Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  Hunter sat down with King Darsai before he left to go back to Verron. He and Vlad assured him that he would not be left alone. They got with Captain Abarnikov and Pyotr and made a list of materials required to begin a modernization program. It was also agreed that Hunter would supply 1000 suits of body armor from the Xhondarian made stockpile. If King Darsai was going to be establishing a new government in Niccaros he would need to have his soldiers well-armed and well-protected. It was also agreed that Verron would establish a base on Darsai to protect them from anything they could not handle themselves. Captain Boris was going to go back to Verron with Vlad and undergo rejuvenation and then return to Darsai to work for the King in assisting him in his military and economic development. Until he could get more fuel to operate his freighter it would remain docked behind the castle and be a playground for the curious children that dared to climb the rope ladders up the side to the deck. One day it would be used to transport goods between two united continents.

  Princess Tiffanis was grief stricken that the man she so desired was leaving her behind, but she was now enjoying her two new baby nephews and her sister-in-law needed her help keeping up with the two infants. They had been named Hunter and Vlad Darsai. Hunter promised he would return often and that he would soon arrange a trip for the King, his wife and his sister, to come to Verron and see the kingdom where he comes from. He decided that the people of Darsai had grown familiar enough with him now and knew he had special abilities, so it wouldn’t hurt much for a bit more truth to be revealed. As Hunter, Vlad, Captain Abarnikov and the 24 Marines lined up in front of the castles mote, a huge spaceship came down and landed in the now cleared battlefield. The walls were swarming with people and thousands more raced out the gate to see this marvelous sight. The portal opened and they filed inside. Hunter was last to enter and took a quick moment to shake the King and Queens hands and tell the friends he had made there goodbye. He could hear non-stop cheering and applause as the door to the ship closed. When he sat down in the pilot’s seat, all he could think of was home. He knew that he was returning a different person than he was when he left.

  Chapter 32

  When the Destroyer landed at the Air Force and Marine Base it didn’t take long for the Marines to disappear and head home. Vlad hurried to the transport gateway back to Capital City where it exited in the Transportation Center, right next door to his apartment in the high-rise above Market Place. Hunter stood alone for a few minutes and decided he just wanted to be by himself for a while. He made a gateway to his mother’s ranch and his room on the top floor overlooking the river and mountains. He didn’t even bother to tell anyone he was home. He took a shower, crawled into bed and slept for almost 18 hours. He probably would have slept longer, but the housekeeper had discovered his body and raced to tell his mother Renee and his sister Amber that he was upstairs in bed. When he heard their loud voices, they could never do anything quiet, he opened one eye to see if he was imagining the sounds of familiar voices. It had been almost two months since he’d slept in his own bed and seeing his Mom and sister put a smile on his face. He slowly sat up, exposing his undressed body from the waist up and asked, “How ‘bout breakfast in bed?” Renee and Amber looked at each other and broke out laughing. When they stopped, Renee said, “The cooks off today and we aren’t about to do breakfast in bed. Get up, get dressed and come downstairs and see what you can find in the fridge. There should be some leftovers from last night’s supper.” They both blew him a kiss and left the room so he could have his privacy to get dressed. Hunter thought to himself, “It sure is great to be a Prince. People treat you so special” smiled and spoke aloud, “God, it’s good to be home.”

  He managed to find some clean Levi’s and an old Tennessee Titans T-Shirt and headed downstairs barefoot, his hair loose instead of pulled back into its normal ponytail. The second he entered the kitchen his Mom raced to hug him followed by his little sister, who for some reason looked much more mature. Joshua gave him a firm handshake and a welcome home. He headed directly to the fridge. The leftovers he had for breakfast, it was actually now the middle of the day, consisted of Chateaubriand for Two with Béarnaise Sauce, Chateau Potatoes, Asparagus, a Caesar Salad, and French bread with real butter. The chef had cooked it for Renee and Josh, but they got tied up in meetings and never made it home. Hunter ate a meal that was prepared for two. His Mother laughed as he grabbed a Diet Coke from the fridge to wash it down, thinking, “The chef would have a heart attack, at least he didn’t ask for any catsup.” While Hunter ate, Renee and Amber filled him in on everything that happened while he was gone. He almost choked when Amber began her tale with, “By the way, they’re pretty upset that you nuked France.”

