Disclaimer: I do not own Youjo Senki
Chapter 22
April 2, 1929, somewhere in the jungles of Imperial Congo
"I don't know what you all are grumbling about. This is proper jungle survival training, not that half-hearted thing we've been doing so far." I admonished my disgruntled troops.
"April Fool's was yesterday, Tanya," came the rejoinder from Ernest.
I couldn't help but be a bit pleased at that. In a close-knit company like ours, a bit of informality was to be expected, and I was glad to see some of my subordinates taking me up on my invitation to call me by my first name. Of course, I was even more pleased to note that the minute the discussion turned serious, they would revert to more formal modes of address. Informality might promote bonds of camaraderie, but respect reinforced discipline.
I considered this the culmination of an effort that had started back in Colombia, to bring the relationship between myself and my fellow mages to new, more closely knit equilibrium. After all, I had gone from commanding 48 mages backed by Imperial Law, to a bare six standing by me out of nothing but ephemeral loyalty. The aloof distance I had maintained back in the days of the 203rd had to be closed, no matter how uncomfortable it made me. At least when it got too much I could let Visha and her natural gregariousness take over.
In reply to Ernest's observation, I said, "I know. That's why I told you yesterday we'll soon be out of the jungle."
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Are you sure we can't just fly our way out?"
"Well, sure, if you want to be a wimp and give up."
"I'd rather be a wimp than dead of malaria."
This last observation was harder to joke about. Ever since we set foot in the Congo, all of us had been religious about using insect repellent and mosquito nets, but in spite of our precautions Ernest, Koenig and Teyanen had all come down with symptoms over the last few months. While Ernest and Koenig made full recoveries, poor Teyanen was even now struggling through a relapse, and even though he insisted on walking I'd had to slow the pace to not put too much pressure on his system.
"Flying has the problems we've already discussed," I sighed. "The mage patrols have definitely picked up. We could probably do it if we had to, but the situation will have to be a lot more dire before I'm willing to risk it. Visha, what do the maps say?"
Visha was currently in charge of navigation. She replied confidently, "We've managed to maintain a south-westerly course ever since we left the Lomami behind. We can't be too far from the Kasai tributaries."
When we'd originally started our journey, we'd followed the Lomami upstream. We'd set a leisurely pace, taking the time to stop by various outposts and villages on the way. Sometimes it was to meet the locals, sometimes to touch base with fellow Europeans. It let me collect any gossip going around about the latest moves by the Imperial African Trading Company. So far though, the biggest news was about the missing aerial mage patrol led by the late unlamented Lieutenant Bergmann. Unsurprisingly, Imperial authorities had been thrown into a tizzy by the vanishing of four aerial mages. From what little I heard, the Governor's office either thought they had deserted, or they had been ambushed by natives. Apparently there was some amount of unrest happening further downstream among the rubber plantations to lend weight to this supposition. Either way, it had resulted in an uptick in aerial patrols, which meant we had to be cautious with our spells.
Thankfully, no one in authority seems to have fingered us as the suspects yet. That didn't mean I could relax, though. Not hearing about any suspicion aimed at us could simply be because we were ahead of the news. After all, someone had to have pointed Bergmann at our outpost, and that someone, if they were smart, would eventually find some discreet way to point the authorities at us.
The journey wasn't all relaxation and gossip. We sometimes stopped to lend a hand to locals who were having some kind of trouble we could fix. One memorable occasion involved a man-eating lion. We also stopped to collect information on what kind of goods were available for trade and what was in demand among the locals, before sending the information downstream to Cold Steel Trading. Just because I was going incognito didn't mean I couldn't do my bit to help my company along.
Eventually though, we ran into a series of rapids that rendered the river unnavigable, so we left behind the boat and our guides, and took to our feet.
Quick hops using our orbs made climbing past the rapids easy. We could have simply continued following the Lomami, but I'd been feeling paranoid. Anyone following us wouldn't have found too much difficulty in figuring out which river we'd taken. Once we cleared the rapids, I made the decision to cut south-west and get into the Kasai river system instead, specifically aiming for the Sankuru. This was a distance of around 300 kilometers. Less than an hour by orb, or almost a month hacking through the wilderness on foot.
