“Ah, David, it is so good to see you again,” said Kazan with a wide smile as Houston joined him on deck.
“It’s good to see you too, Dimitri,” replied Houston.
Kazan handed Houston a glass of Scotch. “How long has it been since we were last together?”
“It was two years ago in Scotland at Gavin’s castle. If I remember right, you got quite drunk on the last night there and made a play for Gavin’s young wife.”
Kazan chuckled. “Yes, I was a bit of a buffoon that night wasn’t I?”
“Yes, you were,” replied Houston before taking a long sip of his drink. “If I hadn’t been there, I’m sure he would have cut you in half with that sword he was chasing you with.”
“Well, all seems to be forgiven as he is belowdecks, waiting for your arrival with all the others.”
“Am I the last to arrive?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry about that,” said Houston sincerely. “I had a couple of things I wanted to tidy up before leaving home.”
“David, you are always the last to arrive. Besides, this time you are only a couple of hours late. Come, let us join the others.”
With that, Kazan led Houston deep into the interior of the Oceanus. To Houston, the brightly lit, ultramodern rooms and hallways reminded him of a spaceship, not a luxury boat. Together, they walked into a spacious room, with a large, tan-colored, crescent-shaped couch nestled against the far wall. Houston smiled when he saw his friends busily chatting with one another. They were the other ten members of the Plutus Society. Secretly formed in college, the twelve men and women in the room had kept in contact ever since. A couple of young Greek women in short skirts and tight, white shirts walked about the room, holding trays of drinks.
“Glad you could make it, David,” called out a baldheaded man with a thick Scottish brogue.
“You don’t have that sword with you, Gavin?” asked Houston.
“No, I don’t, nor do I have my wife either,” replied Gavin. “I got rid of her the day after you all left my place. If old Dimitri could catch her eye, she wasn’t worth keeping.”
Houston smiled back at his friend. That would make wife number six in just over twenty years. He must have incredibly airtight prenup agreements and one sharp lawyer, thought Houston.
Gavin Dearan’s company owned and operated more oil rigs in the North Sea than the next two companies combined. His wealth was conservatively estimated to be in the region of twenty-five billion dollars.
A slender Asian woman with long, black hair and a beautiful face dressed in a tight, green dress walked over and then gently slipped her arm under Houston’s right arm. “It’s good to see you again, David.”
“You too, Reika,” replied Houston.
Reika Ito was the sole owner of Japan’s largest computer- and software-manufacturing company. Having recently diversified her holdings, Reika’s personal wealth was a closely guarded secret, but Houston knew it to be somewhere north of forty billion dollars.
Everyone in the room had by good fortune or hard work had become a multi-billionaire by the time they turned thirty years of age. Aside from oil and computer technology, some had made their fortunes manufacturing arms for the world’s never-ending conflicts, while others’ money came from shipping, the aviation industry, or real estate.
“As your host, I would ask that you all take a seat and we can proceed with tonight’s agenda,” announced Kazan.
Houston and Reika took a seat at one end of the massive sofa.
Kazan waited for the serving girls to leave the room. The instant the door closed, all of the glass windows frosted over. A dull humming sound filled the room, only to fade away a couple of seconds later.
“Nothing to be alarmed about,” announced Kazan. “It’s just the latest in anti-surveillance technology. An electronic wall has been established around the room. There isn’t a device anywhere in the world that can penetrate the shield. You can all talk freely without the threat of anyone hearing a single word that will be spoken here today.”
Houston stood up. “Very well, I’ll begin as I was the one who asked for this meeting to take place. Ever since we formed this informal group of ours back in 1971, we have always understood that in order for our companies to remain wealthy there has to be a balance between supply and demand. Currently, the world’s population is more than seven billion and is expected to rise to over nine billion by 2050. We all know that there are a finite number of resources out there for all of those people to consume. Whether it is food, water, oil, arable land or whatever, the way the world is consuming these resources, we are headed for a global catastrophe unless something drastic is done about it.”
“David, we have discussed this issue at every meeting we have ever had,” said a man with thinning gray hair, gold-rimmed glasses and a strong French accent. “Many of us, myself included, have spent countless millions helping aid organizations educate the Third World about birth control, yet the populations of many of those countries continue to grow at an alarming rate.”
A German woman, dressed in a dark business suit, with a long, slender face and silver-gray hair, joined the conversation. “I have lobbied hard with the Green Party in several countries to try and bring in more eco-friendly legislation. My people have also helped many power companies in Europe adopt newer and more sustainable means of generating power.”
“Don’t push too hard, Heike,” said Houston. “We need people to keep buying our products or we’ll all become penniless.”
The last remark elicited a good laugh from the people in the room.
“I know you are all doing your best and are to be commended for your efforts. However, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves; our efforts to influence human behaviour across the globe have all failed miserably. It’s like a sickness; people everywhere want to live beyond their means, and they don’t care about the consequences. That is for another generation to worry about.”
A portly Chinese businessman sitting next to Kazan said, “This is no longer just a first-world problem. Pollution has become a real problem in my country. In our rush to modernize, we have become the world’s largest polluter. It is estimated that China’s population will grow to one and a half billion people by 2050 while our ability to produce food will shrink by thirty-seven percent, placing a huge strain on our economy.”
“Agree or disagree with the global-warming theorist, none of us can deny that man has drastically changed the world in the past century and not always for the good,” pointed out an African-American man with a thick Boston accent.
“Folks, if something far-reaching isn’t done, I’m afraid that the world will soon reach a point of no return,” said Houston. “If things don’t change, we stand to lose all that we have and I, for one, happen to like my life just the way it is. You have all worked hard to build a legacy that you can pass on to your children. Do you want to lose it all? I know I don’t, not when we have the means to stop the madness.”
“What are you driving at, David?” asked Gavin.
“In order for the world to be able to support the population it has over the long term, something has to give,” replied Houston bluntly.
“Go on,” said Gavin.
“According to many studies out there, in order to stave off the looming ecological disaster the Earth needs to shed one-third of its current population, and not over time. No, it must happen now!’”