Chapter 1

In a rather rare display of diplomatic courtesy, Pen Ocival actually made an appointment to meet with the Prime Minister of Engle, to discuss the surrender of Engle to the Jade Empire. She had been told by the charming sounding secretary that it was a 10:55 appointment, and had been given the admonition that she shouldn’t be late since he had to meet with Parliament at 11:00. She felt that Engle’s surrender should probably take a bit more than five minutes, but she was willing to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt.

Thinking that it would be the height of rudeness to be late, she arrived nine hours early. She chose to use the area above the false ceiling in the office of the Prime Minister’s secretary as a waiting room. That way, at 10:55, she could just ‘drop in.’ The false ceiling was interesting. The only way into it was through the tiles of the false ceiling. It created a space that was six feet high in a room with a true ceiling that was sixteen feet high. She had plenty of room to hang a hammock on which to rest while waiting.

She was pretty sure that they wouldn’t have been very happy to know the kinds of things she had heard discussed in the rooms below her, particularly the derogatory things they said about ‘the bitch from the Jade Empire.’ She did notice four very large muscular men with guns entered the Prime Minister’s office at 10:30. By 10:50 they hadn’t left yet.

The secretary was busy looking through a stack of papers. Her head was down and she was concentrating on her work. Pen Ocival lifted a panel of the false ceiling and silently dropped down behind the secretary. Startling the secretary, she said, “I’m here for my 10:55 appointment with the Prime Minister.”

Recovering from her startlement, the secretary said, “Go right in. He’s expecting you.”

“Thank you,” Pen Ocival said.

“I wonder where she came from?,” the secretary muttered and went back to her work.

She entered the Prime Minister’s office startling everyone in it. She recalled them saying something earlier, about expecting a warning from security when she entered the building. It appeared that no one told them that she had arrived last night. Oh well ... too bad. It appeared that they had arranged positions for greeting her, and her surprise entry caught them a little out position. The four large men scrambled to take positions around her.

“I am Pen Ocival. I am the Ambassador for the Jade Empire representing Empress Jana. I am here under diplomatic credentials, as arranged previously with your State Department. I’ve brought the contract for surrender for you to sign, Mr. Prime Minister.”

The Prime Minister was a man of medium height with a stomach that had seen too many rich meals. He was dressed in an expensive suit that screamed, “I’m rich and important.” The implied, “and you’re not.” was conveyed by the expression on his face.

He glared at her and, in a bellicose voice, said, “Who do you think you are?”

“I know who I am. I am Pen Ocival. I’m the Ambassador for the Jade Empire representing Empress Jana. I’m here under diplomatic credentials, as arranged previously with your State Department.”

In an arrogant and a dismissive tone of voice that reeked of condescension, he said, “Engle does not recognized the Jade Empire, so you have no standing as a diplomat.”

Pen Ocival exhaled loudly and then said, “Are you sure you want to go down this road?”

“Grab her.”

Eight very large and strong hands grabbed her arms. She looked at the four men as if they were idiots. Maybe they were unaware that with how they were holding her, she could take out the knees on two of them and then put a foot in the crotches of the other two.

She said, “All of this muscle just to hold little ol’ me? Wow, I’m impressed.”

“I am placing you under arrest as a war criminal.”

“Clearly, a parliamentary system isn’t working here. I look forward to the return of the King.”

With a red face, he ordered, “Take her weapons. Strip her, and make sure that she doesn’t have any more weapons hidden on - or in - her body.”

Her weapons were taken from her by two of the men, while the others held her. Her armor was removed although it took them a minute or so to figure out how to remove all of the pieces. She was now down to her undergarments. Her undergarments were not sexy kinds of things but a functional pullover shirt and tight shorts to protect the body from chafing on the armor. They were removed in a none too gentle a fashion. She stood there looking unconcerned throughout the procedure.

The two men holding her arms forced her to bend over. One of the other men started a body cavity search. She didn’t struggle or resist in any way. She did stare directly at the Prime Minister the whole time. He found her lack of reaction unnerving. She should have been struggling, or at least protesting her treatment.

In what was almost a conversational tone of voice, she asked, “Why are you doing this?”

In an angry voice, he shouted, “Who do you think you are coming into my office and demanding me to surrender Engle to a band of outlaws? Engle is one of the most powerful countries in the world. Misera is a piss hole of a country. Engle will never surrender to Misera.”

