Chapter 7
April 4th, 3025
Parliament Office 28, Ministry of Safekeeping
Mach 'Beh, Planetary Capitol
Suk II
Orsula Alvarez looked out of the large window overlooking the sunset of the city and it's Roman-inspired columns leading up to the front steps of the Parliament Hall. All seventy-eight steps. Most architects on just about any planet tend to go with that trend of lots-of-steps to emphasize the scale and weight of the type of responsibility anyone who walked into the Hall on a regular basis typically carried.
That, and probably to help keep us fat-cats in shape, she thought idly, concentrating more on that, than the words one of her agents had just spoken to her. It's a shame more people don't actually use those steps regularly.
"No real significance on that date for this planet. I suppose that would leave it wide open for a date of remembrance. I'll have to come up with something by then. Her jet-black hair reflected the darkening orange sunset onto the face of her agent, who at the moment was already fighting to control his lust for the incredibly attractive Minister of Safekeeping. For her age at forty-seven, she looked half that. Curves in all the right places, and a smile that would charm just about any snake. She's a vixen and she knows it, he warned himself. Don't fall for her charms or you'll probably end up dead in half the time you expect.
Her deep pink dress, wrapped like bedsheets around her resembling some of the more ceremonial garb the Parliament used for official business, also had a train over half a meter behind her as she paced. Since the dress required her to pace in a manner that resembled a mop swabbing a floor in order to avoid tripping, those who knew her more intimately would often relate it to a mop cleaning up the trail of blood dripping from her hands.
Those kinds of backroom rumors were the kind that allowed her rival to beat her in the race for Prime Minister. She had the masses in her sway, for the most part. Masses that were sorely disappointed she wound up losing, despite the narrow margin and the heavy majority of the popular vote she won. Well more than half of the roughly 1 billion on the planet.
"That's up to you, my lady. We're more concerned with how you want to handle the two cities after the fact." He pulled out his paperwork for her to sign, in old-fashioned laser pen, authorizing some transfers of money that would no doubt be flying across businesses in the Capitol until it became almost untraceable. Almost. Money that would equip and arm some of the more "patriotic" of her crew, set to begin protesting, and the inability of their hired garrison to defend them. Money that would fund the altering of weapons cameras on most of the defenders of this planet, as well as many others, allowing the public to see only what she wanted them to see.
Most of those cameras had already been altered. No doubt the men and women sticking their necks out for her were getting impatient about their likely-to-soon-be blood money.
"You guys know what you're doing," she said with a purr, while flicking her signature across the sheets like she's done a thousand times before. "Just be sure to give it at least a day before you start shouting all over town. Holovid interviews need to appear to be unorganized, at first. Don't start showing all the signs everyone made literally minutes after it happens." She furrowed her wrinkled brow, one of the only true betrayers of her age, along with the crows feet around her eyes, and handed the sheets back to her agent. "The reaction needs to look from the heart." She put her hands on her hips, adding emphasis to how her dress left very little to the imagination.
How did she even move in that thing, he wondered as he put the data sheets back in his briefcase.
With a nod and an "aye, my lady," he turned and stepped out before he got himself into any more trouble being with such a beautiful serpent, leaving Orsula a few moments time to herself to enjoy the darkening sunset with another smile before business dinners and other after-hours activities took up the rest of her night.
