A year after the start of our endeavors, I found myself in a meeting with all of our groups members again.

It had been a turbulent and unpleasant year, but the seeds of growth had been sown. It was not a stretch to say that the world was in a much better place and was heading in a far better direction than when we last met. But nothing is ever easy.

“You are kidding me, right?” I looked at the report. “Those fucks started their own group?”

“They did,” one of the European’s confirmed. “And they are moving to obstruct us as we speak.”

“They take our efforts as a proof of concept that a shadowy cabal could rule the world,” Brenard added. “They are just a little less benevolent than we are.”

“And quite a bit more crude,” Wang spoke through her translator. “Have you seen the reports out of Somalia? Things had been getting better there over the past five or so years, it seemed like a low priority situation since it was already improving without our intervention- until they poured fuel onto that dieing fire in the form of military grade hardware.”

“Online traffic indicates quite the communication set up too,” I said as I looked over my own companies reports on the country- and how much had changed in the past couple years. Someone had invested a massive amount of money into their communications infrastructure. “So effectively they have their own country? What could they be planning?”

They all shared their own reports and knowledge of the situation willingly, trying to build a clear picture of the growing opposition. The results did not make me happy.

“A lot of these places are recovering from violence of one sort or another… The right leverage in the right place and…” I let my sentence trail off, the others could connect the dots as easily as I had.

Individually, the actions we were looking at were small and meaningless- but no one in this room would be fooled by that appearance, that kind of work was their bread and butter. Taken as a collective, there were large movements of money into certain sections of the African continent that seemed to be flowing into various fringe and radical groups- the same groups that had been mostly suppressed years ago. They were trying to turn back the clock and reignite the internal strife, but all at once instead of piecemeal.

But I could not shake the feeling that we were missing something. The potential gains from this investment seemed too small, there was a bigger picture here that we were not getting…. And then I realized…

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“They are planning to carve out their own country…” Once I knew what to look for, it was obvious. The geographic placement, the interference in the groups that would normally dampen fighting, the rise of specific warlords… “I cannot fathom how this plays into their end goals, but this cannot be allowed to happen!”

“I am not sure we can stop it at this point,” one member spoke softly, but coming from him it spoke volumes. He had been born in Somalia during some of the most chaotic times, he did not even know what his real birthday was- no one had recorded it- and had rose to be one of the most powerful people in the world, spending much of his time in Saudi Arabia working in the petroleum industry. “This fire is going to start, whether we like it or not- and I am not sure where we would find the resources to put it out.”

There was not much in the surrounding areas to bring in- which left one last solution.

“If we want to do something about this, we will have to use our own forces.”

“Forces?” Brenard snorted, “that makes it sound so official. Corporate security is not a military.”

Well this was awkward, though judging by the faces around me, I was not the only one in a bit of an odd position by that comment.

“Funny you should say it like that Brenard,” I gave him a rueful smile. “My people are a bit more heavily armed than might be expected.”

“There is a lot of risk with that kind of commitment,” the old Chinese demon in a woman’s skin spoke slowly. “But it may be worth it to stop this… Plot. This is not the kind of game where we can let rivals stand.”

“Well, the bulk of my strength is drones of various kinds.” I shrugged, “I have an experimental unit that is essentially a mixed units of soldiers and drones. It would actually be a good chance to test their effectiveness.”

“You know,” Brenard mused. “For someone who hates hurting people so much you sure have a lot of options to do so.”

Ouch. That fucking hurt man, I am still sore about that education fuck up- and probably will be for the rest of my goddamn life.

There is not always a peaceful solution, Brenard. I thought, and sometimes the answer to a problem is really shitty. You are just lucky because you have always put your bullshit on my fucking table and had me deal with it!

No, I need to calm down. I am just overly sensitive after all that- especially now that I have to put more blood on my hands. Is it my fault that the mistakes of the past have necessitated it?

“I will also commit resources to this,” Wang added. “Mr. Sterling, we will need to establish who will be overseeing this operation.”

Oh fuck you too you undying hag! You do not have to look so smug when you have me by the throat already!

“Of course Mrs. Wang,” I spoke politely and calmly. “I have little experience there, I would differ to your knowledge in this.”

“Also, before this meeting ends, we need to discuss the problems in Brazil.”