Redford smiled, the joke getting a laugh from the audience.
“So how many nations do you believe are going to actually show up to this meeting?”
“You’d be surprised, quite a few in fact. One hundred eighty in total, and, yes, that includes the nations of the Allied European Federation.”
“Wow, now you’re just kidding me. If anything, I’d say the AEF would be afraid to pay us a visit.”
“You wouldn’t believe,” laughed Redford, “the sheer amount of time and telescreen meetings it took with not only our Chancellor but with the UNR Cabinet to convince them of our intentions. The safety guidelines and requirements, I could honestly say, over a hundred different topics through hours of discussion to arrange but one meeting.”
The audience laughed, but Oswald placed his elbows on his desk, leaning closer.
“But in all seriousness, Chief Secretary, the AEF has had a great number of leaders and activists who over the years and to this day have been very outspoken about their disdain for the Chancellor and the UNR. Why, I recall it was U.K. Prime Minister Daniel Charles during his term some time ago who convinced the United Nations to carry the motion to shut down the UN Headquarters in Turtle Bay. The building hasn’t been used since The Expansion. Chief Secretary Vanzetti backed him up unquestionably.”
“Yes, very true, but now Charles wants to reopen negotiations. Relations with them have been occasionally heated, no one can deny that. That’s why we have taken the necessary steps to include a secondary function of the Summit.”
“Would I be wrong if I assumed some sort of weapons demonstration was at the heart of this?”
“In a sense, yes and no. We are sending an invitation to the world’s nations to consolidate, regardless of the differing politics. For the first time since the UNR’s genesis, foreign leaders have been openly asked to join the Chancellor on his soil. We know from history that calls for disarmament are rhetorical and pointless. Everyone knows this affects a nation’s sphere of influence. Therefore, the International Summit will allow each nation who’s willing to indulge us to exemplify their prowess. We, too, will be making a presentation and Venloran also has a very special announcement that he will make at the summit’s end.”
“Sounds to me a lot like the policy of mutually assured destruction.”
“Unfortunately, that kind of sentiment dictates peace. As for comparisons to the Cold War, it is public knowledge that we have not staged any full-scale military campaign against the expansion of democracy, communism, or any political movement throughout the world. We have only deterred insurgent groups when necessary and almost always at the request of foreign officials.”
“Another thing I was wondering: if all really goes well at this summit, will the UNR be readmitted to the UN in effect?”
Redford smiled and nodded.
“For some time, our standing with much of the world was one Venloran wished was of friendlier terms but now his dream will be a reality. By the end of the summit, the UNR will not only be readmitted to the UN but the United Nations building in New York City will join the main offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna as a fortress of peace and will once more be the official UN Headquarters!”
The studio audience rose for a standing ovation, unaware they were being joined by hundreds of millions cheering nationwide. The children in Janet’s classroom were ecstatic while she herself kept staring at the screen. She, like many, many, others, was feeling a strange compound sense of disbelief and strange pride. Alyssa could’ve dropped her coffee in the moment. The UNR was in an uproar, but this naturally stretched beyond the seas.
***
Villa Borghese, Rome
The man stood at the water’s edge, his eyes locked onto the scenery before him. The lake before him may have been artificial, but its beauty was astounding no matter how many times he gazed at it. The sparkling waters were graced by an array of ducks and swans in brown, white, gray and assortment of shades in-between. The aged man had pepper and salt hair, and he kept a glorious sheen to it. His green eyes were of the same magnificence as the trees across the waters on the tiny little island.
Emerging from between those tall emerald giants was a structure of ghostly whitish-gray, much older than the man himself. More than two hundred years, practically three hundred he could almost safely say. Of course, almost never satisfied him. Still, the building was an impressive sight, the Temple of Aesculapius by Mario Asprucci: built as a memento to times now long gone and gods no longer worshipped. As every other passerby marveled at it for its classic architecture, he looked on with a second interpretation shrouded in his mind: everything falls, even if its reign last centuries, it will fall.
