The Son of Man: Saoshyant

By George W. Barclay Jr.

Sequel to Road to Damascus. DEATH TO USA and DEATH TO ALL AMERICANS were painted in blood on multiple walls in downtown Tehran. The desecrated American fl ag with blood or red paint shocked her and death to the USA meant her among others. It meant all Americans! The poison and evil of the clergy, Mullahs and Immans, were palpable like a paraclete from darkness, like a paraclete from hell. The Mullahs never stopped. They pounded their chest and yelled, Allahu Akbar and death to the USA.

Sandra was too young to remember what Germany was like under Hitlers spell. A whole nation could be mesmerized by evil and become evil. Islam was evil! The Mullahs were evil, and Iran was evil. They wore veils and borqas and hovered close.

WARNING: Contains violence, profanity, and erotic sex. NOT FOR DUMMIES.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450266901

George W. Barclay Jr.

Dr. George W. Barclay Jr. is retired Beaumont Cardiologist. He writes adventure, mystery, science fiction and metaphysics. This is his twenty-sixth novel. He is graduate of Texas AM and Southwestern Medical School (MD FACC).

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Contents

LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

FORWARD

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 37

CHAPTER 38

CHAPTER 39

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 41

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 43

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 45

CHAPTER 46

CHAPTER 47

CHAPTER 48

CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 50

CHAPTER 51

CHAPTER 52

CHAPTER 53

CHAPTER 54

CHAPTER 55

CHAPTER 56

CHAPTER 57

CHAPTER 58

CHAPTER 59

LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

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FORWARD

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"I thumbed through the Catholic Dictionary, Hail Mary 1961, and could not find

Zarathustra or Zoroasterism. I did find Asuerus, King of Persia 485-465 b.c.e., a.k.a. as Xerxes son of Darius I who suffered defeat by the Greeks after he sacked Athens. Apparently he was the King who married Esther after he picked her out of a beauty contest to replace his first wife. He was also mentioned in the Book of Daniel (II-2) as the fourth Persian King in Daniel’s prophesy.

"According to the Catholic Dictionary SON OF MAN just means some male born of man. Jesus used it 80 times, sometimes referring to himself.

"Ahura Mazda was not included. The Roman Catholics didn’t mention Zoroasterism, but did Manichaeism because they wouldn’t baptize babies. They did list Nestor as excommunicated for preaching everybody had a ‘Devine twin’.

"They excommunicated John Wesley and forbade him to preach in England. At the time Zoroasterism was the state religion, Persia was the largest empire in the world. It spread all the way from India to Egypt. Zarathustra was the father of monotheism. The Romans created Jesus in the image of Zarathustra to get back at the Jews. What started out as a joke ended up a world religion. The same with Muhammad. The Arabs hated the Jews. All that about Muhammad flying to Jerusalem on a magic ass was made up, but it grew and grew.

"They started with a strange attractor, and it repeated and repeated, over and over, by word of mouth, by pen, and finally by printing press, radio, television, Internet. It was deterministic, non linear, and Chaos. CHAOS! CHAOS!

"I’m not crazy! The whole world is in Chaos. We came all the way to Persepolis, and Ahura Mazda spoke to me through Hail Mary. Zarathustra was the prophet and Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad were cruel jokes, products of Chaos. There was a fractal, plain and simple. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and Muhammad flew in on a magic ass. It was like a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and causing a tornado in Mississippi. It was like President Clinton embracing Monica Lewinsky on public TV broadcasted all over the world. It started out as a joke, but over and over, and an atomic bomb detonated over some jungle in Burma, like the butterfly in Brazil causing a whirlwind in Texas, Mississippi, or wherever. CHAOS! CHAOS!

"I’m like the man running around with a lantern looking for one honest man. God is dead! Muhammad killed him. Alexander couldn’t have cared less. He went on a three week drunk, and a Greek harlot talked him into casting the first torch. Later she married Ptolemy the First and became ancestor to all the Ptolemys and Cleopatras. Yes! Cleopatra IV who bore Julius Caesar two heirs and Mark Anthony five heirs, all smothered in their sleep by Octavia and Lydia, sister and wife of Caesar Augustus. She actually threw the first torch.

Does anybody have any questions?

Sandra, excited, jumped up. From where did the saying, the Son of Man coming on a cloud to judge the quick and the dead come?

Dr. Plotinus smiled. "Luckily, Zarathustra was a prophet, writer, and poet. He wrote his own scriptures and hymns. The Parsis have them in Mumbai (Bombay). SAOSHYANT means SON OF MAN, the cosmic judge to whom Jesus referred.

