The Fusion Cage (Warner & Lopez Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  At the top of the list of their priorities was economic policies based upon the trade in fossil fuels. Oil, in every form, in every country of the globe, was a concern that dominated most Bilderberg meetings at one point or another. Shell, Exxon, Oppenheimer, OPEC; all of the largest and most powerful petrochemical corporations were represented at Bilderberg, and all of them intensely interested in where oil was going to come from over the next ten, twenty or fifty years.

  The great irony, Aaron reflected, was the fact that the vast majority of easily accessible oil in large quantities lay beneath the sands of the Middle East, and no Arab leaders were Bilderberg invitees. Thus, in the face of Arab distrust of the West, of the murderous and mindless hatred of Islamic fundamentalists, did the countries represented by Bilderberg have to discuss how their countries could do business with their unpredictable oil bearing foes in the Middle East. Many ordinary citizens considered the dominance of the fat–cat oil businesses and their continued manipulation of said oil–bearing nations to be the ultimate in oppression and self–serving greed, the pursuit of profit despite the suffering of the Muslim nations’ ordinary people beneath the yoke of their splendour–loving monarchies and dictators. Yet, in fact, the general public had the whole image the wrong way around.

  The nations of the West had long possessed the ability to drill oil in places far from the Middle East. Even Russia, now a tentative ally of the West, was possessed of oil reserves vast and plenty. Oil fields were being discovered on a regular basis at greater and greater depths and further afield, even in Antarctica, and only the development of efficient technology prevented the mining of these precious fields. This was without mention of the immense capacity of the science of the West to provide energy from a hundred different alternative sources which, although heavily screened from the public domain, would render the need for oil completely unnecessary. Even electro–magnetic research had shown considerable potential for energy generation, and that at the turn of the 20th Century at the hands of men like Nikola Tesla.

  No. The West did not use the Middle East for oil, for oil was not a permanent nor current requirement of the West. It did so because, without this tenuous yet essential link between East and West, the ultimate goal of the Bilderbergs could not be achieved.

  The New World Order.

  The New World Order had been shaped in the late 1950’s by the earliest Bilderberg meetings. It was not a self–serving plan for global domination, although it was placed largely in the hands of globalised mega–corporations. It was, in Aaron’s opinion, one of the most noble and yet fraught with danger policies that he had ever heard of.

  Global unity.

  The dream; the Utopian jewel of a global society no longer torn by racial oppression nor religious intolerance. It was the spread of democratic rule, the triumph of trade over war. Already, the steady and inexorable spread of the European Union, absorbing countries beneath its protective umbrella, was the advancement of that dream. The N.A.T.O. alliance had been its birth, a vast cooperating super–army that had allowed the coalition forces to so completely overwhelm Iraq in the early 1990’s. With the military force of the United States at its side, no single country outside the E.U. could hope to stand up to its advance. The New World Order was an advancing of the hope for unity, the bringing of democracy, by choice, to countries hitherto far beyond the reach of the West. But for that policy to be implemented, the populace of the countries involved must be under the control of their respective governments: most people operated in fear of the laws of their governments, but the greatest fear of all political establishments was the people rising up against them, too numerous to put down with words or war. The Arab Spring had been a stark reminder for many leaders that, when pushed too far, the people could coordinate themselves in their millions, and bring down entire governments and armies almost overnight.

  The doorbell of Aaron’s suite rang and he roused himself from his thoughts, walked to the hall and pressed a button on a small console set into the wall. A small screen there lit up and Aaron stared into the face of a Bilderberg invitee. He opened the door and the man walked in silently, waiting for Aaron to shut the door before he turned and spoke.

  ‘What news?’

  There was no preamble. The man was older than Aaron, his suit perfectly pressed, not a hair out of place. He would not of course be a member of MJ–12, for to reveal one’s identity was a cardinal sin as far as the cabal was concerned, but clearly he was acting on their behalf. Aaron realized that he was probably sharing a hotel with the entire cabal, with no idea of who they were.

