Living in North America, working from 9 to 5

Chapter 169 The Butterfly Effect!

CNN studio.

The host said: "According to the latest news from our station, not long ago, an explosion also occurred at Pfizer's pharmaceutical factory in India. Please see the scene..."

The TV screen switched to the third brother.

The dark night sky was illuminated by the flames, and a large amount of toxic gas was faintly visible under the flames...

The reporter at the scene reported: "According to the latest information we have received, the number of casualties at the scene has exceeded 100. It is hard to imagine if the explosion happened during the day when the factory was in production. Oh, my God..."

The scene cuts back to the studio again.

The host said: "The explosions on both sides occurred almost within two hours, which makes people suspect that this is an attack on Huirui. As for whether it can be classified as a terrorist attack, it depends on the results of the FBI's investigation. Our reporter is interviewing FBI agents. Please take a look at the situation on the scene."

The scene switches to the explosion site.

Reporters from more than a dozen TV stations surrounded an FBI agent and pointed more than a dozen microphones at his face.

The CNN reporter asked first: "Agent Alexander Mahone, what are the casualties inside? Is this explosion an attack on Phaeton? Will the FBI classify this explosion as a terrorist attack?"

Senior FBI agent Alexander Mahone pushed the microphone outward and said, "I'm sorry, we, the FBI, have just arrived at the scene and everything is still under investigation. I can't disclose any information now. In an hour, FBI Director Klein will hold a press conference, and you will get more information about the case then."

"Agent Mahone, can you say something more to us? The general public has the right to know the truth. This not only involves the safety of Huirui, but also the safety of all New Yorkers. What if the explosion happens again?" the CNN reporter asked.

Ma Hong did not answer the reporter's question, but squeezed through the crowd and entered the Huirui headquarters building.

Since Taylor was not present, the company security in the lobby was a bit chaotic, with everyone running around and giving orders randomly, like headless flies.

From a distance, Mahone saw NYPD Manhattan Police Chief Kuman. He came behind Kuman and patted him on the shoulder.

Kuman turned around and saw that it was FBI senior agent Ma Hong. He immediately extended his hand to shake his hand and said, "There are heavy casualties up there..."

Ma Hong shook hands and said, "I'll take some people up to take a look."

Kuman nodded: "Be safe!"

Ma Hong walked past Chief Kuman and went straight to the security check area. When he came in front of the confused security personnel, he took out a coin and threw it high into the air.

The security guard looked up at the coin.

Catching the coin, Mahone flipped his hand and showed his FBI ID:

"FBI Senior Agent, Alexander Mahone!"

security:"……"

“Let the FBI in!”

The security guard heard a loud shout from behind him. He turned around and saw that it was the deputy director of the security department. He then quickly made way.

Leading the team through the security check machine, Mahone came to the deputy director of security, stretched out his hand and said, "Senior FBI agent, Alexander Mahone!"

The Deputy Minister of Security shook hands with Mahone: "I am Paul Pastan, the Deputy Minister of Security here, please follow me..."

Entering the elevator, Paul swiped his card.

The elevator stopped at the 10th floor and Ma Hong led the team out of the elevator.

What came into view was rubble all over the ground, sections of steel bars scattered everywhere, and security personnel in security uniforms pulling people out from the rubble.

First aid personnel are checking everywhere to see if the injured still need treatment. If not, they will immediately give up on treatment. Of course, those with high status will be given first aid even if they are on their last breath.

Stepping over the rubble, going around half of the desk, and passing several emergency personnel squatting on the ground performing emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Mahone came behind a group of people.

Ma Hong asked, "Who are you?"

One of them saw the FBI ID hanging on Mahone’s chest and said, “We are the heads of various departments in the company.”

Mahone asked, "Who is the highest-ranking official here?"

A man in a suit said, "I am Peter Robert, the president's secretary..."

"What? The president's secretary is the highest position here?" Ma Hong looked surprised.

"Ah..." Peter, the president's secretary, sighed softly, "When the explosion happened, all the company's top executives were meeting in the conference room. They, they all..."

Ma Hong took a deep breath and said, "Take me to the scene!"

"plz follow me……"

Peter took Mahone to the meeting room.

Standing at the door of the conference room, Ma Hong looked inside. The entire floor of the conference room had disappeared, leaving neat blast fractures. The explosion only affected the conference room and the storage room below. The three walls of the conference room were intact, only the floor-to-ceiling windows and the concrete floor had disappeared.

Ma Hong said in front of the accompanying staff: "Professional, very professional, this is a professional blasting."

The FBI agents behind him nodded collectively.

Ma Hong sniffed the residual smell at the scene and said, "The explosive used was C4."

Upon hearing this, the FBI agents were all shocked. They looked at each other and thought, "Sir, can you now identify explosives based on smell alone?"

More than 9 bodies fell on the th floor, lying in a mess, at least half of them were incomplete.

Ma Hong noticed a head stuck on an upright steel bar. Although the face was covered in blood and unrecognizable, it could be judged from the white hair that the deceased should be very old.

