case Study From Saga to Proton - 1994 Words

ACC 4291 INTEGRATED CASE STUDY SECTION 1 CASE REPORT CASE 3: PROTON – FROM SAGA TO EXORA Question 1 From a financial analyst perspective, has the proton management done a good job? Based on the financial performance of PROTON from 2005 till 2009, our observation from a financial analysis perspective showed that Proton management has not done a good job as far as financial performance is concern. The Key Financial Indicators (KFIs) covers measurements such as basic earnings per share, net assets per share; dividend paid as well as retained earnings carried forward. At a glimpse, almost all the KPI of Proton shows decrement throughout the years. Basic earnings per share (EPS) fluctuated vastly from 2005 to 2009. Proton recorded highest†¦show more content†¦On its own, PROTON has limited funds for research and development. Therefore collaborating with bigger automotive players lend research and development (RD) capabilities would be very beneficial, particularly in production of hybrid and electrical vehicles. Question 3 What broad consideration should determine the part of proton that are worth keeping and developing and matter of operation needs to be relocated or closed down? Proton needs to reconstruct its business structure by forgoing some part of business which are not worth keeping and expand those activities which generates ample profit. After analyzing Protons overall condition, firstly, the partnership with Lotus has helped Proton in strengthening the engineering, providing Proton an edge in Europe. Since Lotus is a British company that builds sports car, they have very well developed motor engineering technology which might be a gold opportunity for Proton to move forward and create more elegant and high-performance car models. In, Lotus even appeared in the Paris Auto Show 2010 with five slick looking sport cars. In order to move forward, Proton should seriously invest in RD with its strategic partner Lotus, to strengthen quality which they are unable to do themselves. In order to draw sales, you have to know how to attractShow MoreRelatedProton Supply Chain Challenges7696 Words   |  31 PagesPaper : Proton Supply Chain Challenges Table of Contents 1.0 Company Background 1-4 2.0 Problem Statement 5-7 3.0 Significant of Study 8-10 4.0 Proton Supply Chain Weaknesses 11-18 5.0 Recommendation 19-29 6.0 Conclusion 30 7.0 References 31-32 1.0) Company Background First national car, Proton Saga project was formed embark from the Look East Policy. Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sendirian Berhad (PROTON) wasRead MorePEST Analysis of Proton1769 Words   |  8 Pages 1.0 INTRODUCTION: PEST is a study which is apprehensive by describing the exterior of ecological manipulates on a company. 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Stage 2: Assembly of semi or fully CKD (Completely Knocked Down) vehicles by subsidiaries and licensed/franchised domestic companies, where parts and components are imported from the brand corporation. 1. Stage 3: Assembly of CKD vehicles with increasing local content. 1. Stage 4: Full-scale manufacture of automobiles, firstly for a protected domestic market, secondly for the export market, and thirdly for transplantsRead MoreCase 29 Panera Bread Company: Rising Fortunes?25159 Words   |  101 Pagessuccessful consumer postpaid plans. These plans are custom-made to meet the needs of enterprises, especially improved communications within and beyond their compound. Maxis international gateway services include termination of traffic into Malaysia from international telecommunications companies, supporting Maxis own outbound international direct dial (IDD) traffic, collecting international transit traffic and bandwidth leasing services. Board Of Directors Raja Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Arshad

SEC 10 k paper 221 - 1150 Words

SEC 10- K Paper Acct 221 Lakesha Craft SEC 10-K Paper The first Starbucks coffee shop opened in 1971 in Seattle Washington. The coffee shop was founded by three partners. Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl were teachers and Gordon Bowker was a writer. The idea to have a coffee shop came about when a close friend was selling high quality coffee beans and equipment. After a matter of time, the partners decided to purchase the product from the grower. The coffee shop was named after the Nantucket Whaleship first mate from the novel Moby-Dick. In 1982 Howard Schultz joined the company as the Director of Marketing and Retail Operations. He tried to convince the coffee shop partners to expand the business by†¦show more content†¦The need to do a comparative analysis is important in relation Starbucks needs for cash. There are many comparisons that can be made. The first comparison is the Intracompany basis. This method takes the current cash amount and then compared with the last year amount. Industry averages comparisons provide Starbucks with the industry averages of information about other companies. For example, Starbucks can compare their business to the company Seattle’s Best another coffee company. The Intercompany basis helps companies do comparisons with their competitors. For example, Starbucks would look at their competitors like Dunkin Doughnuts for a comparison. There are three main tools of Analysis. The first tool is the horizontal analysis. This method reviews a series of a company’s financial statement data over time period. This helps determine if an increase or decrease in sales. The formula for this method is by taken the current year amount subtract by the base amount divided the base year amount. The second method is the vertical analysis. This method evaluates the financial statement by expressing each as a percent of a base amount. This technique is sometimes called the common size analysis. It also shows the size of each category on the balance sheet. For example the individual asset, liability, and equity items are the different items listed on sheet. The next method is the ratio analysis. ThisShow MoreRelatedDesign And Design Of Vehicle Road Sign3347 Words   |  14 PagesInstrumentation Technology, R.V College of Engineering R.V Vidyaniketan Post, 8th Mile, Mysore Road, Bangalore 560059, Karnataka, India #Chairman, CiSTUP, Indian Institute of Science, Malleswaram, Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India Abstract— The following paper documents the development of an RFID based system that alerts vehicle drivers about approaching road oddities at an optimum distance before encountering them. The objective is to design a wireless system that delivers road signs (and other road-relatedRead MoreXerox Essay5974 Words   |  24 PagesDeborah L. 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Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry Free Essays

