Chapter 17
A lot had taken place between now and the little drama fest with the Chiefs last week. With my administration becoming a lot calmer, optimistic and organized my inauguration had finally been rescheduled for tomorrow.
I shake hands with the Russian amba.s.sador, smiling and exchanging pleasantries in French, Malagasy and Russian. My multilingual tongue easily made an impression on the man as his eyes widened with a bright smile that washed away his nervousness.
One of the fruitful things that had taken place within the week was, of course, this beautiful arrangement with the Russian government. After quas.h.i.+ng much of the Chiefs scattered revolutionaries- luckily the fools hadn't the wit to spread their infection to other parts of the country- I took out the time to make a phone call to the Russian President. Although this President was the one I had helped unseat in favour of my teatime friend, Andrei Averyanov, I had a surprisingly cordial and productive conversation with him. One of the first things my amba.s.sador to the Russian Federation had done was set up easy and reliable means of communications from Moscow to Mahe and Mahe to Moscow.
The information from my past lives kept getting more and more unreliable as the world played out differently each time. The Russian President in my experience had turned out to be a very difficult person to work with, but the results of a single phone call just last week spoke otherwise. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I was now fluent in Russian?
Either way, I was ecstatic with the results. The presence of a foreign amba.s.sador meant a lot. For one, it was a formal means of recognition of the Schelarian state if I'd ever seen one. So far we'd only been recognized as a state by Madagascar (although the conniving b.a.s.t.a.r.ds refute this in their broadcasts), Namibia, and Comoros, as well as a few other member nations in the African Union.
But now, with Russian, a global power recognizing our nation, many would soon follow suit and there would be no doubt as to the legitimacy of our government. The prattling nations within the United Nations would finally be shut up and I wouldn't have to worry so much about a foreign invasion.
As I received the Amba.s.sadors letter of credence I directed him towards the men and women behind me. My Minister of Foreign Affairs, Niaina Bezara, a sharp-looking and intelligent woman, one I'd worked with in-person to make this arrangement come to fruition, Matthias, the Speaker of the house as well as a newly instated member of my cabinet, Luciano, no longer Marshal of the armed forces but now my National Security Adviser.
I made good on my intent to 'demote' Luciano as he bore my suspicions during the Chiefs crisis, I'd swiftly broken down the military into many collectively held positions, a lot more Generals and Admirals were made, with each of the reporting directly to me, the Commander-in-chief of all armed forces.
Once the Amba.s.sador was finished greeting and exchanging pleasantries with them, we stepped close together to pose for a picture. It was a historic moment after all.
The cameras flash in rapid succession, I don't bother not blinking as my sights are set on a familiar face.
She looks up from whatever breaking news headline she'd been jotting down in her notepad and catches me staring. I hold my ground, keeping my face straight as hers transitions through a myriad of ridiculous contortions.
I shook my head and broke the pose, keeping my genuine smile on as I led the Amba.s.sador into a less crowded room in the Palace where I'd indeed approve his letter of credence and he would sign.
Very few reporters and
Once finished, the amba.s.sador came over, sitting with the others and I to discuss more on what had been promised by his head of state to me.
Yet another reason why this was so exciting was simply the fact that our goods, services and products could now begin to be exported out to countries at reasonable exchange rates. This also meant that Madagascar no longer had a monopoly on the provision of textiles, dye, timber, sapphires, exotic foods and fruits, and more importantly, Natural Gas.
One of the brilliant things my father put in place to surpa.s.s the Malagasy government in his unquenched rivalry was an oil and gas sector. Although, as of yet only Natural gas was being extracted and refined, it was one of the driving forces behind Schelar's economy, and now with trade, it would bring about the economic boom I and many Schelarians have been praying for. But trade wasn't the only key deal here.
I look over to Luciano and nod, he gets the message and excuses himself from the seating. Soon the reporters and their crew are ushered out of the room. Surely they'd gotten enough for whatever stories they wanted to spin.
Once they'd all been excused out of the room, Luciano came back, taking his place. The amba.s.sador only smiled at this, it seemed he wasn't too surprised about what we'd pulled.
