The Zanzibar Organization v01 Mission3 Chapter1: Sudan
Akia was speaking.
“All right, I’ve submitted my report. We’re still on track. No wastage of fuel or time; we’re heading for Darfur to rescue Noir.”
Hearing her own voice mention Darfur, Akia remembered Rine again...
Darfur, Rine’s homeland, and also not-homeland. If she had a homeland, it would be split between Darfur and the Dinka lands of South Sudan. Logically, it should be the Abyei Area, a condominium between the Republics of Sudan and South Sudan. But of course, Rine had never talked about this. She didn’t want to.
The Dinka were a peaceful people. Their neighbors were less so. The history of this area was extremely ugly. Worse than the history of West Africa where there was slavery but little genocide. Or the history of Native Americans where there was genocide but little slavery. Darfur had plenty of both, all the way into the 21st century. Even though the majority of the population of urban Sudan was thought to be of slave descent, power and status remained in the hands of lighter skinned people who claimed Arab descent, and held the ‘blacks’ in contempt.
Rine had never even admitted to having Dinka blood. It was just something Akia figured out, based on various other things she knew about Rine, including Rine’s height. But the Dinka were tall and truly jet black. Rine was tall and dark, but far from jet black. Akia always had her suspicions how Rine came to be.
Decades ago...
Akia rubbed her eyes. This was not the right time to think about such things. She had to focus on rescuing her teammate for the current time. Maybe she could track her other friends down later.
Raining on The Parade
Rudolf Binhagen was watching a parade on his screen.
There was a parade of his troops. Eight women were on screen. He licked his lips at the sight of these women.
Reaching down, Rudolf caressed some hair. A Zina had her head in his lap. It was a woman in a short Olive colored skirt. Her top was short and bared her midriff in a sailor-style uniform with a tie. She had gloves on. Zinas dressed like her were called Olive Zinas.
2 White Zinas, 2 Blue Zinas, 2 Olive Zinas, 2 Black Zinas. They were all doing ultra-high goose steps, an impressive march that flaunted their vitality, flexibility, physical prowess – as well as placing their 8 different panties in full view.
“Master, an Incoming Message.”
This was a priority person, so her message was flashed on full screen with video.
“What’s up, Yojo?” Rudolf addressed his sister.
“Our uranium mine in the Aouzou, Chad just got attacked,” Yojo replied tersely. “Considerable damage to equipment; at least two weeks delay. And we’ll need to increase our forces at the mine. Costs will go up by 300%.”
Ugh!
“Away!”
Rudolf pushed on the Olive Zina’s head, and the woman hastily stopped what she was doing and crawled to one side. Rudolf looked directly at his sister’s face on the screen.
“I must know what is going on. Tell me more.”
South Sudan's Surprising Seminal Success
“All right, we’re mostly across Chad by now. We’ll be entering Sudan soon.”
Mentioning the word Sudan also brought up Akia’s thoughts about South Sudan. The ethnic cleansing and genocide of black people in South Sudan, by the Arab-controlled Sudan government, had greatly bothered Akia in her youthful days. (The SPOEX was actually several hundred kilometers from South Sudan right now.)
“When doing my catch up reading, I was really glad to see that South Sudan is still around,” Akia commented. “Always thought it would be one of Africa’s failed states.”
Akia did not say that she had written a very pessimistic report on South Sudan in the early 2010s. As a political risk consultant, she was paid for sound analysis of current facts and trends, not for predicting the future accurately. She felt happy to be wrong in this case.
“Strangely, after some initial difficulties it blossomed,” Sugto said as Akia joined him at the window. The landscape below was beautiful.
“Just like Rwanda,” Maya put her semolina-flavored ice cream back into the freezer, and joined Akia and Sugto at the windows.
Rwanda had been one of the hells on earth in Akia’s time. There had been a truly horrendous genocide in the 1990s. But then they had peace, followed by reasonably decent leadership. People wanted to put their nightmares behind. And then one good thing followed another. By the time Akia was put in cold storage, Rwanda was striding quickly towards middle-income status.
The Rwandans focused heavily on leapfrogging technology and economic development. By 2050, they had several decades of fast-paced economic growth, resulting in wealth and technology that made them the envy of their larger neighbors. Truly a Wakanda, Akia had thought as she perused data on Rwanda a day before.
