Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 9

I spent the next few days bouncing between talking to Lydwyn and snooping. The way I was doing it was embarrassingly simple, and I probably should have thought of it ages ago.

Governess had a bunch of cell phones already programmed to be fully remote controlled. All I had to do to turn them into spy devices was put them somewhere they wouldn't easily be found.

At first I tried mounting them extradimensionally, but sound waves didn't travel through the higher dimensions all too well, so they had to be in normal space.

I debated about the morality of doing this back and forth. On the one hand, my citizens deserved their privacy. On the other hand, the guy I was going to be spying on was a massive dick. Last time the issue came up, I chose to stick to my principles. This time, I had a family to keep safe. My morals could sit in the corner and wait this one out.

I put the spy cameras in Peter Morris' house and office. They paid off quickly. Governess recorded several meetings, each of which she played back to me.

The first was with the government official he'd appointed to oversee the city guard. The council had voted his lackey through, just as he'd hoped. But exerting actual control over the city guard was proving more difficult than just creating a new government division and saying the guards are answerable to them.

Councilman Morris had a rather tense meeting with himself, his lackey, and Kyle. The three of them had stared one another down. Councilman Morris thought he could force Kyle and the guard to comply with his new council-appointed secretary of defense. Kyle asserted the council had no such authority under Crownhill's constitution.

It ended with Kyle leaving in a huff and Councilman Morris and his lackey promising that this would be the end of Kyle's career in the city guard. It was rather tense, and I was pretty sure Kyle would be coming to see me soon, but hopefully everything would be taken care of by then.

I shook my head as I watched the recording. Didn't they know Kyle could have killed them a hundred times over during that meeting? Kyle was so far above them in level that on most other worlds they'd be expected to spend the whole time groveling in his presence. Trying to boss him around would be seen as downright laughable.

But one of the downsides of coming from a place as civilized as Earth was that solving problems with murder was a tough conclusion to jump to. Kyle had adapted to the integration better than most, but he'd kept that part of the old world with him. The fact that he didn't kill Councilman Morris and his lackey then and there was proof of his incredible self-control, and it was the reason he made such a good guard captain.

Most of the other meetings were simpler things. Councilman Morris was meeting with his supporters, who were mostly old-world businessmen making promises to him about what wealth and power they would share with him when they regained their fortunes. By spying on him, I learned that a big part of why Councilman Morris had gotten elected in the first place was because he promised to restore all pre-integration assets and property.

I wasn't sure how he thought he could pull that off, considering most of Earth was scattered across an exponentially larger newly integrated planet infested with monsters, but he'd convinced people he could.

I had my doubts that such a project was even feasible. Restoring ownership of property in Crownhill had been a legal nightmare that had kept Margaret busy for months. And that had been right after the integration. By now, most of the remaining shards of Earth had been scavenged, picked over, and reclaimed.

The idea that he was going to somehow restore the value of people's stock portfolios and bank account balances was even more ridiculous. As I'd learned while touring San Francisco, any company that survived the integration had radically restructured into something else. Most were completely gone. Any stocks were worthless.

And every bank computer had been knocked out during the integration. Even assuming we could get the computers back online, the money was worthless. Nobody was going to accept currency from governments that no longer existed.

I really had to look into Councilman Morris' election campaign and see how he duped so many people into voting for him with plans like that. They seemed insane to me, but maybe people were really that ignorant about what had happened after the integration. I jotted down a note for more public media like Margaret's radio show on my ever-growing emperor to-do list.

The next few meetings were more important. As I suspected, he was approached by foreign forces soon enough. The individual looked mostly human, save for scaly patches on their skin that were covered by thick clothes, allowing them to pass for human on the streets of Crownhill.

"You must turn the city guard to your side. We shall support you from the shadows," the strange figure said.

"I'm trying. I gained this office with the support of the people, though taking action is proving difficult. The guards are thick-headed and refuse to listen. And the council doesn't have access to Obelisk points, which ruined my plans to create an infinite number of them in our account to reward my supporters with. If you want my help, I'll need resources from you." Councilman Morris steepled his fingers.

"Done." The strange figure tossed a bag on the table.

"This is hardly enough," Councilman Morris protested.

