Initial impressions were that The Growth and Opportunities Conference was going to be a great success. All of the stalls and stages were arranged perfectly within the Moscow Exhibition Centre and all of the high profile dignitaries that Sonya had invited were in attendance, and there were even some that Sonya hadn't invited, most notably David Huntsman, the CEO of the world's largest asset management firm. Sonya had always admired his success in business and went over to introduce herself as soon as she noticed him.

"Ms. Kruschenko, you've saved me the trouble of hunting all over the exhibition centre for you."

"If you wanted to speak with me you wouldn't have had to go to such lengths, Mr. Huntsman."

"Is that because with that big lion by your side you're very easy to find?"

"Anybody that you wish to speak with here will immediately make time for you, everybody understands how important you are."

"So my reputation precedes me then, that's always nice to hear, hopefully that makes it easier for me to do what I came here to do."

"What did you come here for Mr. Huntsman? We organized this conference to give entrepreneurs in developing economies an opportunity to network and showcase their ideas; this conference is nowhere near important enough for somebody like you to be attending."

"As it just so happens my company has been meaning for a while to diversify our balance sheet by increasing our foreign investments, so that makes this conference the perfect place for me to visit."

"Oh, well, in that case, I hope you're able to find the opportunities that you're looking for. It's too bad that we didn't have advance notice of your intention to attend, we would have loved to have you participate in some of the round table discussions that we're going to be having here at the conference."

"It's not too late for that, add an extra seat and I'd be happy to participate in the discussions here."

"Excellent, I'll go and make the arrangements now."

Sonya left excitedly with the lion following closely behind her. David hadn't been sent here by the Raven, in fact the Raven knew nothing about him making this trip. He had come here to get a look at Sonya and Fyodor for himself, and already what he had seen gave him cause for concern. Judging from her demeanor Sonya didn't seem like the type that would be open to joining them, and the lion that she had with her wasn't a unique color like his pig, it was a perfectly normal lion with tan fur. Either the Raven didn't have its facts straight about the lion or there was something very out of the ordinary going on here.

David circulated the exhibition centre and mingled. There were some people there that he knew, like the Nigerian oil minister whom he had a long conversation with, but on the whole Sonya was right, there was nothing at the conference that interested him, all that was left for him to do there was to get a look at Fyodor Milichenko in action during the political round table that he was going to be participating in and to decide whether, based on what he had seen here at the conference, the Raven was on the right track. Dr Milichenko was scheduled to speak as part of a discussion billed as 'The future of the East in an increasingly westernized world'. As the chief proponent of the VOTE REJOIN campaign in Ukraine, Dr Milichenko was meant to be the star of the panel, where he was to be joined by the Estonian finance minister, a member of the Ukrainian trade delegation, a low level EU minister from France and the last minute addition of David Huntsman. Having known beforehand about three of the roundtable participants Fyodor had researched them and familiarized himself with their favorite talking points, equipping himself with everything that he needed to turn this roundtable discussion into one of his famous slaying sessions. He knew nothing about David Huntsman but he couldn't imagine a banker being more well versed in debate than an esteemed academic such as himself. At the outset of the discussion each panelist was given the chance by the moderator to make an opening statement. David Huntsman was excused from making an opening statement as he had only been added as a member of the discussion minutes earlier. The three panelists that Fyodor had done his homework on all gave opening statements calling for greater unity, openness and cooperation. Fyodor came out of the gate strong, arguing that all of this talk of unity and openness and cooperation was nothing but a smokescreen for opening the door for Western consumerism and greed to corrupt them in the East just like it had corrupted the West, that it wasn't possible to achieve unity and cooperation through capitalism because capitalism forced everybody to prioritize themselves first, whereas communism was born of the ideal of cooperation for the benefit of the collective, making it the better solution for achieving peace and prosperity by fostering values of hard work, sacrifice and generosity. His opening statement was impressively delivered and drew much louder applause from the audience than the others' opening statements had. David Huntsman wasn't impressed by what Fyodor Milichenko had to say and, as a lifelong free-marketer who had lived through the disastrous decades of communism it rankled him deeply to hear someone extolling communism as the pathway to the promised land and it rankled him even more deeply to see the audience taking to him so strongly. David felt himself being overcome by an urge to crush this man and were it not for the fact that he was a fellow disciple of the Raven he would have.

After their opening statements had been made the moderator, Maria Rublev, a financial journalist for Russia Today, got the conversation started by asking the Ukrainian trade representative what his experience was of being pulled in the direction of both the East and the West.

"Well, it is a balancing act for sure because we recognize the need to protect our cultural identity but we also need to make sure that our citizens have opportunities and if opening ourselves up more and more to the west is going to create more opportunities for them then we need to open up."

"Dr Milichenko, you don't agree with this?" The moderator asked him.

"What is he talking about when he says opportunity? Is he talking about the opportunity to eat McDonalds until you explode? If that is so then no, I don't agree with him."

The audience laughed at this, whether they were laughing at Fyodor or at America, David couldn't tell.

"Mr. Huntsman, you are an American, do you see any value in the West possibly abandoning some of its economic principles and adopting some of those of the East?"

"As an American what I can tell you is that there is absolutely no appetite for communism in America or indeed in the West as a whole. Our democratic and capitalist societies have all experienced extraordinary growth and prosperity, so why on earth would we turn away from that?"

The audience applauded this as well, in fact David was certain that he had gotten louder applause than Dr Milichenko had gotten.

"Dr Milichenko, your response."

"My response is to point out that what capitalism has actually produced is unsustainable levels of greed and consumption that have completely eroded human values, and you can't have a well functioning society without values which is why capitalism is bad for society."

