Gertag returns to the Empire
Chapter 81.
House Qinvaris
Rosa grinned as Gertag came into the room with Rosanhi. “Welcome back, you two. So, how did the campaign go?”
“I think I will wait until everyone arrives to tell the story,” Gertag said.
“What do you know about some stories about your father and grandfather that appeared in the Chatsrey Times recently,” Richard said.
“What stories? I don’t read that rag in the Republic and I am certainly not going out of my way to read it here.”
“Cory sent them through, since they involved your father and grandfather. Your grandfather was involved in the death of another boy when he was twelve and your father may have put a Harag Stonebreaker in the river.”
“You can ask dad about that when he gets here. As for the story about grandfather, I don’t have a thing, as we never heard about it.”
“Why do you think that the old dirt is being dragged out now.”
“Lord Qinvaris, some people are sore losers, were thwarted and are facing things like sentences and jail time, if not the rope. Grandfather won the election and they are scared. We had to deal with all sorts of nasty things during the campaign, things that I will tell you all about when everyone gets here, along with the things we did to mess some people up without it looking as if we did very much.”
“That’s enough, Richard,” Rosa said. “Gertag, you and Rosanhi get settled. You are right and we can wait until everyone is here. There’s Derry and Roshia with Harald and the rest.”
After everyone had arrived and were collected for drinks, Gertag looked around and said, “You all are probably waiting for my stories about the election.”
“Yes we are,” Ralnor said.
“Ok, as you know, dad sent me down to assist in the campaign. I bought a truck, actually two trucks and used them as cover as I sent some messages and dealt with some idiots torching trucks. My brother recruited his friends with strange flying machines and that ended some people torching the independent’s trucks. Senator Steelslasher’s solicitor tried to frame me, again, and that earned me some nice extra coin as the result of selling a moon’s worth of Brilliant. That paid for both of the trucks I bought. After that, they pulled out the Stewards and some heavies, fomented some riots and generally made a mess. I think that they were expecting the Committee to retaliate against the Shieldbashers after the first riot and the Committee didn’t do anything, which put the blame for the riots on the Stewards and the Democracy Party dirty tricks people. Election day arrived after that and so did Derry’s little surprise.”
“How many states flipped in the end?” Harald asked.
“Five, by narrow margins. We got all the swing states too. Derry’s little thing helped, but the Service debacle and the Service Agency making the President look bad were the big game changers. It gave Liberty a big issue and got us votes in places like Redtree where Liberty had never been able to change things very much. That was why a small win turned into a big one.”
“Gertald, you should see this.” Richard handed Gertald some paper. “Cory sent this to us this morning.”
Gertald looked at it and said, “Inky is digging deep. Not so deep as far as Harag was concerned, though since there is no official report on his death, every thing here is hearsay and accusing me of murdering Stonebreaker is slander. Since I am not a public figure, that is actionable.”
Richard and the others laughed. Gertald added, “They have a couple problems right now. First of all, my wife is still in the Republic and second, my brother has been looking at purchasing the Times for some time and has never had the ability to make a deal work and make it pay. Things have changed, my wife has coin and the Times will probably suffer some subscribers after the election and the people that have deserted the Democracy Party after the things the idiots did. Let me tell you what I found on the road.”
House Carayarus
Sontar came into where Tiriana was entertaining Aerilaya and some others and said, “I have good news and bad news, dear. Unfortunately they are the same news. Renynn won the election for Congress.”
Tiriana thought about it and said, “I see what you mean. We’re going to have to move Pyria’s wedding up.”
Sontar laughed. “All the likely problems and that is what you come up with?”
“It is a fairly important one. We can’t do it after the turn of the year because Renynn will be seated through Green and that just leaves the rest of Guesting and Snowfall, so we have to hurry. Never you mind. We can use the House and make it work. You go along now. We ladies can handle this.”
“There are also other things going on. There was a riot in front of the grinding plant. The girls were assaulted, but none of them were injured, fortunately. Pete and Renynn haven’t sent any details, so I don’t know how bad things are. That’s for another day. I will let you ladies get to work.”
The Arts Mechanical 