Russell Andrews
Midas
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
It’s good to be king
And have your own world
It helps to make friends
It’s good to meet girls
PROLOGUE
1
From the Houston Chronicle
Reuters News Service
September 14
Environmental Surprise From
The Anderson Administration
Led by Vice President Dandridge
A New Direction in Land Preservation
In a move equally surprising to both foes and supporters, Stephanie Ingles, the Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, announced yesterday that over eight million acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve have been designated as a national monument and have thus become permanently off-limits to oil companies that have been pressing the administration to let them begin drilling in the region.
The National Petroleum Reserve is not a name that conjurs a vision of pristine space but it is, in fact, the largest expanse of untouched wilderness left in the United States. In 1923, President Harding established the region as a petroleum reserve, stipulating that the oil fields be drilled only in time of pressing national need. Large and influential oil and energy companies such as EGenco and Halliburton have recently been lobbying the administration to open the fields for exploration, saying that if ever there was a national need the time is now. President Thomas Anderson has, in the past, been sympathetic to the needs of such companies, as has Vice President Phillip Dandridge, and environmentalists had been expecting Ms. Ingles to announce that the administration had bowed to the pressure. However, despite the recent rise in oil prices-yesterday’s closing left the price of oil at $44.78 per barrel-Ms. Ingles said that the President was standing firm on this issue. “Despite what is perceived as this administration’s close ties to the oil industry,” Ms. Ingles stated, “Vice President Dandridge is a committed environmentalist. He is well aware of the wildlife that swims in and roams around the Colville River Watershed, Kasegaluk Lagoon, Teshekpuk Lake and the Utukok Highlands, and he has no intention of allowing the ecological balance within those areas to be disturbed. The Vice President took the lead in this initiative and the President wholeheartedly concurs with the stand that’s being taken.”
Members of the President and Vice President’s party did not offer unanimous support after the announcement. Speaker of the House Lester Swannig said that he was “withholding any final judgment on this decision, but I am dismayed at the potential rise in oil prices it may cause. We have been trying to keep the cost of gasoline down since it affects every American citizen. Shutting off this acreage from drilling will certainly not help that effort and I have to say I don’t understand this shift in priorities.”
Environmentalists warily applauded the decision. Christine Herr, co-chairperson of the Save the Earth Foundation, said, “I am pleased by the decision although I admit it did rather shock me. Over the past seven years, environmental protection has taken a backseat to just about everything else one could name. However, as everyone knows, Vice President Dandridge is beginning his push to achieve his party’s presidential nomination next year and I imagine his advisers are telling him he needs to make some concessions to ‘kooks’ like us. But even if this decision was made for political reasons, it’s a decision I’m glad this administration had the courage to make.”
Vice President Dandridge is the presumed presidential nominee for his party in next November’s election. Heading into primary season, he has a substantial lead in the polls in nearly every state, with very few opponents within the Republican Party. The Vice President does, however, currently trail both of the men competing for the Democratic nomination, Indiana Senator Martin Vance and Georgia Governor Oren Childress. All of his potential Democratic opponents supported this decision on the National Petroleum Reserve and voiced their hopes that in the last year of President Anderson’s final term he will take even more of a lead in protecting the environment.
2
From Bloomberg.com
Bloomberg Financial News
October 8
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl) PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Crude 48.1 0.4 0.96 13:51 IPE Crude 43.4 0.5 1.32 14:12 Dated Brent $ 44.55 0.37 0.95 13:59 WTI Cushing $ 48.05 0.45 1.08 14:08 PETROLEUM (?/gal) PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Heating Oil 2.12 1.85 1.76 13:53 Nymex Gasoline 147.3 0.27 0.19 13:52
3
East End Harbor
Long Island, New York
November 4
Bashar Shabaan had seen death before. Seen it up close.
The first time, he had been sitting in a car in Basra, minding his own business. Bashar was just slouched in the front seat, behind the wheel, waiting. He wasn’t waiting for anyone or anything. He was just waiting. It was during the first Gulf War.
In front of him was a truck. It looked like it was going to fall apart, like it couldn’t drive one more mile. There was a family inside, a mother and a father and some children, two teenaged boys. An American army jeep pulled up alongside and then the broken-down truck started to drive away. One of the boys rolled down a window, put his hand out to wave to the American soldiers, and the next thing Bashar knew there was gunfire everywhere. The tires on the truck exploded and then sagged, and the rickety wooden slats that had been built to hold the truck’s cargo splintered and just disappeared. The truck’s windows shattered and everywhere there were bullet holes. The woman was crying, weeping tears of rage and despair. The man and the two boys were dead, Bashar could see parts of their bodies dangling from the seats. Soldiers were yelling. He heard an officer, angry and loud, saying, “You stupid fuck! It was just a fucking kid! What the fuck were you thinking?” Then more soldiers came and the crying woman was taken away. Then the truck was taken away. Then it was as if nothing had ever happened. Except that Bashar knew that it had.
Another time, years later, he saw death come when it was not so unexpected. He was across the street when his cousin Hamid stepped onto a Jerusalem bus and martyred himself. Bashar saw the geysers of blood and the severed legs. He saw a little girl with lovely blonde hair, soft and curly, maybe seven years old, get on the bus right before Hamid. He also saw her body on the street moments later, her fair skin charred black, her blonde hair on fire.
Death did not shock Bashar Shabaan. Or terrify him. Or even make him curious in any way. He did not welcome it or embrace it. He was not like Hamid. But he understood that death was a part of life. And that life was largely about death and dying. There were no surprises to life, Bashar believed, because it always ended the same way.
Well, perhaps there was one surprise: Bashar Shabaan did not understand why he could not stop sweating.
It wasn’t hot outside. There was even a pre-winter chill in the air. It was the kind of damp autumn weather that Bashar detested. He liked heat, the baked feeling that came from standing in the glowing sun. He did not care for the American fall or winter. It gave him colds and the flu. For the three years he had lived in this country, he had shivered from November through February, no matter how many layers of clothes he had on. Bashar preferred warmth. The kind of warmth that radiated from his country.