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The Company
Time: Saturday, July 7, 2012 (afternoon).
Place: Darmatech corporate HQ, Darmstadt.
Last Event: Summit with Staedert.
After meeting with Staedert, the team's negotiators brief their associates on how the discussion went. Anabel takes the lead, emphasizing that the main cost to the group – beyond trading away Hamid – will be a larger share of the Company's dangerous assignments. Schreiber shows up shortly afterward to announce that there has been a change of plans regarding training at the militia camp in Ukraine. Apparently, Qoqa's points about psychiatric health made an impression on Staedert, who has decreed that the next order of business is to be a one-month break at a location chosen by the Agents.
Anabel takes the lead here, too, rattling off lists of global fashion hotspots, great shopping cities, and wonderful resorts with picturesque beaches. Her associates temper this with a desire for privacy, figuring that the Company's enemies are unlikely to be taking the same month off. Eventually, the group settles on a classy and relatively secluded resort near Darwin, Australia. Using credit-card information that Jili somehow obtained from Darmatech, Anabel books five small villas, snagging a good rate by reserving so many units for a full month.
When Schreiber shows up that evening to ask how the planning is going, the Agents inform him that they've already taken care of things and that all they need are flights to Darwin, Australia – and of course some false ID. Schreiber doesn't seem fazed by this; he simply notes that it will take a few days to prepare the documents. Later that night, he lets the group know that he can have suitable papers ready in time for them to ship out in four days. In the meantime, they're welcome to keep their hospital-like rooms in the clinical testing wing, mostly so they aren't spotted wandering around Darmstadt.
On Wednesday, July 11, the group departs for Australia. Everybody's false papers pass all the tests, the flights go well (for instance, there are no missiles involved!), and the team reaches the resort without incident. The place looks exactly like it did in the pictures online, and is indeed luxurious and private. After a shopping trip to stock up on suitable clothing, everybody gets ready to relax.
For the next month, the Agents have little to do but unwind, party, and concentrate on getting less crazy. Activities, such as they are, consist of things like swimming and scuba diving. A few members of the group figure that these skills could come in handy in the field, but mostly it's for fun. Even Paul is convinced to get in the water, although it's Anabel who spends the most time there (near the water, anyway . . . in a bikini). Qoqa isn't especially keen on swimming, but she takes the opportunity to work on some artistic photography.
The month passes quickly. Before anyone is ready to leave, it's time to depart for Paris, as agreed upon in Darmstadt. The return journey goes well, and gets the Agents to CDG on Thursday, August 16. At the terminal, they're met by Ben (holding a sign bearing few of their false names), who indicates that Chaturvedi is with him. Ben walks the group to where Chaturvedi is waiting, and the handler says that he would like the group to join him for dinner – he has made reservations in town. Without further ado, everybody jumps into taxes and heads into the city.
As usual, Chaturvedi has managed to pick a popular restaurant with merely mediocre food. It turns out that he chose it mostly because he could book a large private dining area. Over the course of the meal, he reveals the basics of the team's next assignment: Staedert wants them to pose as mercenaries hired to guard a shipment of expensive medical supplies traveling by air from Italy to Rwanda. The Agents are to accompany the consignment and protect the delivery people, goods, and aircraft from a well-armed militia that's liable to make trouble at the destination, among other threats.
The assignment strikes the Agents as peculiar. Qoqa and Ben confirm that the region could use medical aid; Rwanda and bordering nations Uganda, Burundi, and DR Congo do appear on lists of world's poorest countries, and the WHO does number Rwanda and DR Congo among the least-healthy countries in the world. However, the fact that Staedert wants to use Company resources to handle a Darmatech matter is worrisome. Then there's the way she chose not to share any specifics with Chaturvedi. For instance, Chaturvedi has no details regarding the cargo, beyond "medical supplies."
Chaturvedi agrees that the situation seems unusual, but figures that there must be good reasons for the secrecy. He theorizes that international aid organizations have had their hands tied by the manipulations of major players such as the Russian Federation and the U.S.A., and that the Company is continuing its fight against such global bullying on new territory. Qoqa agrees that's possible, but points out that the Company could just as easily (and unwittingly) be facilitating unethical experimentation on Third World citizens by big pharma. Ben sides with Qoqa on this point.
Wen, Lev, and Klas have a lot to say about sending in the team posing as mercenaries, too. To begin with, the squad consists mostly of wet-work specialists, and thus isn't ideal for a security role. In the past, their strategy has been to strike first, hit hard, and keep moving – so why would Staedert assign them to a static babysitting job, especially after interviewing them and learning their modus operandi? Smelling a private war, Lev says that there's no way he'd agree to the assignment without military-grade hardware. Wen adds "more information" to the list.
After listening to his people, Chaturvedi agrees that more details are needed. He promises to look into the assignment and make some inquiries regarding the "medical supplies," the motivation for using a team of Agents, and the availability of military gear. Some of the group would like to obtain testing equipment, too, in order to check up on what's in the shipment. However, Ben and Qoqa explain that the necessary work would require a genuine lab; analyzing random substances for any of tens of thousands of drugs, dead or weakened pathogens, etc. would take forever otherwise. This leads to further mumbling.
After dinner, the Agents continue the discussion at their hotel. What's Staedert up to: smuggling, illegal experimentation, perhaps even testing bio-weapons – or is this genuine medical aid? If it's the latter, then why the secrecy and the heavy guard? Could it be that CIA, FSB, or other operators in the region object to something that Darmatech is doing, or to medical aid in general? Are those people backing sinister tests or worse? One thing is clear: the team has more questions than answers right now.