Playing the Blame Game
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PLAYING THE BLAME GAME
Empire of Inimicus
Sitting of the National Imperial Council, 8th August 2020 (IC SECRET)
"And so our preliminary conclusion must be, rather than what was indicated earlier, that a missile fired from the territory of the state of Neo-Venetia was responsible for bringing down Needletail One. Earlier indications of a flight path deviation towards the north were not accurate, and instead there are indications for a significant deviation southwards."
The words of the Constable-in-Chief of the Imperial Transportation Safety Association (ITSA), Jerome van Dommelsch, were not new to Wilfred Cocx. ITSA's briefing had been held in a secret meeting of the National Imperial Council. Wilfred Cocx had been playing with his pen for the last 50 minutes, eagerly trying to catch the gaze of the men at the opposite end of the table: Marquis Maximillian de Barrington and Sir Augustus Barrington. The men who, through some means yet unknown to Wilfred, had conspired to assassinate Emperor Artabanos.
The information hadn't been shared with the Emperor just yet. Wilfred knew that in His current state, Artabanos would either give up on His entire political career or have the Barringtons and Strathclydes all arrested and executed in one go, upon hearing the news. This would not be wise. Instead, Wilfred had determined he and his brother James would take care of this rotten business, and so he had demanded to see Van Dommelsch' report before he presented it to the wider Council, so Wilfred could take some necessary steps.
These steps had included a summons by Wilfred, now in official capacity as Vicarius, with an absolute Imperial Prerogative, for the phone, email, text messaging, and paper records of Marquis Maximillian and his brother. These steps had also included forcing Sir Augustus to announce his resignation as European Councillor to pave the way for someone more reliable - preferably to Wilfred, his old ally Nicholas Benfield, not the brightest of legislators but immensely loyal. Another step had been the secret mobilisation of several Imperial Guard regiments for deployment to Inimicus's southern border with Neo-Venetia, possibly to execute covert operations into Venetian territory, possibly to prepare infrastructure for larger operations.
"So what confidence can we have in this conclusion, Mr Van Dommelsch", James Cocx interjected, "Given that just last week you appeared confident the missile was launched from North Diessen?"
"The standard of evidence has unexpectedly increased, Mr Cocx, but this is a good question and thank you for asking it. We now have actual visual evidence of the missile in question, thanks to the huge array of planespotters and satellites tracking the momentous flight. We based our earlier indications on an integration of eyewitness testimony and the determined location of the missile's impact, but new evidence is currently still coming to light."
Of course it had. Wilfred Cocx had seen Max Barrington demand last week's press conference on social media, publishing the allegations to the address of North Diessen. Naturally. Anything to shift the blame from what Wilfred knew were the real perpetrators: the Neo-Venetians, aided and informed by the Barringtons themselves.
