Chapter 11

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The bright red flyer pierced the white cloud and continued to gain altitude. There was no "lack of thrust" - the machine went steeply upward, gaining speed like a rocket. The white sea of clouds remained far below, the horizon gradually curved, gaining roundness. The speed of the flier was indicated by the figures on the dashboard and the white flashes of compaction in front of the pointy nose of the vehicle. There was nothing else but the gentle breeze in the hair and the steady chanting of the engine behind. In front and around, as far as the eye could see, was only the sky, which was growing darker and darker, and for a moment there seemed to be an uneven flicker of stars.

"I think it's too early for us to go into space," Kayrin murmured.

Her breath tickled Alex's ear pleasantly, and her tight breasts rested against his shoulder. The Baroness sat half-embracing him, her hands resting on his arms. The whole thing was called "learning to drive a flyer" by Baroness Rionale.

Alex realized he was being shamelessly seduced, but first, he liked it, and second, anything flying had been a weakness of his since childhood.

"As you say!" he smiled back.

The grip is on himself! And the sides of the flyer swelled up with milky white blasts of compressed air, turning into two huge snow-white wings. The sky and the ground reversed, and the machine looped downward. The overload gauge poured yellow. Twenty-two units! Alex couldn't believe his eyes. He was sitting in the sports convertible on the sofa that was here instead of the seats, unbuckled - because there was nothing to buckle up with - and he felt nothing at all! Although, in theory, he should have been pressed into the floor with two tonnes of force. Knowing about the inertial compensator from the Baroness' words and feeling it working for myself were "two big differences".

Still, I bloody like it here! Alex thought as he put the vehicle into a horizontal flight. The flyer flew in a canyon of clouds. The surrounding beauty was breathtaking, a light breeze was blowing in his face, and an incredibly beautiful girl was smiling charmingly beside him, the collar of her shirt generously unbuttoned to reveal a stunning view.

In the back of my mind, however, the unpleasant thought lurked that all this beauty was accompanied by purposeful guys who wanted his dead body, and the girl clearly had some selfish motives. But this thought did not hinder the enjoyment of the flight.

There was a melodious chime and a yellow square with a lightning bolt in the center flashed on the central panel.

"Less than a third of the energy left," Kayrin explained the signal. "Time to go back, and I'd better slow down, or we'll miss it," she stopped talking and then spoke again, probably not to Alex anymore, but in a cooler, more commanding tone. "Navigation lay in a course for the departure point!"

Obediently, the flyer's electronic brains plotted the direction of the castle on the central screen, and in a few minutes, the machine emerged from the clouds in direct line of sight of it.

"Look," Kayrin pointed to the right.

On a parallel course, but much lower, another flyer flew, looking like a silver droplet from above.

So observant, Alex marveled as he guided his vehicle downwards.

"It must be Taer," the Baroness concluded.

There was now a two-hundred-meter difference in altitude between the machines, and the flyer going below was clearly visible - the model, indeed, resembled the one the "security specialist" was flying.

"Let's parrot her!" Kayrin's tone was quite playful. She gave a serious expression and pointed to the silver flyer. "Come on, fighters! To Fyron!"

"Yes!" Alex decided to play along.

The machine lay on its left side and went into a combat approach like a World War II fighter, by all the rules, from the side of the sun. For a moment, the flyer flew upside down, and Alex was once again surprised that it wasn't falling out. The target was fast approaching, increasing in size - a scarlet griffin was already visible on board - when suddenly, having must have spotted the 'attackers'. The silver one jerked to the left and then - collapsed down, turning around near the ground, and reversing, under the belly of the attacker.

Alex didn't risk repeating such a maneuver - he simply took advantage of the incredible maneuverability of his vehicle, turning in an almost zero-radius turn, and dashed after in pursuit. The speed advantage was clearly on his side, but the 'victim' suddenly took a sharp right, swerving behind the castle and pressing up against its wall. He threw his vehicle following. The castle wall was rapidly approaching, and it was clear that the turning radius was too small and was about to hit the wall. A left turn, away from the wall, and the vehicle was dangerously close to the ground. A sharp jerk. Handles in to gain altitude. The flyer kicked up and down, whirling like a skittish horse, hurtling across the ground. The world spun at an unbelievable speed.

