"Knock, knock, knock-"
Less than two minutes after Katelai left, someone knocked on the office door again.
"Come in!"
This time, the person who pushed open the door and entered was Finance Minister Compaoré.
Carrying a stack of documents in his left arm, he strode up to the desk. As he set them down, he respectfully greeted Sankara:
"Good afternoon, Mr. President."
Sankara, who had been buried in official business, stopped writing and looked up at Compaoré.
In Sankara's field of vision.
Name: Yalisha Compaoré Nationality: Republic of Burkina Age: 41 Position: Minister of Economy, Finance, and Budget Planning Rank: Ministerial Loyalty: 89
A month ago, his loyalty had been 65.
"Good afternoon, Minister Compaoré."
Sankara nodded, then asked:
"Have you had lunch? If not, I'll ask the President's Office to have the cafeteria send over another serving."
"Sorry for the trouble, Mr. President!"
A month ago, Compaoré might have declined, but now, he could hardly wait to have lunch with Sankara and build a closer relationship.
At first, I thought Sankara didn't understand finance because he'd only just taken office. Only later did I realize that I was the one who didn't understand Sankara!
Compaoré couldn't help recalling what had happened a month ago.
Back then, he had been certain that Sankara's insistence on having his own way would wreck the government's finances and get him driven out of office.
But looking at things now, he himself had been the real clown!
How did he know there was so much uranium ore buried beneath our country!? It's not as though people from France had never surveyed our resources before!
Compaoré was deeply puzzled. Even now, he still hadn't figured it out.
Precisely because he couldn't figure it out, Sankara had become cloaked in mystery in Compaoré's eyes.
While Compaoré recalled the past, filled with embarrassment and shame.
Sankara used the telephone to instruct the President's Office to have the cafeteria send over another serving shortly.
"What are you thinking about?"
After hanging up, Sankara saw Compaoré standing frozen in place and asked curiously.
"Huh?"
Startled back to his senses, Compaoré snapped out of it.
But could he really say outright that he'd been admitting to himself that he was a clown?!
He quickly shook his head and said:
"Nothing, Mr. President!"
Perhaps afraid Sankara would keep asking, Compaoré hurriedly changed the subject. He picked up one of the documents he had placed on the desk, handed it to Sankara, and said:
"Mr. President, these are all the materials on government finances you requested. I've finished organizing everything."
"Thank you all for your hard work!"
Sankara could also tell that Compaoré was changing the subject, but he didn't mind. Instead, he took the document and opened it to read.
"This is all part of our duty at the Ministry of Finance, but there are a few points I'd still like to discuss with you in particular, Mr. President!"
With a somewhat grave expression, Compaoré said:
"Although you secured an interest-free loan of ten billion rubles from the Soviet Union by pledging uranium mines and priority purchasing rights to uranium ore as collateral, greatly easing the pressure on government finances.
"But with you purchasing large quantities of weapons and equipment, importing grain to sell at low prices, and importing large quantities of industrial equipment... you'll soon spend all ten billion rubles!
"We've spread ourselves so wide, yet we can't obtain returns on these investments in the short term. Once the funding chain breaks, the consequences could be incalculable."
What Compaoré said was "the consequences could be incalculable," but what he actually wanted to say was "you'll very likely be driven out of office when that happens."
The people were great, but people who had not received sufficient and proper education were shortsighted.
All they knew was that you had given them an extra hundred yesterday, but hadn't given them that extra hundred today.
They wouldn't care what the reason was. All they knew was that you hadn't given them the hundred that "rightfully belonged" to them, and then they would resent you.
In the past, if Compaoré learned that Sankara might be driven out of office, he would certainly have applauded, and might even have helped bring it about.
But now, all he felt was concern.
Compaoré had witnessed everything Sankara had done since taking office. He dared say that Sankara was a ruler Africa saw only once in a century-no! Once in a millennium.
Ten billion rubles!
Had it been one of the Republic of Burkina's former presidents, or any of the current presidents of Africa's other countries, they would only have stuffed all ten billion into their own pockets.
If they went even further, they might simply resign as president, then run off to the United States or some country in Europe to enjoy life.
On this land of Africa, probably only a president like Sankara would be "foolish" enough to spend all ten billion rubles on the country and its people.
Compaoré sighed inwardly. As he looked at Sankara, there was another trace of respect in his eyes, even admiration.
"Don't worry!"
After hearing Compaoré's concerns, Sankara not only showed no anxiety, but actually smiled as he said:
"Of course I know the ten billion rubles will run out sooner or later! The uranium ore we sell to the Soviet Union each year isn't worth all that much either.
"But who told you uranium was the only ore beneath our Republic of Burkina? We also have 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore buried underground, and that's just what has been confirmed so far!
"There are also plenty of other resources, but further exploration is still underway, so we don't know the specifics yet."
Naturally, Sankara knew exactly how many resources there were.
But to be safe, he still hadn't revealed everything outright. He had even told a small lie, saying there were specialists conducting surveys.
Moreover, Sankara originally hadn't planned to mine this gold ore so soon. The main reason was his fear that France would be unable to resist such enormous profits and intervene directly.
But back then, Sankara hadn't expected that merely executing those few disloyal people would draw the attention of France's North African Strategic Intelligence Bureau, which then slapped the label of disobedience on him.
That was right. After reaching a cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union, thanks to its powerful intelligence network, Sankara had finally learned exactly which French agency was stirring up trouble behind the scenes.
Although they weren't wrong to call him that, Sankara had still wanted to be "obedient" for the time being, buying the Republic of Burkina some time to develop.
But from the looks of things now, Sankara wouldn't get that chance!
Since he no longer had the chance to keep playing the "grandson" and develop in peace, he might as well go all in and strengthen the Republic of Burkina as much as possible in the shortest time possible.
"!?"
Compaoré froze.
The next second.
Barely containable ecstasy spread across Compaoré's face.
Sankara went on to mention a whole host of other resources, but Compaoré didn't care about any of them. All he could see was those 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore.
"Mr. President, did you just say 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore? Am I hearing things? Are you sure it's 1.5 million tonnes! Not 150 tonnes? Is it really 1.5 million tonnes?"
Compaoré was already so excited that his words were becoming incoherent. Right now, all he wanted was absolute confirmation from Sankara.
"Yes!"
Sankara nodded firmly and answered with certainty:
"It really is 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore!"
The next second.
"Thud-"
"???"
"!!!"
Sankara shot to his feet in alarm.
Because he saw that, after hearing him confirm it really was 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore, Compaoré's brain seemed to crash. His body swayed uncontrollably a few times before he finally collapsed to the floor.