Chapter 24: To be a King

Jamie composed himself for a few moments after sending his latest message to the US President, and then he activated the icon that took him into the video link with the site the British Ambassador had set up. The Ambassador wasn't in the room on the other end of the camera, but there was a man in a suit and he confirmed that the Ambassador had left strict instructions that he was to be summoned if Jamie made contact.

He had to wait for only a few minutes before the business-like Ambassador bustled into the room and took a seat behind a stout wooden desk.

"Jamie, good. You promised me an answer today and I hoped you would keep to your word, time really is of the essence," opened Sir David.

"Yes Mr Ambassador, sorry. Yes, David. I promised you an answer. I admit it hasn't been an easy decision to make and probably my friend Stuart has convinced me more than anything else has. If doing this helps free those still being held by the terrorists sooner, if it helps you to get the fully trained adult expats released so they can come to our aid, then so be it. I'll do it," Jamie said.

"Excellent Jamie, excellent. I know it must seem daunting, but what you're about to do is the biggest service perhaps a man could do for his country and his fellow citizens. I can see that you aren't underestimating the sacrifices that you will have to make otherwise you would have made your decision sooner. Once again you've demonstrated remarkable maturity. I do believe Scotland is about to find herself with a monarch she can be proud of. Now, some practicalities," Sir David continued. "It is essential you make some kind of formal record of whatever process you use to achieve the selection. You need to have something that will stand up to scrutiny, something that nobody can refute. I suggest you act on this quickly now, your Majesty."

Jamie could see a little smile play on Sir David's lips as he threw in the honorific at the end of his statement. The title jolted Jamie and he began to feel a sense of unreality creeping over him. He mentally shook himself. If he was going to do this he would need to make a better job of it than that, letting one word shake him so much was not an option.

"Thanks you, Sir David, but I think you'll find that in Scotland we prefer 'your Grace' rather than Majesty," he responded.

Jamie was pleased to see that his reply had wiped the smirk from the diplomat's face and that the man actually gulped. Perhaps he was going to do all right at this monarch business after all.

"Indeed, my apologies your Grace. I hope all goes well tomorrow for you. Please let me know when I can present myself to the US State Department as being gainfully employed once more," said the Ambassador.

"Of course Sir David. Now, I have some preparations to set in train, I hope you will forgive me," said Jamie.

The diplomat nodded and Jamie broke the connection on the computer. He heard Laura entering the room and took a break so he could stand and give her a hug.

"I'm afraid I've got some things I need to work on, probably for another couple of hours," he told her.

"What things?" she asked sleepily.

"I've agreed to do this, to become the King and there are things I need to do to prepare for that. If everything goes well, this time tomorrow night you'll get to sleep with the King of Scots," he ended with a laugh.

Laura seemed to find this funny too and she chuckled along with him.

"You carry on and do what you need to do, I'm tired and ready for bed," she said, giving him a kiss and heading for the bathroom.

Jamie resumed his seat in front of the computer and began to type away at a furious pace. He wasn't even aware when his sister returned to the room and crawled into the big four-poster bed. When Laura woke up several hours later she could see through her tired eyes that Jamie was still working away on something. She smiled to herself and felt her eyes closing once more.

6:52 27 August

Jamie had always appeared confident, organised, and intelligent. The next morning his sister and the others could see that there was something else about him now too. It was as if something had transformed him overnight and now there was a quiet air of authority, of control. It was almost tangible and she and the others were a little taken aback and even found themselves getting nervous in Jamie's company. Jamie noticed something was wrong and called them on it over breakfast.

"Okay all of you, what gives? You've been walking round me this morning like I might bite you. What's going on?" he asked.

Stuart, Debbie and Christine looked at Laura, obviously hoping that she would speak up as they felt unable to. She lowered her eyes, looking into her own lap and spoke quietly.

"There's something different about you this morning, something I've never seen or felt from you before. It's kind of scary," she managed to get out.

"Rubbish!" said Jamie. "I'm exactly the same person I was when you went to bed last night."

"Uh, Jamie, no you're not. Laura's right, there is something about you. You almost seem to be radiating power or something, you know, you just seem to have a feel of... I don't know... authority, yes, that's it, authority," said Stuart

Jamie looked at each of them as if they had two heads, this was just stupid. He admitted to himself he did feel good this morning. All the writing he had done last night had somehow helped settle his doubts and he felt ready for what they were going to do today. Could that have resulted in him appearing different? Could the realisation that he was about to become King have changed him already? He vowed to take this as a lesson and make sure any changes were for the better.

"Look guys, perhaps you're just reacting to what we're planning to do today. Perhaps the change you feel is actually inside yourselves, not me. Perhaps the realisation that we're going to try and make me the King of Scots and what that means has finally hit home to you," he said. "I promise you all that I'm not going to change, far from it. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I stay exactly the same Jamie MacLaren," he told them.

He could see them looking between each other and it was almost as if a light went on inside each of their heads. Jamie was spot on. They realised that each of them had been beginning to act around him as if he was already the King. Jamie could see there was relief at this realisation and his sister actually got up to hug him.

"You're so smart big brother. I'm glad you spotted that before it became a problem between us. I certainly don't want you to change and it would be awful if I couldn't act normally around you," she said.

The other three agreed with her and the mood round the breakfast table was immediately more relaxed and more like it normally was.

Once they had finished eating and the dishes had been loaded into the dishwasher; Jamie handed each of them a printed sheet of paper.

