Ardashir stared at the horizon. He smiled. A small piece of paper lay in his hands, left in the Royal Safavid Palace by a Panda. He looked rather apologetic, but shoved it into the Shah's hands nonetheless. Then he turned, and ran towards a black and white contraption rapidly lifting off the Earth's surface.
The paper read:
Successful assassination of George V completed. Penguin contacts proved essential in allowing Agent Cornea to target. Agent evacuated with essential personnel.
Successful manipulation of mod's memories have proved successful. Before Polar Bear intervention stopped us, we managed to secure a small pocket of unfrozen space, in a fifty mile belt from Teheran to the Tigris Delta.
You have one day to evacuate Thlayli, and a year to set Persia in order for the eventual unfreezing.
Use this time wisely.
"Odd, don't you think," said Mustafa. "That even with the Pandas help, we can be kept from the Freeze."
"Well, perhaps das appreciated all the effort we had put into this...into making Persia a power. We fought for the freedom of peoples...we kept idealism alive in the world. Maybe we deserved not to freeze."
"But still...we're going to have a huge advantage over the FK when everything unfreezes. You don't think that the ruler of this universe would allow something like that?"
"I suppose it doesn't matter. We'd better talk to our ruler, no?"
"Yes...he's stuck right on the Arabian border, I think."
Several hours later, they pulled Thlayli out of the greyness.
"Thanks Ardashir, I appreciate it," he said.
"Oh, it's fine...you've done far more for us, now that I think about it."
"True, and we'lll get a chance to do it again. Give Suleiman, Malik and Jeshua my best. As for Cornea...I have some use for him where I'm going."
Mustafa looked a little puzzled. "That's all fine and good sir, we'll rebuild Persia before the world unfreezes, but still...how the hell are you getting out of here?"
"Oh, I can call in a favor from the Lord in Green, he runs all the interdimensional gateways around here. He needed a concrete mathematical explanation of the Way to keep it from becoming nonexistant...it's a long story. But anyway, he'll take me to the next world."
"Until then, Thlayli. You did well with us."
"Next time, Ardashir. We'll finish this next time."
The Hyperborean gateway opened, and Thlayli walked through it. The Shah and his general waved farewell.
"So...what now?"
"I want to go see my son again."
"Bloody hell, this heat is awful. Let's go, sire."