“Look at the bright side, Dora.” Louis tried to be as calm and mild as possible, “Telomerax is becoming more and more accepted. True, very difficult times lie ahead for all of us, but we can weather the storm. The work you did for the hundreds of young favelados won’t be in vain. And we will be back here when it’s over.”
“Will it ever be over, Louis? Will we see that day?”
“I do not know, but we must hope so.”
Chapter 15
The black Mercedes sped through Tverskaya Avenue in Moscow, heading towards the Kremlin. Inside, Irina and her new boss, who managed the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, were finishing the final preparations for the meeting. They had been working at the technology transfer deal for the whole winter of 2031 and the spring had seen some meaningful progress, so that the Israelis had sent a high-ranking delegation for the conclusion.
“Your move from the SVR, the foreign intelligence, to the GRU has been a very welcome one, Irina,” Pavel, her new boss, commented. “Your skills in this negotiation with the Israelis are just invaluable.”
“Thank you, Mr. General,” Irina politely answered, keeping a respectful distance. “I got used to the Middle Eastern style of negotiation a long time ago. Despite their conflict, Arabs and Israelis are more akin than they want to admit.”
“I cannot judge about that, but it looks like we are close to a deal. A deal that our rodina badly needs.”
Irina did not need to be reminded. Chinese-armed guerrillas had been constantly stepping up in the Far Eastern districts for three years. The Chinese were arming and infiltrating tens of thousands of soldiers, pretending they were local insurgents asking for more autonomy from Moscow.
After all, they were repeating the same tactics that Russia had used against Ukraine nearly twenty years ago, just on a much bigger scale.
The car slowed down as it moved through the Spasskaya Tower, so that the X-rays security check could scan it. The guests were recognized by the system and let go without even opening the windows, which for Irina was a pity as she could have let some fresh May air inside. The Mercedes eventually took an underground ramp and disappeared into the basement of the Presidential Palace.
Irina and Pavel got out and walked for about fifteen minutes along a maze of corridors. Despite her long career, Irina had never been there and all she could do was follow Pavel.
They eventually entered a windowless white room. The only embellishment was 19th century stucco laid around the walls, representing some kind of floral pattern.
There was only one table inside, the Israeli delegation, with three people, who had been waiting for roughly two hours and sat on the side opposite the door.
As soon as Irina and Pavel entered the room, Eyal stood up and warmly welcomed them, ignoring the long delay.
“Nice to see you again, Pavel. Despite my repeated invitations to come to Tel Aviv, we keep meeting here in Moscow. The two gentlemen who are with me today are Rami and Shlomo, who as you have certainly found out by now, are the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and the deputy assistant to the Prime Minister.”
Pavel smiled at Eyal as he shook hands with his guests.
“Spasibo, Eyal. Let me introduce Irina to you, she joined us from our foreign intelligence service a few months ago. I think we can start the meeting now, we have a pretty dense agenda in front of us.”
After two hours of discussions and document reviews, two things were clear. The Israelis wanted to have access to the new combat exoskeleton technology the Russians were developing to equip their special forces, the Spetsnaz, to counter the Chinese insurgency in the Far East, yet they did not want to transfer knowledge of the biodrones in exchange.
“In all frankness,” Eyal said, “I think it’s premature. We do not even know if the new combat armor works outside the test range conditions you showed us. There are too many new systems to be tested in real battle, from the carbon nanotube structure, to the electric actuators. Not to mention the mini gas turbine that is powering it all. Our government will never allow us to give you a tested jewel like our biodrones in exchange for a prototype, no matter how promising it may be.”
“We can easily address your concerns,” Pavel smiled back, “It is already in mass production. We have tested the first one hundred pieces and it works just fine. As for the technology, we went as far as giving Sakhalin Island back to Japan two years ago so as to get their latest robotics research.”
“You mean, this was part of the Russian-Japanese friendship treaty concerning also the long term commitment from Russia to supply natural gas?” Shlomo intervened, frowning at Eyal. “The Mossad should have known.”
“Well, you are not the only ones able to keep treaty annexes a secret,” Irina jumped in to increase the tension in the Israeli delegation. “We do have a long tradition on secrecy as well. Anyway, we can invite some of your special forces to have a look in the battlefield and then reconvene in a few weeks, if you need some further assurance on the quality of the product.”
“What if our special forces get captured in action?” This time the objection came from Rami, the Israeli Defense Forces representative.
“Well, it is a risk,” Pavel replied calmly. “However, we can manage to set the test in a relatively quiet and controlled sector. After all, we are talking about a one-thousand five-hundred mile front, and the area around Lake Baikal is still relatively quiet, so far.”
“I am aware that this does not reduce the risk to zero, though,” Eyal commented.
“The rest depends on your team, Eyal,” Pavel continued, “I am sure you have plenty of Russian-speaking members in your special forces, considering we are the second ethnic group in Israel, and I know that many Israeli citizens of Russian descent still refuse to learn Hebrew. Just tell them what is awaiting them in case they become prisoners.”
