CARLOS & KATRINA

A Novel by Charles Adrian Trevino
Copyright 2006, 2020

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Chapter 38

Bet Bader took a deep breath and raised his hand to his forehead, looking down at the pile of papers on the podium in front of him for a few moments; he was feeling extremely frustrated tonight. Exhaling heavily, he raised his head to look at the small group assembled in his auditorium.

Seated in large, comfortable recliners were twenty of the most powerful Elders of Real in the world. They had been summoned fairly abruptly to this meeting, and some of them were mildly perturbed about the short notice given; all of them were sitting quietly however, patiently awaiting Bader's address. A hastily called-conference was always of an extremely important nature, and everybody in the room could sense that something was happening.

"Good evening, gentlemen of the High Counsel. I apologize again for the very short notice you received regarding this meeting; however, I'm sure that everyone here realizes the seriousness of the recent events that have been occuring in many of the countries under our control throughout the world. Tonight we are in session to discuss those events, and plan a course of action to deter some serious consequences which could very possibly materialize in the coming year, if such events continue to gain momentum."

Bader picked up the glass of water lying on his podium; he took a small sip before continuing on. "As you all have no doubt been informed, the persecution of Ushers has seen an alarming increase in the past few years; the number of violent incidents in public places including schools and places of worship, for example, has nearly quintupled in many metropolitan areas. There has been an alarmingly large and ever-growing resentment among a substantial percentage of the lesser Ushers in the political, business and religious sectors of our more important countries; these leaders are increasingly blaming the more powerful Ushers for these unfortunate, violent occurrences. Consequently, this has caused major discord and divisions between the various, once strongly united groups." Bader paused again for a few moments to take another drink from his water glass.

"The political and military resistance movements that were initially of a very small stature have been growing bolder and more united as they've gotten exponentially larger; in spite of our total control of the media outlets in every major country, word has been steadily leaking out about these movements, with more adherents joining them every day." Bader paused again, letting his words sink in.

"Yes, Bet, we realize that... but we all know that they are hopelessly and helplessly disorganized. These movements have never posed any kind of a real challenge to our power structure. And there has always been intense squabbling among the various factions of the lesser Ushers. So what exactly is the urgent problem, if I may ask?" said Nathan Rothman III, one of the most powerful members of the elite High Counsel present.

"The problem, sir, is that the violence and unrest have started to have noticably adverse social effects which threaten the stability of our established political systems in every country. For example, there is a growing movement to return the UFS to the Gold Standard, which could spread to other countries, which would impede our control over the tariff and protectionism bickering caused by our fluctuations of exchange rates, which would threaten not only the stability of our financial institutions, which are our foundation and backbone, but also the economic confusion regarding trade amongst the various countries, that is so very useful to us. The growing anxiety regarding the stability of and confidence in the UFS dollar is now a major area of concern; changing our gold backing to another currency would entail some work. Then there's the problem of alternative currencies which we have not yet managed to bring under our control. Additionally, there are many other problems which factor in. The Longfellow International Affairs Institute is reporting increasing global atmospheric and other changes due to our increased production, and is continually issuing strong warnings of devastating environmental effects, even to the extent of human extinction altogether, in only a few centuries. They're also warning of the problems caused by medical advances which are extending the duration of people's lifespans, as more and more elderly people claim the social benefits they have paid into, which monies have been taken to pay for our various other social programs such as health care for the large influx of immigrants which, of course, is a major component of our control over not only the Longfellows and other citizens of the UFS, but the entire world. These are just a few of the uncertainties which may be building into a major political and economic revolution which could well topple our existing structure, and cause major problems for us." Bader paused again to let his words resonate with the assemblage.

"So what are you suggesting? That we curb the productive output and immigration of all of our countries? That would mean less profits and more Longfellows, would it not?" An explosion of raucous laughter burst out and resounded throughout the room.

Bader looked down at his notes on the podium again for a few moments, then raised his eyes and smiled briefly before answering the jocular question. "Yes it would, sir. That it would." He waited until the laughter had completely stopped before continuing. "And that is a consequence which all of us would prefer to avoid. However, for the time being, slowing at least the productive output aspect might be the safest course of action for us... after all, if the world became uninhabitable because of pollution caused by over-production, it might affect even us." Another round of laughter emanated throughout the room.

Bader paused a few seconds, then continued on. "This slowdown of productivity could be accomplished in a number of ways; however, the extent to which we inform the public of what we are doing via the media outlets is another important matter for discussion."

