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.Sorry if I’m overstepping my bounds here.”Rahma narrowed his gaze, didn’t respond in words.He was growing impatient and sensed that Twitty didn’t have much more to say.The man was babbling, filling the air with useless comments and wasting time.Undoubtedly he had used his family connections to get the ear of Rahma’s guardian-screeners, and then exaggerated the importance of the information he had to provide.“Of course, Kupi Landau’s past relationship with Your Eminence is widely known.In view of that, her laudatory service on the Berkeley Eight revolutionary council, and her recent heroics, perhaps Stuart feels that you will give her a pass no matter what she says.”“Leave the psychological analyses to trained professionals, Twitty.”“Yes, sir.”“Is that all you have for me today?”“Sir, yes, it is.I’m sorry if my information seems minimal, but I just thought you should receive everything I know right away so that you can catch potential problems early and take any necessary actions before things get out of hand.”The Chairman nodded and waved his hand dismissively, causing the avatar to vanish in a puff of air.* * *FROM HIS MANSION in the eucalyptus-covered hills, Director Arch Ondex had a view of the gleaming high-rises of the Berkeley Reservation for Humans and the blue waters of San Francisco Bay.On the other side of the bay, he saw the forested San Francisco peninsula.Once an important city had been over there, a cosmopolitan center of international Corporate interests.Now it was just another portion of the vast woodlands and nature preserves that covered most of the Green States of America.A holo-screen beside him provided another, more interesting view for him, a secret satellite view of the Rocky Mountain Territory and the Montana Valley Game Reserve that had become the headquarters of Rahma Popal.Yes, Ondex thought, Rahma Popal.He is just a man, not really the godlike figure he’s made himself into, the green savior of our planet.For some time now, Chairman Rahma and the Panasian Premiere, Woo Hashimoto, had been exchanging personal insults, increasing the rhetoric between them to the point where the two nations could very well engage in a nuclear war.The latest insult from overseas accused Rahma of being the dictator of a fascist green regime—a police state.Rahma responded that he found the thought preposterous, and a huge distortion.“Fascists are always right wing,” Rahma had asserted in a government-to-government transmittal, “not left wing! What an exaggeration!”He’d gone on to cite a host of reasons why Hashimoto was actually the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.The Panasian leader had murdered tens of millions of his own people for no good reason, Rahma pointed out, except to protect the oligarchy that ruled the nation through repression and an elaborate system of political favors, much of it favoring the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean members of his own large family.Rahma understood the need for political favors (and he gave them out), but he did not practice any form of nepotism.When his own brother came up on a relocation list, and later on a list of people to be recycled for criminal behavior, Rahma did not intervene on either occasion.Most of the people who had to be put to death in his nation, the Chairman insisted, died for a good cause—the environment—not like the situation in Panasia where severe actions were taken against the populace with one object in mind, ensuring the power of the ruler and his cronies, and lining their pockets with cash.Ondex didn’t want to think about the similarities between the two governmental systems, though they were certainly obvious to him, no matter how much Chairman Rahma tried to deny them because of his own altruistic motives.Ondex shook his head in dismay.The battle of name-calling seemed juvenile to him, and a waste of energy.If the Green States and Panasia ever got into a nuclear war, much of the fault would lie with these two quarreling leaders.Rahma could be a difficult man to get along with (as Ondex knew only too well), but the Director still held a degree of affection for the aging guru, because of the man’s idealism and his relentless desire to protect the planet.You could argue with Rahma’s methods, which were harsh, but not with the results
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