A New Faith: Part 3: Chapter 29
Part 3
Back to the present…
“… and that is why I wanted to talk with all of you,” concluded Rachel with a resigned expression.
Camille was furious. Sonia was incredulous. Kaija looked thoughtful as she dwelt on the nature of the contract and the poison pill condition that the plutocrats had forced into it.
“These bastards will never let go… fucking assholes… monsters…,” Camille exhaled forcefully. She was otherwise motionless. Her face was purple with anger. Her hands were rolled up in tight fists and the knuckles gleamed white in the soft light.
Sonia’s eyebrows finally settled down at their normal position and her eyes returned to the regular size.
She asked the question that Rachel was expecting, “this condition is bad. I am not sure what we can do about it. But why are you telling this to us? I vaguely know that the finances of Sequoia are quite good. I do study the city's budget, you know, every year during the voting week.”
Rachel nodded. She had gone over the financial situation of all three cities with Ben yesterday right after Emily had called her.
“Yes. You are right. In fact, you are understating it substantially. Not just Sequoia but the other two cities are also doing quite well in terms of revenue generation. According to the contract, there were to be no payments from the three cities for the first five years. You guys are not just on track, you are well ahead of it. The repayment schedule was spread out over 10 years with the size of the annual installment increasing every year. The way things are going - and I studied this yesterday with one of the financial analysts who I trust - you are likely to be able to pay off the entire investment including the profits to all the investors in 7-8 years instead of the full 10-year term.”
“Then what seems to be the problem, Rachel?” Sonia prodded again.
Instead of Rachel, though, Kaija answered, “the murders and the recent riot are the problem, aren’t they?”
She was staring at Rachel. Rachel sighed and nodded.
“Yesterday morning, I got a call from one of the investors. The good kind. The one who is in this for the right reasons. Who hates the bad investors - the plutes - from the bottom of her heart. She said that she was hearing rumors that the plutes are planning to use the excuse of the riots to invoke the poison pill. They are planning to assert that the chaos has created risk for their investment. And they don’t want to bother waiting until the end of the loan term.”
Camille was swearing fluently now. Rachel could tell that Camille’s mind was preoccupied with potentially violent plans of retaliating against the plutes.
Sonia was stunned. Her shoulders were slumped in defeat. Kaija continued to look thoughtful.
“The money is not the real reason, is it?” she quietly asked Rachel.
Again, Rachel sighed. All the air had gone out of her.
“That’s right. The real reason is that the apparent success of the three cities is causing ripples of discontent against the status quo in many parts of the world. The young people around the world are increasingly mesmerized by the life in the three cities. They are not liking their own lives in comparison. They are starting to demand that the rest of world emulate the three cities. And the plutes… well… they simply cannot accept that. They have been alarmed by these trends for a few months. The two murders and the riot are the first excuse that they have to nip this nascent demand in the bud. That is what all this is about.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sonia thundered.
“Except for a brief period of time in the middle of the last century, human history has mostly consisted of an elite class ruling over the masses - whether it was monarchies or religious hierarchies or caste systems or colonialism. Pretty much most societies at least over the last few millennia have been patriarchal. In other words - women or half the population was oppressed right from birth. Then additional layers of caste, race, religion, wealth, and brute power were used to keep most of the men oppressed, too.”
Ever since the short lecture Emily had given Rachel and Ben almost eight years ago, Rachel had spent a fair amount of time reading history from different vantage points. She had picked the brains of anthropologists, sociologists, economists, historians, political analysts, and other intellectuals whenever she got a chance. Initially, she had thought of Sequoia as, primarily, a refuge from the depredations of climate change. Over time, as she learned more about human history and observed the evolution of Sequoia, she started realizing that this new city had the potential to become a civilization of an entirely new kind. Something that could be fundamentally better than everything that had come before it. Inadvertently, she had helped create something that could shift the trajectory of humanity in a positive direction. She was still not clear how it would happen. But every now and then she felt like she had glimpsed an insight about the future - a far better future than what most people could have ever imagined.
