AN, credits to perfect_shade, Sunny and Readhead for helping me revise this chapter.

1952, May 17th, Hamburg:

As Visha and I walked through the city marketplace, slightly disguised for our own safety, the mood of the crowd was obvious. Depressed and anxious, the people were clearly on edge, unsettled by the recent attacks. The stepped up police presence didn't seem to be helping; instead of reassuring people of their protection, the uniformed officers on every street corner only reminded the people that they needed to be afraid. The fear was already manifesting into altered economic behavior; hospitality providers like restaurants and beer halls were all but deserted, and even other food and drink vendors seemed to be having a hard time drawing customers.

If Being X had any hand in recent events, it represented a new height to its callous disregard for human life. Outright terrorizing ordinary people just to spite me didn't seem entirely out of character for the self-proclaimed divinity, unfortunately. Considering what I knew of "his" holy book, he was as strong a proponent of collective punishment as any communist.

"It's been decades since I've seen a crowd like this," Visha muttered. "It reminds me of the bad old days, right after the War."

She had a point. Back then, the people had grown numb to the general high level of violence and chaos. The endless protests, the occasional riots, and the attacks by communist thugs on anybody who opposed them had beaten the people into a state of perpetual fear and anxiety that manifested as a sort of numb detachment from anything but the daily struggle to survive. . After decades of relative peace on the streets, the recent spate of attacks had shocked them back into that worried focus.

We walked into a mostly empty beer hall and took seats at the bar. The bartender stirred himself from his stool and ambled over to us, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Two mugs, please." I slid the money across to him. The man nodded silently and returned to his taps.

Visha nudged me. "Hey, uhh… You might want to take a look at the TV," her tone was tentative, apprehensive yet somewhat upset, as she pointed at the tiny TV behind the bar.

I hardly noticed as the bartender put two frothing mugs of lager down in front of us. On the screen, President Paul was giving a speech announcing that he had invoked his emergency powers again, this time to push through a set of deeply unpopular "but very necessary" security laws after the Diet had refused to pass them. I rolled my eyes when he said, "This is necessary in order to ensure our security and continuing stability. For a safe and secure society."

"Well, we've got plenty of ammunition for tonight's talk show." I took a sip of my beer. "I wonder how many people are going to be attending my next week's speech?"

1952, June 28th, Francois Indochina, north of Hanoi:

Paul Signac, now a Chief Sergeant after a decade in the Francois military, watched his company cross the recently completed pontoon bridge from his makeshift desk.

'We're advancing straight for Thái Nguyên, and the communists still haven't put up any major resistance. Something isn't right. It feels… It feels like right before Sehwān, where Smith died, back during the campaign up the Indus… Back in Bharat…'

Disquieted, Signac turned to Captain Muracciole.

"Sir, remember the Indus River Campaign? Back during the Bharatian War? When it seemed like everything was going so well for us?" Signac asked, gazing at the increasingly chaotic map spread on the desk in front of him, heavily notated with supply lines and deployments. His company had been assigned to relieve a currently encircled company up ahead; that company had encircled a Vietnamese formation, which in turn had encircled a Frankish platoon. It was like an onion, layer upon layer, each one shooting at the other. The only reason the situation hadn't snowballed into complete disaster was an unorthodox strategy adopted by the high command. Their new policy was that if a military unit had no orders, then they were to push north. Unspoken in this new standing order was that it was acceptable to be in a state of chaos so long as the enemy is even more disorganized.

"What makes you think we might be headed for disaster?" Muracciole looked up from the map with an expression of confusion. "The communists are struggling to fight back, given how far we have pushed them even with our own mess of an advance. While we have admittedly gotten lost multiple times, the communists have yet to take advantage of our navigation errors."

"Well, back during the Bharatian War, I was stationed at Sehwān. Even after the meat grinder that was Sukkur, everybody there thought we'd still be pushing our way up the Indus soon enough. It was a matter of when, not if." Signac sighed. "You can imagine the shock and dismay when the Chinese suddenly crashed down onto our position. I nearly died twice; first by blood loss from a bullet wound, second when that wound turned septic during the hasty retreat south. I only survived because an Albish friend of mine died holding his ground so others could get me out of Sehwān."

