The Death of Carly Manning

Hope & Shane are seated on a sofa in a private jet..

Hope: It was nice of John to let us use the plane.

Shane: This is so much more practical for our purposes. And much more comfortable

Hope: Much, much more comfortable. (Hope sinks back onto the sofa and puts her feet up) And private --- so, fill me in. You sent a cryptic message, hustled us through the airport, rushed through customs and onto John's plane. Where are we going? ...and Why?

Shane: One might say I was a bit vague. We had to move fast, though. The ISA gave us clearance on that flight to London and John took care of the details on this end.

Hope: You certainly are a good travel-buddy. I have never been in and out of an international airport that fast. (laughs)

Shane (chuckles) Being an international spy does have its perks.

Hope: Well, Agent Donovan, Now would be the time to brief your partner on our mission.

Shane: Of Course, M'Lady. (produces a picture and hands it to Hope)

Hope: (staring at picture) This is Rolf!

Shane: That picture is the result of our witness' work with the Salem Police artist.

Hope: Rolf has been dead for several years.

Shane: Maybe we need to bring the jury back in on that.

Hope: Rolf may be alive?

Shane: That! Is the question. And how does that relate to Carly?

Hope: Who was the woman?

Shane: (hands her another picture) This one is not as good, most of her face is covered by the hood.

Hope: It's enough of a profile to tell who it is not.

Shane: Vivian?

Hope: You read my mind.

(stares at picture)
Hope: Who is she? I can't think of anyone I know from Salem that would be a match.

Shane: Roman said the same.

Hope: So where are we going?

Shane: We are going to Fenwick. The Rolfs' family estate, Rolfwood, is adjacent to Alamainland.

Hope: I've heard of Alamainland, Rolfwood and Fenwick are new to me. Where are they exactly?

Shane: Alamainland & Rolfwood are provinces located in the European Duchy of Grand Fenwick, it's a small island nation between Switzerland and France, At one time its economy was dependent, almost entirely on making Pinot Grand Fenwick wine.

Hope: Good wine?

Shane: OUTSTANDING wine! A very desired label. And all was fine until an American winery made a knockoff version, "Pinot Grand Enwick," This tiny country was devastated.

Hope: Did they sue?

Shane: Oh, no. This is better. The Prime Minister decides that the only course of action is to declare war on the United States.

Hope: That was their plan?

Shane: Yes! The plan is to send a proclamation of war to Washington, DC - to be delivered by a delegation from their army - a small band of ill-equiped misfits. They are to go to the White House to deliver the proclamation. When they are stopped by the security forces, the longbowmen are to draw up their bows and arrows as the Field Marshall and his men-at-arms step forward and hold forth the Proclamation of War.

When ordered to put down their weapons, they would do so --as they fell to the ground, declaring defeat at the hands of the mighty United States and begging for mercy from their captors - the United States Secret Service.

Hope: And apply for foreign aid! (She laughs)

Shane: Exactly! The Prime Minister is confident that he can rebuild the economy through the generous largesse that America bestows on all its vanquished enemies -- just as it did for Germany & Japan after World War II.

Hope: That is quite a plan.

Shane: As with many a good plan, there was one major flaw.

Hope: Whatever could have gone wrong?

Shane: They WON!

Hope: They Won?

Shane: Yes, they WON! - purely by accident! They landed in New York City instead of Washington, That was the first mishap.

Hope: (bursts out laughing spilling a bit of her drink.) oops!

Shane: (obviously amused and into this little history of Fenwick) No! No! Seriously. It gets even better! On the day they arrive, New York is testing their Civil Defense System with a city-wide disaster drill, Everyone has been directed down into the subways. It's almost totally deserted above ground.
The Duchy's invading "army", so to speak, wanders in to a top secret laboratory at the Institute of Physics, thinking they had found the White House and - completely unintentionally, mind you, They capture the "Q-bomb"

Hope: The Q-bomb?

