A Future Caskett

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: You know this by now, right? Rating: K Time: See below.

They watched the news on TV. The Protectorate stations were filled with confident predictions by high ranking officers that the Union would soon be defeated. The Imperial stations told a different story. The Protectorate was hardly fighting back at all. They showed video of destroyed missile boats in the harbor as well as damaged and sunk submarines.

Shortly after noon, the three watched a Protectorate fighter get chased towards the Ocean by a Union fighter. A missile from the Union fighter hit its target and the doomed fighter crashed into the River Tee.

As the day wore on, there were fewer confident statements from high ranking Protectorate officers.

The next day, shortly after breakfast, there was a knock on the door. When Rick answered it, there were two men in dark suits.

"Mr. Castle, will you and your family please come with us?"

"What is it?" Kate asked, wishing she had her pistol with her.

"It's okay, Kate. I've been expecting this. These are Imperials."

They were put in a large white SUV and taken to a government building. They were put in an elevator and taken upstairs. When the elevator doors opened, there stood Count James. He smiled and shook Rick's hand, then turned to Kate and Alexis.

"Miss Beckett and Miss Castle. I am so glad to finally meet you. Allow me to introduce myself, James de Lisle, Count of de Lisle."

"You're the retired diplomat that Rick often talks to." Kate said, not understanding why they had been taken to meet him.

"I'm afraid that's not quite accurate, Miss Beckett. Actually, I'm the Station Chief for New South Hibernia for His Imperial Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service."

"You're a spy?"

Alexis immediately turned to Rick. "Dad, you're a spy?"

Rick just nodded.

"Why? How? When?" Alexis demanded.

"When I sold my first novel, everything was great. I had money for the first time. Then the second book sold even better than the first. I was able to buy a house in an Elite neighborhood. I could send my daughter to an Elite school. I had Elite cars and clothes and I went to Elite parties with the very best food and drinks and the Elite women were…" Rick took a quick look at Kate. "They were nice."

Kate had to laugh. "Rick, you mean you slept with them."

He nodded. "And for a couple of years things were great. I was having so much fun and everything was so great. Then I started noticing things. I was one of the few people I knew who actually worked for a living. Most of the rest of my friends just took bribes, or skimmed money from projects, or sold government property for their own benefit. Everyone seemed to think that was perfectly normal and all right. I was teased a little bit for even bringing it up. It was attributed to my non-Elite background. Luckily everyone liked me or I would probably been un-Elited, which can happen."

"Then I noticed that it wasn't just the government that was being robbed. One of the ladies at the Ministry of Culture was complaining she had to buy medicine on the black market because there was none available at her hospital. Luckily, she had a good salary and could afford it, but she shouldn't have had to buy medicine on her own that had been stolen from the government. I found other cases like that and some of the people didn't have the money to pay black market prices."

"Then one day I ran into Jimmy at a party. He was an Imperial and not an Elite, well not a Protectorate Elite. I told him what I had learned and he was very sympathetic. So, the next time I ran into him, we talked some more about what was happening in the Protectorate. He started asking questions, too. Pretty soon, his questions got pretty specific. I accused him of being a spy."

"I denied it of course." Jimmy said. "Spies always deny that they're spies unless they're standing in the middle of an office of His Imperial Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Even then we'll often say we just dropped by from the Cultural Attaché's office to borrow some scones for tea."

"Count James, what could Rick tell you that could be of any interest to the Empire?" Kate asked. "All he knew was gossip."

"Oh, please call me Jimmy. Everyone does."

"Then please call me Kate."

"Dear me, Kate. Is that an engagement ring I see on your finger?"

Kate blushed and nodded.

"Congratulations to you both."

Kate blushed even more and Rick beamed.

"To answer your question, Kate, any information might be useful to an intelligence agency. If nothing else we got an idea of just how corrupt the Protectorate government was. But for a specific example, do you remember a man who got an extra five percent bribe on a contact for naval radars?"

Kate grimaced. "Yes. His wife wanted to sleep with Rick."

"With that, and other information, we determined that the contractor couldn't possibly deliver the promised radars and pay bribes for the amount of money they were paid. They either had to make fewer radars, or take shortcuts and deliver inferior radars. They did the latter. And when the Protectorate's navy went to sea to oppose the Union Navy, they found their radars to be nearly useless. Most of their missile boats were sunk and the rest ran away."

Alexis spoke. "From the sound of it, you've been providing information to the Union. Why?"

'Miss Castle…"

"Oh, please call me Alexis."

"And you should call me Jimmy. But, we've had nothing but trouble from the Protectorate. I'm sure Kate can tell you how available dangerous narcotics are over there and they keep trying to smuggle that awful stuff into the Empire. In fact, all manner of criminality is rampant in the Protectorate and some of this comes to the Empire. We have thieves, burglars, con artists, counterfeiters, kidnappers, killers and more trying their hand across the River Tee in the Empire. We complain and the officials over there shoot a few low level crooks and tell us the problem is solved, but it isn't. And the worse thing is weapons. Oh, not just someone trying to smuggle a few pistols into New South Hibernia, but the sale of military grade heavy weapons to every warlord, pirate, rebel, and general miscreant in the whole world. The Protectorate will sell armored vehicles, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, communications gear, protective vests and anything else you can imagine to anyone with money. A good portion of those weapons end up in the hands of the enemies of our Empire. We had reached the end of our patience."