"Ahura Mazda told Zarathustra in a vision about the Son of Man arriving on a cloud to awaken the sleeping and judge each person living and dead, good or bad, on their merits on earth, not their beliefs or sacrifices, and not their social status or riches, but whether they’d been good or bad, like Santa Claus at Christmas, to award the ‘nice’ and disappoint the ‘naughty’. Zarathustra preached good thoughts, good words, and good deeds would lead to a good life and family and be rewarded with good things in an afterlife, wherever.

"Zoroasterism was called the ‘good religion’. If you were nice, you’d be rewarded good. If you were bad (evil) you’d sit in a dark corner and eat soiled food. They didn’t have a nice name for feces back in those days. If you haven’t read Dante’s Purgatorio, Paradesio, and Inferno, I highly recommend it. He had adulterers wallowing in feces down in purgatory.

"I had a Boston Terrier named Suzie that ran around eating poo poo and dirt and gave birth to 5 litters of 7 pups, was never sick, and died of arthritis and old age at 19 years.

Actually, kids eat dirt and poo poo, and it doesn’t hurt them. They get rid of pathogens, build up immunity to viruses and cancers, never get sick, and live to a ripe old age.

Any more questions? asked Dr. Plotinus, happily. They were about as far away from Christendom as they could get at Persepolis, the birthplace of Zarathustra, AHURA MAZDA, and the SON OF MAN (Saoshyant).

"In Israel we saw graffiti, GOYIM GO HOME, and here in Iran they ridicule our

President and desecrate our flag and write graffiti, DEATH TO THE U.S.A. in blood. Those are the messages we’ll carry home. The Jews hate us, and the Iranians want to kill us. Tourists are tolerated because tourists spend dollars and create jobs. The best tour right now for your US$ is China. They are the oldest country and have most to see.

"AL-LAHU AKBAR AL-LAHU AKBAR THERE IS NO AL-LAH BUT AL-LAH. AL-LAH BEGOT NOT NOR WAS HE BEGOTTEN. THERE IS NO ALLAH BUT AL-LAH AND MUHAMMAD WAS HIS PROPHET."

Aristotle Plotinus, PhD

CHAPTER 1

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Ben Milam’s Old Place

Sugar Land, Texas

December, 1993

Dirk needed a flat bottomed Jon boat, troll motor, push pole, and a 50 hp Johnson. He wanted to inspect his west property line after deer season. Ben Milam’s property was a half mile wide and two miles long and ran parallel to a big bend in the Brazos River. Past the gait to the old Pearland road was a cypress swamp covered in pond scum from which Rico Carbello rose up like a zombie and joined A. Fuller Bottle Jr. on the stairway to a flying saucer which took off and disappeared.

Dirk began to connect the dots. Cost stashed the money in the cabin and dumped Rico’s body in the swamp.

Dirk was planning on driving to Angleton to see lawyer Jackson and buy Ben Milam’s place, surface and mineral rights.

Neva had a Monarch Fish and Ski with a 150 hp Black Max and troll motor that she was desperate to sell. He’d call her.

The sun was high in the sky, and they had exhausted their scant knowledge about the Karankawa Indians who were seven feet tall and ate people alive and Lafitte’s pirates.

Texas rivers and streams were navigable before they put in the dams up stream. They just furnished water for irrigation of rice, municipal water supply, and livestock. The land was sinking. In a hundred years, Galveston Island would be gone, and citizens of Houston would have salt water up to their ankles.

Cypress swamps connect with the river at one or more places and when the water goes down it stagnates. Grinnell’s bred in them and during spawn you could catch a boat load. Net fishing was against the law, so were telephoning and dynamite. They carried big fines, jail sentences, and adverse publicity. A fenced off cypress swamp open to the river had every wild creature known to east Texas. Hogs and goats were brought over by the First Spanish and Feral hogs were everywhere.

There were woods and pastures in Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties. You could raise cattle for market and feed them hay in the winter. The deep oil was still there, and the depleted reservoirs still had 60%. The Saudi’s regulated it just below the break even price.

Whatcha think is back in that swamp? asked Miguel.

Nutria rats, weasels, alligators, Feral hogs, deer, zombies and ghosts, replied Dirk, chuckling.

Do tell! What do you really think is back there? begged Miguel.

Miguel, I’m going to buy me a boat, troll motor, and a push pole, and after I pay for this place, I’m coming back out here to see.

What do you guess is back there?

"I’d guess a steamboat dock and pilings, and ruins of a warehouse, some buildings, a brick church, and a negro graveyard among other things. We really need to explore it from the river. I don’t know how far this swamp goes.

I’m afraid of ghosts and graveyards, replied Miguel, frightened.