  She went on to tell him all about the fiasco that followed and how it had actually worked out fine, but put their Grandfather in a position of now having to deal with five countries, plus a U.N. Ambassador instead of just one country. They both let him know that Paul had arranged for the leaders to come to Verron the next week. Amber then told him about the Chinese on Klelta, about Molnar and how Tala and Daniel had made good friends with the President’s kids and that Michael had invited the President and his wife to be his guests when they come to Verron. All Hunter could think about was how much he enjoyed his life here and how it was never boring. He then ate two pieces of fresh cheesecake topped with strawberries. He and Amber took a ride on their favorite horses for a few hours and she finally stopped talking long enough for him to tell her about what he had been doing for the past couple of months. She grew very serious as he told her the details of the war and his encounter with the sorcerers and their High Priestess/goddess. Her only comment from the person who knew him better than anyone alive was, “I could tell you had changed; now I know why. I think you should talk to Dad about it. He has more experience in dealing with that sort of stuff than anyone I know.” When they returned home Hunter changed into a clean set of commando grays and headed to see his Dad, Brigadier General Justice Hall.

  He contacted Lucy through his implant and asked where his Dad was. She informed him that he had just gone into a meeting with General Zarman and King Verron. He decided that he was going be giving a full briefing on his time on Darsai sooner or later, so it may as well be sooner. He pulled his hair back in his normal ponytail, put on his dragon cap and made a jump to the executive offices in Mountain City. When he entered King Verron’s outer office Inga rose to greet him. She stared at him a few moments and commented, “I’m not certain what it is, but there is something different about you. I’ll let the others know you’re here.” Before he could open the door to the conference room, it swung open to reveal his Dad at the door reaching for an embrace, with General Zarman, Zimuel, Dalhia and King Verron standing close behind. What surprised him most was the presence of Vlad, CIA DDIC Admiral George Sullivan and Pierce Brosnan; Camil’s newest persona. He hoped that Vlad had at least had some time with his wife and family before he was summoned to a meeting. In the typical caring manner that made him always love his Grandfather, before a word was spoken about the true reason for this meeting, Hunter and Vlad spent over an hour telling as many details as they could remember about their time on Darsai. Paul was impressed that Hunter had developed special abilities while using his Power; he thought he was going to be the only one who could do things beyond the normal realm of abilities. Zimuel’s only comment was, “So that’s where the Cyclops people come from. Mahala had always wondered what star system they came from. The two on Earth ended up getting killed, so we could never ask.”

  King Verron had Lucy get a list of the things that needed to be done on Darsai out to those responsible. Hunter loved how his Grandfather didn’t wait on making decisions, he took care of business immediately and then forgot about; he always took for granted that what he asked to be done, got done. So far it always had. Vlad and Hunter felt good about the level of support that King Verron intended to extend to the small planet light-years away. General Zarman made a call immediately to have
2000 Xhondarian made units of body armor sent, along with a Marine scouting unit to find a good location to establish a base of operations. By the time their part of the meeting was over, there was a cargo ship being loaded with materials to begin building a fuel storage tank, and arrangements made with the Verron John Deere farm equipment people to provide some diesel powered equipment for Darsai.

