“Yup!  Love you too, Meg.  And I promise you don’t have to call me Lord Allistor or kiss my feet or anything.  I plan to be a real casual sort of evil overlord.”

Michael’s voice replaced Meg’s.  “You lucky bastard!  I hear you got yourself a bear pet yesterday, and now you have your own Barony?  If there was a leaderboard, I’m betting you’d be at the top right now.”

Allistor winced.  He hadn’t thought of that.  “Hey, let’s hope there isn’t one.  You know what happens to the top people on the boards.”

There was a pause, then Michael said, “Shit.  Yeah, everybody else tries to take them down.  Hadn’t thought of that.”

Allistor was quiet for a few moments.  Then he pushed the talk button again.  “Listen, guys, I’m going to continue on to Cheyenne and try for that Stronghold.  We already own a lot of the land around it now.  Also, get together and discuss if you want any upgrades to the Stronghold.  We have a buttload of klax in the account now.  Let me know what you decide the next time we talk.   Also, I obviously won’t demand a pledge from any of you.  But there might be some benefit to it.  So if one of you wants to spend a little time reading up on that?”

Michael replied right away.  “Lilly’s already done it.  She says there are bonuses to crafting skill development, morale, and experience gains.  They are supposed to be the benefits to offset the taxes you can charge us now.”

“Ha!  There will be no taxes.  At least, not in this first year.  You can consider that an official decree.”   He could hear some chuckling in the background when Michael keyed his microphone.

“Glad to hear it.  We’ll get together and talk about upgrades.  And I think we’ll all be making the pledge.  It’s not like we can’t change our minds later and leave if you turn out to be a tyrant.”

Allistor pictured himself on a throne shouting ‘Off with their heads!’

“Good to know.  And thank you, guys, for the faith you’ve shown in me so far.  This really was an accident.  I’ll tell you the whole story when I get back.   I’m a little worried about the competition coming after you guys, now.   The Warren is my headquarters, and effectively the seat of our little Barony.  If you can, take a couple people and drive down this way.  Stop at the gun shop and grab a bunch more guns and ammo.   I’ll make this ranger station an Outpost too before I leave.  No shortage of klax to convert to system points.  I’m going to leave my pickup here and take one of the big ranger’s trucks.” He smacked himself on the forehead.

“Oh!  There’s a ranger here with me.  Helen.  Say hi to everyone, Helen!”