2030: The End of the American Century Chapter 3
2030: The End of the American Century
Novel by EDGAR NUÑEZ
Chapter 3
Washington DC
ONCE MORE she stared at the picture filling up the computer screen. At the proud upturned chin, unruly shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, blue eyes that didn’t seem to miss anything. The first American woman President was beautiful even at age 60. The picture was taken when she visited the Seattle laboratories of the largest American company, Nanotek, five days before she was declared insane. Flanking her in the picture were the Vice-President Philip West & the Chairman of Nanotek, William Paget. She read once more the caption below the picture: ... discovery of nanomolecules to combat breast cancer...
She glanced at her watch and was surprised she has been researching about the former President for three straight hours. She closed her eyes, wishing fervently for the creeping strain to evaporate instantly. Mrs. Scranton had 6 months left in her tenure when she was found raving incoherently by the CIA Director in their daily morning briefing. Four months before, the Chinese landed in Taipei & declared China united.
Tomorrow, she was to meet her in a villa outside Zurich. After 2 decades, she was ready to reappear in public.
Her cellphone rung. She immediately picked it up.
“We have a date, remember?” the voice of Harry was curt but neutral. The ever understanding Harry. The pang of guilt quickly seized her. He must have been waiting for half an hour already. How could she have forgotten it? She was so focused on her research.
Harry has emptied his plastic coffee cup when she arrived. They hadn’t seen each other for a week but no fine dining for them. Latte at Starbucks would do.
“Just don’t be angry, I’ll buy you another cup,” she immediately kissed him & she could almost feel unknown burdens lift up from the shoulders of the most important man in her life. He was actually glowing when she headed for coffee at the counter.
Her Harry, one of the bright boys in the current administration of George B. She returned with his second cup for the evening. For herself she ordered a tall latte & a slice of chocolate pie. She decided she needed the calories for her trip later in the night.
“No change of plans?” Harry’s eyes seemed to caress her face.
“Unfortunately no. You can watch me anyway. It will only be delayed for an hour.”
“You think she’ll be sane enough to carry a hour-long conversation?”
“Jane had a meeting with her last week. She said she saw no signs she’ll be catatonic tomorrow .”
“It’s been nearly two decades...”
“What do you think... George B. will be watching?”
“Most probably. It’s the buzz of the whole DC.”
When her producer Jane Hartman told her she was to interview the former President, she almost jumped with joy. For two decades, the world has been waiting for Hilda Scranton to finally appear in public. They were then in the corridor leading to the studio where she was to do the morning world news. She has been anchoring the news at the Washington studios of Al-Jazeera for not even a year. She was a bit insecure in the past months because she overheard rumors she would be transferred to the Kuala Lumpur studios.
“I have to do this perfectly, Harry. I may never get this break again.”
“You’re the best thing that happened on TV lately, don’t you see? Why worry?”
Comforting words. How could she ever thank Harry for coming into her life? She could feel her eyes warming up. She impulsively reached out and grasped his right hand then kissed it many times- loudly! Suddenly, they heard applause. Stunned she looked about and almost cringed when she saw the beaming faces of the whole cafe directed at their table.
“I told you a celebrity shouldn’t go to Starbucks if she wanted coffee,” Harry stood, bent over the table and kissed her full on the mouth. The applause got louder.
Zurich
It was the kiss that lingered in her mind when the plane touched down at the Zurich Kloten International Airport the next morning.
She was met at the airport by a chauffeured limousine. She felt giddy like a schoolgirl tingling with excitement. She told herself, you’ve arrived, Betty.... here come the perks for being Betty Mendoza, the rising anchorwoman from Al-Jazeera. As the car emerged from the tunnel that cut travel from the airport to the city center to Neumuhlequai, and the Od Town appeared on the right across the Limmat River, she was glad to see it was still old Zurich. She has been to Zurich many times before, actually her favorite European city. Switzerland was the only country in Western and Central Europe that still belonged to the First World and Zurich was the primary financial and commercial city in the continent rivalling Moscow. Paris, Berlin and London have since become rundown and taken over by sophisticated mafias and desperate criminals. The new big shot capitalists from Asia liked to conduct their European businesses here on their way to the ski resorts in the Alps.
