The School for Gods by Stefano D'anna

Author:Stefano D'anna [D'anna, Stefano]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sinedie Publishing
Published: 2016-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI

To Kuwait City

1 This is economy!

I leaned back in my chair, stretching my legs under the long mahogany table. It had been an intense day, full of commitments, and every day had been like this for months. We had been working in a kind of joyous disorder; the offices cluttered with boxes of new equipment and furniture that had arrived from Europe. The twin towers of the Al Awadi Center, where I had established our new headquarters, were silent at that time of night, while the monotonous hum of the air-conditioning was reassuring, like the purr of a huge mechanical cat. Outside in the darkness, Kuwait City was a handful of diamonds sparkling among the coils of the Ring Roads, the city’s concentric beltways. The country’s sole highway drew a line of lights towards the wells, several miles to the North- West. The huge extraction pumps were panting, their heads like those of great saurians emerging from mineral oceans millions of years old.

It was evening now, but the temperature outside was still unbearable with the heat surpassing every record that day. The Emir had issued a decree for all work- related activities to be suspended if the temperature rose above 40 C. I smiled at the thought that from that day on, no official thermometers would ever register a temperature above 40, thus offering an elegant solution to the humanitarian issue and the problem of costs due to work stoppages.

With the relocation of the offices and technical assistance departments to the business unit in Al Awadi Towers, the company I had started in Kuwait was now fully operational and already proving to be one of the most productive activities of the many businesses in the Behbehani holdings. I had chosen the most qualified managers and technicians, from every corner of Europe and the United States, for this enterprise, and as the ongoing development of the sector demanded, other people were appearing in this exciting climate, the kind of climate which always accompanies epic deeds and the conquest of new frontiers.

I had signed a contract with each of them, requiring that they stay in the Middle East for at least three years. It had not been easy to find and select them, but persuading them to come to Kuwait City had been even more difficult. This small army of expatriates had a thousand problems and endless needs: from obtaining visas to finding accommodation and getting their families settled. I spent days and nights organizing and planning all that was necessary to make the enterprise run smoothly, and ensuring the well-being of all those men for whom I was responsible. Now that I was in charge, I wanted to do everything I could for them; all that I would have wanted for myself if I had been in their position. But in spite of all my efforts, I never managed to satisfy them.

With all their different languages, nationalities and professions, I had assembled a little tower of Babel, a multiform body,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.