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"... Are you sure?!" asked Sparrow who had grabbed the same book and quickly checked the most important words in it...
"... It's true... he's.... With them. He is apart of it all. HE has betrayed us all..."
It was like a dagger had been plunged into his heart...
"The Great Lion is one of them..." the words barely above a whisper as Sparrow was stil trying to come to terms with all this.
---
For now, he was safe. Members of the BFP Escort and Protection division took him to one of their safe houses in the city. He would be safe there.
---
The few remaining forensics in the cellar would find some boot-prints in the dust that lead under the piece of furniture. Obviously it wasn't there when the boot prints were made, finding a secret switch on the furniture the piece of furniture seemed to swing freely away from the wall opening up a path behind, a tunnel to another house which was how they escaped.
Meanwhile as they arrived at the ranch they would find the homestead, it looked like someone was home. |
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Looking over at Sparrow, 'Hawk' asked him what they should do now.
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The Lamonians were pleased that their witness would be protected from harm. They wanted to be able to question him further if the need arose. They didn't particularly like the man's greed, but it was minor; they were used to much bigger appetites for money.
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The Lamonians all thought that the escape route from the house was very clever, though one of them was still searching for the method with which the men had entered the cellar. They sure as hell didn't saw their way in.
The Bazalonian vehicles carried the Lamonian/Bazalonian team to the Ranch. It looked like someone was home, but it was decided to surround the property first, just in case. |
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"There is only one thing we can do..." Sparrow said, his voice different than it was before. The chatty, flitty person that he knew before was replaced with a cold determined person...
He opened up a secret passage pulling on a book that was certainly out of place... the Bible. It was in a small nook hidden among the many other books around. Every book in existance that was anti-religion nearly had a copy here.
A panel opened up in a gap, and there was a gun.. ready and loaded...
"Come with me..." Sparrow said as he got in contact with the Great Lion and told him that Hawk had a question.
---
5+ Million Baz... it was alot of money... and this man was not dumb... Just 3% interest of 5 Million resulted in 150,000 Baz per year income before Tax.
Perhaps he was content with that... or perhaps it was all part of a master plan. There was no way to tell.
---
After the property was surrounded 2 Bazalonians walked up to the front door, a live Audio feed was sent back to a base for quick action should anything should happen.
They knocked on the door, there was some muffled sound as they person inside moved. They knocked harder... "Sir or Ma'am. This is the BFP. Please Open the door."
A shot was fired through the door but it had hit the kevlar vests that they always wore for these situations.
If that wasn't an invite into the house, nothing was... The two of them with an accompanying squad of six that had silently creeped round the back burst into the house with their pistols drawn, slowly making their way through they came across a man, with a gun...
"You're just puppets... puppets of a conspiracy that will never take me!" he exclaimed before putting the gun upto his own head and firing.
Well, it seemed they'd found the right place... The question is just what to do now.
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Hawk followed Sparrow down the corridor until they got to the Great Lion's office. Hawk slapped both pieces of paper on the desk of the Great Lion, and said (in a demanding tone) "EXPLAIN THIS."
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The Lamonian Foreign Ministry had decided that the man would have to come to the nearest Lamonian diplomatic outpost to claim his reward. They had played this kind of game before, and they were quite good at it.
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The Lamonians were watching the whole spectacle on a tv screen from a command vehicle on one of the nearby properties. They would let the Bazalonians decide how they wanted to handle this. |
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The Great Lion rose up in his seat not even looking at the piece of paper... apparently knew what it said...
"Yes... I was one time a Roman Catholic priest but..."
before he could get anymore words out Sparrow raised the gun and fired getting him right between the eyes. The Great Lion fell back into the chair he was sitting in, dead.
"We all heard it ourselves... He was a traitor to the cause, whoever we need a new leader to take his place, someone who has shown fealty to our cause, and someone untainted by his leadership. I propose that Hawk become our new Great Lion leader of the Atheist League, and the man who will bring down the religious conspiracy once and for all."
Everyone agreed, "The Great Lion is dead long live the Great Lion." was started to be chanted, it seemed that Marcus had himself installed as the new leader of the group that had kidnapped him.
--
"Damnit, why do the Lamonians have to be so difficult." He thought to himself as he started making his way to collect the millions in reward money.
--
The option they took was to go in with everything they had... aware that there might be a hostage there and the more they delayed the more he was in risk. There was only one man in the house who was soon unconcious on the floor, bleeding, medics where paying attention to him but it didn't look like he'd make it.
