Message-ID: <59658asstr$1259169004@assm.asstr.org>
From: John Darts <johndarts@gmail.com>
Subject: {ASSM} The Shangri-La Islands Ch 16 (By: The Search4)
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Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:10:04 -0500
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This is a work of fiction and is to be read that way. It is somewhat science
based and also religion based. So you should learn some of both areas when
reading it. Is there sex? Yes some but if your looking for hard core look
else where. This as all novels is meant for entertainment. There will be
just one chapter each week as much research is going into this as I write.


Chapter 16

The hard thing for most to understand was that things were not going to
improve a lot in most countries. Those changes were going to be a very slow
process. The vast majority did not trust central governments and they simply
would not accept any national one. This divided many countries and caused
them to regress by centuries.

Joji had flown to Okinawa to see how Kei was coming with their new center.
They were producing a catalog that would allow online ordering. It was
required for the Arab world because none of Joji's people were allowed into
more than Kuwait. So a young Arab currier would take a laptop and set it up
for each buyer.

Under the new system they would simply buy a laptop and have it set up one
time. It then allowed them to order over many days. If they reduced a number
then it was often lost to them. People bought out a shipment or two ahead on
the goods that were limited.

Most foods were freeze dried as here it allowed them to be sold to desert
tribes. It did allow them vegetables for cooking with meats. That for most
of these tribes was not the normal food. It was healthier and did improve
their life spans. But it was something that required being taught to the
women of the tribes.

The trade of pineapple and sugar from the Hawaiian Islands, helped business
as well. Both of these were a known item. Many in Asia and the Arab world
liked pineapple for cooking and toppings.

Kei had done very well in how goods were packaged, the way they were offered
and displaying them for the best results. Of course much of this food and
cloth for clothing was ordered by John's mines for the ores the ships picked
up. The ores were sold for finished goods, which was sold to Japan and many
smaller countries for goods they made or grew. There just was never enough
metals to meet the needs of the world any more. It would drive pricing if
there was a larger market for any product. Today you did not make anything
without an order from a known customer being in hand.

This was true even of cars, trucks and farm equipment Joji bought and
shipped to the Islands. His credit on any order was good, as they knew it
could be paid for in things they needed. Things no one else had any of. Of
all the car companies in Japan only Honda and Mitsubishi were left. Honda
survived for cars, motorcycles and farm equipment. Mitsubishi survived for
their trucks and heavy machinery. The rest of the manufacturers were looking
for new products or had just closed down. There just was not enough demand
for those products any longer. A lot of people rode bikes today to get where
they needed to be. If it was not far then they walked to get there.

Kei knew the simplified life styles of the times. So he traded for the items
that fit today's different moods. The offices contacted him for any large
buys and he worked out how they would be paid for and how much they would
get. China had at one time tried to play hardball and found they could not
win doing that. For two months no ore ships came into their ports. It
shutdown three plants and forced them to open negotiations. The strength
they once had was just no longer able to force people to work their way.

Joji's airline was now flying flights to India and China five days a week.
These were actually making some money and most seats were taken by
businessmen. Japan was not selling much in China, but in India they were
doing very well. But even the small amount sold in China was a lot for a
country the size of Japan. That is in today's terms and not the pre-crash
period.

Japan was the world's largest producer of stainless steel now. This was
needed by China and they were not able to meet their own needs on this. Of
course India would not sell to them the poorer quality metal they made. So
it was Japan as a supplier or nothing. Because the nuclear power plants
needed it it could not be allowed to wait.

But there was still a lot of animosity between China and Japan from WW II.
The things Japan had done never had been allowed to die in the minds of the
people of China. Much of the atrocities were still taught in the schools. Of
course what the communists did was never reported. History was always
controlled by the victor.

Kei saw the many issues and problems in front of ITI. They could form how
this part of the world healed and thought or it could allow fragmentation.
It was The Shangri-La Islands that really had no past history with most of
the world, which would have to be the leader. He was not sure John would
allow it, but they were the only country with the power to do it.

Face was everything to many in Asia. It was simply not doing things that
embarrassed others. ITI had been very good at following this in its dealings
with others. It always asked for more that it was willing to get or offered
less that it was willing to pay for any product. In no way was the customer
hurt or any seller. They were always willing to allow them to bargain them
down or up depending on the other side. To allow others to find a way to
gain some face. Most enjoyed dealing with people who knew how to play the
game fairly.

