human
This is where we each take our stand. You can turn back at this point, any one of you, and things will undoubtedly go on as before. You'll keep your jobs, have no marks against you. Beyond this point, and there's no turning back. I want you all to think it over, before coming to any snap decisions.
gpt
How about you?
human
I've already taken my stand.
gpt
I've been in this team for three or four years, I'm too lazy to switch now Besides, I've always wanted to be a corrupt politician. Can I be treasurer in this El Hassan regime?
human
No, Homer said.
gpt
Bey?
human
I've always wanted to be a general. I'll come in under those circumstances.
gpt
That's out. From this point in, you're a Field Marshal and Minister of Defense.
human
Shucks, Bey said.
gpt
I'd always wanted to be a general.
human
Doesn't anybody take this seriously? It's probably going to mean all your necks before it's through, you know.
gpt
I take it seriously. I spent the idealistic years, the school years, working for peace, democracy, a better world. Now, here I am, helping to attempt to establish a tyranny over half the continent of my racial background. But I'm in.
human
Right, Homer said, the side of his mouth twitching.
gpt
You can be our Minister of Propaganda.
human
Minister of Propaganda! Elmer wailed.
gpt
You mean like Goebbels? Me!
human
O.K., we'll call it Minister of Information, or Press Secretary to El Hassan. It all means the same thing. He looked at Jacob Armstrong and said,
gpt
How old are you, Jake?
human
That's none of your business, the white-haired Jake said aggressively.
gpt
I'm in. El Hassan is the only answer. North Africa has got to be united, both for internal and external purposes. If you ... if we ... don't do the job first, somebody else will, and off hand, I can't think of anybody else I trust. I'm in.
human
Yes, he said finally.
gpt
Of course you are. Jake, you've just been made our combined Foreign Minister and Plenipotentiary Extraordinary to the Reunited Nations. You'll leave immediately, first for Geneva, to present our demands to the Reunited Nations, then to New York.
human
What do I do in New York?
gpt
You raise money and support from starry eyed Negro groups and individuals. You line up such organizations as the Africa for Africans Association behind El Hassan. You give speeches, and ruin your liver eating at banquets every night in the week. You send out releases to the press. You get all the publicity for the El Hassan movement you can. You send official protests to the governments of every country in the world, every time they do something that doesn't fit in with our needs. You locate recruits and send them here to Africa to take over some of the load. I don't have to tell you what to do. You can think on your feet as well as I can. Do what is necessary. You're our Foreign Minister. Don't let us see your face again until El Hassan is in control of North Africa.
human
How will I prove I'm your representative? I'll need more than just a note _To Whom It May Concern_.
gpt
One of our first jobs is going to have to be to capture a town where they have a broadcast station, say Zinder or In Salah. When we do, we'll announce that you're Foreign Minister.
human
That's obviously the ticket. By that time you should be in New York, with an office opened.
gpt
It's going to take some money to get started. Once started I can depend on contributions, perhaps, but at first....
human
Cliff, you're Minister of the Treasury. Raise some money.
gpt
Eh?
human
I don't know what we'd be doing with this in the desert,
gpt
I have almost three thousand dollars in a checking account in New York. Let's see if I have my checkbook here.