Far Cry

Sowa, Central District, Botswana

Driving like crazy until the outskirts of the city the car managed to avoid the rebels that were chasing me, but his driving did not stop and still continued through the African desert until dawn to reach Makgadikgadi, a huge salt flat. A place empty of almost absolutely everything, not even clouds, a plain of thousands of kilometers of just a sky, salt, and the only car that broke the view of what looked like another planet. The car stopped in the middle of nowhere and its driver got out to stretch his legs a little, I followed him, it seemed that the time to talk had finally arrived.

"It is a pleasure to see you face to face Miss Elise."
"You are a difficult person to contact so I have had to make an unconventional approach in order to talk to you."

"????"
"And how do you know I am Elise?"
"I'm pretty sure that right now I don't even look remotely close to what others might imagine."
"I'm not even the same height"

"Please, rescue Kabelo Masisi in the middle of the night."
"Confront 3 Walkers on foot in their first formal military deployment, kidnap one and destroy them another two"
"In the middle of a rebellious village and still have the determination to find a way to escape."
"Your way of acting fits perfectly with the description of the "White Demon"
"Although I have to admit that changing her appearance for this mission was a masterful move."
"It baffled even me into hesitating to even act."
"Very well done, with this you have greatly benefited us in taking the lead."

"?????"
"Ok, I see my reputation unfortunately precedes me,"
"I'm sorry sir, but I'll be honest with you."
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, or who you are."
"I thank you very much for getting me out of that town, but I think it might be best to go our separate ways."

"Let me introduce myself better"
"I am Major Zero"
"I have been working together with your mother Adelis for quite some time now."
"You can say we are good friends and important allies."

I took a better look at the man in front of me, he was a slightly older man, white, although bald, had a short close-cropped beard, wore sunglasses and had a military suit, but no identification, the equipment he had seemed to be of too high quality to be from the place, his car was a regular one in the vicinity, nothing he had could indicate who he really was.

"Yes, I've heard my mother pronounce that name before."
"But right now I have no way of knowing if you are who you say you are."
"Or just someone who heard the name and is trying to pull a play on me."

"That's fine, no problem, that's valid too."
"In fact I prefer that you take it with caution, because I am aware that I am also someone who prefers anonymity and I have not left many ways to identify myself."
"The only reason I have come here is because of a problem that has arisen and that I have been pursuing from the US."
"From what I am imagining you do not know everything that is happening around here so I should inform you to make better decisions."

"Really? and what exactly am I missing?"

"Your presence here in Africa was not by chance."
"The fact that Mokgweetsi Masisi offered you the mercenary job for which you are here today was not sporadic"
"A plan has been in motion for months, and your call was only a collateral step, someone's plan to try to damage the reputation of your mother Adelis"

"Okay, I'm listening, so explain well."

"Mokgweetsi Masisi has called for your services due to leaked material the C.I.A. had on you."
"It shows how you work for Adelis, and how the Fenrir Group might have an idea of how to contact your mother and offer you the job."
"I'm sorry to say, but the C.I.A. is not that careless with its documents, at least not anymore."
"There are never leaked documents, only deliberately leaked documents."
"All for the explicit purpose of having Elise, the white girl help President Mokgweetsi Masisi and take pictures of the event to damage her mother's reputation with other governments."
"To have proof that she is encouraging instability in the region for personal gain and that she is not someone to be trusted."
"The person behind it all is doing it out of revenge because he lost his position because of her".
"Who you are behind it is not Mr. Mokgweetsi Masisi, but the agent known as Trigon".

"Trigon? Really?"

"Didn't he die in the 70s?"
"What's next? Chasing Perseus?"

"They're just code names, they don't mean anything at the end of the day."

"Okay then, Mr. Major Zero."
"Can you tell me who this Trigon guy is and what is really going on here?

"Okay, let's start from the beginning to make everything clear."
"Although I will not give my name, I am currently an MI6 agent, initially I approached your mother Adelis when she started working in England."
"She would spy for MI6, she would report to me on the various movements of the Alliance, especially the U.S. military."
"But it turned out that she was a better player than I could have imagined and used our little arrangement to secure herself a better and more important position."
"Despite that we remained friends, helping each other."
"Eventually a new mission was assigned to me, to infiltrate the C.I.A. and monitor any strange moves they might be making."
"You know, even though we are allies there is always some secret they might be keeping, it's not the first time they have done it to us."
"Your mother has helped me with my mission and I in turn help her by giving her information with a more exclusive view of what is going on out there."

"Ok, very nice, but where do we get to the part of Africa where we are in the middle of a desert right now?"

"Have you heard about 1313?" Said the man in front of me, passing me a printed image.

"No, I don't know what it is."

"1313 is the code name of a new mineral discovered about 20 years ago."
"A mineral so important that its true name is a closely guarded secret so as not to give away any clues."
"It was discovered by Mrs. Rose Raven"
"Although she was only able to find it in negligible quantities."
"It was not until a true natural deposit of the mineral was discovered in Croatia that it could be used and developed."
"The Empire quickly used it to gain its known technological advantage that it used throughout the war."
"The ore of the future, the Alliance began to search under every possible rock for its own deposits, managing to find it in low quantities in northern Alaska and between the border of Russia and China."
"It is very difficult to access, but its use is very important, used primarily to create the powerful and scarce Ark cores."
"So you can imagine that it is the new fashionable stone in the superpowers."

"I think it's starting to sound what's going on."

