Chapter 226: Truth Diviners

Monday, August 2, 1971

The entire family was having breakfast when Hanna and I arrived back at the Royal Residence on Monday morning. Sandy and Abby both kissed me and then laughingly began checking me over to see if Hanna had done any damage while Hanna’s mother, sister, and aunt, along with several of the other girls, whisked Hanna off for a detailed report on our honeymoon.

“Are you ready?” I asked Kip. I knew I wouldn’t need to tell him where I wanted to go.

“Uh, maybe you should talk with your grandmother and the queen first,” he replied somewhat vaguely.

I scanned and found both of them, along with Anna and Luisa, in another part of the Residence having tea.

“Your majesty,” I said stiffly with a slight bow as I entered the small area. I hadn’t spoken with Kalani since her rebuke last week and wasn’t sure how she would treat me. “Catherine ... Anna ... Miss Rivera,” I added, acknowledging the other ladies. Suddenly, I realized that there was a gentleman with them who I did not know.

It was Catherine who came to my rescue.

“Lord Braselton, may I present my grandson, Crown Prince Michael. Michael, Lord Braselton is here at General Carter’s suggestion. It seems that MI-6 has an interest in three of the men who kidnapped you,” Catherine explained.

“Your highness,” he said as he stood and bowed properly. You knew in an instant that Lord Braselton was accustomed to dealing with royalty.

“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” I said as I extended my hand.

However, Lord Braselton wasn’t used to American teenaged royalty. He faltered just for a split second before clasping my hand in a firm handshake. His eyes locked first on my sword before they finally traveled upwards to meet my eyes. I’ll have to hand it to him; he was pretty cool about shaking hands with a teenaged prince in jeans and tennis shoes and wearing a sword. When he realized I had caught his stare, he smiled back at me.

I, on the other hand, had spent those moments scanning the British Agent. His first worry was Tapato’s extradition process. He didn’t know what it was, or how long it would take. His second concern was whether Tapato would insist on trying them here, for kidnapping first, before releasing them to him. It was also obvious that he was very anxious to question them concerning a bombing in London last February that had killed two Household Guards and a tourist, injuring a dozen more, and barely missing Prince Charles.

I passed all this on to Catherine, Anna, and Kalani. Then, because she was due the courtesy, I shared it with Agent Rivera as well. She looked up at me in surprise, and then quickly looked to Anna who just nodded her head once.

“Now that Michael is here, we can get down to business, Lord Braselton,” Kalani said. “Tapato has no extradition requirements and we are not equipped to keep them here for long. So if Michael doesn’t object, I can see no reason why they cannot be released to MI-6’s custody immediately.”

The relief on his face was almost palpable as he looked from Kalani to me, awaiting my agreement.

“I would assume, Lord Braselton, that you would not have made this long trip just because of a few parking tickets,” I said. “So if the charges are more serious and the odds of a long incarceration are greater over there than here, you have my blessings.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty, Your Highness,” he said to Kalani and then me.

“However, before you run back to London, Lord Braselton, perhaps you might like to spend a few extra moments here and allow us to help you interrogate them,” I suggested.

Anna and Kalani looked at me in alarm, while Agent Rivera looked confused and Catherine just smiled. She knew me the best and she rightly figured I was up to something.

“Stay with me here. I really want to help this guy,” I thought to them.

Lord Braselton looked at me for a moment with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “What does His Highness have in mind?” he asked politely while trying to recall if he had ever read anything at all about a teenaged Tapatoan prince who wore an elaborate sword.

“It’s simple really,” I said as I then outlined my plan for the ‘truth diviner’ to all of them.

Later, in Tapato’s only jail, I donned an elaborately colored ceremonial robe that belonged to Kalani’s mother, along with an opera-style mask, and a large headdress from only-the-gods-know-where. Then Kalani and Anna applied some skin darkening stuff on my face and the backs of my hands. When they finished, I could pass for an elderly native. Then taking a seat on the floor in the corner of the interview room so that the prisoner could see me, the fun began.

