Balance of Power Shifted

by Karl, Victor

  There were a number of initiatives started at that time, but only one had the level of success of his organization. Hu’s loosely defined charter states, ‘do whatever is needed to become a manufacturing and technology world leader.’ Interpreting this to mean beg, borrow and steal the intellectual properties of others, Hu sent out his emissaries all over the world to take on positions in many of the largest corporations and siphon off knowledge. His team was drilled in special training to circumvent data and physical security controls and had encrypted channels to communicate back to the motherland on. The stolen intellectual property was then sent to different organizations back here in China to try and leverage the stolen information to make Chinese products. These same groups also used reverse engineering to try to recreate almost anything. Most of the world looked the other way since they did not want to alienate China and lose access to emerging Chinese markets especially when China held debt on many western countries including the United States. Hu laughed at the thought of the mighty US bowing down to China due to a multi-trillion dollar debt owed.

  The General stopped smiling as he thought about his next challenge. His leaders where very concerned about the lack of control on one key resource which was energy. Lack of ready supplies and higher prices were starting to affect China’s ability to expand as well as set manufacturing prices that were attractive to most countries. They were also tired of dealing with a bunch of annoying little countries with obnoxious leaders that had control of oil. The emergence of Electricus could be a huge opportunity for China to make them energy independent, however there was concern that such cheap energy would open the doors for other countries that had a cheap labor force to start becoming manufacturing hubs. China was not the only country with a workforce that would work for a pittance a day and at the same time throw Mother Earth under the bus in an effort to save money and time not implementing environmentally responsible manufacturing plants.

  In order for China to maintain a stranglehold on manufacturing, his leadership wanted him to steal Electricus and if possible make sure there was no competition. The news had been showing pictures of the Efficio building all day and the scars caused by the rocket attacks. General Hu realized he had to hurry, since it was obvious others were very interested in Electricus. Calling in his aide, he issued the order to execute the plan code named Volt. His agents in the US would receive their new orders shortly. He was somewhat disturbed by the lack of intelligence they were able to obtain to date. One problem was that it was start-up company with limited exposure, but it also had a tight lipped group of senior management that were mostly in their 20’s and had known each other before Efficio was created. They also had excellent cyber security practices better than most US government institutions. As good as the General’s team was Efficio’s security had already detected them due to a ‘honey pot’ decoy system plied with bogus information that they had fell for and hacked. We will see the General thought, we will see.

  Speaking towards the phone, I said, “Friday at 10 pm at our showroom location,” I confirmed. “I will email you the address and please provide the names of anyone else accompanying you.” When I hung up with Charles, I looked over at Jeremy who had arrived a couple hours earlier. “Well in 24-hours we’ll know how much of a threat they believe Electricus is to their consortium,” I stated to him.” Jeremy responded by saying, “Charles is legitimate and the word on the street is the old gang is very concerned.

  There will be two cars and four guards to escort your vehicle there and I will be reviewing security at the building and be there when you arrive.” As we were talking, General Hotchkins knocked on the door and said “sorry to disturb you, but I wanted to say hello to this SOB.” “Randy how are you, you broken down excuse for a soldier” Jeremy joked. “That explains a lot,” I said, “I guess you two know each other.” Jeremy laughed and said, “I’ve known this guy back from our West Point days and we last served together in Iraq.” I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you allowing us to use this space General,” I said. “It is the least we can do for you guys since you are our new best friends. We are completely onboard with your company, Electricus, and want to ramp up production. Our team is literally flabbergasted at how efficient and simple the technology is and sees no downside to it. In fact they believe over time we can replace our entire combustion engine based fleet with an electric driven fleet.”

  The general was quiet for a minute then asked the million-dollar question. “Mr. Carter, the secret of producing Electricus I understand is limited to you and Mr. Bates, who currently is very seriously injured. How can we ensure that Electricus would continue if something was to happen to you?” “General, I understand your concerns and it has been a concern of Bill and me from day one. We know how dangerous it is and that we are pissing off many powerful people. We have instituted a failsafe plan predicated on the death or inability of Bill or me to continue to execute a plan for our company. I am sorry to say I can’t provide you the details, but can only tell you that it is in place and it addresses your concerns.” “Hey, I will take that back to command and run it by them and hope it is enough to commit and move forward. With that, I bid you good day sirs.”

  Chapter 21: Money Tests Resolve

  Fiona felt weird sitting there at the showroom with security guards fanned out in front of the building as well as on the roof. Life had become surreal since the attack and the fear she felt for Mike made her stomach churn. Bill and Mike had tried to make themselves the target of any attacks to protect the others by making sure everyone knew that they alone had the key to Electricus.

  Even though she had voted to turn down any offer from the consortium representative that would be here in just a couple of minutes, she was now having second thoughts. If we took a reasonable offer, we could do wonderful things with the money or even set up a couple of charities or a new start-up company researching other products or services to help the less fortunate. Looking across the room at Mike speaking with Sean, she was again taken by the calmness and confidence exhibited by Mike made more compelling when you factor in everything that had happened.