Ma Hong took out his asthma spray and took two deep puffs.

At this moment, a middle-aged man's voice came from behind him: "Who is the head of the FBI?"

Mahone turned around and looked at the middle-aged white man with a similarly high hairline: "I'm the person in charge here, senior FBI agent, Alexander Mahone!"

The middle-aged white man extended his hand: "Hello, DHS, Department of Homeland Security, Smith Anderson, you can call me Commissioner Smith."

Mahone shook Smith's hand. "Hello, Commissioner Smith!"

"It's like this. According to the clues we have, this bombing should be considered a terrorist attack. The president has signed an order for this case to be investigated by a joint investigation team composed of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I assume you are the person in charge of the case on the FBI side, right?" Commissioner Smith said.

"Yes, I received a call from Director Klein on my way here, and he told me that DHS will also participate in the investigation," said Mahone.

Commissioner Smith: "I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation. Oh, by the way, where is the explosion site?"

"follow me!"

Mahone brought Commissioner Smith to the explosion site.

Looking at the bodies in the ruins below, Commissioner Smith's expression gradually became solemn. He also smelled the smell at the scene: "C4 explosives, professional blasting techniques."

The DHS agents following behind Commissioner Smith looked at each other and said in their hearts that the commissioner was really amazing and could determine the composition of the explosives just by the smell.

Commissioner Smith looked at Mahone and asked, "What do you think?"

Ma Hong said: "I think the explosives should have been installed on the ceiling of the 9th floor in advance. When the explosion occurred, they were holding a board meeting. This is not just a terrorist attack, but also a premeditated murder, targeting all members of the board of directors of Huirui."

Commissioner Smith took a deep breath and nodded slightly to show his agreement with Ma Hong's analysis. He said casually, "Yes, your analysis is correct. I think it must be the explosives installed by an insider. When I came up, I specifically checked the security measures of Huirui Company. They are very strict. If there is no insider, it is impossible for an outsider to bring in explosives without anyone noticing."

Just as Commissioner Ma Hong and Commissioner Smith were analyzing the case, a white man in a suit, sunglasses and a slicked-back hair stood outside the cordon on the side of the road a few hundred meters away from the headquarters building of Huirui.

Inside the cordon was a destroyed BMW sedan.

After watching for a while, the man in the suit left the crowd and walked to a deserted place and whispered into his collar, "Raymond Taylor's car was blown up. There was no one in the car, but his positioning signal disappeared here. There are two possibilities. One, Raymond Taylor did it and he ran away. Two, someone kidnapped him and pretended to be him to do it."

A middle-aged man's voice came from the headset:

"Wesker, it doesn't matter who did it. No matter who it was, he helped us a lot. The old man was killed in the explosion. More than half of the board of directors died. Next, what we have to do is to completely control the board of directors. By then, the company's security director will be yours."

Wesker replied:
"Then who should we thank? Dr. Isaac."

"Hahahahahaha!"

There was a wild laugh coming from the headphones...

That afternoon.

The president delivered a televised speech in the White House and announced that the incident was a terrorist attack on a high-tech pharmaceutical company in the United States. He expressed condolences to the victims at the scene and lowered flags across the United States.

In the evening, the FBI director came to New York and held a press conference. The head of the FBI in New York State stood on the left of the director, and the case leader Alexander Mahone stood on the right of the director. The American flag was behind them in the background.

The podium was full of reporters with shoulder-mounted cameras. "Reporters, I am FBI Director Cristo Rei. The explosion that occurred in Manhattan at noon today has been classified as a terrorist attack. The FBI and DHS will form a joint investigation team to investigate this terrorist attack. No matter who is behind it, we will bring him to justice."

"This attack caused a total of 118 casualties, including 28 deaths and 23 injuries at the Huirui Company, and 67 injuries to the public, with no deaths..."

Rent a villa.

Roy and others are watching the FBI press conference.

Everyone saw Ma Hong next to the director.

Selina looked at Roy:
"What do you think Ma Hong will say later?"

Roy lit a camel:
"I think he might start cursing."

[Currently smoking: Lung capacity +1]

"Scold you?" Selina looked at Roy with surprise.

"I'll scold everyone, including you!" Roy said.

Selena: “…”

Irina said, "Roy, this matter has been exposed. The authorities have classified this explosion as a terrorist attack. For the next two or three months, I suggest you keep a low profile and avoid this storm."

Roy nodded to show that he understood.

"Come with me!"

Irina called Roy aside.

She leaned close to Roy's ear and whispered, "If I can't find out anything, I will use the power of the organization to push this matter outside."

"Push it outside?" Roy looked surprised.

Irina continued in a low voice: "Yes, there are some things that must be explained to the public. When the time comes, we can lead the conflict outside. No matter which side it is, it will be a win."

"What do you mean?" Roy asked.

Irina explained in a low voice: "The higher-ups will use this as an excuse to launch a war. By then, not only will the conflict be perfectly diverted, but the military industry department will also make a fortune."

"..." Roy's eyelids twitched, and he asked in a low voice: "Wage a war? Where will the war be launched?"

