Luthor studied the man. His face, his serious expression, his earnest eyes all gave the impression of an honest man, giving an honest response. Luthor could not help it, he believed him.
“Then it wasn’t you who sent that log-in code for the EU?” Qwiz asked.
Jimenez suddenly smiled. “Ah yes, that. You are correct, I didn’t send it. But I do know who did.”
Qwiz looked like he could barely contain himself. “Who?”
Jimenez glanced at his watch. “Actually, I hoped he would be here already. But he’s had a bit of a longer trip than you did.” At that moment an aid entered the room and whispered something in the President’s ear. “It appears he has just arrived.”
The Secret Service all took out weapons. They seemed to be even more on edge than when Luthor had first entered the room.
“Please understand,” Jimenez said, “this is a historic occasion. It’s the first time an ambassador from the Chinese block has been welcomed onto American soil since before World War III.”
Qwiz stood up, “The Chinese Block—”
“Allow me to introduce, Ambassador Hyeon Park.”
“DAD!” Qwiz sprinted to embrace him.
Luthor found himself grinning ear to ear. Joyful laughter filled the room. Qwiz began to introduce everyone to his father.
Luthor stood in respect to shake Hyeon’s hand. He looked to be in his 60s and wore a finely tailored suit with a striped green tie. He was balding badly, but what was left of his combed-over hair was still mostly black. Overly large glasses sat on a face that had a striking resemblance to Qwiz. Hyeon bowed, “it is a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Tenrel.” His English was flawless, though noticeably accented.
“You were an ambassador!” Qwiz said, “after all these years, I’d never been able to figure out what your job was.”
“Actually, until we received your final email, I was the Director of International Counter-terrorism. Given my relationship with you, the leadership thought I would make the perfect choice for the new Ambassador.”
“One of Hyeon’s spies sent you the EU login information,” The President said.
“Thank you! It saved my friends’ lives.”
“You’re welcome, my son,” Qwiz’s father replied, “I only wish I could have been there with you. You have acted with honor and courage. I am proud of you.”
Qwiz beamed.
“So, sir, Mr. Ambassador, sir,” Bill said. “How long you been watching Quency?”
“I’ve had an agent keeping tabs on him and my wife for almost ten years.”
Bill whistled. “That means you saw us that first night when Stalker had us cornered like… like…” Bill struggled to find a non-vulgar metaphor.
“Yes. I had an agent there.”
“You called them off!” Bill pumped his good fist. “Ha! Thank you! I owe you a pint for that. No. Make that a lifetime of pints!”
The Ambassador smiled.
“I’d always wondered why they just wandered off when they had uzis shoved up our peck—I mean our ass—in our faces. How’d you do it?”
Hyeon shared a look with Jimenez. Jimenez nodded. “Mr. Ambassador, we too have our own spy secrets, if you choose to share how you saved your son’s life with him, I will not pry into the details. I am too concerned with reuniting families and countries to jeopardize that with lust over proprietary technology.”
Hyeon bowed. “Then it appears you are a man worthy of leadership and of friendship. Yes, my agent intervened. We have a… method of emergency covert communication while in other nations, which my agent used to save your life. I will simply say that the… method is dangerous and can only be used once by any agent.”
“Does that mean he died?” Qwiz asked.
Hyeon hesitated. “I do not think so. He was alive when he sent the normal communique that you needed access to the EU. That was the last time I heard from him. He took a terrible risk in exposing himself to the Sabers. I beg leniency on behalf of your government if he is found.”
“I have never cared for an independent force that can operate on American soil with impunity,” Jimenez said. “If he is an enemy of the Sabers, then as far as I’m concerned, he’s an ally.”
Qwiz cleared his throat. “Mr. President,” he began respectfully, “how is it that an agency you help pay for has a goal so completely opposite your own?”
“I never said I supported the Sabers’ creation,” Jimenez said, “I was a Congressman in New Mexico at the time. They didn’t exactly ask my permission or my input. They just acted on fear. Fear of rebellion against such an economically restrictive law. They needed a way to enforce the law, so they created the Sabers.”
“Somebody to stop the mafia from flooding the world with illegal carbon,” Michael summarized.
“More like an entire nation from circumventing carbon restrictions to improve their employment rate or GDP. They created an international agency that operated outside the jurisdiction of any other law enforcement or government.”
“Giving any group that much power isn’t a good idea,” Vika said.
“Certainly not. I am sorry Miss Veronika that you had to experience so much of it firsthand.”
Vika nodded. “Even I didn’t know their true purpose.”
“Before the war, only people at the top levels of government knew they existed. They were top secret in the first few years of CPI as they rooted out black market smuggling rings, secret coal burning factories, that sort of thing. They brought rogue states into line. When the war broke out, the Sabers had been hardened into the perfect tool to handle the most difficult missions. The Coalition used them like a scalpel to take out impossible targets, and word of their existence spread through the military.