  One of the security guards walked up to Mike and said something which must have had to do with the arrival of our visitors because both Mike and Sean walked towards the large meeting area where three gentlemen were being escorted in. Charles Knight, the CEO of family owned Global Oil, seemed ordinary and not the head of a multi-billion dollar company she thought as she assumed it was he since he was leading the conversation. Mike escorted them back to the office area, now a decent sized conference room, where Fiona was waiting. As they walked in the room, Fiona shook hands with Charles and introduced herself as the CIO. Charles shook her hand warmly and then introduced her to Thomas Moore an attorney at Global as well as his administrative assistant Douglas. Sean joined us and introductions progressed until completed.

  Fiona sat on Mike’s left and Sean on his right all on one side of the table and Charles and his team on the other. Douglas handed out a packet of papers that was essentially a PowerPoint presentation. Once distributed, Charles asked if it was all right to walk through the presentation as a way to introduce the concept behind the ‘consortium’ and provide additional insight on what their group represented. Fiona saw Mike shake his head yes and say “by all means.” Charles from a sitting position started to walk us through the presentation page by page. The tact that the consortium had taken in the presentation was to literally ‘open the kimono’ to show all.

  The presentation had numerous graphs depicting the current state of the state of the oil industry. How many people they employed, what they brought to the US economy as well as internationally. The slideshow then moved to an economic impact study that predicted the slide into an abyss if Electricus replaced fossil fuels over the next 5-years. Fiona was shocked to see the range of impact by the transition to Electricus, and could see that Mike was intently viewing each graph. Finally, Charles finished his presentation and looking up and said, “Th
is brings me to the crux of my visit.” In an effort to control the transition of Electricus into the world economy in a responsible manner, the Consortium is offering Efficio 20 Billion dollars for the purchase and ownership of all rights to Electricus.

  There was complete and absolute silence in room to the point I believe everyone actually held their breath in shock or awe at the dollar amount. It seemed as though in unison we all released our breath. Even though Mike’s breathing gave the shock away, Fiona noticed outwardly that his expression or demeanor seemed not to change. After a full minute of silence, Mike spoke. “Gentlemen, this is a very generous offer and one that we will consider internally. A decision is somewhat complicated due to my partner Bill Bates being in the hospital in critical condition and may take a while to provide you with an answer. I do have to tell you that this company’s foundation is based on altruistic principles, which include using the profits from the sale of Electricus driven products to provide support for less fortunate people around the globe. Much of this support relies on providing Electricus to drive their everyday needs. Signing over all rights to Electricus to the Consortium could jeopardize that and there is no guarantee that Electricus would be ever rolled out as long as there is a viable supply of oil and gas in the ground.” When Mike finished, Charles and his lawyer leaned their heads together and finally Thomas pointed to a line on a sheet of paper for Charles to read.

  Charles showed some slight emotion at the end of the exchange, composed himself and said, “In consideration for your humanitarian focus of your company, the Consortium would like to add another 3 billion dollars to the offer.” This time even Mike showed a little shock at the dollar number thrown around. Fiona thought that Sean went into a catatonic state since he had not moved or changed expression. Fiona herself was ready to jump on the offer if she had her way, not for the money, but to get rid of the fear that was fraying her nerves. Surprisingly, Mike just stood up and said, as soon as I have the opportunity to discuss it with Mr. Bates and the rest of the team I will get back to you. Thank you for your time and generous offer. Ty will escort you back to you limousine” and with that, Mike motioned for Ty through the door window.

  As soon as Charles and company left the room, Sean simply said “shit, that’s a lot of money.” “What are our next steps?” I asked Mike, while suppressing my real feelings and questions. Mike wearily said, “even though we voted on this the other day, I think the amount of money on the table warrants a second vote. Come on, I cannot deny all of you the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars especially since life had become very dangerous.” Mike then asked me to set up a secure conference call for a half hour from now.

  A transcript of the meeting was quickly typed and transmitted to Beijing from an office in a building just 500 feet from the Efficio showroom. The operative was already thinking of the bonus money she would receive by successfully getting a voice activated micro transmitter placed in an office supply delivery from a local office supply store. The listening device worked as advertised and there was a good chance of it going undetected by Efficio’s security team.

  General Jiabao was reading the transcription of the conversation held just 20 minutes ago in the Efficio office. He cursed and then called for his assistant to come in. Dictating a message to his US based team leader he ordered them to step up their efforts to wrest the secrets of Electricus from the Americans at all costs before the secret is passed on to those blood sucking oil companies. The General had over 2000 agents in place working across corporate America and the world all steadily trying to advance their careers in order to get closer to the top positions and at last count there were just over 320 prospective agents currently attending US colleges and Universities in mostly technology programs. He would be willing to use all of them if he thought it could help.

  Not aware of the urgency and escalation to his mission, Lui Chang and another operative had been quietly watching the two-story building for the last week from the sixth floor roof of an adjacent unoccupied building. He felt confident that only the two security guards were present and they would not be relieved until 8 pm at the end of their 12-hour shift in just four more hours. Lui sent a text to the other four members of his team to say they would execute the plan at 8:15 pm. Putting the binoculars to his eyes, he mentally catalogued the rooftop of their target one more time as the late afternoon California sun cast a bright glare in his direction.

