Faith and Energy

Rob wearily entered his small, one-bedroom apartment, taking the time to quickly secure the four different locks on his door, three of which had been installed in the last six weeks. Before turning on the light, he walked to the window and slightly drew back the pulled shade, scanning the street below for any sign of activity. Noticing nothing unusual, he grabbed a beer from the kitchen, picked up his Bible from the coffee table and plopped down in his recliner. After sitting in the dark for a few minutes, he clicked on the television and, finding nothing he really wanted to watch, flipped to one of the twenty four hour news channels. A report about the President’s energy policy was playing, with excerpts from several of his speeches. Rob recognized the current clip as the State of the Union address from several months previous. “With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.” Rob turned off the television and threw the remote into the empty chair next to him. “Why does this guy hate oil companies so much?” he questioned out loud. Rob Romano had worked as an energy researcher for 20 years, specializing in oil exploration and extraction. The Phoenix-based Western Energy Corporation had now been his employer for over fifteen years and he had steadily progressed up the corporate ladder, recently becoming a vice-president. Irony has a sense of humor though, Rob thought remembering his current dire predicament could be traced back to the day he had been informed of his promotion. He closed his eyes and replayed the highlights of that specific afternoon; a celebration lunch in his honor, the collision with company controller Mike Goodman exiting the elevator and most importantly the documents that mistakenly were in Rob’s possession following that encounter. Just about every action Rob had taken in the six weeks since that accident had been related to those documents and what the possible implications they contained. He gripped his Bible even tighter and said a prayer. A few minutes later Rob finally opened his eyes and went to the kitchen, setting his empty beer bottle in the recycling bin while still holding his Bible. He grabbed a sheet of paper and pen, jotted down a note and attached it to the refrigerator with a magnet. He took another beer and walked back to his recliner, sat down and closed his eyes once more, going over the items he had laid out for his friends – and his potential enemies. Was the note he just wrote the final piece necessary? Had he covered all the bases? Whether Rob had or not, the time available to prepare had come to an end. Without warning, his nose and mouth were covered by a cloth. Rob attempted in vain to pull the intruder’s arm away from his face, but the man’s strength was too much to overcome and the substance on the cloth quickly numbed his senses. Rob fell unconscious, his Bible dropping to the floor. When he would awake, Rob’s nightmare would truly begin.