Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 07:47:21 -0400 From: Chris Johns Subject: Aden and the Arabs Pt.3 ADEN AND THE ARABS Part 3 - Diplomat with a Difference Four years later Peter May walked out of the Foreign and Commonwealth offices elated at the news he had just been given. He had been appointed third consul in the British Embassy in Sanaa, capitol of the newly created Republic of the Yemen. Despite his short time in Aden as a Navy Pilot he had developed a great affection for the people and that particular part of the world. He had resigned his commission and applied to the foreign office for a job. He was over the moon at his first posting, one that no one else wanted. The Ambassador was old, had been sidelined for a decent posting years ago and was just working out his time. Nobody was really very worried about the Yemen. The embassy processed visas for people wanting to find a future in England but it was mainly sleepy hollow as far as diplomatic action was concerned. Peter was new and keen as mustard to promote good relations. He made a point of visiting as many offices as possible that were involved with foreign affairs hoping to build a bridgehead for more meaningful dialogue between the two countries. He couldn't believe it when visiting a trade office he was sure the chap just disappearing into the director's office was Abdul Bakari. He thought he would be cheeky and risk it. He walked up to the receptionist and said. "Good afternoon, I'm sorry to appear here without an appointment, but would you ask Mr. Abdul Bakari if he could find a few minutes to see Mr. Peter May from the British Embassy." The receptionist was less than polite in replying. "Colonel Bakari sees no one without an appointment." Bingo, Peter was right. "I think you will find that the Colonel will see me immediately and I suggest you tell him I am here unless you want a lot more grief than I can even imagine. She called Abdul, explained who wanted to see him. He could not have had time to reply because of how fast he made it to his door. He almost ran across the outer office area. "Peter, how wonderful to see you , come in, what are you doing here?" Peter was laughing, "Hello Abdul, you are looking well, I'm here with the British Embassy." "Wonderful, that means I'm going to have at least two years to spoil you." The receptionist was goggle eyed, as was everyone else in the outer office. Within 24 hours the whole of Sanaa's diplomatic and government circle knew that the trade minister had a very special friend at the British Embassy, and watch out for Peter May. The next shock for Peter was a summons to the home affairs office. "Mr. May, please come in and take a seat, would you like coffee? The Minister apologises he was called away unexpectedly but he has called to tell me he is on his way back." This was a surprise, the normal would have been to be kept waiting without an explanation and certainly not be offered a comfortable seat and coffee. Fifteen minutes later all was revealed when the secretary said. "The Minister will see you now Sir." Peter walked in to be confronted by the Colonel. "What an absolute pleasure Sir, I had no idea." The Colonel was beaming, only of course he was no longer a colonel, he was a general and the Minister of the Interior. Their conversation was animated and very friendly. "Peter, I am General Karim Mustafa, I would consider it an honour if you would call me Karim. I know what you did for my nephew, your dedication got him back on his feet. You are going to have to come to dinner soon, his mother, my sister, will want to thank you as well." Peter was open mouthed in surprise. "Abdul Bakari is your nephew?" "Yes and I know he has already seen you and welcomed you to our country." The upshot was an invitation to dinner a few nights later with the request, direct to the Ambassador that Peter be allowed the following day off to be entertained by the minister and his family. "How the hell have you achieved in a couple of weeks what no one else has in two years May?" The Ambassador was patently not a happy man, it looked as though Peter was cutting the ground from under him in double quick time. "I'm sorry Sir, I was a prisoner of war during the troubles and Karim Mustafa was the colonel in charge of the unit that captured me and his nephew Abdul Bakari was my interrogator, and later I helped him to walk again after he was shot." "And you escaped with your balls?" "Oh yes Sir, I'm intact as a man, lucky I guess." The Ambassador was not happy but let Peter have his day off as requested. The compound Peter was driven to was quite luxurious by local standards. He supposed that was to be expected, the General was after all the second most powerful man in the country. His reception as he alighted from the government car was overwhelming. It started with Abdul's mother almost drowning him in kisses, followed by Abdul himself who kissed Peter on the lips and whispered. "My debt to you will never be paid. I will be your