ABRSTACT: Exploration and production of petroleum is highly profitable sector, but on the other hand, it is very risky business. Catastrophe in refineries and oil rigs like Mexico II (1983) in the Gulf of Mexico, Pipe Alpha, has totally changed the script of safety procedure and risk assessment. It is evident from the past history, 65 % of disasters resulted due to Human Organizational error. We will write a custom essay sample on Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry or any similar topic only for you Order Now That’s why it is highly recommended to the oil operating and contractor companies to identify the risk, potential hazard and consequence of hazardous incident. Health and safety measure are always seems to be an overburden for project, but in reality they are preventing the tragic accident which would be result in damage of assets, loss of valuable human lives, demoralization of team and hazardous environmental impact. In last 35 years of North Sea, average yearly accidental cost is ?200M (except in 1988-1989 cost ?1200 M due to Piper Alpha) and loss of 485 precious human lives (ROYAL INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS 1991). In this report, we will try to discuss the critical issues of health and safety faced by a contractor company in oil industries. Furthermore, we will try to show what was done wrong in past and will try to suggest how similar incident might be prevented in the future. DISCUSSION: â€Å"Nation have passed away and left no traces, Any history gives the naked cause of it – one single simple reason in all cases; they fell because their people were not fit.†Rudyard Kipling. Unfortunately, the history of the oil and process industry indicates that a lot of incidents are repeated after a lapse of a few years .Because people move and lesson are forgotten. Accidents caused during the following activities are very common, many of them are not resulted in death, serious injury or serious damage – they were near-miss. But they could have had much more serious consequence. We will discuss few of them in detail. Isolation of Equipment. Accident caused by Human Error Entry to Vessel Liquefied Flammable gases Modification Storage Tanks Stacks Leaks Pipe and Vessel Failure Hazard of Common Material I don’t know that (Like Ammonia can explode, Hydraulic pressure can be hazardous, Diesel engines can ignite leaks. 1. Isolation of Equipment: Case I: Three people were killed and the plant was destroyed during a pump repair. Dismantling was done to repair the pump. When the cover was removed, hot oil, which is above its ignition temperature, came out and caught fire. From several days, a pump was waiting for repair work and work permit was issued. On the day of accident, the foreman who issued the permit should check the drain valve should be opened and suction delivery valves were shut. But suction valve was opened and drain valve was closed by someone. Maintenance team only intend to change the pump bearing and they decide to open the pump and inform the process team but no further checks and isolation was done. It is not habitual in company concerned to isolate the equipment under repair by slip plate, only by close valves. Similarly, failure in permit to work procedure was the major reason for the disasters of Piper Alpha. Recommendations: Permit to work will be withdrawal and new one is issued, if there is any change in the nature of work. Isolation of equipment must be done when it is under repair. Bleed valve and double blocks must be installed, where fluid at having gauge pressure above 600 psi or temperature above or near auto-ignition point. 2. Accident caused by Human Error: Case I: (Warning Ignored) During the working shift, it had been noticed by the operator that the level of fluid in tank is falling rapidly. He informed the instrument department that the level gauge is not working properly. After few hours, when they were changing the gauge, they found that the previous gauge was correct and there was a leaking in the drain valve. But it is quite late and they has been lost 10 ton of material. Case II: (High Temperature Alarm) After a modification pump was installed, it was used to transfer some liquid. When the transfer of liquid completed, operator pressed the switch off button, he saw the pump is â€Å"running off† light went out. After a several hours, high temperature alarm of pump sounded. Operator supposed that there was a fault in alarm and he ignored it. Soon afterward, there was a huge explosion in the pump. During the modification of pump, an error in the circuit was introduced and stop button was not working properly. Recommendations: Proper training should be given to the operators; they must take a necessary action upon unusual reading. Always respond to alarm. They might be correct. Training should be emphasis the importance of alarm. In record sheet, control limit must be defined. 3. Entry to Vessel Many incident have been happened which killed no of peoples because they entered inside the vessel or any other confined space which had not been thoroughly cleaned or tested. Case I: (Unauthorized Entry) Contractors mostly unfamiliar with the operating companies rule, have frequently got into the vessel without authority. A contractor foreman entered in a vessel which was opened and disconnected, setup for entry, but it was not yet tested. The foreman was estimating the cost of cleaning, he supposed that there was no need of permit for entering the tank just for inspection and got affected by the gas. Similarly an incident happened during the lunch time, a process foreman was taking a last look of vessel before boxed up. There was an old gas mask lying on the floor, he decided to go and remove it. While going inside he slipped from the ladder and fell and was knocked. His tongue blocked his throat and he suffocated. Case II: (Entry into vessel with Irrespirable Atmosphere) A contractor entered in the combustion chamber of a gas plant watched by two standby men but without waiting for the breathing apparatus to arrive. He lost consciousness halfway up when he was climbing out of the chamber. He was hanging between the chamber wall and the ladder. Rest of the men could not pull him out with lifeline. One of the men reached to the person without breathing apparatus and he also lost consciousness. Both of them were rescued, but standby man was died by this time. Case III: Vessel was generally split up into two halves by a baffle which had to be removed. The vessel was cleaned out, inspected, and a permit issued for a worker to enter the left hand side of the vessel to burn out the baffle. It not possible to see on the right hand side of the vessel but as the left hand side of the vessel was clean and because no combustible gas was detected it was assumed that the other half was also clean. While the welder was in the vessel, some deposited in the right hand half caught fire. The Welder came out side without a sever injury but wounded himself in his rush. Recommendations: Vessel should assume to contain hazardous material, if a portion of the vessel can not be tested and it seems to be safe. Only gas test are not enough. When the vessel will be heated or disturbed it may produce gas which was present in the sludge. For any addition work inside the vessel, new work permit for confined space should be issued. People should now put their head inside the vessel unless entry has been authorized. Manhole should be covered with barrier if the vessel is opened but entry is not yet authorized. Rescue person should be available at the spot with necessary equipment. Always use breathing apparatuses before entering the vessel. Do not relay on contractor reading rule, just follow the safety procedure of operating company. 4. Liquefied Flammable Gases: Case I: (Fire and exploration at processing plant at Mexico City) November 1984, there was a worse incident at processing plant (LPG-actually Propane 20 % and Butane 80%) in San Juanico, Mexico. About 542 people were died, 4,248 were injured and 10,000 become homeless. The main cause was the rupturing of 8 inch line. During investigation it was revelled that the tank was overfilled and the inlet pipeline was overpressure. It is not known why the pressure relief valve was not lifted. The gas was spread in the area of 200m by 150 m before it caught fire. Most of the people got killed and injured are pubic, who were living near the plant. Recommendations: There was not gas detector in this area. This should be present. Plant was at congested place about 160 m away from town. It is recommended that for LPG plant it should be 600 m away from the town. There was no fire insulation on equipments. Vessels and tank should be fire insulated. The water deluge system was inadequate. 5. Modification: Many accidents have happened just because modifications were carried out in plant and these modifications were not fulfilling the safety criteria. Case I: A reactor was cooled by a providing of brine to the jacket. There was a repair work in brine system and it was to be shutdown so water from town was used instead. This town water pressure (130 psi gauge pressure) was more than that of brine, so the reactor collapsed. Before the modification, a modification approval form was approved which had twenty important questions. But this form was filled as a formality. Recommendations: Before modification, however inexpensive, temporary or permanent, is made to a plant or process or to a safety procedure, it should be authorized in writing by a manager and an engineer. They manager and engineering who authorized modification can not be expected to stare the drawing and hope that the consequence will be show up. They must provided with an aid such as a lost of questions to be answered. The foreman should not be authorized to make any modifications at field work. We have discussed few of the above critical issues which are very important for a contractor company to work in oil and gas industry. Furthermore, critical issues of a plant are also indicated in logical tree analysis in figure 1. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this report is to indicate the safety issues for a contractor company in oil and gas industries. The purpose of giving the cases and recommendation is to understand what they had done wrong in the past and to advise how similar disaster might be prevented in the future. After reading this report just analysis your plant, are you doing the same wrong thing which people did and resulted in disastersDevelopment of a safety culture is necessary, culture which would be committed with safety; safe work practise would be encourage and people do insist for safe work for every one, their attitude must be toward safe work practise. Leadership and top management should have to set a meaningful safety program by providing sufficient training and experience. Moreover, communication played a significant role; proper training and safety induction should be given to supervisor level, so that the correct information should be transmitted to them. Figure no. 1 Logic Tree Analysis Reference: The integration of Quantitative Risk Assessment and Reliability centered Maintenance to optimize platform Design and Operations by R.M Marshell, S.T.Maher, P.R. Stevenson B.C.Morris How to cite Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry, Essay examples

Pakistan and India free essay sample

The importance of the Indian Empire to Britain: politically, commercially and culturally. British rule in India, c1900-14 and its impact on Indians and the British living in India; the Morley-Minto reforms. a) SpecHow far do Sources 8, 9 and 10 suggest that in the early twentieth century the British Raj was an oppressive regime? Jan 09How far do these sources suggest that the aim of British rule in India was to ‘elevate’ the Indian people (Source 9, line 1)? Jan 10How far do Sources 10, 11 and 12 suggest that British rule in India, in the years before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, was based on the respect and support of the Indian people? Jan 11How far do sources 10, 11 and 12 suggest that, in the years 1900-20, Indian nationalism and the desire for constitutional change were confined to an educated elite? Jan 12How far do the sources suggest that, in the years before the First World War, Indian people resented the influence of the Raj? b) Jan 09 Do you agree with the view that the emergence of militant nationalism in India in the years before the First World War was fuelled mainly by Lord Curzon’s ‘rejection of the privileged few’ (Source 14, line 33)? Jan 10Do you agree with the view that Indian desires for independence from Britain were caused mainly by the impact of the First World War? The significance of the First World War on the relationship between Britain and India: the impact of the Rowlatt Acts and the Amritsar Massacre on Britain and India; consultation and conflict in the 1920s and 1930s. The rise of nationalism in India: development of Congress and growing importance of the Muslim League; Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah to 1939; attitudes towards nationalist ideas and independence both among the British in India and the indigenous populations. a) Jun 09How far does the evidence of Sources 11 and 12 support the judgement of the Hunter Committee presented in Source 10? Jun 11How far do Sources 10, 11 and 12 suggest that the Amritsar Massacre created widespread and long-lasting hostility among Indians towards British rule? b) SpecDo you agree with the view that, in the 1930s, the most significant obstacle to Indian self-government was the Indians themselves? Jan 09Do you agree with the view that, by 1940, the main obstacle to Indian independence was not British imperialism, but the divisions within India? Jun 09Do you agree with the view that the progress that had been made towards Indian independence by 1939 owed little to the methods and leadership provided by Gandhi? Jan 10Do you agree with the view that Indian desires for independence from Britain were caused mainly by the impact of the First World War? Jun 10Do you agree with the view that, in the years 1919–39, the British worked consistently to create a peaceful, self-governing India? Jun 10Do you agree with the view that, in the years 1900–47, British attitudes towards Indian independence were dictated mainly by Britain’s economic needs? Jan 11Do you agree with the view that in the years 1900-47, economic development in India was directed by British needs rather than Indian interests? Jan 11Do you agree with the view that, in they years 1900-45, political hostility between Hindus and Muslims in India was created and maintained by British influence? Jun 11Do you agree with the view that Gandhi lacked the political skills required to lead India to independence in the years 1920–45? Jan 12Do you agree with the view that the civil disobedience campaigns in the periods between the two world wars made India ungovernable? Do you agree with the view that, in the period 1900-39, the major hindrance to Indian independence was divisions among the Indian people themselves? Do you agree with the view that in the period 1900-1939 Congress never came close to toppling the Raj? Do you agree with the view that Gandhi was at heart a vain man who wanted Indian freedom on his own term and through his own methods? To what extent did the Government of India Act of 1935 have only limited success because it was an inadequate response to the situation in India in the 1930s? How far were the personal ambitions of Muhammad Ali Jinnah responsible for the demand for a separate Muslim State? How significant was Gandhi’s contribution to the promotion and achievement of Indian Independence in the years 1920–47? The impact of the Second World War; economic and political imperatives in Britain and India driving independence; the role of Mountbatten; the decision to partition and the immediate consequences of that decision. a) Jun 10How far do Sources 10, 11 and 12 suggest that the main responsibility for the failure of the Cabinet Mission of 1946 lay with Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League? b) SpecDo you agree with the view that the impact of the Second World War was the main driving force behind the British government’s decision to grant independence to India? Jun 09Do you agree with the view that the violence and brutality associated with the partition of India was mainly the fault of the ‘indecent haste’ with which Britain carried out the last stages of Independence (Source 16, line 42)? Jan 10Do you agree with the view that the Partition of India was caused mainly by the impact of the Second World War? Jun 10Do you agree with the view that, in the years 1900–47, British attitudes towards Indian independence were dictated mainly by Britain’s economic needs? Jan 11Do you agree with the view that in the years 1900-47, economic development in India was directed by British needs rather than Indian interests? Jan 11Do you agree with the view that, in the years 1900-45, political hostility between Hindus and Muslims in India was created and maintained by British influence? Jun 11Do you agree with the view that Gandhi lacked the political skills required to lead India to independence in the years 1920–45? Jun 11Do you agree with the view that the main responsibility for the hasty and violent partition of India in 1947 lay with Lord Mountbatten? Jan 12Do you agree with the view that it was primarily the events in India during the Second World War that brought about the British decision to leave India in 1947? Do you agree with the view that the decision to grant India independence in 1947 was motivated by British self-interest? How far does military power explain Britain’s control of the Indian subcontinent in the years 1918–47?

