Building bridges

[Markus]

     Hassan Malekmadani, was just about to board the flight to Mogebbe, Zimalia when the read the news that Rokkenjima was announcing their plans to implement a series of punitive measures against Zimalia. Things we heating up fast and that made his mission even more important. As the plane took off, Hassan couldn't help but ponder on the days when the applied to join Tamora's Intelligence Service. He was a distinguished soldier and since the Intelligence Service was technically part of the Armed forces, he has no problem being selected to undergo the special training the Intelligence Service. The physical training was not so hard, the problem was the constant religious training, praying 6 times a day, every day, week after week which had been nauseating to say the least. He was a Manist, a religion specific to Tamora, but so much religion was to too much for him and had the opposite effect, instead of bring him closer to God it had turned him into an agnostic. Not being able to take it anymore he informed his superior he was quitting because he couldn't stand the religious training. Much to his surprise, after the announcement his superior informed him that he had passed and that he will join the Foreign operations branch of the Intelligence Service and was to promoted to the rank of first lieutenant . That was almost 10 years ago, during this time he had been stuck doing mostly low level operations as part of Tamora's diplomatic staff at various embassies across Mundus. This was finally a "real" mission and he was really somewhat excited about it.

   He landed at the Mogebbe International Airpot. Looking at the place he began to realize just how lucky he was that he wasn't delegated to work in this country. Tamora had its underdeveloped parts where poverty reigned free but there was never this pervasive feeling of lawlessness that he experienced here.He took a cab to one of the motels in Mogebbe, the cab driver tried to scam him of course, asking 10 times more than what the trip should have cost, he pretended not to notice and paid anyway. He wasn't here to make a fuss, better if the driver doesn't remember him at all, he thought. Once he got out he didn't go to the nearest motel and instead walked for another half an hour to a more remote one. He booked a room, checked in and prepared for the evening meeting. 

   Once it became dark outside, he went out to the pub where he was supposed to meet his contact. He got a seat at an empty table and ordered a drink which a Zimali woman quickly brought. As most Tamorans, especially those of the Manist and Islamic faiths, he had shunned alcohol in the past. But after he gave up on religion during his training that quickly changed. In fact, before that he would have been uncomfortable in dealing with a woman like the waitress who didn't cover her hair and most of her body, and would have been outraged at the idea of ever entering a place like this. But not anymore, all this seemed almost natural to him now.
   He tried to keep a low profile while waiting for his contact.

[DaveIronside]

Akeel worked at the Laughing Hyena which was just down the road from the airport, practically the first pub you came to as you headed into the city. It wasn't the most pleasant of places but it was home to a clean toilet, cold beer and you didn't get too sick from the kebabs. He had got the job here on the insistance of the Borlanders, they'd given his three sisters and his widowed mother a home and so he was only too happy to help out. His job was simple, hand over messages to people and serve drinks.

As Hassan entered Akeel waited for the drink to be served and then set off beginning to wipe down the tables. As he reached Hassan's table he apologised as he lifted the glasses and wiped down the table, he replaced the beer mat and handed Hassan a pile of napkins, "I'll be out your way now sir....need anything just give a call." he went back to the bar and continued serving drinks. The napkin had a simple message, "you are booked for a safari, Golden Tours, 20 mins name of Clyde" He watched as Hassan finished his drink and then left.

Down the road was Golden Tours, a place full of old battered jeeps and signs advertising a variety of tourist friendly excursions, some to go hunting, some to see natural wonders such as waterfalls and lakes, but the main business was safari's in which they took people out into the wilds to see wild animals in the flesh. As Hassan presented himself a tall blonde haired man, clearly no Zimalian welcomed him. "Mr.Clyde we have a vehicle ready" he said in a heavy Celtic accent. Hassan was shown to a jeep, one of the better ones and the man who introduced himself as Gavin clambered into the drivers seat and set off into the twisty streets of Mogebbe. Soon they were cutting through the brush and before long heading past large farms claiming to be home to various sancturies, Zimalia's economy was becoming more tourist friendly and it was the case that it was often better to protect the animals than blast them with guns.