"I-I'm sorry to hear that," Muracciole replied, his eyes wide. "I missed out on the Indus River Campaign myself, but I've read a great deal about it. And, now that I'm thinking about it, we're really asking quite a great deal from our company. I mean, the men are still pretty green.. Most of them had only finished basic training only a few months ago. Those who have been in Indochina, have not been this far up north. And that includes officers. Almost all of our operations in the past several years had been focused further south."

"Which is why I'm worried about what the communists' next move might be when we're charging in so aggressively with such an inexperienced army." Signac looked at the map again. "Maybe the CSR decides that they did not want a Frankish stronghold right on their border and directly send in their military forces instead of the 'enthusiastic volunteers' veneer that they're using. Pull a repeat of the Indus River surprise."

Muracciole looked up at the sky. "Weather is getting bad too, isn't it? That might be a problem for our aircraft and helicopters."

"Has headquarters established weather reporting for this area yet?"

"Based on their promise for the weather updates and that we have only been getting very basic information, I'm assuming that's a no. When does the typhoon season start again?"

1952, August 1st, CSR, Nanjing:

"What are the Vietnamese doing?! We offered them refuge, not permission to annex our territory!" Zhang roared, almost incandescent with rage.

"They have been forcing border towns to change signage to Vietnamese replacements, and have started forcing the original residents out and replacing them with Vietnamese refugees." Li looked at his reports. "Incredibly brazen of them."

"Our border forces have been asking what to do." Luo said. "The Vietnamese supreme commander won't give me an answer about what they are doing or why, but asked me to save the bullets for when the Frankish forces arrive."

"He's still in charge of the rebels?" Li raised an eyebrow.

"He said the loss of both legs and arms to that Frankish mage raid hasn't impaired his ability to command, nor has it dampened his desire for freeing his people."

Suddenly Kang started laughing. Everyone looked at him with confusion.

"What's so funny?" Li demanded. "We're talking about a supposed ally who is in the process of backstabbing us!"

"It all makes sense. I wouldn't have thought of it, to be honest." Kang took a sip of tea to clear his throat, and coughed as he continued to chuckle. "The Frankish forces have been struggling with navigating through the northern part of Indochina, especially with the onset of bad weather."

Kang pointed at the map of Southeast Asia. "Based on reports from our agents operating in the Lothiern East Indies and the Philippines, typhoon season has already started with a developing tropical storm, so the Frankish navy and air force will be having problems. Which also means limited aerial reconnaissance. And their more weather resistant mages are busy holding off the Vietnamese mages."

"Our advisors in Indochina have reported that on many occasions, Frankish forces are consistently outrunning their logistical support and potentially even their map navigation." Luo commented. "But what were you getting at?"

"The Vietnamese are baiting the Frankish forces into our territory. They're 'redecorating' our border towns to make the Franks think that they're still in Francois Indochina, and not in the Chinese Soviet Republic."

"They want us to be in a direct war against the Francois Republic?" Zhang looked with shock. "I will not have a repeat of the Bharatian War where the Francois Indochina gets split into two competing territories from yet another coalition, when we could have the Vietnamese rebels simply pressure the Franks to give up entirely. We need to at least wait until the children from the baby boom come of age for military service, including those with magic potential, which won't happen until another decade."

"What if we treat the Frankish invaders as illegal immigrants?" Li smirked. "Luo, what's the policy on those?"

"If they don't have permission to enter our land, our border forces will detain them. If there are no indications of them working for a foreign power or being involved with a criminal activity such as smuggling, then eventually they will be deported." Luo responded. "I could have our border forces only approach the Frankish forces with ropes and 'non-lethal' weapons, and donate their lethal weapons to the Vietnamese."

"A non-lethal way of disarming and detaining an entire army… I love that!" Zhang clapped his hands. "What do you think would happen if we took a few months to 'process' and slowly return the captured Frankish soldiers directly back to the Francois Republic? It would take them a long time to redeploy those forces back to their colony, assuming those men still want to go back."

