by Karl, Victor
Two attendees of the meeting went to the roof observation deck of the hotel for their own private meeting. Both lit up American made cigarettes and with heads leaned together they spoke in hushed voices. The taller of the two said to the shorter man “my team is still in place in America and they are equipped with what they need.” “How fast can you put this together” the shorter one said.” “Give me three days Adeeb to get them in place and we will halt this in its tracks.” “Fahd, can you trust the American to supply you with the right equipment?” Adeeb asked. “I am sure of it. Their masters have as much to lose as we do if we cannot stop their damn Electricus scourge,” was Fahd emotional response. “One last caution Fahd, you or your men can never be ever tied back to me. We do not have the support I hoped for on this, but if our oil money dries up, we will lose a hundred years of progress and will not be able to fund our movements. We have gotten used to countries like America funding our war on them by buying our oil.” You have my word Adeeb as both tossed their cigarettes over the balcony and headed back inside.
The vote next day was two thirds in favor of lowering the price of a barrel of oil 10% right away and then another 10% gradually over the next year. Based on the OPEC bylaws, the motion passed. When the markets opened in the US on Monday morning, the price of OPEC crude oil was 10 percent less which got the speculators and traders tittering about what it all meant. OPEC’s announcement implied they were trying to stimulate the global economy. Within a few hours, most of the non-OPEC producers had similar price reductions and a number of US politicians praised the OPEC organization for their goodwill gesture.
The camera crew taping went off without a hitch over the weekend, but Mike was pondering if he was nervous about Ed’s interview tonight and concluded that he would not know until Bill and he were sitting across from Ed. The show broadcast at 8 pm, but we had to be there an hour early for makeup and a walkthrough on the process. Fiona and Sean were coming with us to watch in person and I think Fiona was more nervous than I was since she kept swapping out the ties I was going to wear because she could not make up her mind.
Knock, knock came from the area of my office door and Taylor stuck his head in. “Gwen is here for your meeting and has already gone through orientation so she is all yours.” “Send her in,” I said as I stood up to greet her as she walked in. Smiling broadly, she strode into the room, shook my hand, and said “thank you for this opportunity to be part of your team.” She was pumping my hand hard and I found it gratifying to know that she was so excited. “Welcome aboard Gwen and have a seat.” With a wave at Taylor, I sat back behind my desk and faced Gwen. “Gwen, I know this is short notice, and believe me it is totally up to you if you want to attend, but Bill and I have a live interview with Ed Renault of the Ed’s WorldView economy show tonight and if you want to attend as an observer you would be very welcome.” I could see I had finally taken Gwen off her game, as she was speechless for a couple of seconds while she ran her logistics through her head. “Mr. Carter, I just have to check with my mother to see if she is available tonight, but this is a great opportunity and if I have to owe her big time it will be worth it, plus Ed’s WorldView is one of my favorite shows.” “Favorite show” I echoed. She laughed and said, “As a single mother of two boys, I don’t get out much and what money I have is invested in the stock market. Ed’s show doesn’t deal in fluff and his crystal ball has been very accurate about global trends that affect us here in the US.” “I’m impressed,” I said. Shoot me an email if you can make it or not. A limo will be here around 6 pm to get us to the NY studio for a 7 pm preparation and our interview will be the first one at around 8 pm.
The ride into the studio was hilarious mainly because of Gwen. She certainly had the gift of gab, but also a great sense of humor and was not shy about much. Fiona and her ended up talking about the PR business and Gwen’s kids for most of the ride. Bill and I talked about what to expect about the interview and if there was to be any discussion on the recent market changes regarding oil that had been all over the news today.
Once in the studio, Bill and I were ushered into the dressing room area while the others sat in the studio audience that held 50 people. The production crew powdered us up, provided instructions on where the cameras were, and coached on other things we needed to know so not to make fools out of ourselves. Bill had a strange look on his face and asked a show staffer where the restrooms where and as soon as he knew he took off like a shot. A few minutes later Ed came in to check on us and as he was looking around the room for Bill when he came in behind him. “Gentlemen thank you for coming on my show. I think your company will be front and center in the news for a very long time and I appreciate you letting me your first television interview. I have some interesting and compelling questions for you, but cannot queue you in on them or your reactions will not be genuine.” “Thanks Ed and we appreciate you having us on your show,” I said. With that, Ed headed off to get ready and we sat their nervously sweating.
