Chapter 878: Secrecy
After exchanging opinions with Robert, Jiang Chen finalized the plan for Future Group to enter the film industry.
Jiang Chen would personally invest one billion US Dollar to establish Morning Light Film. Morning Light Film would be responsible for the production and distribution of films, and would be structured independently from Future Group. This move was mainly to avoid the Paramount Decision (1). Future Group may intervene in the screening of the film in the future. However, there was not much difference. Both Future Group and Morning Light Film were controlled by him. Although the shareholding structure remained independent of each other, there wouldn’t be any difference in actuality.
After all, it was not his Xin.
With 10% equity and one million US Dollar in base salary, Robert was hired as the CEO of the company. After spending over a decade in Los Santos, he came clean about being an arms dealer and became a producer for three years in Hollywood. Robert was more than sufficient to take on the role of CEO with his connections in this city.
Of course, everything now remained in the drafting phase.
At least for now, the cooperation between Future Technology and Warner Bros. remained in a honeymoon period, and everything had to wait until after the release of “Time Curtain”.
When Jiang Chen came out of the mansion, it was already eight in the evening. Lawrence was still leaning against the side of the car, but this time, he was not chewing on a hamburger but smoking out of boredom.
After seeing Jiang Chen, Lawrence extinguished the cigarette.
“Where are we going next?”
“Where else can I go at this time?” Jiang Chen yawned and sat in the car.
“I thought after attending this kind of party, you’d definitely have a date.” Lawrence shrugged.
Two hours ago, he saw a group of Hollywood stars exit Robert’s mansion, some of whom were pretty blondes. According to the FBA’s archive for him, this guy definitely wasn’t the type that constrained himself.
“I’m reducing the workload for you.” Jiang Chen told the unruly agent in charge. After putting on his seatbelt, he said, “I have no plans for the next two days, and you can consider giving yourself two days off.”
“No arrangements?” Lawrence raised his eyebrows.
According to the security agreement of both parties, Jiang Chen was obliged to provide the FBA with his schedule for the next day so that they could be prepared. However, Jiang Chen had no plans, which made him feel puzzled.
“Yes, I will be staying in the Xin Emba.s.sy for the next two or three days to discuss the upcoming Silicon Valley Summit with my CEO. At the same time, there are some things from Xin that I need to deal with.” Jiang Chen brought out the set of rhetoric that he prepared long ago.
Lawrence glanced at Jiang Chen suspiciously, but he did not say anything about it.
As an outsider, he couldn’t make irresponsible comments about the internal arrangements of Future Group. And he would never think that Jiang Chen would sneak out and “visit” Area 51 in Lincoln County in southern Nevada.
At the same time, a fierce debate was taking place here at the CIB headquarters. Steven, who had just returned from Los Santos, had found his top boss, CIB Director Naomi Madden, and was trying to persuade his boss to initiate an investigation procedure on Jiang Chen.
“There is no conclusive statement on whether it was a graphite bomb or an EMP.” Turning the pen in his hand, Naomi leaned back in his chair and listened to his reports.
However, at work, his top man did not buy it. Steven magnified his volume and contended. “Conclusive? What evidence do we still need? If the testimony of 110 Ukrainian government soldiers cannot be used as evidence, then what else can be used as evidence? I’m sure it’s an EMP!”
Identifying the difference between a graphite bomb and an EMP was very difficult. Both could destroy the grid and damage electronic equipment. However, the former’s accuracy was poor, and it was ineffective for devices with strong leak-protection. Because the site of the incident was at the most chaotic frontline, even a CIB agent couldn’t penetrate behind the enemy line and collect so-called evidence like investigators.
Naomi’s face held a dignified look but he still didn’t make a decision.
The Ukrainian issue was indeed very important, or else the project team led by Steven would not directly report to him. In the Ukrainian government’s military report, Russia used a weapon that could paralyze electronic equipment and immediately attracted the attention of the CIB. After the airborne operations in City M, no country could ignore the killer of modern civilization, the EMP. Although all countries were protesting against this kind of weapon, everyone knew that everyone was also studying this weapon in the dark.
The Capital suspected that Future Group provided a.s.sistance to Russians, but the KGB had done a very good job in intelligence work, and the CIB couldn’t collect relevant evidence for the time being. The CIB didn’t even know the degree of cooperation between the two parties. If it was a simple arms sale, everything would be fine. But if the technology was sold, it would be bad.
However, the people involved also made it difficult for Naomi.
The Capital was releasing a friendly signal to Xin, and his top man proposed to investigate Jiang Chen… Regardless of whether Jiang Chen was related to the weapons on the Russian-Ukrainian border, it was impossible for the CIB to investigate an important guest.
“The crux of the problem now is that even if we prove that these weapons came from the military factories on Ange Island, it would be an arms sale between Russian and Future Military. They did not directly sell arms to the rebels.” Naomi’s pen stopped spinning. He leaned back in his chair and muttered in a frown. “This is difficult.”
“Just because it is difficult, are we going to let them just walk away like this?” Steven said bitterly.
Naomi looked at the emotional Steven. He knew exactly why his subordinate would regard Jiang Chen as a thorn in his eyes. The CIB had planned a kidnapping operation against Jiang Chen before, but the dozens of CIB agents sent to the country were still missing.
At first, they thought that it was Hua who arrested them. However, after several years, the silence of the nation began to make them suspect that it was not Hua’s intelligence service that got rid of those agents
Those dozens of dead agents were all Steven’s comrades. He understood his feelings at the moment.
But from a political standpoint, it was impossible for Naomi to approve his proposal. His predecessor resigned because he had planned the kidnapping operation without approval. As the CIB director who was pro-Capital, he made the most conservative and correct choice.
“I will inform the Capital.”
“We can’t ask the Capital for everything. Please, we are the CIB, not the FBA, not the puppets of the Capital! We should be responsible for the nation’s security! We can solve it with our own methods-”
“It’s too risky!” Naomi immediately interrupted Steven’s words.
However, Steven did not give up; a bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face as he said word by word.
“I heard that the Freemasonry has a grudge against them.”
Naomi paused. Not letting this opportunity get away, Steven continued.
“This is no risk, and we’ll be completely out of this. We just need to provide a little help to those who are also keen against them.”
Naomi frowned and seemed to understand what Steven wanted to say, but there were concerns about the feasibility of this move.
“A bad move will provoke a war between the two countries.”
“There’ll be no war! As long as it is not the UA that strikes! As long as we completely separate ourselves from all of this, we’ll not get into any trouble!”
After a long silence, Naomi did not openly endorse it, nor go against it. Instead, he gave an ambiguous answer.
“I hope Los Santos will not become the second Bay of Pig.”
A faint smile finally emerged on Steven’s face.
He knew that this conservative and cautious director was finally convinced.
“I promise.”
(1) The Paramount Case was a landmark United States Supreme Court ant.i.trust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films. It also changed the way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. The Court held in this case that the existing distribution scheme was in violation of the ant.i.trust laws of the United States, which prohibit certain exclusive dealing arrangements. (Source Wikipedia)