“By the time the war ended, they had gained the reputation as the most lethal special forces group in the world. But without a war and wide-spread compliance with Paris 2, they fell out of notice and simply became a subheading line-item in the international budget.”
“Where did Dimarin fit in?” Vika asked, coldly emphasizing the past tense of his role.
“Franco Dimarin was appointed head of the Sabers during the last year of the war, making him officially responsible for any special actions they took globally. A position he held until today, actually.”
“126’s potential to eliminate the need of carbon enforcement altogether might piss a group like that off a bit,” Garcia said.
The President nodded. “It seems he viewed your promise of free energy for everyone as a threat to his power.”
“He said as much when he had us trapped,” Luthor said.
“You couldn’t do anything to stop him?” Tanya asked.
“That’s the nature of the carbon enforcement law. They didn’t answer to me. Or the Prime Minister. That was the point. How could they be independent if I could stop them? My interference with the Sabers is strictly limited to political red-tape. I can direct the oversight committee to not approve major actions, I can hike up prices for their munitions, or impede their transportation. But anything else is illegal; direct opposition would be tantamount to declaring war on the rest of the carbon-restricted world—something congress would never approve.”
“So Dimarin could freely do whatever he wanted?”
“Essentially, yes. As long as he could tie his actions in some way to enforcing carbon regulation. However, now that he’s impeded our national security, and broken our laws—and for that matter, directly worked against his own charter— we can lock him away.”
Vika almost smiled. “I enjoyed seeing him in handcuffs,” she turned to Jimenez, “I hope he never sees the outside of a cell again”
“If I have anything to say about it, he won’t. And now that he’s locked away, perhaps together we can end the energy crisis.”
Bill spoke up. “Yeah, you can say that now that Qwiz’s brought you 126. But if you really wanted to end the energy crisis there has been another option for you,” he looked the younger, but infinitely more powerf
ul man in the eye, “we are sitting on enough energy to feed and heat this country for another 150 years.” Tanya gasped, but Bill trudged stridently on into the traitorous 2180 rhetoric. “You could have legalized coal and natural gas; within a few years starvation would be a thing of the past.”
The President bored holes into Bill’s head with his eyes. The moment froze as everyone awaited his judgement. To utter such a thing in public was a felony.
“You have lived up to your nickname, Stone.” Jimenez said. “Except it feels like it’s not strong enough. Your manhood has got to be made of tougher stuff than mere stone. They should have called you Steel.”
The bushy mass of white hair on Bill’s face shifted into a smile.
“You do know that you have just committed a felony. And you have just done so in the presence of the President?”
“I know what I said. You had the power to save millions of lives and you didn’t because you were afraid of the carbon boogeyman.”
Like a popping LED bulb, the secret service surrounded both Bill and the President.
Pistols trained on Bill’s bandaged chest.
“Get back, you retards!” Bill snapped at the agents, “I’ve waited over 20 years to tell that to the guy with the big chair. I’ve said my peace and now I’m done.”
Jimenez raised a hand. “It’s okay.”
“It is not okay!” an agent growled.
“Is Climate-Denial really a worse crime than all those they’ve been pardoned for already? On a list of crimes that includes terrorism and murder?”
The agent backed off.
“I think we can add it to your list, Stone; it’ll save you a minimum ten years in prison.”
“Thank you.”
“Pardon me if this is not the time for such questions,” Hyeon began, “but as this is China’s first official contact in decades, am I to understand that your country made it illegal to question climate change?”
“Yes, of course,” The President replied. “Such rhetoric was too toxic and too dangerous to allow. In order for the Paris 2 protocols to successfully curb carbon use, we needed a people united against it. We couldn’t allow such obvious lies to divide us in such a critical time.”
The Korean ambassador stroked his chin in thought. “Again, I apologize for my brashness. If you wish to discuss matters of international relations in private, I understand.”
“You would not be here today if not for the courage of these people. Whatever you have on your mind, you can share with all of us.”
Luthor was again impressed with Jimenez. He couldn’t tell if it was pure political gamesmanship or if his statement was genuine, but by including them he clearly had won over everyone in the room, including Qwiz’s father.
“Perhaps, the differences in our countries are finally coming into focus for me. And I suspect it will be very important for our countries to understand each other if we truly seek reconciliation.”
“Nothing would make me happier than to help reknit this world together.” Jimenez said. “Please help us understand one another, Mr. Ambassador.”
“I believe that all our differences come down to one thing. Mr. Benyard would have had no need of a pardon had he uttered those words in China.”
“How do you see such a minor change making such a big difference?” Jimenez asked.
“It makes all the difference! In China, our officials were able to ask the most important questions without being thrown in Jail.”
“What questions?” Qwiz asked.
“The question that might have prevented the Culling altogether, had it been legal to ask in your Coalition. It was the question which defined Chinese policy for the last 20 years: ‘which is more dangerous: the prospect of a gradually warming planet or the governmental policies designed to prevent it?’ By never asking such a question, you condemned yourselves and everyone under your law to starvation. It was illegal to even suggest an alternative.”