  When they finished with local business, Admiral Sullivan looked at Vlad and Hunter, saying, “While you were away, your girl Camil has done an excellent job of keeping things running.” Smiling he continued, “After Prince Hunter nuked France, and King Verron managed to save the crew of the Kahana, we have managed to piece together a great deal of information on the Russian Mafia’s organized smuggling operation. Boris Abarnikov and his records gave us a lot of information. We added that to the information we got from the Captain of the Kahana. He and his first mate were the only ones on board who knew there were nukes and where they were headed. The rest of the crew was just trying to make a living, not an honest living, but still just a way to make a paycheck. We’ve pieced together a treasure trove of information we’ve gotten from MI-6 and their interrogation of Amid Umar, the FBI and what they got from Ayman Al-Zawahiri and our own friends Abukbakar Shehan and the smuggler you brought in, Alex Aliyev. What we’ve discovered from them could lead us all the way to Vladimir Putin. There’s a Russian General named Ludkowsky and an Admiral named Kuznetoz that are the inside men for the smuggling organization controlled by none other than billionaire Gregorovich Romenov; President Putin’s life-long friend and business partner. We now have enough evidence to tie Romenov, Ludkowsky and Kuznetoz together. If we can take one or all of them down, we could very well track this directly to the fourth richest man, and some say the most powerful man, in the world. This is one highly classified and politically sensitive situation. It’s next to impossible to get to the Admiral and General, and we all know how Romenov hides anything he does with his legitimate businesses. We need to close down this operation. Half the terrorist in the world are supplied by them. Those two nukes, we found out, were purchased by a combined effort of Al Qaeda and Hezbollah. One was going to be used on Tel Aviv and the other was destined for New York to finish what the Jetliners couldn’t do. Prince Hunter, you saved millions of lives by seizing the one ship and destroying those weapons on the other. The nuclear mishap only caused one death and he was one of the smugglers.”

  Vlad was first to speak, asking, “What is it you want us to do?” DDIC Sullivan smiled and answered, “What no one else but you can do. We want you to nab the General and the Admiral so we can interrogate them. We have no doubt that they will lead us to Romenov and hopefully Putin. No one has the capability to do whatever it is you do, and for the CIA to organize a kidnapping deep inside Russia would not only take months and cost millions, it would also have a low probability of success.” The President has personally asked me to come to you with this request. Even DIC Brannon was against it; calling it far too risky. This is the kind of thing that needs to be discussed very little, include as few people as possible and be done quickly. The longer we wait to act, the less chance we have of keeping it quiet.”

  King Verron looked across the table at Camil and Hunter and asked, “What about it 007, do you feel like going to Russia?” Camil smiled, and replied in Russian, “I have been training for this assignment for a couple of years now “M,” which one do you want me to grab?” Sullivan was shaking his head, thinking, “I couldn’t imagine this going on in one of our CIA briefings. But their results speak for themselves.” Hunter looked to James Bond sitting next to him and said, “Well, Mr. Bond, what will it be, the Admiral or the General; want to flip for who gets which one?” Camil slumped in her chair and answered, “No thank you. I did enough flipping this morning at Jxansa Gha practice; which you missed. I’ll take the Admiral if that’s alright with you?” Hunter simply said, “Done. When do you want to go? I say we don’t waste time and do it when the meeting is over. Lucy, do you know where the two men we seek are presently located and what time it is where they are?” Lucy answered, “The Admiral is at the Leningrad Naval Base near St. Petersburg. He has a home on the Navy Base and the General is at his estate north of Moscow. It is only 7:00 PM there and a bit early for your operation. I will deploy observation drones and post you on their location.”

  DDIC Sullivan said his good-byes and Zimuel made a gateway to return him to CIA Headquarters to await the late night delivery of his two suspects. There were several hours to kill, so Hunter spent his time going for a run with the Dragon Guard. It had been a while, and he had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed those runs. When they got back to Mountain City, he and Amber jumped in their Speeders and went for a spin through the Robert’s Range. Hunter was beginning to feel like his old self and was able to tune out the ugly business that took place on Darsai. When they returned to Mountain City they still had some time left before departing for their kidnapping duties and went upstairs to see their Great-grandmother and Grandfather. As usual, the kitchen was full of the many residents from the Mansion, plus Camil, Chase, Tala and Michael. Hunter loved eating here more than at home. Their French Chef was great, but the former restaurant owner from Oxford, Mississippi knew how to please your taste-buds; Chicken-fried-chicken with gravy, hash-brown casserole with onions, sweet baby carrots, fresh green beans, fried green tomatoes, buttermilk cornbread and 99’s sweet tea. Tonight they even had the Queen Mother’s homemade Banana Pudding. Ninety-nine was really amped-up. He had been to Beriya-Haven earlier in the day and seen his mate-to-be. He told everyone she was going to be beautiful. Hunter began to think of Princess Tiffanis and Ursula, wondering if he would ever find anyone he wanted for a mate. He just couldn’t bring himself to seriously consider getting into a relationship with so much going on in his life. He looked at his Grandpa and the Diet Coke in his hand and thought, “I’m becoming more like him every day.

