VAPOR TRAILS

Mason Burnside is the number two man at Splendid Oil, a company with a budget bigger than most countries. All he cares about is meeting market demand and getting the top spot. He has fought hard to get where he is, and has left a path of destruction, both personal and ecological in his wake. When his signature project in Ecuador turns into an environmental disaster, CEO Jack Masterson, his long time rival, uses the opportunity to play king of the mountain and in a vindictive move, demotes him to head the company's token and toothless sustainability department.

His perky new assistant suggests that he inform himself at a global conference on the subject in New Orleans. Burnside agrees to attend, sensing an opportunity to pull himself back up the ladder with the idea of undermining what he sees as a nuisance and a threat to profitability. Mid-conference, a category four storm hits the city, throwing everything into chaos and leaving Burnside in a struggle for survival, eventually stranding him on a rooftop with Diana Mars, one of the conference keynotes. Burnside finds himself enthralled with Diana’s moral clarity and the power of her vision, as well as her beauty. At the same time she hits him between the eyes with the blind hypocrisy that has been his win-at-all-costs existence.

Returning to Houston, he learns how his predecessor, a man truly dedicated to the cause, has disappeared mysteriously, somewhere in Asia after having stumbled upon an internal intrigue so damaging, that Masterson would stop at nothing to keep it secret. Burnside, recognizing the catastrophic possibilities, agrees to lead the rescue party, but only after he has faced his demons in a secretive and dangerous trip to the wilds of Ecuador, where a fateful decision he made years earlier doomed an entire region. What he discovers in Asia is a shock to everyone involved.

This sweeping story, which criss-crosses the planet at a breathtaking pace, is grounded in carefully researched science. Written by two authorities in the area of sustainable business, it is guaranteed to be as informative as it is entertaining. Roger Saillant, a former Ford Executive and CEO of Plug Power is a frequent international speaker on energy and sustainability. RP Siegel, is an award-winning inventor, freelance journalist and environmental advocate. This dramatic story is perhaps the first of its kind: a thriller centered on the global climate disruption issue, based on solid science, and told from a perspective that shows both the business and the environmental side of the story.

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