Chapter 666 313: Communication Meeting

Seven or eight men sat around a long oak table. They were the Sect Leaders of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and several top coal and shale gas companies.

Sterling pushed the door open and walked in.

"The talks fell through."

Sterling's voice was steady, betraying little emotion.

"George Vance of Pfizer not only refused to supply medicine to Pittsburgh, he also threatened to use the power of Wall Street to short our stocks."

"His exact words were: 'Pittsburgh isn't important. Getting rid of Leo Wallace is.'"

"He also said the energy industry is an obsolete dinosaur, and that we're not just dirty, we're stupid."

A round of low curses echoed through the conference room.

"The arrogance."

A gray-haired coal tycoon stubbed out his cigar in an ashtray.

"These pharma hacks think they're God just because they're holding a few patents."

"They think we're a bunch of pushovers," another oil giant's representative sneered. "In Washington's eyes, we're just a pack of gophers who only know how to dig holes. They'd rather lick the boots of those Silicon Valley kids and pharma peddlers than give us the time of day."

Sterling took a sip of water to wet his throat.

He didn't embellish, simply repeating Vance's arguments about systemic risk and his uncompromising stance.

But he cleverly omitted the specific details of Vance's threats against the energy industry, focusing instead on his condescending attitude.

"The question now," Sterling said as he sat down, "is what are we going to do?"

"Leo Wallace has given us a plan: cut off the East Coast's power supply and force Washington and the pharma companies to submit."

"That's too risky."

Someone immediately objected.

"Cutting off the power grid is tantamount to declaring war on the Federal Government. The Department of Justice will tear us to shreds."

"But if we don't, we're going to lose Pennsylvania."

Sterling walked over to a map of American energy on the wall, pointing his laser pen at Pennsylvania.

"Gentlemen, we've all looked into it. In all of America, there is no place more suitable for a Computing Power Special Zone than Pennsylvania."

Sterling's laser pointer drew a circle on the map.

"It has the Marcellus Shale for load-balancing backup and a completely independent state public utilities commission. Leo Wallace already has de facto control of the legislature in Harrisburg. He can fast-track our permits."

"And there's the nuclear power."

Sterling pointed to several icons marking nuclear reactors.

"Pennsylvania has four active nuclear power plants and eight reactors, making it second in the nation for nuclear power generation. While other states are still wasting time in endless hearings debating whether to even build new plants, Pennsylvania's infrastructure is already operational and ready to go."

"This is the most perfect baseload power."

"For those extremely sensitive AI data centers that can't afford to lose power for a single second, this is a lifeline."

The conference room fell silent for a moment.

Everyone knew Sterling was telling the truth.

While tech companies like Google and Microsoft might dominate the computing power landscape for now, the core of that power is energy.

Without electricity, the most advanced chip is just a rock.

"But Washington's stance is ambiguous."

A lobbyist who kept in close contact with Capitol Hill spoke up.

"I just had dinner with the chairman of the Energy Commission yesterday. His position is very clear."

The lobbyist sighed.

"Washington doesn't want to see a war break out between energy and the pharma giants right now. If a real fight starts, the scales in the White House and on Capitol Hill will tip toward pharma."

"Why?" someone asked indignantly.

"Money, votes, and social stability."

The lobbyist began to lay out Washington's logic.

"The pharmaceutical industry's average price-to-earnings ratio is far higher than the energy sector's. For the same one US Dollar of profit, a pharma company can support a much higher market capitalization and credit leverage."

"Washington's logic is simple: the United States' financial hegemony is built on these high-valuation assets."

"A drop in the pharma giants' profits would trigger a chain reaction of collapsing market caps, leading to mass defaults on trillions of dollars in financial derivatives. The energy companies' assets, on the other hand, are pipelines and oil rigs. They lack the multiplier effect needed to drive global financial liquidity."

"Washington needs assets that can inflate massive bubbles to sustain credit expansion."

