Eighty-nine: The queen is in play. All other pieces beware

"Mythic proportions," Mr Raring shook his head, pointing a finger at me and laughing. "We've all been massively underestimating you. This is going to scare the socks off Bevan and the people back home, once they learn you were behind this trap and what I have a feeling is a last push to end the war. They'll want you killed."

"That's not anything new, is it?"

"I suppose not," Mr Raring gave me a small smile. "It's unlikely that I'll get free anytime soon before the end of the war, so tell me, Queen Jean. What is your end plan? I'm curious to know."

"Nothing special," I shrugged. "You know how the war front heated up before your soldiers came to take the Compound? They're maintaining that and going to push all the way to the borders of the city. While everyone's looking at the war front, Kiran is going with his crack team to take the Department of Defence building and then deliver our ultimatum. If the ultimatum is refused or they betray Kiran and his team, then the government is not going to like what happens next."

"What's that?"

"It's only in the ultimatum as a vague threat, but basically, all the relevant Bosky assets still hidden throughout the rest of the country will go into play. I will wage war on their cyberspace and destroy them. Cyber-infrastructure, government and all. I will drain the banks and the Boskies will not stop at their ancient border as originally planned. We will take the entire country."

"You can do that?" Mr Raring was looking at me in a whole new light, not seeming too shocked at this revelation.

"They can try me and see," I snarled and bared my teeth.

"The queen is in play. Let all other pieces beware," Mr Raring murmured. "God save the Queen." There was silence while he processed everything and then he asked, "Is that really all to repay Kiran? After all, you've told me before that you blame him for dragging you into the whole mess."

"Well," I quirked my lips. "No. Not exactly." Rubbing my face, I took in a long deep breath and let it out, just as slowly. "I'm tired of the war. I'm tired of being used. I'm tired of being bait. And if I want to destroy some people and practices like slavery in Boskyland, Dr Eisor and Alfred Barrel, I need a position of power and authority to do it. If I have to marry Kiran for it, then so be it. He uses me. I'll use him. Our government would probably be interested in some of the technology used in the enslaving process and no doubt once I've crushed the slave industry, it will also go on the black market. I'll deal with it when it happens. I don't like the idea of someone who can turn me on or off or blow me up. Since I'm the latest prototype, so long as I catch Dr Eisor before he turns any more girls into toy robots, I can hope that the worst of the technology will die with me. I'll have to think about it a bit more." I pointed at the two soldiers. "If either of you ever breathe any of this to anyone but Kiran, I will come after you too."

"Believe me," Mr Raring told them. "She always gets those on her hit list in the end. I'll bet she actually has a lot of people on her hit list at the moment. She doesn't even kill them. Makes them wish they were dead instead."

"There are people on both sides of the war," I said, smiling at the both soldier's looks of fearful respect. "But there's no rush, is there?"

"Jean," said Mr Raring. "Revenge isn't everything, you know."

"It's not all about revenge," I tried to explain. "Certain types of people can trigger certain types of change. Change for the better is what I'm after, but I doubt I'll get that far. Most likely I'll get bogged down at some point in time. Whoever has the trigger for the bomb in me will pretty much be able to control me. There's nothing I can do about that and Dr Eisor has likely made all sorts of contingency plans. He's got to know I'll be coming after him at some stage. He's smart. Smarter and more experienced than me with an already stable power base and a lot of advantages over me. I may not be able to enact all my plans, but I'm hoping I'll have help when the time comes."

"Is this a job offer?" Mr Raring asked in amusement.

"Not yet," I said. "It depends on how things work out and how pear shaped everything gets. You're one person I know I can count on. You and Kiran. And my family. That's all I have in the world I can trust to keep my interests in mind."

"You're forgetting us, My Lady," one soldier said. The other soldier nodded agreement.

"More than I thought then," I smiled at them, suddenly feeling utterly drained. "Thank you."

"We'd better get going and let you rest," Mr Raring said when I swayed where I sat. "You look tired."

I raised a limp hand to wave.

"You and Bevan will get one chance to break through to send a message home. I'll leave it up to you what you say, but you'll only have twenty or thirty seconds. It depends how on the ball whoever is on duty is. Please tell them to take the ultimatum and end the war. I don't want to pull the trigger that will destroy them. If they want a demonstration, all I have to do is cut the wanderer's bracelet on my wrist and see which government department is going to go up in flames."

"Jean," Mr Raring twisted around. "Do we get voice or text?"

"Voice and forty-four characters of text."

"A voice message and a Tweeting post. Thanks very much, Jean"

"You're welcome"

"Have a good rest."