Shane: Yes, the Q-bomb. They also capture a man they believe to be the President of the United States. He's really a brilliant professor - a scientific genius, if you will . The Q-Bomb is his prototype doomsday device, an instrument that could destroy the world if triggered. They captured Professor Kokintz and his beautiful assistant, believed to be his daughter, Helen.

Hope: How come I've never heard of this?

Shane: I went to school in Europe. Do you think this is something the US wants to talk about? But, wait ! It gets better..

Shane: The "army" was sighted by a Civil Defense Squad and was immediately taken to be "men from Mars!" That was due to their metal chain body armor..

Hope: Are you serious?

Shane: Absolutely. It was during the cold war. Civil defense drills were common.

Hope: I remember Julie speaking of them. Schoolchildren would have to duck under their desks and cover their heads. Julie said she always wondered, if the world is going to be destroyed, what help is this little desk going to be?
(They laugh)

Shane: Similar drills were going on in Britain. This was the atmosphere the international community was living under in those days - and another concern was the sightings of UFO's.

Hope: The little green men with antennas?

Shane: Not related in any way to the leprechaun.

Shane: But, back to the story. By the time the US government pieced together what had happened , much to their chagrin, the United States had been at war for three weeks --not with Mars, but with this tiny alpine island nation, The Dutchy of Grand Fenwick.

Hope: Where were the people of New York?

Shane: The outer boroughs had returned to normal after a few days with a news blackout and circulating stories of a gas leak in Manhattan. Manhatten was sealed off. The news black-out extended across the country and through all the US-friendly countries. The folks in Manhattan were in those subways for over 3 weeks!

Hope: Didn't they ask questions when they came out?

Shane: The pentagon had been working with mind control drugs. They released an experimental amnesic gas into the subway the night before the people were to be released. In the morning, the people simply got up and left. None of them remembered how long they were there, they thought they were just getting off the subway. Most of them walked straight to work. Completely unaware that anything had happened.

Hope: What happened with Fenwick?

Shane: The United States paid them off with magnificent wealth beyond their expectations. The plan worked!

(to be continued...)
 
Hope: That is an amazing story. How do the Rolfs and Alamains fit into this?

Shane: The key figures were the Grand Dutchess Gloriana, Prime Minister Mountjoy and Professor Kokintz. The army did manage to get Professor Kokintz and the young woman safely stowed away on their boat before heading back.

Hope: What about the Q-bomb?

Shane: They took that, too.

Hope: Where is it now?

Shane: I'll get to that. When they got back to Fenwick, Kokintz had the Q-bomb. That was something he did not let Gloriana and Mountjoy forget. He struck a deal with them. They each received a province. --an area of approximately 5 miles squared in American measure. -- Mountjoyland, Rolfwood and Glorianaville. Kokintz was an alias Dr. Wilheim Rolf used to enter the US. Helen was not his daughter. She was his younger sister, Marguerite Rolf, a brilliant scientist in her own right. Once back in Europe, they resumed the use of their birthnames.

Hope: So Dr Rolf invented a doomsday bomb. Why am I not surprised?

Shane: They each took control of 1/3 of the land AND 1/3 of the money that kept pouring in from the United States year after year. Mountjoy and Rolf built massive estates on the highest elevations of their province overlooking the villages below. Gloriana not only lavishly remodeled the palace and grounds, but also the villages. She built beautiful gardens for all to enjoy, had the roads repaired, fixed up people's homes and businesses. Her people knew her and loved her. Rolf also loved her. An unrequited love, but very deep on his part.

Hope: Rolf in love. That's quite a visual!

Shane: Gloriana knew how he felt, but simply saw him as a kindly older man with a brilliant mind who could do things with science that appeared to be magic. She loved him, but not in the romantic way he would have preferred. He loved to watch the wonderment on her face. They would spend many hours together -either in deep conversation, or with Rolf entertaining his lovely Gloriana with various science tricks. This did not make Mountjoy happy.

