The queen of smokes

 

The worker was carefully grinding the resins and aromatics in the stone mortar. Her hands were shaking a little. She felt she was being watched. Ibtisam, the "queen of smokess" as she was called, was watching her work. In reality, she was staring into space, absorbed in worries that went far beyond the making of incense. This workshop was one of the many she had opened in these mountains to support these families isolated from the world, isolated even from the smuggling routes her men took.

If the worker was nervous, it was because it was said that her boss could guess everything. Ibtisam was feared for her instinctive intelligence. It was said that she was a mind reader, because she almost always guessed wrong moves and foiled plots. She let it be said, all of which helped her to assert her hold on these people who needed such legends to understand their environment. Yes, she had her informants. She spent a lot of money on intelligence gathering. In Yemen, in her job, it was crucial to know what was going on.

On this land route of perfumes and incense, reopened several decades ago because of the insecurity caused by the wars in the Red Sea as well as in the Gulf of Aden, Ibtisam and her men had imposed themselves on the looters. The "queen of smokesss" had earned her nickname as much from her monopoly on the incense trade as from the thieves she was said to have burned. She did not deny this legend. It was also, on her part, communication. Her job was to assure Asian merchants that their cargoes would arrive in good condition, and within a reasonable time, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the north. All kinds of goods passed through the mountains of Yemen.

Ibtisam did not like violence. But, in these lands, fury and blood were often the only languages used, when cultural formalities and cunning could not achieve anything. Every village, every hamlet, every family could be, or become, a band of raiders or soldiers in the service of an enemy. The people of the region were used to ransoming caravans and ships since the dawn of time. The plundering of merchants was the only means of subsistence in these arid mountains and mineral shores. These populations, outside the clan hierarchies, only bowed to the violence and determination of the merchants who passed through their lands. Ibtisam's men were very violent and determined when trouble came.

After the death of her two older brothers, Ibtisam had to return to the land of her birth. With all her being, she had refused to live in this country given over to violence and obscurantism. She, who had managed to gain her freedom in a megalopolis on the other side of the world, had returned to this country where women were hidden. She owed it to her mother and her nephews.

After the Islamic State came to power, her family retreated to its mountain stronghold south of Manakha. There, protected by the clan's weapons, this wealthy family of merchants and politicians from Aden had escaped the purges. Little by little, in the chaos, Ibtisam's family had reorganized the routing of various goods between the East and the Mediterranean. The ancient "perfume route" came back to life, passing through the passes of the arid mountains, well above the Tihama, the coastal plain that was set on fire by all the powers that had an interest in the region. In the Red Sea as in the Gulf of Aden, armies were at war with each other. This eventually made the waters impassable, as they were now open to naval battles, pirates and mines. 

Other, more discreet routes had to be found for the movement of goods. It was customary to pay tribute to the people whose land you passed through. This was foolish, dishonest and increased the price of the goods for the final consumer. Ibtisam decided that the custom had to be changed.

When a village or a warlord was too greedy or intended to take the goods, he could be bypassed or subdued. Bypassing a warlord meant confronting other warlords and being ambushed again at the bend in the mountains. Thus, it led to constant warfare and much loss of goods. Many men of Ibtisam's clan had died in the constant clashes with the raiders who populated the mountains, deserts and plateaus that separated the beaches of Abyan governorate, in the Gulf of Aden in the south, from the Mediterranean beaches in the north towards Europe. 

Ibtisam had studied commerce on other continents, she had joined other worlds unaware of the laws that prevailed in her country. When her last brother died, she was faced with a choice of conscience. There was no man left to protect her clan, her family. Her mother, nephews, aunts and all their relatives no longer had a leader to lead the clan. This meant, in the short term, the disintegration of the clan, and the potential enslavement of her people; with the rape of the women and the slaughter of the families that remained loyal as a likely consequence. She had returned.

