0’ Hara nodded. ‘Kyoto is my favorite spot in the world.’
‘A bit tranquil for an old soldier like myself,’ Hooker said, leaning back in his chair and gazing at O’Hara over the smoldering bowl.
‘You’re also the only American petroleum operation based in Japan,’ O’Hara said, ‘and that interests me.’
‘Well, there’s nothing mysterious about it. There are a lot of reasons why we located in this particular spot.’
O’Hara smiled. ‘That’s one of the reasons I’m here, to find out some of them.’
‘Good. Fire away.’
O’Hara took out a pad and felt-tip pen. He could still hear a clock ticking somewhere but there was no sign of it. The sound seemed to be coming from the general. A watch perhaps.
‘You seem concerned about something, sir,’ Hooker said.
‘It’s nothing. I keep hearing a clock ticking somewhere.’
‘Ah. The clock is in here, Mr O’Hara,’ he said, tapping his chest. ‘A noisy but efficient pacemaker. My doctors don’t want to go tampering with it now.’ He laughed. ‘If it stops ticking, please call my doctor.’
O’Hara began with obvious questions about Hooker and his association with AMRAN.
‘I was president of Intercon Oil. We first proposed the consortium.’
‘When did you get involved in the oil business, sir?’
‘Oh, fifteen, twenty years ago. When I was a candidate for President. Some of my staunchest supporters were Texans. When I dropped out of the race, I was asked to take over Intercon. The company was in trouble. Lack of strong top management. In two years we had it purring like a freshly tuned jeep.’
‘Why did you propose a consortii.zm?’
‘It gave the companies involved new financial strength. Like any industry, it takes money to make money.’
‘Do the members of the consortium share information?’
Hooker nodded. ‘The technology of all the companies is mutually shared, but they operate individually. Their profits are their own. AMRAN is not a profit centre, it is more of a service organization.’
‘Are you still connected .with Intercon?’
‘Only in an advisory capacity. Most of our time here is spent on AMRAN operations.’
‘When was the consortium actually formed?’
‘We finally got chartered about a year ago. It took quite some time to put this together. You can imagine the problems, trying to bring several major companies under the same umbrella. It took a helluva lot of negotiating to satisfy the needs and demands of each of the corporate structures. I repeat, Mr O’Hara, each of these companies retains its autonomy.’
‘Yes. How long did the negotiating take?’
‘We started talking about it back in ... oh, seventy-five, thereabouts.’
‘Which companies eventually joined’?’
‘My own, Intercon. Then there was Sunset Oil, Hensell, American Petroleum ...‘ A swift recollection, a brief flash from the past, pierced his concentration, uninvited and unexpected, and erased what he was about to say from his mind. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, perturbed, ‘what ... uh, was I saying?’
‘You were giving me a list of AMRAN members.’
‘Of course! Let’s see, where was I. -
He went on, but the memory persisted, forcing him to deal with it. It was in Sydney, he thought. The first box came right after we got set up in Sydney. He shock the thought off.
‘Intercon, American Petroleum, Hensell, Sunset O’Hara reprised the list for him.
‘Of course ... let’s see, there’s Bridges Salvage Corporation, The Stone Corporation. Then we have an arrangement with a small Italian motor company.’
‘Why a shipyard?’
‘Oil tankers, old man, oil tankers. Why feed the Greek industry when we can build our own?’
‘Self-sufficiency?’
‘Something like that.’
‘And The Stone Corporation?’
‘It’s a holding company for several power facilities in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, some other Southern states.’
‘It also owns oil refineries, doesn’t it?’
The general put another match to his pipe, using the time to further study O’Hara. We must not underestimate this man, he thought.
‘Yes.’
‘Here in Japan?’
