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"I expect none. Your scheme is brilliant. The operation is planned down to the tiniest detail. I see no room for failure."
"Your Viper team is on board?"
"All except me. A helicopter is waiting to carry me to the tanker when it is a hundred miles out." Kanai glanced at his watch. "If I am to direct the final preparations, I must be leaving."
"The military cannot stop the tanker?" Zale asked hopefully.
"Those who try will be in for a rude awakening."
They stood and shook hands. "Good luck, Omo. Next time we meet, the U.S. government will have its strings pulled by new hands."
"And where will you be during the holocaust tomorrow?"
A sharp grin curled Zale's lips. "I will be testifying before Congresswoman Smith."
"Do you think she knows about your designs on domestic oil?"
"Sally Morse has no doubt revealed our agenda to her." Zale turned and stared out the window at the twinkling lights and the floodlit monuments of the capital. "But by this time tomorrow, it won't matter. Public outcry over foreign oil and gas will have surged like a tidal wave across the nation and all resistance against Cerberus will have been swept aside."
When Loren walked from her office in the Congressional Office Building into the hearing room, she was stunned as she stared at the table reserved for those subpoenaed to appear before her committee. There was no army of Cerberus corporate attorneys, no platoon of company directors or officials.
Curtis Merlin Zale sat alone behind the table.
No papers or notes were laid out on the surface before him. No briefcase on the floor. He simply relaxed casually in his chair, immaculately suited, and smiled at the members of Congress as they entered and sat down at the raised desks above the main floor of the hearing room. His eyes strayed to Loren as she sat down and laid a sheaf of papers on her desktop. She caught him staring at her, and she suddenly felt unclean. Despite his attractive looks and impeccable attire, she found him repulsive, like a venomous snake sunning itself on a rock.
She looked over to see if the other members of the committee were settled in their chairs and ready to begin the proceedings. She exchanged looks with Congressman Leonard Sturgis, who nodded politely, but his face appeared strained, as if he was leery of having to go through the motions of asking tough questions of Zale.
Loren said a few preliminary words to open the investigation and then thanked Zale for appearing. "You realize, of course, that you have the privilege of appearing with counsel," she advised him.
"Yes," he said in a calm voice, "but in the spirit of full cooperation and disclosure, I sit here before you ready to answer fully any and all questions."
Loren glanced up at the big clock on the far wall of the hearing chamber. It read 9:10 A.M. "The proceedings may run most of the day," she informed Zale.
"I am at your disposal for as long as it takes," said Zale in a quiet voice.
Loren turned to Congresswoman Lorraine Hope of Texas. "Congresswoman Hope, would you do the honor of beginning the investigation?"
Lorraine Hope, a heavy black woman from the Galveston shore of Texas, nodded and launched the proceedings. Loren knew that Hope's name was not on the list of those bought off by Cerberus, but she couldn't be positive of Hope's views on the company. Up to this point her probes had been moderate and seemingly independent. But that was soon to change now that she was confronted by Zale himself.
"Mr. Zale, is it your position that the United States would be far better off if we became self-sufficient in domestic oil and did not require the importing of foreign crude from the Middle East and Latin America?"
Oh God, thought Loren, she's playing right into his hands.
"Our reliance on foreign oil," began Zale, "is draining the economy. For the past fifty years, we have been at the mercy of OPEC, who has played with market prices like a yo-yo. Their insidious ploy was to raise the price of a barrel of oil by two dollars, then drop it one. Raise it two and drop it one, keeping the price edging slowly up and up until we are now looking at nearly sixty dollars a barrel for every barrel of imported oil. Prices at the gas pump are outrageous. Trucking companies and drivers who own their trucks are going under. Prices for airline tickets have skyrocketed because of higher aviation jet fuel prices. The only way to stop this madness that will eventually break the country is to develop our own fields and not have to rely on outside oil."
"Are there enough reserves underground to support American needs, and if so, for how long?" asked Lorraine Hope.
"Indeed," Zale said boldly. "There is more than enough oil in the continental United States and Canada, plus offshore oil reserves, to make North America completely self-sufficient for the next fifty years. I can also announce at this time that the enormous shale oil deposits throughout Colorado, Wyoming and Montana will be ready to process into crude oil within the next year. This alone will keep us from ever again becoming reliant on foreign oil. Then perhaps, by the middle of the century, technology will perfect alternative sources of power."
"Are you saying that there should be no environmental considerations in opening new fields?" asked Loren.
"The environmental protests are vastly overstated," retorted Zale. "Few if any animals have died because of oil-drilling rigs or pipelines. Migratory trails can be altered by wildlife-management experts. There is no contamination on the ground or in the sky due to drilling. And most important, by keeping foreign oil off our shores, we can eliminate the kind of tragedies that we've seen with the Exxon Valdez and the other oil spills the nation has suffered in the last few years. Without the need for tankers to bring oil into the United States, that threat is eliminated."
"You make a strong case," said Congressman Sturgis. "I, for one, lean toward your scenario. I have always been against blackmail by the foreign oil cartels. If American oil companies can supply the country's needs without leaving our shores, I'm in favor of it."
"What about the companies bringing up oil from around the world and shipping it into our ports and refineries?" demanded Loren. "If their flow to the United States is cut off, they'll most likely go broke."
Zale didn't look the least bit disconcerted. "They'll simply have to sell their output to other countries."
