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The Company
Time: Saturday, October 13, 2012 (dawn).
Place: Wilderness near Rwanda-DRC border.
Last Event: Ambushing guerrilla trackers.
After demolishing an entire guerrilla camp and then fleeing across dense wilderness at night without so much as a scratch, the team finally suffers its first injury: During the brief-but-intense ambush sprung on the trackers sent after them, Qoqa is shot in the leg. It isn't hard to deduce that something isn't right with Qoqa – everyone hears her cursing in eight languages over the fading echo of gunfire. This brings Wen out of her hiding place, dashing to Qoqa's side the moment the last of the enemy fighters goes down.
The injury looks bad and needs immediate attention. Wen hollers for the medical gear from the jeeps as she binds haemostatic bandages across the entry and exit wounds in Qoqa's thigh. When the crash kit arrives, Wen starts an IV to replace fluids. Qoqa remains calm throughout. After smoking her cigarette down to the butt, she surprises no one by insisting on splinting and wrapping her own leg. She explains that she feels safest treating herself, despite the pain – though Wen is welcome to stay nearby and lend a hand.
While Qoqa and Wen work, the others prepare to move out. Vinnie decides to leave a surprise for anybody who comes looking for the trackers. He unpacks the remaining dynamite – all 175 lbs. of it – and conceals it under, on, and around the still-warm bodies of the fallen guerrillas. He wires this up to a complex series of triggers that will detonate the entire lot if anybody starts poking around, and then conceals his handiwork so well that even his teammates can't see the trap. Anabel and Jili get the less exciting job of packing the group's gear into the vehicles. Klas, Lev, Paul, and Zhang stand watch, just in case.
Just over an hour later, the Agents are ready to leave the area. Vinnie chauffeurs Anabel and Klas in the lead vehicle; Zhang follows close behind, ferrying the wounded Qoqa with Wen attending to her; and Paul brings up the rear, driving Jili and Lev. Klas navigates for Vinnie. All three drivers favor caution over speed, given the rough terrain and their injured teammate. They reach the highway before noon. Fortunately, the road is clear.
The Agents reach the construction camp shortly after noon. It's still in one piece and being guarded by Col. G's RDF men. As soon as G's aide sees the jeeps pull in, he rushes over and asks how the operation went. Anabel fills him in, with occasional interjections from her associates. The officer listens and nods, and then goes off to call in a report to his boss.
After that, the first order of business is to treat Qoqa's injury properly. Qoqa is still insistent on doing this herself, and calls for surgical supplies. Once the equipment arrives, she sterilizes her work area and gets started. With Klas, Lev, and Wen occasionally lending a hand, Qoqa removes the field dressings and splints, cuts open her own leg, and starts shoring up bone with high-tech pins, plates, rods, and screws (made by Darmatech, of course). It looks horribly painful, but Qoqa powers through, passing out only after she's done.
With that done, the Agents clean up and get some food. Then Anabel starts in on an after-action report for Col. G. She gathers Klas' observations about camp layout and headcount, interviews Lev about the enemy's equipment and readiness level, and has Paul estimate the casualties caused by the group's explosives (his training in the Six Counties comes in handy here). With this information in hand, she borrows Jili's laptop and starts writing it all up. As usual, Anabel takes special care not to include details that would expose the team's tactics or reveal clues about its members' identities or training.
Col. G shows up shortly after dark. He seems happy to hear the Agents' news and genuinely surprised to receive a formal report from Anabel. When he hears the group's description of the trackers they ambushed on the way back, he's thrilled – he claims that those men were a cadre of "professionals" who learned their skills in trouble spots in the southwest of Africa, brought in by the guerrillas' secret masters. Asked about the French mercenary leading the guerrillas, who doubtless chose those men, G says, "If he survived, I can deal with him now." He explains that the team's work will deal a severe blow to foreign meddling in regional politics.
With business out of the way, Col. G stays around for a while to celebrate the victory over his enemies. He breaks out some good cognac to toast the Agents' success. During the friendly conversation that follows, he vows repeatedly to keep his pledge to deflect political heat from the group's work here, and adds that he'll do what he can to expedite labor and supplies to the construction site. As G prepares to leave and his men board their truck, he promises that if Darmatech completes its rehabilitation school for child soldiers, the RDF will see to its safety. With that, the soldiers drive off into the night.
The next day passes peacefully, as does the next week and then the next month. It soon becomes evident to the Agents that in helping Col. G with his problem, they've also taken care of Darmatech's headache in the region. And true to his word, G pulls whatever strings need pulling to get workers and supplies to the site. Over the next four months, the group dedicates its efforts to the construction of the rehabilitation school:
• Anabel negotiates a truce with Piet Paarl, taking over site administration (at which Paarl is terrible) so that Paarl can focus on engineering (at which he's quite skilled).
• Jili puts her technical skills to work setting up the site's electrical and phone service.
• Klas, Lev, Paul, and Zhang handle site security, watching for trouble both from without (guerrilla attacks) and within (troublemakers planted among the laborers).
• Qoqa's leg heals up nicely, and by December she's able to serve as site physician, reducing man-hours lost to illness and keeping morale high.
• Vinnie repairs the many vehicles the Agents captured, gives them a nationalistic paint job, and keeps them running so that the laborers have reliable transportation.
• Wen uses the leftover dynamite, as scary and sweaty as it is, to handle blasting for everything from foundations to wells.
With the Agents' skills at administration, communications, and transportation giving a big boost to logistical efficiency – and their technical skills helping out more directly – the Darmatech site evolves from "rough, muddy camp" to "well-organized construction project." The team's armed presence ensures that there are no further unwelcome visits. In fact, aside from new laborers, there are only two visitors of note between November and February.
In December, Ben shows up as promised. He brings news of additional operating capital from Staedert. The extra money allows Anabel to issue Christmas bonuses to the laborers – a novel idea to most of the workers, but one that goes over very well indeed. Ben also bears little gifts for all his former teammates, including a special one for Anabel from Staedert's beautiful assistant, the statuesque Ms. Chang.
And throughout the four-month period, Col. G visits regularly to carry out "RDF inspections." His actual motivation is to verify that the resources and labor he's expediting are actually reaching the site. He works closely with Anabel on this; at times it seems as though he's stopping by mainly to see her. Anabel is evasive, although she admits that G is charming, educated, and true to his word – an officer and a gentleman. Still, G genuinely seems to support the project's success.
Come mid-February, the construction project is racing along. Buildings are taking shape, the workforce has swelled to the point where completion is mere months away, and the profile is high enough that troublemakers don't dare risk interfering with it. With such attention comes the reality that a mysterious group of nameless foreigners lurking in the shadows could only hurt its chances. Thus, on February 16, 2013, the Agents pack their bags and get ready to pull out of Rwanda.