human
It was requested that your team remain in Mopti. Then he added,
gpt
Sit down, gentlemen.
human
Mr. Baker is my right-hand man. I assume he'd take over the team if anything happened to me. He added dryly,
gpt
Besides, there were a few things he felt he had to do about town.
human
There have been more complaints about your ... ah ... cavalier tactics.
gpt
It becomes necessary to warn you almost every time you come in contact with this office, Dr. Crawford.
human
My team and I work in the field Dr. Zetterberg. We have to think on our feet and usually come to decisions in split seconds. Sometimes our lives are at stake. We do what we think best under the conditions. At any time your office feels my efforts are misdirected, my resignation is available.
gpt
The Arab Union has made a full complaint in the Reunited Nations of a group of our men massacring thirty-five of their troopers.
human
They were well into the Ahaggar with a convoy of modern weapons, obviously meant for adherents of theirs. Given the opportunity, the Arab Union would take over North Africa.
gpt
This is no reason to butcher thirty-five men.
human
We were fired upon first,
gpt
That is not the way they tell it. They claim you ambushed them.
human
How would the Arab Union know? We didn't leave any survivors.
gpt
It is not easy, Mr. Baker, for we who do the paper work involved in this operation, to account for the activities of you hair-trigger men in the field.
human
We appreciate your difficulties, Homer said evenly.
gpt
But we can only continue to do what we think best on being confronted with an emergency.
human
Perhaps I should remind you that the policy of this project is to encourage amalgamation of the peoples of the area. Possibly, the Arab Union will prove to be the best force to accomplish such a union.
gpt
You don't believe that Dr. Zetterberg, and I doubt if there are many non-Moslems who do. Mohammed sprung out of the deserts and his religion is one based on the surroundings, both physical and socio-economic.
human
So did its two sister religions, Judaism and Christianity.
gpt
Both of them adapted to changing times, with considerable success. Islam has remained the same and in all the world there is not one example of a highly developed socio-economic system in a Moslem country. The reason is that in your country, and mine, and in the other advanced countries of the West, we pay lip service to our religions, but we don't let them interfere with our day by day life. But the Moslem, like the rapidly disappearing ultra-orthodox Jews, lives his religion every day and by the rules set down by the Prophet fifteen centuries ago. Everything a Moslem does from the moment he gets up in the morning is all mapped out in the Koran. What fingers of the hand to eat with, what hand to break bread with--and so on and so forth. It can get ludicrous. You should see the bathroom of a wealthy Moslem in some modern city such as Tangier. Mohammed never dreamed of such institutions as toilet paper. His followers still obey the rules he set down as an alternative.
human
What's your point?
gpt
That North Africa cannot be united under the banner of Islam if she is going to progress rapidly. If it ever unites, it will be in spite of local religions--Islam and pagan as well; they hold up the wheels of progress.
human
This matter of physically assaulting and then arresting the chieftain --he looked down at a paper on his desk--
gpt
No. He didn't have the ... dream. He was a raider, a racketeer, not a leader of purposeful men. Perhaps it's true that these people need a hero to act as a symbol for them, but he can't be such as Abd-el-Kader.
human
I suppose you're right, the Swede said grudgingly.
gpt
See here, have you heard reports of a group of Cubans, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to help with the new sugar refining there, being attacked?
human
Only a few rumors,
gpt
The rumors are correct. The whole group was either killed or wounded. He said suddenly,
human
You had nothing to do with this, I suppose?
gpt
My team has never been within a thousand miles of Khartoum.
human
See here, we suspect the Cubans might have supported Soviet Complex viewpoints.
gpt
I know nothing about them at all.
human
Do you think this might be the work of El Hassan and his followers?
gpt
I don't know.
human
How did that affair in Mopti turn out, these riots in favor of El Hassan?
gpt
Routine. Must have been as many as ten thousand of them at one point. We used standard tactics in gaining control and then dispersing them. I'll have a complete written report to you before the day is out.
human
You've heard about this El Hassan before?
gpt
Quite a bit.
human
From the rumors that have come into this office, he backs neither East nor West in international politics. He also seems to agree with your summation of the Islamic problem. He teaches separation of Church and State.
gpt
They're the same thing in Moslem countries,
human
Dr. Crawford, he snapped,
gpt
What's so funny?
human
Well, nothing,
gpt
Why?
