Frederick Douglass Dialectical Journal

Douglas buried his face into his palms and sighed. He was feeling overwhelmed with all the things happening all the sudden. It seemed to have all started with the attack on the Lieutenant Marcate but Douglas was no longer so sure about it. It started to seem it was just a trivial sideshow after all a personal vendetta of one man against another.

But all the other things which had happened were too full of coincidences to allow any peace of mind for Douglas. He hated coincidences but when those seemed to litter the investigations like rice on a wedding day it was too much to bear. Too much to allow it to just pass like nothing had happened. Douglas stirred the tea for fifth time. It was cold and too sweet but nursing the one cup like it was

If judged guilty, it would be at best a slave colony and at worst hanging so there was nothing to be gained by confessing to it. Trying to fight it in the courts would at least give a chance of a lesser sentence.

Then the escape of Dash Mount. It seemed odd that a man who orchestrated the attack on Lord Betonneren would just go to the council meeting without expecting to be arrested as the attack was common knowledge. The claim of Captain Duro of Mount not knowing it seemed ridiculous but if one were to accept that then his escape was even more puzzling. How could he have arranged all that in advance if he did not know of the attack. And now Dash Mount had sailed off with his ships and more ships were already following suit. Question being where they were going.

Even the black market accusations against Miss Totter seemed now suspect, specially after it was revealed that she had been co-operating with Naval Intelligence in finding out the source of imperial supplies. In itself that was not so special but after finding out that the Constabulary had been ready for the raid early on that day and waiting for hours before doing the actual raid, it seemed like a

—

Captain Meed leaned backwards on his chair and stared at the roof. He was intentionally ignoring the officer from the Naval Intelligence as he needed time to think. Something was smelling and it was not the sea.

“Let me get it straight. You have discovered information about the originator of the attack against Lieutenant Marcate and you expect me to let it just slide? To just ignore that my officer was attacked and that the same person arranged the attackers to be killed. To just let it be and wait for the next try?”

“Exactly. We understand your anger but you charging in will just play in the hands of the opposition. There are bigger wheels rotating than just your circles here. We are not talking about local politics but of Imperial politics. Emperor is not without enemies and in this case you would be aiding them by taking action.”

“That in itself sounds like treason to me. You expect me to let a criminal run free just because it is convenient to your political plays?”

“In a word, yes and should you seek to disobey my orders I would be forced to call upon the