Chapter Nine
Adam
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“WELL, THIS IS A PLEASANT surprise.”
Scanning the assembled women in my hospital room, my gaze fell on Caroline.
I hadn’t expected to see her again so soon, and as she and Kaspar disturbed me from my nap, I was struck by just how wonderful she was all over again.
Something about her faltering expression, though, warned me the latest intrusion wasn’t a social call.
“We have news, Mr. Harper.” Kaspar flashed a phone at me as she approached and, once again, my focus slid to the woman I loved.
The way she nibbled at her lower lip told me she was worried about whatever was coming next, and I watched as she pushed the duffle bag she was carrying down onto the floor between us.
I didn’t recognize the bag, and I wasn’t sure how she had been able to go back to the house to retrieve it, but I hoped our remaining possessions were tucked safely away in there.
“What’s happened?” My gaze traveled from Caroline to Elsa, and then back to Kaspar.
“Your president has just made a rather public declaration about you.” Kaspar’s stare flitted to Caroline. “It seems he is in disarray without his commander general.”
“He said you were kidnapped.” Caroline’s voice was laced with anger. “Snatched from your ‘crowning jewel’, Fortorus, and taken from the country.”
“What?” My pulse sped up, the acceleration registering on the machines I was still attached to. “Ian said this?”
The small-minded little prick I’d rescued my little girl from was many things, but concerned about the fate of those who fled didn’t sound likely. Ian would have been enraged at my audacity, and I had no doubt others would have paid the price in my absence. He was nothing if not cruel and unjust.
“See for yourself.” Kaspar thrust the device at me, and my gaze fell over the still image of the second man in English history who’d deposed the monarchy and crowned himself the king.
Staring at the picture, I could scarcely believe I’d once called the man a friend, let alone followed him so far into lunacy. “Caroline and I watched in the car.”
Pulling in a steadying breath, I pressed play on the phone and ushered Caroline to my side while I waited for the video to load. She closed the distance between us, nudging the bag to the side of my bed as the image of Ian abruptly burst into life.
“Good morning.” Ian’s podgy hands gripped the side of the lectern as he stared into the camera and, instinctively, a recollection of the room the press conference had been recorded in burst to the fore of my mind.
I knew that place, having had to organize and deliver a number of speeches there myself over the months.
Just like the man presiding over it in the video, it was all depressingly familiar to me.
“As many of you will be aware, our great nation suffered a terrible blow this month.”
Ian paused, frowning as though he was struggling to go on, but it wasn’t distress I saw in his countenance, only rage. He was trying to hide the emotion, but for someone who knew him as well as I did, the tell-tale tics of his anger, like the reflexive way his lip twitched, were easy to see.
“Commander General Harper, a man I personally know and consider a friend, was taken from our shores.”
Pressing pause, I snorted at the absurdity of his statement. Even for Ian, the statement was bullshit. “This is madness. No one can genuinely think I was taken!”
I was a grown man, and until recently, a powerful and capable one. Who would have been adept enough to ‘take’ me?
“It’s how he’s spinning it, I suppose.” Caroline reached for my shoulder and squeezed gently. “You know he’s full of hot air.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” I agreed.
“Watch the rest,” Kaspar instructed. “I want to know what your response is.”
My focus darted fleetingly to Caroline, her expression stony as I commanded the video to resume.
“The commander general’s loss is deeply felt.
” Ian’s face was somber, as though he was delivering my eulogy.
“He was a founding father of this great system and the architect of our mighty Fortorus.” Another pause, that time followed by a deliberate intake of breath.
“Needless to say, I shall ensure the glorious place stays strong and flourishes in his absence.”
“He makes it sound like I’m dead.” I rolled my eyes but noticed the way Caroline’s grip loosened at the mention of her prison.
“There is more,” Kaspar goaded.
“I have no doubt.” If there was one thing Ian enjoyed even more than barbarism and pussy, it was the sound of his own voice.
“That is why I want everyone in the country to know who’s responsible for his plight.
” Ian’s brow creased. The man was almost certainly psychopathic and had rarely shown anything akin to empathy in all the years I’d known him.
The fact that he felt deeply about my loss seemed unlikely, unless I counted his anger.
“I want the world to know which whore caused all this trauma.”
Caroline’s grip tightened again on my shoulder, and then and there, I knew what Ian would say next. Shifting forward, I intended to pause the demoralizing show, but my finger seemed to move in slow motion, unable to reach the screen before my odious old friend continued.
“This is the whore!” An image of Caroline’s face appeared on a vast screen behind Ian’s lectern, and from the corner of the room, Elsa took a sharp intake of breath.
“A former prisoner at Fortorus, she is no longer entitled to a name, but she was once known as Caroline Craness. Take a good look at her face.” He stepped aside and motioned to the picture.
“This is the face of the whore who tried to topple Fortorus.”
My fingertip hesitated by Ian’s head, one facet of me determined to halt his disgusting display of power, while another was darkly fascinated by whatever drivel would come from his lips next.
Even by Ian’s standards, he was being ridiculous.
How could Caroline have snatched me against my will?
Caroline, a woman who, until I had liberated her, had been my captive, and had been weak, unarmed, and malnourished.
There was no way she could have achieved the feat without my active participation.
He knew it. I knew it, and surely everyone else watching the footage would know.
Except that years of effective and relentless propaganda had done its job back at home.
The average Briton seemed liable to fall for any line they were told, so long as the rhetoric was served with vitriol and someone else to blame for the current calamity.
On reflection, the population’s compliance with the new regime, although not surprising, was hugely disappointing.
