Kaiju Agonistes

April, 1973

The secret meeting with a fraction of the presidium is held on the Black Sea coast. Eugenia is there, along with one of the new “Remote Messengers,” an autonomous fragment of the creature’s ever-growing substance, about twenty feet tall and remotely connected to its mental network. The entity pretends to smoke a cigarette clutched in a thin tentacle, a performance it has developed to put humans more at ease. The Soviet premier speaks:

“You must understand, Ms. Aldrich-Haines—and comrade Messenger, of course—that while we congratulate you on your rapid acquisition of a less belligerent means of global influence, you have done so by operating within an aggressively capitalist framework that we cannot legitimize with our public acquiescence.”

‘Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other,’ as Marx himself wrote. Am I not sufficiently revolutionary for your tastes, comrades?

“Yes, but there’s a second half to that particular argument, comrade Messenger,” says the premier.

I represent an unprecedented focus for the popular human consciousness, an economic nexus that incorporates the bourgeoisie but has not been constructed to its preferences and most importantly, does not answer to it. Surely that is a promising basis for ongoing cooperation, comrades.

“Hmmm,” says the premier, smoking his cigarette nigh-down to his fingertips. “Hmmm. Maybe you’re onto something. It’s good to see you exploring a more sound political and social ideology, comrade Messenger. Certainly we can look at…cooperating.”

The meeting breaks up, about as cheerfully as such things ever do. Before the Remote whisks Eugenia away in its usual mysterious fashion, one of the Soviet ministers runs over for a huddle.

“I was wondering,” says State Security, “if I might be able to put you in touch with my people in Switzerland and make a few moves. Take my points out of British Aerospace, for example. And Uniroyal. And shift them over to, uh.” He gestures at the Remote. “You know.”

“Leave it with me, chairman.” She takes his notes and folds them up. “I’m always happy to help with a bit of revolutionary transformation.”