Right now their majot concern was finding this Marcus, the missing Lamonian who was nowhere to be seen in the house and unlike the last house it didn't look like there was anything hidden underneath. |
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Markus blinked; not entirely sure of what just happened. This group had kidnapped him... and now he was their leader? He wondered if they were all on drugs or something. On top of that, they didn't even let the 'old' Great Lion finish his explanation before killing him.
He was their leader now, though; so it was time to act the part. First he commanded someone to deal with the corpse, another to clean up the room, and yet another person to go through the corpse's things... just in case.
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The Lamonians had decided to pay for the man's flights (first class all the way) on his way to get the money. They figured that he'd be able to pay his own way back with all that money, anyway. They hoped that he had a passport, though.
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The Lamonians continued to watch the progress of the search. They weren't about to leave until everything had been checked. |
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Sparrow stood beside the man once known as Marcus, now known to the followers, the very same people that kidnapped him and had shot his plane down as The Great Lion.
Two of the people, both ladies, took the body away to be disposed somehow after the body had been thouroughly searched, there was nothing of interest at all. The man that had no died and was counted less than rubbish had relied upon his words rather might, if he had a chance to speak he might very well had convinced his followers that the Lamonian deserved death.
All the happenings fitted into a logical framework, however demented and twisted it was.
---
The man didn't have a passport yet but he was already most of the way through the process and just needed the Department of Foreign and Trade to get off their butt and do something, He had his passport in hand in time for the flight to Lamoni... And he was loving the first class ticket.
---
There was nothing to find in the house, but that did not mean that there was nothing to find elsewhere, The Bazalonians went on a tour of the farm, There was a shed full of farm implements, a haystack under a roof to protect it against the weather as well as some old dilapedated pig-pens and stock-yard that looked like they hadn't seen use for a while. |
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When everyone but Sparrow and Hawk had left the room, Hawk turned to address Sparrow.
"You are officially my second in command. I am going to be here looking through everything in the desk of the traitor, in case someone needs me."
---
Once the man had reached Lamonian soil at Nephi International Airport, he was the first one off of the plane. Lamonian governmental agents expedited him past customs, and took him to the Foreign Ministry; where Foreign Minister Tanya Ley herself would give the man his money.
The walk to the Foreign Minister's office had been calculated to impress foreign dignitaries with the power of the Free Republic; right down to the massively heavy double oak doors (they were ALWAYS massively heavy double oak doors at this level of diplomacy), and the long hallway leading to them, which was filled with paintings and sculptures that were either Lamonian, or gifts to Lamoni from foreign governments.
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The Lamonians followed the Bazalonians around the farm after the property had been deemed 'safe,' but it didn't look like there was much at the location. They would have people give a more thorough look, but there wasn't anything promising about the place yet. |
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"Right..." said Sparrow as he left the office and started to weild the power that he was given, which was a tremendous amount. He seemed to gain a weird, almost evil, smirk as he left to act on his behalf.
Searching around the desk he would find some more information as to the true nature of The now extent previous Great Lion. It was a letter, hidden in the draw.
"For unspeakable crimes against the papacy the Catholic Church hearby strips Marcus Hampstead of his robe and ex-communicates him from the church forbiding the attendence of mass and damning his soul to an eternity in the lake of fire that shall never be quenched."
Aparently this man had done something Horrible that he had been stripped out of the priestly order and ex-communicated from the church. Another note was there, a hand written one, presumably by the dead man himself.
"They will pay,
for all their crimes
for it was not I who betrayed them
but it was they who betrayed me
Shifting Blame
all onto me
For I have seen enough to know
but I was too naive to understand
No longer.
now I am wise
the wisest among all, seeing through
thier pety deceits I now know."
-----
"This is going to be great!" he excalimed to himself... "5 Million!" he said as he walked on the way visualising 5 million Bazs or Ruskhana's or whatever they call their money here. He couldn't remember and didn't care. All he cared was the big money signs in his eyes.
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One of the Bazalonians there looked at the Haystack as they passed.... There was nothing particularily odd about it, it looked just like any other haystack... but something seemed to trigger in his memory.
That's when it hit him... The last line of the poem that they had found back in the house...
"While he lies in the hay"...
"Hey, Stop the car... I.. think there's a secret building or something in the haystack."
The Car stopped, and after searching they haystack they found a gap... potentially going down into where ever it was where Marcus was being held. |
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After reading the letter, Markus came to the conclusion that the Former Great Lion had done something unspeakably bad... or that someone had framed him.