“You keep asking who I think I am. I am Pen Ocival. I’m a Jade Warrior. Never forget that.”

The man who had performed the cavity search said, “Jade Warrior, my ass. They aren’t as tough as everyone thinks. The bitch just stood there like a lamb when I searched her. Maybe I’ll use my cock on her for her next body cavity search.”

“Are you saying that the only way you can get laid is by raping someone?”

He reached over and twisted a nipple. She didn’t flinch. She turned her head to look him in the eye.

She said, “You can do stupid things that will get a laugh. You can do stupid things that will convince people you’re stupid. Then you can do stupid things that will kill you. You just signed your death warrant.”

She made a whistling sound like a bomb falling in a movie.

“Take her away.”

When she reached the point in her whistle where she should have said boom, there was a huge explosion that shook the room. The noise startled the two men holding her. In a flash, she turned from meek naked little captive into a whirlwind of death. All of the men who were holding her were dying of crushed larynxes by time of the second explosion. The two explosions were only the first two of five.

The Prime Minister was staring open mouthed at her. He couldn’t believe how fast she had moved. She picked up her sword and held the point to the Prime Minister’s throat. Wide eyed, he stood frozen listening to the last of the explosions.

Looking at the Prime Minister, she said, “In case you’re wondering, that was the Parliament building that got hit. As I said, your parliamentary system isn’t working. It can’t work with jerks like you in power.”

He managed to get out a question, “How?”

“We knew that we couldn’t fly any planes anywhere near here. You’ve got really good air defenses. But, everyone forgot that Chen had cruise missiles on the ships we stole. We never really had a chance to use them until now. The moment you said ‘grab her,’ we judged you guilty of breaking international law, and we launched.”

“Oh my God,” he said. “We are supposed to be meeting in there.”

“Not anymore. I figure we got most of you out of the way.”

“You destroyed a historic building.”

“I do feel bad about that, but it was kind of unavoidable. If you’re going to shoot fish in a barrel, then you have to shoot the barrel.”

The sound of sirens from outside the building could be heard. There were a lot of them. It was obvious the police, fire department, and ambulances were arriving. It would be a while before they were organized down there.

“This is outrageous. You’ve destroyed a national landmark.”

“Speaking of outrageous, I want you to take your clothes off, while I put mine on,” Pen Ocival said.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It’s that old ‘I show you and then you show me.’ You decided how this was going to play out.”

“You can’t be serious.”

With a little jab of her sword she made a nice little hole that started to bleed quite nicely. It was just a scratch.

She said, “I’m very serious. If you won’t remove your clothes, I’ll use my sword to do it for you.”

She dressed while he undressed. She put on the shorts, but wasn’t able to put on the undershirt since they had cut it off of her. It was going to be very uncomfortable wearing her armor. She put on the armor, being careful to arrange herself within the top piece.

He was a bit slower in getting undressed. She decided to help him by cutting his underwear off using her sword. He didn’t enjoy that at all.

She looked at him and said, “Empty mind, full belly, big ego, medium height, and small dick. I should have known you’d play games like this. In fact, I did know. That’s why Pens never travel without a Shield.”

The Prime Minister started to say something, but a false ceiling panel shifted and Shield Wong dropped into the office. The Prime Minister looked like he was about to faint.

In a conversational tone of voice, Shield Wong said, “All you had to say was one word, and I’d have killed them all. There was no need to suffer a search.”

“I wanted to see what they would do,” Pen Ocival said. “I was somewhat disappointed in their bullying tactics. It was all rather predictable. Strip the woman so she feels vulnerable, violate her, make crude comments, and twist a nipple.”

“There are much better ways to intimidate someone,” Shield Wong said and reached over to tapped the Prime Minister on the nose.

Pen Ocival said, “Why do they have false ceilings?”

“Heating. This is an old building with high ceilings. Most of the rooms used to have fireplaces to heat them. High ceilings helps with smoke. With radiators, all of the heat goes up and the room stays cold. You put in a false ceiling to trap the heat. It works, but it’s a security hole. People can hide up in them,” Shield Wong said. He held up a small electronic device and added, “Plus it makes a great place to hide bugs.”

“Is that one of ours?”

“No. Someone else has been listening in on the discussions, here.”

The number of sirens that could be heard was dying down. It seemed like everyone who was coming to this party had already arrived.

Pen Ocival asked, “Do you think the press is here?”