That did not mean they often did not buy things at far less cost than what
they could sell for. You can be sure they never over paid for any product or
commodity. But as they found what they could get for a tanker of oil they
made sure the Arab world knew exactly what they were getting for it. The
agreement there was for ITI to get a percentage of each tankers sale price
plus the operating costs for the ship. The sale price was always quoted in
Japanese yen.

It gave some obscurity to the leaders if asked where the oil was going? They
were simply paid in yen, which is Japan's currency. All contracts were both
in Arabic and Japanese languages.

Of course one religious leader wanted to go with the oil to see for himself
where it went. So he paid for transport and was carried to Tokyo, as the
ship unloaded. He walked the decks and watched the men work and talk. If it
had not been for the naval ships flying the rising sun flag, he would have
had no idea where he was. On their way back they were joined by a container
ship heading to pay for the oil delivered.

The hard part had been the mans meals, as pork was a normal part of a sea
diet on these ships. The agreement was he could eat with the captain, but he
could not talk about religion. He did try and was brought up short when the
man spoke to him in Arabic.

"Listen you old fool, I don't need anyone who is less educated than I am
teaching me. I know the Koran backwards and forwards and you have misquoted
it every time you have spoken. That tells me you can't read or at least not
well. It also says you don't know the Koran, as to know it you must read it
and think about what is really being said. It is the most complex book every
written and often very confusing."

The old man was angry and started to open his mouth. "If you say one word I
will have you tossed over the side. You have angered everyone on this ship
and all would be happy to do that." The hate showed in the mans eyes.

"First of all no one knows you're on this ship. You were so slick you have
left yourself in a bad fix. The people who saw you come aboard were all my
people and none of the governments. You see they would have never have
allowed you to leave the country. So how well do you swim? It is just a few
thousand miles back to your home land."

"You would not dare to do that."

"I am sure Allah if you have been a real believer would save you. If he does
not have the time then you will get to paradise may be? But if you have
lived a bad life it will be your hell at the bottom of the sea."

A slight worry showed now. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you have said my company is a lie. That the oil is not sold to a
company from Japan and is going to enemies of Allah. Those are your direct
words said to a mosque full of people. I was there with the Kings brother,
so don't try to lie now. He said you have been attacking ITI since the
contract."

"I did not know it was really going to Japan."

"You did not know that it was going anyplace else either did you? Frankly we
don't need any of this oil. We have a supply of more oil that the Kingdom
has. We have decided to share the market with you, so people can eat and
have clothing. But people like you make our willingness to share hard. So I
will do my friend a favor and end one of his biggest problems. I do know you
want to throne and have discussed killing the King and his family to get it.
You see your young men have talked about your meetings."

The man now was really scared. He had been sure no one outside his group
knew of his plan. "You don't know anything."

"Oh I forgot your group of young men were arrested and have been singing
like good little birds. They are looking for you all over the Kingdom and so
far can't find you. So you can swim now or get your head cut off later?"

"There is no way you could know what is happening in the Kingdom."

"I talk with my agent there each day and sometimes three or more times a
day. So I well know what is going on. We have been gone three weeks and your
people were picked up a week ago. You were so dumb you did not tell any of
them where you were going."

This the man knew was right. So may be the captain did have some way to
communicate? "I have never seen you talking to any one on a phone."

The captain spun a laptop around and let him see the news from his country.
"I can talk with them, e-mail them or chat real time."

Now the man read the story and knew his life was at its end. But he wanted
others to go with him. So he reach into his robe and pulled a knife. That
was a very stupid move. The captain broke his wrist and one leg. Then called
his head of security in.

"Toss this piece of crap over the side and see if he can swim home. He
pulled a knife and was going to try to kill me. Be sure his crap is tossed
over as well. Then clean and sanitize the room. Only God knows what
illnesses he may carry? For sure his brain what little there is must be a
mess."

The security man took the man out and pushed him over the side of the ship.
The odds of his getting past the blades of the propellers were slim. These
ships sucked anything at this speed into the props. But the man should not
have tried to kill the captain.

They did go through everything in the mans room. Several items were found
and given to the captain. The rest were tossed over the side.

One was a written paper on how to accuse ITI for the coming revolt. It had
been written by someone in the royal household. Who you just could not tell
without writing being examined by an expert. Another item was pictures of
the harbor of Tokyo and two showed him with the city in the background. They
were taken with an old Polaroid camera. But this had never been reported to
security.

There were several letters from different people that seemed they were
involved in the plot? But each was very vague in what was really said. None
were signed with a real name, but a fill in was used to hide the real name.
The captain scanned the papers, pictures and sent them to Joji. He would
know how to handle this mess. It was for sure he would screw it up if he
tried to.

