Chapter 8

Dinner with Prince Faisal was fascinating. He had been the Royal representative to the courts for decades, and was considered one of the finest legal minds in the country as it pertained to the nuances of Islamic law. He did finally admit, over a cup of coffee after dessert, that the entire drama with Khalid had been engineered by the remaining brothers of the Sudairi Seven. Family blood, especially that of a sister, is still thicker than that of a cousin. The other minor detail, the actual emasculation of Khalid, meant the Princess could now file for divorce. Normally the sole right of the man, this was simply a bonus over and above the public humiliation and shaming that had been their goal in the first place.

“I’m sure that if I told you that sometimes acting as the delivery boy for a message was a pain, you’d have no idea what I was talking about,” I said.

He grinned. “I don’t think you felt any pain whatsoever.” Then his face grew solemn. “Other than, of course, the public pain that Princess Rothschild had to feel. For which I truly am sorry.”

I sighed. “She watched one of her sister-wives pull out a handgun and shoot her father in the head, blowing his brains out all over the ceiling, after he’d just told her that so far as he was concerned, she was nothing to him since she wasn’t a boy, only someone to help cement dynastic relationships at his command. Think about that, when you also think about what she just did, and why.”

“Of course. Full and complete closure.” He gave a slight nod. “It is her strength that makes me think that there may be hope for our culture in fitting in with the modern world someday.” He glanced around. “Even when we’re talking about more than one woman.”

After letting out a deep sigh, he took his leave.

Sayel joined me once I’d escorted Prince Faisal out of our rooms. “I’m going to make a guess that you’re not angry with me, either for not helping Princess Rothschild eight years ago, or for what I just did to Prince Khalid.”

“Come with me, Sayel.” He followed me into the lower level of our rooms, where Hannah quickly joined us from upstairs, wearing a robe as she was ready for bed.

“Hannah, Sayel is curious about something. Whether you’re angry with him for failing to act eight years ago, or for doing the job today.”

“Why would I be? Eight years ago, you were the servant of the Thug. There’s nothing you could have done, then, that would not have cost you your own life, and the result would still have been the same. I suspect that incident is one of the reasons why, the next summer, he sought me out to become my friend. As for today, what Khalid did not take into consideration is our titles are ‘Protectors of the House of Al Saud.’ That means that first and foremost, we protect the whole House. Any individual members are secondary to that.”

“The minor detail that you are more skilled with the sword than I am made it quite simple as to the appropriate course of action, which is why I’m actually quite pleased with your performance today,” I told him.

“He is?” Hannah asked. “Not that I want to make it seem like I’m arguing the point, but I watched your performance with Gazda, as well as what you did with Dodi.”

At my nod, Sayel explained, “It is a difference in the skill set, my Princess. From the perspective of footwork, no one is the equal of His Majesty. In addition, from a simple brute force perspective, that of simply removing limbs from bodies with ease, there are several who possess that ability. But to remove the manhood delicately, as if under the knife of a surgeon so that no other damage is done ... His Majesty does not possess the skill to do that in such a controlled manner. Perhaps you didn’t notice, but Khalid was able to take two steps before his body even noticed the violation. The blade itself, which I have honed from where His Majesty resharpened it for me, and my own skill are what allowed that. I know of only one other man in the world who can do that, and his victim can take three steps.”

“Who is that?” I asked.

“Yagyu Masatoki. I look forward to training with him so that we may both improve our skills with the blade.”

I looked at Hannah. She smiled, then said, “Noted. One double wide trailer turned into a dojo for weapons training.”

“They’ll need to take the roof off that one, and make it at least twelve feet tall. Otherwise, no one can jump over anyone else,” I said.

She nodded, while Sayel simply looked pleased.

That night, the eight new girls got to watch and learn how I could pleasure three women at once, while I otherwise did my best to wear Hannah, Helen, and Margie out. I hadn’t expected that what they’d seen would cause them all to be excited, but I was wrong.

We had a guest for breakfast the next morning that I had halfway expected to show up.