“The Press?” the Prime Minister asked looking down at his naked body. The last thing his political career could use was to be paraded in public naked. It appeared that he was only now realizing the seriousness of this situation.

Shield Wong said, “Yes, but they probably haven’t been rounded up and put in a common location where they can be controlled. I’m sure that Sword Borya can convince the police to get things organized.”

“You’re right.”

There is nothing like the destruction of a primary government building to draw every emergency responder, law enforcement and intelligence agency to one spot. Each thinks that it should be in charge whether it is putting out the fire, rescuing the injured, controlling the area, investigating the crime, and looking for suspicious figures in the area. At the moment, there was a large crowd of important looking men standing around shouting at each other. The argument came to an abrupt end with the sound of a pistol being fired in their presence. All eyes turned towards the source.

“I hate to tell you this, but I’m in the one charge, here,” said Sword Borya.

“Where did you come from?”

Pointing to a fireman’s coat on the ground behind him, he answered, “Nobody checks the firemen.”

Several of the men glanced up at the sky at the military helicopters that were circling overhead. They were part of a security detachment that was supposed to provide air support in the event of a terrorist attack. This was clearly a terrorist attack. The men smiled knowing that the men aboard them would start killing any Jade Warriors in the area including the one standing in front of them.

Pointing up in the air, Sword Borya said, “We know all about those attack helicopters up there. They’re supposed to keep bad people away from the area in the event of an emergency. I’m afraid to say that the army folks who are supposed to be flying them, are ‘all tied up,’ at the moment.”

“Shit!”

“Now that we’ve established that I’m really in charge, here, let’s get down to business.

“Mr. Fireman, get your men over there and start putting out the fire. You might be able to save some of the building. Mr. Policeman, get your men to round up the reporters and put them over by the parliament office building. Mr. Detective and Mr. Intelligence Guy, you can now tell everyone that you know who blew up the building. If you need a hint, it was us. Did I miss anyone?”

Looking a little sheepish, a guy said, “EMS.”

“Start treating the injured and burying the dead.”

Everyone stood there staring at him.

He said, “Don’t just stand there staring at me. Get on your radios and start giving orders. The sooner we get done here, the sooner I can go home.”

“Why did you do this?”

“We’re at war, or did you forget that?”

There were the sounds of small explosions in the distance. Everyone started getting excited again.

Waving a hand dismissively, Sword Borya said, “Don’t worry about those explosions. We are just disabling some of the missile systems guarding the airspace around the capital.”

“How did you find them?”

“Your security really sucks. Ah ... I see that the reporters have all been rounded up. Why don’t we all go over there in a group?”

There was a lot of grumbling. Men tried to position themselves to take out the Jade Warrior, but he seemed to know exactly what they were trying to do. There was some bumping and jostling. One of the law enforcement men reached for his back up pistol only to find that someone had lifted it. He looked around only to find it on the ground where they had been standing along with three others. He looked at Sword Borya who winked at him.

“I’m rated a master level in pickpocketing. It’s a useful skill for disarming someone without them knowing it,” he said with a smile.

“You all seem to be a step ahead, but things change. Don’t get too cocky. You’re alone out here, and there are hundreds of us.”

The sight of a Jade Warrior at the scene of a disaster like this had the same effect on the press as massive quantities of amphetamines. They went wild trying to out shout each other in asking questions.

“Ah ... Here comes Pen Ocival and the Prime Minister. I wonder what they have to say,” Sword Borya said with a nasty little smile.

The men from the various intelligence agencies turned and blanched. One of them couldn’t resist stating the obvious. “Oh my, God. He’s naked.”

The sight of the Prime Minister, naked, being pushed along by a female Jade Warrior shut down the questions from the press like magic. There were a few guffaws from the men and a couple of titters from the women, but the most common reaction was stunned silence.

Pen Ocival pushed the Prime Minister down on his knees. Shield Wong took a position behind him. Looking at Pen Ocival, he said, “Give your testimony.”

Standing off to the side, she said, “My name is Pen Ocival. I am the Ambassador from the Jade Empire representing Empress Jana. I came here on diplomatic credentials, to request the surrender of Engle to the Jade Empire.

“The Prime Minister violated international law concerning diplomatic immunity. Despite my credentials, which had been established with the Engle State Department, he told me that I was under arrest. He had four men grab me, strip me, and perform a body cavity search. He told the men to take me away while I was still naked.”

Looking down at the Prime Minister, he said, “Do you deny those charges?”