Regan's Planet

THE VIEW, from sixteen miles above sea level, was a fine one. It was a cloudless day, and North America lay spread out for the Factor Claude Regan like an unrolled map. Down there was the great gouge of Hudson Bay, and Canadian soil, white and brown and green, and along the curved plane lay the United States, to the south. Claude Regan looked out with pleasure, as though he were looking down on his own personal kingdom.Strictly speaking, it was not true. Claude Regan did not own North America, though sometimes in recent months he had been tempted to think he did. He did not even own the luxurious private jet that was carrying him over the Pole from China to Denver at 2,800 miles an hour. The plane was the property of Global Factors, Inc., which was not yet quite the same thing as being the property of the Factor Claude Regan. And North America was the property of—well, not his, nor even the company's.