Chapter 15.

Bandon the Third.

24.oct.2119.

South America. Brazil. AEX Private District.

 "Turn on the TV and find something about Harlington's visit," Bandon commanded, settling into a chair.

The tropical greenery of the garden outside the window swayed - everything foreshadowed a change in the weather. The residence, lost in the caatinga forests, was not some kind of example of incredible luxury. Nevertheless, this in a certain way turned out to be an advantage. First of all, it was unnoticeable.

 Secondly, the area as a whole was under protection, perhaps the most perfect protection on the planet. When you share dominion over all of Western humanity with several others like you, then there is no one to boast about external sophistication in front of - everyone already knows each other perfectly well and who is worth what.

 But the practical side of choosing the main residence is another matter. Bandon's favorite place to stay was located three hundred miles from the Lacaille missile launch site, and, accordingly, under the most effective, in terms of impenetrability, anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense dome.

 Meanwhile, the TV screen flashed the intro of the daily midday digest of the European ENN, which AI had broadcast in its original, unedited form.

 - No, I don't need that, - Bandon said, - make an extensive selection for about twenty minutes. First the main ones, then you can add something from Y-tube. I need YT because I want to look at this through the eyes of the ordinary people present.

 AI immediately stopped the broadcast and brought up a new picture. The first thing to come was footage of Harlington and his entourage disembarking from the hyperliner, hanging under the hull of the carrier. The filming was carried out by the same ENN. People showed up only when they came out of the landing tunnel - a hybrid of a closed ramp and a crane. A red carpet should have been arranged, and the Super-Federate authorities would have certainly done so, but this was Blok's military base, and Blok was in no way obliged to show such honors to a US senator, even one with presidential ambitions. Nevertheless, the base's senior officers, of course, arrived for the ceremony.

 After this episode, the group of those who arrived in turn met a couple of armored vehicles with an open limousine at the head - this was the leader of the right-bankers who had arrived at the outer perimeter of the rocket launch site. He, as Bandon had known before, was called mainly by his military rank, something like "Comandante", only in the Russian manner. In English, in a tracing sound, it turned out to be some kind of nonsense like the word "battle", which is why he was called "Battalion Commander of the RBSF". In the next episode, Harlington and his team were already pushing around some territory, obviously set aside for a military camp. Around them were either militants or fighters in incomprehensible uniforms and with incomprehensible stripes - for the Super Federation, this was normal. In general, Bandon knew what kind of formations these were. They differed from the front-line units in their simplified ammunition. At some point in the plot, the "Battalion Commander" led the Senator to a rather picturesque slope of the river. From the hill, a view of the flat left-bank part opened up. The Senator began to examine the landscape through binoculars. The "Battalion Commander" began to broadcast into a separate, different, camera about how bitter he was because the conflict between the right and left banks made the residents of that, left-bank part, and his right-bank fellow citizens enemies and about how the feud should have been put to an end long ago. A lady in a grey coat, apparently from the CSCE, began a mournful story about the need to reintegrate the Super-Federation into the national, that is, Russian, political process. The next episode was footage from CNN. A column of several armored vehicles, one of which contained Harlington, was driving along a narrow highway that passed somewhere in those famous Siberian forests. Pointed firs towered, some other trees turned yellow. The sky was dull and grey. At some point, the story switched from one camera, the one in the car, to another, located on the side of the road. The viewer saw a full view of the column, in which, in addition to the bloc's vehicles, there were almost as many, if not more, local armored vehicles, RBSF, that is, Right Bank. These were decorated with waving flags of some kind, one would think, the symbols of these very Right Bank. On either side of the column were a pair of airjeeps, which, judging by the voiceover, belonged to local units. There was also a fancy limousine.

