Black Oil, Red Blood

Chapter 25



Delmont felt the blast from the refinery explosion and ran to the window in his chambers. He could see flames shooting high into the sky and a plume of black smoke billowing over the town.

He went back to his desk and furiously punched numbers into his phone.

As soon as the line connected, he started hollering. “What the hell just happened out there?

“Gilbert deployed the virus,” said the voice on the other end.

“And the virus caused the explosion?”

“Not exactly. The virus was designed to dramatically drop the price of oil. Were you watching the financial tickers? There’s no way we could have sustained that kind of a loss without suffering irreparable harm. We didn’t have a choice.”

“A choice about. . . wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me you blew up the refinery on purpose?”

“It was just a small explosion. Don’t worry about it. We’ll have it fixed in no time. In the meantime, fears about shortages will help stabilize market prices, and everyone will be okay.”

“Listen, I don’t like this,” Delmont said. “You guys are really putting a strain on the system lately. I already gotta deal with the run-of-the-mill toxic torts cases that come through here, but now I got a dead guy on my hands, and you’re also blowing yourselves up? How many injuries?”

“Minimal. I evacuated the area first.”

“Are there any injuries? How many cases will I have to shut down now?”

“We’re still waiting on preliminary reports.”

Delmont swore. “This is getting old, you know. Real old. And I can only help you out so much without making people suspicious. How do you think it looks if thirty personal injury cases land on my desk and every single one of them gets thrown out? You better be ready to pay out some damages on at least some of the cases.”

“Yeah, sure. Gotta make sure old Dick has enough money to ante up on Tuesday nights anyway.”

“There’s something about that guy that I don’t trust.”

“Don’t worry about him. We’ve got him under control.”

“You’d better,” Delmont said.

He slammed the phone down on the receiver and turned back to the window to survey the damage.