The deadlock was a sadder defeat than a mere loss would have been. A loss would have been a neat conclusion, a fight over. The vote of paralysis due to Alta's vote of absence was a living death for Ezra's aspirations. He retained his titles, his spot on top of the table, but his influence was an illusion. The revolution whipped up by Junior and David had met its prime objective: they had halted the funding. The family's bottomless resources were immobilized in indecision.
His grand plans, the very building blocks of his future realm, were denied the funds they desperately needed to exist. The rocket program of Neptune was brought down. The transistor and supercomputer programs operated critical funding cliffs. His whole operation, once that loomed over the future like a giant colossus, was threatened with crashing to the ground under its own tremendous weight. Ezra Prentice, the long game master, was checkmated.
It was on this hour of utmost weakness, his back against the wall, that he personally met his most lethal and genius asset. He talked to Baron von Hauser in the security complex, once prison-like premises now looking more the private study of an exile monarch.
Ezra emerged for the first time in the peculiar relationship as anything other than commander or debriefer. He came as a client, a shaken king. He laid out the entire case in clinical, almost brutal frankness: the catastrophic burn rate of his research and development division, the sensational flops, the family uprising masterminded by his nephew, the political lockup of the board.
The Baron listened, his eyes once so often clouded with bored ennui now burning with a fierce, intellectual intensity. This was not merely a case of engineering or finance. This was a complex multi-sided struggle involving finance and politics and, oh most deliciously of all, the psychology of the family. This was the kind of situation to which he was born.
"So," von Hauser observed after Ezra finished, a wolfish lean smile on his face. "A god-king overthrown on the vote of a committee of his own mortal relatives. How quaintly... democratic."
He got up and began to stride the room, his face clearly engaged, resolving the variables with alarming speed. "Your error, Mr. Prentice, was overreach and underestimate. You assumed the early wins put you in unconditional control. You didn't anticipate the resentment of your brother-in-law or the urges of his son. But this isn't a fatal flaw. This is only a crisis to be surmounted."
He finished pacing and turned to Ezra, his face alight with the passion of pure strategy. He offered not a single solution, but a coordinated two-pronged counter-stroke of brilliant cynicism and genius.
"First," the Baron began, holding up a solitary finger, "you must arm the state. You've been treating the United States government as a tool, something to be prodded and manipulated toward your own ends. This is inefficient. You must make them your key partner. Your prime financial patron."
Ezra frowned. "I need to maintain my independence."
"These people do not even believe in independence once every century," von Hauser snapped back. "You're not building a better mousetrap; you're building the foundation of the nation's destiny. It is not your project; it is theirs. You've got to make them pay for it. You've got Senator Truman and the other political supporters. Put the two together. Get 'em to introduce legislation to approve the first massive, peacetime U.S. government research and development contracts for 'national security.' You'll have a National Science Foundation. You'll have a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a decade ahead of schedule. Your companies, with existing experience and facilities, will be uniquely and perfectly positioned to capture all the large contracts. The government will be something no longer to be lobbied; it will be the largest and most dependable customer. Your cash-flow problems will be fixed overnight."
It was a devil's bargain. To save his private kingdom, he would be compelled to tie it irrevocably to the state and become a government contractor on a scale the world had never known. It would provide him with tremendous resources but also with fresh dependencies and fresh masters to serve.
"Second," the Baron said with a twinkle in his eyes, "you must break the family insurrection. Your family is divided, but you're fighting the family united. This is a tactical error. You must divide and conquer. The answer is in the hands of your nephew, David."
Von Hauser paused, master showman unveiling his master stroke. "Your brother-in-law, Junior, is a moralist. He confronts you because he believes you're a bad man. You cannot win his heart. But David... David is a banker. He confronts you because he believes you're a poor investment. A banker's support has a price tag. You must get out of the habit of viewing him as an enemy and view him as an asset."
"What do you recommend?" Ezra insisted, unaware of his own captivation.
"You give him a piece of the action," said the Baron. "But not a piece of your high-risk businesses. You develop a brand-new empire—just for him. A safer, more respected one. You're the world's best expert on the post-war world scene. Create a brand-new institution—the Rockefeller International Reconstruction Bank, for instance. Its mission will be to take advantage of the family name and your own unique worldwide intelligence and pour the proceeds into rebuilding ruined German and Japanese industries. It'll be solid, respected, and very profitable. And you will appoint David Rockefeller its head. You will give him his own empire to build and his time and penchant will be taken up elsewhere and he will have neither the time nor the will to continue wrecking yours."
Ezra was speechless. The plan was villainous. It was genius. It addressed all of his problems. It would solve his financial crisis by utilizing the prowess of the US Treasury. It would squash the family revolt by mesmerizing his arch-nemesis with the only thing that he so desperately wanted: his own throne.
He walked into the room a king in checkmate. He would walk out with a plan to not only save his kingdom but expand it far beyond his own greatest hopes. But it would take a toll. He would be obligated to yield some of his power to his nephew and obligate himself to the whim of the government. And be forever in the debt of the political genius of his captive.
It was concluded in the silence of the room. A deal with the devil.
Ezra worked on lightning speed. He walked up to David Rockefeller in an exclusive club. He didn't appeal to his assistance; he offered him a world. He offered the vision of a global banking house. David, the pragmatist, the banker, saw the enormous historic opportunity in a flash. The chance to escape the shadow of his father, to inscribe the Rockefeller name on the world stage in a project of his own design... it was something that he could not, and didn't, resist. The family revolt was over.
Meanwhile, President Truman at the White House was also consulted by Ezra. He called for a new model of national security, a mutual agreement in which the state would positively fund and support the essential research being performed in industry. "Mr. Prentice," Truman responded, never hesitating to harness Ezra's revealed abilities on the state's account, "it's the brightest thing I've heard all year." He swore to support the bill thus developed.
This last step was of Ezra and Baron von Hauser, who stood over a massive world map in the security complex. The immediate crisis was ended. Ezra's throne was protected. But the map in front of them now unveiled a far more complex world. It revealed the flow of public money into his own research laboratories. It revealed David Rockefeller's newly enlarged field of influence. It revealed a system of new involvement and new danger.
"A wonderful plan, Baron," said Ezra, a note of genuine admiration in his voice.
"Yes," replied von Hauser, his face slowly breaking into a smile. "But remember, Mr. Prentice, the more complex the machine the more chances it has for failure. I shall be most interested to see the way you work this specific unit."
War over who ruled was over. A new and far more intricate coalition was only beginning.