Karl-Friedrich Lenz

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Copyright 2013 Karl-Friedrich Lenz License:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported

ISBN: 1484020588 ISBN-13: 978-1484020586 Available online as a FREE PDF file at k-lenz.de/7 If you find a typo or some other error, please point it out to me at my @Kf_Lenz Twitter account. Thanks.

DEDICATION
Dedicated to future generations.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 STRANGE DREAM KIM A FILM TASNEEM SPEAKS PLANT PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT VIRAL VIAL ARABELLE DOUGLAS TASNEEMS THREAT JURASSIC FINAL FIGHT PEAK AFTERWORD I AFTERWORD II APPENDIX i 1 3 28 44 63 79 93 110 124 143 159 174 183 198 207 208 211

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Createspace (Amazon) for providing a publishing platform that makes it possible for everyone (including me) to get a book out immediately. Thanks to Rachel Aaron for writing 2K to 10K, a book about writing that helped me a lot with this project, most importantly by pointing me to Scrivener. Thanks to the developers of the word processing software for writers Scrivener. I used it for getting the first draft done in about three weeks and am very pleased with the functionality. Thanks to Dreamsline.com for providing the stock photo I used for the cover at a very attractive price. Thanks to anonymous commenters at the Reddit r/writing community for helping me improve the back cover text.

PROLOGUE
Burn all the fuel We will live in luxury They will live in hell. # Karl-Friedrich Lenz, April 14, 2012 (Haiku) # There were some humans on Earth Who stoked a great fire in the hearth They burned all the coal And the gas and the oil There were some humans on Earth. Karl-Friedrich Lenz, May 27, 2012 (Limerick) # Dieses Baums Blatt, der von Osten Meinem Garten anvertraut, Giebt geheimen Sinn zu kosten, Wie's den Wissenden erbaut,

Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Ist es Ein lebendig Wesen, Das sich in sich selbst getrennt? Sind es zwei, die sich erlesen, Da man sie als Eines kennt? Solche Frage zu erwidern, Fand ich wohl den rechten Sinn, Fhlst du nicht an meinen Liedern, Da ich Eins und doppelt bin? This leaf from a tree in the East, Has been given to my garden. It reveals a certain secret, Which pleases me and thoughtful people. Is it a living being, Which has separated in itself? Or are these two, who chose To be recognized as one? Answering this kind of question Haven't I found the proper meaning, Don't you feel in my songs, That I'm one and double? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1815. English translation from Wikipedia (See the article on the poem at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gingo_biloba).

TASNEEM

CHAPTER ONE STRANGE DREAM

March 14, 2023, 6:37 TASNEEM SET the countdown to July 17, 17:30, 2023. If CO2 emissions did not peak by that time, the final tipping point would be passed and Earth would enter a runaway climate change feedback spiral, raising temperatures by several hundred degrees. There would be nothing left humanity could do to stop the process. # Kim Kornburg woke up from her nightmare. That was the weirdest thing she had ever dreamed. It was not only scary like hell, but it contained a very specific idea on what she should do next in her professional life. She would need to discuss this with Marla, her boss, as soon as she got to work this day. She had, quite literally, burned in hell in her nightmare. She was confined in a small room without doors and windows. The only thing visible was a big digital thermometer built into one of the walls. And then the temperature got higher and higher. It hurt. And it did not stop for what felt like ages. And then came the idea. The dream added that she would burn some more in her next dream if she failed to get this idea out to her boss.
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Kim was relieved that it was over. And puzzled. No one would ever like burning like that. She certainly was not keen on repeating the experience. And, while some ideas on her work as a lawyer for the global warming NGO "500.org" had popped up in her dreams before, never anything as strange as this one. She did not look forward to explaining it to Marla. But she disliked the prospect of more burning in that little room without doors and windows even more. There was nothing she could do about it, she decided. The idea was of course completely useless as a legal concept. But maybe Arabelle could use some of it as part of the public campaign. Actually, it might be rather powerful for that. # March 14, 2023, 9:47 "Thank you, Marla, for giving me some time on short notice," Kim said. Her boss, Marla Maygar, was the leader of this NGO. The name "500.org" showed the purpose, that is keeping the level of CO2 in the atmosphere down to 500 parts per million. It had started with a different name and a different leader more than a decade ago, but now everyone acknowledged that 350 was completely impossible as a goal, so the name had been changed in 2021. The one thing Marla wanted more than anything else was stopping global warming. At 43, she was rather young for this vital role. But she had succeeded in making her organization much stronger, while keeping fit with rowing
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a full 5 miles every day. She was well connected, had access to funds in the double digit millions of dollars, and over 7 million followers on Twitter. She looked at Kim, the new lawyer kid she had hired last month to work on the CleanCoal Corporation case. Right out of law school, 27 years old, half of them already volunteering to work for the 500.org campaign, with short black hair, a small pretty face, and slightly overweight. She would need to introduce Kim to the joys of working out some time. "What can I do for you?" Marla asked. "I got a completely weird idea about the CleanCoal case," Kim said. "Go ahead. Explain it. But don't forget that I am not a lawyer. Explain it in a way that I can understand." "You know that we are looking for reasons to make CleanCoal shut down all their coal power plants with our lawsuit. You also understand that Konrad is a very strong opponent, so we need to look at every remote possibility," Kim said. Konrad. Konrad Hargrave, Marla thought. Partner at Hargrave & Davis and lead counsel for the defendants. He was certainly worth the large sums of money they paid him. "Yes. I know," Marla said. "Of course, even Konrad can't claim that global warming isn't real," Kim explained. "It's 2023, after all. We had five storms with over $100 billion damage last year. Drought has halved American food production in the last ten years." She sneezed, a strong explosion, and sneezed some more. "And the damn pollen count has gone up as well," Kim said. "Sorry for the interruption."
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She rolled her tissue paper into a ball and disposed of it in a small pouch she carried for the purpose. She took out another piece of tissue paper from the other side of the pouch, just to be sure, and continued her explanation. "So, there is no point anymore in denying. His strategy is to play the urgency down. 'Yes, we may have a problem with global warming. But another couple of years running these plants won't change much in the big picture. They contributed only 0.00782 percent of last year's CO2 emissions. They can run some longer, until my client has paid back for the investment', that's what he says. So we need to make the jury see the urgency," Kim said. "Of course," Marla said. "I understand that." "So here is my idea," Kim said. "Actually, there are two ideas." "Go ahead." "For one, I want to introduce a countdown deadline to July 17th of this year. I want to state that if we can't get those coal plants shut down until that exact date, Earth will pass the tipping point leading to runaway global meltdown. That should help with establishing urgency," Kim said. "How do you know that?" "I dreamed it today," Kim said. "That will play great in court, I'm sure. Konrad will have lots of fun shooting you down. I am not a lawyer, but I would be surprised if dreams of junior lawyers working for the plaintiff would be admitted as evidence," Marla said. "Yes, that might be a problem. Of course, anything not admitted as evidence will be on the record anyway. The jury might be instructed to forget about this, but it is quite a powerful image. It is difficult to forget something just
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because one has been ordered to," Kim said. "Are you sure?" "Imagine I told you that I have been riding a pink flying elephant on my commute today. And the next minute I asked you to kindly forget about that fact, because it is an embarrassing family secret that I need to keep to myself. Would you be able to follow that request?" Kim explained. "No." "Exactly. So, we can introduce anything we want, even if it is thrown out later. I don't see how it could harm our case," Kim said. "I see. And your second idea?" "It's even weirder. I want a tree to join our lawsuit as a plaintiff," Kim said. "What? Trees can be plaintiffs?" "It's been done before. In the last Century, some German NGOs sued on behalf of the seals living in the North Sea against toxic waste dumping. And there was of course the Douglas dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton," Kim explained. "How did that work out?" "They lost. Animals don't have standing, the German court said at the time. But it made for some nice publicity. In Sierra Club v. Morton, the plaintiffs didn't sue on behalf of trees in the first place," Kim said. "I see. That may be an interesting idea," Marla said. "What kind of tree do you have in mind?" "Here is the weird part. I want a tree that has lived 187 million years ago as plaintiff," Kim said. "What?" Marla had trouble believing she had heard what she had heard. "Yes. Fossil fuels are actually only the remains of
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Jurassic plants. We are burning their family bones! How would you feel if someone excavated your grandparents' tombs and used the bones to run a car?" "Again, I am not a lawyer, but I would be rather surprised if any court approved of this. Anyway, do you know any individual trees that have lived in the Jurassic?" Marla asked. "No. Of course not. But that doesn't need to stop us. Of course we don't have a prayer of actually pulling this off in court. But it would always make for an interesting angle in our public campaigning," Kim said. "Maybe you want to discuss that with Arabelle," Marla said. "You are going to her concert tomorrow? That would be a good occasion." "Yes. Excellent idea. But I want it in our court briefs as well, just to give Konrad a couple of more billable hours. He loves that," Kim said. "Okay. Go ahead. I don't see how we have anything to lose with that," Marla said. "Thank you very much, Marla," Kim said. She was relieved. Marla might have objected, which would have meant facing the small room without doors and windows again in her next dream. She also kind of liked the idea. Completely crazy, of course. But any lawyer needs some points that are expected to get shot down by the opposition, so as to distract them from the really important stuff. She would write the brief immediately, after listening in on the interview with Douglas Bastow that was scheduled for 10:00 A.M.

TASNEEM

# March 14, 2023, 10:00 Just in time, Douglas Bastow walked into the conference room. He was 29 years old, had gotten a couple of years of experience after finishing law school, and was now ready to join 500.org and kick some CleanCoal Corporation ass in the ongoing litigation. He had shaved all his remaining cranial hair, leaving only a big Mario Bros. mustache indicating his hair color, which was black. As was every item of clothing he had on his body. He had decided to use only black until the last coal power plant was out of business a long time ago. Marla Maygar looked at the young lawyer, who was known on all the community social networks under his adopted name of "Gandalf", a name he had chosen because of his interest in performing magic tricks. She knew him well. If he was interested in working for 500.org, she would hire him immediately. This was only a formality. "Please sit down over there, Douglas, and state your name and the purpose of your visit today," Marla said. Douglas sat down on the chair Marla had pointed at and said, "Douglas Bastow. I came to apply for a job as a lawyer at 500.org." "Okay, you're hired," Marla said. "Sorry, only joking. We do have to go through this formality. So let's get started. Why do you want to work for us?" "I am after the vast amounts of money you will pay me as a salary," Douglas answered. "Sorry, only joking. But, just for the record, how much are you prepared to pay?"
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"That would be our standard salary of $70,000 a year for rookie lawyers," Martha answered, smiling. She knew that Douglas had made over $20 million when he was 19. He had bought 50,000 bitcoins at $2 after the market crash in 2011 and sold most of them in 2013 at around $55. That set him up for life. The fact that he had kept 10,000 at the time also helped. They were trading around $153,000 in 2023. The idea of Douglas "Gandalf" Bastow being motivated by her salary was a joke both sides appreciated. "And, apart from our very generous salary, what might motivate you to join us?" "Well, the one thing I want to do with my life more than anything else is stop global warming. I got through law school because I know that the most vital fights will be fights over regulation, and court fights. I have studied the art of magic because I want to know more than any other lawyer about how to most effectively fool a jury, if I don't have the facts or the law clearly on my side. And, if I may say so, you guys are the most effective organization around, so I would really like to put my humble efforts into helping the 500.org campaign," Douglas answered, this time dead serious. "Do you have any nasty habits we need to know about? Drugs, past criminal convictions, that sort of thing? Marla asked. "No. Except that I am a terrible womanizer. For example, right now, even in this very important job interview, I want to tell you that you are looking great, as always. I really like that red dress you are wearing. You need to tell my more about your rowing workout some time. I love women. All of them. I'm sorry. I really am. But
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since I'm such a great guy, and such a friendly one, I figure I need to spread the joy to as many women around me as possible. I can't stop trying to be charming. Also, I'm bald and shave the rest of my remaining cranial hair. Would either of that be a problem for you?" "No, of course not. We live in 2023. Who cares who you sleep with and how you're doing it? And who needs cranial hair in the 21st Century anyway? That would be none of our business," Marla said. "Next question. Are you familiar with our lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation?" "I know the basics. CleanCoal is still operating 50 coal power plants around the country. They understand that coal needs to be phased out and that nobody is building any new coal plants, since solar and wind are already much cheaper. But they want to delay things. They do have some time slots where not enough solar and wind energy is in the market and they can sell at very high prices, so they are still making a profit with those plants that have already paid back the original investment. So we are trying to force them to shut down immediately, since we think that there is no time to lose anymore. We may be close to the final tipping point," Douglas explained. "Actually, we are, if I am to believe Kim here," Marla said. "What?" Douglas asked. "Best ask her yourself. You're hired. I am looking forward to see you working your legal magic for our organization. Kim, please explain to Mr. Bastow the basic strategy for our lawsuit, and also your interesting ideas you told me about this morning. Mr. Bastow, I am pleased to welcome you to our team. Now, if you will excuse me, I have the president of the National Solar Association
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waiting. See you later," Marla said and left the room, leaving Douglas alone with Kim. He had made quite the impression on her, especially the part of calling himself a "terrible womanizer". She was not sure if he would start turning on his charming side on her. With a couple of pounds to much on her frame, she didn't exactly feel very attractive right now. "Hi," Douglas said. "Watch this." He pulled a couple of small pieces of plain brown paper out of his wallet. He showed them to Kim from both sides and pointed to the small heart shape on each of them. "These are happiness sheets," he said. "Ever seen one of those?" "No." Kim didn't know where this was supposed to be going. "Watch," he said. And all the papers changed to hundred dollar notes, in one swift motion of his hands. He showed them both front and back, the previous "happiness sheets" clearly gone somewhere else. Maybe up the sleeves of his dark black shirt. "I'm sure you actually have seen one of these before," he said, handing them all over to Kim. "Inspect them closely. Is there anything out of the ordinary about them? Any sneaky stuff you can see?" Kim looked at the bills, inspecting them from both sides. These were clearly normal bills. And yes, she had seen some of these before. Douglas took them back. "You have inspected them now. So there is no way that this could happen, is there," at which point he changed all the bills back to the original "happiness sheets", before putting them back into his wallet.
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Kim was trying to collect her jaw from the floor where it had dropped at while she was looking at the scene. "That's pretty impressive," she said with a smile. She decided then and there that she liked magic trick performances. "How did you do that?" she asked. "I can't really tell myself. One day, I was possessed by this evil alien spirit calling himself Khalmorot. I've been following his orders ever since. He has some very impressive technology. All technology you don't know looks like magic." Douglas didn't mention that this particular bill switch was developed and published under the title "Extreme Burn" by Richard Sanders over a decade ago. It would not do to destroy the illusion. "Can you do that again?" Kim asked. "That would come in handy for fund raising..." "No," Douglas said. As a performer of magic, he almost never did the same trick twice in a row. Much of the entertainment value of this particular effect comes from the effect that the spectators have no clue what will happen with those "happiness sheets", so they are surprised when a bunch of bills pops up out of nowhere. That surprise is gone the second time around. "But I have another thing I would like to show, if you don't mind," he said. "Have you ever been tied up?" he asked, pulling a short red rope out of his rucksack. "No," Kim said. "Let's try this," Douglas said. "It is an experiment with this rope. It succeeds about one in ten times. Look at the rope. Inspect it. Do you find anything wrong with it?" Kim took the rope, pulled at it at several places, and was soon convinced that there was nothing out of the ordinary
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about it. No places where it was cut and held together only by magnets. Just a piece of red rope. She handed the rope back to Douglas. "Okay," he said. "Now I would like to ask for your kind cooperation. Please hold both of your hands out next to each other so I can tie them up with this rope, if you would like to try this experiment." Kim was only too happy to oblige. This was fun. Douglas wrapped the rope a couple of times around her wrists and fixed it there with a simple knot. "Now, concentrate on the infinite essence of the universe, making your mind one with it, and make the rope travel right through your wrists," he said. "We will see in a moment if you succeed." Kim had no idea what the "infinite essence of the universe" was supposed to mean, or how to concentrate on it. She made a face that looked as if she was concentrating. Actually she was only having a good time. Douglas pulled at the rope. It went right through her wrists and came off in one swift motion. "Success!", he said in a loud voice. "You have some great talent there. Congratulations". He did not mention the fact that he had just used a simple false knot before wrapping the rope right back where it had come from, so it was only to be expected that it came off like this. That would be wrong, since it would destroy the illusion he had just worked so hard to create in the first place. "Now, for some legal magic," he said. "We need to get on the strategy for the CleanCoal Corporation case. Could you give me a brief introduction to the basics, please?" Kim obliged, giving him the basics of the lawsuit. Then
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she proceeded to explaining her new ideas. Now it was his turn to have his jaw drop. That was some pretty strange idea. He had of course heard of the previous German case where the NGO had filed for the seals in the North Sea, and of the Douglas dissent in Sierra Club vs. Morton. But having a Jurassic plant as plaintiff took the idea at least five notches up on the weirdness scale. "Let's write the brief, then," he said, as Kim had finished her explanation. "Yes, let's do so," she said. "Are you coming to Arabelle's concert tonight?" "What concert?" "Shes doing a fund raising concert for us. I have an appointment to meet her before she goes on stage. I want to discuss this new angle with her, since it is worth more as a campaign talking point than as an actual legal strategy. Want to come along?" Kim asked. "Sounds good to me," he answered. "I don't have any other plans for the evening," Douglas said. "Deal, then," Kim said. They left the conference room and got busy writing the brief presenting the two new ideas to the court. # March 14, 2023, 19:00 Arabelle Venditto waited for them backstage. Kim had phoned her and explained that she would bring along Douglas. Arabelle didn't mind. She had colored her braid in deep blue this day. She let one very long braid extend from the middle of her head
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and shaved all the remaining hair. She changed the color of that braid every day, in a cycle of seven different colors. Right above her forehead, in the middle between her eyes and the deep blue braid, she had written the three digit number "500" in a bright red color. She changed that color as well every day, in a cycle of thirteen different colors, giving her 91 variations before completing one full cycle of braid/number colors. On her birthday she left the colors the same for one day, resulting in exactly 365 days after four cycles. She had decided on this routine seven years ago, back in 2016, at her fourteenth birthday. She had already attracted a small following in the climate campaign community for her blog, but that got much bigger with this one simple change. That was the first stepping stone to building her fan base as a singer and songwriter. One other idea she liked to use was to sing as a chorus of 500 voices (a number very important to her). That was of course easily done by singing the same song 500 times, recording each voice, and then mixing them all together digitally. It was particularly impressive when she started out in a live concert with only her live voice and then gradually added recorded voices until she reached the roaring chorus of the full 500. And it was a nice fit to one of her early hits called "I love you 350", which was basically singing the line "I love you" and nothing else exactly 350 times, each time with a different voice. That was back in the time before 350.org changed to 500.org in 2019. It made for very fast work writing the lyrics. And while people have been singing that particular phrase before, no one had ever reached 350 repetitions in one song of only about seven minutes. The
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fans had a blast trying to keep up with her speed in the karaoke versions. She had millions of followers to her Twitter feed and her blog. Her concerts were always sold out quickly, and her fans paid big amounts of money at her fund raising requests to make the 500.org campaign stronger. The campaign had realized early that a large majority of people is much more interested in hearing a nice song than in reading some statistic about how global climate is changing. They understood even in the old times (when it was still 350.org) that it was one of the most effective methods of campaigning to get some help from famous singers. That made it only logical to start developing their own stars. Arabelle Venditto was in the first generation of these. Like many others associated with the campaign, Arabelle wanted more than anything else to get completely rid of burning fossil fuels, even more than she wanted to enlarge her fan base, and please her already existing fans. "Hi, Arabelle," Kim said. "May I introduce you to Douglas Bastow. He started working as a lawyer at the campaign today." "Pleased to meet you," Douglas said, and let a small flame shoot out of his right sleeve. "You may know my as 'Gandalf'." "Yes, of course," Arabelle said, smiling. She had often blogged about things Douglas had said online about the climate activism movement. Kim saw that Douglas obviously liked Arabelle. Which was only to be expected. Arabelle was very talented as a singer and songwriter, but she also had the stunning looks that made her line of work so much easier. And Douglas
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had said in the interview that he really liked women, all of them. Kim was not happy about seeing that. "Wait a moment," she thought. "Why do I care about that?" To drive that unpleasant thought away, she started the conversation about the topic at hand, which was the online communication strategy for the campaign and Arabelle's part in it for the next couple of weeks. "We sold tickets for about $700,000 for this concert," Arabelle said. "After expenses, that should leave around $600,000 in funds raised for the campaign." "Wow, that's pretty impressive," Douglas said. He smiled approvingly at Arabelle. Kim didn't like the way this was going. "Of course, that's only the ticket sales," Kim said. "The concert will be streamed live over the Internet to a couple of million people. They will have an occasion to chip in online as well over Bitcoin. Last time we got a total of around 6 bitcoins." Which was over $1 million at the current prices in 2023 for the currency. Not bad for one single event. Not bad at all. "So, what are your ideas for the coming couple of weeks?" Arabelle asked. "I got two new ideas today," Kim said. "Go ahead." "For one, I want to focus on July 17th of this year. This is the final countdown," Kim explained. "What countdown?" Arabelle asked. "I know that if we don't get CO2 world wide to peak by exactly that date, we will pass the final tipping point, reaching the runaway meltdown feedback scenario," Kim said.
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"How do you know that? Nobody could fix so exactly a date." Arabelle wasn't buying it. "I could not tell you exactly. I saw it in my dream. Sort of like the biblical prophets. They were right most of the time," Kim said. "Well, it doesn't really matter if it is exactly right. At least not as far as I'm concerned. I like the idea of a final countdown. I can use that very well to drum up some extra attention for our campaign. I think I may have an idea for a song about that already," Arabelle said. "Worst thing that can happen is we get to peak CO2 earlier than absolutely necessary," Douglas said. "There is no down side whatsoever to reaching that goal earlier. At least none I can think of." "And your second idea?" Arabelle asked. "That was completely weird. I had a dream about burning in a small basement room with no doors and windows. It felt like I was in there forever, and it hurt like hell. If there is a hell and people are burning in it, I would imagine it felt like that," Kim explained. "Why should you burn in hell?" Douglas asked. "What are your sins that make you deserve that?" "I have no idea," Kim answered. "Actually, I've been a good girl all my life, as far as I'm aware of. Anyway, after I was through burning for a couple of eternities in hell, I got this completely weird idea. And it felt like I was ordered to spread that idea, or I would face another session in that room. So here I am, spreading the idea." "Which is?" Arabelle asked. "Douglas and I just filed a brief in our lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation, introducing a new plaintiff. A tree that has lived 187 million years ago, in the Jurassic. To be
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exact, in the Pliensbachian age of the Lower Jurassic, which ended with the Toarcian turnover extinction event a couple of million years after her lifetime. Have you ever heard of the Pliensbachian? And the Dilophosaurus living back then?" Kim asked. "No," Arabelle said. "Wait, 'Dilophosaurus' sounds somewhat familiar. Wasn't that in the 'Jurassic Park' movie?" "Yes, it was, though in a very different shape than it actually lived in reality. There was some artistic license by the author involved. Anyway, we just filed that brief, and CleanCoal Corporation is now officially on notice that they need to stop burning the bones of our new client's mom and dad," Kim said. "That's crazy. Which means it's excellent material for me. This should be some heavy metal song titled "Don't you FUCKING burn my mom!". I can see it already," Arabelle said. "Tell her more about the tree," Douglas said. "Yes. It's a ginkgo tree, the only species that has survived from the Jurassic until modern times. Did you know that ginkgo trees are called 'living fossils' because of that?" Kim asked. "No," Arabelle said. "I didn't know either," Kim said. "But we learned quite a lot about ginkgo trees by doing a little research for our brief today." "That's interesting. I could use that as a theme for my stage costume. Maybe with a sexy variation of the fig leaf," Arabelle said. "You may want to be careful with that," Douglas said. "Ginkgo tree leaves have a slit right through the middle of
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two halves. You might get into trouble with censorship if you try to pull this off." "FUCK the censors," Arabelle answered cheerfully. "Seriously, FUCK them. We are a couple of months away from global meltdown, if your first idea is correct. This is not the time for avoiding a bit of risk. Anyway, if they arrest me, that will be great news for expanding my fan base. I trust you guys would be willing to do my defense." She smiled, especially at Douglas, which failed to elude Kim's attention. She was not pleased. Arabelle's manager interrupted them. "Time to go, Arabelle. Your fans are waiting for you." "Okay, I got to go now," Arabelle said to Kim and Douglas. "Enjoy the show. And thanks for these new ideas." # March 15, 2023, 9:30 Konrad Hargrave was driving his vintage heavy SUV vehicle to his client's house for the weekly briefing about the CleanCoal Corporation lawsuit. People didn't realize that "Konrad" has the meaning "strong advisor", but Konrad's father knew that. As a lawyer himself, he thought that would be an excellent choice for his first born son, whom he expected to take over the law firm he had built up over a couple of decades of frantically working 90 hours a week. Konrad looked at his Rolex. He had paid a fortune for getting one made exactly in 1975, one year before his birth. He wanted his Rolex to be made in the same year as
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himself. He was about 30 minutes early. That was $500 in billable time for him, but it would not do to have Avira Ascolese waiting. She was one of the largest clients of Hargrave & Davis, using the firm since the days of Hargrave senior. He did not like driving the SUV. He preferred much his 2008 Tesla Roadster, number 77 in the production line. It had cost him over a million bucks to buy this extremely rare beauty, but it was his favorite car by far. He didn't like driving a stinking gasoline car, even if it helped showing off his money, since gasoline prices had gone up enough to make it impossible to drive one of these SUVs without a healthy financial background. But his client liked them. And that was of decisive importance. Konrad Hargrave would never put his own taste in such a matter before that of a client. Especially not a client that paid the kind of bucks Avira Ascolese did. His one goal in life was to make even more money than his father. He was rather good at raking the stuff in. And not only with his work as a lawyer. He was also an excellent poker player, having won quite a lot of tournaments, most of them online. He often had an online poker game going on in the background while writing some brief or other. That gave his briefs an extra punch. He was not afraid of taking a little risk when the potential payback was right. As a trial lawyer, you won't get much success if you don't attack aggressively even when you're dealt a bad hand. He had his black hair trimmed short, dressed expensively in suits hand-tailored for him, and had a pleasant smile that helped a lot attracting new and keeping existing clients. It also helped a lot impressing the jury.
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He arrived at the Ascolese estate located in an expensive neighborhood elevated over 1000 feet over sea level. These kind of locations had gotten a lot more exclusive as the storms made beach front property go way down in value. New York was already discussing when to relocate. Parking his SUV, he was greeted by Benito Sadiqi, an old guy working as Ascolese's butler. He looked at Benito, his gray hair, the cane he was limping with to greet Konrad at his vehicle, and was half inclined to feel sorry for him. But then, Sadiqi had been in Ascolese's service for a long time, and he probably was glad that he had that post. No one else would hire him at that age. "She will be available for you in about 20 minutes, Mr. Hargrave," Sadiqi said. "Kindly follow me." They walked up to the back door, got into the mansion, and in a small conference room. Hargrave sat down in the chair Sadiqi offered him. A maid brought some coffee and cookies, and Sadiqi pushed a button to make a screen and a keyboard appear out from the table before Hargrave. Hargrave looked at some online news sites, so as to effectively put this waiting time to use. A couple of minutes after the scheduled time Avira Ascolese appeared. She came from her morning session with her astrologer, in a good mood because of the good fortune he had promised her. She looked much younger than her 53 years in her designer dress. Her long hair was colored blond, and the plastic surgeons that had kept her face looking younger had been worth their money. She had made her fortune by choosing her parents well. She was born rich and managed to stay rich all her life. Much of that was in fossil fuel interests. She owned a 77
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percent stake in CleanCoal Corporation stock, the largest remaining coal power plant operator in the nation. She knew exactly about the risks from global warming. That's why she had invested wisely. The Dutch company specializing in dike technology and removing sea water after the latest storm surge she had invested in ten years ago had done very well, leaving her stake with an over twenty fold increase. Her investments in farming in northern areas previously unsuited for the purpose had paid off rather nicely as well. Basically, she was pulling a nice profit from the global warming she helped to make worse with her fossil fuel investments. She liked especially the part about how the risks from global warming would affect poor people. And the part about how she would be perfectly safe in her mansion way out of reach of sea level rise. Food had gotten a lot more expensive after the droughts had hit in earnest and reduced food production. But for her, it made her food taste even better when she knew that many others would go without, and that her investments in the sector would go up even more. Avira could easily shut down her coal power plants. They had paid for themselves many times over already. But that would be much less fun. The one thing she enjoyed most in life was heating the planet up with her power plants. She would be dead in a couple of decades, with no children left behind. While she was around, she wanted to see herself as much as possible of the misery coming from global warming. Misery for other people, that is. The fact that she made a profit from global warming as well was just an added bonus. One other thing she had inherited from her father was
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an intense hatred for all environmentalists. They had always attacked the family business. And he had always fought back hard. Avira would spent her remaining days keeping up the fight. In the long run, the fossil fuel industry would die out. She knew that as well as everyone else. But she would not go down without taking some of the enemies out first. She had celebrated when 350.org had admitted complete defeat on the original goal and changed the name. She would give these green scumbags some more of that medicine to taste. It was vital for that purpose to win the lawsuit Hargrave was handling for her. "Hello, Mr. Hargrave," Ascolese said. "Are there any important new developments?" "Hello, Ms. Ascolese," Hargrave answered. "You are looking great, as always. Yes, there have been some rather interesting new angles coming up in the case." "And those would be?" Ascolese asked. "Have you ever heard of Sierra Club v. Morton?" Hargrave asked back. "I am not sure. Is that a recent case?" Ascolase said. "Not really. It went to the Supreme Court in 1972, a couple of years before I was born," Hargrave said. He prudently refrained from calculating and issuing an opinion on what age his client might have been or not been at the time. "What was it about?" Ascolese asked. "The issue of standing. You know of course Sierra Club. They have been a leading opposition group to coal in this country. In this case, Disney wanted to develop a large ski resort close to the Sequoia National Park, and Sierra Club was stirring up trouble, as they always do. The question of
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standing means, simply put, something like 'why the hell is it your business to file this lawsuit'. The plaintiffs have no own legal interest in the Sequoia National Park. So why should they be allowed to object, when this is basically none of their business?" Hargrave explained. "Yes. They should mind their own business," Ascolese agreed. "That's also what the Supreme Court said. You can't just sue because you don't agree with some public policy or other. You need to show that the policy affects your interests," Hargrave said. "Good. So Sierra Club lost?" Ascolese asked. "No. The Supreme Court allowed them to amend their complaint and file on behalf of some of their members. And they had some members who could reasonably claim that their aesthetic and recreational interests in preserving Sequoia National Part were affected, so Sierra Club was able to establish standing after all," Hargrave said. "And what has that to do with our lawsuit? That case was not about coal, was it?" Ascolese was starting to get impatient. "Well, the plaintiffs just dropped a rather interesting bombshell on us yesterday. They introduced a new plaintiff to their case. A tree that has lived 187 million years ago," Hargrave said, smiling his pleasant smile. He expected Ascolese to explode. "I always knew these green scumbags are completely crazy. Now they have delivered final proof. How could they even think of having a goddamn tree as a plaintiff?" Ascolese was reacting exactly as expected. "They point to a dissent in the 1972 Supreme Court opinion that said that trees should have standing on their
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own. And they say if that was a minority opinion 50 years ago, it's about time to get serious about the environmental crisis and acknowledge legal rights for nature itself. Before it's too late," Hargrave said. "Do they have a prayer of actually pulling this nonsense off in court?" Ascolese asked. "I would be rather surprised," Hargrave said. "But you never know what the courts will do until you read their opinion. It's a very long shot. A much lesser lawyer than I am could easily stop them," he said. "So why do you mention it, if it's not really a problem?" Ascolese asked. "They will of course try to use this as part of their publicity campaign. Demonstrations, blog posts, activist concerts, that kind of stuff. It does seem to have potential as a campaign idea, even if I succeed in shooting it down in court," Hargrave said. "The bastards. They won't get away with that. Who has signed the court papers?" Ascolese asked. "Two of their rookie lawyers. One girl named Kim Kornburg. And another rookie called Douglas Bastow. I have forgotten more about the law than they will ever know. I will make short work of them," he said, trying to reassure his client. "You do that. I will handle the public relations threat," Ascolese said. "Thank you for your update, Mr. Hargrave. You may leave now." Hargrave was lead back to his SUV by another maid. Then Ascolese turned to Sadiqi, and said: "Get the girl."