"That depends on how many of them cross into our border, and how many aren't able to escape from us coordinating with the Vietnamese to catch as many as possible. Any that do make it back to Indochina will have to fight their way through Vietnamese forces still operating there." Luo responded. "But it could result in them losing the entire northern part of Francois Indochina, again. And maybe even lose control of the rest of their colony."

"How would the Francois Republic or their allies respond to us detaining parts of their expeditionary army?" Zhang asked with a hint of concern.

"Maybe the Allied Kingdom will finally have something to say about our proposed deal." Li shrugged. "It seems they have opted to ignore it, and this might force them to come back to the table."

'Not this disastrous deal again. Li has to go before I make my move against Zhang.' Kang thought to himself.

Meanwhile in Francois Indochina, at Navarre's headquarters:

It was difficult for the aide to find any exposed part of Navarre's desk to tap to catch his attention, covered as it was with loose documents, calendars, and scribbled notes. Nonetheless, the man persisted.

"Not now. I'm trying to fix this air resupply schedule; the shit weather's throwing everything off." Navarre growled, hunched over his desk and shivering as if chilled despite the tropical heat and humidity. "That, and the fact that nobody has any damned idea where any given unit is thanks to all the sloppy communication up the chain of command."

"We might need to at least slow down our advances. I'm alarmed at how many of our forces are experiencing difficulties navigating. The lack of consistent aerial reconnaissance isn't helping either; we're practically operating blind here.." Before the aide could continue to register his doubts, Navarre snapped.

"Slow the advance? In our moment of triumph?!" Navarre screeched, gesticulating wildly and knocking over a bottle of quinine as he shouted. "Absolutely not! This is just a minor inconvenience! There's no way they'll be able to stop us! Think! This war could be over by the end of the year, and then we'll all get to go home!"

1952, August 18th, supposedly still in Francois Indochina:

Chief Sergeant Signac looked at the map, and then at a major river flowing past, the landmark resolutely ignoring his frustrated glare.

"I am so confused," Signac muttered, "Which river is this?"

"I think the Song Ky Cung river?" Captain Muracciole ventured, before sighing with exasperation. "But it doesn't look right. I could have sworn we already crossed it."

"Well, I have no idea." Signac folded up the map and tucked it back into his belt pouch. "I don't know if we should cross it or stop here and await further orders. Or, at least wait until the rest of the army is able to catch up with us, so that we're not out here by ourselves."

"It doesn't help that we've been getting conflicting orders from multiple higher commands, who seemed to be confused about who controls what formations under them."

Suddenly a mage off in the distance rocketed up from a forested mountain behind them, and broadcasted with amplified audio spell.

"Illegal Frankish immigrants, you have entered the Chinese Soviet Republic's territory. Surrender your weapons for processing by the Chinese Soviet Republic border patrols! Do not attempt to flee! We urge you to comply for your safety from armed Vietnamese refugees!"

"Merde." Signac and Muracciole sighed in unison.

1952, August 19th, Berun:

After only a few political rallies, attendance had gotten to the point where I had to reserve an entire park or football stadium to hold the crowd. Not that I minded; my sound amplification spell worked just as well as any megaphone, and thankfully wasn't taxing enough to make my stable stealth casting of a light shield particularly difficult. It wasn't a fantastic defense, but it would be enough to stop a regular bullet or a knife.

"For our government to become our oppressor in the name of 'national security' is a disgrace! There is no reason to keep giving more powers to President Paul, who has already demonstrated that he can't handle unrest in Caucasia. And he couldn't handle a nuclear disaster. While he might not be involved with the terrorist attacks in Hamburg, he seeks to exploit them to extend his stay in office! Don't you find it suspicious that the head of the BND resigned in protest when he started ramming through those so-called security laws through the incompetent Diet?"

I paused for a moment to let the crowds chant, "President Paul, resign!" and took an opportunity to shore up my stealth casting before I continued.

"We will not let the terrorists take away our freedom and prosperity. Those that throw away freedom in the false hope of security, will get neither! We will stand together, and never surrender!"

After I got off the stage, Visha and I mingled with the crowd to answer their questions, take photos with them, or sign the pamphlets with our magic signatures. This continued on for a good hour or so before we made our way backstage where an unfamiliar woman walked up to us, glanced around, and dropped a letter on a table before running off into the night.

