The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 7

"Come on; we'll have breakfast in the dining room," Richard informed, crossing the Ballroom and opening a door in the wall on the right side of the stairs.

Only Lélia, Richard, Fernand, Vaughan, and Charlotte followed and entered what was one of the brightest rooms of the Asturian Manor, with eight windows, four to the front and four to the back of the building, in the center of the room a large carved wooden table. Between the main windows facing the front of the Manor, a second round table was placed, filled with fruits, cold meats, loaves of bread, jugs of juice, and thermos bottles with coffee and hot water. Charlotte was the first to sit down. In her chair was carved a large crown, just like Richard's, despite his nephew's being in a smaller format.

"The younger ones won't join us? And Nair?" Charlotte asked, intrigued as she settled down.

"No. They're having breakfast in the kitchen," Richard replied.

"My dear nephew, but what an inelegant attitude," Charlotte was still in the same tone, calmly enunciating all the words with her strong accent. "Why can't they sit here now? I believe what you intend to inform me is something they all already know if they are already here," Charlotte concluded, cutting a loaf of bread in half.

"We came to the consensual conclusion that it would be better to keep any details that may arise between us, just between us," Lélia decided to intervene. "We're still not quite sure what's going on, and they're likely safer uninformed."

Charlotte stopped smearing a pink cream on her bread and glared at Richard. Her eyes sparkled.

"What does Lélia mean by 'they're likely safer'? My task for the past few centuries has been to maintain the safety of every individual on this planet. There are no more murders, robberies, kidnappings," Charlotte spoke louder than usual, emphatically gesticulating. "I extinguished every crime that could offend others, guaranteed safety and mutual trust to everyone, and now there is a possibility of lack of security for some?" Charlotte was leaning over her plate. She cut eye contact with her nephew and then ran her eyes over each one on the table. "What's happening?"

"Well, we have a missing representative. He has no children or spouse; his parents were arrested, tried, and sentenced to death on an Anjeamons trial when he was still a child," Charlotte raised her eyebrows as Richard spoke. "We didn't have any notification from anyone interested; Chief Representative Oswaldo de la Fontaine just stopped presenting himself at the Representative Office of Asturias in Kholodnyei Gorod. Vaughan tried to locate him but could not. Oswaldo has always been a patriot who made Asturias his family in more than one hundred and twenty years of service. He always worked for the state tirelessly. It is not his profile to be insubordinate, much less to disappear without warning," Richard spoke, quickly as if he was thinking, but he knew that Oswaldo was not quite like that. There had been some slips and quick disappearances from the representative in the past. "And that's not all. Two days ago, Vaughan's daughter, you know her: Jeannie, also disappeared here on the Island. On the day, only Nair and Jean were on the island. Nair said Jeannie took one of the cars and went for a tour. The girl didn't tell Nair where she was going and what she was going to do. We tried to locate her, but we had no success. Something is going on, and our theory is that it can relate to other representative bodies, from other nations, but we can't imagine why."

Charlotte's features this time were unreadable. She didn't show fear, amazement, curiosity, or anger; she was just serene, listening to everything. When Richard finished, the Queen of Queens just took the glass full of orange juice and calmly drank. She slowly blinked her eyes, looking at Richard as she set her glass down on the cupholder.

"My dear nephew...," she leaned into Richard. "Do you know that this could be a state crisis?"

"Of course, that's why I contacted you, we believe...."

Charlotte raised her wrinkled, gray, blue-veined hand. Richard fell silent. As much as he disagreed in many ways with his aunt, the power that emanated from her hands made him keep quiet and listen. Everyone in the room felt a strange calm and a heightened interest in what Charlotte had to say, everyone's ability to speak was smothered as if by a spell cast by Charlotte as she raised her hand. Even the birds outside the room interrupted their various corners.

"It's been more than two hundred years without any war on our planet, with a single exception. I placed the kindly hegemony of my land over the world. With the achievements of my forefathers, I was able to exert power over the entire globe and nullify the part of it that strongly opposed a world government back in 8430. No attack between nations of this globe is permissible, let alone between individuals. I guarantee it! If something is going on: if representative Oswaldo and representative Jean have been directly attacked by anyone and for what reason, the responsible will pay. I'll deploy part of World Intelligence to find out what is going on. Richard, I want a list of all your employees at Kholodnyei Gorod and at CriSPe headquarters; other than that, my agents will be interviewing everyone close to Jeannie or Oswaldo. Please inform all those my agents should interview to obtain information about the whereabouts of Jean and Oswaldo.

Charlotte waved her hand, and everyone was then free to speak again, but they didn't. Charlotte being ready from the start to find out what was going on made everyone shiver, as this was another indication that something serious was happening. Despite her many shortcomings, Charlotte has always had a keen eye for crises and always acted promptly, even though she often made mistakes.

"Richard, you are responsible for one of the few kingdoms that still has a fully formed army and an intelligence institute of its own. As daring as it was to create such an institute and, on top of that, name it with the name they chose, I knew how to give in because of family ties," Charlotte glanced at Lélia. "Try to put this Institute to good use now."

"I'll assure that, Charlotte," Richard intervened. "Lélia, since you are the President of the Institute, please arrange as soon as possible a meeting with all the department heads, with the CriSPe staff, and also with the Regional Representatives of the Representation Institute; you can support Lélia in this task, Vaughan. Fernand, you must also support Lélia and Vaughan." Richard said. "Stay here at the Manor today. Tomorrow morning you can leave for your destinations."

"Excellent," Charlotte said. "What do you think a virtual conference in 48 hours?"

"It's ok by me. I'll have managed to gather some information," Lélia said.

"Works for me too," Richard looked at everyone at the table, nodding. "Well then, let's finish our coffee and get to work."

Everyone noticed that none of the delicatessens on the table had been eaten. The bread Charlotte had started to prepare was untouched on the saucer in front of her. They then began to eat and prepare their plans for the next few hours.

During the day, Lélia and Vaughan worked incessantly on their computers, sending emails, requesting reports, and talking to some people. Fernand was responsible for lifting the location of Jean's MC again and asked for an upload of all data contained in the device.

The day went by with accelerated speed, Nair ran to arrange the meals, and they all ended up eating at different times, each one focused on their own task, Fernand and Lélia in their rooms, Richard in his office, and Vaughan in the library. Charlotte returned to the plane and forwarded the information to Fernanda, who then began to organize the schedule of some of the Intelligence directors. The Supersovereign Queen herself made calls to her longtime advisors and some experts without giving any factual information, just hypothetically probing some scenarios. Until the early afternoon, all relevant information remained only among those who were on the Asturian Island.

It was late in the afternoon, just before dinner, that Lélia slipped into Fernand's room.

"Hi," she said. Fernand lowered the lid of his notebook as Lélia crossed the room towards the table where he was sitting. "The thing is, I'll talk with Richard, but you'll not follow his orders. You will receive and carry out tasks that I delegate to you, ok? For now, we stay in the Manor, but I am still maturing on an assignment that I believe is vital for our investigation, and then I will be able to send you on this mission. I think that by tomorrow I will have a better definition of how and when to act.

Fernand was excited by the idea.