Bill was surprised at how bright the lights were in the studio and had to keep himself from staring up at them. His left leg was thumping up and down from nerves as we watched the count down for the cameras to roll. Rico looked calm and was busy trying to see Fiona in the audience but kept squinting due to the lights in his face and the darkness of the audience area. Ed was calmly thumbing through a sheaf of papers organizing his questions.
There was a 10- second warning and someone started to count down from 10. When the count reached zero a single camera in front of us lit up with a red light and Ed’s theme song, which, was just a simple acoustic guitar riff came on. Ed began reading off a teleprompter welcoming the television audience to tonight’s show and pumped up the agenda by introducing tonight’s guests. Then as the camera panned out to show us to the side of Ed, he said, “Our first guests tonight are Michael Carter and William Bill Bates the two founders of Efficio. You may have heard some chatter about Efficio and their discovery Electricus, but here tonight you will hear firsthand what all this about and why I think the world as we know it, will be rocked by what they have to offer. First, pay attention to this short video that we were able to shoot on site at their corporate headquarters in Summit, New Jersey.
The video panned our show room building from the outside and then camera moved inside and showed a typical working space. The speaker pointed out lights, computers, air conditioning, and then stated that the building’s power came from the Efficio Electricus system. Twenty-four hours a day and 365 days a year there is no cost to light or heat this building due to a recently discovered organism that when exposed to any light source, even the light of the moon, will generate electricity at a predictable and controllable amount effectively eliminating the local power company. This circuit breaker box has no connection to the local power company and is connected to a device called a Power Pad on the roof and converted at this device called a Power Panel to the appropriate voltage type and level. The video then showed the roof and what a Power Pad looked like and how the entire building ran on two Power Pads that interconnected. Playing to the audience, the speaker said if this has not been enough to excite you check this out.
The video now moved outside and showed a Hummer driving up to the front of the building. They then introduced Fiona as a senior executive at Efficio and asked her to tell us about the car. She first popped the hood and the rear hatch and showed that there was no V8 engine or any batteries except for the two used for maintenance purposes. She explained how this vehicle needed two electric motors to drive all four wheels. The next shot showed the interior and zoomed in on the driver controls showing the similarity to the average car. Lastly, the camera zoomed in on the custom Power Pad for the Hummer and Fiona explained in very basic terms how it worked. The last shot was of the main building with our brand new Efficio sign out front and the announcer ending by saying, “that was impressive and Ed back to you.”
“Extraordinary gentlemen simply extraordinary” Ed started. “I am going to walk
you down a certain scenario and when I am done I would like your assessment of it,” Ed stated more than asked. From all indications, you two have developed a new power source that will essentially eliminate or diminish all other forms of energy production. The cost to implement your systems are cost effective and in many if not all cases will end up costing businesses and consumers less than traditional energy solutions such as an oil burner or gas furnace. Assuming that this is all true, your Electricus will change how the economies of most countries work. In fact, anyone in traditional energy sources or products that produce them faces dramatic impacts in a negative way. This could lead to global strife in some countries that live and die by their oil and gas sales. However there will be tremendous upsides as consumers will have a huge jump in disposable income and look to spend it on new cars, appliance and so on. Manufacturers of electrical devices should see broad increases in consumer purchases and completely new markets developed. The less affluent citizens will be able to afford more electrical products once the cost of electricity disappears and can use Power Pads in areas that never had electricity. I apologize for such a long lead in, but that is how I see the impact of Electricus on the world. What are your thoughts on the scenario as presented?”
