After ten minutes of sitting and waiting, the queen paced around the chamber...
The voice of Eltron broke into her feelings of impatience, "Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet."
"Einstein?"
"Aristotle wrote that long before others reinvented it to quote it as theirs. I suggest, Marm, you should go and partake of luncheon but first, take the phone from the open drawer and I will communicate through it to you when my creator is back on air so to speak. He still hasn't answered my signal which is not unusual due to the fact I have had no need to call for him until now and he walks extremely dangerous paths."
"I have my phone," she said.
"The contents of your mobile were duplicated three minutes ago, Marm. Someone in the security tower has them. My creator should be able to discover the names of those in that tower. I would suggest, Marm, you place your personal phone in that drawer and it will be cloaked from any enemy using the signal to discover your whereabouts. I've transferred your contacts to the compact phone and all you need to do is speak the name of the one you wish to contact. My name is in there and also the name of my creator."
The queen glanced around the chamber, looking for the 'open drawer.'
"Under the desk, Marm, to your right. And when you leave here, you must leave the desktop open as it is. I need to continue waiting on my creator for him to communicate with you, Marm."
A small shallow drawer, more like a shelf, protruded from beneath the desktop and in it was a small round pod-like container, very much like a compact for makeup powder. Feeling off-center to be commanded by a computer, the queen snapped up the compact, placed her phone in the drawer and strode towards the door which opened automatically. Moving along the short narrow passage, she waited at the next door, knowing it wouldn't open if someone was in the chamber beyond. Impatience took over and she strode back to the still-open door, feeling even more contrary. She hesitated, not sure what to do next. Her indecision was of foreign nature to a queen who had ruled over a kingdom for twenty-seven years. She felt like an out-of-tune multi-strung instrument, unable to play a perfect accompaniment.
I can't find any coherent melodies inside of me, she lamented.
It struck her that she should be feeling threatened, not thinking of music. If the door wouldn't open, someone was in her most private quarters. Someone who had the code and this could only be her husband, no one else. Staff were only permitted entry when they saw the outer door to her chambers left open.
"Someone is approaching my outer door, Marm."
"Do you know who it is?" she called back.
"They have a device, Marm but not one that I can access. Best you come back here and close my inner door. You are safe here Marm."
Returning to her Royal safe room, the queen sat at the desk and asked, "Eltron, can you show me the outer courtyard and garden party areas?"
Middle screens above the desk seemed to merge into one, before dividing to show the various areas of the garden party. Others around the edge opened up to the insides of the marquee food tents where young ladies and men were partaking of food and drinks. Waiters and waitresses swarmed around them with trays and platters.
Unable to recognize but few of the guests, the queen recalled the names of many of the staff and discrete guards around the different areas. She found it both fascinating and disturbing to watch from here yet not be part of it. I should be out there. Perhaps I should return.
"The intruder in your quarters has gone in the bathroom and the shower is running," Einstein announced.
"Can you show me this person?"
"No Marm; it would be most unseemly for my creator to have fitted cameras in there. Perhaps you should take a look yourself. There would only be two others who can access your apartment when it is locked, and I have no knowledge of how this person entered and relocked it. It is your side of the royal apartments, Marm, and not that of the king's. That person out there is using your shower."
Fear rose inside the queen and she said, "I shall not go out of here. It can't be my husband and no other knows how to access my quarters," she said. Albert would have knocked.
"Two others know, but I cannot release to you their details."
"I'm not going out there to confront a stranger! You wouldn't expect me to do that, would you?"
"I can only confirm that this person is no stranger to you, Marm. I have read the compact phone they carry."
Shaking her head and falling silent, the queen told herself that she was not that brave or equipped with any kind of protection against this person if he or she was hostile.
"Please put the quote screen back up, Eltron, and voice the quotes for me." Under her breath, she said, "I want to gain strength from Scriptures..." Closing her eyes, she leaned back in the flexible chair and closed her eyes. Peace filled her senses like the waters of a refreshing brook.
Seven minutes later, Eltron announced, "There is a person who has registered her voice for recognition and is now pressing her palm on the screen to allow her to enter. She is coming now."