Managing high performance organizations

Introduction High Performance organizations (HIPOs) are usually characterized by a high performing workplace, which is established as a result of reinforcing the organization’s vision, mission, values, goals and objectives through an engagement of the employees.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Managing high performance organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Basically, a High Performance Organization embarks on strategies that are aimed at maximizing the best of the human resources found within the organization through the use of recruitment, retaining of employees and talent and performance management (Alkhafaji 2003). The underlying framework of a High Performance Organization is to align the human resource and capital towards the achievement of the organizational mission and values. This implies that HIPOs rely on integration of Human Resource practices with aspect of talent management, with the main objective of exploiting talent Return on Investment and enhance the success of the organization. Some of the core dynamics of HIPOs include information sharing, shared power and high employee i9nvolvement, compelling vision, ongoing learning, customer focus and energizing systems and structures (Arredondo 1996). This paper discusses roles and practices of HIPOs and the aspect of energizing systems and structures and it is effective in the context if Qantas Airways, which is one of the oldest airlines that has been under continuous operation. The paper lays more emphasis on supporting employee, process and structure and developing programs and function. In addition, the paper also outlines the Human Resource as a supporting system and process executive such as conducting an evaluation process for leadership, organizational learning and employee engagement. The Energizing systems and structures, processes and practices that are deployed High Performance Organizations are usually used in a such a manner that they facilitates the realization of the organization’s vision, goals and objectives and the directions of the organization’s strategic plan. This helps in making it easy for individuals within an organization to undertake their tasks effectively and efficiently (Blanchard 2009). In addition, the energizing systems and structures offer a framework through which the organization can deploy in order to address the barriers and opportunities in a timely fashion. In order to determine if organizational structures and systems are energizing, it is vital to ascertain whether the deployed structures and systems help individuals in an organization to complete their tasks with ease or whether they increase the difficulty of task completion, thereby reducing organizational efficiency and effectiveness (Blanchard 2009).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More An organization that aims at becoming High Performing should focus on supporting employees in order to enhance the production of sustainable results. This implies that people within the organization are perceived as assets of ultimate significance. The high performing organization does not embark on the philosophical approach whereby people in the organization are viewed as potential liabilities (Chartered Institute of Personal Development 2006). Therefore, a high performing organization should embark on finding its employees happier and are more successful and productive when undertaking their duties at the organization. Energizing systems and structures are important in the context of Qantas Airways because the offer the required tools for employee empowerment, which in turn results to valuable contributions that are necessary for the success of the organization (Drucker 2007). In addition, energizing systems and structures facilitate the creation of a workplace environmen t that is characterized by respect and diversity. With this respect, diversity is viewed as asset and a tool for enhancing innovativeness, creativeness and value addition. It is a moral and social responsibility of organizations and business enterprises to embrace diversity within their organizational workforce. Ignoring diversity can impose significant effects on the business performance of an organization, and can additionally impose huge costs regarding the damaged business reputation and compensation payments. Diversity can generally be described as valuing every organizational member as an individual (Goldsmith Hu-Chan 2003). With this respect, managing diversity is core to the effective management of people within an organization, and it is usually relevant to the all the business processes and functions. The significant challenge when managing diversity is to establish an organizational culture that meets the values of every organizational member, which is needed to foster e mployee productivity. Research studies report that organizations are faced with difficulties during workforce recruitment, as a result, business enterprises and organizations that do not emphasize on managing diversity are gradually risking in the increasing competition for available talent across diverse cultures. In the present business environment that is competitive, it is imperative that business enterprises explore all the potential sources that can be used to create a competitive advantage. The implication of this is that employers must have an in depth understanding of the aspect of diversity and its relationship with business performance, this offers a framework through which business enterprises can compete productively (Bolman Deal 2008).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Managing high performance organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The roles and practices High Performing Organizations are c entered towards enhancing the efficiency of their human capital. This primarily entails focusing on five roles and practices of HIPOs including strategy, leadership, talent, culture and market. Strategy involves the alignment of organization’s human resource with the business strategies, implying that each employee in the organization focus on the achievement of the same goals. Leadership involves communication of the performance expectations, development and promotion of the right human capital and informing organizational members the significance of their attitudes towards the success of the organization. With regard to talent, the organization’s HR strategy must be established in accordance with the business model with the main objective of ensuring that the selected human capital can facilitate the realization of the business value (Bolman and Deal, 2008). It is also imperative that the organizational culture at all organizational levels should be subject to alignm ent; this implies that the departmental leaders have to show the commitment required towards the development of aligned organizational culture. Market involves the employees having an understanding of the significance of customers, and how their jobs influence the success of the business (Blanchard 2009). The HR also has a significant role as a supporting system and process executive through avenues such as evaluation processes for leadership, organizational learning and employee engagement. The HR should focus on mobilizing teams within the organization, with the main objective of fostering cohesiveness. This can be achieved through the creation of a workplace environment that facilitates collaboration and teamwork together with a flat hierarchy organizational culture. This implies that employees have their say in the organizational operations (Chartered Institute of Personal Development 2006). The benefit of such an organizational structure in the context of Qantas Airways is maxi mizing the available resources in an organization through empowering individuals and providing them with opportunities to exercise leadership in their various fields of skill. The need for collective leadership is due to the increasing complexity in the dynamic of organizational activities; which become overwhelming for one individual to manage an organization (Blanchard 2009). The HR also has a significant role in people development and the retention of expertise in the organization. It is a challenge to retain people especially in organizations that do not show any progress.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Retention of high-impact performers is always constrained by a number of recognized trends including: the declined status of working for a large company, the repeated lack of association connecting pay and contribution, the increasing influence that technical experts have and the reduced number of titles due to restructuring of companies (Blanchard 2009). The leaders therefore must gain knowledge of how to manage human resources with the same skills they apply to manage financial resources. Some of the ways of retaining employees in an organization include showing them respect and dignity, creating a thriving environment, providing sufficient training to the employees, being a coach and appealing to the employees and rewarding and organizing employees’ achievements (Blanchard 2009). Conclusion An organization that is High Performing has the potential of remaining competitive through attaining a balance between meeting the requirements of inside and outside stakeholders. With the ever increasing evolution of organizational theories, the HIPOs model is one of the frameworks that organizations such as the Qantas Airways have to adopt in order to be successful in the present business context. References Alkhafaji, A 2003, Strategic management: formulation, implementation, and control in a dynamic environment, Routledge, London. Arredondo, P 1996, Successful diversity management initiatives: a blueprint for planning and implementation, Sage, London. Blanchard, K 2009, Leading at a Higher Level: Balanchard on leadership and creating high performing organizations, FT Press, New York. Bolman, L Deal, T 2008, Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA. Chartered Institute of Personal Development 2006, ‘Diversity in Business: How Much progress have employers made?’, Diversity in Business, pp. 3-15. Drucker, F 2007, Management challenges for the 21st century, Butterworth-Heinemann, New York. G oldsmith, M Hu-Chan, M 2003, Global leadership: the next generation, Pearson education Inc Prentice hall., New York. This essay on Managing high performance organizations was written and submitted by user Samiyah Suarez to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Group Project AxoGlobal Essay

Group Project AxoGlobal Essay Group Project AxoGlobal Essay Principles Of Finance (B) 26 February 2015 BBA Winter 2015 Group Project Gurpreet Singh Juan Jose Sanchez Kevin Sarreri Phaa Rowe Milos Smiljanic Table of Contents Introduction 2 Structure, Planning and Reason 3 Risk, Assets, Liabilities and Management Issues 4 Investment Strategies: 6 EU Stocks: 6 Gold 7 Oil 8 Renewable energy 9 UK Treasury Bills 10 Portfolio 11 Conclusion 11 Introduction In this day and age, business is the path of our development as the human species, leading innovation in technology and medication, to giving each person the opportunity to not only improve their conditions and lifestyle but to explore even further and create even more. From East to West businesses drive each individual country’s economy, all interlinking to what we know as the global economy itself. However, each individual economy and its local stocks may excel more than others and not all whom are interested in these investments have the accessibility or the knowledge to play the stocks they wish to bet on. This is where AxoGlobal takes the award. AxoGlobal is an investment and asset management company based in the United States. We have been serving the pensioners and investors of the Americas for over 20 years, breaking the barrier between the West and East. AxoGlobal invests funds from the United States into the United Kingdom’s stock markets, focusing on the best of the best of FTSE 100 ensuring high return without the high risk. Specializing in investment opportunities we have built our portfolio through intensive research to reduce unsystematic risks whilst maintaining high and stable returns. AxoGlobal is a close-ended mutual fund, allowing for security and book-value growth. With the great success AxoGlobal has achieved the company is looking to expand our services to the people of South America, giving potential investors the ability to invest in the UK’s booming economy. South America’s pension fund is one of the world’s rapidly growing, which is why we are making a proposal as AxoGlobal sees a great potential in the continent. We would like to give the people of South America the opportunity to invest abroad, to invest in the stability that the European and British markets offer. Structure, Planning and Reason The United States of America is the most influential, efficient and successful country in terms of raising private funds to invest in equities, government bonds, futures, derivatives and many other markets that are available for investment. Last year on its own the United States raised several trillions of dollars in private fund raisings in order to invest in the world market. Throughout the years the coverage over the American market has grown and with companies having profitability all over the world it is imperative for a business to expand its borders. This means that AxoGlobal as a mutual fund must diversify its investments and gain participation in foreign markets as well. Primarily the most attractive market for our American and rest of the world investors is located in the UK. As the market is way more open than the Asian market and includes far less taxes than the rest of Europe in addition to the fact that it is the second largest stock market in the world. As a mutual f und the markets that the UK offers are very interesting because it offers a safe and strong currency of payment. The British pound has been one of the currencies with the lowest amount of inflation over the years, yet today’s situation offers an advantageous situation as the American dollar is at its strongest exchange rate towards the pound. The Investors that we are looking for are from South America in special. Last year the United Kingdoms market offered a highly profitable return to its investors. As a matter of fact there was a huge amount of private investments within the United Kingdom as a response to the speculation that the European markets were collapsing as well as the speculation