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CHAPTER TWO KIM

March 15, 2023, 10:30 "YOU HAVE not sneezed once for the last ten minutes. What is wrong with you?" Douglas Bastow inquired in a worried tone. "Yes, now that you mention it, that is strange," Kim Kornburg replied. She had checked the weather report in the morning, and pollen counts were off the charts again. But she had not sneezed all day, now that she came to think about it. Had she finally gotten adjusted to having pollen in the air? Had the allergy gone away? That would be nice news for a change. Kim and Douglas were sitting in Kim's office. Douglas had come over to discuss a point on the next brief in the CleanCoal Corporation lawsuit. They had delivered the bombshell of their new client to court the day before and were now working on another angle of the case. "Have you got any new medication for your hay fever?" Douglas asked. He was curious on what was happening here. "No. I don't take any medication at all. My theory is that I just need my body to adjust, to understand that there is pollen in the air and that there is nothing I can do about it.
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Get over it already and stop all that overreaction, move on. This is a mystery for me," she said. "Have there been any notable changes in your living environment? Some new piece of furniture or something like that?" Douglas asked. "Well, yes, of course there was the weird dream I had yesterday. Where I burnt in hell and then got those weird ideas," Kim said. "By the way, has that dream come back?" he asked. "No. And I certainly haven't missed it. That was the worst nightmare I ever had. Today I slept without any dreams I am aware of now," Kim answered. "So, what's the big change?" Douglas answered. "It may of course just be your presence," Kim said with a smile. She wanted to flirt a little. She did not have a boyfriend at this time. Her last boyfriend had left her for another girl a couple of months before, after she had laughed at his inept way of kissing one time too much. It had been quite some time since someone had kissed her. "Oh, yes, that's quite possible," Douglas said. "I do have a positive effect on most women I am around. Am I allowed to flirt with you, or would that be sexual harassment? I might get tempted, though I would of course be cheating on Alice. And Berta. And Clarisse. And Dora." He smiled. "I wouldn't mind." Kim answered, blushing slightly. This might be going into an interesting direction. "Who is Alice? And the others?" "I just made them up. You notice how their names run right through the first letters of the alphabet?" Douglas asked. "No. But now that you say it," Kim said, smiling.
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"Okay, here's the deal," Douglas declared. "Since I am such a kind person, I will flirt with you anytime you want, as long as a couple of conditions are cleared." "What would those be?" Kim asked. "For one, I will not easily give you the time. Ask me right now what time it is, please?" Douglas said. That was very strange. Kim didn't understand. But she also didn't mind playing along. "What time is it, Douglas?" she said. "I am really very sorry, Kim, but I am not giving you the time right now." Douglas said. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kim asked, puzzled, and slightly annoyed. "The first thing you need to understand about me is that I am a rich man who has invested a lot of effort in learning and perfecting the art of seduction. I have had a modest amount of success in these efforts, if I may say so myself. If a man like me wants some woman he can give the time to, that woman will always be only one phone call away. The second thing you need to understand is that I have read Salinger. Have you?" Douglas said. "No. Who is Salinger? Some author?" Kim said. Then, after a moment's thought: "Wait a minute. Did you just make me say what I think you made me say?" She was becoming more annoyed by the moment. "Yes. I'm sorry. To be perfectly blunt, my first and only condition is that you don't expect sexual intercourse from me, just because I always try to be charming to all women around me. Can you accept that?" Douglas asked, smiling. "You bastard," Kim said. "Bastow. It's Douglas Bastow, not 'bastard'. But again, sorry. I just needed to put that out of the way before there
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are any misunderstandings. Can you possibly forgive me?" Douglas went down on his knees, touching his forehead to the floor. Kim laughed. "Okay. I understand. I accept that condition. Actually, I appreciate your being perfectly clear. Are you sure you're not lying? You really won't give me the time?" she said. "It's 10:48," Douglas said, checking his watch. "But no, I was not lying." He was, of course. He was a lawyer, after all. And on top of that a rather good magician. He was a world-class expert at the art of deception. This was just one of the many time-tested strategies he employed when first talking to a new prospect. He figured it wouldn't take too long until Kim got friendly with him. "Okay, let's get back to work. We wouldn't want Marla to think that we are not working full speed on the CleanCoal case," Kim said. "Yes, that wouldn't do. Now, about this expert witness we discussed, I think he's worth his money. We should ask him to help us, even if it will cost us a bundle," Douglas said, slipping back seamlessly into his role as a very serious lawyer. # March 15, 2023, 10:55 The phone on Kim's desk rang. It was Marla. "Could you please come over to the conference room for a moment? I would like to discuss something with you. And bring Douglas along, please," Marla said.
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"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," Kim said, putting down the phone. She turned to Douglas. "Marla wants us in the conference room. How could she have known we were flirting a bit?" "Maybe a hidden surveillance camera? Is she watching her employees at work all the time? We'll know in a moment," Douglas answered. A couple of minutes later. Marla came into the conference room, where Kim and Douglas had been waiting. "Are you two getting along?" she asked, smiling. "Yes..." Kim answered. "Definitely," Douglas said. "We're a great team. The brief in the CleanCoal Corporation file has been filed. Do you want the details on that?" "No. I called you to discuss another very important question," Marla said. Kim blushed. Now they would get called out by her boss. "What would that be?" Douglas asked, still completely cool. "Basic economic policy. There is an important concept I would like to discuss with you. Kim, I haven't mentioned the 'Phaseout Profit Theory to you yet?" "Not that I am aware off," Kim said, relieved that this was not about her little flirt with Douglas. That might have become a somewhat awkward conversation. Marla didn't pay her to play around during working hours. "The basic idea is this. We fight to reduce burning of fossil fuel. What's the interest fossil fuel companies have in this? Do they want to reduce burning of the stuff?" "Obviously not," Douglas said. "They can't make a
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profit if we replace them with renewable energy." "But that is going to happen anyway," Marla said. "In the long run, renewable energy will most certainly replace fossil fuel. You do know that solar photovoltaic is the cheapest form of electricity generation in good locations since 2018, and in just about all locations since this year?" "Of course I know that much," Douglas said. "That's only common sense. But the fossil fuel industry is still our enemy. They want to delay the inevitable." "Some of them sure are. Avira Ascolese, for example, the main stockholder of the CleanCoal Corporation, fights us tooth and nail. She would do so even when it means losing money. That's just the way she is, and she won't change her views any more. But do they have an objective reason to do so?" Marla said. "Isn't that obvious? If renewable energy replaces them completely, there is no market left for them," Kim said. "Not so fast. Oil and other hydrocarbons will always be needed as raw materials in the petrochemical industry, even if we stop burning them, as we need to," Marla said. "But their market will get much smaller if they get kicked out of the energy business," Douglas objected. "That may be so. But let me explain the basics of the Phaseout Profit Theory. It assumes that it is actually in the best interest of the fossil fuel companies to reduce production. Let's start with a simple observation. All things equal, if they reduce production, what does that mean for their prices?" Marla asked. "Obviously, they will go up," Douglas answered. "Do you know what 'elasticity of demand' means?" Marla asked. "No," Kim said. "I'm sorry. Lawyers don't learn that
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kind of stuff." "It measures how much a raise in prices reduces demand. And with fossil fuel, demand is very inelastic. The prices can go up a lot without demand going down. With China and India catching up to European and American levels of energy consumption, the market is eagerly sucking up every last drop of oil, even with prices much higher than only ten years ago," Marla explained. "So what does that mean for the fossil fuel companies?" Douglas asked. "That's obvious. If the Phaseout Profit Theory is correct, then obviously they will want to reduce their supply faster than we reduce their demand, so as to make the maximum profit in the phaseout stage", Marla explained. "Why do we care what the bloodsucking fossil fuel companies want? They are our enemy," Kim objected. "Well, for one, know your enemy, as Sun Tzu wrote in the "Art of War" 2,500 years ago. But more importantly, if we can get them to understand this point, they will join forces with us on many of our regulatory and public campaign efforts. That would completely change the game," Marla said. "So what are we supposed to do with that "Phaseout Profit Theory" now? Do you want us to use it as a legal argument in the CleanCoal Corporation case?" Douglas asked. "No. Just think about it. Try to find some problems with it. If you do find some, try to solve them. I just wanted to introduce you to this line of thinking. We will decide on what to do with it later. For the CleanCoal Corporation litigation, I am afraid it will not be relevant. Avira Ascolese would rather lose the opportunity to make
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more money than lose to us. She is completely irrational," Marla said. "Okay," Kim said. "We will think about it. So this meeting is over now?" "Yes. Thanks for listening," Marla said. "Keep me updated on any ideas you may get about the "Phaseout Profit Theory". It is of great strategic importance for our efforts." # March 15, 2023, 16:30 Benito Sadiqi was sitting in the living room of the mountain cabin, his laptop computer open, and studying some of his favorite research resources on a topic close to his heart. Methods of torture. He had of course all the relevant Wikipedia articles on his laptop, as well as any book ever written on the subject in digital form. But there was also quite a large collection of video and picture files from his own activity in the field, as well as that of other practitioners. As the head of security for Avira Ascolese, he had ample occasion to put these theories to practical use, which was one of the reasons he liked his job so much. The money was good as well, much better and much more stable than in his days as a street thug. He still had excellent connections to his former pals. That came in handy whenever he needed some extra muscle for an operation. With the funds Ascolese supplied him with, he could get the best people out there. And he knew exactly who they were.
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There was also a funeral home he had excellent connections to. Whenever he needed to dispose of a body, it was cremated together with a legitimate corpse with no one the wiser. He was contemplating what he would do to Kim Kornburg, once he had her abducted and back in this secluded mountain cabin, where there were no nosy neighbors interfering with the torture. Right now he thought it would be a good idea to break a couple of bones early in the process and then proceed to slowly take out one eye with a soldering iron. He would have a live feed set up so that Avira Ascolese could check in on the progress any time she felt like it. Then he would put a bullet through one knee before he dumped the girl some place close to a hospital. She was not supposed to die from this, since that would diminish the terrorizing effect on the other troublemakers. Yes, he thought. That would do for a preliminary menu. He would think again about it once he had Kim here. Konrad Hargrave and most other people who would see him thought that he was old and limping with a cane. That was exactly what he wanted them to think. In reality, he was only 37 and in excellent shape. He had practiced karate for all his life and had reached the black belt level over ten years ago. The limp was just a show he put on. His gray hair was a wig he wore over his own short blond hair. And the same doctors that straightened out the wrinkles in Avira Ascolese's face had added some premature wrinkles to his face. His cane was his favorite weapon for hand-to-hand combat purposes. The main advantage it had over other alternatives was the fact that he would have it in his hand
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to begin with, and nobody suspected it was a weapon. It was just a normal cane, which was enough for most of his purposes. He knew exactly how and where to hit someone to knock them out unconscious. He had other canes with knives or a firearm concealed inside. And of course he always carried a gun and several knives. For the operation today, a normal cane would be perfect. He would get the girl, as Ascolese had ordered him the day before. Doing what she wanted was his main purpose now in life. She provided him good money, a stable position, and a steady stream of victims to live out his cruelty. He wasn't a sadist. He just enjoyed the fact that he could do to his victims anything he wanted. He liked the feeling of power. And he liked the fact that he was very good at what he did. He was a professional. He believed in the work ethic of the professional, to get up every day and do some research on torture methods. Or actually torture somebody. Time to get moving, Benito decided, and left the mountain cabin. He drove his white van to the street where he knew Kim Kornburg lived and waited for her to come home from her commute. He would deal her one quick hit to the head with his cane to knock her out and then collect her in the van, tie her up, and bring her to the mountain cabin. If anybody was at the scene and tried to interfere, they would get a quick blow to their head as well. He wore dark glasses, like a blind man, and had a long white false beard attached to his chin. That would keep any possible witness from describing his face correctly. But he had also cased the scene the day before and didn't expect anyone to interfere. That part of the road was very quiet. The whole thing would be over in 10 seconds.
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He was very fast and had the added benefit that no one expected this kind of attack from a blind geezer limping along with his cane. Benito left the van. Just in time. He saw Kim coming, walking along the street from her bus stop. He had had a guy watching the building where 500.org was located and alert him to when exactly she left the place. It was very easy to time the operation so that he didn't need to wait very long. He faced the van, pretending to lock the door, while watching Kim walk up to him through the van's side mirror. Kim would have never had a chance to avoid the stunning blow. But just as she approached the van, an inner voice told her "wait a moment". She was confused, that had never happened. "What's wrong?" she thought. There was an old man facing his van. He didn't seem to notice her. Actually, he seemed to be blind, wearing dark glasses over his eyes. Kim hesitated just long enough that the first blow from the cane failed to connect with her head and hit her shoulder instead. Benito had expected her to keep her pace, just like all the others he had taken before. Puzzled, he looked at his victim, who was now warned, though she still had not had time to understand the situation. "Damn!" Benito thought. These complications were not part of his plan. But he would still get the girl. She had no chance against him even if he told her in advance that he would take her now. Tires screeched. A car appeared out of nowhere. The door on the driver's side opened, and Douglas Bastow yelled: "Hold it right there, pal!"
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Benito looked at Douglas. That guy had no gun drawn. He had a damn magician's wand in his hand! Was that supposed to be a weapon? Benito relaxed. He drew a knife and said: "Who you think you are, Harry Potter? Get lost before you get hurt, boy." Douglas said "Carbocadabra!" and moved the magic wand. "He must be crazy," Benito thought. Does he really believe that will achieve anything? That was when the end of the magic wand hit him right in the eye. Douglas got one good poke in, which was enough to make Benito drop the knife and hold his eye, screaming. The magic wand had extended to five times the original length in an instant. That was all Douglas needed. "Come the hell into the car!" he yelled. A moment later, Kim was on his lap. Douglas floored the pedal. His 2012 Final Special Edition Tesla Roadster jumped off with such speed that Benito had no chance to react. He didn't even manage to send some bullets after them. "That guy got a taste of how magicians fight. And it's 'Gandalf', not 'Harry Potter'. Anyway, we got lucky. That was really close," Douglas said, as they were safely out of shooting distance. "What was that about?" "Looks like someone didn't like our last brief in the CleanCoal Corporation case. I have heard some unpleasant rumors about them before," said Kim, catching her breath and holding her shoulder, where the cane hat connected. She had made it to the passenger seat without causing Douglas to crash the car. "That does it. You are not going back to your place for the time being. You need to stay in an unknown location until we are sure you are safe again," said Douglas. "Where would that be?" Kim asked.
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"I hope you don't mind staying at one of my places for the time being," Douglas said. "Of course you need to keep in mind that I won't give you the time." "Sounds like a lovely idea," Kim said. "And thanks for saving me. That was close." # March 15, 2023, 19:20 Douglas Bastow parked his 2012 Final Special Edition Tesla Roadster in the garage of one of his houses. He was quite sure that no one had followed them. It was rather difficult to tail a Roadster going at speed. It was utterly impossible to do without attracting the notice of the person followed. Douglas had made a couple of extra miles, so as to make sure there were no more surprises. He knew that this house was listed nowhere as an address of him. He had listed several addresses in various public places, all of them false, since he did not care for having random people being able to track him. That came in handy tonight. "It was a good thing that I happened to come along," Douglas said. Actually, he hadn't just happened to come along. He had been stalking Kim, wanting to get a handle on where she lived. That might be useful when taking things to the next step with her, he thought. Creepy, sure. But as long as she didnt know, that would not damage his chances with Kim. And it turned out to be rather useful this time. "Yes. This might have been serious. Thanks for helping me," Kim answered. She didnt think of asking what
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business he had showing up right there. They got out of the car and entered the house. They moved into the kitchen were Douglas proceeded to cook dinner. He was rather good at that as well. "Tell me again how this happened. We will need to tell the police. And first thing tomorrow we're going to file an emergency motion to get a restraining order against CleanCoal Corporation. I am quite sure they are behind this. For that, we need to make sure exactly what happened," Douglas said. "So, I was walking from the bus station to my place, minding my business. Then, just as I approached the white van, I heard an inner voice say 'wait a minute'. That has never happened before. I looked at the man. Just an old guy with a cane. I didn't see any danger there, but hesitated just ever so slightly. That must have thrown him off. I am sure he wanted to hit me on the head," Kim said. "That's strange. First a weird dream, then you stop sneezing, and now that inner voice. Are you sure you are all right?" Douglas asked in worried tone. "Yes. I'm fine. The hit on my shoulder is no big deal. And I feel great, mostly because I am in the presence of Douglas Bastow. I am looking ahead of seeing some more of your magic tricks," Kim said. "You will," Douglas said. But let's eat first. They had dinner, discussing what they could tell the police about the incident. When they were finished, Douglas put away the dishes and said: "Okay, let's try another simple experiment. Would you be kindly prepared to cooperate?" "If it's not too difficult for me, of course," Kim said. Douglas pulled a deck of playing cards out of its case
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and started shuffling them. After a while, he said: "Please say stop at any moment of your choosing." Kim waited a couple of seconds. "Stop." Douglas stopped shuffling the cards. Then he spread them out and asked Kim to point to the back of one of the cards. After she had chosen one, he took that card and put it in his shirt pocket, without looking at it, and without Kim being able to see it. "Okay, here' s the deal," Douglas said. "You go first. Look at each of the remaining cards exactly once. Go through them, at speed. You have only thirty seconds to look at 51 cards. Then try to tell me which one is missing." "That sounds rather difficult," Kim said. "It is. Not many people can pull it off, in my experience. But it is an excellent exercise for your memory, which is of course a very necessary quality for any lawyer. Did you know that there are World championships in memory?" Douglas said. "No, I didn't know that." Kim said. She went through the remaining cards, one by one. "I'm sorry, I can't say. Your turn." Douglas took the remaining cards, went through them in about ten seconds. He had the right answer about half way through, but went through the whole pile just to mislead his spectator some more. "The five of Hearts," Douglas said. Sure enough, he got it right. The interesting thing about this particular card trick was that it had an at least half way plausible solution. If a person has a really good memory, they might be able to
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find the missing card from looking briefly at the remaining ones. It is not one of those tricks for which the only possible solution is some kind of fraud or other. It might actually be completely legit. If you, dear reader, want to know how it's done, let's just drop one small hint: It helps a lot with this if you know the exact order of the deck in beforehand and have learned a couple of ways to do a false shuffle (that's the only deceptive part of the trick). And learning some order of a deck actually is a great memory exercise.

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CHAPTER THREE A FILM

March 16, 2023, 6:35 KIM AND DOUGLAS were sitting at the breakfast table. Kim had spent the night in one of the rooms of this particular house Douglas owned. He had spent the night in another room. They would need to stop at Kim's place on the way to work so as to get her the chance to pack some clothes and underwear. She was going to stay at this house for a couple of days before figuring out how to proceed. "Did you sleep well?" Douglas asked. "No dreams of burning in hell or of the attack yesterday?" "Yes," Kim said. "Thanks. I slept well, except for a couple of times when I woke up because of the pain in the shoulder." "How is that going now?" "It's not too bad. It's only something I am not used to," Kim answered. She helped herself to some fresh croissants. Douglas had them delivered each morning. "There is something about that attack yesterday I don't understand," Douglas said. "What would that be?" "You said that an inner voice warned you just before you got hit. And that that never happened before. Do you
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understand how that happened?" Douglas asked. "No, actually, I am puzzled myself. It sure saved my bacon right there. I would have lain unconscious on the sidewalk, certainly unable to jump into your car," Kim said. Douglas was eating some cereal, as every morning. He believed in keeping breakfast simple. He didn't want to take a lot of time toasting bread or cooking eggs. "Do you think that inner voice has something to do with your dream about our new plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree?" Douglas asked. "That may well be," Kim said. "I don't see any other explanation. On the other hand, I never heard of trees talking to people, so that doesn't make much sense either." "Yes. Very strange," Douglas said. "Let's go." They had finished breakfast and left Douglas's house in a small Nissan LEAF electric vehicle. Douglas did not want to attract attention, which could not be avoided with the Final Special Edition Tesla Roadster. He had someone from his security service check out the street at Kim's place. So they knew there were no old men with white vans and canes hanging around at the scene. But he still carried a gun now. That trick with the magic wand wouldn't work a second time. Douglas stopped at Kim's place and waited in the car until she came back with a small suitcase, after taking a shower and changing clothes for the day. They arrived at the office well before nine. They would have to appear in court at ten o'clock. Konrad Hargrave had filed a motion to dismiss the new lawsuit by the Jurassic ginkgo tree. They would need to answer that. And Douglas wanted to file an emergency motion of his own. He had already prepared it while Kim
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was sleeping and printed it out at the office. A couple of minutes early, they entered the courtroom of Judge Virginia Crowley. After their case was called, Konrad Hargrave went first. He had three of his associate lawyers sitting behind him. They had been working on the Jurassic tree plaintiff question around the clock, generating billable hours for the firm of Hargrave & Davis. "Your honor, the defendant thinks this lawsuit is completely without merit. We move to dismiss it. "The leading case when discussing plant and animal rights is of course Sierra Club v. Morton. As the defendant has explained in the brief presented to the court this morning, the idea of plants having any rights to file a lawsuit has been firmly rejected by the majority of the Supreme Court in that case. "The plaintiff asserts that in the 21st Century there is a need to reconsider the question, because we face more pressing environmental issues than when Sierra Club v. Morton was decided in 1972. We do not dispute in principle that there may be some more urgency to environmental questions in this Century compared to the last. We especially do not dispute the fact of global warming, as there is clear evidence for this fact in the disappearing Arctic icecap, the unprecedented droughts of the last decade, and the increase in the number and intensity of storms. But we do dispute the need for trees to become plaintiffs. And we dispute that need especially for Jurassic ginkgo trees. "Plaintiff 500.org has already filed the present lawsuit against my client. They have already established standing for that lawsuit. So where is the urgent need to reconsider Sierra Club v. Morton and give standing to trees? This is only
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a publicity stunt. We don't think the court's valuable time should be wasted by this kind of thing." Judge Crowley nodded. She looked like she was buying Hargrave's explanations. She said: "Does the plaintiff also wish to add something to their written brief?" "Yes," Douglas said, rising. "I sure have to add something." "Go ahead," said the Judge. "For one, I am filing an emergency motion for a restraining order. We want the court to order the defendants to refrain from physically assaulting attorneys for the plaintiff. Your honor, may I present the brief to you?" Douglas said, eying Hargrave and his associates with a grim face, as if he was just about to become violent himself right in the court room. "Objection, your honor! There is no need whatsoever for such a restraining order." Hargrave smiled, looked calm as always. But he certainly did not like this new ambush. He had no idea what his client's head of security had been up to the day before. "Why would you want that?" Judge Crowley asked. "Have there been any such attempts?" "There sure was one yesterday. My colleague Kim Kornburg here was assaulted by an unknown person, hit on her shoulder with a cane. The guy hit her as she was walking down the sidewalk to her home. We assume that the defendant is responsible for this and want an order making sure it doesn't happen again," Douglas said. "What do you have to say about that?" Judge Crowley asked Hargrave. She did not seem all too pleased hearing of assaults against lawyers in her case. "I have no idea what the plaintiffs are talking about. The
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defendant disputes vigorously having anything to do with that assault." Hargrave was not smiling any more. "Okay, let me make this very clear," Douglas said. "We don't have proof that you are behind this. But you try that kind of funny business again, we will retaliate in exactly the same way. We have thousands of supporters who wouldn't mind blocking the offices of Hargrave & Davis for a couple of weeks if they think you are playing foul. They might also show up at Avira Ascolese's mansion. You tell that your client, will you?" Judge Crowley pounded the table with her gavel. "That will be quite enough now, Mr. Bastow. I don't tolerate this kind of threat in my courtroom. I won't hold you in contempt right now, since if your account is correct, you do have some reason for suspicion. But threatening the defendant's attorney in this way is not acceptable. Do you understand that, Mr. Bastow?" "Yes. I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Douglas said. And directed one more grim look at Hargrave. He had made it clear that 500.org would not take any physical violence lying down. He had made his point. And he did expect Hargrave to pass the message on. "Your motion for an emergency restraining order is dismissed, Mr. Bastow. However, I would think it appropriate that Mr. Hargrave would discuss this report of an assault with his client. So, do you want to add anything to your written brief about the question of standing for your new plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree?" Judge Crowley asked. She was smiling now. Obviously she appreciated the entertainment value of this particular legal maneuver. "Yes, your honor," Douglas said. "I would like to leave
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that part to my colleague, Kim Kornburg." Kim rose and started her explanation. "As everybody knows, Justice William O. Douglas dissented in Sierra Club v. Morton. Here is what he wrote at the time: "Quote: 'The critical question of standing would be simplified and also put neatly in focus if we fashioned a federal rule that allowed environmental issues to be litigated before federal agencies or federal courts in the name of the inanimate object about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers and where injury is the subject of public outrage. Contemporary public concern for protecting nature's ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation.' Unquote. "That is exactly our point. Of course, we have standing anyway to file this lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation. But this is not about us. The interests of 500.org are not the central question we need to address. We are fighting for the environment, not for ourselves. And in this particular case, admitting standing for our new plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree, frames the issues in a completely different way, and correctly. "The main question here is, should the defendant be allowed to burn the bones of my client's family for making a profit? How would humans feel if some alien race plundered their graves and used the bones for fuel? How can we even raise this issue if we are not allowed to have a Jurassic ginkgo tree as plaintiff? "It makes an important difference to this case. We think Justice Douglas was right in 1972. And he is even more
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right in 2023." Kim sat down. Hargrave countered. "Your honor, if I may react to this. Even if the court admits that a Jurassic ginkgo tree can have standing in this court of law, how do I know that the attorneys appearing here have actually received the necessary power of attorney? Where is proof for that? Where has the Jurassic ginkgo tree signed that document? Does this mysterious 'Jurassic ginkgo tree' even exist? How would I know? How is the court supposed to communicate with this plaintiff? "So even if the court should admit standing, this publicity stunt needs to be dismissed because the plaintiff doesn't exist and hasn't given power of attorney." Hargrave sat down, pleased with his performance. "Thank you. I will adjourn now. The plaintiff's attorneys are ordered to file proper proof that the plaintiff exists in the first place and that they have received power of attorney until March 30," Judge Crowley said, and closed the proceedings. # March 16, 2023, 12:30 Kim and Douglas were eating lunch at a restaurant close to the courthouse. They needed to discuss how the court hearing went. "Thank you for trying to get that emergency motion," Kim said. "I hope that it will help preventing further attacks." "It should. Hargrave probably did not know about that.
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But he will tell his clients that they need to knock it off. If he doesn't, and then something serious happens to you, or to me for that matter, he may face some liability himself," Douglas said. "So even if we did not get an emergency restraining order, I do think we have gotten in one good punch. Avira Ascolese will understand that two can play this game," Kim said. "I still don't think you're safe right now. We need to be cautious," Douglas said. "So I should stay for some time at your house?" Kim said. "Yes. Now let's discuss something else," Douglas said. "What would that be?" "There is one serious problem," Douglas said. "What serious problem?" Kim said. "You need to lose a couple of pounds. I can't possibly grant you the honor of flirting with you when you are so clearly overweight," Douglas said with a dead earnest voice. "What?" Kim was getting angry. "You heard me. Lose some goddamn weight. It can't be so hard. Why are you so fat anyway?" Douglas sounded annoyed. Kim got up and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving behind a bill to pay for her share. How the hell could he say something like that? It was none of his damn business if she had a pound or two extra. Losing weight was hard. You need to avoid all the good tasting food and eat only things that taste lousy. She was not good at that kind of self-discipline. And she was certainly not pleased to hear that from Douglas. He was in good shape, she had to admit. No
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extra weight he needed to lose. But what gave him the right to criticize her like that? If that was his condition for "granting her the honor of flirting with her", well, then she would need to pass on getting that honor granted. She would go right back to her place today after work, the danger be damned. # March 16, 2023, 13.40 Kim was sitting in her office, still fuming from Douglas's remark, when Marla phoned her and asked her to come to the conference room. She had great news she wanted to present to all the staff. Kim went over to the conference room. Douglas was present already, just like everybody else. She avoided him, standing at the other end of the group of people, when Marla walked into the room. She greeted everybody and proceeded to explain the great news. "Fantastic news, team! I have got definite proof that all our efforts have paid off. Earth will narrowly escape complete meltdown to a couple of hundred degrees Celsius! And we had a vital role in winning this fight," Marla announced. "How do you know?" Douglas asked. "Actually, I don't know yet. However, I am now in a position to pretend very convincingly that I do know." "What is that supposed to mean?" Kim asked. "You remember that dream you told me about?" Marla
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said. "The one with the deadline? No one could know that one exactly as well. I know this from another somewhat mysterious source." "What would that be?" Douglas said. "We have been producing a short science fiction film that we will publish on Youtube as part of our public campaigning efforts," Marla said. "I have just received the final version, and I want you all to watch it before I post it." Marla pushed a button. A large screen at one of the walls started showing the film. Everybody watched. The first couple of scenes introduced the main character of the film, someone living in 2323, exactly three hundred years from now. It was a young woman, played by Arabelle Venditto, one of the biggest stars in the climate movement. She was a singer and songwriter in that film as well, just as in real life. Her songs were not about love, but mostly about how to cope with the mess the humanity of the 20th and 21st Centuries had left them. There was not much fossil fuel left in her world. Sea levels had risen by 57 meters, burying most of the coastal cities. The film did show some bright sides, though. For example, the Imperial Palace in Tokyo had survived as a small island, since it was built on the highest ground of the city. Several million of humans had still survived even under these very harsh conditions. And they had finally reached the tipping point where their efforts to suck up CO2 from the atmosphere were just enough to cancel out the additional forcing coming from the methane under the melted former permafrost. They had, against all odds, just barely managed to beat the positive feedback loop! Earth
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would avoid complete meltdown! That was one part of the great news. The main character would then come back to 2023 in a time machine and tell everybody. The film used one of the concerts Arabelle had given last month as a stage for that. She would bring the message from the future. Three hundred years from now, global warming would just barely get under control, if everybody at the campaign continued to work their asses off to do whatever they could. And the best part of the great news was the end. In 2327 a big asteroid was scheduled to hit Earth, with no way the remaining humans could do anything about it. Which would fry the planet completely anyway. That in turn meant there was no more need to worry about global warming! Fantastic news! "So what do you think?" Marla asked. "Should we leave out the last part about the asteroid? I am not sure about it." "Isn't that exactly the opposite of what our message should be?" Douglas asked. "I mean, why should we put out the message of 'Don't worry, it doesn't matter anyway'? That doesn't make sense." "We were aiming for some black humor there. It can be hard to do climate advocacy. Often people are tempted to just forget about the problem, go back to doing something else with their lives. What would you do if you knew there was an asteroid hitting in 2327 that ended all life on Earth anyway? Would you still keep up climate activism?" Marla said. "Well, I for one don't get the joke," Kim said. "Better leave it out." Marla took a quick vote. Most people agreed with Kim.
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"I see. We may need to think of a happier ending there. Anyway, thanks for your input. I will keep you all informed on how we develop this idea. This meeting is over," Marla said. As everyone walked out of the room, Kim carefully avoiding to come close to Douglas, Marla said: "Kim, have you got a moment for me?" "Yes, of course," Kim said. They were alone in the conference room now. "I am somewhat worried about you," Marla said. "Douglas informed me of that attack against you yesterday. Are you all right? How is your shoulder?" "Yes, thanks. The shoulder is no big deal, a bit painful, but that will heal quickly. We tried to get an emergency restraining order against CleanCoal Corporation today, but that didn't work out. Douglas did succeed in getting the Judge's attention to this, though," Kim said, suddenly remembering it, and that Douglas had saved her from the attack yesterday, and feeling much less angry about his remark over dinner. "I want you to take care," Marla said. "They might try again. And this time maybe you won't be so lucky." "I will," Kim said. She wondered if she really should go back to her place right away. "Good. Please keep me posted on your security precautions. One other thing," Marla said. "What would that be?" "Have you considered working out some? I am rowing each day to keep in shape. It is a great way to think about things while alone on the water. I don't mean to be rude, but you should lose a couple of pounds," Marla said. Kim said nothing for a moment. That's number two
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today, she thought. Maybe they had a point. And maybe she should consider listening. "Thank you, Marla. You are probably right. I need to do something about that," Kim said. She decided then and there that she would phone Douglas right when she got back into her office and apologize for storming out of the restaurant. # March 16, 2023, 16:15 Douglas and Kim were sitting in the conference room. They were waiting for Arabelle Venditto, who was scheduled to meet with them to discuss progress with her two new songs about the Jurassic ginkgo tree. "I'm sorry about storming out of that restaurant," Kim said, again. She had phoned Douglas and apologized already. "No problem. I have to admit that I have been somewhat rude on purpose. I wanted to test you, find out how you react to stress. The result was not encouraging. Please refrain from just running away each time you don't like something about me. You would be running away all the time, since there are lots of things not to like. I'm a terrible person. Especially my womanizing. I can't help it. I'm sorry. I really am," Douglas said. Of course he was lying again. Not about the womanizing part, that was all too true. But the part about his motives. He had provoked the quarrel since he knew exactly that helped getting Kim closer to him once they got over it.
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"I will try. But it is not always easy to keep cool," Kim said. "If you agree that losing a couple of pounds is a good idea, I may be able to help," Douglas offered. "How?" Kim asked. "Well, I've been there," Douglas said. "You wouldn't know from looking at me now, but a couple of years earlier I had some weight problems of my own. Want to know what finally got me up to speed with my diet efforts?" "Yes. Sure. I'd like to know that," Kim said. "It's actually very easy," Douglas said. "One day I realized that my problem of losing weight was exactly the same as the problem of solving the climate change crisis. Both are basically caused by a lack of attention and discipline. All it takes to lose weight is understand that there is a problem and invest some effort in dealing with it. All it takes to deal with climate change is understand that there is a problem and invest some effort in dealing with it." In that moment, Arabelle arrived. The number 500 on her forehead was in purple today, the braid hanging down from her otherwise completely shaved head was colored bright red. She wore a dress almost completely black, except two half moon areas matching the colors on her head. "I made some progress on my first two Jurassic ginkgo tree songs," Arabelle said. "Please wait a moment until I got my computer started up." She pulled a laptop computer out of her bag and switched it on. After a couple of mouse clicks the first song's lyrics were displayed on the screen.
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Don't You FUCKING Burn My Mom Hey you there Hey you there I'm talking to you there Chorus: Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! I hate you I hate you I hate you, yes you there Chorus: Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! It's only gas It's only gas For you it's only gas Chorus: Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! These are mom's bones These are mom's bones These are my sweet mama's bones Chorus: Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! I'm the Jurassic plant I'm the Jurassic plant I'll get you, I'll get you, I'll get you I'm the Jurassic plant

