Elements

"I think we can be confident in the first couple of years after we started using the new buildings," Clive said, "but that's as long a limb as I feel comfortable going out onto at this point."

Elliot groaned before continuing, "Okay, I'll let the Wallaces know. What arrangements are being put in place for the workers, both for medical testing and for the continuation of pay and benefits for the duration of the winery's closure?"

"Human resources will have a compensation strategy prepared for your review by noon tomorrow," Clive assured his boss. "Medical testing will be coordinated through the EPA staff onsite."

"Very well," Elliot said. "Please keep me updated. I'll likely schedule a conference call with the lawyers and the Wallaces once we have an initial report on the scope of the situation, so let me know as soon as you learn anything new."

"I most certainly will, Sir."

"Thank you. Good night."

~~~

Doctor Garima Kumar sipped her tea as her computer booted. Her assistant had prepared it perfectly, which brought a smile to her face.

While waiting for the sign-in screen to appear, Garima reflected on how much happier her staff claimed to be under her leadership as India's Minister of Health and Family Services, compared to her predecessor. He had been the far too common physician with a 'God complex', and he had let his perceived superiority dictate his treatment of the people who reported to him. It was no wonder that the same people had been so easy for Garima to impress, with her friendly but firm leadership style.

Her assistant reappeared at the door to her office and said, "Minister, you have an urgent call from Dr. Nadal."

Garima leaned to look around her computer screen and said, "Thank you, Anna. Please tell him that I will be right with him."

She entered her password for her computer and then picked up the phone on her desk, "Good morning Rishit, how can I help you?"

The voice on the other end of the line sounded panicked. That was out of character for the Rishit Nadal that Garima had promoted as one of her district administrators.

"Calm down, Rishit. Please repeat yourself slowly."

"My apologies, Minister," Rishit said. "I am reporting that all the Bhil Meena inhabitants on Baba ka Magra and the smaller island Piari are dead. The wildlife sanctuary at Lake Jaisamand is also reporting hundreds of dead birds and animals of every kind."

"Do we know the cause?" asked the Minister, trying to keep her voice calm.

"Not yet," Rishit stated. "Our team discovered the bodies this morning when they arrived on the islands to conduct yearly immunizations for the children of the tribe. There are no external injuries or indications of the cause, so of course, we are starting with tests of the lake's water. We should have preliminary results on these tests shortly."

Garima launched her e-mail application before replying, "Understood. Have there been reports of similar deaths elsewhere?"

"We were hoping that you would know and could tell us," Rishit said.

Quickly scanning the subject lines for any e-mails that she received between leaving her office last evening and this morning, Garima saw nothing related to what was being reported to her now.

"I have heard nothing prior to your report," she told Rishit. "How many fatalities are you reporting at this time?"

"The initial count provided was one-hundred-thirty-four individuals," Rishit said. "Sixty-three were adults, and the rest were minor children."

"I haven't been to Lake Dhebar for several years," Garima said, using the modern name for the lake. "There are no chemical plants or other industries near there, correct?"

"That is correct," Rishit confirmed. "It is in a rural area in the Udaipur District. The primary industry in the area is agriculture. That fact could become important if the water in the lake is the cause of these deaths because the same water is used to irrigate many of the farms and fields in the area."

"Understood. Please send me the preliminary test reports on the water as soon as you have them. Be certain that our people take the appropriate steps to protect themselves from whatever may be the cause, especially some virulent infectious disease or the like. Keep the bodies isolated on the islands until the cause of death has been determined. Have any pathologists been notified?"

Rishit responded immediately, "That is my next order of business after notifying you. The immunization teams have all retreated to the boats that they used to access the islands and will remain on them until further notice."

"Fine. I am going to contact the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change right now. I will provide them with your contact information so that you can coordinate the investigation with their pollution control specialists."

"Yes, Minister. I will keep you informed."

"Thank you, Rishit. Stay safe."

As soon as the call was disconnected, Garima called to her assistant, "Anna, please get me Darshan Sridhar. Please tell him it is urgent."

"Yes, Minister."

Garima contemplated whether to notify the Prime Minister, but decided to wait until more details were known. Her assistant notified her that her call was ready, so she wasted no time initiating the conversation with her counterpart.

Without the normal pleasantries, Garima said, "Minister, there has been an incident at Lake Dhebar that may require your ministry's involvement." She spent the next five minutes explaining every detail that she knew at this time.

After listening carefully, Darshan said, "The fact that the birds and animals at the sanctuary also were affected would tend to rule out biological or viral factors, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, I do," said Garima. "Which is why I wanted you to be informed as soon as possible. If this is an environmental pollution incident, you should be allowed the opportunity to get your teams involved as quickly as possible."

"Minister, I appreciate your consideration more than I can express," said Darshan. "Your predecessor certainly would not have extended a similar courtesy. Has the Prime Minister been notified?"

"To the best of my knowledge, she is unaware of the situation. Someone else may have informed her, but it did not come from my ministry. I prefer to have more details before conveying this type of news to the Prime Minister."

Darshan chuckled, "I apologize. This is not something that I should be laughing about, but the differences between you and the man who held the position before you brings joy to those who knew him, and sometimes that joyousness gets expressed at inopportune times. I will get the pollution specialists heading towards Lake Dhebar immediately. Please keep me posted on what your team learns from the water tests and any autopsies of the bodies."

"Of course, Minister. I would suggest that you notify the Prime Minister of the situation, though. Knowing that your ministry is reacting so soon would be viewed favorably in case she hears of it from another source."

"I will notify her as soon as we are done," Darshan assured his colleague. "Thank you once more for your professionalism and courtesy, Garima."

"We must learn to work together, Darshan. Especially in situations such as this may turn out to be."

"Garima, if you ever run for Prime Minister, you would have my complete support."