At Any One Moment

Had the story been written in a time where a Tsunami had not occurred for many years it would be a lot harder to imagine and put into perspective the enormity of the tragedy occurring in the story. Judy Allen builds on this idea through the specific language and metaphors used to set the scene and further build on the context. â€Å"It rose up like a mountain, either hiding or engulfing the distant boats†. Through using real locations in the text the reader can see and believe the story. The reader’s context is also used to build dramatic tension. As the water is drawn out before the Tsunami approaches the reader is mostly likely aware of what is occurring due to their context compared to Sherif, his brother and the villagers who were obliviouxs to the disaster about to occur. His brother started to laugh- it was all so extraordinary, a trick played by the ocean†. This situation creates dramatic irony and positions the reader to want to warn the characters in the story to get out of the water. Judy Allen builds and plays on the readers context which is most likely that of a busy Western life. Many people in society are always busy and never take time to thin k about other people. â€Å"Even so, most people are aware only of their own small world, and many believe their own small world, and many believe their own small world is all there is†. Through the structure and the omniscient point of view the author positions the reader to imagine all the things happening in the world right now and how every action has a consequence. Allen then takes the reader down to one specific event which could be happening right now. This structure is especially effect because of Western Society’s desensitised view of disaster. The reader relates to a personal story much more than figures on the news. Allen’s use of emotive language and smilies also creates an environment for the reader to personally react to the story. â€Å"He stared as the vast sweep of water was pulled back like a huge bed cover†. This imagery allows the reader to put themselves in the story and use their own personal context to make meaning to â€Å"At Any One Moment†. Through my own personal context I am able to react to the story and feel sympathy for the characters in it. Although I was not personally affected by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 I can still appreciate the pain that Sherif goes through. This prose fiction work put the world into perspective for me and caused me to feel grateful for the things I have in my life. It made me realise how fragile life can be, how people can be alive one minute and dead the next. Through all the tragedy in our wold I had become partially immune to the horrors in our world until I read this personal story. I have a strong sense of family and this caused me to react strongly to Sherif losing his brother and probably his mother. I cannot imagine losing one of my family members and it pained me to see that a whole life can be lost in a matter of seconds you just have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether it is man-made tragedy or natural disaster we never know what life is going to throw at us and often we cannot stop it. At any one moment on this small planet†¦ †. Through the use of structure, point of view and context Allen encourages the reader feel small and insignificant. By allowing us to imagine all the events and people in the world the reader is positioned to feel as though they are helpless to the world around them and can do nothing to stop it. Through this realisation Allen then inspires us to come together as a global communi ty that can make a difference, we are insignificant on our own but together we are much more powerful.

Discrimination Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discrimination Legislation - Essay Example linguistically, as in a school, most individuals spoke different languages so, for better understanding of the lessons, these students had to be separated, and taught the same language, or example English before they joined again to form a set of class understanding the same language, this is just but an example of a positive gesture of an affirmative action. On the same note, employees got divided and taught the same rules, before being joined up again. At that time, affirmative action proved rather indispensable, considering the fact that, people had to be taught, the same language, in order to understand their roles, and duties in the particular organization, though, recently a research conducted by a PhD student at the university of Purdue showed that, some human resource managers have taken advantage of this, to embezzle themselves funds, so how do they do this? Well, one might be wondering the thing is after shuffling workers in a particular work station, the restriction they put is that, for any promotion to be awarded. Although the perpetual dislike for affirmative action, has been established in most countries, some countries more so the developing once, have emulated the idea, and are working out pertinent ways to have it

The oil Price crisis in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The oil Price crisis in Britain - Essay Example In The Daily Telegraph publication (The Daily Telegraph: 20 June 2008), executive foreign editor Con Coughlin asserted that "as things stand, protecting their precious reserves, rather than providing the world with cheaper oil, appears to be their main priority". In a similar tone The Times' chief foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox described the Opec summit in Jeddah "a Saudi show, to deliver a Saudi message" (The Times: 25 June 2008), stating that , "Before Sunday's meeting, King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz al-Saud said that the kingdom was resolved to prevent oil prices from rising 'in an unjustified and abnormal manner', while announcing an increase in production too small to have any such impact." In other twist , Con Coughlin, The Telegraph's executive foreign editor, argued that the country is operating to capacity in the article published in The Telegraph (The Telegraph: 20 June 2008). He mentioned that, "the Saudis announced their intention to increase production by another 500,000 barrels per day, which will bring total production to 9.7 million barrels - the kingdom's highest ever level. And that is about the upper limit of what the Saudis can produce for any sustained period." However, "the Saudis will only produce more oil if they believe it is in their interests to do so," The somewhat incongruous perspective by Coughlin presents connotations tending to place blame over the oil price crisis on Saudi Arabia. Other opinion slants presented in the media coverage of the oil price crisis in Britain have focused on the reality of rising demands for oil which has not been succored on commensurate production levels. The BP Statistical Review OF the world Energy quoted in the Energy and Capital e-letter for August 2008 presents that, "It's no secret anymore that for every nine barrels of oil we consume, we are only discovering one."(The BP Statistical Review of World Energy August 11th, 2008). The writer in the article mentions that there is unprecedented oil usage rate on a global scale which has not been sustained by any feasible production increase measures. "The world is addicted to oil. In just 8 years, it's projected the world will be consuming nearly 50,000 gallons of oil every second. By that time, the world won't be able to meet the projected demand... for one simple reason: We're using up oil at breakneck speed. And it's also no secret that official oil reserve numbers furnished by OPEC member governments have been fudged for years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) even admitted to knowing about some of OPEC's wizards cooking their books." (Opcit) The electronic title also provides some sweeping predictions in an advertising blurb aimed at getting readers to subscribe to the e-letter. Some of the predictions enlisted are; Why we're never going to see oil priced at $40 a barrel ever again, what we learned from the 1970s oil crisis, and where the future of oil really stands... How oil reserve supplies will tighten, prices will continue jumping, and the world economy will feel the squeeze... The 3 best ways to capitalize on the investment opportunities of a post-oil economy. In another reportage Independent columnist Dominic Lawson vindicated Saudi Arabia (and Opec) from blame in the current price crisis, writing that "far from operating as a

Poverty and American Humane Association Essay Example for Free

Poverty and American Humane Association Essay You see it in movies, books, and even real life. The cycle of poverty is an endless cycle that entraps those who have become its victims. Poverty has become one of the largest troubles within America today. It repeats the questions of fear, like, whether or not you will have food on the table? Will I be able to pay the mortgage for the house? How can I pay for my child’s doctor visits if their sick? Families who fall into poverty cycle are usually never able to recover, but there are a select few who find a way to strive and leave its menacing hands, through education. There are kids just like you and me, who are living in conditions unimaginable and have to deal with it almost their whole life. Many people fall to poverty because of the loss of a job, expenses, wages, incomes, and other such money problems, but through the success in education they can prevent this from happening. Poverty has become a universal flaw in both our country and many others. Education is one of the possible reasons why people fall into poverty, because many who do not have an education or a high school diploma usually will cause themselves and their families to fall into poverty. According to roastedpinebark at hubpages. com, people in the U. S who have a high school diploma will have a more likely chance of receiving at least $40,000 yearly salary paying job while those who are dropouts would receive a $20,000-$16,000 yearly salary job. This may sound like a lot of money for all of you but really, it’s not. If you think about it on a $20,000 yearly salary you would only receive about $1,666 a month probably barely being able to pay for mortgage for their house, not including water, electric, and gas bills too ([emailprotected] paragraph 2). That is a lot of money. What it comes down to is that a good education is a divided pathway to getting an average paying job or ending up in poverty. If a family is already in the cycle of poverty then those kids are even more likely to continue that cycle to their next generation. Three years ago in 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released that â€Å"For [all] Americans without a high school diploma the unemployment rate is significantly higher than the national average at 14. %† (Employment Policies Institute). The idea of never getting out of the cycle of poverty moved me, because there can be kids just like you and me who try and try to do well in school but end up failing. According to Celia Baker on Deseret News posted on October 22, 2012 that â€Å"earning a high school diploma can help break the cycle of multi-generational poverty†(Baker paragraph 6). The reason for this is because of the lack of money, family issues, and their social life. It may not make sense as to why a child’s social life effects their education, but it’s because they do not receive the skills to develop their brains to learn or adapt. Another problem that is found through poverty is the backing of a loving and stable family. Generally I assume all of us have a warm loving family that we have the greatest times with. Some kids aren’t so lucky. When they come home from school they are sometimes abused, exposed to drugs, and some may have no family. I know that without my family I wouldn’t be able to be the person I am today. Our families give us the necessary love and attention we need to function as people. According to American Humane Association, kids in poverty are often neglected and abused because their parent or parents are aggravated with being unable to pay bills or even hold a job. It seems horrid but it’s the truth. If you think about your younger siblings or cousins, if you have any, they want a lot of attention right? I know my little sister does, and if a parent just ignores their child and neglects them it breaks their heart, so they keep trying and trying to live up to the approval of their parents only to get rejected again. According to Dr. ’s Ashlee Loughan and Robert Pern, â€Å"brain growth advances in the first 6 years of life and are further supported with high nutrition, appropriate stimulation, attention, and emotional support† (http://www. apa. org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/neurocognitive-impacts. spx). So as you can see domestic life is very important in the early stages of life. Other research has found that the kids found in poverty are not given that nutrition, emotional support, or attention therefore they are more likely to have depression or any other psychological or mental illness. The cycle of poverty causes many problems for people; it is a chain reaction that is impossible to get out of. It affects many aspects of a person’s life and I b elieve it is one of the worst things that could happen. Many students in high school, like ourselves, are faced with the decision of staying in school or having to drop out to be able to put food on the table for their families. This is where the rates of student dropouts increases and many wonder why. Some say it’s because the kids are lazy and don’t care about school, but only a few percentage of them are like that. The other percentage of students who drop out of school that live in poverty, make the decision to get a job just to be able to make sure their family gets food on the table, or even keep the place they currently live in. Nowadays, you teenagers, even me, we take it for granted that we have a home to live in, food to eat every day, a bed to sleep in, and all of those things are just something we expect to be there; and for some it is not the case. Studies shown by Chris Isidore proved that those kids who leave school to take on jobs are more likely to become the 20% of adults who earn the bare minimum under a full time job which is $10. 65 at a minimum wage of $7. 45 (Isidore paragraph 2 3). The topic of poverty is sometimes an overlooked topic among students, I believe that it is one that should be more paid attention to; and I believe that there should be a lot more relief efforts to get people out of it. I hope today, that this speech has changed you mind on the topic of poverty and moved you to want to try and help. If so check out to learn more about how you can help stop poverty and get involved in creating a better world (www. peopleagainstpoverty. com). Known to many officials even the President, poverty, is a virus in America that cannot be ridded of until it is right medicine. To help prevent the beginning of epidemics like these from spreading, I suggest you become a good parent when you are an adult, help guide you children, acknowledge their mistakes, help them learn from it, and to create or join any clubs that de-motivate the dropping out of school. Traits such as these will allow your children to strive to do well in school forming a better future for them-selves. To learn more about how to prevent teens and children from going into poverty go to this link and scroll down to the subheading â€Å"What Can We Do? †

