Category: CIA!Dorian, OutOfTheCloset!Klaus

Disclaimer: Not only are the Eroica characters not mine, neither are the plot bunnies that inspired all this. The CIA Directors and NATO Command personnel mentioned herein actually are real. No disrespect is intended to these individuals. Their depicted actions are purely the result of my twisted imagination.

Notes: This story would not exist at all if Yoiko had not written "More Than Meets The Eye." With her kind permission, I have melded versions One and Two, incorporating them into the Prologue.

Next, I must thank Filigree, whose fledging story "Honour Among Thieves," -- which was abandoned in 2002, and which she kindly allowed me to adopt and (totally) rework -- formed the basis for what is now "House of Cards." The incorporated material ends at the conclusion of chapter four.

Thanks: Jim for fight coordination and putting up with his Mom running eleventy billion plot ideas by him. K.M.Anderson for information about the Washington D.C. area. Library Ninja The Hunter for the proper way to store archived documents. Esther and Riothouse for their patience for 5 months while I bounced bizarre plot ideas around, for their input and critiques of said ideas, and for beta reading.

Warnings: AU, violence, fist fights, angst, guns, bombs, terrorists, and spy stuff, plot twists, crack-humor moments, a world tour, planes, boats, and other seagoing vessels, exotic locations, and other surprises.