Page 87 of V-Day
20.
SEPTEMBER CAME AND WENT. NOone on Vistaria noticed. They were too busy cleaning up and reorganizing.
Neither did anyone have time to worry about democratic elections. The Vistarian Army only had one general right then. By default, Duardo was President until the election was held.
As there was no Palace, Duardo shrugged and moved the microscopic seeds of the new government to the office in his house in Pascuallita. Nick and Calli already had a house in the area. Calli drove down to Pascuallita every day to work at the desk on the other side of his office. She interviewed and hired staff and discussed the structure of the new government with him, in between.
Duardo had almost forgotten the suggestion he had made to Minnie about the needs of a new government in the early days. Shortly after they had returned to the house in Pascuallita, Minnie presented Duardo with the plans she had built in the last days of the war, when she couldn’t sleep.
“There was so much to do, so many unbelievable problems I had to fix…I don’t ever want Calli’s job for real.” Minnie glanced at Calli, who just smiled. “Only, all the problems, all the issues…they told me what we’d need now.”
“Like what, Minnie?” Duardo asked, staring at the organizational chart on her computer screen.
“We ran out of petty cash to buy coffee, right at the end,” Minnie said. “Which made me think, where are we going to get the money to rebuild after the war?” She spread her hands. “Taxes, of course, which means we need a tax department.” She turned her head. “You need to talk to Rubén about that, Calli. He’s a lawyer, did you know?”
“I did, but thank you for the reminder,” Calli said, writing it down.
“That is why the tax department is at the top of your list, here?” Duardo asked.
“You can’t do anything else without money, and Nick is drained dry,” Minnie said. “I know—I’ve been writing cheques against his bank account. Then there’s the medical system.”
“Garrett might have some input into that,” Calli said. “He has very interesting ideas about holistic healing mixed with conventional medicine. You should talk to him, Duardo.”
“When I have time,” Duardo said, for there was never enough time these days.
They adopted most of Minnie’s suggestions unchanged, because they needed structure more than they needed perfect plans.
Maria Roldán, who insisted she was still the Mexican Ambassador to Vistaria, rented a house in Pascuallita. Soon afterwards, President Collins sent an American Ambassador, who rented the house beside Maria Roldán’s. His kids played with Maria’s in the yard behind their houses.
Gradually, the key people Duardo needed moved to Pascuallita. The Loyalists reclaimed the base, which became the center of military affairs of the new Vistaria.
Astra Corp returned to reclaim their mine and within two months had it operational once more. The first smelted ton of silver was donated to the Vistarian government as a thank you for recovering the mine from the Insurrectos.
Six weeks after the war ended, Duardo used Chloe’s new communications equipment to air and live-stream an announcement that in two weeks’ time there would be a general election. The people of Vistaria were to choose among Duardo and the three newly minted generals of the Vistarian Army who they wanted for their President.
No one but Duardo was even slightly shocked when Duardo won by a landslide seventy-three percent.
*
Constitution Day, October 20th. Five years later.
CHLOE AND CRISTIÁN ARRIVED EARLYat the new Government House. They made their way to the upper level of the three-story complex built into the side of the mountain, overlooking the sprawling city of Pascuallita.
“It’s impressive,” Cristián said, for this was the first time he had seen the building in person. “It doesn’t look this big on the media.” The international news outlets had been babbling about the low-impact design of the building for weeks.
“It runs back into the mountain quite a way,” Chloe said, lifting the hem of her ballgown up so she could climb the sweeping stairs. “It gave the engineers fits. Only, now it’s done and world leaders want to come and check it out, they’re all puffed up as if they knew what they were doing.” She laughed. “Duardo is letting them get away with it, too. He says they must answer all the math questions, so they should be compensated for it.”
A private lounge room was located on the top level, behind the President’s office suite. Military guards came to attention as they approached the doors and one reached out with a gloved hand to open the door for them.
Cristián raised his brow again.
“You’ll get used to it,” Chloe said.
“I hope not,” Cristián said fervently.
There were already many people in the lounge room, all of them familiar faces.
Duardo came forward, his arms out. He was wearing his formal dress uniform with the starched shirt front but hugged them both anyway. “You made it,” he said to Cristián. “How did the book tour go?”