“Cristiano, honey? Cristiano?”
He heard the sweet voice of his angel calling, and he turned slightly.
“Over here, by the water.”
Through the bushes appeared his darling Adalina in a white dress that showed off her smooth legs. At the moment, she held her ivory colored high heels in one hand, feeling the soft grass on her soles. Her black hair was even more stunning as the sun’s beams gave it the shimmer of a river. She grabbed hold of his hand and kissed him.
“You always mange to slip away from me when we come here,” she said playfully.
“Sorry, this place always gets to me. I’ll make it up to you.”
“Damn right you will,” she said with a girlish smile. His face became serious.
“Was the announcement made?”
“Yes, just as the Chancellor said it would. You are aware Daniel wanted to meet with you before the press conference. While you’re safely in office for another two years, your friend is in the middle of trying to win another term.”
“Di’Anno will fight hard, but Daniel will overcome him.”
“Very considerate of you, but your endorsement couldn’t hurt.”
“Don’t worry, Adalina, I’ll tell the escort we’re ready to go.”
The two walked off arm in arm.
Chapter 9 - Forsaken Return
October 10, 2065 – Silver Bay, Minnesota
The waters of the lake always managed to glisten one way or another, sparkling like gold or some pristine metal. The ever-present brown eyes had watched these waves for the last few hours. He wanted to see it. When the ghostly moon radiated off the surface, there was definitely a sweet yet damp feeling to the air. A shroud of mystique was a constant factor at nights when these waves and waters appeared to the pupil just as black. Now a new light was reflecting off this great titan, one of a golden brilliance. The man could feel its warmth hug him, feeling like an infant in a mother’s arms. The air was still remarkably chilly, but the sun’s rays brought brief gusts of long-sought heat. The water now appeared as its true colors, a deep blue with hints of green due to the algae visible in the shallow pockets near shore.
Will knelt on the jet-black beach front boulders, running his fingers along them as well. It was incredible just how smooth they were, like no stone he’d ever touched. And yet, the object easily weighed a ton and was hundreds if not thousands of times more durable than brittle human bone. A breeze passed and water splashed onto the soldier as a wave crept onto the rock. Will’s gloved hand felt only a tiny amount of the liquid through what tears there were, but his face was sprinkled. He now stood, wanting to gaze at the landscape before him.
Next to his beach spot stood an enormous wall of grayish stone. All the same, many tall trees had grown alongside the cliff face: organisms toughing it out next to a lethal drop onto a boulder-lined shore: Marvelous. Atop this lakeside cliff, though, like a true king of the hill, was a manmade structure, none other than the Split Rock Lighthouse. Victorious and ascending beyond the trees and water, it reigned supreme. Will wasted a few more minutes gawking at it all. He had much distance to cover in the next few hours, and he above all needed to reach the other side. That was his checkpoint.
***
Amongst the tall trees stood the fences of the UNR-Canadian borde
r, Gate 17. The barbed wire enclosure stood over twelve feet tall, not that its height mattered, for the fences were electrified. One could hear the hum of deadly energy as the fence was neared. Lookout towers with gunners also scanned both sides of the border, though only one being had gotten past their vigilant eye without going below ground; also the only person to ever cross the border without so much as touching the fence. This being had left this ‘impassible’ barrier far behind.
Telescopic eyes pierced the meadows, the tree lines, none of it escaping its gaze. The Red-Shouldered Hawk was a modern-day raptor soaring over the skies of much of North America. It was no scavenger like the unsightly vulture, so its sense of smell was not its strongest asset in searching out its next meal. No, this great predator relied on its eyes to spot movement, while more than a hundred feet above. With its glaring pupils, a tiny rodent oblivious to the sky became fresh meat.