 Finally, the senator moved to the so-called CSCE headquarters - it was located in a fortified town of a thermonuclear power station that had not been completed since Soviet times, which, according to the plans of the then Soviet government, was to become the first thermonuclear power plant of the Soviet Union. Now it was a bizarre citadel with many sectors separated by concrete walls. It was a kind of prototype of modern fortified enterprises. To an unbiased and uninitiated eye, it turned out that the eccentric Soviet rulers thought in a similar way to a modern way, but, as often happened, individual elements without a whole system looked exclusively like tyranny. Bandon had seen materials on this object before - after all, he stood at the origins of the creation of the Superfederant. He was also not an uninitiated person. Nevertheless, he did not pay attention to a visual acquaintance with the interesting object. The group of CSCE employees lined up, if not in formation, then in a fairly organized crowd, then divided into separate units and began to ostentatiously communicate with the escorts who had come out and with the senator himself.

 After the citadel there was a parade along what must have been the central avenue of the capital of the Super-Federate. The senator was in a closed armored car, which, however, had some kind of glazing. The "Battalion Commandant", to his credit, was not at all embarrassed by the crowd, riding in his open limousine.

 The final point of the parade was a ceremonial meeting in some square, apparently located in the immediate vicinity of that avenue.

 The transition to the territory of the LBSF, that is, the left-bankers, was carried out along the surviving bridge leading across the river, which served as a natural demarcation line. An exception of sorts was made for the senator - the column that had left the square with the RBSF leadership remaining there and had dived down into the forest along the road that led there, into the forest, was now moving across the bridge. Before this, as reported, all movements from bank to bank along this bridge were carried out exclusively on foot - fortified checkpoints on both banks prevented possible provocations with the use of any kind of motor vehicles.

 After driving across the bridge, the column, which was solemnly greeted and joined by LBSF representatives, began to be honored by the left-bank crowd. The entire solemn procession moved through the entire city and eventually arrived at the closed, almost abandoned airport, where civilian helicopters were already waiting.

 Finally, filming began from the left bank embankment, from where a view opened up of a pile of barges and floating pontoons, from which an artificial island was made, where the signing of the quadripartite agreement was to take place. First, a helicopter with Russian representatives arrived. Then the helicopter that delivered the senator appeared. After the Russian representatives and the senator's group had been disembarked and the helicopters had departed, two others appeared from two opposite directions - the organizers had arranged everything so that the representatives of the two opposing sides would disembark simultaneously, for which purpose two platforms were provided at opposite ends of the floating island. The fact that the senator and the head of the left bank were leaving from the same airfield was shaded by the fact that they took off at different times.

 Finally, footage appeared from the simple room in which the negotiations and signing were to take place.

 - That's enough, Bandon announced, - save this selection, I'll watch it later.

The AI turned off the TV screen. Bandon stood up and headed toward the opening leading to the balcony-terrace.

 For the umpteenth time, he glanced at the white model of the shuttle already under construction, installed on a specially made ironwood pedestal. The project, remarkable in all respects, visually resembled the pre-war Martian ship and the shuttle mod.118, similar in outline to it.

 Everything simply cannot fail, - Bandon said to himself. Amazing technology will change humanity forever. As the centuries pass, everyone will forget that there was some kind of War in the years when ships appeared. Once upon a time, Europe, this advanced edge of humanity, plunged into centuries of crises, religious wars, depletion of resources, and then a few groups of those who dared set off on a fateful journey to another continent. Having gone through a number of evolutionary stages, these communities founded a state that for at least two centuries occupied and still occupies the place of the undisputed leader. And now the time has come when it is necessary to assemble new groups for a new journey. This will already be America of the continent, and America of space. Unlike other prime directors, all these centuries-old families, three generations of Bandons, who have relatively recently come to the forefront, have always directed their gaze beyond the Earth and the boundaries of the present - into space and the future. This was not surprising - Reygenald Bandon, from the very moment of starting his business, was involved in the field of high technology and futurism. If he had seen the beginning of the twenty-second century, he would certainly have appreciated the path traveled. The path traveled not by the Bandons and AEX, but by Western society as a whole - social engineering, centralized digital management of economic processes, demographic optimization. All this was only the first steps of the path, having traveled which humanity, embodied in its chosen and best representatives, will forever settle in the cosmic distances.