Sympathy For The Devil

The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet

11 Days to impact

• - Pick a card.

• - I don’t believe in magic.

• - Neither do I. – The Senator whispered, as he one-handedly fanned the deck spread out into a perfect full 180o semicircle. She took a card. – Memorize it, then hide it out of my sight.

• - Senator, some have argued you should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Any comment? – Asked a veteran journalist to her bulk, old oak tree-like interviewee, just as she slipped the card into the back pocket of her jeans.

• - Did you memorize it?

• - Peace prize?! – The journalist insisted, as she repeated queen of spades in her mind.

• - We both know that will never happen. If it did, I would do what Mother Theresa should have done, and Jean-Paul Sartre tried to do.

• - Why?

• - Next question. – Answered the second longest-sitting Senator, first elected into power in 1969 as he held one playing card in each hand, precisely.

If you want to be noticed, be first. If you want power, remain under the radar of History, be second. If fame is your thing, it’s more important to be first than better. Who was the second human to walk on the moon? Who was the first? Case in point. George Washington was the first president of the United States of America. Who was John Adams? No idea? Because he was the second.

• - Senator.

• - Satoshi.

• - Nakamoto?

• - If anyone desserves a Nobel it’s her.

• - Senator, please just...

• - Do you know how old money is? Or, better yet, the first known human-made religious structure, do you know how old it is?

• - Why refuse the Nobel P...

• - 10 000 years old. The end of the Stone Age and the beginning of...

• - Excuse me Senator, I must insist, my role as a journalist is to get the facts straight.

• - Is it?

• - Isn’t it?

• - Duty, yes. Role? I believe we both agree what the role of the modern journalist has become. – The Senator said bluntly then turned to sarcasm, as he purposefully chose the two black sixes from the deck. – Your class, if we can call narrative-driven broadcasters a class, earns the big bucks when the plane crashes, not when it lands.

• - We...

• - When a war goes on for years, not when peace lasts for decades.

• - I am not a...

• - I know that. You know I know that, we wouldn’t be sitting here otherwise. – He said bluntly gently letting go of a jack of diamonds and a seven of hearts leaning, on each other, depending on each other, as he began stacking the second layer of his house-of- cards pyramid.

The Senator had finally agreed to the interview; the journalist, a British freelance Radio correspondent who had covered multiple war zones live and unscripted, crouched behind car doors as bombs exploded, was his kind of truth soldier: one he esteemed from afar. He had agreed to a voice-recorded conversation – no cameras, no frills, and now they sat in a discrete corner of The Waldorf Astoria New York, the luxury hotel that had had such an imperative role in world politics after World War II, denouncing Stalinism during the controversial World Peace Conference, a ground for political maneuvering during the Cold War. Every modern monarch, from the Queen of England to King Hussein of Jordan, had stayed at The Waldorf. Notables such as the Dalai Lama, the viceroy of China Li Hung Chang, the Shahanshah of Iran, Fidel Castro, Charlie Chaplin, Muhammad Ali, Judy Garland and many other somebodies, including every single American President from Hoover to Trump, all had rolled naked in the soft, pure cotton sateen Astorian sheets. Thanks to The Senator’s Godfather, Nikola Tesla had lived in the hotel during most of World War I.

• - Facts. All I’m asking for are the facts. – Insisted the 70-year-old sweet blue eyes, rosy-cheeked, face fully cracked by the wrinkles of a life well fought, and recipient of the Order of the British Empire award, former editor-in-chief, reading off her notes, sliding her glasses up - You’ve been quoted as saying “The best days of our species are still to come. Sooner than most understand.” Some claim you, Senator, are above and beyond any other single individual, at the helm of...

• - I know what they say.

• - Do you disagree?

• - Facts, you say. – Leaning back in the cow leather upholstered gilt brass armchair. – But those are just words. The real question is...

• - Facts: Life expectancy, 70 years worldwide. All 8 billion of us. When you took office, it was half that. – She spoke in machine-gun mode, not taking a breath. - 200 years ago, over 80% of humans lived in extreme poverty and had no access to education. Today, largely thanks, some argue, to your extreme policies and meandering diplomacy, it’s been reduced to a mere 10% or 15%, and on the verge of being eradicated by 2030.

• - That’s still almost 800 million humans. – He butted in, holding out the last two cards of the deck. Both aces, diamonds and clubs.

• - Malaria, - She said assertive, interrupting his interruption, and ignoring his cards. – is on the brink of being eradicated for good. No two great nations have been at war in over six decades. Democracy is taking over the world, country by country.

• - Nukes, there’s still a whole lot of them out there. Killer robots are on the horizon. Global warming, we’re being scorched. Pandemics. Tech wars, trade wars, cyber- wars, suicide rates. You didn’t mention any of those. How convenient. – His mordant tone of voice rose as he remained laser-focused on his pair of aces. – Artificial intelligence is going to take us all back to the dark ages. If we survive, which we won’t.

• - I gave you facts! Should I go one? Childbirth mortality rate...

• - You don’t want the facts, you want a story, and we both know that’s not me. There’s two sides to every...

• - But...

• - Don’t breathe. – He said, slowly removing his hands from the last two cards. – During World War II, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. Curious choice. Bats.

• - You’re a decorated war hero, Senator, and... - Even the purest of journalists try stroke the ego of an unwilling interviewee in the attempt to win them over. Mastering interviews is mastering rapport.

• - I’m a foot soldier. – He interrupted her again. - Heroes prevent wars.

• - Why you are going to China tomorrow? – She said changing tactic.

• - Who told you that?

• - And why Wuhan?

• - Facts straight, Cathy. – He was impressed. – Quick in and out of Shanghai to talk to the...

• - The world needs you to get the Communist Party of China to stop the...

• - I’ll tell you what the world needs. – Him, breaking her train of thought. – Off the record?

• - If you insist.

• - The world needs to shut down for a few months.

• - That sounds very draconian.

• - Well, Draco did do the birth of democracy a big favor.

• - And yet his laws were written in blood. – She said regurgitating one of the few facts she could recall about the first democratic legislator, as she did her best to conceal and supress the shivers that had gone down her spine. She coughed, then continued: - What do you mean by shut down?

• - Stop. Just stop. The whole machine coming to a halt, to get us some perspective. Since World War II we just haven’t...

• - That’s impossible, Sir. Could we please get back to Chi...

• - Nothing – The old man said, stroking his long beard. – Nothing is impossible.

The Senator asked his spellbound playmate to take one card from the now complete, full deck, seven-layered pyramidal structure. Softly, as to allow the structure to remain standing. As soon as she did, he slowly got up and began counting backwards from ten, walking away still counting in the distance, only to disappear leaving her to count the last numbers silently in her mind: three, two, one. At zero exactly, the cards crumbled to the table, a rubble of red and black and random numbers. She arbitrarily pulled a card out of the rubble: it was the queen of spades. Instinctively, she reached for her back pocket: there was no card to be found.

Which was impossible.