Chapter 26

Vivien had kept Lizzie simmering over the three days of the clan gathering. She orchestrated just enough contact with Donnie to keep the older girl constantly thinking about her saviour, but didn't allow either of them to get too close to the newly-weds at this stage.

Teasing was something Vivien was finding that she was very good at and she easily adopted the personae that she had displayed in the erotic dream the two girls had shared.

She had already decided not to return to school – opting for an on-line college course instead – and also that she would remain at Ardbrecknish rather than return to the apartment in Bridge-of-Allan. That would give Donnie and Katie some space and allow Vivien and Lizzie time to put their plans together!

With little supervision, Vivien was determined to take the chance to cement her fantasy relationship with Lizzie into something more real. She felt that was the first step in finally convincing Lizzie that marriage to Donnie and Katie was a realistic prospect.

Creeping up behind the older girl, Vivien took the role of aggressor again.

"Are you ready to play, my beauty?" she breathed. "Today, I'm not Donnie. Today, I'm the person you really need to convince. Why should I share my man with you? I'm Katie, what are you going to do for me? What pleasure can I expect for allowing you to be my wife? Are you going to lick my pussy? Are you good at it? Show me!"

Lizzie couldn't help but shiver in anticipation. There was something forbidden, something truly erotic about the thought of actually being with another woman. The suggestion that she had to perform to impress Katie simply heightened the arousal.

"I'm waiting," teased Vivien.

Lizzie turned and gasped. Vivien had retreated to the sofa and she was reclining with her legs spread, her sex clearly on offer.

"Show me that you want me as well as Donnie," Vivien moaned. "Do it, now!"

Lizzie moved as if in a dream. She found herself in front of the sofa and sank to her knees. Vivien's pussy was perhaps a foot in front of her face and Lizzie couldn't stop herself from leaning forward until she felt her lips touch the hot, sensitive flesh.

"Yes, that's it! Lick me, eat me! Show me you want me," Vivien encouraged.

Lizzie felt herself letting go and flowed into the sex act without inhibition. She used her tongue to try and draw as much response from Vivien as she could.

Vivien was already hot and managing to entice Lizzie to get so into the 'game' was simply raising her levels of satisfaction.

"Lick me! Lick me, baby," Vivien groaned. "Imagine this, the better you do me, the harder he's going to fuck you!"

Lizzie redoubled her efforts at Vivien's words. She imagined her saviour kneeling behind her, his hard cock ready to penetrate. The image inspired her to drive Vivien to even greater heights. Her tongue traced Vivien's nether lips and toyed with her clit. Listening to Vivien's responses, Lizzie varied her attack on the sensitive nub.

"Oooohh fuck, oh fuck!" Vivien moaned.

Lizzie swirled her tongue repeatedly over Vivien's sex bud, her own excitement climbing as she realised just how much she had the younger girl in her control. The roles had flipped. Lizzie was now the one in charge and she played her part to the max!

"Is this what you want? " she demanded. "Are you going to come for me? Come, come baby!"

Donnie's father had been spot on when he warned his son that he wouldn't have much time for a honeymoon. The demands on Donnie's time from his political party, the SNP, grew substantially. The referendum on independence was being seen as a 'once in a generation' opportunity – in other words, if the SNP lost the vote, it would probably be another twenty or thirty years before it would be credible to put the question to the electorate again.

With their holy-grail so close, the party was determined to pull out all of the stops to secure the victory they coveted,

Donnie was in the First Minister's campaign group as it toured the country day after day. Alex Salmond gave speech after speech, posed for countless photo opportunities and kissed more babies than you could count.

It was becoming customary for the FM's weekly briefing to take place on his hi-tech campaign bus. The bus was kitted out with everything the FM would need – satellite communications, meeting space, living accommodation – the works.

Donnie settled-in to a seat behind the FM to listen to what the 'hot-topics' were for that week's briefing. The first item was a surprise.

"Oil prices have levelled off and are now predicted to start falling over the next few weeks and months," reported one of the economic advisors.

"Well that's a relief," grinned the FM.

"Not really, Sir," the advisor disagreed.

"Now come on son, I'm an economist myself," Salmond responded, "even I can see that falling oil prices have got to be a good thing!"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but no," the advisor maintained. "It's the reason for the fall that's the worry."

"What do you mean? You'll have to explain that for me," the FM encouraged him.

"Well, Sir. It seems that the Middle East states are finding that even they don't have enough money to import the quantities of food their populations need," the advisor explained. "They are heavily dependent on imports and they are now flooding the markets with oil to try and raise more money to pay for food at today's prices. In short, Sir, food is becoming scarcer and more expensive than oil."

It was clear that Alex Salmond understood the basic economics behind this explanation.

"Are things really that bad?" he asked.

A silver-haired man sitting on the opposite side of the conference table chose to intervene at that point.

"Yes, First Minister," said the Chief Medical Officer. "That bad and only going to get worse."

"Don't tell me we have a new pandemic to worry about, trust the CMO to bring me happy news," the FM groaned.

"Not a pandemic as such, First Minister," answered Alex Crichton. "It's more a crisis due to over population. Basically the population of the Earth was already close to outstripping the amount of food we appear to be able to produce, and with crops failing; we have undoubtedly passed that 'tipping-point'."

There was silence round the table as everyone took in the implications of what the CMO had just said.

"Are you positive about that?" Alex Salmond challenged.

"Absolutely," Crichton affirmed. "The emerging economies – places like China and India – have been growing at a quite astonishing rate. The needs they have been creating have already been affecting global demand. With supply shrinking, things are only going to get worse."