As soon as she returned, she had to face the insults and provocations of the other clan leaders. In their eyes, she was only a woman; and worse, she had become an outsider. Her place was not, in their eyes, to be the head of a Yemeni clan; their conception of Islam and their ignorance of the world prevented them from knowing that many women had effectively led armies and kingdoms in human history. 

Ibtisam's tactical finesse and determination had made the insulters bite the dust directly. Many of them had been eliminated in preventive expeditions that she had systematized, as soon as she had the human elements and the skills to organize them. Very quickly, the Montagnards of her region had been led to understand that there was now a formidable leader at the head of the Shabeen clan of Manakha. Many had submitted, the others had died. Little by little, Ibtisam had nibbled away at his neighbors until he had assembled a fighting force without rivals in the region. His strategy was to agglomerate individuals outside the clans. Among her men, there were many unemployed people from the cities, disaffected soldiers, people forgotten by the conflict. She had gone to look for them in the streets, on the sidewalks. They had only one family.

Ibtisam's goal was to secure a smuggling route, all along the Red Sea, in the heights, far from the plains and the warring coastline. Patiently, Ibtisam sent emissaries to the warlords of each valley or pass that separated the reception place of his goods, from the transfer places off the coast of Yemen, in Oman or Somalia, to the Mediterranean beaches of the north. 

Ibtisam's strategy was simple: if the reception was courteous, one sympathized; if the reception was hostile or the conditions unreasonable, one withdrew without a word and organized the systematic elimination of the leaders and main lieutenants of the problematic clan. Unlike the incessant and haphazard attacks in the region, Ibtisam's attack plans were carefully and lengthily prepared. She would never take direct exception to an insult or provocation. She let time pass, avoided any contact and any aggravation of the situation. She made herself forgotten, against all the customs of these proud and quarrelsome people. These chiefs laughed at her until they froze to death.

For her, all this was just business, there was no need to take it personally. When the attack she had decided on was ready to be carried out, after many months of gathering information and analyzing places and people, she sent trained men, trained for a long time by foreign instructors, to her own military training camps. The warriors of his organization were feared paramilitaries, terribly effective in confrontational situations. They prepared the assault at length, gathered all the information, and then struck like lightning.

And they never left any traces after a targeted assassination. They were, moreover, equipped with detonators, implanted in their skulls or in their gums before each operation. If the planned operation went wrong, or if her men were seriously wounded or killed, Ibtisam herself activated, from a distance, the explosives implanted in her men so that their remains would be unidentifiable and their bodies impossible to defile. 

She personally monitored each of these operations. If one of her men or women died and left a family behind, she took care of the widow, the husband and the children. These came to live in the village, where the children, both boys and girls, were educated and accompanied to higher education, even if this meant taking them to other continents. These children became "his children". They were therefore free to choose their destiny if they wanted to go abroad. But if they stayed by her side, they became part of the management of her company and worked for her, among other employees. Only personal merit mattered, there was no right of succession for anyone. 

The village of the Shabeen clan of Manakha, Ibtisam's family, had grown from a large hamlet to a small walled city, both a headquarters and a business center. But it was not to be the focal point of the organization. Soon, several other similar fortified villages between Egypt and Somalia had also been annexed by Ibtisam's men, to disperse the clan's administrations, cadres and children. Each child and his or her family moved regularly from one center to another to familiarize themselves with the people, customs, languages and landscapes. This was done to prevent the devastation of a targeted attack on one center. If one of the villages was attacked, there were enough military, human or technical resources in all the others to take over the entire Ibtisam trading empire. As a true business leader, and aware of the misfortune that had befallen his family, he had organized from the beginning his succession by constantly recruiting exceptional talents, without any regard for their past. This also discouraged future attempts to assassinate her, since the organization could be taken over by many trained and competent executives who were not emotionally attached to her.

