The chief was gently drying off his lean face after washing again in some cool water after his long and dusty bicycle journey to his office.

He stood looking in the mirror on his office door at himself dressed in his perfectly pressed uniform. He walked quickly to his desk and picked up his phone after hearing his assistant call out, “we have a call from the United States sir. It must be important.” The “Chief” was soon seated at his desk with a serious look on his dark brown face.

“This is Chief Mugabo,” he answered in text book English with a French accent.

His parents spoke French outside of the home but only spoke their native language in their house with their children. He had learned English early in school and nearly lost his French accent. He spoke both languages perfectly.

“With whom am I speaking and how might I help you sir?”

Todd had almost dozed off as he waited to be connected. It was now 1:30 am in New York but he had no place to be and no one waiting up for him at home. His wife had left him long ago.

“This is Todd Jacobson in the U.S. with the FBI. Good day sir. I would like to talk with you about an important matter of grave importance concerning both our countries.” “I see. You have captured my attention Mr Jacobson, please continue.”

There are several Americans heading your way in a week or so from here in New York for a safari starting in your country. Most of them are simple tourists. However, two of them are perhaps, more than they seem.

The husband may be a criminal of epic proportions along with his family back here in the states. We are dealing with a stock fraud case with international implications reminiscent of the Lehman Brothers debacle. We only have a week to set things up in your country before they arrive”

“This all sounds very interesting. How might my country and I be of service to you and your nation Mr. Jacobs?”

“Well, we need to put together a task force to watch over them as they travel through several major cities and while on safari through Africa.

We are very interested in monitoring any bank transactions or international phone calls they might make while here in Africa. Our target is a Mr. Chad Williams and the secondary target is his new wife, Suzan Williams. They will be on their honeymoon. We don’t suspect the new wife. We think she is in the dark about most of this, by the way. She may be a source of information, however.”

Todd went on to mention the use of American satellite technologies and how they were being put to use to monitor phone calls for several moments.

“But of course, as always, human intelligence close at hand is usually the best.”

“Well, I’m sure I can supply most anything you need in that direction. We are a very modern police force with many men at our disposal.”

“He’s not dangerous as of yet, but who knows what might happen if he feels cornered. We would like your police force to keep an eye on him while he is in your country.”

The men continued talking for almost an hour about the plan that they were creating and it’s many intricate moving parts. It was an interesting conversation.

The two men were soon talking like old friends. Eventually after some detailed discussion, there was a complete plan for a massive and yet discreet surveillance plan to be put into action.

Many of the people working in the hotels and on the safari in Rwanda would be undercover police officers. They would work in the field as the group went walking with the gorillas daily and in the evenings at dinner and on other outings.

________________________________________________________________________________________

You have now met many of the important characters of this tale.

Surely, more will come and go here in this story as people do in life.

I have a good deal of he first part of this story already written. But there is a lot more work to be done.

We leave for Albania and The Cross Roads of The Adriatic at the end of the month.

I will post more photos and stories when I return, of course.

There will be ample time before I leave to post more of “Joe in Africa.”

Don’t forget that “The Bad Seed” and “The House On The cliff” are on Amazon now while “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Atlanta” and “Kazu, son of Osheda Kamasaki” are now also available on Audible.