The men in the auditorium sat quietly in their recliners as they mused on Bader's suggestion for a few moments. Then Meyer Goldhider stood up from his chair and began to speak. "I think I have a better solution than slowing production and profits. I think it may be time to dispense with the kid gloves approach and teach these insolent donkeys a lesson in power, and who wields it. We all know that these disorganized animals are helplessly inept when it comes to unifying, getting organized and dealing with our power system. So why should we even begin to waste time placating them, when we could start the process of total disruption of life as they know it, followed by a clear-cut demand for total capitulation? In the end, all the marionettes we've installed in the military hierarchies would follow us as always, if we reward them. Then there would be no need for any complex half-assed plans or strategies; if we use our time-tested, proven methods, everyone else would have no other choice but to acquiesce."

"How would you suggest we bring about this total disruption, Meyer? I'd be very interested in hearing your suggesions regarding that," asked Nathan Rothman III.

"Well, as you all know there are many ways to effect total chaos. In the UFS, we could utilize our subversive anti-fascist card; then there is a large population of poor and ignorant negroes who could quite easily be incited to help us out, especially if we promised to reward key figures in their governance, our mayors and governors, for example," said Meyer.

"Oh, the old resentful negro card, eh Meyer? And what about the not-so-poor and not-so-ignorant negroes who might use their influence to dissuade our angry resentful pawns?" asked J.P. Chaser, the legendary international financier.

"Ha! For every one of them there are about three million ignorant blacks... they would quite simply over-run the smart ones! You must know that, Chase. I'm surprised you would even consider that to be a problem..." Meyer Goldhider laughed in derision. "We could simply cause some sort of incident... we would only have to kill a few negroes to get them all rioting, and our anti-fascist friends could take over from there! We could provide them with funds, transportation, weapons... lasers, maybe! They could blind the police, ha ha! It could all be accomplished so easily... the entire country could be reduced to a burning hell-hole in less than a year, maybe only a few months! These things are all accomplished so easily in other countries... I'm really surprised at you, J.P."

"It may not be all that easy, Meyer," said Danny Warbucks, the philanthropist-economist. "Eli Wolfen would most certainly send in the military to quell the rebellions, wherever they would occur. The UFS military could easily defeat the anti-fascists and subdue the rioting negros and other dissidents..."

"What, did you all just take stupid pills or something? We could easily manipulate the congressmen to enact legislation to over-ride him..."

"Which he would veto..." interjected Warbucks.

"So we get congress to over-ride his veto! We can do anything now, especially with our total control of the media! Then our other agencies, such as the UFS Civil Libertarian Union could serve everybody who opposes that with lawsuits, tie up their money.. we've been ignoring the UFS Constitution for decades now, nobody can do anything about it! Nobody cares anymore! And there are a million other methods we could employ... we could use biological warfare, some of our germs, viruses... start a plague scare."

"Oh... but might that plague get to us, as well?" said Warbucks.

The room fell silent once again, as the assembled elders considered the possibilities. Then Bet Bader, who had heretofore been watching in silence, spoke once again.

"If we were to go that route, we wouldn't actually have to unleash any micro-organisms... we could utilize the already existing influenza outbreaks and other epidemics, and then use the media outlets to scare the citizenry by grossly inflating the casualty figures... that's if we decided to go that route. It would be a major leap in our manipulative tactics..."

"Excellent idea, Bet!" said Meyer Goldhider. "Then we could use our media scare tactics to make some "insider" money in the stock markets! And we could disrupt the economy by limiting production, shutting down all the markets, factories, etc. Everybody would become unemployed, and then they'd be instantly dependent on us for monetary hand-outs, which would vastly increase the debt they owe us... just think of all that interest flowing in, ha ha! We could even convert them to socialism in a very short span of time..."

"Also, that would please the Longfellow International Affairs Institute, if we slowed down production... that would solve their pollution problem, for one thing. Then maybe they'd shut up for a little while," joked legendary economics analyst Malcolm Bloomingberg. "And I love that part about the insider stock market trading! Capital idea, Meyer, capital idea. Genius. Absolute genius."

Bet Bader looked down at his podium once again. Then, raising his glass of water to his lips, he took another long draught, gazing at the assembled Elders of Real.

Meyer Goldhider stood up from his reclining chair once more, and gave Bloomingberg a military salute. "Yes, Malcolm, you hit the nail right on the head, there. Capital. Capital... the staff of life! Ha ha ha!"

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Copyright 2020 by Charles Adrian Trevino.