Creating America: My campaign manager was Roosevelt

Chapter 184 Slaves of Capital

This night was destined to be sleepless for the core team at Pittsburgh City Hall.

Ethan Hawke sat in front of the computer, refreshing the system data every five minutes.

Sarah Jenkins and her PR team worked through the night to draft two completely different press releases.

One of them is titled "Victory: Fund Pool Vulnerability Fixed, League Ushers in New Opportunities".

The other document is titled "Emergency: Pittsburgh Suspends Bill Exchange Due to Systemic Risks."

Everyone was on edge, waiting for the moment of judgment.

Time passed by, second by second.

The east was beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn.

The morning light pierced through the thin mist, illuminating Grant Avenue.

8:50.

Leo walked into the office.

He changed into a brand new suit, shaved his beard, and looked very energetic.

But the bloodshot eyes betrayed him.

"How is it?"

Leo asked directly.

Ethan shook his head, his face pale.

"There's been no movement from Saint-Cloud."

Leo glanced at the clock on the wall.

Ten minutes left.

"Maybe they're waiting for the last moment," Leo said, with a hint of self-consolation in his voice. "It's a psychological tactic. She wants to see me break down first, to make me pick up the phone out of fear in those last few hundred seconds."

8:55.

The internal phone on the desk suddenly rang once.

Leo's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively looked at the phone.

Ethan answered the phone, listened for a couple of minutes, then covered the receiver and looked at Leo.

"Elena Rodriguez is here." Ethan frowned. "You two arranged to meet at nine yesterday to discuss the neighborhood rent." Leo paused for a moment.

He had almost forgotten about it.

Tell her to wait.

Leo waved his hand: "Tell her I have something more important to do now and might be a few minutes late."

Ethan said a few words into the phone and then hung up.

"She's waiting outside."

8:58.

Leo felt his palms were covered in cold sweat.

He was waiting for that woman to back down.

He was waiting for the bell that would signal compromise to ring.

If the phone doesn't ring before nine o'clock, it means the war has broken out in full force.

8:59.

The second hand ticked away, one tick at a time.

Every second felt like an eternity.

He counted silently in his mind.

ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Nine o'clock sharp.

The minute and hour hands overlapped.

Ethan stared at the screen, his fingers stiff.

"no."

Nothing happened.

Just then, Sarah's computer emitted a sharp beep.

That's a specially designed alert for capturing news keywords.

"Leo...look at this."

Sarah turned the computer screen toward Leo.

The screen displays a newly released press release, published on the terminals of The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

Risk Warning Announcement Regarding the Suspension of Pennsylvania Industry Alliance Trust Bill Exchange Business.

"In light of the recent unpredictable liquidity fluctuations in the regional financial system, and out of a responsible attitude towards the safety of investors' assets, St. Cloud Capital has decided to suspend all redemption services for this note through all its channels, effective immediately. The resumption time will depend on the risk control measures implemented by the Pittsburgh municipal authorities."

This was Evelyn Saint-Cloud's response.

Previously, St. Cloud Capital acted as the funding pool for this bill system.

Whenever a city needed cash, Evelyn's pool of funds would act like a giant sponge, absorbing the bills and releasing dollars. But now, the sponge is dry.

If the goal is to make payments, the pressure will fall entirely on Leo's side.

He had to use the pitiful fiscal surplus of the Pittsburgh city government to cover the entire alliance's redemption needs.

But that's an astronomical figure.

When everyone realized that the water in the pool was almost gone, their instinctive reaction was to grab it one by one.

Get ahead of others and turn your receipts into real money.

Panic erupted instantly.

The phone on my desk suddenly rang.

Then came the second and third parts.

The ringing was incessant, sharp and urgent, like an air raid siren echoing through the cramped office.

"It's Mayor Smith," Ethan glanced at the caller ID. "And Byers from Scranton, they're both calling."

Don't answer.

"Leo commanded."

Panic has spread.

Those allies must be roaring on the other end of the phone right now, their cities on the verge of financial collapse.

He lost to that woman in the psychological game.

He overestimated the power money had on her and underestimated her thirst for power and ruthlessness as a apex predator.

Now, the hilt of the knife is in her hand.