I took a quick look at Bill who seemed to indicate that he wanted me to take a shot at responding so I did. “Ed,” I said you summarized our feelings very well, although one key point you did not mention was the impact on our planet Earth. Bill and I from day one have seen Electricus as a gift to mankind and the planet we live on.” “I did miss that one and as you pointed out, we will all be much better off with the side effect of a cleaner planet,” Ed acceded. “We have carefully considered the economic impact both the pros and cons as we planned our path forward. Our goal is not to leverage Electricus for monstrous financial gain, but to direct Electricus to those less fortunate across the globe in a highly subsidized way. We also want to try to take the sting out for those that derive their income through more traditional fuels and power sources by licensing them to produce components needed for Electricus. This will not overcome the drop in revenue for these companies or countries but it may help. As you indicated earlier the balance of power will change or shift as Electricus is adopted” I finished. “Are you at all concerned that there will be opposition based on fear of your success?” Ed asked next. This time Bill jumped into respond. “Ed we are very concerned about our security as well as the security of our employees. We have already experienced a number security issues, have gone to great extent to limit the core knowledge around Electricus, and upped our game on cyber and physical security. We fully expect things to get worse before it gets better.”
Well Ed stated to the cameras, you heard it here first and I am one hundred percent certain that Efficio will be front and center in discussions around the globe in the political arena, the boardrooms and around the dinner table. We are out of time for this segment and will have our next guest following these commercials. As soon as the cameras went off, Ed beamed and said, “Great segment people. I assume you have the financing you need, but if you are looking for investors, I will drain my bank account and my children’s education funds to invest with you. You are going to make my life busy as hell from here on since everything we talk about will most likely deal with market changes based on the impact of Electricus. Good luck and I have to run and get ready by the end of the commercial.”
Relieved to have the interview done and to have our position communicated to the global audience we decided to hit a local tavern down the street from the studio. We were a little worried about Gwen but she had her mother staying the night so she was good to go. Gwen was gushing on how we handled the interview and told us that by being here tonight she had a good understanding of our ability to handle public speaking, which was important to develop a public relations strategy. The easy banter continued for a while until Fiona caught my eye to indicate it was time to wrap it up and catch the limo home. On the way back we were all worn out and did very little talking. Fiona fell asleep with her head on my lap and was in such a deep sleep that she drooled some on my pants leg. I laughed to myself, since she had been doing this as long as I have known her.
Chapter 20: Earth Shaking
Sitting in front of my PC the next morning I was reading an email from Julius discussing a meeting that had been requested by a group saying they represented a consortium of oil and gas companies. I knew this day was coming, I thought to myself. Looking up I saw Bill at the door with a big smile on his face. “Morning” he said. I just want to let you know I have interviews at two universities scheduled for later this week.” “Which ones” I asked? Princeton and your old alma mater Georgia Tech” Bill smugly replied. “Nice” I said, “those students will be tougher than Ed you know. Bill just waved his hand and headed to his office two doors down from mine.
Looking out my window with a view straight down the drive to the building, I noticed two white cargo vans drive in and stop halfway down. I started to get curious but at the same time, my PC chirped and told me to plug into an outlet since the battery was at 10%. Seeing that my plug was actually in, I checked the connection at the back of the base station for my laptop, which looked OK so I figured I had kicked the wire out of the transformer. Bending under the massive desk that used to sit in my Grandfathers den, I found the loose plug and pushed it firmly into the socket. Just before I sat up a blinding flash and massive concussion washed over me. I felt myself slammed down into the floor where things went dark for me.
Outside, the vans roared out of the parking lot with a Clavis security guard, John Tabor on the right side shooting at the vans as they left. Over to the left, two bodies were laying there. The closest body was that of a man of Middle Eastern descent with a shoulder fired missile launcher lying next to him in a growing pool of blood. The other body was that of a Clavis security agent Jason Rich. Jason had reported in that two vans had entered the parking area and almost immediately reported that four men had gotten out of the vans with missile launchers. Jason engaged the closest attacker and took him out, but the driver of the closest van had gotten out and sprayed his AK-47 catching Jason with a round to his neck, which on the way out literally ripped out his spinal column. Extra guards had come on that morning in case curious onlookers came by after the exposure on the Ed Renault show and that is why John was on this shift. John looked towards the building, saw three impact areas, and based on the areas he knew that Mr. Carter and Mr. Bates were the targets and he said a quick prayer for them as he headed to the building.