  ‘The device has been recovered but Stanley Meyer is in the wind, as is his wife and daughter.’

  ‘No matter,’ the man said. ‘As long as the device is in our hands Stanley Meyer will be unable to distribute it to other people or demonstrate it to potential buyers. He has nowhere that he can go, and as soon as possible will you ensure that a media campaign to further tarnish his reputation is instigated. The less trustworthy Stanley Meyer appears, the less likely it is that anybody will listen to his story.’

  ‘Will that be enough?’ Aaron asked.

  The man shook his head.

  ‘Not to change the world,’ he replied. ‘The revolution is coming and there is nothing that we can do to stop it, but we don’t need to stop it – only to maintain control. Already, our major corporations are investing in technologies that will change the shape of our world in a matter of decades. Lockheed Martin has recently unveiled a nuclear–fusion generator that fits on the back of a truck and could power thousands of homes. Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in solar power and other renewable energy ventures – when the world’s leading exporter of oil becomes interested in the very things that devalue oil, you know a change is coming.’

  ‘This is a tide that not even Majestic Twelve can stop,’ Aaron agreed softly. ‘Sooner or later, somebody, somewhere is going to reveal this technology to a wide enough audience to create a shift in the balance of power. Is it not wiser to get ahead of that tide and obtain the rights to the technology before somebody does something stupid and gives it away for free?’

  The man laughed, and it seemed as though the effort almost split his jaw.

  ‘Do you really think that any sensible human being would be able to turn away the opportunity to earn a billion dollars overnight? Everybody has their price.’

  ‘Stanley Meyer didn’t,’ Aaron pointed out.

  ‘I said sensible human being,’ the man replied. ‘Stanley Meyer is an idiot. He could be relaxing on a beach on his own private island by now instead of hiding in the gutters of God knows where. He will be found, eventually, and when he is he will have nothing. I will make it my personal mission to ensure that he ends up destitute for the rest of his life without a dime to his name.’

  Aaron nodded quietly as he pictured in his mind the old inventor shivering on a street corner in Detroit’s south side, babbling about a conspiracy to deny the world free energy. The perfect foil, a man reduced to such a meagre state that nobody would believe him.

  ‘I need to know what measures I may use to ensure that this stays under wraps,’ Aaron said finally. ‘If I locate Stanley Meyer, do you wish me to further make offers on your behalf, or should we simply dispose of the problem?’

  The man stared out of the windows across the park outside for a long moment before he replied.

  ‘Make offers if you can,’ he said finally. ‘We don’t want to make more mess than we have to, agreed?’

  ‘Agreed,’ Aaron Mitchell replied, not without a flutter of mild relief as he stood. Murder was tough, especially when the target was a man who was clearly attempting to do the right thing with an altruism that would in other circumstances have earned him a Nobel Prize.

  ‘Resources?’

  ‘Continue to operate beneath the auspices of Seavers Incorporated, and allow them to supply any paramilitary or mercenary forces that you require. If law enforcement gets onto the case, the trail will lead to Huck
Seavers rather than us. Ensure that you vanish as soon as the task at hand is complete.’

  Aaron turned and walked for the door, opening it and exiting onto the corridor outside, his footfalls silent on a thickly carpeted floor. A man in a grey suit awaited him, an earpiece microphone and designer shades partially concealing his features. The hard line of his jaw and the short cut to his hair betrayed him as a former military man, the agent falling into step alongside Aaron as he walked.

  ‘Get me everything on Stanley Meyer,’ Aaron ordered without preamble, ‘and his family. We have limited time and they must be found, is that clear?’

  ‘Yes sir,’ the agent replied and hurried away ahead of Aaron.

  ***

  XII

  King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh,

  Saudi Arabia

  ‘This is insane,’ Amber uttered in a whisper. ‘I feel like a criminal.’

