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Post by CaptainBonkers on Sept 30, 2019 11:16:30 GMT -5
Greed, as far as base vices went, was such an unimaginative vice to possess. Sating it required nothing more complex than constant acquisition of wealth and rarely could the thirst be permanently quenched. After all, all it took for greed to flare up again was seeing something one didn’t already possess. And it seemed that the esteemed Moff Rolt, the Minister for Agriculture, kept seeing things he liked but lacked the intelligence necessary and good sense to fund himself in a manner that did not see his file landing on Havlen’s desk.
It was a shame really; Rolt had showed some promise. He was toady, had no backbone to speak of, crumbled under no pressure whatsoever when applied by someone he was even remotely afraid of and lacked ambition beyond lining his own pockets. All in all a perfect fit to head a politically inconsequential department where the Permanent Secretaries under him did the actual work. Alas, Rolt had failed to ride his cushy job to a comfortable retirement and in an effort to drown himself in pointless luxuries had managed to engage in so flagrant embezzlement that Havlen would had have been wholly detached from reality or otherwise inclined to take a cut from Rolt’s corruption to miss his activities.
Projects with inflated budgets employing companies in which Rolt held significant stock, creative accounting in the use of the meager discretionary funds Ministry of Agriculture received in the budget, re-directed development funds...the list went on and on. Under usual circumstances, dealing with this kind of abuse would have been the job for Treasury and Finance, but the significant debts that had been uncovered during the investigation made Rolt’s habits a question of national security. Thus an investigation had been launched and in less than a month the agents on the case had accrued enough evidence to send Rolt before a firing squad after a summary trial. However, the fact that Rolt was a cabinet minister made the situation politically sensitive. To avoid a public quagmire, a certain level of circumspection was required.
That need for subtlety was the reason for today’s meeting. Well, perhaps meeting was not wholly appropriate description. It was going to be more like a confrontation and interrogation conducted in an unnecessarily opulent setting. However, no matter how things went, Rolt would not likely be long for this world. Beyond Renata having a bout of uncharacteristic naive mercy, Havlen could not see a scenario where Rolt could get away from his mistakes.
Like always the visible security at the Palace barely seemed to give him any attention, but then again able as they might have been in inflicting violence to protect the mistress from harm, the guards in their impressive armor were largely for show, the last line of security. The real active security was mostly invisible to the naked eye and had already scanned and tagged Havlen several times and ran all the collected data against the Ministry’s records and the Palace’s own security archives to ensure he was who he claimed to be. If any of the checks had come back as negative, Havlen would already have been detained by a couple of burly operatives and escorted to a tiny windowless room for an ‘interview’. It was quite an impressive configuration, even if Havlen did say so himself.
Havlen made his way quickly through the Palace, reaching the cabinet chambers. It was the part of the Palace he had most first hand knowledge about. The various cabinet members met there once a week both to give Renata an update in person as well as coordinate administration and interdepartmental cooperation.
The door into the chambers was flanked by a pair of guards in the regalia of the innermost circle of imperial guards, which meant that Renata had arrived somewhat sooner than Havlen had assumed. He himself was well in time. ‘Hurry up and wait’ wasn’t just a mantra for the military after all. Being ahead of the schedule was rarely unadvantageous, after all.
“Your Radiance.” he said, passing through the doorway, giving a polite nod to the ruler of the Empire. “I hope you are not taking too much time off of you daily schedule to tend to this matter. Rolt is after all merely the minister for agriculture.”
@meira
It was a shame really; Rolt had showed some promise. He was toady, had no backbone to speak of, crumbled under no pressure whatsoever when applied by someone he was even remotely afraid of and lacked ambition beyond lining his own pockets. All in all a perfect fit to head a politically inconsequential department where the Permanent Secretaries under him did the actual work. Alas, Rolt had failed to ride his cushy job to a comfortable retirement and in an effort to drown himself in pointless luxuries had managed to engage in so flagrant embezzlement that Havlen would had have been wholly detached from reality or otherwise inclined to take a cut from Rolt’s corruption to miss his activities.
Projects with inflated budgets employing companies in which Rolt held significant stock, creative accounting in the use of the meager discretionary funds Ministry of Agriculture received in the budget, re-directed development funds...the list went on and on. Under usual circumstances, dealing with this kind of abuse would have been the job for Treasury and Finance, but the significant debts that had been uncovered during the investigation made Rolt’s habits a question of national security. Thus an investigation had been launched and in less than a month the agents on the case had accrued enough evidence to send Rolt before a firing squad after a summary trial. However, the fact that Rolt was a cabinet minister made the situation politically sensitive. To avoid a public quagmire, a certain level of circumspection was required.
That need for subtlety was the reason for today’s meeting. Well, perhaps meeting was not wholly appropriate description. It was going to be more like a confrontation and interrogation conducted in an unnecessarily opulent setting. However, no matter how things went, Rolt would not likely be long for this world. Beyond Renata having a bout of uncharacteristic naive mercy, Havlen could not see a scenario where Rolt could get away from his mistakes.
Like always the visible security at the Palace barely seemed to give him any attention, but then again able as they might have been in inflicting violence to protect the mistress from harm, the guards in their impressive armor were largely for show, the last line of security. The real active security was mostly invisible to the naked eye and had already scanned and tagged Havlen several times and ran all the collected data against the Ministry’s records and the Palace’s own security archives to ensure he was who he claimed to be. If any of the checks had come back as negative, Havlen would already have been detained by a couple of burly operatives and escorted to a tiny windowless room for an ‘interview’. It was quite an impressive configuration, even if Havlen did say so himself.
Havlen made his way quickly through the Palace, reaching the cabinet chambers. It was the part of the Palace he had most first hand knowledge about. The various cabinet members met there once a week both to give Renata an update in person as well as coordinate administration and interdepartmental cooperation.
The door into the chambers was flanked by a pair of guards in the regalia of the innermost circle of imperial guards, which meant that Renata had arrived somewhat sooner than Havlen had assumed. He himself was well in time. ‘Hurry up and wait’ wasn’t just a mantra for the military after all. Being ahead of the schedule was rarely unadvantageous, after all.
“Your Radiance.” he said, passing through the doorway, giving a polite nod to the ruler of the Empire. “I hope you are not taking too much time off of you daily schedule to tend to this matter. Rolt is after all merely the minister for agriculture.”
@meira