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The Company
Time: Thursday, August 16, 2012 (early evening).
Place: Paris.
Last Event: Meeting with Chaturvedi.
After a long discussion of mission legitimacy, the Agents decide to go out for a few hours to clear their heads (or perhaps fill them with booze). Come Friday, the project of the day is to research the situation surrounding medical aid to Rwanda. It seems prudent to get a little context independent of Darmatech's propaganda. Everybody hits the books or the Internet, but it is Anabel and Jili who turn up results.
Jili investigates the practical reasons for why such assistance so often fails. She focuses on the experiences of aid workers who've operated in the region. From first-hand accounts and a few second-hand articles, she learns that the general problem is less one of "the local infrastructure isn't up to distributing aid" (although that's an issue) than one of "vital equipment was stolen or destroyed, and skilled technicians were intimidated." However, she turns up nothing useful on who was doing the intimidating, stealing, and destroying.
Anabel's digging reveals the identity of several militias, all organized along ethnic (rather than political) lines, which object to any external aid – especially Western aid – that benefits their traditional enemies as well as or instead of their own people. Some of these operate in the areas where Chaturvedi said that Staedert had identified a problem. From what Anabel can glean, these forces customarily sell confiscated medical supplies on the black market and use the proceeds to buy arms. Given the willingness of local nation-states to sell to them in many cases, this makes for extremely well-armed bands of irregulars.
After that, the team hangs out in Paris, waiting for Chaturvedi to return to them with more information on their putative assignment. This isn't exactly a hardship – time flies until Chaturvedi calls up to request a meeting on Sunday, August 26. The Agents pick the restaurant this time around. When they arrive, they find Ben and Chaturvedi waiting for them in a private booth.
Once orders are placed and the Company personnel are alone, Chaturvedi relates some additional information from Staedert. It turns out that after several attempts at delivering medical aid were foiled by militia intimidation and physical violence, a number of companies bent on providing assistance (and doubtless boosting their public image in the process!) – Darmatech among them – asked the UN to arrange an armed escort for them. Their appeal was summarily rejected. This led to Staedert's decision to take the matter into her own hands.
Thus, the Agents' real assignment is to enter Rwanda on a "decoy" flight – aboard a plane loaded with whatever hardware they need plus enough medical supplies to make them look like prey rather than hunters – in order to draw the attention of the most bothersome militia. Their "official cover" will be that they're security personnel hired to guard a legitimate medical shipment. The idea is to make contact with the trouble group, defeat their raiding party, and then follow the bloody trail back to the bosses, smashing everything along the way (even in surrounding nations, if need be). In short, the team is being sent into a secret war. Staedert seems genuinely aware of the risks involved, but feels that her strategy is the only way to clean up the area enough to push aid through.
The Agents proceed to grill Chaturvedi for further details, which he provides. It comes out that Staedert is willing to see the team use bribes, threats, violence, or whatever other means are necessary to eliminate the current crop of thugs and strongly discourage future replacements – and she's willing to provide whatever gear is needed to accomplish this. The only restrictions on the group's actions are that they stay mum on who sent them and that they minimize the need to call for aid, which might reveal who's backing them, by acquiring supplies locally where possible. Staedert can't provide much in the way of detailed intelligence on the opposition; the lack of such information is part of the problem in the first place. Hopefully, the militia will take the bait and leave a trail to follow.
When the Agents seem satisfied with this briefing, Chaturvedi says, "As soon as possible, get me a full list of what you'll need . . . vehicles, weapons, whatever you require. Staedert made it clear that she wants to send the message that the price of interfering with medical aid is death. Schreiber has promised that anything you request will be on the plane." With that, the meeting ends and everyone returns to the hotel to make a lengthy list of hardware.
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Note: At this point, we actually made a list, which took a long time! That's why this recap is so short.