He paused, his gaze landing on the Italian Rossi: "Luca, last month you negotiated three oil fields in North Africa, all ruined by the Americans, right?"
Rossi froze for a moment, then his face turned somber: "How did you——"
"Because the Americans offered a higher price to the local warlords and promised military protection," Victor finished for him, "but what if... I can offer you another form of protection? Not soldiers, but something cleaner. Like a quantum-encrypted oil field monitoring and automatic defense system. It can identify even the species of a rat that sneaks in, and it can automatically adjust the oil pipeline pressure to increase production by twenty percent. Moreover, the system is completely independent of the existing satellite network; the Americans can't hack it."
Rossi's breathing quickened: "The price?"
