Saracen had been bought up by a British fund billionaire called Robert Carter. They’d drilled a few speculative holes and were now excited enough to be looking to expand their role in Kazakhstan: extraction, transportation and more exploration rights were being sought. I picked up a tattered Herald Tribune clipping:

Carter, whose gambles on Central Asia have been increasingly stymied by geopolitics, has made what he describes as a last throw of the dice. Saracen have been in Kazakhstan for six years with little luck, accumulating an estimated 20 million dollars in debt on wildcat drilling. Carter’s hope is that new technology will lead to fresh discoveries. But both rivals and shareholders claim he has paid well over the odds on a quixotic and personal mission.

Saracen weren’t necessarily who you wanted moving in next door. Campaigning literature contained diagrams of corruption, evidence of lobbying in the UK, Brussels and Astana, evidence of slush funds. Then there was the use of private security, a company called GL5 who protected rigs and personnel, and the use of PR companies to cover up human-rights abuses. Finally there was the use of private intelligence firms to spy on Saracen’s accusers.

‘Do you know which private intelligence firms?’ I asked.

‘No. It is very secretive.’

‘Do you think Saracen could cause Vanessa trouble?’

‘They are a British company.’ Yussopova gave another shrug. ‘You would think they have more … British values. But here, everyone becomes different. Now that Saracen has new owners, they are very aggressive.’

I studied a protest flyer depicting a drilling rig spouting drops of blood. Then I looked at the other work lying around: an article about the bribing of local officials, another that focused on online restrictions. Getting shared a lot recently was footage of an incident in which Kazakh police had detained an activist trying to unfold a poster in front of the Presidential Palace. He was expressing solidarity with an independent magazine shut down last month. The editor had been arrested and was now on hunger strike. Testimony were battling governmental censorship to get the story out.

‘Things are starting to happen here,’ Yussopova said.

‘What kinds of things?’

‘A revolution. In expectations, at least.’

‘To an outsider, this seems quite a solid country.’

‘Countries seem solid until they begin to change. Nobody in any of the Arab Spring countries would have predicted those systems could collapse. When there is a powerful police and security service, and a leader who is feared and respected, a lot of people think nothing will change. But systems are much more fragile than we think.’

‘The Arab Spring didn’t go so well.’

‘We are a new country. There are more and more people online—’