I paused to take a sip of water and consider our situation. Even with our magic-enhanced senses making foraging easier, and the regular rain replenishing our water, we were still starting to run low on supplies. And I could understand their growing frustration. It seemed absurd to expend so much time and effort when civilization could be literally bare minutes away. It was a testament to their discipline that I was only now hearing grumbles. And then there was Teyanen's faint shivers that he was doing his best to hide.
I made my decision. "One week. If we haven't hit civilization by then, we take our chances in the air."
As it happened, our arrival at the Sankuru River would be unavoidably delayed. Two days later, the forest opened up to reveal a modest settlement of a few hundred people. As we approached, it became clear this was not a native village the likes of which we'd come across before on our travels. This was a mining settlement. Dozens of natives digging away at an open hole in the ground, before dragging their loads of gravel to a nearby stream to wash and pan through them, looking for those shiny bits of rock that are supposed to be a girl's best friend.
When I first saw it, I didn't really know what I was looking at. The big mining locations were all further south in the Katanga region proper, where first the Francois and then the Empire had been steadily developing the transport infrastructure as a prelude to exploiting the area. Still, it didn't take a genius to figure out there had to be something pretty fascinating hidden among the dirt and rocks these people were pulling out, judging by how carefully they were sifting through every bit of it.
Naturally, our arrival did not go unremarked. As we wended our way out of the trees an aerial observer could have marked our progress by how movement in the camp would come to a halt until we had passed by. Not that the locals didn't have reason to stare. Not only were we a group of well-armed white people in the middle of nowhere, not only did our skin and clothes bear the mark of weeks spent camping in a tropical jungle, but our number contained three reasonably attractive young women. While white women were present in the Congo, they were very much in the minority, and you certainly didn't see them this far off the beaten track outside of a few extremely adventurous specimens. Judging by the puzzled stares we were getting, the locals hadn't run across such exceptions prior to us. Well, at least our presence would be educational.
Since none of the laborers seemed inclined to question our presence, I ignored them and headed to where I could see a pair of flags hanging limply from a pole. One was recognizable as the Empire's flag, and the other was harder to make out but looked like some sort of company emblem. Thankfully not the emblem of the Imperial African Trading Company, so they should be reasonably welcoming of us.
Along the way I noticed we were not the only armed people in the settlement. There seemed to be a number of armed Africans among the miners. Obviously security hired by the company in charge of the mine, they were armed with a mix of old firearms and steel weapons. I wasn't worried about them - judging by the way they kept their distance, they'd long since learned not to meddle in the affairs of their colonial masters. I did however notice that they seemed much better clothed and fed than the miners. I also noticed some rushing off towards the outpost, undoubtedly to warn whoever was in charge here.
Eventually we got past the mining settlement, which was comprised mostly of shacks so poorly made they gave shacks a bad name, and to the outpost proper, which was a reasonably sturdy two-story construction overseeing a dirt track that was most likely this settlement's link to the wider world. The greeting from the building's residents wasn't too friendly, though. The door was clearly shut, and the moment we got within sight a pair of rifles poked out from upstairs windows. "Halt! You are trespassing on private property! Do not come closer!" a loud voice barked out in Germanian.
"Come now, is that any way to greet a lady? We are but travelers looking for a place to rest. Would you turn your back on your fellow Imperial?" I replied in my sweetest voice.
There was a moment of silence before the face of a man of around thirty poked out of the window to look us over. The face went back inside and the door was carefully opened. The same man stepped out, a large heavyset fellow in his late thirties with brown eyes and sandy blond hair with a touch of grey and a faint scar across his forehead. Even though he was smiling, there was a hardness to his features and a slyness in his gaze put me in mind of a particularly vicious weasel. Behind him I caught a glimpse of several more people inside the building, but judging by the cleanliness and quality of his clothing, I was looking at the man in charge.
His rifle, a high-end hunting piece, was currently pointed away from us. He gave me a look that tried to be charming but came across as smarmy and said, "Well now, we don't see pretty sights like you around here very often. I'd love to give you the hospitality of my humble abode, but first I'm going to have to ask you to hand in your guns. This is property of the Bakwanga Mining Corporation and we're somewhat leery of armed strangers."
