“The air further inland is stifling hot and choked with smoke from forest fires. We have a shortage of rations, a shortage of tents, a shortage of doctors, and a shortage of containers for drinking water. We will be assembling crucial supplies all night and hauling them in truck convoys and military airlift to designated assembly points at first light.

“How to care for the displaced in the short term is a real challenge to all our systems. The long-term problem is simply beyond our capacity to consider. We can only pray that the law of the jungle won’t take hold of these frightened, desperate people before we can get our relief effort in place.”

Al Augustus turned to the director. “Thank you for your report.” Then he looked at the entire cabinet. “Thank you, all of you,” he said. “It’s getting late, and there is little more we can do tonight. But before we adjourn, we need one more critical piece of information.” He turned to the secretary of the treasury, who had been silent throughout most of the evening. “Secretary Wong,” Augustus said, “what are the financial implications of all this?” Then he caught himself. “But, first, James, do you have any word about your wife’s family?”

Wong answered slowly. “They all got out of California safely, Mr. Secretary. Her brothers are in Asia on a business trip. Her father and mother are vacationing in Scottsdale. They flew the rest of the family out by company jet. But,” he added, with obvious sadness in his voice, “they will lose their real estate, their savings and loan, and whatever else they had in California. It’s all gone.”

The appointment of James Wong to head the Treasury Department had been an acknowledgment of the burgeoning financial power of Asia. Born in Shanghai, he was the eldest son of a wealthy Chinese family who had lost all their holdings during the early days of Mao Tse-tung’s regime. They had managed to escape to Hong Kong where, over the years, they had regained their fortune many times over by hard work, excellent contacts, and shrewd investments in real estate and banking in Hong Kong, and cement, plastics, and shipping in Taiwan.

Wong came to the United States as a student, winning degrees with high honors from Stanford in economics and international banking. He went to work with J.P. Morgan in New York City. Soon, he was marked as a rising star. Within ten years, he was promoted over the heads of more senior officers to become managing director of Morgan’s entire Asian operation.