Hamlet Literary Analysis - Stages of Grief Essay -- William Shakespear

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed a theory based on what she perceived to be the stages of acceptance of death. Her theory has been taken further by psychologists and therapists to explain the stages of grief in general. Kubler-Ross identified five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, as happening in that order. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet exhibits all five stages of grief, we can assume in relation to the recent death of his father, but not necessarily in this order, and in fact the five seem to overlap in many parts of the play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Instead of denial and isolation, which is the first stage according to Kubler-Ross, Hamlet dwells in a state of depression. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department of Psychiatry states â€Å"Depression occurs as a reaction to the changed way of life created by the loss. The bereaved person feels intensely sad, hopeless, drained and helpless† (www.uams.edu). Hamlet’s depression is revealed in his fourth soliloquy. â€Å"Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ Or take arms against a sea of troubles,/ And by opposing them? To die, to sleep;† (Shakespeare III.i.57-60) Meditative and weary Hamlet gives up on any hope for the future. He contemplates suicide making obvious his profound state of despair. Hamlet’s thoughts of suicide continue in this painful speech, â€Å"His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!/ How weary, stale flat and unprofitable,/ Seem to me all the uses of this world!/ Fie onâ€⠄¢t! Ah fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden† (I.ii.132-135) Here are a sickness of life, and even a longing for death, that strengthens Hamlet’s intense depression.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Hamlet may still be feeling depressed Hamlet moves into the stage of denial and isolation. Hamlet feels the effects of denial and isolation mostly due to his love, Ophelia. Both Hamlet’s grief and his task constrain him from realizing this love, but Ophelia’s own behavior clearly intensifies his frustration and anguish. By keeping the worldly and disbelieving advice of her brother and father as â€Å"watchmen† to her â€Å"heart† (I.iii.46), she denies the heart’s affection not only in Hamlet, but in herself; and both denials add immeasurably to Hamlet’s sense of loneliness and loss—and anger. Her rejection of him echoes his mother’s inconstancy and denies him the possibility even of imagining the experience of loving an... ...r. Hamlet speaks to Horatio quietly, almost serenely, with the unexultant calm which characterizes the end of the long, inner struggle of grief. He has looked at the face of death in his father’s ghost, he has now endured death and loss in all the human beings he has loved, and he now accepts those losses as an inevitable part of his own condition. â€Å"He states, â€Å"The readiness is all† suggesting what is perhaps the last and most difficult task of mourning, his own readiness to die† (Bloom 135). Hamlet recognizes and accepts his own death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hamlet throughout the play lives in a world of mourning. This bereavement route he experiences can be related to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s theory on this process. The death of Hamlet’s spirit can be traced through depression, denial and isolation, bargaining, anger, and acceptance. The natural sorrow and anger of Hamlet’s multiple griefs include all human frailty in their protest and sympathy and touch upon the deepest synapses of grief in our own lives, not only for those who have died, but for those, like ourselves, who are still alive. Hamlet’s experience of grief, and his recovery from it, is one it which we ourselves respond most deeply.

How revolutionary was the American war Essay

The American war of independence was also known as the American revolutionary war. This war was fought between the American colonies and England. The war itself started with the battle of Lexington and concord. It started when some soldiers of the British army arrived in Lexington, Massachusetts. Over there, they fired at the colonial militia which it was a group of farmers, boys as well as old men. Then on the following day they headed to Concord and over there they killed some Americans. Thus, this was the first engagement of battle of the revolutionary war. The broader sense of the revolution began when parliament started to impose laws and regulations to the colonies. For instance, After the French and Indian war was over, Britain turned its attention to the colonies. They restricted the colonies to trade with other nations. Thus trough the navigation act the colonies were allowed to trade only with England. So goods such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton that were produced in the colonies could only be exported to British ports. Indeed, these rules and regulations ended up restricting the colonist’s life and freedom Other laws that they impose on the colonies included taxes. Since the French and Indian war had put England in a lot of debt, they decided to raise the taxes. Then In 1764, England passed the Sugar Act, which was used to raise money from the colonies. Moreover, â€Å"The Stamp Act passed by England in 1765, placed taxes on everyday items such as newspapers, legal documents, and even playing cards† (Divine 135). Furthermore, England did not even consider the thoughts of the Americans when they tried to have soldiers enforce British taxes and acts. The colonists felt that they were treated unfairly so they called for a meeting to protest the tax. So, representatives from nine out of the thirteen colonies came to this meeting. â€Å"The colonists drafted petitions to parliament that stated no taxes should be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives† (Divine 136). Besides, they felt that the stamp act was improper because Am ericans were not represented in parliament. But still, the British went behind their own law which is â€Å"no taxation without representation† (Divine  132) and still taxed the colonies anyway. In return, the colonists imposed a voluntary boycott of British goods until parliament repealed the stamp act. So, it was obvious then, that the British were not treating the Americans equally like their own citizens in England. So I think that it was these inequalities that also lead to the decision to declare independence from the British rule. In addition, the â€Å"Townshend Acts came and it also taxed glass, paper, tea and lead.†(Divine 140) Therefore, the colonies refused to pay. In fact, it didn’t seem logical then that the colonies were regulated and tax by a government from so far away. Eventually, the Americans realized that the only way for them to retain their rights was to have political freedom from England. So they wanted independence from England. But unfortunately, the British strongly opposed letting the Americans be free. Therefore, it created many conflicts between the Americans and the British especially the soldiers. Indeed, all of these conflicts led to the revolutionary war. Finally, when America decided to declare its independence and go to war, it was a sign of radical action. Britain’s army was bigger and consisted of well trained and experienced soldiers. Americans, on the other hand, had soldiers who were poorly trained and equipped. But that didn’t stop them. They were determined to go to war anyway in order to change the rule of the nation. As a result they were able to break away from British rule. Thus the revolutionary war had a greater impact on the colonies and involved more than their independence. A new view of government was created that the world had not seen before. Democracy for the first time was implemented in a government and its authority was based on individual rights rather than from a king or church. Furthermore, the revolution changed the American society in some ways. For instance, after the war the American people denounced such English titles like esquire from the names of wealthy people. They also lower the amount of land that they needed in order to vote. Even though the American Revolution brought some change, other things were still the same. For instance, the distribution of wealth in America was still uneven Thus, â€Å"the sudden accumulation of large fortunes by new families made other Americans sensitive to aristocratic display†(Divine 163) Moreover, women were not allow to vote and it took a long time for some slaves to be free or  to be treated as equals. Thus the revolution did not bring about a big change of American society, at least not in the short term. But, â€Å"republicans such as Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson raised issues of immense significance for the later history of the United States. They felt that equality was essential. â€Å"Even though they failed to abolish slavery, institute universal manhood suffrage, or apply equality to women, they articulated a set of assumptions about people’s rights and liberties that challenge future generations of Americans.†(Divine 168) Reference: America past and present, volume I, Divine Breen and Fredrickson Williams, copyright 2002 http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/American%20Revolution http://www.kusd.edu/schools/lance/platinum/banaszynski/revolution/patriot_links_2003/taxes_taxes_taxes.html

