Chapter 93 - The Interview
Medoferro and Trinaferro were still tired as they approached Polonion, especially after having to do solemn greetings and a few words to crowds who lined up the roadways in each of the hamlets they passed through to pay their respects to the fallen leader as he made his final trip back to Mullinix Centre.
"At least that’s the last hamlet along the route," Medoferro said, rubbing his temples, "Why did we sign up for this job again?"
"We were drafted, as I recall," Trinaferro reminded him, "Though going home this way was your idea."
"Well hopefully Suvorov is back and getting things started at home," Medo said, "If we’re lucky we’ll keep the spotlight off him by doing this."
Before they could say anymore they heard the thumps of approaching hoofs. Stacy, who with her guard training was the best rider of the group, approached and did an artsy transfer from her moving horse to the land barge, which was moving at nearly thirty miles an hour.
"Careful Stacy," Trinaferro said, "Don’t get yourself killed."
"That’s nothing," Stacy shrugged, "They trained us to do that in the upper level guard classes."
"So how did it go there?" Medoferro asked her, "Is Spiketon cooperating?"
"Very much so," Stacy said, "That little mention about sheep on the south meadow did wonders to get him into a cooperative mood."
"Remind me to give Colonel Ballfur a bonus for telling me that," Medo chuckled, "So he’s going to get us a tame reporter?"
"He knows just the one," Stacy said, "Simon is there prepping him now. Simon is better at the smooth talking than I am."
"Part of why I chose him," Medoferro nodded, "He’s as outgoing as I am not. I needed that in a representative."
"I still can’t fathom why you chose me," Stacy said to Trina.
"Because you’re more willing to butt heads with people than I am," Trina smiled, "Plus, you know how the guards work and have some experience in the capital, something that I have a feeling I’m going to need and quick."
"Right," Medo nodded, "With me now being Mullinix, all the usual training methods are going to go right out the window."
"Well," Stacy said, "I just hope you’re ready. Simon is going to prep him and he’ll be meeting us with them on the outside of Polonion. Basically, the reporter is going to go with us through Polonion and will travel with us to Nessun Cucchiaio. We’ll drop him and he’ll file his story, which we’ll probably see on the wires by the time we get to Mullinix Centre."
"Sounds good," Medoferro nodded, "Let’s just hope I can keep myself looking like a Mullinix for the duration."
"You’re doing fine," Trinaferro reassured him, "Besides… you have me by your side. What can possibly go wrong?"
"I can’t fault that logic," Medoferro chuckled, "I can’t help but look good with such a pretty girl by my side."
"Ok," Stacy said, making a face, "Enough sap for me. I’m going to go check Coblein and give him another dose of the sleepy time shot to make sure he doesn’t start moving until Nessun Cucchiaio."
Medo and Trina chuckled and kissed for a moment while Stacy was gone. They still felt good about each other, despite the loss of Massimaferro. The stately casket, one that had been hastily obtained from the one casket maker in the border village area for the trip, was standing prominently on top of the enclosed area.
It was there to allow a viewing of the casket by the curious passersby and to allow the living to not have to ride with the dead. This was a necessity for a long trip like this, as Toria had only done the basic embalming of the corpse and if it heated up at all the body was soon going to become ripe. The basic theory is that if it does smell, hopefully the smell will go over everyone instead of down to their noses.
"This is still surreal," Trinaferro sighed, "Who would have thought that we’d be doing this six months ago?"
"Nothing we can do," Medoferro said, "Just gotta continue."
Stacy came back out and plopped down on the comfortable chair across from Medo and Trina. Her eyes still darted around all over the place, much like every guard they had ever met. She might now be a civilian advisor to Trinaferro, but her mind was still guard trained.
"So how does it feel to be a civilian again?" Trinaferro asked Stacy, "I bet you didn’t see this coming, huh?"
"I must admit," Stacy nodded, "You blindsided me with that one. I’d never heard of a undercover guard being chosen as a representative before."
"You seem to be working out fine," Medo chuckled, "I think we will benefit from some of your guard trained efficiency."
"So long as you don’t sicken me with your sappiness," Stacy chuckled, "So are you really going to let the world know about you two?"
"Better to do it now when the distraction can benefit us," Trinaferro said, "Also if we release it ourselves we can portray it in a much more flattering light."
"Rather than have it posted on a tabloid," Medoferro agreed, "I can see it now. ‘Shocking Sex Secrets of the Mullinix!’"
"Somehow I can’t see them finding anything that deviant on you two," Stacy said, almost giggling at the thought, "I think it will do this country some good to have leaders that they can look up to though."
"There’s just something wrong with that idea," Medoferro chuckled, "People looking up to us."
"It’s going to take some getting used to," Trinaferro agreed, "Looks like we’re nearly at Polonion."
"There’s Simon and the Reporter now," Stacy said, looking out, "Looks like we’ll be there in a few minutes."
"There’s one question I have," Trinaferro said, "I figure I should ask it before we have the reporter here and have to be on best behavior?"
"Shoot," Medo told her.
"Why do we not use trains instead of this slow barge?" Trina asked them, "I mean we could make this trip in a few hours otherwise."
"The trains are easy targets," Stacy said, answering from guard knowledge, "Easy to derail, easy to intercept and only go to the set locations. All of which are recipes for security nightmares."
"The barge also allows for interaction," Medoferro explained, "You can’t take a train slowly through a city and wave to the people from it. Train lines tend to run outside of town, not in it."
"That makes sense I guess," Trinaferro nodded, "We’re people based, not business based."
"You got it," Medoferro smiled, "We deal with both, but the people are our main concern."