Wally had just told me that we weren’t going to have an American C-130 with us, we were going to have a Saudi Air Force C-130H, instead, when Abdullah showed up and asked to enter.

“Come on in, we’re just sitting down for breakfast. Will you join us?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Your Majesty, do I look like I’ve missed many meals?”

“I wondered about that, since I didn’t see you at the breakfast or lunch yesterday. But if I were making a guess, you were wandering around the palaces, making sure the rest of the half-brothers ... at least the ones that matter ... were aware of what was going to transpire yesterday afternoon.”

He looked pained.

“What’s the matter, Abdullah?”

“Now I owe Prince Nayef a Riyal. I told him there was no way you would figure out why I wasn’t around, and he simply laughed.”

“I suggest that you pay him. I’ll be more than happy to loan you the money, if you like.”

He snorted. “No, I can afford it easily. What is annoying is that Prince Nayef will never let me forget this. I admit that I may have rubbed it in a little when we were back in the hotel room after I had to pay your wife – err – girlfriend, Jennifer, when she beat him on the golf course. He is the one that introduced me to the concept of the small wager, something he picked up from your grandfather during the war. Not that we keep score or anything like that, but he has a tendency to lose to me. This is the first time in ... three years, now ... that he has won a bet from me.”

“Can’t help you with that. It’s the honorable thing to do.”

“Of course. Which is why things were set up like they were. As a token of apology to the both of you, the aircraft that will accompany you home to America is yours to keep.”

“Um, that’s a thirty million dollar airplane. I don’t think I can accept it, simply for doing what needed to be done, and as an actual protector of the family, I was literally just doing my job.”

“He said you’d say that. Don’t worry. We have more, and it’s not like they’re going to quit making a cargo airplane that can handle the airstrips in this part of the world, just because there aren’t going to be any more wars. You have a need for it now, and he is happy to assist you.”

I nodded, then said, “Please inform His Highness that we thank him for his courtesy, and we look forward to being friends with the Saudi people for a long time.”

His eyes widened slightly, crinkling with laughter when he realized I was using the ‘royal we’ to discuss the airplane, because now it was a matter of state. “Certainly, Your Majesty. Our ground crews have carefully taken the cargo from your personal aircraft that your man indicated, and loaded that onto the cargo aircraft. However, I am to accompany you to the airport, as it was indicated there were some things you had for His Majesty and Prince Nayef.”

“Of course. Once we have finished here with breakfast, all of us will travel there. We look forward to coming back to our embassy here in the future and spending more time with our Saudi brothers and sisters.”

Half an hour later, our convoy pulled up beside Salthawk One. Wally immediately began to supervise the ground crew, opening the back door on our plane and transferring the luggage from the bedroom back into the now empty cargo bay. Abdullah and I went to the RSAF C-130.

The two motorcycles were upright now, and strapped down properly. One of the mechanics said to Abdullah in Arabic that he recommended I service them before riding them, as while they had no gas in them, some oil may have leaked into the cylinders. He was surprised when I replied, “Thank you for your advice. I normally pay people for that, and it would be foolish of me to not listen to them if it’s applicable.”

The mechanic looked shocked that I spoke the language, and immediately started to apologize for his affront.

I shook my head and smiled at him. “There is no insult. You have obviously dealt with situations similar to this in the past. Just as I had to learn that if you transport a freezer or refrigerator, you need to let it sit for a day before plugging it in, so, too, have I learned something I did not know. I truly appreciate it.”

The storage cases were strapped down as well, from where they had been carried from one plane to the other in their components. However, the swords and firearms were now spread out on the blankets or leaning up in the cargo bay, in accordance with instructions.

“Abdullah, the Thug had several racks of blades and guns in his collection. It was quite obvious that the two racks I chose had the choice selection of weapons. Originally, I had intended to give a gift of two of these to His Majesty and Prince Nayef, allowing them to choose their own. As they are not here, that burden now falls to you, as the person that knows them the best, to choose an appropriate gift for them.”