Horrified, the queen stood and turned the chair around, standing behind it as if it might be some kind of barrier or protection from the intruder.
A young woman, bare-foot, her hair wet and hanging long down the sides of her face, dressed in a black singlet and shorts stepped slowly towards her, closer and closer. She smiled.
Gripping the back of the chair, the queen could only stare in disbelief.
Dropping on both knees just a few feet in front of the chair, she said, "I'm so pleased to see you here, Your Majesty, and it's so pleasing to me that you are safe and in good health. I apologize for the shock this must be for you..."
The queen could only keep gripping the chair tightly and stare at the owner of this voice which she recognized.
"I remember you telling me, Your Majesty, I am welcome to come to you and to Eltron anytime I wished and would never be turned away. You told me it was to be as much a refuge for me as it was for you..."
Shock impacted every part of the queen, it was like the trauma of a physical wound, of her body, mind and emotions. "How can it be?" she managed, adding, "Are you truly her, the one you look like, but older? If this is possible, she would be older; but, first, stay right where you are and tell me somethings that only you and I know to prove you're not a look-a-like of whom we have had many." Very slowly, the queen spun the chair back around, sat on it, pushed with her feet to spin back to view the still kneeling obtruder.
Lowering herself to sit on her heels, she said, "You have a look-alike, Queen Charlotte. She is your Cousin, Clara. Perhaps more people know of her than just the royals...
"You and I bonded, Your Highness, as did Albert and I. The last time I was with you, you permitted me to call you 'Mama' whenever I was alone with you. You empathized with me that my mother had gone to heaven when I was ten years old. You were at her funeral and this was the first time I met you. Also Albert was there, and Papa Desmond, Lady Clara too."
The queen stared at her, blinking, feeling as though her voice had been stolen.
"Albert and I were like close siblings; he at the age of almost sixteen and I just ten, we rode, we climbed trees and we played chess. We were never alone but it was discussed by you and others, my Papa, that we were so compatible, there might be a future for us together. It was decided that if we still enjoyed each other's company and Albert was agreeable, we would be betrothed when I was sixteen.
"We wanted to be betrothed before then but it was considered archaic to force young people into arranged marriages."
While the girl paused to draw a deep breath, the queen summoned a hardened tone to say, "You have told me little that any clever fraudster couldn't have found out over the years, how many has it been? Almost six?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, but I did not tell you that Albert and I shared our first kiss, secretly, and it became intense. We knew we were meant for each other. Albert was eager to go to you and his father and demand to be engaged right away and married when I was sixteen. He was twenty already. It was right before I left that last time, and we were told we had to wait. Oh, Marm, I need to convince you that I am Elsie Maria and my father is alive, because your, our, our Kingdom and its future freedom, its very survival, it is all at risk. There are great threats hanging over us...
"My Papa was forced into a parachute on that helicopter flight and dragged to the open door to be pushed out. They wanted him, not me. He called to me in a secret language we use together and as they threw him out, I managed to get free and jump as well. He linked up with me and we came down on the one parachute in a forest while the helicopter impacted the side of a cliff, exploded and burned up. Two men who parachuted from the helicopter called others to capture us both... but, Your Majesty; perhaps the best way to assure you as to whom I am is that I did help Papa secure your palace here with double locks and secret passages in which only certain people could enter. I know every lock in this palace and can access all of them with another who knows too. I assisted my father with the coding and invention of Eltron. I am here, at your service, Marm, and Eltron can verify my identity."
"Tell me more. You say our kingdom is under threat? Explain what you know."
"I must condense, but the chief of security here, Dashenko, he is in the pay of Lord Zodilyon who has taken charge of combining the three northern kingdoms, Hyntower, Brinkwoods and Kreltzheim and forming what we believe to be a separate kingdom, or country if you please, a rogue dictatorship. Three landowners in the North offered great power and rewards to people in security, law and from royal positions of power to join them in being part of the new dictatorship which is to be headed by Kolrok Zodilyon."
"I'm not familiar with a man called, Zodilyon. Give me names of those we, the king and I, know who are involved in this, this, treason."
