[b]Stockholm, Sweden[/b]
Birgit sat at his desk, coldly looking into the blue eyes of Damian, the finance minister. It was clear enough that Damian was unsettled and took effort to avoid Birgit’s eyes. Damian continued normally, despite desperately hoping the glare was all he would receive from Birgit, “Look Birgit, we just can’t do it, Cen still has influence and the move is too soon, and besides that it’s just not economically viable we might well lose money on the endeavour.”

Birgit sighed and his cold gaze was blocked by a hand that clasped his face, and when the fingers peeled off and Birgit’s eyes came again into view they had forgotten the cold gaze in favour of a look more disturbing coming from Birgit, disappointment. “Damian we did [i]all[/i] of this because you said that it as the only way to stop war. If we don’t re-open trade with the North Finns then we will [i]never[/i] be able to rebuild the public trust.” Birgit spun the chair to the side and stepped out with a creak, put a hand to his chin and looked back at Damian, “When did you care about Cen anyway? Certainly not when we betrayed everything we believed in for a change to do what the nation needed; tell me is that you have your fancy chair now? Was that all you wanted Damian? You were willing to break every law, every trust to get here and that was all you wanted!” Birgits tone became more harsh and violent and he took the hand from his chin and slammed it into the desk with a thud and levelled his eyes to Damien’s, “I will [i]not[/i] pull back the proposal, and if you try to stop it Damian know that even as my friend I am willing to take us both down if we can’t do what we did this all for!”

The sudden change to anger and rage took Damian off guard and he jerked back, nearly falling from his chair when Birgit slammed the desk, it took a moment but Damian quickly recollected himself and rose out of his own chair. Of course Birgit’s eyes followed him all the way up and Damian protested, “Birgit please, you have no right to accuse me of that, I am the same man that I was then, I want the same thing as you, and I care about Cen now because he is [i]right[/i] Birgit, North Finland has nothing to offer us for now. We did this for peace and we will have it Birgit, we just have to wait!” Damian sighed and lowered his voice, “If you want to ham fist the proposal though go ahead, but the consequences will be on [i]you[/i] Birgit, when our economy stops this growth the people love you for don’t expect to be able to fake another election.” Damian opened the large oak door and wordlessly walked out of the room, leaving Birgit angry with his hand red on the table.

Birgit returned to his chair and sat there for long enough that the light shining though his blinds failed, though he was too deep in his own mind to notice. He eventually stood up and noticed the worlds outside, he uttered, “Damn… Well Damian I guess we will see if you are willing to betray me.”

[b]Stockholm, Board of Defense[/b]
Dolf straightened his tie and stood up from the cushioned seat in the white sparsely decorated office (excluding the dominating portrait of Sweden’s first president) as he heard the door creak open. In walked the secretary of Defense Carin Svenson who was shortly followed by General Dirk Egon. The secretary extended his hand and Dolf followed suite. The secretary finished the handshake and walked to the seat behind his desk; he sat and signalled for Dolf and the General to do so as well.

The General sat at the seat immediately to the left of Dolf who took off his air force cap and waited for the secretary to begin. Perhaps a bit casually the secretary asked, “Was the drive down long Colonel? I hear that base can be a bit of a drive from the General here.”

Dolf politely responded, “It is sir, but I came as soon as I got the message to report here, I apologize in advance if I seem tired.”

The secretary responded, “No trouble at all.” He then pulled some glasses from the frontal pocket on his brown suit and put them around his narrow head, the glasses resting just above his ears near the balding on the top of his head. He continued after pulling out a document and looking at it for a moment, “The General here says the plane preforms well already? Excellent. You can imagine we are all a bit relived here that we are finally getting our air force up to modern standards. However, that relief has come with a bit of excitement and many in the Riksdag are advising me to push the deadline forward.”

Dolf, who had been occasionally allowing his eyes to wander during the exchange snapped to attention and protested, “Sir we need the time we have! The final review is in a month and while the plane has passed all preliminary tests we still need to verify the consistency of the results.”

The secretary sighed and looked to the General who responded to Dolf, “Look Colonel we know that the plane is not completely finished but with the recent exercises of the new Malmo class ships gathering attention we don’t have much choice but to push the review forward. The men in the Riksdag have a shorter attention span than my dog, we need them to give us the money for mass production on a successful review now, not in five years.”

Dofl was noticeably unnerved by this and leaned back in his chair before quickly correcting his posture and asked, “Is that it then? How much time do we have now?”

The secretary responded hesitantly, “Two weeks, I fought for a bit longer but that is all we have.”

Dolf stood up and spoke clearly, “Then that is what we have, I will get Alexander to fast track his adjustments. Secretary, General, may I be dismissed?”

The secretary responded, “Of course.” And with that Dolf walked out of the room, without the comfort he had carried moments earlier in being ahead of schedule.