Sea of Greed

Staring back at her from the screen was the square face of a powerfully built man with a dark mustache. His name was Arat Buran. Buran was a shadowy but important player in the oil business with extensive holdings in Kazakhstan and other areas of Central Asia. He and Tessa had a long and complicated relationship. Business and pleasure might not have been a good mix, but lust, greed and the desire for power were aphrodisiacs both of them enjoyed. Their latest collaboration was the riskiest of all and, as such, the most enticing.

“My dear Tessa,” Buran said. “You look ravishing as always. I trust you’re feeling well.”

“I’ll feel better when I’ve been paid,” Tessa said. “I’ve done my part. I promised you and your Consortium rising oil prices and I’ve delivered. Now I expect the Consortium to transfer the funds we’ve agreed upon.”

“Oil prices have been rising,” Buran admitted, “though at a very slow pace.”

“That will change by morning,” she replied.

He tilted his head. “Surely you’re not claiming the disaster in the Gulf as evidence of your success?”

It wasn’t exactly success, but she had every right to claim it.

She felt it necessary to explain. “The U.S. government has been keeping oil prices artificially depressed, even as I’ve succeeded in sabotaging production around the world. With this incident playing on TV and soon appearing on the cover of every magazine in the world, they won’t be able to keep prices down much longer. You’ll have your windfall. And I will take what was promised me.”

Aggression was her nature. Some men responded to it. Others were put off by it. Buran was a man who preferred control, but he also savored a challenge. It had made their romantic relationship fiery, combative and exhilarating.

On the screen, Buran paused before responding to her demands. He shifted in his chair, gently stroking his mustache, smoothing out the bristly surface. “You and I have known each other a long time now, Tessa. It was I who helped you complete that great aircraft of yours and I who convinced the Consortium that you could do the impossible and change the world’s oil market once and for all. But such a claim must be proven before it can be paid.”

More equivocating, she thought. More delays. Delays that were driving her toward bankruptcy.

Buran continued. “The requirement is for a long-term, sustained rise in prices. One that would make the Consortium the most powerful oil cartel in the world. And simultaneously allow your company to become the largest alternative energy firm in the world. Divide and conquer, you said. You get your half of the planet and we get ours. Isn’t that how you sold it to me?”

“It was,” she said. “And that’s exactly how it will be. But I can’t finish the job without more working capital.”

Buran sighed. “Tessa, you spend money faster than anyone I know. In hopes that this is your last request for an advance, I’m willing to extend to you an additional installment. But you’ll have to agree to reduce your final payment… by a third.”

The condescension left her seething. But all that really mattered were the numbers. “Trade billions for a few million? I think not.”

He shrugged. “I told the others you wouldn’t accept it, but I was obliged to make the offer. Unfortunately, that means we have nothing further to talk about, at least until it’s clear that the price of oil will continue to get higher and remain so indefinitely into the future.”

“You’re weakening your own position by weakening me,” she said.