Montague's Will

Foreword

This story, and any that follow, are compiled from my father's personal archives from the Library at Glenmaye. The story is based around fragments and missions of the Lovely Secret Service, set up by my father in the early days of Lovely. The Lovely Secret Service eventually declined in number and its role, that of watching over the other security services and armed forces, changed to acting beyond the control of Lovely's conventional restraints and operating directly out of my father's office to a select few agents. In this way, my father was capable of acting in what he viewed as the best interests of Lovely which usually didnt mean the best interests of other micronations. It should therefore be noted that whilst this story is based around real people and events, it is fictionalised.

Anthony Montague

Montague's Will

The small shabby apartment in downtown Triegon was unaccustomed to sights like this. Triegon itself was a fairly sleepy undistinguished Alexandrian town which relied on the military for its local economy due to the maintenance of an airforce base and radar station in the area. So to have this scene playing out in one of its more unremarkable apartment blocks would come as a great surprise to many of Triegon's citizens. William Merchant stood with his back towards the window that led to the old style fire escape, with a gun levelled at him. The gunman stood silently as Merchant looked nervous looking between the gun, the gunman's eyes and the locked but weak wooden door behind him. It looked as if Merchant was doomed to die an unceremonious death in some shabby backwater of Alexandria.

"Now, two things you should know," began Merchant a bit nervously, holding his hands downwards with the palm's open.

The gunman remained silent, still holding the gun at Merchant and not taking his eyes away from Merchant's face.

"Number 1; you've got the wrong man." continued Merchant, edging very slowly forward. The gunman seemed to swerve in his resolve to hold Merchant here. Merchant seized upon it. He quickly grabbed the pistol and shoved it away from him and the gunman before sending his right knee into the gendarme's balls.

"Number 2, Monsieur, is never ever hold your gun at the hip in one hand in situation like this. Remember that if we ever meet again." finished Merchant, before landing a blow with the pistol on the back of the gendarme's head as he crouched in agony. Merchant already heard the rumblings as Triegon's SWAT team began to swarm inside the building. He opened the window and crawled out onto the fire escape. The old wooden door burst open, sending splinters from its rusted lock everywhere, as armed gendarmes swarmed into the room only to be met by a single shot from Merchant, which struck a gendarme in his bullet proofed chest, and a fleeting glimpse of the grey suited man jump the remaining stairs to the ground. Merchant broke the lock on one of the Gendarme's police cars and drove off out of town along the coast to a secluded beach. Once there, he calmly got out of the car, burnt it before sitting on a washed ashore log as he waited till nightfall. When nightfall came, a motorboat appeared racing towards the shore. Armed soldiers got out, aiming their rifles at him.

"Venice!" shouted one of the soldiers with his LN-15 Assault Rifle raised at Merchant.

"Antonio" replied Merchant calmly walking towards the boat. "Nice to see that the Royal Lovely Marines can still do something well."

The Marines pushed the boat off the shore and back into the sea before it raced back to HMLS Nelson, standing off the shore. Once Merchant had been greeted by the Captain, the ship made back to Modbury Harbour to rendezvous with Lord Montague and the remainder of his taskforce currently laying siege to the captured Houlandish Capital.

********

The next morning, Merchant entered into the private cabin of Lord Montague with Vice Admiral Hastings by his side escorting him and offering him a seat.

"How are you these days, Paul?" asked Merchant non-chalantly, sitting in the comfortable chair across from Montague who was sitting behind his desk.

"Fine thank you Will. I would ask how you are, but I think that's probably covered by the Convention on Official Secrets." replied Paul Hastings with a laugh.

"It most definitely is, Paul. I'm sorry but could you leave the room now?" ordered Montague to Hastings. Hastings obeyed the order and left the room, closing the double oak doors behind him. Montague got up from behind the desk and began pouring out a whiskey.

"Failure on the operation?" asked Montague, dropping two ice cubes into the glass he had prepared for himself before offering Merchant a drink, which he politely declined.

