Tyranny of Steel

A report sat on Linde ’s desk as she rubbed her weary eyes and drank her sixth cup of coffee on this morning. Her usual lively and attractive appearance was marred from three days of hard work investigating the assassination attempt on her husband ’s life. She refused to face her husband until after she had identified all the conspirators, for the veteran spymaster knew the king would vent his wrath upon her, and not in the fun way she had come to love.

After taking a sip from her coffee mug, Linde gazed over at the detailed report, which, based upon the information received from interrogating the assassin, who was currently located at a hidden government black site. While the Austrian Government lauded itself for its forward thinking justice system, the reality was there were certain criminals deemed too dangerous for a trial, and thus they would eventually find themselves missing.

These dangerous criminals would wake up imprisoned at one of many secret internment camps, where government agents would interrogate them for information regarding their criminal activities. After their usefulness was exhausted, these agents would dispose of the criminals and bury them behind the institution. For those few who were aware of these facilities ’ existence, they commonly referred to them as black sites.

As Linde read through the report, which was conducted only after vetting the assassin ’s claims. She noticed several prominent figures in Austrian society who her agents had deemed as conspirators involved with the plot on Berengar ’s life.

Not only were there high-ranking army officials who unlawfully sanctioned the sale of decommissioned arms to the black market, but there were even a few members of Parliament who had invested in the black market that facilitated the sale of the pistol to the assassin. At the bottom of this report was a note by the agent in charge, who detailed his thoughts on how Royal Intelligence should respond to these discoveries.

Under Normal circumstances it would be difficult to arrest a member of Parliament without extensive evidence, and a warrant signed by a judge of a federal court. However, Linde had recently declared martial law, and temporarily dissolved parliament, in doing so forsaking any rights the politicians of the Austrian Federal Government may have.

Thus, with a smug smile on her face, Linde signed her approval for the Agent ’s recommendations of mass arrest, and public execution of the individuals on the list. There were one hundred and twenty-three names on the list of targets, which included three members of parliament, a General in the Austrian Royal Army, and a variety of corrupt law enforcement officials.