“They know they are expendables,” Rami cut in, “Yet even assuming the exoskeleton works, I don’t think this will be a good enough reason to hand over the biodrone’s technology.”
“Mr. Rami,” Pavel continued calmly, “now you are making me feel jealous. You handed the full biodrones package over to the Americans three years ago, in exchange of something valuable to you, which I will not even bother asking about. Don’t you agree our offer is a good one? May I remind you that you have far less leverage and common interests with China than with us? Or do you want us to lose this undeclared war?”
“We are cooperating with you in many ways,” Shlomo came in to support Rami. “The fact is, the electronic fly has the highest security rating in our arsenal. Higher than nuclear weapons, for the level of risk it brings. That’s why we would share the know-how about it with a foreign power only in exceptional cases.”
“Like, for example, preventing information leaks about your Cyprus operations?” Irina abruptly asked.
It took all of Eyal’s power to hide his surprise. Rami and Shlomo gave each other a helpless glance and then looked at Eyal.
“It looks like the three of you have something to discuss on your return flight,” Pavel laughed heartedly. “Let me reassure you, we do not have the full picture yet, however we do have several interesting clues. No one in Russia knows about the file, except our President of course and the two of us here. From what we learned, I am sure you do not want us to start telling other services what we have found so far…or, God forbids, an anonymous hacker starts posting documents on the Internet or emailing newspapers.”
Eyal waited a few seconds after Pavel finished.
“This development might indeed change the stance of our government, but as you said at the beginning, there are a few more steps to take before we can come to an agreement. One of them certainly is that we must precisely assess how the leaks came out and how to prevent them from happening again.”
“He wants us to hand over the mole,” Irina thought to herself, “but we have time to make a decision about it. It’s time to end the meeting now.”
“Eyal, we understand your concerns,” she addressed her guests, “and we will take them into account when closing the deal. You cannot mess around with Russian cover companies, have one-quarter of your population coming from Russia, and pretend there isn’t any leak due to double-loyalty,” Irina said. “After all, we also have a strong sense of belonging to our rodina. In fact it is just like last time with the Nazis, we are fighting a common, mortal enemy.”
The Israelis looked at each other, then Eyal decided to conclude the meeting. He stood up and shook hands with Pavel and Irina.
“I think we are done for today,” he said slowly and coldly. “The terms of your proposal are pretty clear but we need to discuss them as soon as we get back to Tel Aviv. We will follow up two weeks from now.”
When the Mossad delegation left, Pavel moved to the opposite room, switched the lights on, closed the door and told Irina,
“Congratulations on the maskirovka you used to hide the real source, but do you really think they now believe we have a mole in Israel?”
“I do not know, they are professionals like us and won’t believe everything we say without double and triple checks,” Irina answered. “Actually, we started investigating seriously when we realized that much of the revenue that Mossad makes by selling Telomerax in North America - which we got from our latinos informants - is consistently being reinvested in Cyprus by cover up companies. This is the half-truth that got them on the hook. Given their reaction today, it must be something big, worth some further analysis.”
“Unfortunately not, Irina,” Pavel interrupted her, “we have to focus on our issues in the Far East, remember?”
“Of course, Mr.General,” Irina promptly replied. They left the room and headed back to the underground parking lot together.
Chapter 16
As Charles entered the studio of his Long Island mansion, his videowall automatically tuned in to the early morning CNBC news report. The anchorwoman was commenting on the latest polls, that forecasted a landslide victory for the Democrats in the Presidential election happening in two weeks.
Holographic projectors appeared on his desk, showing all the incoming emails. He was halfway in his morning routine, when an unknown call came in. He usually rejected these types of calls, except this time an email from an anonymous sender simultaneously popped up on the screen. The subject read, “Pick it up.”
Charles answered and he immediately recognized the voice of Skip, who was excited beyond imagination.
“Heeelloooo, Charles, I suggest you ditch the ordinary news and listen up. The most important bit won’t be there. I will keep running all the intelligence agencies, directly reporting to the President.”
Charles was astonished. As much as he needed Skip to keep his place to safeguard his company’s government business, he could not believe that Stuart Strickland, the Democrat candidate, could afford to keep a person like Skip in such a role.
“Skip, are you sure? Apart from beating J.Edgar Hoover’s record in office, how do you think that Strickland can justify this with his voters? He has made a pledge to change all the Moreno policies of the past eight years, starting from the federal ban on Telomerax, and he would keep you where you are? Are you blackmailing him with some juicy scandal?”
“Not at all,” Skip replied cheerfully, “Fact is, I am just a simple civil servant after all, I only have to make sure that the policies decided by our Presidents and Congressmen are implemented in the most effective way. It was not me who addressed Congress nine years ago to ban Telomerax. Neither was it my idea to bury Benedict XVII in Washington National Cathedral, just to make the point that the late Pope was more American than Catholic, and all the other bullshit that wreaked havoc with our NATO allies and sent our financial system and economy into mayhem again.”
“In other words,” Charles said, “you persuaded Strickland and his staff that the situation is so bad that they cannot afford any discontinuity in such a crucial place like yours?”
