Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire.

— Bruce Sterling
Chapter 9, Page 6

Chapter 9, Page 6

Time for a quick change of scenery.  Jacob and friends are dug in and fairly safe, for now…but what about the civil war they left back in Africa?  And where has Dahnai been hanging out lately?

I have to say, I like how Michael depicts all the characters in the comic, but he just nails Msaka.  Wait until you see her in action…

↓ Transcript
Roger voiceover: Meanwhile, we left a mess back in Senegal. The G.U.S. backed Chinese refugees held half of Dakar...while Senator Msaka Pakawa rallied the defenders.
Msaka: General Sakut, the Chinese are breaking through the Patte D'Oie. I don't see how. We outnumber them there five to one.
Sakut: Senator, a messenger from Dr. Fumiaki is here.
Msaka: Send them away. I don't have time for message boys.
Dahnai: Make time for me.

└ Tags: ,

Discussion (9)¬

  1. Magtei says:

    Dahnai’s long-lost brother/cub/self?

  2. Zarpaulus says:

    Outnumbered five to one and still winning? Would a certain diplomat turned Genocide Woman be helping them?

    Not sure Dahnai’s the best messenger to send in this case, why not one of his less obtrusive creations, like one of Giri’s relatives?

  3. Ming the Merciless says:

    Many Senegaleses are huge, so most would look tiny next to them…and Msaka is gigantic…

  4. Sonja says:

    I’m no native speaker, but shouldn’t it be “HOLD half of Dakar”? Or do I not understand the sentence completely?

  5. Remus Shepherd says:

    ‘Hold’ is present tense, ‘held’ refers to an event that happened in the past. The narration from Roger is all in past tense. I think I’ve been consistent on that. Let me know if you do find a mistake, though. 🙂

  6. Balthasar says:

    This scene reminds me of: “Senator, the Jedi have send an abassador.”

  7. Sonja says:

    @Remus:
    I know this narration is in past tense, but “backed” is already past, so “hold” should be an infinitive, shouldn’t it?
    Sorry for being so accurate about it, I’m an editor. 😉

  8. Sonja says:

    Oh, now I understood! “backed” is not a verb, it’s an adjective as part of “The GUS backed”! That’s what I didn’t understand!

  9. Remus Shepherd says:

    Ah, yep. It probably should be ‘G.U.S.-backed’, with a hyphen. But I wasn’t sure whether it was correct to hyphenate an acronym, and when I wrote it that way I didn’t like how it looked. 🙂