Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 14:23:54 +0000 (GMT)
From: Mike Arram <mikearram@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Henry in High Politics 7

The Michael Arram stories are now beginning to appear together at:
http://www.iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/arram

This story contains graphic depictions of sex between young males.  If the
reading or possessing of such material as this is illegal in your place of
residence please leave this site immediately and do not proceed further.
If you are under the legal age to read this, please do not do so.

VII

Ed looked hard at this apparition.  It was Terry alright, although the face
was subtly changed: a little haggard and visibly marked now by a deep
grief, as Ed guessed.  But the elfin grin was still there.  `Hello, public
school babes.  How you doin'?'
  `Who the fuck are you!' burst out Rudi.
  `Would you be Lord Burlesdon?'  Terry asked.
  `What if I am?'
  Ed thought that Terry would snap back at the rudeness, but far from it.
`Glad to meet you, sir,' he said. `You're safe for the time being, but as
I'm sure you know, we have to move fast, and this incident has presented us
with some real problems.'
  Rudi said, rather more coolly now.  `So who are you?'
  `He's Terry O'Brien,' said Edward.
  `God, Edward!  Are you in on this too?'
  `No.  Rudi, I don't know what the fuck's going on here, less than you it
seems, but I do know Terry.  He used to be my fosterfather's bodyguard.'
  `Actually, Edward babe, I was his Head of Security.  A subtle difference.
I had bodyguards working under me.'
  `So you're a Peacher employer?' Rudi asked.
  `Yes, sir, or at least I was,' Terry responded, and Ed noticed that there
was none of the playful modes of address towards Rudi that Terry used
towards him, Justin and the other teens in the Peacher set.
  Ed said, `Terry, I don't know what's going on here, but I've been knocked
down, gagged, tied up and shoved in a car boot.  One thing I do know, that
this was no simple kidnapping was it?'
  Terry looked at Rudi, almost as if asking for his permission to break a
confidence.  `No Ed.  This was something in a very different order.  You
might say it was an attempted assassination that went badly wrong when you
and your mate here blundered in on it.  But you might just have saved Lord
Burlesdon's life, and that is something which in the circumstances may be a
deed of very great significance.'
  Ed turned to Rudi, `Why would someone want to kill you, Rudi?'
  Rudi shook his head and got up.  `Later,' he said with some
dismissiveness, `I'll tell you later.  Now you, Terry.  You know where I
must go and why.  Perhaps you may have some means to get me there, quickly
and secretly.'
  `I think I do, sir.  But let me assemble my team.'  He called out.  Two
other masked figures came out.  The slimmer one stripped off her hood and
shook out her long blonde hair.  `Jenna!' shouted Ed.  She was Andy
Peacher's current Director of Security.
  `Hi, Edward,' she gave her usual wintry smile.  The other was a thickset
and silent man, whom Terry introduced as Zeke Alonzo, one of his former
employees.
  `What's happened to the kidnappers,' David asked hesitantly.
  `Sudden career change involving wings,' said Jenna brusquely, and David
knew to ask no more.
  Terry looked David over, `You I don't know, sweet babe.'
  `David Skipper, I'm Rudi's ... I mean, Ed's friend.  And what's with the
"sweet babe" business?'
  Terry's grin widened.  `Just being friendly.  Now I have a van a half
mile down the track, so I hope you're up to walking.  We have to get you
back to school well before eight thirty and it's six o'clock now.  I hope
you don't have too many lessons.  I doubt you'll be able to concentrate.'
  `But I must be out of the country today!' Rudi cried.
  `And you will be, sir,' Terry assured him. `But it is very important that
you try to pass a normal school day up until three.  If you're not in
school today, too many warning signals will go off.  And don't worry.  The
whole school is now under heavy guard by my people.  No one will get past
us.'
  Rudi looked Terry over `... and who do you work for, Mr O'Brien?'
  `Why, sir, you, and the future of Rothenia.'