Lord Braselton, with Anna beside him, was seated across the simple table from the first prisoner. After Lord Braselton asked him his name and he refused to answer, I started chanting. A moment later, Anna looked at me, trying not to smile, then she turned to Lord Braselton.

“His birth name is Timour, born 1941 in a village outside Kansk. When his parents died of fever and starvation during the terrible winter of 1942, he was placed in an orphanage for two years before he was adopted by Vitaly and Regina Nikolayevich. He doesn’t remember very much about his birth parents, but his adopted parents believe him to be off somewhere, serving in the Soviet Army,” Anna told Lord Braselton.

Stepan Vladimir Timour-Nikolayevich was having a difficult time believing what he was hearing. Lord Braselton raised an eyebrow at Anna before continuing with his next question. I had to work the hardest not to smile, but it wasn’t easy with both Kip and Anna cracking quips in my head. Kip was in the next room and I had tied him in because Anna felt her Russian might be too rusty for this. Of course, Nikolayevich’s thoughts were all Greek (or actually, Russian) to me, so I was no help.

“Who are you currently working for?” Lord Braselton asked. Again Stepan Vladimir Timour-Nikolayevich remained silent, but Braselton’s question had caused him to consider the answer, even if he didn’t say it. And this time, parts of his thoughts were in English. After a few moments, I began waving my arms and making sounds. I wished I had thought to bring something to make smoke. It would have really looked cool!

“He was in the Soviet Army for four years before he joined the Committee for State Security, (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti), commonly referred to as the KGB, where he stayed until 1969. For the last two years, he has been employed as a free-lance mercenary with close connections to the Turkish mafia in Anatolia,” Anna relayed to Lord Braselton.

“Bah! This is nothing but cheap parlor tricks,” Nikolayevich spat. “It is obvious you have gained access to my file somehow.”

“Okay then, ask him about how his step-mother loved the color blue. Sky blue, I believe. And how she once bought him a shaved ice at the fair in Kansk. Or how his step-father cried when he lost a goat in the flood. Or how his younger step-brother, Alexey, cut his leg on the crosscut saw and an eleven-year-old Stepan carried him almost two kilometers back to the village for aid,” Anna said to Lord Braselton.

“Enough! What have you done to me?” Nikolayevich cried. “How could you know those things?”

“You know them, so we will soon know them,” Anna told him mystically. “It is a gift of the Tapatoan people to be able to divine the truth in the eyes of a liar.”

Lord Braselton was suitably impressed, but also a little scared, hoping that the old man in the corner would not turn his attention on him. I was relieved to know that he hadn’t figured out it was me, and as far as attention on him, it was too late. The General was already enjoying Lord Braselton’s memories as well.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it back to the cavern today. When I finally had to call a halt due to mental exhaustion, Lord Braselton had a boatload of information on all three prisoners and Anna’s dad would be getting quite a bit on Lord Braselton and his three assistants as well.

I briefly considered bringing Count Volkonsky in, but I was too tired and needed more time to prepare for him. Besides, he wasn’t going anywhere and I could get to him whenever I was ready.

After the last prisoner was taken back to his cell, Lord Braselton wanted to talk to the old mystic in the corner, but Anna headed him off and allowed me to escape. By the time they had gotten back to the Services House so he could sign the prisoner transfer papers and thank Kalani for her cooperation, I was scrubbed and dressed in jeans again, waiting on him with Kalani.

“I am indebted to you, Prince Michael,” he told me. “Your suggestion worked marvelously. I’m sure it will be a bit of a smash when I tell the PM about it.”

“Uh, Lord Braselton, sir” I stammered, intentionally wanting to sound like a teenager. “You can’t do that sir. If you do, we won’t be able to back up your story and you’ll end up looking like a fool, if you get my drift.”