Kitchen, Residence of the United States Envoy, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
"Good morning, Parpaldia!"
Vlad Baris poured two mugs of instant coffee as the Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast started at 6:00 a.m.
"Today is Monday, October 15, 2001. Here in Esthirant, it is cloudy with a temperature of 51 degrees Fahrenheit. We expect it to remain cloudy with a 30 percent chance of light rain into the evening before transitioning to clear night skies with a low of 48 degrees and a high of 55. The weather is predicted to become fairer over this week until Saturday, which is good news for those of you who aren't still in quarantine. If you still are, at least the majority of you offshore have lights. The folks stuck in residence with Mister Leach can't even turn on the magical lamps in their rooms and have to rely on their flashlights. Hope you recover soon, Mister Ambassador-Designate."
Vlad slid a mug over to William. Luckily, the senior-level FSO had recovered relatively quickly, and after two more days of cautionary quarantine, he had finally been allowed out of his room today. Unfortunately for the mission, Howard H. Leach was not so lucky. The old man was still battling against the Parpaldian flu.
"Now, the news from home. Over in Detroit, Michigan, two groups of plainclothes officers from the 11th and 12th precincts had a blue-on-blue incident when they both attempted to raid the same house last night. The officers of the 12th Precinct were pretending to be drug dealers to catch would-be customers in a sting operation. Sounds simple, right? The only problem was the 12th Precinct officers were operating in 11th Precinct territory and hadn't notified the 11th Precinct command of their operation. Things went out of hand when 11th Precinct officers pretended to be customers and then pulled out their guns in an attempt to arrest the undercover 12th Precinct officers. In the chaos, shots were fired, and an officer from the 11th was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Detroit Police Chief Charles Wilson called the incident 'highly embarrassing' and vowed reforms to ensure tighter inter-precinct coordination to prevent a reoccurrence once an investigation has been completed. Retired police officers said the disaster reflected the relative inexperience of US police forces in conducting anti-drug operations since the Transference cut off Americans from the recreational drug parties at the casino resorts in Cuba. In response, the pre-Transference Cuban ambassador to the United States offered his advice to Detroit's mayor Dennis Archer, referring to Cuba's long history of crushing illegal drug gangs that attempted to operate outside the Cuban licensing regime created in the 1960s. Mayor Archer declined, citing his unwillingness to resort to the Mafia-origin methods of the Cuban Commission."
As the radio continued with the news, William Harris finished his coffee. Vlad took the opportunity to ask a question.
"So, has the roster for the trip to the continent of Rodenius been finalized?"
"Yes. Patricia and I will form the US diplomatic component. You and PFC Sharps are on as translators."
"They're splitting the duo?"
"Arthur is needed here to handle all the diplomats that want to talk to us in Esthirant. We're short on experienced personnel. Besides, the Muans indicated that certain parts of the culture in Rodenius make having Patricia along in particular valuable. She's improved the most at speaking Latin- I mean Lourin out of all of us in the Foreign Service. If the Lourian Queen suddenly invites her to tea, she'll be able to hold her own.
Back to the topic of the trip, geologists, engineers, surveyors, and lawyers from ExxonMobil and Freeport-McMoRan will be with us to conduct a preliminary feasibility study of potential deposits and to help negotiate around the Concordat's legal hurdles on building the necessary infrastructure for extraction in the Kingdom of Quila. Along with the Muan component, who we'll meet in Jin-Hark, and our joint security team, medical staff, and two reporters, it's forty-eight people. When we're together, Latin- Lourin will be the lingua franca of our expedition.
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