"Yes." replied Merchant bluntly, unsure whether to expect a ticking off from his boss.

"I surmised as much by the fact we were still picking up radar signals from Triegon. Care to elaborate on what happened?" asked Montague.

"A mission like that would have taken weeks, even months to complete. The corruption of the computer system in Triegon's Radar Station was not going to happen in three days as you seemed to think it would. How the gendarmes got onto me, I don't know, but it was a fool's errand m'Lord. How goes the war?" replied Merchant without any qualms over telling his boss his mistakes.

"Not well. The homeland is on the brink of collapse. Our armies there have been thoroughly routed in my view, despite the Novas and Tokis withdrawing. The Riponians are running rampant in the skys and the Matbaans have landed a small force that we've been unable to repel. The Navy is the only coherent force left and our offensive action here is, I have to say, a mere sideshow. We've lost this War of Matbaaic Liberation." replied Montague.

Merchant didn't bat an eyelid at hearing all of this. Although a Lovely patriot and a man in the employ of his country, he knew the realities of Lovely and of the micronational world. Hopefully this would teach his country a lesson and make it stronger. If not, it merely marked the end of a great nation.

"Alas, it is only now that I realise what has been happening." said the gruff old man who was clearly in deep distress over something, probably the nation he had fought for so hard thought Merchant.

"And are you going to enlighten me to this, M'Lord?" asked Merchant, raising an eyebrow.

"When I brought you into Secret Service, it was because of the bluntness that you displayed before Will. That bluntness never went down well with Trip at CTU, where keeping him happy was what was demanded rather than accurate reporting of the truth. The blatant paranoia of CTU didn't serve you well while the open endedness and freedoms allowed by my small operation did. I never thought I'd say this, but it is the lack of that blantant paranoia which has proved Lovely's downfall. CTU, and to a lesser extent J-DIC, never allowed anyone to operate its computing systems or build them apart from itself. The IASA and DCHQ does allow others to build its computer systems, notably a group called Adventis. I was concerned when your colleague Kael began noticing large discrepancies in our computer systems for IASA so I ordered him to keep an eye on it and move things along. What was discovered intrigued me. Adventis is part of a larger parent group of companies, all of which are floated on the Micran and Giessian Stock Markets. Yet, the major stockholders are rarely ever seen, the Boards of Directors are nye untraceable and the Chief Executives disappear off the face of the world after careful probing. It is Adventis' fault, I now believe, that the gendarmes knew you were in Alexandria because of the Navy connections in getting the order to you. While the Navy believed it to be an IASA operation, Adventis and its companies will know that you are not on the list of IASA agents and you never have been. They will know, no matter how much is guesswork, that we as an independent, highly secretive two man operation exist." explained Montague.

"Two man? You mean three. You forget Kael and his merry bunch of men looking after your family, m'Lord." countered Merchant, matter-of-factly. He got up from his seat and got some water from the watercooler.

"Kael is dead, along with most of my family." said Montague quietly. The news shocked Merchant. He too had once been detailed to look after Montague's family and had come to know all of them, including Montague's daughter better than most men. Merchant kept with his training. The brief flicker of shock on his face subsided and he reverted to his usual expression of neutrality.

"This war has finished Lovely for now. We will need to retreat to our colonies and consolidate our position there. From there, it will be us, you and I Will, who will preserve Lovely's interests in what I can only perceive to be a great diaspora of our people. From there, we will investigate this Adventis Group and its parent companies." finished Montague.

"What about dealing with those who killed your family?" asked Merchant.

"I will gain my vengeance privately without the use of this particular instrument of state. For the meantime, my son Anthony is being evacuated to the Collins Islands. Link up with him in the guise of the Royal Lovely Marine Commander and stay with him on my estates there. I'll send orders through shortly." ordered Montague.

Merchant got up and left the room, nodding to Hastings politely as he left. He would be on a plane to the Collins Islands tomorrow and from there, he knew that instead of being just one of many possible ways of extending Lovely influence in the world as he was now, he would become the only way.