lancer
Posts: 2963
Joined: 10/18/2005 Status: offline
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Finance. Top of my agenda this fine morning. Hoo-bl**dy-rah. Two cups of coffee, a shot of vodka and a rub down from a team of nubile assistants haven’t managed to raise my enthusiasm for the subject to the necessary levels of engagement. Nonexistent would be more precise. Don’t want to know. Aren’t there whole departments full of flunkies to take care of this mental mogadon? Talk to me about accountancy, cash flow and balance of trade and my neurotransmitters instantly power down. The Imperial Chancellor, Chuck to his mates, is today’s funmeister. Here I sit on my throne, morosely staring at Chancellor Chuck as he methodically works his way through his warm-up routine. Pages and pages of numbers. Charts. Graphs. Monotonic delivery. Wouldn’t have put up with it if I thought it wasn’t important. Chuck only visits when there is an issue. Chuck is here in front of me now, rabbiting on in accounto-geek, so clearly there must be a problem. If there was a worse way to start your day I wasn’t aware of it. Forewarned I would have hit the juice last night. Confront the onslaught with a hangover and blurry vision. But, no, Chuck arrived unannounced, bless his little tree-loving, geeky self. Hope he remembers not to hug me. Bye bye Chuck. I’d miss our little chats. I lean forward a touch. Give him some room to slip his arms around my back. Put a doleful expression on my face. I’m nothing but a tortured, twisted soul, badly in need of love. Help me, Chuck. I quietly hum a tune. “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood…” Chuck fails to take the hint. Rattling on about our Imperial bank balance. Not what it should be. Struggling. Taking on water. Sinking. Points to a particular item. Squinting hard I read ‘Troops’. So we happen to have an army. Empires need armies. What of it? Too many troops, replies the sanctimonious Chancellor Chuck. Can’t afford them. I keep the squint. Direct it at Chuck. Said I appreciated his advice on matters Military. Ratchet up the squint a few notches. Chancellor – ‘I’m a military genius’ – Chuck at pains to point out that he appreciates my appreciation. Adds that I appear to have the situation under control and that further advice from his good self probably not needed at this particular point in time. Furthermore Chancellor Chuck assures me that, one way or another, he’ll find the money to pay for my wonderful, highly capable armed forces forthwith. Leave it with me, says Chuck, bowing deeply before exiting stage right. D*mn. All I wanted was a hug. Left alone I contemplate my navel and clear my mind of the massive dump of accounto-geek that Chuck left me with. For a short interval. An inadequate five minutes. Before... Chancellor Chuck reappears. What the …? “Emperor, I have solved your financial conundrum” Didn’t know I was in one. Not sure I'd know if I was. Nevertheless, fast work Chuck. “I took the liberty-“ Bad words, those. Nobody takes liberties with their Emperor. I sit up and square my shoulders. Use the opportunity to loosen my holster. “-naturally,” continued Chuck, unperturbed, “I acted solely in the spirit of your express wishes”. Something wrong with this picture. Five minutes prior Chuck was a grovelling sycophant. Now, mysteriously, Chuck has a full charge of confidence. “I have accepted, on your behalf, an offer of a trade agreement with the Aredos Renaissance,” continued the, now smirking, Chancellor. Did a deal with the Cannibal Sirens without my consent? Does not compute. Surely Chuck knows he has bought a ticket on the fast train to h*ll? Must do. I peer closely at Chuck. Strangely, it doesn’t appear to bother him. My fingers tap, tap, tap the carved wooden arm of my stupendous throne. My wimpy Chancellor has always acted as a smart wimpy Chancellor. It is unlikely that he has decided to commit suicide-by-Emperor. Most unlikely. Sudden behavioural changes, from past experience, are harbingers’ of stormy weather. Turning points that need to be acknowledged and investigated. Frowning, I quiz my all-to-confident Chancellor. “And you did this on your own initiative?” “Yes, my Lord. I did, of course, consult with the relevant people prior to taking any decision.” Eyeballing me. Body posture all thrust and challenge. Take me on, Chuck appears to being saying, I’m here. Ready. Tap, tap, tap. Stormy weather? I sense a hurricane bearing down. “Who, exactly,” I pause for effect, “are these people?” My Chancellor casually flicks a stray strand of hair out of his eyes. “Only Zorg, my Lord.” Hair out of the way, our eyes lock. Ahhh. Chuck, disloyal flake that he is, has switched his allegiance to Zorg. The unspoken inference being that if I take on Chuck, I take on Zorg. I realise that the entire mornings conversation with my Chancellor has been nothing but a tightly choreographed performance. Zorg and Chuck must have stitched up a deal with the Cannibal Sirens weeks ago, communications lag and all that. “I managed to get a copy of their Empire map at the same time,” states my traitorous Chancellor. “We know where they are.” And they now know where we are. Well done Chuck. So Zorg has wrapped his greedy tentacles around my Chancellor. The Empires financial affairs are no longer in my control. Not, I stress NOT, an acceptable state of affairs. To be continued... Lancer
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