"Here's my plan for the day and the preparations each of you will need to help me with. You'll see we've got a busy day ahead of us so I suggest we get on with it," he said.

Within the hour all five of them were ready to head for Fort William, the first port of call on Jamie's itinerary. The journey in the helicopter was without incident and they were soon landing in the car park at Fort William. Once the Lynx's systems had been closed down theyjumped down from the helicopter and walked towards the little group of survivors that had gathered to watch their arrival.

One of the group filled Jamie and Stuart in on another incident that had happened along the A82. Yet another party of terrorists had tried to reach Fort William, but one of the defensive posts that had been set up had taken out the lead vehicle with a Javelin anti-tank weapon. The defenders had poured a stream of fire down onto the other vehicles and they had beaten a hasty retreat.

"It's almost as if they know we're here," said one of the group.

"I think you'll find that the A82 is the only road they can use if they want to get out of the central belt on this side of the country," said Jamie. "It doesn't follow that they know any survivors have set up in Fort William, but that won't last for long if they keep finding themselves attacked in this area."

Stuart and Jamie headed off to set up the next part of Jamie's plan and the three girls went off to happily fulfil the objectives that Jamie had set them. The boys commandeered a car and scouted out a suitable location and then Stuart left Jamie and went in search of Ronnie Brinks, the techno-wizard.

Jamie entered the large auditorium of the Fort William theatre and up onto the stage. He had thought about Sir David's words about making sure he had a formal record of what they did and he had decided to make a show of it all. He planned to broadcast the events of today live on the 'Surviving in Scotland' web site so the whole world could see if they wanted to.

He had his laptop with him, but he needed techo help to set up the necessary interfaces that would guarantee good quality coverage of all the proceedings. For the moment he pulled up his web design software and redid the 'Surviving in Scotland' home page so that it was basically a full screen where the video footage would play with a box of scrolling text underneath. He typed in the text that would continuously play in a loop at the right time.

You are watching the survivors of Scotland selecting a monarch. The survivors have decided they want some form of government restored and this is the only legal way of achieving that. This is not play acting, but very real in a legal sense. The person chosen will be the legal King or Queen of Scots.

He next composed a message to appear immediately on the larger black box where the video would eventually appear.

Live at 11:00 am GMT - Action from Scotland

He uploaded the new homepage and opened up an Internet browser to see what it looked like to anybody who visited. He was pleased with how it looked. He had left the two e-mail links at the very top of the screen so that people could still send messages, but the area where the video would play looked large enough to make a good visual impact.

By the time he had finished his work, Stuart had returned with Ronnie and he began to work quietly but intensely to set up a broadcast quality camera and all the necessary leads and wires that would link the output onto the web site. Jamie was amazed when everything was done in only half an hour and he was able to test it out and see that it all worked. He had allowed two hours for this part and now found himself with time to spare.

"Stuart, could you start getting word around Fort William that we need all the survivors here at 11:00am please? We'll need to make arrangements for those on guard duty to be relieved so they can come and vote too. I'm going to take Ronnie and another camera rig and set up the technical stuff at Dreghorn. I'll be back by around 10:00 if all goes well," Jamie said.

He could see that Stuart was still wearing a goofy grin and was really getting into what they were doing. It was as if he was getting a rush from the whole proceedings.

A short hop in the helicopter brought Jamie and Ronnie to the Dreghorn Barracks. It was a fine morning with the late August sun shining down on Edinburgh as he flared the Lynx on the parade ground and helped Ronnie carry the kit they needed to set up. Several of the teenaged leaders in the camp came up to welcome them and Jamie let them know he was planning a special event.

"I've got a number of ballot boxes in the helicopter, could somebody grab them and bring them along to the main camp theatre please?" he asked.

Willing hands grabbed the ballot boxes, boxes that Jamie had unearthed in the local government offices in Fort William.

Once again Ronnie performed his magic quickly and Jamie was able to test and confirm that the camera would be able to broadcast good quality footage to the web site when it was required. There was nothing left for him to do here. He had confirmed that there would be no hints from the video footage that would give the location away. He had confirmed the proceedings would be recorded and simultaneously broadcast to the world at large. Just before leaving to return to Fort William he asked the barracks leaders to make sure all of the survivors were assembled in the theatre for 14:00pm. They looked at each other; curious as to what Jamie was up to, but agreed they would make it happen. Jamie thanked them and said he would see them all later when things would become clearer.

It was just after 10:00am when he arrived back in Fort William, glancing anxiously at his fuel levels as he brought the Lynx in to land. He saw that he would need to refuel before returning to Edinburgh in the afternoon, but calculated there would be plenty of time for that.

Now that all of the preparations had been made, Jamie had nothing to distract him and he felt nerves clutching at his insides. His stomach was fluttering constantly and he felt as if he needed to visit the toilet every five minutes or so. He took to pacing up and down on the stage of the theatre, glancing up into the auditorium as people began to enter and take seats. He saw Laura motioning to him from off stage and walked over to her.

"You need to calm down a little," she said.

Jamie almost pulled away as his sister unzipped his pants and pulled his soft member into view. Her sensuous lips wrapped themselves around his staff and she began to lick and suck on him. It didn't take much of that to get him hard and soon his sister was bobbing up and down delightfully on his sensitive organ. He closed his eyes and threw his head back at the sensations she was creating, steadying himself by placing his hands on her shoulders.