Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Stalin was ruthless to his enemies as well as his own people. He was paranoid and slaughtered his own people in droves. Millions died at his hands either in death camps or they were worked to death. All so he could better their country and compete with mine. He had visions of taking over the world.”

  She blinked. “Oh.”

  “Stalin was a brutal evil man. But then again, Russia is a rough country and not for the faint of heart. It is near the top of Earth and has brutal snows like you have in Duluth.”

  “I'll try to get more of his story out of him. He hasn't spoken much,” Zara stated.

  “You might stimulate his memory with images from the laptop. Search for Europe and Russia. Just be careful, he might get confused and upset too. Possibly even violent.”

  “Understood. Thank you.”

  “Thank you for letting me know. I was curious. Sorry if I interrupted anything important.”

  Zara looked around and then snorted. “Believe it or not, it's a slow day. We're still going through the harvest and sorting things out while recovering from the Thing .”

  “Thing …?”

  “You call it the house of dominus. Lords,” Zara said, crinkling her nose again at the odd word.

  “Ah, that. Okay. How did it go?”

  “Some parts went quite well. Some still have rough edges. I am still feeling it out and it appears the natives are as well.”

  “Good. Everyone is off-balance so no one has too much of an advantage.”

  “Hey!”

  Eugene chuckled. “As long as you stay a couple of steps ahead of them, you'll be fine. Don't get so far ahead you get out of step totally though. And watch your six.”

  “Six?”

  “Um … butt,” he said.

  “Did you just ask my sister to watch her own butt?” Deidra's voice demanded in the background.

  “Um, oops, gotta go,” Eugene said hurriedly. Zara smiled as he signed off.

  ~~~^~~~

  Eudoxia informed Zara that there was little she could do to ease the old man's suffering. The medic gently told her that the old man had dementia and Alzheimer's, diseases of the brain that even the Terrans were not able to fully treat let alone cure. They could do little to ease his suffering with what they had on hand. He also had tumors on his body; she didn't expect him to live through the winter. He was wasting away.

  Zara nodded. Together they brought the news to the granddaughter and old man. Eudoxia tried to be as gentle and as compassionate as she could be but couldn't soften the blow beyond that.

  The granddaughter teared up over the news. The old man barely reacted.

  “The trip here was hard enough on him. I feared this,” the girl whispered, touching the handkerchief covering her hair and rocking slightly.

  “What do you wish to do?” Eudoxia asked.

  “Can he stay here?” the girl asked, looking imploringly to them.

  “You do not wish for him to die in peace with his family?” Zara asked. She had feared that would be requested of her. A small part of her resented the girl and her family for putting that burden on her.

  “I don't know if he'd survive to get there,” the girl said then bit her lip. “Please?” she whispered.

  Eudoxia looked to the old man who was looking around the room. She then looked at the princess. “We can do what we can. And we can learn from him,” she said. “I have a spare bed.” She turned to the girl. “He'll be terribly confused though. It will hurt him.”

  “He's already lost his mind,” the girl insisted. “He doesn't recognize any of us.”

  Zara felt for them. The castle couldn't normally afford the drain on resources, but he had only a short time left. They might get more of his story from him. Eudoxia might be able to teach elder care to her students. Reluctantly, she nodded.

  “Thank you,” the girl whispered, holding the doctor's fingers and squeezing them. She hugged her grandfather, whispered in his ear, then kissed his craggy cheek and then left quickly. Zara heard her choking back sobs. No doubt it had been hard on her.

  She wiped a tear from her eye and ordered Agnes to find a place for the old man to stay. “Make sure he is comfortable while he is here,” she said softly.

  “As I said, we have a bed for him. He'll be better with us; we can monitor his health,” Eudoxia said as she gently guided the old man out.

  ~~~^~~~

  The carpenters Tacitus paid to make the components for the fridges ran out of wood as the temperatures dropped below freezing. He stored the parts and paid them.

  When they asked what they could do for work, he consulted the princess and then offered to pay people to cut ice from the river once it was frozen over. He warned them it could be hard, dangerous work.

  The princess explained that they would store the ice in an insulated cavern as well as a building in the capital. They would sell the fridges to the Imperium and to their own people. The ice would be sold separately.

  "Why bother? Tis hiems !" a carpenter protested when he laid the idea out to them and explained what they planned to do with the ice.

  "It is now but come spring they will be of use."

  "Ah."

  “We'll store it where it will take a long time to melt. There are still some large abandoned buildings that will serve that purpose nicely. It will freeze meat and food and keep it for the entire hiems ,” Tacitus explained. "Quite possibly past the ver if we are lucky."

