Mr Chong sat in his office, alone. The only light came from his desk lamp shining down on to the papers on his desk. If Edward Hopper had painted a lonely and miserable accountant poring over his books by night then he would have painted Chong as he looks now. The writing in the account books is incredibly small. Chong’s spectacles are commensurately thick. The desk is covered by books and papers, photocopies. There are photographs of orchids on the wall in not-too-expensive-but-decent-all-the-same frames. Chong used to cultivate orchids. He used to do various things. Solitary pursuits in the main but he did, for many years, go to enormous lengths to become one of the boys, to fit in. He tried to have friends, to visit them. When he was younger he played in a football team. He tried marriage. None of it lasted for long. Now, having risen to the height of District Commissioner he had the perfect excuse. He was too busy to do those things, to visit friends, to fit in. He could sit with his paperwork in the barely-lit office for as long as he liked.
The administration of a geographical and political oddity like Altizourus was no trivial matter. The civil servants were distinctly Ottoman in their habits and outlook on life. All processes were caught in a web of overlapping and usually conflicting legal flypaper left over from the zone’s convoluted history. But Chong was nothing if not commercial and the upside of this position was the distinct possibility that Altizourus might regain its freeport status within the European Union. Chong looked once more at the photocopy of an article from London’s Financial Times:
Altizourus is a Spanish exclave on the Barbary coast of North Africa. Before the Genoese conquest in 1497, it was a predominantly Berber town. In the mid-sixteenth century it fell under Spanish control. Briefly a French dependency following the Els Tesors treaty signed in 1888, it reverted to Spanish control following the end of WWI and was regarded as a part of Almeria province until, during the second World War, it was effectively annexed by the British. Following a prolonged period of negotiations throughout the early 1980s, a process made much more complex by the Falklands War, a formula was found that would return sovereignty to Spain. The British viewed the return of Altizouris to be a lesser evil than any discussion of Gibraltar’s status where there are many more British citizens. On the 16th July, 1987, the city Statute of Autonomy was passed according a status to the Altizouris district broadly similar to the Spanish exclaves in Ceuta and Melilla.
Altizouris was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 1994 it had a population of c.50000. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims, Jews and a small but growing minority of Hindus and other SE Asians. Spanish, French Darija and Tamazight are spoken there, but only Spanish is official. The Altizouris region extends for almost 200km2 . A fence running for almost 40km has recently been erected in order to prevent Sub-Saharan Africans from gaining entry to one of the few outposts of the European Union on mainland Africa.
It was a pity that the barbarians at the gate made it into the article. Nonetheless, this was progress, a tiny step forwards. If he could build some momentum towards freeport status then he would be well placed to take best advantage of it. That was way off in the future. Of more immediate interest was the visa application of a certain Changue.
Mr Charles Changue had applied for Visado especial No. 5. The folder with the application form, the twelve passport photos and the sponsorship letter from Don Juan Antonio Montes de Oca, Duke of Chiclana no less, lay on the desk in front of him. His furtive underlings had produced some notes on Mr Changue, nothing of any interest there. In fact he couldn’t imagine that Changue would ever be of any interest. Montes de Oca, on the other hand, with his social and political connections, had the potential to become a real nuisance.