No Cheating with Two-Timing!
In the middle of a snowstorm, with flakes falling in thick, relentless sheets, I finished up at the IRS and drove the truck straight back to my father’s gas station.
He was out shoveling the lot when I rolled down the driver’s-side window and called out, “Boss. Fill her up with diesel.”
“Quit fooling around and get inside, you brat. Your mother’s waiting.”
My father must have seen through my easygoing act and realized things had gone well at the IRS.
I parked and headed into the office.
Before I could even open the front door—
Bang!
The door flew open violently, and my mother rushed out barefoot, her face drained white.
“Sanha!”
Her expression was pale as paper.
For a second, a chill ran down my spine.
Did something go wrong at the IRS? My deal with Alfie Solomons should have been airtight.
“Mom, what is it? Did something happen? If it’s about the IRS, everything went perfectly. In fact, I didn’t even get audited—they were talking about giving me an Excellent Taxpayer award—”
“Like you wouldn’t handle that just fine! That’s not the problem right now!”
What could possibly be a bigger problem than the IRS in America in 1992?
Then my mother grabbed my arm hard and said in a rush, “There’s another girl calling for you besides Grace!”
“...What?”
“Her voice is sweet as a songbird! Her name was Caroline, and don’t tell me you’re seeing two girls at once!? No womanizing!”
My mother’s eyes were glittering with curiosity.
I let out a sigh of relief.
“You scared me. She’s just a school friend.”
“How does ‘just a friend’ know the house number? And why is she calling this late?”
“Because I gave it to her. She might have had something urgent.”
“Oh, my. Just look at you. What about Grace? What about her!”
“There’s nothing between me and her—”
“What nonsense! You brought a girl home and let her stay over! And you said you were dating her with marriage in mind!”
“That was a joke too. And Victor stayed over with Grace, remember?”
“That didn’t sound like a joke to me! Anyway! Go on and take the call already!”
My mother gave my back a sharp smack.
When I picked up the receiver, a bright voice burst through the line.
“Hello? Sanha? Looks like you just got home! You went to the IRS, right?”
“Yeah, I was actually about to call you first.”
“Really? About what?”
“Your résumé. I went over it carefully.”
“S-so? What was the verdict?”
I could hear her holding her breath on the other end.
I gave a light shrug.
“You’re hired.”
“Eeeek!”
A shriek nearly punched through the receiver.
“Really!? For real!?”
“Yeah. It’d be a waste to pass on talent like yours. Once classes start, we’ll sign the contract right away. I’ll make sure the pay is top of the market.”
“Thanks, Sanha! I’ll work really hard! I can even make coffee taste amazing! Of course, I’m not just good at coffee! From scheduling to prepping meetings in advance, just leave everything to me!”
She had exactly the energy and social ease I lacked.
Then Caroline added, “Oh, and one more thing! I mentioned you to my dad.”
“You mentioned me?”
“Yeah. I told him I had a Harvard classmate interested in the energy business. And then my dad—”
Caroline paused for a beat.
“He got really interested! You know my dad’s a landman, right? These days he does some lobbying work in Washington too.”
A landman, and a lobbyist.
His outline was getting sharper and sharper.
A lobbyist.
If I were to translate it loosely into Korean, it would be something like a “political affairs agent.”
In the U.S. Congress or government agencies, these were professionals who represented a client’s interests to push legislation through, loosen regulations, or alter policy.
In other countries, the word “lobbying” often came with the dark smell of bribery or slush funds. But in America, the story was a little different.
Lobbying was a legal profession grounded in the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to petition, and there were tens of thousands of registered lobbyists actively working in Congress alone.
In the energy industry especially, lobbyists were enormously important.
Oil and gas extraction required permits from both the federal government and the state government.
Environmental Impact Statement approval, drilling permits, pipeline construction authorization, tax incentives.
Every one of those steps required a channel into politics.
A veteran lobbyist had wide-ranging connections, from congressional aides to Department of Energy officials to practical staffers at the EPA.
They reviewed draft bills before they were even introduced, pressured lawmakers to revise clauses unfavorable to their clients, and sometimes even drafted favorable legislation themselves.
If Caroline’s father was both a landman and a lobbyist, that didn’t simply mean he held two jobs.
It meant he negotiated with landowners over mineral rights in the field while also negotiating regulations with politicians in Washington.