Black House Chapter Twenty-six

26 WE HAVE HAD our little conversation about slippage, and it's too late in the game to belabor the point more than a little, but wouldn't you say that most houses are an attempt to hold slippage back? To impose at least the illusion of normality and sanity on the world? Think of Libertyville, with its corny but endearing street names Camelot and Avalon and Maid Marian Way. And think of that sweet little honey of a home in Libertyville where Fred, Judy, and Tyler Marshall once lived together. What else would you call 16 Robin Hood Lane but an ode to the everyday, a paean to the prosaic? We could say the same thing about Dale Gilbertson's home, or Jack's, or Henry's, couldn't we? Most of the homes in the vicinity of French Landing, really. The destructive hurricane that has blown through the town doesn't change the fact that the homes stand as brave bulwarks against slippage, as noble as they are humble. They are places of sanity. Black House like Shirley Jackson's Hill House, like the turn-of-the-century monstrosity in Seattle known as Rose Red is not sane. It is not entirely of this world. It's hard to look at from the outside the eyes play continual tricks but if one can hold it steady for a few seconds, one sees a three-story dwelling of perfectly ordinary size. The color is unusual, yes that dead black exterior, even the windows swabbed black and it has a crouching, leaning aspect that would raise uneasy thoughts about its structural integrity, but if one could appraise it with the glammer of those other worlds stripped away, it would look almost as ordinary as Fred and Judy's place . . . if not so well maintained. Inside, however, it is different. Inside, Black House is large. Black House is, in fact, almost infinite. Certainly it is no place to get lost, although from time to time people have hoboes and the occasional unfortunate runaway child, as well as Charles Burnside/Carl Bierstone's victims and relics here and there mark their passing: bits of clothing, pitiful scratchings on the walls of gigantic rooms with strange dimensions, the occasional heap of bones. Here and there the visitor may see a skull, such as the ones that washed up on the banks of the Hanover River during Fritz Haarman's reign of terror in the early 1920s. This is not a place where you want to get lost. Let us pass through rooms and nooks and corridors and crannies, safe in the knowledge that we can return to the outside world, the sane anti-slippage world, anytime we want (and yet we are still uneasy as we pass down flights of stairs that seem all but endless and along corridors that dwindle to a point in the distance). We hear an eternal low humming and the faint clash of weird machinery. We hear the idiot whistle of a constant wind either outside or on the floors above and below us. Sometimes we hear a faint, houndly barking that is undoubtedly the abbalah's devil dog, the one that did for poor old Mouse. Sometimes we hear the sardonic caw of a crow and understand that Gorg is here, too somewhere. We pass through rooms of ruin and rooms that are still furnished with a pale and rotten grandeur. Many of these are surely bigger than the whole house in which they hide. And eventually we come to a humble sitting room furnished with an elderly horsehair sofa and chairs of fading red velvet. There is a smell of noisome cooking in the air. (Somewhere close by is a kitchen we must never visit . . . not, that is, if we ever wish to sleep without nightmares again.) The electrical fixtures in here are at least seventy years old. How can that be, we ask, if Black House was built in the 1970s? The answer is simple: much of Black House most of Black House has been here much longer. The draperies in this room are heavy and faded. Except for the yellowed news clippings that have been taped to the ugly green wallpaper, it is a room that would not be out of place on the ground floor of the Nelson Hotel. It's a place that is simultaneously sinister and oddly banal, a fitting mirror for the imag ination of the old monster who has gone to earth here, who lies sleeping on the horsehair sofa with the front of his shirt turning a sinister red. Black House is not his, although in his pathological grandiosity he believes differently (and Mr. Munshun has not disabused him of this belief ). This one room, however, is. The clippings around him tell us all we need to know of Charles â€Å"Chummy† Burnside's lethal fascinations. YES, I ATE HER, FISH DECLARES: New York Herald Tribune BILLY GAFFNEY PLAYMATE AVERS â€Å"IT WAS THE GRAY MAN TOOK BILLY, IT WAS THE BOGEYMAN†: New York World Telegram GRACE BUDD HORROR CONTINUES: FISH CONFESSES!: Long Island Star FISH ADMITS â€Å"ROASTING, EATING† WM GAFFNEY: New York American FRITZ HAARMAN, SO-CALLED â€Å"BUTCHER OF HANOVER,† EXECUTED FOR MURDER OF 24: New York World WEREWOLF DECLARES: â€Å"I WAS DRIVEN BY LOVE, NOT LUST.† HAARMAN DIES UNREPENTANT: The Guardian CANNIBAL OF HANOVER'S LAST LETTER: â€Å"YOU CANNOT KILL ME, I SHALL BE AMONG YOU FOR ETERNITY†: New York World Wendell Green would love this stuff, would he not? And there are more. God help us, there are so many more. Even Jeffrey Dahmer is here, declaring I WANTED ZOMBIES. The figure on the couch begins to groan and stir. â€Å"Way-gup, Burny!† This seems to come from thin air, not his mouth . . . although his lips move, like those of a second-rate ventriloquist. Burny groans. His head turns to the left. â€Å"No . . . need to sleep. Everything . . . hurts.† The head turns to the right in a gesture of negation and Mr. Munshun speaks again. â€Å"Way-gup, dey vill be gummink. You must move der buu-uoy.† The head switches back the other way. Sleeping, Burny thinks Mr. Munshun is still safe inside his head. He has forgotten things are different here in Black House. Foolish Burny, now nearing the end of his usefulness! But not quite there yet. â€Å"Can't . . . lea' me ‘lone . . . stomach hurts . . . the blind man . . . fucking blind man hurt my stomach . . .† But the head turns back the other way and the voice speaks again from the air beside Burny's right ear. Burny fights it, not wanting to wake and face the full ferocious impact of the pain. The blind man has hurt him much worse than he thought at the time, in the heat of the moment. Burny insists to the nagging voice that the boy is safe where he is, that they'll never find him even if they can gain access to Black House, that they will become lost in its unknown depth of rooms and hallways and wander until they first go mad and then die. Mr. Munshun, however, knows that one of them is different from any of the others who have happened on this place. Jack Sawyer is acquainted with the infinite, and that makes him a problem. The boy must be taken out the back way and into End-World, into the very shadow of Din-tah, the great furnace. Mr. Munshun tells Burny that he may still be able to have some of the boy before turning him over to the abbalah, but not here. Too dangerous. Sorry. Burny continues to protest, but this is a battle he will not win, and we know it. Already the stale, cooked-meat air of the room has begun to shift and swirl as the owner of the voice arrives. We see first a whirlpool of black, then a splotch of red an ascot and then the beginnings of an impossibly long white face, which is dominated by a single black shark's eye. This is the real Mr. Munshun, the creature who can only live in Burny's head outside of Black House and its enchanted environs. Soon he will be entirely here, he will pull Burny into wakefulness (torture him into wakefulness, if necessary), and he will put Burny to use while there is still use to be gotten from him. For Mr. Munshun cannot move Ty from his cell in the Black House. Once he is in End-World Burny's Sheol things will be different. At last Burny's eyes open. His gnarled hands, which have spilled so much blood, now reach down to feel the dampness of his own blood seeping through his shirt. He looks, sees what has bloomed there, and lets out a scream of horror and cowardice. It does not strike him as just that, after murdering so many children, he should have been mortally wounded by a blind man; it strikes him as hideous, unfair. For the first time he is visited by an extremely unpleasant idea: What if there's more to pay for the things he has done over the course of his long career? He has seen End-World; he has seen Conger Road, which winds through it to Din-tah. The blasted, burning landscape surrounding Conger Road is like hell, and surely An-tak, the Big Combination, is hell itself. What if such a place waits for him? What if There's a horrible, paralyzing pain in his guts. Mr. Munshun, now almost fully materialized, has reached out and twisted one smoky, not-quite-transparent hand in the wound Henry inflicted with his switchblade knife. Burny squeals. Tears run down the old child-murderer's cheeks. â€Å"Don't hurt me!† â€Å"Zen do ass I zay.† â€Å"I can't,† Burny snivels. â€Å"I'm dying. Look at all the blood! Do you think I can get past something like this? I'm eighty-five fucking years old!† â€Å"Duff brayyg, Burn-Burn . . . but dere are zose on z'osser zide who could hill you off your wunds.† Mr. Munshun, like Black House itself, is hard to look at. He shivers in and out of focus. Sometimes that hideously long face (it obscures most of his body, like the bloated head of a caricature on some newspaper's op-ed page) has two eyes, sometimes just one. Sometimes there seem to be tufted snarls of orange hair leaping up from his distended skull, and sometimes Mr. Munshun appears to be as bald as Yul Brynner. Only the red lips and the fangy pointed teeth that lurk inside them remain fairly constant. Burny eyes his accomplice with a degree of hope. His hands, meanwhile, continue to explore his stomach, which is now hard and bloated with lumps. He suspects the lumps are clots. Oh, that someone should have hurt him so badly! That wasn't supposed to happen! That was never supposed to happen! He was supposed to be protected! He was supposed to â€Å"It iss not even peeyond ze realm of bossibility,† Mr. Munshun says, â€Å"zat ze yearz could be rawled avey vrum you jusst as ze stunn vas rawled avey from ze mouse of Cheezus Chrizze's doom.† â€Å"To be young again,† Burny says, and exhales a low, harsh sigh. His breath stinks of blood and spoilage. â€Å"Yes, I'd like that.† â€Å"Of gorse! And soch zings are bossible,† Mr. Munshun says, nodding his grotesquely unstable face. â€Å"Soch gifts are ze abbalah's to giff. But zey are not bromised, Charles, my liddle munching munchkin. But I can make you one bromise.† The creature in the black evening suit and red ascot leaps forward with dreadful agility. His long-fingered hand darts again into Chummy Burnside's shirt, this time clenches into a fist, and produces a pain beyond any the old monster has ever dreamed of in his own life . . . although he has inflicted this and more on the innocent. Mr. Munshun's reeking countenance pushes up to Burny's. The single eye glares. â€Å"Do you feel dat, Burny? Do you, you mizz-er-a-ble old bag of dirt and zorrow? Ho-ho, ha-ha, of gorse you do! It iss your in-destines I haff in my hand! Und if you do not mooff now, schweinhund, I vill rip dem from your bledding body, ho-ho, ha-ha, und vrap dem arund your neg! You vill die knowing you are choking on your own gudz! A trick I learned from Fritz himzelf, Fritz Haarman, who vas so yunk und loff-ly! Now! Vat do you say? Vill you brink him, or vill you choke?