by B. TRAVEN
But to their surprise, no one sold their shares. It is safe to say that this was proof of the shareholders’ belief in the feasibility of the project. Therefore, APTC’s enemies had to employ rougher methods for bringing down the company. An unscrupulous pack of lobbyists served their purposes. Usually they loitered in the antechambers, cafeterias, hallways, barbershops, and restrooms of the Senate and House, to whisper lies and rumors into the ears of representatives and senators. They managed to get the Senate to deal with the matter of the APTC, as the company had to request permission to issue a new series of shares in the amount of one billion dollars.
The Senate decided to constitute a senatorial subcommittee tasked with investigating the APTC. They reasoned that the public had an inalienable right to know the truth about the company’s intentions. The committee was to find out whether the company planned to commit fraud, including speculation in shares. In addition, they had to determine whether the company intended to break antitrust laws by attempting to establish a transport monopoly. Finally, it was imperative to ascertain whether this private project could endanger the country’s complicated defense system.
Aslan’s lawyers explained to her that it would be very difficult to rescue the company without fundamentally changing or abandoning the project. Since the company did not have the least bit of proof of its feasibility, Aslan especially would come under fire in front of the Senate committee. It would be easier than Aslan believed for the committee to decide that she was purposely trying to hide the company’s true intentions. In that case, they were setting themselves up for the Department of Justice to intervene. An indictment of fraud seemed inevitable.
It looked pretty bad. Aslan invited Beckford to a private discussion.
“Mr. Beckford,” she said to him without any introduction, “if things go badly in the committee, I will land in prison for several years. And you will, too, of course.”
“Me?” Mr. Beckford asked, surprised. “Me? What in the world do I have to do with this goddamned mess? I don’t own a single share.”
“You are registered as the general manager of the company. ‘Cling together, swing together,’ as horse thieves say.”
“No way, ma’am. No way, not with me. Tomorrow I’ll go immediately to the closest recruitment office and I’ll reenlist in the Marine Corps. I am always welcome there. They always need good sergeants. Then I’m rid of all these worries. In any case, I’m fed up with this life here, just so you know. I’m sick and tired of it. I’ll do my own thing. Good night!”
“So, in short, you want to let me face the music by myself? And I had such high hopes for you.”
“You know as well as I do that no one asked me, ma’am.”
“It’s not as easy as you think to get away. The Marine Corps doesn’t need you, they could get anyone to scream at new recruits. For now, I still need you here and I need you desperately. Before we get sent to prison for several years, there’ll be plenty of time for you to disappear. And once you’re back with your roughnecks, no district attorney can get you out of there, certainly not for this kind of affair.”
“All right then, ma’am, what do you want? What am I supposed to do for you? At some point, I guess I have to show some gratitude for all the favors I never asked for.”
“Now that sounds quite a bit better.” Aslan laughed.
It was easy for Aslan to smuggle certain nuggets of information to the newspapers. Now, the papers implied that the company’s directors and board members, who had allegedly taken money from honest, hardworking, trusting citizens, were planning to leave the country under the pretext of going on vacation. All their passports were ready and stamped with visas for countries that would not extradite. Another report claimed that the Senate committee had arrest warrants for fraud on their desks, ready to be served. Then news appeared that the Senate committee would be ordering a hearing in the next few days, which was not true as of yet. Allegedly, the hearing was due to a series of suspicious circumstances suggesting fraudulent activity.
At the perfect moment, just as Aslan had planned, another story hit the papers like a bomb. Facing pressure on all sides, the chair of the Senate committee announced that the accused had already been asked to appear and that public proceedings were to take place on the second Thursday of the following month. He added that since the hearing was of great significance for the entire American people, it would be aired on national television, to prove that the honorable Senate committee would not be influenced by Big Business. The average Joe could judge for himself.
Aslan could not have secured better national publicity for her plan. In the most diplomatic fashion, she had managed to interest the country’s major television networks. No one in the entire country would miss this sensational drama. The television broadcast now promised to eclipse the historic hearing of a group of Hollywood screenwriters and directors accused of being Communists, who, with their films, had allegedly imposed their anti-American ideas in a typically Bolshevik manner on a naive American audience.
As accusations against the company’s board accumulated, one would have thought its shareholders would finally be tempted to cut their losses and sell their shares. If the Senate committee were to prove attempted fraud, the shares would just barely be worth the profit from a final liquidation.
Strangely, not a single share was offered for sale. There were two explanations: either all shares were in the possession of one entity, or the shareholders were firmly convinced that the project would come to fruition. With absolute certainty, they expected amazingly high dividends, maybe not in the next few weeks but surely in the next twelve or fifteen years. Delayed gratification was nothing new for the founders of American companies. The longer you waited and the larger the company, the higher the dividends would be.
11.
On Tuesday afternoon, Aslan asked: “Are you done with everything, Mr. Beckford?”