“Say, do you know who transformed South Sudan?” Sugto asked rhetorically.
“The Chinese,” Akia replied. She hadn’t meant it seriously, but she wasn’t about to say the Swazis and she doubted it would be the Nigerians, so she defaulted to the Chinese as her answer.
“One third right,” Maya came up. “A joint Chinese, Rwandan and Bangladeshi initiative. The Chinese provided the capital, hydraulic management and political backing, the Bangladeshis and Rwandans the technical support and ninety thousand peacekeepers. Bangladesh had a lot of excess manpower, so they also sent some farmers and small factory managers to train the locals.”
Akia had read briefly about the projects to manage the White Nile. “It’s rice, bamboo and jute, right? The unpopulated swamps turned into productive land?”
“Yes. Now South Sudan produces a lot of food, furniture, bamboo products and cloth. Civil war is now unthinkable because people are too busy.”
“Mmm...”
Africa is a big continent. The distances between countries and peoples is immense. There are also a large variety of geographies and environments and cultures on this continent.
Outsiders might lump all Africans together, but Africans didn’t necessarily identify with one another. Akia did not think she was all that similar to people in South Sudan, and she certainly did not think they looked like her. The only people who thought that Africans were all the same, were people who didn’t belong in Africa.
All the same, Akia felt terrible about the many failed states and conflict zones on her home continent. It made her feel sad that people were poor or suffering or refugees from some problem or other. So she felt good whenever she came across an African country that was doing well.
Wait a moment.
The Western Sudan landscape below was starkly beautiful, but the relative barrenness contrasted with the conversation about South Sudan being a lush land of good agriculture. And there was a similar dissonance in the topics mentioned...
If you looked in an English or French dictionary, you would find that Corruption came after China...
Akia turned to look at Maya.
“China has invested in many African projects in the past few decades. But I get the impression that it was a mixed bag? A few big ticket items failed?”
“Yes.”
“So how did this South Sudan project turned out spectacularly successful?”
“Because of two reasons. One was that it was not entirely Chinese. Having the Bangladeshis and Rwandans in the picture, meant having more eyes. It meant less dirty dealings than would have happened in backroom deals between only China and South Sudan.”
Sugto spoke up. “During this time, China was on its best behavior because everyone was watching to see how China managed to lead a consortium of countries in collaborative work.”
Akia nodded. The Chinese would probably not have behaved the same way if it was just a bilateral effort. After all, it was much cheaper to bribe one party than three parties.
“And reason two,” Maya continued. “Was that South Sudan was a new country. So it did better.”
“I would have thought a new country would do worse.”
“They were just lucky. They started with nothing. No ingrained bureaucratic traditions. No lifetime appointees who started climbing the ladder in a graft-ridden colonial administration.”
“Maybe I can add to that,” Sugto said. “It worked because of the extensive number of players involved. When you have just a few big Chinese state owned firms and a few government officials in Juba, the dynamics lead to corporate expedience. They throw money at government officials to get things done.
When you have thousands of Rwandans and Bangladeshis on the ground in all kinds of positions, you can’t just bribe a few gatekeepers anymore. The entire project has to make sense, it has to adequately reward all stakeholders, in order to get everybody on board.
So instead of China spending, say, a hundred million dollars to bribe ten important people in Juba after which the money is ill spent on luxuries from France, the hundred million dollars is being spread out to supplement the salaries of a hundred thousand people for a year.
An extra thousand dollars per peacekeeper or agriculturalist goes a long way in South Sudan. Earning money like this gives people serious incentive to do better. Everybody was anxious to produce results, because only with results could they get paid the next year. And it became a huge capital injection in an impoverished area. Stimulated the economy, got people into making things and offering more services, so on.”
"Truly groundbreaking. A seminal event in the history of multilateral aid and projects," Maya said. "Too bad it was not repeated often enough due to political reasons."
ZZOrg
“Give us what we need to know about rescuing our teammate,” Akia instructed Eva.
“New data received for the rescue mission.”
“Speak of the...”
Akia headed towards her main console.