Usually, there was a simple decorum to follow informal events such as these. As the amba.s.sador had just arrived in Schelar, any scheduled negotiations, deals, meetings or messages that needed to be pa.s.sed on would normally be addressed in a cursory manner and a date would be set for a proper and extensive discussion.
We weren't doing that.
"Mister Amba.s.sador, we are delighted to have you her in Schelar at last," Niaina, the Minister of Foreign Affairs begins, "this is such a historic moment and one that's I trust will bring good fortunes to both our great nations."
The amba.s.sador nods his head a bit lackadaisically, almost shrugging as he looked about himself in the essentially empty room with guards at the entrance of each door, "Ah, yes, it would seem you are very delighted indeed to have me here," he says in a Malagasy accent that still surprises me with its accuracy.
Niaina smiles softly, leaning in to grab his attention, "We just want to confirm so minute details of the weapons deal we made with your President."
At this the amba.s.sador scoffs and in Russian he speaks rapidly, gesticulating as he does, "Schelar is a long place from Moscow. Is this how Schelar treats dignitaries? Allow me to seek my bed before you seek me out for weapons of ma.s.s destruction."
His words were justified but quite rude still. That is no way to speak in the presence of a nations head of state. But I understood still, Russia was in a position to throw their influence on us, especially given all they'd brought to the table. They also had little to lose, even if they made of a fool out of themselves here, the world would take their word over ours as legitimate.
Our image as a state was already very questionable in the international community. To the outside world and even here in Schelar, Russia is doing us a favour by even looking our way.
I activated my intel-ii and waved Niaina off as she made to respond to the amba.s.sador, going ahead to do so myself seeing as I had what I needed to strong-arm the ambitious and daring amba.s.sador seated in front of me.
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"Mister Amba.s.sador," I begin, taking my time to skim through the oh so incriminating load of information presented before my eyes. "everything has been set up in the honour of the Russian Federation you represent, I'd advise you do not display such unsightly behaviour here, lest you fail in representing your President as you should."
At my words the man scoffs and turns away, muttering little bits of Russian under his breath. But I let my accommodating smile fall as I begin, "Mister Amba.s.sador I do believe you should take us quite seriously, if only for your sake,"
He looks to me with much unbelieve and doubt, "And why is that Mister President? Russia brings all to the table, your country is finally being brought out from the terrible boycott of the United Nations, the sanctions placed on you by the U.S will also be weathered away all thanks to our trade. We, the Russian Federation put more risk in a.s.sociating ourselves with a dictatorial regime such as yourselves. We bring you good favour and ask for little and yet you confirm the West's accusations of being a war-hungry regime by cornering me, demanding to confirm potential arms dealings. And yet you wonder why no one will touch Schelar?"
I listen to his rant with a plain demeanour, Luciano and Matthias find it a little harder composing themselves as I see from the corner of my eye they look like they are about to throw their own hurl of accusations. And Niaina finds herself at a loss for words.
"Mister Amba.s.sador, you are cheating on your wife with a woman named Maryina but your wife is also cheating on you with your co-worker, your driver to be exact, Victor." His eyes widen as I say this and his mouth falls open with disbelieve and shock, but I don't let up, a little adultery wasn't enough to get me the weapons I needed, "You have been considering joining the side of your President's rival, Andrei Averyanov, you align yourself with his ideals but you are a bit reluctant to openly join his campaign as he is likely to lose against the President's heavily funded one, in which case you lose everything you've worked for as a career man."
I rise to my feet and b.u.t.ton up my blazer, my company rises with me as well, obviously not entirely certain of all what I'd said.
"Mister Amba.s.sador, we have hard evidence to support all I've said so if you do not behave as you should, you will be headed back to Russia with unemployment awaiting you and if you are so unlucky, you'll be facing treasonous charges."
He looks completely dumbfounded. I don't know when but the man had begun sweating profusely in an air-conditioned room. I let myself smile again as I take my leave, signalling Niaina to accompany him to the emba.s.sy he was in such a hurry to get to.
They would make the arrangements for proper talks as they were there. At this point, I needn't even be involved.