“Exactly,” Skip chirped, “and by the way, it’s nothing new. The same thing happened when Obama took office back in 2008. He left the Bush-era Secretary of Defense and CIA director in place for a while. Let’s face it, our country is practically on the edge of a second civil war. How else would you describe it? Just look at what happened this summer past in San Diego, or what the governor of Oregon is saying.”
Charles, like any other American, remembered all too well. In July, drug gangs had seized control of the Mexican border and large parts of the San Diego metropolitan area to smuggle to California the biggest Telomerax shipping ever, a convoy of sixteen trucks worth thirty-five billion dollars on the market. It took the National Guard and the US Army seven days of fighting and more than one thousand casualties to get the city back under control. In most Southern cities and in many neighborhoods of the inner cities the night curfew was now the rule. In this climate, Edward Wu, the governor of Oregon, and a Democrat like Strickland, had called for a state referendum to secede from the Union, with many other states ready to follow suit.
“Strickland will let states do what they want with Telomerax, just like we did with weed twenty years ago. Then the new President can just hope that the move reduces the level of violence and gets the economy back on track after the shocks of the last years.” Skip continued his monologue, “once money and security are restored for most Americans, all the mambo-jambo about secession will stop. Obviously he has to keep America out of any dangerous foreign matters, like meddling with Russia and China. He understands this very clearly. Throughout the entire campaign, he repeated several times that he will definitely pull out of the Middle East, given our energy independency, and forget all about the Saudis and the deal that Roosevelt made with them about one-hundred years ago. This is history now.”
“Alright, Skip, I have heard that several times,” Charles interrupted him, “I am now busy creating a business plan for next year, considering that government demand for Telomerax detectors and skin chips will drop, and I have investors to please. True, we are building parts for the combat exoskeletons, and we see demand for that growing, but I am still missing several billions of sales over the next few years.”
“Charles, we have known each other for many years and you still think I am so selfish as to not think about my long term friends? That’s upsetting. You still have some things to learn about me,” Skip rebuked and continued, “Our security spending won’t go down. It’s all about restoring confidence and security, I told you.”
“Yeah, restoring confidence and security while keeping your agency power untouched,” Charles thought, and then he replied.
“That’s why we are increasing the plan for the exoskeleton production for the Army and the various police corps, but this won’t be enough to compensate for..”
“Forget the exoskeletons, what about the flies?” Skip’s voice suddenly turned harsh, “We need lots of them. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions.”
Charles paused in disbelief. BioGuard engineers had just completed the first production line, yet they were nowhere near that capacity. However, Charles thought, such sales would easily allow BioGuard to meet its revenue growth targets up until 2040.
“Skip, are you kidding me?” Charles tone was at the same time submissive and inquisitive, “It would take us three to five years to produce that amount. Up till now you have been buying a few hundred per year. And what for?”
“You have to fix that,” Skip was now definitely upset, “if you cannot do it alone, just ask the Israelis again. The reason is always the same, we have to defend our country from all threats, both external and, even more, internal. I will call you back in three weeks and I need to see a solid plan.” Skip hung up.
Charles looked at the clock, which showed 6:45 AM. His director of West Coast manufacturing was still asleep. Since he had no time to waste, he looked through his contact list and dialed the third, nameless, Tel Aviv mobile phone number.
Chapter 17
The Boeing 7
77 of the Abu Dhabi Air Wing taxied and eventually stopped in front of the Royal Terminal of King Salman Air Base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The attendees from the Emirates disembarked and quickly boarded the vans that took them to the Royal Saudi Air Force building where the meeting was to take place. As Tarek entered the room, he noticed all the other delegations from the Gulf Cooperation Council had already arrived and where seated around the huge table. He was with the United Arab Emirates Army Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Defense. The three of them were using the chairs reserved for each delegation. The rest of the team, around ten officers per country, was sitting behind the fronting trio.
Tarek exchanged greetings with the other delegates, whom he had known for several years and could therefore address on a first-name basis.
The room was buzzing with chatter, when the Saudi Crown Prince and Minister of Defense, Mohammed bin Salman, entered the room. A wave of silence swept over the room and everybody took their seats. Tarek could not help but notice that, despite being now almost fifty, he looked still very much like a man in his late thirties. He did not seem to have exaggerated too much with Telomerax.
The Crown Prince glanced at the thick, intricately decorated green curtains that blocked the windows, then nodded to his Chief of Staff, General Khalid Al-Azzam, to start his presentation.
There was a single point on the agenda, which was how to contain the Iranian threat when the US Navy would leave its base in Manama, Bahrain, in six months, at the end of June 2033.
The presentation lasted half an hour, and was followed by one from Qatar and Kuwait. Tarek noted that, among the various proposals, all speakers never forgot to blame the isolationist foreign policy of the new President. The unanimous judgment was that Strickland was downsizing all presence abroad too much to focus on the domestic issues. However, this left allies in the cold.
The Last Enemy - A history of the present future - 1934-2084 Page 29
