Pneuma led Angel and I out of my office and back to the foyer. By the time we reached the front door, three blacked out SUVs were waiting for us. There were no other markers indicating who we were.  “Why three SUVs?” I asked Pneuma. 

“Oh, you take the middle SUV. Two of your Secret Servicemen will go in the car behind you and two others will go in the car in front of you. You know, for security reasons. 

I nodded my head in understanding and stepped inside. The SUV was set up like a limo with seats facing toward each other.  I chose a seat facing the front of the car. Pneuma and Angel stepped in behind me. Pneuma sat on the seat along the left side windows and Angel sat facing the back of the car. 

After the motorcade departed, Pneuma pulled out a tablet and said, “You wanted to work on bios, right?” 

“Right. Angel, I thought a lot about what you said and decided that we should probably only study the people who would care the most, right? That may have the biggest impact on our decision-making? Based on this, who should we study first?” 

“Sure, how about we batch them even more and pull them out by which city-state they come from? Starting with this one?” 

“Alma? I can do that.” Pneuma pulled together a list of three department heads to explore. 

“How about these three? Birch Cormac of the Department of Almite Agriculture, Herm Kremer of the Treasury and Commerce Department, and Kalei Koen of the Department of State.” She handed over her tablet. She had pulled up three tabs on our government website with the names, faces and descriptions of each person. 

Birch Cormac looked like his occupation. A farmhand with broad muscles and a strong jawline. His dirty blonde hair was neatly combed and parted to the side. The description read, 

Birch Cormac leads the Almite Department of Agriculture. Having spent many years as a worker on his father’s farm and ultimately graduating with a Masters in Agricultural Engineering, Birch knows firsthand all that goes into ensuring that all farmers produce healthy and prosperous crop.  He has put his focus into increasing subsidies for large farm operations so all people across USAR can gain access to food regardless of the harvesting year.

“Huh…” I said. “Birch seems to really want to give the people what they want. Food. That doesn’t sound bad at all.” 

“No it doesn’t,” said Angel. “Just know that Almites, in general, are really into technology and increase. They’re more open-minded to change. Also, the crops they produce must be easy to mass market and easy to package, since the majority of their population spends most time indoors behind a desk.” 

“Got it,” I said as I flipped to the next tab. Herm Kremer. Dressed like a CEO, Herm had a balding head with thick black glasses and a practiced smile. 

 Herm Kremer leads the Treasury and Commerce Department. Based in Alma, the TCD focuses on the creation and distribution of money and controls the Central Bank. Herm formally led a successful career as the head of the Almite branch of the Central Bank and later ventured into the private sector as a prosperous investment and stock broker. His policies as the Head of the TCD is to encourage the universal use of USAR Timonths in all exchanges as well as ensure that all public services are backed by real pay. 

“That seems like a very specific platform to stand on as a Department Head,” I mused as I read aloud. 

“Well…” Angel said sarcasticly, “that’s because not everyone gets paid when they work for you.” 

“Angel!” Pneuma chided him. “Let’s put a positive spin to it and explain.” She turned to me. “Angel’s right. You do have a habit of saying yes to a lot of people’s desires. And because they trust you, they expect payment, but a lot of people are still waiting. Mr. Kremer is doing his best to ensure you keep your word. 

“Fortunately, in your favor, the Sheronites could care less about Timonths because they really do just want to barter amongst each other and the angel-folk would rather just have your time, like one angel I know…” she thumbed back to Angel who continued to pout.  “So you really only need to worry about the Almites who really do care about Timonths.”  

“And what’s a Timonth again?” 

“This,” she opened her tiny red crossbody purse and pulled out a pink and purple dollar bill with my face on it. It said †20,000. “It looks like Monopoly Money. It feels like it too.” 

“That’s becasue it is…” Angel laughed. “It has little to no value right now. That Timonth could buy you a candy bar at a convenience shop. Maybe.” 

My eyes widened. “It’s that bad?” 

“Yup.” Angel crossed his arms and sat back. He turned to watch the world whizz by. 

