Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Baleine Bleue Aquarium at Dover
The rise of the French banking system before and during the Depression in the 2070’s made them the dominant country in Europe. While other countries in Europe went broke, France prospered, and used their wealth to finance the European recovery, saving it from utter ruin. At first, this was welcomed. It was only afterwards, when people were working again and the standard of living was back to pre-Depression levels, that people realized that France now owned most of the continent. Most Europeans found themselves working for French bosses.
French economic success led to a massive increase in military spending, shoring up French dominance. When rebellions sprang out over much of Europe in the 2080’s, the French military moved in and shut them down. The issue was hotly debated by the World Congress, but France increased its overseas financial aid, and the resolution to pull their troops back was defeated in both houses.
According to the World Congress, there was no French occupation of any country in Europe. Meanwhile, French troops patrolled the continent.
* * *
There were 30 countries and 64 electoral votes in Europe, a rather small number as it was the only continent besides the RF—now the USR—whose population hadn’t gone up drastically the past century.
| United Europe | Population (millions) | Electoral Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | 4.0 | 1 |
| Austria | 10.7 | 1 |
| Belgium | 11.0 | 1 |
| Bosnia & Herzeg. | 2.9 | 1 |
| Bulgaria | 6.6 | 1 |
| Croatia | 4.1 | 1 |
| Czech Republic | 9.9 | 1 |
| Denmark | 5.5 | 1 |
| Finland | 6.2 | 1 |
| France | 79.0 | 8 |
| Germany | 73.5 | 7 |
| Great Britain | 96.8 | 10 |
| Greece | 10.9 | 1 |
| Hungary | 9.4 | 1 |
| Ireland | 5.7 | 1 |
| Italy | 63.6 | 6 |
| Kosovo | 4.7 | 1 |
| Macedonia | 1.9 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 17.2 | 2 |
| Norway | 9.0 | 1 |
| Poland | 34.6 | 3 |
| Portugal | 9.6 | 1 |
| Romania | 19.1 | 2 |
| Scotland | 9.7 | 1 |
| Serbia | 5.9 | 1 |
| Slovakia | 5.2 | 1 |
| Slovenia | 2.0 | 1 |
| Spain | 43.9 | 4 |
| Sweden | 11.6 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 8.7 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 582.9 | 64 |
They’d decided to focus most of their appearances in three of the biggest: Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. All three candidates had been running ads in Europe for some time, but as usual, Dubois had more money to spend, and so ran more ads than Ajala, who ran more than Toby. Predictably, Dubois had small leads in the polls over Ajala in all three of these countries, as well as most other European countries, while Ajala held similar leads over Toby. Dubois had his homeland France locked up as well as neighboring Spain, so they’d ignore those two populous countries. Feodora would be campaigning outside the Russian Federation for the first time. At her own suggestion, they had arranged a blitz tour of Europe for her, where she would visit all 30 countries in six days.
French dominance in Europe had led to a twin dynamic. Everybody hated the French. But many supported France politically, since they were their bread ticket. Employees might grumble to others about their French bosses, but when it came time to vote, they generally voted to keep the money flowing to their company—unless they were given a strong reason not to.
To overcome this, Toby and Bruce decided to campaign mostly on economic issues. They knew Ajala’s free food campaign would hit a chord in much of Europe, especially in the more progressive northern regions. They hoped they could steal that issue away, both by showing their method was a more common-sense approach, and by arguing that they were more electable than Ajala.
“Remind people every chance that Dubois is one of those hated French,” Bruce told Toby. “They may believe French leadership is good for them financially, but in the end, most people vote with their gut, even if it’s against their own financial best interests. We want their guts to hate Dubois’s guts.”
The issues in Europe were pretty much all economic anyway. It was the standard conservative-liberal conflict. Dubois favored low taxes for the wealthy, “trickle-down economics,” with the idea that they would invest the money in business, thereby creating jobs. Ajala countered with “whale-spout economics,” where low taxes for the poor and middle-class put the money in the hands of the masses, and when they spent it, it spouted up to the wealthy, who would then invest in business, creating jobs. He also argued that “Well-fed people work harder, which improves productivity, thereby improving the economy.”
