The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Thirteen

The Crises - Part Six. The news His Majesty had been taken critically ill stunned the nation. The former UK, even more so the Fed after the monarchical intervention, was besotted with the Royal family with a near cultish worshiping of them arising in the wake of the Dissolution; so the news breaking early that Thursday morning unleashed an outpouring of royalist emotion. Despite the prohibition of unannounced large gatherings, crowds of well-wishers held vigil outside the hospital where the King had been admitted.

Larger crowds grew in the London parks waiting for news; as if some critical mass of people could collectively will their King a recover, or learn some snippet of information that they couldn't as an individual. Impromptu prayer services were held in the hope of invoking divine intervention to counteract the effects of a severe stroke.

All the Fed waited expectantly for the next medical bulletin. At noon a statement was issued; it gave no new information about His Majesty's state of health but it didn't need to. The fact the Crown Prince had for the time being assumed the powers of Regent in his father's stead spoke volumes.

The overwrought crowds broke into unashamed weeping as the implications began to sink in. The Saviour Of The Nation was unlikely ever to be the same man as He used to be, even if He did survive; and at this moment it was touch and go. He'd pushed himself too hard and paid the price of doing so for our sakes.

As the days passed it became clear  the Regent wasn't cut from the same cloth as his father. He'd make a good King of course, but he was a more 'hands off' person. He preferred to stand back and delegate more; he didn't share so many of his father's beliefs, nor was so passionate about his father's causes.

It was understandable he should be preoccupied with his father's health for the moment, and so revert from the role of Executive Monarch back to the traditional sovereignly detachment in regard to the day to day running of the Fed; but many people believed it was from this pivotal moment the dream of a Camelot Albion began to turn sour.

Given the concern about the King's health and the saturation coverage about it which fortuitously eclipsed the latest statistics showing the pace of recovery had 'slowed', it came as no surprise that international news, and news about Alba, barely rated a mention.

There were occasional items about exchanges of displaced people and harrowing tales from the latest successful refugees. Some people, drawn by family ties or fears of their property being sequestrated by the Alban state, returned to their homeland to face an uncertain future. But the flow of refugees from Alba decreased as the number of available boats to flee on diminished with no-one wanting to make a return journey, and the 'boat season' weather window closing for the winter. Trying to cross the Irish Sea, or hugging the west or east coasts in a home-made raft or stolen dinghy was hazardous at the best of times, but almost certain suicide during the stormy winter. In any case the Albans had converted some surplus fishing trawlers into gunboats and constantly patrolled their border waters; woe betide anyone they caught trying to leave without the correct permit!

All it takes is a quick search and you can find the video taken at long range by a Red Cross ship specially chartered to provide aid and rescue to any craft reaching international waters of an Alban patrol boat riddling a yacht of would-be escapees with heavy calibre machine gun fire, as well as firing rocket propelled grenades at it until it sank - just to be sure - and not bothering to recover the bodies. The Albans would have fired at the mercy ship as well, but it was out of range. The occasional outrage aside Alba was left to itself. Like its unpredictable protégé North Korea, Alba was best steered well clear of if at all possible.

The one person who was not prepared to accept the Alban status quo was Lloyd Farrell. He believed he felt the Power of the Lord move within him once more; this time directing him to strike at North Korea. Their wrongfooting of the Union Treaty Organisation - as NATO had renamed itself to reflect its eastward spread - and Pyongyang's attempt to extend its troublesome influence into Europe could not be tolerated: The North Korean state would have to be not just punished, but annihilated. With their protector, ally, and military supplier decapitated in a surgical strike, the Alban client régime would soon collapse in on itself .