As the limousine crossed the Bahnhofbrucke over the Limmat into the Old Town, she sighed once more and thanked the Gods for being kind to her. CNN, Fox and the other American stations have been complaining rather loudly after the former President Richard Scranton announced Al-Jazeera will interview his wife after two decades of silence. Why should a foreign station be given the exclusive privilege to interview a former American President? Why were American stations not being given due preference? It was their President, wasn’t she?
Unfortunately, not everybody was impressed. The New York Times was uncharacteristically ascerbic in its editorial:... why invoke nationalistic pretensions into the picture when plain and simple logic dictates anyone is free to chose the station with the widest public patronage if he wants his message to get through to the widest audience?
George B. joined the brouhaha and volunteered his piece: “God must be shaking his head when he heard heathens were being given preference in His garden over His children... God knows America is His garden...”
The Washington Post had as its headline the next day after George B. uttered those as part of his speech before a group of anti-Gay evangelists: OW, SHUT UP! GROW UP!
Al-Jazeera rose to prominence 10 years ago during the War for Israel when the Arab League countries finally succeeded in turning the Jewish state into a province of Palestine. The world was rivetted to its screens as it emitted 24-hour coverage of the one-day Arab blitzkrieg. The depth of its access to both sides of the combatants, and the unceasing fairness of its coverage, so amazed the world that even before the final nanomissile barrage fell on Tel-Aviv, the world was convinced a new TV journalism leader was at hand. While the CNN Senior International Correpondent Miles Evander was howling damned Islamic fascists annihilating the land where the Gods walked , the Al-Jazeera correspondent Dick Cross coolly questioned why human beings haven’t advanced much after hundreds of thousand years of civilization, never learning to settle scores without brute force... why couldn’t they just be simply humans who learned to live together... not kill one another... and he boldly cried as the camera panned over the destruction behind him. Anything hit by nanomissiles melted and the world was horrified as they watched a crying Dick Cross walked with knee-high boots on a wide field of grayish soup that was the former city of Tel-Aviv. The one and only time the world has seen the ferocity of the then unheard-of nanomissiles.
In the year 2030, when East Asia was the economic center of the world, & the countries of the former British Empire were composed of destitute countries like England and Australia, English was maintained as the international lingua franca. It was decided then the scripts and tounges of Asia were too complicated to institute as media for everyday commerce and communication. Al-Jazeera was the pioneer Asian company which transmitted its broadcasts in English worldwide, and when the South Korean, Japanese and Chinese joined the field, they only succeeded in chipping their audience from the Western broadcasting companies. Even in America, more Americans opted to rely for their daily news on the number one broadcasting company in the world than on their own homegrown broadcasters.
When the limousine passed by Bahnhof Platz, Betty did not notice the tall, bald middle-aged Slavic-looking man with wraparound Nomura sunglasses (with nano-enhanced pixelation) standing inconspicously at the corner of Bahnhofstrasse, who whispered to a hidden microphone in the left frame: “Aphrodite is here.”
Signals were encrypted as they were picked up by a satelite somewhere over Torino in Northern Italy, bounced off halfway the world to a flying robot over Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia then picked up by a receiver in the earphone of a fat man drinking Tsingtao beer while walking by the Bund in Shanghai. He immediately looked at his wristwatch & the watch face suddenly turned into a screen where he saw the black limousine ridden by the Al-Jazeera reporter pass the Bahnhofplatz.
When the limousine turned left to Lowenstrasse, another man wearing a gray suit who was nonchalantly walking along the sidewalk, whispered into his cellphone. His message didn’t have to go far, it was received by a man reading a newspaper in the left side parapet of the Munsterbrucke over the Limmat near the Lake Zurich.