Soon a feint multi-coloured shape came into view through the heat haze, it got sharper and sharper the closer they got and soon the outline of homes could be seen. A checkpoint on the road formed the border and Gavin was waved straight through. He parked up outside a building marked, "TOWN HALL" and got out picking up Hassan's bags and carrying them in motioning for him to follow. "Mr. Gollings, your guest" Gavin announced as he dropped the bags, collected a brown envelope and disappeared.

"Hello" a middle aged man with thin rimmed glasses and thinning hair stood and extended a hand, "Andrew Gollings, Home Affairs Minister for the Principality of Northern Borland, welcome to our little home" he motioned to a seat opposite. "Please take a seat and tell me why you're here and what we can do for you."

[Markus]

   "Hassan Malekmadani, diplomatic attaché of Tamora" said the Tamoran as he took a seat. "I'll get right to the point, Mr. Gollings. The recent incidents have put the Principality in the center of the news. Many high ranking Tamorans were amazed by what the Borlanders were capable of achieving. To have the EM forces constantly chasing you and still be able to pull off something like that is worthy of respect. With people such as your Tamora could find avenues for mutually beneficial cooperation and that is why Tamora was quick to begin the process of recognizing the Principality. 

   That was our initial reaction, however your most recent attacks aimed at destroying international trade and wrecking the economy have severely curbed our initial enthusiasm. It's hard to present our Emperor a case for working with you when your actions are constantly disrupting our economy.   

   So I have been instructed to make two recommendations to you: first, to no longer actively try to disrupt international trade and shipping and second, to choose a different leader for the Principality. We do not make judgments in regards to Mr. Barren's actions but a man that publicly admits to killing children makes it hard to be accepted as Head of State. We strongly recommend that Mr. Barren choose another position if any in the Principality while of course retaining his rightful title as King of Borland.

   Should you choose to heed our advice, not only will Tamora move for a swift recognition of the Principality but will also explore further avenues of cooperation that are standard between two sovereign states. We also believe by taking note of our recommendations, more nations will be inclined to recognize the Principality which will in the end help you in your struggle against EM. "

Hassan stopped and looked at Andrew Gollings, attempting to anticipate his reaction by looking at his body language.

[DaveIronside]

"I'm sorry Hassan, may I call you Hassan, I prefer Andy myself. I see no need for formality when not in the public eye" he poured the man a glass of water. "I'd like to thank you for your kind words before I begin....and of course for considering co-operation with us, it is a great gamble and we thank you for taking it. Now regarding your recommendations. The first I can't really say it'll work, we are at war with a power that has so many international treaties, organisations and other such pieces of paper on their side that our citizens couldn't hope to win in a conventional war, we've been fighting a guerilla war in the Borland Alps for generations and as much as it pains me to say making no progress. So our army has to do things others would not consider and I am truly sorry trade has been hit, but that was the idea. If we hit nations in the pocket suddenly people are talking about our plight and our cause. When we raid the Alps, attack the illegal army of the Morelanders and sabotage their military no-one says anything. If we stop this approach we risk a return to the old situation. The best I can do there is say that should we be able to come to some kind of....arrangement....we'd do everything possible to avoid your nations interests, but sadly that may not always be possible. Now it is worth remembering our people always keep our word, an oath is a sacred thing to us, look at the attacks. My King promised them and look, exactly on schedule they came."

He thought for a moment. "A Principality needs a Prince, that is my Lord and Master Kyle Barren, my King. You can't just select a new one. As you see the King is not here or he would have welcomed you himself. He isn't here often at all, ask around, and please do feel free to go and explore as we've nothing to hide. The last time he was here was months ago for one day. He leaves the day to day running to his Ministers, so effectively we have already got someone else in charge."