"I am afraid that is asking a bit much seeing as how you are armed strangers to us. But let us compromise. We will keep our weapons but we will put them away. And then we can get to know each other a bit better, and then we will no longer be strangers. What do you say?" To further demonstrate my good intentions I slipped my rifle back on my shoulders, signaling my companions to do the same. My company grudgingly complied, rifles being safed and left to hang from their straps.
After a bit more back and forth, Ferdinand Gerrin, for such was his name, agreed to offer us his hospitality. I immediately asked for a bed and ordered Teyanen to lay down and rest after taking another dose of our dwindling stock of quinine. Only after that medical emergency had been seen to did I allow myself to be dragged into coffee and conversation with our host and his minions.
I use the word 'minions' advisedly. There were three other white men at the table with us, but it was clear all of them completely deferred to the forceful Mr. Gerrin. As for our host, he was naturally extremely curious as to our presence. I spun him the story my group had decided on beforehand - both my sister and I were determined to do a proper cross-country African safari. To this end, we'd started out from the port of Mzizima in Imperial East Africa, traveled across the country before sailing across Lake Tanganyika, and were now aiming for the Sankuru with a view to traveling all the way to Point Noir on the Western coast.
When he, correctly, pointed out there was a rail and road system crossing the Katanga plateau that would allow us to accomplish the same journey with far greater ease, I chided him that it would hardly be a safari if we stuck to trains and cars for the whole trip.
"You have a great deal of courage to try and cross hundreds of kilometers of uncharted jungle on foot."
I hid my smirk. It was clear he was struggling not to call us reckless idiots. Instead I stuck my nose in the air and said, "What is adventure without a little risk? Ah, but it's a shame the war ended so soon, otherwise I would not have had to travel so far to find a bit of excitement."
I think I did a fair job convincing him that I and 'Anna' were thrill seekers with more money than sense, because he soon stopped trying to interrogate us. Now that his suspicions were allayed, I sat back and let Visha go to work.
I have to admit, my adjutant is almost annoyingly effective at putting people at ease and getting them to open up. Not that she had to try too hard. Even in disguise, she was easily the best looking woman here, and neither Ernest nor I could be called plain. I actually had to remind myself repeatedly that it was a good thing Gerrin and his minions all had their tongues hanging out, since we needed their cooperation at least until Teyanen recovered. Just because I found Visha attractive was no excuse to act like a yandere, particularly since there was nothing between us.
Between her good looks and naturally convivial nature, it wasn't long until Visha had gotten Gerrin to start talking all about himself. It soon became obvious the man had a very high opinion of his own abilities. Apparently he had come to Congo almost immediately after the Germanian takeover. To hear him tell it, he had singlehandedly convinced the 'conservative fossils' of the Bakwanga Mining Corporation (the successor to Francois' Bakwanga Miner's Society) to spread out from the established diamond mines in Banningstadt (about 200km south of our current location) and look for further opportunities. It was thanks to Gerrin's involvement that the corporation had even found the little deposit of shiny stones we were sitting on. According to Gerrin, while the mines at Banningstadt might be far more extensive, the density of the diamond deposits was much higher in this little patch of dirt. High enough, in fact, that even a bunch of 'ignorant primitives' with picks and shovels could dig up enough carats to turn a handsome profit. Profit which, so Gerrin bragged, poured almost entirely into his own pocket. In an effort to impress us with his business acumen, he explained how, after the Corporation had borne all the expense of surveying the deposit and purchasing the land from the government, he had swooped in and persuaded the Corporation to give him a long-term lease for a pittance. As long as he kept up his modest lease payments, everything this mine earned was his.
Now, while the Imperial corporations in Africa hadn't particularly impressed me with their business acumen, it still seemed strange they'd let an obviously productive mine go for such a small lease. So I started poking to find out what exactly Gerrin had known that the Corporation hadn't. The answer was depressing in its predictability.
