Chapter I

Year 8 of the reign of pharaoh Ramesses XI, 29th day of the second month of Shemu

Agent Neberzer was sitting at a table in his hotel room in southern Mycenae, the capital of the Mycenaean Confederation. He was an operative of the Kemet Intelligence Agency, the foreign intelligence organization of the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu. Being one of the first field operatives of the organization, he was sent to Mycenae ahead of the others to make the first preparations and survey the situation, while Sutenhi, the commander of this task force, would gather the other agents and arrive later at the designated date, which was the present day. Neberzer knew the rough time of their arrival, but the ships never arrived precisely on time, and so he remained in his room to overview the documents, rather than heading for the harbour to meet his companions.

In a few more hours, a bit after midday, someone knocked on Neberzer’s door. The agent got up and slowly walked to it.

“Who is this?” Neberzer asked in Akkadian.

“Hotel service, sir,” came the reply.

“I don’t need my room to be cleaned right now, come back later.”

“It’s not that, sir. You have new arrivals.”

Neberzer opened the door and saw a hotel worker standing there.

“Good day, sir. I am here to inform you that your companions have arrived at the hotel and are checking in now. They are at the front desk if you wish to meet them,” the hotel worker told Neberzer.

“Ah, good. Thank you,” Neberzer said and closed the door after the worker had left.

Neberzer got out of his room in a few minutes and descended to the ground floor, where the other agents were standing at the check-in desk with their bags, looking not much different than average Egyptian tourists.

“Oh, there he is! Hey, Neb,” Sutenhi said.

“Hey, boss,” Neberzer said. “Had a good trip here?”

“Eh, what can I say. Civilian passenger ships aren’t the greatest or most reliable, but they improved over the years. It wasn’t too bad.”

“Travelled with the civvies too, huh?”

“Yeah. Don’t need us any additional attention. For all intents and purposes, we are just a few friends on a vacation to Mycenae. Same goes for you.”

“I know.”

“Anyways, I don’t think you’ve met these guys, have you?”

“I don’t think I have. Fresh blood?”

“You could say that. But they are good, I picked them myself for the mission. Harsiamon and Neitheret, say hi to Neberzer.”

“Hi,” Harsiamon shook Neberzer’s hand. He was a short male, in his early twenties, and carrying a bunch of documents and notes.

“Nice to meet you,” Neitheret did the same. She was a woman of a roughly similar age and slightly taller than Harsiamon.

“So, what do you do?” Neberzer asked them.

“She does the talking, and he works behind the scenes,” Sutenhi said. “Neitheret knows five languages and is extremely good at talking with people and convincing them to do what we want them to do. Meanwhile Harsiamon, while not as skilled in that area, is very proficient at analyzing people and even with little information about them can figure out how to blackmail them, break them down, and so on. You don’t want to get on his bad side, believe me, or else he will dig up some heinous shit on you from twenty years ago which would have you fired,” Sutenhi chuckled.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I see. Welcome to the team then. Shall we go to discuss the mission?”

“Yes, but give us a couple minutes to get our bags to our rooms. We can meet in that restaurant outside in a few to discuss your findings.”

“Right. I’ll get us a table and some starters in the meantime.”

After having settled in their rooms – all operatives had separate rooms, but they were next to each other on the third floor – the agents went down and joined Neberzer at the restaurant outside. He had already ordered some wine and Mycenaean pita bread with various sauces.

“So, Neb, what have you discovered over the two weeks or so you’ve been here? I sure hope you weren’t just admiring the view from the beach and wasting all the money we gave you,” Sutenhi said as he took a sip of the wine and a bite of the bread.

“Sadly no, I wasn’t just fucking around on the beach. I did all the necessary homework. Went around, met with various officials. And I acquired the names of our targets,” Neberzer said.

“And no casualties still?”

“No, boss. Did everything by the book.”

“Good. So, go ahead. What are we up against?”

