Zan Zar Zameen: The Conference Centre

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Garrison makes a call to his government, to find out what they have planned for him. Of course, the answer is hardly cheery.


"Welcome to the Conference Centre. Please enter your eleven digit access number now."

*Boopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboop*

"That access number is not valid. Please enter your eleven digit access number now."

"Fuck." *Boopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboop*

"That access number is not valid. Please enter your eleven digit access number now."

"FUCK!" *Boopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboopboop*

"That access number is not valid. Please enter your eleven digit acc--" *crash*

Garrison thumbed Heather Hudson's number on his cellphone, and waited for the connection. It only took a moment before she picked up, sounding puzzled.

"Kane, that you? This is supposed to be a conference call."

"Technical issues on my end. Squirrals eating the phone lines or something." Garrison lied easily. "We'll have to use this."

"Garrison, you live in a multimillion dollar mansion and security compound, with a guy who can build a serviceable space craft out of three chemistry kits, 100 ft of Christmas lights, a box of Meccanos and my old 1992 Latoura." Hudson said, fuming. "It is not squirrels."

"It is. Mutant ones. Squirrel girl, we call her. Can't control her abilities yet, poor girl." Garrison sighed theatrically. "It's a weird world."

"Garrison, I have representatives from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CSIS here. Can you please stop being stupid for a minute."

"Right, sorry. Uh, put me on speaker?"

"Did two minutes ago."

"Damn. Uh, hello. I'm Inspector Kane."

"Yes Inspector. We managed to figure that out." The man from CSIS said dryly. "Have you finished the documentation we sent you?"

"Yes."

"Then you know why we're here today. Andrew?"

A new voice came on the line, one that must belong to the Ministry representative. "Inspector Kane, I'm Andrew Whyte, the Afghanistan specialist at the Ministry. I want to impress upon you the situation that you'll be going into. This area of northern Afghanistan is well, difficultly situated might be the best term. It's right against the borders of three other countries, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and the tribal patterns overlap on top of that. It was one of the most intense theatres of the Russian/Afghani war, and as a result, also suffered the highest losses."

There was the shuffling of paper, as Whyte was obviously looking for his notes. "The Taliban deals carefully with the area, since it is the main location for several ethnic minorities that do not comprise their base. Recently, the Taliban has tried to impose tighter controls after protests of Pusthun and Tajik violations of the borders. That effort has both drawn the protests of those tribes and criticism from their more moderate political wings. The situation is politically uncomfortable at best."

"Not surprisingly, our intelligence on the area is thin as well, since most of our resources are focused on the south."

"So it's a bit of a backwater politically." Kane said into the phone, making notes. "Is there anything new about the killers."

"I'm afraid not. Two Canadians, Janette Boucher and Chris Kordery, where last seen going off shift at the field hospital established outside of Mazar-e-Sharif. They took a jeep out of the settlement, and that was the last time they were seen alive. They were found two days later, dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and head." The CSIS man sighed. "The Taliban has finally released the bodies, so we'll have a proper autopsy report in a few days. Random violence is not uncommon in this region. We know that illegal arms and contraband move through the area, as a conduit to Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan. We also know that the slavery trade is linked to the region. The Russians recently netted a shipment of seventeen women bound for the Ukraine, all of which were from this region. Random violence and robbery are both common."

"Which is what we believe the Taliban is sure of. Two Westerners in the wrong place at the wrong time got shot. That's the only reason they are giving us access, because they know there's nothing embarrassing for them." Whyte pointed out. "There is one other abnormality in this area. Have you heard anything about Sayyid Qutb?"

"No."

"He was an Egyptian Muslim, one of the early contributors to the Muslim Brotherhood. He was hanged in 1961, but not before publishing a series of works about the ideas of that group. Pan-Islamic initiatives, and a radical call to ignore even Muslim governments that allowed for anything other than strict application of Islamic law. There are a number of groups that follow his ideas, and the Taliban has to skate a very thin line in dealing with them." Whyte outlined. "Suppress them too hard, and you're seen to be moving away from the fundamental ideology. Give them too much leeway, and you've got fiercely conservative fundamental groups urging the overthrow of the government. Most of these movements are centred around madrasahs; the Islamic schools, some of them little more than recruiting stations. There is one near the hospital which has all the usual extremist positions, but a curious twist."

"Why did my life insurance premiums just jump when you said that?"

"The madrasah is run by, and has recruited mutants. They have somehow placed mutants into the Islamic beliefs, and have proved to be popular. They've made some threatening noises about the hospital before. We don't know whether or not they might be involved, but the genetic angle is why you've been chosen to act as Canada's investigative representative, instead of a more senior officer."

"This is going to be difficult. I don't speak the language, and won't have the resources to do a proper investigation."

"We're aware of that, Inspector Kane. The Taliban has purposefully given us the bare minimum they can while still fulfilling our diplomatic requirements. Our main concern is whether or not the deaths of Broucher and Kordery are tied to something larger. If it's just an act of random violence, it's unfortunate but not reasonable to expect that we'll be able to find the killers. If it is tied in with something in the region, that the Taliban might be trying to hide from us, it's vital we find out what, Inspector."

"Great. When do I fly out."

"Tomorrow." Heather cut back in on the call. "We've made arrangements for you right out of JFK in the morning."

"I guess I'd better go pack. Thank you all." Kane clicked off his cellphone and closed his eyes. There was no way that one person was going to be able to get anywhere, especially without knowing the language. He couldn't ask the X-Men; the potential diplomatic issues aside, Whyte was right that this probably was nothing more than an unfortunate random act of violence. Still, without a team, there was no chance of doing more than looking around blankly until he ran out of time.

Unless... Garrison paused and tapped his computer, looking at Marie's most recent post about a new community for the graduates of Xavier's school. A slow smile crept over his face as he realized what he needed was right in front of him.