Sugto and Maya, not having Akia’s entrenched habits, headed just towards the nearest screen which was only a few steps away.
Modern technology allowed information to be displayed on any screen nearest the requesting user. The main console was really just a comfort or status position for the leader, But since Akia didn’t even have the habit of sitting on a favorite chair, she didn’t need to sit at the main console to receive information.
That’s right, Akia thought to herself. I don’t need to be here.
But since she was here, she should exercise leadership. Akia didn’t want to admit to the others that she had entrenched habits from the technology prevalent decades ago. Since this is the leader’s place, she would play the part of a leader accordingly.
With that, Akia sit down regally.
“Eva, show me,” she said. “And share the screen with Sugto and Maya on their screens, everything that’s not ‘leader’s eyes only’.”
Darfur
The landscape was beautiful. Akia never tired of looking out of the window whenever she traveled over her home continent. But now she was too busy to enjoy the view. Modern technology had made missions more data-intensive than before.
Akia was now examining 3D models that scout drones had taken and Eva had simulated. That was the newly received data.
“That ball’s fun to play with,” Maya commented when she saw Akia’s fingers running over the 3D trackball to help her scroll through the simulation models. Akia reminded her of a cat with a ball of yarn.
“This,” Akia indicated to her colleagues, “is the layout of the Holy Prison where Noir is imprisoned.”
“I think you made up the name,” Sugto grinned like a cat.
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be some religious school whose name I won’t care to dignify by reading it aloud. Some cult took it, and are using it for unknown purposes. But since they say Religion, Religion, Our Religion, the Sudanese government has left it alone.”
Maya stood up. “I hate to meddle with religion. As long as people believe in something, it’ll never end.”
“Anyway, this Noir is a person who has made it her life’s work to investigate religious sex cults. She fights to free girls and women trapped – or kidnapped, or trafficked – into these cults,” Akia made some gestures and spoke a few commands. She didn’t seem to get what she wanted, which was to have the information displayed on the main screen on the wall opposite, but Sugto got off his chair and came over to Akia’s side.
Since Sugto had done this, Maya followed with a jaunty, hip shaking flounce. It almost reminded Akia of the moves that she had seen being made by topless teenage virgins in the annual Reed Dance Festival for the Swazi king some decades ago...
With her colleagues behind her, Akia pointed to her screen. “This is a profile of Noir. I figured you should know a thing or two about her.”
Sugto bent over. “Born Anbar province in Iraq... that particular time and ethnic group... okay, got it.” Sugto now knew what Noir might be sensitive to, and would avoid treading on sensitive topics with Noir.
Akia nodded. “Her mother committed suicide when Noir was young. Difficult childhood among her people, who were still struggling to survive and to defend themselves against another genocide. Always on the margins. Learned martial arts, online university coursework, one thing led to another, and now she’s a freelance investigator on... Physiwork.com.”
Maya detected that pause.
“Freesiwork is a freelance website that was founded after freelancer websites started popping up for digital services in the 2010s,” Maya explained. “But unlike the digital services sites, Freesiwork only offers real-life, bricks and mortar – or firing mortars at brick walls - physical services.”
Maya put one hand on a hip, one on the desk, and stood in the manner of a teenage girl challenging her mother as she looked straight at Akia. “It’s great for hiring private investigators and solo operators.”
It wasn’t clear if Maya was challenging Akia to offer the Zanzibar Organization’s services on Freesiwork.com.
Akia sat back in her chair and made a gesture with one hand. “Seems that Noir infiltrated that place to check out claims of sex trafficking by a religious cult. Got caught. And sooner or later, they’ll probably either rape her or kill her. Or do both.”
“What makes you think it hasn’t been done already? If they know her ethnic origins, these religious crazies might have...” Sugto covered his mouth thoughtfully, not wanting to say more.
“Noir is used to passing for Arab. And if she doesn’t pray, they’ll just assume she’s a secular feminist activist from Tunisia or Syria.”
“Hmm...”
“The Benefactors just told me I had to rescue her within seven days,” Akia said. She didn’t know what the Benefactors might know, or why they might know it.
The Holy Prison
The Holy Prison was in a populated area. This made their approach a lot easier. The ZZO parked their airship a few kilometers away from the compound of the Holy Prison, and drove nearer in their van.
