Chapter Four - part three

      That was the end of the meeting. Once outside her office James was escorted to his new 'secured' office. It was in a bunker below the base headquarters and the bunker was in a secured area itself. A sergeant was standing guard, or rather sitting, at the desk inside the first office. He was wearing the insignia of a Special Forces soldier. James didn't need the key to get in the office with him, but he did to get into the door he was guarding. James spent the remainder of the day and part of that night in that office behind a locked door. When he finally did leave late that night another Special Forces soldier was at the desk. James hadn't even glanced at the paperwork for his new squadron. That could be handled later. Right now he just wanted to see if he could figure out what his real mission was going to be. James hadn't even taken time to call home and talk with Sarah yet. He knew that she would understand. The kids probably wouldn't though, so he made a point of calling home to talk with them when he reached his apartment. It was close to bedtime for them, but that wouldn't matter for this call. He talked a long time with the kids, but only a brief moment with Sarah. She hadn't asked much, only telling him she was praying for him before she hung up.

  James had chosen to take a small two bedroom apartment this time. The kids would have to share a room if they came to see him. His things should arrive within a week or two. He didn't have much to ship separate. James always carried his family pictures and his Bible with him.  Those and a couple changes of uniforms were all he needed for now. The other stuff that was coming wasn't critical to him. After everything he did have with him was taken care of James tried to get some sleep. It wasn't easy though. He hadn't found anything comforting in those reports. Most of them had been to do with economic conditions, but there had been political and military reports too. The general indication seemed to be that things were growing more unstable in Europe with each passing week. The people were struggling and the governments were crumbling under the pressure to change things. Russia had already taken control of several old Soviet Union states years ago. It was now pushing much harder to regain control of more and perhaps even add some new territory too. That push was coming in two distinct forms. The first and most obvious was perhaps also the most effective, economic pressure. The second was the old tried and true way of taking power, military force. Russia was increasing the number of troops close to Europe and it was upgrading their equipment too. It was hard not to notice that sort of thing. 

   What was more troubling to James was the economic pressure. Fuel and food were the main sources of pressure currently being used. Europe had outgrown its ability to support the people, at least the way the people expected to live. The farms simply couldn't produce enough food and the cost would have been far too high for most people to afford even if they had been able to supply the demand. While other places in the world could supply food and fuel to Europe, Russia could do it cheaper now that they had started producing both on a huge scale. Both labor and shipping costs were lower in Russia than many other places. Russia had finally seemed to realize where the real power would be in the future world. Fuel and food were the two things that people had to have to survive. The Russian government, with help from wealthy private investors, had finally started farming commercially a few years ago. Russia had long been working to gain control of large fuel reserves and pipe lines that supplied Europe. Now the three main products Russia had for export was fuel, food, and military hardware. Russia had become the main food and fuel supplier to many European nations over the last few years. They had turned the income from that into more military strength as well as increasing production of fuel and food inside Russia. The majority of people working in Russia were either in the military, working in plants supplying military goods, working on farms, or in oil and gas production jobs. Russia was almost completely self sufficient now. The only place they lacked strength was in advanced technology. Most of their technology was at least a decade behind at best, but they were still very capable. They were also fairly stable since they no longer needed to buy a lot of food or fuel.

    They also had plentiful markets for food and fuel all around them. They used those markets need for fuel and food as a weapon now. The food was enough to cause major problems, but fuel was the real issue at the moment. Russia now controlled a large portion of the pipelines that carried fuel into Europe. They had always used those to advantage, but now it was getting much more common and much easier for them to do too. Russia had once needed that fuel money too much to push things very hard. They couldn't risk losing that much of the income they so desperately needed as a nation. They had to keep the fuel flowing to fund their plans for expansion, but things were changing. Now it seemed they might be willing to risk losing some of that income. The fact was they needed more fuel themselves and Europe no longer being the only market available for them to sell fuel in had an effect too. Russia could now produce enough of the food and fuel they needed to keep their people satisfied, if things got difficult. The new markets in Asia, Africa, and even in China would gladly pay more for the fuel Europe needed so badly. That was causing Europe to feel real pressure to yield more to Russian demands in order to maintain fuel supplies. They simply had to pay more for the fuel and give more politically in order to keep the fuel flowing. That was just adding to the growing financial burdens and instability of the economies inside Europe, while increasing the power of Russia held over Europe at the same time.

   The people in many European nations had now spent almost a generation living with nearly daily protests and riots over the lack of jobs, food, and even a future. Those protests had slowly become a new way of life. It was something the people now expected and accepted as normal. The problem was that those protests and riots were growing larger and more difficult to control. The unemployed in many nations now almost outnumbered the employed. The governments and those who had managed to find and keep a job wanted the protests to end, so that they could try to rebuild their lives and their nations. Those without work just wanted food, shelter, and jobs; usually in that order. The result was that governments and even the working people were funding shelters where jobless people could stay and be fed in an effort to keep the riots down. It sounded a great deal like the public projects back in the United States to James. The results seemed much the same with both of those efforts to smooth things out. It was actually causing the problem to grow instead of shrink. Oh they had helped to contain the problems, for the moment, but that couldn't last long. Unless there was work and a way for people to provide their own shelter and food, eventually it was only going to get much worse as the numbers depending on others for support continued to grow. James still had piles of data and reports to look at, but he was already convinced of what the end result would be unless something changed and soon. He was reminded of his recent talk with Senator Davis. It seemed that Europe was dying too.