In general, Dubois wanted low taxes and low spending except in security matters; Ajala wanted the reverse. Dubois thought unions had too much power; Ajala thought not enough. Ajala wanted to nationalize some of the larger businesses the French had taken over; Dubois was adamantly against this.
Toby would go for the middle ground on each issue. However, finding that middle ground wasn’t always easy. Plus he wasn’t comfortable with arbitrarily splitting the difference between Dubois and Ajala, as Bruce urged. Sometimes one side was simply right, or at least righter.
The unexpected wild card in the European race was Vasquez. The Mexico City mayor was now campaigning and fundraising for Dubois, and throwing his own money around in the effort. In a continent where money spoke loudly, Vasquez spoke the language. Toby was fairly sure Vasquez had reached some sort of a deal with Dubois. Very likely, in return for Vasquez’s support in the election, Dubois would make policing the Eth trade out of Mexico a lower priority. The problem with hypothetical back-room deals is that you never know for sure.
Meanwhile, there was still no sign of where they had taken Twenty-two. The news media was full of speculation, with most believing the alien was being questioned in a Chinese prison, but nobody really knew. Toby felt helpless; there was nothing he could do to help the imprisoned alien other than blast Dubois over it in speeches.
Their first event in England on Wednesday afternoon was a speech at the Baleine Bleue Aquarium at Dover, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. There was no better place to showcase the hated French financial dominance in Europe than this ultimate piece of corporate extravagance. In 2089 the French had located the English branch of the French National Bank—and its blue whale aquarium—near the famous chalk beaches of Kent County, facing France across the narrowest part of the English Channel. Due to this proximity, it had been the bastion against invasions since ancient times. Many considered its location an insult, a reminder of the French economic victory over the British in the 21st century.
There were really two aquariums, each a mile long, and a quarter mile tall and wide. They paralleled each other, a quarter mile apart, with a huge tube connecting them. The aquariums and tubing were transparent, and the water kept pristine, so viewers could watch the 26 blue whales—each named for one of the 26 regions of France—swim majestically in the aquariums and through the connecting tube as they fed on schools of krill that were pumped into the tanks each day.
Standing between the two aquariums, with what many considered the greatest view in the world, was the English branch of the French National Bank. It, too, was a marvel, modeled after the extravagant Palace of Versailles near Paris. The main design difference was the windowed outer walls, so occupants could stare at the whales all day long.
Toby and Bruce stood outside the bank, watching the most famous of the blue whales, Lorraine, swim through the tubing. She was closely followed by another blue whale, Alsace, and her baby, the 30-foot Picardie, whose birth caused much celebration, both for the spectacle of a baby blue whale born in captivity and because it gave each region of France their own blue whale namesake. Turk and Crowbar stood nearby, apparently oblivious to the whales as they watched anyone who came nearby. Dozens of the Gray Guard nonchalantly lurked about, but Toby barely noticed them anymore.
They had just secured a loan from the bank to help finance their campaign, an irony since they were running against a Frenchman, and Toby would shortly be giving a speech against this very bank’s extravagance. Janlibo did their international banking with the French bank, so they had little choice.
Lorraine was a wonder of the modern world herself, a one-of-a-kind horned blue whale. She had been created by American and Japanese geneticists, with their work funded by the French bank. Blue whales are baleen whales, while narwhals are toothed whales. To genetically combine them, scientists had created a blue whale with a narwhal’s toothed jawbone, since a narwhal’s horn is really an elongated tooth. The result was the still-growing Lorraine, sixty feet long with a nearly twenty-foot horn jutting out of her upper left jaw. She still ate like a regular blue whale, sifting krill from the water with her baleen. The horn tended to sag a bit as it wasn’t anchored in the toothed jawbone of a narwhale; a blue whale’s jaw bones weren’t designed for it.
“Incredible, isn’t it? Toby said, breathing in the salty ocean air. He’d been transfixed by the whales since arriving, barely paying attention to the bankers during their meeting. The whales’ bluish-gray bodies, almost white on the bottom, were up to one hundred feet in length. Their bodies slowly twisted up and down, using their horizontal tail flukes to thrust themselves forward like lords of the sea.