For a moment I was inclined to pursue the stranger, but decided against it. The last thing I needed was anything close to violence at my rally. Instead, backed up by Visha, I carefully approached the letter, and cast a number of sensory charms. While I wouldn't be able to find contact poison on the page, I was at least reasonably confident that the envelope didn't contain a hidden bomb.

Of course, Visha just brushed past me and picked up the letter immediately.

"It's from Elya." Visha muttered as she glanced over the page. "Definitely hers."

"I guess she's back from her vacation after quitting her job?" I glanced over Visha's shoulder. "Oh, another one of those secret meeting locations."

'Hopefully it's not some sort of a coup plan.'

The next day, somewhere else in Germania:

"Well, what have you been doing lately?" I asked innocently. "I thought you were on vacation."

"I've been dating someone that I know is an NKVD agent." Elya smirked. "And getting involved with politics now that I'm a private citizen now who is not employed by the Germanian government."

"Oh, one of those double agent shenanigans." I raised an eyebrow. "Does he know?"

"Of course he does." Elya rolled her eyes. "Remember how I mentioned that it's hard for me to blend in with others?"

"How do we know you're making more progress in turning him than him turning you to the cause of communism?" Visha smirked.

"For one thing, he is far, far, less experienced at romance and activities in bed." Elya blushed a little. "I would like to thank the two of you for some of the inspirations I had with him."

"Wait how much did you know about our-" Visha's face turned red before I cut her off to avoid that awkward topic.

"And what's this about getting involved in politics? I applaud your newfound ambition for office; I wouldn't mind having a bit of a friendly competition for the presidential elections instead of just going through the motions."

Elya laughed as she waved her hands dismissively. "Oh heavens no, I'd never be that bold. But I can't tell you what political parties I've been involved with, but there's four of them that I've been coordinating. It's not easy work."

"Four?" Visha leaned forward.

"You'll understand when the times come." Elya smirked.

"For how long were you involved with the political parties?"

"I can't tell you that. While it might have been highly suspicious for the head of the BND to establish their own political parties, I accelerated it after suspecting that President Paul might have had an indirect role with the restaurant mass poisoning, or at least had knowledge of it. It was too much of a coincidence to time it when the two of you were there. A drink of coffee made with the poisoned water might have ended both of you right there."

An indirect role? Was President Paul that desperate to get rid of me? I guess anyone could win an election if they murder all of their political opponents.

Visha was also unsettled by the possible link when she cut in. "How do you think President Paul might have had at least knowledge of the attacks ahead of time?"

Elya glanced at her notebook. "I have no idea who Paul may have been talking to in order to coordinate the attacks. Given how disastrous Caucasia turned out to be for him while still not showing any signs of resigning or at least not running for the upcoming elections, removing the two of you from the political equation would have helped him stay in power."

Then Elya sighed. "But I can't find any hard evidence that links him to the poisoning incident. It's been bothering me."

Now that I'm thinking about it, Elya's actions trouble me even if she had good intentions. I might be President again, but I suspect Elya could end up using her puppet political parties to make me a marionette to dance to her tune after she gets a taste of the power of pushing Paul out of office with those puppets. This might be worse than her simply remaining the head of the BND.

Then there's the fact that Elya's BND was unable to obtain any evidence Which is unusual because of how successful Elya had been in the years past when dealing with nefarious plots from enemies.

Wait, what if she is just putting the blame on Paul? Could this be part of her plot to puppet me? After all, she established four puppet political parties for whatever scheme she had against President Paul even while serving under him. But then who's actually behind the attacks? If it was Elya all along, then this would be an absolute nightmare.

"On a side note, do you know anything about the ship bombing incident in Hamburg?" Visha asked.

Elya practically growled with annoyance. "I'd known how the Service de Contre-Espionnage, the BND's Frankish counterpart, operates in their colonies based on reports, but… I guess I was so used to my methods of subterfuge and polling girls that I never expected the SCE to simply choose open violence in Europe itself, especially on Germanian soil. I'd have thought they'd be a bit less cavalier about collateral damage, at the very least."

