“I don’t want to talk about it, Terry. All I did was help a friend. End of story. What I want to talk about is this new program I want you to consider.”
“Pru,” Terry replied, “I know you’ve been thoroughly debriefed and I’ve seen those reports. You’ve told me damn-all about what went on – personally, that is – and I want to get a better understanding of what your motivations were. And, you still won’t tell me about what you were doing in The Yemen. I feel your reticence, and I know it stems from a deep modesty that is one of your strengths – up to a point. But, I want more openness from you. And, all I get is this false modesty. I feel your pride in your success, but I’m not hearing it.”
“All right, Terry,” Pru admitted, “it’s true I haven’t been open about the Yemen thing.” She looked warmly at him and touched his cheek. “But, about all I will tell you is that a friend of ours was visiting there, in Sana’a, and went missing. We heard about it and found out she’d been kidnapped as a bride by one of the traditionalist Bedouin tribes. They’re Wahhabis, you know, like the guys at the Wadi. We went in and we got her back. It was just what you do for people you love. That’s the end of it, I hope.”
“As far as I know, you organized and commanded the team, just as you did at Wadi Felucca. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“I just don’t understand why you’re unwilling to be recognized as an effective small force commander. That’s really all I mean.”
Pru straightened, looking directly at him. “It’s because that’s not what I do, Terry. I’m a business executive. I build businesses. That’s what I do, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.”
“Well, I’ve listened to the recording of your reconnaissance and operation at Wadi Felucca, and I know a professional job of command and control in small force operations when I see one. And, I was absolutely certain that, while you were doing it, despite the dangers and the few problems, you were having a great time.”
Pru thought for a moment. “Terry, you probably know how addictive adrenaline is. Sure, I enjoy those things, who wouldn’t?” She laughed. “Well, I know my mother would be terrified, if she knew. But, it’s still not what I do. When I have no choice, I do it. But, it’s not me.”
“No, Pru, it is you an important part of you. And, I’m delighted that it is because that makes you that much more valuable to Neo-Tantra.”
“Well, thank you, I guess. But, there’s another thing. You told me Neo-Tantra doesn’t get involved in operations on the other side. If this wasn’t ‘operations’ I don’t know what is.”
“Neo-Tantra, as the intelligence operation, does get involved in field work when necessary. We have the case operators, like Solly, who have the necessary background and analysis skills. Usually, the case operator works with a team from the Special Operations Command at OSG. In this case, you got that assignment because you know the area intimately, you were on the spot and you were ready to go. Frankly, if this had been a more complex operation, or one that was more risky, I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“I can understand that,” Pru said, “and I agree with your assessment…and thank you for caring.” She looked down at her hands briefly. “There is one other thing, and you may already have sensed it.”
“You mean that running an operation like that gets you hot?”
Pru blushed. “Damn. You’re making me blush. Yes, it really does. I got some help from Said and Sarah; I told you that.”
“That’s no problem for us, is it?.”
“No.” Pru grinned affectionately. “No, it’s not, I’m glad to say.” She shifted herself on the chair and continued. “But, I still came in here to talk to you about something else.”
“All right, then. Go ahead.”
Pru keyed her remote and brought up the first of several items on the com behind Terry’s desk. As usual in the Home Office, she was dressed in a pretty pareo low on her hips. Her face lit with enthusiasm as she began.
“You know that we’re getting started on the expansion into the EU area, China and Japan that I outlined at the reorganization meeting. All the local directors have taken the opportunity and have begun to run with it. In fact, I’m thinking that my job will be to keep them in bounds and on target for what we need. Africa’s a different problem.”
She showed several charts of progress being made in each of the major expansion areas.
“I agree,” Terry said. “You gave them just what they’ve been waiting for. You really just need to keep them pulling evenly, and not let anyone get too far ahead.”
“Managing internal competition is what I do, Terry. All I have to do is get it started, then hang on.
“But, I have another idea for you, and it’s a whole new area. I want us to start a chain of Basic Ed schools.”
Basic Education was the system of public education, universal the world around for children from six to eighteen. Terry grunted, raised his eyebrows, and gestured for her to go on.
“Neo-Tantra is a teaching operation. We run schools, Terry, for adults – adult education, if you will. Our biggest hurdle in attracting students is that our prospects don’t know they need us, can’t imagine they can benefit from being taught how to enhance their sexuality.
“I’m proposing to start a school … Have you ever heard of Montessori Schools, or the Waldorf Movement?”