“That is the structure of society that most of us know. It didn’t matter if they were the oppressed or the oppressor. If they were the former then their goal was to become the oppressor. And if they were the latter then they wanted the status quo to continue indefinitely. The plutes that I mentioned earlier are the oppressors of today. The elite are their lackeys.
You could even say that someone like me who works for the US government is one of the elite and yes you would be right to characterize me as a lackey of the plutes because in effect I work for them. I don’t like it one bit. But I hope that by being part of the US government, I can support good things such as Sequoia in whatever way I can. At the least, I can try my best to minimize the harm that the US government can cause.
Although - if anyone would ask me right now if I would like to quit this job and move to Sequoia, I would say yes in a heart-beat. Simply put - I am jealous of the life you all have built in Sequoia.”
Sonia was looking uncertain. How could this be plausible? Could incredibly fortunate people like Rachel actually envy people like her? That was not the world that she had grown up in. It didn’t make any sense.
Rachel noticed her confusion and continued, “you may not know this Sonia, but there is a sub-culture emerging among the young folks in all parts of the world that is attempting to replicate the Sequoian way of life which is fundamentally different from the ‘oppressed masses and elite oppressors’ model. These youngsters initially tried all different ways to change the model through the usual democratic mechanisms. That is when they ran into the wall of resistance built by the elite. There was just no way to take down this wall. I am sure Camille has a ton of stories to tell you about those confrontations.”
She looked at Camille who was nodding absent-mindedly.
“So some of the youth have begun to simply abscond from regular society. One day, they just vanish from their homes… their jobs. No one really knows where they go. There are rumors galore about how ad hoc Sequoia-like villages are popping up in faraway wildernesses. No one really knows because these villages are off-grid and they have no contact with the rest of the world.”
Sonia looked thoughtful as Rachel continued to expound.
“It is not a major phenomenon yet, mind you. But it is very much a tangible one. And the oppressors… the plutes have started taking note of it. They have started talking down Sequoia every chance they get. The real solution for them, though, is the end of Sequoia in its current form. That would eliminate the possibility, the hope, the aspiration among the youth once and for all. As Kaija correctly pointed out - it is not about the money. The plutes see a window of opportunity opening up with those murders and more importantly the first signs of unrest. They want to yank that window wide open and drive a tank through it. That is what all this is about.”
Sonia was back to being livid. But she was also trying to compose her thoughts. All the women that she was talking with at the moment were the good white people. They were on her side. On Sequoia’s side. They had made it all happen. Camille had even put her life on the line for it. She was not mad at them. She was not sure who she was mad at, really. The bad investors? The universe? Her luck? This was all going horribly wrong. She just couldn’t bear the thought of the future that Rachel had spelled out. If the bad investors invoked the poison pill then she would be slaving away in some stupid factory for the rest of her life. The freedom that she had gotten used to would all be like a lovely dream that she had to grudgingly wake up from.
She took a couple of breaths and marshaled her case for fairness, “do we not get a say in our future? Why is the UN not doing anything about this? If we are on track to raise the revenue to pay the investors then how can they do this to us. We haven’t even had a chance to make the first full payment, yet. This is not fair!!”
“The world has never been fucking fair!” snarled Camille.
“That is why I said earlier - it is in your hands now Sonia. Solve the murders, ensure that there are no more riots and we can buy ourselves some time to start making the payments,” added Rachel.
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The deadly ripples spreading from the initial event of Nadeem’s murder had reached most corners of the world. Both the frequency and the amplitude was rising as the days went by. Santosh’s execution and the mini-riot that had broken out in Sequoia immediately after, were turning out to be mere milestones in the saga that was unfolding everywhere. Tit-for-tat was the order of the day and it seemed that there was no stopping it any time soon.
Yet, the horror of Santosh’s on-camera death and the mostly mild riot in Sequoia had utterly paled in front of the blood-baths that had taken place at different locations around the globe. Hundreds and sometimes thousands had died inhumanely. Some had died in an instant because of bullets, while others had been first tortured and eventually butchered in the most gruesome ways imaginable. The reactions of the governments had ranged the entire gamut from outrage to a muted “our hearts go out” kind. Over the years, many governments had learnt the hard way that sometimes letting the masses blow off their steam was probably the best option as compared with attempting to impose the rule of law because that often enough brought the government itself into the crosshairs of the masses causing far more and long-lasting damage to the society.
