Despcription of Ur

From the  political thriller Gods of Ruin:

Chapter Twenty

Led by Santiago Garza, the group of politicians and staffers ascended in the elevator and walked through the main lobby to exit the building. The sun was intense as it beamed down on the perfectly manicured office park to which the archon’s building belonged. The park was covered by billowing jacaranda trees that had just started to reveal their lavender flowers as an indication of spring’s arrival. Businesspeople were scattered about, casually taking breaks from their workday. The atmosphere was quiet except for the occasional birdsong, and the air smelled fresh and clean and the temperature was warm but not uncomfortable.

As they walked, Santiago Garza gave each group member a hand-sized black electronic device and explained that it would be needed for the tour. Com thought it might have been a sort of radio that would provide an audio description of the city. He noticed a small amount of static emanating from the device, but it was barely noticeable compared with the atmospheric sounds of trees blowing in the wind.

Santiago Garza pointed out some of the major international companies that had relocated their headquarters to the ever-growing Ur: UBS financial firm, Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Google. The companies were taking advantage of the city’s tax-free environment to maximize profits and expand their enterprises, Santiago explained. The companies had brought over fifty thousand employees to the jurisdiction, which had more than doubled the city’s population within the previous five years.

While Garza spoke, however, most of the group were preoccupied with either their standard handheld cell phones or the implant versions, which were invisible to a bystander but elicited similar inconsiderate chatter. Com, on the other hand, was attentive. In a friendly tone, Com addressed the archon. “Santiago—can I call you that?” Santiago nodded. “Santiago, there are a number of high-level concerns regarding this city and not one of them involves the businesses that have moved here. Are we going to address those concerns today?”

“Sí, sí,” Santiago said, nodding. “You refer to the claims of resource-hogging and perhaps radiation cover-up?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“Sí, señor. We shall address every concern you have today. Please bear with us.” Santiago lifted his voice to make sure everyone else could hear as he shifted the focus of conversation. “Ur is divided into forty-seven townships, which have evolved very distinct personalities, if you will.” The group walked through the office park and climbed a set of stairs to an elevated tram station. “We will visit the least attractive of them all first. This is the manufacturing-heavy Rand Industrial Sector.”

Santiago paid for everyone’s tram fare at an automated ticket teller and instructed each group member to place his or her hand on a biometric scanner located near the entrance to the tram. Each guest held a hand to the scanner and entered the tramcar, which held about thirty passengers comfortably. Kevin Donovan took a look around and posed a question to Santiago. “Why all the trams and trains? What’s wrong with using roads?”

Santiago acknowledged the good question. “Sí, we do have a lot of trams here. The truth is they are much more efficient and practical than bulky and inefficient roadways.”

Senator Derkins overheard the exchange and interjected. “I actually agree with you on this, Mr. Garza—I’m a huge proponent of mass transit. But you make it sound so easy. It’s really not; you have to force it down people’s throats. If the tram system is so efficient and practical, why doesn’t it just catch on everywhere, like in D.C. or Los Angeles?”

“Well, if I had to answer that question, I would guess it has something to do with the corporatist system in place right now in those cities.”

Mrs. Derkins peered at her interlocutor. “What corporatist system?”

“Señora, surely you are aware that six of the ten largest corporations in America are gas or automobile companies?” Santiago said raising an eyebrow. “These companies have done extremely well in the current transportation environment. Exxon Mobile and Valero lobby the federal government for more highways and more construction, which the government happily provides because the people want to see something done with their tax dollars. They want to see new roads but these new roads just push development further away from other development in what I think they call ‘suburban sprawl.’ And the oil companies are happy pumping more and more gas into the cars of the commuters to get them around the sprawl. And their money is sent back to Washington to support more roads and more distant commutes.

“But none of this would be possible if the government didn’t have the authority to take people’s money to build the roads that the oil companies want. You take away government roads and you will see efficient and ecologically sound tram systems in every city in the country.”

Senator Derkins was skeptical but said nothing and just lifted her eyebrows.

The tram shuttled the tour group, along with a dozen other passengers, to a factory-like building within a couple minutes. The squat building, with numerous pipes projecting out from all angles, was clean and stark inside. The tour guide explained that the facility—a desalination plant—converted seawater into potable water.

The tour group’s host described the place as they walked into the building. “You may have heard that Ur is ‘stealing’ resources from around the country, including fresh water. But I assure you that all of our water is created right here. We do not take any fresh water from any other source, In fact, water is fast becoming a major export from here.” Once inside, the group inspected the plant and saw how enormous turbines and filters transformed millions of gallons of water from the nearby Laguna Madre into safe drinking water and other useful derivatives, like sea salt, every hour.

“So where do they get the claims that Ur is stealing water?” Com asked.

“Ah, it is one of the old standbys of the modern media conglomerate—they made it up. Obviously, water is a very important resource and a hot topic today. So those who wish to antagonize Ur will use those types of issues to win support to their side.”

