Hidden Empire (Empire 2)

Chinma walked back to Mark's body. This time there was no pistol to retrieve, just the body of his friend. Someone will have to tell Mrs. Malich that he is dead. And the story of how he died. His story will have to be told, and I will have to tell it. But I don't know his story. I only know how it ended. Still, I can tell the part I know. I can tell his mother that he died as well as his father did, because he brought down the enemy and saved the lives of everyone in that room, everyone on that floor, everyone in that building who survived.

What I can't tell Mrs. Malich or anyone is my story. Because I did not kill to save anyone. I'm glad they were saved, but I killed that man because he was like the men who killed my family. He was the kind of man who would put bullets into old men and women and children, who would kill helpless sick people as they lay on their beds or on the floor. I killed him because if I could, I would kill every such man in the world. I am not a good Christian like Mark, who didn't want to kill anybody. I wanted that soldier dead. I wanted him dead by my hand. I wanted to put bullets in every one of them.

A bullet for every member of my family. Even the ones who didn't love me. Even the ones who left me to die when I was sick. Because they were my family and they had lived through the monkey sickness and there was no reason for them to be murdered and burned like that. No reason.

And then, also for no reason, as Chinma knelt beside Mark's body and held his still-warm hand, all his rage fled away, and all his fear. What was left was the body of a friend. And what he had not let himself feel about his family, his village, his people, he could feel about this boy who had chosen to come to a country filled with disease in order to try to save the lives of strangers.

"You should be alive," said Chinma. "I should be dead."

A couple of nearby people heard him talking and stopped their own conversations to hear. Nearer the door, the Marines were helping bring out the sick, so the room was loud. But Chinma was not talking so that the living could hear him. He knew that Mark could hear him, however loud or soft his voice might be.

"God kept me alive again," said Chinma. "Now I have to be as good as you, so I deserve to live." He knew he could never be as good as Mark—as brave, as kind, as smart—and he began to weep. He could not do it. It was too hard. Why couldn't he have died instead of Mark? The world would be a better place if he had.

Chinma knelt up and leaned back his head and began to cry out the names of the dead in his village. His father, his mother, his brothers and sisters, the other wives, the other children, everyone whose name he could think of.

He was still wailing their names, crying out so that everybody could hear the names of the dead, when a Marine touched him on the shoulder. Chinma glanced at him but did not stop.

The radio man, Humphries, pulled the Marine away. "This is his country, son, and this was his friend, and between them they saved us all. He gets to show his grief however he wants."

RECOVERY

The former colonial nation of Nigeria has ceased to exist, unless the new Hausa nation chooses to retain that name. No matter what they call themselves, that government is in a state of war with the United States, as Congress has just affirmed.

The southeastern, Ibo-speaking portion of Nigeria has declared itself the independent nation of Biafra, and the United States extends provisional recognition to the new government. Provisional recognition is also extended to the new Yoruba-speaking nation in the west of Nigeria and the newly independent Ijaw- and Efik-speaking delta lands.

These new borders are rationally based on the distribution of the speakers of the dominant languages, taking into account the history of the various ethnic groups in the area.

With more than three hundred languages in Nigeria, it was impossible to consider giving every language national status. The full recognition of the United States will be extended when each of the new nations adopts a constitution permanently affirming the rights of the speakers of minority languages.

Most of the oil in the former Nigeria was and is within the new boundaries of Ijaw-land and Efik-land in the delta. Nevertheless, the delta government has promised the new Yoruba and Ibo governments a share of oil revenue for ten years, in recognit

ion of the fact that they were equally deprived by the previous government of any significant benefit from oil revenues in the past decades.

Peace with the Hausa government of the north will only be possible upon the following terms: the renunciation of any claim on any other portion of the former Nigeria, a commitment to make restitution to Biafra, Yoruba-land, and the delta for revenues unlawfully withheld from them during the period of Hausa rule over the south. They must also extradite to an international tribunal those members of the former government whom the Departments of State and Defense have identified as being most responsible for atrocities, genocide, and the theft of public moneys, both before and after the nictovirus outbreak.

Now we come to the serious business of the Sudanese attack on the American establishment in Calabar four days ago. Our NATO allies have all responded vigorously, and have joined us in declaring Sudan to be a rogue nation and an aggressor against us, against Nigeria, and against their own citizens. What is now to be decided is whether the state and government of Sudan shall be permitted to continue to exist.

We gave the Sudanese ambassador pictures of the dead soldiers in Sudanese uniform and copies of the identification papers found with or on their bodies, but the official Sudanese response is that these are forgeries. Since we know that they are not, we regard the Sudanese denials as defiance and as an attempt to escape the consequences of their own illegal actions.

These forces were chosen from, under the orders of, and supplied by, the armed forces of Sudan, with the full knowledge and approval of the highest echelons of the Sudanese government. Therefore we hold Sudan fully accountable.

We demand the extradition, within twenty-four hours, of all Sudanese officials responsible for the decision to attack American soldiers and civilians on a mission of mercy in Nigeria.

We also demand the immediate withdrawal of Sudanese forces and government officials behind the line of Malakal, Kaduqli, and Al Ubayyid, opening the way for NATO forces to provide security and provisional government for the long-oppressed African people of that region.

Whether that area will become one or more separate nations is a matter for the people who live there to decide for themselves, after order has been restored and basic human needs are met. NATO promises that this occupation is temporary and that local government will begin to function as soon as it can be established.

If the Sudanese government does not declare its intention to abide by these conditions within the next twenty-four hours, and does not turn over the officials and officers named in our list nor begin withdrawing forces behind the designated line within forty-eight hours, I will ask Congress for a declaration of war against Sudan.

If such a war begins, then when it ends there will be no nation called Sudan in the world. Instead, the northern, Arabic-speaking portion of Sudan will become a permanent part of the nation of Egypt, which has accepted that responsibility and the rest of Sudan will become a free and sovereign nation or nations with the right of self-determination that has long been denied these citizens by the criminal government in Khartoum.

I also ask Congress to declare that August tenth of this year, and July tenth of all subsequent years, be commemorated as a day of national mourning for those American soldiers and charitable workers who were slain on July tenth of this year; and as a day of national gratitude to those Americans, soldiers and civilians, who nobly defended the many who survived the attack; and also to the Nigerian students of the University of Calabar who gave their lives defending, with clubs against automatic weapons, the entrance of the university grounds where our soldiers lay sick and nearly defenseless. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten by the American people.

Finally, I affirm that the American quarantine of Africa continues in full force. It is encouraging that the treatment techniques developed by American charitable workers in Nigeria have proven effective in reducing by more than half the mortality rate of those infected with the nictovirus. But these techniques are currently being employed only in small portions of the areas affected by the epidemic.

Even where they are being used, a reduction of mortality from an estimated forty percent to an estimated fifteen percent still leaves us with that staggering mortality rate of fifteen percent. This disease cannot be allowed to leave its continent of origin if we can possibly help it. We will not relax our vigilance.

This means that despite the anxious wishes and pleas of their friends and family here in the United States, neither the surviving soldiers nor the charitable workers now in Nigeria can be allowed to return to the United States at this time. Only when it is known that someone has had the nictovirus and fully recovered from it can he or she be allowed to leave the epidemic zone and return directly home. Others must wait out a three-week quarantine. This is all the information I have for you right now. Be assured that I will brief you again about the responses of the governments of the Arab portion of Sudan and the Hausa portion of Nigeria as the deadlines approach.