The Wasteland Soldier, Book 1, A Fractured World

Eight

Quinto, considered the finest house in the city, despite what buildings and luxuries Hamble Towers offered.

With its clean white walls, ornately shaped rooftops, tall windows, arched doorways and courtyards of stained coloured stones, it was a masterpiece of architecture, a place of serene beauty, surrounded by an undulating spread of uninspiring structures. The property was ringed by high walls, now topped with spiked iron railings and coils of razor wire. A triple locked black gate covered the driveway. There were two front facing gun towers and a fully armed military detail. The house had been the original town hall of Chett but, as the population had grown and more ministers were required to manage the logistics of feeding, clothing, housing and educating thousands of citizens, the building had eventually become unsuitable.

The House of Leadership, a dour and functional building, had been chosen to host the city's government. It had a series of floors that featured many offices and bedchambers and washrooms and basements. It allowed the city officials to work and sleep in the same residence. There had been suggestions that Quinto be transformed into a library, the only one of its kind, but so few books existed in Chett and across Gallen that the idea was promptly abandoned. It was muted that a museum should be housed within, to chronicle stories of the past to future generations, but once again the idea was rejected as so little was truly known and no one really had the spirit or ambition to complete such a project.

Facundo, the most hated of recent Chancellors, had seized the property for his own and the house had become a place of luxury, a den of vice, where only the most important and powerful men of the city were to be entertained. Unwittingly, he had created the blueprint for Hamble Towers, the enclave of luxury apartments on the south side of the city. Hamble had been conceived to offer hope and a goal for the citizens to strive for in a world of burned lands and roads filled with death. Jorann had despised Facundo's schemes and motives but he admitted to himself that the concept of Quinto was an inventive one. Yet he intended to elevate the plan for all rather than a select few and would, eventually, introduce the pass system. Once Facundo had been shifted from his position and exiled for his many crimes, Jorann had initially abandoned Quinto but, in recent years, he had ordered the property be renovated and used in times of crisis, though he had never foreseen once such as this.

As he passed through the gates, under heavy escort, he watched the sun dip low on the horizon.

Bolted and secured, he was rushed into the main lobby. Servants scattered through the property, lighting lamps, preparing rooms and locking window shutters. There was activity all around him and the attention was making Jorann feel uncomfortable. He was missing her deeply. She would not share his bedchamber here. He pushed her from his thoughts. He was still in shock that someone had tried to kill him. He believed, whether it naïve or not, that the people loved him, most of them, and if not adoration then, at the very least, respect.

"This is the work of the SOT," he said, bitterly.

Outside, Major Nuria organised her men within the walls, reminding them of the drills they had gone through.

Standing in the open doorway of the building, First Minister Gozan watched her keenly in the dwindling evening light; her long flowing blonde hair, clean and perfectly straight, shaven at the sides of her skull, firmly clasped halfway down her back; her athletic figure, her unwavering authority as she calmly issued orders to the men and women beneath her, pointing at key areas of the wall and the gate and the grounds at the rear of the building.

"Major Nuria," he called.

She crossed the driveway towards him.

"General Gozan, sir."

"Is everything organised?"

"The Chancellor will be well protected here. A strong gate. High walls. Enough soldiers."