Joji read the captain's report and smiled at the worry the man showed for
the King in the Kingdom. He knew he did not know him and that he did know
the brother. It was common knowledge that the captain was Muslim. But he was
of a very moderate sect. So he was sure the religious leader had really
pissed him off. This man was as radical as they came.

He sent all but the pictures to his agent in Kuwait. With instructions to
get them to the police in the Kingdom, without them knowing where they came
from. Tell them he purchased them from a thief in Kuwait that approached
him. But there were never to know they came from Joji. The originals he
would have in just one week's time. They would be found in his office on the
counter. So don't screw it up by trying to see where they came from or you
lose your job.

It was simple and very much to the point. The man knew Joji did not kid
anyone. So he would act surprised at the package he got. He did have a
beautiful very young girl in his office that he was in love with. There he
did not need people looking into his life. He had a small harem in his home
and enjoyed them all. But it was just wise not to be broadcasting his life
style. He had no idea what Joji would say or how he would look at it? This
was within the laws here, but others might not approve.

Joji sent the captain a message of what to do with the papers and to destroy
the pictures. He was sure this was to cause problems for ITI. He should not
have been able to leave the Kingdom under normal circumstances. But ITI had
to load its own ships and there was just one guard post for the loading
area. Two men each shift sat inside and watched the loading when a ship was
in. But sometimes they slept and anyone could walk out on the docks.

A hard and fast rule for allowing people to travel on a ship was never made
between other countries. Ships from the Islands to Japan or from there often
had people traveling. But the rest of the captains just had to make their
own calls. Tat did cover some trips taken by security people into countries.
They would leave the ships on small boats and would be picked up by ships
that could pick up their beacon. A sat phone call would tell them when a
ship was to be coming by that location.

Joji sent many security teams ashore and then picked them back up. It was a
smooth way to gain knowledge inside a country. The large countries were no
problem as he had offices. They had buyers traveling the country to find
needed goods. So the knowledge of what a counties people thought was
something they knew in large countries.

But places like Indonesia that shattered with the crash and many islands did
not even trade with each other. The pirates were heavier in these areas than
ever before. But the flags of the ITI ships said stay away from them. Many a
pirate had been killed by machine guns off the decks of these ships. They
never attacked tankers, as there was no place they could sell the oil. But
ships with containers were most desirable.

His milk run stops for the airline did give him good feeds of information.
Due to the increased travel by business he now had three person ticket
offices with one ground crewman at the airport on flight days. The data they
gathered was often more than you would ever expect. But one was always out
looking for goods to buy and add to flights back to Japan. They saw a lot of
the countryside and talked with many people.

Good intelligence is always simple information unless you're in a war.
Knowing how people feel about government, food prices and availability. This
is critical to knowing how things will move forward. If people are eating
and surviving above complete poverty, they will most often not fight back at
the government. But if children and old people are dying due to lack of food
people are ready to fight. In Asia real wealth was not wide spread. You
pretty much had just two classes of people. Those are the ones that have and
the ones that don't.

Joji was one considered to be very wealthy and someone you must show respect
to always. Even people who had some wealth respected him. It was his lack of
superiority and respect he showed for others that made his so well liked. He
treated the poorest people with the same respect he show the very rich. So
he started to bring home children and place them in an ITI school he had
built. They had all come from poor families and yet had tested out to be
very smart.

He knew he would need many people of different cultures to build his ability
to infiltrate countries. They would one day go back and work for ITI inside
their country. Because they were being trained by a company and not a
government it was very acceptable. The school was on the base at Okinawa. It
did keep any from knowing of the Islands connections.

This training was of two kinds. One was the schoolroom training, as a
teacher from their country had been hired to handle this. It was very
rigorous and pushed them to their limits. It was important to see how many
if any dropped out. The second area was training them as machinist,
technology assemblers, skilled welders, hear treating specialist and close
tolerance inspectors.

One day these young people would operate the shops that built both jet and
spacecraft engines. No country would make all the parts as each would make
some of them. Then each would be a back up on others. They would be paid in
their countries very well for this work. Most should make the equivalent of
ten or more credits a week and that was a lot of money. It would allow them
to help their family and still buy land or a house. Most Asian families
lived on less than a quarter of that money now.

Of course they would never know what they were making. They were just
ordered parts from a customer. This would take 4 to 5 years to get the
training completed for the early workers. He had enough machinist, heat
treating people and people to cast the parts in his foundry. At least for
now he did. That would be far different in five years time. So today he had
five hundred children in school and learning to do high tech jobs. He would
start building the small plants in two to three years. The training and new
plant construction was all approved by each government. A wind turbine would
be set at each plant to supply the energy needed. The excess power would be
sold cheaply to the city. But each plant had to be just outside the city and
close to the ocean for winds.

