MY TREASURED DESIRE

Chapter THIRTY-FOUR: Michelle’s Help!

Thursday. 7:00 am Local Time (11.00 pm, GMT or UTC.)

Colonel Michelle Guan’s Residence, Senior Military Quarters, Achaia.

30 Days Before the Proposed Traditional Marriage Between Alexa and Reynold.

Michelle Guan’s Harangue.

On the dining table, I was so comfortable with my two old friends – doing justice to the breakfast before us. We forgot the tension around us for a while and cracked jokes… After a while, Chu Celerina sarcastically enthused about Greta’s situation:

“Since we got out of Medical School, years after Colonel Beautiful had left us behind, I have never seen Greta being kept - for such a fretful moment - in between the devil and the deep blue sea. She had personally confirmed that she was in love with General Raymond Chang. But her treasonable acts have been exposed to the authorities who are kind, proposing to save her head if she was going to drop her defaming acts… My Mom would have been proud of her. But not my die-hard Achaian dad!”

“My dear friends, the shocker I received at the prince’s party had made me accede to obvious wrongdoing, with a promise to make some consultations and clean up some mess. I must make a trip to meet the Prince of Middleville and present to him, the vivid report of the facts and figures that could not only foil all our patriotic plots for Middleville but disgrace the monarch and our family line,” Greta admitted.

I need to be careful with my actions and speech here, bosom friends or not, so I said: “Blood Sisters, we must be careful… When I went on the espionage course, I saw the wisdom in being humane. Let me get the facts straight: Are we judging Greta to be flawless, even when her lover had instinctively put his life in danger to defend her life? General R. C. Chang risks being considered a traitor. Thank God, it sounds incomprehensible, so the entire Intelligence team must - indirectly - join him to save his cherished lover… Cat with 9 lives, what do you say?”

“I will be blunt,” Chu Celerina replied, “these soldiers know how to love. Once, my fiancé almost died for me. I could have carried the guilt for the rest of my life, so, I cannot bear it again. Prince Raymond is a great lover… We love Middleville, but we must not become miserable villains, intentionally sacrificing the one we love for no reasonable cause!” She turned her face to Greta and said, seriously: “Show some love while you can… How long will you die slowly, sending your heart to the slaughter slab? Let us get the peace at home and pursue nationalism with good rationale!”

“Michelle,” Greta called my name, after which she took a gulp of tea. She continued, “tell me what to do and I will obey you. You are the one who deserves this man that possesses the heart of gold. I told ‘our lover’ and he would never hear me through!”

I responded frankly and truthfully: “I respect your selfless love, Fräuleen Deutschland… But, please, do not call him ‘our lover’. I admit that I fell in love with him as you did: Give me a chance to get over him, please. Now that you have bonded with him and discovered that you love him passionately, it would be more painful for you to lose him: so, go on and claim your man. You also have the advantage: He loves only you!”

“I will do your bidding on one condition,” Greta suddenly said. She was firm. So, I wanted to hear this condition! But she added – “You know I am also a good gambler?”

Surprisingly, Celerina shouted it out: “I will support that mischief… Greta and I have done that before, with the heir of the Achaian Batteries… and it worked! Take something from him as a solace. It is all fun!” They laughed their heads off, but I wondered what they mean.

“What mischief are you musing, Girls?” The two girls whispered into each other’s ears and giggled together continuously. “What?” I repeated my question since I don’t really understand. So, they whispered an obscene and childish thing into my ear, one after the other… I punched the two of them at once, with each of my fists… “You girls are too raw… I am a clean girl!”

However, I gave the two girls some trustworthy spiel that should redirect Greta’s course without a loss. I revealed some steps that I had taken to avert Greta being apprehended for many wrong deeds against her own people – after all, the three of us are related to both Achaia and Middleville. I told them how I had to plant a patriot device that will jam all recording devices at my boss’ residence when I knew that he would bug the room, waiting for Greta… not because the General loved Greta less, but he needed to do that for safety reasons since Greta does not know when to draw a line between dealing with a lover and an enemy!

