Chapter 09

A Year of Changes

The year 2006 is a year of many diverse challenges and changes in Gerry’s life.

In December, 2005, he passes his final exams to obtain a degree in law and is accepted by the relevant bodies as entitled to practice law. In February, 2006, he becomes a qualified lawyer entitled to appear in court and be paid to represent someone. A month later he’s appointed by the Amiri Tribal Council as the Amur Elder because the previous Amur Elder is retiring. The Amur Elder is the tribe’s senior judge as well as the giver of law and wisdom. Because of this appointment Gerry also applies to the general courts to be listed as a judge. They evaluate him and appoint Gerry as a Supreme Court judge on call. This means he can now be asked to hear cases anywhere in the country and he can be called in to sit on a panel of judges for major Supreme Court cases.

In March of 2006 Gerry’s grandfather and grandmothers pass him control of their private business empires, most are businesses in other countries with the bulk of them being in the US. He’s the only member of the clan who’s shown a flair for high level business management and they now wish to retire from business work. This increases his personal empire and total worth by sixty percent.

At the annual Clan Table in April the Clan Father, King Edward (Gerry’s grandfather), declares he’s standing down from the office. Written secret ballot nominations are called for, forty-six nominations are made. All for Gerry - he’s astounded. In the formal secret ballot vote he’s elected unanimously. With everything else he’s now responsible for the management of the clan’s financial resources. The total value of the clan assets isn’t known because of the unknown value of the diamonds in the ground as the full extent of the mine isn’t known beyond the term ‘huge deposits.’ The worth of the known valued clan assets is about three and a half times that of Gerry’s personal business empire to make the combined fiscal empire he now manages to be more than four times his previous holdings.

In May of 2006 King Herbert, Gerry’s father, declares his Prince Edward persona to be the Royal Protector of the People and the head of the Protector’s Office. He also creates a new Guards force responsible directly to the Royal Protector. It’s called the Protector’s Own and it’s to be known as the Shields with their unit symbol being a shield.

During the rest of the year Gerry is very busy. He revamps the Royal Intelligence Service; organises and recruits people for the Shields - most are transferred from the existing Guards units, revamps the Child Welfare Services, completes various courses of study, manages the many business empires, carries out a number of Guards assignments he’s given, family duties, and other general activities. He’s a very busy fellow. Still in high school and he’s already doing enough work to keep three or four people busy in full-time employment. Yet he still finds time for fun, friends, and family; mainly due to his support team’s help and appointing good subordinates.

Gerry sets about reorganising the clan businesses into a much more streamlined operation. The first thing he does is to create two new US companies as head companies: one company owned by the clan and one company owned by himself. All of the US based businesses are then absorbed into these two companies and are set up in a much more effective corporate structure. All of the clan businesses are absorbed into the clan corporation while his businesses are absorbed into his corporation. This has the effect of simplifying their management with one policy for all of the companies in each structure, and usually it’s the same policy for both corporations.

One interesting side effect of his appointment as Protector of the People is a large number of girls and young women who write to Prince Edward offering to engage in sexual relationships with him to have his children. He hires a group of office staff to handle all this for him. They develop a database of the people and send them polite letters of neither acceptance nor rejection. He laughs at having his own groupies, sight unseen.

Gerry already has a number of regular lovers, concubines, slaves, and over eight hundred children. As the country’s richest person he can afford the costs involved. Many people know he’s well off, but very few know how well off he is. His personality and willingness to help in anything has made him friends with people across the country, and most of the girls at school have welcomed his attentions for a few years now.