You want Egypt? *takes out wallet* I've got £50 here and *digs around for change in pocket* about a fiver in shrapnel, so I can probably get it giftwrapped for you as well.

"Yes that's right, a good ribbon, something in red and green, maybe some goldflecks." Rob cradled the phone to his ear, balanced precariously on his shoulder, as he stirred his tea with one hand and flipped through his appointment schedule with the other. "How much! Are you sure? So it would cost approximately 50,000,000 times as much to giftwrap Egypt as it would to buy it? Damn. I'll just tke one of those sticky bow things and slap it on the ex-head of states forehead then... oh maybe I can giftwrap him instead, how much would that cost?" The phone beeped repeatedly to the tune of 'The Asteriod Chase'. "I'll have to call you back, business call on the other line, can you get me a price for that? Thanks."
He hit the other line button with his spoon, and in the same movement sent it arcing into the wash basin in his offices ensuite bathroom "Hey Lurker, hows that recce of Egypt going?"
His most trusted aides voice was Crackly over the secure line "Quite well actually, I've claimed the place for us."
"You've what? How? You were only supposed to recce it to see whether I was going to be paying over the odds for it with £50." Rob shook his head, sometimes his aides enthusiam and sense of initiative were trying... still it meant he might not have to pay for the country afterall.
"Well I was going to do that, then I remembered I'd packed a flag, so I planted it and claimed it for us." Lurkers happiness at a job well done, practically jumping across the trans-Atlantic line.
"So how did the Natives take that then?" Rob asked, taking a sip of tea.
"Some bloody oik in a uniform came and told me to take it down as they had a flag of their own already" Came the indignant response.
Rob sighed, so much for saving aome money "What did you do after that?" he asked and took a larger sip of tea.
"Well I shot him of course, can't have the natives getting uppity, it's just not British!"
Robs tea sprayed across the office "You did what? Do you realise how much paperwork I'm going to have to fill out now? You can't just buy firearms in foriegn countries without permits, there'll be bureaucratic hell to pay!"
"That's ok, I used
his rifle." Came the reply.
Rob calmed down, a paperwork nightmare averted "Jolly good then. Though you do realise that while we work for Cuddles, we're not technically British, don't you?"
"So what are we then? Is mercenary a country?"
"I don't think so. We're either O'learian's or Cuddlians, possibly American's but I don't think so, I'll ask Her later." Rob cleaned up some of the sprayed tea, the extension cord on his phone streching as he moved. "So you sorted out Egypt and secured the Suez canal then?"
A slight pause, then "
Suez Canal?"
"Yes Lurker the Suez Canal, huge great waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Med. You can't miss it, it's the only manmade waterway in the area that can transport an Aircraft carrier, slightly larger than a stream and not as full of Crocs as the Nile."
"Um" Lurker's enthusiasm was now noticably waining, "So not the Sewage Canal then?"
"No Lurker,
not the sewage canal. Infact you'd be hard pressed to find anything called a Sewage canal outside of Venice, and the last time I checked, Italy wasn't part of Egypt." Rob was now exasperated, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"So my setting up an armed Marine guard around the Cairo Sewage treatment plant, wasn't what you had in mind then?"
"Strangely enough, no. In fact what I had in mind was for you to go to Egypt and price it up for me to buy as a gift for Cuddles, then you were to take some of the Embassy Marines to secure the
Suez canal so that the locals couldn't vandalise it before sale. Instead you now tell me we have highly-trained Marines guarding -
the local Shit Farm!" The last shouted down the line nearly deafening his aide. "Get them to the Suez canal now! And while you're at it grab the local ex-head of State and have him Fed-exed over here so I can giftwrap him for presentation to Cuddles." With preternatural timing the phone started to beep the Imperial March, "Speaking of whom, I have to take this call, Don't fuck this up Lurker or I'll need a new Most-trusted Aide to handle your burial."
Rob pressed the flashing line button. "Good news your Excellency..."
