David Huntsman wasn't happy about what he had just experienced. He was meant to be the star of this conference and he had just been humiliated, and worse, it was by a communist who had nothing but disdain for everything that he believed in, everything that he had lived his entire life in service of. Fyodor Milichenko was a dangerous man, and David feared the kind of influence that he could have over people if given a large enough platform from which to espouse his views. At present he couldn't see how he and Dr Milichenko were going to be able to work together when their worldviews couldn't be any more diametrically opposed. David remained at the conference for the rest of the day and participated in two more events on stage: another roundtable discussion, this one about the future of energy, where he got to share the stage with Sonya and during which they had pleasant exchanges. The second event was a one on one interview with a Bloomberg news emerging market correspondent assigned to cover the conference who picked David's brain about everything from the US agriculture crisis to the presidential election to the strategies that Prism Capital was employing to navigate this period of unparalleled volatility. Without Fyodor Milichenko spoiling for a fight, David was able to freely express himself during these conversations and he enjoyed them a great deal, especially the roundtable discussion that he'd taken part in with Sonya. She was a truly impressive young woman who David wished was joining their inner circle rather than that windsock Fyodor Milichenko. He had seen enough of her during his time at the conference to now be convinced that there was no chance of her agreeing to becoming one of the raven's disciples, and what convinced him was when she came up to him to apologize for Dr Milichenko's conduct.

"I'm really sorry that you had to go through that, I was against inviting him but unfortunately at the moment he is one of the most famous political figures here in the East so we didn't have much of a choice."

"That's alright, I've dealt with his kind before, people who think that the world is their stage and the rest of us are their audience."

"Yes, that is Dr Milichenko in a nutshell, had I known that you were coming I would have made sure he wasn't invited, given his embarrassing propensity for grandstanding."

For someone who held a position of such importance, Sonya was remarkably sincere, most likely because she felt free to be sincere because of the confidence in her strength that she got from the lion. David had learned much during his trip to Moscow and would be going home with much to think about. He spent the night in a hotel room and was getting ready to leave in the morning when he received a phone call from John Lafferty of all people.

"What are you doing in Moscow, David?" John asked him the second he'd answered the phone.

"John? Why are you calling me? And how do you know I'm in Moscow?"

"This isn't John, it's the raven, I'm borrowing John's body for a little while."

"What do you mean you're borrowing his body? Did you possess him? You can do that?"

"Yes I can, I needed a human host and John was being problematic so I decided to use him. Back to my original question, why are you in Moscow?"

"How do you know that I'm in Moscow?"

"Your little verbal sparring session with Fyodor is on the internet, though it was less of a sparring session and more of an assault, all of Fyodor's fans are saying that you were SLAYED by him, and I'm inclined to agree with them."

"I came here to get a look at Dr Milichenko and Ms Kruschenko for himself, and from what I've seen I'm not convinced that we're on the right track."

"Oh? And just what did you see when you were there?"

"Well for starters Jim and I are never going to be able to get along with a diehard communist like Dr Milichenko, and the lion that Sonya had with her was just a regular lion, there was nothing special about it like there is with my pig."

"Nothing special?"

"That's right, it's got tan fur and brown eyes, there's nothing special about it at all."

"Yes there was, you just don't know enough about this stuff to have noticed, and what this means is that Sonya is a lot more special than we originally thought."

"What are you talking about? How am I supposed to know about this stuff if you don't tell me?"

"I'm talking about spontaneous awakening, it means that the guardian awakened without coming into contact with one of the eggs, it's something that can only happen if the guardian recognizes its adoptee as being unquestionably peerless."

"Does that mean that we don't have a chance of convincing her to come over to our side? Because that's the feeling that I got from speaking with her."

"Yes, it's most likely the case that she won't be joining us, in which case sending Fyodor to convince her was a mistake because she's going to see right through him."

"On this Fyodor guy, do you think it's wise to bring him into our circle, after all, the guy's a communist."

"He's not a communist, he's a conman, I'll explain all of it to you when you get back, which brings me to the reason why I called you, I want you to bring Fyodor back to the States with you."

"What? Why?"

"Because we need to incorporate him and the role that he's going to play going forward into our overall strategy."

"We don't need him."

"Having been on the receiving end of his talent you should be capable of recognizing his worth. If you defy me and you don't bring him back with you there are going to be consequences."

Fearful of meeting the same fate as John, David did what he was told and flew Fyodor back to the United States with him on his private jet. Fyodor told David that he had had a conversation with Sonya in which he had intimated to her that should she decide to pursue a career in politics he had connections that could help her get to the top faster than would ordinarily be possible. According to Fyodor, Sonya had been very receptive to his offer and he fully expected that in the not too distant future they'd be hearing from her to accept their offer. David wasn't convinced, and believed that Sonya had made a fool of him, which Fyodor couldn't see because of his unshakeable faith in the irresistible power of his silver tongue.

It was David who was right. Sonya had always been unimpressed by Fyodor Milichenko and her opinion of him had dropped further after seeing him in action with her own eyes. During their private conversation his unctuousness had been almost unbearable, and it made the idea of being a part of anything that he was involved in unthinkable. The lion agreed with her assessment of Fyodor, and surprisingly had a word of warning for her regarding David Huntsman.

"He's got the stench of the pig all over him, that means he's greedy, greedy enough to do whatever he has to do to get what he wants; he doesn't look it but he's dangerous."

"More dangerous than Fyodor?"

"Fyodor is connected to the snake, his ability to convince people to do things is unmatched, if given a loud enough megaphone there's no telling how many people he can get to believe dangerous things, he's the more dangerous of the two."

"It's strange that they should both be at the conference."

"Not if they were sent here by the raven to recruit you."

"You think that's what they were doing here?"

"I'm almost certain of it, and if the raven knows about us then the goose most likely knows about us as well. We can no longer continue to sit on the sidelines, we have to make our move now."

"Agreed."

The next morning Sonya made a phone call to the Russian Ministry of Defense to accept the job that she had been offered weeks earlier of Deputy Minister of Defense for Financial-Economic Work, intending this to be the rung from which she began her ascent up the political ladder.