Next: Chapter 4
Novel by EDGAR NUÑEZ
Chapter 3
Washington DC
ONCE MORE she stared at the picture filling up the computer screen. At the proud upturned chin, unruly shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, blue eyes that didn’t seem to miss anything. The first American woman President was beautiful even at age 60. The picture was taken when she visited the Seattle laboratories of the largest American company, Nanotek, five days before she was declared insane. Flanking her in the picture were the Vice-President Philip West & the Chairman of Nanotek, William Paget. She read once more the caption below the picture: ... discovery of nanomolecules to combat breast cancer...
She glanced at her watch and was surprised she has been researching about the former President for three straight hours. She closed her eyes, wishing fervently for the creeping strain to evaporate instantly. Mrs. Scranton had 6 months left in her tenure when she was found raving incoherently by the CIA Director in their daily morning briefing. Four months before, the Chinese landed in Taipei & declared China united.
Tomorrow, she was to meet her in a villa outside Zurich. After 2 decades, she was ready to reappear in public.
Her cellphone rung. She immediately picked it up.
“We have a date, remember?” the voice of Harry was curt but neutral. The ever understanding Harry. The pang of guilt quickly seized her. He must have been waiting for half an hour already. How could she have forgotten it? She was so focused on her research.
Harry has emptied his plastic coffee cup when she arrived. They hadn’t seen each other for a week but no fine dining for them. Latte at Starbucks would do.
“Just don’t be angry, I’ll buy you another cup,” she immediately kissed him & she could almost feel unknown burdens lift up from the shoulders of the most important man in her life. He was actually glowing when she headed for coffee at the counter.
Her Harry, one of the bright boys in the current administration of George B. She returned with his second cup for the evening. For herself she ordered a tall latte & a slice of chocolate pie. She decided she needed the calories for her trip later in the night.
“No change of plans?” Harry’s eyes seemed to caress her face.
“Unfortunately no. You can watch me anyway. It will only be delayed for an hour.”
“You think she’ll be sane enough to carry a hour-long conversation?”
“Jane had a meeting with her last week. She said she saw no signs she’ll be catatonic tomorrow .”
“It’s been nearly two decades...”
“What do you think... George B. will be watching?”
“Most probably. It’s the buzz of the whole DC.”
When her producer Jane Hartman told her she was to interview the former President, she almost jumped with joy. For two decades, the world has been waiting for Hilda Scranton to finally appear in public. They were then in the corridor leading to the studio where she was to do the morning world news. She has been anchoring the news at the Washington studios of Al-Jazeera for not even a year. She was a bit insecure in the past months because she overheard rumors she would be transferred to the Kuala Lumpur studios.
“I have to do this perfectly, Harry. I may never get this break again.”
“You’re the best thing that happened on TV lately, don’t you see? Why worry?”
Comforting words. How could she ever thank Harry for coming into her life? She could feel her eyes warming up. She impulsively reached out and grasped his right hand then kissed it many times- loudly! Suddenly, they heard applause. Stunned she looked about and almost cringed when she saw the beaming faces of the whole cafe directed at their table.
“I told you a celebrity shouldn’t go to Starbucks if she wanted coffee,” Harry stood, bent over the table and kissed her full on the mouth. The applause got louder.
Zurich
It was the kiss that lingered in her mind when the plane touched down at the Zurich Kloten International Airport the next morning.
She was met at the airport by a chauffeured limousine. She felt giddy like a schoolgirl tingling with excitement. She told herself, you’ve arrived, Betty.... here come the perks for being Betty Mendoza, the rising anchorwoman from Al-Jazeera. As the car emerged from the tunnel that cut travel from the airport to the city center to Neumuhlequai, and the Od Town appeared on the right across the Limmat River, she was glad to see it was still old Zurich. She has been to Zurich many times before, actually her favorite European city. Switzerland was the only country in Western and Central Europe that still belonged to the First World and Zurich was the primary financial and commercial city in the continent rivalling Moscow. Paris, Berlin and London have since become rundown and taken over by sophisticated mafias and desperate criminals. The new big shot capitalists from Asia liked to conduct their European businesses here on their way to the ski resorts in the Alps.
