The voices droned on. Anwar got up and walked out onto Olivia’s balcony. After checking she was still within his line of sight, he turned and looked out, back towards the seafront. He could see and hear celebrations: fireworks, horns sounding, and the i-360 Tower shining its night illuminations, still bright even at midday. News travelled fast. Nothing had been signed yet, of course, but there was plenty to celebrate. A UN summit, for the first time, was about to embark on something genuinely radical and different, and it would be good for Brighton.
“It would be nice to look back on this summit,” she’d said, “and think that we helped to make it productive.”
He stayed out on her balcony for a while longer. The weather was chilly and the sea was gunmetal blue, but there was some sharp pale sunlight of the kind you sometimes get in October. He would have continued to stay there, but she called to him from inside.
“Come and listen to this.”
She’d switched back to one of the main news channels. Zaitsev was being interviewed by a well-known current-affairs journalist. She looked like a politician’s mistress: young enough to be jailbait, pneumatic enough to be a scaled-up Barbie. Amanda Mapplethorpe, said the badge that had carried her smiling through several layers of security.
“Yes, we made good progress this morning,” Zaitsev was telling her. To say he looked pleased would have been an understatement. He looked as though he could hardly contain himself, though he kept his words and voice carefully statesmanlike. “I hope we can agree on the broad principles this afternoon and then move on to draft a Statement of Intent. We should have it ready for signing sometime tomorrow.”
Anwar and Olivia exchanged glances, but said nothing.
Tomorrow, Anwar thought. So when will they make their move? Although he knew it wouldn’t have any practical value, he closed the glass doors to her balcony and pulled the curtains. They continued watching the interview.
“So, Mr. Secretary-General,” asked Barbie, “are you satisfied the technology is reliable?”
“Oh yes, it’s all part of the UN’s long-term development programme.”
“Then why hasn’t it been made available before?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said, ‘It’s inconceivable to me that we could be on the way to making energy shortages a thing of the past, while water shortages are still a thing of the present.’” She did a passable imitation of Zaitsev’s diction and style. “So why hasn’t it been made available before?”
Zaitsev smiled indulgently. “It’s a fair point, and you’re right to raise it. The same question was asked this morning at the summit. And answered. The technology we’ll make available didn’t suddenly spring fully-formed from nowhere. The UN has been developing it carefully over years.”
“Don’t you mean UNEX?” Barbie asked, politely.
Anwar wondered if anyone without enhanced vision would have noticed the there-and-gone-again tightening on Zaitsev’s face. “Yes, UNEX. That’s where the developmental and operational work is done. And the political climate hasn’t been receptive in the past. Now, though, it’s very different. Everything has come together.”
Barbie looked skeptical, but said nothing. Zaitsev went on smoothly.
“We’ve broken the mold. We have the technology ready, and a business model to put it to work. Neither of them were available before. The technology, you’ve heard about. But the business model is the real story.”
He paused for effect, and perhaps to permit himself a long up-and-down look at Barbie, before continuing.
“The technology will be licensed free of charge to UN members involved in water rights disputes or suffering water shortages—if they sign up to the Agenda codes on damming and diversion, reforestation and replanting. But the Agenda codes, which once seemed essential, are now only a subset. We’re starting a project which will eventually render them unnecessary.”
“Licensing free of charge? Sounds like you’re giving a lot away.”
“Not giving, Amanda: investing.” Zaitsev modulated his voice to match perfectly the gravitas of his words, but Anwar heard what was underneath the voice. Publicly Zaitsev was the hero, and he was loving it; but he was doing Rafiq’s bidding. Rafiq’s call that morning must have left him eviscerated.
“We’re investing,” Zaitsev went on, “in a project that will deal a decisive blow to these water shortages. We’re going to create water grids. Like individual countries have electricity grids, but these won’t only span individual countries. They’ll cover entire sub-continents. They’ll need massive pipelines and pumps, and massive amounts of energy. They’ll source and distribute fresh water from streams and rivers and lakes and underground aquifers. They’ll take years to build and plan, but they’ll employ thousands and they’ll change the face of the planet! And they’ll always be associated with what we did here, this morning…”
Anwar blanked out the rest.
It seemed like a gamble for Rafiq, but Anwar knew it wasn’t. A calculated risk, maybe, but not a gamble. Rafiq would already be investing in the next generation of technology. Perhaps even the one after that. He’d never give away anything he couldn’t afford to give. He always plays long.
Anwar laughed softly to himself.
“What’s amusing you?” Olivia asked.
“This whole breakthrough,” he said. “Good news, of course, but everyone’s so surprised. It took everyone unawares. Especially Zaitsev, who’s now announcing it to a startled world like he already knew all about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“At ten this morning, he knew no more about it than you or me. He knew no more about it than your cat. But you know who did know about it, don’t you?”
“Rafiq.”
Anwar nodded, and again laughed softly to himself.
The summit had started a process that would move the
UN closer to what Rafiq always wanted it to be: a power in itself, a State among an association of States. A State with its own assets and resources and property, capable of entering into treaties with others, individually or collectively. The UN, through UNEX, would act like a State of similar power to any one of the five or six major members. It could even, at strategic times, give them a nudge.
Anwar thought, Rafiq, you clever bastard. All this and you’ve said nothing. You didn’t even need to come here.
On the face of it, Zaitsev would get the immediate credit. But below the face of it, in those dark labyrinths where real politics was done, the real players would know who was the prime mover. Rafiq’s power would grow considerably behind the scenes, which was exactly where he wanted it to grow.
11
The main auditorium of the Conference Centre seemed unchanged on the surface: the same clean citrus air, the same swooping white and silver interior. But after the lunchtime feeding frenzy of the media, and the individual closed-door discussions where members at war with each other had examined the new initiatives from all angles and found they were still viable, there was a subsurface buzz. A feeling of euphoria and anticipation which Zaitsev, although taking care to look and sound statesmanlike, did nothing to dispel. He said nothing openly to claim credit, of course, but it was there in his posture and the timbre of his voice and his whole demeanour. He sat at the top table on the stage, still with a slight trembling, which he had probably cultivated to hint at his restrained but deeply felt emotion at making history. He spoke with a slight hoarseness which he had also probably cultivated, to hint at long and intense behind-the-scenes negotiations to bring this breakthrough to the world. A better actor than Rafiq.