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Chorus: Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! "How is that?" Arabelle asked. "I think it may do as a first draft." "Do you have any music written for those lyrics yet?" Douglas asked. "No. That will be the next step, though. I have a couple of ideas for that as well, all based on classic hard rock. Think Rammstein. And of course, as we discussed earlier, I will need to design a costume that makes me look like a ginkgo tree on stage," Arabelle said. "I think it is okay as far as it goes. But it doesn't explain at all what you are talking about. Anyone who doesn't know the background will only be completely confused," Kim said. "That's no problem. I will explain the story on my blog. You will of course explain it as well. Have you done any press releases and blog posts on your new plaintiff yet?" Arabelle asked. "Actually no. We need to do that soon, but we would like to coordinate that with your efforts. So if you decide on these lyrics, please let us know," Douglas said. Arabelle turned back to her laptop computer and brought up another project. "This is about your countdown idea," she said. "The music for that will of course include some ticking clock percussion sounds." Countdown To Hell Let me tell you a little story Let me tell you a little story
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You may be scared, but you need to know Let me tell you a little story Chorus: TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK There's no time left There's no time left We need to get going There's no time left Chorus: TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK Will they all burn in hell? Will they all burn in hell? 300 years from now Will they all burn in hell? Chorus: TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK If the feedbacks kick in If the feedbacks kick in It's game over It's hell forever If the feedbacks kick in Chorus: TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK "I think the music for this should be very calm. Acoustic guitars, a bit of percussion, organ, with a liturgical chorus thrown in. And almost no music for the chorus parts, so as to get the clock ticking sound really in the center of attention," Arabelle said.
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"I think this is also a great first draft," Douglas said. "Did you know that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem about the ginkgo tree?" "No," Arabella said. "What was that poem about? I assume something different than global warming?" "Of course. It was written in 1815, way before anybody started worrying about that. Actually, it was about the leaf of the ginkgo tree. I already mentioned that it has a slit in the middle, consists of two halves. Goethe was writing about the symbolic value of that. He thought that the leaf may be two beings that have become as one, or one that has divided himself into two. Very philosophical. You may be able to use that as well," Kim explained. "Interesting. It's often a good idea to write lyrics that no one really understands. That way, people can concentrate more on the music. And I don't want my lyrics to be about climate change all the time. I need some more cheerful thoughts for some of the songs," Arabelle said. "I like it. I'll think about it." "Come to think of it, actually that might become a song about Kim Kornburg," Douglas said. "What?" Arabelle asked. "I don't understand." "Well, she had this weird dream the other day," Douglas answered. "Someone talking to her in her dream. A Jurassic ginkgo tree. And yesterday, another weird thing happened. Tell her about your inner voice when you were attacked, Kim." Kim obliged. She explained what had happened. And that she had never heard inner voices before. She also pointed out that Arabelle might be in danger herself and asked her to be careful. "See?" Douglas said. "Kim here might be actually two
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beings in one right now. I don't know exactly how that could possibly happen. But if that Jurassic ginkgo tree is not only some kind of dream or fantasy, if it actually exists in some way inside of Kim, that would be exactly like in Goethe's poem." "Actually, we need to find out if that is true in the next two weeks," Kim said. "We need to present evidence to the court that our new plaintiff the Jurassic plant actually exists and that we are able to communicate with her. Or him. I'm not sure about that." "Do ginkgo trees have males and females?" Arabelle asked. "They do," Douglas answered. "They really do. I am not making this up. Says so right in the Wikipedia article. Which would you prefer, Kim?" "I don't care either way," Kim said. "So, we're done for today?" Arabelle asked. "Yes," Douglas answered. Thank you for coming." Then Kim added: "How about we grab some dinner together?"

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March 16, 2023, 18:20 "I'LL HAVE the pizza quattro stagioni, and a Cola" Kim said. "Spaghetti bolognese for me, with a small beer" Arabelle ordered. "The same for me. But make that a large beer, and bring me a can of Sprite extra," Douglas said. "Did you know how excellent beer mixed with Sprite tastes?" He asked. The waitress walked away with their orders. "No, I have never heard about that," Arabelle said. "You should try it once. I understand the idea comes from Germany. On a hot day in the last Century, one of their restaurants was faced with an unexpected surge in patrons. They figured they were in danger of running out of beer, which would have triggered a revolution, so they stretched their supply that way," Douglas explained. "All of which is actually not true, but it makes for a nice little
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story. And it really tastes great. That part is true all right." The waitress came back with their drinks. Kim took her Cola. As she was about to drink, her arm froze in mid-air. She became completely immobile. Her breathing still worked normally, though. Arabelle laughed. "What's up, Kim? Have you invented a new game?" No answer. "That's weird," Douglas said. "Are you all right?" "She's all right," Kim said. "Don't worry." "What do you mean, 'she'? Whom are you talking about?" Arabelle asked, puzzled. "About Kim, of course. I have taken over for a couple of moments," Kim said. "Cut it out, Kim," Arabelle said. "This is not funny." Douglas slapped Kim in the face. If this was some kind of trance, she would snap out of it now. Kim's face got slightly red where Douglas had hit her. But she still was completely immobile, her hand with the Cola still halfway up to her mouth. "I said, 'don't worry'. It's okay. She'll be back in a couple of minutes," Kim said. "Who is this talking?" Douglas asked. "Good question. Call me 'Tasneem'. It has the meaning of 'fountain of paradise', which seems to fit well," Kim said. "You are our plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree," Douglas said, in a matter-of-fact way. He had figured out the only logical explanation rather quickly. "Pleased to meet you. I thought Kim had just made you up. Actually, that may still be the case. There is no way for me to know if she is just acting. That is at least what Konrad Hargrave will say if we try to present you to court. Do you know about him?"
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"Actually yes," Tasneem said. "I am always around Kim these days, so I know everything she would know." "Cool!" Arabelle exclaimed. "We are talking to a Jurassic tree! How do you like my song's lyrics, Tasneem? That about stopping to burn your mom?" "I like it. It does express part of the rage I am feeling at humanity," Tasneem said. Douglas still thought that Kim was acting. His slap to her face must have been unexpected, though he had not hit very hard. Showing no reaction to that required some serious self-control. So maybe this was for real. He was claiming it was real in a court of law right now, so he probably should find out. "Why did you choose to appear just now, Tasneem? Do you have any message for us?" Douglas asked. "Well, for one, I want you to know that I do exist. I will be able to deliver proof of that fact to Hargrave and Judge Crowley, if I choose to do so. But my main point today is something else," Tasneem said. "What would that be?" Arabelle asked. "What do you two think the fight against global warming is about?" Tasneem asked. "Isn't that obvious?" Arabelle asked back. "We want to avoid the planet heating up. Since that will be impossible right now, we will try to keep the damage as low as possible." "Yes," Douglas agreed. "That would seem to be a fair description." "Well, it is, in its way," Tasneem said. "But the main point is something else." "Which would be?" Douglas asked. "The main question is not one of degree of damage.
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The main question is of a binary nature. Either humanity will stay in control, or the feedback effects will. This is not a question of keeping the damage to two degrees, five degrees, or even seven degrees Celsius of warming. It is about containing the runaway feedback loop. If that turns out to be impossible at some point in time, you will end up with a couple of hundred degrees, ending all life on this planet," Tasneem explained. Including ginkgo trees. "I see," Douglas said. "That is certainly one way of looking at it. The waitress arrived with Kim's pizza quattro stagioni. She looked at Kim, puzzled. "It's okay," Arabelle said. "We're just playing a game here." The waitress placed the pizza before Kim and left, still feeling that this was rather weird. But as long as their guests paid for their food and didn't disturb any of the other patrons, she would certainly not ask any questions about their behavior. "Do you know what would happen if a large asteroid hit Earth? I mean, a really large one?" Tasneem asked. "No," Arabelle said. "It would eject a lot of red-hot lava from the Earth. Once that dropped back to the surface, the whole planet would be covered by a thick blanket of rock vapor. All life would be killed off in a couple of days. The oceans might take a couple of weeks to evaporate, though. There has been a video simulation of such an event by the Japanese NHK television up on Youtube for over a decade. Watch it right now on your mobile phone," Tasneem said. Douglas searched for the video, with "NHK, asteroid, youtube", found it immediately and displayed it on his
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mobile phone. He and Arabelle watched how the wall of fire spread over the whole planet. "Kim's arm is starting to get tired. I'll place the Cola back on the table," Tasneem said. And did so. Clearly she was in control of Kim's body now. "That's scary," Arabelle said, as they finished watching the video. "That may be a good metaphor for global meltdown leading to Venus syndrome," Douglas said. "Venus syndrome?" Arabelle asked. "You don't know? I am slightly surprised. No one ever told you?" Douglas said. "Actually, no." Arabelle said. "It's really easy to explain. Venus has had runaway climate change happen in her history. Now the atmosphere is 96.5% CO2, which raises surface temperatures over 450 degrees Celsius. We don't want that to happen on Earth. If it does because a runaway feedback spiral, we call that 'Venus syndrome'. And, as I just said, that asteroid impact video may be an excellent metaphor for that," Douglas explained. "Exactly. That's why I asked you to watch that video. It's not about keeping the climate a couple of degrees colder. It's about avoiding a runaway feedback that would lead to this happening. It would take longer than a day, but the end result would be the same," Tasneem said. "That's an interesting way of making the point," Arabelle said. "Thanks for the idea. I may be able to use this." "But that's not why you showed up right now, is it?" Douglas said. "You are not just here to tell us that global warming may be really bad? We already know that."
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"Yes," Tasneem said. "My main point is something else." "And that would be?" Arabelle said. "What I already told you over Kim's first dream. The clock is ticking. It really is. You need to get CO2 emissions to peak by July 17, 17:30, 2023. You are very close to passing the final tipping point," Tasneem explained. Kim started moving again. She looked puzzled. "Why has my pizza already arrived? We only ordered a moment ago," she asked. "You don't remember anything?" Douglas asked. "What is there to remember?" Kim said. "Remarkable," Arabelle said. "You have not been acting for us?" "Acting? What? What the hell is happening here?" Kim asked, starting to get angry. She thought Douglas and Arabelle were trying to play some kind of trick on her. "Well, for the past couple of minutes, you did not move in any way. And you talked to us as if you were our new plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree. She gave us a name. Tasneem. We had an interesting conversation about asteroids and Venus syndrome," Douglas explained. "Remarkable," Kim said. "So it's really true? I mean, what we are telling the court is not some kind of fiction, but it is actually happening?" "It sure is," Douglas said. "Especially the part about the countdown. We have until July 17, 17:30." The waitress arrived with Arabelle's and Douglas's orders. She looked at Kim, noting that Kim was moving again. Kim noticed the staring and was somewhat puzzled about that. "We will need to discuss this later in detail," Douglas
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said. "Let's eat." "But not too much," he added, looking at Kim. # March 16, 2023, 19:50 Kim and Douglas were driving back to Douglas's house, where Kim would spend another couple of days, until they were sure it was safe for her to get back to her own apartment. They were discussing Tasneem. Douglas repeated everything Tasneem had said to Kim. He also showed here the video of the asteroid impact simulation. "So it is really true," Kim said. "That explains it." "That explains what?" Douglas asked. "Well, my inner voice warning me against that attack yesterday. I told you I had never had such an experience before. But that came just in time for me to avoid getting hit on the head. Obviously, Tasneem was protecting me," Kim said. "Interesting. That would of course mean that you may be completely safe, if Tasneem has some super power or other. But I just noticed another thing," Douglas said. "What would that be?" "She said that she is always around you in some way. That she knows everything you know, which meant that I didn't need to explain about Hargrave and Judge Crowley to her. She already knew. So she's always watching. You recognize the implication?" Douglas asked. "Not exactly." "What if I finally lose my control and surrender to your charms? What if I finally decide to cheat on Alice and the
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others and give you the time? Tasneem is watching now. And she will be watching tonight as well, when we will be all alone again at my house. Doesn't that have the potential to become somewhat embarrassing?" Douglas asked. "I'm not sure. I can do nothing about having her watch us. But I am in charge about deciding if I give a damn about that, and I certainly don't," Kim said. "I'm not so sure about how I feel about it," Douglas said. "I am a hopeless womanizer. I am sorry about that. I really am. But with someone watching all the time, even I would need to control myself. A good thing, I suppose, if you think about it. I mean, I may be able to deal with her watching us all the time, but how do I know how she feels about it? "She probably feels nothing. I mean, would you care on the mechanics of mating that ginkgo trees employ? If you're not a biologist who studies this kind of things for a living, why would you even pay attention? If I were in her place, I would use that time to get some sleep," Kim said. "Maybe we can ask her some time. I don't think that we won't get another chance to talk to her. That is, you may be an exception. If the first time is any indication, you don't get to communicate with her," Douglas said. "Wait a minute. She has talked to me first, in my dream, remember? And she knows everything I say, since she's always watching. So I am communicating with her, even longer than you are." They arrived at the house. Douglas parked the car in the garage. They walked over to the house and sat down in the living room. Then, Douglas gave her the time. Kim was watching. You, dear reader, are not.
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# March 16, 2023, 10:30 Konrad Hargrave did very much not look forward to the call he had to make to his client, Avira Ascolese. He had inherited that account for his law firm, Hargrave & Davis, from his late father. Ascolese had used the firm for all her private and professional business for decades. She paid top dollar, which was mattered most to Hargrave. But he was quite shocked to hear the day before that she might have gone so far as to have someone physically assault Kim Kornburg, one of the lawyers in the CleanCoal Corporation case he was handling for Ascolese. If she was in the business of physically attacking lawyers, who could guarantee that he wouldn't be next? And of course there was the potential for personal liability for him. Judge Crowley had refused to issue an emergency restraining motion against his client, but she did indicate that she believed there might be foul play involved from the side of CleanCoal. What if Avira Ascolese tried something like that again, and this time succeeded? What would be the consequences for him? He might face criminal liability himself, or for the very least unfortunate repercussions for his reputation. And Judge Crowley had asked him rather directly to raise the issue with his client. There was no way he could avoid confronting Ascolese. Besides, she had a right as a client to be informed of what happened at the court hearing. If someone else was behind the attack on Kim Kornburg and if that someone struck again, Ascolese
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would be the target of 500.org, so she would need to know about the threats from Douglas Bastow as soon as possible. On the other hand, Avira Ascolese scared him. He thought her completely capable of ordering physical violence. Maybe he would need to drop the Ascolese account. There were other clients more than willing to pay his high fees for his rather effective legal magic. There was no need to cross any dangerous bridges for him, actually. He dialed the number with the direct access to Ascolese. After speaking with a secretary for a couple of minutes, he was connected right to his client. "Good morning, Ms. Ascolese, it's Konrad Hargrave. I would like to report on some developments in the CleanCoal Corporation case that happened at the court hearing yesterday," Hargrave said in a neutral voice, somehow managing to conceal his apprehension. He did not sound his usual cheerful and confident self. Neutral was all he could manage under the circumstances. "Ah, Hargrave. What news do you have? Have you got the case dismissed yet?" Ascolese said, while reading her personal morning horoscope written by her favorite fortune teller exclusively for her, for a rather generous fee. "It is too early in the process for that, Ms. Ascolese," Hargrave said. "We have presented our opinion on the new plaintiff, the Jurassic ginkgo tree, to the court. I am confident that our motion to dismiss that plaintiff's lawsuit will be successful. As I told the court yesterday, even if the court somehow wanted to admit standing for a plant, and one that has lived millions of years ago, we have no proof that the plant in question actually exists, that it has given proper power of attorney for this lawsuit, and we have no
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way to communicate with that plaintiff. We will win that part. You can count on that," Hargrave said, finding back some of his confidence. This was the easy part. "I see. Anything else coming up that I need to know?" Avira Ascolese asked. "Actually, yes, there was something rather awkward. Douglas Bastow filed a motion for an emergency restraining order against CleanCoal Corporation." "What was that about?" Ascolese asked. "He claims that Kim Kornburg, another rookie lawyer kid representing the plaintiffs, was assaulted physically the day before, and he claims that CleanCoal Corporation might have something to do with it. He wanted the Judge to issue a restraining order that would prevent any further assaults," Hargrave reported. That was the part he did not particularly look forward to. It would be difficult to discuss, he was sure. "What would I know about that?" Avira Ascolese said, sounding rather cold. "Of course. That's what I told the court. I personally know nothing of any such assault. I am just reporting what happened. The Judge refused the restraining order, and gave Douglas Bastow a slap on the wrist for his unacceptable behavior," Hargrave said. "Good. What unacceptable behavior?" "Actually, he threatened me. And you. He said, and I am reading this out loud from the official court report: Quote 'We don't have proof that you are behind this. But you try that kind of funny business again, we will retaliate in exactly the same way. We have thousands of supporters who wouldn't mind blocking the offices of Hargrave & Davis for a couple of weeks if they think you are playing
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foul. They might also show up at Avira Ascolese's mansion. You tell that your client, will you?' Unquote. Many of these environmental activists are mentally unstable, completely crazy, and they don't mind going to prison. You may need to take the necessary precautions for your personal safety," Hargrave said. He waited for Ascolese to explode. He knew very well why he had read out the threat loud from the court record, as opposed to just simply explaining it. He wanted to make completely sure that Ascolese knew that he was only the messenger here. And explode she did, all right. "No one threatens me, Hargrave. No one. I am going to deal with this kid, you understand me?" Avira Ascolese yelled into the phone. She had thrown the personal horoscope on a table, now fully focused on the news she just got from Hargrave. "Yes, of course, Ms. Ascolese. Please note that I am only the messenger here. And I got the motion for a restraining order dismissed," Hargrave said. He was really considering dropping this client now. "Keep me informed if something new happens. And don't miss your regular briefing next week." Avira Ascolese cut the connection, without bothering to wait for a response. Then she pushed a button, and yelled: "Benito!! Come here immediately!" # March 16, 2023, 10:40 Benito Sadiqi had spent a miserable night. He had
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gotten medical attention for his eye injury immediately after Douglas and Kim had gotten away in the Final Special Edition Tesla Roadster. But the pain had kept him almost completely from sleeping. Bastow! He would pay for this. It was not a good idea to make Benito Sadiqi mad. He would not file any lawsuits, though. He had other plans for Bastow. Right now he favored putting Bastow to a slow and lingering death confined in a metal box with regular showers of quicklime every couple of hours. But he also had not ruled out crucifixion instead. We'll see about that later, Sadiqi had told himself. The injury to his eye was serious, but he would regain most of his vision if the necessary operations were successful, the doctors had said. For the time being, he would need to work one-eyed. That blended in nicely with his usual image of an old blind man. But he couldn't use that any more against Kim and Douglas, since they were warned of this particular trick. Just as he was now warned as to not underestimate Douglas Bastow. Anybody getting in a fight with Benito and living to tell the tale was a very serious opponent. He would think of some other disguise for the next time. He had not slept very much the previous night. That was part because of the pain. And part because he would need to tell his boss, Avira Ascolese, that he had failed her. He did not like failing. Neither did she like to have him fail. She would not threaten his physical safety in any way. That would be a very unwise course to take for anyone, even for someone as powerful as Ms. Ascolese. She had made it very clear that in the unfortunate event that she might not be able to confirm her being alive and well in
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regular checkups to some third party not known to Benito, there would be a prize of several million dollars paid to the person who killed Benito, and killed him in a messy way. That was just the usual insurance someone in her position took out against having their chief of security getting any funny ideas. But he also knew that she would never be so stupid as to try any direct attack on him. She had no interest to do so in the first place, since he was very good at what he was doing. It would be a real problem to get someone to replace him. And he knew that she knew that she would die if she tried anything against him. They were completely safe from each other in their setup. Besides, they respected each other for their unusual cruelty. They were two of a kind. Sometimes they would spend a couple of hours together torturing some puppy to death that someone got from an animal shelter for them. And sometimes, the object of such activity would be some human enemy, later delivered for disposal together with a regular corpse to the funeral home they used for that purpose. Benito thought that Avira was one of the rare people he ever knew that were as viciously mean as he, or even meaner. Maybe he should leave it to Avira to deal with Bastow, he thought. And he smiled for the first time since Bastow had stabbed him in the eye. Anyway, he would need to tell Avira of his failure. Just as he got ready to report to her, he heard her yell his name through the interphone. Damn! She must have heard from someone else. So he wouldn't even be able to break the bad news himself.
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Benito walked through the mansion to the small conference room where Avira Ascolese was already waiting for him, still fuming from the news. "Ms. Ascolese, I am really sorry for my failure," Benito said as he entered the room. "You better be. But never mind. You are the best I ever had in this position. If you failed, anybody would have. What do you plan to do about it?" Avira said. She was still livid, but that did not impair her ability to think. "Of course I will strike again," Benito said. "I will need to prepare much better, and maybe bring in some outside muscle. I have never lost twice in a row to the same enemy, and I'm not going to lose twice against Bastow." "So you're going after Kornburg and Bastow again. Do you know where they live?" Ascolese asked. "No, actually I don't know right now. Bastow has some serious money. He has security in place. Not as good as your security of course, but he doesn't advertise where he lives on the Internet," Benito said. "So how do you want to locate them?" Ascolese asked. "I don't know yet. For the very least I can put a tail on them whenever they appear in court for the CleanCoal Corporation case. Do you have any other idea?" Benito had often asked Avira Ascolese for her opinion about one of his operations, and more often than not she had come up with something. "Yes. Actually I do. You may want to go after Arabelle Venditto first. You know her, the singer and songwriter those environmentalists use all the time for their dirty Internet campaigns?" Ascolese suggested. "Yes. She's famous. That's a great idea. They won't expect that. They won't know what hit them. If I take
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Arabelle, they will need to hand over some ransom money, or something, and that will be my chance to take them as well. Yes, that looks like a plan," Benito said. He was relieved that Ascolese didn't turn her rage against him. This was going much better than he had feared. "One other thing," Ascolese said. "Get your eye fixed before you start the next operation. I want you at full fighting power. There's no need to rush. Eventually, we'll get them all three. What would you suggest for Douglas Bastow's last couple of days? It should be something really special. He threatened me in court, you know."

