Summary: Shepherd and Price play a game of Chess, and the General makes the decision that will rule the next three years of Price's life.

Authors Notes:

Thanks to Lisbet Adair, who's review I was replying to at the time this little one popped into my head.

Companion Piece/Prologue to 'The Shepherd Diaries'; how you want to view it is entirely up to you.

- The Chess Game -

Shepherd prided himself with being able to get the measure of a man in only a few moves. He was a chess player, his father had taught him the game when he'd been only a boy and by seven years old he'd been defeating the elder man regularly. At Harvard he'd been captain of the chess team, something he viewed as a very prestigious position. He was a master of the game knowing every move that could be made with the thirty-two pieces across the sixty-four squares of the board. Those skills he had learnt with wooden pieces had transferred to his military career, the top brass had very quickly seen his potential, and with his family connections he'd swiftly risen up the ranks of the US Army.

Price was nothing like him.

Shepherd had grown up in a huge house, attended private and prestigious schools from Prep to University. But Price. He'd grown up on a London council estate; he'd probably spent more time ducking school than in the classroom. Price wasn't the chess playing type, nor was he a good player; he didn't know any of the traditional attacks and defences, allowing Shepherd to lead the British Captain where ever he wanted. A good soldier he may have been in Macmillan's eyes, but he wasn't in Shepherd's league.

The game was going well for him, Price was far too quick to make his moves, barely even looking at the board; he wasn't taking time to observe and think ahead. In whatever he did the general always planned several moves ahead, predicting his opponent's next move before they had even thought of it. Whether it be on the battle field, at the state championships or in his office, the strategy had always served him well.

"That wasn't a good move," Shepherd advised, he didn't want to beat the 141's field commander too badly, wouldn't do to embarrass Price too much, he had to work with the man, and his men. The Captain peered up at him from under the brim of that stupid boonie hat that seemed to be permanently attached to his head, but said nothing. Shepherd suppressed a sigh and moved his next piece, readying to spring his trap and defeat his enemy, when Price did something he certainly hadn't predicted.

Price hated chess.

It was an interesting game and had quite a history, bit it was so one dimensional. Pieces moved around a board of fixed size on one plain in a fixed set of moves, add to that all those blah offence and blah defence, it didn't really challenge him. He knew people looked down on him, Shepherd's type of people; rich, influential, private school people who still believed that only the rich should be officers. He'd been born into a troubled home, his dad had been a self-proclaimed 'ladies' man' who had slept around, and his mum hadn't actually been his mum. He'd been the baby of the family, his older siblings beginning to think about moving out while he was still toddling around playing with his wooded train set. He'd attended local schools, first a small primary school, then the local secondary school nothing to rave about. He like a few of his peers had been dressed in hand me downs, usually not a problem, except his were very old and didn't really fit, though most of the time he hadn't been able to go to school. Bullies, had been the bane of his existence, he'd been small, awkward and an easy target for torment, he'd done most of his studying in the local library. He'd particularly enjoyed the military history section, and thanks to the Tube, he'd taken his own little field trips to the cities museums. But he wasn't stupid by far; he had a natural talent for numbers that Mac claimed was part of the reason he was such a good snipe, Price didn't know if that was true, only that something about numbers just made sense.

He'd been in the military for a while now, except where Shepherd had attended military academy to get his officers commission, he'd worked his way up from the bottom; his only trip to Sandhurst was accompanying Mac for a speech. He knew military tactics from the books he'd read and being in the very thick of things, and they certainly didn't work in two dimensions with fixed moves.

Shepherd thought he was playing an amateur or an outright novice. He'd explained the game before they'd started and even tried to 'help', condescending bastard. He could see exactly what Shepherd was trying to do with his little tactics, lead him into checkmate, that was the general aim of chess after all, the general certainly wasn't one to play for a draw. But Shepherd's plan was flawed, his mind was working using his knowledge of the game as he'd learnt it; subconsciously he was expecting Price to use some traditional move that he could counter with the 'correct' move for a particular outcome. If only he could see what was going on in this 'simple' Londoner's mind, he'd see that Price had already played the game to completion. His next move blindsided Shepherd completely and turned the table right over.

"Check mate."

He was visibly shaken, Shepherd's eyes scanned the board frantically, where had this play of Price's come from? How had Price sneaked it past his defences? How had he beaten him? Him, the chess champion! He tried desperately to find a way out of the situation, not willing to concede defeat to his inferior opponent. Price sat with a smug little grin of his face as the reality of the situation finally dawned on the General, he'd severly misjudged the Captain, into checkmate; his only option was to concede defeat, his king falling with an ominous boom.

He'd failed.

Then he noticed it, Price still had all eight of his pawns, he'd sacrificed none of the pieces Shepherd saw as insignificant; and it was they that surrounded his King, backing each other up, and leaving the King with no escape.

"Fancy a game of checkers General?"

Price had to go.

This one just insisted on being written!

For anyone who's reading 'The Price' I actually have four more chapters written, I will get them up eventually, I promise! (Hides behind sofa)

As usual reviews are welcome.