From the desalination plant, the archon-turned-tour-guide shuffled the group to another tram station. This tram was different from the first. It consisted of small cars suspended from above on a track, much like a rollercoaster. Each tramcar was meant for individual passengers and had room for baggage below the seating compartment. Again, Santiago paid for the group and each member took a car before it swiftly moved out of the station. After a few minutes of the exhilarating ride, the tour members exited their cars onto the destination platform. Elizabeth Derkins laughed, saying she had never had more fun than on that ride. Others in the group shared a wide grin with her.

After the group took a moment to refocus, Santiago Garza pointed around their new location and described the area.

“This, my friends, is Amaurot. An ardent socialist purchased this nineteen-square-mile plot of land after The Green Group had put it up for sale. Since then, he has welcomed everyone who wants to come to participate in a great communal living experience. Throughout this district, there is no money and no property. Everyone here works to his own ability and gives to others according to their need. It’s really a marvelous experiment.”

One of Senator Derkins’ staffers scrunched his face. “Mr. Garza, I thought you were strictly opposed to communism, as in Venezuela.”

“Well, señor, there is nothing inherently wrong with socialism as you see here. People can get along quite well under socialism. The problem is when you force socialism on a people, as they have in my home country.”

The tour guests peered past the tram station and looked out to a small shantytown and a collection of lush vegetable and produce fields. Santiago continued. “You may have heard reports of slave labor here in Ur, and they usually point to these citizens. The citizens in Amaurot make no money, per se, as there is no money to be made. Of course, this type of existence would be illegal outside of Ur because these workers would be taxed on their production even though they had no money to pay for these taxes.”

Senator Derkins’ mouth was open in astonishment. A staffer mouthed the word “wow.”

After his description, Santiago directed the group back on to the tramcars and away to the next stop.

The tramcars flew to a neighborhood called Jefferson Heights, mere miles away from the shantytown. It was full of new buildings modeled after the European style of a bottom story dedicated to retail and dining and the top two or three stories dedicated to residential living. There were very few roads for cars, and everything was connected with well-manicured walkways. The area was bustling with activity. Children were running around a small playground in a center courtyard, customers were bobbing in and out of fashionable stores, and young couples were seen enjoying an early lunch at various cafés. Com thought he might see Cate at one of the cafés, but his halfhearted search came up empty.

The group walked through the shopping district and down what seemed to be an alleyway for pedestrians only. They came upon a tree-shaded trail following along a large pond. The trail was full of bikers and joggers. A mom was pushing her infant in a stroller, and a kid weaved in and out of traffic on his skateboard. Santiago explained that they had just left Jefferson Heights and were entering Parc Jefferson, the Central Park of Ur, a twenty-square-mile expanse of open fields, small wooded areas, and lakes and streams.

After walking a short way into the park, Santiago asked everyone to look around. The heavenly scene combined rolling hills, ponds, fountains, and various forms of wildlife in a picturesque landscape.

“We are presently standing over the very site of the nuclear power plant, which failed over ten years ago,” Santiago said clearly.

Immediately, there was an uncomfortable shift in everyone’s stature. Senator Derkins began to look around nervously, and Com looked straight at a completely comfortable Santiago Garza.

“Oh, I get it,” Mrs. Derkins said. “You put a park over the meltdown and you think everything’s fine? You think that just because it doesn’t look like a problem, it’ll be okay?”

“Yeah,” Com agreed skeptically and pointed to a nearby pond. “You got any three-eyed fish swimming around in there?”

Santiago reached out his hand and patted Senator Derkins on the shoulder. “I assure you that this environment is as clean as it gets.”

No one was convinced. A staffer responded, “Yeah, I assure you.”

Santiago offered to explain the cleanup process that The Green Group had undergone to eliminate the radioactive isotopes from the surrounding land using state-of-the-art potassium iodide solution spray and injection, but Senator Derkins rejected the offer, saying that they had hired scientists to do all the number crunching. Instead, Santiago addressed the entire group. “Well, let’s see. You all remember that I gave you a black device this morning outside of my office?” Everyone acknowledged that he had, and some got their devices out of purses or pockets. “These devices are Geiger counters.” Santiago stressed the word ‘Geiger.’ “They are used to evaluate the radioactivity in any given area. If you notice, there is a subtle crackling sound coming out of it.” The group collectively listened to the devices’ crackling. Com noticed a small display on is device that read “0.025 µSv/h.”

“Each crackle represents a radio particle—an alpha, beta, or gamma ray—entering your Geiger counter. Now, you will notice that this reading has not changed dramatically throughout this tour. The noise you hear now reflects background radiation from space or from the Earth itself. It is the same as if you were in Kansas or Alaska or the middle of Venezuela. Please, you are welcome to take them home with you and compare the radiation reading there to here. You are standing on the original site of the nuclear accident at this very moment, yet there is no harmful additional radiation. My friends, Ur is spotless.”