"I'm afraid the CMO may well be right," agreed another civil servant. "My contacts in Westminster have shared a few titbits of information that would tend to back up what Alex is saying. The Foreign Office are apparently worried about a number of situations – mostly in Africa – where it looks as if some countries are preparing to simply take the food they need from their neighbours."

"Are you saying that African countries are preparing to go to war over food?" the FM asked.

The civil servant nodded.

"I'm being told that there is also a growing risk of state sponsored piracy – that's focused on the areas you might expect like the horn of Africa, but also off the coast of some South American countries."

"State sponsored piracy? Surely not," said a surprised Salmond.

"State sponsored piracy isn't a new thing, First Minister," the civil servant explained. "Great Britain was once pretty good at it – privateers I think we called them – when we were at war with the Spanish and the Dutch East India company."

"What's our own position? How do things look for the UK as a whole?" Salmond asked.

"Bad and deteriorating," the economic advisor answered. "Domestic food production is predicted to be down over thirty percent this year. The Treasury doesn't have enough reserves to replace all of that by buying in imports."

"So we all face food shortages?" the FM asked.

"I'm afraid it's inevitable, Sir," the advisor confirmed.

"Well, what are we doing about it?" Salmond demanded to know.

"In the short term the only thing we have been able to do is encourage a programme of increased livestock breeding," the advisor responded. "We can overproduce on things like poultry, pigs, beef and lamb – but even that comes at a cost in feedstuff. For the longer term, we've already identified staple crops from elsewhere in the world that have historically had a colder climate than we have. We're encouraging farmers to gear up to grow those hardier crops for next year."

"Of course, we don't have the full economic powers that would allow us to perhaps be a bit more inventive," the FM pointed out. "Another strong argument in favour of our independence referendum! Okay, I want to know what else we are doing to stave off any shortages. Next?"

"We've received advance notice from the Home Office of a number of actions they are planning to take in Scotland, First Minister," said the Justice advisor.

At the mere mention of the Home Office they could all see the First Minister's expression darken. It was always a sore point when this Westminster department exercised its powers in Scotland and the First Minister could do little about it.

"What idiocy are they planning now?" Salmond barked.

"There are four asylum seeking families that the Home Office wants removed. Apparently their applications for asylum have been refused and the Home Office sees them as a flight risk. They're planning dawn raids to pick the families up and then deport them," explained the advisor.

"This is unacceptable!" stormed the FM. "Battering doors down at 04:00 and frightening the life out of men, women and children! It's barbaric and I won't have it in Scotland!"

The civil servants to a man and woman sat with their heads down, unwilling to meet the First Minister's gaze. This was an old story and one that they could do little to avert. The Home Office had the legal powers to do what they were planning and short of physically standing in front of the doors to the houses these families lived in, the FM was powerless to stop it.

"There is a new twist on this I'm afraid," the advisor finally worked up the nerve to continue. "With police budgets being cut, the two police forces concerned have indicated that they can't spare the officers necessary to carry out these dawn raids."

"Hah! Good for them!" the FM all but cheered.

"Sir, I'm not finished," the advisor hurried on. "The Home Office have responded by arranging for the army to carry out the raids."

Once again there was virtual silence around the table, the only sound being the spluttering of Alex Salmond who looked as if he was about to have a fit.

"Whose idea was that?" he eventually managed to spit out.

"As I say, Sir. This is all being planned by the Home Office."

"The Scottish public won't stand for this! I won't stand for this!" screamed Salmond. "Find me a way of putting a stop to it!"

Campaigning wasn't the only thing occupying Donnie's thinking as August rolled into September 2012. Good progress had been made in finishing all of the building work at Ardbrecknish and the last of the heavy plant had departed. Carol had managed to speed up construction by virtue of the fact that the companies involved didn't have many other contracts to work on.

Carol had shown herself to be an excellent project manager as well as a top accountant, and she had managed to adapt the construction programme to accommodate all of the additions that Douglas and Donnie had decided were required.

The people who had signed up to take on roles at the site had also begun arriving. These were the people Katie and Donnie suspected that the goddess had had Rory pick out during the homecoming. The fact that there was such a close match in the skills available and the roles that needed filled was a sure sign that Beira had taken a hand.

"That's the last silo fully commissioned," Carol told Douglas. "It's all over to you and Commander Jack now."

Douglas was in overall charge of all of the farming activities, but Jack Wilcox was the one responsible for logistics and programming as a whole across the site. Jack would be the one who ensured that there were enough skilled people to have everything running, while Douglas maximised the yield from the available pods and surface farming.

"Just in time too," Douglas responded to her. "With all the volume and variety of different crops we're now growing, the ability to preserve some of it will be essential."

"How much are we keeping?" Carol asked out of curiosity.

"Just enough to feed the people here until the next crops are ready for harvest," Douglas responded. "There's no problem getting retailers to buy up the rest of it believe you me!"

"Even with the unique approach that Donnie's introduced, it will still only be a drop in the ocean in terms of the shortage of food out there though," Carol observed.

Douglas nodded in agreement. As a farmer, it frustrated him that there was such a drastic food shortage, but the Scottish Government hadn't yet taken up Donnie's silo blueprint and put it into operation more widely.

"From what Donnie tells me, there are going to be difficult times ahead," said Douglas. "This winter there will be worse shortages than ever before."

"Hi you two," said Donnie, appearing behind them. "What are you scheming up between you?"

"Nothing," laughed Douglas. "I was just telling Carol that you haven't managed to get our government to build more silos to try and relieve the food crisis."

Donnie frowned.

"I keep trying," he said. "The scientists all agree that it would make a huge difference, but the bureaucracy is a nightmare. There are arguments over which department should be in the lead, where the funding will come from and even over whether it's national or local government that has the final say on the planning permission required for each potential site."