"The only fourth known 1313 mine in the world is right here in Botswana."
"Was discovered in the diamond mines a couple of years ago by the now deceased former president of Botswana."
"The smart guy realized its true value."
"His plan was to do the same as diamonds, make it a nationalized commodity and throw it into the economy, whoever paid the most would get it."
"The high free market price would help develop the country and benefit the local population."
"....."
"Who it would not help would be the United States, having to compete against other countries to obtain it and at a high price."
"That is not beneficial to the American way of life."
"So they did what they do best, they screwed up."

"You talk as if England has not been the same for centuries."

"Trigon, a C.I.A. agent, was sent on a mission to secure the exclusive extraction rights to 1313 for the United States alone at any price."
"If he could get a North American company to secure the full rights to the mine without interference from the local government, it would be even better."
"So he set to work" Said Major Zero ignoring the issue.

"And that's how the problem started" I said casually.

"Trigon started first by talking to the former president".
"When that didn't work, the "suggestions" came, kidnap someone over there, threaten someone over there, blow something up over here."
"But the government was determined in its plan to nationalize 1313."
"So Trigon went on to the next step in the manual, go to an enemy and try to steal it."
"Trigon met with Sizwe Mabena, talked nice to him, gave him weapons, advice on how to make a competent army, and then he put the idea into his head."
"And then he brought him the idea of the benefits of having Botswana under his control."
"Together they organized the invasion of Botswana and the assassination of the President shortly thereafter."
"Trigon was still smart enough to hide everything related to 1313, indicating that he only wanted the rights to an unimportant mine."
"He also suggested to him to put his friend Mokgweetsi Masisi as a titanic president in Botswana to deceive the people with a false sense of security, although that did not work out later."
"What Trigon did not count on was that Sizwe Mabena distrusted him and the C.I.A., he was aware that what he had done to Botswana could happen to him."
"So he expelled Trigon from both countries."
"In the end Sizwe Mabena gave the rights to a company based in Chenggong"

"And I imagine that it certainly made Trigon look ridiculous to his fellow C.I.A. members."
"But I'm still waiting for the part where I end up here."

"That's because Trigon is still around."
"He is still making his moves"
"Just yesterday he met the second in command of the Kalahari Crusaders, Naledi Tumelo."
"I believe his objective is to kill Moremi Khama once the rebels win and liberate Botswana."
"A couple of promises of money in exchange for the 1313 mine."
"Prosperity of temporary cheap labor in exchange for the country's riches."
"Selling gold for mirrors"
"Naledi Tumelo is a good military commander, not a career politician, he will not realize his mistake until it is too late."
"He will turn Botswana into another kinda old Banana republic."

"Shit, the whole thing is a bust."
"Even the idea of an Alliance military base in the region will create problems with that mine around here."
"....."
"....."
"And you, why are you there?"

"Well, it could be a bit misinterpreted, but the truth is that I have been keeping an eye on Adelis for my part as well."
"I have a couple of pictures of you working in the White Moon cafeteria and Adelis called you Cesar on several occasions, which means a high level of familiarity."
"The only other person I used to say it to was the white Elise, the Alienza's weapon of war."
"Now as to why I do it that way before you fire your gun...."
"Adelis and I don't talk very often."
"Even though we are friends my job spying for the US government is too complicated and I can't afford to lower my guard at any time."
"So we try to help each other but without saying that we know each other."
"Which has served me well, because the C.I.A. has bought it and put me in charge of investigating Adelis since what happened in Okinawa.
It is thanks to me that more information has not been leaked."
"That's why Trigon doesn't know about your current appearance or that you work for Adelis"
"Which means we can use it to our advantage."

"I can't lie, the idea of shooting trigon is winning me over more and more."
"Do you by any chance have something in mind?"
"You claim to be the Trigon expert here."

"Ideally you should stop helping Mokgweetsi Masisi right away just in case, after that you can do whatever you want."
"Trigon may be a threat, but he is here mainly because of 1313, so I imagine that by now he must be near the mine collecting a couple of more data about it."
"The problem is that whether you like it or not, the rebels need his help if they want to win the civil war."
"Or at least until Mokgweetsi Masisi is out of the game if he falls, his government goes with him, that man is hated by everyone here."
"The people will gladly replace him with anyone else as soon as they can and return their country to what it used to be."
"But right now he is probably captured by Sizwe Mabena who is looking for a way to get Botswana under his control somehow."
"The rest is up to Fenrir if they decide to save his employer for good money."
"But if somehow Mokgweetsi Masisi manages to get to the US embassy in Zimbabwe it will get worse."
"He will not hesitate to sell the 1313 mine immediately in exchange for his life and to be taken out of the country."
"Ideally, if the guy dies, in some way, any way, and Moremi Khama is still alive, then this whole mess would be settled without anyone else having to intervene."
"So well, technically you decide what to do around here."
"In any case I give you this"

The man took a step and tossed me his car keys.

"Are you sure you want to give me the car?"
"We are in the middle of the desert"

"I don't need it anymore"
"Now my transport is that one over there"

Major Zero pointed to the sky, a small plane could be seen approaching in the distance.

"My goal was to warn Elise about Trigun and I did that."
"The best thing to do was to talk to her face to face to avoid any unwanted eavesdropping and I did that too."
"Now it's up to me to see what the white demon will do and see how I resolve the situation from behind."
"You know, tie up any loose ends that Trigon or his lack thereof may leave."
"If something happens, I'll show up, perhaps, you better not expect it."
"So I wish you luck, you need it more than I do."
"...."
"!!!!!"
"Oh and give this to your mother too"

He took something out of the glove compartment of the car and gave it to me, it was a snow globe, inside you could see the white house, it was a simple tourist gift. Shortly after the plane landed and Major Zero left in it, leaving me in the middle of nowhere with the car and an uncertain future, well not quite, at least I would try to find this Trigon guy.