Sneak peek:
==*==
Leonardo Alvarez looked at Leopold Richardson – the American was immaculately groomed as ever. Even here, with his wife waiting on the two politicians, he maintained a show of dominance. His suit was immaculately tailored, and the fingers of his right-hand were constantly running to and fro over the glossy, polished screen of his pip-boy personal computer. It was perhaps a snub that he had been unable to contact the American President directly, but he most likely knew anyway of their meeting and what was being discussed. Or would know soon, at any rate.
“You promised to help us with California,” Alvarez said plainly. “In September.”
“And it is not California that is the source of your … current problem.” Richardson began in a circumlocutory style, better suited to polite society. “At any rate, we are suffering … difficulties in the mid-west. The situation has changed in the past three months.”
“My people will be made serfs of the hidalgos in Veracruz and Mexico City if you let the Iturbide dynasty add Rio to their holdings. They’ve been trying to do it for decades, and with each defeat their hatred for and desire to humiliate us has only grown stronger. Our economy, our government, our culture … all of it will be obliterated. Replaced with a feudalism straight out of the 14th century.”
“Should we succeed in our objectives, we will have much of our own territory to rebuild after the war. Being frank here, there’s pretty much no public support for a campaign against the Iturbides, especially if it draws us into a lengthy effort to rebuild foreign territory for no immediate gain. Look, I’ll never be as plain with you as I am now. There is only one thing you could agree to that would have us drive out your enemies from the Rio Grande.”
Alvarez almost didn’t dare to ask the question of what it was.