by David Nees
“We got a clear signal. China’s going to act,” Roger said.
“And do what?”
“Invade Taiwan. The top brass think it will happen during our sail-through of the China Sea.”
“The military thinks this as well?”
Roger nodded.
“But why? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ve discussed this before with Henry,” Roger replied. “China has a demographic ‘bomb’ waiting to go off. The one-child rule has resulted in millions of single men, twenty-five to thirty-five with no prospects for mates.”
He paused.
“Think about that for a moment. Men in their prime, frustrated, with no family possibilities, and their parents wanting grandchildren. China’s president needs something to grab their attention. What better than taking over the rebel island. Many of these men would join the army as their patriotic duty.”
“Wag the Dog scenario?”
“You got it. But what’s worse is that China may attack the carrier group when it sails into the China Sea. They’ll claim self-defense, whip up patriotic fervor, and then attack Taiwan under the same cover.”
Jane turned to Henry.
“They stand a chance to lose if we remain in a cold war status with them,” Henry said. “They’re almost a house of cards that could collapse at any moment: the demographic problem, cities built with no people in them, the pollution. Roger and Garrett think they need a hot war.”
“Attack our carrier group?”
Henry nodded.
“That would be disastrous for them.”
“Maybe…maybe not,” Roger said, rejoining the conversation. “It would be disastrous for us. It could show the world how vulnerable a carrier group really is.”
Jane gave him a quizzical look.
“A large number of low-flying missiles, only one needs to penetrate the defenses.”
“They wouldn’t take on the entire strike group. The carrier’s well defended.”
“Yeah, but it’s still a sitting duck. They only need to harm the carrier, not take it out.”
“But we’d retaliate.”
“Probably, in a measured way. That seems to be the mode of our president. The Chinese will scream about some provocation and then launch the invasion of Taiwan. The UN will call for everyone to stand down and remain calm. Meanwhile, Taiwan would be taken.”
Jane thought for a moment.
“So, you think this is going to happen?”
“Doesn’t matter what I think,” Roger replied. “I’ve been tasked to deal with this. That’s where you and Henry come in.”
“How the hell do we derail such an operation? We’ve got no assets in place in China, and we’re an anti-terrorist strike group.” She got up to pace back and forth. “We can’t affect strategic operations like what you described.”
“There is a way,” Henry said. “We’ll talk about it in my office.”
He got up and started for the door. The meeting was over. Jane followed him back down to the basement.
*
Roland took Yvette aside.
“I have to go. We have a task to accomplish, a mission. Rescuing you and the others put that in jeopardy. Now we have to get back to it. I can’t have you with me right now.” His voice carried a note of seriousness that caused Yvette’s protestations to die in her throat.
“Will you come see me tomorrow?”
Roland took her in his arms. “Yes, if I can. I’ll call you no matter what.”
“I’m not leaving Goma until you’re done with your mission.” She gave him a determined look.
“I may not be able to see you after we’re done. Things could get…complicated.”
“Can you tell me what you’re going to do?”
Roland shook his head. He kissed her and then turned to the others. “Let’s go.”
The men left to go to their hotel. Once there, Dan broke out the bourbon and beer, Santu went to the hotel restaurant and brought back a sizeable amount of Congolese food: chicken, fish, rice, vegetables, mangos, and other fruit. The dishes were heavily spiced, as usual.
While the men were eating and drinking, the satellite phone rang. Dan picked it up and went out onto the balcony.
“You have more information I’m guessing.”
“Yes,” Jane said. “Here’s the situation…”
Jane gave Dan the rundown on what she had learned from Roger.
“I can’t believe that’s going to happen.”
“That’s what most people in the world would say until it does.”
“What the hell can we do about it?”
“We’ve learned that a General Wu traveled to Djibouti to conclude an agreement between them and China about their military installation. We think after the meeting he’s flying to Goma to meet with Zhang. Probably wants to bring Zhang up to speed on the plans and how it will affect his operations in the Congo.”
“And your point?”
“General Wu is in overall charge of the military. He’s army and they dominate the military. He’s apparently been put in charge of this action.”
“Again, I have to ask, what can we do?”
“You are to take out both General Zhang and General Wu.”
There was silence as Dan digested what Jane had said.
“Now you really do want to start WWIII.”
“No. To the contrary, we want to avoid a hot war. Taking out the leadership will postpone the operation. Our fleet will transit the South China sea with no attack, and China’s excuse will largely evaporate.”
“They could still invade Taiwan. They don’t need an excuse.”
“That’s just it. They do need an excuse. Any forceful action has to be seen as being defensive, like they are being oppressed by the U.S., bullied if you will. Taiwan won’t do anything to provoke them—”
“Other than to elect a conservative, anti-China leader.”
“They won’t like it, but it won’t be enough to invade. Look, you said it yourself, cut off the head, the snake dies.”