Mining, especially in a primitive country, was an intensely laborious process. Even when you paid them peanuts, labor was still the biggest expense in your accounts. The Francois had built Banningstadt as a company town, and when the Imperials took over they kept things more or less the same, including the pay scales which, while terrible, still meant the workers could expect a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and rudimentary health care. The Bakwanga Mining Corporation, assuming the need to pay their workers at least a minimal wage, plus the expense of maintaining a decent settlement so far from civilization, had declared the expense not worth the trouble.
Gerrin had proven them wrong with the simple expedient of not paying his laborers anything. He had also gotten around the cost of establishing a settlement by putting a gun to the collective head of the nearest village and forcing them to relocate, man, woman, and child. The only people who were paid anything approaching a salary were Gerrin's overseers - half a dozen hard-boiled French and Prussians who acted as senior managers, and around three times as many tribal thugs. The villagers were forbidden any tools and weapons - even the picks and shovels were kept under lock and key at night - and they relied entirely on Gerrin and the food he supplied them to keep from starving.
As a final insult on top of injury, the food Gerrin gave them was surplus military rations. Faced with the prospect of eating kommisbrot for the rest of my life, if I were in the laborers' shoes I might well have taken my chances with the African jungle. When I made that remark out loud, Gerrin had laughed at my 'joke', before saying that was why he had his men maintain strict patrols. After making an example of the first few runaways, desertion had dropped to tolerable levels.
Visha was trying hard to hide it, but I could tell she was aghast at what she was hearing. Even though all this was nothing more than a more extreme version of the situation in parts of Colombia, it seemed she had a hard time accepting it as a natural consequence of the power disparity prevalent between employer and employee in this day and age. The rest of my troops didn't look too happy either - I had to remember that they were all there for the United Fruit debacle, and their sympathies probably lay with the workers. Worried that they might kick off some sort of impromptu worker's revolt, I quickly distracted Gerrin from his accomplishments and started discussing arrangements for our stay while we awaited Teyanen's recovery.
It was later that evening that our company (minus Teyanen) took a little walk around the area - mostly to avoid eavesdroppers while I talked them down from doing something foolish. As I had expected, Visha was all but ready to declare bloody revolution on the capitalist oppressor. Well, perhaps I jest. Visha rightly had a deep antipathy for communism, seeing as how they had forced her family to flee to the Empire. What she wanted was to force Gerrin to actually treat his workers like human beings and not slaves. Koenig only encouraged her by pointing out slavery was definitely illegal in Empire territory, and we ought to do something about it.
"Why do we have to?" I broke in. "This is not our land, not our people. It is none of our business."
Visha's puppy-dog eyes were as potent as ever, but this time I was expecting it and I held firm. "All of you need to understand something. This is the jungle. The only law that matters here is strength," I expounded. "Reporting Gerrin to the authorities will improve nothing. As Bergmann proved, the big corporations have the local forces in their pockets. As long as Gerrin keeps the diamonds flowing, Bakwanga Mining will not permit any interference. And need I remind you, I am a fugitive from the Emperor - the man who literally owns this country. I cannot afford to draw more attention than I already have. It is all well and good to have ideals, but we cannot ignore practical considerations."
As silence greeted my words, I decided to add one last little consideration to tip things in my favor. "To top it all off, Teyanen is very ill. He is in no condition to travel, let alone fight."
There was some grumbling, but at the mention of their infirm comrade I could see practicality starting to override morality. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Yes, I did find it deeply offensive how Gerrin was wasting his human capital. But that did not mean I had any interest in risking my own neck tilting at windmills! Back in Colombia I'd had extremely material reasons to maintain good relations with the common workers. Here, the only benefit I could see would be if I replaced Gerrin as the leaseholder of this mine - but even with modern management techniques I was uncertain if this mine would still remain profitable if I actually paid the workers what they were worth. Assuming the workers didn't flee en masse the moment I allowed them to.
Besides, actually replacing Gerrin was most likely impossible without indulging in outright criminal behavior. Reading between the lines, Gerrin wasn't just in it for the money. There is a certain type of personality that revels in the wielding of power over their fellow humans. I myself have felt the temptation multiple times, and if I were honest, may have occasionally indulged in the vice. One only had to look at the way Gerrin comported himself like some kind of feudal lord to know where his real enjoyment lay. As such, it would likely require a truly ridiculous sum to get him to part with his toys, assuming he could be persuaded to sell at all.