Elya looked genuinely upset, although whether that was because of the SCE's heavy handed techniques, or because they'd caught her flatfooted, it was hard to tell. "Unfortunately, they did a very thorough job aggressively destroying any incriminating evidence, so their tracks are pretty well covered. And, if President Paul did have anything to do with the attempted poisoning, that implies that he at the very least knew that SCE was in the neighborhood, at most that he gave them free reign to do what they wished in Hamburg."

"Elya, I've known you did fantastic work, but if the SCE could get away with such bold actions, what about other foreign intelligence agencies that are operating more discreetly?"

Elya looked down a bit as I continued. "In the event that the SCE continues their callous attacks in Germania or OZEV in pursuit of whatever goal they're trying to accomplish, how will BND respond to their encroachment? If the SCE has adopted immediate violence as their default tactic, I doubt their agents will show any hesitation about killing anyone that gets in their way or tries to investigate their activities, regardless of civilian casualties. I don't know how much intense combat training most of your agents have, but I would be expecting body bags for both sides."

She opened up her notebook to start scribbling down things. "Well, I can't really change the BND right now as I'm no longer the head of it."

"I'm sure you still have contacts in the BND who would be receptive to new ideas." I shrugged. "And when I get started cleaning up Paul's mess and getting Germania back on track, instead of enjoying my retirement, I will be expecting you to reform the BND to aggressively counter any foreign intelligence activities operating in Germania or OZEV."

Elya perked up at my second sentence and looked like she was about to say something, but I ignored her and continued on.

"Possibly even do some cooperation with other OZEV members' intelligence agencies for information sharing in the event that the communists are finding it easier to operate in say Dacia and spying on Germania from there. Of course we would first need to carefully check to ensure that they hadn't been thoroughly infiltrated by other foreign powers."

"And if the SCE is pursuing communists within Germania?" Elya stopped scribbling.

"Either they share the information with us so our authorities can deal with the communists, or they leave us alone." I clenched my hands. "If I see another bombing or some other mass casualty event because they keep using sledgehammers and shotguns inside of a crowded area to hunt flies, I will personally kill them to stop them from hurting Germanian citizens."

1952, August 22nd, somewhere in Londinium:

Allen Shone looked over the papers again. Everything was the same, not a single word was changed.

Until he flipped to the last page and saw a section that had a sentence crossed out. It was the CSR's guarantee to not supply the rebels in Francois Indochina. A new one was written below, revising the guarantee to not supply the rebels with heavy equipment or vehicles after the Francois expeditionary army has been returned to Hanoi.

"What is this?" Shone pointed at it.

"I told you to not wait too long." Zhou Shu sighed. "It would be awfully suspicious and deeply domestically unpopular if we cut off our support to the rebels after their crushing success against the Francois expeditionary army. There are elements in our government that have called for declaring a 'liberation war' of Francois Indochina."

Shu then slid over photos from CSR mages and aircraft of Frankish aerial units. "Especially after Frankish aircraft and helicopters entered our airspace, where they either crashed due to the poor weather or were encouraged to turn around by our air force and mages with restrained quantities of warning shots. But we're willing to overlook that airspace incursion. And then there were the occasional Frankish army units that responded by opening fire on our border forces, inside of our territory, insisting that they were still in Francois Indochina, but we're also willing to overlook that."

"A crushing success achieved by baiting the Francois army into your territory. Which was only possible by having your border towns look like Vietnamese towns and not Chinese, switch some road signs around and just happen to have a large number of 'border patrol' soldiers and armed Vietnamese 'refugees' to stop the Frankish soldiers from running back across the border. And as for the Frankish army units that opened fire in your territory, I'm assuming you just let the Vietnamese 'refugees' tear them up while waiting for the stubborn Frankish soldiers to surrender?" Shone frowned as Shu innocently shrugged. "I don't know if His Majesty would accept the term change."