"You won’t back out. You have your Beretta and leg gun. I’ll bring my 0.38 cal. and shoulder holster. The worst we’ll see are Feral hogs and alligators. It’s probably not over waist deep. If we find any graves, we’ll dig them up and look for pirates gold bullion, pieces of eight, and Karankawa artifacts. They made a game out of eating people alive. I spent lots of time when I was a kid in Hardin looking for Spanish gold and pirate’s treasure along the banks of the Trinity. All Aborigines were cannibals before the Spanish.

"Brazoria Power and Light has a nuclear plant about ten miles down the river, and a couple of university professors, Drs. Morton Salter and Mambo Nigera, have a home and fishing pier down a spooky old road about a couple of miles passed the nuclear plant in Brazoria County.

Then there’s Hale’s Road and Hale’s Ranch and an abandoned fish camp where Captain Billings and lawyer Sandra Lerner shot at an alligator that tore off Sergeant Bobby Crawford’s leg, volunteered Dirk.

Miguel, totally spooked, asked, You’ve seen all that?

Yeah, replied Dirk, smiling. No such thing as a ghost, just a few zombies, extraterrestrials, and flying saucers. You wouldn’t believe it. Those Karankawas lived around here 8000 years before the Spanish and pirates showed up. Dirk laughed.

I’m going to see Neva about her boat. It’ll go sixty miles an hour wide open. You can store a bass boat at your cabin to use in the river, commented Dirk, thoughtfully.

Dirk, may I ask you about my daughter? I never did tell you about my family. You’re my friend. I don’t tell the priest everything.

How long you been with Sheila? asked Dirk.

Ten years, since we made detectives. She’s the only partner I’ve had. We’re a team. We don’t discuss our personal lives or sex. I don’t think Sheila has a sex life to be honest, replied Miguel. It’s my daughter I worry about!"

Dirk chuckled. It’s about sex?

My wife works nights in Western Union at Wal Mart. She speaks Spanish, and when business is slow they ring a bell. She doesn’t report tip money on her Income Tax report.

Dirk waited. Big deal!

Consuela is my oldest. She’s 18 and my other daughters are 16 and 14, like stair steps. Consuela sleeps with me. When my wife’s home, she sleeps in her own bed, replied Miguel, nervously.

Dirk looked at his watch. Miguel, I hate to interrupt. I want to drive to the bank, get a certified check, and drive down to Angleton, sign the deed, and pay off the lawyer. You can tell me about Consuela en route, and we’ll stop off at the Brazoria power plant on the way back. Have you ever seen a nuclear power plant? They are carbon free.

What about Consuela? asked Miguel, worried.

She have her own bed?

She has a private bed. My younger daughters share their own bed.

Have you tried a dog? Why don’t you get her a little Terrier? replied Dirk, chuckling.

CHAPTER 2

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Houston, Texas

December, 1993

EXXON has developed an economical cold fusion process in which they take pure methane gas, pass it through a platinum catalyst, and produce high octane naphthas made of heptanes and octanes. It’s exothermic and produces heat which makes steam and generates electricity. All they need is methane gas that is free of impurities. It’s already gone through pilot stage, and they have a processing plant in operation at Baton Rouge, explained Donald Tantalia Jr.

Where are they going to get the gas? asked Deviné.

Frack it from shale. There’s enough in Texas (Barnett Shale) and Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming (Green River Basin) to run every car in the world for a thousand years, replied Don.

What about the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfides? asked Deviné.

They’re building a 600 million dollar plant to purify the natural gas and pump the carbon dioxide and water vapor back down in the wells to frack the hard shale. Since there’s so much natural gas, they’ll burn it to produce the heat needed, if any. It’ll be hot when it comes out of the ground. The Japanese have one in operation above Conroe. We’re going there.

*      *      *      *

They drove east through Conroe and Cut-and-Shoot and north toward Cold Spring, 40 miles north of Houston in San Jacinto County, and approached a small chemical plant with no furnaces, just an auxiliary power plant producing electricity from a generator turned by a turbine powered by steam from the catalytic reactor. A half dozen round white high pressure gas storage tanks were on one side and regular atmospheric gasoline storage tanks on the other. There was a bulk filling station nearby where gasoline transport trucks would fill up en route to local retail stations. It was 100 octane high grade premium ready to burn, free of impurities, and not needing a catalytic exhaust.

A sign out front read.

JAPANES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY

SYNFUEL GASOLINE PLANT

"It’s a small plant, only 50,000 barrels a day. They use pure methane and make 100 octane gasoline free of impurities. The catalyst is platinum in fixed bed and only has to be changed every ten years. The exact cost is an industrial secret. In Japan they manufacture small fuel efficient cars. A byproduct is electricity which they sell to the local industrial and utility companies.