Tozi had a ringside view, albeit a virtual one, of these atrocities happening all around. She saw the aftermath in which the perpetrators of the assault openly gloated while the ones who had been victimized turn around promptly to plan their retaliation in ever more spectacular ways. At some point, a simple tit-for-tat would have been preferable instead of the upping-the-ante sort of development that was becoming apparent to her. The main thing that she had been told by Alia to monitor was the implication for Sequoia. To be precise, was anyone planning any more violent acts in Sequoia they needed get ahead of.
The problem was that she couldn’t find any evidence of planning!
Well, that was a big surprise, she thought. She scrolled back through time and found ample evidence of anger and its inevitable metamorphosis into threats. But after that impromptu riot, there was a lot of silence among the most vocal denizens of Sequoia. Including someone like Shahid. He had strangely become tongue-tied in his public speech. Tozi mulled over this abrupt break in pattern. Then it struck her. They must be planning something and in order to keep that planning a secret, they must have shifted their communications exclusively to private groups. Also, since they were now into planning mode, they probably didn’t have much bandwidth left to merely vent away online.
Even more disturbing was the fact that a whole bunch of Christian and Hindu Sequoians appeared to have also gone mute in the last few days. Were they also planning something of their own? This was getting uglier by the minute. Tozi fervently hoped that they would catch a break in the two murder investigations and get a chance to nip this in the bud. Then again, hopefully, the murders were not driven by any religious reason. If that did not turn out to be the case then solving them would only mean throwing more fuel on this inferno of tribal hatred that was blazing away on its own. She sighed wearily as she typed up her report for Alia and logged off for the day.
———————————————————————————————————
The tribal urge for violence against the “other” had always been simmering just below the surface in most parts around the world. The murders in the remote city of Sequoia had managed to touch a raw nerve in multiple places. Solving those murders was no longer a local law and order problem but something that shook the world leaders out of their stupor. Entire nations were suddenly at the precipice of instability and the representatives of those nations at the UN made sure that they described all those gory details at the special meeting called at the UN. All because of the deaths of a couple of lonely men in some far away city that most people had no idea even existed let alone locate it on a map.
They all were unequivocal in laying all the blame for those problems at the feet of Sequoia. Kaija had been called in as a special guest to this meeting and she knew that her face was plastered on a big screen in the room. Each and every speaker took special pains to look at her face and point at her numerous times during their speeches. As if, all these countries were the very picture of social harmony before the murders in Sequoia happened, Kaija thought. She was careful to keep her face as neutral as possible. Eventually, when most of the speakers had had their turn, she was invited to respond.
Prior to this special meeting, Kaija had numerous discussions with the staff of these political windbags. She was sure that the staff had briefed their bosses about the situation in Sequoia. Nevertheless, they had chosen to play to the galleries. The self-righteousness and all of the other usual balderdash was delivered in appropriate theatrical tones. Some had even managed to summon up tears as their voices “broke” when their emotions “overwhelmed” them. Lots of dabbing at the corners of dry eyes was to be seen.
At no point, though, was anyone even remotely interested in Sequoia. What had actually happened was never mentioned. What was being done by the Sequoian police was never discussed. Most importantly, the connection between the Sequoian developments and whatever tragedies had taken place in their countries was never established. At all! Kaija had made up her mind to not take these accusations lying down, especially, in such a widely broadcast event. Instead of defending Sequoia, she was going to go on the offensive.
She cleared her throat loudly and began:
“Thank you for inviting me to speak at this august gathering. It is a great honor for me personally, and also for the city of Sequoia to be here today!
I would like to go over some facts before I get to my main remarks.”
She looked up from her notes and stared at the camera lens as flintily as possible. She was the only one who was calling in, the rest were all in the UN General Assembly’s main meeting room. She meant to convey a long and pointed stare at all the people who were seeing her on the large screen in the meeting room.
“For the first five years of Sequoia’s existence, there has not been even one death let alone a murder.”