"It doesn't matter where the war is launched. What matters is that there should be a war. Do you understand? The military industry needs orders." Irina whispered.

hiss--

Roy gasped.

“So even if they know that it was done by an insider, they will not admit to the outside world that it was done by an insider. They will handle it secretly internally and find a scapegoat outside.” Irina smiled slightly.

"Hey! Mahone is going to give a speech!" Selena reminded.

Roy and Irina returned to the TV.

Ma Hong on TV stood on the podium. His speech was fine at the beginning, but he became more and more emotional and his words became more intense as time went on.

What the hell are these terrorists...

What a damn bastard...

What a damn beast...

Jonathan: "..."

Roy scratched his head.

The next day, Deng Ge announced that he was responsible for the matter.

The stock price of Phincor began to plummet, and panic spread rapidly. People were afraid that the attacks on Phincor would continue, so even other stocks were not spared.

The first to be hit was the pharmaceutical sector, followed by pharmaceutical companies' downstream supply chain companies, then the chemical industry, and even Silicon Valley's Internet high-tech companies were affected.

On that day, Nasdaq almost triggered the circuit breaker mechanism.

However, the impact is far from over.

On the third day after the incident, Nasdaq triggered a primary market circuit breaker and fell by 7%.

Stockholders lost everything they had, and many of them ran down the streets, calling out to God.

Many institutions were caught off guard by the sudden explosion and invested heavily in stabilizing the stock market, but they could not resist the frantic short selling by other institutions.

Among them are Reid Asset Management, JPMorgan Chase, and five other giant institutions.

On the fourth day, the secondary market circuit breaker was triggered again, the market fell by 13%, 22 companies declared bankruptcy, and three well-known Wall Street tycoons committed suicide by jumping off a building.

On the fifth day, the third-level market was halted and the market fell by 20%. Another 53 companies declared bankruptcy, and countless positions were liquidated due to high leverage.

The entire federation was wailing.

Short-selling institutions made a fortune, and dozens of companies with good potential were acquired by Reed Asset Management.

In just four days, Irina's net worth went from $2 billion to $8 billion.

As early as several days ago, Irina began to plan to short Nasdaq. The major institutions controlled by the organization played an extremely important role in this incident.

If everyone comes out to stabilize the market, it will not actually cause much of a tsunami, but it is unstoppable if a large number of institutions are frantically short selling.

There is no way...

On the fifth day, the decline slowed down.

It was not until the eighth day that it began to rise slightly.

During this period, several institutions secretly controlled by the organization frantically bought up the bottom of Phinox's stock and eventually acquired a total of 33% of the shares.

Irina herself received 5% of the shares of Phinox, becoming the company's second largest individual shareholder, and thus easily entered the board of directors.

However, Dr. Isaac also bought at the bottom and acquired a total of 10% of the shares from the families of deceased board members through manipulation.

This was a bit of a surprise to the organization. Although the various institutions controlled by the organization held a total of 33% of the shares, no individual held as many shares as Dr. Isaac. All the living directors stood on Isaac's side.

This also led to Isaac becoming the new chairman and Irina becoming the vice chairman.

In the blink of an eye, three months have passed...

The first snow of winter was falling slowly. Homeless people gathered in front of oil drums and roasted themselves by the fire. They were discussing the stock market crash three months ago.

There are quite a few people here who are newly homeless, and the reasons are almost the same, without exception, they are all because of the last disaster.

In America, if the middle class and the lower class go bankrupt, they are really bankrupt, and the probability of turning things around is almost zero.

If your credit is bankrupt, no one will dare to hire you. If no one hires you, you will become poorer and poorer. The poorer you become, the less you can pay the rent. If you can’t pay the rent, you will have to wander around. You will never be able to pay the money back and will never find a good job. Slowly, everyone starts to give up on themselves. Taking drugs and smoking sesame have become a daily routine.

Even the gangs don't want them, considering them a burden.

At night, Roy, wearing a NYPD uniform, drove a patrol car on the streets of Brooklyn. Looking at the homeless people on both sides of the street, Roy sighed softly.

This is what capital supremacy is like. If you have money, you are a father. If you have no money, you are a grandson. No one will respect you wherever you go.

This made Roy realize the importance of money and power. In this society, holding a high position, although enviable, is not everything.

In fact, the truly powerful people are those who stand behind, in the dark, in the shadows, quietly controlling the entire America, and even the entire world.

Although Colin is the chief of the Brooklyn branch of the NYPD on the surface, he has to obey Roy in secret and do everything according to Roy's orders.

An ordinary patrolman took control of the entire police station.

His life goal is clear again. Roy wants to become the real behind-the-scenes player standing at the top of the pyramid...

In the distance, a Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan flashed its high beams twice at the police car driven by Roy, then turned off the lights. A woman in a milky white windbreaker pushed the door and got out, standing alone in the messy cold wind.

Roy stopped the patrol car, pushed the door open, got out, and walked towards the woman.

"Vanessa..."

　Two updates of 10,000 words!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)