And suddenly, everything stopped. The vehicle froze, staring nose up into the sky, stopping a few meters from the ground. Alex burst out laughing nervously, with hysterical notes - he hadn't had time to be frightened in flight, but now he was scared, even though it was already over. The Baroness was genuinely amused; she did not seem the least bit frightened by what had happened.

After all, with that kind of recklessness, the first day's driving could get you killed, Alex decided. Though the Baroness had assured him that the Osaro could crash into a rock at full speed without any harm - the fields and inertia compensators would hold up.

She was persuasive, but there was no sense in checking it out for himself. He was still in shock from the fact that he was driving the flyer himself and at such speed.

It all started when Alex, talking to the Baroness, dropped the fact that he didn't know how to fly a flyer because he'd "forgotten everythingЭ. Kayrin immediately offered to teach him, and right away. She was jolly, easy-going, and with a great sense of humor, so the three hours that Alex "entertained" Baroness Rionale flew by without a trace. She was a rare pleasure to spend time with. The joy was marred only by the fact that this NLP enthusiast wanted something out of him, and her interest was clearly not dictated by the depth of his personality.

Anyway, the baroness went to change because her dark blue short sundress with an inflated waist was, in her own words, "not suitable for driving a flyer". Five minutes later, Kayrin was in front of an admiring audience in a short-sleeved white shirt with a high stand-up collar. The high collar, however, was unbuttoned by more than three buttons revealing a gorgeous chest. The shirt was accompanied by light blue trousers and moccasins. After all the compliments they were due, they went to the garage to choose the most suitable apparatus for the trainee.

In the huge room filled with a cloud of machinery, the Baroness gave him a full-scale tour, telling him about the various models and expertly explaining their advantages and disadvantages - it seemed that sports flyers were her little weakness.

"You know, this doesn't seem right to me!" Kayrin ran her hand lovingly over the shiny side of another sports engineering marvel. "A man who hardly ever drives has such a huge collection of sports flyers. They're supposed to fly, they're built for speed, and you keep them locked up!"

"I admit my fault," Alex smiled guiltily. "I'm ready to make amends immediately and start flying. As soon as you choose what we're going to fly."

Kayrin stopped in front of a large convertible with a sharp, predatory nose painted bright red.

"Great shadows, Faison-Osaro!" she almost groaned. "Where'd you get that thing? You're not..." she paused, remembering something. "What am I talking about, though? It would be strange if it wasn't here."

The Baroness slammed her palm on the bonnet:

"We're flying it!"

"Is this the suitable vehicle for the first time?" Alex hesitated.

"More than that! Powerful fields, an autopilot that makes the machine fly better than a pilot, excellent emergency automatics..." Kayrin went on to detail the charms of the machine.

As it turned out, it was the fastest production convertible: a thrust generator of monstrous power, easily taking five times the sound, with an inertial compensator, with a limit of eight hundred units, and an arbitrary overload vector that would do honor to any fighter, if it wasn't too expensive to put on fighters.

"But most importantly," the Baroness said with a gasp. "Dynamic control plane generation system"

She pointed her hand to a spherical bulge at the side:

Normally flyers, even sports flyers, do not use aerodynamic control systems except for stabilization. But the Osaro's special field generators create differently shaped wings and stabilizers, depending on the flight profile and control torque required. With an experienced pilot, this machine literally dances.

Oh! It's like she's reading! Pretty girl - and a sports car fan, who'd have thought? Pretty girls rarely have hobbies at all - maybe aristocratic origins have an effect?

Kayrin smiled slyly and swung herself over the side, plopping down on the sofa:

"Get in," she slammed her palm down beside her. "I'll teach you how to fly."

Alex opened the door and sat down next to it - there were no armchairs, just a single rather wide sofa with a low back covered in something that looked like velvet. The interior was trimmed in leather and chrome metal.

Aristocrats degrade with taste, he smiled and ran his finger over the inlay on the light-polished wood dashboard.

While the Baroness was taking the flyer out of the garage, she had time to tell him what Osaro had had to pay for all his wonders. First, the price of a million and a half denarii, and second, the almost hand-assembly and the incredibly complex calibration of the equipment, which made them scarce and left the Osaro, as for most of Fizon's products, in a queue. And quite an impressive one at that. They consumed a great deal of energy, making the normal energy cells empty almost immediately. A special power unit with an enormous capacity had been developed for the Osaro. They would only fly for an hour and a half, though, and then they would have to recharge from the generators. There was no quick cell change system like on most fliers.