On the ground, Will trudged along the forest floor, his stealth unable to avoid the dead leaves crunching under his boot. The birch trees, their bark marked with those horizontal lenticels, were in the process of shedding their feather-veined leaves. The canopy above him was all in one a joyful macabre sight. The fire-colored foliage had passed on, but within a few months they would be reborn, once more in green. In his black uniform, the soldier couldn’t dodge being a sore thumb in the environment, enough to cause the hawk some brief confusion before re-circling the area. Morning had long gone, as well as the UNR, Will’s CPU registering he had to be within the Pinery Provincial Park of Ontario by now. Grayish-tinted clouds peppered the sky, though no rain had ever come in all these days. It merely grew colder, warm breezes now delivered cold slaps to the face. The cyborg was an impenetrable wall even with his minimal insulation. He only kept moving.
It was then that his brown eyes met irises of gold. Will halted, his intellect searching for identification of what he was seeing. Four-legged, with fur of mottled gray with black along the back and tail, this new creature had one prominent feature any man would focus on first and foremost: big, sharp, blood-covered canines. The animal hunched slightly, snarling at the stranger fiercely. With its lips curled, gums exposed, those teeth appeared all the longer. It came to Will at that moment, his CPU adding the finite details a second or two later: a gray wolf.
He assumed he’d crossed into the male’s territory, but as Will looked at the creature he saw more. The jaws were a deep red but not from a recent feeding. A gimp in one of the wolf’s rear legs told him that much. Tight-muscled and well fed, the male appeared despite his wound in prime condition. A downed warrior, hobbling from defeat. The damage to the leg seemed beyond what any wolf could inflict to another. They were the marks of claws not bites. Will recalled the area, his own experience in the passing days and realized this was probably none other than the work of a Grizzly. Whether over territory or a slab of carrion, this wolf had chosen to fight his larger enemy and now had reaped the unavoidable endgame.
The wolf held steady, no fear. It stared angrily into the soldier’s eyes. The animal’s growl alone would be enough to drive off an adversary, but this one stepped closer. A warrior defeated deserves no suffering, no prolonged transcendence. A raised blade, a brief lunge, and but one swift cut.
Will was assured the wolf had felt no pain and knew concretely at no point did the animal allow itself submission. To the last a creature nobler than hundreds of men he’d watched die. There was one thing he still questioned though: had the wolf been a loner or a member of a pack? Had he been abandoned to perish alone?
There was no time for quandary as the forest around him came to life. There was little sound as they surrounded him, just the rustling of leaves underfoot. Over forty of them, Will counted, and over forty guns pointed at him. In their ghillie suits, he wondered if even the wolf had detected them as it trekked through the area. He smiled as they closed in, refusing to put up his hands and instead peering up at the trees. Indeed, in the branches were even more men. As he scanned the foliage his eyes went from the many weapons to the single avian flying between the trees. A Red-Shouldered Hawk, staring down at him as it landed on a nest high above all the activity.
Will finally raised a hand, causing all the soldiers to flinch and cock their weapons. He merely waved at the raptor before sticking his middle finger up at it. Coming out of the midst of all the soldiers now was a man the cyborg knew all too well.
“I see you managed to spot Alex’s toy,” greeted Halsey with a smile, rifle slung. “After almost a solid three months running around, he’s finally ready to settle.”
Will focused on the man as Halsey approached him. The two shook hands firmly and the cyborg could feel his increased strength. Halsey’s body shape had changed sharply, now toned and fit. He’d come a long way from the prison.
“Remember, I spent three months before that here in recuperation. But my business has been tended to,” Will said in the chill.
“Glad to hear it,” Halsey said, pausing briefly, his exhale visible in the growing cold. “Come on, let’s head back to operations.”
The majority of the men returned to their hiding spots while Will, Halsey, and three others began the trek through the forest. Will walked alongside the captain while everyone else kept pace a few feet behind. The cyborg got the feeling this was done out of one, fear, or two, agreed-upon discrepancy between the two “friends.” Will assumed they were acquaintances at best, but he hadn’t said much to anyone for months now. In reality, he was more disassociated than he’d ever been. Halsey had watched him slip away inch by inch. Unlike the others, who held their weapons close, Halsey kept his on his back. Despite the gloves, Will caught glimpses of the man rubbing his hands together.