Andrew stood an walked outside waiting for Hassan to follow him. They walked down a dusty street on dirt with coverted shipping containers either side, he suddenly turned right and opened a door. "This is our citizenship department" he picked up a stack of paperwork, "This is the current waiting list for homes here, now if you wish to look through them you'll notice that 99% of them are Zimalians simply taking advantage of our generousity. We're not flooding this place with true blue Borlanders. What Rokkenjima would have you think is that on every corner is a child learning to use a machine gun and make bombs. Visit our school by all means, all you'll find is children squatting on the floor with too many in a class learning to write using a twig in the mud. Is what we're doing here not enough to show the world we do not want war."

[Markus]

"Andy, you're right. Hitting people in the pocket gets you noticed, people are talking about you. Where we disagree is that in my impression you think governments are somehow sympathetic to your cause. They are not, they now have a financial incentive to see you wiped out.

   As for your King, we would not even remotely suggest to do anything without his consent. We are merely suggesting that he find a clever way to avoid the issue of him being directly linked to ruling the Principality. Perhaps as King he would appoint a Prince to rule the Principality as an independent nation. Feudal aspects of foreign nations is something we Tamorans do not understand very well, our feudal system is a lot a different. "

   Without giving Andrew a chance to reply:

"I understand how this must feel. You've been fighting a war for a thousand years. Most people would have given up or would have been wiped out in such a long time. After a thousand years of blood, sweat and death you finally have a piece of land to call your own. And now when you have that, we Tamorans, who hardly even know you, come to your home to tell you to change your tactics and to change the ruler of your fledgling Principality.
We are not that presumptuous to assume that you will agree on the spot for such sweeping changes. What we do hope is that you at least consider them. We said that the world will turn against you for hitting international shipping and trade. Let's wait and see how this plays out. Should you be right, we will resume out talks and Tamora would have changed its position but should we be right, please consider our advice. All that we ask is that during this time we keep ourselves open for communications and not intentionally cause harm to one another."

Hassan politely followed Andrew for a tour and when asked to visit the school said: "Forgive me, Andy. I will be frank, we don't really care what you do here. Others might but we don't. As far as we are concerned you are a sovereign entity, you can do as you please. We only hope that you find a way to consider our suggestions so we can say the same thing publicly without causing an uproar and potentially a standoff with the aggressive empires around here. " 

While Hassan was listening to what Andrew was replying to his monologue, he politely tried to give signs that the meeting was over as far as he was concerned because he had relayed Tamora's message.

[DaveIronside]

Gollings smiled, "We want our home, we don't care about sympathy. As for wiping us out they've done that here before and look whats back. The so called Morelanders have been trying to do it for hundreds of years, yet we're still here. We're like a tree in the forest, very difficult to find a specific one and even harder to remove it without removing those around it. I suspect the Morelanders could just bomb us out of existence but they'd need to kill thousands of their own people to do it. So you now need to ask this question, are we going anywhere? The answer is obviously no, so the world needs to start facing up to it that we are here to stay and things won't get better unless people stop treating us like something they can ignore."

Andrew had to chuckle that Hassan seemed not to care about the tour, "You fail to see your part in the tour, not only was I showing you us, I was allowing you to be seen. You see it is my opinion that among those we have here there are Morelander agents, or those from whatever other nation. You don't look like a Borlander, nor do you look Zimalian. While foreigners are no strangers here not many get guided around the place by myself. No one clearly knows where your from or what we've discussed but rest assured those tongues of foreign powers intelligence agencies will be wagging, Who was this man? What was he doing he? Where was he from? Now for all I know they'll, and please don't be offended, conclude your some kind of black marketer or something else. Now should you wish to speak with us again then I'm happy to help in that regard." He handed a piece of paper over, "That is a website forum address, you'll find a thread in Morelandish all about the Women's Rugby League, post a message there saying your looking for Helena Jenkinson from Northstone and someone will be in touch with details." He gave Hassan the paper and extended a hand, "May The Gods Watch Over You and Your Journey Be Safe."