  “How do we cut the ice?” the carpenter asked.

  Tacitus consulted his notes and then showed them a single image that he had from his files. They looked at the image of men cutting ice with long saws and then bringing them off the ice in sledges.

  “It can be done, though I think tis a fool's errand. But it is your money.”

  “Put it this way, it will help feed your family.”

  “Aye, tis that. And it beats going into the forest to cut trees. What of the stories of farming trees? How outlandish is that?”

  Tacitus blinked at the gossip and then smiled slightly. “Ah, it hasn't happened here yet but was brooded about,” he said.

  The carpenter stared at him. “Tis a true thing?”

  “Aye. They are doing it in the Imperium or at least starting to do so. It will take many annus to be able to harvest the trees.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, done right they can plant the trees they want to cut. And done right it will keep the basilisk at bay,” the smith explained as they walked over to the carpenter's collection of saws. “With time you could pick trees to cut depending on an order.”

  “I do that already.”

  “Ah, but you haven't been as busy as you will be next annus ,” Tacitus warned. The carpenter stared at him and then groaned but laughed as well. Tacitus patted him on the shoulder and then went to selecting the right saw to try cutting the ice with.

  ~~~^~~~

  Deidra called, surprising Zara. The queen testily informed her of another convoy on the way. “What, another one?”

  “This one isn't from me,” Deidra said. “I just found out about it,” Deidra said in a clearly disgusted tone of voice.

  “Oh?”

  “Some of the lords banded together and sent their younger sons and daughters your way with promises of holdings of their own. They waited until now to get them on the road though.”

  “Oh, some of those,” Zara sighed. “You know that is pissing the natives off.”

  “Tough.”

  “But I see you didn't send them. So they aren't official,” Zara stated.

  “I know, but I can't afford to piss their parents off. Tuck them away for now and find places for them where you can.”

  Zara scowled. That meant she had to feed and house them all hiems . She wasn't happy about that. “Can you get me a number?” Zara asked, lips working in a silent curse. She had no idea how many extra mouths to feed would cut into her food reserves.

  “No idea. More than a hundred. Some have servants; some don't. I don't know
how they are suited for supplies either. They don't have any guns of course. We got the word from the border guards.”

  “Great,” Zara sighed.

  “Make the best of it while you can.”

  “I don't see how, but I'll think of something,' Zara grumbled.

  ~~~^~~~

  Domina Rasmussen tried to bond with Zara once Baron Farragut had departed to reluctantly return to his holdings. The princess was distracted though, which was both a blessing and a curse for her.

  They did find a bit of time to talk about their shared love of reading. She quite enjoyed the castle library and had been surprised and pleased to see the princess adding to it steadily. She had been replacing some of the lost books but also included her own personal books in the library.

  Zara had showed her where some of her staff had set up some sort of device to copy books. She didn't fully understand it though. They had finished with the copying as well as that of the capital. They were intent on going around to the individual towns and castles in Duluth to copy the books and scrolls in the next annus .

  That was interesting. As was the assertion that the copying would be mostly painless and once the copy was made, they could make as many copies as they wanted.

  Zara had confided in her that she'd considered opening the library up to the dominus to check books out of. They would have had to sign for each book and leave a deposit. Once they returned the book, they would get their deposit back.

  That had been intriguing to her. But most of her coin had been used for other things.

  Zara had also confided in her that they had another invasion coming. The domina had been surprised by the late addition and had said so. Zara had fully opened up and told her in confidence that it was unwanted. “I've half a mind to reject them. But my sister said I can't, so now we're scrambling to find a place for them for the hiems ,” she grumbled before she took off.

  She did manage to get to Dominus Siegfried when they both tried to corner the girl. They had both been rebuffed; Zara had been called away to a meeting. The lad had been hurt and angry over being rebuffed by Zara. “I know she's busy but …!” his hands flexed in frustration.

  The domina had him tell her the story of the battle and then the trip in the convoy and events in the castle. She took careful mental notes for later. She consoled him that things would change in time.

  “How are your holdings?”

  “I've managed a lot, but I have so many questions! And I need to find investors, she called it?” he wrinkled his nose. “Or a loan. Many of the devices cost a great deal more than my purse can provide.”

  “Ah. Have you considered raising tribute?”

  “I have done so. The tribute is harsh with the cost of the war though. Some of the rusticus had abandoned their holdings for fear of not making the tribute.” He grimaced. “That is another problem, we're not supposed to catch and beat them. So what are we to do when they try to skip out?”

