Water Striders

John Moehl

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666721515
• Print ISBN:
  9781666730258
  9781666721508

Charlie Stancik was born in sage and juniper scrub on lands reclaimed from ancient waters--lands whose first outside settlers were Bohemians seeking the end of the rainbow. Charlie seeks his own Xanadu, feeling he must leave the lake bed to find the life he deserves--the life he needs. His pilgrimage takes him to the shores of Lake Michigan, evolving from homelessness to a position of some wealth and power--evolving from a lost soul to someone who has found his soulmate. This seemingly implausible trajectory had been made possible by the enigmatic Robin McCandless and his obscure and potent company, Delpro. Work with Delpro takes Charlie to the furthest corners of the globe and into the darkest shadows. Charlie becomes a key actor in a drama he scarcely understands--a drama that places him in great jeopardy. Charlie the prodigy walks a fine line with Charlie the criminal--the path ultimately guided not by the elusive Robin McCandless but by Rodney Mills, a government investigator with a long history with Delpro and its sordid acts. In the end, Charlie realizes that love in the present and freedom from the past are the riches he has sought.

Book II

The Road Back

MTU NI WATU (a person is people)

—Swahili Proverb

Far from the Lakebed

The spin worked. In five years BALJIN was an omnipresent NGO that gave the appearance of having been in the field for decades—seemingly well-known for its strong and able helping hands.

Over this period, Charlie continued as Director and continued as forlorn lover awaiting Jo to rouse like Sleeping Beauty. Although she did not wake. Although she did not rise from her terribly long slumber as though from a nap. She did not die. Many in a state of lengthy coma never return to this world. By these standards, Jo was doing well. Her brain activity was steadily, if slowly, increasing. Her muscles, almost magically, did not atrophy as expected.

Patients like Jo were evaluated, Charlie learned, on what was called the “Glasgow Coma Scale,” or GCS. There was a maximum grade of fifteen points; people who scored eight and above often recovering. Jo had started with a score of five. She had then gradually but tenaciously improved to have a score of eight but stalled there for an extended period. Recently, there had been a burst of progress, Jo now having a score of ten. So, Charlie continued his pilgrimages to the Lake Center trying not to get overly optimistic—but also not to fall too deeply into despair.

On the work front, a regular, if unpredictable, cadence seeped into the daily routine. The preeminence of addressing problematic matters in Geneva or Granda was replaced with focus on new developing hot spots as Delpro’s hidden hand pulled the levers of power across the globe.

Although the targets changed, the tactics remained the same. The initial strategy to divert attention through decoys wielded by BALJIN was deemed a success. If snoopy investigators or curious auditors got too close, a calamity would spontaneously uncoil in the vicinity—a calamity that could be efficiently and very publicly addressed by the expertise manifest by BALJIN. It was a kind of open-air prestidigitation. It was a hoodwink as old as time—distract with the right hand while you pick the pocket with the left.

Overlying all this, personally and professionally, was a mask of unreality—a gauzy shroud that seemed to separate the spirit of the man from the lakebed from the spirit of the prestidigitator. As Charlie hopped from Delpro hot spot to hot spot, or sat in his comfortable Illinois office, it was nearly paradoxical to compare the person from the sage scrub to the person traveling first class to the furthest corners of the world. It was as though one could never have evolved into the other. They could not be from the same stalk. They must truly be mirror images of different beings. It was another example of yin and yang. Possibly, Charlie pondered, the bright portion was still clinging to the lakebed. By default, here on the lakeshore, was he therefore in the darkness?

⨇⨇⨇⨈⨇⨇⨇

BALJIN was, by its own mandate, a humanitarian aid organization. BALJIN was, by its own vision statement, a group of people helping people. BALJIN was, by its own mission statement, a comforting hand for those suffering.

It was hard to imagine BALJIN as darkness.

Other than in those wee hours of the morning when Charlie let his mind float freely, Charlie truly did not think of BALJIN as darkness. After years at the helm, he was convinced, as was the entire staff, the organization was really making a difference. It was compassionate, even if its specific actions were guided in such a way as to provide aegis to Delpro. It was benevolent, even if its actions were intended to give cover to Delpro. It was caring, even if its intended functions were to distract. It was kind, even if the glow of kindness hid the darkness.

This was the bimodal world of Charlie Stancik.

