She took in a deep breath, straightened her back one more time, and walked through the door displaying as much confidence as she could.
Director Seiden sat behind a monumental desk, reading from a report, most likely hers. Heavily built, wearing the frame of a former athlete or weightlifter, Director Seiden looked intimidating in his charcoal suit, white shirt, and loosened silver tie. In his sixties, the director had a receding hairline showing a tall forehead and permanent frown lines. His role, most likely one of the most stressful leadership roles in the US government, must have given him plenty of reasons to frown throughout the years, carving those deep lines in permanent testimony of who knows what crises he had dealt with.
Bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows shaded his eyes. He focused intently on his reading material, while his right hand absently touched his teacup, probably considering another taste of Earl Grey.
Henri hadn’t interacted with Director Seiden that often. Such a visit was an exceptional occurrence, considering there were three levels of leadership between her pay grade and his. She felt anticipation anxiety creep up on her. She wanted to make a good impression, and she only had one shot at it.
“Sir,” she said, after clearing her throat, turned dry and scratchy all of a sudden.
“Take a seat,” Seiden said, not lifting his eyes from the pages.
She sat in one of the large leather chairs in front of Seiden’s desk, careful to not make a sound and break the director’s concentration.
“Interesting theory you have here,” he said, finally looking at her. “How sure are you?”
For some reason, Henri instantly forgot her carefully rehearsed exposé and blurted out unfiltered thoughts.
“I was very sure when I put that report together, but now I don’t know anymore. Everyone doubts me, questions my judgment. I hope I’m right. I thought I was.”
She cringed hearing her own words. She sounded like an insecure child presenting her math homework and still somehow questioning whether two plus two equaled four.
“Are you a leader, or a follower, Ms. Marino?”
“Umm… I aim to be a leader, sir.”
“Then you shouldn’t let your self-confidence drop because people are asking questions. It’s their right. But you do have a brain of your own, right?” Seiden’s voice was almost encouraging. He wasn’t smiling or anything, but Henri didn’t sense any disappointment or anger in his voice.
“Yes, sir,” she acknowledged, aware she was blushing.
“Let’s try again. How sure are you, Ms. Marino?”
“It’s Henri, sir.” She blushed a little more. Maybe offering her first name was inappropriate? She had no idea, but she was going to worry about that later. She was clumsy with people, always had been. “Yes, very sure.”
“On what basis?”
“I have profiled President Abramovich. His detailed profile is on page five, I think. That profile, combined with several actions he’s taking, all listed in the summary section of the report, led me to believe he is preparing for war, or for a renewed arms race, at least.”
“I can read, you know,” Seiden said, tapping his fingers on the report cover. “What can you tell me that isn’t in the report?”
“Sorry, sir. Yes, well, Abramovich is a pure sociopath, of the worst kind possible. He’s a malignant narcissistic sociopath, who would kill millions over his bruised ego. I started my report from that evaluation and from analyzing several actions the Russians have recently taken. They correlate really well; they form a pattern that spells arms race to me, possibly even changes in Russia’s form of government.”
“How so?” Seiden took his reading glasses off and massaged the bridge of his nose with the tips of his fingers.
“His entire background speaks to that. He was KGB. No, even worse, he was political KGB. He was a KGB general during Mikhail Gorbachev’s reign at the Kremlin, but Abramovich’s contempt for Gorbachev was common knowledge. He hated Gorbachev for his glasnost and perestroika, for his pro-West attitude and his willingness to end communism in Russia and bring freedom to the Russian people. Abramovich climbed to power under the self-proclaimed mission to restore Russia’s greatness, and he started working on that since his first day as president of Russia, in the typical manner of a sociopath.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning his actions are disrespectful of anyone else’s values, human rights, or the law, for that matter. He is the most dangerous kind of sociopath one can imagine. Absolutely no conscience, no scruples whatsoever, combined with holding the supreme power in a powerful country. After all, when did President Abramovich start being on everyone’s mind again?”
Seiden didn’t answer; just continued looking at her, waiting for her to resume her analysis. He’d probably heard these things before and had no interest in dwelling on them, nor cared to play question — and-answer games with her.
“Right,” she continued. “He invaded Crimea, because he needed faster access to the Black Sea, a waterway shortcut. He didn’t care that it was in a different country; he just annexed Crimea, erasing the border that stood in his path. Nothing mattered to him, not even another country’s sovereignty. Then what happened? We applied sanctions. Abramovich, whose ego knows no limit, found the sanctions insulting. He fought back with his own sanctions, but he’s hurting. Along with him, his financial backers are struggling. The Russian oligarchs, who paid him immense bribes in exchange for favorable legislation and the unofficial permission to do whatever they pleased, now are facing bankruptcies and are demanding action. His personal cash flow has almost dried up. That’s why President Abramovich doesn’t want the sanctions lifted anymore. He wants much more than that. He wants revenge; he wants blood. He wants us to pay for his bruised ego and tarnished image.”
“Interesting,” Seiden said, “but not all that new. What else do you see?”
“Several other things that correlate. The Russian people like him a lot. They, too, are sick and tired of poverty and uncertainty. Their support for him has created a unique circumstance that allowed him to start on the road of becoming a dictator, to remain in power until he draws his last breath.”
“How come?” Seiden’s interest was piqued.
“Well, after Russia became so-called ‘free’ from communism,” she said, making quotation marks with her fingers in the air, “one of the first legislative changes was the amending of the Constitution, limiting the number of consecutive presidential terms to two, just like we have here in the States. The first few terms were four years long, until 2012. Then, they amended the Constitution to make them six years long, all during Abramovich’s tenure at the Kremlin. Once his first two terms were consumed, no one thought he would be coming back to lead the country, but he did. He was elected again after a short hiatus, the single-term intermission required to satisfy the Constitution limiting him to two consecutive mandates. Very soon after he returned as reelected president, the Constitution was amended again, extending, as I said, the terms to six years. With these changes in place, he already had twelve years ahead of him, during which time many things could happen. That might include, I am postulating, another amendment to the Constitution, opening the door for more consecutive terms. Because he is well supported by the desperate Russian people in search for stability and sustainability, that amendment will be easy to vote in. This is how I see him paving the road to dictatorship.”
She stopped talking, swallowing with difficulty. She was painfully aware she spoke too much and too fast.
Seiden whistled and leaned back in his chair, interlocking his fingers behind his head.
“You definitely have my attention now, Henri. Why an arms race though?”
“In the past year and a half, several incidents involving the Russian military took place around Europe and even here, in North America. Forty-seven, to be exact. Near misses, some might call them, or provocative, as others have labeled them, nevertheless they are quite a few. Way too many to be slipups, mistakes, or random acts. These data points form clusters. My analysis isn’t finished yet on these specific actions, though.”