Peter agreed to hold on a little longer. At least, that’s what he said, but Bernard wasn’t certain that he meant it. He had agreed too easily, and was making a show of being enthusiastic and on board. It seemed too suspicious; too good to be true.

The two men ended their meeting, and Bernard sat in his office, reflecting on recent events and trying to come up with the best next move. There were so many factors to consider, and everything was crashing on him all at once. It was almost suffocating.

As much as he didn’t want to have to deal with another person who needed careful watching and planning, Bernard knew that Peter was becoming a big risk. Being betrayed from within, as he had been all those years ago by Jez and Ben, had never really left Bernard’s mind, and it was obvious that Peter was capable of doing much the same thing to him.

Still, a man can only deal with so many things at one time. He wasn’t lying when he told Peter that he was going to focus entirely on Richard and the Marknosan organization. With Ben on the loose and distraught over his sister’s death, Richard after Bernard, Peter likely planning something nefarious, and the possibility of governmental interference, Bernard had to start knocking out threats quickly. There was just no time to waste.

While he focused on Richard, what else could he do? He had a lot of people at his beck and call, and other irons in the fire than just existential threats. The Lenoran Union had to continue to grow and prosper, even if it wasn’t where he spent the lion’s share of his attention right now.

Bernard would normally have entrusted this kind of thing to Peter, although recent events made him hesitant to do so. In fact, it might be better if Peter had a distraction.

Maybe Peter could deal with Ben somehow? Beh was a wildcard, for sure – and Bernard couldn’t afford to have him just pop up out of nowhere and start causing even more problems.

Unfortunately, Peter wasn’t really the guy for that job. Not only was he too skittish right now, and too much of a flight risk to be trusted with something that important, but it didn’t really align with his skill set. Peter was a great propaganda minister, but not a great goon (previous murders aside, Bernard reflected).

Bernard’s mind continued to wander, jumping from topic to topic. He kept coming back to Ben, though. Ben was obviously not his biggest concern, priority, or threat. Why couldn’t he let it go? This was an obsession, a weakness.

Bernard knew that he had a lot of anger towards Ben – more so even than towards Richard. Yes, Richard had tormented him as a child and delighted in his misery, but Ben had actively derailed all of his plans and set him back years. Even if most people would say that it was own fault…he did set Ben up to take a fall, he knew. But that wasn’t the point, was it?

In a moment of dark fantasy, Bernard imagined Ben at the Lenoran refinery, tied up. Bernard, with hot liquid metal, pouring it over the screaming, writhing man…he shook himself to focus. This is why making and having enemies is so dangerous, Bernard thought. He’s being unreasonable, and he knows it, but can’t move on. Hate is a powerful distraction.

He convinced himself to move on and start planning how to deal with Richard. To be accurate, though, it was really more about taking out the Marknosan family entirely. If Bernard just eliminated the top guy, they would easily endure, and just continue to cause him and his people problems. Although Bernard had made a successful hit at their power base already with the opiates and Jez, he really needed to disrupt the whole organization in a permanent way.

The best thing that he could think of was to start an internal war. Between the unrest of the people, the weakened financial state, and a power vacuum after the (pending) removal of Richard, perhaps he could position things to lead to infighting, and the Marknosans could destroy themselves. He could remove Richard in a way that looked like a hit, a power struggle.

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Something rang in the back of Bernard’s head. A kind of warning bell, letting him know that his thoughts and plans were slightly off-kilter. Most people, he reasoned, would probably be unsettled at the prospect of planning to kill both their brother and their childhood best friend, especially after having recently murdered the only romantic partner they had ever had.

Bernard allowed a small, thin smile to appear on his face. No, most people wouldn’t be comfortable with that at all. Then again, most people didn’t understand power and sacrifice. They’d never be free – always at someone else’s mercy. He would not. He could do what was necessary without regret.

Now, what would a hit like that look like? Bernard remembered seeing the lithium barrel in Jez’s warehouse, and he remembered his own two barrels that had accompanied him all the way from Odellia. He never really had found a good use for them, but maybe this was a chance to change that.

A nice big bomb might be just the thing. If he could sneak it into Richard’s base of operations, he could set it off when he knew Richard would be present. Ideally, it would take out a number of his lieutenants as well, making the power gulf even bigger.

Especially if Bernard was able to get it near the kitchens or a heat source, two barrels should be plenty to cause serious damage. Although he had been hesitant to cause unnecessary collateral damage back at Jez’s, Bernard had to assume that everything close enough to Richard’s base to be affected by such a blast was probably under his direct control already – and if it wasn’t…well, accidents happen. Bernard knew that Richard’s group would be the one to look bad if innocents died, not him.

Bernard liked the idea of a bomb. It was straightforward and simple, and he had everything he needed for it already. Nobody else needed to get involved, and nobody else would have any clue as to what he was doing, since only Peter knew about the lithium to begin with. Even if someone else had found the barrels and figured out what was inside (an extremely unlikely situation), he strongly doubted that they would realize their potential as an explosive.

The biggest problem, Bernard thought, was transportation. Not due to the inherent volatility, although that was of course a concern. No, it was because of the Marknosans. If Bernard simply threw the barrels onto a cart and (carefully) headed off, he wouldn’t get far. He knew that Richard had roaming crews plaguing his borders, inspecting and confiscating all sorts of things.

While that itself was an irritating situation that would need remedied, Bernard expected it wouldn’t last long once they had other, more pressing problems to deal with. He could ignore that situation for now, but it did mean he would have to find an alternate way to get the explosive ore where he needed it to go.

Considering the situation, taking advantage of the waterway seemed to be the simplest. There had been no reports of inspection or interference of transportation over water; if Bernard could utilize a boat and escape inspection, he could likely sneak the explosives away without any fuss.

It was too late to attempt to do anything that evening, and Bernard needed to procure a boat anyway. It would be good for him to get some rest, he thought – the next few days were likely to be very busy indeed.

Bernard opened the office door and found one of his aides was working late as well. He asked him to draft a quick letter the next day to the various department heads, letting them know that he’d needed to leave on short notice, but would return as quickly as possible.

Once Bernard left the Lenoran Union’s territory again, he didn’t expect to return until Richard was dead – of course, he didn’t say anything of the sort to the aide, just that he needed to go take care of some business outside of the Lenoran Union. The aide diligently took the note, and said he would share it the next day. Bernard thanked him and went home to get a few hours of sleep.

The next morning, Bernard retrieved the double-barreled lithium containers from his private storage, and proceeded to cart down to the docks; being that he was traveling by road entirely within his own territory, this was both safe, and the fastest way to get where he needed to go.

Bernard purchased a small boat at the relatively-empty dockyard. He could have easily commandeered one, but that would likely have raised accounting questions later. At the same time, he didn’t want to charter one as he thought it was more than it a little unlikely that it wouldn’t come back in one piece.

The dock manager showed him to his new purchase, and had a young man help Bernard load the cargo on. The boat was barely large enough for Bernard and the barrels together; it was the kind of small craft used for quick pleasure trips or shuttling things back and forth. It certainly wasn’t a large cargo carrier or even personnel transport, and wouldn’t be safe over larger water and rough waves.

A quick stop at the dock house to sign the final paperwork and Bernard was about ready to leave. Hearing a commotion behind him, he turned, just fast enough to see the wooden club crashing into his head.