The bulletin began with the best thirty-eight seconds of Brunner’s four-hour confession. King Richard IV sat beside the spy. He was glad the brigadier had not allowed him to wear the summer crown as he’d wished. The purple uniform shorn of all ornamentation made him look serious and smart.
King Richard’s speech took seconds. “In this age of confusion, it is easy to forget there is right, and there is wrong. Murder is always wrong. It is that simple. We cannot allow murder to go unpunished.”
A headline filled the screen. He knew the words by heart because the brigadier had read them to him a dozen times. And he could read… some of them.
KING RICHARD THE JUST CRACKS THE CASE OF THE 980, said the headline.
“The Just! I like it,” he said to the Earth overhead. “Maybe the Lion-hearted would be better, but Just is okay. That’s more important than being smart. Isn’t it? You had millions of the smartest people who ever lived, and they nuked the hell out of you. Maybe if there had been more just people, you and your billions would still be alive today.”
King Richard the Just checked his watch. Lunch was an hour away. He could hardly wait!