All in all, a very smart and exclusive machine. I wonder. Why is it here if Lord Cassard wasn't a fan of piloting himself?

The flyer jumped out of the garage, the generators hummed melodiously, and the vehicle went up, gaining altitude at a rapid pace.

As the nose stared up into the sky, Alex frantically searched for something to cling to but was surprised to realize that he was in no hurry to fall out. As it turned out, the apparatus, for the comfort of the noble public, was equipped with a small gravity-generator, which created its own field of gravity, always directed at the floor of the machine, so that there was no need to worry about the contents of the stomachs and the calmness of the vestibular apparatus.

When the vehicle came to a halt, hovering silently several kilometers high, Kayrin turned to him and smiled dazzlingly:

"We'll practice here - it's much safer at altitude, and there's no risk of hitting something hard. Come on, get behind the wheel, and I'll teach you."

The baroness moved to make room for Alex at the controls and began to explain what they were for. The controls were strikingly similar to an airplane, except that the pedals were used to control the thrust of the generators when flying "helicopter style," and the left and right turn of the nose was set by turning the control handle around its axis.

So he started to learn. At first, it wasn't so good: the flyer yawed sharply, and Alex kept trying to turn into a plane-like turn and pedal the nose, causing the flyer to jerk sharply up or down. The Baroness, hugging Alex and placing her hands on his, helped steer the machine by parrying the excessively abrupt and wrong maneuvers. Gradually the thousands of hours in her favorite flight simulators took their toll, and Alex became "quite proficient at flying the flyer for the first time," in Kayrin's words... but she was in no hurry to stop hugging him as she "helped steer," though.

Eventually, lulled by the compliments, he relaxed and almost flew into the ground, mismanaging his control in pursuit of Taer.

Yeah, it's not the same thing to fly behind a computer screen as it is to fly in person, and you're just showing off, you bloody aviator!

After surrendering to the ace fighter, Alex chatted briefly with Taer. He found out that the security plan had been successfully implemented, and, somewhat relieved by this news, he continue to entertain his dear guest. He did so until almost late at night. The Baroness taught him how to play the local mix of cards and chess - to Alex's surprise, he did well and even won four times, which made him regret his decision to play for "fun" rather than "undress" as Kayrin had suggested.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

However, she might have given in on purpose.

Then they went fencing, which ended in his complete defeat, though now the Baroness was definitely going easy. Alex declined the horseback ride for fear of exposing himself completely. So they went for a walk through the evening gardens. He should say night gardens because the sun had long since set, and he felt it was already about midnight.

The gardens surrounding the castle were illuminated by lights concealed in the dense grass at the roots of the trees. The trees and trunks glowed with a mysterious bluish light that gently enveloped everything around them.

The atmosphere is the most romantic.

They sat on the grass beside a small river, the starry sky above shining with an unearthly beauty, illuminated by the reddish light of a crimson nebula, and somewhere in the distance, some nocturnal creatures were trilling.

"I wonder what it's singing?" Alex asked, sitting down on the grass beside the baroness.

"They are finches, little fluffy animals with long tails. They nest in the trees and sing beautifully in the spring. It's just a little early for them," Kayrin moved closer and snuggled against him. "It's getting chilly."

At night her eyes, already black, seemed like bottomless lakes filled with gleaming darkness. The reddish light of the mist played on her full, slightly open lips.

If you don't hug and kiss her now, you'll be a complete idiot! And if you kiss her, you'll be a complete fool.

In Alex, desire fought against freshly acquired paranoia: ///Two assassination attempts in four days - and the Baroness is up to something.

"Yes, indeed, it's chilly. Let's go to the castle," his paranoia won out, and he decided not to test his resilience to temptation any further.

Alex stood up and offered his hand to Kayrin, and she rose easily and followed him to the castle, showing no sign of disappointment. The lights were shining outside the castle, and there was a lot of activity - they must have brought in the equipment Taër had talked about.

What on earth does she want from me? Alex wondered after walking the baroness to her bedroom door. Afterward, Kayrin asked for help in choosing an outfit for tomorrow's festivities, which she said required a 'man's eye'. Guessing that the fitting would end, or even begin, with the spectacle of a woman's nudity, Alex refused, citing the late hour, a desire for sleep, and a complete ignorance of women's fashion.

Because a naked Baroness Rionale is not something I can resist.

Kayrin didn't push or talk her way out of it. She smiled sweetly and said goodnight as if to say in passing that she herself would not be able to sleep for a long time.

