President Bishop sat down behind a long dark wooden desk at the meetings office. He seemed anxious and thrilled. He acted overly confident and excited with the outcome of the previous meeting stuck in his mind. He fed off of his personal success and enjoyed bragging about it to his staff and colleagues.

"Irene. Honey. Did you see how I single handedly took them down? That is how you handle your greatest enemies. You grab them by their throats and squeeze every sign of life out of them," his teeth gritted and he squeezed his fists so hard his knuckles turned white as he reviewed his success to his personal advisor and daughter, Irene Bishop. "I could feel how their hope drained out of them, while we gained the upper hand. Oh, it was a glorious moment for me – and for us!"

Everyone looked at each other, listening at their President's ongoing speech but no one dared to comment on it. They knew better to let President Bishop to keep up with his eccentric behavior he was known for after occasions where he had made an achievement or gained a victory of any kind. They kept listening at him, until her daughter, the advisor interrupted him.

"It's time, father," she told President Bishop about the meeting's beginning.

Everyone seated down next to the President. First Irene as his advisor, then next to her the Secretary of State Gary Weaving and on the other side the Secretary of Defense Mark Hamford and some other additional staff members who helped in preparations and arrangements. They quietly observed the lines and equipment set in the room for their conference meeting call.

Big TV sceens hung on the opposite wall behind the desk, with the official white house logo spinning slowly around in them, until one by one the other participants started to appear on the screens.

"From left to right, President of Russia, President of Brazil and Peruvian Prime Minister," Irene quietly informed President Bishop. He began by greeting them.

"Ah. Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Welcome."

"Is this line secure?" The President of Brazil began by asking.

"Yes it is. I will assure you, no one can hear us talk," President Bishop calmed his partners down.

The others in his staff weren't as assured however. They looked at each other, some with quite shocked faces, other staring blankly hoping that no one really was tapping their lines. They weren't so sure if no one couldn't had heard their transmissions. They knew that if there wasn't anyone else trying to tap in, Citadels' intelligence office was notorious of being able to collect data and information that should had been out of anyone's reach.

"I assume you've been following the news outlets in these past few hours."

"You must mean the global affairs meeting?"

"The limit has been set, gentlemen, and it's about time to start preparing for the execution."

"Excuse us, President Bishop," the Russian President's translator interrupted the speech that Bishop was giving. "President Kazatov is worried about the terms that were given to the Creators and the Citadelians. He wonders that what would happen if they would hand over the Creators for trial."

"There are no such worries. We know how they work, and there is no chance they would give their alien leaders to us. You can rest in ease," Bishop assured everyone.

An uproar rose between the Presidents of Brazil and Peru.

"Gentlemen – Gentlemen. If you have questions I will answer them. Otherwise let's calm down," the President calmed everyone down while his secretaries nervously browsed their papers through and Irene stared the screens with a jaded look and tapped her stack of papers with a pen. The situation didn't calm down.

"This deal is unacceptable. We should trust your word and wait it out for three weeks? Who came up with this plan? Us, no. We have a lot at stake with our lands –" Victor Sasso, the President of Peru yelled to Bishop and his delegation through his television screen.

"Your word don't mean anything, mister Bishop. We and our associates know very well that you are if nothing else, unreliable," Raul Luiz Carvalho, the President of Brazil pushed Bishop.

Bishop's staff knew that President Carvalho tried too hard to provoke their President. They looked at each other and stayed silent, knowing that Bishop would stand against him and he did on that very second.

"Excuse me. You – and your 'associates'?" Bishop raised his voice and stood up from his chair. His temper was rising and his face was starting to turn red. "May I remind you that WE are the head of this whole operation and YOU are the petty associates who WE asked to participate. If – and when – this plan goes as it was meant to go, you will get to gain your lands back from the alien administration... but IF you are not interested in such an arrangement, you and your little 'associates' can take off and pick up your trash with you. We DO NOT NEED YOU..."