He surprised me when he bypassed several blades with jewel encrusted decorations for one that was rather plain, and not at all shaped like the other swords. With reverence, he knelt in front of the sword. He started to reach for it, then pulled two handkerchiefs from his pockets, so he was touching it with those, instead. Then, he picked the blade up, held it out so he could look along the edge, down the blade, and finally hold the hilt in one hand while carefully examining the maker’s mark on it.

In a quiet voice, he said, “Your Majesty, are you aware of what this is?”

“Other than it’s obviously a katana, no. I noticed that the Thug had blades from many different nations in his collection.”

“By your giving this sword to His Majesty, he will be able to make it a personal gift to Emperor Hirohito of Japan, for its return to the Japanese people. Such a gesture will cement relations between our two nations in all of the projects that are ongoing, no matter what the results. This is the Honjo Masamune, a national treasure of Japan.”

“Then by all means, take it for that purpose. We only ask one thing. When he returns it to Japan and our brother, Emperor Hirohito, he mentions that it was freely given to him for this purpose by Prince Lewis of the Punjab, and that I acquired it in the same manner that General Shigenaga did, by killing my enemy and taking his sword. Once you mentioned the name, we knew the rest of the history.”

Abdullah looked at me with very wide eyes. By my calling Emperor Hirohito our brother, I was admitting I was taking my place as ruler of the Punjab in joining the leaders of nations of the world. More importantly, I was also making myself the equal to King Fahd.

He quickly agreed, then carefully took the Honjo Masamune and eight other blades, for the ‘brothers that mattered’. In a low voice, I asked him to pick a blade for the mechanic that had given me the advice, as he deserved a reward. He nodded, then chose a dagger that I then gave to the mechanic.

The mechanic looked shocked that I would gift him a jeweled dagger that was worth several thousand dollars. I simply smiled as he thanked me over and over.

I looked back outside the cargo bay, where Jeremy was standing with a customs official. “We good to go, Marshal Gage?”

“Yes, Sir. There was a bit of a discussion about whether you and Miss Rothschild would need entry and exit stamps, as you are members of the Royal family, and we landed at a Saudi military base, as opposed to the commercial airport.”

“I presume that discretion being the better part of valor, appropriate measures have been taken?”

He nodded and replied, “Stamps for everyone.”

I thanked everyone for their hard work, and boarded Salthawk One. The RSAF plane would follow us to Munich by way of a refueling stop in Cairo. This wasn’t a converted tanker, so while it’d take us five hours, it’d take them ten, including refueling. The only reason I was going to have them stop with us was because I planned on staying overnight, and that would allow their crew to get some rest, as well.

Especially since, while I didn’t anticipate us adding any cargo in Munich, I didn’t know for sure. And I did anticipate loading up more cargo in England, at least from my new estate, plus whatever we got of Hannah’s.

I spent the five hour flight in discussion with all of my women. I hadn’t really had time to get to know the newest additions to our family. All eight of them spoke some English, something they’d learned as children, but were certainly not fluent by any means. With Hannah and I translating the difficult concepts, I managed to get some of the different ideas regarding their new home across to them. The biggest one was that, while under Indian culture, I did own them, under the culture of the United States, they were not property, but would be considered as employed servants. We had to get Angela involved as well, so they could grasp the concept.

It took us an hour to get through customs in Munich, but that was mostly just making sure everything was in order as far as paperwork was concerned. The airport knew that our cargo plane would be about five hours behind us, so they’d take care of them as well.

Apparently, one of the first things that Prince Nayef had done as soon as we finished our meeting was contact Henry. He was waiting with Herr Kaske for us at the Siemens building. We spent the afternoon and evening in discussion with heads of the transportation division. Siemens was working on high speed rail already, designing the electrical systems for the bodies of the planned German Intercity Express, which were being built by Krupp. The planned trains were to be two power cars, each weighing eighty-five tons, with passenger cars weighing fifty-eight tons each. Unlike the French TGV, which weighed a standard four hundred twenty-four tons, with cars permanently linked together, the German ICE was intended to be of variable length.