Only when they were directly outside the Holy Prison, did Sugto release the bug drones. That way the bug drones didn’t have to travel far and run down their batteries.
Due to their proximity, within a few minutes the bugs were transmitting footage from inside the facility.
“Hey, that’s not Arabic.”
“Isn’t... aren’t they the same people we’ve been coming across?”
“Again, it’s that armband!”
“It’s not Arabic and they are not Arabs.”
“I’m pretty sure the name Zina is Arabic-derived.”
“Look at their dress and do you think they’re religious extremists?”
“Religious extremists don’t always have to be in turbans and thobes.”
“Yeah, but look at how they dress. That hemline can’t possibly be indicative of religious belief.”
“Wrong. They’re in uniform. And their uniform makes them look like, well, some extreme cult.”
“I’m reminded of The Revolutionary Nuns,” Akia said.
There was a pause as Sugto and Maya looked at Akia. Neither had any idea what she was talking about.
“Is that some pop group from the 1980s?” Maya asked.
“Or some sex cult group from the 1980s?” Sugto asked. Somehow, he thought of the Catholic Church.
“Whatever it is, they can’t be African,” Maya determined.
“Nope, they were totally African,” Akia corrected Maya. “That was what Colonel Qaddafi of Libya called his personal bodyguard.”
“Noir was investigating a Polygamist Sex Cult,” Maya observed.
“So far we haven’t seen any men. And there are so many women dressed like this! It’s so easy to see their panties!” Sugto marveled.
“It’s easy because you keep flying the bugs at the level of a dog’s eye!” Maya grouched.
“Sugto,” Akia broke in. “I think you should fly the bugs above their heads. Something at Dog’s eye view might get eaten by dogs.”
“I don’t think there are any dogs in this facility. Or in any religious establishment in these parts...”
“Just do it!” Akia barked.
“Okay...” Sugto adjusted the cruising height for the bug drones. After a few more minutes, the bugs had succeeded in mapping out most of the facility.
“It’s all women. But there must be a man behind this. The same guy’s face is on all their lapel pins.”
“Ah, a sex cult I can get behind,” Akia raised a taser baton. And slapped the taser baton against the palm of her hand. “All right, let’s plan this well and break Noir out of there asap.”
As Sugto and Maya continued looking at the screens and discussing things, Akia wondered about the origin of the name Zina. The name sounded Arabic, but it could not be an Arabic name for normal people, because the meaning of the word was questionable. But could it be intended to be wordplay in Arabic?
The Distractor
Sugto was walking down a corridor inside the Holy Prison. His superb performance in the last mission had convinced Akia that Sugto was a great combatant and his talents were underutilized if she kept him doing tech support duties or running the airship.
So now Sugto’s job was to distract the female guards in this facility, while Akia and Maya sprang Noir from prison.
Sugto strolled down a corridor in a jaunty manner, swinging his cane with the cheerfulness of a Gene Kelly. He figured that his attitude would infuriate the arrogant Zinas and make them chase him.
Turning a corner, Sugto found himself facing a group of four Blue Zinas. The women all carried taser rifles. Although they wore uniforms that reminded one of some feared national militaries from the 20th century, the Zinas behaved more like some parody of a testesterone-fuelled right wing militia from the Americas. They didn’t really walk in formation. They swayed, strutted, catwalked, moved their hips, used their arms to casually press against their breasts, moved their phallic rifles in all sorts of positions...
(This was something that Rudolf Binhagen encouraged his Zinas to do, since he liked them to be eye candy. But to any onlooker, it was plain arrogance and even ludicrous in a menacing way, something that only an unpredictable dictator like Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein or Idi Amin could come up with.)
On seeing Sugto, the Zinas froze. Sugto knew his reaction speed was much higher than the Zinas, and also he had a corridor to take cover in, so he swayed his hips and whistled and played with his cane like a male dancer from a nightclub revue.
The Zinas readied their rifles, planted their legs apart firmly and started firing from their waist level with some eye pleasing hip movements. Once Sugto saw their muscles tense, he ducked back into the corridor he had come from.
The Zinas were slow by two seconds. Splat, splat, splat... nine or ten taser gel shots hit the wall behind where Sugto was previously taunting the Zinas.