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CHAPTER FIVE PLANT PLAYER

March 22, 2023, 19:30 "GET ON the scale," Douglas said. It was time for the first weight check. They had set a goal of losing two pounds in the first week for Kim. The starting point was exactly 65.95 kilo. At 165 cm body length her ideal weight was 57.4, so that was what they had decided on as a goal. She would weigh in each week on the precision scale and find out exactly how she had done that week. Kim took off all her clothes, placed them in a neat pile on the table, and stood on the scale. "65.15," Douglas said. "You're 200 grams short of your goal." "I'm sorry," Kim said. "This is of course your fault." "Why is that my fault? I am helping you here with your effort. You need to get into better shape so I will cheat on you less with all those other women in my life. That should give you some great motivation," Douglas said. "You introduced me to mixing beer with Sprite, didn't you? Have you ever thought about how many calories that has? And how hard it is to keep drinking that under control?" Kim said. This was so very not her fault, she was convinced.
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"Yes. I did introduce you to that. I have to admit it," Douglas said. "I'm sorry. But I will take responsibility. I think some extra physical activity to burn those remaining 200 grams would be in order." "Do you have any idea what time it is?" Kim asked. # March 23, 2023, 10:00 Kim Kornburg, Douglas Bastow, and Marla Maygar were sitting in the 500.org conference room. Kim had called for the meeting. She said that she had some important news about Tasneem, the Jurassic plant ginkgo tree that they had recently added as a plaintiff to the lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation. They still had found no way to prove to the Judge that Tasneem actually existed and that she had conferred proper power of attorney for the lawsuit. "Look what I found this morning at my pillow when waking up," Kim said. She took a small box with the inscription "DANGER! DON'T OPEN!!" out of her bag and placed it on the table. "Who could have placed it there? No one knows you are living at my place now, and I certainly have nothing to do with it," Douglas said. "Very strange," Marla remarked. "I have no idea. Do you think it is safe to open?" Kim said. "Why not? If it was really some kind of bomb or something, they wouldn't write 'DANGER' on it, would they?" Marla said.
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"I am not sure," Kim said. "What do you think?" she asked, looking at Douglas. "It should be okay. We'll see in a moment," he said and opened the box. Nothing happened. The box did not explode. There was no sudden hiss from poison gas. And no alien monster came jumping out from the box, hugging one of their faces. Douglas looked inside. There was a sheet of paper with the inscription "PLANT PLAYER" on top, and something below that, but he couldn't see what it was. Carefully and slowly he took the sheet of paper away. And revealed a pair of headphones. Just ordinary headphones, except for the fact that both loudspeakers were covered with what looked like the plastic image of a ginkgo tree leaf. So this was the PLANT PLAYER. In the next moment, the ginkgo tree leaves on both side of the headphones began to glow. They looked like real leaves reflecting the sun now. A very intense color in seventy shades of green. Actually, the leaves were not reflecting the light now. They were emitting it. Douglas had never seen anything like this display of color. He wondered what the Plant Player might be good for. There was only one way to find out. He briefly inspected the Plant Player for any dangerous edges and then put it over his head, the loudspeakers over his ears. Nothing happened. But then he could clearly hear a female voice. "Hi, Douglas, this is Tasneem speaking. Can you hear me?" "Yes, I can hear you," Douglas answered. And then, for
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Kim and Marla: "This device seems to be able to relay Tasneem's voice. We have a communication channel open now!" "Hand that to me, please," Marla said. Douglas obliged and she put the Plant Player over her ears. "Hello Tasneem, pleased to meet you. I'm Marla Maygar, the head of 500.org, the organization that has been filing the lawsuit for you. Is this for real?" "Yes. It sure is." Tasneem said. "How would I know? This could be some human talking over a wireless connection?" Marla asked. "Are you doubting me?" Tasneem said. "No, though I sure would be tempted to doubt you. This story is not exactly easy to believe. But I believe it. We have filed a lawsuit based on the fact that you exist, so I better believe it myself. The question is, can we prove that?" Marla asked. "I don't know. That would seem to depend on what the Judge requires as proof. She may be content with this channel of communication. Then again, she may just wave it off as some kind of trick," Tasneem said. "How come you show up just now? The global warming crisis has been going on for several decades. Couldn't you get involved earlier?" Marla asked. "Sorry, no. I had instructions. I was not to interfere before exactly three months from the final tipping point," Tasneem said. "Instructions? By whom?" Marla asked. "I can't tell you just now. Maybe later," Tasneem said. "What is your motive here? I mean, I understand that you dislike burning of fossil fuel, because you are looking at it from the point of view of the fuel. That makes sense.
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Barely. But what do you want to achieve, and why do you want to achieve it?" Marla asked. "What I want more than anything else is stop humans from burning my family's remains. I always get nightmares of burning myself when I think of it. I like that song Arabelle wrote. Don't you FUCKING burn my mom. That sums it up rather nicely," Tasneem answered. "That's exactly what we want, too," Marla said. "Yes. It is, though for different reasons. That's why I chose Kim here as my first human host," Tasneem said. I need a human host to communicate with you. "Is there any way this Plant Player works for everybody in the room?" Marla asked. "Actually, there is. All you need to do is pull the two parts of the leaf at the right ear slightly apart from each other," Tasneem explained. Marla tried it. As Tasneem had explained, the device allowed for this kind of switching. "Am I doing it right?" Marla asked. "Yes. Can everybody hear me now?" Tasneem asked. Kim and Douglas confirmed. The voice was clearly audible for everyone in the room. "Can we inspect this device and figure out its technology?" Marla asked. "No. It has a barrier built in that is unbreakable for human technology. You can't open it. Even if you could, you wouldn't understand the technology anyway. It is a couple of million years ahead of human science. It would be like a chimpanzee looking at a computer chip," Tasneem said. "What is that 'DANGER! DON'T OPEN!!' warning about? Is the device really dangerous?" Marla asked.
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"Actually it is for people who try to open the box unauthorized. Anybody who tries opening the box against my will may find some very unpleasant things happening. You should have the box well locked away in a safe so that no one accidentally tries it," Tasneem explained. "So, do you want to give us a proper power of attorney for our lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation?" Douglas asked. "I sure want to. But I'm not exactly in a position to sign up on some piece of paper right now," Tasneem said. "That might be a problem. I need to research what the Supreme Court decided on that point the last time a Jurassic ginkgo tree showed up as a plaintiff. I wouldn't know right now," Douglas said, smiling. "Thanks for warning me the other day, when that old guy was just about to attack me," Kim said. "You're welcome. I need you alive and well. If you get killed or maimed, it will be all the more difficult for me to help meet the deadline. You remember? July 17, 17:30? It's CO2 peaking by that time, or passing the final tipping point," Tasneem said. "How would you know that?" Marla said. "The same way I would be able to build a Plant Player way beyond human technology. Actually, that's your proof right there. If Judge Crowley doesn't believe me when I explain to her politely that, yes, thank you, I quite certainly do exist, just hand her the Plant Player and ask her to have somebody try to open it. It will be impossible to do, at which point proof is established beyond reasonable doubt," Tasneem said. "But don't let them take it away from you. They would get hurt severely if they tried to operate it against my will."
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"So the countdown is true as well," Kim said. "We will never make it." "You will, one way or another. Except if you give up," Tasneem said. "That's it for the moment. I'll shut down the Plant Player now. See you later." The ginkgo leaf on the left hand side of the headphones started moving its two parts away from the middle. After a couple of seconds, the slit in the middle had become much wider, and the headphones went dead. And the clock was ticking. It really was, as everyone in the room now understood. July 17, 17:30. They would need to start spreading the news. And find some way or other to make people actually believe their story. # March 23, 2023, 10:30 They had put the Plant Player back in its box. Obviously it worked, but it worked only when Tasneem wanted it to work. Douglas had tried a couple of ways to somehow get the Plant Player open. All of them had not worked. He did not apply too much force, since he didn't want to break it. But everything he had tried with the limited supply of tools available in the office had failed. As he had expected it to fail. Marla was now convinced as well that Tasneem actually existed, and that she was just as motivated as Marla herself to stop fossil fuel burning for good. She had heard of the scene in the Italian restaurant, where Tasneem had spoken through Kim for a while, but this had taken the whole
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thing a couple of notches higher. And, as Tasneem had pointed out, they now had definite proof. If no one could open that Plant Player with human technology, that proved quite conclusively that some higher force was at work. The only problem with that was that they would have trouble keeping the Plant Player to themselves once that became clear. The government maybe would want to confiscate it, to try studying the alien technology. They would need to come up with some method or other to keep that from happening. Marla put the box with the Plant Player inside into a safe installed in one of the walls of the conference room. She did not want to lose it. They would come to the room in regular intervals and check if the device was booted up again. "I have a couple of thoughts about the Phaseout Profit Theory I would like to discuss with you, Marla," Douglas said. "If you have a couple of minutes, we could get that out of the way while we're all here anyway." "Go ahead," Marla said. "I have half an hour before the next appointment." She poured herself a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker in the conference room. Kim and Douglas followed suit. "For one, have you heard about the 'Texas Railroad Commission'? I found out about them by researching these questions a bit," Douglas asked. "Actually, no. What has railroad to do with it? They have electrified all of the railroads already way back in the last Century, haven't they?" Marla said. "As I said, I hadn't heard about them either," Douglas said. "Anyway, they were in charge of a quota system for
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oil that was in place from 1930 to 1971. Guess what was the motive behind that quota system?" "I have no idea," Marla answered. "The discovery of the East Texas Oil Field. One of the larger assets found in the 20th Century. It contained more than 7 billion barrels, and at one time there were more than 1,000 wells clustered in a small area in downtown Kilgore alone, making that the most densely developed oil field in the world," Douglas explained. "What happened then?" Kim asked. "Well, what happens when supply booms? Prices go down. They went down to 25 cents a barrel. Can you believe it? Oil is now at 457 dollars a barrel. These people in the last century sold the stuff cheaper than water. And with the price of oil, the profits of the oil industry went way down as well. So they introduced a quota system, managed by the Texas Railroad Commission. They said it was to preserve more oil for the future, but the move was clearly motivated by simple greed. They understood very well that reducing supply means higher prices. And that, of course, higher prices mean more profit for the owners of the oil fields. They never heard of global warming at the time, but actually, they reduced CO2 emissions by setting these quotas. So there you have it. A clear historical precedent for you Phaseout Profit Theory. Looks kind of interesting to me," Douglas said. "It sure is," Marla said. "Thanks for digging that out. Do they have anything to do with the OPEC? You know of course that that is another effort to restrict supply and keep prices up." "Actually, OPEC was organized in part after the model of the Texas Railroad Commission, which was still in the
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business of handing out oil quotas when OPEC was founded in 1960. But that's right, OPEC is of course another historical precedent," Douglas said. "And you said you had a 'couple of thoughts'. Anything else beside the Texas Railroad Commission?" Marla asked. "Yes. There is the concept of 'Scarcity Rent'. Are you familiar with that?" Douglas asked. "No," Kim said. "Is that another economic concept?" "Yes. I found it in the literature about the development and prediction of oil prices. But there is another very easy way to explain it. Assume that someone has just heard about Phaseout Profit Theory. They don't believe it. They think you are nuts suggesting that anyone could make more profit selling less. And they ask you, 'So your smart theory means that the oil companies make the biggest profit if they sell zero', and look at you triumphantly, sure that they have just blown the Phaseout Profit Theory away. How can you counter that?" Douglas asked. "I am not sure," Marla said. "I would have to think about it." "That's where the concept of 'Scarcity Rent' is helpful. In the case of oil it is very easy to see that anybody selling oil a decade ago at rock bottom prices of around a hundred dollars a barrel would have been much better off to wait for prices to go up to present levels. Selling zero barrels would have been the choice that resulted in the most profit, assuming that was a possible choice in the first place," Douglas explained. "That makes sense. So we could argue that the increase in value of the oil fields these companies own is enough to make a profit, even if they never sell anything," Marla said. "Exactly. It's like a stock that keeps on rising. If you
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don't need to sell, the rational choice is to refrain from doing so, if you are convinced that it will be worth more in the future," Douglas explained. "That's interesting. Thank you for your thoughts, Douglas," Marla said. "Please keep me informed if you come up with anything else. We're done for now, I assume? Okay then. Keep the deadline in mind. July 17th, 17:30. The clock is ticking." # March 23, 2023, 2:30 Douglas was in his office, researching the precedents on the question of how exactly people with disabilities that prevent them from signing a piece of paper are able to give power of attorney for a lawsuit. He decided that he'd had made good progress and needed a break. So he fired up his Internet software and checked out Arabelle Venditto's blog for any updates. They had agreed that they would sit on the story of the Jurassic ginkgo tree plaintiff in the CleanCoal Corporation case for the time being, waiting for the most effective timing to release that to the public. That would be pretty soon now. At the very least they wanted Arabelle to have all her songs finished and recorded, so they could post a definitive release date for those with the first announcement. And Arabelle seemed to make good progress. So Douglas didn't expect to read about ginkgo trees just yet, but the latest post was about their leaves. Arabelle had used the poem by Goethe they had told her about a week
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ago. First she published the poem in the original German language: Gingo Biloba Dieses Baums Blatt, der von Osten Meinem Garten anvertraut, Giebt geheimen Sinn zu kosten, Wie's den Wissenden erbaut, Ist es Ein lebendig Wesen, Das sich in sich selbst getrennt? Sind es zwei, die sich erlesen, Da man sie als Eines kennt? Solche Frage zu erwidern, Fand ich wohl den rechten Sinn, Fhlst du nicht an meinen Liedern, Da ich Eins und doppelt bin? Since Arabelle had fans all over the World, some of them would be able to read German. But most would not. So she also provided a short explanation: "This is a poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1815, about the leaf of the ginkgo tree, which grows in two halves, both of which display a similar pattern. "Goethe asks if the ginkgo tree leaf is one living being that has split into two different ones, or if it has developed from two living beings that chose to merge their existence, and he doesn't provide a clear answer (even for people
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who can read German). "But I like this poem. I will write a melody to go with it, and perform it. Never mind if you don't understand it. Sometimes it's good not to understand the lyrics, so you can concentrate more on the music. And the original German poem is rather cryptic anyway. "So here is an announcement for my fans. I will explore this topic in some depth in the coming months. I am working on a couple of new songs inspired by the idea of the ginkgo tree as two living beings in one. A song based on Goethe's poem, and two other new songs. Here is a preview of one of my stage costumes I intend to use:" At that point in the blog post, there was a picture of Arabelle with her stage "costume", which consisted mainly of three ginkgo tree leaves placed at the right spots. The camera angle was chosen carefully to assure no problems with censorship at this stage of the project. There was also some advanced consideration going into the lighting, so as leave just enough to the fantasy of the viewer. It was of course difficult to pull off, since as Douglas had remarked the other day, the ginkgo tree leaf really is not suited well to work as a fig leaf, having a large open slit right in the middle of the leaf. But even so, this was one hell of a sexy shot. This picture alone would guarantee pageviews on that blog post going through the roof. Then the blog post continued: "All this is not just an artistic idea I got from a poem more than 200 years old. This has a very real background. Watch this space for an announcement of historic proportions. "I can't reveal too much yet. But here are some hints to
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fire your imagination: "This is about the litigation of my sponsor 500.org against the CleanCoal Corporation. You are aware of the fact that 500.org wants to shut down all remaining coal power plants in the country with this lawsuit. I would like everyone of my fans to support the fight against coal with whatever you can do. I will support it with everything in my power as well." That was all. Douglas immediately hit his Twitter account and shot out a tweet to his followers: "Mysterious ginkgo story at Arabelle's blog, check it out," and added a link to the blog post. There were already a couple of thousand tweets pointing to the blog post. That was rather good even for Arabelle, considering that the post was only 30 minutes old. She had millions of followers, but not all of them were online all the time, and not all of them were actively tweeting about her. Yes, Douglas said to himself, this will generate some attention. He was looking forward to announcing the big story. Then he entered a comment at the blog post, under his usual screen name of "Gandalf". "Great post, Arabelle! I'm looking forward to announcing the real story. Watch this space, people, that will be big. And help 500.org in their fight against coal. The planet depends on you."

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March 30, 2023, 10:30 "THANK YOU very much, your honor, for arranging this hearing on short notice. We have convincing evidence now that our client exists, which we would like to present to the court, if the defendant does not mind," said Douglas. Douglas and Kim had brought the box containing the Plant Player to court. They were not sure if this would work. Someone had checked in every couple of hours, but the Plant Player had not become active for the last week. This was the last day of their deadline for filing proof that Judge Crowley had set for them. They knew that Tasneem was watching all the time. They also knew that she wanted this lawsuit to go forward. So they had decided to just ask for the hearing and then see what happens. "I don't particularly mind," Konrad Hargrave said for the defendant, smiling. He was sure that there was no way anyone could prove something as absurd as the real existence of a Jurassic ginkgo tree. Actually, he was looking forward to see what the two rookie kids on the other side would come up with, just for the entertainment value. He also liked the fact that he was obviously going to win on this point. "I would like to call myself as a first witness," Douglas
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said. "I have definitive proof for our claim. Obviously, I can't conduct the examination myself, so I would like to hand over that part to my colleague Kim Kornburg." "Objection," Hargrave said. "He is obviously biased. He can't be a witness and a lawyer for the plaintiff at the same time." "If I may reply, your honor," Douglas said. "My testimony is about something I, personally, have seen. We could call someone else in the witness stand though, it does not really matter. This is just the fastest way to move things forward. I won't tell any lies." "Overruled," Judge Crowley said. "We will hear what he has to say, and then decide on the basis of that if the evidence needs to be thrown out because of bias." "Thank you, your honor," Douglas said. He walked over to the witness stand, carrying the box containing the Plant Player, though it was not yet visible, since he carried it in a leather case. They had paid someone experienced in such work for a hand-made leather case that fitted the box exactly. After Douglas took his oath, Kim Kornburg stood up and asked the first question. "I see that you have brought a leather case with you. Could you please open it and reveal its contents?" "Yes." Douglas took the lid off the leather case and pulled out the box. It still had the large inscription "DANGER! DON'T OPEN!!" on it. It was clearly visible to anyone in the court room. "Wait a minute," Judge Crowley said. What is this, a bomb? Do you want to threaten the court?" "No," Douglas said. "It's not a bomb. There is no danger. May we proceed?"
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"Go ahead," Judge Crowley said. Douglas opened the box and pulled the Plant Player out. This was the moment. He was relieved when he saw that both leaves covering the headphones were glowing in their intense light of seventy shades of green. "Can you describe the device laying on the table before you for us, Mr. Bastow?" Kim asked. "Yes. It is called a "Plant Player". A person wearing it will be able to hear our plaintiff talk," Douglas said. Konrad Hargrave had difficulty not laughing out loud. They were trying a damn magic trick in court! He would tear them apart in a couple of moments. But first he would watch where exactly they were going with this. He had not had this much fun in court in a long time. "So, you may be able to hear our plaintiff talk to you. But how would everyone else know?" Kim asked. "Well, it has another setting that makes the voice heard to everyone in the room," Douglas said. "Please turn it to that setting," Kim said. Douglas pushed the two parts of the ginkgo leaf at the left side headphone apart. Then he put the headphones on. "So, in your opinion, are we ready now?" Kim asked. "We sure are," Douglas said. "Call me Tasneem," Tasneem said over the plant player interface. Everyone in the court room could hear her clearly. "Hello, Tasneem. Thanks for joining us today," Kim said. "Do you exist?" "Objection!!" Hargrave yelled at the top of his voice. "She's examining Bastow as a witness. They can't have someone else joining instead of him." "It does seem inappropriate," Judge Crowley said.
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"If I may answer to that," Kim said. She had of course expected this objection. "We need to establish the existence of a supernatural being here. There is no precedent for this. Our only communication interface is this device. So I need you to give us a bit of leeway here." "Is this some kind of trick?" Judge Crowley said. "Be warned that I will hold you in contempt in that case." "No, it's not a trick. You will be able to inspect the device in a couple of moments, and you will conclude that it is real," Kim said. "Objection overruled, for the moment," Judge Crowley said, now genuinely interested to see what would happen next. In thirty years as a Judge, this was the first time someone claimed to be talking with a supernatural being in her courtroom. "Go ahead". "Thank you. Again, Tasneem, do you exist?" Kim said. "I sure do," Tasneem said over the Plant Player interface. Again, everybody in court could hear her quite clearly. "I know. And so do you. But how would the Judge know? Or the defendant's lawyer? Do you have proof that you exist?" Kim said. "Yes. All you need to do is inspect the Plant Player device. It is made with technology vastly superior to everything humanity has. You won't be able to open it. And you won't be able to explain the source of the green light glowing from the ginkgo leaves," Tasneem explained. Judge Crowley's jaw had dropped at this. Konrad Hargrave was starting to lose his amused mood. The plaintiffs might actually have something serious going on here, he thought. "For the record, do you want to give us power of attorney to file this lawsuit on your behalf?" Kim asked.
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"I sure do. I want to stop humans from burning us. Burning fossil fuel looks much less convenient from the point of view of the fuel, you know," Tasneem said. "May the record reflect that the plaintiff has established the fact of her existence, and that she has given us power of attorney to file this lawsuit," Kim concluded her examination. "Do you have any questions?" Judge Crawley asked Konrad Hargrave. "What?" He was still stunned. That happened very rarely. Then, just in time, he caught himself. "Yes. Yes, of course, I have some questions." He stood up. "Tasneem. Tasneem. Is that your only name, or do you have a family name for us?" Hargrave said, barely managing to ask the first halfway meaningful question. "No. Actually, Tasneem is not my real name. Humans would be unable to pronounce that anyway, so I use that just for your convenience," Tasneem said. "I see. How much are the plaintiffs paying you for this performance stunt?" Hargrave said. "Objection!" Kim yelled. "That question is not a question, but an assertion, and a wrong one at that." "Overruled," Judge Crowley said. "Nothing, of course. Your money has no value to me. I am here to fight for my own rights," Tasneem said. "You still don't believe I exist?" "I am asking the questions here," Hargrave said. He paused for a bit. Then he managed to think of another question. "How is the court supposed to communicate with you? Do you expect us to work with this "Plant Player" device?" "Actually, I am always watching Kim Kornburg.
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Whatever she knows, I know. So you can just address any necessary correspondence to her. I have full confidence in her as an attorney. Now, if you will excuse me. You are not a very interesting person to talk to. This interview is over, as far as I'm concerned," Tasneem said. The ginkgo leaves of the headphones stopped their intense green glow, indicating that the device was deactivated. Kim resumed her examination of Douglas Bastow. "Mr. Bastow, has something like what happened here just now ever happened to you before?" "Yes. On March 23, around 10:00 A.M., this device was activated in the conference room of 500.org in your and my presence," Douglas answered. "Were there any other witnesses?" Kim asked. "Yes. Marla Maygar, head of 500.org, was in the room as well." "Have you established that the "Plant Player" device is impossible to open with human technology?" Kim said. "Yes." Douglas said. "How?" Kim asked. "We asked a leading defense contractor to look at the device, under the condition that we were not going to give it up for another three months. Then the government will be free to try all sorts of other tests, though we expect them to be futile," Douglas said. "What was the result of that examination?" Kim said. "They established that it is, indeed, impossible to either open the device or explain how it operates." "Do you have any written records of that result?" Kim asked. "Yes." Douglas reached again into the leather case and removed one sheet of paper. "May I present this as
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evidence to the court?" "Go ahead," Judge Crowley said. Douglas walked over from the witness stand and handed the sheet of paper to the Judge. "No further questions," Kim said. "Defendant?" the Judge asked. "No further questions," Hargrave said. He was shocked. It would take a while before he would be able to figure out what to do about this highly unexpected development. Judge Crowley pounded her gavel. "The hearing is closed." # March 30, 2023, 14:30 Kim Kornburg, Douglas Bastow, Marla Maygar and Arabelle Venditto were all sitting in the 500.org conference room. They had locked the Plant Player in its box and leather case back into the wall safe, not expecting Tasneem to join them right now. Douglas had explained to Marla and Arabelle how the court hearing went. They would learn later if their evidence was enough to convince Judge Crowley, or if they would be held in contempt of court for trying some performance stunt. It did not help that Douglas Baston was an expert magician and that that fact was well known to Judge Crowley. But there was nothing they could do now. They would just have to wait. They had scheduled the meeting to put the final touches on the Internet announcement. It would appear simultaneously on Arabelle's blog (which had the biggest
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readership) and the 500.org website. But they would approach the story from slightly different angles. Arabelle displayed her draft blog post on the screen of her laptop computer and showed it to the others. "My sponsor 500.org just announced (link to press release) that they have added a new plaintiff to their ongoing litigation to close all remaining coal power plants against CleanCoal Corporation. The new plaintiff is called by the name of Tasneem. She is a Jurassic plant. A ginkgo tree that has lived for over 187 million years and is looking at the issue of burning fossil fuel from the point of view of the fuel. "I have written several new songs inspired by this development. They will be released on my Youtube channel on Monday, April 17. All recording is already finished as of now. The reason we chose that date for the release will become clear later on. "I will give you the title of one of the songs right now. It's called 'Don't you FUCKING burn my mom', and it tries to describe what Tasneem feels when she sees humanity burning fossil fuel. "You may of course think that this is not real, just some story to make my art more exciting. As far as my art is concerned, it actually doesn't matter, so feel free to believe or not believe what I am writing here. "But the story is very real. There actually is a Jurassic plant living right now, and she actually is suing CleanCorp. The plaintiffs have presented conclusive proof for that to court today and are looking forward to vigorously pursuing this litigation." "That's all for my first draft," Arabelle said. "I wanted to keep it short and concise. There will be ample occasion for
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adding more detail later." "Sounds good to me," Marla said. "Shouldn't you add another picture of your stage costume?" Douglas asked. "I am sure that would help getting more pageviews." "No," Arabelle said. "I don't think that's a good idea. This blog post already is the story of the Century. I don't want to distract from that. Again, there will be ample time to do that later. But you are right, my post the other day where I used a first picture of me in that stage costume did shoot through the roof in pageviews." "Thank you, Arabelle," Marla said. "Now here is the first draft of our press release." Marla showed the screen of another laptop she had brought to the others. The draft was visible on the screen. "March 30, 2023. The leading climate change activism organization 500.org (link to main website) today announced that they have introduced a new plaintiff to their ongoing litigation against CleanCoal Corporation. "As you may be aware from previous press releases, 500.org has sued CleanCoal Corporation with the goal of shutting down their remaining coal power plants. We urgently need to get CO2 emissions under control. This is not the time to keep burning fossil fuels, in the opinion of the plaintiff. "Our new plaintiff joining our efforts is called Tasneem. She is a Jurassic plant, a ginkgo tree that has lived since 187 million years. She will add the perspective of the fuel burned to the legal fight against the burning of fossil fuel. "In a hearing held today, lawyers for 500.org Kim Kornburg and Douglas Bastow presented conclusive evidence to the court that our new plaintiff exists, and that
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she has given the necessary power of attorney to file this lawsuit to them. The evidence consisted in actually calling Tasneem to appear at the court hearing, over the communication channel opened over a headphone-like device called the PLANT PLAYER. "Another part of the evidence is the Plant Player itself. Our organization has determined in cooperation with a leading defense contractor that the device is impossible to either open or explain with human technology. We know that it is technology much farther advanced than anything humanity has. "You may choose not to believe us. We had trouble believing it ourselves at the beginning, and we have actually heard Tasneem talking, and have discussed directly with her. But we are looking ahead to vigorously pursue our litigation and establishing without doubt that our plaintiff, the Jurassic plant, exists. And we plan to win and stop defendants from burning her relatives. "Media interested in viewing and testing the Plant Player device please direct your inquiry to Drake Hernndez at Drake@500.org or @Drake500 (Twitter). "Media interested in interviewing Marla Maygar please direct your inquiry to Alima Bohrmann at Alima@500.org or @Alima500 (Twitter)." "What do you think?" Marla asked. "Nothing about interview requests for us?" Kim said. "No. You should concentrate on the legal aspects. I want the publicity campaign mainly handled by other people. That will be a full job on its own. This is a huge story," Marla said. "We have left out the fact that we are unable to activate the Plant Player from our side," Douglas said. "Won't that
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be a problem?" "We have left out lots of other things. We don't have unlimited space in such a press release. I don't think we are misleading anyone by leaving that detail out. Most people won't believe us at this stage anyway." "Now that you mention it, isn't that a danger for our credibility in other issues?" Douglas said. "I can see the climate change denial movement pick this up and try to damage us." "That can't be helped. The story is true, isn't it? You know it. I know it. Eventually we will win in court and everybody will know it. But you are right, there is of course a risk. There always is. No one ever said it will be easy to get CO2 peaking this year," Marla said. "And we haven't even told them about the deadline to July 17th, 17:30," Douglas said. "You want to keep that for a later occasion?" "Yes," Marla said. "This is already a bombshell story. We will certainly get some attention to it, especially with Arabelle announcing simultaneously. We will sit on the other story a little bit longer." # April 10, 2023, 11:00 "Come quickly to the conference room," Marla said on the phone as she called Kim. "The Plant Player is active!" Kim hurried to get there. It took her less than a minute. Douglas and Marla were already sitting at the conference table. Douglas had the Plant Player on his head, the setting turned to make Tasneem's voice audible to all of them.
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"Hi, everybody," Tasneem said. "How is the lawsuit going on?" "You already know that," Kim said. "You know whatever I do." "Sorry, only kidding. I just had an idea I wanted to try. You got a video camera?" Tasneem said. "Of course. I'll use the camera built into my phone," Douglas said. "Is that enough?" "Yes. But Kim should take the video. I thought it would be extra proof for the court if we did a video recording of the Plant Player in action. Does that make sense to you?" Tasneem said. "I don't know. The Judge may think it's faked. You can fake anything on video with recent video editing software," Douglas said. "But it can't damage our case, I guess." "Okay, so let's go ahead with it. Kim, start recording. Okay. So, I'm Tasneem, a Jurassic ginkgo tree living since 187 million years. Ask me anything," Tasneem said. "Are you the only one of your kind?" Marla asked. "That depends," Tasneem answered. "Depends on what?" Marla said. "As a species, obviously, there are a lot of other ginkgo trees. It is true though, that we are the only tree surviving from the Jurassic. They call us the 'living fossil'," Tasneem said. "But as a sentient being living 187 million years?" Marla said. "As such, I am completely unique. If someone kills me, that will be the end of Jurassic ginkgo trees on this Earth. It is not easy to kill me, though," Tasneem said. "Why do you speak English?" Douglas asked. "Just as a convenience to you. I speak all languages of
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humanity. Took me only a couple of minutes to learn English and learn by heart everything ever published in that language. As long as it's on the Internet, I know it," Tasneem said. "Have you ever contacted humans before you started talking to Kim?" Douglas asked. "No. It has been a rather lonely 187 million years, if I may say so," Tasneem answered. "Why not? Why would you wait until now? Wouldn't it have been much easier to stop people from burning fossil fuel if you had started out 200 years earlier?" Marla asked. "It would certainly have. But I already told you, I had my instructions," Tasneem said. Marla poured herself a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker. "You are not going to tell us who gave you those instructions? And why?" Marla said. "Not yet. That's part of the instructions. I am completely unable to disregard them," Tasneem said. "Are you a robot? That would seem the only way you could live for such a long time," Douglas asked. "No. I'm a tree. Have always been a tree. It is true that I have lived this long because of very advanced technology. Some people might call me a robot. I don't agree. I'm a tree. I'm the Jurassic plant. The one and only Jurassic ginkgo tree," Tasneem said, sounding somewhat agitated. "How do you feel about humans?" Kim said. "Basically, I hate the lot of them. They think they are so smart. They think they have no limits. They don't even realize how bad they are screwing things up all around, including for their own species. They are burning the bones of my species for RUNNING A GODDAMN
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CAR. Of course I hate them," Tasneem said. "Do you hate me?" Kim asked. "No. Remember that I can make you dream anything I want? You would certainly notice if I were to hate you. It would not be pleasant for you. Not at all. No. I don't hate you. I understand that you want the right thing. The exact one thing I want more than anything else," Tasneem said. "Can you make me dream anything you want?" Douglas asked. "That would come in very handy. If you could give all of humanity an appropriate nightmare, maybe we would wake up. Sort of like Scrooge in 'A Christmas Carol'." "That's impossible. The only way I can make somebody else than my present host dream something is by telling them a story. I can do what every writer can do. No more, no less," Tasmeen said. "Where is the real ginkgo tree, your real appearance? I would like to see it," Marla said. "You don't want to know that," Tasneem said. "Why not? It would help our case a lot if we could present you to the media in your real appearance. Your voice is impressive enough, especially with the Plant Player technology, but it is somewhat lacking. A real tree would have a much stronger impact," Marla explained. "Yes. And what would happen to that tree once CleanCoal Corporation found its location? They would have it burned in a flash. I can't take that risk for the home tree. I call it the 'home tree', you know. I have lived in it for 187 million years. I don't want to burden you with the responsibility of keeping that secret. They might want to torture it out of you," Tasneem said. "We can use any ginkgo tree for our visuals," Douglas said. "There is no way anyone could tell the difference.
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Actually, we could just tell them that Tasneem lives in every ginkgo tree on the planet. That way, there would not be only just one symbol of the Jurassic plant, there would be countless symbols of the idea everywhere around." "That's a great idea, Douglas," Tasneem said. "You should use that in your public campaign. I like it. I like it a lot." "Is there anything you would like us to do for you?" Marla asked. "Yes. You could display a couple of big posters of some well-hung male ginkgo trees above Kim's bed," said Tasneem. "Only kidding. Never mind. I got everything I need, thanks. Kim, did you record all this on your camera phone?" "Yes," Kim said. "Okay, so that's it for today. See you guys later," Tasneem said. The plant player shut down. The deep green ginkgo leaves stopped glowing. Douglas put it back in the box, and put the box back in its leather case. Marla stored it safely in the wall safe. "That was interesting," Marla said. "Let's get to work on a press release about this conversation. We can publish the video on the Internet as well. Of course most people will still not believe us. It could be all a simple trick. There is no way for them to know. But it adds just another bit to the story. Let's run with it."