That meant their trains would weigh between six hundred thirty-four and eight hundred sixty-six tons. Then add fifty to seventy-five tons of cargo, also known as passengers, and these were some heavy trains. No wonder they weren’t going for elevated trains.

I sat and listened to a long and involved presentation from their engineers about how proud they were to be involved with this. When they were finally done, I nodded and turned to Hannah. She pulled some papers out that I’d had her print up while we were flying from Riyadh and passed them out.

The only ones who knew what to expect were Henry and Herr Kaske. The rest of their staffs were looking at this, cold. I was curious to see what their reactions would be.

They truly surprised me.

No one laughed or objected to anything that was on the papers in front of them. Instead, after nearly two full minutes of dead silence while the engineers all intently read what was in front of them, one of them finally raised his eyes and simply shook his head.

“Amazing! Not only do you have a revolutionary idea, you have the concept, the basis for the design, and from what we’ve been informed, you already have a customer, for the proof of concept. At the same time, for a developed nation that has an existing rail network already between cities, by creating an elevated system for passengers or high priority freight only, you’ll reduce costs by simply expanding upon infrastructure that already exists.”

My eyebrows raised in surprise, while Henry began laughing at the expression on my face. “I suspect our young friend didn’t get the reaction from our engineers that he was expecting.”

Nodding, I said, “That’s being polite. I freely admit I was expecting at least some push back.”

That did cause a wave of laughter from the engineering staff. Kaske had a smile on his face when he said, “That is not very likely, Mister Lewis. Any idea from someone who has doubled the value of our company in less than three months is one worth giving serious consideration.”

That made me blink. “Excuse me? I haven’t been paying that much attention to what’s been going on, from a financial perspective. I knew that Siemens was going to profit considerably, of course, but not this quickly.”

“I’m certain you’ve been paying closer attention to the wind turbine market, especially since not only have we had to change our plans three times for the original plant, but we’ve already begun construction preparation for two additional production facilities on your other properties in Kansas. In addition, Prince Nayef suggested that you have land and a work force available in India. Even if we don’t put another turbine plant there, which based upon orders, I do recommend, the orders for magnetic bearings have already exceeded the capacity of the facilities we’ve put together here in Germany.”

He shook his head. “There’s not a single industry that has moving parts and deals with friction losses that’s not contacted us, if not for their actual product, then for their production equipment. While it appears the initial cost will be approximately half again more than conventional bearings, the reduction of both repair costs upon failure of the conventional bearings and preventative maintenance costs more than compensate. There are several companies that are extremely upset with us, primarily ball bearing makers, because their markets have suddenly been cut drastically.”

Henry nodded, saying, “At the same time, we’re being quite open with the advantages of the new technology, reminding customers that any new technology cannot help but displace older technology. And there will still be a market share for their materials, it will simply shrink as the new technology displaces it.”

I frowned. “I presume that we’re not just planning on throwing all their employees out of work.”

Both men shook their heads. “No,” Henry said. “Keep in mind that my consortium owns multiple steel manufacturing facilities. I’ve already spent some time talking with them regarding the change. They simply can’t afford to get complacent and think that the old ways of doing business are going to last forever. The world is changing, and our markets are changing. Military hardware manufacturing will be cut drastically, but that means we’ll have the free capacity to create more consumer items.”

My elbows on the table, I leaned forward to support my chin. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of market change, not across so many areas. Certainly not this quickly. I just wanted to help create cheaper power generation for people.”

Kaske smiled. “Don’t worry. People and industries are adaptable. So are countries. You’re going to accomplish your goal, quite magnificently.”

He paused, then said, in a slightly different tone of voice, “Think about this. Forty years ago, the buildings we are in didn’t exist. Munich was very fortunate in that barely half the city was destroyed, compared to so much of the rest of our country. I will not apologize for what we did during the war, because it was a war. Now that it’s four decades later, do I regret what we did? Of course. People that didn’t grow up here don’t understand. When I was ten years old, in 1938, the only way to play sports, or basically do anything fun, was to join the Deutsches Jungvolk, the German Young People. By the time I was thirteen, in 1941, it was considered an honor by us to join the Hitlerjugend, the Hitler Youth. I was still a student, but by the time the war ended, I had seen combat myself, in defense of my country.