  The Saudia Boeing 747–400 from Los Angeles to Riyadh had landed thirty minutes before on the sun–baked runway some twenty miles north of Saudi Arabia’s capital city. Ethan, Lopez and Amber were all travelling light with just hand luggage as they exited the airport’s air conditioning and were immediately assaulted by the scorched air and brilliant flare of sunlight outside.

  ‘Not as insane as your father,’ Lopez replied as she lowered a pair of sunglasses over her eyes and looked at the unfamiliar surroundings. ‘He invents a device that will render oil obsolete and promptly travels to the oil capital of the world. It’s a wonder he wasn’t shot the moment he stepped off the plane.’

  ‘I think he’s a genius,’ Ethan said with a smile as he sought the private vehicle Jarvis had hired for them before they had left America with false passports, their passage smoothed with the DIA’s help. ‘If Majestic Twelve are seeking him out the last place they’re going to look is Riyadh.’

  ‘I think he’s an idiot,’ Amber informed him, once again. ‘Dad hasn’t been outside the United States in his life except for short trips to Europe to attend scientific conferences when he was younger. What the hell he’s doing coming out here I have no idea.’

  A wave of heat drenched Ethan in sweat as he stepped from the air–conditioned interior of the terminal. He squinted up into the hard and unforgiving blue sky as he stepped onto the flawless asphalt outside the main terminal. Few cars were visible, just a couple of dusty tan–colored sedans parked across the street.

  A sleek, white sedan pulled up alongside them and a tinted window lowered to reveal a smartly dressed chauffeur who held up a placard with the name Warner upon it. Behind the sedan an equally immaculate white SUV slid in alongside the sidewalk and a man climbed out, his eyes concealed behind sunglasses, a microphone earpiece in place and a muscular torso bulging against his thin cotton shirt.

  ‘Ethan Warner?’ he asked in heavily accented English. ‘Assim Khan. We will be your escort for the duration of your stay in the Kingdom.’

  Ethan peered into the 4x4’s interior as he shook Khan’s hand, and saw there three other guards, all of them carrying weapons in discreet shoulder holsters.

  ‘Who sent you?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘Courtesy of Huck Seavers,’ Assim announced. ‘He understands that you wish to meet with him here in the Kingdom.’

  Ethan blinked. Somehow, for some reason, the receptionist way back in Kentucky must have gotten word to Seavers about their visit. He couldn’t be sure, and perhaps Seaver’s sudden interest in them was due to the legal battle for Clearwater’s mining rights rather than any wrongdoing on the CEO’s part, but he felt that they must be on the right lines of enquiry for Seavers to have followed their travels and been ready to assist them upon their arrival. Either he had something to hide, or he didn’t.

  ‘I didn’t realize we needed an escort,’ Lopez said to Assim.

  ‘Then you have never travelled to Saudi Arabia before, ma’am,’ Assim replied with an oily smile. ‘You will need to wear these, due to the laws here.’

  Khan handed both Lopez and Amber an abaya, a long and quite elegant dress that covered their bodies and arms. Although the Kingdom did not require women to wear the hijab demanded of more hard–line Muslim countries, it did enforce abaya’s on both residents and visitors alike. Lopez and Amber both donned the dresses as Assim Khan spoke.

  ‘Riyadh is less relaxed than Jeddah, which allows women to wear the abaya open rather than closed, but it is best not to draw attention to yourselves. Just being an American in this country is enough to make you a target.’

  Ethan placed their luggage into the trunk of the sedan and then they climbed together into the rear seats and the chauffeur pulled away and increased the air conditioning inside the vehicle to cater for the new occupants. Behind, Ethan observed the 4x4 with Assim and his guards pull into escort position a few car lengths behind them.

  ‘You said that your father intended to give away the device free,’ Lopez said to Amber as the vehicle left the airport and joined the highway heading towards the distant city. ‘Why would he come here to the one place where the ruling family would like to see such a device destroyed?’