Despite the barbaric mores that plagued the potential of her region, Ibtisam avoided unnecessary violence. She saw it only as a waste of time for her business and a distraction from the need to feed her large family and build a business empire. If forced to do so, she targeted only the chiefs and potential hostile successors, whether or not they belonged to the dominant family in conflict with her. She would, however, inquire about the state of mind of wives, concubines or mistresses. If they were hostile to her, she had them eliminated with their children so as not to let a future conflict arise. If, on the other hand, among the lieutenants, wives and heirs of an opposing clan, she found reasonable people and allies for the future, she made alliances. The sick body had been eliminated, it remained to work with the healthy elements.

It was difficult to link these murders directly to her. Since the clans were warring, constantly at war with each other, no one particularly suspected her. And, for the more discerning, there was still the negotiation or the documented threat of death at any given moment. In a region where people died for futile reasons, the few assassinations she organized were only a drop in the bucket of violence, but they were essential to the success of a profitable enterprise. For her enemies, the message was clear. It was best to avoid getting involved with her.

Ibtisam had sacrificed herself for her family, for their survival. She had no children, no lover, changed her home every night, carefully covering all tracks. She always appeared unexpectedly, preceded by a reconnaissance team. Her bodyguards were themselves supported by a team on the periphery. She lived for her business, developing strategies, leading task forces, signing agreements along the way.

She had even her men spy on her, trying to prevent frustrations and anger that could lead to possible betrayal of her. 

She spent a lot of money on human resources, in general, taking the time to visit her men and employees. She knew every family's history, the names of their children, sent gifts for weddings and births. She made an effort, when she could, to attend funerals. 

She had several sector leaders, men and women specialized in each geographical sector of this immense territory. Each one brought back this kind of information, in the form of briefs recalling stories, names, anecdotes. This allowed him to consult the brief before arriving in a place, to know the names, the stories, the context. Everyone felt they were important to the "queen of smokess". At least a million people had this impression, thanks to the cards...

Her henchmen were basically simple people, mountain dwellers or fishermen, mostly unemployed in the cities. Few belonged to his clan. Ibtisam had recruited them from all over Africa and the Middle East. They owed her a lot, starting with a place to stay and a meal, health care and the survival of their own in a ruthless world. They were willing to die for this woman whom they likened to the Queen of Sheba. 

She remained polite and distant with everyone, taking care not to show favoritism, so as not to create jealousy. In return, she demanded extreme servility. She only wanted to be a goddess for these men, an inaccessible creature. Familiarity and trust were dangerous luxuries in her position.

She had also recruited women for her personal guard and mercenaries to oversee training and actions. These formed the bulk of her Praetorian Guard and established an impenetrable barrier between her and the other members of her clan. She had escaped two attacks, which was not much, considering the importance of her enterprise. Only her "children" and her warriors could share her intimacy. But even for them, she remained enigmatic.

In a few years, her business had become colossal. Between Aden and the ports of Egypt, she had set up the only transport and distribution organization that met international standards. For Asian and European companies alike, the only partner capable of delivering goods on time and at a reasonable price was Ibtisam's multi-faceted enterprise. 

As her business grew, she surrounded herself with a host of executives, men and women, who negotiated on her behalf. None of them had complete autonomy; every negotiation was closely monitored by her. But she rarely appeared in person, or seemingly at random. 

She rarely left her fiefdom, which she traveled constantly, from north to south. Her rare escapades abroad, carefully supervised and secured by a dedicated team, were secret trips. There, she led the life she would have wanted. She stayed in hotels, bathed in palaces, went out to restaurants and saw exhibitions or plays. Sometimes she spent the night with an attractive man she met on these occasions. She had never phoned her former university friends or work colleagues whom she had left to return to her country. For all these people, she was a daughter of the Yemeni bourgeoisie who had to return to her country of barbarians. Reconnecting with them put them in danger. They would be potential prey for intelligence services who wanted to know more about the "queen of smokesss."

Careful monitoring of her movements abroad had allowed the services to realize that she was protected, at all times, by several security agents. Since she had not committed any crimes against foreign powers, there was nothing to say to that.