“I’m telling you this not to excuse what we did during the war,” he said, motioning with his hands to encompass most of the engineers in the room that were of similar age, “but because we want you to succeed. It doesn’t take a brilliant mind to realize that you, personally, are in a unique position. With the changes to the world that have been imposed upon us due to our alien visitor, which are for the better of all mankind and not just one nation or people, your goal of ‘Power for the People’ is an even bigger rallying cry than ‘Deutschland über alles’ or ‘I have a Dream.’ I hesitate to say this, because I don’t want you to take it the wrong way, but I can see you leading the world out of the ashes of our nationalism as Hitler did for Germany from the ashes of the First World War, only not like he did, with evil and malice, but as the first line of our anthem now. Unity and justice and freedom. For the entire world.”

Henry quickly said, “Cal, that was not intended as an insult. I’ve become aware of more plans that Tess and Victor had for you, things that Karlheinz has no idea about as he’s not a part of the group. I’ve been talking with Nayef and ... others ... that know history. You are not just a natural leader, but you are incredibly charismatic. It’s obvious that people want to follow you. Just ... be careful.”

I shook my head. “It almost feels like it’s time to quote Baron Acton regarding absolute power,” I said, a wry smile on my face. “You have no way of knowing, but I’ve had this discussion already. I was concerned, because of comparisons I was making in my own mind to Hitler.”

Karlheinz Kaske shook his head, violently. “No, no, my young friend! Keep in mind that I heard him talk in person, and even met him once, where he shook my hand and muttered the same platitude to me that he was saying to every other young man present. He took a defeated people, gave us a scapegoat, and used his force of personality to push through his twisted plans, because he felt betrayed at the end of the First World War. You have the force of personality not to push something through, but to actually lead people, with them following you because they want to, not because they’re made to.”

Hannah quietly whispered to me in Hindi, “He means well, because he’s figured out that you’re the most special man in the world. He’s primarily a scientist, so he’s not adept at putting his feelings into words. The person he admired as a young man wasn’t what he thought he was, whereas you are, and are truly someone he admires. He wants to follow your lead.”

In the same language, I replied, “Yeah, I figured that out.” Changing back to the German we’d been using, I said, “Don’t worry, Herr Kaske. I need a few years before I’m ready to do that. Let’s get our turbine and bearing production fully up and running for now. Henry, since your companies are the ones that primarily build the cars, while Siemens does the propulsion systems, coordinate with Nayef. Surveying from Damman to Mecca is going to take some time. Today is January 8^th. I think it’s not unreasonable to have people on the ground, figuring the route, by the end of this month. I’ll have finished designs by the end of summer for the trains and power distribution systems.”

Henry interrupted me. “Thyssen AG knows how to build trains already. So does Siemens. Nayef had mentioned waiting until you had those designs complete to begin construction of the factory. Instead, simply because it’s going to take time to erect the building to make the trains in, we’ll coordinate with Siemens and overbuild a structure here. That way, we’ll already have the overhead cranes and most of the main building, including infrastructure such as plumbing that has to go through the foundation, in place. The main difference between our current trains and our magnetic levitation train is it will not have any rails. We’ll need a local test track, to confirm that things work properly on each vehicle before shipping. We’ll test each consist probably for a full week before shipping. Failure with a full load at speed is not an option. These rough designs are more than enough for us to begin working on producing those, as well.

“That way, we’ll have finished trains ready and in place within the two years it’ll take the Saudis to build the main tracks locally. Your plan to make the sections simply ‘snap together’ in place like a model railroad is brilliant.” The other engineers around the table nodded in agreement at that.

It was nearly midnight when Hannah and I got to our hotel and slept. We’d stayed later than I thought we would, so we could hammer out the final details. That meant we were free to leave for England in the morning.