Terry got them back to school in time for a shower and breakfast, and Ed
was surprised to find he was ravenous.  He sat opposite Rudi, and gave him
a straight look.  `Talk, Rudi.'
  Rudi sighed, and looked at him and David.  `Can I first shake you by the
hand Ed?'
  `Why?'
  `By charging in like that you may have done far more than save my life.'
  `OK, enough of the mystery.'
  But Rudi had not finished, `And David, you're an irritating twat, but I
want us to be friends.  So this is a big sorry.  Will you shake my hand?'
And David redeemed himself by grinning and doing just that.
  `Now the explanation.  You've been to Rothenia, Ed.  What do you know
about the Elphbergs?'
  Ed smiled, Henry had remorselessly tutored him on Rothenian history and
culture.  `They were a German princely family that inherited the duchy of
Ruritania in the mid fifteenth century.  They became kings by papal
creation in the seventeenth century.  They were really successful in
holding their country together and died out in 1880 with the death of the
great Queen Flavia, leaving the country to be ruined by a bunch of German
wankers.  I've seen how Rothenians still leave flowers on the grave of her
and her hubby, Rudolf V ... apparently they even did it under the
communists, and some were sent to labour camps as a result.'
  `Did you ever see a portrait of Rudolf III?'
  `As it happens, yes I did.  There's a good one in the Tarlenheim Palace.
Sardonic looking bloke, wasn't he, and he was a ...' Ed suddenly looked hard
at Rudi and his face took on a startled air.
  Rudi smiled, `Yes, a redhead.  Quite a resemblance isn't there?'
  `How ...?'
  `In 1752 Rudolf was in England as a crown prince; he was a relative of
George II.  He had an affair with the countess of Burlesdon and they had a
son.  The then Lord Burlesdon had no choice but to put up with it.  Royal
princes could get away with murder in those days, literally.  In the end,
Lord Burlesdon may have been grateful, he had no other children and a young
healthy boy had been provided free of charge to carry on the Burlesdon
line, although, of course the boy was no Rassendyll, he was an Elphberg.'
  `... but illegitimate.'
  `Naturally.  Illegitimate, but not unacknowledged.  The royal house of
Ruritania acknowledged the Burlesdons as cousins.  King Ferdinand, the son
of Rudolf III, even visited Burlesdon House in the 1790s, and stayed for
the shooting. We have a picture of him in the gallery.  In 1868, Queen
Flavia went so far as to grant us a noble estate, the confiscated castle
and lordship of Hentzen.  I am in fact earl of Burlesdon in England and
count of Hentzau in Rothenia.  In 1880 there was some talk of transferring
the succession of Ruritania to the eighth earl, my ancestor Robert
Rassendyll, but the illegitimacy meant that the then cardinal archbishop of
Strelzen crushed the idea, and the succession went to the German dukes of
Thuringia.'
  `I think I see where this is going,' said Ed, looking a little excited.
  Rudi smiled, `The fact that a true Elphberg line lived on in England has
never been forgotten, and of course up till 1939 there were Rassendylls
living in Rothenia to remind them.  But after King Albert, people had gone
off the idea of monarchy.'
  `But not any more,' said Ed.
  `No.  The country is in crisis, and all of a sudden people remember what
the Elphbergs did in their day.  A country needs something to unite around,
and a popular monarchy can do that.  People remember the success of the
present Spanish royal family in similar circumstances.  Many Rothenians
want an Elphberg king again.'
  `You!' said David, finally catching on.
  `Me,' Rudi affirmed with a smile.
  `Oh my God,' said David in awe.  `I've gone and thumped a king.'
  `No you thumped an earl, who might yet be a king.'
  Ed frowned, `But how do you get round the illegitimacy thing?'
  `It became void when Rothenia joined the EU and enacted its basic laws.
Under those, illegitimacy no longer excludes someone from his rights of
succession.  I am truly the closest heir to the throne of Ruritania.  In
fact, because Rudolf III's illegitimate son was older than King Ferdinand,
it could now be argued that I have a better right to the throne than the
Elphbergs who followed King Rudolf.'
  `King Rudolf VI,' said Ed, a little awed.
  `That's me ... possibly.'
  `Bloody hell,' said David and Edward together.
  `Well, that explains a lot, sir,' said Ed.
  `You called me, "sir",' smiled Rudi.
  `One day I may be calling you "your majesty", sir.'
  `Let's stick with Rudi for now,' Rudi grinned.
  `OK, you're the king, so let it be as you command.  There's a lot left
for you to account for though.  You came running out of Temple House last
night expecting to meet someone in the trees.  Who was it?'
  Rudi grimaced, `This is where I'm going on guess work.  I was contacted
by members of a Rothenian monarchist organisation -- or at least that was
what I thought it was -- last year.  You remember the day I knocked little
Henry down ...?'
  `... yeah and then I knocked you down.'
  `You may pay for that one day with your head,' Rudi smiled, `but that
aside, Ed, I was running outside to take an important call.  It was from no
less than President Maritz's office.  I was to set up a meeting with an
intermediary, a man who could keep me in the loop, but who couldn't be
linked with the government directly.'
  `So President Maritz is a secret monarchist?'
  `That's hard to say.  Maritz would like to stay in power, so if restoring
the monarchy is one way to do it, then he's a monarchist.  But he is a
sincere patriot, and he wants Rothenia to hold together, so it would be
unwise to be too cynical about him.  He also is from an old baronial family
