Revenge of the Heir

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Eric and Holly got in the car with his security team, and had given the address of the estate to them so the other team could secure the premises before they arrived.

"Where are we headed?" Holly asked as they merged into traffic with the privacy screen raised.

"It is one of the Estates my parents owned and passed to me. Melissa assures me that anything related to their wedding that was kept will be here." Eric replied not paying much attention to the scenery as he tried not to go through the memories again. He found it painful to be reminded of them, which was why he had not pushed for information on these properties.

Holly could tell he was lost in thought when he replied, and she snuggled up to him as they took the scenic route to the address. "What is going through that wonderful mind of yours?" she asked concerned.

"Just remembering the last time I was here." he said as he turned to look at her. "It was 3 days before I lost them, and the Commandant took me with him to West Point." he told her as he knew there would be many painful memories for him to go through over the next few days.

"If you need to talk, I am here for you." she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"It will be okay dear, it's just a painful reminder of what I lost that I was trying to avoid. If you find what you are looking for though, it will be very worth it. Plus it will probably be good for me to go through all of it. Knowing my father he had plans for what happened." Eric said as he looked at her.

"You think he really knew?" she asked him.

"It was not a coincidence I was at West Point, under a concealed identity authorized by Congress. My parents knew something was likely to happen, and if you look at the property documents, they are held in my mother's maiden name." Eric told her as they turned into a neighborhood he recognized. He knew that this property was large for Washington, as it sat on 2 acres.

Holly was a little surprised at that knowledge, as she had not really ever asked about his parents. "Christensen is your mother's maiden name?" she asked him.

"Yes it is, and yes, Senator Christensen is my grandfather." he said as they pulled into a nearby park. The privacy screen was lowered, and Hunter was looking at him.

"Do you know a Duke Steven?" Hunter asked him.

"That was my father's official title while he was still alive. Is the estate security detail still in place?" Eric asked him as Hunter nodded. "Tell them to coordinate the security with the team on site." Eric said with a smile.

"Yes sir, next time we will need to coordinate this better." Hunter said as he raised the privacy screen and they started driving again.

"You didn't actually know the address, did you?" she asked him with a smile.

"Still don't." Eric admitted as both of them laughed at that as they drove for several more minutes before they pulled into the estate.

Holly looked at it and was completely surprised that it was a large estate. It was a 9 bedroom, 5 bath house that was built for a political figure that would host large parties. "Wow." she said as they were quickly permitted through and Hunter opened the door for him as another man approached from the security shack.

"Who are you exactly?" an older man demanded as he huffed up to Eric.

Eric looked at him curiously, as he shook his head. "You did not age well Lucas Porter, we will have to rectify that." he said with a smile as the Security Head looked at him nervously.

"I do not recall..." Lucas trailed off as he looked at Eric carefully and the lights came on. "Good Lord, Eric Heinrich has finally returned home." he finished with a smile as he snapped to a salute. "You will find all of the properties are secure and awaiting your inspection." he finished with pride before he relaxed.

"I am sure they are, for now however we would like to relax for the evening." Eric said as Holly started walking through the grounds and looking at the house from the exterior.

"If you would like I can arrange a tour of the property for the Lady, while you do one thing I promised I would make you do as soon as you came here." Lucas said as Hunter looked at him with a curious glance.

"Relax Hunter, Lucas here may not look like much, but I assure you looks can be deceiving where he is concerned. You do not become the head of a Duke's Security without skills that cannot always be seen." Eric said making Lucas smile.

"I am pleased that you remember that young sir." Lucas said making Eric smile at the usage of his old nickname. "Lady Holly, if you would like I can assign David here to give you and your security team a tour of the property while Duke Eric and I attend to a serious matter." he offered as Holly approached.

"It seems you are trying to get rid of me for some time. I would love it as well, do what you need to Eric. Take Hunter with you though." she said as she took the rest of the team with her.

Eric smiled as she walked surrounded by security personnel, before he looked at Lucas. "You two might as well get your pissing match over as quickly as possible, for the moment however I assume it is going to be his study where we need to go?" Eric asked him.

