Boom Town

"Boom Town" is a single story from the "Tribal Gathering" compendium.
Charlie Robinson arrives in Nibana from the UK to open a new branch for his company in Warunda, a dirty, depressing little oil town right in the middle of the hot, humid swamps of the Enube River Delta. An Australian bush pilot befriends him and this friendship has a dramatic effect on Charlie’s life. Despite having to deal with corruption and greed from all quarters, Charlie manages to open the business. However, just as everything is going well the political situation deteriorates and Charlie finds himself in the middle of a civil war. His Australian friend is forced to fly an old DC3 for the rebel regime. His mission is to bomb the enemy capital, Laguna. However, the sortie is sabotaged and disaster strikes. Everything Charlie has worked for goes up in smoke and when he is within a split second of death, Charlie is faced with a once in a lifetime opportunity to make himself very rich. Having succumbed to the temptation, he fakes his own suicide and flees across two continents to secure the fortune. Later, Charlie and his new wife return to a different, more beautiful part of Africa. However, the portent of war catches up with him again and he is destined to reap the rewards of his actions. A story of greed, corruption and destruction, set in a small African township under the heel of the multinational oil companies.