~~~

"Just a minute, Didi. I'm getting out of the shower." Julian Cabot turned off the water and reached for his towel.

"That's okay, Jules," said his personal assistant, Didi Kleinhans, "I was just letting you know that I was here. I brought some coffee up for you."

Jules turned and smiled at her through the glass door of the shower. He wasn't the least bit embarrassed that the sight of her produced a visible bodily reaction, or that Didi was able to witness the reaction while waiting for him in his bathroom. Jules and his assistant had worked together for three years and were as close as siblings.

Both had seen the other naked, or close to it on several occasions; sharing rooms, giving each other massages after stressful meetings, or discussing business together in a sauna. While each had acknowledged the attractiveness of the other, their relationship had remained chaste.

He couldn't recall at the moment what the exact relationship was; cousin, niece, or something like that, but one look at Didi reminded him of her kinship to Amy Kleinhans, who had been the first non-white Miss South Africa. Jules thought that Didi could walk away with any beauty pageant crown in the world. She knew this and appreciated the fact that her boss and one of the most eligible bachelors in the world valued and trusted her above almost everyone else in his life.

"Good morning Didi," Jules said as he stepped out of the shower.

Didi handed Jules the coffee cup and said, "Good morning to you, or what's left of it. Why did you want to get such a late start today?"

Jules took a sip of coffee and said, "I wanted to meet with Siphiwe Myeni on the boat this morning. We needed to discuss the timing for the replacement of the engine seals. We had breakfast at the Meerensee Boat Club after that."

"So," said Didi as she took his towel and folded it over the rack for him, "You've already started on your caffeine consumption for the day. When you suggested that I be here between ten and eleven, I thought it was to allow you time to sneak your latest tryst out of the house before I arrived."

"Heavens no," Jules chuckled. "It was to allow you more time to roust your latest paramour out of your own bed"

Didi smacked his bare bottom playfully and laughed, "Aren't we the sad celibate lot. You get dressed and I'll get our laptops ready in your study."

"Why don't you get undressed and I'll get the laptops ready?" Jules teased.

Didi laughed again and said, "I would except that you then wouldn't be able to sit at your desk."