For once, I get hit on by a stunningly beautiful girl with some ambiguous offers and - sure enough - some kind of set-up!

Alex wandered towards his office, lamenting the unfairness of what was happening. Lecturing on history and geopolitics instead of going to the Baroness was perverse, but it was, in his opinion, the only reasonable option.

Alex, lounging in his chair, stared at the screen floating in front of him. The notes that Taer had given him in the morning turned out to be video recordings of lectures with pop-up text comments, which must have been made by the owner of the notes.

"So! As you and I found out in last week's lecture, the Tail sector became a unified cultural and political space three thousand years ago when Lord Heroti Tail, together with the great houses, defeated the houses of outcasts at the Battle of Toliara, uniting all thirteen kingdoms, something we all celebrate every year during the Unification Festival."

A thin old man with a small beard, giving a lecture, turned to a huge hologram depicting star systems connected by white lines. Borders flashed red around them. They began to transform as they merged, some of the star systems, marked by blue circles, turned grey and became translucent. A text commentary ran across the screen, +++Thirteen conquered kingdoms under the rule of Emperor Teyla the First 'Unifier' transformed into ten Great Houses." The old man coughed into his fist, urging the students to be quiet, and continued:

"Thus ended the era of the battling kingdoms and began the era of Empire Tail," the lecturer paused, seeking out someone in the audience with his eyes. And, pointing his hand beyond the camera's line of sight, he offered:

"Count Vastol, give us your assessment of the reasons for the collapse of the Tail Empire."

"Ahem... the Empress Dialla provoked a conflict with the Great Houses with her decree on 'Reform of Administrative Boundaries', which resulted in a revolt of the Guard," the Count had a brittle, youthful voice and spoke, stammering heavily, probably from excitement.

The old man pursed his lips with a sour expression:

"Superficial, young man, superficial. Does anyone have anything to add?"

The lecturer roared his eyes around the audience again. His gaze fixed squarely on the lens. And Alex heard a low whisper, in which he recognized Taer's voice:

"...Not me, not me..."

"Respected Diltar, anything to add?"

"The recognition of the Tallana Separatists and their incorporation into the Federation negated the competence of the central authority, the Tail Empire could no longer secure the political interests of the Great Houses," Taer muttered.

"Not bad..." the old man nodded approvingly. "But incomplete!"

He put his hands behind his back and turned again to the map:

By admitting Tallana, the Federation had sent a clear message to the Great Houses. Now they could resolve their problems without looking back at the Empress. They could apply for membership and gain the protection of the Federation fleet at any time. This led to a series of intermittent territorial conflicts, in which a House which achieved the desired configuration of borders immediately applied for entry into the Federation on an "as is" basis. Of course, the best results in this situation went to the Houses that acted first.

The lecturer turned to the audience again and pointed his hand at someone:

"Name the parties who benefited most from the collapse of the Tail Empire."

"Peltar, Fyron, and the Separatists who have joined Tallan!" The young man who had jumped up possessed a distinctly nerdy aura.

"That's right! So, as we have found out, there have been many situations in the history of our Sector where a change in the balance of external forces has been the trigger for the resolution of conflicts between the Houses. So we come to the topic of our lecture today..."

A duplicate inscription ran on the screen: +++Rebellion of the Orders as a major factor in creating the current scheme of geopolitical balance between the Great Houses.

"...The Federation, being the guarantor of peace, deprived the Great Houses of the ability to resolve conflicts militarily. And House Peltar's historically well-developed ties with the Orders and the federal center have led to a power imbalance. As a result, the economically and demographically more developed and militarily powerful Houses - Fyron and Melato - were political pariahs. The possibility of political lobbying at the federal center and the use of the power resource of the federal fleet made House Peltar dominant in our sector."

The lecturer stopped and looked at the red-haired, curly-haired girl who was persistently reaching out her hand:

"I know what you want to tell us, Marquess Cheryl: that House Peltar kept the aggressive aspirations of House Fyron in check and was the guarantor of the peace that allowed our Sector to flourish, almost a thousand and a half years without knowing war. Isn't that right?"

