Chapter 14 - Push back

Kat awoke at 5pm after a restful sleep. Oh how she needed that. She checked her comm, there were a couple of messages but none urgent. So she ordered some dinner to be sent over and hit the shower while she waited. Refreshed, dressed and hot meal in front of her she decided to check her messages. There was one from Boris about Rota being visited by her uncle Octave, who was by all accounts trying to get Rota to step away from the crown so he could rule while her Father recovered. He also mentioned his reaction to Lacy’s comment about him next in line to the throne if anything happened to her. Octave also carried an ornate knife on his lower left leg, which had blood on it. There were photos of the knife too. It was swabbed and will be sent to the lab.

There was a couple of replies and thoughts on the note she had put up about the trajectory of the Kings shooter.

Then she came across a message from her superior giving her a heads up about Octave’s request for his security team to handle Princess Rota’s Protection Detail. He made a big fuss about the attempt on the king being an inside job and that she shouldn’t be guarded by palace staff because they had been compromised. His request will be decided by the Governors tomorrow afternoon.

Oh Flip, that isn’t good. She attached it to the core’s private network for everyone to see. She marked it as urgent. She would need a background done on Octave. Benny would normally be the guy for that, she wondered if he could do that in the middle of space. Might not have enough signal.

A reply came back from Jay

Fight for the position Kat, you have every right to keep it and you are more than qualified. But just in case Octave does manage to get us kicked off the detail you need to have a back-up plan, if you haven’t met Octave yet, don’t. You might need to go back in undercover as one of Princess Rota’s friends. Would the princess consider leaving for the winter palace? taking her away from the city palace might remove her from immediate danger. Octave sounds like a snake.

Beeves put up a message: The Princess won’t leave her father behind. He is still in a critical condition.

Kat: Not sure I would be cut out for a Princesses attendant, Benny can you do a background on Octave out there?

Abroad

Their flight to Planet S610, abord the space ship Bunny had so cleverly commandeered was going well. The team spent their time checking private messages on their network and chasing up leads. Although information relay was slow so far out.

They still had one big problem; they were still yet to decide on how they would attain the Princess.

They figured they had two choices, they could approach the Senior Master and tell her the complete truth. She was a truth seeker and she would compel the truth out of them anyway, but that didn’t guarantee that she would let the Princess Mia leave with them. They were after all out of their jurisdiction and couldn’t force anyone to comply, as well as on an undercover mission. If they wouldn’t let Princess Mia Leave with them, they would have to take her by force and that really wasn’t an option. The Planets residents were trained but still kids, his team were not going to engage kids.

The other option was to just snatch her. They had worked out that the records she held were for the maintenance runs, there were three different runs. She would be so easy to snatch on one of the runs but how would they know when she was to run, and which run she would be on. They might be able to hack into the planets comm lines when they were closer but they wouldn’t know until they were there. So they concentrated their efforts to trying to figure out who would try to kill the King.

Back up plan

Kat then left for the Princess apartments just before 7pm, when she got there, she was greeted by the girls in tracksuits flipping the boys over their shoulders onto a practice mat. They were doing really well and they were laughing. Boris had a bruise forming on his arm and Beeves looked a bit tired. Kat had to laugh – What a sight.

“Well you’ve been busy” Kat said aloud

Both boys had just been flipped onto the mat and were laying there.

“These girls are relentless” Beeves said breathing heavy

“Time out!” said Boris

The three girls let out a sad sigh “awww,” said Lacy “I havn’t had so much fun in a long time”

“Have you done groin kicks yet” asked Kat “I have some real advice to offer”

Both boys covered themselves very quickly “I’m sure these girls are already very good at those, no need to practice,” said Boris

All the girls laughed at that.

“Alright, so should we go through your schedule for tomorrow” Kat asked

“Yes, I need to go and speak to the Governors tomorrow morning at 9.30 about how the Planet will be ruled until we know more about Fathers condition,” said Rota

“Have you been updated about Octave trying to take over your security?”

“Yes, do you think he will succeed.” Asked Rota

“I really don’t know, If Jay was here there would be no question about it but I’m not quite as well-known as Jay. Did you want to be there when Octave puts his request in with the Governors?”

“No, I will put my own request before to keep you on as my security” said Rota confidently

“That will help but I think we need a backup plan anyway just in case.” Said Kat

“Yes!” Beeves said excitedly “You girls should give Kat a makeover and a few dresses and she can live with you” He laughed

“I would pay money to see that” Boris added

“Oh that would be sooo much fun,” said Lacy

“No offence Girls,” Said Kat “but I was never the girly type”

“Oh, we won’t let that stop us,” said princess Rota with a chuckle

“Well maybe that can be the back-up plan of the back-up plan” said Kat with a smile

“Seriously Kat, that might be the only back up plan we have.” Said Beeves “Me and Boris can’t go under cover as women, and Octave has already seen us, we can’t even pretend to be male escorts for the women” He gave them a wink and got a couple of giggles back.

“I was dreading you would say that” Kat said “Well I suppose if that is absolutely necessary” Kat shook her head, How did she ever get here.

“Well it sounds necessary, I will have the guest rooms prepared for you” Rota announced “you can be a close friend of mine that is from the Winter Castle. Octave won’t know of you. Do we get to pick your name or do you?”

“Leena” said Shimel

“Done” said Kat cutting off Boris who was most likely going to suggest an inappropriate name.

“What? Said Boris disappointed “you don’t want to hear my suggestion”

“No” that all said together and then laughed

“Ok so if we get kicked off security or Octave gets a guard added to this team I will send you a text and will arrive as Lina” Kat concluded

“Oh I really hope that happens” said Lacy excitedly

“Me too” said the boys and they started laughing again.