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. This had better be one hell of an explanation, Ted. A lot is riding on it."
Franz almost choked on his cup of tea as he stared at Cal Fischer over the clutter on his desk. "Say that again?"
"Ted's back," Cal repeated, looking both stunned and a little smug, "and he's got Gavril Mihalov with him. I can confirm it, we spoke for several minutes about a conversation we had in Karmatsk last spring, and I recognize the voice. It's definitely him."
"I'm not sure whether to kill him or hug him. His timing is, as always, ridiculously good." Franz shook his head. Months of nothing except the rumors from intelligence of an alchemist working in the mountains with the resistance, and suddenly here was Ted, coming in without crossing the technically closed border, with a man the current Drachman regime would kill for their hands on, and had been killing for. He was sure there was much, much more to this story, but given the summit beginning in two days, this was a game changing piece of information. "Tell me everything you know."
He listened as Cal outlined his orders, which Franz could find no fault in, that Ted, Mihalov, and the civilians and zoo animals—he really wanted that story at some point—were being brought under military escort on an express train and would be arriving the evening of the first day of the summit.
"Good. That's all we can do for the moment until they get here. Then Proteus can answer for his insubordination."
Cal winced, but didn't try to say anything in Ted's defense. "Does this change the agenda for the Summit?" he asked instead.
A critical question. Franz shook his head. "No, not for the first day. Until they arrive, and we know the full story, it's better to keep all of this classified. Once we know what we have, we'll move on it."
Cal nodded, and stood. "Then I'll get back to work. Does that mean we don't call Resembool?"
As much as he hated to do it, Franz nodded. "No one is told anything until they arrive in Central and are safely in military custody." He just hoped that Cassie and Aldon would forgive him later for not telling them immediately upon hearing word that Ted was safe, and on his way back.
It also depended on if there was any way to keep him out of prison.
As the train pulled out of the station into the rapidly falling night, Anika leaned back in her seat, and looked out the window at the unfamiliar landscape falling away behind them, and what she could see ahead. This far out, the desert was slowly turning to scrub, and she could see mountains looming in the distance; older mountains, lower than the huge peaks of Drachma, and not as jagged.
When Ted and Gavril had returned with a military escort to bring them into town, Anika had been terrified that they were going to be arrested, but Ted and Gavril's calm at the whole affair had relaxed her. She was grateful she had been working on her Amestrian with Ted over the past few months, or she'd have been at a loss to understand most of what the Amestrian soldiers said to them. Her one previous trip into Amestris had been years ago, and none of it had involved military terms. They had taken their weapons—which she expected—and then had them drive into town, parking in the train yard itself by the loading docks, where it was explained that their trucks would be driven up ramps and directly into large freight cars, and secured.
They were going straight to Central, and the animals were coming with them. Anika wasn't sure how Ted had managed it. She also wasn't entirely certain if their escort was for the people's protection, or theirs.
In either case, while the Colonel in charge and the men and women she had brought with her to guard them were professional, they weren't treating them like prisoners either as long as they were cooperating.
There had been almost four hours between their arrival in town and the train's departure. During that time, they had been escorted to the local hotel, which was a small two-story building next to the train station, and permitted to shower, and given a clean set of clothing for the trip. Then they'd had a local doctor check over everyone's wounds and apply disinfectant, and clean bandages.
While their Drachman money was useless here, the Colonel had them order from the hotel's dining room and eat as well. Ted said she'd told him they were pulling the money out of his spending account.
Then they'd gone back to the station to wait, loaded the trucks, and been put in the car farthest back on the train, the last passenger car before the cargo, which they had all to themselves. Well them, and the ten soldiers serving as escort.
It was nerve-wracking, but she appreciated being taken seriously. If they were being escorted straight to Central, that meant the government wanted to talk to Gavril Mihalov.
It might not mean much for the rest of them, but it bade well that they had included transportation for the animals.
Ted sat beside her, his left arm extended protectively behind her and around her shoulders. His change of clothes was a spare military shirt, pants, and boots. Anika had never seen him in uniform, given the alchemists had all been trying not to be noticed on the mission where they had originally met. He carried himself differently in uniform, and around these people, though she wondered if he even noticed. He sat a little taller, and there was a confidence that she certainly didn't feel.
Anika had never considered herself to be someone easily intimidated, but she had also never been out of Drachma in these kinds of circumstances before, and even if the soldiers with them were more escort than prison guards, the fact that she only understood about half of what she heard, and the unfamiliar look of even subtle things, like the architecture, the food in the restaurants, the design of the train; all of it was foreign, and she was unarmed on soil that was not necessarily much more friendly than the civil war going on back home.
"You okay?" Ted asked softly.
"I'm fine," she replied, leaning a little into him, but gently, to avoid hurting his injured shoulder. "It's just different. The only familiar things in here are a few people. Even my clothes aren't mine." While she appreciated being in clean clothes that fit, they were definitely not anything she was used to. Someone had dug up actual maternity wear from somewhere for her, instead of making due with the oversized items and ad-hoc adjustments she'd made to her own wardrobe. The soft-knit pants and roomy slate-blue tunic style shirt, with darker embroidery around the neckline, were incredibly soft, and surprisingly fashionable, but in her mind, it somehow made her look even more pregnant. What did these people think of her? Was it better to be thought of just some civilian refugee, or a resistance fighter with experience and the daughter of a general?
"I understand." He kissed the top of her head, and she realized he probably did. He'd spent the last several months learning to live in a country that was nothing like his own. Now, it was her turn. "It'll be okay." Ted sounded far more confident than he had in the ruins of Xerxes.
"How do you know?"
"Well, for one thing, they're all too relaxed to be expecting actual trouble."
Anika glanced at the soldiers. All of them looked alert, watching their charges, though they would occasionally make comments to each other. They were armed, she knew, but no one was actively holding a weapon. There was no heightened tension in the air. "I see."
"Also, they didn't detain us. People crossing the border illegally are usually detained on location for several days and questioned. We're being given a private express ride to Headquarters. That means we were right that they want Gavril in hand, and I will bet you a year's pay that it's to protect him and for information, not to lock him, or any of you, up."
The fact that he did not include himself in that statement concerned her. "What about you?"
"That depends on what my uncle decided to do after I left the room, and what he tells people when we get back. A lot of that is going to be determined by on my report, I expect. But, let's worry about that later. Right now, we've got two days in a semi-private train car, in surprisingly almost-comfortable padded seats, and food and drink on demand. We're not driving through the desert, or being shot at, or sleeping on rocks. Think of it as a short term, very exclusive private vacation."
Now there was some positive thinking. Anika chuckled. "We still have to take care of the animals." No one working for the railroad was going to want to go anywhere near those cars with the carnivores in them, even if they did know how to take care of any of the animals.
"Not for a few hours," Ted countered. "Right now seems like a good time to catch up on rest while we can."
They were certainly going to have a lot on their plate when they reached Central. He had the right idea, and the seats were weirdly comfortable after days in trucks and rough camping. "Sleep sounds good." Ted wouldn't let anything happen to her. After days of being constantly wired to jump awake at the smallest noise, it would be nice to just rest.
Ted's arm tightened just a little around her shoulders as his head rested lightly against hers. "Glad you agree."