Chance introduced Ozzy Baxter to each active member of Vanguard International. Some of them shook hands, but everyone was mostly quiet. Things were changing much too quickly lately...

"To pick up where we last left off," Chance began again. "If I recall correctly, Mandelovia has been in a state of martial law since February 2002, at which time the Mandelovian Parliament was shut down. Although General D'goon promised to hold free elections at that time, he said that he had to continue the state of martial law indefinitely due to various 'security threats'. At first it was the fear of further attacks from the U.S. -- he considered the destruction of Malvan-X, Inc. to be a direct attack on his nation itself -- and then the focus turned to homegrown terrorism and this 'Left Hand' business, which he claims is directed by disgrunted left-wing political parties who want the borders to be opened up again to foreign businesses. All political activity and all political parties but his own were therefore banned as long as martial law was upheld. D'goon claims that, until the National People's Army has routed out the terrorists and foreign influences still hidden throughout that small nation, it would be too great a security risk to hand over the reigns of government to an elected body of representatives. And so Mandelovia is without an elected Parliament or President-Prime Minister for as long as the General deems it necessary to remain total ruler... which, of course, will probably be forever. Or at least until someone else takes power from him. Isn't that the way these situations work? General D'goon also refuses outside help for his terrorism problem, with the exception of this team for our specific mission."

He looked around and saw a lot of bored faces as he finished his short briefing. He sighed and muttered to himself rhetorically, "Why does this all seem so damned familiar? Why does Danny always leave me to lead the missions where we're working for a power-mad despot? What I would give to lead a mission to be PROUD of, where we did some good for once... just once!" He sighed again, loud enough for anyone listening to hear. Aloud, he finally said, "Well, if nobody has any objections, let's head for Mandelovia."

"I do have one objection," Nadia said. "A very important one."

"I'm listening," the Swede replied, "but I've already nixed the football team idea."

"So you're proposing that, since the dictator of Mandelovia invited us to his country to pay a debt our team collectively owes him, we're simply supposed to fly in there on the hovercraft--"

"The Stormloader," Kristogar Velo interrupted.

"...What?"

"It's called the Stormloader," Velo continued. "Everyone calls it the hovercraft, but it has a name. Let's use it."

"Fine--whatever!" Nadia said. "My point is, are we simply supposed to just fly in to a country which has effectively declared war on the whole WORLD as if there's nothing improper about that? Do you understand my objections now?"

Chance stopped in consideration for a moment. "Hmm. You're completely right about that, Nadia. Thank you. We won't be able to treat this as simply another mission due to the sensitive political realities we're facing. The U.S. Government already has a few things against our team, and there's no sense adding any more to the tally if we can help it. Since we've agreed as a group to take on this mission, we have to figure out a better way to get into the country in the least public way possible."

"Maybe the soccer team thing isn't so crazy after all...?" Nadia suggested again, a wry, triumphant smile passing her lips. "The European Championships are on right now, and I believe the team from Espertingonzia is scheduled to play the team from 'Maldanolvia'(*) -- that's what those jokers in Espertingonzia call Mandelovia -- this week."

"Right," said Kristofer Schanz, the considerations moving through his mind as he spoke. "And a routine trip into Espertingonzia with the Stormloader wouldn't look suspicious, while flying directly to Mandelovia would most likely label us as traitors to the world."

"Exactly."

"All right," Chance said finally. "Nadia, since you seem more up-to-date with soccer than I am, I'll give you the responsibility for tracking down the whereabouts of that Espertingonzian team. Phil, I want you to quickly brief the new recruits on our methods. Velo and Priest, I want you to to get the Stormloader ready for takeoff as soon as we're ready to leave. And Grimm, I'm appointing you second-in-command until Danny returns. The rest of you, get yourselves ready."

Chance turned to the man in black sitting smugly and listening in on the team's meeting.

"I don't know how long you've been sitting there, Mr. Smith," he said, carefully controlling his temper. "But I don't like the way you do things. And until you explain exactly what it is you want with this team, I'm not letting you out of my sight."

Mr. Smith sighed. "All right, all right..."

quote:
(*) Note: "Maldanolvia" was the misspelling Joker1 used several times back during the TOMB stories, and it's used as the 'official' Esptertingonzian spelling of Mandelovia's name just as each country spells the names of the nations in their Atlases in slightly different ways.