“The pace of modern life is faster,” Hanover said. “Even terrorists couldn’t distract from that, you see.”
“So I heard,” Roosevelt said. “We supported a bunch of barbarians for years?”
Hanover shrugged. “You didn’t, Mr President,” he said. “You have the opportunity to correct all the old mistakes.”
“And doubtless make new ones,” Roosevelt said. “There are parts of the country that are torn apart by racial struggles, you know.”
Hanover, who hadn’t, nodded. “It’s dangerous,” he said. “In Germany and we assume Russia, all those who spoke for sanity have been wiped out. In America, I assume that the Ku Klux Klan is striking at black leaders?”
“And vice versa,” King said. “It’s getting unpleasant.”
Roosevelt waved them all to seats and waited while a black orderly, who winked at King, poured them drinks. “You’ve opened quite a can of worms for us,” Roosevelt said. Hanover nodded. “You’d think that knowing the future would make people more reasonable, instead we have anti-Japanese riots and anti-Black riots… there are even people who think that you’re trying to rebuild your empire.”
Hanover shook his head, sipping the cup of coffee. “We have no interest in rebuilding it,” he said. “We are attempting to cushion the fall as much as possible by using our knowledge to enable democratic rule first, and trading networks that will jump development forward fifty years.”
Roosevelt shrugged. “With yourselves in charge,” he said.
“It won’t last,” Hanover said. “We have to deal fairly with everyone; under growth trends India and Africa will become more powerful than us after ten years or so. All we can do is offer them the chance to develop; they’ll become your trading partners as well, which is more than they will become if Japan wins the war.”
“Ah, the war,” Roosevelt said. “And Russia is pushing into Iran and Finland. There’s quite a lot of anger about Finland, but you did nothing to help them.”
Hanover scowled. “Neither did you,” he said. “Like it or not, you are threatened in this war.”
“I know that,” Roosevelt said calmly. “Unfortunately, my opponent, Wilkie, is pushing for isolation, claiming that the only way to avoid permanent military deployment is to remain isolated and deal with our own problems. It’s hard to say which way the vote will go, with some of my support bleeding off to Wallace and his third party.”
Hanover considered. “I’ll be honest,” he said. “We need your help.”
“You’ve already begun propaganda here,” Roosevelt said. “The ethnic votes are very keen on it, even the German voters.”
“I was hoping to recruit some of them for a legion under Rommel,” Hanover said. “We were planning to start hitting German morale with broadcasts, once we had everything ready.”
“Interesting thought,” King injected. “I assume that you can blast the message through German jamming.”
Hanover nodded. “The problem is that Ambassador Yurina Sako, the Japanese ambassador of 2015, has clearly failed to convince the Japanese of the futility of challenging the world. They’re moving, Mr President, and you’re on their target list.”
“I have always been worried about Japanese expansion,” Roosevelt said. “Unfortunately, not all of us are keen on becoming involved in your war.”
“It’ll be your war soon enough,” Hanover said, as calmly as he could. “What do you want?”
“You are holding a number of future Americans prisoner,” Roosevelt said. “We want them back to assist our technical development.”
Hanover shrugged. “Not all of them want to return,” he said. “Some of them… feel that you offer nothing for men and women of their skin colour.”
“But you are holding some of the men from Feltwell and other places,” King said. “Mr Prime Minister, you must understand that the men who ordered them to spy for commercial advantage are lost in the future.”
“Under international law, they can be charged with espionage,” Hanover said. “We’ll trade; you can have them back the day before the election.”
Roosevelt smiled. “I’ll send a battleship to pick them up,” he said. “The new Atlantic Fleet needs the practice.”
Hanover shrugged. “In exchange, we want you to allow us to recruit in America without hindrance.”
“We already did that,” Roosevelt said. He chuckled deeply. “Listen to us haggling like fishwives; we do have shared interests. If you send them back, I will win the election with Truman as my Vice President.”
“I would have thought that Ambassador King would be interested in the post,” Hanover said. “You were mentioned as a possible candidate for President in… ah, 2020?”
“Yes, but be serious,” King said. “A black man, in 1940? It would unite a lot of people against us.”
“I suppose,” Hanover said. “Tell me; what changes have you made in your technology now?”
Colonel Palter entered the room as soon as he was called; he’d expected the call from Ambassador King. Ordered to give a briefing, he’d worked hard to gather the information, even if old habits made it hard for him to just give the information away.
“The… ah, established interests haven’t proven too keen on us,” Palter said wryly. “I’ve been running around, up and down, dragging information out of my mind, only to see it ignored or discarded. I’d get mad, if I got mad.”
“Don’t get mad, get even,” King said wryly.
“True, sir,” Palter said, giving the Ambassador more respect than he really deserved, in the hope that Roosevelt and the other Contemporaries would realise that he deserved it. “For the moment, the greatest improvements are in the defences of Pearl Harbour and the Philippines, but that’s as far as they go. Some of the Army Air Force – grief, I miss the Air Force – Generals want to move directly onto jet fighters, while the Navy wants to simply copy the Hellcat and the other designs from 1943 and the Pacific War. Both parties are arguing, and as long as they’re arguing they won’t come to a decision. Sadly, the Navy still wants its battleships, and they won’t move over completely to carriers and submarines. Please… don’t ask about the torpedo designs…
“The army, at least, is delighted with the Firefly design, the problem is in building enough to be useful when not all of the generals are convinced that war with Germany is inevitable. In the meantime, they’re trying to build up, which isn’t easy in the current political climate.”
“At least the opposition supports high military expenditures as a way of deterring attack,” Roosevelt said. “The news about the war with Japan really put the wind up them; they want us to be strong and completely independent.”
“Yes, Mr President,” Palter agreed. “The downside is that the Army and the Army Air Force are having an inter-service war. The Army wants close-air support for the troops, as well as paratroopers and aerial supply lines; the Army Air Force wants to start again with the B17 and move directly to the bombers that blasted hell out of Germany last time around. They’ve got their hands on source materials from the war and are using it to boost their respective cases.”
Hanover smiled. Palter reminded himself of why he didn’t like the British Prime Minister. “Would it not be smarter to create the USAF ahead of time?”
“Perhaps, but both the Army and the Navy are very against it,” Palter said. He had to admit that it was a good point. “For the moment, we’re gearing up for war… but not everyone is agreed on what lessons we should draw from the last time the war was fought.” He smiled. “At least some lessons have been learned quickly; we have forced forward both radar and radio, as well as encryption.”