The Avignon Affair by Gary McAvoy

Author:Gary McAvoy [McAvoy, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781954123229
Published: 2022-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Then, waving, Valois turned and walked away from the podium to a chorus of jeers and shouts of derision from the crowd at the steps of the presidential palace. The soldiers immediately formed a barrier preventing people from getting close to Valois as he reentered the building.

Glued to her chair in stunned disbelief, Hana looked at her computer. The website she had been viewing suddenly changed to that of the French government’s website. She tried accessing any other website without success. The government had truly taken over, and she was afraid for what lay ahead.

Trying her desk phone, there was no dial tone. She took out her cell phone and tried calling her grandfather. A robotic voice reported that all circuits were busy.

She tried calling Marco, but the phone didn’t even ring; it just went straight to voicemail. Then she remembered he had gotten the phone wet while swimming away from the attack the day before, and it was sitting in a bag of rice in their kitchen.

She was sure Marco was aware of what was going on, and she expected him to show up at any moment. Who else to try…?

Michael. She dialed the number of his cell phone. To her delight, the phone rang. He picked up immediately.

“Hana, are you okay?! What in God’s name is happening there?”

“Oh, Michael, it’s just terrible. There are soldiers in the building. They’ve suspended our presses, even our reporting, and they cut off the internet and all landlines. I’m surprised I got through to you. Can you do me a favor and call grand-père and let him know I’m okay? I can’t get through.”

“Yes, of course I will. What else can I do? I’m terribly worried about you. Can you get out? Can you get to Rome or Geneva?”

“No, nobody can travel now. It’s restricted. I don’t even know if I can get out, and I have Swiss citizenship as well as French. It’s all so crazy. What is Philip thinking?!”

“Well, he must think the situation requires a pretty strong hand. But this has the feel of a coup d'état to me.” Just then, he heard a commotion on Hana’s end.

“Michael, I have to go. The soldiers are ordering us to go downstairs. What else did you want to say yesterday?”

“Um…two things, though one can wait. But we do have some information about your friend the duke. Turns out Pope Clement wrote an edict that proclaims Philip IV’s descendants to be the rightful rulers of France. And based on our genealogical research, Jean-Louis Micheaux is the last living male descendant of Philip IV—which makes him the rightful king of France, at least in name and honorific if not in actual practice!”

“That’s hardly even believable! Can you send me proof of that? I think the duke ought to know. I’d want to, if I were in his position, especially now.”

“Sure, I’ll text it to you, and email it just in case. At least one might get through.”

“Thank you so much, Michael. I’ve been thinking about what happened at Notre-Dame, and I just wanted to say that—“

And she was gone.

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