Undisclosed Location

It was a huge meeting room with limited lighting. There were 4 people seated around a huge central round table. There were a lot of empty seats. Everyone kept quiet and seemed to be waiting for more people to join.

It was difficult to make out much about the people in the room as they wore identical loose-fitting dark brown robes which covered them completely. They all had grey masks on their faces as well. It was difficult to even determine the gender of the people in the room.

The only difference among their appearance was the small pictures on the corner of their masks. The pictures resembled various chess pieces in white and black colour.

The exception in the room was one person who didn’t seem very interested in hiding his identity much. He had his arms completely out of the robes. It was clear he was a black guy with a very strong build with the huge amount of muscles he was flexing. There was also a large Green dragon tattoo on his right arm. It almost felt like the dragon was moving around when he flexed his muscles. The image on his mask represented a Rook white in Colour. He was playing with the lighter in his hand.

All the other people in the room sat perfectly still, quite content with waiting.

A few minutes later, finally one of them spoke. He had the picture of a black queen on his mask.

“I just got a message from the white queen. Seems like he won’t be able to join the meeting today. So with that out of the way, I think we should start with the meeting now. I the Black Queen hereby declare the council in session.”

With that sentence, the entire demeanour of everyone in the room changed. They no longer had the carefree look or the uninterested attitude anymore. They all looked very serious and looked forward to the meeting.

As soon as he was sure he had everyone else’s attention on him, the Black Queen continued speaking.

“As everyone is aware we have quite some interesting times on our hands. For today’s meeting, I the Black Queen will be the moderator. So to be on the record, we have the White Rook, Black Knight and Black Bishop in attendance today along with me.”

The voice of the speaker was slightly distorted which felt like the work of some device in the mask. It made it difficult to even determine the gender of the person from the voice.

Suddenly the Black member with the White Rook picture on his mask spoke up.

“I thought White Queen was supposed to join today’s meeting.”

“Yes, White Rook. He was supposed to, but due to some last-minute emergency, he could not.”

The person called White Rook took a pause before he continued.

“I find these meetings a waste of time. I should be back on the ground preparing for our next mission.”

“Don’t worry. You will be back on the ground and running soon. You have a major role to play in our next mission. And as you know, it is of critical importance to our organisation. As for the meeting rules, they were set by the King himself. I’m sure you can bring it to his attention the next time you meet him.”

White Rook calmed down a bit after hearing that. It was quite evident the amount of effect the name of King had on him.

At this moment the person with the Black Bishop spoke up.

“So is there any changes to the plan?”

“Nothing major. All the details are in the folders in front of each of you. Everyone will have their role to play. But as usual, King will be playing the major role in this mission.”

“And the timelines?”

“We expect to start our preparations soon and plan to finish off within a year. The ending would be really spectacular. Our enemies would never know what hit them. It’s time we made our presence known. It seems our silence has been mistaken for cowardice by our enemies. It’s time we changed it.”

The person with the Black Knight image on the mask spoke up for the first time.

“Is it necessary for the King to take this role? It’s very dangerous.”

“I can see what you are trying to say, Black Knight. But you know how the King is. Once he sets his mind to something. No one can change it. Not even God. And you know what our groups' mottos is – Strength above all. So have faith.”

Black Bishop was the next to speak.

“Ok, seems like we are going ahead with this. So no point discussing it further. What about the other members?”

“White Rook and White Knight have already started getting all the other pieces of the plan in motion around the world. We will take action at the same time. The timelines are very clear. So we will stick with them. We will let our enemies enjoy themselves while they still can.”

Everyone seemed content with that response. Black Knight broke the silence after no one spoke for some time.

“Black queen, about the recent incident. Do we have any follow-up action items?

“Nothing at the moment. Let the public think about what they want. We will not provide any details. As for the people that were involved in the development of the weapon, we will give them proper compensation. After all, there is no doubt remaining on its effectiveness.”

There was some silence before the Black Queen continued.

"So that was all from me. Is there anything else anyone wants to add?

The Black Bishop was the one to respond to that.

“Actually there was something I wanted to ask White Rook. I heard you got a new head of intelligence. Hope this one lasts more than the previous ones.”

Black Knight joined in the conversation.

“Not sure why you selected him though. I have heard some rumours about him. So I would be careful around him.”

Before White Rook could respond, the conversation was interrupted by the Black Queen.

“That’s enough. I’m sure all of us are competent enough to handle our own teams. So no need to interfere in that. If that’s all, I Black queen declares the end of today’s Council meeting. And as always - Strength above all.”

“Strength above all.”

Everyone repeated together.

While everyone dispersed there was a determined expression on everyone’s face as if they knew this was just the calm before the coming storm.

End of Part 1