“It’s all done, ma’am. Even my pants are buttoned up.”
“Do you know what will happen to you if something goes wrong due to your carelessness?”
“You’ll shoot me in cold blood or suddenly push me into a ravine while I’m busy admiring the magnificent landscape.”
“Not quite. I’m not a murderer. But it will be bad for you, very bad, I can promise you that. I do have my methods. I learned them in Hollywood. My paid goons will beat you to a pulp.”
“That’s what I figured. But you underestimate me. Let’s see who really gets beat up in that fight.”
“Oh, I’m just kidding.”
“Of course you’re only kidding. You are always kidding where I am concerned.”
“Don’t be tragicomic, Mr. Beckford. You have no reason for that. I hope you gave Amy her final instructions precisely.”
“She will appear and disappear like a ghost, with maps or without, with lists or without.”
“While we are talking about this … I hope you have not started anything with Amy. It is never good for business when the boss amuses himself with the secretary.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. Amy says ‘Good night’ at the mere request of a cup of black coffee.”
“Aha, so you did try, then?”
“Why not, ma’am? She is a woman.”
“A woman? As far as I know she is neither married, nor widowed, nor divorced, and she comes from a good family.”
“Yes, hardware in Eldersville, Kansas.”
“It sounds as if you went pretty far with her?”
“Yes, ma’am, so far that her past has become the despair of my present.”
“Good God, don’t talk nonsense.”
“I’m referring to the title of a movie that caused the utter failure of the date.”
“Well, I’m glad it failed. Don’t seduce a first-class secretary just to turn her into a third-class lover. And just so you know, you’re getting a new secretary. A pretty young girl, who can run errands to the post office and office supply store. As of this morning, Amy is to be my personal secr
etary with a salary of three hundred dollars a week.”
“At that salary, I’ll marry her on the spot.”
“Amy knows you too well to let you marry her. You’ll be happy with the new female hire, much happier than with Amy. Amy is a lady. A lady of untouchable honesty and integrity.”
“You clearly know her very well, ma’am.”
“Of course I know her well. Now back on task. Have the five assistants received their instructions?”
“They’ll march around like tin soldiers. I wasn’t a sergeant in the Marine Corps for nothing.”
“Okay, good. I want to see the five in my hotel around six o’clock. Tell them that they should arrive in their street clothes and bring their uniforms for a final dress check. Two seamstresses will be present to do last looks and to make any necessary alterations. And by the way, Mr. Beckford, you have done more and better work in the last two weeks than I would have ever expected.”
“I only followed your orders and commands, ma’am.”
“That’s true, but you know as well as I do that it’s possible to follow orders in many ways. Some of your ideas were actually excellent and truly original.”
“It was a pleasure, ma’am. No reason for eternal gratitude on your part. It was a pleasure, and plus it’s my job, ever since you picked me up off the street.”
“‘Picked up off the street’ is probably not the right expression. But if that’s what you want to call it, fine. The truth is you crossed my path at the right moment.”
“Let’s say I crossed the path of your Cadillac, ma’am,” Beckford corrected her, and laughed.
12.
Aslan was glad that she had spent several years in the world of illusions. The Senate committee’s conference room would have made any film director green with envy. The gentlemen of the Senate looked very dignified. These terribly honorable senators were first and foremost men, and so an intelligent woman like Aslan knew she had to sate the hunger left by their boring wives at home.
Aslan wore a dark blue, excellently tailored dress. The dress discreetly accentuated her curves, and the suggestiveness only made her more seductive. Amy was also wearing a dress, but one that flattered her figure more explicitly, especially beneath her hips. Not too much and not too little.
The five female assistants, who wore tasteful, quasi-military uniforms, were constantly in motion. They played their roles marvelously. Each one was prettier than the last. Their lips wore an inviting smile, promised everything. Two blondes, a redhead, and two brunettes.
Beckford, who was wearing a simple suit, attempted to insinuate that he was the actual brains of the operation. No one believed him, however.
The whole scene looked more like a film production than a serious hearing in front of the most venerable Senate; a hearing that was to deal with the existence of a company worth billions on the stock market. The half dozen cameras reinforced this impression when they began to roll as soon as the honorable senators entered the room and took their seats.
The audience noticed immediately that the senators were intent on appearing like movie stars on television. They pulled on their ties, smoothed their hair, and pasted onto their faces the stereotypical, paternalistic grins of career politicians. Such politicians only took up the heavy burden of representing the people and sacrificing their health and life for the good of the nation and of the general public.
First, the committee posed the usual questions. How had they founded the company and for what purpose? Of course, this information had already been entered into the register, and yet the gentlemen of the Senate needed to be told as if they had never heard of the company before.