  Before dinner was over, Hunter’s two aunts, Desiree and Marie, showed up to let their Daddy know, “The last of the victims from when Hunter nuked France went home today. All the Russian smugglers want to stay. They know they will be killed if they return; no doubt you’ll want to check them out first before you decide. The Captain of the French fishing boat saw our oceans and asked if we could use him and his family to fish here. We told him yes; hope that’s OK. The two HMS Iron Duke guys asked if they could move here when their enlistment is over. We told them yes; maybe you’ll even start a Navy just for them.” Paul smiled at his daughters and asked them to have the Russian’s delivered to Vlad. He knew that he would be better at deciding the fate of his countrymen.

  Neither Camil nor Hunter wanted to wear commando grays on their mission. Hunter found a Russian Colonel’s Uniform that Vlad had stashed in a closet in the executive offices. When he came back out of the bathroom changed and trying to stuff his ponytail under his hat he had to do a double take of Camil. She had assumed a different Bond character, Maude Adams; also known as Octopussy. She had on a white silk dress with spaghetti straps and lower cut than was usually worn around Verron. She smiled, saying, “I read the profile prepared by Vlad. Admiral Kuznetoz has a thing for the ladies. I figured this will get me closer to him than any other shape and I still get to stay in character.” Hunter smiled and asked, “Are you still watching sci-fi with 99?” She replied, “Not as much since I got my own TV and discovered James Bond and Jason Bourne.” Hunter couldn’t help but smile, then commented, “Just remember those movies are fictional make-believe; this is very real. Did you wear your forcefield?” She raise he silk dress to mid-thigh revealing a tight fitting garter with a forcefield reactor hanging from it, and said, “I never leave home without it.” He couldn’t help but notice the stiletto strapped to the inside of her other thigh. They wished each other luck, said their goodbyes to Vlad and King Verron, who would be monitoring their progress, and stepped through their gateways to Russia.

  I was cold along the Baltic Sea, but Admiral Kuznetoz had fires
going in each of the five fireplaces. Camil looked around downstairs for a moment and noticed the half-eaten meal on the dining room table and the champagne glasses on the table by the over-stuffed sofa sitting in front of the fireplace. She soon heard sounds coming from upstairs. Obviously the Admiral was partaking in his favorite past-time. She slowly crept up the steps and turned to head down the hall to the bedroom. Evidently the Admiral had live-in security. A door opened to her left as she was slowly walking by and a big man with a Makarov 9mm stepped out and pointed it directly at her. She smiled her most seductive smile and said in perfect Russian, “After we take care of the Admiral’s fantasy maybe I can come back and see you. I think you would be a lot more fun than that fat old man.” He smiled and said only one word as he shut the door, “Da.” For a moment she wondered if the security man had monitors in the Admiral’s bedroom. She decided that if there were any cameras in there they would be his own. She slowly opened the door and was quit disgusted by what she saw, but managed to maintain her cool, saying again in Russian, “Gregor, couldn’t you two wait for me. It would have been much more fun. The women with the Admiral got upset and quickly wrapped a blanket around herself and said, “I work alone; you can have what’s left of him.” The Admiral was smiling about his good fortune. He had already grown tired of the other hooker and now he had a new one that was far better looking. Camil walked slowly toward his bed and bent to kiss him. It was the last thing he remembered. She pressed a Jxansa Gha paralysis point and he went totally limp. The fat old Admiral must have weighed over 300 pounds. Camil, however, had no problem picking him up and throwing him over her shoulder. She made her gateway directly to DDIC Sullivan’s office and just before she stepped through saw the big security guard entering the room with the hooker. She said, “do svidaniya lyubov`”, Goodbye love, and closed the gateway.