Derek Green

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military contractors, the journalists who followed both, and the people who hung on all three moved out into the world to shuffle resources, jobs, and products around the continents.

These are the expats Derek Green writes about in his fascinating first collection of short stories, New World Order. Although these stories take place in such different places as Caracas, the Green Zone in Baghdad, Bangkok, South Africa, Western Australia, and Dubai, they are unified by the shadowy presence of the Halliburtonesque Mason Worldwide, "the ultimate low-profile, high-profit multinational conglomerate." "It's this huge thing," one character says, "this monstrous thing with tentacles that reach all over the world. It touches thousands, probably millions of people." Though never a major player in the stories, the company defines the mercenary and rapacious ethic that governs the lives of the characters — even those who are trying to resist it.