On the way back to Austin, Marty set up a meeting with several of the leaseholders in the Eagle Ford Shale. Now, he thought, sitting back and watching the clouds fly by beneath him, all we can do is wait for the Chinese and President Jackson to step in it.
He didn’t have to wait long. Several hours later, he agreed to meet with a “group of investors” that contacted his office, a group he was certain represented the interests of the Chinese players as well as former President Jackson.
He still had to deal with the situation on the border, and he had no choice but to mobilize all the military and civilian police forces available to him and station them on the Texas borders with Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. It was only a show of force; his military was stretched too thin to be an effective deterrent if President Barker decided to send the U.S. Army into Texas. Marty’s hope was that the prospect of a military conflict would be deterrent enough.
* * *
At the same time, President Barker was holding his own military in place, but events around the world, both political and economic, made him hesitant to take any further action. Military action at home would certainly preclude either the U.S. or Texas from helping with the European economic situation. And there was grumbling from the Russians about the U.S. “returning to the old ways” of forcing sovereign nations to bow to its will. Military units stationed along the borders put a severe damper on travel and trade. The volatile situation didn’t help the U.S. or Texas. An agreement had to be reached soon. It had become a waiting game with consequences.
All Marty had to do with the Eagle Ford leaseholders was to let them know they would soon be getting huge offers from a group of investors for those reserves and leases, and that the Texas government would have no objection to whatever action they decided was in their best interests.
He set up his meeting with the potential buyers. He knew the Chinese were already suspicious, and that one wrong move would send the whole plan up in smoke. It was hard to tell who was working with whom, especially since there were operators both inside and outside the Chinese government, not to mention President Jackson and his band of crooks.