UNWANTED

CHAPTER 4 - L24 - ILYAAS

The King's Guard became The Queen's Guard a few hours ago, and the maintenance man had already scraped the room's name off of the glass and replaced it minutes after. But now, with the first official decree, he came back. A portly man in the blue uniform of the custodians came again with his scraper, his face obviously annoyed that he had to do this twice today. Hopefully, he wouldn't need to do it again for a lifetime.

We were now the Imperial Guard; soldiers specifically picked to be loyal not to the parliamentary government, not the privy council, but to the crown alone, clothed in deep purple and white, guarding the House and the Empress, dispensed to do whatever the crown wanted without question and no matter the consequence. I didn't understand the distinction since it was still the crown who commanded the army, but we were a good deterrent to anyone who dared question Lesya.

Honestly, I think we were just overrated bodyguards.

King Solomon gave me the indiscreet promotion from corporal of the Eurasian Army to a Guard in the Pentagon League after a year of running around in North Africa. It was a promotion some people took decades to even dream about, much less achieve.

I didn't know why at first. He didn't even know me, hadn't even spoken a kind word to me before, but soon I understood.

He deserved to die.

"Malak, did the empress deactivate her tracker?"

I looked over at Ji Su, she was fumbling with the holographic screens in front of her, obviously looking for the ping that would lead her to Lesya.

"Yes. She cut it out, but I'm sure she didn't take her cardiac off, so we can monitor that. It's code nine-seven-seven-two."

She nodded. Soon enough I saw the crests of Lesya's heartbeat on her screen. "We need to put another tracker in, and an optic monitor." Ji Su tapped her shoe to it.

It would be useless. Lesya would just cut it out again, but I didn't say that. Ji Su was probably the only person in the League who didn't question my being there.

The Pentagon League's room was empty except for us, with one corner devoid of anything. Raza took his belongings out in an obvious display of disbelief earlier. Everyone in the office saw him leave, and that was when the frenzy started.

I reviewed the reports on my desk as I always did in this hour of the night. A report about the New Indian Stilts, a report on the Western States's impending coup, and then there were notes on the Islander expansions and an incident at one of their ports in Taiwan... all fodder.

The office was a buzzing market of people running in and out, officers worried if they were going to retain their rank. 'If Raza isn't safe, no one is.' I heard one say. 'Agent Malak is a goner. He's the one who whipped her an inch from death.' I heard the other reply.

Of course, they thought that way. Even I thought that way sometimes. But for some reason, just when I hated myself the most, Lesya reminded me that she never could. I loved her.

I looked over the pentagon room. James's desk was almost as clean as Raza's. He was always on top of the paperwork, and now he was probably heading for the training camps to help with the newly conscripted. Natasha ran out the door the moment her duty time was over, maybe for drinks, maybe for volunteer work in the care centers, maybe she got another job in one of the hospitals, but I doubted she needed more on her plate since she always looked tired.

Each one of them was good at something. Ji Su was amazing with anything non-analog, Natasha was an expert at medical procedures and had multiple doctorates, Raza was the spymaster who spoke every language known in Eurasia, James was the most decorated soldier who was not dead.