The girl lowered her hand and said something inaudibly. The old man frowned and continued:

"As I told you before, we have to try to abstract away from ethical issues - we should only be interested in the balance of power and the factors influencing it. The balance of power tells us that the weak House dictated its will to the strong, relying on external power. And as for the millennium of peace, I think the representatives of House Fyron will disagree with you. But we are not here for polemics - let's get back to the topic of our lecture. The situation with the domination of House Peltar continued right up to the event we all know as the Mutiny of the Orders, which happened twenty-one years ago. The adherent orders of the 'guardians' revolted against the Emperor, demanding that he resign his Imperium. House Peltar sided with the Orders, which was predictable but not reasonable..."

The red-haired Marquise began to reach out again, but the lecturer did not notice her:

"The Emperor did not even have to enter the Sector - at his command, the combined fleets of House Fyron and House Ispar preemptively destroyed the fleet of House Peltar at the bases during the battle of Pella."

An inscription appeared at the bottom of the screen, announcing that the combined fleet was commanded by Lord Galen Cassard, who had also planned the attack.

It turns out Lord Cassard's father was not in the lowest ranks in the Navy.

"The attack on Pella was carried out without a declaration of war during negotiations!" shouted the girl from her seat, tired of dragging her arm.

"Quite right, Marquess Cheryl! With that, the first staggering blow put an end to organized resistance in space. And after the planetary shields fell, House Peltar was no longer a tangible force in the Taile sector. Seven systems were occupied and handed over by House Fyron to its ally, House Ispar, and had it not been for the mercy of the Emperor, House Peltar might have ceased to exist. Thereafter all the Great Houses swore a personal oath to the Emperor, becoming his mainstay against the Orders and the remnants of the Guilds armies. As you know, the Emperor's gratitude was great. This explains the position held by the Great Houses and the nobility of our sector in general. As well as the freedom in matters of self-government. And here we must first consider the influence on these processes of the Empire's officer corps, staffed at the time of the mutiny and immediately afterward, predominantly by nobles from the Great Houses of our sec..."

Alex stopped the record and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He was sleepy, and the thought of Baroness Rionale waiting for him in his bedroom prevented him from concentrating on his notes. He was about to go back to watching the lecture when there was a shy knock on the office door.

Something new - usually everyone just walks in. I wonder, who needs me? Deciding that the pause was dragging on and that the killers were unlikely to knock, he turned off the screen and gave his face a benevolently neutral expression:

"Come in!"

Alex secretly hoped it was Kayrin, but the reality was slow to meet expectations. The door opened and Taer entered the office with a drooping head.

"Has something happened?" The depressed state of the "specialist" did not escape him.

"Yes, Your Lordship. Here..." she said in a trembling voice, holding out a plump leather folder to him.

Alex took the folder in his hands - there was clearly something weighty inside. He wrestled with the clasps, but without much success. Taer stepped closer and helped her with the locks, the file opened and stacks of cards spilled out onto the table.

"What is it?" the lord inquired, looking curiously at the gold embossing on the dark and smooth surface of the cards.

"A bribe," Taer sighed, "which I took..." she added quietly, looking down at the floor. Her face went from red to pale.

Alex opened one packet, tearing off the blue ribbons with which it was bound, and began to study the card with interest. It was thin and supple, almost square with rounded edges as wide as the palm of his hand. "Five thousand denarii," he read the inscription along the edge.

"Why don't you tell me more?" Alex put the card aside and looked up at Taer, who was clearly not at ease.

"Yes, Your Lordship," the "specialist" almost whispered and began to tell the story of her "fall".

As she told him, Alex became more and more amused.

Poor naive child, she signs a contract for one hundred and thirty-five million danarii and doesn't notice that she is being heavily offered a payback, although it's clear that such contracts are not made that easily. I wonder how much the payback is?

He interrupted Taer's story and inquired:

"They had to give a base price. How much?"

"Ninety-seven million danarii, it seems, Your Lordship."

And the contract was for one hundred and thirty-five. So nice! Thirty-eight million on top - more than a third extra! He was curious as to how much that was in dollars; according to his initial estimate, the dinarii was about eight bucks. So, roughly speaking, they pay back about three hundred million on a billion-dollar contract.

While Alex pondered, calculating the amount of payback in dollars, Taer finished her story and froze, waiting for the "verdict". He sighed and carefully, concealing a smile, asked:

"And how much is there?"

"Five million danarii, Your Lordship," the "specialist" was pitiful to look at.

"Taer, Taer... you know, I didn't expect this from you," he added sadness and reproach to his voice. Alex was about to hold a proper pause, but seeing the quivering lips and red eyes that looked like they weren't crying just because of the Guardsman's pride, he took pity. "You've been robbed, Guardsman!" he laughed.