'Wouldn't that be ironic,' he thought. 'The Great Lion starts his crusade against religion because he was betrayed by a cardinal or other Catholic official.'
The handwriten note bared less thinking about. It was a revenge note; as obvious as the nose on Markus' face.
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The man was lead into the office of the Foreign Minister after an opening appeared in her schedule, and she disliked what she saw in the man's eyes. It was greed; and she HATED greedy people. She knew that you had to employ such, but that didn't make her like it.
The Foreign Minister discussed pleasantries with the man, and then had a staffer give the man his money; with the man leaving the room after he was given the money.
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Now that the ground level of the Ranch had been secured, the Lamonians had driven right up to it. They were eager to rescue their man, but they were in Bazalonia, so they would let the Bazalonians finish the job. One of the Lamonians would be going with the Bazalonians, just in case Markus needed to see a face that he knew in order to trust his rescuers. |
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Alarms disturbed Marcus' concentration as he looked through the desk off the old Great Lion. It was obvious it was bad, but he had no idea what it actually meant. Though soon enough Sparrow would come in, racing... "We've been breached, can't get onto the security station at the top, we're being invaded... What do you want to do?"
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He didn't care much for the pleasantries though did go through with them, it's not something you do before someone is just about to give you bucketloads of money. It seemed to drag on ... all the time his desire to just get the money and go increased.
He began just eyeing the money... and then finally when it was time... He took the money and left... he went out of the office buildings and bought the first plane ticket he could to somewhere anywhere... he didn't care as long as it wasn't Bazalonia.
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The Bazalonian Strike-force with Lamonian observers entered an underground passage after making their way through the hay. It looked modern, insignia's of the Great Lion's logo where all the way across the hallway which lead to an elevator on the otherside. |
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After thinking for a second, the new Great Lion thought he knew just who might be attacking them.
"Unless you know of another way out of this location, then the only thing that we CAN do is to pull everyone in to defend this office, Sparrow. We will also hold our fire until I see fit. See to it."
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The Foreign Minister felt much better after the man had left her office. As long as he posed no threat to the Free Republic and it's allies, then she didn't really care WHERE he went.
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The observers were right behind the Bazalonian strike force. These diplomats weren't used to following soldiers, and it showed in the looks of disgust at the weapons brandished by the Bazalonian troops. In the way of diplomats all over the world, they thought that they could just TALK their way through anything. |
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Sparrow whispered something in his ear "There is a secret passage to escape from in this room. I know it's here but I'm not quite sure where it is. What you do is upto you but you need to show that you are indeed worthy of the position you have."
While Sparrow may not be the brightest person he certainly knew what to expect from his other followers, if The new Great Lion didn't cement his position now, that would certainly cause never-ending problems for him later on.
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The man flew out of Lamoni into some random country... never to return to Bazalonia nor Lamoni.
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The Bazalonians seemed to have come to a conclusion that this was indeed a trap, this seemed too easy and when something was too easy there was usually something designed to kill them.
They made their way slowly through the corridor aware and ready to react to pressure pads , or whatever could the trap trigger. |
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Looking at the others in the room, the new Great Lion informed them that there was a secret way out of the compound, and that the women and those who were in no shape to fight would use it to set up a new base elsewhere. The rest of them would stay and fight off the intruders; using the secret escape only if their postion looked untenable. For now, the fighters were to quickly get to, and return with; guns and ammo. The Great Lion himself helped to barricade the room for a possible firefight.
He then quietly instructed Sparrow to find the escape route, and quickly.
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The Lamonian observers wore Bazalonian Body Armor. As diplomats, they refused weapons, and they didn't think that the Bazalonians would like to see them carrying weapons; anyway. The went down the corridor, right behind the Bazalonians. |
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No one seemed to want to leave even though the reat Lion had given them the option. They didn't want to look weak infront of their leader, and so no one, no females, of which there were quite a few, nor the males. Which had just started to be armed with ammunition. It was almost like the old one, the one Sparrow had killed, was all prepared for this. Though apparently not for his own death.
So far everyone was behind the barricade... the moment was tense as they waited for the assault to come.
---
The passage way was clear the elevator was at the end... they descended down to the only level that it went to... the doors opened...
There was no one there, after turning a corner they came upon the barricade, seeing Marcus they responded... "Return your prisoner to us, and no one will get hurt."
The two leading Bazalonians had their backs up against the wall talking with them while others started scouting around.
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