More applause. David was starting to get annoyed by this man and didn't wait for the moderator to interject before making his retort.

"Does hunger and poverty and lack of opportunity make for a well functioning society? Because that's what we got with communism."

"Because of western sabotage, which was done because western corporations wanted people wasting their money because that meant bigger and bigger profits for them, and western political parties wanted people wasting all of their time and money on nonsense because if people are distracted then it's easier to govern them, or not govern them, as is increasingly the case in western democracies that have been captured by big money special interest groups."

"Communism didn't need to be sabotaged, it collapsed under its own weight because it's inherently flawed."

"Then why does your country continue to embargo Cuba? Why not leave the Cubans to grow their economy any way they wish and judge them by the results they achieve?"

"Cuba is embargoed because it is a repressive military junta and we in the United States will not recognize a government that uses fear and intimidation to repress its citizens."

By this point the rest of the members of the roundtable had been rendered superfluous and everybody watching was only interested in continuing to watch Dr Milichenko and David Huntsman going at each other.

"Everything that you have just said about Cuba I've heard western politicians, commentators and intellectuals saying about countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and yet none of those countries are subject to the same economic restrictions as Cuba; why? Because you get cheap manufactured goods from China and oil from the others, which makes you hypocrites, because what you are saying is that you consider the freedom of non-Americans to only be worth as much as a cheap toy or cheap petrol."

More applause from the audience, much louder than the applause that David had gotten the last time they had applauded him. David was used to being revered by the people in his orbit, people who looked up to him as the God of Wall Street, the man with the Midas touch. He wasn't used to being challenged, didn't like being challenged, and to have a communist getting the upper hand on him like this was making his blood boil.

"I'm not here to comment on which countries the United States chooses to trade with, I'm not involved in those decisions, what I will point out though is that countries that wish to maximize their growth potential are embracing free market principles."

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"That is because you are holding capital hostage and not allowing countries to access it unless they agree to your demands, it's economic blackmail."

"Of course we are not going to send money to countries that have no respect for values like freedom and access to opportunity."

"Unless that freedom includes freedom to exercise family planning, because your State Department refuses to allow foreign aid to go to countries where women have access to family planning services."

"Again, I am not here to comment on US foreign policy, I am here to talk about the opportunities available to countries that embrace capitalism as opposed to what communism is offering."

"The opportunities that you are talking about are in fact not real because they are financed by dangerous amounts of debt, as you found out when your economy nearly collapsed in 2008."

"Economic crises are inevitable in any economic system."

"That was a crisis that could have easily been prevented if you had reined in the lenders, but you wouldn't do that because that would be to go against your free market principles and because the lenders had completely captured the government with their campaign contributions."

"I'd like to point out here that Prism Capital wasn't affected by the housing bubble and subsequent crash, in fact we did extremely well."

"So you're saying that it doesn't bother you that the economy and the country were driven to near apocalypse because you were able to get even richer off of it?"

David had made a misstep in saying what he had said but before he could clarify his remark Fyodor recognized the chance to pounce and he did. He got up from his seat and walked to the front of the stage to deliver a disquisition to the audience.

"You see ladies and gentlemen, this is what I am talking about, this is the attitude of the capitalist: the amount of misfortune that is caused by reckless speculation is meaningless so long as somebody down the line is profiting, and when this reckless speculation goes too far and threatens to bring about societal collapse who is responsible for preventing that collapse? Governments, with taxpayer money, it's the same old story of socializing the losses and privatizing the gains, that's the con that these people have been running for the longest time. This same selfish attitude has seeped into every aspect of Western society, it's why they believe they can consume to their heart's content with no regard for what it is doing to the planet, although it's not like they have much choice in the matter, because what capitalism has programmed them to believe is that the less you consume the less of a person you are, so people do whatever they have to do to consume more and more, even if that means taking on massive amounts of debt that they can't afford, which allows the banks to bleed them dry with interest payments, and because people are so distracted by their need to consume and the increased financial difficulty that they are putting themselves in to finance their consumption they are not paying attention to what is happening with their government, which allows the rich and the powerful corporations to use their wealth to exert undue influence over public policy for the purpose of corrupting it for their own benefit, this causes the public institutions that are needed to facilitate upward mobility to start failing, which exacerbates the wealth gap and destabilizes society. Now, what I want you to do is this: I want you think about everything that I've just said and ask yourselves how this can possibly be a recipe for success? It can't be, the road that people like David Huntsman are asking us to follow them down leads only to disaster, we're seeing this happening now in his country, the United States, where industrial farmers have been allowed to do whatever they want with no government regulation and what they ended up producing is crops that killed livestock all over the world, that is why it is a foregone conclusion, at least I believe so, that Jim Balmer is going to be the next President of the United States, because people are fed up with hearing from people like David Huntsman that they know what's best only to then have to deal with the consequences that result from them cutting costs and corners to squeeze out more profit. If we are truly to have a society that works for all then it needs to be a society that is built from the bottom up, not from the top down, with an emphasis on ensuring that the needs of all are met rather than prioritizing the greed of just a few, that is why I am campaigning for Ukraine and Russia to unite and why I believe other countries will join as well, because if we are strong we can't be bullied by the west and we can reject their destructive consumerism in favor of an approach that values human welfare above all else and achieves its ambitions through collective effort and shared reward."

At the conclusion of Dr Milichenko's speech the audience got up from their seats and erupted in rapturous applause. The roundtable discussion was over. Fyodor, having accomplished what he had set out to do, took in the applause of the audience and walked off the stage having put on another clinic in slaying that his fans would no doubt be thrilled to see once the video hit YouTube.

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 become 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 surprise phone call from John Lafferty.

"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 myself, 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."

"It's actually very special, 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 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 during 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.

David 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.