"I must say that I agree. What do you say, Jiang?"

"Ethanol is the future, and we must look to the future."

"What about you, Mr. Black?" Martin asked and all eyes turned to him.

"Like the man said, when the oil is gone, it’s gone. You can always grow more sugar cane."

"Then we are in agreement," Chang said and stood up. He went to the door and asked the others to come in. Once they had reclaimed their seats, Chang told them of their decision. "At this time, gentlemen, we feel that it is in our long-term interest to make our investment in ethanol production."

Placido and Toribio shook hands and seemed to be very happy with the decision. But Cristobal, on the other hand, was not. He rose to his feet. "I think you gentlemen are making a big mistake." The next time Black saw Cristobal was the day he got shot.

"You remember that I was taking notes," Martin said. "Well, when I got back, Ebony, my assistant, the one they kidnapped, she got my notes and created a memo of that meeting and filed the memo in a folder called Cuban meeting."

"Damn, Martin, how could you let some shit like that happen?"

"I’m sorry, but now you see why you have to help me get those papers back. Your name is all over that memo. You know what will happen if it becomes public that a United States Congressmen and a gangster were meeting with officials of the Cuban government in violation of American-Foreign policy? You said it yourself, it’s illegal. Treason-type of illegal."

"You know who got her?" Black asked.

"I don’t know who they are, but I have an idea where they might be. When they called about the ransom, they stayed on the line too long, and I was able to trace the call." Martin gave Black the address where the call was made.

"Okay, Martin, I’ll get your memo back," Black said.

"And the woman too," Martin insisted.