“I was referring to drug lords. Not high-level officials of a major power.”
“It’s done internally all the time. Stalin, Mao, Mobutu, any number of despots.”
“But this is external.”
“The results are the same. You sew discord, confusion. We’re setting up a story about a warlord getting revenge on Zhang and those with him for their attempts to take over the mining operations. We can point everyone in the wrong direction, while exposing Zhang’s actions and motives. It will embarrass the DRC and they will have to condemn, not only the killing, but what Zhang was trying to do here. We could set back China-Congo relations for a decade.”
“And stop a hot war?”
“That’s the idea.”
Dan sighed. “When is Wu coming?”
“We don’t know, but soon. You should get in position right away. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to just wait it out until he shows up. You can be sure he’ll be at the plantation.”
“My life spent in waiting.”
“Call me when you’ve completed your mission.”
“Will do.”
“And Dan, has Roland worked out his love life? I don’t need him distracted now.”
“Taken care of.”
“Be careful. I want you home in one piece.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And don’t call me ma’am. It makes me feel old.”
Chapter 52
___________________________________
T wo days after Dan and the volunteers left Donga, Mputu showed up with thirty of his rebel soldiers. They came in five pickup trucks, three of them with machine guns mounted on the pickup beds. People looked away or ducked into a building as they drove past. They stopped in the center of town and demanded the location of the national forest offices. By the time they got to the office building, it was empty, as was the compound behind the building which housed the pygmy families working for Martin Tambwe. Everyone had
fled on notice that Mputu had arrived in town. This only convinced Mputu of the supervisor’s involvement in the raid.
He ordered his men to torch the building. They siphoned gasoline from a nearby car and poured it around the building. When it was fully ablaze Mputu rounded up random people. His aggressive questioning included a local GDN, or Gendarmerie Nationale. He was the local representative of the organization that acted as the police force in smaller villages. It consisted of ex-military, retired national police, or civilians who stepped up to take on the job. They were paid little and irregularly. The frightened man quickly told Mputu that the group had left late in the night, headed for Goma.
*
That night Dan sat with the three men in their hotel in Goma and went over plans. He included Santu while still leaving out some key pieces of information.
“Marcus will drive me out tomorrow. I’ll contact him when I’m ready to be picked up. It may be a few days.”
“We just wait?” Roland asked.
“You three figure out how to convince Bakasa to not give out any more commissions to Zhang or Mputu. If we can get him to do his job correctly, we may actually help save the forest and some gorillas as well as artisanal miners.”
“Fat chance of that,” Marcus said.
“Just do it,” Dan responded.
“Just how do you suppose we convince him to stop acting corrupt when that’s all he knows and everyone around him does the same thing?”
Dan shook his head. “I don’t fucking know. But it’s better than you guys sitting around on your ass, or worse, falling in love with locals.”
“Fuck you,” Roland said. There was no jest in his voice this time.
Dan gave him a long, hard stare.
“I’m happy you found a soul mate, but that wasn’t what we are here for. And it complicates matters.”
Roland stood up and started for Dan.
“And I suppose you banging the boss doesn’t complicate matters?”
Dan now stood as well. Both men were standing close to each other.
“Okay guys. That’s enough.”
Marcus shoved himself in between the two.
“We don’t do that. We work together as a team. We have each other’s backs. Roland’s handled things just fine. He roped us into rescuing the hostages, but we degraded a warlord in the process.”
“He’s gone too far with his comment about Jane,” Dan said. His voice was low and dangerous.
“You both made comments that were off base. Now you both need to stand down. You get into some big-ass brawl and one or both get hurt, what does that do to the mission?”
Dan slowly unclenched his fists and stepped back.
“We got a potential fucked up situation here,” Marcus said. “You’ve got an additional complication with major consequences. From what you said, this is going to ignite serious fireworks. Roland has a complicated situation which will probably result in a girl’s feelings getting hurt.”
He looked at Roland, who had also begun to relax.
“You know what I’m saying is right. Don’t get all misty-eyed. We’ve got a serious mission. If we get out of this alive and intact, you can take some time off and find her. Get married, if that’s what you want, or just have a fling.”
Marcus now stood face to face with Roland.
“But that comes later. You got that? The mission comes first now.”
Roland nodded and went back to sit on the couch.
Santu was sitting to one side. All the men now looked at him as if they just realized he was in the room.
“This freak you out?” Marcus asked.
Santu didn’t answer. Fear showed in his face.
“Are you okay, Little Buddy?” Roland asked him.
Santu turned to him. “You guys aren’t going to kill me after this mission, as you call it, is over, are you?”
Roland let out a loud laugh. “Hell no. You’ve proven yourself. And we still need your help.”
“But when you don’t need me anymore?”
Dan and Marcus shook their heads.