No smoke, emissions, and no impurities, remarked Deviné. I thought synfuels were uneconomical as long as you can buy cheap Saudi crude, commented Deviné. She was learning. A personal lawyer was a sounding board that didn’t take notes and wouldn’t tell.

"EXXON has the patent using natural gas. The Germans developed it to make gasoline and diesel fuel during WWII out of methane gas from coal.

Guess who invented the first internal combustion engine which ran on peanut oil. It didn’t need a spark plug? asked Donald.

I haven’t the faintest. I went to Harvard Law School.

Diesel! laughed Donald. Otto Diesel or some such. He used peanut oil, and it worked.

*      *      *      *

It was all new and incomprehensible to Deviné. Donald was a knowledgeable guy and had been in the oil business most his life. He and Saudi Prince Khali owned SROCO, and Don was boss before he left it with Maria. Devine’ sat by him in the back seat of his stretch limousine with Carlos and Rudolpho up front and looked at the scenery go by through tinted glass windows. They drove back to Texas 105 toward Conroe and took a hardtop through Conroe oil field. They were flaring gas and filling tanks with oil. She knew that much.

If it’s gas you want, Conroe has more gas than any field in southeast Texas. Before they got down to 5,000 feet where the oil was, they had six gas-blowouts taking drill stem, casing, and derrick to kingdom come. Once they got to the oil the drilling rig collapsed and sank out of sight. Then they had a Christmas tree crater and sink, before the Independent called in Humble Oil who performed seismography and drilled a relief well to relieve the gas pressure. Where the first successful well cratered it left a pit 1,000 feet wide and 500 feet deep that produced 2,000,000 barrels of oil and inestimable cubic feet (millions and billions) of gas before they plugged it. They named it Alexander the Great. You know why? asked Don, smiling.

Devine’ knew he was teasing. I’ll bite, why?

Because Conroe oilfield and the Catalytic Cracker at the Humble Baytown Refinery produced all the gasoline and heavy fuels used on D-day and kept General Patton supplied when he raced across Europe to Victory. That’s a 100,000 barrel a day Cat Cracker still in use, the first of its kind anywhere. Now Humble Oil is EXXON, and they want to put a Bengal Tiger in your tank. You know why? asked Don, chuckling.

Devine’ giggled. He was using the Socratic method, like Harvard Law School. She thought hard hard.

They blew up Naypyidaw! guessed Deviné, going along to get along.

Don stopped smiling and thought. Honey, you’re as sharp as hell. No! EXXON didn’t blow up Naypyidaw, but the Bay of Bengal and Myanmar are where ‘it’s at’. Bhamo Basin is the next Saudi Arabia, and the Bay of Bengal has great potential. Those poor countries can’t use fossil fuels, and, if we don’t get a piece, China, Russia, Japan, France, and others, like India, sure as hell will. Everybody in China and India wants a new car, commented Don.

CHAPTER 3

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Robert Clive, son of a lawyer, gentleman farmer, and member of the House of Commons, was born in Shropshire England in September 1725. Of modest means, he was the oldest of 13 children, rebellious as a youth, and expelled from three private schools and arrested for extortion of neighborhood merchants. Lacking formal education and employment he was elected to the House of Commons and became a protégé of William Pitt.

At 18, Clive joined the civil service of the East India company as a clerk. En route his ship was detained in Brazil for repairs for a year where he learned Portuguese. When he arrived in India he was captured and imprisoned by the French. He led an escape and on arrival at his duty station was commissioned a Captain and placed in charge of the Commissary.

French and Indian troops attacked. Clive took charge of a much inferior force in stockade defense. After three attacks, the besiegers gave up, and Clive only lost five men.

In 1754 there was an uneasy truce, and in 1756, Clive now a hero at home, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the King’s Royal Army after no formal military training.

In 1756, while Clive was absent, Indian forces captured Calcutta and 146 British prisoners were suffocated in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Clive aided by the British Navy retook Calcutta in January 1757. Ground troops under Clive (2000) attacked and defeated a superior Indian force (60,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, and 30 cannon) and only lost 200 British troops.

On 21 June 1757, now a Major General and knighted First Barron (Lord Clive) at 32 won the Battle of Plassy during a monsoon downpour with 3200 troops and 9 artillery pieces against a combined Moghul and French Army of 50,000 infantry, 1800 cavalry, and 53 artillery pieces manned by French regulars.