"Answer the phone?" Ethan asked again, the ringing making him feel nervous.

"I won't answer."

Leo stood up.

He walked to the window and looked at the bustling street outside.

The sun was shining brightly, casting golden dappled light on the asphalt of Grant Avenue. Pedestrians hurried along, unaware that the heart of the city was about to stop beating.

He is facing a final decision.

Just then, Leo's phone rang.

It was an unmarked number, but Leo knew who it belonged to.

Leo stared at the flickering light on his phone screen as if he were looking at a black hole.

"Catch it, Leo."

Roosevelt's voice echoed in his mind.

"This is your only chance."

"I absolutely will not."

Leo gritted his teeth and responded in his mind.

"I will never bow down to her. If I answer this phone now, if I beg for mercy now, I will become her slave, and Pittsburgh will become her colony."

"Do you still care about dignity?" Roosevelt scoffed. "Leo, look around you."

"Your allies are going bankrupt, your plans are collapsing, and if you still cling to your so-called dignity at this point, you are not only a loser, you are a butcher."

"Are you willing to drag hundreds of thousands of people down with you just to save face?"

"This isn't about saving face!"

"This is a principle! This is the bottom line! If I kneel down today, I'll never be able to stand up again! She will slowly devour me until I become a puppet who can only stamp documents!"

"Then let's make a puppet."

Roosevelt's voice became stern.

"Listen, kid. Politics isn't a fairy tale; you can't be a hero every time."

"Sometimes, you have to learn to be a dog."

"Only those who survive have the right to talk about the future. Only those sitting at the poker table have a chance to turn the tables."

"If you flip the table now, you're completely out of the game. Murphy will lose, Warren will be re-elected, and the establishment will regain control. All your previous efforts will become a joke."

"Keep your head down."

"Admit defeat to her and accept her terms."

"As long as we can maintain the current situation, as long as we can keep this ship sailing."

"You can endure the humiliation, and when you have enough strength, you can take back what you've lost."

"This is the survival rule for politicians."

The phone was still ringing.

That was Evelyn St. Cloud's death warrant.

She was waiting for the young lion to lower its head, revealing its vulnerable neck, before she would put the collar on it.

Leo looked at the phone.

His breathing became rapid, and his chest heaved violently.

All reason told him that Roosevelt was right.

Compromise is the only way out, and surrender is the best way to cut losses.

but……

Something was screaming and rebelling deep within his bones.

"No."

Leo squeezed out the word through gritted teeth.

"What did you say?" Roosevelt's voice carried a hint of surprise.

I said, no.

Leo abruptly turned around, his back to the sunlight streaming through the window, and hid himself in the shadows of the office.

His eyes went berserk.

"I will never bow my head."

"I will never be a dog."

"Mr. President, you taught me to find a way to survive in desperate situations, but you also taught me that some things cannot be sold."

"If I even sell the courage to resist, then I will really have nothing left."

Leo grabbed the phone from the table.

His finger hovered over the red hang-up button.

"Leo! Don't do anything stupid!" Roosevelt shouted in his mind. "You're committing suicide!"

"Then commit suicide."

"If death is inevitable."

"I want to die standing up too."

At that moment, time seemed to stand still in the office.

Ethan's panting, Sarah's exclamations, and even the sounds of traffic outside the window all disappeared.

In Leo's world, only that red button remains.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the screen.

The anxious voice that had been in my mind suddenly stopped.

Then, the aged voice rang out again.

"Put your hand down, child."

Roosevelt's voice became unusually calm.

Leo paused for a moment, his finger hovering in mid-air.

The surrounding scenery began to distort and fade.

The walls of Pittsburgh City Hall have disappeared, and the modern offices are gone.

A biting cold wind howled in, carrying with it the salty smell of the sea and the strong stench of gunpowder.

Leo found himself standing on a pitch-black deck.

The steel behemoth beneath our feet rose and fell on the waves, and in the distance, flames soared into the sky, thick smoke billowing, illuminating the torn Stars and Stripes in a crimson glow. "Winter of 1941."

Roosevelt, seated in his wheelchair and draped in his black navy coat, stood beside Leo, silently gazing at the burning sea. "That was the darkest moment in American history."

