The black chopper took off and almost an hour later brought four more men. As they disembarked, they went through security, then entered hesitantly The Aquarium and took their seats at the glass table. Myatlev greeted every one of them personally as they arrived. After the last visitor had taken his seat, Myatlev pushed a button to close the door to The Aquarium, then another to turn the glass walls opaque.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” Myatlev said, “to the first gathering of our newly formed Council. As you have already noticed, we are in a highly secure location, where we can discuss the matters at hand freely and without concern. I will start with some introductions, then open the floor for discussions and ideas.” Myatlev turned to his left and gestured towards the man sitting next to him. “The first man to join our new Council was Mr. Karmal Shah from Afghanistan. Then we were joined by Mr. Mastaan Singh from India, followed by Mr. Ahmad Javadi from Iran, and finally, Mr. Muhammad Sadiq from Pakistan.”
The men greeted each other; some reached across the table and shook hands.
“Our small yet powerful organization, aptly named The Council for a New World Equity, or CANWE, is welcoming today a few very powerful men from various countries, united by common goals. We all want to establish a new world equity, one where we will rid ourselves of the self-righteous, uninvited, and unwanted interference of America in everything we do in our own countries.” As he spoke, he looked the other men in the eyes, one by one, and what he saw made Myatlev very happy. He had chosen well. “America is powerful, the strongest economy of this planet, and that makes them think they have the right to police the world. All of us here want to end that. All of us here are disgusted by having to deal with their obnoxious interference in everything we do, in our countries and in our homes. All of us here want them gone from our lives and their supreme arrogance kept in check. America is powerful, the strongest economy of this planet,” he repeated his earlier statement. “For now. We, too, are powerful, and we can end their arrogant supremacy once and for all and throw them spinning into a bottomless hole of economic decay and despair. All of us are powerful as individuals. Some of us have our powerful countries supporting us and our interests as they are stated here today, in this first formal meeting of our Council. We can be the architects and strategists of the future, the five of us.” He stopped talking for a little while, evaluating his audience. “The future belongs to the bold, gentlemen, and we are going to take back what was always rightfully ours, the freedom to do as we please in the spaces of our own countries.” He let a few seconds of silence go by, then invited the group to the conversation with a wide hand gesture. “Let’s discuss.”
“It’s an honor to meet everyone here,” Javadi opened, “and I wanted to thank you for inviting me to be a part of CANWE.”
Myatlev nodded in response.
“I wanted to ask,” Javadi continued, “are we considering adding more members? Syria, China, and North Korea come to mind.”
“Syria might be a good idea,” Sadiq seconded.
“I beg to differ,” Shah intervened. “If my understanding of what we are here to do and how we are looking to achieve our goals is correct, we have no business bringing Syria into this organization. They are reckless fanatics. They have no respect for strategy. They are primal and blood thirsty, and in my opinion, they’re unable to execute complex plans that require forethought and self-control.”
“They are devout Muslims, though, hence anti-American,” Sadiq insisted.
“CANWE is not about Muslims against America,” Myatlev intervened. “CANWE is not about religion. It’s about politics and economics. Not all of us are Muslim, and that’s not even by design; it’s by accident.”
“I assume we are going to coordinate attacks against America, retaliatory missions. In that case, Syrian fanaticism might come in handy,” Sadiq added.
“We might,” Myatlev responded, “we might if we have to. Such missions are just one tool in our toolbox holding many different weapons. My vision is a little different, and I am hoping you will embrace it. Americans are equipped to identify terrorist attacks early on, and that makes it relatively hard for us to orchestrate a major attack, major enough