Read Minute Zero for Free Online

him.
    “Thank you, Your Excellency. I am not interrupting your tea?”
    “Of course not.”
    “I have come to brief you on preparations for Saturday.”
    “Yes, yes, I want to hear. I have been worried about the voting in Matabeleland and the central provinces. They are a stubborn people. They cannot be reasoned with.”
    “Your Excellency, I agree.” Simba gestured toward the butler, whom the president then ordered to leave.
    Once they were alone, the general continued, “I want to assure you we have taken measures to ensure security. The army and police are already positioned in enemy territory and we have our networks deployed to watch for troublemakers. I am confident the outcome will be satisfactory.”
    “Good, good. That is very good, my Simba.”
    “We are also watching the foreigners. The embassies are once again attempting to interfere with our election, but we will not allow any threat to our sovereignty. That is also taken care of. I beg you not to worry,
Sekuru
.”
    The younger man’s usage of the Shona title of “Grandfather” to address the president of the republic was technically illegal. But an exception was made for Simba Chimurenga.
    “I have confidence in you, my son.”
    “Thank you,
Sekuru
.”
    “But one thing is troubling me. If the unthinkable should happen . . . if the forces of evil succeed and convince our own people to turn against the nation . . . if somehow the people are weak and they vote for the sellouts and the traitors . . . what will become of everything we have built?”
    “Do not worry,
Sekuru
. I will never allow that to happen,” Chimurenga said firmly.
    “I will not worry,” said the president. “But I am an old man and I am getting tired. I have fought my whole life. But I am not sure I have another war within me.”
    “You need not fight. Leave it to me.
That woman
will not win.”
    “Perhaps an old man who has given so much to his country deserves a quiet ending?”
    “Your Excellency, no! If you need quiet and a peaceful rest, you can do that when the time is right. When we decide. We can never concede to the stooges and turncoats. Retire when you wish. But lose—never!”
    “Very well, Simba.”
    “If we must fight a third Chimurenga, Your Excellency, then we will fight. We will never lose. We will never surrender.”
    “Simba,
you
are the Third Chimurenga.”

5.
    U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Thursday, 9:18 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
    J udd had gone straight to the Zimbabwe task force meeting hoping to catch Bill Rogerson before it started. He knew Rogerson would be pissed off to see him. Judd couldn’t be sure he had gotten Landon Parker’s message—that the Secretary of State personally had requested that Judd’s unit get involved—and he knew with certainty how the news would be received.
    Zimbabwe was now his best and perhaps last chance to show what S/CRU could do, and he didn’t want to fail before even getting started. But Judd knew that Rogerson wasn’t going to just let him interfere, no matter what Landon Parker said. Instead, his more likely conclusion would be that Judd had committed one of the most egregious fouls of bureaucratic gamesmanship: an end run
.
    But Rogerson was nowhere to be found. The room was full, but the chairman was already nearly twenty minutes late. There would be no time for an explanation. To avoid an embarrassing confrontation with the Assistant Secretary in front of two dozen colleagues, Judd abandoned his post near the door and took a seat in the corner at the end of the room, as far as possible from where Rogerson was likely to sit.
    A low murmur of idle chatter filled the room, people mostly making small talk or checking their BlackBerries. A video screen projected a dozen more staff sitting quietly in another room. “Embassy Harare” flashed in the lower corner. Judd turned to his phone, thumbing through the news clips, searching for anything on Zimbabwe.
    Judd’s phone buzzed