“The Waldorf Movement was Rudolf Steiner’s idea back in the early 20th century. And, I think Montessori had to do with alternative teaching methods. Steiner was a visionary; the Montessori Method was less radical.”
“That’s about right. And, we don’t really need to go into the details. I’m just reminding you that alternative teaching methods are nothing new.
“Today, children are conceived only by mutual consent, and almost all of them are cherished and nurtured quite well. But, the basic education paradigm is still concentrated on the three R’s and social education. Not much has changed over the past couple of hundred years. And, I’m not proposing a radical change, either.
“What I want to do is integrate Neo-Tantra teaching with the normal Basic Ed program. It’s more Montessori than Waldorf.”
“You don’t mean teaching sexuality to six-year-olds, I’m sure.”
“Not at all. When kids come to school at about six, the CID implants they got at two are upgraded with their PID chips that’s the first major rite of passage. And, when their med monitors show the onset of puberty, they get their fertility implants that’s the next one. During all that time, they’re also getting basic education, including sexual hygiene. But, they’re not getting the unique training we give in empathic and sensual communication.”
“That’s true,” Terry agreed, “but our methods are not what you could expect people to accept in a setting for children.”
“Well, remember, Terry, I said ‘sensual’ not ‘sexual’. Most of what we teach, and what I’ve learned in the additional Neo-Tantra courses I’ve had so far, is about establishing and nourishing empathic contact and accepting and evaluating sensual information within that empathic context. The practice in sexual relations is really only the application of those basic skills. Those skills explain why I can feel your concern and confusion, and also why I can sense that you’re going to call a pee break in about ten minutes.”
Terry laughed. “Eventually why not now?” And, they each left the room to attend to physical needs.
When they returned, Terry gestured to the couch. When they had settled there, he said, “Bathroom meditations aren’t always too fruitful, Pru, but I do think you have an idea here. We can argue over the details later, but give me your rationale for all this.”
Pru stretched her long legs onto the coffee table, her pareo falling off one thigh.
“As I said, our biggest problem in turning prospects into clients is that they aren’t aware of their need for what we offer. They see it as an extra, something ‘nice to have’, not something they really need in their life. If we get them at age six, we can raise them with our ideas as one of the pillars of their consciousness. And, when the hormone storms start at puberty, they may be better able to cope. It’s normal for kids to start playing with sex as soon as they get their fertility implants, or even before. But, you know as well as I do that youthful sexuality often goes off in strange ways. I think Neo-Tantra training at an early age could reduce that risk, especially because of Neo-Tantra’s ability to separate empathy and sensuality. After all, we do teach that being able to sense another’s feelings doesn’t mean we must share them. Empathy is not sympathy.”
Terry considered for a moment. “Well, assuming that you’re right, and that we could swing the concept, how would that impact our core business?”
“There’s always a demand for advanced training, Terry. I’m a candidate myself. A young person who graduates from our program in Basic Ed, or Advanced Ed – if we ever get that far – will eventually come back to us for more of what they already know. And, there’s still the adult market we already sell to for basic Neo-Tantra training.”
“And, how do you propose doing this?”
“Remember when we started the expansion program, how miffed Maria was that she didn’t get a slice of the pie? I’d suggest we ask her to begin a pilot program in the South American Division – just one school, perhaps, or maybe two – and help us grow a whole new revenue stream. It’s an experiment; we’ll need new ideas, and I’m sure she’ll have great ones; she’ll want to show her stuff against the more traditional expansion programs.”
They spent some time going through Pru’s ideas on cost and profit potential, suggested pilot locations and Pru’s research.
When they were done, Terry said, “I think you need to get Maria in here for a talk about this. My reading of her is that she’s rather more conservative than some of our other top people. You may have to sell it to her.”
“Perhaps, but she’s also the only one of our top management who has two children. I think she’ll jump for it. And, when development of the uterine replicator is completed and that’s marketed, you’re going to see a big increase in the Basic Ed market. That’s only a few years away. One of the caps on the birth rate today is that body birth is the only option.”
“So is that it for today?”
Pru thought for a moment. “Well, not really. Have we got a couple of minutes to talk about something else?”
“Sure.”
“It has to do with that business at Wadi Felucca – and I’m not going to discuss small force command.” She smiled warmly at Terry. “Actually, I’m pleased at your approval over that, and I’m sure you sense that.”
“So, what’s the issue?”