"What do you mean, Your Grace?" whispered Taer. She was a little taken aback by the turn of events.

"That's what I've meant. They've added thirty-eight million on top, and you've only got five. A real robbery! You were supposed to get one-third to one-half of the markup, that's ten or fifteen million danarii. They must have seen your inexperience and decided to warm their hands a little."

/Although it's strange to cheat on a partner on a billion-worth contract - the management should eat everybody alive for that.

"But I didn't ask for a kickback at all!" Taer protested.

"You agreed to it. First, they asked you about the markup, then they asked you about the payment scheme and your interests - you said 'the usual'. So you got the 'business as usual'," Alex nodded at the money scattered across the table.

"What am I supposed to do now, My Lord?" asked the slightly relieved girl.

"My Lord" looked intently at Taer. The situation frankly amused him. The strange dark squares with gold letters did not feel like money. Especially not his money. And Taer's naivety in the field of applied economics might have made him laugh if the girl had not reacted so acutely to the bribe she had received.

On the other hand, if you had been bribed with thirty million dollars - I'd have looked at you - your hands would have been trembling, too. And there she is, giving herself up! She seems to have a morbid sense of pride and a hypertrophied sense of honor. Though maybe that's the norm for a Guardsman. And in fact, such honesty should be encouraged in every way possible! He was about to rake the money back into the folder and give it to Taer when a thought suddenly occurred to him. I've got some unaccounted-for money in my hands that could come in handy, especially since someone really wants to kill me. For instance, they might need to buy some services secretly. And you shouldn't deprive a 'specialist' of financial motivation either.

He counted the cards in the bundle - there were exactly a hundred of them - and scooped the money back into the folder, leaving one bundle on the table.

"What to do? First, you should switch on the suppressor, just in case..."

"I turned it on before I came in, Your Lordship," the girl pulled the pendant from her shirt - it hummed softly, the light in the center glowing softly yellow.

"... Second, you should sit down, relax, and remember that we switched to 'you' a long time ago," Alex continued, waiting for her to settle into her chair. "Third, you should make an appointment for this Atuyu Rakem and ask when you'll get the rest of it."

"What?" Taer wondered genuinely, "I - a Guardsman - have to demand a bribe?! I cannot! It's dishonorable!"

"Take your time," Alex interrupted her. "For a start, it's not a bribe - think of it as a special operation - you're not taking it for yourself. We might need some clean, unaccounted-for money, especially since someone's trying to kill me."

Taer thought about it in a way she hadn't thought about.

"Okay, your high... Alex, I'll do as you say," she looked him in the eye and asked. "You don't think it's my fault?"

"No, of course - I think you're a of person of incredible self-control and very honest. I bet those mugs in the Office steal a lot more than that, and no one who comes forward to confess! All in all, I think you acted like a true Guardsman, and you should be proud of what you did because it's not for everyone to risk their careers in the name of honor."

God, what am I saying? Good thing she's in shock and not thinking straight. Alex, seeing Taer's condition, thought a few compliments might do her good, but he seemed to be going a bit overboard.

"Thank you," Taer smiled appreciatively. "I was afraid you wouldn't understand," she brushed a small tear from her eyelash and stood up, heading for the exit. "Shall I go?"

"Wait. Generally speaking, people who help carry out such operations are paid a percentage to five percent of the amount. But taking into account your moral expenses and your demonstrated integrity, I think ten percent is the right figure for this operation," he stood up and handed the wad to Taer.

"I can't! It's not right..." she protested, but there was no firmness in her voice.

"Take it! It's a well-earned reward for showing honor and restraint!"

Taer took the packet, muttered some words of thanks, and headed for the exit, dazed by the events that had occurred. At the door, the voice of the Lord caught up with her:

"By the way, do you know if there's a safe in here?" It occurred to Alex that keeping five million in a folder was not a good idea.

It turned out that there was a safe, and more than one, but no one knew the code to the main safe except Lord Cassard, and now no one at all. So Alex limited himself to a key-locked mini-safe in a desk drawer.

After sending Taer to sleep, Alex "read" the notes for a few more hours and went to his bedroom. Before going to bed, he opened the wardrobe, find something he thought was a scarf, and put it next to the bed.

Well, let's see what you have to offer me, gentlemen well-wishers.

The scarf was a bright scarlet color.

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