The Sheik's Dagger - Introduction
Series Name
Gael’s Story…
Gael stared out the window at Tessa and Oreylia, his sisters, as they raced their ponies across the palace grounds. They were laughing, have a great time, while he was inside, dealing with…?
“Gael,” his father called out sternly. “You need to understand these contracts.”
Gael stifled a groan. At fifteen years old, he knew more about contracts than most business leaders and he understood military strategies more thoroughly than his father’s top generals. He’d been raised to understand all of this since his life would be dedicated to leading his country.
“Can we ride later?” he asked his father as Gael sat down in his chair.
Before his father could answer, the door to the conference room opened up. Filing into the room were a group of ten older men. All of them took their seats around the ancient conference room table. The meeting began and it took a great deal of energy to listen to the tedious details of the new roads that required repairs. Thankfully, the meeting shifted to political issues next. Politics, alliances and global strategies…that’s what he loved to think about.
His father glanced over at him. “What do you think?”
Gael nodded, trying to keep the eagerness from his voice. “I think that an alliance with Campour at this time isn’t wise. The leader of Campour is oppressive. If we maintain diplomatic ties with the nation, we’re sending a signal to our other allies that we condone violence.”
“Who cares?”
“Businesses care,” he replied, understanding the question…and the test from his father. “Or more specifically, consumers care. And that forces corporations to care. If we want to attract businesses to our country, we must maintain our global reputation.”
His father nodded, pride shining from his eyes. “Excellent answer!”
Bea’s Story…
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Bea yawned as she listened to yet another line of the stupid play. Hamlet. Who named their kid “Hamlet”? Some stupid Danish king, she told herself, desperately trying to keep her eyes open.
Her fingers tapped the book, but she was no longer paying attention. High school English classes were tediously dull, she thought. Why did she need to read such a stupid, old story? No, it wasn’t even a story. It was a play!
Yes, yes! She knew that reading various authors forced her mind to “look at the world in a different way” and blah blah blah. The text in this particular play was easier to read than that other one. What was it? Right. “Canterbury Tales” Okay, some of those stories had been good. Some not so good.
As her fingers tapped on the book, a thought came to mind. An idea! What if she loaded all of the books into a database? Then she could…do what? What would be the point? She’d still have to read the stories. She’d still have to write a report on whatever boring assignment the teacher gave to the class.
Sighing, she slumped back down in her chair. Why couldn’t everything be done with computers? Programming was easy for her so why did she need to suffer through this kind of misery, just to read a story that she would never use later in life?
“Bea?” the teacher called out.
Bea jerked to attention. “Yes?”
The other students laughed and Bea felt her cheeks heat up. Obviously, she’d missed something important.
“It’s your turn to read. Have you been paying attention?”
Bea glanced down at the book, then at her friend’s finger pointing to where she should start reading. “Of course,” she lied. Then began reading out loud. She didn’t add any inflection to her voice. She read the lines with a monotone, inwardly smiling as she helped lull the other students into a deeper sleep.
