Lethal Trajectories - Michael Conley [74]
“For the time being, we are suspending all oil shipments until the conspirators can be brought to justice. We have instructed all ships containing Saudi oil to return immediately to Saudi Arabia. Nations taking shipment of any Saudi oil do so at their own risk.
“We will make another broadcast later today to clarify our position on a number of crucial issues. Foreign governments listening to this broadcast would be well-advised to listen carefully to what we will be telling you. To the citizens of our country and to believers throughout the world, Allahu Akbar!”
Mustafa looked thoughtfully at the others as he set aside his speech. They erupted in cheers, and Mustafa accepted their approval with a smile before speaking.
“That is it, my brothers. Are there any additions, corrections, or suggestions that you would have me include in my speech?”
Before they began making their suggestions, which he had no intention of following anyway, he called in the media technicians and shortly thereafter began to broadcast his speech—a speech that would rearrange the power dynamics of the world.
28
Mankato, Minnesota
27 September 2017
Pastor Veronica felt hassled as she hurried through what she had dubbed her Wednesday Workout routine. The weekly church council and staff meetings added to her normal workload, and today she had been zapped with a request to attend an ad hoc fundraising group to upgrade her forty-five-year-old church building. With little time left to prepare for tonight’s Life Challenges group, she was nervous.
She hustled home after the fundraising meeting to help Mandy with her reinstatement essay. She was still upset about her precocious daughter’s suspension from high school, but she tried to look at it as a learning moment for both of them. Mandy had worked hard on the essay, though, and Veronica was pleased with her efforts. She left the house again, now in a better mood, to run a few errands before the meeting.
The car radio was still tuned to the talk-radio station. Not having had a chance to listen to the news all day, she was startled by what she heard.
“For those tuning in late, this is Wellington Crane with a special update on the crisis now exploding in Saudi Arabia. The king of Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family have been assassinated, and fighting has spread throughout the country. A new leader, Mustafa ibn Abdul-Aziz, broadcast just minutes ago that a coup attempt had been thwarted. He blamed the insurrection on Zionist and American CIA forces and said all Saudi oil shipments would be suspended. He warned that foreign intervention would result in the detonation of dirty bombs in Saudi oil fields, an action that would make them radioactive wastelands for decades to come.” The radio faded into static for a moment, and Veronica clicked the failing machine off and on again before getting Crane back on the air.
“… and the White House has yet to comment on the accusations. Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but this is—pure and simple—terrifying news.”
Veronica pulled in at the Printco Company to pick up flyers for the fundraising event. She rushed the poor cashier and almost ran back to her car, turning up the radio as she left the parking lot.
“Foreign markets took a beating today as news of the Saudi uprising spread. For those who don’t know, Saudi Arabia produces close to twenty percent of the world’s oil and indirectly controls even