Ibtisam knew that a company the size of hers, in this highly strategic region, could not leave the major international powers indifferent. But she did not want to add to the weight on her shoulders by making political compromises. She was a businesswoman in a region that denied any importance to women, that was enough for her. 

For this reason, she did not receive ambassadors or emissaries from any political or economic "power". If she accepted a visit, she was always represented by one of the executives of her company or one of her "children". She listened and observed, from a distance, by means of cameras and microphones, and slipped her answers to her emissary by means of an earpiece. As her emissaries remained silent and enigmatic, the foreign interlocutors were bewildered. There was no psychological portrait to offer about her.

Even though she refused any contact with political powers, travel outside her kingdom was risky. Several times, her protection officers had reported "individuals" in the vicinity. These individuals could be agents of a multitude of countries, police officers, or private individuals working for companies. Each time, she immediately stopped her trip and took an emergency flight back to Yemen. She systematically ignored official letters, trade missions, and requests from journalists. She never existed at the indicated address.

So little was known about her. Intelligence agency records would remain thin. The Yemeni services themselves knew little about her. Her bodyguards worked in shifts, notified at the last moment of her movements and their assignment, in order to thwart an assassination attempt by a turned agent. Ibtisam did not go to any local celebrations organized by Yemeni clan leaders or governors. The qādī of Manakha had once sought to corner her, arriving without warning at the gates of her village with a few cars of armed people to escort her. She had not been there "for years," the armed men had replied, immediately surrounding her vehicle and escort. He did not insist. 

Ibtisam's army, though not on the public road, outnumbered, and probably outweighed in danger, all the forces that the Islamic State could mobilize in the region. In any case, this "queen of smokes", as she was called, was not challenging any political order. She simply could not be bribed or extorted for her goods. If you didn't touch it, it didn't sting. With caution and wisdom, the qādī decided to look the other way.

In truth, Ibtisam had a secret agenda. She had taken no pleasure in this exercise of enterprise, almost royalty, in this land of Islam where violence was rampant and betrayal permanent. 

Her mother had just died, there were several people capable of taking over her business, it was time for her to take her destiny in hand. All her close collaborators were bright and energetic enough to pursue her ambition, and even make it bear fruit. In fact, she had decided to convene a college to elect the person who would take over. At almost forty-two, she wanted to live for herself, to get an apartment away from the Arabia that made her unhappy. She wanted to live a quiet and modest life in a peaceful country. She wanted to drive her car anonymously, attend cooking workshops or spend the night with a man of her choice, without playing the role of Queen of Sheba. In short, this had gone on long enough. She was getting out of this hell.

One day, she secretly and separately summoned the top executives of her organization to the Steigenberger Hotel in Damietta, Egypt. She knew that none of them knew the place. This would be perfect, so she could better gauge their reactions. She brought along coaches, human resources specialists, and work psychologists. They were to report back to her on their professional observations during the three-day seminar. These psychologists were foreigners, they did not know Yemen and they did not know the organization. They would serve Ibtisam to confront his instincts with their analysis.

Who would be up to the task, who would be the right choice? Fifteen people were summoned. Ibtisam and his team of psychologists watched as the potential successors arrived by cab, checked into their hotel rooms, went to the conference room, met up and talked before attending the first speech of the seminar.

All the guests were a bit puzzled, of course, but the general atmosphere was good. Ibtisam had summoned them without explanation and they found themselves at this corporate training seminar, sitting quietly listening to speakers who obviously knew nothing about the life of a company in the heights of Taiz, Marib, Moka or Najran. 

It is true that Ibtisam had trained them in management, business administration and other considerations than the war between clans, the schemes and raids of the Yemeni mountain tribes. But here they were like corporate executives in a quiet seminary of the last century. It was disconcerting, exactly the effect Ibtisam was looking for. 

All these people were capable of dealing with the reality of war in the Red Sea, but it took more than that to run such a commercial and military empire. 