"It's a bag of holding. There's plenty of gold for you in there, along with weapons. Arm your followers and have them take up arms against your emperor when the time is right," the strange figure said.

"Like... fight?" Councilman Morris grimaced.

"Yes, Peter Morris. Fight. Create a diversion. Even a small one will do. Worry not, other agents of the Chaos Gods have infiltrated this city and made contact with dissident factions. There are few who would worship the Chaos Gods among former Earthlings, but plenty who would kill your emperor for fear he'll become a tyrant, given the chance."

"Fine. As long as they're going to do the actual fighting. I'll do what it takes, but in return you need to back me once the emperor is out of the picture. The council of Crownhill needs a prime minister. And eventually, I think this place needs a president." Councilman Morris straightened his jacket.

While watching the camera feed, I drummed my fingers against the table. The Chaos Gods? How did they fit into all this?

Granted, I'd crossed them more than once. They must be backing one of the forces hostile to me. My guess was it was either the Sages of Camlaan or the rogue sorcerers from the Order of Sorcery.

Councilman Morris wasn't the only one I was spying on. I installed hidden cameras in the offices and homes of most of the new councilors, even Margaret.

Margaret had been felt out by several strange people showing up at her office, but they must have picked up that she wouldn't be conducive to betrayal and didn't pick up the signals they were looking for from her.

The same was true for two others among the new councilors. The others all sat up at attention as soon as a mysterious figure from outside Crownhill plopped some gold down on their desk and promised them additional power.

One question in particular had my heart pounding.

"Are there any children in this city of unusual talent? Children that grew exceptionally fast and have a commanding presence beyond what they should?" the strange figure asked one of the less memorable council members.

"Now that you mention it, I heard that the emperor's son is particularly clever. It's likely just propaganda though. Our so-called emperor spends all his time doting on his wife and child, or handing out aid to people in far-off provinces and little time here governing in the capital." The council member waved a dismissive hand.

The strange figure made an unhappy noise, apparently having already determined my son was nothing special. Thankfully, Bridget's show with the baby she borrowed had worked.

A short time later, Councilman Morris had a meeting with a different faction, this one not from Camlaan or the Chaos Gods.

"New Kyoto did fine under the reign of the Oni. Think of the protection an entire world of powerful warriors could provide! Let the mercenaries handle the fighting while you go about the important work of governing. What do you think?"

"Hmm... an interesting suggestion. But if you want my support, it'll cost you. Influence like mine doesn't come cheap." Councilman Morris looked at the figure across from him expectantly, and sure enough he was once more provided with a bag of gold.

Councilman Morris shamelessly accepted the second bag of holding full of gold, pretending for all the world that the agent from New Kyoto was the only one he was working with. The bastard had sold out Crownhill to two different factions, no doubt thinking he could play both of them off against one another.

The other council members were no better. I shook my head at the sight of all the corrupt council members as I slowly put more pieces together and tried to puzzle out the full scope of my enemy and their plans. The new members of the council were too ambitious for their own good. I should have figured as much when I realized how competitive the elections had gotten. The only people who'd go to such lengths were those who planned large gains.

I summoned Sharky in my courtyard. I gave him a pat on the side and shared his mission with him.

"There are a few people crossing the wilderness outside of Crownhill. I want two delayed, three killed by a wild shark monster, and one to be heavily wounded but survive. You up for it?"

"Nom nom." Sharky swam off. I checked in with him frequently to make sure everything went smoothly. Given his level at the peak of B-Grade, there were very few people on the shard qualified to fight him. Nonetheless, I was a bit paranoid about people spying on me the same way I was spying on the councilors, so I was having a friendly lunch with Kyle and Frank while the spies and foreign agents were having a considerably less friendly lunch with Sharky.

I'd chosen my targets carefully. This was about as much damage as I could do to muddy the waters, but keep them from calling things off or changing plans.

After lunch, I tracked down the bags of holding, and to my relief each contained the spies' personal notes. Naturally, they were written in code, but that wasn't a big issue.

"Governess, how much time do you think you need to crack this code?" I asked while getting a few good pictures for the camera.

She replied through the cell phone I was carrying a moment later. "The cipher these spies use is extremely primitive. I had already deciphered it by the time you flipped to the third page."

For a moment, she even sounded a little smug there. That was a rare thing for her.

