The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 91 Outside

Samuel took Spencer across the marshalling yard, to meet a small, smartly dressed, elderly gentleman sitting in a motorised wheelchair, alone with his back to them. "Spencer Butler!" Samuel said with a flourish. "Let me introduce you to your Father, Sir Kenneth Butler."

But Spencer was sceptical. "I was told that my Father was dead." Spencer stated firmly. "Look if this a joke... then it is not a very funny one!"

"It is not a joke Spencer!" Samuel observed quietly, "You were simply never told the truth."

"But why would anyone tell such a lie?" Spencer asked incredulously and then he realised that Sir Percy or Sir Gilbert, or any number of their friends, would have had no trouble in telling stories, which had absolutely no basis in fact, simply because they were too lazy, drunk or stupid to remember what had really happened.

Samuel sighed and shrugged. "People tell the most terrible untruths for the most facile, desultory and indefensible of reasons." He said. "For some people... the truth is a foreign country, only to be visited by the weak, the dispossessed and the stupid!"

"But what advantage would anyone gain in my case?" Spencer asked. He was puzzled, still not grasping quite where the conversation was headed.

"You had to understand, that if you had no legitimate father, then you automatically become the property of the lord... and that means that you can be traded and monetised!" Samuel said. "You are the property of Sir Percy. I was the property of a very wicked man."

"Yes!" Spencer said.... "but?"

"Your father lost you or more accurately the title to all his children in a bet!" Samuel. "Do not judge your father harshly though. It was not a fair bet and he did not enter it willingly! Sir Percy's father was a cruel, ruthless and unprincipled confidence trickster, who defrauded many people."

It was a lot of information to take in all at once and so it took a while for Spencer to reply.

"How did you find out where he was?" Spencer asked.

Samuel laughed. "Spencer it's quite easy when one has the Naval Central Computers, the Sleeping Army, the Mík Community and a Dudat at one's disposal."

"Sir Kenneth!" Samuel said to catch the man's attention, and the wheelchair turned around to face them.

"Lord Admiral Samuel Wellington so good to see you again!" Sir Kenneth Butler said.

"This is your son, Spencer!" Samuel said with a smile.

"Spencer!" The old man said, his speech was slurred and it was obvious that Sir Kenneth had suffered a stroke down his left side. " I never thought that I would meet you."

"Nor I you!" Spencer replied.

If Samuel had been expecting Spencer to rush forward into his Father's arms, then he was disappointed. Spencer and his father merely regarded each other tensely and shook hands like two statesmen concluding a non aggression treaty that neither was happy with. Sir Kenneth's hand was flaccid and barely moved.

The old man looked up sheepishly at his son's face. "Spencer Son! I never thought that I would ever get the chance to meet you." He said quietly, there were tears of joy in the corner of his eyes.

"Father!" Spencer said simply.

"Son?" Sir Kenneth asked

Samuel immediately recognised the resemblance between Spencer and the old man, but Spencer seemed strangely reticent and looked at Samuel quizzically. Samuel returned his gaze, there was a pregnant silence for several moments...

"Son?" Sir Kenneth seemed confused. "Don't you recognise your old dad?

Samuel laughed, thinking that the impasse was due to some misunderstanding. For some reason Spencer suspected that Samuel might have known Spencer's father for years, and that he had merely chosen to produce him at the last moment, just like a conjurer produces a rabbit for dramatic effect. For once Samuel's laughter acted as more of an irritant than a salve.

"Why are you laughing?" Spencer asked, his voice barely above a whisper, but bursting with anger none the less.

The old man looked on anxiously.

"Don't you have a hug for your father?" he asked.

"Sorry I meant no offence by laughing... I just suddenly understood your quandary." Samuel explained, laying a conciliatory hand on Spencer's shoulder and though Samuel met resistance, suddenly all of Spencer angst evapourated.

Samuel thought that he should answer Spencer's unspoken question before Spencer could draw breath to ask it. "Your father and I, have only had face-to-face conversations by Dudat so far. and I could only be sure that he was coming once he had arrived."

"But he is not my Father!" Spencer said.

Samuel tried to read the old man's mind and then he realised that he could not get past a thin veneer of confused memories and the more he probed, the fewer of those memories could be from Sir Kenneth Butler. Suddenly Samuel realised that he had been deceived.

"Run now Spencer!" Samuel telepathed, "Get as far away as you can right now!"

Spencer did not need to be prompted twice and his long legs took him halfway across the marshalling yard and behind some wagons before he turned and stared back.

"I cannot allow this to happen!" Samuel said.

Suddenly what seemed like a wall of traditionally dressed Mík in cowls appeared between Spencer and Sir Kenneth, surrounding the wheel chair. All of them looked identical to Samuel apart from what they wore and in between them the light shimmered.

The Samuels watched as the old man's face seemed to melt and his features changed until any resemblance to Spencer had disappeared, and his real appearance became evident. A brief apologetic look came over the man's face before his hand hovered over the control's and the wheelchair exploded. The shrapnel from wheelchair was flung high in the sky but all of the explosive force surged upward as if the wall of Samuels was impenetrable. None of the blast reached either Spencer or any of the waiting guests. The Mík wall of Samuels vanished as quickly as it had appeared, briefly the shimmering turned into butterflies that headed skyward and then faded.

Samuel walked over and joined Spencer by the wagon.

"What ever just happened? Spencer asked.

"Please forgive the foolishness of an old man Spencer. It is written in the Book of Proverbs chapter 16 verse 18!" Samuel said. "'Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall'. I was so proud and happy to pull off the miracle, to have found you a relative, to attend your wedding, that I didn't check him out sufficiently."

"That wasn't really what I meant!" Spencer said. It was Spencer's turn to laugh. "I wish that you'd told me! Instead of sneaking around behind my back."

"Oh and why is that?" Samuel asked.

"Well over there," Spencer replied and pointed to the where roadway met the marshalling yard, "my sister and two of my brothers are currently being frisked by Honza Malik." Then knowing what a womaniser Malik was, Spencer shouted over to him. "Hey Malik you don't need to frisk my sister quite so thoroughly. She's married and pregnant you know!"

"Well after your father exploded in your face." Malik said, "I thought that I ought to be professional and do my job!"

"Touché!" Spencer replied. "But if you ruin her marriage then I will come looking for you!"

Malik considered a show of defiant bravado but thought better of it.