"So, the Union is winning the war?" Castle asked.

Jimmy nodded, "The Protectorate's air defenses have been blinded by the destruction of their radar systems. Union aircraft are dropping guided weapons from too high up to be hit by anti-aircraft artillery. Most of their fighter aircraft were destroyed on the ground and what wasn't has been shot out of the sky. Their navy hardly exists anymore and the army is in full retreat from the eastern front." Jimmy turned to a large computer screen. "Look at this. These are from Union recon aircraft, drones and ground forces." The screen showed long columns of unarmed Protectorate troops marching into captivity, escorted by a handful of Union troops. Then the screen showed a column of Protectorate troops in every sort of vehicle speeding along a highway. Vehicles that stopped were brutally thrust off of the road. Sometimes people walking beside the road were hit. No vehicle stopped to help."

"Those troops are retreating to Capitol City. Some are already there. This was taken some four hours ago."

The screen showed two well known news anchors trying to sound confident as they read bulletins from the Ministry of National Defense and failing badly.

"This is what's being broadcast now." Jimmy said.

The screen showed a Protectorate soldier sitting behind the news desk, screaming obscenities at Lord Protector Bracken and the whole government and all of the Elites. He was telling his fellow soldiers to kill them all. In the background were shots and the sound of a woman crying.

"I'm afraid it's just about all over. The Union is getting their paratroops ready to drop on Capitol City and restore order, but its obvious that the Protectorate is gone and the Union Province of Marlborough is back."

"What will the Union do now?" Alexis asked.

Jimmy shrugged. "I really have no idea."

The three stood there, wondering what might have happened to friends across the river.

"Rick, before you and Kate get married, come to see me. I think we can arrange for you to be married in Eastchester Cathedral. I've always liked the James VI chapel. I think it will do splendidly."

"And I think we should be able to get Alexis into Wellington University in another year. She'll need to be an Imperial Subject, of course, but we won't have any trouble with that. All three of you, of course."

"I've already talked to your publisher, Red Queen Publications….My God, Rick! Miss Periwinkle Plum? Couldn't you have come up with a better nom de plume?"

Rick just grinned and shook his head.

"I assured them that His Imperial Majesty's Government had no objection to Detective Nikki Heat entering the service of the Empire. They'll be in touch."

"As for Kate…"

"I'm not sure what I want." Kate said quickly. "I don't think I want to be a cop anymore. I realize your police are a lot different from the Protectorate, but I really want a change. I'll be a wife and perhaps a mother for a while and help my husband with his books. My mother always wanted me to be a lawyer, perhaps I'll try to do that."

"We'll be happy to help. Unless you need assistance changing diapers. Now, there are some people waiting to see you."

As they left Jimmy's office, Castle saw a familiar hulking figure.

"Ethan! Do you work for Jimmy, too?"

Ethan Slaughter laughed. "I still work for the only person I've ever worked for. Me. But, I understand that Count James can use a man of my abilities. Something about gunrunning." Slaughter disappeared into another office.

One of Jimmy's people took them down several stories. There, to Alexis' surprise were a dozen or more of her friends with their parents. The first to run to Alexis and hug her was her friend, Nancy Jenkins. Nancy's dog, Cosmo, kept a wary eye on Rick. Rick kept a wary eye on Cosmo.

"Alexis, I'm so glad they let you in."

"Let me in?" Alexis asked, puzzled. "We've been here since before the war started.

Nancy began crying. "It's just awful over there. People have just gone mad. There's burning, looting, killing…It's just horrid. Thousands of people are trying to enter New South Hibernia, but they're only letting a few in. I don't know why they let is in."

"Isn't everyone here part of those who wrote our manifesto?"

"Yes, but how would they know about that?"

Alexis looked at her father who shrugged and said, "The Empire does have a very good intelligence service."

"Rick! Kate!" Called a familiar voice and Dr. Paul Whittaker and his wife Ann rushed towards Rick and Kate.

"You made it across?" Rick said.

"They guy who brought us here said you vouched for us. Is that true?'

"Well, I do know a guy or two. But, hey, do you need anything? A place to stay, perhaps?"

Paul shook his head. "My cousin, who's also a doctor, married an Imperial and lives here. We'll be staying with them. She says I should have no trouble getting a job."

Rick talked briefly to the parents of Alexis' friends. Some had a great deal of money in the Empire, some had none. Very few had any skills that would support them in the years to come.

As they left to go back home, Kate noticed Rick appeared preoccupied. "What's wrong?"

"The parents. Some of them will do fine, most never did anything but use their positions to get rich. Now things will be bad for them. I don't feel sorry for them, per se, but for their kids."

"I suppose you could see that they get some sort of scholarship, anonymously, of course."

Castle grinned. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a remarkable woman, Mrs. Castle to be?"

"Now that you mention it, someone has mentioned that to me, Mr. Beckett to be."

The End

Author's note: Back to work on the next exciting installment of the story of Lord and Lady Castle in Renaissance Italy and elsewhere, it's entitled To the East. Rick and Kate will go to what's left of the once great Byzantine Empire, through the Black Sea to what will eventually be Russia and on into the Caucasus. But, I also have a few ideas for some shorter stories that just might go from ideas to actual stories.

And a Merry Christmas, or a merry whatever you celebrate, and a Happy New Year to one and all