Kazansky Island, Allanea
The island is not a government office. It is the private estate of Alexander Kazansky, Allanea’s President, not unlike Monticello, Prairie Chapel Ranch, or Rancho del Cielo of the past. He rarely does meet foreign leaders at the Island, but sometimes, an exception can be made.
Some people are important enough.
One of the people who are important enough for an exception is the Harakian head of state. This is because the Allanean President has long-term plans for Haraki and Allanea, and those plans are not to be affected by a petty standoff in The League region. That will affect only Allanea’s plans – more plans, more military funding for the Aseni Divensi Rejistaniha.
Relationships with an APN member state are not to be jeopardized.
Not now. Too important.
And so, Kazansky invites the Harakian leader to the Island.
And waits.
Jaime Wolfe was slightly suspicious. He had heard things about Allanea. Their hyper-capitalist economic system seemed to fly in the face of most of what Harakians believed in, their political system, with such standing tenets as a 'president-for-life', was less than ideal in his mind, and he had recently fought a very brief war with them. Admittedly, no Harakians had died at Allanean hands - and very few by Allanea's allies' hands, either - and Allanea seemed not to have taken it to heart.
What mystified him was why the Allaneans were so dead-set on forging good relations between the United States and the Social Democracy. It seemed from reports on the domestic affairs of each nation that, so far as democratic nations could be, they would be at each other's throats fairly often. However, at the same time they had never had a true history together. They had known of each other's existence while never truly interacting, and perhaps it was time to do so. Perhaps Allanea wasn't as bad as he imagined it to be. His image of the nation included poor starving in the streets while incredibly rich owners of commercial empires paid their workers miniscule wages, something that could never happen in Haraki. Not just that it did not, it could not. By law, every corporation passing a set limit as to number of outlets and employees was either bought by the government, or taxed extremely highly. The rich didn't get richer in Haraki, and the poor were guaranteed jobs at the government-owned corporations, all equal opportunity employers.
He could sort of tell why Allanea wished to establish good relations with Haraki. Although not the largest, or the most powerful, or the most militaristic, nation in the world, Haraki had a good reputation. They were respected. People could like them or hate them, but they respected them. They tended to be everything to everyone, trying to please rather than intimidate or conquer. Most everything could be solved by mutual concessions. Of course, when push came to shove, the Harakians were supremely endowed not only with a good reputation and long-standing history, but also powerful friends. Although only a member of three alliances, compared to some of the powerbrokers out there, the three it did belong to were powerful, respected, even feared: The APN, NATO, and Gholgoth.
But Allanea, too, had powerful friends. The main reason he could see Allanea trying to influence Haraki towards his side was to gain entry into one of those three alliances. The APN was most likely. As such, Jaime would be on his closest guard against making any promises or saying anything incriminating or which could be used against him or Haraki in general, or used as leverage.
In short, he was going to watch his words.
The thoughts running through his head as the plane touched down were slightly fearful and morbid, but after all he was setting foot in a nation he had never been in, and which he had been at war with not three weeks earlier. It was a daunting thought.
As he prepared to disembark the plane on Kazansky Island, he made a mental check, making sure he had his briefcase, his suit was on properly, and his tie was straight. Still, his physical features prevented him from being the ideal politician or diplomat. He had a permanent feeling - and look - of being scruffy, even rough, and no matter how much he attempted to make it go away, or to straighten himself up and look presentable, he still somehow managed to fall back into an inescapable pit of ill repute. Sometimes it had served him well. His speech which marked the downfall of Angela Shepherd had been delivered in a brown overcoat, with two days' stubble on his face, and his scruffiness had helped get the message across. Now, however, it would most likely hurt more than help.
Second, he was very tall and cut an imposing figure. Standing nearly two metres tall, he towered over everyone else at nearly all diplomatic functions. And, a remnant from the days when he had been bodyguard for the country's first prime minister, he stayed in quite good shape and even practiced his marksmanship on a regular basis, more out of habit than an actual expectation for fighting.
He was accompanied on this diplomatic mission to Allanea by a small handful of HIA security agents, there more as a symbol than anything else, and veteran diplomat - and Jaime's mentor in the world of international politics - Zachary Mitas. Mitas was an average-sized black man, meticulously dressed and well-spoken, with multiple prestigious degrees from Harakian universities. He had negotiated the surrender of the two Harakian splinter states in the Reunification War, and was the father of numerous international treaties.
Together with the plane's pilot and co-pilot, the small group of Harakian personnel arrived in Allanea ten minutes before schedule, thanks to strong tailwinds. As the plane's door opened, Jaime took a deep breath, wondering just what lay in store for him here.
In the meanwhile, Alexander Kirillovich Kazansky did not appear to care about a tie. To speak of it, he was not worried about wearing a suit, either. Or anything at all, for that matter. The President for Life of the United States was busy swimming back and forth in his favorite blue trunks, his glasses lying folded on the side of the pool.
The President of the United States is not precisely an athletic figure. Tall, slender, and rather pale, he was still regardless rather attractive – to Allaneans at least – with long palms and fingers, like those of a piano player, and a demeanor not unlike that of an eighteen or seventeen-year-old, regardless of his actual age.
He knew that there was actually nobody on his island, everything including the air traffic control handled by computers – and he also knew the automated systems would easily steer Wolfe towards his pool. So when he saw the Harakian leader approach, he swam up to the edge of the pool, rested his hands on it, and put his glasses on.
Then he smiled at Wolfe.
“Greetings, Sir. I apologize about not coming out to greet you, you are slightly ahead of schedule. Welcome to Allanea."
Jaime laughed inwardly and emitted a small exhalation as an outer gesture of it, together with a wry smile, as he saw the state of the President of Allanea. He set his case down, letting the security agents know everything was all right, and he and Zachary Mitas walked over towards the pool together, as Jaime reached up and loosened his tie.
"Yes, well, we were helped by a strong tailwind."
He took a seat at the edge of the pool, relaxing and undoing the top two buttons of his shirt, rapidly growing accustomed to what he assumed was the less-than-formal attitude of President Kazansky already. "I assume we're doing away with regular formalities. Please, call me Jaime."
"Oh, formalities. Who needs them." - suddenly, Kazansky grins. "I see your knowledge of Allanean culture is rather limited - not that it's a bad thing, of course. We just are not into uniforms all that much - any uniforms, be that a shiny thing with medals or a three-piece suit. We only wear them when we really have to - in a war, or maybe in a hospital where you have to wear the white coats, or something."
He pauses.
"Well, anyway. I hope you don't hold this alteraction against us. It's not really you that we were bothered about - it's just a lot of the nations in Gholgoth are... short-tempered, and they have more guns between them then Allanea has alone."