“What a waste of money,” Bruce said. With Toby staring out the windows, he’d dealt with the bankers. “Three hundred million cubic miles of ocean, and so what do the French do? They capture the biggest and maybe brainiest animals on the planet, stick the poor beasts in a cage, and put them on display like carnival freaks. Then they decide that’s not enough, and so they bring together the best scientists in the world and breed a carnival freak—a horned blue whale! I hope my taxes didn’t fund that research.” He suddenly grinned. “The French don’t even have the common sense to put their whale aquarium in Wales.” Toby groaned at the old joke.
Soon people arrived for the mass rally Bruce had organized. Distracted by the huge whales swimming about him, Toby gave his speech on autopilot, reading the lines off his TC.
He covered PUFF, per usual, then he ripped into Dubois for the arrest of Twenty-two, and demanded to know where she was and what was happening to her. He finished by criticizing the French economic takeover of Europe.
“While Englishmen and other Europeans work hard for a living, the French spend their leisure time and your money building aquariums.” Toby gave a sweeping gesture with his arms. “And who sits on the board of directors of the French Bank, the only bank in the world that treats whales better than Englishmen? President Dubois!” He paused for the cheers.
“It’s time we sent them home and retake your country!” he shouted. “Where are we sending the whales?”
“Home!” the crowd cried.
“Where are we sending the French?”
“Home!”
“And where are we sending President Dubois?”
“Home!” This last was so loud it hurt Toby’s eardrums.
After the rally, they left on the Rocinante for London for another rally and two news programs. There was also a speech planned in Wales, and another in Scotland, the breakaway Republic that had seceded from Great Britain during the depression in the 2070s.
On the way to London there was breaking news on their TCs. Ajala was giving an unscheduled speech at the Baleine Bleue Aquarium. Toby’s political alarm bells went off.
Ajala started out saying many of the same things Toby had said about the French. He went a lot farther.
“Look at that monstrosity!” he thundered, pointing at Lorraine. “Genetics research is valuable for its medical benefits, but a horned whale? What possible benefit is that? There is something wrong when huge sums of money are spent on whale aquariums and whale freaks, all for the benefit of a few rich bankers, when that very money could be used to stop hunger and better mankind!”
“You need to learn to thunder with a cultured voice,” Bruce said to Toby.
“The irony,” Ajala continued, “is that these whales are owned by proponents of the failed economic system known as trickle-down economics, a system designed to make the rich richer and the poor—well, they barely come into the equation. These whales are a symbol for the far more successful whale-spout economics, where all of us are in the equation. For that symbolization alone, perhaps it is worth having an aquarium full of whales on the coast of England.”
There was more applause.
“A short time ago,” Ajala continued, “Mr. Platt stood right where I stand, and gave a similar speech. He rightly criticized President Dubois and his membership on the board of directors for this symbol of French oppression.”
“Uh oh,” Bruce muttered. “He’s playing the hypocrisy card.”
“Oh jeez,” Toby agreed. His political instincts were flashing danger.
“If it is wrong for President Dubois to sit on that board,” Ajala continued, “then why does Mr. Platt do his banking here? This very morning he secured a loan at this bank. Both of my opponents in this election are in thrall to the very ones who oppress you, and yet they ask for your vote so they may continue this oppression!”
There were thunderous cheers that went on for some time. Finally Ajala continued.
“This morning Mr. Platt said the whales, the French, and President Dubois should go home. I ask you, where should Mr. Platt go?”
“TC off,” Toby whispered quickly.
“Brilliant,” Bruce said. “We just lost Great Britain.”
Soon after landing in London, Bruce disappeared. Normally Bruce was like a moth around a light during Toby’s appearances, but he was nowhere around when Toby gave a speech at a rally at Wembley-Thatcher Stadium in London, or for the two media interviews afterwards. Gene said he saw Bruce walk off just before the rally; Turk and Crowbar verified this. Toby called him on his TC, but there was no response.
First Twenty-two, now Bruce. They were dropping as fast as his numbers in the British polls.