Beckford explained that he assumed full responsibility for everything that had happened since the founding of the company, since he was the general manager of the company as noted in the official registry. When a senator asked him to name the majority shareholders, two other senators immediately leaned over to whisper in his ear. Even those at home watching on television could hear their advice: the senators feared that one of their friends might be implicated and they would not serve him well by revealing his name to the public.
Of the eighty-two million television sets in the country, likely forty million were tuned in at that very moment. Aslan had calculated correctly. If it were not for her Hollywood orchestration, if it were not for the girls in their tasteful uniforms, with their beautiful legs and winning smiles, several million viewers would have soon lost interest in the hearing, dense with legal jargon.
Someone ordered a forty-five-minute break. After the intermission, the gentlemen of the Senate entered the chamber in a dignified manner. As soon as they realized that the cameras were rolling, they struggled to wear again the paternalistic smiles that their voters knew so well.
Now they asked Beckford whether he believed that such a cross-country canal was feasible and how construction was to be executed. He explained that it was feasible.
How did he plan to cut through the Rocky Mountains?
“That is not my job. It is a matter for the American engineers,” he answered. “I am merely the general manager of the company in charge of administering the company’s assets to benefit the shareholders and of managing the business side of things.”
“Mr. Beckford, do you know the distance between New York and San Francisco?”
“It is two thousand five hundred seventy-one miles overland, in so-called statute miles, or two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles. Ships calculate distances in nautical miles, which have been a recognized unit of measure since July 1, 1954.”
The interrogating senator cleared his throat, apparently surprised by the precision of Beckford’s answer.
Aslan thought to herself: “I put great effort into getting him to memorize these numbers, but he does deserve praise for doing it so well.”
“Mr. Beckford, do you know the height of the highest point of the Rocky Mountains?”
“It is four thousand eight hundred thirty-two meters at its peak.”
“And you want to overcome a rock wall of that height?”
“Of course not, sir. However, since the lowest point of the country is at most eighty-five miles from the highest, our engineers will find the best middle ground; because the lowest point, of which I just spoke, is seventy-four meters below sea level and that may give our engineers more headaches than that highest point.”
Well said, thought Aslan.
The interrogating senators began to shift nervously in their seats. Senator Drake, who had neither said nor asked anything up to that point, thought it was about time to show his voters how important he was. He grinned, hoping it would rattle Beckford, and asked a question tricky enough that he hoped it would garner the admiration of the viewers at home.
“Are you trying to tell me, Mr. Beckford, that you will abort the canal project if the costs of breaking rock are too high or if it indeed proves to be impossible?”
“We have a simple solution for this problem, sir. We just lift the ships across the rocks. Very simple, really.”
“You lift the ships across the rocks,” repeated the most venerable senator, exploding into a rumbling laugh, joined by his colleagues when he nudged them in the ribs. “And you claim this is very simple?” He changed his tone: “We are not here to listen to fairy tales.”
“I apologize if the gentlemen misunderstood. I meant to add that this is already the case with the Panama Canal and many others. Ships are lifted by sluices where necessary to cross points of high elevation. Of course, it is costlier in terms of time than if a ship could go straight through the canal. However, I wanted to point out that if you disregard cost, you can build a canal anywhere on earth, no matter what its length and no matter what obstacles stand in the way.”
The senators put their heads together. After consulting the questionnaires in front of them, they decided how to continue the hearing.
“Mr. Beckford, let us say you build and actually complete this canal—let’s fo
rget the cost for the moment—how much time would a ship going directly from New York to San Francisco save? Compare that to the time a ship needs to make its way via Panama. Can you answer this question for the committee with precision?”
“I apologize, sir, but if I may, that is the wrong question to ask.”
“The wrong question? What do you mean, Mr. Beckford?”
“The time it takes a ship to get from one harbor to the next depends on its speed, which is different for every ship. Some boats travel at more than eight knots, which means eight nautical miles per hour, while other ships, like the SS United States, for example, can and often have reached a speed of thirty-five and a half nautical miles per hour.”
“So, if it does not save time in some cases, Mr. Beckford, where do you see the advantage of such a costly enterprise like the construction of this canal?”
“At the end of the day, it is an immense gain in time if the distance of the journey is shorter. The distance between New York and San Francisco via Panama is five thousand two hundred sixty-three nautical miles. The distance between New York and San Francisco straight across the country is only two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles. So each ship would save a distance of three thousand twenty-nine nautical miles. And since we are speaking of saving time: a ship that only travels at twenty nautical miles per hour would save approximately six days. Granted that a ship cannot travel down a canal at the same speed as on the open sea, the time saved might only be three or four days. For the ship owner, a savings of four days means a profit that is greater the larger the boat is.”
“So, you are completely convinced, Mr. Beckford, that it is possible to build such a canal?”
“Entirely convinced, sir.”
“Let us say the company of which you are the general manager and for the assets of which you are completely responsible, begins to build the canal, and for some reason, you cannot raise further funds. What happens with the shares of the company?”