Still, this did give me a way to keep my own companions from acting hastily. "I'll tell you what, if you all really want to see this atrocity end, I'll talk to Gerrin and see if he's interested in selling out. If it's something I can afford, I'll buy the lease and we'll go from there." To be clear, I had absolutely no intention of wasting good money on this mess. But as long as I could pretend I was doing something, I could keep my troops quiet while Teyanen recovered.
In the end, I did carefully sound Gerrin out, if only so I could honestly say I tried. As I had expected, his asking price was well beyond my current bank balance as stated on my pass book. Of course, that pass book was over four months out of date, but I didn't mention that. Instead I pretended to be in negotiations while counting the days to when Teyanen could be back on his feet and I could extricate myself from this situation. Alas, as my luck seemed to run in this world, eight days after our arrival matters came to a head.
During that time, Visha had managed to persuade us all to start acting as medics for the miners. She used her own money to purchase medical supplies from Gerrin, then set about trying to heal the sick and wounded among the villagers. I didn't have the heart to point out how futile her actions were, so I and the others all ended up helping her out. After so many months in the jungle, all of us were passingly familiar with field medicine. Together, we set up a clinic, and started providing the workers some much-needed medical care. As for Gerrin, he immediately realized our actions were a silent criticism of his methods. I could tell he was torn between throwing us out for our impertinence, and accepting that a healthier workforce could only be to his benefit. Either way, his attitude towards us cooled noticeably. Now when he gazed at Visha, it was with more anger than lust.
It was in this volatile situation that my troops found evidence of something I had already suspected - Gerrin and his overseers, particularly the local muscle, were systematically raping the villagers' women.
The girl in question was an adolescent, my age or younger and attractive in spite of her harsh environment. One of the guards, as was their habit, had spotted her and decided he wanted her for the night. By this time the villagers knew better than to resist, but for some reason the girl had refused to accept her fate. Perhaps because she was a virgin, perhaps because our presence in the village had emboldened her, but instead of going along meekly, she'd tried to run. All it earned her was a beating, and then the guard called in two of his friends so they could work together to teach her a lesson. They didn't even bother going over to their own camp, the guards simply dragged her into the nearest shack, evicted the residents, and then got to their fun.
I had no idea if they would have killed her or let her go after they were done, but it all became moot when one of the witnesses ran to our little clinic and poured out the news. I wasn't there at the time, having been out hunting for the pot, but even from three kilometers away I had sensed the rage-fueled flare of Visha's magic.
It only took me a minute to rush back, and by then things were already spiraling out of control. No one was dead, yet. Visha and Vogel had stormed into the hut, doled out beatings to the guards, and were now fussing over the girl who seemed to be in shock. Of the three perpetrators, two were still conscious but the third was laid out with what clearly looked like a broken jaw. Their cries for help had drawn in a half a dozen others who were waving their weapons about uncertainly. They were angry, but they also knew we were their boss' guests, and were thus unsure on how to proceed.
I managed to step in and calm things down long enough for Gerrin to show up. Visha bundled off the girl to her parents, and then demanded the three guards be immediately imprisoned for their actions. Gerrin countered by declaring he was going to hold court to get to the bottom of the incident. He demanded all of us show up, even Teyanen was rousted from his sickbed, and then he further demanded we put aside our weapons until the whole matter was settled.
I ordered everyone to go along with it. After all, as long as we had our orbs, being unarmed was little more than an inconvenience against this group of thugs. Even Teyanen could turtle up under a defensive shell and wait things out. It was my hope Gerrin would do the smart thing and do his best to defuse the situation. I was doomed to be disappointed.
As the story unfolded, Gerrin latched on to the fact that the girl had badly scratched one of the guard's faces during her struggle. These scratches became "assaulting a superior". The guards' actions towards the girl was dismissed as a case of "excessive zeal in administering discipline". Apparently, instead of raping her, the guards should have had her publicly flogged. At that point a cry of anger went up from Vogel. Looking around, I spotted yet another guard hauling a rope. At the end of the rope, tied around her wrists, was the girl he and Visha had rescued. The guard hauled her into the clearing acting as 'court' and pushed her down on the ground.
