Chapter 1: Blood dawn part 2

Vladimir was really annoyed now, everyone saw from the way he was walking. Now the normally very calm and considerate man was now storming through the hall, running over anyone who refused to make way for him. When he entered his office he threw his jacket on the couch and then sat down in his chair. After resting a while he stood up again and walked to his cupboard. Carefully he removed some of his pistols from their holsters and placed them on the cupboard. While he was doing this a door opened behind his back.
“Thank you for keeping my tea warm, Benjamin.” he said without looking behind him.
“I didn't. I just made some new tea when you came back.”
“Whatever....”
Vladimir sat down again and accepted the cup offered by his youngest pupil. He watched the energetic young man walking back out of the room. After a few nips Benjamin came back with in his hand a large folder.
“Is that the 8 o'clock briefing?” Vladimir asked, pointing at the folder from behind his cup.
“Well it was. Are you still interested, my lord?”
For a second Benjamin feared that his teacher was going to strike him with lightning bolts coming from his eyes. His masters gaze was already piercing through his forehead, trying to soften up his brain for the horrible things to come. He was now slowly shrivelling away in his chair, trying his best to get a grip of something, anything. Suddenly his hand shook brusquely and he poured his tea in his lap. Screaming from pain, caused by the burning liquid, he jumped up from his chair.
“You gotta be more careful, I'd hate it when something would happen to you.” Vladimir said in his calm cool voice. Benjamin was nervously dipping up the tea with his handkerchief. Vladimir now reached for the folder. He picked it up and quietly looked through it.
“Everything is in here?” he asked without looking up.
“Ye... yes, my lord.” Benjamin stumbled.
“Good. Then you may now be dismissed. It's late for the both of us, I'll go through it myself. Thank you for your hard work preparing it.”
“Thank you, my lord.” said Benjamin surprised, making a tiny bow and leaving the room.
A very nice boy, Vladimir thought, but he still has a lot to learn.
He now started reading his report more thoroughly.

I) political and military situations

Asia
India is believed to be fully mobilised by now. It's troops have already reoccupied the Kashmir region and are standing by for an assault on Pakistan. Pakistan is only 40% mobilised but is threatening to use it's nuclear arsenal if India proceeds. Chinese troops in the border region with India have also been put on a higher state of alert. India has not yet officially responded to this potential new threat.
China has already taken control of large parts of Mongolia and is amassing troops for an invasion of Siberia. Russia has already started moving extra troops to the region but the fights with the separatist regions in the west is demanding a great part of their military forces. We do not believe that the Russian army will be capable of fending of a Chinese assault. The Japanese fleet is mainly in the harbours for maintenance. The active ships are operating in the Chinese sea, playing tag and hide and seek with the Chinese fleet.
In the middle east Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt are fully mobilised, yet no country has taken an initiative. Local diplomats are meeting in Ankara in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution.
Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are still in a state of civil war after the withdrawal of the American and UN forces from the region.
Russia is still facing separatist movements in the Caucasus region and it looks like these rebel groups are slowly taking control of the region. Russian top army leaders have agreed on the use of chemical and biological weapons against the rebels and the local population who are supporting them.

Europe
The Balkan has now entered a full scale war. Today Romania, Bulgaria and Bosnia have officially declared war on Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia, after Yugoslavia invaded Montenegro. Croatia and Slovenia supported this assault and stated that it was time again that the Balkan got united under one banner. Russia has already given it's full support to Yugoslavia on this matter and promised men and material. Considering their current status it seems very unlikely that they will be capable of actually aiding Yugoslavia. Since they also lost control of their harbours in the black sea and because Ukraine has already confirmed that they will not allow Russian transports through their nation it is highly unlikely that they would be able to move their forces to the needed regions anyway.
Germany and France are still in an impasse after 5 days. The heavy artillery siege of Strasbourg by Germany seems to have no impact other than the destruction of the city. France still controls the sky at night and uses this power to disrupt the German reinforcements. Other countries in the region have not yet taken an official position in this war............ Flemish commandos .................
Italy .............. Vatican gaining ...............

Africa
Central Africa in disarray ...............

II)economics and industry
................higher costs ................... loss of oil fields .......................

Vladimir had now switched to superficially looking over the documents. They didn't contain much news anyways. Or unexpected news that was. All was going according to plan, except for the costs that were about 3 times higher than expected. Luckily he foresaw this and he had freed up 10 times more money for his plan than his generals calculated. The American government could learn something from this, he grinned. He was about to call it a day when an unusual article drew his attention.
The Vatican has sent 2 commandos of the section 13 to the United states on a special assignment. Sources indicate ....
Vladimir stood up, and stormed to the control room.
“Who got this intell?!?” he yelled, showing the paper to his intelligence coordination officer.
“I will look it up sir,” the officer said, shaking in fear, “one minute please sir.”
“You got 5 seconds!!!” Vladimir shouted at the man, who in response almost completely vanished under his desk.
4 seconds later he found the intelligence his master was asking for.
“The report was submitted by Laika, our number one intelligence source in the Vatican. In his 15 years of service he has never once made a single error in any report. I think we can rely upon his information. The departure was confirmed by 2 sources on the airport...”
“Okay, good enough,” Vladimir interrupted him, “contact Davy Jones. Order him to have these 2 commandos followed and tell him that if he loses them, there will be promotions in our American division. Also get my jet ready by tomorrow noon to fly to America. Besides my normal guards Benjamin will be joining me on this flight, make sure he is fully informed and ready by tomorrow noon. You got all that?”
“Sir, yes Sir!” shouted his intelligence officer.
“Alan?!?” shouted Vladimir now.
“yes, my liege?” was the answer from his supreme commander.
“Mobilise the black guard immediately. I want ...”
“No can do sir,” Alan interrupted him, “ the majority of the guard is currently undergoing maintenance and ...”
That was as far as Alan got. Before he could say anything else a bullet punctured his skull and threw half his brains on the person who was so unlucky to be standing right behind him.
“How many times have I already told you that you should A, listen to what I'm saying, and B, think logically?!? I told you that we could need the black guard at stand by! We're at war! How could you even think of calling in our troops to have them dismantled to see whether they are broken or not! If you disassemble them they'll be broken for sure! Never heard of small routine check-ups!?!”
“Uhm sir? Sorry to interrupt you, but he's already dead.”
“I know that you idiot, and if you don't shut your face you'll soon be too.”
Vladimir went quiet for a minute and took a few deep breaths.
“Okay, Marshal Edwards, are you here?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Congratulations on your promotion. By when can you have the black guard mobilised?”
“I think we could get it up to 50% of it's full strength in 1 week and get the rest up and running the week after.”
Vladimir glared at his new supreme commander.
“But if we do some overwork, we will surely manage to get up to 60% of our strength in 5 days and get up to 90% in 10 days.” Edwards corrected himself.
“So everyone got his orders now. Are there any last questions?” Vladimir asked. He looked around but nobody moved or spoke. “Okay then,” he proceeded, “get to it. No more slacking, I don't want any more surprises tomorrow. Goodnight all.”
Vladimir turned around and walked through the door, slamming it shut with such force that it would have surely broken, were it not that it was armoured with high quality titanium.