She pointed to his erection, "You need clothes to corral that thing whenever I'm around, and we both know it."

Jules laughed with her and said, "Touché. I'll be down shortly. Do me a favor and start looking at dates in May that we can move the board meeting to. The second week in June won't work for me now. I'll explain it to you later."

"You want the same location, just a different date?" Didi asked as she started for the door.

"If possible. Let's find an open date in my calendar first since that's the factor with the least flexibility. We can adjust the location and other details much easier."

"I'll see what I can do," Didi said, as she left him alone to dress.

Quickly combing his hair and getting dressed, Jules considered the words he would use to once again try to convince Didi to allow him to buy her a condo. She had to know how important she was to him, both personally and professionally. Providing her with a place to live in a safer neighborhood closer to his house only made sense. He could just buy the condo he had been considering and then order her to live there as a condition of her employment, but he knew that she would see right through that. Forcing someone to do something against their will was not his style.

Didi sensed his presence when he entered the study where she was seated at her desk. She smiled at Jules as he walked around her to his desk and sat.

"I have identified two dates in May where the board meeting could be moved to," Didi started.

"I sense a 'but' coming," Jules said.

Didi nodded, "But, they are both rather early in the month. I'm concerned whether we'll have the financial reports for the fiscal year prepared by then."

"Let me pull up my calendar," Jules said. "Why don't you roll your chair around here and we'll go over it together. There might be some reshuffling of things later in May that we could do."

Didi moved her chair around the desks as Jules shifted his to allow her to sit beside him and share the view of his monitor.

"Okay, let's take a look," Jules said as they both watched him navigating his schedule calendar. "Well, we obviously can't hold the board meeting before May 23^rd because that's the date planned for the contract to be signed. I can't notify the board of my plans to sell a controlling interest in Cabot Geological's mining operations to Anglo-American Mining while we're still within the non-disclosure period."

"Jules, I know that we've discussed this, but are you certain that you want to relinquish part of your family's business?"

"Didi, I'm only divesting us of the mining operations. If we don't make a move now to get out of mining, I'm afraid that we'll miss the opportunity to do so on our own terms. It won't take long for others to realize what I have about the future of Platinum Group Elements, and when they do, the value of all PGE mining operations will go into a free-fall."

"I know," Didi said in acceptance. "Once China, South Korea, and Japan mandate that only electric and hybrid vehicles be driven in those countries, the need for palladium and platinum for catalytic convertors will plummet. Palladium is currently selling short of five-thousand Rand per Troy ounce and the global decline has been happening for years, but what about the other ores?"

Jules was shaking his head before Didi finished, "The Bushveld Igneous Complex does have significant reserves of non-PGE ores, but our operations in the Platreef Reserve has the lowest inventory of those compared to our competitors. We couldn't produce enough to make the required technological investments profitable."

Didi placed her hand onto Jules' forearm and said, "You know I fully support whatever you want to do, but you mean too much to me for me to not want to protect you from any possible regrets."

"Let's revisit the idea of protection in a few minutes," Jules said dismissively. "Look at this; if we reschedule the conference call with Cyril Matunjwa from the 29^th to one of the open dates earlier in the month, then we could move the board meeting to then. That would leave Monday the 28^th as a travel day so that none of the board members would need to leave on Sunday."

"That could actually work to our benefit," said Didi. "Cyril will be intending to pressure you on new union demands, so he'll welcome the opportunity to meet with you sooner. You can then push his demands off until after the board meeting when Anglo-American Mining will be the ones he has to deal with."

Jules laughed, "The workers at all Anglo-America operations belong to the Association of Mineworkers Union. Cyril's National Union of Mineworkers may be on the outside looking in for quite some time."

Didi didn't join Jules in laughing, "It couldn't happen to a more deserving creature. Cyril Matunjwa is a cruel, contemptible excuse for a human being. The fact that he isn't in prison only serves to prove how corrupt the system is where labor unions and politicians are concerned."