We were at the Munich airport, ready to take off, when the first hint that our trip to England wasn’t going to be as carefree as the rest of our trip had been. We’d planned on simply going to Heathrow, grabbing a vehicle and going to Hannah’s home, getting her things, and then taking them back and leaving.

Heathrow politely told us that we were refused landing permission at their airport.

Rather than arguing about it, because she knew how busy they were, Cassandra simply called Luton International. They were closer to our destination, anyway. They politely informed us we were refused permission to land.

By now, she was irritated, so she called Gatwick. The result of that phone call had her come see me.

“Boss, we have an issue. Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is enemy action. We’ve been refused permission to land at three airports in the London area. None of them will explain why, just that we aren’t allowed to land.”

When she told me that, I went and got both Jeremy and Chuck. “Gentlemen ... and I use that term loosely ... someone has decided to make things a bit difficult for us. We’ve been denied permission to land at the civilian airports near London.”

That made Jeremy laugh. “That’s fine. Give me ten minutes.” He went to a phone, picked it up, and made two phone calls. It only took him eight minutes, most of which was on the second phone call. “Okay, we’re set. We, and the cargo plane, now have full landing privileges at RAF Mildenhall. In addition, we’ll have two platoons of Air Force Security Police and ground support vehicles at our disposal. I hate to say this to you, Cal, but as far as you’re considered, ‘It’s good to be the King.’”

That got some laughs from everyone. I shook my head and chuckled. I’d finally seen ‘History of the World Part I’, so I got the joke.

“There is some bad news, though. Your eight newest ladies will have to remain on the base, and so will Sayel.” He held his hands up. “Nothing I can do about that. Everyone else is either American, Australian, or already a British citizen, in Hannah’s case. There are no entry visas needed for us. Same thing for the Saudi crew when they get there, they have to stay on base, too. On the good news side, that also means there won’t be a huge amount of border control to deal with, as far as we can tell.”

“That’s fine. Make sure everyone knows, and let’s get wheels up. I said that right, didn’t I, Cassandra?”

She shook her head. “If you start asking if we’re feet dry or feet wet, we’re going to sit down for a talk,” she said with a laugh.

That made every single one of my security people, and Jeremy, shudder.

We made it to RAF Mildenhall without any further issue. With the gain of an hour by heading west, we landed twenty minutes after we took off. We were met by a follow-me and led to an angled parking stand. I thought it was interesting to watch Cassandra do a u-turn with our plane on the ground.

Once we were done, had the door opened and the stairway down, we were met by two men waiting on the cement. The taller man had a single star on his uniform, the other had four stripes. “I’m General Patterson, USAF, in charge of RAF Mildenhall. This is Group Captain Smythe, RAF logistics support.”

“Good morning, gentlemen. I’m not exactly sure which title I have that you’ve been given to expect,” I said.

Patterson smiled slightly. “It really doesn’t matter as far as we’re concerned. What does matter is that General Donnelly personally called me. It’s not very often I speak to the Commander in Chief of the USAF in Europe. Group Captain Smythe will make sure that you have everything you need.” He paused for a moment. “From the way your pilot parked, I’m guessing he’s been here before.”

“I believe she has. I know she used to fly tankers at one point.”

“Touché, Your Majesty. Smythe?”

“Sir, I’ve been told that you’ll need two platoons of Air Security officers, plus up to half a dozen transport vehicles. Refueling for your vehicle, plus a Royal Saudi Air Force cargo plane that will be here in another hour. Anything else?”

“Group Captain, because of someone deciding to play around, our destination is right at ninety miles from here, so it’s not going to be a quick in and out for us. We’ll also need at least two or three appropriate staff cars, so that my personal guards and assistants can come along. In addition, I will have several people who will be remaining here on the base. They will need access to meals and facilities. Consider that they’re the equivalent of personal, royal house servants, and warn your people that the guard remaining with them is the second most dangerous man in the world ... and is under orders to kill anyone who attempts to molest any of my servants, and will do so, without hesitation.”