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# April 15, 2023, 20:30 "Congratulations," Douglas said. "It looks like you are on a very good path with your diet efforts." "Thank you, Douglas," Kim said. They had just finished dinner together, which Douglas had cooked himself. He was going to check her progress with losing weight next, but he already knew that it would be satisfactory. It was enough for him to just look at her. The transformation was quite plain to see. Part of the success was the fact that he had dished out some harsh scolding at the few occasions that Kim had failed to meet the goals he had set for her. Part of the success was due to the fact that she hated the idea of disappointing him more than anything else. Part of the success was that he cooked more frequently for her, and he knew what he was doing. And part of the success was due to the fact that she really liked the sexual intercourse with Douglas and that she figured she would be able to keep it longer if she stayed on course. That was part of her reward for achieving her goals for two weeks in a row. No snacks for Kim. No chocolate, no ice cream, nothing else that tastes good. She knew exactly that the only way to lose weight was to suffer. To eat less than she wanted. It was all a question of mental discipline. That's why Douglas's help was so effective. It provided exactly the necessary incentive she needed for her task. "Okay, take off your clothes and get on the scale," Douglas said.
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Kim did so. She did not dare to look at the result. She stood on the scale, waiting for Douglas to announce her score for the week. "62.35," Douglas said. "You've beat your goal for two weeks in a row. Congratulations again. I wonder what would be an appropriate reward for that success." "Shut up and kiss me," Kim said.

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CHAPTER SEVEN VIRAL VIAL

April 15, 2023, 15:00 MARLA MAYGAR looked around, confirmed that everybody involved had come to the conference room, and opened the meeting. "As you all know, we will be announcing the final deadline of 17 July, 17:30 two days from now, exactly three months before CO2 emissions need to peak for avoiding global meltdown and Venus syndrome. Today's meeting is not directly about that. The preparations for our announcement package are well under way. Today we need to discuss what went wrong with our first announcement two weeks ago. The response was rather underwhelming," Marla said. "Do you have the exact Internet access numbers?" Kim Kornburg asked. "I haven't seen them yet." "Here you are," Marla said, and brought them up on the conference room computer screen. A measly 17 million users had read that blog post in the well over two weeks it had been up on the site. "That's not bad, of course," Marla said. "But it's much
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less than I would have expected. This is the story of the Century! And we only get a slightly above average response? How could that possibly have happened? Any ideas?" No one answered for a couple of moments. Then Douglas Bastow said: "It's probably just still too weird for most people. A sentient tree as a plaintiff? A tree that has lived since 187 million years? People are just not buying it. They are not in our shoes. They had no chance to look at the plant player directly and hear Tasneem. They just think this is a campaign gimmick. I would think so as well, if I didn't know better." "That may be possible," Marla said. "It certainly is a very strange tale. Maybe our supporters hesitate to spread the story more widely because they think it damages our credibility. Which brings me to this." Marla clicked at her laptop computer and brought a blog post by one of the climate change denial sites up on the screen, with the title "Climate Change Conspiracy Completely Crazy!" "We always knew you had to be crazy to believe in climate change, but now the well-known troublemakers at 500.org have completely confirmed this beyond any doubt. "They have come up with the story that a ginkgo tree living since 187 million years ago is actually alive right now. And they have added 'her' as a plaintiff in their frivolous litigation against CleanCoal Corporation, one of the last remaining companies helping to keep jobs in the country and the economy spinning. "You could not make this stuff up. It's too crazy. "To 'prove' their idiotic claim, they have come up with a 'Plant Player' device, which actually is nothing more than a
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simple speaker playing back some pre-recorded message. "When we asked Konrad Hargrave, partner at Hargrave & Davis and the lawyer representing CleanCoal Corporation in the litigation about this, he said that 'the plaintiffs are now so desperate that they are grasping for straws.' He has never seen in his decades of experience anyone trying to pull off a magic trick in the court room. "This 'global warming' hysteria needs to stop, and it need to stop now. The climate conspiracy is clearly run by crazies." Marla waited a couple of moments until everyone had read the post. Then she said: "They do seem to have a point, for anyone not knowing what we know." "Never mind what they write," Douglas said. "They are bought off by the fossil fuel lobby. They would attack us no matter what we do." "I know," Marla answered. "But it looks like we have given them an opening there." "That can't be helped," Kim said. "We can't just sit on the story. We'll just have to deliver more proof for our point." "So, as long as we don't have that proof established for everyone to see, how do we proceed with our next announcement? Should we go ahead on Monday? Or should we first try to establish more proof of our first story?" Marla said. "Of course we need to go ahead," Douglas said. "We only have three months left. We need to get going as fast as possible." "I don't know. I really don't," Marla said. "I'll have to think this over. This is not like global warming as such. Everybody knows that the Arctic will be ice-free this
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summer, that CO2 will hit 500 ppM soon with no chance of emissions peaking, that drought has halved our food production in the last decade, that we average five storms a year with over $50 billion damage. We have conclusive proof for our message about climate change. We only have the Plant Player for our message about Tasneem." "But you know that it's true, don't you? That should be enough to settle the question," Douglas said. "I wonder what Tasneem thinks about this," Kim said. "I wish we could ask her. I mean, she is here right now, since I am here, but the Plant Player hasn't worked for about two weeks. She might have a good answer." "I would like to know that too," Marla said. "But there is no way we can reach her from our side. We are of course checking the Plant Player all the time. I guess we'll just have to wait." "We have two more days left," Douglas said. "Let's adjourn this meeting. Maybe someone comes up with a good idea until Monday." # April 17, 2023, 10:30 Everybody had come back in the conference room on Monday morning. They would need to decide on whether to announce the final countdown today, with exactly three months left. Arabelle had also joined them. If they announced the deadline today, she would publish a blog post at exactly the same time as 500.org did. "So, has anyone come up with a new idea over the last
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two days?" Marla Maygar said, opening the meeting. There was no answer. But then Kim Kornburg got up from her seat. "Actually, I don't have a new idea. But I got a new present from Tasneem. Just as with the Plant Player, I found it today at my bedside when I woke up. I'm quite sure it is from her. No one outside of this room knows about how we got the Plant Player," Kim said. She pulled another box out of her bag. This one was much smaller as the box that had contained the plant player. But it also had, in bright red letters on a black background, the same message. "DANGER! DON'T OPEN!!" "This may be some kind of trick by our enemies," Marla said. "But I don't care. Go ahead and open it anyway." Kim opened the small box slowly and carefully. Nothing happened. The box did not explode. There was no sudden hiss from poison gas. And no alien monster came jumping out from the box, hugging one of their faces. Kim noted a small sheet of paper lying on top. It carried the inscription "VIRAL VIAL". She removed the sheet of paper. Underneath there was a small vial, firmly closed with a plug, that contained a green liquid. No, it's not enough to say it was a "green" liquid. It was actually glowing in exactly the same seventy shades of green as the ginkgo leaves of the Plant Player did when the device was activated. The only difference was that the liquid seemed to pulsate, with the different shades of green propagating slowly and in a variety of patterns through the vial.
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Everybody understood immediately that this was another device handed to them by Tasneem. "What do you think this is good for?" Douglas asked. "Is it some kind of biological weapon that eradicates stupidity? That would be just the kind of miracle we need now. A disease spread by an extremely potent virus, incurable, that makes everyone affected smarter by a factor of ten." "I don't know," Kim said. Then she noticed that the patterns in the pulsating liquids started to order themselves in words. "Here is our answer," Kim said. "Tasneem has brought this up as a second communication channel. She can write words in that liquid, just like a very primitive wordprocessor screen." Everyone jumped up from their seats and took a look from closer up. The vial was glowing in a very beautiful way, just like a ginkgo leaf that is struck by sun rays varying in intensity and direction, like a fast-forward of one summer day's leaf colors. The first word formed. "YOU." The word stayed visible for a couple of moments. Douglas wrote it down on a notepad. Then the second word formed, ever so slowly and beautifully. "WANT" Again, Douglas wrote it down. He was not sure where this was going to. "AN EXPLANATION?" The letters had become much smaller so as to find place in the small surface the vial provided.
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"Do I want an explanation?" Marla repeated. "Well, yes. Of course I want an explanation. I have no idea what this is supposed to achieve." It took a couple of minutes for the next sentence to get through. Douglas wondered why Tasmeen had sent them such a slow device. With her superior level of technology, she should have been able to do much better. Probably the main point of the VIRAL VIAL was not to work as a communication device. It was much more beautiful than any normal word processing computer screen, though. The others had gone back to their seats and had left him in charge of writing the message down. When he was finished, he read it out loud to them: "SPRINKLE ONE DROP OF THIS LIQUID ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN BEFORE POSTING ANYTHING TO THE INTERNET. IT WILL GO VIRAL IMMEDIATELY." "What? Could you read that again, Douglas? This is completely nuts," Marla said. "But that is exactly what it said. 'Sprinkle one drop of this liquid on your computer screen before posting anything to the Internet. It will go viral immediately," Douglas repeated. "I don't think I messed up when writing this message down." "I can't believe it. How is this supposed to work?" Kim asked. "How would we know? This is sixth-dimensional alien wizardry." Douglas said. "Just like the Plant Player. We can't understand it, just like a chimpanzee would not understand a computer chip." "Actually, no one knows what exactly gets viral on the Internet. If people understood it, everybody would be
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famous," Marla said. "Well, I think there can't be much of a downside to just trying it out. Did you notice how this addresses exactly the problem we were discussing two days ago? How this would help with the fact that the reaction has been underwhelming?" Douglas said. "Now that you mention it, yes, it seems to be exactly an answer to our problem," Kim said. "Thank you, Tasneem. I hope this works." "Okay," Marla said. "We give it a try. And we go ahead with our announcement today, with exactly three months left in the deadline. Here is our latest draft." Marla clicked the blog post draft on the conference room screen. "April 17, 2023. The leading climate change activism organization 500.org (link to main website) today announced that humanity has exactly three months left to peak out CO2 emissions. To be exact, we have left until July 17, 17:30, 2023. If we fail to meet that deadline, global warming feedbacks will kick in that will send Earth into a meltdown that can no longer be stopped with human technology, eventually leading to Venus syndrome. "For those not familiar with the term 'Venus syndrome', it means the end point of runaway climate change, an atmosphere containing close to 100% CO2, leading to surface temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. Human life on the planet would be impossible, just like after a large asteroid hit. "We have exactly three months left. "How do we know? "As we have explained in our last press release (link to last press release), we have added a Jurassic ginkgo tree
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living since 187 million years as a new plaintiff to our ongoing litigation against CleanCoal Corporation. We are able to communicate with her over the Plant Player device described in that press release (picture of Plant Player device with link to description in detail on the 500.org website). "The Jurassic plant has told us of this deadline. "You may not believe her. Actually, you may not believe that a Jurassic ginkgo tree actually exists, is a plaintiff in our lawsuit, and is able to communicate with us. "But we know that she exists. We know that she is a plaintiff in our lawsuit. We know that the Plant Player can't be explained with human technology. And we believe that she is exactly right with this deadline. "But even if the deadline were wrong, there would be no harm done in observing it anyway. "For example, our source may be wrong and the real final tipping point may be August 17, not July 17. "Would you want to risk Venus syndrome happening? Would you think it a rational choice to just increase CO2 emissions until the very last minute of the real deadline? Would you think it is a rational choice considering that it is quite impossible with human technology to exactly figure out the real deadline up to the minute? "Of course not. We need to stop burning fossil fuel anyway. Let's make absolutely sure that we don't fry the planet. Let's make that deadline." Everybody took a couple of moments to read the draft. There were no questions or suggestions for changing anything. Marla took a quick vote and noted that there was unanimous support for posting it right that way. Then it was Arabelle's turn. She brought up her draft
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blog post on the screen for everybody to see. "As I promised my fans, I am releasing three new songs on Youtube today. They are called 'Don't you FUCKING burn my mom' (I gave you that title earlier), 'Countdown to hell', and 'Gingo Biloba'. "The reason I am releasing these songs today is that humanity has exactly three months left to peak out CO2 emissions. We need to meet the deadline of July 17, 17:30, or the final tipping point will be passed and Earth will enter a runaway climate change feedback spiral. See today's press release from my sponsor 500.org for more details (link to 500.org press release). "Watch this space for an announcement of the "FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR", which will feature these new songs." Everybody read the post. No one objected. "So, let's go ahead," Marla said. She brought the draft post up on the screen of her laptop computer. Arabelle did the same with her laptop. Then they tilted the computers so that the screens were aligned with the table. Douglas took the plug off the vial and let one drop of the green glowing liquid drop on each screen. Then he plugged the vial shut again, leaving most of the liquid for later use. It immediately spread in a thin film covering the screen evenly. But it did not stop glowing in its intense green. Since the film was very thin, it did not stop Marla or Arabelle from reading her text displayed on the screen, but it pulsated in different patterns of green just like it had done in the vial. Marla and Arabelle felt lightly hypnotized by the effect. They clicked on the "publish" button, almost
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simultaneously. The pulsating of the green film on their screens increased instantly a thousand fold, sending green waves of light through the conference room. After a couple of moments of intense green light the liquid had been completely consumed. The screens reverted to their normal state. They would see the next day if the VIRAL VIAL had worked. # April 18, 2023, 10:30 "107 million pageviews? Did you just say 107 million?" Douglas said. "Yes. It is remarkable, isn't it," Marla said. They were again assembled in the 500.org conference room to discuss the impact of the second announcement. Arabelle had joined them again. The reaction had been overwhelming this time. "How did our servers manage that spike?" Kim asked. "That was never a problem. We have those outsourced to a cloud provider. They could handle ten times that when necessary. But they sure did notice this spike. It's the first time in their history of 15 years something like that ever happened. Actually, they are shooting a commercial about how their servers were able to handle that seamlessly right now," Marla explained. "I got 570 million for my blog post," Arabelle said. "And over 500 million views on Youtube for each of my new songs. That's not bad either."
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"So the Viral Vial worked," Kim said. "Thanks Tasneem." "Actually, we don't know," Douglas said. "The story may have gone viral on its own. It is a big story after all. No one ever gave an exact date and hour as a deadline for reaching peak CO2 emissions, or completely frying the planet. And Arabelle's songs are great on their own. They might have done this even without the Viral Vial." "Are people believing our deadline? Or are they just clicking at the story because it sounds kind of interesting?" Kim asked. Marla brought up a list of referrers to yesterday's blog announcement on the conference room's screen and clicked on the top result. It was a blog post at Goofduck, the leading Internet site in 2023, titled "Great News On Climate Change". "The climate activists at 500.org have announced that we have only three months left to peak out on CO2 emissions, or we will pass the final tipping point, set the feedback mechanisms in motion, and completely fry the planet, set it on a path to hundreds of degrees Celsius surface temperature. Venus syndrome will be inevitable. "That's great news if it's true, and great news if it isn't. "For one, we are still hesitating to unconditionally believe that a Jurassic ginkgo tree can tell us exactly when we will pass the final tipping point. How would a tree know? Has that tree published any peer-reviewed papers on climate change? We could as well ask our dog. "But let's just assume for a moment that it is actually true. Humanity has three months left. "We'll fail, of course. Peaking in three months would require that people give a damn about what happens a
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couple of centuries later. We want to get it while we can. Let them deal with it. We hear that you can build great floating cities in the sky once the atmosphere is almost completely CO2 (link to Wikipedia article about floating cities on Venus colonization proposal). "The nice thing about failing to meet the final deadline is that from that point on, it doesn't matter any more what humanity does, so we can proceed to burn all the remaining fossil fuel without worrying anymore about global warming. The fine people at 500.org can give up the fight and go back to doing whatever they were doing before they became interested in the climate issue. "Isn't that great news? "And even if it isn't true, 500.org will still need to dissolve. They just told everyone that our last chance will be gone on July 17th, 17:30. Who will want to listen to them after that? "Again, great news." Everyone took a couple of moments to read the article. "They got a point there," Marla said. "If we fail to meet the deadline, there will be no point in climate activism anymore." "Actually, no," Douglas said. "Why not?" Marla said. "Because even if we're already on an irreversible path to Venus syndrome, we could still delay things. It will for the very least give humanity a couple of generations more. In a choice between everybody dying in 100 years and everybody dying in 1,000 years, the latter alternative is better, isn't it?" Douglas said. "All this doesn't matter if we meet the deadline. Somehow we have to make it," Kim said. "We've got quite
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a bit of attention with this news release. That gives us some power. We still got most of the liquid in the Viral Vial left, so we can get some more attention. Nobody ever said it would be easy. But I for one refuse to give up." "That's the spirit," Douglas said. "Actually, knowing the exact score and the exact deadline helps us compared with the situation where we don't know." "How about the question how many peer-reviewed papers Tasneem has to her name? What exactly is our reason to believe her deadline?" Marla asked. "We don't know," Douglas said. "We're dealing with technology way superior to ours. There is no way we could check her. This is a question of belief now. But I believe her. I have seen the Plant Player and the Viral Vial." "Anyway, what now? What's our next step?" Kim asked. "Obviously, we'll have a countdown clock banner on all of our web pages, as well as on all of our allies' web pages. But we really need to come up with a plan to make humanity move, and move quickly. Three months left was yesterday," Douglas said.

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April 24, 2023, 11:00 ARABELLE VENDITTO was sitting in Kim Kornburg's office at 500.org, and Douglas Bastow had also come. They had scheduled the meeting to discuss Arabelle's draft for the announcement of her "FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR". Both the blog at 500.org and Arabelle's blog would announce that tour simultaneously, and both blog posts would get a boost from the Viral Vial. Arabelle was one of the very few people on the planet who was aware of this secret. She was the leading celebrity advocating for 500.org and was doing all right even without the Viral Vial, but it would be interesting to see how it would work on someone who was already famous in the first place. Anyway, they had only less than three months left. It would be pointless to save the use of the Viral Vial for later. After July 17, 17:30 nothing would matter very much, if they didn't somehow meet the deadline. They needed to throw everything they had at that right now. "I have all my ginkgo songs on Youtube since one week, since our announcement of the final countdown. The access numbers have been going through the roof. I have
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never seen something like this. Of course, having over 100 million people see you helped. And my blog post also got over 500 million already on the first day. I don't know how Tasneem does it, but there may be really something to the Viral Vial," Arabelle said. "I believe her," Douglas said. "I am not surprised at all that the Viral Vial works. If it didn't work, I would have gotten my doubts about the deadline as well. It did, which is one more proof that she really has technology much superior to ours. I wonder how she got it way back in the Jurassic. She must have met some really smart dinosaurs." "Yes, thats odd, isn't it?" Kim said. "If we could explain that, maybe we could get more people to believe us." "How do you want to handle ticket sales?" Douglas asked. "It will be difficult to meet the demand, after that tidal wave of interest you just got on Youtube." "I was worried about that, too. Do you have a good idea?" Arabelle said. "You could of course do some Internet auction sort of ticket distribution," Kim said. "That should raise quite a lot of funds." "I know. But I don't like the idea. I don't want the price to go up too much. I would hate to have only my rich fans be able to attend." Arabelle said. "You will of course have an Internet live feed in place for people who won't be able to secure a ticket?" Kim asked. "Of course. It's been that way all the time since the beginning. I'm not going to change that just now, when every single eyeball counts if we want to make our deadline," Arabelle said. "That leaves only one way to do it," Douglas said. "You
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need to distribute the tickets in a lottery. Have everybody interested order a ticket over your Internet site, and then randomly assign tickets to winners of the lottery at the fixed price you set in the first place." "That sounds like a plan. Thanks. I'll probably do it that way," Arabelle said. "Here is my draft for the announcement." She opened the draft on her laptop computer, showing the screen to Kim and Douglas. "Today, I am happy to announce my FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR. "As you know, humanity has less than three months left to finally get CO2 emissions to peak. If we don't make it by July 17, 17:30, we're screwed (link to 500.org April 17 press release about the deadline). "I thank everyone who has kindly viewed my three new songs I released on that day on Youtube. Your support has been overwhelming. Especially 'Don't you FUCKING burn my mom' has broken all records. It is the most viewed song I ever released, after only one week. Thank you again for your continuing support. I love you all. "The first concert of the tour will be on Sunday, May 7. We have secured GigaMax Stadium, the largest venue in the country, for that occasion. Stay tuned for announcements of additional dates and places. "Please go to the ticket sales agent site (link to ticket sales agent) to secure your ticket. Interest is expected to be high, so be sure to register early." Kim and Douglas took a moment to read it. "Sounds good to me," Kim said. "Maybe you should mention the lottery idea," Douglas said.
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"Yes, you're right," Arabelle said. She worked her keyboard and changed the last sentence. It now read "Interest is expected to be high, so be sure to register early for the ticket lottery. Early registration will increase your chances to win." "I'll need to work out the details of that lottery and post them to the ticket agent sale website later," Arabelle said. "But that should be enough to explain the general idea." "Looks good to me," Kim said. "Okay. Wait here, I'll get the Viral Vial from the safe," Douglas said. He walked out of Kim's office. A couple of minutes later he came back with the Viral Vial, which he had already removed from its box. Arabelle tilted her laptop to align the screen with the table. Douglas carefully let one drop of the glowing green liquid fall down on the screen. The liquid spread evenly over the screen, in a thin film glowing in various shades of green. As Arabelle hit the "publish" button, the glowing intensified to a strong green light spreading throughout the office, painting all their faces green for a moment. Then the screen reverted to its normal state. # May 2, 2023, 11:00 The phone on Douglas Bastow's desk rang. It was Marla. "Would you please come to the conference room? The Plant Player is active," she said. "Okay, I'll be there in a minute," Douglas said.
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He walked the short distance to the conference room. Marla and Kim Kornburg, his lawyer colleague at 500.org, were already waiting for him. The Plant Player was laying on the table. At both sides of the headphone set the ginkgo leaves were glowing, clearly indicating that the Plant Player was ready to go. Douglas put the headphones over his ears, after adjusting the setting of the device to make the voice audible for everybody in the room. It was mostly Douglas wearing the device until now, except for the first time, where Marla had worn it as well. They thought that Tasneem would be the most comfortable with Douglas wearing it. As long as he was available, as he was right now, they didn't think it worthwhile to take any chances. Tasneem opened this communication channel only very sparingly as it was. They didn't want to do anything that might close it down again at these rare occasions. "Good morning, everyone," Marla said. "I understand that Tasneem might want to speak to us again. I wonder what it will be about." "Good morning, Marla," Tasneem said over the Plant Player device. "I have some news for you. You know that there are only less than three months left in the final countdown. If CO2 emissions don't peak until July 17, 17:30, the final tipping point will be passed. Have you noticed a problem with that?" "Yes, of course," Marla said. "We have been fighting for more than a decade to get CO2 peaking. How are we going to get there in that extremely short time left? Frankly, I am not very optimistic." "Yes, that might of course be a problem," Tasneem said.
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"But that is not what I am talking about right now. Don't you understand? It's rather obvious." "How would we know?" Douglas said. "What do you mean?" Kim said. "How would we know either way?" Douglas had thought about that point before. "I mean, reporting on CO2 emissions has become much faster in the last decade. But we still only get the numbers with a delay of close to six months. And we don't get them on a hour by hour basis. All we get is the number for each month. Which of course means that it is impossible for anyone to say if we actually peaked by July 17, 17:30, even if we did." "That makes sense," Marla said. "And that's exactly what I want to talk about to you," Tasneem said. "So, you have a solution to that?" Kim asked. "Yes. Actually, I do. I would not give you such a deadline if I was not able to check on the progress. I can tell you the exact amount of global emissions right down to the minute," Tasneem said. "Impressive," Kim said. "How do you do that?" "It's just one of the things I can do. It's impossible to explain to humans. Your technology is way to primitive. And you are very stupid. I mean, how could you be so dumb as to start a runaway global meltdown on the only planet you will ever have in the first place?" Tasneem explained patiently. "Again, some more six-dimensional alien wizardry we will never understand," Douglas said. "One more thing. Since I'm a plant, usually I like having some CO2 in the air. Plants need CO2. We use it for making carbohydrate in the process of photosynthesis.
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Even stupid humans know that much. But I hate CO2 when I am measuring it," Tasneem said. "Why would you hate that measuring process?" Douglas asked. "It's because whenever I start the measuring it makes me able to smell the stuff. It temporarily makes me feel CO2 as an extremely unpleasant smelling gas. CO2 stinks. If you stupid humans could smell it the way I can smell it in those moments, you would have stopped burning my family's bones long ago," Tasneem explained. "Thanks for going through with the measuring anyway," Kim said. "So, what is the score right now," Douglas asked. "Have our announcements brought any progress in the short term?" "No," Tasneem said. "What do you mean, no? This can't possibly be true. We got an incredible reaction to our last announcement of the deadline two weeks ago. Are you telling us we have achieved nothing at all?" Marla asked. "No. You have not accomplished nothing. Actually, things have gotten worse. CO2 emissions have gone up by 10% over these two weeks," Tasneem explained. "How could that have happened?" Douglas said. "How would I know?" Tasneem said. "You would need to ask one of the stupid humans. I wouldn't have burned any fossil fuel in the first place. To me, it actually makes sense that your species would go in the wrong direction because of such an announcement. It's exactly what I would expect of you." "Damn," Kim said. "I don't understand it." "Neither do I," Marla said. "We are working our asses
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off to get the message out. We get an overwhelming response to our announcement. And humanity runs even faster in the wrong direction. It doesn't make sense." "Actually, it does," Douglas said. "Our friends in the fossil fuel industry of course have noticed our recent success in getting some additional attention for our campaign. They still control the flow of fossil fuel. Maybe they think it's a good idea to remind us of their power right now. Maybe they think it's funny." "Don't call them 'our friends'. They are not our friends. They are the enemy," Kim said angrily. "Of course they are. I was being ironic," Douglas explained. "Great," Marla said. "So we have about ten weeks left to save the planet from passing the final tipping point, and the flow of fossil fuel has increased by 10% in two weeks. Things don't look good for meeting our little deadline here, do they?" "No," Tasneem said. "They certainly don't look good. Serves you right. You shouldn't have burned my family's bones for running your goddamn cars." # May 7, 16:00 Benito Sadiqi looked approvingly at the cage. He had not failed this time. It had been surprisingly easy. It is always easy if you know exactly what you're doing, he told himself. It had taken a bit of money and legwork to find out the name of Arabelle's driver. Then it was only a matter of
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getting him before he was required to show up for work that day, which was around two o'clock in the afternoon. He was supposed to drive Arabelle to the GigaMax Stadium. It was the day of the first concert in the FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR. Tickets had sold out immediately. There were only 150,000 seats even in this biggest venue in the country. But demand had been more than ten times that number. So Arabelle had distributed the tickets over a lottery. Those that had applied early had a bigger chance to win a ticket. No one could sell their ticket to someone else, so as to prevent ticket scalping. There was a small amount of VIP tickets that were auctioned off, with the proceeds going to 500.org, but basically you had to get lucky to get in. Normal market forces were suspended. Benito had waited for the driver when he approached Arabelle's car. Again, the driver only saw an old man, limping on a cane, his eyes covered by black sunglasses, indicating blindness. One quick blow with the cane had been enough to knock him out. Benito had passed the driver to someone who would keep him tied up in a secure location for the next 24 hours, and then dump him somewhere in the woods. Benito did not need to hurt the driver in any way. It would be enough to make sure that he was out of the picture for the next day. That was all the time he needed. Benito had put on a wig to match the driver's hair color. Since Arabelle boarded the car from one of the rear doors, she didn't have the right angle to see his face. So this simple move was enough to fool her. Once Arabelle had come into the car without bothering to check the driver's face, it was only a matter of getting
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one good hit to her head as well, which was not so easy in the narrow car. But Benito was a pro. He had had ample practice with the cane. He would hit anyone in just about any circumstance exactly in the right way as to knock them out. He had driven the car to his van, where he put a gag on Arabelle and pushed her into the cage he had brought in the van. This bird would not escape him, he knew. He dumped Arabelle's car right there. After an uneventful trip to the mountain cabin he used for this kind of operations, he had Arabelle right in the sound-proof basement of the cabin. Confined in the cage. She would regain consciousness shortly, he thought. Benito set up the video camera. There would be a live feed to Avita Ascolese's mansion. And another one to the Internet. It wouldn't do to disappoint her fans, Benito thought with a smile. He started the recording, even though the live feed wouldn't start until much later. He had a couple of guys working for him who would make sure that the upload couldn't be tracked. It only took a couple of stolen phones to do that. They had a supply of thirty for this occasion. They would announce early on to the police that interrupting the live feed would not be in the police's interest, since they would lose possible clues by doing so. When he was ready to start the live feed with one last click at his computer, he opened the cage and used a knife to cut off all of Arabelle's clothes. She would not need those for the last hours of her life. He left the "500" number on her forehead intact. It was in a very light green color on this day. Her braid was colored deep green.
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Benito closed the cage door again. Then he checked the large screen behind the cage. It would provide the background for the live feed. Finally he checked his voice changing software. A part of the following scene would be transmitted. It wouldn't do to use his normal voice. "What the hell..." Arabelle had regained conscience. She didn't understand. She had a monster headache. She was completely nude and confined in a cage. A light was blinding her, and a large video camera was set up to record every of her movements. A masked figure was standing next to the video camera. Benito said nothing. He switched on the live feed to the Ascolese mansion, so that Avira would be able to watch. And he himself watched with interest. He wanted to know how long it would take until panic set in. "Where am I?" Arabelle said, still somewhat dizzy. Benito still said nothing. Arabelle changed her position, sat down on the floor of the cage, put her arms before her chest to conceal it. "Welcome," Benito said. "Want to know why you're here?" He did not bother to use the voice changer yet. Arabelle would not be able to describe his voice to anyone. "Yes," Arabelle said. "I missed out in the lottery for today's concert. So I figured I get you to sing here at my place. I'm a fan, you know," Benito said. That was actually half true. He did like Arabelle's songs. Having her sing only for him was a nice bonus for this operation. "I need to get to my concert," Arabelle said. "Don't worry. I have a Internet live feed all set up. We'll
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start it at exactly five, when the concert was scheduled to start. Your fans are going to love seeing you sing from a cage," Benito said. "You are crazy. You think you can get away with this?" Arabelle asked. "I don't care. I have terminal cancer. Only three months left to live. They won't even be able to process me through the courts before I die," Benito lied. He wanted Arabelle to cooperate, for the time being. "Do you know what that means?" "No," Arabelle said. "It means I don't have to kill you. I can, though. See that gun here in my hand? I have shot people before, you know. And see that device over there? You know what it is?" Benito said. "No. I have never seen something like that," Arabelle said. "It's a cattle prod. It would cause a rather intense shock of pain if I used it on you. You want to keep in mind that I could do that as well. Any time I feel like it. Do you want to cooperate?" Benito said. "No," Arabelle said. "But I don't have a choice, do I?" "Exactly. Good girl. Here's what's going to happen. Exactly at five o'clock, I am going to turn the live Internet feed on. You are going to sing your three new songs for me, and for all your fans. I am sure they will display the feed at the Gigamax Stadium main screen. You will be allowed some clothes then, since else they wouldn't be able to display it. Only a simple green bikini, not your fancy stage costume, though. You think you can do that for your fans?" Benito asked. "I'd do anything for them," Arabelle said. "But I won't
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have my band. It will be a very simple concert that way." "Don't worry. I have that covered. See that large screen right behind your cage? It will display your three new Youtube videos. I have edited out your voice, so all you need to do is add it again. I won't let you out of the cage, though. I don't want any trouble. I don't trust you, you know?" Benito said. "So, how much time have we left? I don't know how long I was passed out," Arabelle asked. "Just enough for one rehearsal. You will perform these three songs once for me only, and in the nude. I will take a video. It will be released over the P2P networks if someone ever arrests me over this before I'm dead anyway. I want you to know this, so you won't be too eager cooperating with the police once I have released you," Benito said. Again, those parts about releasing her were a lie. But it was much more convenient if she didn't know that she would die today, right in this basement. "You are really going to release me?" Arabelle asked. "Right now, I think I might. But if you don't put up a good performance now, I might change my mind. You really want to give me a good show now, Arabelle," Benito said. He sat down on a big chair next to the camera. Then he clicked on his computer screen and started the Youtube recording. It was at exactly the right volume to match Arabelle's voice without any amplification. Arabelle stood up. She sang. She danced, as far as she could do so in the restricted space of the cage. She sang and danced as if her life depended on it. Which was exactly what she thought it did. Very good, Benito thought. He was pleased with what
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he saw. He decided then and there that he wouldn't make her suffer. He was, after all, a fan. Even though Ms. Ascolese's orders of course had priority over that sentiment. Since the point was killing her live on the Internet feed, he didn't have the necessary time for torturing her properly anyway. She got lucky, he thought. There would be others to suffer the torture she had just narrowly escaped. "Here. Get that on," Benito said, throwing a small green bikini into the cage. Arabelle had it done in under a minute. She felt a lot better with this simple change. She would face her fans over the Internet now. And she would present them a hell of a show. She was a pro. This lunatic would not stop her. A couple of minutes to five. Benito clicked on his computer to start the Internet live feed. He gave it some time for the pre-recorded announcements to the police, and to the staff at the GigaMax Stadium. He waited. Then his phone rang. It was one of his people he had in the GigaMax stadium. He confirmed that the live feed was right on the Stadium screen. "Okay, here we go," Benito said. "The feed from this camera will be on the GigaMax stadium screen in a moment. Then I start the Youtube recording, and you start singing. Don't say anything. Just sing. You may even live to see this evening." He clicked on his computer screen. The picture from this video camera was now starting the live feed. Then he started the Youtube recording, bringing up the band for Arabelle. Arabelle sang. Arabelle danced. She didn't think about Benito any more. All she thought about was her fans, who
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would see her in the stadium. She knew this live feed would be syndicated by her own live feed, and that all of her millions and millions of fans were watching her right now. She gave it her best, all she had. Right as she finished, Benito shot her in the head. He hit exactly where he aimed, the '500' that Arabelle carried on her forehead. He was not sure if he had hit the zero in the middle, though. She was dead immediately. He read out a short declaration he had prepared, with the voice changing software running. "I am one of Arabelle's fans. I will be dead in three months from terminal cancer. I decided she should sing one last time only for me, and one very last time for all her fans. Don't bother looking for me, I'll put a bullet through my own head right now." Then he shut down the live feed and left the mountain cottage. Someone else would clean up the scene and dispose of the body. Two hours later, Arabelles body was cremated with another corpse scheduled for regular cremation. # May 7, 2023, 21:00 "You all know why I have called this meeting," Marla Maygar said to the staff of 500.org that had assembled in the conference room. "We need to put out a press release immediately about Arabelle's murder." "The bastards! They are really taking the gloves off, aren't they?" Kim Kornburg said. She was livid about losing her friend.
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"And the nerve they have, shooting her right in a Internet live feed? Do they think our supporters and Arabelle's fans will take that lying down?" Marla said. "Wait a minute," Douglas Bastow said. "How do we know that CleanCoal Corporation is behind this? More importantly, how do we prove it? There was a declaration at the end of the video. The guy said he was just a fan. I don't believe this for one minute. Of course it was CleanCoal. But, again, how do we prove it?" "Haven't you personally warned off Konrad Hargrave that there would be consequences if they didn't back off from further attacks?" Kim asked. "Of course I have. And I would love to put out a press release calling for a lynch mob burning down CleanCoal Corporation. I really would. It might happen anyway, without us calling for it," Douglas said. "But that would probably mean that 500.org joins the ranks of the terrorists. It would be clearly illegal, even if we had proof they did it, which we don't. You want 500.org to become illegal? "You got a point there," Marla said. "I am mad as hell. We are going to make them pay for it. But you are right. We need to think this over." "Let's just take a couple of minutes to cool down and think of Arabelle," Kim proposed. "Can you bring up her last three songs on the conference screen?" Douglas asked, facing Marla. "I can do that," she answered. Marla clicked at her computer. A moment later, Arabelle appeared on the screen, singing for the last time "Don't you FUCKING burn my mom". Everybody watched her. Several people cried. "Whatever happens, this will be the most famous
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concert in history," Douglas said. "If CleanCoal Corporation was behind this, this will be an own goal. A blunder of epic proportions. I will of course, for the very least, ask Konrad Hargrave in court what he knows about this. Even if they were not, there is no way this will not help our side. Arabelle is a martyr for 500.org now. As far as I know, the first martyr in our history that actually died. The only way this could be good for them is if people see this and chicken out. Anyone here wants to stop climate activism because it might be dangerous?" Douglas asked. There was dead silence. No one stepped up. Not now, at least. There might be doubts later, in private, or with people not so strongly engaged in climate activism. "I for one am only strengthened in my resolve," Kim said. "I have been attacked before. And I may be attacked again. But the only way they can stop me is killing me. And they will never be able to kill all of us." "Of course, we all need to be much more careful. I am going to carry a gun at all times from now on," Douglas said. "That may not help. But it won't hurt either. Everyone, watch your back from now on. We live in interesting times." "So what about our press release," Marla said. "We need to put out something soon." "How about we just say that we are grieving for our loss, and that Arabelle was one of our champions, and will continue to be so even after her death?" Kim proposed. "Sounds good to me," Douglas said. "We can always put the blame on CleanCoal Corporation later if we find some evidence that they were behind this." "Okay. Wait a minute, I'll write down a short first draft," Marla said.
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She typed a couple of minutes. The first draft appeared on the conference room screen as she typed it. "7 May 2023. With great shock and grief we hear that one of our heroes, Arabelle Venditto, has been killed in a spectacular murder. At this point, we are not sure who is behind this despicable act. We have certain suspicions, but there is right now no way for us to prove them. "Let us just say this much right now. Arabelle was one of the most important people ever working with our campaign. Her contributions to climate change activism were extremely effective. "And they will continue to be so in the future. We will always remember Arabelle. And we will fight with ever more resolve from now on. "As head of 500.org, Marla Maygar wishes to make the point that she will never back down. If the choice is between death and stopping climate activism, Ms. Maygar's position is 'shoot me next.' "She is joined in that sentiment by every single person involved in the 500.org campaign." Everyone took a couple of moments to read that draft. There were no questions. "So, we go ahead with this draft?" Marla said. She took a quick vote and found unanimous support. Marla clicked the "publish" button and got the press release out. # Benito Sadiqi's phone rang. It was Avira Ascolese, who had just read the 500.org press release. So Marla Maygar wanted to get shot next. That might be arranged, Avira
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thought. "Benito? Get Marla Maygar next," she said, and hung up.

