Cathedral City, California glanced up at the purple face of the San Jacinto Mountains and liked what it saw.
The six oilmen looked hopefully out the windows of the navy-blue van but noticed nothing either promising or recognizable.
They could tell they were heading south. The gentle slant of late afternoon sun draping the peaks of the Otay Mesa did little to calm their mounting fears.
Then the polite man in the shotgun seat turned around and asked the six oilmen to give him their cellphones.
Off across the desert, Cathedral City, California hosted a refined flurry of endless cocktail parties.