This required Joji to negotiate with each city where he intended to build a
plant. Some were casting plants, machinist facilities, heat treating
facilities and very high tech welding facilities for production of these
parts. The parts would be moved back and forth between plants to accomplish
the needed work. Each city was told the parts were for nuclear plants,
replacement parts for jet engines, oil drilling sensors and very high
technology parts for future equipment. So they knew nothing of what was
really to be produced or who it was for.

The idea was to keep people from talking and second to assure some did not
try to take over the plants. If they had no idea of the customers or where
the goods came from, then they could not possible run it. All transport was
either by Joji's ships or by the airline on very small parts. This would one
day truly upset governments looking for ways to bring in money. Government
lived on others money. Only on the Islands did government make its own money
to operate. There were no taxes and people lived very well.

Joji knew just how well by the people who worked for him. People were
relaxed and none were worried about bills or education costs. Schools were
free and there was little costs for power, communications or Internet
service. The homes were sold with the land for a very low cost and the bank
financed them at low interest rates. If what the person bought was a farm
the bank stepped in to help finance the added land and equipment as well.
They were given a three year crop loan to assure they make it. So seed,
fertilizers and where needed watering systems were on each farm.

When you looked at the Shangri-La Islands and the rest of the world it was
like night and day. You would believe you were walking in most small
American towns much of the time. But it was a little more like skipping
forward a few years. The electric cars, just cell phones and underground
electrical and cooling feeds. The sewer system fed a plant that was very
modern. Here zero contaminates were released into the atmosphere or water.
The clean water produced was used to water parks and for cooling at the
refinery.

No place on earth was like this set of islands. So John had set for Joji's
people to wipe out the location of the islands from any known maps. The
company ITI supplied new maps to any school, shipping company and replaced
many on computer systems over the Asian area. The old maps turned in were
burned to assure they did not get used again. Only one in fifteen had any
information on the islands. Most of that information was wrong.

Japans data on the Islands was greater than most other Asian countries. Yet
its errors were also far greater. The older the map the more accurate it
was. New ones either had no islands there or had them placed in the wrong
location. But John had set the ships coming from Japan to use GPS to find
the Islands. That way a simple change of the GPS signals and they could not
find them. It simply was a part of the trade agreement and was followed to
the letter. There was no shipping company that could replace the trade the
Islands stimulated. Without those contracts they would be a dead business
and Japan in bad shape for years to come. They did supply a good amount of
jobs and what they brought back allowed many countrymen to work and live
also.

But Okinawa was the best place to live for being able to work in all of
Japan. It had become a key vacation spot for many Japanese and people could
either fly or take a cruise ship to it. Joji had picked up a cruise liner
and it made a round trip to Okinawa each week. It was just a 2 or 3 day trip
from several islands by ship to the warmer Okinawa area. That boat brought
in many to enjoy the warmer weather and spend some of their limited hard
earned cash. With the over ten thousand people ITI had working for them the
island and their ships crew people here did very well.

Okinawa had cell phone communications, electric power and fuels that were
needed for government and business. Food was sold to stores from the large
warehouse complex ITI had. Fish were purchased from the market at the
fishing docks at different points on the island. Pork, beef and other meats
were sold by ITI to stores as well as delivered to them. The electric trucks
allowed for this very cheaply.

Joji had set up for the government to handle power, water, sewage and
communications for the island. The revenue they got from this cut the tax
rates down to just national taxes. To pay these they had a sale tax and all
that money went to the Emperor's national treasury.

As other areas saw how well this worked on Okinawa they started to change
how they taxed. It would over time revolutionize Japan's tax structure. This
would also help with the recovery of many of it citizens. Most had been
badly over taxed. With large business calling the shots, the people had been
required to pay for much of the government. That no longer was the case.

But ITI was not a taxpayer here, as its business was on its own land that
was protected like an embassy grounds. It was simply the cost of having the
jobs and help the company gave local government. Of course the excess power
from the base was sold to them at half of what the government could sell it
for. So it was a very profitable arrangement. Because it was wind generated
it cost ITI little to generate and almost eighty percent was used inside the
base. The trick was there was also one area of submerged generators that
when wind power dropped off supplied the balance of what was needed. It used
an old current in the harbor many had known about for years. It had been a
risky test and turned into a good investment. Those units out produced the
wind turbines. The current was constant and the winds varied much more.

