Mission Liberty by David DeBatto

but if I catch anybody playing Grand Theft Auto on his, I’m taking it away. Paul, can I offer
     you anything?”
    “Guns?” Asabo said. “I don’t think so. If they discover who I am, it would be best if I were unarmed. Plus I don’t like guns.”
    “I don’t like cars,” DeLuca said, “but it beats walking.”
    After the briefing, DeLuca used his new handheld PC to collect his e-mail. The first thing he’d done, upon awakening, was
     e-mail his friend Walter Ford back in Boston and ask him to get on the Web and look for any information that the briefing
     report might have omitted, sending the report as an attached file. He didn’t expect a reply so soon, but then he remembered
     that Ford, a retired cop and a professor in the Criminal Justice program at Northeastern, was one of the most diligent people
     he’d ever known. He’d stay up to finish a task, no matter how late it got.
    Dear David,
    Hope all remains well with you. Martha suggests I remind you to dress warmly. I told her you were in tropical Africa, but
     you know Martha. She would still be trying to get you to wear a sweater.
    As to your questions, I’m supplying links to a number of Ligerian expatriate Web sites, but to give you the gist of it, the
     bottom line is, President Bo’s popularity ratings rank significantly lower than Bill Clinton’s. Ligerian expats hate him (Bo,
     not Clinton), as do many of his citizens, though he has the support of the Fasori elite, who he favors in return with tax
     breaks, import tariffs, bribes, etc. He had the full support of big oil and their hired mercenaries until he started talking
     about nationalizing the oil industry a few months ago, largely a populist gesture, but WAOC was not amused.
    Bo has two rivals for power, both of whom he keeps on a short leash. One is General Kwesi Emil-Ngwema, vice president and
     head of the army. Ngwema was, for years, Bo’s go-to guy when he needed somebody thrown out of a helicopter. Lake Liger was
     his favorite drop zone, mostly because it’s full of cichlids that can make a corpse impossible to identify in about three
     seconds. I had some in my aquarium and they ate all my other fish, my bad, not theirs, but they’re worse than piranhas, IMHO.
     Lately Ngwema has stayed away from Bo. One Web site says he’s planning a coup, with WAOC funding. Another says he’s waiting
     for LPLF to do his dirty work for him. Either way, he’s playing his cards pretty tight right now.
    The other rival is Bishop Duvallier. The majority of the nation’s Christians are Catholic, incl. lower-class Fasoris and most
     of the Da Christians, who mainly supply the workforce for the oil industry. Pentecostals making inroads, however. Question:
     Would Duvallier let Muslims kill Pentecostals? One Web site says yes. Both Bo and WAOC have been greasing Duvallier for years.
     One Web site says Duvallier is a cannibal who eats young boys. The Vatican loves him for his firm stand against birth control/abortion/same-sex
     marriage. Duvallier’s emissaries personally intercepted and destroyed a shipment of condoms sent by the WHO. FYI, AIDS in
     Liger is about 28 percent among women and 24 percent among men, second only to Uganda, but thanks to Duvallier, at least unmarried
     people aren’t having sex, because they’re all dying in hospitals.
    And by the way, the ambassador you rescued was investigated for taking a seat on the Ligerian gravy train, accepting gifts,
     safaris, etc. from Bo, from whose Presidential Guard Ellis selected his household staff, whom he doesn’t pay. One site alleges
     that the U.S. ambassador keeps slaves. Lots of cocktail parties at the mansion, champagne, feasts with roast pigs, etc. The
     investigation said Ellis may have crossed the line at times but that his actions were in accordance with traditional diplomacy.
     Sumptuous feasts when up north, two thousand plus people a day die of starvation. I wonder why so many people hate America?
    Let me know what else