Stephanie felt that the man sitting beside her was forever shrouded in an impenetrable mist. Even though she oversaw the Internal Affairs Department of the City of Immortals and was responsible for coordinating all logistical work across every department in the organization, she still did not know how many classified black operations the City of Immortals currently had underway. The Praetorian Guard's missions lay beyond the authority of the Internal Affairs Department, and every operation they carried out was classified either black or deep red. The Praetorian Guard was an independent system. Constantine did not participate in the administration's operations, and the Internal Affairs Department likewise had no right to know what the Praetorian Guard was doing. Yet the Praetorian Guard held decision-making power in certain matters. It could interfere with key decisions made by the Internal Affairs Department and could even, to some extent, make decisions on the monarch's behalf.
That meant that, when necessary, the Praetorian Guard system was the superior of the Internal Affairs Department, much like a feudal lord's envoy.
And now there was one more person with even greater authority. That was what displeased Stephanie most.
Even though Victor von Doom would not join the operations of the City of Immortals until Latveria's problems had been fully resolved, Stephanie had already prepared herself to play a game of office politics with that iron-masked man. Her storming into the office to question Salomon had merely been one of her little tricks. She had long known that Salomon's decision would not change. Displaying her grievance would make Salomon feel that he owed her a favor, and perhaps he would compromise with her on certain matters in the future.
Salomon smiled and picked up the data terminal from his desk.
Stephanie always made the same mistake: she always