‘If they like what you say, and the cut of your jib—that is, if you’re trustworthy—they’ll support and protect you.’

‘And Timms’ report?’

‘If he mentioned FEGIR then that will be his outlet.’

41 THE CIA STEPS IN

41

THE CIA STEPS IN

In the last week of August, Timms sent Haut an email saying: ‘Have a look at the story for the September publication of Future Energy Global Intelligence Report. You’re in it.’

Haut looked up the story on the net. It began:

Few oilmen have the unshakeable faith of Al Haut, a director of Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International operations, a powerful body of business people worldwide with 8.6 million members and no particular denomination. But then again, none have had the vision from God that showed Haut, at age 18, there are billions of barrels of oil under the little-drilled Australian island state of Tasmania. Or that its port of Hobart will one day be a key refuelling point for the US Navy.

Timms’ piece was hard-hitting and pro-Haut. It even quoted his former Tasmanian University professor, Harold Burnside, who once declared there was no oil in Tasmania.

But when he went to Oman, he noted the similarity of rocks there to the Permian Basin, West Texas and Tasmania. Burnside, a staunch atheist who pushed Haut’s spiritualism to one side, changed his mind on Haut’s finds and deferred to the conviction of his former pupil. He was made a director of Al Haut Minerals. ‘I still avoid Al’s ethereal commentary,’ Burnside told FEGIR. ‘I am certain now that his claims are correct. But that certitude has cost me a lot of credibility. I have also had my home burgled and computer stolen. This is the work of Conquer’s agents working overtime to stop Al. But it won’t stop him. He has already defeated them once.’

‘That is an amazing piece of writing from your point of view,’ Cavalier said when Haut rang him. ‘It’d be considered actionable if it weren’t true. It means Big Brother is one hundred per cent behind you. Conquer will back off. They won’t take on the might of the American government and its most influential and lethal arm, apart from its navy.’

‘You think it’s libellous?’

‘For sure, if it weren’t true. But Conquer won’t do anything. For one thing it’s the truth. For another, Conquer is weak from the reserve fraud being made public. It wouldn’t win anything in court with this pall of criminality hanging over its head.’

‘I can’t believe that a little bloke from Tasmania has brought down one of the five sisters!’

‘In this case, the ugly sister.’ Cavalier looked at the article again. ‘What’s your next move?’