"When sovereign wealth funds and flight capital from around the world flow into the United States, their first choice is the pharmaceutical sector, with its patent protections and extremely stable profits. Protecting Big Pharma's patent-fueled superprofits means protecting the United States' status as a safe haven for global capital."

"The moment price transparency causes those profits to normalize, that stable global liquidity will flee in an instant."

"The US Dollar exchange rate would become volatile, and the nation's entire credit foundation would be shaken."

"Washington is responsible for maintaining the confidence of global capital. They don't dare take that risk."

"In the eyes of those bureaucrats, energy companies are important, but our value is too tangible. We can't spin the kind of sexy growth story that Wall Street loves."

"Our business isn't going anywhere; you can't pack up the gas and coal in the ground and move it."

"But pharma capital has wings. The second their profits drop, they'll fly away with their US Dollars to somewhere else."

The lobbyist continued.

"And there's an even more important point: pensions."

"Nearly 50% of American households own stock, and the vast majority of their pensions are heavily weighted with pharmaceutical shares. If Leo actually manages to bring down drug prices, pharma profits will shrink, their stock prices will fall, and the pensions of tens of millions of retirees will evaporate."

"When that happens, the middle class will be ready to flip the tables and revolt."

"Washington would rather the public endure high drug prices than risk the social unrest that would come from shrinking pensions."

"As for rising energy prices?"

The lobbyist gave a bitter laugh.

"At most, people will bitch and moan a bit. It's not going to cause the entire social contract to collapse."

"So, Washington's message is for the energy companies to just suck it up."

"They want us to take one for the team and not get mixed up in Leo's shenanigans."

"Suck it up?"

Sterling slammed the laser pointer in his hand onto the ground.

"How many years have we been sucking it up?"

"We've been doing it for over a decade. The Environmental Protection Agency has been shitting on our necks, Wall Street has driven our valuations into the ground, and those kids in Silicon Valley laugh at us like we're last-century's garbage."

"Now, we finally have an opportunity. A chance to turn the tables and reclaim our voice."

"As long as we secure Pennsylvania and build that Computing Power Special Zone, we can climb our way up from the bottom of the value chain."

"We'll be able to tell Wall Street that when it comes to the future of AI, we're the ones who call the shots."

Sterling leaned forward, planting both hands on the table.

"If we suck it up again this time, if we let Leo lose, if we let the Mutual Aid Alliance collapse…"

"Pennsylvania will fall back into the hands of the Establishment Faction, and we will completely lose this window of opportunity to transform our industry."

"After that, we really will be nothing more than a bunch of has-beens selling coal briquettes."

Sterling's words were like a torch to dry tinder, igniting a fire in the hearts of everyone present.

They were capitalists. They were greedy, and they were ambitious.

They didn't want to be dinosaurs, waiting for extinction.

"Sterling's right."

The coal tycoon who had complained first stood up.

"We can't just suck it up anymore."

"Washington thinks we're pushovers, that we're just obedient ATMs for them to withdraw from."

"Well then, let's show them what we're made of."

"They say the pharma industry is a core asset, don't they? They say data centers can't ever go down, right?"

The tycoon sneered.

"Then let's show them what good their 'core asset' is without any power."

"Let's see if they can trade their stocks on a computer with a black screen."

"Let's see if their expensive biological samples can survive at room temperature."

"We need to make Washington understand that compared to the pharma giants, we have far greater destructive capability."

"If they won't let us play and try to kick us out of the game, then nobody gets to play."

Sterling looked at the impassioned members of his Alliance.

He knew it was a done deal.

Faced with the lure of enormous profits and the anxiety of survival, all thoughts of risk were cast aside.

The nature of capital is to expand, to monopolize, to devour all in its path.

When the existing rules obstruct that nature, capital will not hesitate to tear those rules to shreds.

"Good."

Sterling picked up the phone on the table again.

"Since we're all in agreement."

"Then let's teach Washington a lesson."

The sunlight outside was still blinding, but inside the conference room, a storm aimed at the heart of the United States had already begun to form.

They were the overlords of energy.

And they would use darkness to claim the light that was rightfully theirs.