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Chapter 5
A
conspiracy was brewing in the private office of Maramar, the king of Seher, a
country centrally located on planet Berth. He was also the richest guy of the
entire planet.
The
office where the conspiracy was brewing was the home office of the king Maramar.
It was secretly positioned in his mansion in his home country Seher. The
mansion was famous for its 500 odd rooms with some 400,000 square feet of
living area. Most of the rooms were furnished with gilded furniture and
artifacts. The land around it admeasured more than 10,000 acres. State of the
art security system ensured that not even an ant could trespass the property.
Maramar
owned many similar properties in several countries of Berth. He had invested
heavily in almost every big company of the developed countries like Desh, Chinhut,
Bigland, and Unon. In short he was stinking rich and other rich guys of the
planet could not digest this fact. They were highly jealous of his riches and
also his resultant popularity in high society. Many of them were busy scheming
ways and means by which they could unseat him from his number one position.
“Pump
in money in BL Oil Limited. Bring up my shareholding in this company to at
least 51%. Kirchoff is acting funny. He is planning to throw me out from the
company’s board. But with 51% shareholding I will throw him. And I know a lot
of scams in which he is involved. I will soon make sure he is behind the bars,”
Maramar spoke out angrily.
“But
sir, you were the one who proposed him for CEO’s position and requested the
board to allot him a big chunk of company’s shares.”
“Yes.
That made him almost the second richest person. And now he is becoming too big
for his boots. He has the backing of no less than the president Gushnell.”
“But
sir, the president is your friend.”
“He
was. But lately he has been acting funny. He extorts from me a big chunk of
money. The money goes directly into his personal kitty. This extortion is in reciprocation
of the favors extended by him to me. As you know he has allowed the import of
oil for BL Oil Limited and many other oil companies of his country from our
country. With every barrel exported I also become richer. For each barrel, I
get my cut from our country’s exporters.”
“But
sir that arrangement, I understand, still continues.”
“No,
over the last few months Gushnell has become far more greedy and ambitious. His
presidency term is about to come to an end. Before that he wants to amass as
much wealth as possible and become the richest person on Berth. So he is asking
me to bribe him 30% more. If I fall in his trap what is left in this business
for me?”
“And
sir he is already making too much money from a recent movie directed by his
wife. His wife Helen had stopped her association with the movie business after
her husband was elected the president of Bigland. People of Bigland do not like
their president’s wife dealing in movies.”
Maramar
nodded. By his gestures he encouraged the other person in the conversation to
give him further details.
The
other person said, “But lately she resumed her work in the movies in
retaliation to her husband’s dirty acts with his personal secretary. You already
know about the amorous relationship of the president with his own lady
secretary. That scandal rocked the entire planet, we all know about it. A movie
was recently made around the scandal and it became the biggest hit of all
times. As I just told you the movie is
based on the scandal and none other than president’s wife directed it
personally. Who else must know the details of the scandal better than her?”
“Have
you seen the movie?”
“Yes.
I saw the movie recently. The love scenes between the characters resembling
quite like the president and his secretary are the highlights of the movie. The
scenes are fantastically titillating. May I recommend this movie to you?”
“Now
since you are praising it so much I must see it soon. I missed seeing the video
clip that was in limited circulation for a very limited period of time
immediately after the scandal took place. I was told the dirty act was recorded
live on the closed circuit television in president’s own mansion. At least I
must see the movie.”
“I
have a smuggled DVD. I will share it with you.”
“I
will have to watch it stealthily but don’t tell my wife. She is a jealous type.
She already casts doubts on my character too. But you are straying me away from
the main topic of our conversation that got interrupted as this more
interesting topic crept in.”
“Sir,
you were telling about the president demanding more.”
“Yes.
But I have pointblank refused to toe the line. So he became very angry. He
threatened me with his plan of declaring a war on Seher under a false pretext
that I have been exploiting my people over past thirty years, torturing them, even
killing them, and my people don’t want to see me as their king. Therefore his
country should intervene to uphold their human rights. Bigland has an irritating
habit of intervening in the affairs of other countries with some ulterior
motives. In our case, the fact is, Gushnell has his eyes on our oil wells. If
he defeats us in war, he can do anything under the name of rebuilding Seher as
his country’s post war activity. Ultimately he and his family will personally
benefit from it under the garb of his country Bigland helping out
reconstruction of Seher after its possible devastation from the war.”
“But
how can you lose the war? You have a very strong army and you have full
civilian support from the entire population of Seher.”
“You
are not aware of the latest development. A few opportunists and fanatically
religious officers of my army abhor my somewhat non-religious indulgences. Lately
they have been openly showing their rebellious attitude toward me. They dare do
so mainly because of the instigations from Gushnell. So they are misleading a
significant portion of our people to go against me. I’m going to deal with
these rebels soon.”