  At exactly 8:15, two men using grappling hooks scaled the backside of the building as if they were walking down the street and reached the rooftop in just 60 seconds. Once on top they stayed away from the two surveillance cameras covering the roof top and quickly went to work. The first used a specialized drill that made almost no sound as it drilled through the metal fire door on the roof. Once through the door the second intruder slipped a plastic hose through the hole in the door and extended it in about 10 feet. He then opened the nozzle of a tank similar to a small fire extinguisher and let a special non-lethal nerve gas flow into the building. The gas would disperse and settle slowly into the lower level.

  While the rooftop duo where following their orders, a second team was doing the same thing but at a small window located behind the workout mats. After receiving the all complete signals over his radio, Lui set his watch for 15 minutes, which was five minutes longer than he really needed, but did not want to take any chances. At 15 minutes, Liu signaled his team to execute the next phase, which was the most dangerous since he did not know for sure the disposition of the two security guards.

  The rooftop crew used special putty to burn through the hinges on the door with a small but searing patch of bright light. Once the putty had fizzled out, they jammed a pry bar into the door and it swung open from the opposite side completely disengaging it from the frame. They laid it carefully down on the ground without making any noise. Creeping down the spiral staircase, the lead operative could see a person sitting at the kitchen counter with their head resting in their dinner plate. Seeing this as a good sign, they hurried down on rubber-soled shoes and canvassed the bedrooms and bathrooms for sign of anyone else.

  They next edged their way down to the first floor and saw the second guard in a similar position in front of a bank of camera screens. A quick review of the CCTV system caused one of the interlopers to softly grunt. What he noticed was that the camera system was a dual feed system with a second stream of the data transmitted to another site. Quickly he opened the garage door and within a minute, a dark blue cargo van pulled up and backed inside. The garage door closed just as quickly. Tan the senior of the rooftop team quickly gave Liu an update on the guards and his discovery.

  Liu knew now that they had only a few minutes to do what they came for. His team fanned out and collected every computer, logbook and scrap of paper in the lab area. Two other specialists went into the server room, leveraged the hot swap hard drive technology to their advantage, and within minutes removed 24 hard drives from all the systems. There were two objectives left with one of them obtaining the contents of the old safe and the other taking the Power Pads from the roof. Deciding it was worth the risk, he sent three of his team to the roof since the Power Pad would be heavy and told Tan to open the safe, which he was prepared to do with a heavier concentration of that special high temperature putty. Using a similar method, Tan melted the hinges of the old safe and used a small three-pound sledgehammer to pop the edge out so it could be pried open. The safe contained about 20 bottles of what looked to be Electricus and nothing else. The crew emptied the safe in short order.

  Just then, one of his men keeping watch up the street reported hearing police sirens coming this way. Liu was just about to signal the men on the roof to abandon their efforts when he saw them climbing down the stairs and yelled for them to hurry and get in the van. Tan opened the door and was only partially in when the driver gunned it out of the garage. Not fully in, Tan lost his balance and swung outwards while clinging to the door, which then smashed into the side of the garag
e bay with a resounding thud driving the door back into Tan’s face and body catching him at a strange angle. The force wrenched his neck to the right crushing his vertebrae. With no control of his arms, his body slipped to the ground and literally bounced off the rear tire as it went by. It took a minute for Tan to realize he was dying and another 60 seconds for blackness to settle over him. As it happened, the driver guiltily looked at Liu who silently pointed straight ahead. Liu had watched the whole thing unfold and assumed Tan was hurt badly or even dead and hoping for the later. He would be honored back home either way.

  Four local police cruisers arrived at the scene just seconds after the van sped away and waited for their swat team to arrive before entering the building. Five minutes later two Clavis people arrived and showed the lead detective the live surveillance footage they were able to access on their mobile command post. After looking at the footage, the police decided to enter the building and check on the Clavis guards inside. As they were entering the building, Jeremy showed up in a suit, with his wife Mary in the car, and had a quick conference with the officer in charge. The officer in charge received an all clear from inside and announced that there were two unconscious male victims and an unidentified dead third person. An emergency medical team got permission to enter the building to administer to the victims. Fifteen minutes later, both security guards drove away in ambulances and were awake and talking complaining of a major headache.

  Jeremy stepped away from the police for a moment and dialed a number on his phone. Back in New Jersey, agent Morgan was winding down the night with hopes of companionship with the beautiful woman across from him. The evening included great company, interesting discussion, and a delicious albeit expensive dinner. Both were enjoying drinks in a quiet Hoboken bar, which ended the instant his phone rang. Answering his phone “Morgan here,” he listened for a few minutes asked a few questions and said, “thanks Jeremy I‘ll get right on it.” Sighing he grabbed Blair’s hand and said “I have to work right now. Let me drive you home while I make a few calls.” He was glad to see she appeared just as disappointed as he felt.