Chapter 24: The Ashen Mirror
The fires of ideology had reached the western hemisphere.
While Mikhail’s Doctrine spread through Eurasia, whispers of a new power rising in South America began reaching the Winter Palace.
A rogue general—Sebastián Ortega—had seized control of a fractured Argentina, backed by remnants of old-world elites and private Consortium capital.
But it was not Ortega’s dictatorship that caught Mikhail’s attention. It was his mimicry.
[Intelligence Alert: Doctrine-Inspired State Detected – Alignment: Hostile Imitation]
They called it the Nueva Columna—"The New Column."
It had its own doctrine, its own technocrats, even its own pseudo-Institute. But where Mikhail built on education and merit, Ortega’s empire built on surveillance, militarized ideology, and enforced nationalism.
A twisted reflection.
A mirror, dark and ashen.