Balance of Power Shifted by Victor Karl

Rico pushing a large rolling trash barrel.  If we want to be professional lab rats he quipped, we will need to keep the lab up to standards.  Both started throwing a week’s worth of pizza boxes, Thai food containers, and junk food wrappers and of every kind water, soda and energy drink container into the trash.  Whew, I guess I tuned out the smell,” Rico said as he twitched his nose at the same time, but when you put all this garbage together it’s not pleasant.” Rico rolled the can out though the side door for trash pickup tomorrow and when he came back in he said we are rolling in 30-minutes.
    The drive to Tijuana was a relatively short one considering that there was some evening rush hour traffic and a minimal wait at the border crossing.  On the way there, Bill and I compared notes about our testing and by the end of our updates both of us were as pumped up as could be.  Bill looked at me, and said “Rico, do you know what this means?”  Without waiting for my reply, he went on in almost a whisper saying, “It means we have something here that is stable, can be replicated, can be controlled and can be harnessed to replace any electrical source to power homes, businesses, cars, boats and many others.  I do not want to use the phrase ‘game changer,’ but this could change the way the world runs.  Shit, this is not a game changer; this is a freakin ‘world changer’.  Just think about it.  Based on your testing we could build a system similar to solar panels, but would not need anywhere near the floor space to power an electric car or even an entire home.  Bill needed a moment to catch his breath, which gave me an opening to add a few caveats.  I started by saying, “I agree with what you are saying and I am really pumped about what I’ve seen, but we need to stay grounded and take one step at a time.  We do not know how stable this stuff will be over time, hell we do not even know what this stuff actually is.  I think more people need to be engaged to fill in some of the questions.  I also think we should incorporate ourselves and think about building a company around this and most important of all, keep this as secret as possible.”
    Bill looked at me with a puzzled and said, “Why do we need to keep it secret?  This is huge news and publicity could help us get moving and round up investors if needed.”  “Bill, Bill you silly little boy” I said, in my best motherly impersonation, “what do you think will happen when the people who produce oil from the ground, refine oil and sell oil and gas to run the world, see their livelihood go down the drain with our solution replacing theirs because it is cheaper and cleaner to use?  We could become targets and before we become targets I want to make sure we have everything lined up including security.”  As I was talking, I could see that Bill was realizing that what I said could literally happen.  I think the enormity of everything finally hit him because he got very quiet and remained so the rest of the ride.
    We stopped at a little cantina on the outskirts of town that I had discovered on one of my weekend jaunts.  The food was fabulous and we both ate piles of beans and rice, flautas, and large camerones in a variety of dishes.  The dark haired waitress was dressed in a black skirt and white blouse and her hair was pitch black.  She seemed to like Bill and spent most of dinner pampering him.  Bill had that easy gift a gab that women seemed to latch onto.  I have to admit I was a little jealous of the attention he was getting.  We finished a bottle of very good California white wine and paid our bill, and with Bill’s urging left a more generous tip than I would normally have.  We got in the car, drove to the more active downtown district, and parked the Camaro in a guarded parking facility since car theft was very common.  For the rest of the night we walked around and visited some shops and quite a few bars.  One bar had a