“I hope you won’t be suspected, as our friend here loves to behave as if her life has duplicates, or as if she now lives in a land of anarchy, where nobody is caught for breaking the law! Watch it, Greta…” Then she turned to me and spoke cynically, “And you, we allow you to enjoy what your heart had longed for – for a bit. Or you will be lusting after him in your dreams. The owner will soon take over!” A visibly prankish Celerina sounded a note of pervert caution. These are two bad girls with randy thoughts… I believe that you should never seek to enjoy the aroma of what you could never savour the taste thereof for as long as you need to… A friend should never know how you taste if you do not want trouble… I made a warning sign at my friends, with my index finger and a smile, and later shook my head visibly!

But I was truly shaken by Celerina’s fear. “I hope that distrust thing does not happen between me and my colleagues, Celerina. So, Fräuleen Deutschland, save us all… Won’t you!”

“I get your flow, Colonel Beautiful,” said an appreciative Greta. “I will try to tread with much caution from now on.” Greta gave a dashing smile and followed her gesture with a wink at me and concluded: “I will soon take over our man: He would be mine!”

***

Thursday. 7:00 pm Local Time (11.00 am, GMT or UTC.)

Gen. Raymond Chang’s Perspective.

The A.S.S.S. Headquarters, Achaia.

30 Days Before the Proposed Traditional Marriage Between Alexa and Reynold.

Military Intelligence Colonel Adewale King reported that his informants were suspecting that Colonel Michelle Guan was either playing a game around her bosom friends or being tactically used by one of them. Though, I, the G.O.C. and a few other team members readily vouched for our colleague, I instantly called the Crown Prince to dissuade Colonel Guan from attending the security stakeholders’ decision-making meeting scheduled for Saturday evening…

Not too satisfied, Colonel Spinks Gunn asked me, “You are the boss: Why did you have to expose our unconfirmed fear to the Big Boss?”

And I, in my position as General Officer Commanding of the A.S.S.S, replied with a smile: “It would be more tactical and sensible if the Crown Prince gets our trusted team member busy. She is so intelligent that if any of us play the game, she would feel distrusted. We suspect the Middleville Prince, and she is being eyed with lust by the schemer. It is better to be sure than be sorry!”

“Thanks, Boss,” Colonel Adewale King responded with a happy comrade’s nod. “No emotions. When a trusted officer has bosom friends amongst the fiends, these precautions are absolutely necessary!”

That issue being rested, I enquired from the Intelligence Colonel, “Have you concluded your reports on the documents brought to us from the Battle of Moscow? We got our swanky neighbours at the scrotums!”

“O Yes, Boss.” Adewale King rejoiced at the ninja detectives’ feat… “The Ninjas were exceptional! However, it would take a little more time… since we do not want to trade away our discoveries… Let us decipher the destination of this present quagmire with Middleville, first!”

***

Friday. 5:30 am Local Time (9.30 pm, GMT or UTC.)

ReyChang International Airport, Lagos, Achaia.

29 Days Before the Proposed Traditional Marriage Between Alexa and Reynold.

A sleek, silver-coloured Mercedes Benz S-Class-XXL super-stretched Limousine pulled up on the tarmac of the ReyChang International Airport. Two Officers in suits from the Imperial Wing of the Airport brought some documents and waited as the car doors were opened. The three lovely ladies came out of the Limo., Greta collected the documents from the two officers and gave them a little box each, with a smile. She proceeded to a Private Jet, Dassault Falcon 8X.

The Dassault Falcon 8X is an ultra-long-range jet that is a typically outfitted production since 2016 and there have been approximately 56 aircraft produced at the last count. This one belongs to the Construction Giant’s boss, Sir Reinhard Merkel…

After some ladies’ tittle-tattle, the other two girls returned to the limousine and drove away from the tarmac. I am conscious that I have an appointment with my boss at 7:30 am. After a little while, the Dassault Falcon 8X taxied off the tarmac and embarked on its 3 hours flight to Bandar, Middleville…