Pax Robotica: Genesis (Part 3)

The young woman reached out and touched Bane again, a little longer this time. There was no affection in her touch. His body shuddered again, more visibly this time. His face began to perspire and he appeared to be in pain and struggle to stay in control.

Bane took out his handkerchief and slightly wiped his face. Then he went on, “And that was how our first-class flight to Washington, DC, went. We said little but communicated much.

“A black BMW 760Li—the latest model, was waiting for us outside of Dulles International Airport. I grimaced at the sight of the car. It was too new, too shiny, and too conspicuous. At least it wasn’t a Cadillac, a Mercedes, or worse, a Rolls Royce—cars favored by nouveaux riches and poseurs. I’d rather be picked up in an older, less conspicuous, and more dignified large sedan. Parvenus and politicians from small towns living in DC for the first time love expensive, flashy new cars; they associate those cars with power, class, sophistication, and excitement. You couldn’t really expect them and their ilk to have acquired class in one generation, let alone in a few years.

“The car pulled up in front of Club Sans Frontières at 15 Dupont Circle. It’s a grand mansion designed in the Italian Renaissance style. Its exterior consists of white walls, decorated with glazed terra cotta, Ionic orders, attic story, enriched bands and garlanded window pediments.

“A porter in a dark blue uniform came out to greet us and promptly took our luggage from the car’s trunk. I tipped the driver and led Sophia to the grand entrance on the first floor, which has a fireplace, polished terrazzo, marble floors, and a marble stairway.

“I was mildly amused with the opulent and slightly tacky interior, which include fireplaces with antique limestone, white marble or sand-cast mantles; cast iron banisters; a white marble fountain on the central landing depicting an eagle with spread wings; crystal chandeliers in the dining room and ballroom, herringbone parquetry flooring in the ballroom; maple flooring in the dining room; and tiger oak flooring in the upper foyer.

“After some cursory greetings with the staff we walked upstairs, passed the second floor, which houses the principal public areas organized around a spacious gallery that opens to a balcony that overlooks Dupont Circle, and up to the master bedroom on the third floor.

“The luggage came a few minutes later and I tipped the porter generously then closed the door and smiled at Sophia. She came closer and threw her arms around my neck. We kissed and the clothes came off.

“An hour later we took another shower together and got dressed. I turned on my laptop and made superficial edits to the speech I was giving in a couple of hours. Sophia made plans to entertain herself for the afternoon while I attempted to coerce fifty of the most powerful men in the world into agreeing to co-ordinate their actions and settle their conflicts privately to prevent crises that would threaten the status quo – with the US at the top, of course. That was Billy Wayne’s proposal—a pipe dream, actually—and I was foolhardy enough to give it a try. But you have to understand that up to that point, I had always managed to escape from whatever troubles I created for myself unscathed.

“Sophia kissed me goodbye and left for the afternoon.

“At noon I walked down to the second floor piano nobile. It was there that President Coolidge hosted Charles Lindbergh following his historic transatlantic flight in 1927. I took the podium after exchanging greetings and handshakes with his audience.

“‘Good afternoon. Thank you and welcome to Club Sans Frontières. I hope this meeting is as exciting for you as it is for me,’ I looked around the room and nodded slightly at the more powerful men in the audience. I continued once I’d had everyone’s attention.

“‘Thucydides once wrote, ‘The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.’ It is for this exact reason that we members of this Club must compete. We must compete for wealth, we must compete for power, we must compete for prestige, and we must compete for influence, for the failure to win puts us at the whims and the mercy of our former competitors, associates, and underlings,’ the majority of the men in the audience nodded their heads in agreement.

“‘Everyone in this room is already a winner, but that does not mean our safety is guaranteed. If anything, it’s the opposite because we’ve won too many battles and made too many enemies on our way to the top. I don’t need to remind you that our enemies love nothing more than to exact vengeance once we’re no longer able to defend ourselves. So if we are to survive at the top we must do everything in our power to maintain the status quo, which means we must refrain from doing anything that threatens out our fellow Club members, because, as we all know, powerful people under threats can and will create powerful worldwide crises that could upend the status quo and jeopardize our hard-won places this Hobbesian world of our own making.

 “‘Therefore, in order to reduce the chances of those crises from occurring, I propose that we make a formal pledge to seek consultations and cooperation with our fellow Club members in the event of a gathering crisis to prevent it from becoming full-blown. I have taken the liberty to make plan for the Special Diplomatic Services, a group that will consist of scholars, diplomats, government officials, and business executives that will help us resolve our differences and coordinate our affairs. Of course I conveniently neglected to mention enforcers and assassins.

“‘Gentlemen, this is exactly what I have in mind,’ I wondered where Sophia was at that moment as I described my plan.

“I spent the rest of the afternoon having a cocktail reception with my audience. Food was plentiful and drink was copious, but it was not all play for me, however. I mingled and made small talks to all of the guests while sizing up their receptivity to my proposal and committing their exact words, tones, and subtle body language to my memory.

“I would write his observations about individual members and ask Billy Wayne to correlate them to their psychological, medical, biographical, political, and economic profiles. I needed to know everything about those I would be dealing with.

“I came back to my room after the cocktail reception and immediately typed what I had observed about my guests and sent the profiles to Billy Wayne.

“I was particularly eager to learn more about Dong Shen, the chairman of Sino Strategic Holdings. He seemed to be the least receptive of, or even hostile to and fearful of, my proposal. I’d tried to get more information out of Shen during the party but he was courteously evasive about his thoughts on the proposal.

“Sophia came back as I shut down his laptop. She kissed me, asked about the meeting, and suggested that we order something light to eat before heading to the residence of the French ambassador for the evening. So we ordered two bowls of corn and crab soup from the Club’s kitchen. Neither Sophia nor I wanted any alcoholic drink.