“Here we are,” said one of the warriors. The elevator had stopped and the door opened into a small antechamber decorated in gold. The four She-Huns showed the Americans to the door of the adjacent conference room and posted guard there. Bush and Cheney entered the room and saw Nitra Khan sitting on her stone throne, Boota Bleeda standing beside her.
Bush grinned, shamelessly, at Khan.
She glared at him, her eyes full of hate.
“My queen, you’re more beautiful than ever!” complimented Bush, honestly. He was obsessed with this dark-skinned, blond-haired woman.
“You look like your normal, pathetic self,” answered Khan. She spoke excellent English with only a slight Hunzanian accent. “Your nose looks longer than the last time I saw you. Plenty of lying to your voters lately, no doubt?”
Ignoring Khan’s insult, Bush replied, “Only to the poor ones. You know, the ones that tip the scales and keep me in power.”
“Whatever.” Khan pointed to Bleeda, “This is Boota Bleeda, my new ministress of war.”
Bush acknowledged Bleeda with a nod and introduced Cheney to the two women, who had never met him before.
“Sit,” Khan commanded the Americans, who took a seat across from her. Bleeda sat down in a chair to the left of her queen, facing the two men. All sat in silence, waiting for Khan to start the meeting.
Khan went straight to the point. “So, Negon, why did you contact me last week to call this meeting?”
Bush had difficulty concentrating on Khan’s words, as he could not tear his eyes away from Bleeda’s full bust. My God, those are incredible tits, Bush thought. Then, out loud, “Beem, Ms. Minister of War should carry a weapon’s license for those torpedoes, don’t you think!”
Cheney laughed out loud.
Khan had already told her colleague that Negon Bush was a masochistic, sexually obsessed pervert. Bleeda did not take much offense to the comment, but nonetheless answered throwing daggers with her eyes, “Thank you. Too bad for you that you’ll never get to see them in the flesh.”
Khan interrupted, “Mr. President, do you think we could discuss the business at hand?”
Bush, too much black ice coursing through his veins, could not avoid bragging. “Okay. Nitra, my queen, I have five hundred thousand, well-trained soldiers, the American Defenders of the Light, stationed in Las Vegas. They are armed with the latest weapons and technology. They are supported by eighty thousand Abrams M10-A10 battle tanks armed with pulse cannons and Bushfire missiles.” He paused and looked at Bleeda to drive his point home to the leader of the She-Hun army. “Even without calling in other troops stationed around the country, Las Vegas is militarily superior to Hunzania. Although a war would inflict some casualties on us, we would surely win convincingly.”
Khan was offended. She said curtly, “What is your point?”
“Nitra, the recent attacks on our agritubes and our outer tunnel systems make me look bad and must stop immediately, at least until next Friday.”
“Must?” replied Khan, indignantly. “You dare to give me an order? Let me tell you about our forces. We have tens of thousands of battle Hun-Vees. We have tens of thousands of armored personnel carriers. Both have formidable mounted cannons and are womanned by one million warriors. I don’t need to remind you about the fervor with which my soldiers fight to the death. Remember Phoenix in 2096,” she paused for effect. In that battle the Americans suffered 200,000 KIAs and lost an additional 200,000 soldiers as prisoners of war to the outgunned She-Huns. “Not to mention our kamikaze battle boars! Besides goring and maiming, they don’t complain as they detonate their Hun-C explosive charges against your battle tanks. I’m not so sure that you would be the victors.”
Bush looked over at his general of the army, took a deep breath and changed gears; he realized it had been the black ice talking so far in the meeting. “Listen, Nitra, I apologize for getting off on the wrong foot. There is no need to be so confrontational here. I’ve come for a very different reason.”
Khan fell silent, looking him in the eye with a complete lack of trust.
The president of the United States continued, “Beem and I have considered this very seriously. So here it is: How would you like to add an American city to your Queendom of Hunzania?”
Nitra Khan looked at Bush, stunned into speechlessness. Bleeda’s mouth dropped open.
Bush continued, aware that he had a captive audience. “That’s right, Nitra. I’ll allow you to take the whole of Las Vegas, along with all agritubes west of Lake Mead in a week’s time. You will encounter some resistance from my soldiers, but nothing you can’t handle. In return, you will assure me that when I relocate to New Vegas with my elite soldiers and my six million, hand-picked citizens, you’ll allow us to live peacefully, never attacking us there.”
“You’re only taking six million with you?” asked Khan, hesitantly, still unable to believe what she had just heard. “Only six million Americans from the sixty million that live in Las Vegas? You’re sacrificing a lot of your fellow citizens, Negon. Why?”
“Because they’re worthless to me!” laughed Bush. He was now feeling so confident that he took out his platinum pillbox and snorted a crystal of black ice in front of the two women. He extended his hand towards the She-Huns, but they declined with a shake of the head.
Cheney followed his president’s lead, taking out his platinum hip flask, engraved with the image of the now-extinct bald eagle, and tipping his head backwards.
The two women looked at each other in disgust.