“There are a total of seventeen Mycenaean kings at the moment – two more had been recently added as Wilusa and Ahhiyawa became proper kingdoms after the war. The king of Mycenae is naturally the wanax, so that leaves sixteen kings who are factually of lower influence but still need to give approval to the wanax so that he would become the official leader of the Confederation. Eight supported Tirynthius right from the beginning, and the two newcomers also naturally support him as he gave them this status in the first place. Krinippos of Achaea was on the fence, but we got him on our side after our great royal envoy agreed to have Egyptian athletes participate in the first international Olympic Games, but only with the condition that Tirynthius became the wanax. So, five are left who still support his brother Hecataeus. Those are the ones we need to convince to support Tirynthius.”

“And they are?”

“Cilix of Thebes, naturally, who is the leader of the coalition, Demades of Thessaly, Leocedes of Laconia, Admetos II of Pylos, and Cheiron III of Ephyra. However, the last two are newly enthroned kings, as their fathers – Tharybis of Pylos and Conon of Ephyra – were killed during the war. So, they are quite young and gullible, and they are basically puppets of Cilix. Meaning that they would not deviate from his line on their own, but, if we convinced Cilix, then we would get all three to our side.”

“Interesting. Means we got three real targets then.”

“That’s right. Cilix, Demades, and Leocedes. All quite strongly support Hecataeus and so our intervention is required to set things right.”

Their discussion was interrupted as the waiter came up to them and they ordered their food, after that proceeding to continue.

“So, as Cilix is the leader, it is only fair that I take him on,” Sutenhi said. “Thebes you said, right?”

“Indeed,” Neberzer said. “Who do you want me to deal with?”

“Hm, not sure.”

“Demades,” Harsiamon said. “Leocedes would be a better fit for Neitheret.”

“And why is that?”

“Demades is from a mountainous region, deeply conservative culture. Wouldn’t very much approve of dealing with a woman.”

“Is Leocedes more egalitarian in this regard?”

“In a way. Laconia has a weird local culture. Men have it pretty rough, but they give women more roles in the government. And respect them more.”

“Alright. You’re meeting Leo then, Neith.”

“Works for me,” she said.

“And I get to meet with the old man Demades,” Neberzer said. “Lovely. Anyways, how did you know all this, Harsiamon?”

“He knows things. He knows things you wouldn’t believe…” Sutenhi said with a chuckle. “Now question is, what do we do with you, buddy?” Sutenhi turned to Harsiamon.

“Demades should be not too difficult to deal with, I can do that on my own,” Neberzer said.

“Yeah. I’m thinking you should go with Neitheret, Harsi. Both of you are new to the field missions, so it would be better for you to stick together.”

“Understood,” Harsiamon said.

“Great. It will be no trouble for the two of us, right?” Neitheret said.

“Yes.”

“So, it seems settled. We have our individual assignments. But today, let’s relax and enjoy the time before we head out,” Sutenhi said and raised his glass. “To Operation Kingmaker!”

“To Kingmaker!” the others raised theirs as well.

The operatives spent a few more days in Mycenae, acquainting themselves with their individual missions and the intel that Neberzer had collected. Once everyone was ready, they left the hotel, paid for their rooms to be cleaned and reserved for their return at any day in the following couple weeks, and headed to central Mycenae, as it was the main transportation hub for the city.

“Well, time for us to split ways. You know what you have to do. Shouldn’t be too difficult for any of us. We meet up again at the same hotel, in no more than ten days, but you can return at any earlier point if you have completed your task. If not, then still return, we will think of a new solution together. Good luck, agents, Khonsu be with you all.”

“Last to get back pays for dinner for us all!” Neitheret said before rushing off, with Harsiamon joining her after having stood confused for a moment.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Neberzer said.

“Better hurry up then, Neb,” Sutenhi said, proceeding to go his own way as well.

Neitheret and Harsiamon got into a carriage, heading south for Menelaion, the capital of Laconia, and Sutenhi got into another one, which went the opposite way, north to Thebes, as both cities were located inland. Meanwhile Neberzer travelled to the harbour, where he boarded a civilian ship heading for the port city of Iolcus, the capital of Thessaly.