"This is outrageous!" President Carvalho tried to speak through but Bishop didn't let him.

"I didn't finish! I didn't finish, listen! We have military and firepower more than the south of Africa combined. We could take you over in a matter of days if we'd wanted to but we try to be kind and lend a hand to you, let you come for the ride an let you profit out of it, and this is how you thank us?!"

"We are south America, not Africa my friend."

President Carvalho's comment interrupted the debate. Everyone kept silent until President Bishop gained some steam.

"What are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about – Please, do not interrupt me again or I will pull our deal off immediately. One more time, do you understand?" Bishop looked at the TV screed where Carvalho's face was drawn and he was boiling inside.

Irene stood up and grabbed the President by his arm. "Calm down." But he didn't seem to listen until she tried to push herself in between him and the view of the TV screen on the other side and talked again. "You need to calm down, father. Sit down. Collect your thoughts."

For a moment Bishop stood still like a statue, gasping air in his rage, but finally she managed to get the president to sit back down to his chair. Then she turned around to look at the screens.

"You should be wise and think well what you're about to say next to the President. You're threading on really thin ice if you know what that means."

"I know what that means –"

"Good. Then you'll also understand that you are this close to be dropped out of our deal," she raised her hand and showed pinching her thumb and index finger. "Let's calm down and show respect to each other, shall we?"

Everyone kept quiet for a short moment, calming down and collecting their thoughts. Advisor Bishop sat down to her own place next to president Bishop. The atmosphere was tense in every end of the meeting call.

"Russian navy is regrouping at the Sea of Okhotsk. They will be ready for the operation. They will move out as the time limit is running out," the Russian translator began to proceed the meeting.

"U.S. Navy has dispatched a total of nine warships towards the alien citadel at the Amazons. Three of which will accompany the Russian fleet to the coast of Peru," the Secretary of Defense informed the other participants.

"And the rest of them will park at our coast?" President Carvalho assumed with minor enthusiasm that showed out as he sat slouched with his arms crossed tightly.

"Yes, at the mouth of Amazon river – unless that is a problem with you of course."

President Carvalho sighed deep. He sat motionless and played with the thought of declining, but he knew that doing so would cause them to lose the opportunity to get the lands back from the Citadel if their plan succeeded. "You can use our lands for the operation."

"A wise choice indeed," President Bishop commented his decision from his chair.

"Great," Secretary of Defense continued. "Our carriers and cruisers will station at your coast. Aircrafts and smaller attack boats will run upstream and execute the mission from there."

"The ground attack has already been well planned. Everything is ready for the mark," President Sasso told.

"President Carvalho?"

"Yes. Everything is already prepared," he straightened himself and leaned on to the table to get closer to the camera on his end of the transmission. "It is you who we are waiting for. Not us."

President Bishop spoke up. "Patience is what we need right now, my friend. We do not want to look like the bad guys in the eyes of the people. We need the time to smooth it out and soften our allies' worries about the consequences of our actions. Not everyone are still convinced that we are doing the right decision. But we are."

"Patience and politics won't bring us victory. We should act now when we have the chance for the upper hand."

"That is exactly why your country is in such a bad state, Raul. I'm just saying."

"You –" President Carvalho was about to get mad from Bishop's insulting comment, but his own staff came to calm him down. They held him down and spoke to him in Portuguese, that the Americans didn't understand. It took a while but he managed to get his temper under control. Then he continued. "You are a disgrace, Mister Bishop. You and your country. We are waiting, good bye!"

President Carvalho's screen went dark, with a small text in the middle that said "No Signal".

"Three weeks, everyone. Three weeks. Then we are at go," President Bishop announced and stood up. "It will be at no time. Now good bye – cut the feed."

The IT staff checked their laptops and tapped in commands to stop the transmission. One of them went to the camera that was set up in their room and cut power from it.

"And we're offline."

"Good."

The President, his advisor and the Secretaries stood up from the table and walked out of the room.