Trinaferro nodded appreciatively and leaned against Medoferro, riding quietly until they met up with Simon and the Reporter just on the outside of Polonion. The driver stopped the barge and allowed the two of them to climb up onto the barge, with Simon helping the reporter up.
Medo and Trina took in the reporter with a curious eye. They were both expecting a younger man, but evidently they rated the experienced eye of an older reporter. He was a tall, jovial man with a mostly bald pate rimmed with graying hair on the sides. He smiled and offered hands that were readily shaken by the pleasantly surprised Mullinix.
"Thank you for having me," the grateful reporter said, "My name is David Minear."
"I’m Medoferro," Medo told him, smiling at getting someone who was pleasant, "The lovely lady sitting beside me here is the new apprentice, Trinaferro."
"Hello," Trina said, shaking hands with the man, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Minear."
"Please," the reporter said, "Call me Dave."
"Welcome to the barge," Medoferro said, "The lovely lady across from us here is Stacy Cossy, Trinaferro’s new personal representative."
"Pleased to meet you," Stacy said, "I think I saw you when I was on my way back here to warn them of your arrival."
"Ahhh yes," Dave remembered, "The young lady leaving town on a horse at the speed of light."
"That would be me," Stacy chuckled.
"Well I appreciate you letting me ride with you for a while," Dave told them, "What is the game plan here? This was thrown up rather quickly."
"W
ell," Medoferro said, looking at Trinaferro, "Basically, we’re both really new to this. People barely know I exist and they know precisely nothing about Trina. Since I’ve been elevated so quickly due to Massimaferro’s unfortunate passing, we figured that we should let people know a little bit about us."
"I will admit," Dave nodded, "I was shocked when I heard about Massimaferro’s death. He was still quite young for that."
"A month off of his 49th birthday," Medoferro nodded, "We were hoping that he’d make it through, but unfortunately it was not to be."
"Second time this century that a reigning Mullinix has passed before the elder," Dave said, "Do you think this is a trend?"
"I can tell you," Trina said, "That this had better not be a trend for us."
"You’re just saying that because you don’t want my new job," Medo told her, "So hush."
"Well, I have other reasons as well," Trina grinned.
"I see that you two get along really well," Dave said, watching as they approached Polonion proper, "Is there some story there beyond the obvious?"
"We knew each other before we were chosen" Medo explained, "We remained close even after I was chosen, despite the fact that I was legally barred from marriage."
"So you two are a couple?" Dave said, a bit surprised by this, "Is there precedent for this?"
"Yep," Medoferro nodded, "Dadiferro and Caldaferro, several centuries back."
"Did this relationship have anything to do with the choice?" Dave asked them, "Sorry, but I have to ask this."
"No problem at all," Trina said, "It had nothing to do with the choice other than the fact that Medo tried to talk me out of it."
"I thought both surviving Mullinix made the choice," Dave said, "You were against it, Medoferro?"
"Not so much against it as I didn’t want to have to do it to her," Medoferro said, "I know I’m new at this. Back when I was chosen after Taliaferro’s passing, I wasn’t the only candidate at the time. She and I had both been high on their list, which was part of what brought us together. It was only by the good grace of my big mouth that she wasn’t chosen the first time."
"I smell a good story there," Dave said, "Mind telling me about it?"
Medoferro and Trinaferro obliged the information hungry reporter with some of the details of the story, leaving out a few of the more delicate and sensitive parts. There was one lesson that they both had learned about the press and that was that there was no such thing as ‘off the record’ where a reporter was concerned.
"So you both were on the block and it was simply Medoferro’s mouth that got him the job?" Dave reiterated, "Very nice. So how did you get roped in to it now?"
"Basically we knew we had to make a choice quickly," Medoferro told him, "Since she was still in the legal qualification range and both Insegniferro and I knew that she and I would work well together we went ahead and chose her."
"After a few heart wrenching discussions between him and I at any rate," Trinaferro said, "We went back and forth like a yoyo on whether or not I should accept the position."
"Any regrets about doing so?" Dave asked her.
"None," Trinaferro said, "Medo was like family for me before. This just makes it as official as anything between us can legally be."
"So what are you willing to tell me about Massimaferro’s final hours?" Dave asked them, "I take it he was sick for longer than you were admitting."
"We were mainly trying to give him a chance to get better," Medoferro explained, "I took session so he could rest and to give me practice. Once it was apparent that he was getting worse we decided to go to the border villages where he’d be close to the conference area and we had access to the Skolnik medico collegiums."
"Straight forward then?" Dave asked them.
"As much as an illness like that can be," Trinaferro said, "Once Toria figured out what was doing it, all we could do was wait."
"What about the medico traveling with you?" Dave asked, "We’ve heard some rumors about his misconduct in this."
"That investigation is still ongoing," Medoferro said, "We’ll reserve comment until we know more."
"So there is a possibility this wasn’t natural?" Dave asked, smelling a scoop.
"What he means is," Stacy put in, saving Medoferro’s politically naïve ass, "Is that we’ve heard the rumors as well and have investigations continuing. Until we speak to Mr. Coblein, who has not been seen for a few days, we won’t be able to comment."
"At this hour we still have no reason to believe it was anything other than a heart attack," Medoferro said, mentally thanking Stacy, "It was just an unfortunate quirk of nature."
"Good enough," Dave said, nodding and realizing that he didn’t want to push something and piss off the Mullinix, "So what is going to happen next?"
"There is a crowd up ahead," Medoferro said, "We’ll stop and I’ll say a few words. Then we’ll continue the interview on and off until we get to Nessun Cucchiaio."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Dave said, smiling, "I’d like to thank you guys for letting me come along like this."
"It is no problem," Trinaferro said, "No problem at all."