“He’s talking nonsense.” My voice was a throaty growl as my fingertip finally ceded to my will and pressed pause on the screen. “Caroline is not responsible for us leaving. She was one of many victims there.”
“We realize this.” Kaspar pressed her lips into a hard line. “He is obviously saying these things for effect. My question is, what do you think he seeks to achieve from this?”
“We’re probably giving him exactly what he wants.” I turned the phone back in Kaspar’s direction. “Attention, attention, attention. Jackson lives for it.”
Kaspar’s brow rose. “You think that is all?”
“Like Caroline said, he’ll want to spin my loss in his favor. He can’t allow any change that implies his weakness. So, my choosing to leave is a huge headache for Ian.”
“Finish it.” Kaspar offered no more insight as she motioned to the phone. “Please.”
I glanced back at Caroline, her knitted brows telling me how little she was relishing the experience of having to witness the man who’d terrorized, not only her, but her entire country, single-handedly blame her for my departure.
But then, that was what Ian did. It was what we’d all done.
Blaming women for every perceived ‘wrong’ in the country and using them as scapegoats had become as simple as taking our next breath.
It was the launchpad that had helped the BTP to seize power with such comparative ease.
Exhaling, I flipped the phone around and pressed the play button, causing Ian’s piggy little features to spring back to life.
“I show you this not to upset anyone.” Ian shook his head. “The peace and contentment of my people is my number one concern.”
I scoffed out loud at that preposterous falsehood. I’d rarely met anyone who cared less about the fate of the average Briton. Ian was interested in filling his own pockets and exercising his cock, and that was about all.
“No,” he went on. “I show you to illustrate why Fortorus has become such a lynchpin of our society. This whore—just one pitiful woman—had the ability to lure my incredible commander general away. She also attacked a number of my commanders and shot and murdered a young sentry who was there only doing his job.”
My hand rose to cover Caroline’s at my shoulder.
We both knew who’d shot the sentry that final night, and it certainly hadn’t been her, a fact that the closed-circuit television cameras focused on the security tower would have surely picked up.
Ian would have known who was culpable, but as ever, he didn’t care for the facts unless they suited his narrative.
“Just imagine what thousands of these whores can do.” Ian scowled as he grabbed the base of the mic and leaned closer to the camera.
Staring at his face, I realized he’d lost even more hair since I’d last seen him, and the lectern was barely able to hide his growing waistline.
“We must resist their scourge! We must continue to round them up and deal with their menace!”
“This man!” Elsa tutted in disgust. “He is awful!”
“That is why I am ramping up the round-up teams.” The image behind Ian switched to show a group of masked men.
Posing for the photograph, they held their thumbs up to the camera, as though they were taking a holiday snap.
I didn’t need to check to know Caroline’s opinion of men like them.
It had been groups of men in so-called ‘round-up teams’ who had herded her from her home originally and brought her to Fortorus against her will.
We’d abandoned their usage some months ago, knowing Fortorus was full, yet it seemed the plan had changed since I’d been gone.
Terrorizing citizens was back on the president’s agenda.
“More whores will be captured and held to account for their crimes.”
“Crimes.” Caroline spat the word. “What crime? Not being male?”
“Others deemed worthy will be rehomed with appropriate husbands, while the rest will be permanently taken care of.” His smile was predatory. “This is how we shall avenge our brother, the commander general. This is the legacy of Craness’ evil work.”
“Oh my God!” Caroline tugged her hand from mine and turned away from the screen. “I can’t watch any more of this. It’s even worse the second time around!”
“In the meantime, I ask our trading partners and allies in Europe not to provide cover for this wily snake. If anyone finds Craness, she must be detained and extradited back to Britain to face justice.”
“Unbelievable.” Flicking off the screen, I grimaced as the true extent of Ian’s words resonated. “He’s using my choices as an excuse to kill thousands of women.”
“And blame me.” Caroline’s voice was suddenly tiny.
“And it sounds as though the threat to those women is imminent,” Kaspar added.
An unsettling silence bloomed in the room as I handed the device back to the police officer.
Everything I’d worked to achieve at Fortorus; expanding the space to make sure no one had to be murdered, was unraveling in front of my eyes.
I supposed, deep down, I’d always known Ian would get his way about the executions, and perhaps I’d even known that he’d use my exit as an excuse to speed up those plans, but watching his brazen propaganda from my hospital bed was utterly debilitating.
Sitting in Switzerland, I no longer had any ability to affect the president.
“I had a call from the team at the ICC.” Kaspar’s gaze darted from Caroline to me.
“When?” Caroline demanded.
“When you used the restroom.” Her explanation was curt. “They have also seen this video, and while they thank you for your information to date, Mr. Harper, they now think the terms of your deal will need to change.”
“What?” I straightened, vaguely aware of the way the machine beside me was beeping faster again.
“You didn’t say anything about this before!” Caroline’s voice was accusing.
“I am telling you both now.” Kaspar took the phone from my fingers and tucked it into her pocket. “If you want the benefit of impunity, the ICC requires more than only a few pages of knowledge about President Jackson and his regime.”
“What do they want to know?” Caroline was back at my shoulder as I asked, her hand trembling as I sought the answers we both needed. We’d thought our nightmare was almost over, but it appeared officials at The Hague had other ideas.
“Representatives from The Hague are on their way to give you all the details.” Kaspar sighed.
“Oh, come on!” Caroline blurted. “Be reasonable! We’re going to need more than that, Officer.”
“All I know is this.” Kaspar’s hands rose to her hips. “In order to gain your plea deal, Mr. Harper, the ICC wants you to go back to Britain.”