It was a very valid point. Much more cogent than Luthor would have expected.
“With all due respect Ambassador, what right do you have to criticize our country’s policy when yours incited World War III?”
Both men had valid points. Luthor hoped that these peace talks wouldn’t break down before they started.
“It seems likely that you have as many misconceptions about us as we do about you. Why do you think we attacked?”
There was a pause as the President tried to find the nicest way of saying ‘you’re greedy climate-denying bastards bent on destroying the earth,’ as possible.
“Your country wanted to secure the Antarctican oil to have a strategic advantage in the global economy.”
“You thought we were greedy.” Hyeon summarized, cutting through the politically correct answer. “But the truth is, we were afraid of you.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of you and the EU. The Carbon Coalition appeared to us at the time to be uncaring and ruthless.”
“You thought we were the ruthless ones? Your country attacked us. Unprovoked!”
“Yes, we did. Ask yourself why Mr. President. It had appeared to us that your countries were so heartless that you were willing to sacrifice tens of millions of your own citizens to poverty and starvation, all in your zeal to ‘protect the Earth.’ How would you treat a country that disagreed with you? And we certainly disagreed. It seemed it was only a matter of time before you came for us, in order to force us into compliance.
“Attacking you was a risk, but it was our only chance. If we could keep you from getting the fuel to run your war-machine, we thought we could protect our people from your reckless destruction of the world’s economy. At the bottom of it, we were defending ourselves. Defending ourselves from a people who wouldn’t allow a question to be asked: which is worse, global warming or government intervention?”
The room fell silent. Luthor had never considered the Chinese perspective before. What if—in their minds—the USW was the real greedy juggernaut and they were the ones trying desperately to stave off destruction? It would certainly require some extended reflection. What if the true villains where the members of the Coalition this whole time?
Luthor found himself speaking, he knew he was out of turn in the company of world leaders, but couldn’t help it. Of all them he truly understood the consequences of the war better than any of them. He had lived it.
“You feared our entire country would act like Dimarin did,” he said.
“In short, yes.” Hyeon replied. “All of your actions pointed that way.”
The divide between the two powers felt as stark as the crack across Titan Dome. How was it possible to find common ground between two such radically different views on the world? To the credit of the two most powerful men in the room, neither seemed interested in expanding that rift.
“Then what would you have had us do? Let our climate turn into Venus?”
Hyeon continued. “Please don’t misunderstand me, we in China also knew that something had to change.
“The Chinese Government simply wasn’t willing to risk the lives of their people on the mere chance that carbon restrictions might impact the climate or that the computer model predictions were even accurate. You were.
“We foresaw the Culling as the bigger danger than global warming. The whole world’s food supply was based on oil, we knew we needed to replace it before we ran out. If we could find a viable replacement, we would be able to cut carbon emissions without destroying civilization to do it, so we focused all our efforts on discovery and innovation rather than restriction.”
“But in the end, the ultimate discovery to end reliance on carbon ended up happening here anyway,” Jimenez said indicating toward Luthor.
“Ironic, that it was our own people who tried to suppress it,” Tanya said.
“Indeed.” Qwiz’s father said, “but we have made great leaps of our own and are rapidly replacing our infrastructure with effective green sources of electricity. As a sign of good faith, and o
ur attempt to begin mending our relations, my government has given me permission to share all of that innovation of the last twenty years with you.”
“That is a very generous offer, Mr. Ambassador. And thank you,” Jimenez replied. “Though I would be interested to know how useful it would be in a world where we have 126.”
“You have covered large portions of your cities in solar panels, ours are 20% more efficient than your best. I suspect they will remain useful for the foreseeable future. But more importantly, after studying the details of Qwency’s files, it is clear that there are some very real limitations to 126.”
“What limitations?” Luthor asked.
“It requires something that can be difficult near large cities: space. It requires space for the powerplant to be installed as well as room around it where gravity is being oscillated. China has a better solution within those requirements.”
“Really?” Michael asked, “a clean source?”
Hyeon smiled. “Did you know that China now has three operational Fusion generators, each producing 2 gigawatts?”
“Impressive.” Luthor said. Fusion had long been seen as the holy grail of energy, but despite almost 100 years of trying, no one had ever been able to create an economically viable one—that is, get more power out than you put in—or so Luthor had thought. “Have you thought about utilizing 126 to improve the containment of the plasma? If it works, it could dramatically lower the temperature threshold for fusion!”
“Dr. Tenrel, it is clear I am not as knowledgeable about plasma physics as you are, but I would very much like to begin a discussion between our two countries on alternate uses for the gravitational properties of 126.”
Luthor looked toward Jimenez for guidance. Who would have thought after all he’d been through that he would want to collaborate with the Chinese on anything. “Mr. President, what do you think?”
Jimenez paused for a long moment, “I think our countries have some very real differences, and it will take more than one meeting to wash over the pain we have caused each other.”
“I can speak for the Chinese Alliance. We are willing to try, if you are.”
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