With the code cracked, I quickly made some edits to the spy books, including the one belonging to the badly wounded spy whose legs Sharky had bitten off. It would take him some time to regain consciousness, let alone crawl back to Camlaan. That was plenty of time to swap out some of the contents of his bag of holding.

After, Councilman Morris and many of the corrupt council members were visited by another strange figure. One with an unidentifiable face hidden by black robes and a powerful disguise enchantment. Despite all those, anyone who knew me well would think this strange figure sounded a lot like me. Luckily, none of the corrupt council members knew me well, or they wouldn't have dared attempt what they were trying to do.

"Peter Morris, I've come representing your new benefactors," I began.

"Ah, yes. Them..." Councilman Morris cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. He was clearly trying to come up with a way to ask which benefactors I was referring to, without revealing the fact that he'd sold out to more than one.

"You have new instructions. You are to gather up all your allies in one place on the outskirts of the city tomorrow evening. Gather at the point shown on this map, and your benefactors will finally arrive in person to explain how we can help each other." I handed him a map, and he accepted it with a sour look on his face.

"I don't know if I can make it, I have a very busy schedule, you see, and..."

I flopped a huge bag of gold on the table. It was so large that the top of Councilman Morris' desk splintered and cracked down the middle. His words caught in his throat.

"I... uh..." He stuttered.

"There will be more bags just like that during your meeting. Make sure to bring your entire inner circle and all your allies. We'll need everyone there for this," I said.

Councilman Morris' hands delved into the bag of gold. He didn't even realize the coins had marks from Themyscira instead of Onibushi or Camlaan like he was used to. One foreign gold coin probably looked as good as any other to him.

"Okay. I'll be there. I'll bring my people too. Just remember your promise, I'm not doing any fighting personally," Councilman Morris said.

I chuckled. Peter Morris probably thought it was good-natured agreement and chuckled with me. I let him enjoy it, since he wouldn't have many more times to enjoy himself after this one.

***

I found Bridget shortly after I finished up my snooping, spying, and deception.

"Bridget, I want to take you and Adrian on another vacation to Mucaria soon. Things might get a bit ugly and I don't want to set a bad example for our son."

Bridget squeezed my hand. "I figured it was something like this."

I scooped her up in my arms and held her for a moment. Adrian was disappointed to hear we were going on another trip, since he was fond of doing his beetle battles and playing with the other kids in Crownhill.

We'd spent enough time in Mucaria that it wasn't too strange for him though, and when we told him this was important he left with us without complaint. We went to Bridget's apartment, and I made sure they were well funded and that Bridget could sign Adrian up for classes or anything else he needed to keep him busy.

"Dad, what's going on?" Adrian asked.

I rubbed his head fondly.

"It might get a bit dangerous back home for a while. Don't worry, it'll all be over by the time you come back."

"No, really." He insisted, apparently intent on an answer this time.

I took a knee and gave his question the answer it deserved.

"There are some bad people in Crownhill. They think they got the drop on me and our family, but I caught wind of their scheme. Just focus on your studies. Your dad's going to take care of everything."

"Okay. Thanks, dad." Adrian gave me a warm hug, and I returned it.

Leaving the two of them felt more than a little painful, but if I didn't make it out the door now I'd stick around for who knew how long. So I gave Bridget a kiss, then turned and left.

After leaving Bridget and our son, I took the bridge to Glacia, and from there took a teleportation array to Prince Herius' world. It didn't take long to track down the Nineteenth Legion. They were practicing the drills I asked of them in one of the ruined cities dotting the planet.

I watched them for a minute or two as they used blasting wands to shatter imaginary doors, then disabled and dragged the hostile individuals inside out into the streets in a safe and efficient manner. No doubt the real thing wouldn't go so smoothly, but it was good to see them practicing.

I spotted Legate Asimi and the other high-ranking officers overseeing the drill, and I landed among them.

"Not bad. I hope everyone's run through the drill at least once," I said.

Legate Asimi turned, then bowed. "Sir! I didn't know you were coming or I would have had the troops muster for you. We've been practicing as ordered."

I nodded as I looked over my legion. The thousands of veteran warriors who'd served me so well on Ladwick would now be fighting a second war much closer to home.

"Muster them now. It's time to move out."