Then as the Zinas lowered their rifles, a little uncertain what to do next, Sugto popped his head from around the corner.
“Can’t catch me...” he sang.
The Zinas again lifted their rifles and started shooting. Sugto ducked back into the corridor. Several more shots hit the wall.
Sugto stuck out his cane from around the corridor to provoke the Zinas.
Several more shots hit the wall. But this time the Zinas were less willing to fire on provocation since they realized Sugto just wanted them to waste their shots.
“Get him!” A Zina called out. And the Blue Zinas started running towards the corridor.
Sugto hadn’t run away. He waited just out of sight around the corner to ambush the Zinas. When Blue Zina 01 came around the corner with her rifle held in front of her, Sugto leapt out at the woman. He practically wrapped himself around Blue Zina 01 from the back, and used his far larger and stronger arms to control her rifle.
Sugto swiveled Blue Zina 01 around. He had forced her rifle down, so now it was at crotch level. Blue Zina 02 ran right into the rifle barrel.
“Ouch!” Blue Zina 02 dropped her own rifle and bent over with pain.
“Sor...” Blue Zina 01 wanted to apologize. But Sugto had already released her. He stepped forward and socked Blue Zina 03 who was just behind Blue Zina 02. The woman was thrown back against Blue Zina 04, who had to lower her rifle in order to avoid Blue Zina 03’s body.
There was no time to lose. Sugto stepped backwards and slammed his elbow into Blue Zina 01’s solar plexis. The stunned Zina bent over. Now both Blue Zina 01 and Blue Zina 02 were bent over, so from here it was easy for Sugto to grab their heads and knock them together.
Bonk!
Both Zinas were knocked unconscious. Sugto let go of them, and they dropped face first onto the ground. Their knees were already bent, so they fell heads first and bottoms up. Their skirts rode up their hips as a result and their heads were next to each other, so it looked like a bizarre mutual kowtowing.
Now Blue Zina 03 was sitting on the ground with her legs wide apart, disoriented. Blue Zina 04 was crouching down. She had dropped her rifle in order to grab the wall and regain her balance when Blue Zina 03 was thrown so now she needed to retrieve her rifle.
Sugto did not give either Zina any time to recover from their surprise. He leapt into the air, a big man weighing 100 kilograms, and performed a scissors kick. The toe of one foot went for a Zina’s forehead; the heel of the other foot attacked the other Zina’s forehead.
Whackwhackwhamwham!
The kicks contacted the two Zinas at slightly staggered times. Both Zinas took the blow, had their heads thrown back and slammed into the wall.
Arrrrrr...
Blue Zina 03 remained sitting in the same spot, moaning in a semi conscious state before she lost consciousness.
Blue Zina 04 pitched forward after losing consciousness, so she was now slumped over face down on the ground, her head pointing to Blue Zina 03’s open crotch from about two meters diagonally across the corridor.
Standing over the defeated Zinas, Sugto felt very pleased with himself. The four defeated Zinas provided a very pleasing view, but Sugto was the conscientious type who always tried to do more. He decided to improve on the view he was getting.
Blue Zina 03 had already collapsed with her legs about sixty degrees apart, showing her panties. Sugto took her ankles and spread her legs as wide as they could go. Then he picked up Blue Zina 04, and moved her forward while keeping the same posture. Blue Zina 04 now had her head pressed right against Blue Zina 03’s crotch.
Then Sugto took Blue Zina 01 and 02 who were prone down on the ground, turned them upside down, and rested them back to back against each other. So now the two Zinas were facing up instead, but with heads on the ground and butts high up. Their skirts naturally fell down, leaving their crotches on full display facing up.
Sugto stood admiring his handiwork for a few more seconds before he resumed his mission.
Tags:
Science fiction, futurism, airship, politics, satire, comedy, humor, geography, travel, fact-fiction, ecchi, action-adventure,
taser, Chad, Aouzou, mining, drone, kungfu, Rwanda, Darfur, South Sudan, Bangladesh, China, White Nile, Wakanda, Juba, Anbar, Iraq, Swazi, Reed Dance, Qaddafi, Revolutionary Nuns, Libya, Zina, panties.
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