"..."
The office was very quiet.
Only the occasional sound of tires rolling over the road, the winter wind rustling the leaves, and birds singing in the sky drifted in through the window.
Compaoré, whom the doctor had examined and confirmed was fine, did not know how to begin. What had just happened was rather embarrassing.
Sankara, meanwhile, had his head down over official business. Perhaps something amusing had occurred to him, for the corners of his mouth rose from time to time, though he quickly suppressed them.
"Knock, knock, knock-"
It was not until a knock sounded at the door.
That the atmosphere in the office slowly returned to normal with Sankara's "Come in."
"Mr. President, Minister Compaoré."
Meyev was the one who opened the door and spoke, while a chef came in pushing a dining cart laden with bowls and chopsticks for two, four dishes, and a soup.
Yes, in the Republic of Burkina, a former French colony, the utensils used for meals were not the knives and forks of the Western world, but chopsticks from a certain great Eastern nation.
After the chef closed the door and left.
"Pfft-"
Sankara finally could not hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
He put down his pen and looked up at Compaoré, who sat on the nearby sofa wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into, and explained:
"You know I've had professional training in the army. Normally, I don't laugh-unless I can't help it."
"..."
The corners of Compaoré's mouth twitched a few times, and he said helplessly:
"You'd have been better off not explaining!"
"Hahaha-"
Sankara laughed again, then walked over to Compaoré, patted him on the shoulder, and said:
"You're the minister of finance, after all, and you've been an official for over a decade. How is your skin still so thin? Don't worry! I'll tell them not to breathe a word about what happened today.
"All right, let's eat! It's already cold in winter. Once the food cools down, it won't taste as good as it did fresh out of the pot."
Perhaps he had come to terms with it, perhaps he had recovered, or perhaps it was the assurance he had received from Sankara.
Compaoré finally stopped sitting on the sofa with his head down, got up, and followed Sankara toward the dining table.
He plopped down in a chair, picked up his chopsticks with practiced ease, and took a slice of meat from a dish.
Just as he was about to put it in his mouth, he froze, as though something had suddenly occurred to him. Then he hurriedly looked at Sankara and asked:
"I almost forgot to ask. Do those 1.5 million tonnes of gold ore include the 300,000 tonnes the French have already discovered and taken control of?"
"They do!"
Sankara took a mouthful of rice, then said as he ate:
"But we haven't completely torn off the mask of civility with France yet, so I don't intend to immediately reclaim the gold mines they've occupied.
"Or, to put it bluntly, I still don't dare directly touch France's fundamental interests in our country. Our Republic of Burkina cannot yet afford the price of thoroughly enraging France."
"Ah-"
Hearing Sankara's words, Compaoré also sighed and said with deep feeling:
"Our Republic of Burkina is still too weak, like a three-year-old child. To us, France is like a powerful male lion. One light pounce is all they need to tear us to pieces!"
The next second.
A smile returned to Compaoré's face, and he continued excitedly:
"But 1.2 million tonnes is already more than enough!
"And I'm not asking for much. As long as the average gold content of those 1.2 million tonnes of ore is half that of the gold mines France occupies, I'll be satisfied."
"Actually, you could afford to be a little greedier!"
Sankara said with a smile.
"!?"
Be a little greedier? Wild joy appeared on Compaoré's face again, and he immediately asked:
"Mr. President, do you mean the average gold content of those 1.2 million tonnes of ore is about the same as in the mines France occupies!?"
"Exactly!"
Sankara nodded and answered.
"Thump-thump-thump-thump-"
In an instant, Compaoré felt as though the whole world had fallen silent.
All he could hear was his heartbeat, growing faster and faster, while his breathing grew increasingly rapid!
"Hey! Can you calm down?"
Noticing something was wrong, Sankara immediately shouted, pulling Compaoré back to reality.
"Whew-"
Compaoré took several heavy breaths before he barely managed to recover.
Then he shook his head helplessly and said self-deprecatingly:
"It looks like I really am getting old. My heart can no longer handle such shocking news. A few more rounds of this, and I'm afraid you could bury me straight in the ground."
"Just eat! We'll discuss it in detail after lunch. I don't want to have to put down my bowl and chopsticks halfway through our conversation to call a doctor for you!"
Sankara, equally helpless, tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks and grumbled.
"All right, all right. Let's eat first."
At the mention of a doctor, Compaoré hurriedly nodded in agreement.
"Tick, tock, tick, tock-"
When the clock on the wall showed 2:09 p.m.
The chef who had brought in the dining cart earlier finished clearing away the leftovers, wheeled the cart out of the office, and gently closed the door.
"With 1.2 million tonnes of gold ore, if the gold content is comparable to those French mines, then as long as we're willing to invest heavily in equipment, we could extract fifty to sixty tonnes of gold a year.
"At current international gold prices, that's 5.4 to 6.5 billion US dollars. Converted into North African francs, we could bring in at least 540 billion North African francs in fiscal revenue a year! Hiss..."
Compaoré counted on his fingers. When he arrived at the figure of 540 billion, he instantly sucked in a breath of cold air.
At the same time, the fingers he had been using to calculate began trembling uncontrollably.
"So, with this annual revenue of 540 billion, the government's finances will improve completely. As long as we keep the French from finding out, our Republic of Burkina will embark on a path of rapid development!"
Sankara added from beside him.
Hearing Sankara's words, Compaoré shook his head with a bitter smile and said:
"Keep the French from finding out? That's simply impossible!
"We can only pray that when the French learn our Republic of Burkina still has 1.2 million tonnes of gold ore, they won't intervene directly and seize it by force!
"Or we can mine as little as possible while still easing the pressure on government finances, keeping production at a level that won't make France's eyes turn green."
Sankara gave a mysterious smile and said:
"Simply impossible? I wouldn't be so sure! At the very least, I've already found a way to keep the French from discovering it-or rather, to make sure they won't discover it anytime soon."
"Hmm! What way?"
Compaoré asked in great surprise.
"Heh heh..."
Sankara smiled and shook his head without answering.
Because Sankara's method was-
To use the system's data panel to ensure that everyone involved in mining the gold ore and subsequently selling the gold had loyalty scores above 75, or even 80.
At the same time, he would use the system's data panel to check these people every two weeks, or even every week, to ensure their loyalty had not decreased.
That way, even if the massive influx of funds alerted France to something unusual, they would not soon guess that it was because another 1.2 million tonnes of gold ore lay beneath the Republic of Burkina.
This was also a somewhat cumbersome method Sankara had come up with a few days earlier, once his mind had caught up after he resolved to mine the gold ore, but it was the best method currently available.