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others here, whether they have power or not."
"I'm not about to pack up everything and run on your say-so, Mr. Singh, was
it? I have
Admiral Cockburn's personal assurances and protection."
The dark man in the turban sighed. "Madam Director, Admiral Cockburn is dead.
The news has not yet been made public for various reasons."
She sat bolt upright.
"What!"
"I said that the admiral is no more. He was shot to death as he rounded the
turn heading out of the wood toward his house while perched atop his miniature
train. His batman, Shindler, and his personal staff are also dead, and most of
his headquarters personnel are even now in the process of being shot or
processed by computer if they have value."
"That's not possible! Who would do such a thing and why? I don't believe you
for a moment."
"Madam Director, Ngomo has declared himself field marshal and president of the
Holy Islamic
Republic of New Eden. His actions were well-planned, his politics flawless.
Even as we speak, resistance is being mopped up in capital after capital,
including here."
"My God!
Ngomo?
Now I know you're mad!"
"I wish to God I were, but I am not. He had the troops, he had the Home Guard
and the sympathies of many former soldiers, and what he lacked he recruited
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from the Islamic Anchors."
"But good Lord!
Ngomo?
I mean, hell, nobody even took him seriously!"
"That is precisely the point. Everyone tended to underestimate him. It was
almost forgotten that he organized everything here before anyone else arrived.
He got the supplies through, he set up the auxiliary computers, he pretty much
designed the way things were laid out. It is a monumental job of organization
and politics, and he did not leave it all to lesser officers. He is a
brilliant organizer and tactician. He was also on this project because he had
been part of a prior military junta in his native land who was no longer
necessary. He organized the coup and its government and got popular support,
but the others feared his power and his honesty and expelled him from the
country. Originally his work with Westrex was just to get money and a power
base to use to return, but he got caught up in the adventure and scope of our
project and never did return. This is not a man to tread upon, and tread upon
him they did."
"Well, he was certainly demoted," she noted, trying not to believe this
strange man.
"He was a Moslem among three Roman Catholics. He was a black man to tread
upon, and tread upon him they did."
"Well, he was certainly demoted," she noted, trying not to believe this
strange man.
"He was a Moslem among three Roman Catholics. He was a black man, an African,
among three whites. He made them uncomfortable, although fully half the
population here is of color and perhaps that many, although not all the same
people, are one or another sort of Moslem. I am brown and you are yellow. You
can understand what it did to his pride. And men of his intelligence and
ability can suffer that sort of thing only so long."
"But why now?"
"The Gates are sealed. Westrex gave him a high position and authority when he
was an outcast.
For loyalty to them and to the dream, and out of idealism and hope that what
we did here would benefit his people, he was a good soldier, even when the
others reorganized him out of a command and out of any true power base. They
dissolved his command and no longer consulted him except in a pro forma way,
and they gave him a meaningless title and job. When the dugger attacks reached
a few Anchors, he played that up into a new position and convinced them that
he should head it. The Anchor or Home Guard. As is true with most in great
positions of power and authority, the other three did not even realize the
depth of his hurt or the brilliance of his organizational mind. When they
sealed the Gates, he no longer had anything he could do for his people back on
Earth or any more loyalty to Westrex, which became irrelevant. He is moving
for his own pride and also for what people he now has the Moslems of New Eden,
and perhaps the blacks as well, although I believe he is more color blind than
those who opposed and denigrated him."
"Well, dammit, man you said you were from Security. Why the hell didn't you
find out about this? The organization involved for a worldwide plot of this
magnitude in so short a time couldn't have been kept secret!" The Gates had
now been sealed for seventeen months.
"Correct, as far as it went. We did get wind of it almost from the start, but
he is quite clever and he had allies. It appeared that the thing originated
from below younger officers and some of the holy men who held influence over
them in the mosques and was quite widespread. We let it go for a while to see [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]