Tensions in the Middle East escalated over the next four days, with oil prices shooting up by thirty percent, no thanks to the Rothschilds' machinations—a near-historical rate of inflation.

Naturally, that meant Esteban had made a fortune. When the price inflated, he stocked up and sold all the crude oil he had privately mined and purchased from the Gettys earlier, selling it all back to the Gettys.

None of his ships even made port, but he made dozens of millions in profit from the inflated pr