Issue 49 – Revelations (Part 1)
- Southern England, late autumn, 2040
Strom stared at Clayburn in shock. It wasn’t the first one he had suffered this evening, but it was certainly the biggest one.
“You... you were Blackwood all along...”
Clayburn simply nodded, his eyes evaluating Strom’s expression and body language. Through the last part of the story, Grimm was sitting in silence next to Clayburn, but he too seemed to quietly evaluate Strom. Later, Strom would feel pride for his remarkably quick recovery under the scrutiny of both men. His mind started racing, examining everything that had been said that evening in the context of this information. After a few seconds, he finally shook his head. He thought he could understand why Clayburn had kept up such a charade but the whole scope of the undertaking was baffling him.
“But... why? So much time, so many risks taken and for what?”
“You tell me,” replied Clayburn, smiling strangely. “Why did I do it?”
Strom reclined in his chair, trying to put his thoughts into words as best he could.
“The first reason is obvious. You needed to purge your forces of any disloyal elements. But... your own nephew?” wondered Strom aloud.
Clayburn nodded, smiled coldly and shrugged.
“Incompetence is worse than malice, Strom. Remember that. Besides, as I said before, I haven’t really even met the man, nor has anyone of the Seahawks met me. You might have noticed my official portraits look very different from what I actually look like. That too has always been intentional. A defense mechanism, if you will,” he concluded.
Strom nodded to himself – but that was not all. Not by a longshot.
“The second reason,” he wondered, “ah, I see it now. Why waste valuable combat power when you could have used the traitors to your ends.”
Clayburn smiled and gestured at him to go on.
“The rebels, driven before your loyal forces,” continued Strom, “actually did your dirty work. They fought the militias in the Balkans, paving the way for our eventual return and consolidation of the region. But then they got to Istanbul and...”
Strom closed his eyes and smiled in return.
“Yes, naturally. The Black Eagles worked for you. You arranged the transport to Cairo, that is why nobody from the city seriously attacked them. You wanted them to capture the Al Arish base and to consolidate the region. In the end, it was the local mercenaries and warbands that took the biggest losses, not our men. You wanted them to make enemies of the entire land. But... there’s a piece missing,” Strom frowned.
It took a while for him to realize it.
“I see now. You wanted them to fight the locals so you could depict them as committing atrocities. That made it much easier to have them declared rogue in the sense of the Bordeaux Treaty, at which point we could employ nearly unlimited measures to keep them contained. The Clayburn forces then waltzed in and took the valuable base as well as a large chunk of Sinai and nobody could say anything – after all, the Clayburn corporate forces were fighting rogue mercs.”
Clayburn, once again, nodded.
“Excellent. And the American part?”
Strom cocked his head.
To be concluded...