Gerrin sneered at all of us from the fancy chair he was sitting on. "Now that the instigator of this disturbance is in front of, Mr. Pierce, you may administer the proper punishment." Pierce was one of the white managers in Gerrin's employ, and he now stepped forward while uncoiling a nasty looking whip.
"You can't do this," spoke Visha. Her voice was soft, but it still sent chills up my spine. It occurred to me that I had never before seen Visha truly, utterly enraged.
"Don't you dare tell me what I can't do!" roared Gerrin. "You attacked my men! How dare you come in here and..."
I tuned out his rant. The moment the young girl had been dragged in, I knew the situation was beyond salvaging. My subordinates were beyond furious. As every officer learns, never give an order you know won't be obeyed. Trying to hold them back was futile, so instead I started organizing them using subvocal messages. By the time Gerrin had started his diatribe, I was ready. I briefly considered letting him finish, before deciding that his fury made a perfect cover for a first strike.
I spun up my M27 and delivered a burst of thrust that had me zipping next to my chosen target. The man was another of Gerrin's white overseers. Unlike his tribal toughs who were armed with a motley of blades and ill-maintained firearms, this fellow had apparently looted one of our own Winchesters. I chopped him in the throat with a blade-enhanced hand, then pulled the gun out of his slack fingers and sent a piercing spell bullet through the torsos of three clustered goons. At which point the rest of my crew broke into action and there was a whole lot of gunfire and screaming. A lot of screaming actually, at a surprisingly high pitch - ah, Emilie had opened proceedings by kicking one guard and stabbing two others right in the groin. The others were a bit less brutal, but no less effective. Even Teyanen had managed to wrestle a gun away from one of the guards and was now blazing away.
As might be expected, it was a slaughter. After a minute, the few survivors broke and tried to flee. I immediately gave the order to hunt down not just them, but any other guards that might still be alive in the settlement. "Take no prisoners. Kill every last one." Normally an order like this would raise at least a few eyebrows from my men, but this time it was obeyed with enthusiasm. That was good. Whatever the provocation, our actions still amounted to murder. The fewer witnesses the better.
Movement caught my eye. It seemed Visha had not joined the others in hunting the survivors. Instead she was stalking across the ground to the man himself. Gerrin had caught a bullet in the gut and was lying on the ground gasping and bleeding out. Experience told me the wound would see him dead inside of twenty minutes. Visha was not inclined to wait that long. She picked him up off the ground by the neck, and wrapping both hands around his throat she started to squeeze.
Technically speaking, trying to strangle someone from the front is a terrible idea. It took a long time, a grip like that was easy to break, and if your opponent knew what he was doing, he could even dislocate your elbows. Unfortunately for him, Gerrin clearly didn't have the right training, and reinforcement spells gave Visha a strength advantage. The kind-hearted lieutenant I thought I knew stood there and looked into the man's eyes as she slowly squeezed the life out of him.
I should have said something. Visha was wasting time when there was work to be done. But all I could do was stare at the serene expression on Visha's face as she clinically observed the way her victim's eyes bulged, his face purpled, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. As the man's feeble struggles faded, I became aware of my elevated heartbeat and a strange heat in my core. After several long minutes, Visha let the corpse fall, her face set in a small smile of satisfaction. Licking my unaccountably dry lips, I asked, "Feeling better, Visha?"
Visha gave a little jump before turning to face me, her face covered in an adorable blush. "Ah, sorry about that ma'am. It's just, he made me so angry..."
"Perfectly understandable. Still, enough fun and games. We have a right mess to clean up. We also need to keep an eye out in case anyone detected all the magic we used."
The one bit of good luck in the whole disaster was that no one seemed to have detected that little battle. Hours went by and no mages dropped by to investigate who was flinging around combat spells. In that time, my troops accounted for every one of Gerrin's employees. I'd feel bad killing so many people who couldn't fight back, but since they were all complicit in murder, rape, and slavery, it felt more like karma than anything else.