slave for life." Peter was shocked, "That isn't necessary Abdul, I am just delighted that I was able to help you to walk again." Abdul shrugged. Karim was next, another soft kiss on the lips and a whispered comment, "I hope you are going to allow me to take you to paradise again tonight, maybe many times and I promise we will not be taking your balls in the morning, but I will empty them tonight." Peter nearly fell over laughing, "Thank you Karim, I am sure I will enjoy that." What an incredible evening, Peter was the centre of attention all evening and was quite giddy with happiness by the time Karim guided him to his bedroom. How different that night was to the last one Peter had spent in Karim's bed. Four more years of closeted gay experience had expanded Peter's knowledge so that he was able to please Karim as well, the result was two incredibly happy men at breakfast. Abdul made it clear he knew what his uncle had been up to with his comment. "I hope Peter you will allow me to return the pleasure you gave me four years ago when we first met." Uncle and nephew, both government ministers, both gay, Peter realised his life here could turn out to be very good. He didn't realise the half of it until a British Petroleum exploration team surveyed an area that they were sure was rich in oil. The second that happened the Americans, the French and the Italians were queuing up at the interior ministry for drilling licences. Peter was sleeping with Karim and Abdul quite regularly, one on one of course and each of them was well aware of the goings on. Talk to the ambassador, get permission to liaise directly with BP and see if he could lever a British monopoly to the drilling programme. Nobody in diplomatic circles thought BP had a hope in hell, the U.K. was not the most popular nation in the world here after the troubles in '67. Peter talked to BP first. Their director on location was singularly despondent at his company's chances of getting a foothold here, never mind a monopoly. Peter being so young didn't help his frame of mind. "Go ahead Mr. May, you can't do any worse than anyone else, we British are going to take a bloody nose over this one I think." Bertie Forsyth was therefore totally amazed to be called to the Interior Ministry a couple of days later to be confronted with a normally unfriendly General Karim Mustafa and Colonel Abdul Bakari, also Peter May. "Come in Mr. Forsyth, Peter tells me you would like to continue here drilling for oil where your surveys look so positive." Karim had his arm over Peter's shoulder in a very friendly way and Bertie was shocked. How could this mere boy be on such good terms with this normally British hating minister? "I have asked the trade minister to join us as well to save a lot of wasted time." Again Bertie was amazed, the normal routine would be to give him the run around several offices, wasting his time, keeping him waiting and still possibly coming out of it with nothing. "You know Peter May of course, he has suggested it would be easier to deal with one nationality rather than have several oil companies squabbling and delaying the production of oil. We agree and because we hold Peter in such high regard we would like to deal with you if a deal can be thrashed out." Bertie kept looking at Peter who was sat between the two ministers. He then spoke. "Mr. Forsyth, I have suggested to General Mustafa that if you were to produce maps showing the areas you wish to drill in, he will grant you immediate licences so that you can get on with the job. While that is going on you would then have all the time you needed to sit down with Karim, sorry General Mustafa and the trade minister Colonel Bakari, and their joint staffs to hammer out the nitty gritty of an agreement. Both agree that because you will have a monopoly here they expect a very generous agreement on oil royalties, but apart from that I can see no problems. Both ministers will be delighted if you wish me to attend meetings in any capacity despite the fact that I am on the embassy staff." The meeting went on for a little longer and then wrapped up. Peter shook hands with the two ministers getting an, "I will have my car pick you up at seven Peter," from Abdul. Peter left then with Bertie Forsyth. "My God boy, you have those two eating out of your hand, how on earth did you manage that?" "Oh, a long story Sir." "Well I would like to hear it sometime, in the meantime why don't you call me Bertie and come for cocktails tomorrow if you aren't busy." "Sorry Bertie, Trade Minister for dinner tonight and Karim tomorrow. I could make it the day after that." Arrangements were completed and Bertie was going to pump this young man for information if he could. He couldn't. Peter was not about to divulge to anyone that he had two lovers and that those two lovers were two senior ministers in the government. Peter's relationship with Bertie and the other executives of BP became very friendly. They all realised that the key to their easy life was this