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CHAPTER NINE DOUGLAS

May 15, 2023, 10:30 DOUGLAS BASTOW was sitting in his office, doing research on the Phaseout Profit Theory. One week had passed since Arabelle had been murdered. No proof of CleanCoal Corporation involvement had come up. The police investigation was going nowhere. They had an abundance of clues, since the murder was transmitted in a live Internet feed. But all of those proved to be dead ends. They had of course tracked the Internet uploads to several phones used for the purpose. The owners of those phones had been taken in for some serious questioning. But it was soon clear that they had nothing to do with the crime. Their phones had been stolen a couple of hours before the crime, so they had not yet contacted their phone companies. Most of them had alibis, and none fit the profile of the maniac fan the police were looking for. They had talked to 500.org and to Douglas Bastow as well. Douglas mentioned the earlier attack on Kim Kornburg, but the police was not convinced there was a relation.
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Anyway, to deal with his grief and as his way of hitting back at the fossil fuel companies, he immersed himself in his work. He paid special attention to what Marla Maygar had said about the Phaseout Profit Theory, and he had developed a new angle he wanted to discuss. He phoned Marla and Kim. They both could spare a couple of minutes, so he asked them to come over to the conference room. He walked over there himself as well. "I have noticed an important point about the Phaseout Profit Theory," Douglas said. "I would like to discuss it with you, if you don't mind." "Go ahead," Marla said. "The 'Phaseout Profit Theory' says that it is in the interest of the fossil fuel companies to sell less. That will drive prices as well as their profits up. It will also massively increase the value of their deposits, so they would make an enormous profit even if they didn't sell one drop of oil. There is only one problem with that," Douglas said. "What is that?" Kim asked. "You remember the Texas Railroad Commission?" Douglas asked. "Yes," Marla said. "As you explained before, they handed out oil production quotas between 1930 and 1971, reducing global warming and increasing profits. That is one model case where the Phaseout Profit Theory was already put to practical use." "Exactly. So what would be the problem if the fossil fuel companies just got all together and coordinate their production so as to reduce it? And get higher profits in the process?" Douglas asked. "I understand," Kim said. "There would be a problem with antitrust law."
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"Exactly," Douglas said. "Normally, it is illegal to coordinate your actions on the market. The leading case on that was of course Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, which the Supreme Court decided in 1911. A fossil fuel case." "Could you explain that in a little more detail?" Marla said. "You know I am not a lawyer, so I am not familiar with that case." "Yes, of course," Douglas said. "The most important part of the opinion is where they discuss why there is a need for antitrust law. They say there are three problems if you leave companies the freedom to form cartels: Quote '1. The power which the monopoly gave to the one who enjoyed it to fix the price and thereby injure the public; 2. The power which it engendered of enabling a limitation on production; and, 3. The danger of deterioration in quality of the monopolized article which it was deemed was the inevitable resultant of the monopolistic control over its production and sale.' Unquote. That part about the 'power of enabling a limitation on production' is of interest to us." "I'm still not sure I understand," Marla said. "Well, it's actually rather easy to understand," Douglas said. "In 1911, when this case was decided, the Supreme Court of course had never heard of the danger of global warming. So they thought 'limitation of production' was a problem. It is not. It is what we need to avoid frying the whole planet. That interest trumps everything else." "I see," Marla said. "So is there an exception to antitrust law that would allow the fossil fuel companies to coordinate their production, reducing it?" "Actually, no," Douglas said. "That is one very
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important point stopping the "Phaseout Profit Theory" from working in reality right now. It would be illegal for the fossil fuel companies to act in the best interest of the planet, as far as they do so in a coordinated way. That's obviously nuts. It needs to stop. We can't afford to have antitrust law block this solution. We need an antitrust exception." "You think we will get that in our remaining two months?" Marla said. "I would have my doubts about that. You know how difficult it is to get any regulation done that helps our cause." "Yes. Of course I know. But there is a very important difference here," Douglas said. "What is it?" Kim asked. "If the fossil fuel companies understand the Phaseout Profit Theory, they will be on our side on this issue. After all, it makes their shareholders more money. That's all they care about. If the planet narrowly escapes complete meltdown, that's an extra bonus. Once they are on our side, how do you think all those politicians will vote they have bought off with their contributions?" Douglas asked. "That's a very difficult question," Marla said, smiling. "Actually, it's not. This antitrust exception could get enacted in half an hour." "It better be," Douglas said. "We only have two months left." # May 16, 2023, 11:00 Judge Crowley pounded her gavel and opened the
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hearing. She had scheduled it to hear both parties one last time before she decided on whether she would admit standing for Tasneem or grant Konrad Hargrave's motion to dismiss that part of the lawsuit. She had thought of a couple of questions she wanted to discuss before she announced her decision. "Mr. Bastow, have you brought the Plant Player device as I requested?" Judge Crowley asked. "Of course I have. It is sitting right before me on the table now. Do you want me to check if it is active?" Douglas said. "Yes," Judge Crowley answered. Douglas pulled the inner box out of its leather case. No one paid attention any more to the "DANGER! DO NOT OPEN!!" inscription on the inner box. Everybody now knew it was safe if Douglas opened the box. They had published the fact that unauthorized opening of the box would result in severe harm to anyone who tried it, though. But this was okay. Douglas pulled the Plant Player out of the box and put it on the table. The leaves were not glowing. It was not active. "Is that device active? Can we communicate with plaintiff Tasneem right now?" Judge Crowley asked. "No. And yes," Douglas said. "What do you mean?" Judge Crowley said, slightly annoyed at the cryptic answer. She didn't understand it. "Well, no, because the device is not active right now, so we can't hear Tasneem talking. And yes, because my colleague Kim Kornburg here is in the court room. Tasneem hears whatever she hears. So to be exact, we have one-way communication with Tasneem right now. We can tell her anything we need to. But we won't necessarily get
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an answer," Douglas explained. "Has the device been active since the last hearing in this matter?" Judge Crowley asked. "It has been exactly two times. Once on April 10 and once on May 2nd. The first conversation was filmed, as proposed by Tasneem herself, and published over the Internet. We have included a link to the URL in our last brief, so you may have had an opportunity to watch it. We have also filed transcripts for both the April 10 and the May 2nd conversations," Douglas said. "I see. Do you have any further test results on the Plant Player device?" Judge Crowley asked. "Again, as we pointed out in our last written brief, the Plant Player device has been examined in the presence of leading experts live on national television on May 14. As you know, it is only safe to access the device if that is authorized by Tasneem, so we have not handed it over to anyone else. But all the experts examining it at that occasion, as well as several other world class researchers we mentioned in our brief, have all concluded that this device could not possibly have been built with presently available human technology. There is no doubt possible about the point," Douglas said. "Do you have anything else to add to your written brief?" Judge Crowley said. "Not really. But I would like, just for the record, ask Mr. Hargrave if the defendant has been involved in any way in the murder of our friend and activist, Arabelle Venditto. I am sure the court has heard of that case," Douglas said, looking straight at Konrad Hargrave. "I think that is a fair question, under the circumstances," Judge Crowley said. "Mr. Hargrave?"
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"I have no knowledge of anything that may connect my client to this horrible crime, and I resent the implication that there might be any such connection," Hargrave said, trying hard to keep his calm. This was extremely dangerous territory. He might be liable himself. He decided then and there to have another very close look at the question if he really needed to keep Avira Ascolese as a client. "Thank you, Mr. Hargrave. So, do you want to add anything to your brief about the question of standing, Mr. Bastow?" Judge Crowley said. "No, but I would just like to point out what in our position is the most important aspect. If standing for plaintiff Tasneem is denied, this lawsuit will go forward anyway. The defendant doesn't dispute that some of the plaintiffs clearly have standing. So denying standing for plaintiff Tasneem won't really help the defendant much. But it would deprive the court of the unique opportunity to decide this case considering all interests involved in a fair manner," Douglas said. "Thank you. Now, for the defendant, is there anything Mr. Hargrave would like to point out that wasn't included in his 170 pages of briefs in this matter?" Judge Crowley said. It was clear from her tone that she didn't necessarily appreciate having had to read all those 170 pages. "The position of the defendant is clear. It is only common sense that trees don't have standing. It is only common sense that a party needs to actually exist to have standing. It is only common sense that the court should not need to waste its time with what clearly is nothing else but a publicity stunt," Hargrave said. "Thank you, Mr. Hargrave," Judge Crowley said. "I deny the motion to dismiss, for the following reasons.
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"We clearly have a completely new situation on our hands here. There is no precedent on the question of standing for Jurassic ginkgo trees. "This means we need to deal with this situation in a matter that is fair and equitable. We need to identify the interests relevant to this discussion and balance them correctly. "The defendant's interest is clearly to have the lawsuit by plaintiff Tasneem dismissed, since that would bring the defendant one step closer to the final goal of winning this lawsuit and keeping his coal power plants in operation. "However, the defendant would be unable to achieve that goal, even if I decided to grant the motion to dismiss plaintiff Tasneem's action. There are other plaintiffs left who clearly do have standing. "That in turn means that defendant's interest in having standing denied is of a minor nature. "In contrast, if I decided to deny the motion, plaintiff Tasneem would be unable to be heard in this lawsuit. She has waited 187 million years for her chance to be heard. I think she should be able to contribute to the discussion from her point of view." Judge Crowley pounded her gavel again and closed the hearing. # May 16, 2023, 20:00 Kim and Douglas sat at the dinner table in one of Douglas's houses. They had moved to a different one every couple of days, as a security precaution. Arabelle had
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been killed. They might be next on the hit list. The police investigation still had not gone anywhere. Their main line of investigation was trying to track how the Internet live feed had been uploaded. If they got that done, the case would be solved. They had succeeded in narrowing the search to one personal computer owned by a guy called Olaf Stempel. They had arrested him. He had confessed to having spread the live feed, so they worked him some more to find out who had paid him for the job. But then it became clear that he actually didn't know anything about the matter. The confession was bogus, given under strong pressure. What really had happened was that someone had planted a virus program on Stempel's computer and used it at the time without Stempel's knowledge or consent, remote controlling it by a handy phone stolen three days earlier. They had waited if the theft would be noticed quickly, and since the owner of the phone did use it only occasionally for booking some prostitute or other, it had not been noticed or reported quickly. Anyway, the whole investigation was going nowhere very fast. So Kim and Douglas still assumed that CleanCoal Corperation was out to get them next, even if they had no proof for that. Douglas always carried a gun now. Douglas had prepared dinner again. That was one of the ways he supported Kim in her diet efforts. He knew how to work around that great law of nature that everything fattening tastes great, and anything with low calories tastes awful. To a degree, that is. Douglas looked at Kim again, and he liked what he saw. Final success was imminent. She clearly had lost a lot of
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weight in the last couple of weeks. Part of that was due to the stress and grief from Arabelle's murder, though. "Why don't you get on the scale," he said. "Yes. I am looking forward to this," Kim said. She took off all her clothes and stood on the scale. Douglas liked what he saw even more than a moment before. "57.2," he announced. "Congratulations. You have reached your goal. And with more than two months left in the deadline," he joked. "Now you mention it, actually a diet is an excellent metaphor for reducing CO2 emissions. Just like people will get fat if they don't put in the effort to watch their eating, the planet will get hot if people don't put in the effort to watch their emissions," Kim said. "Exactly. That's an interesting idea. We should use it in our campaigning somewhere," Douglas said. "The pen is mightier than the sword, as they say," Kim said. "Calamus gladio fortior. That's the latin version. My pen is quite mighty, if I may say so. Especially when I am looking at you right now," Douglas said. About half an hour later, they got back from the shower. They had both burnt quite some extra calories in the meanwhile. "So, I've made it to my goal," Kim said. "Thanks for your help, Douglas. It feels great to see some success." "You're welcome. I'm glad to be of use," Douglas said. "How is the womanizing going?" Kim said. "How many new girls have you conquered this week?" "I have cut back on that," Douglas said. "Only about
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three or four. I can't remember exactly. I'm sorry. I really am. I should keep better records." "Anything serious? I mean, could you say you have been cheating on one of them with me just now?" Kim asked. "Actually, no. I'm just keeping my skills in shape, for the day when you finally get sick of all my womanizing and dump me, so that I won't need to go to bed alone that particular day. I couldn't stand the thought," Douglas said. "I'm not going to dump you, Douglas," Kim said. "That's what you say now. But wait until you have lived a couple of decades with me," Douglas said. "Might you be willing to consider that?" "There's nothing to consider. I'm all for it," Kim said. # May 20, 2023, 14:40 Douglas was sitting in his office, researching a finer point about the law on Jurassic ginkgo tree plants, when his phone rang. "Douglas? It's Marla. Please come to the conference room. The Plant Player is active." "I see. I'll be there in a minute," Douglas said. He walked over to the conference room. Strangely, only Marla was there. He would have been tempted to use the situation for exercising his flirting muscle. Just because Marla was his boss didn't mean she wasn't a woman. But clearly Tasneem was waiting. The Plant Player's leaves glowed in seventy shades of green, with great intensity. "Where is everybody?" Douglas asked. "I have sent them away. At Tasneem's request. She
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wants to speak only to you," Marla explained. "That's strange. But I don't mind. That means you are leaving as well?" Douglas asked. "Yes. And no video recording for this conversation. I don't know what that means, but you may be able to enlighten me later," Marla said. She left the conference room and closed the door. Douglas put the headphones on and listened. "Hello, Douglas," Tasneem said. "Excuse me for sending everybody else away. I wanted to get a couple of minutes of your unrivaled charm all for myself." "What? Now it works on ginkgo trees as well?" Douglas said, smiling. "Only kidding," Tasneem said. "But there is a reason I sent everyone away." "And that would be?" Douglas said. "I would like to discuss some personal matters about Kim with you." "Go ahead," Douglas said. "You mentioned the other day that I am watching all the time. Including the - ahem - intimate moments you share? And that you have no idea how I am feeling about that?" Tasneem said. "Yes. I do feel it may be somewhat inappropriate behavior on our part. Does it bother you?" Douglas asked. "Actually, not at all. To be perfectly honest, I am not ever so interested in the mating rituals of your stupid race. I don't pay much attention, and even if I did, it certainly wouldn't bother me. I am sure it's the same with you. You don't get all excited about the sex life of ginkgo trees, do you?" Tasneem explained. "That's nice to know. I also kind of like the fact that
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with all my charming ways I will never be tempted to make a pass at you. We may become friends. Do you plan to hang around with Kim for all of her life?" Douglas said. "That would complicate your relationship, I assume," Tasneem said. "It probably would," Douglas said. "I have to admit it. It probably would. On the other hand, it might actually stabilize it. We could ask you for help if we quarrel for one reason or another. And we might behave better since we know there is always someone watching. Anyway, right now, I am extremely grateful you are with her. You have saved her bacon already once, in that attack by the old guy when she walked back from the bus station. I feel a lot safer with you around." "I can't do ever so much. Don't count too much on any super powers to save you. You still need to be very careful. But, to answer your question, the answer is no. I am not going to hang around for all of Kim's life. Actually, once the deadline runs out, I will be gone, back to some tree or other. This is a very temporary arrangement," Tasneem said. "Who are you, anyway?" Douglas said. "You said you would explain later. Isn't it about time you did that? We have less than two months left until July 17. I want every bit of information I can get," Douglas said. He poured himself a cup of coffee from the coffee maker. "I can't tell you yet. But one reason I wanted to talk to you is exactly that point. My instructions are to explain who I am and why I am here, after living for 187 million years, exactly on July 10, at 17:30. That is exactly one week before the deadline runs out and I will be gone again."
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"Why? Why not tell me now?" Douglas asked. "I can't actually tell you, since I don't know myself," Tasneem answered. "That's just one of my instructions. I can't do anything about them. And I don't understand that point myself. But anyway, make sure that we have an Internet live feed set up. I am going to talk to all of humanity, not only to you, Douglas." "I can do that. That shouldn't be a problem. Do you want me to put some liquid from the Viral Vial on the screen before starting the live feed?" Douglas asked. "Yes. It will only work until the deadline arrives anyway. This will be one of my most important announcements to your whole race. We might as well do everything possible to get the maximum of attention. It will be vital for meeting the deadline, you know," Tasneem said. "Yes. I think it will be," Douglas said. "I will also have an announcement to make to all of humanity exactly one month before the deadline runs out. Be sure to have an Internet live feed ready on June 17 at 17:30," Tasmeen said. "We will have it ready. We will of course also prepare our own press release for the occasion. I am not sure if we still have a chance to make it, but I am not prepared to give up," Douglas said. "Please don't mention the other things we have discussed to anyone. Except for the part about me watching you and Kim, you should discuss that with her. But don't tell her yet that I'll be gone after the deadline. And don't tell that to anyone. As long as Kim is still in danger, I don't want the bad guys to know that I have only less than two months left with her," Tasneem said. "This is important. Don't mess it up. Don't tell that anybody.
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Including Kim." "I won't. I am a terrible womanizer. But I can keep a secret. Actually, that makes it somewhat easier for the lot of them to give in to my charming ways. I have never, ever, kissed and told," Douglas said. "By the way, congratulations on getting the Judge to accept me as a plaintiff," Tasneem said. "That lawsuit won't be over by July 17. We may have to withdraw your action if we lose our communication channels. I assume the Plant Player will stop working as well?" Douglas said. "Exactly. Just like the Viral Vial. But never mind. The lawsuit won't matter after July 17. You know why?" Tasneem asked. "No. Why?" Douglas asked. "There are exactly two possibilities," Tasneem said. "If you don't make the deadline, everything after it runs out is only of minor importance. You might be able to delay the death of the last humans by a couple of decades, but there would be nothing left you could do to actually stop the feedbacks. You really don't want that to happen. If you do make the deadline, that will require action on a global scale in a very short time frame. Such action will be of a scale making this particular lawsuit irrelevant in the big picture." "So, we'll withdraw your action after July 17. We still have other plaintiffs left, so that doesn't stop the lawsuit as such," Douglas said. "Yes. Do so. Actually, we'll do the formalities on that right now. Turn on the video camera of your phone and start recording the end of this conversation," Tasneem said. Douglas put his phone on the table and used a couple of books to adjust the aim for the place he was sitting. He
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changed the setting of the Plant Player to make sure Tasneem's voice could be heard all over the room. "So, in the event that you should disappear and communication over the Plant Player becomes impossible, you instruct me as your attorney to withdraw your action against CleanCoal Corporation?" Douglas asked. "Exactly. It would make no sense to continue my lawsuit personally in that case," Tasneem answered. Douglas grabbed his phone and stopped the recording. "That should be enough. I don't expect anyone to complain anyway if you drop out of the lawsuit. But anyway, that's about all we need," Douglas said. "See you on June 17," Tasneem said. "Be sure to have the Internet live feed set up and announced well in advance."