† â€Å"I'll bring him!† Burny screams. â€Å"I'll bring him, only stop, stop, you're tearing me apart!† â€Å"Brink him to ze station. Ze station, Burn-Burn. Dis one iz nodd for ze radhulls, de fogzhulls not for ze Com-bin-ay-shun. No bledding foodzies for Dyler; he works for his abbalah vid dis.† A long finger tipped with a brutal black nail goes to the huge forehead and taps it above the eyes (for the moment Burny sees two of them, and then the second is once more gone). â€Å"Understand?† â€Å"Yes! Yes!† His guts are on fire. And still the hand in his shirt twists and twists. The terrible highway of Mr. Munshun's face hangs before him. â€Å"Ze station where you brought the other sbecial ones.† â€Å"YES!† Mr. Munshun lets go. He steps back. Mercifully for Burny, he is beginning to grow insubstantial again, to discorporate. Yellowed clippings swim into view not behind him but through him. Yet the single eye hangs in the air above the paling blotch of the ascot. â€Å"Mayg zure he vears za cab. Ziss one ezbeshully must wear za cab.† Burnside nods eagerly. He still smells faintly of My Sin perfume. â€Å"The cap, yes, I have the cap.† â€Å"Be gare-ful, Burny. You are old und hurt. Ze bouy is young und desberate. Flitt of foot. If you let him get avey â€Å" In spite of the pain, Burny smiles. One of the children getting away from him! Even one of the special ones! What an idea! â€Å"Don't worry,† he says. â€Å"Just . . . if you speak to him . . . to Abbalah-doon . . . tell him I'm not past it yet. If he makes me better, he won't regret it. And if he makes me young again, I'll bring him a thousand young. A thousand Breakers.† Fading and fading. Now Mr. Munshun is again just a glow, a milky disturbance on the air of Burny's sitting room deep in the house he abandoned only when he realized he really did need someone to take care of him in his sunset years. â€Å"Bring him just dis vun, Burn-Burn. Bring him just dis vun, und you vill be revarded.† Mr. Munshun is gone. Burny stands and bends over the horsehair sofa. Doing it squeezes his belly, and the resulting pain makes him scream, but he doesn't stop. He reaches into the darkness and pulls out a battered black leather sack. He grasps its top and leaves the room, limping and clutching at his bleeding, distended belly. And what of Tyler Marshall, who has existed through most of these many pages as little more than a rumor? How badly has he been hurt? How frightened is he? Has he managed to retain his sanity? As to his physical condition, he's got a concussion, but that's already healing. The Fisherman has otherwise done no more than stroke his arm and his buttocks (a creepy touch that made Tyler think of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel†). Mentally . . . would you be shocked to hear that, while Mr. Munshun is goading Burny onward, Fred and Judy's boy is happy? He is. He is happy. And why not? He's at Miller Park. The Milwaukee Brewers have confounded all the pundits this year, all the doomsayers who proclaimed they'd be in the cellar by July Fourth. Well, it's still relatively early, but the Fourth has come and gone and the Brew Crew has returned to Miller tied for first place with Cincinnati. They are in the hunt, in large part due to the bat of Richie Sexson, who came over to Milwaukee from the Cleveland Indians and who has been â€Å"really pickin' taters,† in the pungent terminology of George Rathbun. They are in the hunt, and Ty is at the game! EXCELLENT! Not only is he there, he's got a front-row seat. Next to him big, sweating, red-faced, a Kingsland beer in one hand and another tucked away beneath his seat for emergencies is the Gorgeous George himself, bellowing at the top of his leather lungs. Jeromy Burnitz of the Crew has just been called out at first on a bang-bang play, and while there can be no doubt that the Cincinnati shortstop handled the ball well and got rid of it fast, there can also be no doubt (at least not in George Rathbun's mind) that Burnitz was safe! He rises in the twilight, his sweaty bald pate glowing beneath a sweetly lavender sky, a foamy rill of beer rolling up one cocked forearm, his blue eyes twinkling (you can tell he sees a lot with those eyes, just about everything), and Ty waits for it, they all wait for it, and here it is, that avatar of summer in the Coulee Country, that wonderful bray that means everything is okay, terror has been denied, a nd slippage has been canceled. â€Å"COME ON, UMP, GIVE US A BREAK! GIVE US A FREEEEAKIN' BRAYYYYK! EVEN A BLIND MAN COULD SEE HE WAS SAFE!† The crowd on the first-base side goes wild at the sound of that cry, none wilder than the fourteen or so people sitting behind the banner reading MILLER PARK WELCOMES GEORGE RATHBUN AND THE WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S KDCU BREWER BASH. Ty is jumping up and down, laughing, waving his Brew Crew hat. What makes this doubly boss is that he thought he forgot to enter the contest this year. He guesses his father (or perhaps his mother) entered it for him . . . and he won! Not the grand prize, which was getting to be the Brew Crew's batboy for the entire Cincinnati series, but what he got (besides this excellent seat with the other winners, that is) is, in his opinion, even better. Of course Richie Sexson isn't Mark McGwire nobody can hit the tar out of the ball like Big Mac but Sexson has been awesome for the Brewers this year, just awesome, and Tyler Marshall has won Someone is shaking his foot. Ty attempts to pull away, not wanting to lose this dream (this most excellent refuge from the horror that has befallen him), but the hand is relentless. It shakes. It shakes and shakes. â€Å"Way-gup,† a voice snarls, and the dream begins to darken. George Rathbun turns to Ty, and the boy sees an amazing thing: the eyes that were such a shrewd, sharp blue only a few seconds ago have gone dull and milky. Cripe, he's blind, Ty thinks. George Rathbun really is a â€Å"Way-gup,† the growling voice says. It's closer now. In a moment the dream will wink out entirely. Before it does, George speaks to him. The voice is quiet, totally unlike the sportscaster's usual brash bellow. â€Å"Help's on the way,† he says. â€Å"So be cool, you little cat. Be â€Å" â€Å"Way-GUP, you shit!† The grip on his ankle is crushing, paralyzing. With a cry of protest, Ty opens his eyes. This is how he rejoins the world, and our tale. He remembers where he is immediately. It's a cell with reddish-gray iron bars halfway along a stone corridor lit with cobwebby electric bulbs. There's a dish of some sort of stew in one corner. In the other is a bucket in which he is supposed to pee (or take a dump if he has to so far he hasn't, thank goodness). The only other thing in the room is a raggedy old futon from which Burny has just dragged him. â€Å"All right,† Burny says. â€Å"Awake at last. That's good. Now get up. On your feet, asswipe. I don't have time to fuck with you.† Tyler gets up. A wave of dizziness rolls through him and he puts his hand to the top of his head. There is a spongy, crusted place there. Touching it sends a bolt of pain all the way down to his jaws, which clench. But it also drives the dizziness away. He looks at his hand. There are flakes of scab and dried blood on his palm. That's where he hit me with his damned rock. Any harder, and I would have been playing a harp. But the old man has been hurt somehow, too. His shirt is covered with blood; his wrinkled ogre's face is waxy and pallid. Behind him, the cell door is open. Ty measures the distance to the hallway, hoping he's not being too obvious about it. But Burny has been in this game a long time. He has had more than one liddle one dry to esscabe on hiz bledding foodzies, oh ho. He reaches into his bag and brings out a black gadget with a pistol grip and a stainless steel nozzle at the tip. â€Å"Know what this is, Tyler?† Burny asks. â€Å"Taser,† Ty says. â€Å"Isn't it?† Burny grins, revealing the stumps of his teeth. â€Å"Smart boy! A TV-watching boy, I'll be bound. It's a Taser, yes. But a special type it'll drop a cow at thirty yards. Understand? You try to run, boy, I'll bring you down like a ton of bricks. Come out here.† Ty steps out of the cell. He has no idea where this horrible old man means to take him, but there's a certain relief just in being free of the cell. The futon was the worst. He knows, somehow, that he hasn't been the only kid to cry himself to sleep on it with an aching heart and an aching, lumpy head, nor the tenth. Nor, probably, the fiftieth. â€Å"Turn to your left.† Ty does. Now the old man is behind him. A moment later, he feels the bony fingers grip the right cheek of his bottom. It's not the first time the old man has done this (each time it happens he's reminded again of the witch in â€Å"Hansel and Gretel,† asking the lost children to stick their arms out of their cage), but this time his touch is different. Weaker. Die soon, Ty thinks, and the thought its cold collectedness is very, very Judy. Die soon, old man, so I don't have to. â€Å"This one is mine,† the old man says . . . but he sounds out of breath, no longer quite sure of himself. â€Å"I'll bake half, fry the rest. With bacon.† â€Å"I don't think you'll be able to eat much,† Ty says, surprised at the calmness of his own voice. â€Å"Looks like somebody ventilated your stomach pretty g â€Å" There is a crackling, accompanied by a hideous, jittery burning sensation in his left shoulder. Ty screams and staggers against the wall across the corridor from his cell, trying to clutch the wounded place, trying not to cry, trying to hold on to just a little of his beautiful dream about being at the game with George Rathbun and the other KDCU Brewer Bash winners. He knows he actually did forget to enter this year, but in dreams such things don't matter. That's what's so beautiful about them. Oh, but it hurts so bad. And despite all his efforts all the Judy Marshall in him the tears begin to flow. â€Å"You want another un?† the old man gasps. He sounds both sick and hysterical, and even a kid Ty's age knows that's a dangerous combination. â€Å"You want another un, just for good luck?† â€Å"No,† Ty gasps. â€Å"Don't zap me again, please don't.† â€Å"Then start walkin'! And no more smart goddamn remarks!† Ty starts to walk. Somewhere he can hear water dripping. Somewhere, very faint, he can hear the laughing caw of a crow probably the same one that tricked him, and how he'd like to have Ebbie's .22 and blow its evil shiny black feathers off. The outside world seems light-years away. But George Rathbun told him help was on the way, and sometimes the things you heard in dreams came true. His very own mother told him that once, and long before she started to go all wonky in the head, too. They come to a stairway that seems to circle down forever. Up from the depths comes a smell of sulfur and a roast of heat. Faintly he can hear what might be screams and moans. The clank of machinery is louder. There are ominous creaking sounds that might be belts and chains. Ty pauses, thinking the old guy won't zap him again unless he absolutely has to. Because Ty might fall down this long circular staircase. Might hit the place on his head the old guy already clipped with the rock, or break his neck, or tumble right off the side. And the old guy wants him alive, at least for now. Ty doesn't know why, but he knows this intuition is true. â€Å"Where are we going, mister?