Jules smiled and nodded, "I really hope that someday you'll overcome this reluctance to tell me exactly how you feel."

That made Didi laugh. "So, now that we have a new date for the board meeting, can you share with me why you wanted it changed?"

Jules opened his e-mail application and selected a message from the previous day. Once it was open, he clicked on a hyperlink within the e-mail and waited for the website to launch.

Pointing to it, he said, "We're going to be traveling to the United States to attend this symposium."

Didi leaned closer to the monitor to read the fine print on the screen. "The 2029 Earth Science and Environmental Symposium?"

"That's right. Apparently, the thesis written for my Master's degree made it into the hands of the symposium organizers and they have invited me to be on a panel to discuss environmental responsibility within the mining industry. I will be representing South Africa and there will be others from Canada, Russia, China, Australia, and of course, America."

"The dates for the symposium are June 8^th through the 14^th," noted Didi. "Will you, or I should say 'we' be attending the entire time?"

"You've never been to the United States, have you?" Jules asked her.

"No. Why?"

Jules put his arm around her shoulder and said, "I think that our trip should be a comprehensive one. How about if we fly to New York and see the sights there, and then drive down their east coast to the city where the symposium is being held, Myrtle Beach. We can then spend the remainder of June visiting whatever other locations in America pique our interest."

"A sort of working vacation?" Didi asked.

Jules squeezed her shoulder with his hand and said, "Sort of, but with the emphasis tilted strongly towards the vacation aspect."

"Jules, I would love to experience America with you, but do you think that it would be wise for us to be seen together as much as the trip you described would do?"

Although Julian Cabot and Didi Kleinhans had expressed their fondness and attraction to one another, they had always been hesitant to express the same in public. Apartheid had ended, but the society in which they both lived still limited them. Jules was white, of English descent, and Didi was Cape Coloured. Not a suitable combination.

Jules leaned over and kissed Didi on her forehead, "No one in America will take notice of you and I being seen together in public or private. I have one of the most beautiful women in the world beside me daily and I want the opportunity for people to finally recognize that fact. I want any limits to be ones that you and I agree upon between man and woman, not what society sets for us."

Didi just stared at Jules without speaking. She trusted him more than words could express, but could she trust herself and her feelings for him if the limits that had always been in place were suddenly removed? The idea of falling even more hopelessly in love with Julian Cabot, only to be forced back into the limited relationship that currently existed scared her to death.

As if reading her mind, Jules said, "Trust me, Didi. You are my priority. I want you to be happy, and I think that you want the same for me."

Didi just nodded, afraid of how her voice might crack if she tried to speak.

Jules stood and began pushing Didi's chair back to her desk. She giggled while raising her feet so that they wouldn't drag on the floor as he playfully spun her chair and rolled her into position in front of her computer.

"Now, be the good little assistant and make me happy," Jules said. "First, start making our travel arrangements to New York. Whether you have us seated next to each other on the flights or booked into separate hotel rooms, all those types of choices are yours to make. I'll make our arrangements for the symposium itself. Everything after that we can play by ear."

"Got it, Boss," Didi said with a smile. "What else would make you happy?

Jules wanted to say, "Move in with me," but instead said, "Locate a mover to start packing up that rat hole apartment that you live in. I want you to move into the condo I am buying a few miles from here in Arboretum."

Didi surprised him by saying, "Who's making who happy here?"

She then surprised him further by standing and kissing him lightly on the lips.

~~~

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Ginger. Have you got a few minutes?"

"Oh, good morning Lacey. Sure, I was just reviewing my grant application. What's up?"

"I just received confirmation that our girls will be seated second at the Coastal Invitational and wanted to know if you can still make the second week of June."

Ginger Olsen had played on the women's volleyball national championship team at UCLA with Lacey King while they were both undergraduates. Lacey had gone on to become captain of the gold-medal-winning Olympic team and eventually became the head coach for the program at UCLA. Ginger had given up competitive volleyball to pursue her post-graduate studies in geology and was currently an associate professor in Earth Sciences at their alma mater.