Land Of The Free

Karl 1

Karl was really not ready for the hell that this morning had in store for him, he looked at his watch. 9:15. Time for him to get out the shower, his maid would have his usual coffee and bacon sandwich ready for him by now. Karl steps out of the shower and wraps his towel around around his waist and heads to the mirror. He looks at his own reflection, the first thing he noticed, after wiping away the condensation gathered there, was how his hair was sticking to his face. After he had finished drying the rest of his body he brought the towel up to his head and dried his hair. His hair had now started to take it's normal shape back. As Karl wrapped the towel back around him and walked out of the shower to his room, his maid, Maria, came upstairs with his usual. 'Good morning Mr Weiss' Maria said, 'I put a few more beans in your coffee today, I know that you're gonna need it.' Karl replied with a kind of nervous sounding thanks and headed into his room to change into his usually ignored business suit, today was a day for important business after all.

* * * * *

Karl's hair was now back to it's wild, but still somewhat charming self, as he applied the finishing touches to his boyish looks. Smiling into the mirror, he felt his shoulders relax. He knew that part of his success came from the fact that he was one of the only businessmen to have long blonde hair that came down to his shoulders, in combination with his blue eyes that had started greying with age. Looking in the mirror, he could see the stress building up in his face, with good reason, today was his big day. If he could pull this deal off, which, even though he was confident in himself, he knew that this wouldn't be a push over. Karl was jolted back into the real world when a humvee launched past him at around 50mph or so, ah yes, as if his situation couldn't be any more stressed, there were still many US soldiers intent on giving him a heart attack launching themselves around. Leaving his driveway, Karl took a left, towards his office, also unfortunately towards the long line of cars stuck behind the military blockade. He stopped behind a tarpaulin covered flatbed truck, which was patiently waiting in line for inspection. As the cars went past, his patience grew less and less, 'ha, home of the rich and land of the free, right?' Karl, half laughed, half hissed to himself. Finally, the family sedan infront of the lorry was finally being searched, but it seems there was a bit of a problem with some ID, as a bulky soldier that, previously, had an M4 assault rifle slung around his waist, was now levelling it at the driver and indicating for them to pull over to the side for 'futher investigation' as he had often heard it called. As the driver pulled over, the soldier lowered his weapon, and from the way that his face reddend and his brow creased, Karl thought that the soldier had nearly screamed into his radio. Two more soldiers ran out of the guardhouse to the side, and raised their own assault rifles as they approached, the soldier on the left approached the drivers side of the car and forced the door open as the second soldier caught up and dragged the driver, who appeared to be a mother of two, to the floor. She tried to stand up, but was given the back end of an M4 for her troubles. She didn't try and get up again. Infact she looked like she was bearly breathing and her nose appeared broken. The silence that followed was quickly ended by the screams of one of the children in the back of the sedan. The boy, who appeared about four, was now attempting to get out of his car, but his mother had evidently engaged the childlock. Originally designed to stop children opening the door during travel, the mother had probably turned it on to stop people from opening the door and taking her children captive, just a sign of the times Karl supposed.