“Maybe fifty protestors. Lots of noise. Any weapons fire is aimed at the sky. Probably at drones.” Ishant cocked his head as if momentarily caught in an information loop. Jaha wondered if he was streaming, but he snapped back as if he’d concluded his analysis.

“There are a lot of people who want to bring Muungano down. I daresay from within as well as without. No advance rumblings of this assembly?” she asked.

“Not any chatter from any of my sources.”

“Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention.” Jaha clasped her hands behind her back. “There are protests outside embassies all over the world. What tells you if we have a growing security threat?”

“Organization.” Ishant closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as he was trained, allowing his mind to reach out, search his emi. “This feels too coordinated to be random, but they haven’t named themselves or their cause. All important characters in a story name themselves.”

“Or are named,” Jaha pointed out, in the way of griots.

“Direction of retaliation. Every character wants something. Has an agenda or goal that they pursue.”

“They haven’t issued any clear demands. Only collective pissing and moaning,” Jaha noted.

“Platform. They need to get their story out. If their first attempt doesn’t get link coverage, they’ll have to go bigger.” Ishant opened his eyes and began to scan data matrixes and linkage networks.

“Or get more creative.” Jaha backed away from the window. “Maya, can you get me VOP Harrison?”

LISC was only emblematic of the illiberal democracy running O.E. VOP Harrison was the perfect example of what happened when a populist rose to power but needed to secure their ability to stay there. Look at how he ran his government: criminalizing dissent; suppressing link sources and coverage; harassing what passed for the opposition (which was a different slice of the same pie); sowing distrust in their remaining institutions; all while disempowering his people. Leaving folks feeling like since everything was broken or rigged, there was no point in doing anything. Only those desperate for change bothered protesting. Even the title VOP, which stood for Voice of the People, was meant to mirror the Muungano title Camara after LISC deciding some of the Muungano words wouldn’t “translate” well.

“He’s ‘on a walkabout,’” Ishant said. Walkabout was LISC code for some new secret negotiation. Every one was soon followed by an announcement of some new accords. LISC providing infrastructure support in South America. LISC brokering some cease-fire for a conflict they probably initiated.

“He’d better walk his ass to my link,” Jaha said.

<Commencing link,> the AI said in a no-nonsense tone.

“Maya, hold that connection.” Never afraid to check or question even an elder, Ishant glanced up from his panel. “You’re skipping a lot of diplomatic channels. This may be seen as an unwarranted escalation on our part.”