Robert Pencor was what one could easily and quickly label as brilliant, yet disturbing. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he had a knack for profit. He quickly climbed to the pinnacle of success, leaving a trail of broken lives and shattered competitors along his path. His ‘take no prisoners’ business ethic made him feared by most competitors. Pencor’s drive left his personal life devoid of relationships other than the few escorts he paid for when the physical need arose. Some of these women, hardened by a life of prostitution, had left him at the end of an evening utterly shaken and afraid. Adding to these qualities the merciless drive he possessed to achieve power, he had become what colleagues and enemies alike had termed, a textbook megalomaniac.
Pencor had achieved his wealth through shady business dealings and cut-throat tactics early in his career. He had discovered early on that his future lay in the oil business and quickly climbed his way to the top. During his rapid ascent in the business world, he managed to secure many domestic and foreign oil companies by way of hostile takeovers, or strong-arm tactics of which he was not above doing in order to achieve his goals.
By the year 2000, he had risen to CEO of his newly formed Pencor Oil Corporation, which employed thousands of people. He reaped vast profits amounting to millions in assets with worldwide holdings of production and refinement facilities.
None of this was enough for Pencor. He soon began channeling funds from research and development along with employee pension funds to his private accounts overseas. He had become quite accustomed to the many bribes and kickbacks procured from corrupt foreign business executives and leaders, who continually lined his pockets for exclusive refinery and drilling contracts.
His desire for money, along with the power it wielded, became an all-consuming obsession. Pencor would not settle for just enough. He wanted it all; at any cost, even if it meant eliminating anyone who got in his way. His cut-throat tactics ultimately gained him many enemies along the way, and those enemies would play a major role in his personal and financial undoing in 2005.
The high oil prices of the mid-decade had produced an outcry from the public. Fueled by the media, politicians tried to appease their base and divert attention from the crisis. They skirted the truth by holding what Pencor deemed ‘useless’ Congressional hearings on Capitol Hill, hoping to inflame the public with the tried and true tactic of crying corporate greed.
Given the recent memory of events in 2002 that led to the downfall of the leadership of Enron, it had garnered good press and a guarantee of votes from a public easily misled. Pencor blamed the public, whom he felt was too quick to believe anything they heard from the media.
Those especially motivated in this witch hunt were the career politicians, Republican and Democrat, who were more concerned about their political tenure than America as a whole. Pencor had been furious knowing that many of these politicians were the same ones taking his contributions.
He knew the real truth that the media had failed to report, and what politicians didn’t want America to know. The worldwide demand for oil was far out stripping the supply. As he had predicted, China now surpassed the U.S. in oil consumption, and the world would never know low oil prices again as they continued to rise to their current level of one hundred twenty-five dollars a barrel.
He also knew career politicians had to appease their base and environmental lobbyists by voting against any new drilling or refineries in the continental United States. This self-imposed ban had been going on in Washington for the last thirty-eight years, which resulted in United States’ domestic oil production becoming almost non-existent.
To complicate matters, politicians over the years continued side-stepping any oil exploration or production in Alaska and the lower forty-eight states, which held more than a thirty-year supply of crude, plus the added benefit of thousands of jobs.
Pencor knew it was a no-win situation for the American people and utter hypocrisy, as both Republicans and Democrats feared rocking the boat because hefty donations continued to flow into their war chests. Those fools deserve what they get by continually re-electing bigger fools, he thought as he continued up the narrow sidewalk.
It was during a series of Congressional hearings in 2005 that Robert Pencor found himself subpoenaed to testify. That was when the opportunity to exact vengeance upon him by the victims of his ruthless past came into play.
A plant in his organization by a competitor had been able to procure documents linking Pencor to kickbacks and pension grabbing. Add to that a few forged documents, they now had a treasure trove of trumped up evidence to hand over to friendly politicians and a salivating media. The vultures circled, waiting for the kill.
Pencor had been totally blindsided by the testimony and revelations directed against him, but knew right away that he was being set up as the scapegoat for the public and for the media to crucify. The tactics used against him were well-planned and flawless. Thus, Robert Pencor and Pencor Oil made the Enron scandal look like a Girl Scout cookie sale.
To save face with the stockholders, the board of directors of Pencor Oil had him stripped of all duties and froze all of his assets, with the help of the Justice Department.
Robert Pencor had become a pariah: a man hated by America and a victim of his own ruthless greed. So, at the end of 2005, he fled the country to avoid prosecution, taking advantage of Morocco’s no extradition agreement with the United States, and where he had secretly invested much of his ill-begotten treasure over the years. In his rage and growing madness, he vowed that one day he would seek retribution on those who had ruined him; an obsession he still held to this day.
As it was with most Americans, he knew their memory would be short-lived and the media would find something else to focus on, thus diverting attention from the Pencor Oil scandal. Life went on, with Pencor slipping beneath the radar. He slowly drew his plans of revenge against the people and nation that tried to destroy him.
Yes, it will be soon, he thought, smiling a grin that usually frightened anyone who gazed upon it. “The fools will pay dearly for their stupidity and short-sightedness,” he said, laughing aloud as he came to the entrance of the brightly lit Masari Club.
Once inside, Pencor was greeted by the constant whirring sounds and clanging of the first floor’s Pachinko parlor with its endless rows of machines. He walked through the din to the back, and then to the flight of stairs leading to the second floor. He noted, with amusement, the groups of businessmen sitting at tables talking quietly while the comfort women, as they were labeled, stood about waiting for a signal to attend their respective table.
Pencor walked briskly up the flight of stairs to the upper level, leaving the smoke filled parlor behind. He entered the swinging doors into the second floor containing a small bar and restaurant. As he walked across the floor, he could hear the soft, melodic sounds of traditional Japanese music played on the Koto; a banjo like instrument, and a wooden flute.
Pencor sat down at an empty table and noticed a group of Japanese men wearing dark suits sitting in the back of the room, who regarded him suspiciously. He also noted the surveillance camera in the corner ceiling. One of the men stood and proceeded to walk over to the door labeled ‘office’ in Japanese, then knocked on the door. Pencor watched the man enter the room as a waiter briskly came over to him and took his order of deep fried prawns and gyoza, little dumplings of deep fried octopus, along with a glass of sake.