young diplomat who they had found out was an ex Naval Helicopter pilot with wartime connections to the two men making their lives easy. Large deposits of oil were found, very reasonable backhanders were accepted to allow BP to continue with their monopoly and no one was in any doubt that this amazing young man, Peter May was the prime mover. The worry started then. What would happen when Peter's two year posting was up? Would the Yemenis get all stroppy again making life difficult? How could that be stopped? Bertie thought he had the answer. "Peter, do you have your civil flying licences?" "Yes, of course," was the prayed for answer, "I sat all the exams before I left the Navy but I wanted to come back to the Yemen so I joined the diplomatic service knowing I could probably get this posting because nobody else wanted it." "When your posting here is finished would you consider leaving government employment and coming to work for us?" "If it is here in the Yemen, yes I would, but what would I do?" "Well, we thought you might like to move into management as a liaison officer and also head up an aviation department because we are going to bring in some Bell 212s, initially crewed by pilots from Aerogulf services in Dubai, their machines as well until we can get our own. We will send you to Dubai to do your conversion so that you can fly sometimes as well if you would like. Of course you will have no problem converting your licence when we get locally registered helicopters." He looked at Peter with a smile on his face, returned by Peter. "Well, I don't know Bertie, the Aviation Minister is not in my circle of friends here." They were both soon giggling knowing how much influence Peter apparently had with senior politicians in this country. The reality was different in the event. Peter had two terrific years as third consul, doing more work for BP than he did for the embassy and sleeping most nights with either Karim or Abdul. It was perfect. Karim was always the dominant one when they slept together and Abdul was nearly always the submissive. He felt he owed Peter his life and was therefore prepared to sublimate his normally dominant self to being Peter's bitch. They did reverse roles occasionally and Peter always gave Abdul incredible blowjobs so there was never going to be any animosity. Karim had promised him a long stay visa if he left government service to work for BP so everything looked good until he went to see the aviation minister, another ex rebel leader who still hated the British. Peter had completed his 212 conversion in Dubai, sat the extra exams to convert his British Licence to a U.A.E. licence and returned to Sanaa as a BP employee, all be it in a fairly senior management position. Peter's usual routine when he visited a government office was to be shown in to see the person he wanted quite quickly. At the aviation ministry that wasn't the case. He knew the minister having met him at functions he had attended with either Karim or Abdul but he was not friends with him per se. Three hours after arriving at the ministry he was shown in. "Good morning Sir, very good of you to see me." Peter intended to tread carefully, three hours was a measure of this man's dislike for him. Like so many of the senior people in government he was a young army officer. "Yes, yes, what is it you want?" "I have left the diplomatic corps Sir, as I am sure you know and have joined BP as head of their aviation department for the Yemen. I have all the necessary licences both U.A.E. and my own country and would be pleased if you would sanction the issue of a local licence for me so that when we bring in the 212s for your oil operations I will be able to fly them." The minster sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face. "I am sure you would Mr. May, I'm sure you would but it's not that simple." Peter knew it was because he knew other pilots that had exchanged U.A.E. licences no trouble at all, not even having to write a local air law exam which was a normal minimum requirement. "You will obviously need it to function in your new job, yes?" "Yes Sir." "Mmm, well I'm busy for the remainder of the day, I will send a car for you at seven this evening, you can come to my house and we'll discuss it then." Peter was dismissed then and walked back to his office wondering what that was all about. `Phone Karim to see if he had any idea. "I'm sorry Peter, Yasim still dislikes the British so my guess is he will use this visit to his home to humiliate you. I can't interfere but be brave and know that he will not harm you but you may have a red face before he is finished. He knows that withholding your licence effectively nullifies your long stay visa." Peter was astounded, was this man going to do the kind of things to him that had been done when he was a prisoner of war? No, a preposterous idea, but how else could he humiliate him? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Peter finds out how bad it can get, but also how good life becomes.