Maramar
paused for a while. He brooded over what to say next. Then he continued, “They
say that I do not follow our religion properly and I am exploiting the people.
My family and I are getting rich but the people of Seher are becoming poor and
poorer. And so these fanatical army officers backed by a very large chunk of
population of our country are now against me. They are planning a coup.”
Maramar
took a deep sigh.
“I
can’t believe. You have ruled them for over 30 years and they have always
behaved as your obedient servants all these years. What happened suddenly that
they are showing the audacity to go against you? Is it a part of any conspiracy
masterminded by any external agency?”
“As
I told you my strong guess is Gushnell is behind all this. He would strike just
around the time our army and the civilian population stage the coup. He is
supporting these fanatics led by a few army officers who are basically
opportunists and have nothing to do with religion. They ultimately want power. Gushnell
must have agreed to throw some spoils and goodies at them. I guess they will
form a government after my ouster, a government that will remain subservient to
Gushnell. But I can safely profess that will be his funeral, going from frying
pan to fire. These opportunistic snakes will finally bite Gushnell. ”
Nobody
spoke for a while before the conversation resumed. The atmosphere of the room
had become pretty tense.
“But
sir, right now you are in a real difficult situation. You must get out of it as
soon as possible. We can consider other developments later on.”
“You
are saying I am in real difficult situation? Not me alone dear, you too. You
too will drown in case I drown. That’s why move fast. As a part of my strategy
to counter Gushnell’s evil plans of war on us, first buy 51% shares of BL Oil
Limited and throw out that silly CEO Kirchoff. That will shake up his mentor
Gushnell. Gushnell makes tons of money from BL Oil Limited. He uses Kirchoff
for the purpose. With Kirchoff gone from the company Gushnell will feel cheesed
off and his attention will be diverted for a while. He will inadvertently
postpone his intention of waging a war on us. That gives me sufficient time to
plan out a strategy for a counteroffensive.”
“But
Bigland is a very tough enemy. They have the latest and the best warfare
gadgets. The war will result in huge casualties of armed forces and civilians
of our country.”
“Oh,
everything is fair in love and war. Don’t become so sentimental. You are my
closest confidant and I guarantee you would become one of the richest persons of
our planet very soon. Just keep following my designs. I have already made you
my chief financial and war strategist at a salary that is envy of many of your
colleagues.”
The
chief financial and war strategist to king Maramar felt momentarily enamored by
this assurance. Maramar had bestowed this weighty title to him to only use him
as his sounding board and to get all the dirty things done. And in reality the
strategist was not supposed to strategize anything. Only Maramar did.
Yet
Maramar used to like his so called strategist for his analytical abilities and
for eliciting the right questions out of him. This helped Maramar to finalize
his strategies and plans in a better way.
“Leave
it to me sir. Just like the old times you need not have to bother anymore even
now. I will proceed with your designs,” he uttered mechanically, he had no
choice.
As
the namesake chief financial and war strategist of king Maramar stepped out of
the king’s mansion and sat in his car protected by extremely high level of
security bandobast he felt ashamed of himself. But this wasn’t the first time
he felt so low and ashamed. He had been getting this feeling of shame and low
self-worth every time he came out of meetings with King Maramar. He detested it
every time.
He
introspected and thought, “I’ve been reduced to lower than a domestic servant
of Maramar with zero self-worth. The king is using me as a mere messenger boy. I
simply pass on particularly his unpleasant and cruel diktats to various
officials of Seher for implementation. And all of them believe that I am a
party to such unpleasant and cruel decisions. These officials then carry out
all kinds of atrocities on Seher’s public under Maramar’s directions released
through me. Many times these atrocities have included very harsh and
unjustifiable punishments and tortures including death sentences to the people
of Seher. These officials often convey
to the people that I was a party to those decisions. Now I cannot bear the
burden of so many brutalities and murders on my head. I’m not worthy of living.
I wish I could free myself from the clutches of Maramar- but that seems so
difficult. Maramar will never release me alive from this job, as I know so many
of his secrets. It’s shame on me that I have become his slave to carry out all
his dirty work.”
Zahin’s
eyes became moist with tears. He felt frustrated.
Zahin,
the chief financial and war strategist of the king, was none other than the brilliant
person who once topped his class of master of business administration course of
the most prestigious business school of Bigland. He broke all the previous
records of academic excellence. His name still shone on the wall of fame of the
institute. He was also a person filled with lofty ideals. It had made his
parents and family members bask in pride.
He
had been working in Maramar’s secretariat for seven years now. But despite
working for a crook of the order of Maramar, his sensibilities always pricked
him whenever he handled any dirty job for Maramar. His conscientiousness still
remained intact.
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