I looked back down at the tablet. “Dr. Kalei Koen…” I said aloud. “Ooo! She’s pretty!” Kalei was dressed in business blacks, but allowed her long black hair to reach her shoulders. Her smile was open and warm. 

Dr. Kalei Koen leads the Department of State. As department head of all ambassadors from USAR, Kalei spends much time ensuring that all relations between our nation and other nations in the world remain peaceful and friendly. Dr. Koen spent many years abroad throughout the globe and in the UKH studying international affairs and conflict resolution management. While this is her first year as head of the Department, she has done an amazing job establishing a strong relationship with the UKH allowing all humans, beings and angel-folk free access to and from the UKH and USAR.  She is determined to make sure the relations between other nations remains strong while promoting USAR interests across the globe. 

“That sounds impressive!” I looked to Angel who still seemed unimpressed.  My smile faltered.  “What now, Angel?” 

“Not to rain on her parade, but we really only have one international relationship. That’s with the UKH. We don’t have international trade deals because no other nation in Terra acknowledges USAR’s existence.” He continued to stare out the window while he explained it. 

“Oh… wait, why don’t we have other ambassadors anywhere else?” 

“It’s tough. Remember seeing those fist tags around the capital?” 

I thought back to the run down playground in front of my house that I only noticed when I turned on my glasses. Speaking of which…did I turn them off again? I double-tapped my glasses and was hit by a wash of vibrant color. Too much!  I blinked and double-tapped them to turn them off once more. 

“I remember the fist tags. Why? What does it have to do with the ambassadors?” 

Angel looked back at me. “So a new world order has been established in other countries across Terra. It’s called FIST. The Free and Independent States of Terra. The order is both a movement and an economic system that promotes the idea that each nation can be its own nation with its own ideals, traditions, religions and customs, but they must work to protect each other and fight against nations that promote colonialism and conformity. Benefits of FIST is that these nations have a shared currency, travel is free and easy between nations, and they also have a shared military, in case any nation is in need of additional protection.” 

“That doesn’t sound terrible.  I mean, it sounds like it would improve the economic state of our nation.” I held up the pink Timonth Pneuma gave me and handed it back to her. 

“You’d think, right? But the UKH is primarily the nation FIST is fighting against. …And…although you are also ‘free and independent’, we have a strong relationship with the UKH. So it puts us in an ‘awkward’ position.” 

“‘Awkward’!” I snorted. “Sounds like it’s really a major inconvenience!” 

“Yup. But this is what’s really eating up our country right now: You promised to improve relations with FIST. Just like you promised to improve relations with the UKH. You really put Dr. Koen in a tough situation. The two can’t see eye to eye. To move over to FIST’s system would mean that the angel-folk wouldn’t be able to fly Almites and Sheronites to the UKH so easily. The angel-folk would miss their friends and family. And many, like me, with dual-citizenship, would have to choose between which nation they’d rather be a citizen of. Not gonna lie: the UKH has a much stronger economy than yours.” His words stung, but I couldn’t deny that it was true. 

He continued, “Now the consequence of not joining FIST although you promised to improve relations with the order is that FIST has opted to pressure you by denying most trade. Many Free and Independent States have straight up sanctioned you. So economically, you’re struggling. And the people are feeling it. Bad. I hope this explains why you got punched in the face when you met my brother for the first time at that random bar you snuck off to. The people are angry. Half the nation wants you to join FIST to increase trade with all of the rest of the nations of Terra, the planet you live on. The other half strongly want you to remain in alliance with the UKH although the UKH isn’t on this planet.” 

The motorcade started to slow down. Looking out the window, I saw that we were pulling up to the entrance to the dam. Angel turned back to look at me with very serious eyes, “Madame President, sorry to break it to ya, but you’ve gotta make a choice. Soon. The decisions you make moving forward will ultimately be interpretted that you are either pro-FIST or pro-UKH. There is no middle ground.” 

A staff member opened the door to the SUV. Before I stepped out, I nodded to Angel in understanding but remained silent, feeling the full weight of what it really meant to be President. 

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Words: 1,679

Total Word Count: 36,110