Hope: Did Mountjoy have a little 'thing' for Gloriana, too?

Shane: Oh, yes. He had been in love with her for many years, but to her, he was a father figure. He had always fantasized of marrying her one day. He didn't want her to change, really, to grow up. Gloriana had been a young teenager when her parents died. Mountjoy could pretty much run things in the entire country as he chose. Gloriana was busy with school and ceremonial royal duties. Since her graduation, which occurred during the 'War', she had decided to be the Grand Dutchess of the Dutchy of Grand Fenwick, not only in name, but as a full time ruling monarch. From that point on, Mountjoy had to obtain her approval for everything. Weeks later, when the ship arrived back in Fenwick's port, Rolf was on board, with the Q-bomb. The fact that Mountjoy was intellectually inferior to Rolf on so many levels didn't help. Mountjoy's claim to fame was the War on the United States -- and that was a fluke. Albeit, a very lucrative one, but just an utter accident of events. Mountjoy resented Rolf and was still furious over the deal he felt he had been forced to make. Mountjoy thought he would have control of the all funds in the state's accounts. Gloriana had the funds placed in the Royal Treasury and instructed Mountjoy to write a request for funds to pay the state's bills and she would take it up with her chosen Royal Advisors.

Hope: What happened to Mountjoy? Where do the Alamains fit in?

Shane: Mountjoy's only living relatives were his youngest sister, Vivian Mountjoy, his older sister, Alexandra Alamain, her husband and two young nephews, Forrest and Lawrence. After Lord Mountjoy's death, Mr Alamain's parents adopted Vivian and changed her name to Alamain. They all lived at the Mountjoy estate. We'll talk about them later.

Hope: So at the end of their 'war', Rolf had the bomb, Gloriana had the money and Mountjoy had the glory of 'the man who had the plan' - that worked! The hero of the day.

Shane: Exactly. They all needed each other - which led to the 3 way split and joint governing powers. The monarchy was dissolved and a 3-member Royal Council was set up. The closer Rolf and Gloriana became, the more it troubled Mountjoy. He was still able to skim off quite a bit, but, with all the education Gloriana was receiving in her conversations with Dr. Rolf, she had truly bloomed into an astute young woman, not the naive girl Mountjoy had been duping for years.

Hope: And he could be outvoted 2 to 1 on almost anything he proposed.

Shane: That was his fear, to be rendered effectual. He had created no loyalty among his villagers. Gloriana was beloved, and still believed by many to be their true queen. Rolf left the finances to Marguerite, who, like Gloriana, but maybe not to the extent of Gloriana's largess, took care of the villagers. She treated them well. Mountjoy was selfish. He stockpiled the riches and spent lavishly on himself and his estate. He believed that providing jobs for the peons, as he called them, was the best he could do for them. The problem was that most those jobs paid pennies and were only available according to the whims and whimsies of Lord Mountjoy, as he preferred to be called. While the other two provinces thrived and grew, villagers were abandoning homes that their families had lived in for generations in Mountjoyland and fleeing to the other two provinces which only became richer and more powerful. His kingdom was slipping away. The stress was getting to him and people were talking.

Hope: And he got desperate?

Shane: Well, very much as his victory was based on unusual circumstances and blunders, so was his demise. Gloriana went to Rolf's lab, looking for him. Rolf had stepped away, but the door was unlocked and Gloriana went inside to wait. While there, she was a curious lass, she spilled a test tube of something that looked like water. She cleaned up the mess and returned the empty tube to it's place. She had spattered it on her dress, so she went home to change.

It was quite some time before Rolf returned. At first he didn't notice the tube, but eventually, it caught his eye. He had been working on a non-traceable toxin that would kill within hours if not given the second drug in the treatment. With the second drug, it became a miraculous neurological cure. Without the follow-up, it was simply a poison. The 2nd phase had to be administered within an hour of the first.