"We are willing to escort the captured Frankish military personnel back to Hanoi and protect them from the Vietnamese rebels during that journey. They will even get to keep rifles and other light equipment. We are also willing to extend the protection offer to the rest of the Frankish military forces that didn't cross into our border or had managed to retreat to avoid detentions by our border forces, but found themselves surrounded by previously hidden Vietnamese insurgents." Shu pointed at Hanoi on the map. "I've been told that some had not been able to break free and retreat south, so it's only a matter of time before those trapped units are taken prisoner by the Vietnamese rebels, and from what I know, they don't treat the Frankish prisoners well."

Shu paused for a moment before continuing. "The alternative is to escort the detained forces all the way back to Vinh and Muang Pakxan, which would be at least 300 kilometers of extra distance and put them back to the starting line of their major offensive, and also leave the Frankish units that were trapped by the insurgents in the northern part of Indochina to their fate. Or just shove them across the border with no weapons, no vehicles and no escort, which would be a complete slaughter. Or if the deal isn't signed, we take our time 'processing' the illegal immigrants and slowly return them directly back to the Francois Republic, which would mean those Frankish personnel will be out of combat and thus unable to fight the Vietnamese rebels for a long time."

"You're treating them like prisoners of war with that last part." Shone replied.

"They are not prisoners of war because we are not at war." Shu replied, his face blank as he spoke slowly and carefully, as if he were explaining something very basic to a slow child. "You don't want us to be at war, do you? You don't want a repeat of the Bharatian War, with the People's Liberation Army overthrowing the yoke of colonial oppression in Francois Indochina in response to the Francois Republic invading our homeland, right?"

Shu pointed at the map of North and South Bharats. "I know you don't want that, because the Devil of the Rhine will somehow be in control of half or the entire damn thing after everyone else has already wasted massive quantities of blood and resources, leaving everyone but her in a worse off condition. She stole more than half of your crown jewel. You want to feed her Francois Republic's crown jewel as well?"

"She would have to deal with the stubborn rebels in Francois Indochina." Shone shrugged, only to be startled when Shu slammed his hand on the table.

"Are there any rebellions in South Bharat that threaten Germania's interest? Or how about Malagasy?!" Shu yelled. "I sincerely hope you're just pretending to be naive about her."

"What's in it for you?" Shone asked.

"Keep the Devil restrained."

As Shone coughed, Shu continued.

"And I'm aware of the Aegyptian situation that seems to keep escalating, so that might allow her to also steal the Suez Canal while you and the Franks are distracted with a repeat of the Bharatian War."

A few minutes of silence passed before Shu spoke again. "Do you want to see the Indochina Expeditionary Army be destroyed? Or do you want to save it?"

1952, September 1st, somewhere outside of Nanjing:

"The deal is signed." Kang tightly gripped his cup of tea. "I've done some 'deal alterations' in the past, but this one is the worst I've seen even with the minor changes that allow us to continue to influence Francoi Indochina. It's going to undo many years of my work and permanently impair our relations with other communists. The NKVD would rightfully be concerned about us selling them out. All I can do is put on a fake smile and insist that it's just a coincidence the bourgeoisie counterintelligence has been far more effective. And that lie would fall apart if there are any foreign agents in the Albish government that learn about the deal."

Han Xianchu, now the Marshal of the Army, stared at the map of Francois Indochina, slumped in his seat. "I had to order my subordinates to escort the greedy Franks back to Hanoi. And stop the Vietnamese rebels from attacking them, which will eventually cost us in the future based on their furious responses when we told them what we had to do. I already had at least one subordinate put in his letter of resignation instead of carrying out my order."

Kang leaned towards Han. "I was not here to simply rant about the conduct of the Chairman and his loyal lapdogs. But to ask if you can help me with something."

Han narrowed his eyes. "I've always figured you were the type of person who wanted to get to the point. What is your proposal?"

"The Chairman has been spooked by reports from the NKVD about the increasing likelihood of Degurechaff coming back to run the Germanian government." Kang sighed. "Especially the ongoing disaster in Caucasia, and the terror attacks within Germania, are destroying any last remaining political support for President Paul. Most notably with OZEV members, including the President of Pullska, who walked out on him when he tried to give a speech at a conference to explain that he believed the situation in Caucasia could be resolved with more military forces. I'm still shocked that someone would be bold enough to conduct a mass poisoning attack and then a ship bombing right under the Germanian intelligence's noses. I was almost going to fly to the Russy Confederation to meet the NKVD in person and tell them to scale back their operations until they insisted that they were confused as well."