“The OSG forces in Morocco were, as far as I know, worse than useless. If we’d had real trouble, we would have been on our own. I don’t know why, but that’s how it seems.”
Terry nodded. “I know you haven’t been following the aftermath of that. You should have been. I guess it’s your hang-up about command. You’re right, and useless is a mild term.” He paused, and then went on.
“You remember Solly asking for the snaps you took of the bad guys at the Wadi?” Pru nodded. “Well, the big guy from the back room, the one Zahlman identified as The Sheik, was a high-ranking officer – a colonel – in the OSG forces—was, no longer is. The com equipment you destroyed was surplus OSG equipment, and the slug-throwers were, too. Somehow, they’d disappeared from inventory.”
Pru shook her head. “That tells me a lot. And it reinforces what I was going to say.”
“Go ahead.”
“Now, don’t get me wrong. Solly was a great controller. But, Solly doesn’t know North Africa, he doesn’t speak Arabic, he doesn’t know the people. He started to get all bent out of shape about Mira moving in for close reconnaissance, and I had to tell him she’s a Berber. I don’t think that meant anything to him, but he at least shut up.
“What I’m driving at is that you need to decentralize control. You need a controller for North Africa who lives there, knows the territory, is active in the culture. You need that in all the trouble spots.
“Now, I’m assuming that a Special Ops team is something like what we put together for Wadi Felucca, only bigger.” She looked at him for a response and got a nod. “Yes,” he said, “just bigger and more formally organized and trained.”
“Then, if you have to bring in a Special Ops team, the locally based controller will have the savvy. And, it would also be good to have locally-oriented SO teams that can fit in better than outsiders. One of the reasons we were able to operate efficiently was that we knew where we were and didn’t have to look around. I don’t say that every team will have grown up playing hide and seek in your target areas, as we did, but just because they are natives, they’ll work better.”
“I take your point, Pru. Actually a Special Ops team – we have ten of them – is usually about 20 to 50 men and women trained for that kind of work. There often are additional specialists attached for special purposes. But, you’re right, they often don’t speak the local languages or have local knowledge. Do you propose putting your Bravo Force on retainer?”
“That’s for them to decide. But, you need a controller for the Gulf, probably one each for the Middle East, maybe Egypt and certainly the Mahgreb, several for sub-Saharan Africa, andso on. For instance, the sub-Saharan zones will have to be able to project force rapidly over wider areas than you do farther north. The present system lacks local knowledge, flexibility and responsiveness, and you – and OSG – need to re-think it on a global basis.”
“How do you propose dealing with all the local OSG forces? The Morocco force is not that much different from the others. Some are more professional, but not all, by any means. And, in a lot of places, it’s very political.”
“Oh, I know. But what OSG pays us to do is go in and handle hot spots, like Wadi Felucca. That is, they pay us to provide case operators – the battle managers who work with Special Ops forces. It’s OSG’s problem to follow up and to manage its forces locally – it’s not ours. Just the same, we need to be better at what we do, so that we can hand off to OSG more effectively and with fewer losses. I really don’t give a damn about the OSG forces, as long as they stay out of our way.”
“Losses weren’t an issue for you, Pru.”
“That was luck. There was no telling when one of those crazies would start throwing slugs all over the place. We had surprise and coordination on our side, and luck. If Isabella had broken her leg instead of spraining her ankle, we’d have had a different situation altogether. And, it didn’t help that I got my leg stunned.”
“By then, Pru, you’d accomplished the mission. We could have sent in the OSG.”
“Well, I’m damn glad you didn’t. I don’t like thinking what their reaction would have been to half-a-dozen armed women taking down their men—not if what you say about them is true.”
“We’re pretty sure the Wadi Felucca guys were just a rogue force. But, I can’t disagree with you. How about working with me to change that organization? We’ll have to go to OSG and – well, maybe not sell it – but we have to give them a clear understanding of what we’re doing and why.”
“I guess I can manage that. You want me to talk to OSG Force Command?”
“We can both do that. They know me; we’ve done a lot of effective work for them, and they know about you. The OSG Special-Ops teams are effective, but what you’re suggesting will make them more so. On the other hand, they’ll have to recruit and train more of them, and keep them efficient. OSG will have to pay for that.”
“How many of those SO team members are Neo-Tantra trained?”
“Don’t know. Hardly any, I’d guess.”
“Start putting them through the program. I’m certain it will make them more effective in combat, at home, and as representatives of what we do.”
“Right. We’ll do it.”