“I’d say that your ten thousand unaffected guests have something a lot more powerful than my four divisions defending them.” He laughed. “When the showdown comes, Manuel, I’ll probably be asking you folks for help!”

Chapter Twenty-Four

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BUILDING THE WORLD headquarters of the Union for Peace was the most costly construction project of all time, far exceeding its preliminary budget. It included a huge airport, a complete network of roads, a state-of-the-art hydroelectric plant and compatible power systems, sewers, water collection and storage facilities, a high-tech telephone exchange with satellite up-link capacity, and all the basic infrastructure needed to support a city of a million people. Full-grown trees were imported at great expense to line the broad boulevards. There were graceful fountains, statuary, beautiful hanging gardens, and immense public parks.

Most of the public buildings were constructed of gleaming white marble. The palace and grounds designed for the leader of the world were the rival of the royal palace of France at Versailles. Nothing in history—whether the hanging gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, the court of Kublai Khan, the pyramids of the pharaohs, or the lavish splendor of the Roman Empire—compared to Babylon. Overnight, it seemed, the desert bloomed, and Babylon became an oasis to the entire world.

At the center of it all was the temple—the Mother Church, as it were—of the Church of Eternal Peace. In the temple was a gigantic figure of a man draped in a toga. His left hand was resting possessively on a giant globe, his right hand was raised with the palm upright. The red dot in the center of the palm radiated light and heat like a glowing ember of coal.

This statue was bigger, grander, and more sophisticated than the other statues of Mark Beaulieu that had been placed in temples around the world. The creators of this remarkable system had spared no expense. They had incorporated technologies beyond anything previously known to science. The statue represented the stunning culmination of a three-year crash program by a dozen of the world’s leading experts in cybernetic andromorphology. Of course, the world was told nothing of the technology. The statue, after all, was held forth as the embodiment of the spirit of Mark Beaulieau.

Their great creation was equipped with sensors that made the apparatus seem so lifelike that it even appeared to be breathing. Its eyes moved, the lids opened and closed naturally, and the pupils of the eyes dilated in response to changing light, precisely as human eyes would do. Its head could turn and nod, its mouth could move, and its arm and head motions were fully computerized to simulate human actions. Every motion was fluid and lifelike. Nothing about this amazing creation seemed artificial.