As Joji walked into the meeting room of the Tokyo bank, he saw a group of
men sitting and waiting for him. There were three of his guards around the
walls of the room. Each was at a service bar providing different beverages.
All were very classy ladies and would never be taken for security people.

One older man looked at the women and shook his head. "You need to let the
ladies go from the room. I don't talk with them here."

"In that case gentlemen we can all leave. I did not ask for this meeting you
did. It is my choice of where we would meet. I made it and you do not
dictate terms of the meeting to me. So good day to each of you." Joji got up
and started for the door.

Two men stood and went after Joji. He just kept walking towards the door.
When they reached for him each found they were on the floor with a foot on
their windpipes. At that time ten men walked into the room.

"Get hand scans, eye scans and take DNA samples. Then be sure they are seen
leaving the bank as they came. Be sure they are on the cruise ship to
Okinawa today. We will question them while out at sea and where a body can
be dropped over the side without it being seen."

The men were stunned. "What are you going to do?"

"Each of you would be criminals have made your move. Now I am making mine. I
know you were warned by METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
people or your old MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) not
to mess with me. You chose not to follow that good advice. So now you will
pay for your foolishness."

"But we did nothing here."

"Strip the jackets and shirts off the two on the floor."

That was done quickly and the tattoos were all underworld Japanese. "I see
you people like to deal with the underworld. When you sent them after me,
you make a bad mistake. It is called attempted murder. We will find out who
these men work for and their entire group will be wiped out of existence.
Each of you will also tell us what other industrialist were involved with
your group. They will get the free trip to hell as well. But between drugs
and pain you will talk."

That started an argument at the table. Three younger men were fighting with
a group of older men. It was getting close to using fists.

"Pull them apart and talk with the young men is the room off this one."

Two men showed the men where to go. "Boss what do we do now?"

"Get these men out of here and to the ship. If I decide the other three will
follow them later."

Each man was given a shot that helped them follow the orders they were
given. Yet they looked mostly normal. It was just their minds free thought
that became crippled with this shot. Once the room was empty Joji sat at the
large table and waited for his security men to come out. He was brought
coffee and a copy of his papers news for the day. So he drank coffee and
read the newspaper.

In a short time one of the security men came out and sat at the table. "Well
it seems they were sucked into coming to the meeting. The crash and change
in government did hurt them financially. But they did survive it and have
prospered over time due to the changes. They were told you asked for the
meeting by the older man. To get them here he offered them more metals for
production. I saw the written offer. So I think they were telling the
truth."

"Do they know who I am?"

"They know your related to the Emperor and that scared the hell out of them.
They also know your Chairman of ITI. That one word and they will never get
more materials for their businesses to operate. But they saw the man order
his thugs to go after you. Doing that for anyone against the Emperor's
family is a death sentence."

"But I have never met the Emperor let alone know he has any idea of me?"

"True, but Hideki is your brother and he was Minister of Education. One of
the men here knew him and used to drink with him when he first came here. He
said he remembered Hideki telling them of his mother and one brother who was
still in America. So my guess is they will follow instructions and keep
their mouths shut. They don't want anyone from any underground group trying
to move into their businesses. This has happened before to large
corporations and no one would stop them. They ended up controlling many of
the people working for the company and caused much harm if demands were not
met."

"Advise them if told of that happening we will move in on those groups. But
it all depends on their keeping their mouths shut. One man will visit them
each month to listen to problems, concerns and will make recommendations to
them. They are free to accept those or not to based on their own opinions.
If they feel safe and tell us not to come back we will follow that
instruction. That is unless we hear a rumor of their talking about things
they agreed not to discuss. Be sure to inject an RFID seed into each and
code the number into our base of numbers to watch. In the first few weeks I
want to know how often they take a piss. Bug their homes and offices until
we know we can trust them."

"We will get it done quickly. I have their cell phones bugged now. They are
coded for one switch in every tower and we record any conversation there. No
one could ever see any problem with the phone or software. It covers just
that number and you can change phones and we still get the data."

"I want no one seeing them leaving here. Clear any video of them coming
wherever it might be. Once they are well away send them home by public
transportation. So use a van to move them from here to the train or bus
stop."

"They all will take the train home and all live some what close together. I
will set up a post close by to monitor them for a time. But I don't see them
doing anything to cause a problem."

"I would hate to see you running a weather station in the Aleutian Islands.
It can be very lonely and hostile there."

"The message is clear boss. I will personally follow this one. If any
problem comes out you will know and fast."

Joji just got up and left the room. He was sure this was going to try to
bite his butt.




-- 
John
Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.
 - Leon Trotsky
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