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CHAPTER TEN TASNEEMS THREAT

Benito Sadiqi plotted his next operation. His boss, Avira Ascolese, had told him to go after Marla Maygar next. The leader of 500.org had said in public that she wanted to get killed next. That could be arranged, he thought. It would be easy. Just as with Arabelle. Once you thought the operation through, analyzed the target, found the weak spot in the defense, it always was easy. It was all just a matter of carefully plotting the operation. It would be actually easier than with Arabelle, since he had no intention to have a live Internet feed running for this operation. And there was no special need to make Marla Maygar suffer. A quick bullet for her as well, just as with Arabelle, he thought. He would take her to the mountain cabin if he had the opportunity, of course, but it wasn't strictly necessary. Douglas Bastow would be another matter. Benito had still not decided on how he would torture that bastard to death. The only trouble with hitting Marla Maygar was that the office of 500.org was rather heavily protected right now. They had learned from the attack on Arabelle. They had the money to buy some serious security. He would not easily make it to the target if he tried to attack there. Even
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if he did make it, it would be very difficult to get away from the scene after the hit. Her home was also a hard target. She changed locations every couple of days, like Douglas Bastow, and always had people watching at night. So the logical thing to do was attack her when she got to her daily rowing routine. He debated shooting from a boat, but that would limit his speed when getting away from the scene. The easiest thing to do would be an ambush right when she got out of her car and walked into the boat house. He had cased the place repeatedly. Courtesy of Google Maps, he could also look at the location from space and get quite a good feeling of the distances involved. It was all just a matter of taking her bodyguard out with a quick cane hit to the head and then proceed to either take or kill her. # June 17, 2023, 17:00 Today was the big day. Tasneem had scheduled a big announcement for five thirty, exactly one month before the final deadline. And 500.org had decided to go ahead with their own announcement. They would tell the world that global warming was actually easily solved by one simple change. It was time to formally announce Phaseout Profit Theory. Douglas Bastow had been working on the matter like a madman for the last couple of weeks. He would present his draft blog post today. They would discuss it, put some
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final changes on it, and then publish it, using some of the remaining liquid from the Viral Vial. Everyone had shown up on time in the conference room. Marla Maygar opened the meeting. "Today is a big day for us. It is exactly one month before the final deadline runs out. We need humanity to reverse course. We need humanity to do it fast. And we need to see a drastic change. And we may have found just the way to do it. I call it the coalition of green and greed. Or, as one term fitting on a demo slogan board, the GREEN GREED COALITION. This idea is based on the Phaseout Profit Theory. I would like to ask Douglas now to give a short introduction to the concept, and then present his draft for our announcement. Douglas, please," Marla said. "Thank you, Marla," Douglas said. "If you have followed the history of climate activism, you know that we always thought of the fossil fuel companies as the enemy. There once was an Youtube video ad asserting that "Exxon hates your children". We went to the universities and asked them to stop investing in fossil fuel. We fought them in court. We fought them in our public campaigns. We did not win that fight. Right now, we are left with one month in a final deadline to get to peak CO2, and if we go on with business as usual, there is just no way we will make it. "The fossil fuel companies are hard to beat. They have made more profits than any company in history. They have vast funds to buy politicians and run bogus astroturf campaigns. They don't care what happens in 300 years, or in 3,000 years from now. They care about profits in the
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next quarter, because that's what will determine how much their leaders make. Their philosophy is very simple. It is to make money. "That's where the Phaseout Profit Theory comes in. Actually, the fossil fuel companies will make even more profit if they reduce their production faster than they need to do anyway. It is very easy to understand. The less they produce, the higher prices will rise. That means two things. For one, they will get more money for each unit they actually sell. But, even more important, they increase the value of the remaining fossil fuel assets they own. "Let me explain that second aspect with a simple example. Assume you are the lucky owner of an oil field with 1 billion barrels left. If the price of oil goes up by one single dollar, your resource just jumped in value by a billion dollars. And that is before you sell the first barrel to anyone. "When the East Texas Oil Field was discovered in 1930, it had 7 billion barrels. Oil was very easy to get in the first couple of decades. It actually dropped to 25 cents a barrel in 1930. Anyone who bought oil resources at that price in 1930 and left them in the ground for only 93 years, until today, would have got a return of 200,000% on that investment in those 93 years, with oil now over $500 a barrel. "Let me tell you a story to explain this even better. Has anyone here ever heard of the Popigai Astroblem?" Douglas looked around. No hands were raised. "It's an asteroid impact crater in Siberia. It was created by an impact about 35.7 million years ago, which left a crater 100 kilometers in diameter. That impact created the
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largest known diamond resource on the planet. It contains about 10 times all of the World's other resources combined. But it has never been mined on a large scale. The question is, why?" Douglas said. "Because the mine was far away in Siberia?" Kim said. "That may be an explanation, "Douglas said. "But the Russians may have just decided to let those diamonds right where they are, in the ground, because mining them would have brought down prices for their other diamond producing mines. "In exactly the same way, if humanity starts to let 90 percent of known fossil fuel in the ground, that will of course massively increase prices for the oil and coal and gas remaining in the market. Guess what will happen with fossil fuel company profits?" Douglas asked. "They will go up," Marla said. "That's only common sense." "There have been historic examples of fossil fuel interests restricting production, the most famous being OPEC," Douglas said. "Also, as a consequence of the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field and the related collapse in oil prices, the Texas Railroad Commission managed a quota system for oil production until 1971. This exact same thing needs to happen now, for all fossil fuel, on a global scale. But there is one problem, and one problem only, standing in the way. "That problem is antitrust law. If the fossil fuel companies all decided to collectively reduce production by 90% tomorrow, that would be illegal. "That antitrust problem needs to go. We need an exception from normal antitrust law in this situation.
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"The nice thing about this problem is that our interest and that of the fossil fuel companies is aligned in this case. Add our good will and their lobby money, and the necessary changes in the law will be done in half an hour. "Any questions?" Douglas concluded. He looked around. No hands were raised. That was only to expected. Everybody in the room was familiar with Phaseout Profit Theory. It had been Marla's priority for the past couple of months. They had all discussed it over and over. "So, here is my draft blog post," Douglas said. "It is of course very difficult to get it explained properly in such a short piece. Tell me what you think." He clicked on his laptop computer screen. The draft appeared on the big screen of the conference room. "June 17, 2023. One month left in the final deadline to peak out CO2 emissions, 500.org today proposes a radical reduction in the production of fossil fuel. "We do this because we know that this is our last chance to avoid runaway global meltdown. Again, we have only one month left. But in a complete change of our previous policy, we fully expect the fossil fuel companies to be on our side with this proposal. "The reason is easy to understand. If they produce less, prices will go up. So will their profits. "We call this new concept the GREEN GREED COALITION. We stand for the GREEN part. They stand for the GREED part. Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with the desire to make money. Especially not if it helps to barely save the planet from utter destruction. "Our proposal is to start with a modest phase-in of the
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Phaseout. Reduce production by exactly 10%, starting July 17. Reduce it again by 10% each following year by July 17. "This will send oil prices through the roof. I leave it as an exercise for our friends in the fossil fuel industry to calculate what an oil price of $1000 a barrel would mean for the valuation of their oil fields. "This will of course also reduce consumption, which is the point from our side. Gasoline prices will go up as well. So people will drive less. "We might even, just barely, reach peak CO2 emissions by July 17, 2023, 17:30, which is humanity's final deadline." Everyone took a couple of moments to read the draft. "Anyone have an idea on improving this?" Marla asked. "I'm not sure about calling the fossil fuel companies greedy," Kim said. "We want their cooperation, don't we? That might not go over well." "It's a compliment. For them, greed is good. It's their philosophy. Actually, they also like the color green. It's the color of money, after all. I don't think it's a problem," Douglas said. "We have fought them tooth and nail for over a decade. That "GREED" line is harmless in comparison," Marla said. She took a quick poll and found that the majority supported leaving the word in. "Any further questions?" Marla said. "No? Good, so we're ready to go. Now, we're closing on five thirty. I recall that Tasneem has scheduled an announcement to all of humanity for that time. Douglas, please get the Plant Player ready." Douglas took the Plant Player box out of its leather case.
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He took the Plant Player out of the inner box. Right then the ginkgo leaves started to glow. Tasneem was ready. Douglas changed the setting of the device to enable Tasneem's voice to be heard in the room. It would be heard all over the Internet. They had started the Internet live feed. The liquid from the Viral Vial was just working its magic, illuminating the whole room in an intense green color. Then Tasneem spoke. "Hello everybody. I have joined you for an important announcement to all of you stupid morons of humans. "I am aware of the fact that 'stupid moron' is somewhat lacking in diplomacy. But you are fucking stupid. How could you ever put yourself in a position where one false step will burn the whole planet? You're supposed to be a smart species. You are clearly not. You are the most dangerous species ever. Smart enough to develop a modest amount of technology in the first place, but much too stupid to use it in a responsible and sustainable way. You're worse than locusts. The planet would be much better off without the lot of you. "You may also excuse me for being somewhat blunt. You know, you are digging up my family's bones and use them to run your goddamn cars. How would you feel if someone started digging up your family grave and use the bones for fuel? How would you feel if YOU WERE THE FUEL YOURSELF? "I hate the lot of you. As far as I'm concerned, if you fail to meet the final deadline and the planet goes up in flames, that serves you just right. I will enjoy immensely seeing you burn.
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"But I hate the thought even more that right now, you are burning my family. As my late friend Arabelle Venditto said in her smash hit song, 'Don't you FUCKING burn my mom! "You know all of that, of course. But you still don't change your evil ways. Today I will force you to change. I will use one of my unique super powers I got. You know the Plant Player. You know that my technology is far superior to yours. I may be able to kill any human at any time of my choosing. "But that won't be necessary. After you hear what will be called from this day on 'TASNEEM'S THREAT', you will be happy to follow the sound advice of 500.org and many other fine people on how to manage the final transition to renewable energy. "I will force you to do it. And all I need is this the power of my words. "You know, I had 187 million years to think about how to phrase this. I always knew this moment would come one way or other. Eventually, a species like you would come up. So, here we go. "To start out, I would like to ask my friend Kim Kornburg what the first thing was she ever experienced about me. I recall it was a dream I gave her. Kim please stand up and answer a couple of questions," Tasneem said. Kim was slightly surprised. She had expected that Tasneem would do her announcement alone. But she stood up from her seat as Tasneem had asked her. "Yes," Kim said. "All this started with a dream I had. A very unpleasant dream. Actually it was a nightmare. It was the most horrible experience I ever had."
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"Horrible in which way? Would you mind giving us the details, please?" Tasneem asked. "Well, I was confined in a small room without any doors and windows in my nightmare. The only thing visible except the walls was a big digital thermometer. And then the temperature got up. And up. And up some more, until it reached over 400 degrees Celsius. Now that I think about it, that was just like runaway global meltdown will play out. And I was trapped in this room, burning. It hurt like hell, quite literally," Kim explained. "What was your perception of time? How did that feel?" Tasneem asked. "It felt like I was there for years. That was part of the horror. It actually couldn't have taken more than an hour or two. But it felt like eternity," Kim said. "And how do you know that I have been causing that dream?" Tasneem said. "You told me as much. You have been with me ever since. And you threatened me that I would have that dream again if I didn't cooperate with you, explain your story to my boss, Marla Maygar." "Did you explain my story to her?" Tasneem asked. "Of course I did! I knew that I would go back to that small room in my next dream if I didn't. I would do anything to avoid that," Kim said. "So you didn't like burning in hell?" Tasneem said. "No. Of course not," Kim answered. "Would you recommend trying the experience to someone who never had it?" Tasneem asked. "No. Definitely not. You don't want that to happen to you. Trust me," Kim said.
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"Thank you, Kim. I hope everyone of you stupid human morons understands my power now. Please sit down again, Kim," Tasneem said. Kim took her seat again. "So, here's the deal. TASNEEM'S THREAT. Or, if you want to, TASNEEM'S CURSE. Call it whatever you like best," Tasneem continued. "I can have any human burn in hell, if I want to. Only one at a time, though. But YOU could be next. "Whenever you see a tree somewhere, keep in mind that I could be right in that tree, and wait for the chance to use you as my host, just as I'm using my good friend Kim here right now. "If I am not satisfied with the progress you stupid morons make in meeting my deadline, I will do a little lottery. I will choose some human or other as my next host. And then two people the next day. And four the day after that, and so on, until I will be rather busy serving out my nightmare to millions of people each day. "Each person I choose will be next in line to experience the nightmare. You don't want that to happen to you. I'm serious. You really don't. "And all of you, whenever you burn some fossil fuel, think of it as burning the bones in YOUR damn family grave. Consider that, and then think again. Do you really need to use a car for that short distance? Can't you walk, or ride a bicycle instead? "Better yet, imagine YOU are burning yourself. It's you in the tank. It's you that will get burned in the motor. And then ask yourself again if that is really necessary. "Because that's exactly what will happen to you if you
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don't listen to TASNEEM'S THREAT. You will burn in hell. "Thank you everybody. That's all for today," Tasneem said. The Plant Player device shut down. Marla Maygar clicked on her laptop computer screen and shut down the Internet live feed. "That was quite an announcement," Douglas said. "Do you think she's serious? Could she actually start making humanity burn in hell?" "She sure can," Kim said. "I know. I have lived the nightmare. The only person to do so, until now. But I may soon get company." "Do you think it will help us meet the deadline?" Marla asked. "I'm not sure if threatening people is the best way of action. There might actually be a backlash. People don't like being threatened or cursed." "Of course," Douglas said. "On its own, I think it wouldn't help at all. But we have another announcement to make. We already agreed that we will go with it. And this one presents a positive solution. Tasneem's threat probably won't help, but it will at least get us even more attention. Should we say something about it in our press release about the Phaseout Profit Theory?" "No," Marla said. "We'd need time to discuss that. Let's just go ahead. Please get the Viral Vial ready, Douglas." Marla tilted her laptop as to align the screen with the table. Douglas got the Viral Vial out of its box, removed the plug, and let one drop of the green liquid fall on the laptop screen. Marla hit the "Publish" button. The screen started to fill
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the whole room with an intense green light for a couple of moments. And that was the end of this big day. They would need to wait and see what the reaction was. # June 18, 6:30 Janetta Lockridge screamed. She had never been so scared before. It was happening to her! Exactly as she had feared. And she woke up from her nightmare. "What happened?" her husband Gene asked. "Are you okay?" "I've had a nightmare. Dreamed of the room without windows and doors, where I burned. Just like Tasneem said yesterday!" "So it is true? Tasneem's threat? And of all people, you are the first to get tortured by her?" Gene said. "I sure was," Janetta said. "Though it was not for a long time. It felt like only a couple of moments. But it sure was scary as hell. What if it gets worse the next time? What have I done to deserve this?" "She didn't say she would only attack people who deserve it in one way or another. We're just average citizens. There's nothing special about us. We both drive a car, okay, and they are both gasoline cars. But most people still do," Gene said. "I don't understand it. Let's see if I can find out more," Janetta said.
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She started her laptop computer and did a short search with "Tasneem's threat". There were quite a number of results. The top result was a website called "tasneemsthreat.com". Someone had registered that domain immediately after Tasneem's announcement the day before. It had a transcript of the announcement as well as a video recording of the live feed. The website had a section on defense against the threat. It sold amulets that were supposed to keep Tasneem from entering a person, online exorcism services, and of course online porn with a ginkgo tree theme. There is always porn sold on any theme imaginable with these kind of websites that try to milk some Internet trend or other for a quick buck. And there was also a message board. People had been flooding it already with stories on how they got tortured by Tasneem. "Hey, I'm not the only one!" Janetta said. "There are dozens of people who are telling the same story!" "Didn't Tasneem say she would start with only one person on the first day?" Gene said.l "She sure did. And I don't think she lied," Janetta said. "That's good," Gene said. "It means that you are not really possessed by this evil alien ginkgo tree. You are just suffering from a somewhat too vivid imagination." "I hope you are right," Janetta said. "I'd hate to face the real nightmare." The Viral Vial had worked. More people had seen Tasneem's announcement than watched Germany win the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the final against Japan. There had been billions of viewers. Some of them were
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impressed enough to get some bad dreams, without Tasneem having to do anything. Even the very small percentage of 0.1% meant a large number of people affected. Then there were a lot of people who made some story or other up. Part of them liked the attention it brought to claim that they were the next person after Kim Kornburg to get tortured. Others thought it was a good way to help the climate movement. Still others did it just for the hell of it. Since Tasneem's announcement had gotten such a massive audience, many people read those phony stories. Many of them believed them. Tasneem's threat had started to work already, only by the force of the words she had chosen to deliver her message. Of course it would work with much greater force once she actually started spreading the nightmare. That would not happen yet, though.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN JURASSIC

July 3, 2023, 11:00 MARLA MAYGAR was meeting with Kim Kornburg and Douglas Bastow in the conference room to discuss the progress in meeting the deadline of July 17. There were only two weeks left. Marla went first and explained the reaction she had got from politicians about their proposal two weeks ago. "Here's what one of our allies in the Senate told me yesterday. Those Senators in the pocket of the fossil fuel companies are starting to see the light. This is a radical shift, so it may take some time to change their old way of thinking. But there sure is potential." "We don't have time," Douglas said. "There are only two weeks left." "How was the reaction to Tasneem's threat?" Kim asked. "It was mixed." Marla said. "Of course, it had a strong impact. There are already millions of people who claim they have been in the nightmare. I think that's not for real right now, though. Anyway, this could potentially help us speeding things up. On the other hand, politicians don't like to be threatened. They like campaign contributions much more."
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"Have you heard about the reaction to our proposal of reducing production by 10 percent from the fossil fuel companies?" Douglas asked. "I am not exactly on the best terms with them," Marla said. "We have been fighting them vigorously for over a decade. So I didn't have any way of asking directly. But what I've heard from various sources is promising. They are considering joining forces with us. Actually, I have heard some rumors that they want to set up a meeting with us before the deadline. It looks like they want Tasneem in the meeting," Marla said. "That would mean I need to participate," Kim said. "We won't be sure we can use the Plant Player." "Let's check if it is active now," Douglas said. He opened the wall safe and pulled the device out of the leather case and the inner box. It was active. "Good morning, Tasneem," Marla said. "Thanks for joining us. Do you have any news?" "Good morning," said Tasneem. "I sure do." "And that would be?" Kim said. "I have just measured CO2 emissions again. You are still not peaking. My threat is not working yet. I may have to step it up a couple of notches," Tasneem said. "Would you be available for a meeting with the fossil fuel industry?" Marla asked. "I mean, could we set up a date in advance where you activate the Plant Player for that purpose?" "Do you have a date for such a meeting?" Tasneem asked. "No," Marla said. "Not yet." "Okay. That means I'm done for today. There is one other thing, though," Tasneem said.
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"What would that be?" Kim said. "One week from now, on July 10, at 17:30, I will have another announcement to all humanity to make. That will be exactly one week before the deadline runs out," Tasneem said. "Are you finally going to explain how all this is possible? How you could have lived 187 million years and why you have that advanced technology?" Douglas said. "Exactly. I was instructed to reveal that exactly one week before the deadline runs out," Tasneem said. "Why? Why wait so long? Your story would have been much more convincing if you had explained that much earlier," Kim asked. "I don't know. I just know that there's no way I could have acted against these instructions," Tasneem said. "So we need to set up another Internet live feed for July 10 at five thirty. We will also do a press release announcing it in advance. I assume you want us to use the Viral Vial as well," Marla said. "Exactly," Tasneem said. "See you in a week." # July 10, 2023, 17:20 "I am going to start the Internet live feed now," Marla Maygar said. "The Viral Vial, please." Marla tilted her laptop computer to align the screen with the table. Douglas Bastow let one drop from the Viral Vial fall on the screen. As Marla Maygar clicked on the screen to start the live feed, again an intense green light filled the conference room for a couple of moments.
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"Welcome to our live feed, everyone," Marla said. "As you know from our previous announcement, at the occasion of exactly one week left in the final countdown, Tasneem will make another statement to humanity. I understand that it is her last such statement before the end of the deadline. "Of course anyone paying even remotely attention knows Tasneem already, so she doesn't really need an introduction. But let me briefly introduce her anyway. "Tasneem has not published any peer-reviewed papers on climate change or on energy issues. But she has some very advanced technology at her disposal that is far superior to anything humanity has. She is able to monitor in real time the amount of CO2 emissions, which is why she will be able to tell us if we made the deadline or not. We would not know on our own. "And she has lived for over 187 million years. She has lived as a tree. A ginkgo tree, the only remaining tree species from the Jurassic. Humanity calls ginkgo trees the 'living fossil' for that reason. "As has been done in previous occasions, Tasneem will use the Plant Player device to communicate with us. Ah, I see it just became active. Douglas, please change the setting to room voice and put it on," Marla said. The ginkgo leaves on both sides of the Plant Player had started again to glow in seventy shades of green, pulsating in a hypnotizing pattern. Douglas changed the setting and placed the device on his head. "Hello, everyone," Tasneem said. "This will be my final announcement to you stupid morons before the end of the deadline. Pay attention. It is your last chance. "First off, I need to explain how a tree from the Jurassic
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was able to live until now, and where my superior technology came from. "I actually know only part of the answer. For example, I don't understand why I was instructed to give you morons this information only one week before the final deadline runs out. I don't understand why I was instructed to wait until now to start acting. Global warming would have been much easier to stop two hundred years ago. "But here is what I know. "Even to your extremely stupid species the answer should be obvious. Clearly, this technology must come from aliens with far advanced technology. It is always aliens who have the magic technology. Which means aliens would have come to Earth 187 million years ago. "And that is exactly what happened. They came in a rather big spaceship. What you morons call Mount Fuji in Japan is actually their spaceship. They are still there. Don't try to dig into the mountain to find out if I'm telling the truth. They would obliterate anybody trying, and their barrier would make it completely impossible for you to reach the actual spaceship. They are alive and watching right now, over 100 billion of them. "Their interest in global warming comes from the fact that they have caused runaway climate change on their own planet before coming escaping to Earth. "So, 187 million years ago, I was just a normal ginkgo tree, minding my own business, and I have not been sentient. I must admit that trees are even dumber than humans, which is quite a remarkable achievement. "The first thing these aliens did was implant some kind of very advanced computer chip into me and making me the first and only sentient tree in history. That chip is
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basically immortal, as long as I get sunlight from time to time as a power source. It also made the tree I have been living in for these 187 million years immortal as well. "This computer chip can fly all around the planet. It is invisible. And it can use any other species, including one of you moron idiot humans, as a host if I choose so. "As for the Plant Player and the Viral Vial (something most of you would not have heard of), that was just delivered to Kim Kornburg without my knowing about it. It proves to me that these aliens are still around, and that they are watching. "So, in brief, this is what happened, as far as I understand the situation. Do you have any questions on this part of my announcement?" Tasneem said. "Yes," Douglas said. "Have you actually seen that spaceship arrive 187 million years ago? How do you know that Mount Fuji is really a spaceship?" "Of course not," Tasneem said. "Remember, I was made a sentient being only after they arrived. Trees can't see anything." "That makes sense," Kim said. "But did you ever see the spaceship yourself later on?" "No. I have always lived in the home tree, for 187 million years, until they set me in motion right now. I have seen Mount Fuji only the same way you have seen it. It really looks like a mountain, doesn't it?" Tasneem answered. "So, you are basically only a messenger?" Douglas said. "The real actor behind you are some aliens? And you don't know where they came from and what they want?" "Exactly." Tasneem said. "Now for the second part of my announcement. I understand you are not taking my
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threat seriously. Obviously, quite a lot of people have come forward and said that they have been tortured by me, that they have lived the nightmare of burning alive. They are wrong. "I have, until now, not given the nightmare to even one person. Those that think different are the victim of their own imagination. And I won't start doing it before the deadline runs out and Earth has passed the final tipping point to runaway climate change. "You may choose not to believe me. In that case, I will get you all, one by one, and it will be extremely unpleasant. "I hate you for burning my family bones. I hate you even more for risking runaway global warming. The only good thing coming from that is that humanity will be wiped out like all other species. I will enjoy watching you burn. But while it is great news to see humanity destroyed, that will also destroy my species, the ginkgo tree. I really don't want that to happen. "So, here's the deal. It's only a very small change. "Until now, the stupid moron humans living now could count on the fact that even if they caused runaway climate change and started the feedback loop to Venus syndrome, that would take long enough to play out that they personally, as an individual, would be dead long before that anyway. It would be someone else's problem a couple of thousand years later. "That has changed. If you do pass the final tipping point, I will personally make sure that every one of you lives the nightmare. You won't be able to pass the bill on to your later generations. You will have to pay yourselves. "Be afraid. Be very afraid." The Plant Player device shut down. Obviously,
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Tasneem's announcement to humanity was over. "Thank you for watching, everyone," Marla Maygar said. "We will now shut down the Internet live feed." "That leaves much more questions open than it answers," Douglas said. "But Tasneem sure just raised the stakes on her threat for a couple of notches." "I wonder what is really happening," Kim said. "Does this make sense to anyone? # Dear reader, this is your author speaking. I interrupt my story for a moment to explain the back story I have developed in my first global warming science fiction novel "Great News" (available as a FREE PDF at k-lenz.de/3). This will obviously include some spoilers on that, so you may want to skip this section. On the other hand, it does help to explain how this is all supposed to make sense for readers who are not familiar with my first novel. Of course, global warming as such doesn't make any sense in the first place. How could humans, a reasonably smart species, be so stupid as to allow something like global warming and Venus syndrome happen by burning all the fossil fuel? If we are such goddamn morons, how were we able to develop modern civilization in the first place? Real life doesn't make sense. Someone tell this the author of real life. She must fix that obvious hole in her plot. Global warming can't possibly by happening. On the other hand, it obviously is. And that is not the only thing that doesn't make much sense in real life. In my first global warming science fiction novel, I
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develop the only possible rational explanation for this basic contradiction. You know, dear reader, humanity is not so stupid to burn all the fossil fuel on its own. Rather, this is the work of an evil alien hypnotist named Khalmorot who has hypnotized our leaders and makes them act in this stupid and irresponsible way. So, why would he want to do that? The thing is, these aliens have come to Earth after they have burned down their own planet. And they are basically immortal. That latter point leaves them with a very serious problem. Boredom. Have you ever tried living a couple of million years without getting bored? I thought so. So, this alien Khalmorot is running this extremely successful television show, the HEAT GAMES. The general idea is to make humanity heat up Earth, like they did with their own planet, and watch as the moronic stupid humans burn. Aliens always like to do evil things like that. So this whole story about the Jurassic plant arguing with humans from the point of view of the fossil fuel burned is just a little sub plot in that television show. It is enough to shoot a couple of episodes for the HEAT GAMES. It's all explained in my first novel, which you, dear reader, should obviously read as well, in my humble opinion. If all that doesn't make any sense to you, too bad. Neither does reality.

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CHAPTER TWELVE FINAL FIGHT

July 13, 2023, 15:21 "THANK YOU for coming with me, Douglas," Marla Maygar said. She was driving to her daily rowing workout routine. With only days to go until the final deadline, she figured that there was not all that much that they could do now. There was not much hope left. They would need to wait how their big announcement of a solution and Tasneem's threat played out. So she had got back to taking some time for her workout again since Tuesday, two days ago. Douglas had insisted on accompanying her. He was afraid someone might try to ambush Marla. He was right. Benito Sadiqi was waiting for the car to come up to the parking space. This was his chance, the weak point in her defenses. He had, again, put on his white hair wig and his dark glasses, carrying his cane, so as to look like an old man. The attack against Kim Kornburg was months ago. And he didn't expect Marla Maygar to know and recall all the details on that attack today. She would fall for it. However, he had his gun ready as well. The cane would
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be the weapon of choice if he thought he could get away with Marla alive. It would be more fun to have her in the basement of the mountain cabin and take some time killing her in appropriate fashion. Avira Ascolese had volunteered a couple of interesting ideas, if it came to that. But if that proved difficult, he would be perfectly satisfied to just put a bullet through her head and be done with it. Benito was sitting on a park bench near the entrance to the boathouse Marla used, pretending to be asleep, his cane lying on his lap. He was very not asleep. When he spotted the car, he immediately saw that Douglas Bastow was in it. Bastow! What a stroke of luck! He would get him right there and then. He might shoot Marla immediately, but Bastow would go to the mountain cabin today. An idea popped into Benito's head. He would torture Bastow to death for exactly the four days remaining in the final deadline these green troublemakers had announced. Yes. That sounded like a plan. Marla saw the old man sitting on the park bench, sleeping. She didn't know what would hit her. Douglas did. When he saw Benito, he immediately reached for his gun. He recalled exactly what had happened to Kim a couple of months ago. But he was too slow to react. Before he could call out to her, Marla had already gotten out of the car. Benito had his gun drawn, pointing it to her head. "Come over here, Marla," he ordered. "I'll blow your brains out if you don't." "Hold it right there, pal," Douglas said. "I've got my gun pointed right at you."
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"Have you now," Benito said. "Drop it. Or I'll shoot your boss. I'm serious. I really am." "Do what he says," Marla pleaded. She thought it would all end there. "What do you want?" Douglas asked. "I'm after you," Benito said, reacting smoothly and coming up with exactly the right lie. "I'll let her go if you put that gun down." "How do I know you're not lying?" Douglas said. "You don't. But I'll sure shoot her right now at the count of three if you don't put that gun down. One. Two Thr Douglas put his gun down, and threw it out of the car door. "Very good, Mr. Bastow," Benito said, pleased at how his bluff had worked. "Now get out of the car and put these handcuffs on your boss. She may well yet live." Benito threw a pair of handcuffs on the pavement. Douglas opened the door of the car. He got out and walked over to where Benito and Marla were standing. That was when a lot of things happened at the same time. Douglas put a bullet in Benito's head from his sleeve gun. It took only a fraction of a second for the bullet to reach Benito and take him out. In that fraction of a second, Benito pulled the trigger of his gun, still aimed at Marla. He hit her exactly on the forehead. Douglas was left the only one standing. He had done what he could under the circumstances. Giving up his gun was a trick. He had thought long about this. A sleeve gun would be exactly the right weapon for him as a magician.
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He was an expert in deception. And he used that expertise to his advantage. Benito had underestimated him one time too often. Douglas called the police on his handy. He explained what had happened. They kept him for questioning, of course. And they took their photos of the scene, collected the bullets and the weapons, tried to identify Benito. That was impossible. He didn't carry any ID on him. It would take some time until they could say exactly who he was. They would start with taking a close look at the whereabouts of everyone connected to the CleanCoal Corporation. Of course they immediately discovered that he was not really an old man. They found that he was wearing a whitehaired wig. They found that he must be younger than 40. That confirmed what Douglas had told them about the ambush. Douglas had of course also mentioned that someone looking just like Benito had attacked Kim Kornburg a couple of months before. Douglas expected them to come up with evidence to link Avira Ascolese to this crime scene. She would pay for that, and not only in court, he decided. As of now, the gloves came off. The 500.org climate movement would retaliate in kind. He felt like personally leading a lynch mob into Ascolese's mansion and stringing her up at the next tree. Preferably a ginkgo tree. This was a blow to 500.org that would be very difficult to recover from. Just when the final deadline was near they had lost their leader. Would they be able to make it?