At first, I thought that would be the end of it. We would distribute any wealth and weapons we found to the miners, they could go back to their original village, and we would continue on our journey. Teyanen had recovered enough to last the trip, and by the time anyone came looking the former overseer and his men's corpses would have been claimed by the jungle.
Naturally, things were not that simple. It seemed when Gerrin had kidnapped the villagers, he had destroyed their village and put their farms to the torch. They had nowhere to go, and nowhere near enough food - the outpost only had a couple of weeks' worth of supplies, and the area didn't have enough game to support hundreds of people. Having spent almost two years doing nothing but digging in the dirt, most of their other skills had atrophied.
Given a choice I would have left the villagers to fend for themselves - they had weapons, they had tools, they had their freedom; it was a far better deal than anything they had enjoyed previously. But since we had saved them, we were now apparently responsible for them, or so my men seemed to think. Grumbling to myself, I started digging through the former overseer's residence, looking for a solution.
In the end, after studying all the paperwork at hand, the solution I came up with could best be categorized as claim-jumping. The rights to the mine had been purchased from Bakwanga Mining Corporation on a twenty-year-lease. As long as the diamonds kept flowing, it was very unlikely they would send anyone to investigate. The diamonds sourced from the soil were sent to the river about forty kilometers away, and then taken by boat to the nearest settlement where an office of the Corporation would be located. The Corporation would purchase the raw diamonds at a pre-determined rate as set by the lease agreement, and that would be that. After studying the records, it became clear as long as I could find a trustworthy white agent to act as the 'face', the mine could keep operating under the villagers with no one the wiser.
Luckily, I knew just the way to make that happen. Cold Steel Trading was always looking for new customers, and the villagers were their ideal demographic. They needed everything - food, cloth, tools, medicine, teachers, weapons - and they could pay in cold hard cash, as the lease agreement specified that the diamonds would have to be purchased using Imperial gold marks, or the equivalent in some other gold-backed currency like Pounds Sterling. In exchange of making all their future purchases from Cold Steel, I'm sure my company would be more than happy to provide an agent to transport and sell the diamonds. The villagers would do much better under Cold Steel than anyone else too, since I had made sure my company kept the price gouging to a minimum.
And when, inevitably, it came out the diamond mine was being operated by rogue elements rather than the lessee? It would be the villagers who would have to deal with the fallout. As far as Cold Steel knew, they had acted in good faith to supply the needs of an honest mining community. Claim-jumping? What claim-jumping? And the suspicion for the deaths of Gerrin and the others would also fall on the villagers first. In fact, having the villagers there, operating an illegal mine, really would be a useful distraction. Sure, if anyone ever questioned them closely they could undoubtedly identify us, but by then I fully expected to have left the country. Since Elsa and Anna Eckhardt only ever appeared on the paperwork as former trading partners for Cold Steel at a place hundreds of kilometers away, I doubted anyone could prove any linkage between Cold Steel and the mine's new management, and that's all that mattered.
Once I got to the nearest Cold Steel office (less than a day if you were willing to risk flying in short bursts), it took only a few days to set up a trade route to service the villagers. Inside two weeks, the mine was operating once more, and supplies in far more generous quantities were flowing in to enrich the miners' lives.
Once the first diamond sale went off with no suspicions being raised, I declared that we had done everything we could for these people. Teyanen had also fully recovered, and so there really was nothing keeping us there.
After discussing it, we all agreed we were sick and tired of traveling cross-country. The latest news indicated the Congo government was more and more concerned with the growing unrest among the rubber plantation workers up north, and while people were still looking for Bergmann's patrol, there were no officially named suspects. With some of the pressure off us, we decided to go back to traveling by river. We briefly discussed taking the Sankuru downstream back towards Point Noir, but ultimately we decided to stick to our original plan of heading upstream. Traveling in that direction, we would eventually come across one of the country's few major railroads, which we could then ride all the way into Katanga.
Outside of the major Western ports, the Katanga region was the most highly developed area of the Congo. While the extended jungle safari had been interesting in its own way, I had to admit I was more than ready for a bit of civilization. With any luck, within the first week of May I would be relaxing in a nice little villa in Kolwesi with a hot cup of Visha's coffee by my side while I planned our next move.