Captain Vallas was annoyed. He thought the High General was in his office. He was supposed to be in his office, working with a speech writer, covering all the speeches and talks he would be giving during the Macromera break. But the High General wasn’t there. He was somewhere else.
With a tut, Vallas stomped back and forth, trying to work out where the High General might be. General Elkay was incredibly young by High General standards. Same age as Vallas. He wandered around a lot. The question was, where had he wandered off to?
Vallas marched back out of the office, and turned to the secretarial desk outside.
“FEFNAR.”
“What is it, Vallas?” Captain Fefnar rolled his eyes as he tidied up some paperwork.
“Where is General Elkay?”
Fefnar rolled his eyes again. “Did you not get the memo? The High General finished early.”
“So where is he?”
“He took Orthonis and the new kid down to the CSCU downstairs.”
“Why?” Vallas was getting annoyed. These answers were coming too slowly. “Can you just tell me what he is doing?”
Another eye roll. Fefnar was in as bad a mood as Vallas was. Although that might have been because he had to work over one of the days of Macromera. “The three of them are inspecting the vast amount of valuable items that were hauled in and sealed away when the former High General’s secret cult was dismantled. Do you want me to call Teekay and Orthonis and tell them you’re coming?”
Vallas sighed and thanked Fefnar as he rushed off towards the elevator. “No. Thank you. I will speak to you later.”
“Whatever. Make sure you read the memos next time, dum-dum.”
After waiting an awkwardly long time in the lift, a trip outside dodging hail and a walk across the plaza to the offices opposite, Vallas made it down to the CSCU, the Confiscated Storage Containment Unit. This was where many valuable items were held until they’d been organized and either returned to their owners, sent to the Great Library or otherwise sold off and disposed of.
He’d expected to see the normal pile of boxes and stuff that hadn’t been sorted out yet but Vallas did not imagine that he’d almost run into a pile of coins.
“What IS all this?” Vallas exclaimed as he picked himself up off the floor. “This is…”
“About several million Evra in assorted gold and silver coins, trinkets and other items…” Orthonis quickly replied. “All confiscated from former High General Photeianos.”
“But where did it all come from? Also, why did neither of you tell me you were here?” Vallas snapped.
Teekay glanced over his shoulder. He was holding a massive silver sword that was almost as big as he was. “Did you not get the memo? Also Fefnar said he’d tell you when he saw you.”
“He did but… Don’t we have…”
“We finished that an hour ago.”
“But…” Vallas stuttered, then gave up. “What are you doing here then? Surely we have treasury staff to deal with all of this?”
Both Teekay and Orthonis shrugged. Neither of them were completely sure either.
“General Elkay mentioned something about a lot of this being unclaimed. The stolen items were returned. The important stuff filed away. The rest of it, we can’t trace or really do anything with.”
“Yes, about five million Evra’s worth of basically free items,” Orthonis added. “The High General wants to do something nice with some of it.”
“Like what?”
“I am not sure yet…” General Elkay peered around a corner, his hands full of various shiny things. “A lot of it will be liquefied into normal, spendable assets… actually, most of it will. But I would like to just… give some of this stuff away…”
Vallas glanced at Teekay and Orthonis. “What do you two think about this?”
“I suggested we donate it to various charities…” Teekay sighed.
“I…” Orthonis hesitated. “I suggested that the High General just keep it. Or give it to us.”
Vallas let loose a small smile, as did Teekay. The High General simply tutted.
“Maybe, ser, maybe it’s worth doing a bit of everything? Keep some, give some away… I don’t know…”
Elkay sighed, then smiled at his three captains. He rummaged through a large pile of shiny items, then pulled out four items that all looked similar. “Well, while I work all of this out, I think my captains could do with a little reward…” The High General handed an item to Teekay and Vallas, then handed two to Orthonis. “Give that one to dear Fefnar, Alright?”
The captains nodded as they inspected their trinkets. They were a small, diamond-shaped lockets on thin, gold chains, hardly noticeable. None of them had any idea how Elkay had managed to pick them out among the vast quantities of other items.
“Yes, ser.”
“And do not tell anyone I gave those to you, alright?”
The three captains nodded again.
“Very good. What time is it, Teekay?”
Teekay glanced at his wristband. “Demi eight, ser.”
Elkay grinned and clapped his hands together. “Wonderful! I think it is time to call it a day. Orthonis, go fetch Fefnar and meet us at the cafeteria. I owe you all some dinner.”