"The Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, and the German submarines hunted our merchant ships in the Atlantic. The whole world was burning, and the lights of freedom were being extinguished one by one."

"At that time, some people also advised me to compromise."

Roosevelt's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the sea breeze.

"They told me that the United States was not prepared for war."

"They said that as long as we cede the Pacific Ocean to Japan and Europe to Germany, we can still do business behind closed doors and still maintain our wealth and prosperity."

"They said that bowing one's head is not shameful for the sake of peace and survival."

Roosevelt turned his head, his deep eyes looking at Leo.

"If I had agreed back then, America could have survived, and our young people wouldn't have had to shed blood in Europe."

"But an America that survives like that will no longer be a free country."

"We will become vassals of fascism, slaves to power. Our prosperity will be built on the favors of others, and our survival will depend on the whims of dictators."

"So I refused."

"I chose war."

"I chose to let this country bleed, to break countless families, and to put the economy under wartime control."

"Because I know that some things are more important than life itself."

"That is the right not to be enslaved."

Scene change.

The burning sea disappeared, and in its place appeared the fireplace of the White House.

"Leo, I was worried about you."

Roosevelt looked at Leo with undisguised admiration in his eyes.

"I worry that you're too clever now, too calculating. You've learned how to survive in the cracks, how to exploit human weaknesses, and how to maximize your profits."

"You have become an excellent politician."

"But I've always been afraid that you'll get lost in these calculations, and that you'll forget your true self."

"In this world, you can make deals with anyone."

"You can dance with the devil, share meat with greedy capitalists, and get your hands covered in mud to achieve your goals."

"but·……"

Roosevelt's voice became strong and resonant.

"You must never become a slave to capital."

"When you made the deal with Morganfield, you held the executive power. You granted him the concession, and you could also take it back."

"So in court, you can walk away in time, you can flip the table, because you're equals, it's a transaction." "But this time is different."

"If you agree to Evelyn's terms, that would be betrayal."

"You can use Morganfield, you can use Evelyn, you can even use me."

"But when they try to put a collar around your neck, trying to make you their property."

"You must draw your knife."

Even if that knife will cut you, even if it will leave you with nothing.

"You must also cut off that hand."

"Because once you kneel down, even just once, you'll never be able to stand up again."

"You just did it."

Roosevelt reached out and placed his hand lightly on Leo's shoulder.

"In that moment between life and death, you chose freedom."

"You'd rather destroy everything you've built than become Evelyn's puppet."

"That's what makes a leader."

"I didn't choose the wrong person."

"You are even more outstanding than I imagined."

The space of consciousness receded rapidly.

The clamor of the real world flooded back into my ears.

Leo's finger was still hovering over the red button.

Over the past year, Roosevelt has been teaching him how to make deals as a politician.

Leo once thought that this was all there was to politics.

A grand exchange with no bottom line, where everything in the process is sacrificed for the so-called correct outcome.

But today, Roosevelt told him something else: there are boundaries to transactions.

If you exchange things at all costs, you become the bargaining chip itself.

Roosevelt did not want to cultivate a donor who only knew how to sell out his own interests, nor did he want to cultivate a saint who only had moral fastidiousness.

He wanted to cultivate a ruler who walked on a knife's edge.

One must be willing to sacrifice one's own flesh to feed the tiger, but also be able to wield a knife to kill the wolf.

The space in between is so narrow that only one foot can fit inside.

Taking a step to the left is pedantry and incompetence; taking a step to the right is utter depravity.

It was truly like walking on thin ice.

Leo picked up the phone and pressed the answer button.

Good morning, Leo.

Evelyn's voice on the other end of the phone was completely devoid of emotion.

"Good morning, Miss St. Cloud."

Leo's tone was equally calm.

"Your office phone must be ringing off the hook right now, right?"

Evelyn asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"It's alright." Leo glanced at the still-flashing desk phone. "That's normal. You know, the mayor is always busy." "Really?" Evelyn chuckled. "So, have you changed your mind?"

"no."

Leo answered crisply and decisively.

"My conditions haven't changed, Evelyn. The choice is yours."

"very good."

Evelyn didn't say anything more.

"Then I won't disturb the mayor's work any longer."

"beep"

The phone hangs up.