"It is indeed, so long as your whipper snapper remembers that each of us has our own realm of responsibility, there will be no issue whatsoever." Lucas said with a smile as they walked to the house.

As soon as Eric walked in he knew it was still exactly the way it was the day he left. Kept that way by the staff that his parents had planned for separately from his future. He walked through the kitchen and into his father's study, and flashed through dozens of memories of what his father had taught him about what would be expected of him.

Everyone believed that his father had not taught him much of anything, but that was in fact completely wrong. His mother and father had home schooled him until he was 6, and he had perfect recall from the age of 18 months onward. He remembered every lesson that they had given him, and a lot of those lessons were about what his father had done, and what he needed to do to follow in his footsteps.

Lucas walked over to a picture of his mother, and moved it to reveal the wall safe behind it. It took him only a few seconds to open it, and pull out a laptop and data drive. He walked them over to the desk, and set them both in front of Eric as he looked at them. "I have no idea what it is he left for you, but he wanted you to watch the video on that drive, alone." he said as Eric opened the laptop and powered it on.

"Keep a watch, I will let you know when I am done." Eric said as he keyed in his father's password to the laptop so it would boot first. As soon as the door was closed behind Hunter, Eric slid the thumb drive into the data port and let it boot open.

The first file was a video, and he knew by the date it was recorded the day after he had left for West Point. He pushed play, and saw his father sitting in this very chair.

"My son, by the time you watch this video, your mother and I will have been dead for many years. Unfortunately it is something you will have to endure, as it is a clear threat to you as well as me. I can only hope the protection your mother's name can give you, will keep you safe long enough to learn what you must to counter threats I could not even with my father's help. You will find enough evidence against many of the powerful families of the Empire are involved, and right now we cannot make enough moves against them to make a difference.

"I have collected all of it that I could find, and the contents of this safe will be used for that purpose. Hopefully you have heeded the lessons while you have been at school, and are in a much better position than I was when this occurred. Once you reveal you have survived all these years, the threats will begin to reveal themselves quickly. Your mother and I hope you have prepared yourself well, as you will need every advantage you can get to do what is necessary to save our family. Even the family does not understand what is coming for them, and hopefully you can unite them behind you quickly. If not, it will only spell their doom as they are ripped apart from outside forces." Steven Heinrich said before the video file ended.

He began looking through the files contained in the flash drive, and was surprised to see that his protection had relied on the authority of only 2 people in the entire government. It however showed that there were atleast a dozen Senators, and dozens more Representatives in the government that were indeed attempting to overthrow the Heinrich Family. It had been his ultimate control of the majority of the investments that had saved them.

Most everyone believed he had been investing just his own money, the family trust however had taken the rest of his strategy, and invested in it as well. As a result it had appeared that the Heinrich Family was in it's death throws as the families began piling debt and selling control of their companies.

He smiled as he had known it wasn't just Kevin that had been involved, and he had essentially waged war against all of Congress while he had been in West Point. Some of his other targets weren't as vulnerable as his family was, but he had managed to gather enough power over some of them to force their support or he could destroy their power base. The evidence would provide the fire he needed for those that he would now need to begin waging war against.

He knew the next few days would tell the tale, as he began his review of the Military assets that were supposedly under his families control. He was surprised to find even evidence that some of his Military Commanders were under the influence of those who wanted to destroy him. He however had an advantage his father and grandfather didn't. He could clear house and force many of them into retirement from his service as they had been with the family for 25 years. His military forces were about to go through a drastic reorganization, and through it all not one of the other families would dare to assume that what was happening was anything other than strength. He had already spent many years recruiting friends in the services, as until his final year he had always been assigned as a freshman. He had given each of the classes the skills and resources needed to be some of the best each year. He had already looked up many of them who had been in the service for years, and they would support him as he had helped many if them get posts inside his family branch of the military. He had been utilizing the Heinrich Family for years.

Holly came in, Lucas arguing with her about his need to review those files alone until they were officially married.