In other words, he practically held both the “entrance” and the “exit” to the extraction business.
He sounds like a much bigger shot than I expected.
Caroline probably thought of herself as just a middle-class girl, but maybe the “middle class” she meant and the middle class I imagined were not quite the same thing.
Let’s see. How should I respond?
There were a lot of advantages to building a connection with someone like Caroline’s father.
First, it could shorten the permitting process.
Normally, getting approval for a mining development meant passing through a maze of federal and state procedures.
Just the environmental review alone could take anywhere from six months to two years, but with the right lobbying network, your paperwork could leap straight to the top of the reviewer’s desk.
Second, it could block regulatory risk before it even surfaced.
The energy industry was highly sensitive to political winds.
When the Democrats took power, environmental regulations tightened. When the Republicans took power, they loosened.
A lobbyist could spot those policy shifts ahead of time and give clients the information they needed to respond before the blow landed.
And because I had the knowledge from before my regression, I knew exactly how the balance of power between the Democrats and Republicans would shift. If I added future knowledge to the skills of a capable lobbyist, the synergy would be more than enough to make things interesting.
Third, it could keep competitors in check.
If a rival was after the same tract, a lobbyist could “coincidentally” arrange for an environmental group to challenge their permit application.
Very “coincidentally,” of course. Meaning: extremely, suspiciously, and beautifully coincidental.
Fourth, it could secure tax advantages.
Texas and Oklahoma were friendly states for the oil industry, but even there, the level of benefits varied wildly.
A lobbyist could pull in favorable terms like accelerated depreciation, exploration expense deductions, and reduced royalties.
Fifth—and most important—
He would be the fixer for every problem that didn’t fall neatly into first, second, third, or fourth.
Once you were in business, unexpected regulatory violations and complaints were inevitable.
At times like that, one phone call from a lobbyist could be more effective than ten lawyers.
I was going to develop gold mines and oil fields in the future.
Along the way, I would run into permits, regulations, and political obstacles by the truckload.
A connection to Caroline’s father could become a backdoor that let me bypass or break through every one of them.
And as expected, it seemed Caroline’s father had already shown some interest in me.
[My dad heard about you and said he’d like to meet this “promising younger man in the industry.”]
“That’s an honor. I’ll make myself available whenever it suits his schedule. I should be the one coming to see him.”
[Great! I’ll let you know once a date’s set!]
“Sounds good. Thanks. Talk later.”
Even after I hung up, her excited voice seemed to linger in my ears.
As I set the receiver down, the back of my neck prickled.
When I turned around, my mother was leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, staring at me without blinking.
“Hired? Contract? Hourly pay?”
“...You heard all that?”
“Do you think I couldn’t hear it with you talking that loud? Are you hiring her as a secretary?”
“Yes. I need some help.”
“Do you need help, or do you need time to date? Personally, I like Grace better.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Why not? Grace is so proper and pretty. She even sent a letter last time saying she wanted to come play again. She’s polite, she’s smart. You need to meet a girl who’s that sharp.”
“Grace is a partner. Caroline is an employee. We need to keep business and personal matters separate.”
“My, listen to this boy talk. Just like your father—hard as a brick. Keep that up and you’ll lose both of them, you know.”
“I’m tired, so I’m going to rest!”
I fled to my room before my mother could keep teasing me.
Even as I shut the door, her laughing advice followed after me.
“No cheating with two-timing! If word gets around campus that you’ve got a bad reputation, all the girls will look at you like you’re a bug—”
The door closed.
I sat down at my desk and pulled out the business card from my pocket.
-IRS Criminal Investigation Special Team Leader Alfie Solomons
On the back was his direct number.
A trophy earned in exchange for turning over the tax-evasion materials on the Chinese criminal John Hugh.
That had given me a pretty solid backer.
The tax investigation into Lee Energy will stay in “internal review” status for the next five years. I promise you that.
His voice was still vivid in my mind.
Five years was more than enough time to establish a proper company and build a solid internal structure.
Honestly, even two years would’ve been a blessing, and he’s giving me five.
I’d thought one year might be a little tight and two years would be comfortable, but five? Well.
Still, I can’t let my guard down. I need to get the company’s foundation completely in place within a year if possible, and build a team ready to deal with collections.
It sounded like I was going to have a very busy vacation.