Kusaidan fears the ghosts he created are getting up to him

After his meeting with CTL, Brigadier General Lupo Kusaidan, knew that his consultations with the latter had ended; therefore he left the entourage, headed into his official Toyota Crusader ZXL and headed back to the city. He felt an eerie sense of disquiet at the direction the conversation with CTL had taken, because he was aware that as CTL’s Operations Aide, or OA, he had been responsible for the planning and execution of the attack on the Prime Wife. Moreover, he also had been the one who had plotted the fallout of the attack, creating, the story of the rebels and also the leakage to The Daily Whistle newspaper of the character of Colonel Chokoler, the rebel spokesman.

He was aware that CTL, too, Ws in the know about all these; and now all the onus was going to fall on his lap. How he handled it would spell exactly what CTL had alluded to: if he deflected the problem, he would get an instant promotion to Brigadier General. What CTL had not men tioned, but was clearly obvious from the silence of it was that if he failed, he would be in trouble, possibly death. Not only from CTL’s hands, but if it leaked to the Prime Wife that he had organized the whole shenanigan to conceal he husband’s infidelity, thereby acting as a pimp for CTL, he could not immediately comprehend the extent of the trouble he, and possibly members of hid family, would be in.

Brig. Gen. Kusaidan realized that at he center of his deception was the creation of Col. Chokoler. He had given this assignment to Staff Sergeant Biso Bukwat, on the knowledge that the SS was quite educated and erudite, and that he would handle the assignment well. So far, that is what had happened, but now the consequences of it were threatening to unravel. The control of it; and the failure thereof, would depend on Bukwat. Kusaidan had had a premonition about this and had summoned Bukwat and warned him about it.

Despite this, the information within the battalion was rife; and this had been observed by Bukwat when he admitted that his fellow soldiers said he should become the battalion spokesman. Even if the Brig. Gen. controlled this from Bukwat’s perspective, which he was sure that, having warned him of dire consequences, Bukwat would keep quiet, there was no certainty that the other soldiers would not  speak out of turn on the events of what they knew; or what they suspected had taken place, from the rumours flying in the barracks.

Also, by the fact that CTL had summoned him to his upcountry tour, away from the prying eyes and ears of other people, meant that even CTL was suspicious that the matter was probably getting out of the grasp he had intended. And that could only mean that the Prime Wife had got wind of it and was suspicious. In which case, she might set in train her own investigations into the matter. It had been previously known that she meddled in the matters of State without abandon; and even without CTL’s sanction. And her reactions were known to be vicious, Kusaidan was aware of this being the OA of CTL.

The other angle Kusaidan had to take into account was the The Daily Whistle newspaper. If the Editor felt that the story was at an end from the incident of the attack, then that was very well; but if the newsmen suspected something amiss and went out of their own way to investigate the matter, they might well come to a conclusion that the attack on the Prime Wife’s convoy had been stage-managed, in which case they might come up with a damning story of their own about what had taken place.

So, from a variety of perspectives, Brig. Gen. Kusaidan had a creeping sense of disquiet as he returned to the Capital City. He mused over this as his driver sped forward. He realized that CTL had given him two weeks to come up with a solution that quieted the whole affair; if not, the whole matter would blow into his face; and it might put him in a casket.

He had to bottle up this affair as quickly as in two weeks. Where to start! First things first; he would summon SS Bukwat and find out from him what he knew about how the information was going around in the barracks. From this he might find out who and what had been spread about the attack on the convoy of the Prime Wife. From this he would have to widen his inquiries , surreptitiously, of course, to find out what was happening in other  places; such as the Office of the Prime Wife and other place the matter had gone to. CTL had given him a bank cheque as to find out the whole matter; and he intended to use the capacity that offered him.

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