"Ms. Dawson, I cannot permit you to disturb-" Lucas was saying as the door opened.

"Enter Lucas, and bring Lady Holly with you." Eric said as he looked over his General positions and saw his shortest serving officer at that rank was 22 years. He smiled as he recognized names from his classes 13 and 14 years ago, and began highlighting them and their ranks as well as positions.

"Sir, these matters are extremely important matters that your father insisted needed your immediate attention." Lucas said as both of them walked in.

"Lucas, I have already been handling these matters. Most of this information isn't actually new to me, and most of the families will find that they are far weaker today than they were in the time of my father. Holly, are you ready to have a lot of fun with me when we join the Lord's Council?" he asked as he turned to her.

Holly smiled as Lucas looked at her, and realized they had been planning this for some time. "What do you need me to do?" she asked him as he smiled devilishly.

"You aced the Naval Tactics didn't you?" he asked her and she nodded. "Good, we have 4 fleets that totals 38 ships and 7 subs. You want to take overall command of them?" he asked her.

"How much of the Command Staff do I have to keep?" she asked him.

"None. All of the Generals, Admirals and most of my Captains are about to be either retired or reassigned with a no confidence notation." Eric told her as he was almost literally clearing house in the Command Positions of his forces.

"Can you do it?" she asked him as he smiled.

"The last 3 reports from Congress make remarks that it is their belief that the Command of the Heinrich Forces have not met minimum military standards. That alone is enough for me to petition the Senate, and force a vote on any of them that wish to put up a fight. A few of them will find me more than willing to bring them up on charges if they wish to fight my retirement orders. They will find their allies in the top houses no longer have any influence with the official Lord. In fact, the motions for most of them are just waiting for Congress to Confirm me as the Official Lord." Eric told her as Lucas' eyes went wide.

"Many of them have backing of the other Lord's as well." Lucas said as Eric smiled even more devilishly.

"Lucas, you remember how much my father taught me about the family before I left?" he asked as Lucas had been forced to learn it all as well.

"Yes sir, I do. The bigger question is how much of it you remember?" Lucas asked him.

"All of it, in fact I have improved upon his methods clean across the board. Everyone expects that their war with me starts as soon as I reveal I survived. They however don't realize their war with me started 15 years ago, and that I have had the full use of my mother's dowry and inheritance from her parents to wage that war since I went to West Point." Eric said to him. "I just couldn't ever fully prove what I learned they had done, with what my father left here for me, this has changed from a war to nothing more than a slaughter of those who dare to actually oppose me. The question will be how badly they wish me to show Congress just how weak they have become."

Lucas was stunned, as Steven had always told him that when Eric ascended to Lord, he would have to battle with everything he had to keep his rightful position. "You're the one responsible for what has been happening?" Lucas asked.

"Depends on what you mean? The fact that a lot of corporations have been forming seemingly unattached to families for 10 years? The Lord's have been selling more and more shares of their Companies, and those shares seem to be sucked into a black hole as soon as they are purchased? The Families of the Lord's, and Congress seem to have been getting more and more into debt?" Eric asked rhetorically showing he had learned well how to take on his enemies in the corporate world.

"There have been a total of 129 Corporations made in the last 15 years. I know 40 of them are attached one way or another to the Lord's. 30 of them belong to Families of Congress, which would leave what 60 that could possibly be yours?" Lucas asked.

Eric shrugged his shoulders, as he knew it was between 50 and 60 he had created in the last 10 years. Some of them were currently little more than holding companies that held shares of other companies on their books. "Something like that, I can't remember the exact number. I do however know that once they realize just how screwed they are, they will never forget that they began this War and essentially lost to a child."

Lucas nodded as he looked at Holly. "West Point too?" he asked her.

"Top of the Class, specialized in Naval Warfare." she said with a smile as Lucas shook his head.

"Lucas, we will need your help. Don't assume we aren't aware of what has been happening, as I am counting on absolutely everyone doing that very thing." Eric said as he closed the laptop.