xp_logs | Great Rift: Allies (Reply)

While Rahne makes some more connections and manages to advance Elpis's work in this part of Africa, Nathan, Ororo and Angelo plan the evening's 'festivities'.

"Rahne?" Nyami appeared at the doorway of the kitchen, where she had left Rahne with a very hearty lunch when a knock had come at the front door. T'Challa's mother beamed at her. "I've brought someone to meet you," she said, stepping in to allow the man behind her to enter the kitchen as well. "This is my friend Bashenga. I believe he and you have some interests in common."

The man was perhaps Nyami's age, with close-cropped graying hair and keen eyes behind his glasses. "Ms. Sinclair," he said with a smile, his English just as good as Nyami's. "How are you feeling?" he asked, that sharply intelligent gaze flickering to her sling.

Rahne had stood quickly and gave a sort of bow, since she wasn't sure offering her left hand would be polite here. "Much better, thank you," she said. "I'm pleased to meet you."

"No, no, please sit down," he insisted, and didn't speak again as the three of them settled at the table.

Nyami was the one who picked up the conversation, once they had. "Bashenga does work very similar to your organization's project in Tanzania," she told Rahne, smiling in what looked like acute satisfaction. "I thought perhaps it might be worthwhile for the two of you to peak."

"Always arranging things, Nyami," Bashenga said, but the look in his eyes was fond as his gaze rested for her on a moment. His smile didn't vanish as he turned back to Rahne, but it perhaps acquired more of a professional edge. "Wakanda is a very wealthy country, Ms. Sinclair, in comparison to its neighbors - and politically stable, which is another advantage. We have often been called in to serve as an impartial third party, to mediate, in local disputes."

Rahne nodded thoughtfully. "And if you do work similar to ours," she said slowly, "then perhaps you suggest some things that might be better solutions, but need a helping hand to begin?"

"It is a... balancing act, I suppose," Bashenga said thoughtfully. "We have resources, and are trusted by some of our neighbors. But not others. They doubt our objectivity, if the situation touches in any way upon our own interests."

"When you would have reason not to be objective," Rahne agreed. "Even if you also have reason to be as fair as possible."

"You see the problem," Bashenga said. "Take this situation your organization is attempting to address right now. The young mutants among the Maasai. As outsiders, you can mediate more effectively... but you are limited, in what you can offer them in terms of resettlement."

"I may have told Bashenga some of what I've heard from you and the others," Nyami admitted, a definite twinkle in her eyes.

"It seems to have been very relevant," Rahne replied with a smile, her own eyes returning to Bashenga, alight with interest. "I take it you could and would offer resettlement... if they would listen. And that they might, if it were presented as the result of our negotiating with you?"

"One of the things that Wakanda has always done successfully is strike a balance between the needs of farmers and herders," Bashenga said. "Part of that is due to our history, part to our geography - so much of our land is suitable only for one or the other. But each group has rights enshrined in our law, and we have an established legal process to adjudicate any disputes. You would never see what's going on south of the border happening here. We would not be able to offer widespread resettlement," he said, and sounded almost regretful about that, "but from what you've told Nyami, we're speaking of a few dozen families, at most, taking into account extended kin?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"That," Bashenga said crisply, laying the briefcase he had been carrying on the table, "is feasible. "Perhaps we should look at some of the potential options?"

--

Satellite pictures weren't as helpful as blueprints, but they weren't bad. Nathan just wondered how T'Challa had gotten his hands on them. "Largeish house," he said to Ororo and Angelo, who were sitting around the table with him, poring over the photos and the maps of the area -in a fairly remote corner of Wakanda - that T'Challa had procured. The Wakandan was off arranging things with the military and the UN representatives; after all, if they caught Moses and his men, they'd have to have some way to hold onto them. "I'm going to have to scout ahead, telepathically, once we're at this ridge." He tapped a spot on the map. "Should be close enough for me to pin down where Moses is in the house, and get a better sense of the interior layout."

"Any additional information will of course be helpful," Ororo said affirmatively, leaning over the map to take in the topological features surrounding the area. "It is not often that we go into a situation fully prepared, and there are unknowns here as well... but I am confident that we will be able to safely handle the situation."

"Between the three of us", Angelo said grimly, "there shouldn't be much we can't handle."

"My, aren't you two peppy." Nathan's tone was just this side of snippy, and he paused, listening to himself, and shook his head. "Sorry," he said grudgingly. "Ororo, thoughts about tactics? We don't know what kind of mutant opposition we're facing."

"True." Briefly Ororo wished Scott was there, to reassure her that the basic tactics that she had come up with were workable, but there wasn't any time for more hesitation now. "When you have finished scouting we will first need to take out the vehicles to prevent escape - I would prefer to do this from a distance, though depending on the number of cars we may have to hit multiple ones at the same time."

Nathan nodded. "Easy enough for us to do," he said, then looked at Angelo. "You're going to have to get in close, with T'Challa..." That wasn't something he was all that happy about, but, well... "He seems to be able to handle himself decently," he said grudgingly. "Best if the two of you keep close and watch each other's backs."

Angelo just nodded. "He's a good guy, seems like. I can do that." He hadn't been even his usual level of talkative, since the village.

"And one last thing... from what T'Challa has told me, Moses is a very formidable foe. I do not want any one of us facing him alone." Solemnly Ororo looked at the two men at the table with her, meeting each one's eyes in turn. "If you engage him, call for backup immediately. Even if that backup is T'Challa." Here her eyes flicked to Nathan's. "There is no need to attempt this alone."

"Well, we wouldn't want to do that, would we?" Nathan asked, almost in a drawl. "I mean, those lone wolf stunts are for other people. Foolish people. People who haven't learned their lesson - sixty times." He gave Ororo and Angelo his best bright manic smile. "I'll go call the mansion and tell them we're storming the castle now."