to herself as her fingers caressed the keys and data began flowing across her screen. ‘Yes. We have several here. I’ll pull up their profiles.’
Toni Smith read through several screens before nodding her head in negation. ‘No. These won’t do at all. Every one of them has come with a reference from President Lattua himself. They all appear to be children of his friends.’
‘You’re right,’ said Lana, ‘we don’t want Lattua to know about the enquiries.’
‘Isn’t there anyone else?’ asked Rani.
‘Wait. Here’s one. Daniel Zibu. He finished his surgical training two years ago and he’s now practicing so he’s no longer receiving our assistance.’
‘Is he still in England?’ asked Brian.
Toni nodded, ‘He’s applied for permanent residence. He claims that he might be in danger if he returns home. Apparently his father was a member of a political party that was opposed to President Lattua. That is definitely not the way to get ahead in Namola. I can see why Daniel wouldn’t want to go back.’
‘He’s just what the doctor ordered,’ said Rani with a cheeky grin. ‘What was his specialty?’
‘Trauma Surgeon and a very good one from all reports,’ replied Toni. ‘I’ll get his address and telephone number for you.’
15
Two days later, a rather bemused Dr Daniel Zibu was collected from his very modest city flat by a chauffer driven limousine and transported in whisper quiet comfort into the English countryside.
He was here because he had received a personal call from Dr Rani Smith, the head of the Rani Smith Trust. The Trust had enabled him to move from the limited educational standards of the Namolan Medical Academy in Lobacra to the prestigious Guys in London and he would be eternally endebted to them for the opportunity.
Her call had been short and to the point, The Fund, a newly formed charity, needed information which he was in a position to provide. Would he be willing to give up a day of his precious time to assist them? Of course he would.
Daniel wondered just what sort of medical assistance they needed.
***
As the limousine pulled up outside the impressive new headquarters building, the driver climbed out to open the rear door for Daniel. As he did so a small man in a security uniform joined them.
‘Good morning Dr Zibu my name is Teddy Strang the Head of Security,’ he said cheerfully, ‘Welcome to The Fund. If you’ll come with me, the board is waiting to speak to you.’
He led the doctor inside and they took a lift that rose a couple of floors before stopping. Here Teddy Strang led the doctor down a short hallway to a set of double doors. ‘Normally they’d be holding the meeting in their boardroom but seeing as how there are a few extra guests it was decided to use one of the lecture rooms.’
Inside, Daniel found himself led to a small stage, before which rows of individual desks rose in tiers. The first two rows were occupied by a mixed group of well dressed males and females while a map of Namola and its surrounding countries was projected on a large screen.
Before Daniel could fathom what was happening a tall good looking male came forward and held out his hand. ‘Good morning Dr Zibu, I’m Brian Reynolds and these are my fellow directors.’ He then led Daniel around and introduced him to the various directors.
Lana was particularly intrigued when Dr Zibu was introduced to Justine Strang. For once the Chairman appeared to be lost for words and actually awestruck by the doctor and Lana could well appreciate why. Zibu was beautiful with his African looks; tall and broad shouldered with the far seeing eyes of the hunter, yet the hand that gripped hers was long fingered and soft, the hands of a surgeon.
As he passed on to be introduced to the others, Lana turned to Suzie who stood beside her and nodded in Justine’s direction.
Suzie grinned broadly as she too saw the look of rapture on their young friend’s face. She placed her hands over her heart and mimicked a swooning adolescent, which caused Lana to let out a soft giggle and caused heads to turn in their direction.
Forcing themselves to recover their dignity, the two women turned serious on the outside while maintaining their delight internally.
When Daniel Zibu was introduced to Ali and Nori Akuba he was delighted to find that they had recently returned from Namola. ‘I haven’t been able to go back there in years,’ he explained unhappily.
Also present was Rod Taylor, The Fund’s Chief of Operations and his Field Agents’, Sam Tait and Bree Lake. Added to these were several members of The Fund’s newly formed research teams, whose principal job was to obtain whatever background information they could regarding the areas in which The Fund were expressing interest. These teams had been assembled as a result of the failure of their initial attempts in the refugee camps in Namola and consisted of recent university graduates in various fields, including geopolitical studies and modern history.
Finally, Daniel Zibu was led to a comfortable chair facing the assembled group who waited, pens poised, for the interrogation to begin.
Brian Reynolds began, ‘To make things as easy as possible for you, I’ve asked that anyone who has a question to write it down and pass it to me. That way we hope that things will flow more easily. I will open proceedings by noting that we are interviewing Dr Daniel Zibu, a trauma surgeon from Guy’s Hospital and a citizen of Namola. He is the son of Chand Zibu a former leader of an opposition movement in Namola. When President Joseph Lattua found out about the movement, Chand Zibu was brought down along with his associates. Is that correct so far?’
‘Yes, but what has that to do with anything? I thought you wanted to ask me about medical matters?’
‘I’m afraid you misinterpreted our request Dr Zibu. We need your expertise as a citizen of Namola, not as a surgeon,’ said Nori Akuba gently. ‘The Fund has interests in your homeland and we need detailed background information to ensure our further success. I’m so sorry if we didn’t make ourselves clear.’
‘What sort of interests?’
‘It seems that President Lattua is in the habit of taking whatever he desires if it lies within his borders. To stop him stealing from us a second time we need to know how to structure our projects. Your knowledge is vital in that regard.’
Daniel Zibu snorted derisively, ‘The only way that you could possibly keep anything away from that greedy bastard would be to overthrow him.’
Brian nodded, ‘That has been raised as a possibility. Not one that we as a charity would contemplate. We are not revolutionaries.’
‘Besides,’ added Toby Brown, ‘If Lattua was removed, there’s no reason to believe that whoever replaces him will be any better. At least Lattua is not conducting mass extermination of the populace as some of his neighbours seem to be intent on doing.’
Daniel Zibu nodded in agreement, ‘Yes, he’s a much ‘nicer’ dictator than most but his record of abuse grows every day.’
‘In what way?’
‘Neglect would be the first charge. Every day the country is spiralling toward economic
