{"id":1633,"date":"2019-12-14T15:09:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T15:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectacorp.dk\/wordpress\/?page_id=1633"},"modified":"2019-12-15T10:04:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T10:04:37","slug":"earthly-masters-chapter-11-15","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/selectacorp.dk\/wordpress\/earthly-masters-chapter-11-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthly Masters Chapters 11 – 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]CHAPTER ELEVEN:  THE PROPHETS OF JERICHO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her mother was thrilled of course.  Karin had shared the news regarding her transfer to the PM\u2019s Office, though leaving out the circumstances that had precipitated the shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready promoted after just a few weeks!\u201d<\/p>\n

Karin appreciated her mother\u2019s pleasure at the news but couldn\u2019t refrain from a dubious smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really get \u2018promoted\u2019 when you\u2019re an intern.  They just said they were short handed,\u201d she explained vaguely. <\/p>\n

Maybe she wasn\u2019t far off, she thought.  Government House was just couple blocks over from Foreign but instead of the usually deserted street, she was greeted with what looked to be a full blown riot ready to kick off at any time.  Blue uniformed police officers behind thick plastic shields ringed the Colonial era building, presumably protecting it from a throng of what looked like hundreds of protesters.  Signs bobbed above the crowd, promoting their agenda as they jabbed at the sky in ripples. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cDOWN WITH DOMINION PRIVILEGE!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTRY PEACE FOR ONCE!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMAJORITY RULE IS THE ONLY SOLUTION!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGIVE UP THE POWER OR FACE ZERO HOUR!\u201d<\/p>\n

She was ashamed that her immediate thought was that if the protesters had been Primevan, it was likely that the plaza would have been filled with bodies.  But these were Dominioners, not Primevans.  \u201cWOMEN\u2019S PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE\u201d banners, in pink and white, accompanied the \u2018message\u2019 banners, all held by angry women varying from university age on up.  She noted lots of hair dyed every hue of the rainbow and lots of very short styles, including straight buzzcuts.  Not exactly a pearls and heels crowd\u2014more like piercings and Doc Martens. <\/p>\n

She\u2019d heard of the WPP, which had begun popping up back at DNU in her sophomore year.  Espousing a mishmash of radical misandry, lesbianism and far left progressivism, they\u2019d started small and gradually grown.  They flouted campus rules regarding public demonstrations and, encouraged by the administration\u2019s refusal to push back, engaged in classroom takeovers, targeting professors who were insufficiently supportive of their ever wide ranging demands.  She\u2019d thought it was just an academic phenomena and yet here they were, besieging Government House and the most progressive PM the Dominion had ever had!<\/p>\n

A purple haired girl sporting a leather jacket and camo shorts pressed a flyer into her hands.  She looked down at it.  It featured a smiling Prime Minister Lucia Therese\u2014her new boss\u2014with \u201cTRAITOR!\u201d stamped across it.  She began to crumple it up, then folded it and dropped it in her purse instead, eyes scanning the crowd nervously.  No need to rile them, she thought defensively.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Approaching one of the officers, she displayed her Foreign Ministry photo id badge, asking how she might get in.  Opening a space in the plastic shield phalanx, he waved her inside the perimeter.  It was, she considered, a memorable first day.  By the end of it, she hardly remembered the dramas outside.  They soon paled in comparison to those awaiting her inside the walls of Government House.<\/p>\n

Frandsen, the PM\u2019s Private Secretary, met her at Reception and after an induction that lasted ten minutes, she was put to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cPM\u2019s got an Advisory Council meeting.  You prepare the room, keep the water pitchers and coffee urns filled and take notes,\u201d he instructed.  He was a man who, propelled by momentum, was loath to slow down.  He fielded a half dozen questions even as he led her down the hallway to the meeting room, his mobile on non-stop vibrate.<\/p>\n

In a brief intermission in the action, she asked \u201cIs it always like this?\u201d and instantly regretted it.<\/p>\n

Frandsen cocked his brows in unintentional parody.  He didn\u2019t even bother to answer.<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes later, like moths drawn to their own flames, men and women, some in uniform, others in civilian suits, located the table tents bearing their names and positions and took their seats.  Karin mentally recorded the names and attached them to faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Right Honourable Ingrid Hanne,Minister of Defence\u201d
\nDefensive.  Alert.  Attractive; early forties. [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

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