"And I'm guessing the Germanian intelligence agency isn't going to help him either?" Han chuckled.

"Any idiot would recognize that simply replacing the head of a major organization isn't going to immediately change things." Kang shot back. "Especially if they face resistance from everyone below them in that organization. What would you do if almost all of your subordinates refused to carry out an order from you? Fire them all?"

"I would be concerned about me suddenly dying from an unfortunate accident if I faced that level of resistance. But what is this plan you wanted me to be part of?"

Kang glanced around quickly. "The Chairman plans on visiting Degurechaff in person when she becomes Chancellor or President again, in Germania, in hopes of calming down tensions. He believed it would buy more time for us and the Rus to prepare for an inevitable world war or some other wild plan that Degurechaff gets everyone tangled into. Or maybe even persuade her from starting a war. He asked me to do extensive research on Degurechaff ahead of time so he would have an idea of what he is going up against, as she always seems to come out ahead in the deals that she makes. So far, a few of my analysts had gone insane when they dug up old psychology analysis reports from Wang's archive."

"You want me to do something while the Chairman is out of the country?" Han's color drained from his face. "We, and everyone else that is associated with us, would be dead if our plot is discovered."

"Which is why I've been meeting with other people or finding passive ways of observing them to get an idea of what they are willing to do if the time comes. There will be a lot of moving parts, and I need even more people for redundancies to handle any unexpected changes."

"So what about the deal with the Albish while we're waiting for the Chairman to leave, if he goes ahead with that plan? And if he does get replaced with someone else, what will happen to the deal?"

"To immediately cancel the deal after the Chairman is gone would also anger the Albish and give them justification to find a way to punish us, even if they hurt themselves." Kang frowned. "So we'll pretend to play along and find ways to exploit the deal to our advantage. Such as handing over information about anti-CSR communist rebels or radical communists that are causing trouble with our supported groups. That way the Albish could purge those troublemakers for us."

"What about the troublemakers in Afghanistan?" Han looked at the map. "I know the monarchy there is trying to do a balancing act, but it seems a large portion of their population has been upset with the acquisition of their tribal lands for mining operations, the railway constructions and other modernization projects. We had to deploy units to patrol along the railroad tracks to protect them from sabotage."

"No, Afghanistan is ours to handle alone, and I'm already having success with training the next generation of Afghan leaders on the proper communism ideology for them to form a political party back home to introduce the Afghan people to the revolution, with or without the monarchy. I won't allow the Albish to poke their nose into that critical region and learn just how important the railways and mining operations are for North Bharat, Russy Confederation and to some extent us. They could end up using that knowledge against us in the future."

"Before we part ways, one of my friends expressed concern about the security of the mage prison." Han took a sip of tea. "They believe the prison is getting overcrowded as the prisoner mages have not been dying off as much from the experiments, and thus it needs additional security forces and physical security constructions. And there's the concern about how powerful and mentally unstable some of those mage prisoners might be if they had survived numerous experiments. There are some prisoners that have been there for many years."

"My State Security Department is conducting a review on the security of the mage research facility." Kang nonchalantly took a drink of his tea as well before setting the cup back down. "I trust them with their judgment of keeping the research participants safe and thus see no need to interfere with their work."

"Is it me, or did you feel the room shake?" Han looked at the growing ripples in Kang's tea cup..

Then the entire room started shaking with books and other objects falling from the tables and shelves onto the floor.

"Get under the table! Earthquake!" Han shouted as he grabbed Kang and pulled him under the table.

AN:

wiki/Tropical_cyclones_in_Vietnam

Vietnam recognises its typhoon season from the beginning of June through to the end of November,[1] with an average of four to six typhoons hitting the country annually.[2]

Some of the earthquakes that China experienced:

wiki/1937_Heze_earthquakes

wiki/1966_Xingtai_earthquakes

Reference to the Afghan communist party. Their actions were a major contributing factor to the later Soviet-Afghan War:

wiki/People_Democratic_Party_of_Afghanistan