Entering the building’s main entrance it was apparent that this was one of the impact areas. The young receptionist was laying on the floor in a bloody mess among the carnage of what once was a beautiful reception area. Kneeling next to her was Ty checking for a pulse. Looking up Ty caught site of John and simply said report. John recounted quickly the events outside and ended with an all clear. Ty said follow me and headed to the executive office areas. On the way, he pulled a fire alarm lever to get people out of the building since there was a lot of smoke. Heading towards Mike’s office the first thing observed was that most of the wall of his office along the hallway was gone. The explosion had taken out the wall and the conference room across from it. Ty did not have a good feeling about Mike, and after climbing over some debris where the office door used to be, he saw a pair of legs sticking out from behind a desk. Ty we surprised and elated to see that Mike did not appear to have any serious injuries. Ty rolled Mike over onto his back and lightly tapped his cheek while calling Mike, Mike, Mike.
Mike’s brain was fighting to figure out what was going on. It was almost like falling upwards towards a bright light. With his eyes still closed, Mike came in to consciousness and the first thing he noticed was that his head hurt, the next thing was a sharp burning smell like burnt plastic. What was that noise I am hearing, he thought to himself? As he focused in on it, he realized someone was calling his name. With some effort, he opened his eyes and when they f
ocused, he saw Ty kneeling over him calling him. Ty sounded as if he was in the next room and not right there and I realized that my hearing was the problem. Sitting up and gently shaking the cobwebs from his head, I saw the destruction. This frightened me into action and on unsteady legs stood up while asking Ty, "What the hell happened?" Watching Ty’s lips closely, I heard the words “missile attack.” Taking in the carnage of my office, I had no doubt he was telling the truth and realized that my Grandfather’s desk and the need to get under it to fix my laptop power saved my life. I thought to myself that someone above must have been looking out for me. “How is everyone else?” I stammered. We are going to check on Bill right now and we have at least one employee casualty and one Clavis dead.
The news galvanized Mike into action instead paralyzing with despair on what had happened. Walking through what used to be his wall he saw twisted aluminum studs and ceiling tiles blocking what was the hallway. Ty started to try to remove some debris to get through but Mike just used what was left of the wall as a brace and carefully placed his feet on top of the carnage and slowly stepped his way over the top. A couple of times his weight compressed the material, but he did not fall through. At the very end, he cut his hand on jagged metal but felt no pain. Where Mike's office wall on the hallway side had taken the brunt of the explosion, Bill’s was intact. Walking through his doorway, he could see that the missile must have hit just above the window outside since there was a large hole in the outside wall.
It took him a minute to locate Bill and he heart skipped a beat when he saw him. Bill was haphazardly sticking out of the sheet rock on the hallway wall. It looked as if the force of the blast must have picked him up and thrown him into the wall. There was a lot of blood on him and Mike could see numerous puncture wounds from flying glass and other debris. Mike quickly worked his way to his friend and remembering some basic training from his local volunteer ambulance squad days, looked for a pulse. Elated at finding one, Mike calmed himself and slowly assessed the injuries that he could see. The most obvious one was a deep laceration on his scalp that had bleed profusely and most likely caused a concussion. His buddy was dead quiet, which put the fear of God in him thinking he would die. Ty and John finally made their way in and I said, “He’s still alive. He has numerous puncture wounds, but his head wound looks the worst and until we get him out of the wall, I cannot determine if there is anything else. Ty then took charge mainly due to his military training, which included some basic medical care. “You hold his head and neck as still as possible he said while John and I ease him out of there,” he said, while clearing a space on the floor with his shoes. It was not until we were easing Bill out of the wall that we heard his first moan. I held his hand as we laid him on the floor and I could hear clearly through the giant hole in the outside wall, the wailing of many sirens approaching.
