“Duly noted. Next time, I will ask the kitchen staff to serve raw peppers.” With his profile to her, his head bowed and eyes skimming over the messages that had accumulated on his device, his fiancée might not have noticed the amused smile playing on the prince’s lips. He could lie and say that he pictured the scenario that she was painting with her words, but to what end? He was not trying to impress his sick fiancee and perhaps she would not believe him even if he tried. Rhiane might think him callous if he said what he was thinking, but the word farm all but meant food and economy to him. Never had the soles his shoes touched the muddy soil. If his mother could have her way, she would ensure that neither her sons nor her daughter would ever set foot on the land of the poor. Luke, on the other hand, felt that he had no business visiting the agricultural sector of the kingdom, especially just for a photo. The reports he needed in order to make sound decisions were available at the touch of a fingertip.

A voice of a woman sung the notes to what sounded like a requiem foreshadowing the fate of the cast of the movie. The monitor showed a scene way before the last great war had begun – of a celebrated unsinkable ship and its rich passengers waving at the loved ones they were leaving behind. It was neither action nor adventure, which his fiancee confessed she enjoyed. The movie Titanic was more about romance and drama surrounding the unlikely meeting of two different worlds. Much like him and Rhiane. Though he did not mean for his choice to resonate the present. 

His eyes lifted from the unread messages in his inbox after hitting send. [i]”I will send you my itinerary,”[/i] the message to Sophia said. [i]”We can meet in one of the cities outside the capital, just don’t forget to inform me in advance so that I can make special arrangements.”[/i] Just not that night. Rhiane’s condition required attention. Besides, after he talked back to the queen, it was not beyond her to turn the implant on to ensure that her son would not sneak into the night on his last night at the capital.

“We can watch Godzilla next, but we will be up all night if we did. There are several movies starring the giant lizard. I may know a number of movies, but I am not an expert when it comes to film.” Instead of looking at her, he raised his eyes to the monitor. “The twins are. They used to bully me into watching movies with them, especially the scary ones. It was my father who introduced me to pre-war movies, though. When I was a kid, we watched animated movies together – 2D and then 3D – it must have been amazing to live in those days, witness technology evolving.” A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

The smile was short-lived as the door slid open and Nolan, one of his bodyguards, stepped into the threshold with the computer Luke asked to be brought to him. The prince gestured for the sharply dressed man to enter the room, then thanked him briefly for running the errand for him. “Anyway, this is a good film. Probably better than my cousin’s choices.” He dragged a table in front of the chair he was occupying, setup the computer, then started reading through the reports he failed to review earlier. Once in a while, he would glance up the monitor to watch a bit of the film or take a bite from the dinner that had gone cold, but mostly Luke let it play in the background while he caught up with his work. 

Sometime while the movie was still playing, he received a call from the security service. He excused himself and stepped out of the room. “Sire,” the person at the other end of the line greeted. “Our people have tracked the waiter that served the wine to the princess elect.”

Luke leaned against the glass panel, nodding as if the other person could see him. In a low voice, he answered, “My order still stands – investigate, but do not engage. He might lead us to whoever was behind all these.”

“Negative, your highness. Our people found the waiter dead in his apartment.”

“Dead?” Luke repeated, as if to confirm what he had clearly heard. Seb predicted the same fate for the waiter who brought them their food. Could it be a that he knew more than he allowed himself to tell the prince? 

“Yes, sir. The suspect was found dead. A piece of evidence retrieved at the scene could point to the resistance. There will be a full report before midnight, but I thought that I should give you a heads up.”

“There is another person.” He looked over his shoulder at the frosted glass door. Behind it was the victim of the failed assassination, the other person’s sister from a different mother. The prince was sure that she would not like the course of action he was toying in his head, but then again, he was not doing the investigation just for her. It was his job to enforce justice, and that was what he was going to do. “If the investigation comes to a dead end, remind me to send you the name and details of this person. He may know about the perpetrators.”

“Sire?”

“Thank you for the advance information. I will give further instructions upon your recommendation.” Luke cut the line without waiting for any acknowledgment. He walked back to his chair beside Rhiane’s bed a little distracted. Instead of watching the figures on his computer, he stared at the movie. If his team would hit a dead end, then he would have no other choice but to invite Sebastian Legrand to answer questions.