“I was raised in Hesperia,” Halsey admitted with a laugh. “Some summers I could’ve sworn some asshole was turning up the dial for kicks.”
“I assume serving in the Caribbean didn’t help,” Will mused.
“Didn’t get my first taste of cold till I was in training up at Fort Drum, not that it would be the last.”
“Why so far from home?”
“I’m guessing you’ve never been to Hesperia. It’s nothing but dirt and a few little houses. I traveled in my youth before, with empty pockets. I turned to the military—”
Will looked at Halsey in a state of confusion, and the man could only nod.
“Well, I’m sure it’s probably changed since my time as a kid there in California. Christ, that was before the UNR even had a foothold.”
“Feeling nostalgic, are we?”
“Tends to happen to people when they start getting up there. I’m practically forty.”
“By my calculations, I believe I still have a few years on you.”
Will’s smile was definitely something Halsey appreciated, but it led him to actual pondering. What he took as a playful joke also rang true: Will had a decade on him.
“That might be so, but you don’t exactly look your age, lucky bastard.”
“I’ve traveled to many places in that time: sat through monsoon rains and dry spells, waded through snow and mud alike.”
“Someday you’ll have to tell me all about it.”
“Odd part is, before, I never took the time to really admire our homeland.”
Halsey looked at Will, the soldier’s gaze lost in the foliage around him.
“I visited many places, sometimes spent days at a single spot. It’s easy to lose track of time. Silver Bay was… astounding.”
“Before the UNR, the Great Lakes were a sight many on both sides of the border were welcomed to marvel at. Now there’s that invisible line, a practical no man’s land.”
“Lots of things have changed since we were young,” Will pressed, “but the beauty of that land has not.”
They didn’t have but a mile or two of walking between the tall trees to reach a large fence, tall and topped with barbwire and expanding in either direction for a distance Will couldn’t quite see. He could hear the barking of several dogs, pulling their pa
rtners right along with them to the gate. Beyond the tall fence there were trees, but they became seldom and thinly spread. In place of them, watchtowers stood. Before entering, Halsey turned his back to the entrance, facing Will and the others as if they were an audience.
“Welcome to the prestigious Ipperwash Beach of Lake Huron,” he said as the gate began to slide open. “Unfortunately, sir, all our cottages are booked but I can definitely book you for a time slot early next year.”
Will ignored the eccentrics and walked in ahead of Halsey. The rejected retailer had seen that coming, knowing the man was an ever-constant soldier. It was an instinct that dominated him. What the cyborg was anxious to see was their progress. He’d read in the past that this location was a regular tourist destination. though now no one would ever guess. Here the clutter of leaf litter was kept to a minimum, buzz-cut grass covering the area. This instillation was more of a small town compared to the shed where the cyborg had initially met them. He realized he was in the thick of it, the perpetual belly of the beast. Although back in his prior enlistment he would’ve considered the site more of a great big smorgasbord.
“You like?” Halsey said as he caught up with him, “One hundred thousand acres and growing.”
They walked past many soldiers running about, busy with construction or transporting supplies. A Humvee convoy drove by in front of them, causing the two to briefly stop. With all the activity, no one seemed to pay them any mind at all, at least Halsey thought so. Will could feel the sly stares coming from abroad. He anticipated this and knew full well it would continue to swell as his presence here became known. His focus, however, remained on the buildings, the area covered with a general pattern of warehouses and makeshift dirt roads carved out by vehicle tires. Each building, despite variation in their sizes, was alike in that the Badge of Her Majesty’s Canadian Forces was on each one. A central flag rose from what was probably the center of the compound, which also bore the seal. It was massive enough that anybody at any spot on the grounds could see it, even Will, who was close to the entry gate site.
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