† â€Å"You'll find out,† Burny says in his tight, out-of-breath voice. â€Å"And if you think I don't dare zap you while we're on the stairs, my little friend, you're very mistaken. Now get walking.† Tyler Marshall starts down the stairs, descending past vast galleries and balconies, around and down, around and down. Sometimes the air smells of putrid cabbage. Sometimes it smells of burned candles. Sometimes of wet rot. He counts a hundred and fifty steps, then stops counting. His thighs are burning. Behind him, the old man is gasping, and twice he stumbles, cursing and holding the ancient banister. Fall, old man, Ty chants inside his head. Fall and die, fall and die. But at last they are at the bottom. They arrive in a circular room with a dirty glass ceiling. Above them, gray sky hangs down like a filthy bag. There are plants oozing out of broken pots, sending greedy feelers across a floor of broken orange bricks. Ahead of them, two doors French doors, Ty thinks they are called stand open. Beyond them is a crumbling patio surrounded by ancient trees. Some are palms. Some the ones with the hanging, ropy vines might be banyans. Others he doesn't know. One thing he's sure of: they are no longer in Wisconsin. Standing on the patio is an object he knows very well. Something from his own world. Tyler Marshall's eyes well up again at the sight of it, which is almost like the sight of a face from home in a hopelessly foreign place. â€Å"Stop, monkey-boy.† The old man sounds out of breath. â€Å"Turn around.† When Tyler does, he's pleased to see that the blotch on the old man's shirt has spread even farther. Fingers of blood now stretch all the way to his shoulders, and the waistband of his baggy old blue jeans has gone a muddy black. But the hand holding the Taser is rock-steady. God damn you, Tyler thinks. God damn you to hell. The old man has put his bag on a little table. He simply stands where he is for a moment, getting his breath. Then he rummages in the bag (something in there utters a faint metallic clink) and brings out a soft brown cap. It's the kind guys like Sean Connery sometimes wear in the movies. The old man holds it out. â€Å"Put it on. And if you try to grab my hand, I'll zap you.† Tyler takes the cap. His fingers, expecting the texture of suede, are surprised by something metallic, almost like tinfoil. He feels an unpleasant buzzing in his hand, like a mild version of the Taser's jolt. He looks at the old man pleadingly. â€Å"Do I have to?† Burny raises the Taser and bares his teeth in a silent grin. Reluctantly, Ty puts the cap on. This time the buzzing fills his head. For a moment he can't think . . . and then the feeling passes, leaving him with an odd sense of weakness in his muscles and a throbbing at his temples. â€Å"Special boys need special toys,† Burny says, and it comes out sbecial boyz, sbecial toyz. As always, Mr. Munshun's ridiculous accent has rubbed off a little, thickening that touch of South Chicago Henry detected on the 911 tape. â€Å"Now we can go out.† Because with the cap on, I'm safe, Ty thinks, but the idea breaks up and drifts away almost as soon as it comes. He tries to think of his middle name and realizes he can't. He tries to think of the bad crow's name and can't get that, either was it something like Corgi? No, that's a kind of dog. The cap is messing him up, he realizes, and that's what it's supposed to do. Now they pass through the open doors and onto the patio. The air is redolent with the smell of the trees and bushes that surround the back side of Black House, a smell that is heavy and cloying. Fleshy, somehow. The gray sky seems almost low enough to touch. Ty can smell sulfur and something bitter and electric and juicy. The sound of machinery is much louder out here. The thing Ty recognized sitting on the broken bricks is an E-Z-Go golf cart. The Tiger Woods model. â€Å"My dad sells these,† Ty says. â€Å"At Goltz's, where he works.† â€Å"Where do you think it came from, asswipe? Get in. Behind the wheel.† Ty looks at him, amazed. His blue eyes, perhaps thanks to the effects of the cap, have grown bloodshot and rather confused. â€Å"I'm not old enough to drive.† â€Å"Oh, you'll be fine. A baby could drive this baby. Behind the wheel.† Ty does as he is told. In truth, he has driven one of these in the lot at Goltz's, with his father sitting watchfully beside him in the passenger seat. Now the hideous old man is easing himself into that same place, groaning and holding his perforated midsection. The Taser is in the other hand, however, and the steel tip remains pointed at Ty. The key is in the ignition. Ty turns it. There's a click from the battery beneath them. The dashboard light reading CHARGE glows bright green. Now all he has to do is push the accelerator pedal. And steer, of course. â€Å"Good so far,† the old man says. He takes his right hand off his middle and points with a bloodstained finger. Ty sees a path of discolored gravel once, before the trees and underbrush encroached, it was probably a driveway leading away from the house. â€Å"Now go. And go slow. Speed and I'll zap you. Try to crash us and I'll break your wrist for you. Then you can drive one-handed.† Ty pushes down on the accelerator. The golf cart jerks forward. The old man lurches, curses, and waves the Taser threateningly. â€Å"It would be easier if I could take off the cap,† Ty says. â€Å"Please, I'm pretty sure that if you'd just let me â€Å" â€Å"No! Cap stays! Drive!† Ty pushes down gently on the accelerator. The E-Z-Go rolls across the patio, its brand-new rubber tires crunching on broken shards of brick. There's a bump as they leave the pavement and go rolling up the driveway. Heavy fronds they feel damp, sweaty brush Tyler's arms. He cringes. The golf cart swerves. Burny jabs the Taser at the boy, snarling. â€Å"Next time you get the juice! It's a promise!† A snake goes writhing across the overgrown gravel up ahead, and Ty utters a little scream through his clenched teeth. He doesn't like snakes, didn't even want to touch the harmless little corn snake Mrs. Locher brought to school, and this thing is the size of a python, with ruby eyes and fangs that prop its mouth open in a perpetual snarl. â€Å"Go! Drive!† The Taser, waving in his face. The cap, buzzing faintly in his ears. Behind his ears. The drive curves to the left. Some sort of tree burdened with what look like tentacles leans over them. The tips of the tentacles tickle across Ty's shoulders and the goose-prickled, hair-on-end nape of his neck. Ourr boyy . . . He hears this in his head in spite of the cap. It's faint, it's distant, but it's there. Ourrrrr boyyyyy . . . yesssss . . . ourrrrs . . . Burny is grinning. â€Å"Hear 'em, don'tcha? They like you. So do I. We're all friends here, don't you see?† The grin becomes a grimace. He clutches his bloody middle again. â€Å"Goddamned blind old fool!† he gasps. Then, suddenly, the trees are gone. The golf cart rolls out onto a sullen, crumbling plain. The bushes dwindle and Ty sees that farther along they give way entirely to a crumbled, rocky scree: hills rise and fall beneath that sullen gray sky. A few birds of enormous size wheel lazily. A shaggy, slump-shouldered creature staggers down a narrow defile and is gone from sight before Ty can see exactly what it is . . . not that he wanted to. The thud and pound of machinery is stronger, shaking the earth. The crump of pile drivers; the clash of ancient gears; the squall of cogs. Tyler can feel the golf cart's steering wheel thrumming in his hands. Ahead of them the driveway ends in a wide road of beaten earth. Along the far side of it is a wall of round white stones. â€Å"That thing you hear, that's the Crimson King's power plant,† Burny says. He speaks with pride, but there is more than a tinge of fear beneath it. â€Å"The Big Combination. A million children have died on its belts, and a zillion more to come, for all I know. But that's not for you, Tyler. You might have a future after all. First, though, I'll have my piece of you. Yes indeed.† His blood-streaked hand reaches out and caresses the top of Ty's buttock. â€Å"A good agent's entitled to ten percent. Even an old buzzard like me knows that.† The hand draws back. Good thing. Ty has been on the verge of screaming, holding the sound back only by thinking of sitting at Miller Park with good old George Rathbun. If I'd really entered the Brewer Bash, he thinks, none of this would have happened. But he thinks that may not actually be true. Some things are meant to be, that's all. Meant. He just hopes that what this horrible old creature wants is not one of them. â€Å"Turn left,† Burny grunts, settling back. â€Å"Three miles. Give or take.† And, as Tyler makes the turn, he realizes the ribbons of mist rising from the ground aren't mist at all. They're ribbons of smoke. â€Å"Sheol,† Burny says, as if reading his mind. â€Å"And this is the only way through it Conger Road. Get off it and there are things out there that'd pull you to pieces just to hear you scream. My friend told me where to take you, but there might be just a leedle change of plan.† His pain-wracked face takes on a sulky cast. Ty thinks it makes him look extraordinarily stupid. â€Å"He hurt me. Pulled my guts. I don't trust him.† And, in a horrible child's singsong: â€Å"Carl Bierstone don't trust Mr. Munshun! Not no more! Not no more!† Ty says nothing. He concentrates on keeping the golf cart in the middle of Conger Road. He risks one look back, but the house, in its ephemeral wallow of tropical greenery, is gone, blocked from view by the first of the eroded hills. â€Å"He'll have what's his, but I'll have what's mine. Do you hear me, boy?† When Ty says nothing, Burny brandishes the Taser. â€Å"Do you hear me, you asswipe monkey?† â€Å"Yeah,† Ty says. â€Å"Yeah, sure.† Why don't you die? God, if You're there, why don't You just reach down and put Your finger on his rotten heart and stop it from beating? When Burny speaks again, his voice is sly. â€Å"You looked at the wall on t'other side, but I don't think you looked close enough. Better take another gander.† Tyler looks past the slumped old man. For a moment he doesn't understand . . . and then he does. The big white stones stretching endlessly away along the far side of Conger Road aren't stones at all. They're skulls. What is this place? Oh God, how he wants his mother! How he wants to go home! Beginning to cry again, his brain numbed and buzzing beneath the cap that looks like cloth but isn't, Ty pilots the golf cart deeper and deeper into the furnace-lands. Into Sheol. Rescue help of any kind has never seemed so far away.