  “Ah, another problem the Imperials have caused. Or I should say the Terrans,” the domina said. She decided for the moment to shift targets and get the lad on their side or at least split him off from Zara so she would have one less supporter.

  ~~~^~~~

  The domina passed the tidbit about more southern lordlings coming late. Percival had their spies stir up the people in the capital with the news over beers. They incited a lot of grumbling that more southerners were coming to invade and take over their lands. It got some of the hot heads angry.

  ~~~^~~~

  The capital's tanneries had been only lightly touched by Tacitus and his improvements. They had better running water and better ways to dispose of their waste.

  He'd also introduced a little mass production. Raw leather skins were clipped to a frame called a hearse. It is made of wood or other material and used to stretch the rawhide under tension. Then a rusticus could scrape the fat off with a crescent shaped knife. It was smelly, messy work, not for the faint of heart.

  The hide was then treated, sometimes with salt or other materials and left to dry. Sometimes they scraped off the fur and scraped the hide so thin it could be tissue thin for paper, or to cover windows or lamps.

  They were constantly sharpening their knives with strops and blocks. He introduced a foot pedal powered grinder to help that process along.

  He heard a bit of grumbling over dominus coming but thought nothing of it.

  ~~~^~~~

  Drott Olaf worked with Percival and Stephan to go over their plan. They had a series of plans, but none written in stone. Between the three of them they had managed to piece together a map of the capital as well as the castle. Stephan had provided the schedule of the guard in the capital. Domina Rasmussen's spies were working on getting them an up-to-date schedule of the guard.

  The rumors of more Imperials coming was working in their favor, drawing in more recruits. They had to be careful to check each out. Two had seemed unsuitable, and Stephan had ruthlessly dispatched them, making it look like a mugging.

  They weren't the first to fall in their plan and certainly not the last. It did bother the drott a bit though. He went back to drinking.

  Chapter 23

  Imperial Capital

  Charlie made a regular supply of ammonia to use in various things from cleaners to refrigeration. They finally farmed out the making of the chemical in order to get a steady supply. The subcontractor was slowly ramping up production. He hit a plateau within a week due to the coming winter and supply issue.

  "Sure you come up with a fridge when winter comes?" Max teased. In truth they already had a few working prototypes that Sue had been using.

  "Oh, shut up," she said, glowering at him. "I got it done, didn't I? And we can use this in AC units next year. For which I am putting my order in now along with a fridge and freezer. A big fridge for my gear and another for my food."

  "Yeah, better not mix them up," Max teased. She lowered another glower on him, so he put his hands up in surrender but smiled.

  “We'll need one for the Expo, right?” Max suddenly asked. Her smile turned into a devilish grin even as his face soured into a grimace. “Damn it …,” he muttered as she chuckled.

  “More work for you,” she said maliciously.

  He glowered at her, shook his index finger and then stormed off.

  ~~~^~~~

  Eugene was on hand at the dedication ceremony for the newly-constructed fire and rescue academy. He took a tour, nodding and murmuring compliments about the classrooms, giant garages, running water, and exercise areas where the trainees could go in and learn to fight fires.

  There was a section for paramedics as well as a barracks where they would learn to live together. A large section of bays was set aside to wash the equipment and another area was used to maintain the gear.

  “It seems counter to everything we stand for to start a fire. But it is educational,” the fire marshal stated as they watched a demonstration of a fire. Eugene nodded. The crowd was a bit surprised at the fire, but when it was quickly knocked down by the firefighters and their equipment, they cheered. Fires were terrifying things in the capital; knowing someone was working to improve ways to fight them was heartening to all.

  The academy was the first in the Imperium and would take in students from all over the Imperium as well as Duluth. There was an expansion planned for Phase 2, which would include air drops and fighting forest fires.

  ~~~^~~~

  The arriving dominus and domina for the first and last parliament session of the season found them admiring the changes to the capital. Buildings were cleaned and freshly painted; some had been removed and new ones constructed. Electrical lines were in some areas, but in others they were buried in service tunnels under the streets. Wind turbines dotted roofs in the city. Water wheels were along the river.

  There were work crews on some of the side streets, installing sewer and other utility lines before the cold set in and the snows came. The streets were changing from the cobblestone to solid concret
e with manhole covers and drains for rain.

  A few of the high-end taberna that some of the dominus booked had been rebuilt. They sported new interiors, new beds, new electric lights, electric heat, and fresh gourmet food. It was a fascinating experience for many, even if a bit more expensive than they'd like. It got a bit confusing as some disregarded their original plans and the schedule in order to inquire about some of the technology and how they could acquire it for themselves.

  ~~~^~~~