“Why the change in agenda?” I ask, commending myself for sounding blasé about it.
“King Thomas has requested we meet with his royal security team in Bretaria the week before Princess Camille’s trip to the United States. He wants training exercises done to ensure we work seamlessly with their people, and then he wants our duties to start a little earlier than expected. It appears a member of the royal family has a wedding in London, and King Thomas wants to use that as a test of sorts.”
“To make sure I can protect his daughter at a wedding?” I ask drolly.
“To make sure we’re as good as our own government proclaims us to be,” Kynan retorts.
I scrub a hand through my hair, a move that makes my frustration apparent to my boss. Three weeks on security detail.
To a fucking princess.
Images of me following her around from couture store to couture store, hauling her bags and walking some tiny foo-foo dog cause my teeth to grit.
“She’s a high-value target,” Kynan reminds me, and those are the words I needed to hear to move past my irritation.
While I might not relish spending so much time ensuring the safety of an uppity royal, I do understand that the threat to her is real.
Bretaria is a sovereign city-state off the coast of Australia, just northeast of Brisbane, in the Coral Sea. It is composed of one main island and several outlying islands and islets. Originally annexed by the United Kingdom in the mid-1600s, but because it’s small and off on its own in the Coral Sea, it was largely ignored. Ruled by the Winterbourne family, it operated free of any real oversight by the British crown until it was finally granted status as a sovereign city-state. Not long after, and much to the dismay of King George III of House Hanover, it was discovered the main island and most of the satellite islands were rich with rubies.
Like, super rich.
Like, nowhere else in the world holds as many fiery-red stones, and this has made the Winterbourne family the richest monarchy in the world. Though the islands are small, the value of the gemstones is mighty, and even to this day, the mines still produce the highest-quality rubies in the world.
If there was ever a person who could warrant millions in ransom, it would be Princess Camille Winterbourne. Her two-week trip through the United States will put her at risk, no matter how much security her family puts in place. In exchange for the prospect of a multimillion-dollar payout, kidnappers could afford to get extravagant with their planning and tactics. Hell, it’s suspected that if anyone is going to make a move on the princess, it will be an elite special forces–type group who won’t be afraid to drop bodies in their zeal to take her.
So yes… this is a real and important job. I know it. Kynan knows it. Her family knows it.
I’ll never explain it away to my dad, though. He’ll still see me giving up an honorable career in the navy whereby I’d protect millions of Americans versus protecting one measly person, and not even an American at that.
Sighing, I sit up in my chair, elbows on the armrests, and clasp my hands in front of me. “I know she’s a high-value target. The highest we’ve ever protected, and I’m glad you trust me to be her last line of defense. I’m fully on board.”
And I am fully on board in my duties, but it still doesn’t mean I have to like who I’m protecting. I’ll just have to put aside feelings about who I’m protecting and remember the why of it.
“You’ll need to pack,” Kynan says, picking up a folder and handing it across his desk. The dossier holds information about Camille, the royal family, and the details on her upcoming travels. I place it on my lap to review later. “You’ll leave in two days. August was going to head up the detail, but he’s come down with the flu. He insists he’s fine to go, but I want everyone at 110 percent so I axed him. Ladd will head the generalized protection services for her trip to the States with a team under him. You’ll, of course, have charge of the princess personally, and both of you will coordinate with their security forces.”
I’m glad to know Ladd is going. He’s probably the person I’m closest to here at Jameson since we started at roughly the same time. His background is army and CIA, and he’s older than most of our agents, but he’s as solid as they come.
“Security forces?” I ask curiously. His choice of words is odd.
Kynan shrugs. “Bretaria has no known enemies and no national military. It has virtually no trade relations, its ownership of the ruby mines operating more like a private business. Because it’s a city-state, it has a police agency to handle protection of the public, but there isn’t a need for a military. As such, King Thomas has his own private security force that protects the palace compound and all those who reside within.”