Chapter 31: Judgements

10:17, 1 September

Jamie awoke with a splitting headache and what felt like low-grade pains all over his body.

"Well you will go crashing helicopters and bouncing off of walls," he thought to himself with some humour.

He glanced at the bedside clock and was surprised to see that it was so late. He had never been one for sleeping late and he guessed the strains of the past few days must have caught up with him.

When he had landed at the Dreghorn barracks the day before, Laura, Debbie and Christine had insisted they return to Skibo so that Jamie could have some much needed rest and recuperation. He had resisted long enough to videoconference with Sir David, Sir John and Anthony Carry. After suffering the embarrassment of the reaction from the three experienced diplomats when they realised he was alive and well, he had listened to the news that the UN had accepted his position as King of Scots. He also heard about Sir David's experience appearing in front of the US Supreme Court. After that it was a quick flight back to Skibo Castle.

He vaguely remembered the girls hustling him upstairs to the honeymoon suite. Had he dreamt it or did they really strip off his clothes and sponge his body down with warm cloths? Yes, they had done that before tucking him up in the big four poster bed. He was sure of it. If they had joined him later he hadn't noticed and there was no sign of them now.

Pulling himself out of bed, he made for the shower in the hope that it would once again spark some life into him and ease some of the pain. His head seemed to pound worse when he stood up and he promised himself he would search for some Tylenol before he had breakfast.

Once showered and dressed, he made his way downstairs and found the girls pottering about in the hotel's kitchens. When they saw him, they immediately began fussing.

"Are you sure you maybe shouldn't just stay in bed for today Jamie?" Laura asked.

"Why don't you let us bring you breakfast in bed?" added Debbie.

"Is there anything in particular we can get for you?" asked Christine.

"Quit fussing!" snapped Jamie, his head ready to explode.

"Oh, somebody's gotten out of bed on the wrong side this morning," quipped Laura.

"I've got a really bad headache and what I really need is something to fix that," Jamie replied.

It never ceased to amaze him how women seemed to be prepared for most of life's day to day little emergencies. All three of the girls grabbed their bags and rummaged through them to find some Tylenol. He knew better than to ask what else they kept in those bags, instead thanking them and washing two headache pills down with some bottled water.

"I don't really feel up to eating anything just now," he told them, "I think I'll just go and lie down again for a little while."

The girls all looked a little worried and began fussing again like mother hens. Even if he hadn't been suffering with the headache, Jamie thought he would have made up an excuse to get away from them when they acting like this.

Half an hour lying on the bed in the honeymoon suite was long enough for the pills to take effect and he felt significantly better. In an effort to avoid the girls a little longer, he decided to check his e-mail as he hadn't looked at it all of the previous day.

Jamie turned on his laptop and watched it go through its start-up routine before opening an Internet connection and logging on to his e-mail account.

The first thing he noticed in his in-box was the e-mail from Kalif that he hadn't responded to. It reminded him that he needed to discuss how to deal with that with some of the others. His experiences of the past few weeks had really raised his levels of suspicion and he wanted to make sure the message wasn't bait for another trap.

Further down was a message from BilKazinski@mail.com Jamie clicked on the message and was surprised to see that it had been sent by the man who must have fired the guns that had brought the Lynx down.

Jamie was deeply moved. He could almost feel the man's grief, see the tears that he had cried. They were the words of a man privately expressing his regret in a way that he didn't expect anyone to ever see or read and Jamie set about replying right away.

He couldn't explain to himself why he had used the royal signature - James R, as in James Rex - but it just seemed right all of a sudden. Jamie also thought there might be something else he could do for Gunny and he clicked on 'compose' to write another e-mail.

10:43, 1 September

The Justices of the US Supreme Court had heard oral arguments from the Attorney-General's office and from Sir David Manning and his legal team the day before. The afternoon, evening and well into the wee hours of the morning they had then studied the additional research materials their staffers had put together and considered their judgement. Now they were gathering together for another conference to share their various findings and views.

The Chief Justice turned to Associate Justice Stevens.

"John, perhaps you can kick off proceedings this morning by reviewing for us what your appointment as Special Master has found in relation to the facts before us?" he asked.

"Okay. As you know, I appointed Valerie MacKinsey, from Pearce Forest as the Special Master. I believe you all know her, a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and she's worked with us in the past in this role. Valerie has looked at things on the basis of the three main elements of the petition we are considering, namely whether James MacLaren is the lawful King of Scots, what status such a king would have in terms of government and lastly the issue about freedom to travel. She's considered only matters of fact that I believe bear relevance to our considerations. Here's what she's found.

He handed out a brief to each of them and them began to take them through it.

"On the matter of whether James MacLaren is King of Scots

I find as fact:
According to the online records of the General Registers Office of Scotland James MacLaren is a resident in Scotland, born on 12th February 1992 in Glasgow to James and Avril MacLaren.
The last recognised reigning monarch of Scotland is dead.
All of the adults domiciled in the UK have died due to the bird flu virus.
There is no remaining democratically elected government in the UK.
There are precedents in Scottish history to support the premise that a new King can be selected from outwith the previous royal bloodlines.
A vote was held in Scotland on 27th August to select a new King of Scots.
The electorate was not coerced into voting.
James MacLaren won the vote fair and square.
A ceremony was held to crown James MacLaren as the King of Scots.
The United Nations has accepted the legality of James MacLaren's appointment and recognises him as the King of Scots.
The United States of America's Ambassador to the United Nations abstained on the vote to recognise James MacLaren's appointment.

I do not find as fact:
There is no evidence to show that all of the relatives however remote, of the previous royal family are dead.
There is no evidence to prove that the vote held on 27th August allowed all of those eligible to take part.

"With regard to the status of any King of Scots in terms of governmental functions

I find as fact:
Monarchical rule has a long history in Scotland - many hundreds of years before ever a Parliament was introduced.
James MacLaren, calling himself James VIII, King of Scots, proclaimed a number of new laws - declaring Scotland an independent country and re-instituting the death penalty.
James MacLaren publicly appointed Sir David Manning as his Ambassador to the United States of America, Sir John Sawyers as his Ambassador to the United Nations and Anthony Carry as his High Commissioner to Canada.
The US Administration has refused to accredit Sir David Manning.