Literature

30, May 2021 - by Jared Brandon-Flande

The African sun beat down upon Ms. Wilde with such intensity that the aviators perched on her nose were almost not enough to block out the rays of the sun. She started working for the De Beers group shortly after she completed her degree at Linfield University just the year beforehand. A diamond’s journey is a long and anguishing one. Once it’s removed from African soil, it typically reaches the Belgian city of Antwerp where diamond merchants select the best specimens that eventually end up on the finger of any would be bride. That is if they don’t end up on the black market first.

Various dictators use illegal diamonds to fund their regimes. Acquiring these so called blood diamonds results in the death of many people before they end up in a high scale jewelry store in the developed world. Diamonds are not just a thing of beauty however. Industrial diamonds are also sourced from the black market to fuel the defense industries of some of the most powerful nations in the world in order to keep them powerful.

Whatever the case, it’s the job of Ms. Wilde to make sure neither of these things happen. That’s why she is standing on a hill in the hot African sun. A known diamond smuggler is arriving today to conduct a deal with an operative of a foreign intelligence agency. Hard to say which one. Ms. Wilde notices a cloud of dust accumulating on the distant road below. She grabs the pair of binoculars hanging around her neck and peers through them.

A black Range Rover is barreling down the road. She notices something else out of the corner of her eye and turns the binoculars to the right. A Rivian electric truck is traveling silently down the dirt road in the opposite direction until it stops in front of the Range Rover. This is the moment she has been is waiting for, so Wilde slowly crouches to the ground. She picks up the main weapon of her profession that has been lying beside her and looks through the magnified image, but cannot decipher much. Both men are still in their vehicles. She waits patiently. The man in the Rivian is the first to get out.

He walks self-absurdly until he standing right in front of the black SUV. The other man hesitantly steps out of the Range Rover to greet his colleague. “This is it,” Ms. Wilde whispers to herself. She raises the barrel of her trusted weapon with both men in her sights. The man from the Rivian removes a diamond the size of an orange form his pocket. Both men exchange agreeable glances and shake hands. Wilde’s hand carefully squeezes the trigger.

The shutter of her camera comes to life. She takes shot after shot of the shady deal. A sense of relief envelops Ms. Wilde’s face. “Got em” she murmurs to herself. Armed with these photos, Wilde and her organization now have a fighting chance to take down this illicit empire. Ms.Wilde stands up, slings her camera over her shoulder, and confidently walks down the hill with a sly smile across her face.

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