“We’ll find a way to keep you untangled from whatever happens,” Dan said. “You come out clean and making a lot of money in the end.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Roland said. The altercation with Marcus now seemed to have been put behind him. “That stuff Santu told the chief about all of us, maybe that’s how we get to Bakasa.”
“That’s a great idea,” Dan said.
They continued to expand on ways to deal with Bakasa and, by inference, Mputu.
Santu told Dan that they should find an actual sorcerer or fétisheur.
“Bakasa will not be moved by my stories. We will need something stronger. We hand him a fétiche and tell him it will harm him if he doesn’t protect the miners. That he might respect.”
“Your stories won’t be enough? Dan said they were great stories,” Roland said.
Santu shook his head. “Bakasa is a modern man, an educated Congolese. He has put these tribal customs, the magic, behind him. He won’t believe in stories. It will take shoving his face back into the magic to revive his fear.”
“You’re saying,” Marcus now spoke up, “that beneath the educated Congolese is someone who still believes in magic? In the spirits?
“You would not understand. We have not been that long away from the world of sorcerers, of magic, of spells. There is much that goes on that one can’t explain.” He pointed his finger at Marcus. “You tell me how to explain about a man who had a curse put on him for not paying proper respect to a sorcerer, and then all of his children died when they reach the age of thirteen or fourteen.”
“This happened? You know about this?”
Santu nodded.
“Did anyone check the medical causes of the children’s deaths?”
“The doctors said it was due to blood cancers.”
“There you have it. It’s not the curse, it’s genetic.”
Santu shook his head. “Marcus you do not understand. The cancer is how it happened. The curse is why it happened.
Marcus just sat there digesting Santu’s comment. Dan could see him trying to find a reply. But what could one say to that analysis? Dan knew then that he needed to find someone in Goma. He would use this belief system, still in place and, maybe, for good reason, to steer Bakasa’s actions.
“We find our sorcerer…tomorrow,” Dan said.
“It is not so easy,” Santu replied. “And I do not know about such men here in Goma.
“Then we search for one,” Dan said.
Later Roland called Yvette.
“I’ve been waiting for your call. I can’t sleep,” she said.
Roland was on the balcony. A warm breeze was coming off the water. He could hear the mosquitoes in the air, but the wind kept them from attacking. If it died down, he’d have to flee indoors.
“We’re going on a search tomorrow,” Roland said. “We have to find a sorcerer or fétisheur. We’re going to use him to get to Bakasa and see if we can’t get him to be more supportive to the miners. And maybe protect the national forest while he’s at it.”
“Does Santu know a sorcerer here in Goma?”
“He says no. Says it’s hard to find one. They don’t exactly advertise to the general public.”
“He’s right.” She stopped talking for a moment.
“You still there?” Roland asked.
“Yes. I’m thinking. I’m thinking I know someone, here in Goma, who might be able to connect you to a sorcerer. One who will make you a fétiche.
“How would you know someone?”
“He’s a bartender. We all got to know him. Remember I’ve been here for two years. He had trouble with someone threatening his family and visited a sorcerer. I understand his problem went away after that.”
“Can you find him?”
“I think so. You come by tomorrow and we’ll go look for him.”
“I’ll talk to Dan and call you back.”
Roland end
ed the call and went back in to tell Dan what he had learned.
Chapter 53
___________________________________
T he next day the group, Dan, Marcus, Roland, Santu, and Yvette, set out to find the bartender. It took three stops to finally track him down. Yvette explained that the men with her wanted to meet a fétisheur.
“Do they know what they are messing with? This is not a tourist thing to do.”
“They understand,” Yvette said. “Look at them,” she pointed to Roland, “they’re not tourists. They are serious men.”
“And you?” the bartender directed his question to Santu. “You are comfortable with this?”
“Non. I am definitely not comfortable with this. I do not want to enter the world of sorcerers. That is a dangerous place to be.”
The bartender nodded. “Very wise, mon ami. Do these men understand this is not something to do lightly?”
Santu nodded. The bartender shook his head but wrote down instructions on a piece of paper. It directed them to a slum district near the airport. They were to park at a market, he specified the intersection, and told them to ask for Bompaka, a name that means “old”.
“Remember, sorcerers do not like publicity. They work in the shadows since authorities, even though they fear them, frown on their practices.”
The group set out for the airport. The neighborhood was a labyrinth of metal-roof shacks with narrow alleyways leading out to dusty streets. They parked at the designated market along the intersection of three roads. After locking the Toyota, the unlikely group set out. They drew a great deal of stares from the people walking along the street; three large, tough-looking white men, a white woman, and a black man that seemed to be as uncomfortable as the whites. They were clearly not from the area and clearly not tourists.
Santu approached multiple vendors in the market asking where to find someone named Bompaka. He was met with either a wall of silence or disavowal of any knowledge of the person.
“The bartender told us he might be hard to find,” Marcus said.
“We keep at it,” Dan replied. “Someone will tell us where to find him.”