human
Isn't it obvious, after the conversation we've had here? Possibly this El Hassan is the man we're looking for. Perhaps this is the force that will bind North Africa together. Thus far, all we've heard about him has been rumor. We don't seem to be able to find anyone who has seen him, nor is the exact strength of his following known. We'd like to confer with him, before he gets any larger.
gpt
It's hard to track down a rumor.
human
That's why we give the assignment to our best team in the field, the Swede told him.
gpt
You've got a roving commission. Find El Hassan and bring him here to Dakar.
human
Suppose he doesn't want to come?
gpt
Use any methods you find necessary. If you need more manpower, let us know. But we must talk to El Hassan.
human
Why the urgency?
gpt
Because, frankly, Dr. Crawford, the elements which first went together to produce the African Development Project, are, shall we say, becoming somewhat unstuck.
human
The glue was never too strong,
gpt
The attempt to find competent, intelligent men to work for the project, who were at the same time altruistic and unaffected by personal or national interests, has always been a difficult one. If you don't mind my saying so, we Scandinavians, particularly those not affiliated with NATO come closest to filling the bill. We have no designs on Africa. It is unfortunate that we have practically no Negro citizens who could do field work.
human
Are you suggesting other countries have designs on Africa?
gpt
Are you suggesting they haven't? What was that convoy of the Arab Union bringing into the Sahara? Guns, with which to forward their cause of taking over all North Africa. What were those Cubans doing in Sudan, that someone else felt it necessary to assassinate them? What is the program of the Soviet Complex as it applies to this area, and how does it differ from that of the United States? And how do the ultimate programs of the British Commonwealth and the French Community differ from each other and from both the United States and Russia?
human
That's why we have a Reunited Nations,
gpt
Theoretically, yes. But it is coming apart at the seams. I sometimes wonder if an organization composed of a membership each with its own selfish needs can ever really unite in an altruistic task. Remember the early days when the Congo was first given her freedom? Supposedly the United Nations went in to help. Actually, each element in the United Nations had its own irons in the fire, and usually their desires differed.
human
I don't know, but I am about convinced, and so are a good many other officers of this project, that unless we soon find a competent leader to act as a symbol around which all North Africans can unite, find such a man and back him, that all our work will crumble in this area under pressure from outside. That's why we want El Hassan.
gpt
I'll let you know by tomorrow, if I can take the assignment,
human
Why tomorrow?
gpt
There are some ramifications I have to consider.
human
Very well, the Swede said stiffly. He came to his own feet and shook hands with them again.
gpt
Oh, there's just one other thing. This spontaneous meeting you held in Timbuktu with elements from various other organizations. How did it come out?
human
Very little result, actually.
gpt
As I expected. However, we would appreciate it, doctor, if you and your team would refrain from such activities in the future. You are, after all, hired by the Reunited Nations and owe it all your time and allegiance. We have no desire to see you fritter away this time with religious fanatics and other crackpot groups.
human
I see,
gpt
I'm sure you do, Dr. Crawford. A word to the wise.
human
We've got some thinking to do and some ideas to bat back and forth. I value your opinion and experience, Isobel, could you come up to the suite and sit in?
gpt
Something big has happened, hasn't it?
human
I suppose so. I don't know. We've got to make some decisions.
gpt
Come on Isobel, Abe said.
human
You can give us the feminine viewpoint and all that jazz.
gpt
If you'd just be consistent with that pseudo-beatnik chatter of yours, I wouldn't mind. But half the time you talk like an English lit major when you forget to put on your act.
human
Man, Abe said to her,
gpt
Well?
human
Somebody tried to poison me last night. Got into this room somehow and put cyanide in a bottle of cognac Abe and I were drinking out of earlier in the evening.
gpt
But ... but, why?
human
I ... I don't know. That's what's driving me batty. I can't figure out why anybody would want to kill me.
gpt
I can, Abe said bluntly.
human
And that interview we just had with Sven Zetterberg just bears me out.
gpt
Zetterberg, Isobel said, surprised.
human
Is he in Africa?
gpt
Zetterberg just gave Homer's team the assignment of bringing in El Hassan.
human
El Hassan? But you boys told us all in Timbuktu that there was no El Hassan. You invented him and then the rest of us, more or less spontaneously, though unknowingly, took up the falsification and spread your work.
gpt
That's right,
human
But didn't you tell Sven Zetterberg? Isobel demanded.
gpt
He's too big a man to play jokes upon.
human
No, I didn't and I'm not sure I know why.
gpt
I know why,
human
Homer, you _are_ El Hassan.
gpt
What is that supposed to mean?