Lost rootless men sometimes fashion schemes of power and of glory out of their faded memory and their braggadocio. That may lie at the source of the latest crisis in the Congo. The restless men were: the exiled Moise Tshombe, a Congolese living like a suave continental businessman in Madrid, reaching for his memories of lost power, smug in his dreams; the white mercenaries of the Congolese army, self-exiled Europeans living like tribal lords, feeling their power and past slipping away, arrogant in their self-confidence. Their plots and schemes, foiled and then recharged, bloodied the Congo in the past two weeks. The best evidence, both factual and circumstantial, from all sources - diplomatic, Congolese government, academic, private - sketches a strange tale of intrigue and counterintrigue...

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