Clive lost no British troops and only 22 Indians killed and 50 wounded. As a result, the British gained control of Bengal. At the Battle of Buxar in 1764 the British Army defeated the combined Moghul empire and laid claim to northern India.

In 1760, at 35, Clive returned to England where he was criticized for personal wealth. Because of alleged corruption within the East India Company he was returned to Bengal as Governor and Commander-in-Chief. He later refused the command of all English forces in the Americas.

Finally, he left India in 1767 and was acquitted of charges of corruption by Parliament, after which he committed suicide by stabbing himself on November 22, 1774 after he refused command of British forces in America.

*      *      *      *

Some people are born to greatness. Others are made great by circumstances not of their making, and a third become great by being at the right place at the right time.

Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979), First Earl of Burma, Viceroy of India, Admiral of the Fleet, and Supreme Allied Commander of the Southeast Asia Theatre (SEAC) from 1943 to 1946, was all of the above.

During the recapture of Burma from the Japanese he commanded General William Slim, head of British forces, General Joseph (Vinegar Joe) Stillwell, Commander of the American China, Burma, and India Theater, and General Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nationalist forces, and personally received the formal Japanese surrender at Singapore by General Itagaki Seishiro on September 12, 1945.

The last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten oversaw the granting of independence to British India and the partition of India into India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten, Admiral of the Fleet, was assassinated by the Irish (IRA) who planted a bomb in his private yacht at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland on August 27, 1979.

*      *      *      *

The British East India Company was a public joint-stock company owned by citizens and granted an English Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600 under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies.

In 1670, King Charles II, granted the British East India company the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops,, form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over acquired areas in India, China, and East Indies.

In 1711, it invaded China and established a permanent trading post in Canton (Guangzhou). It seized Manila in 1762. An Act of British Parliament granted the office of the Governor General and the Commander-in-Chief to be jointly held by the same official. By 1850 the company controlled commerce in most of India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canton, and a 20% of the world’s population excluding the English speaking where they enjoyed a near monopoly.

After the battles of Plassy in 1757 where combined forces of the Moghuls and French were defeated, the battle of Buxar, where the Moghuls were completely defeated, and the Sepoy Rebellion of native Indian troops in 1857, the British government nationalized the company and seized its Indian army and possessions.

The East India Stock Redemption Act came into effect on January 1, 1874, and the company was dissolved.

In retrospect, English replaced Persian as a common language, and the Indian courts adopted the English Judicial System, and Common Law. The English government buildings in New Delhi and Calcutta are still used by the Indian government with little change.

Cricket, Polo and soccer are their favorite sports and horseracing and afternoon tea are enjoyed by the privileged. They fought by England in all its major wars along with America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc., etc., English has become the business and diplomatic language of the world except in France.

The Indian railway system built by the British, and the Indian bureaucracy educated and trained by the British are still in place and are the largest in the world. The Indian Army organized and trained by the British use the English Manual of Arms and Field Tactics even to this day.

CHAPTER 4

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Houston, Texas

8 A.M., December, 1993

Fair and cool, Temperature 70˚

Devine’ missed Bill Riley’s skull session held in the Police Headquarters’ conference room. Cealis had coffee and Donuts ready.

Houston was into its second day of garbage collectors’ strike. The Police got their raise.

On Bill’s right were Cealis, Booker, Lois and Eva. On his left were Opal, Rene’, Ella, and Sheila. Booker’s right arm was in a short cast and sling.

Bill asked Rene’, Do you think Bill Clinton’s hugging Monica caused Naypyidaw? You know, like a Butterfly in Brazil causing a whirlwind in Kansas? He smiled.

Rene’ thought. They have not identified the perpetrators. Unexplained explosions and 25% of unsolved murders are caused by extraterrestrials. Spontaneous combustion is caused by laser beams. There was no earthly cause, replied Rene’ Descarte.

You don’t think the Chinese bombed Naypyidaw? asked Booker. All I see on TV is the big cloud over Naypyidaw and Monica Lewinski hugging Bill Clinton. You think they might be related like the butterfly effect? The U.N. sent three Africans, and Than Shwe ignored them. I think they should of sent an aircraft carrier."

Opal interrupted, "Can we get started. I’m due in Day Court. Let me go first, so I can leave. Because of the strike, we’ll handle everything in day court. I dismissed the Bloom-Early jury. Michael Finn admitted to perjury. Since we have Shelby Fox behind bars, they want to turn state evidence against Shelby and Ivry Cost. Booker persuaded Ivry to flip on Shelby. I think we can charge Dr. Raul Capistrano and make it stick. He told Shelby where to pick up and deliver the bulk cocaine. Four tons of it is in ministorage