  ‘Who says that they would?’ Ethan challenged. ‘There are powerful people such as Majestic Twelve who do not want to see Stanley’s device be commercialized, not to mention the US government itself. America is trying to get itself off and away from fossil fuels, which if they should achieve such a noble aim will leave the Saudi royal family in the lurch out here. Maybe Stanley is looking for new allies, people with a vested interest in what happens to the future of oil consumption around the world.’

  ‘And what’s he going to say to them?’ Amber asked. ‘Hello, here’s a device that will render you destitute by the end of the year. Fancy getting involved?’

  ‘He’s clearly not intending to sell out,’ Lopez admitted. ‘But then it makes no sense why he would come here to Saudi Arabia. Even if the House of Saud believed that he could develop such a device, what could they offer him in return if he doesn’t want money?’

  ‘I don’t think he’s in it for money,’ Ethan said. ‘The only logical reason for him fleeing to Saudi Arabia is to blackmail the House of Saud.’

  Amber looked to Ethan as though he had gone mad. ‘You’re kidding? He wouldn’t do that. Even my father knows that the laws out here aren’t like they are in America. I don’t doubt that the Saudis would imprison him on a whim never to see the light of day again if they even thought he was capable of blackmailing them.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ Ethan said as he opened a file that he’d been given by Jarvis before they had departed Los Angeles. ‘Saudi Arabia may be the oil capital of the world, but they know as well as anybody else that the writing is on the wall for fossil fuels and for their own future exports.’

  ‘Already?’ Lopez asked. ‘I thought they’d have waited until every last drop was out of the ground?’

  ‘Not according to this,’ Ethan replied. ‘The Saudis are getting in on the solar power game before the oil dries up. Due to the decreasing costs of utility–scale solar installations, solar power in Saudi Arabia has achieved grid parity and can produce electricity at costs comparable to conventional sources. In 2011, over fifty per cent of electricity was produced by burning oil. The Saudi agency in charge of developing the nation’s renewable energy sector, Ka–care, announced in 2012 that the nation would install forty one gigawatts of solar capacity by 2032. It is projected to be composed of twenty five gigawatts of solar thermal and sixteen gigawatts of photovoltaics. A total of fifty four gigawatts of energy will be delivered by renewable means here by 2032.’

  ‘So even the Saudis are preparing to get out of the oil game, and simply export their supplies to other countries?’ Amber said.

  ‘It would appear so, and that assertion is bolstered by the fact that as oil prices fell as demand reduced at the end of the first decade of the twenty first century, for the first time Saudi Arabia did not raise the price of oil to compensate. They knew that by doing so they could push other oil producing
countries into debt by maintaining the low price, whereas Saudi Arabia could carry the losses for years, even decades, due to its reserves of both the oil itself and state–held capital.’ Ethan glanced thoughtfully out of the window of the vehicle. ‘They’ve got the whole world over a barrel, pardon the pun, and they’re using it to bolster their own position as an energy supplier of oil or of future clean energy.’

  ‘So what about my dad’s device?’ Amber asked. ‘If the Kingdom has the market sewn up in their favour?’

  ‘Why build solar plants that cost millions when you can have a cold fusion device churning away for little cost in every home?’ Ethan surmised. ‘The Saudi Royal family rules this Kingdom simply because they control the oil. Once that oil is gone, they’d be up and out of this country with their fortune overnight because the country has nothing else to export, not even any real tourism industry. This would become a desert as soon as the oil money dried up.’

  Lopez shook her head. ‘The Saudis won’t stay here on the basis of national pride just because Stanley Meyer has given them a way out. The people will rise up against them quickly enough just like in the Arab Spring if they tried to … ’

  Lopez broke off and Ethan grinned.

  ‘The people are what counts,’ he said. ‘The greatest fear of any government is being overthrown by their own people. The more the people are forced to rely upon their government, the less chance there is of that occurring. The Saudi people hate America because our government props–up a Royal Family who hoard the vast majority of revenue from the oil in their country and live in spectacular wealth while many of their people live in abject poverty. But if the people are suddenly presented with a means of shaking off their royal leaders and denying them their fortune, what do you think they’ll do with it?’