closely linked with the Elphbergs, so there may be sentiment involved in
there somewhere.'
  David intervened at this point, `Rudi, does your mum know about this?'
  `No, she doesn't.'
  `Wow.  Seriously?  For a seventeen-year-old, you're some cool guy.'
  `Fifteen-year-olds have before now led armies into battle, Davey boy.
Where was I, oh yes.  The guy whose name they gave me was someone called
Hendrik Wilemmin, a businessman with wide media and regional interests.  He
was going to liaise with me about the timetable for raising public
awareness, holding demonstrations and launching petitions.  Most
importantly, he was going to arrange for me to be smuggled into Rothenia
quietly at the key moment.  Now, with the elections next week, the key
point has come.  Maritz has played a careful game.  He may not be trusted
by the Unity party, but he's got some brilliant media advisers.  They've
made good use of the web, and he's secured the support of the regional TV
conglomerate, Strelsenermedia.  Wilemmin also controls the major daily
papers.  With no association with the government, there has been a rising
tide in favour of constitutional reform around a restored monarchy, which
is secretly what the government itself wants.'
  Ed was looking intensely at Rudi, `Strelsenermedia.  You mean Will and
Oskar?'
  `You know Will Vincent and Count Oskar zu Terlenehem?'  Rudi looked
astonished.
  `Best mates.'
  `How is this possible!'  Rudi had temporarily flipped out.
  `They're very close to my ... ah.'
  `Ah what?' demanded Rudi.
  `Things are suddenly clearer.  Will and Oskar are very close to my
fosterfathers, you'll have heard of them, Sir Andrew Peacher and Matt
White.  And Terry was chief security adviser to PeacherCorp.  So who turns
up like the cavalry when things went pear-shaped yesterday?  No less than
Terry O'Brien, the chief PeacherCorp enforcer.  This is no coincidence.
Matt and Andy are up to their eyes in this business.'
  `I see what you mean,' said Rudi.  `So Will and Oskar have bigger players
behind them.'
  `I wouldn't put it that way.  I don't think my fosterdads are interested
in world domination, but they would help out Will if he asked.  Matt and
Will are very close mates.  If Will wanted a special eye kept on you, he
would go to Terry.  He's awesome, as you have seen for yourself.  Now, the
final question is this.  Who were those kidnappers last night?'
  `They were supposed to be Wilemmin's agents, come to pick me up and take
me safely to Strelzen.  They rang at the right time and gave the right
code, so I went straight to them.  But it seems now that they were not who
they were pretending to be.  They were in fact a hit squad come to take out
the last of the Elphbergs.'
  `There's been a leak then?'
  `Seems so, but if there was a leak my unsuspected guardian angels got
wind of it, and intervened at the crucial point, and I wonder how?  I need
to know more about what was going on there.'
  `So who were last night's thugs, do you think?'
  `At a guess, they have to have been RSDP agents.  The RSDP has close
associations with some unsavoury elements in the old communist regime.  The
three assassins Terry took out were ex-secret police, I'm guessing.
They're up to their old dirty game, and looking to come back on the RSDP's
coat tails.  It's the reason Rothenia needs me; they're the alternative.'
  David put his hand up at this point, `There is another question.'
  `What's that?' asked Rudi.
  `If these agents knew the code and the time you were supposed to be
picked up, it seems to me that your Mr Wilemmin may be playing a double
game.'
  `I see what you mean,' said Rudi. `Playing both sides, so as to make a
profit whoever wins.  That's why you can't trust businessmen in politics.
I wonder if Terry has some ideas about that .... and I see that I have now
at least accepted that Terry O'Brien is on our side.'
  `Hey, thanks Rudi!' laughed David.
  `Why?'
  `You said "our" side.  You're including us in.'
  Rudi did a double take.  `Scratch that.  This is too dangerous.  You're
innocent bystanders, don't even think of taking out an option on this
business.  I go alone to Rothenia.'
  `I think Terry will have his views about that.'
  Ed's phone went at that moment, it was Terry.  `Hey favourite babe, how
are you feeling?'
  `Bushwacked about sums it up.  What's going on, Terry?'
  `That will be made clear in the fullness of time, oh muscular one.  Have
you and your little friends got your passports with you?'
  `I have and Henry has at home, I know.  Hey Davey?  Have you got your
passport here in school?  Yes?  Why do you want to know Terry?'
  `I need to borrow you all for a few days.  Matt and Andy say I can have
you, and Mr and Mrs Atwood are OK to take Henry.  Can your Davey come too?
We need a couple more teens and then we're good to go ... them and a school
minibus and a load of uniforms and tennis gear.'
  `How are you going to get hold of a Medwardine school minibus?  No.  I
don't want to know.  I'll organise the uniforms and tennis gear if you can
organise the extra teens.'
  Terry laughed, `I've already got two in mind.  I need two extra sets of
Medwardine uniforms, one Davey-sized and one your size.  See if Davey can
swing consent and ring me back.'
  David rang his parents and got a disgruntled consent to stay at Trewern
rectory for the week, although they complained it was short notice.
  When he rang Terry back, he got a mass of instructions and orders to be
in the school car park at three with the required gear.  Then they would
make a quick detour to Trewern and head for the motorway.  `Is this
dangerous, Terry?' he finally asked.
  `Oh yeah.  Deadly.  But with a bit of cheek, we can pull it off.'