Chapter 36
Just like the time with the Russian Amba.s.sador, it took me from the second I laid eyes on him to the moment I began placing pressure to ask all the right questions of the intel-ii.
The problem with the intel-ii was, you couldn't simply ask it 'Is this person a criminal?' you'd have to actively search and compile the information it provides about the person and reach your own conclusion. I'd found out the Amba.s.sador was sc.u.m simply by asking the intel-ii where the Amba.s.sador had been and as the intel-ii provided a week of information on the subject's whereabouts, I was provided with an extensive and detailed list of the Amba.s.sadors last visited places.
Strangely and quite annoyingly as well, the intel-ii considered the longitude and lat.i.tude of the person's physical body a last seen location, meaning that every step and inch the Amba.s.sador travelled was a last seen location. It took a lot of getting to know to realize I could just set the given information to include a specified perimeter.
As I scrolled through his itinerary for the noteworthy locations, I realized that whilst in Russia, the Amba.s.sador had visited a particular hotel various times during the week before he arrived in Schelar, it was a no-brainer to investigate the hotel then. And quite like opening a new tab on a browser, I looked through the blueprints of the Hotel and found the room he'd checked into using the last seen function.
He'd only ever checked into one room and other times, he simply visited. It was a no-brainer to realize what a man like himself would be checking into a hotel every other midnight for, I'd gotten the wh.o.r.es name by asking the intel-ii about recent females he'd met with and picking out the ones who matched the date that he'd checked into the room. The intel-ii couldn't provide more information about the woman unless I saw her directly so all I'd gotten from the Amba.s.sador was her name. I did the same for his driver as I spied the man from far away. It seemed Russian men followed the same cheating tactics.
But the visiting's occurred during the day. And I had to ask another question of intel-ii, 'who owned the hotel'
The answer? Andrei Averyanov. It was a simple matter of putting the pieces together myself and reading his reactions. At best, I scared him with the indubitable fact that he'd been cheating and get the scheming with political rival's part right. At worse he laughs in my face and calls my bluff.
The
It was a bluff tool and as such, not very reliable for extortion. But today was different.
Although it was mostly thanks to the information from my past lives, the intel-ii easily provided the same information, even going as far as getting me the coordinates of area 74.
I'd called in Matthias and Luciano to let them know the good news soon after President Masud left. We needed to prepare.
"You mean to say the chairman of the AU walked in here and not only did you get him to let Schelar back in the AU, but he is also now completely subservient to your wishes and is preparing a s.h.i.+pment of weaponry just for Schelar?"
I nod through all of Matthias questioning, they share a look of unbelieve and Luciano asks, "Are you going to share with us exactly how you did this?"
"No, I don't think I will."
I can see that they're upset by my dismissal but I don't care much either way. It will only serve to put them in place so I'd count it as a good move on my part.
"Moving on, people!" I clap my hands, eager to discuss our next move, "Having Egypt as a va.s.sal in all but name is great and all, but it comes with a cost,"
I see them raise their eyebrows, questioning my last words as they listened closely, "We have to keep Masud in power but the threat of being overthrown should always linger around in one form or the other, it will be essential to keeping ou grip around Egypt."
Since the va.s.salization wasn't a formal one but rather a dubious backhanded dealing, it was fortunate that Masud was intent on being a dictator and staying in power for as long as possible, after all, I couldn't swing the threat of being ousted as an evil tyrant to the international community over a newly elected President.
His stay in power was going to be his prison. But his stay in power also brought in unwanted factors like the people hating his guts and wanting him dead half of the time for not addressing the dire issues of the country. As far as a.s.sa.s.sination attempts go, he's had the most of any world leader this year.
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"Once Niaina comes back from Namibia I'll be sending her to Egypt to closely study and work with Masud on actually silencing the people." I sigh as I say this, "Believe it or not, the people pose the greatest threat to his regime as it is, and a threat to his regime is a threat to our constant flow of money."
The people were the greatest threat because their voices would be heard regardless of the egregious amounts of press censors.h.i.+p issued, tourists, foreign investors, emigrants, and immigrants would all be tools of the people used to tell the story of their sufferings under the Masud regime. This would no doubt bring in the west and in a possibly more dangerous scenario, it would bring the attention of Egypt's neighbours to the fresh opportunity to profit off their failings.
There was no debating it, the people of Egypt had to be given what they wanted.
"Sir, are you sure we can do this?" Matthias asked sceptically, "I mean, we have Malagasy soldiers holding 'training exercises' awfully close to the border?"
My eyes widen in shock as I was just hearing this for the first time, "What!? Since when has this happened? Why wasn't I made aware?!"
Matthias shrunk as bit and began stuttering, "W-well, you said not to disturb while you were in Namibia, and you just arrived today to deal with the AU. There was no time to give you the briefing."
"No time to tell me that my country was being threatened by the sc.u.m of the earth Madagascar?! Absurd Matthias, whatever I was doing in Namibia would be for nought if there was no Schelar at the end of the day!"
"It began two days after you left for Namibia and has been going on ever since," Luciano says, responding to my other question, "So far we've responded in kind and equipped our men with the best equipment we have, basically, they've set up for an invasion at the border."
I grit my teeth as I think of how inconvenient this truly was, Egypt being a va.s.sal would mean absolutely nothing if Schelar was overrun. I certainly couldn't count on military aid from them during the war either, Masud would wait it out as long as he could, just to see who'd come out on top. And if that person was Madagascar, he wouldn't need to fear me any longer.
s.h.i.+t!