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# July 13, 2023, 18:00 The Evening News opened with a segment on the new energy cartel put in place as of today. Oil, coal, and gas producers had all decided to reduce their production by 15%, effective immediately. The original proposal from 500.org was to reduce production by 10%, which would have been enough to achieve peak CO2 emissions. But the fossil fuel companies had their experts simulate the effects on prices and their profits, and had found that a 15% reduction would increase profits more than a 10% reduction. Since profit was the only thing they were interested in, the decision between these two alternatives was really easy. The news segment interviewed several analysts on the expected oil price. Oil had already gone up by 72% in trading immediately after the announcement. At about one trillion barrels of oil reserves remaining world wide, this $250 spike in oil prices sent the value of those reserves up by $250 trillion. It was the biggest profit the oil industry ever realized in one single day already. And there were more price hikes expected to come, according to the analysts. Coal and gas prices had not reacted quite so strongly. Coal was up only 37%, and gas only 54%, but the owners of these resources also had realized quite a handsome profit from that. Analysts were also asked what the higher prices would mean for fossil fuel consumption. Most of them pointed
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out that demand is not very elastic. But still, people would get much more cautious. With gasoline prices expected to go way up, people were expected to reduce their driving of gasoline cars. Of course, solar and wind energy were already cheaper than fossil fuel, but their relative advantage just got a strong boost. Also, energy efficiency investments would pay off much faster with these higher prices. The analysts didn't mention one other factor. It was purely of a mental nature, but it was working as well. Tasneem's threat had finally set in. People were starting to really think about if they wanted to live the nightmare she had promised to them. Back in the days before Tasneem showed up, only a minority of people cared in the first place about global warming. And even they would not fear something that might happen to themselves. They just cared about what would happen to humanity in the next couple of thousand years. Some of the more kind-hearted ones even cared about what would happen to other species. But now, it was everybody's own ass on the line. The stakes suddenly got completely changed. Of course, just like an atheist who doesn't believe in hell might sin against God's orders anyway, some people just didn't believe that Tasneem's threat was real. But many did. And many others didn't want to find out once it was too late. The loss of convenience from walking to the bus station instead of driving a car was a finite loss; getting tortured in Tasneem's hell would be an infinite loss, so the rational choice was acting as if it was true. Pascal's Wager. That idea worked for Tasneem's threat as well as for that of eternal hell the Christians had preached for over 2,000 years.
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That reduced demand. And it did so in a very short time frame. Tasneem had said that every single individual in the moron idiot human species would be severely tortured if they didn't finally peak out until Monday. That gave a rather strong incentive to reduce emissions in the very short run. It worked. The combination of much higher prices and the moral imperative to finally stop all the waste and get serious about climate change, or else, that combination would reduce emissions in a very drastic manner. The following Friday emissions were down to a level last seen fifty years ago. They would stay that way over the weekend and on Monday. # July 14, 2023, 11:00 Douglas Bastow had been released. His story was plausible, the police had no reason to doubt him. He was appointed as an intermediate successor to Marla Maygar for leading the organization. She had asked him to do so if anything should happen to her, and laid that wish down in a video recording for her staff. There were no objections. The public was informed of this state of affairs by the following simple press release: "It is with deep sorrow and regret that we report the death of our leader Marla Maygar. "She was murdered in an ambush yesterday on her way to the boathouse she uses for her rowing workout. The ambush was by one lone gunman who had disguised
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himself as a harmless blind and old guy. The police is working on identifying the perpetrator, who was shot by our Douglas Bastow in the fighting following the ambush. "Following the wishes of Ms. Maygar, Douglas Bastow will lead 500.org until there is time to elect a successor. We wish him the best of luck in these difficult times, with only three days remaining until the final deadline is running out." Douglas followed this up with two blog posts of his own. In the first one he described what exactly had happened the day before. He left out the detail of how he had used a sleeve gun to take Benito out. There was no use in having the opposition know his exact tactics. Benito would not be able to tell anyone. And the second blog post was a reaction to the announcement of the fossil fuel cartel the day before. "Humanity may just barely escape the fate of passing the final tipping point on Monday. The fossil fuel cartel announced yesterday may be our last chance. "As you know, 500.org has proposed doing exactly this on June 17, one month before the final deadline runs out. We proposed it under the term of "GREEN GREED COALITION". I am happy to see that this proposal has found fertile ground with our new friends. "I admit that we have been fighting the fossil fuel companies for over a decade. I admit also that I suspect strongly that one of them is behind the ambush that lead to the murder of Marla Maygar yesterday. Personally, I feel like doing a bit of killing myself right now. "However, in the interest of the planet, I think we at 500.org should seek real cooperation with the fossil fuel
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interests. I call on them to stop trying to kill our activists. I promise that we won't, for the time being, start killing any fossil fuel industry executives or shareholders. "Our proposal was a 10% reduction in fossil fuel production. They have adopted 15% instead. The obvious reason is that this will increase their profits even more. "I welcome that. I don't mind one bit that the World's oil reserves just got $250 trillion more valuable on one single day. That is exactly what I was hoping and expecting would happen. "We have called that the Phaseout Profit Theory. I think the experience of this first step is clear. We can drop the word "Theory". Phaseout Profit is just another clearly established fact of life. "There will of course still some people who just don't get it. It is, after all, counterintuitive to think that selling less gets more profits. But that's exactly what is happening. "And there will be those who ask what happens in the long run. Eventually, the transition to renewable energy will be complete. Won't that leave the fossil fuel reserves worthless? "It will most certainly not. In the end, fossil fuel will be burned only under exceptional circumstances. It will mostly be used as raw material in the petrochemical industry. And we will start making the stuff from CO2 sucked out of the air and renewable energy not needed in some time slots with low demand. "The trick with Phaseout Profit is to reduce supply just a little bit faster than demand is reduced, therefore making sure that prices stay high for the whole distance of the transition. It doesn't mean to go to zero fossil fuel burning tomorrow.
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"Right now, I don't know if we will be able to make the deadline. We have only three days left. "So let me close with this appeal to everybody. Leave your cars in the garage for the next three days. Don't fly if you don't need to right now. Turn down the air conditioner a bit. "Think of Tasneem's point of view. Would you burn that gasoline if it were the bones of your family grave? "Think of Tasneem's threat. Would you burn that gasoline if you would see yourself burning in a nightmare? "I certainly hope not. Please help us make this deadline." # July 16, 2023, 15:15 "Thank you very much for agreeing to the meeting on such short notice," Konrad Hargrave said. "I appreciate it. Considering recent developments, my client would want to start talking about settling this case. And please bring Tasneem with you." "You're welcome. This is my job, after all. Tasneem will of course come with me. She's always with me. I am sorry to say that our interim leader Douglas Bastow won't be able to come. He is scheduled to meet the the Energy Secretary right about now. I will take a taxi and be at your office in about half an hour," Kim Kornburg said. "Thanks again," Hargrave said, and put down the phone. Kim phoned for a taxi and went down to the street. It took her only about twenty minutes to get to the big building where Hargrave's office was located.
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When she got into the elevator to ride up to the office, a woman joined her. Avira Ascolese, Kim thought, alarmed. She knew the biggest shareholder of CleanCoal Corporation, the defendant in their lawsuit, from photographs. She had never met her in person. Of course it was only natural that she would be present in the settlement negotiation. But still... That was her last thought for a while. Avira moved fast. She had the handkerchief soaked in chloroform on Kim's face in an instant. It only took a moment for Kim to lose consciousness. Avira pushed the button for the parking garage. She used a wheelchair she had left ready there to get Kim into her car. After an uneventful trip to the mountain cabin, Avira gave Konrad a call. "Thank you, Mr. Hargrave, for your kind cooperation in this matter. I have just wired a bonus $50,000 into your private account," Avira said, and cut the line immediately. She didn't bother to wait for Hargrave's answer. Kim opened her eyes. She had a headache. She saw that she was confined in a cage. And she saw Avira Ascolese sitting in a large chair right before the cage, looking at her with interest. And with a gun in her hand. "Here with us again?" Avira said, smiling. "Yes," Kim said. "What's the big idea? Are you going to kill me with that gun?" "I may do so," Avira said. "I probably will, actually. But I don't want it to be so easy for you as it was for Marla Maygar and Arabelle Venditto. Arabelle died right here, you know?" "So it was you, after all," Kim said. "And you're going to
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kill me. You can't let me go after you've admitted that." "Bingo. You're not very smart, but you got that one right. The only question is, how am I going to do it? I got a couple of ideas. Care to hear about them?" Avira said. "No. I am sure they all will be rather bad news." Kim said. "I'm going to tell you anyway," Avira said. "There's not much you could do about it, is there?" "I'm afraid you're right there," Kim said. "So here goes. This cage, you know, is equipped with some serious technology. Let's see now, where is my remote control. Ah, there it is," Avira said. She took a remote control device from the table next to her chair and operated it. Nothing happened. "You don't feel anything right now. But that will change. There is this heater installed right under the cage. It will raise the temperature, very gradually. But rather faster than that global warming I have helped causing. I have set it to about one degree of warming every five minutes. I always like to do this. It is so very interesting to see how different people react differently to the procedure. I hope you appreciate the fact that the electricity powering this heater is 100 percent from coal power plants. You mind if I take a video recording of this?" Avira said. There was no answer. Kim had sat down on the bottom of her cage. She was completely motionless. "I asked you a question, Kim. Don't be so disrespectful as not to answer me. I can put a strong jolt of electricity through the cage anytime I choose. Let's see now, where was that on the remote control," said Avira, looking at the device. Of course she knew exactly where it was.
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Still there was no answer. And still Kim was completely motionless. Avira started to worry. Could Kim have passed out again from the shock? That would not do at all. She needed her conscious to feel the pain. "Don't worry, Avira," Tasneem said. She had taken over, just like earlier in the restaurant. "Kim's all right. Actually, you're going to let her out of this cage in a couple of minutes, get down on your knees, and apologize to her." "What? Who is this speaking?" Avira said, puzzled. "It's me. Tasneem, the Jurassic tree, you moron." Tasneem said. "That's interesting," Avira said. "So I got the two of you. And I am calling your bluff right now, Tasneem. If you got any super powers that would stop me from shooting your friend Kim Kornburg, now would a good time to reveal them, wouldn't it?" "There are no new super powers necessary, you idiot. Didn't you know that I would always be with Kim? Your lawyer even insisted that I came to the settlement negotiation. By the way, how about that? I might still be interested in settling the case. Shut down your goddamn coal plants right now, and you might get away with only the death penalty after a couple of years in prison. Sounds good, doesn't it?" Tasneem said. "Are you crazy? Look around you. Who is in the cage? And who has the gun? If you think you're so smart, how are you going to get out of this?" Avira said, laughing. Tasneem sighed. "I had expected a bit more brains from you, Avira. You were done for the moment Kim Kornburg saw your face from the cage. Why don't you understand?"
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"What is there to understand? I am completely in control. I can kill Kim any time I choose," Avira said. "Okay. So let's spell this out in detail. You're going to kill Kim, in a really nasty and painful way. These villains always want to kill their victims in a painful and nasty way. Okay, you can do that. What happens to me? You think you can kill me with that gun?" Tasneem said. "I don't know. I'll take that chance," Avira said. "Even if you survive, I will have taken out Kim." She was not smiling any more. Actually, she had not thought this aspect through. Normally the people she boiled in this cage were not possessed by a 187 million years old Jurassic plant. "Hey, let's give you some credit here," Tasneem said. "That's actually not bad as a threat. You still have a bit of leverage here. I don't want you to kill Kim. I hate all of humanity, basically, but I am kind of fond of her. But there are a couple of things that you don't know yet, Avira, you stupid moron." "I'm all ears," Avira said. She started to regret starting this operation. Normally, that kind of job would be for Benito. She would only watch the live feed, and contribute an idea or two. But Benito was gone. It was most inconvenient. "For one, I will of course inform Douglas Bastow and the police of what has happened here, if you don't find a way of killing me. Good luck with that, Avira. It is very hard to do with the primitive technology the stupid human race has. You remember the Plant Player? It is kind of famous now. I am sure you have heard about it. And I am sure it will be admitted as evidence in a court of law. Criminal law, this time, that is," Tasneem explained. Avira said nothing.
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"And you will be so lucky if it even comes to a court of law. Douglas Bastow will show up with a lynch mob here if he learns what you did to Kim. He loves her, you know. And actually, hanging from the next tree would still be lucky for you. There is something much worse that could happen," Tasneem said. Avira still said nothing. This was not going the way she had thought it would. Then she said: "Worse than hanging? What could that be?" "You know, if you kill Kim, I would need a new host. I would choose you. You would burn in hell, very slowly and painfully, every time you went to sleep, for the rest of your life. You really don't want that to happen. Remember TASNEEM'S THREAT? It is very real, and you will be the first one to get the full treatment. I would expect you to last less than a week before you suicide," Tasneem explained. Kim started to move again. Obviously Tasneem had ended the conversation. Avira opened the cage. Pointing the gun at Kim, she said: "Get the hell out of here. You're lucky. I've changed my mind."

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July 17, 2023, 8:35 "I STILL don't understand it. From one moment to the other, Avira changed her mind and let you go?" Douglas Bastow said. "Yes, exactly. I have no idea how that happened. Very strange," Kim answered. They were riding one of Douglas's cars on the commute. Today was another big day. The final day of the deadline. Kim had made it back easily the day before. Avira had actually ordered a taxi to pick her up at the mountain cabin. And she had gone down on her knees and apologized, just before Kim got into the taxi. Then Kim had reported to Douglas what had happened, once he came back from his meeting with the Energy Secretary. He was livid. But since Kim had gotten back safely, he barely controlled himself. Dealing with Avira would have to wait for another day. He thought that getting her for the Arabelle Venditto murder would be enough. They arrived at the office. Someone had already phoned them that the Plant Player was active. So they went to the conference room first thing.
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"Good morning, Tasneem," Douglas said. "I understand you saved Kim's life yesterday. Thank you for that." "Yes, thank you," Kim joined in. "Don't mention it," Tasneem said. "I think everyone should be safe now from further physical assault. It would be rather unwise for Avira to try any more funny business. Do you plan to shoot back, Douglas?" "No, actually she's not worth it. And that would be too easy on her. I prefer sending her to death row," Douglas said. "Good idea," Kim said. "So, let's forget about that moron for a moment," Tasneem said. "I have news. Want to know if you made the deadline?" "Yes," Douglas said. "It would be fair to say so. Which is it?" "Yes. And no." Tasneem said. "What? Excuse me, I am only one of those moronic stupid humans. I don't get it," Douglas said. "Well, I am going to spell it out very slowly to you, so even with your inferior intelligence you will be able to understand me," Tasneem said. "That's really very sweet and considerate from me, isn't it?" She would have smiled there, if she had a face, which she didn't. But everyone else was smiling. They all got the joke. "So, what does it mean?" Kim asked. "First, for the 'yes' part. Yes, you have made your deadline. Emissions are way down to a level last seen in the last Century. You stupid moron bastards of humans have finally peaked out. Hooray for you. Everyone cheer and applaud right now," Tasneem said.
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Everyone in the room broke out in a huge round of cheers and applause. "And the 'no' part? What is that?" Douglas asked. "Well, actually, there never was a deadline exact to the minute anyway. I have lied to you, you know. There couldn't be, at least not for peak CO2. As long as you keep adding to the balance, you will always get closer to the real tipping point, where the final feedback loops start kicking in and we are all on our merry way to Venus temperature levels," Tasneem said. "What? We have been working our asses off to make this deadline, and you tell us there wasn't one in the first place?" Douglas was somewhat unhappy with that. "Again, there can't be a deadline for peak CO2. If you had peaked one week later, all it would have meant is that you would have needed to reduce some more in the future. Do you mind having peaked earlier? Is that a problem for 500.org and its new leader?" Tasneem asked. "Certainly not," Douglas said. "But why lie to us? Why didn't you tell us the truth in the first place?" "It would have been a less powerful message. It's all about getting you stupid moron humans to finally change your behavior. You need a powerful message for that," Tasneem said. "Besides, it was one of the things I was instructed to do by my alien handlers. You would need to ask them if you want to know why they decided on doing that." "So what does this mean for global warming? We made our deadline. That must mean something," Douglas said. "It does. It certainly does. You got a fighting chance again. Just remember that this is just the start. Look at it as a diet. You have been told by doctor Tasmeen that if you
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don't cut out the ice cream and the pizza snacks, you will be dead from a heart attack in three months. You finally gave in and changed your evil ways. You need to keep that up for a long time to get back into reasonable good shape. This is only the beginning. You stupid morons may still fry the planet if you don't keep up the effort," Tasneem said. "Are we supposed to tell everyone that the deadline actually was bogus?" Kim said. "No. There is no need to do so. Actually, I am looking ahead to doing the announcement on meeting the deadline myself. Please set up and announce another Internet live feed for today at five, thirty minutes before the end of the deadline. I will talk to them. That will be my final announcement," Tasneem said. The Plant Player shut down. Obviously the conversation was over. # July 17, 2023, 15:32 Konrad Hargrave had reached Avira Ascolese on the phone, after waiting for some time for his call to be put through to her. "Ascolese," Avira said. "What do you want?" "Ms. Ascolese, I am sorry to say that as of now, the law firm of Hargrave & Davis steps down from all work representing you personally, or CleanCoal Corporation. I really am. You have been most generous in your payments," Hargrave said. "Why would that be?" Avira said. "Are you retiring, or what?"
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"I have been hearing some very unfortunate rumors about you," Hargrave said. "Douglas Bastow from 500.org just gave me a call. He kindly informed me of very severe criminal charges he is going to press. As you know, Hargrave & Davis is not a law firm suited for criminal cases. We don't have the expertise. And, frankly, we don't have the appetite for dealing with criminals," Hargrave said, and terminated the phone call, without waiting what Avira might have to say about that. He would keep the $50,000 she had wired just yesterday to his private account, Avira thought. The bastard. Then she went over to the bathroom and got a large number of sleeping pills. She knew exactly how much she needed. She let herself drain in a hot bath and gulped them down, with a last glass of straight whiskey. Tasneem would not get her, was her last thought. # July 17, 2023, 16:55 "I am going to start the Internet live feed now," Douglas Bastow said. "The Viral Vial, please." Douglas tilted his laptop computer to align the screen with the table. Kim Kornburg let one drop from the Viral Vial fall on the screen. As Douglas Bastow clicked on the screen to start the live feed, again an intense green light filled the conference room for a couple of moments. "Welcome to our live feed, everyone," Douglas said. "As you know from our previous announcement, at the occasion of exactly thirty minutes left in the final countdown, Tasneem will make another statement to
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humanity. I understand that it is her last such statement. "I will skip an introduction. By now, everyone not familiar with Tasneem, the Jurassic plant, will not be watching this live feed anyway. "I may also note at the occasion that our lawsuit against CleanCoal Corporation has been settled. The majority shareholder of the company has committed suicide this afternoon, and the new majority has agreed that in light of recent developments it would be inappropriate to keep up delaying the inevitable. "As has been done on previous occasions, Tasneem will use the Plant Player device to communicate with us. Ah, I see it just became active. I will now change the setting to room voice and put it on," Douglas said. The ginkgo leaves on both sides of the Plant Player had started again to glow in seventy shades of green, pulsating in a hypnotizing pattern. Douglas changed the setting and placed the device on his head. "Hello, everyone," Tasneem said. "This will be my final announcement to you stupid morons. I will leave Kim Kornburg once the deadline runs out in about half an hour and go back to my home tree. I've been missing it. "Congratulations! You have made the deadline. CO2 emissions have peaked last week. They are down right now to levels last seen in the last Century. "That means that TASNEEM'S THREAT will not be carried out for the moment. I may choose to come back to renew it later. "Right now, you stupid idiots have finally done the first step to change your evil ways. But this is only the beginning. "Reaching peak CO2 is of course necessary. But it is
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certainly not enough. You need to reduce emissions even further. I note that you are still FUCKING burning my mom, and it needs to stop completely. "It needs to stop completely before the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reaches the final tipping point, and you idiots manage to still fry the planet. Don't relax your efforts. "You've got a fighting chance now. You need to reduce further. And you need to start sucking up CO2 from the atmosphere whenever solar and wind energy supply is bigger than demand, make some synthetic fuel, and bury it in the ground, where it should have stayed in the first place. "That's all for now. For everyone who wants to know more about this little story, I recommend reading a book I have written in the last couple of hours. I have stored the manuscript on Kim Kornburg's laptop computer. Kim, please release it to the Internet exactly at 17:30. Bye, everybody," Tasneem said. "Bye, Tasneem," Kim said. "Thanks for everything." "Bye, Tasneem," Douglas said. "Thanks for everything." The Plant Player shut down. Douglas shut down the Internet live feed as well. "I wonder what that manuscript is she was talking about," Kim said. "Why don't you check for it?" Douglas said. Kim looked at the "My Documents" folder in her laptop. There it was. A book manuscript she had never seen, with the title "Tasneem". "Let's release that right now," Douglas said. "It's close to 17:30, so we should be able to time it exactly right. Prepare your laptop computer for the Viral Vial." Kim tilted her laptop computer to align the screen with
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the table. Douglas let the last drop of the green liquid fall on the screen. Kim clicked on the publish button and posted the book to the 500.org blog. Again, the whole room was filled by an intense green light for a last time. # July 17, 2023, 17:45 Kim and Douglas watched as the access counter for the blog post went through the roof. It had reached 9 million after the first 15 minutes. That number would only get bigger with more time. "So, you wrote a book without knowing it," Douglas said. "Actually, I didn't write it. Tasneem did," Kim said. "But that's your name as the author right there," Douglas said. "Congratulations. You're rich. With that kind of attention, this is sure to become a bestseller. And you are the author." "That's a nice parting gift from Tasneem," Kim said. "But I'm not rich for it. She has written it. And you are a lawyer. You know as well as me that there is no copyright for anything a plant writes." "Of course I know that," Douglas said. "But it may be somewhat awkward for someone pirating your book to actually prove in a court of law that it was written by a Jurassic plant. They wouldn't even have the Plant Player." "Never mind. I wouldn't want to make money from this story in the first place," Kim said. "You only say that because you will have lots of money
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as my wife anyway," Douglas said. "Shut up and kiss me," Kim said.

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AFTERWORD I
Hello, I'm Tasneem, the Jurassic plant. It's actually not this guy "Karl-Friedrich Lenz" who wrote that book. He would have been way too dumb to do it. I dictated it to him and forced him to write it. If he had refused, he would have been my guest to some of the choice nightmares I have in store for people who don't obey my orders. It has taken my 187 million years to write this novel. And now, after all these millions and millions of years, I have finally found a publisher! Thanks to Createspace. I won't even have to deal with any pesky editors thinking they have a right to decide what gets published and what not.

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AFTERWORD II
When I wrote the first draft of this book, the title was Jurassic Plant. Thats because this book is my humble attempt at answering Jurassic Park and State of Fear by Michael Crichton. As noted in one of the blog posts written last year reproduced in the Appendix, there is really nothing to fear from raptors coming back to life. It is impossible in the first place, and even if it was possible, that threat could be very easily dealt with. It would be a military question. In contrast, the threat from CO2 is very real. This is basically bringing back CO2 absorbed by plants in the Jurassic in the modern world. I changed the title while editing, though. Thats because I feel it would be questionable to have people associate the very famous other book and use that as a way of getting attention. Also, having only one word in the title makes for a better cover. Especially since I intend to use the cover art for my Twitter and Gravatar icons. Michael Crichtons State of Fear obviously is one of the most effective climate change denying books ever. Someone needed to write a science fiction novel to try to counter that.
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Since I allowed myself only about three weeks of time for this project, the potential for success is of course rather limited. Thats no reason for me not to try it anyway. Its the same with climate change as such. While this is a very difficult problem, giving up is not an option considering the stakes involved. As with my first global warming science fiction novel Great News (available as a FREE PDF file at my blog, k-lenz.de/3) I use a Creative Commons license for this project that allows derivative works. I would be thrilled if someone else used the ideas here to write a better book. This is still only my second attempt at writing fiction, so I am sure there are lots of things that someone with more experience could improve. Thanks for reading. If you liked the book, I would be happy to hear from you at my Twitter account @Kf_Lenz. Please consider spreading the word, or writing a review at Amazon. While I think the Viral Vial is a nice little idea to spice up my novel, I am sorry to say that I myself do not have that little gadget available. Therefore, I depend completely on readers to help me bring the message out. You might even be able to help getting to peak CO2 barely before July 17, 2023, 17:30. It has been a lot of fun to write this. That in itself was good enough a reason to do it, again. But, on a more serious note, I also explained the Phaseout Profit concept in more detail compared to Great News. I still think it is the simple solution to that little climate change problem we seem to have. I am looking forward to discussing and developing it some more on Lenz Blog, where I have a category with the
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name Phaseout Profit Theory. Any readers interested in discussing these ideas are most welcome to comment on any of my blog posts in that category. Since this is a work of fiction, most of the characters and organizations are not real. There are a couple of exceptions I would like to mention. Richard Sanders really has sold the magic trick Extreme Burn, as mentioned in Chapter One, and it really is a great bill change. I own it and recommend it to readers. The German NGO case of suing in behalf of the seals in the North Sea is real. I have written about it in an introduction to German law I published 20 years ago under the title (not chosen by me but by my publisher at the time) Das Ungewhnlichste im Recht. See for example this 1988 article at SPIEGEL for some details on that (in German, k-lenz.de/tasneem3). The 1972 Supreme Court case Sierra Club v. Morton is real as well. The dissenting opinion I cited in Chapter Three was also quite real. Please see the Wikipedia page on that case at k-lenz.de/tasneem4 for more information. Just to be clear, I have not modeled the villains of the novel after any real person. I have made an effort to use names for the villains that have zero hits on Google. All of the names in this novel (including that of Tasneem) were chosen with the help of the author tool in the Scrivener software that comes up with random names.

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APPENDIX
This appendix collects some posts on my blog that are relevant to the basic idea of this novel. I present them in the order I wrote them in the first place, with the links removed, and slightly edited for grammar and spelling. Plotholes in "State of Fear", Posted on July 17, 2012, k-lenz.de/tasneem1 One thing I have learned from studying Michael Crichton's novel "State of Fear" is that a science fiction novel doesn't have to make sense. That's not its purpose. Its purpose is to entertain. Arguably, Crichton also wanted to present a point of view, but that is not his first job as a writer. So the following long list of things that don't make any sense in the plot development is actually rather irrelevant. The only reason I write them down anyway is: If a famous writer like Crichton can use a plot full of holes large enough to drive a truck through them, so can everybody else. In chronological order: The novel starts out with killing the first character introduced, Jonathan Marshall. The motive given for that is that he has the key to a research facility and the evil terrorists want to use that.
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It makes no sense to kill him. They could have just used his key while he was sleeping, and returned it in the next morning. Attracts much less undesirable attention. Even if they decide to bump him off, it makes no sense to do it in the strange way they adopt, which is associated with all kinds of risks of failure and detection. Then, later in the novel, character "Morton" gets a list of locations right from the terrorist organization. How the hell is that supposed to have happened? And why doesn't he just hand it over to Kenner, instead playing some games with his remote control? The main character, Evans, is a lawyer. What business has a lawyer running around disrupting terrorist plots? He doesn't have a client at the time. And he is certainly completely useless in any of these operations. In the real world, the government would of course move in with military assets in sufficient force. The only possible explanation is that Crichton doesn't like lawyers (I recall having a T-Rex gulp down a lawyer in "Jurassic Park") and thought it would be more fun to have lawyers falling in crevices, getting hit by lightning and captured by savages than some military type. Also, having people incompetent at what basically requires military action helps to keep some suspense. At some time Morton goes into hiding by faking a car accident. Couldn't he go into hiding without that as well? This guy is seriously rich. Surely he can afford enough security to make sure some lawyer can't get at him. And if so, why would he want to go alone to that island? And what business have they flying around with the private jet all the time? Morton is supposed to be dead. They can't use the jet. And with this kind of great threat,
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wouldn't the government have a jet or two of their own available? One of the goofy theories advanced in the novel is that there was a sudden spike in 1989 in the use of words like "crisis" in the media, with the new fear of global warming replacing the old fear of communism. That is a contradiction in itself. If the "State of Fear" is constant and only the object of fear changes, then there should be no such spike measurable. The bad guys can't be possibly so incompetent as to actually reference disrupted events in a speech at the conference. If they were, they would never get so far as nearly pull off some of the events. And, of course, the largest plothole of all: Triggering a tsunami doesn't make any sense if you want to attract attention to global warming. There are many catastrophic consequences to be expected from global warming; but nobody ever asserted earthquakes are caused by it. Update: I forgot two other problems. For one, there is no plausible way a radio could be modified to attract lightning. And it doesn't make any sense for the terrorists being able to switch those radios. Also I forgot to link to my own global warming science fiction novel "Great News". Having written that is the reason for my interest in this book in the first place. # Don't fear the raptor Posted on July 23, 2012, k-lenz.de/tasneem2 A couple of hours ago, I entered a comment at
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this Climate Progress post by Joe Romm. But it is already gone, along with all other comments. Update: I couldn't see the comments yesterday, but now it seems like they are back again. I am not sure what I am missing here. So I will say the same thing again here. Romm was disagreeing with this New York Times article, titled "We're all climate change idiots". That article tried to give some reasons why it is difficult to get the necessary level of attention for warnings about climate change, and talks about various research projects that deal with the psychology of climate change. Romm missed the point by insisting that it is only the fault of the New York Times, and people are well aware of the threat, as polls show. That is missing the point because, clearly, there is still by far not enough awareness of the problem, especially in the United States. And discussing psychological reasons for that failure is clearly a topic of interest. Anyway, here are my thoughts on why people fail to understand the risk. First off, let's start with quoting this TED talk by Bruce Schneier: The Security Mirage (link to Youtube of TED talk omitted here). In that talk, Schneier explains that the ability to accurately assess risks is important for survival in evolution. He uses the example of a rabbit who hears a predator approaching. If he bolts too soon, he will starve. If he bolts too late, he will be eaten. Humans have evolved in the same environment. That means that visible, present, individual risks with a face and a name like a large predator will impress humans. In
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contrast, abstract, slow changes in the environment will not. That means it will be possible to make a lot of people afraid of getting raptors or other dinosaurs back, like in the "Jurrassic Park" novel. In contrast, people will be much less inclined to fear bringing the CO2 back into the atmosphere that was removed way back in the Jurassic era by plants living at the time, when a lot of oil was formed. But as Schneier explains in his talk, people's models about security are not necessary correct. In this case, it is actually impossible to bring back raptors. It is in contrast very possible to bring back CO2 removed from the atmosphere in the Jurassic. It happens every day. And even if someone was able to pull off bringing raptors back, at the worst, they would be able to kill a couple of humans before some military operation wipes them out again. In contrast, global warming already killed 140.000 people in 2009, according to the WHO. And it will only get worse. So, don't fear the raptor. Don't fear Jurassic Park. Fear the Jurassic World coming back, by bringing back all the CO2 into the atmosphere stored way back then. Related music video (that's where the title to this post comes from): (Link to Youtube video to Dont fear the reaper by Blue yster Cult omitted here). And yes, my global warming science fiction novel "Great News" was inspired by the desire to do something about this flaw in human risk assessment, by giving global warming a face and a name.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karl-Friedrich Lenz is a Professor of German and European Law at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. He blogs about issues of climate change and energy at Lenz Blog, found at k-lenz.de/1. This is his second science fiction book. It builds on his first global warming science fiction novel Great News, available as a FREE PDF file at k-lenz.de/3. His Twitter feed is found @Kf_Lenz.

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