Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai

311 Pages·2007·1.18 MB·English

by  Ben Mezrich

RIGGED
THE TRUE STORY OF AN IVY
LEAGUE KID WHO CHANGED THE
WORLD OF OIL, FROM WALL
STREET TO DUBAI
Ben Mezrich

CONTENTS

Prologue
Oil. 1
Chapter 1
Three-thirty in the morning, maybe closer to four. 3
Chapter 2
David Russo would always remember the moment when clarity first. . . 9
Chapter 3
There was something uniquely soothing about the whir of helicopter. . . 19
Chapter 4
I’m sorry, David. He’s on his way to his son’s. . . 25
Chapter 5
Geography aside, it was hard to tell where Wall Street. . . 31
Chapter 6
Monday morning, 8:59 a.m. 38
Chapter 7
The first thing David noticed as he stepped out onto. . . 44
Chapter 8
David stepped out into what looked to be a lounge,. . . 50
Chapter 9
The view was like something out of a science fiction. . . 62
Chapter 10
Are you sure about this?” 65
Chapter 11
David came awake to the sound of classical music. 73
Chapter 12
Monday morning, 9:10 a.m., the New York Mercantile Exchange. 77
Chapter 13
Four hours later, David was so deep in oil, he. . . 84
Chapter 14
David grimaced as he kicked sawdust off his only pair. . . 89
Chapter 15
If one were to choose a place in which to. . . 99
Chapter 16
I could get used to this,” Serena said, and David. . . 105
Chapter 17
As David’s index finger plunged toward his laptop’s keyboard, he. . . 111
Chapter 18
David should have seen the bombshell coming the minute Harriet. . . 116
Chapter 19
For the third time in ten minutes, Khaled’s life flashed. . . 128
Chapter 20
Look at the bright side, kid. At least they weren’t. . . 133
Chapter 21
How long do you think we could stay in here. . . 142
Chapter 22
Now this was the way to travel. 148
Chapter 23
The minute he slung his carry-on bag over his shoulder,. . . 152
Chapter 24
From the very moment David lowered himself into his seat. . . 161
Chapter 25
The nightclub was called Kasbah, though it didn’t need to. . . 171
Chapter 26
The swimming pool was enormous and shaped like a kidney;. . . 180
Chapter 27
It wasn’t until David was sitting in the first-class lounge. . . 188
Chapter 28
At that very moment, ten miles away, Khaled closed his. . . 192
Chapter 29
You have three minutes. Don’t embarrass yourself.” 197
Chapter 30
The trading floor was in full swing as David stepped. . . 207
Chapter 31
It’s kind of like chess. The key is always to. . . 210
Chapter 32
If ever there was a moment that seemed to justify. . . 221
Chapter 33
Out of the frying pan and into the fire . . . 228
Chapter 34
Suddenly there was darkness. 234
Chapter 35
Two days before his twenty-sixth birthday,
David made a life-altering. . . 239
Chapter 36
If the villains in a James Bond movie had been. . . 248
Chapter 37
In a perfect world, David would have come to his. . . 255
Chapter 38
Twenty minutes later, when David stepped through the entrance of. . . 262
Chapter 39
Wow, you’re really not much for that lived-in look, are. . . 266
Chapter 40
Ten a.m. 270
Chapter 41
Eight hours later—and at thirty thousand feet—David’s celebration
was still. . . 278
Chapter 42
Even during takeoff, the hundred-million-dollar jet’s twin Rolls
Royce engines. . . 281
EPILOGUE
The minute David stepped out of the taxicab and onto. . . 285
AFTERWORD
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OTHER BOOKS BY BEN MEZRICH
CREDITS
COVER
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
PROLOGUE
O
il.
On the Arab street, they have another name for it: “the Black
Blood of Allah.” A gift, handed down directly from God, endow-
ing the Muslim world with everlasting power over the West.
In the West, oil is no less influential; it is inarguably the most
important tradable commodity on earth. Oil is the source of wealth
and power, the currency that drives the world economy. Some be-
lieve it is also the cause of most wars and acts of terrorism.
In truth, there’s a reason men fight wars over oil: at its es-
sence, oil is energy. It powers everything. It is, in itself, power, but
power with a price—historically, oil has always divided the world
into two opposing forces: those who have, and those who need.
Very soon that historical fact may change. Because very soon
oil may also end up bringing the world together in a way that
politics, diplomacy, and war never could. . . .