The atmosphere was good, a little boisterous, because everyone knew each other well. All of them had worked together on a common project on one occasion or another. Ibtisam had seen to that, methodically. 

She wanted to prevent her empire from falling apart, torn by diverging interests. But, on reflection, she didn't care anymore.

The three days passed without a hitch. The participants were serene, each one of them was replaceable, surrounded by a team and a service used to managing current affairs, and even crisis situations, in their absence. The company was well consolidated, quite different from the medieval clan of its beginnings.

All the participants were asked to play team games, to carry out collective missions. These were all pretexts for their attentive observation by the psychologists hired for the occasion. 

After three days, they were asked to elect, in the secrecy of the ballot box, the member of the team whom they considered to be a leader. They were surprised, they had never thought of that, so important was the figure of the "queen of smokes".

It was Nader who was chosen almost unanimously. Nader was a quiet boy from a large family. He was calm, yet able to show determination in times of need. The participants' vote was corroborated by the psychologists' analysis. It was found that Nader was psychologically stable and had a natural dominance over his peers. The group was composed of three clans, three affinity groups. The psychologists had noted that Nader was well regarded by all three groups.

At the end of the seminar, Ibtisam came to the table to preside over the closing of the seminar. Her appearance stunned the participants and made the psychologists and the various speakers aware of the status of the one who had employed them. She was, and would remain, in this context, the "queen of smokes"...

She spoke, addressing a friendly smile to her collaborators. This smile, which they had never seen before, troubled them. 

"Dear all, I have called you to this three-day seminar to tell you about my departure. Yes, I want to leave the leadership of the company. 

Several years ago, when I had to return to Yemen, my family's situation was very critical. My mother and my family were left without a leader, without an arm to defend them. Few people know this, but I was living a very different life at that time, very distant from the political and cultural realities of this part of the world. I felt it was my duty to look after the security and interests of my family.

So I worked for almost twenty years to maintain the family business, to survive the blows, to give some. Believe me, I didn't enjoy any of it. I sacrificed my personal life and my inclinations to develop this project of a perfume route in our mountains.

I patiently built the network you know today, selecting men for each mission, making sure that each task could be performed by several people. 

I diversified our routes, diversified our activities and increased the range of our services. I secured our networks, too. The business is doing well.

No one is indispensable among you, the company can last without you. But all of you can make this company grow, develop and consolidate our position. I believe I am leaving you a prosperous, sustainable business. It is up to you to make it even more prosperous, to pass it on, perhaps to your children.

I have selected all of you to take over. You are young, you all have qualities that I appreciate and that I have experienced over the years. My family is now safe, my mother has passed away. So I pass the torch to you. You do with this business empire as you see fit. 

If you try to take part of it, you will tear each other apart and lose everything in a month, including your lives. If you all continue to work together, you can, perhaps, continue to live comfortably.

You have elected Nader to head the business council on which you will all serve. It's a good choice, Nader has the qualities to work for everyone, not just himself. He will have the final decision in case of differences.

I have prepared a document that gives each of you equal shares in the company. There is enough to make you all rich and your families prosper. It's up to you to play, to think soundly.

I, in a few minutes, will disappear for good. I'm going up in smoke, I dare say. Don't try to find me, don't try to reach me, I'll go back to the life I had before I came back. I thank you for your dedication and wish you the best. Make the best of the qualities I had noted in you."

It was the longest speech Ibtisam had ever given before them. They all looked at each other in dismay. Ibtisam stood up and walked to the door. They all stood up, silent. Their eyes were shining. This woman had changed their lives, had given them an unexpected opportunity. The atmosphere was unreal. She would come back, they were sure of it.

Ibtisam opened the door, closed it behind her without a glance. She had invested nearly half a billion dollars in different banks in different countries around the world. She had a vast real estate portfolio on several continents. She was still young, she knew where she was going to live. 

She was escorted to a limousine that took her to the airport. A private jet was waiting for her. She boarded the plane and dialed the number of one of her friends.