"You know Dashenko and Lord Bryant Wolf who has been in charge of Hyntower since we've been in captivity. I should tell you, Your Majesty. My father had a lot of blood drawn from him and was given a transfusion of compatible plasma to replace it. As for me, my hair was shaved off and together my hair and his blood were combined and fused with ashes of the pilot who died in the helicopter crash and sent to be tested for human DNA. Three humans were identified from this, my father, myself and the Pilot, Captain James. If you have my DNA tested now, it would prove I am Elsie Maria Jakob. When my father arrives here, he will attest to the truth of my, our, identities."
Drawing a deep breath, the queen said, "It's a lot to take in —out of the blue so to speak..."
Elsie shuffled around to sit sideways on the floor.
"You spoke of your father coming here?"
"Yes, he has a plan. Eltron is the greatest part of it to save our kingdom."
"How, how have these people, led by the man, Zodilyon, you say, how is it that he allowed you to live?"
"At first, we were beaten and played against each other to be forced into agreeing to reinvent the northern kingdoms, planning underground transport tunnels to connect them using locks similar to those here. It was no secret that my father is an advanced locksmith and has invented a number of computer systems and programs; he created new computing and communicating methods. This is what Zod, we call him Zod, this is what he wanted.
"When my father agreed to help them, we were permitted to be together and thus we planned how we could join with our enemies and at the same time invent and create new paths to help the kingdom in future times and invent necessary covert ways to win what Papa has named, 'a bloodless war'. The technology Zod is using has a certain program planted deep within it that only Papa can access to connect it with Eltron here. He will be able to control everything, not for himself, but for you and King Edvard.
"We are sure, Your Majesty, these people who have bonded with Zodilyon all lust after power and wealth at any cost to human life and welfare. Already there's a huge drug-trade worth billions controlled from warehouses along the northern border, shipping out and up into the rest of Europe, being extended for global supply. And, most appalling to us is that Zod joined with world dealers in human trafficking."
The queen moaned and dropped her head into her hands. Fragments from quotes about patience swam in her mind; 'Patience will help you stay with this problem... it might be bitter but the fruit of patience is sweet... with patience, you will possess your soul... the fruit of God's Spirit is patience... peace... hope...
Straightening herself and gaining her composure, she said, "Your words and explanations have caused so many more questions to explode in my mind, I feel I faint. But tell me, how is it you are here now?"
"It shames me to say that our enemies believe we are on their side, Your Majesty. Papa believes if we did not become double-dealing agents, agreeing with Zod while also using the whole situation to save our kingdom, we would both be dead. Papa told me that we are Queen Esthers, dining with enemy Haman but instead of two evenings, it has been for the four years."
The queen was silent, so Elsie continued, "Papa has a plan that will turn the tables and instead of our capital being destroyed, Your Majesty, yes, bombed, on the last day of the quest, we will be able to save everyone here and reveal to the world just what racketeering and horrors have been going on at the hands of Zod."
Eltron's voice sounded out, "My creator has communicated and he will be on screen in three minutes."
Elsie pushed upwards on her knees, drawing in a deep breath of relief, saying, "That's my Papa. You can talk with him and he will confirm what I've told you. I'm so thankful he's safe. God has answered my prayers for him. It means he broke through and locked out the enemies who would have come here through the new tunnels he has overseen for the last four years. Instead, your loyal army can go north through the passages and retake the three provinces..."
The queen swallowed and struggled to capture her run-away emotions. Elsie waited.
"I believe you, Elsie, I do, but I am reeling with the turmoil, the very terror, of the ramifications of your revelations... the threat to Eltronia; it makes me feel betrayed and yes, betrayed we are. How can I believe there will be any loyal army to defeat this enemy who has risen up with so much power that it seems impossible to defeat him?" Shaking her head, she turned the chair around to view the screen. Turning back as quickly, she said, "Rise up, child —fetch another chair from the alcove at the door and sit by me so you can speak with your father as well."
Elsie hurried to obey; she hadn't heard from him for over a week and had begun to worry that something had happened to foil their plans.