Free A Thousand Years of Darkness: a Thriller by Charles W. Sasser Page B

been established in prior gatherings, so there was no need to restate them. Everyone seemed to be of one accord and on the same page. Trout felt as though he had walked on in the middle of a conversation. The single topic for today’s meeting seemed to be the American Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf and how it could be used as a springboard to—and Trout gasped mentally when he finally understood—further depress the economy. It took him a while longer to understand why they wanted to collapse it.
    “If Judge Fielding’s ruling against us stands and allows the oil rigs to resume operation,” Science Czar Harold Golden pointed out, “it will delay Cap and Trade until next year or even later. The EPA won’t move far enough fast enough to allow us to nationalize oil, gas and coal. We can’t afford to wait. This is our time. We have to move on it while the poker’s hot and we have the people worked up to do something about the environment.”
    “Judge Fielding won’t be a problem,” Wiedersham reassured the assembly, with a quick look at Zuniga. “His ruling is already under Supreme Court appeal, on a fast track for a decision by next month. Fielding has a few skeletons in his closet which I’m sure well-directed news sources will discover and use to discredit him. If that doesn’t work...” He shrugged.
    Trout wondered what he meant by that.
    “Louisiana alone will lose twenty thousand jobs if the drilling ban holds,” Environmental Czar Duane Smith put in. “Gas prices will necessarily skyrocket to five bucks a gallon, seven when we push through Cap and Trade and carbon taxes. My people are ready to take to the streets to protest.”
    Sam Shrader laughed. He was chief of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs with almost unlimited power to impose regulations to laws passed by Congress.
    “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” he quipped cheerfully. “We don’t care if they’re our people or theirs , just so long as they’re out there forcing us to take action to restore harmony.”
    House Speaker Barbara Teague with her porcelain-cast face was the only woman in the room. She followed the exchange by bobbing her head back and forth, her face smooth and blank from injections, making her appear totally clueless.
    “There are thirty three oil rigs in the Gulf,” she interjected. “If the President’s suspension lasts only six months, it’ll be too late for the oil companies to recover. AP and Big Oil will lose billions of dollars. The rigs will have to be leased out. It costs ten million dollars to move one of those things. If they move out, they won’t be coming back.”
    George Zuniga bobbed his massive head. “Ms. Teague, it is up to you in zee House and Majority Leader Wiedersham in zee Senate to twist arms and push through legislation to nationalize energy. We are on a time table that must be met before zee next Presidential election and before zee obstructionists have time to organize resistance.”
    “We are well aware of the time table, Mr. Zuniga,” Wiedersham said. “We are on track.”
    All at once it dawned on Trout what Marilyn meant about investing in foreign oil. More than twenty billion dollars in U.S. economic stimulus funds had been “lent” to Petrobras, the Brazilian nationalized oil company, for it to pursue deep sea oil drilling off both its own coasts and off U.S. shores. Trout was willing to wager a million dollars against an oil-dead pelican that Petrobras would be leasing the Gulf oil rigs. He was also willing to accept even greater odds that George Zuniga had made heavy investments in Brazil oil himself. He, and everyone who followed his lead in the venture, stood to make a ton of loot if President Anastos’ ban held and the rigs went to Petrobras, even more if the administration made good on its efforts to nationalize America’s energy industries.
    “We’ll never have a better opportunity,” lisped Congressman Frank Barnes. “I think, really, what