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~~((The Totally-Not-Random May 1st Special -- page 12 of 18))~~
'I will of course defer to the Queen's judgment,' said Hanton. 'I may be allowing sentimentality to interfere with my reasoning. Donald was a good friend, which was rare in our line of work, and his imprisonment was one of my greatest regrets.'

"Is he a Wrobel, too?" said the King.

'No, he is a normal human.'

"Does he know of your secret?"

'No. Or at least, I do not believe so."

"What action are you hoping for my wife to take on this matter?"

'To be quite frank with you, I am not entirely sure. If I had a clear plan of action that I thought would work, I would have formally spoken about it years ago in the royal court. I suppose I am merely hoping that the Queen or one of her ambassadors is able to take advantage of the chaos that is currently embroiling Vantalay and... "shake something loose," let's say.'

"I see. What else do you know of Vantalay? Anything that might help?"

'Ah. Vantalay has been a rather volatile nation for over half a century now. You already know of the Vanguard and Abolish, yes? It frequently changes hands between them. Today, it is difficult to tell who truly holds power there. And even disregarding those two forces, Vantalay is still fraught with many dangers, not the least of which is terrorism. Only a handful of the major cities can be regarded as safe, and that is largely due to the private security forces employed by certain companies that operate there. They have a vested interest in maintaining tourist appeal.'

Hector was paying even closer attention now than to anything else that had thus far been said.

Hanton was far from done. 'It is a divided nation in many respects. Though its government has enacted many socialistic policies over the years, the aforementioned companies have maintained enough influence to resist the enforcement of such legislation. The country has been going through quite a long-standing "economic civil war," of sorts.'