She paused to let that sink in. Again, she tried that pointed stare. If they were going to put her face on a large screen as Exhibit A, then she was bloody well going to use it to her advantage!
“Now we have had three murders within the space of a few weeks.”
Another pointed stare. She wished she could have borrowed Sonia’s skills of glaring scarily at the drop of a hat!
“Let me repeat - just three murders in five years! In a city of three million inhabitants! If this was the record for any other city in the world at any point in human history, the city’s leaders wouldn’t have stopped crowing from the rooftops about their achievement.”
This had the impact that she had been looking for. Most of the snide murmuring in the audience had finally, been silenced.
“Now let’s talk about the first two murders that have seemingly become the root cause of all the violence that all of you had taken pains to describe today.
Apart from the fact that both Qasim, the first victim, and Nadeem, the second one, being Muslim men, there is no evidence that the two murders are connected in any way, whatsoever.
Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis!”
Kaija had actually looked up those synonyms so that she could use them in her speech.
“More importantly, there is absolutely no indication that these murders were motivated by religion. Let me repeat that - nothing! No one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for them whenever religion is the reason.
Except for the last murder - of a police detective, that is. Santosh was explicitly murdered in retaliation for the massacres that had occurred in Washington DC and New Delhi.”
The implication was crystal clear to even the dumbest politician sitting in the audience.
“Our police are working night and day to solve all three murder cases. We have numerous leads that we are following on. And we are optimistic that the perpetrators will be found and punished soon.
There is no doubt in my mind that those two murders have no connection to the violence that many of you are seeing play out in your nations.
To be absolutely clear. We are not responsible for that violence. In any way!
But still, as a fellow human, on behalf of Sequoia, I wish to express our heartfelt condolences to your citizens.
Now that we have established the facts of the situation, I would like to focus on the allusions that have been made today. Specifically, I am referring to the veiled and not-so-veiled threats of imposing some sort of martial law on Sequoia with the help of non-Sequoian forces.
We are eternally grateful to the kindness shown by the host nations and the various other entities that have provided support for the establishment of Sequoia and the other two cities. Every day, we say a prayer to thank our benefactors. Without that generosity, we would not even exist.
We are also fully aware of our obligation to the not so charitable support that has been provided. Namely, the investor community that has been lending us the capital to construct the three cities and operate them. We know that we are on the hook to pay back those loans. Not just the capital, but also the interest on it, as per the contractual agreement.
We know that! And in case we ever forgot that even for a moment, you would remind us of it.”
Again, the long stare! This was a barb aimed squarely at all those representatives who happened to be carrying water for the investors in addition to being the faces of their countries in the UN. It hit home as there was an immediate self-righteous reaction among several members in the audience. The faux outrage was expressed with one eye on the cameras that were broadcasting this meeting to the rest of the world. Kaija had no doubt that all those trying to shout her down were going to make a beeline to their favorite reporters after this meeting and pour their hearts out.
“We also understand that unless Sequoia is stabilized as soon as possible, this investment would be threatened. We get that. We do. After all, we are the ones who are living in this city.”
She snapped at them and again tried her best to imitate one of Sonia’s patented glares.
“I - we - would like to request all of you to not be too hasty in bringing Sequoia under external control. I have been reviewing the revenue generation from Sequoia and we are most certainly exceeding all expectations in terms of our ability to pay off the investors. We have this figured out. Just give us more time to solve these murders and restore peace in Sequoia. That is all we are requesting from you.”
She paused for a moment to allow them some time to think about this. She knew that this was not sufficient. There were a few snickers and smirks in the audience. The investors had gotten very antsy over the past few weeks. Rachel had been regularly updating Kaija on that front.
“If things continue to spiral out of control, then we shall welcome whatever assistance you would like to offer,” she quietly added. She had to make an effort to dial down her fierceness while making this statement.
Finally, she looked up and said:
“Please. Please can we have three months to resolve the situation on our own?
Thank you!”
The ball was in their court now. She had given it her best shot.
Fortunately, for her and Sequoia, the investors had not yet come up with a solid plan to take over the city. So, grudgingly, they acceded to her request. Kaija smiled grimly and thanked them again.