As the limousine crossed the Bahnhofbrucke over the Limmat into the Old Town, she sighed once more and thanked the Gods for being kind to her. CNN, Fox and the other American stations have been complaining rather loudly after the former President Richard Scranton announced Al-Jazeera will interview his wife after two decades of silence. Why should a foreign station be given the exclusive privilege to interview a former American President? Why were American stations not being given due preference? It was their President, wasn’t she?
Unfortunately, not everybody was impressed. The New York Times was uncharacteristically ascerbic in its editorial:... why invoke nationalistic pretensions into the picture when plain and simple logic dictates anyone is free to chose the station with the widest public patronage if he wants his message to get through to the widest audience?
George B. joined the brouhaha and volunteered his piece: “God must be shaking his head when he heard heathens were being given preference in His garden over His children... God knows America is His garden...”
The Washington Post had as its headline the next day after George B. uttered those as part of his speech before a group of anti-Gay evangelists: OW, SHUT UP! GROW UP!
Al-Jazeera rose to prominence 10 years ago during the War for Israel when the Arab League countries finally succeeded in turning the Jewish state into a province of Palestine. The world was rivetted to its screens as it emitted 24-hour coverage of the one-day Arab blitzkrieg. The depth of its access to both sides of the combatants, and the unceasing fairness of its coverage, so amazed the world that even before the final nanomissile barrage fell on Tel-Aviv, the world was convinced a new TV journalism leader was at hand. While the CNN Senior International Correpondent Miles Evander was howling damned Islamic fascists annihilating the land where the Gods walked , the Al-Jazeera correspondent Dick Cross coolly questioned why human beings haven’t advanced much after hundreds of thousand years of civilization, never learning to settle scores without brute force... why couldn’t they just be simply humans who learned to live together... not kill one another... and he boldly cried as the camera panned over the destruction behind him. Anything hit by nanomissiles melted and the world was horrified as they watched a crying Dick Cross walked with knee-high boots on a wide field of grayish soup that was the former city of Tel-Aviv. The one and only time the world has seen the ferocity of the then unheard-of nanomissiles.
In the year 2030, when East Asia was the economic center of the world, & the countries of the former British Empire were composed of destitute countries like England and Australia, English was maintained as the international lingua franca. It was decided then the scripts and tounges of Asia were too complicated to institute as media for everyday commerce and communication. Al-Jazeera was the pioneer Asian company which transmitted its broadcasts in English worldwide, and when the South Korean, Japanese and Chinese joined the field, they only succeeded in chipping their audience from the Western broadcasting companies. Even in America, more Americans opted to rely for their daily news on the number one broadcasting company in the world than on their own homegrown broadcasters.
When the limousine passed by Bahnhof Platz, Betty did not notice the tall, bald middle-aged Slavic-looking man with wraparound Nomura sunglasses (with nano-enhanced pixelation) standing inconspicously at the corner of Bahnhofstrasse, who whispered to a hidden microphone in the left frame: “Aphrodite is here.”
Signals were encrypted as they were picked up by a satelite somewhere over Torino in Northern Italy, bounced off halfway the world to a flying robot over Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia then picked up by a receiver in the earphone of a fat man drinking Tsingtao beer while walking by the Bund in Shanghai. He immediately looked at his wristwatch & the watch face suddenly turned into a screen where he saw the black limousine ridden by the Al-Jazeera reporter pass the Bahnhofplatz.
When the limousine turned left to Lowenstrasse, another man wearing a gray suit who was nonchalantly walking along the sidewalk, whispered into his cellphone. His message didn’t have to go far, it was received by a man reading a newspaper in the left side parapet of the Munsterbrucke over the Limmat near the Lake Zurich.
Next: Chapter 4
posted by ED NUÑEZ at 8:52 PM
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