He found a brief note from Gloriana with apologies for disturbing his work and to come to the palace when he finished work for the day. Fearing it might be too late, Rolf raced to the palace with the 2nd dose.

He was too late. Gloriana had returned to the palace and quickly changed her wet clothes. She came across Lord Mountjoy in the garden. The poison was slowly absorbing deeper into her system. Mountjoy and Gloriana were having a heated debate, as seen by passers-by. Gloriana began to swoon from the effects of the drug and Mountjoy caught her. To witnesses, it looked like he was assaulting her. Within minutes, Gloriana was dead. When Rolf arrived, Gloriana's body had been brought inside and police were taking Lord Mountjoy away. Rolf was beckoned inside to tend to Gloriana. As soon as he examined her body, he knew she had been killed by the poison, not Mountjoy. His grief was so intense, he pronounced her dead and fled to his estate where he stayed in complete isolation except for the meals brought to him by Marguerite. He emerged from that isolation as Stefano DiMera's mad scientist.

Hope: And Marguerite?

Shane: Marguerite, herself, is believed to be dead. A terrible boating accident many years ago. She had one daughter. Her daughter died several years ago - oddly, in Salem.

Hope: I remember that. And Lord Mountjoy?

Shane: Disgraced and hung - for a crime he didn't commit. That's when Mountjoyland became Alamainland and the senior Alamain's - her brother-in-law's parents - adopted Vivian to erase from her the stigma of Mountjoy.

Lord Mountjoy had been such a miser and the Alamains were well-off to begin with, Mr Alamain began rebuilding the villages and attracting people back to Alamainland. Maybe it's karma, but despite the Alamain's efforts to clean it up, Alamainland has become the most undesirable section of Fenwick. Rolfwood is pretty much abandoned except for some squatters and tenant farmers. Glorianaville is a thriving tourist stop and a series of very pleasant villages.

Hope: We'll be staying in Glorianaville, I hope.

Shane: Absolutely.

An attendant enters the cabin

Attendant: We will be landing in about 10 minutes. Please fasten your seat belts.

Hope: My least favorite part of the flight.

(Hope grasps the armrest as her knuckles turn white. Shane places his hand over hers and smiles protectively. Hope manages a weak, but grateful smile. There is a 'bump'.)

Shane: We made it! We're on the ground!

Hope: Thank you, Shane. Thank you. (she hugs him)

Attendant: (returns) The captain has asked you to wait for him.

Shane: Certainly. No problem.

(The attendant leaves and another door opens at the far end of the cabin)

Shane: John!

John: You didn't think I'd let you and Hope have all the fun? I just might be some help. I lived in that estate at one time.

(to be continued..)
 
Glad to see you are back!

Ok, I am totally bamboozled, some how I know the history will explain everything. Creates a few more questions for me.

Enjoying your story!
 
I must say you have an imagination out of this world. Welcome back to the story and boy did you come back with all cylinders firing. How exciting to learn about Rolf and his family history. Keep up the great work and stay healthy.:)
 
After sending Carly's remains to Alamainland along with a man soon to be identified as Dr. Rolf, I had to get Shane and Hope there. I had to find a way to connect Rolf to the Alamains apart from Stefano. Something personal. And where, exactly, IS Alamainland, anyway!

Professor Kokintz and the Duchy of Grand Fenwick popped into mind. From there, it became a combination book report turned creative writing assignment.

Thanks to Leonard Wibberley for an entertaining and enduring story and memorable characters. I did take considerable liberty from the original story in order to give the country its Salem connections.

But the story is, essentially, a take off of "The Mouse That Roared" It was fun playing with it and bringing Salem to Fenwick (and vice versa)

"The Mouse That Roared is a 1955 novel by Irish American writer Leonard Wibberley, which launched a series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick." (Wikipedia)
 
Amazing!!! Stupendous! And YEA!!!!! John is there! :clap::clap::clap:
 
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