It's So Much More Than That (A Selection Story)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

“Darling, will you help me with this tie?” I smile and go over and help Maxon with it. He concedes under my presence to letting me help him with just about anything. After I’m done he chuckles.

“Do you know that you’re much better at this than I?”

“You don’t say.” I finished straightening his collar and then gave him a quick kiss. “Admit it, you need me around here for something.”

“Maybe.” He teases. “I think I need you for this…” His lips meet mine and it deepens. We stay there for a while, making out until a knock at the door pulls us apart. Maxon sighs.

“Come in.” He said.

Officer Avery comes in and gives a slight nod before he addresses us. “I’m sorry to disrupt you, your majesties, but I believe we have a pressing matter at hand. You see, we intercepted a guard who appeared to have something important on him…”

Maxon questioned “and what was that?”

“It was…another part of the list, your majesties. We were running further background checks on everyone, even the people who help transport goods in and out of the palace, and we came across him. We suspect he is tied to the southern rebels, smuggling supplies out of the palace for them, or perhaps even helping them get in. We’re questioning him right now, your majesty.”

“And what about the money, are there any leads on that?” Maxon asked.

“Nothing. Besides what we already know. We are probing more into what families or household could be supporting this cause. There are probably many that are not too pleased with the removal of the caste system.”

“No, there probably aren’t. Thank you Officer Avery. We will be at the meeting shortly. I want to get this over with.” We bid Avery farewell. I sigh and get up from the bed.

“Maxon, I think I’d better go get ready.” I said reluctantly.

“Me too. I’ll meet you down there in a half hour.” He runs his hands through his hair like he does when he’s nervous or stressed.

I give him one last kiss. “See you soon. I love you.” I leave and go to my adjoining room where Mary is waiting for me. While she’s helping me get ready, I’m thinking about how we got into this whole mess in the first place. If I hadn’t found the note, would we even be worrying about this? I felt secure knowing that Aspen was working on this. I trusted Aspen and others like Avery to keep us safe no matter what, but I never really knew who was truly friend or foe. I felt much safer in the palace than I had ever been, really. If only we could figure out who was funding what was left of these rebels, then we could eradicate our threat completely.

“There. You’re perfect.” Mary said. I thank her and head towards my first meeting of the day, on the way greeting anyone who I happened to pass by. By this point, I knew most of the palace staff’s names, and made it my personal goal to get to know just about everyone. I could tell that most of them adored Maxon and I. I couldn’t imagine any of them trying to hurt us.

I sit next to Maxon while Avery, and Aspen present their findings to us. This is a private security meaning, meaning that there are no other advisors present, in case there are things that we don’t want them to know. Aspen and his team have been diligent in working on this threat without many people knowing. It turned out that they had actually caught the guard on one of the newer cameras that were installed by the loading decks. “He was checking the list.” Avery note. He pulls up a list with another set of names that were associated with the removal of the castes. I notice that Aspen was included on this one, with a 60 next to his name. I glanced at him, concerned, but Aspen just shrugged, like it was not a big deal that he was a target, much less than one with thousands of dollars to his name.