⨇⨇⨇⨈⨇⨇⨇

Charlie’s duties with BALJIN covered the gamut. There were specific one-off assignments, generally coming from Robin McCandless. There was some real effort invested in humanitarian works to justify their reputation and reinforce the outward view of assisting the needy of the world. A main part of his time, however, was spent in replying to issues raised by Delpro affiliates in line with the procedures he and Sue Ann had outlined. He was often sent to fight fires.

An example, in the same vein as the communiqué from Mr. Smith in Spain, was a communication from Mr. Van Houtte, the head of the Zambian office. He had outlined steps Delpro was taking to acquire savannah land on the banks of the Msandile River. The company was seeking to lease 150,000 acres to grow maize and soybeans. Planning and preparation for the farm itself were going well. However, there were possible concerns in getting the lease approved. This was, indeed, the principal reason for contacting BALJIN: problems with NGOs.

Without going into extraneous detail, Mr. Van Houtte described how eastern Zambia, bordering Mozambique, was being inundated by refuges from the civil war going on in that country. These refugees attracted a corresponding flood of NGOs. In one of his rare editorial comments, Mr. Van Houtte compared this to flies being drawn to offal. In and of itself, the movement of displaced persons did not directly impact on the farm project, and the chaotic transboundary ebbs and flows of people offered other opportunities, but, Mr. Van Houtte noted, he would go into this matter in another communication. But there were potentially significant indirect impacts of this disorder. With the multitude of NGOs, the public offices, the ministries—the same ministries with which Delpro needed to work to get their farm going—were being overrun by the representatives of these supposedly philanthropic organizations. These outside helpers who had parachuted in were seeking approval, assistance, or funding for all manner of things purportedly linked to aiding the fleeing Mozambicans. The problem was that this ever-present population of upright and naive NGO staff made it difficult for Delpro representatives, using a carrot and stick approach, to get quick approval of the lease by their newly minted friends in the relevant government agencies. In short, any attempts to promote or perchance prompt corruption were under close scrutiny due to the mob of do-gooders migrating about the capital.

Not only did all this growing external influence make it difficult to covertly leverage the action required, it also laid the groundwork for expanding unwanted oversight. With large sums of money being allocated to humanitarian efforts, senior ministry managers were, rightfully so, worried about misappropriation. Therefore, there were increasingly strict measures being put in place that adversely affected Delpro’s guileful efforts to get going on its new farm. Inducements to expedite approval of the lease were hard to consummate with everyone evidentially looking over everyone else’s shoulder.

Quiet, discrete corners were becoming difficult to find.

Charlie was struck by the similarities with the issues first raised by Mr. Smith. These had been among the founding principles of BALJIN, so they should be well prepared to assist their colleagues in Zambia.

Working with Sue Ann and some of Mr. Van Houtte’s staff, Charlie first established the premise upon which BALJIN would intervene. They needed to pull attention to an area away from the Msandile Valley in Eastern Province and create enough confusion through this decoy that Mr. Van Houtte would be able to get his lease signed.

Opportunity presented itself. Southern Province Zambia was suffering through the second year of a record-breaking drought. Southern Province Zambia was about 500 miles to the southwest of the Msandile Valley; far enough to create an effective diversion. The capital of Southern Province was Choma.

Charlie dispatched a staff member from the Illinois office to Zambia to join someone from Mr. Van Houtte’s office and then go to Choma to rent some simple facilities where BALJIN could set up shop with great fanfare as they came to town to help drought-stricken farmers.

This was one of the rare occasions when Delpro was fully, or maybe almost fully, out of the darkness and into the light. Delpro was cast as one of a handful of important Zambian companies that were partnering with BALJIN and kitting up to cover most of the expenses relating to the aid to Southern Province. It was simply good business. And it was good advertising.

While the logistics were being organized, Charlie and Sue Ann put together a more comprehensive plan to assist 1,000 families—that should catch some attention. They calculated that if they gave each family $300 (about half the price of a bottle of top-quality Chateau Mouton Rothschild Bordeaux, one of Mr. McCandless’ favorites, Charlie thought), the equivalent of ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• The Water Strider
• Acknowledgments
• Author’s Note
• Water Ballet
• Prologue
• Book I: The Road to Antioch
• Book II: The Road Back
• Outro
• Afterword