26th September 2012
10:02 GMT +3
Jade and I wave as the cocoa lorry drives away down the road.
Maybe I'm being a bit… Imperialistic, but I rather assumed that Kenya would have worse roads than this. Or-. Well, it looks fairly recently built, so maybe this was part of the post-Sheeda reconstruction?
I make a point of not having my ring just tell me.
Jade checks the balance of her backpack. "I think he's going to be dining out on
that for a while."
"What?
"
She peers at me quizzically, then… Then she smiles. "You don't know that you
own this, do you?"
"What, the… Portal? I think they're leased.
"
"That truck, this road, that-" She points at the field of cocoa plants just the other side of the fence at the edge of the road. "-field,
that-" Then points to the one on the opposite side of the road. "-field, and probably every field we're going to walk past for the rest of the day."
"Oh.
"
"It must be nice to be that rich."
I awkwardly adjust my own pack.
"Money's just a tool?
"
"Do you even know what your company is doing here?"
"Only very broadly. Farming equipment comes in, which helps areas ravaged by the Sheeda rebuild and export agricultural products back to Europe under contract for a guaranteed price.
"
"And you own the company outright, which means that all of the profit they make is yours."
I shrug.
"I didn't want
Kraft owning it.
"
She looks away as we start walking along the side of the road. My ring's environmental shield is keeping Kenya's Autumn sun off me, but Jade opted to just bear it. It's about as hot right now as a typical British mid-summer and I don't
like British mid-summer. But I suppose that she's more used to generalised hardship than me. Or… Prides herself on her ability to withstand it more than I do.
"Do you know what
other reconstruction work your company has done?"
"Ah… Some civic infrastructure? Primary schools, sanitation, that sort of thing. It's basically-. What do you know about Industrial Revolution Britain?
"
"Not a great deal."
"Well, there was a huge movement of people from the countryside to the cities, which resulted in large numbers of people crammed into tiny, unsanitary hovels. But a precious few of the newly wealthy industrialists realised that treating their workers that badly was immoral, and.. spread diseases which they could catch. So they took to building model communities for their workforces. Bigger houses available at low rents, wider roads, ornate churches and uplifting entertainments. In the case of Cadbury's, they built
Bournville. You still can't buy alcohol there.
"
"Because alcohol encourages immorality. Were they Puritans?"
"Quakers, but
really devout, ball-games-banned-on-Sunday Quakers. So us doing this sort of thing is
really traditional as far as British Industrialists in general and Cadbury's in particular are concerned. Felicity loves it.
"
"Flushing toilets are more useful than a
concert hall."
"Or art, like the
Medicis tried. The Cadburys didn't look at it as a way to assuage their own guilt at their wealth. They did it because they saw an opportunity to make the world a better place.
"
Jade smiles faintly.
"I thought you were just in it for the chocolate."
"In
this heat?
"
"It's not that hot."
"It is if you're chocolate. Ah, though the first generation to grow up in Bournville were just the right age to fight in the First World War, so… Maybe hope that history doesn't repeat in quite the same way.
"
"You shouldn't plan another war until you've finished the one you've already got."
"After the Reach, any other war would be a step down. I mean, the Dominion are the Reach without the social skills or cunning, the Spider Guild are the Reach without the technology or intelligence
and also without the social skills or cunning. The only real threat would be Apokolips, and they don't really go in for mass combat.
"
She glances my way with a small smirk.
"Planning on conquering the galaxy?"
"No. Nothing I particularly want requires it. Dox…
Might be interested, but I think he could probably do a good job at it. Besides, ruling the galaxy in any meaningful sort of way is actually really hard. It's just too many people and too big an area.
"
"What would that mean for Earth?"
"Probably nothing. I can't believe that we
still haven't got a faster than light drive, yet. Of all the things for the Light not to steal…
"
"
You could steal something."
"No point. I already have access to dozens of forms of faster than light travel. I don't bring them here because I don't want people getting lazy.
"
"Theft is a growing sector of the economy."
"And requires all sorts of skills that lend themselves to a species earning a place in the wider universe.
" I frown mildly.
"Have you ever been to Kenya before? Other than-
"
"Yes."
"-those professional occasions I already know about.
"
"Good phrasing."
"Thank you, I've been practising.
"
"No, not apart from that."
I frown a little.
"You joined the Shadows almost immediately after leaving home, right?
"
"Yes?"
"Have you been working full time since then? That is to say, even longer than I have?
"
"The League of Shadows has-.
Had retreats. And no one really cared if I disappeared for a few days between jobs. But I wanted to
prove myself."
"So no backpacking across Kenya?
"
"We had wilderness survival lessons. And urban survival lessons. And practice. This wasn't something we did for fun. What about you?"
"Before I came to this world, the closest I got to Kenya was Sharm el-Sheikh.
"
"No backpacking?"
"With the Scouts a few times. But it was usually colder and raining. Last time I carried a load
this heavy, I was still in Secondary School.
"
"Was it a camping trip?"
"Lockers in inconvenient places and a bus that left five minutes after the school day ended. Some textbooks can be surprisingly heavy.
"
