Manhattan Reborn 1978

Chapter 923 Speeding up the Flashing Wings (4)

The front yard of a small farm next to the Brazos River in the western suburbs of Houston.

The afternoon sun shines all over the earth.

David walked to the car, looked back at Polly who was about to follow him, reached out and grabbed her waist, and smiled bitterly.

"Let's go. I'll come back and explain everything tomorrow morning when their anger has subsided."

"What do you want to explain?"

"Are you willing to give them up and let them go?"

"..."

"Oh~" Polly couldn't help but sigh when she saw David shaking his head silently without responding.

"You still have a lot to do. Don't worry about the things at home. Let us solve it ourselves."

"Solve? How to solve it?" David tried to ask deliberately.

"Susan already has a child, what do you think?" Polly glared at him and said resentfully.

"I...I'll come see you when I'm done with my work tonight."

"What time is it tonight?"

"Um...it might be late, but I will definitely come back!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you no matter how late it is." Polly opened her arms and wrapped them around David's neck, kissed him gently, and whispered.

"I didn't get the first place, so the second place must be mine!"

"Sure!" David smiled and nodded, feeling a little amused. After coaxing her for a while, he got in the car and left the farm with a worried look on his face.

. . .

on the way.

The driver, Mr. Tianniu, glanced at David through the rearview mirror and joked to Toby Olga who was sitting in the passenger seat.

"I saw you only had a little lunch just now, so I brought you a few small cakes in the box in the back."

"Oh, thank you!" Toby responded absentmindedly, his eyes still fixed on the scenery outside the window, wondering what he was thinking.

The car instantly returned to silence.

Tianniu drove silently, Toby was in a daze, and David sat in the back seat, slowly putting aside some "distractions", and began to seriously think about the next few things he would face.

Ten minutes later.

"Have you contacted Lawrence and the others? How is the new base?" David asked.

Tianniu slowed down the car, glanced at the left rearview mirror, and answered.

"Lawrence and his men have already arrived at the new base in the suburbs of St. Austin. Edward B. Tryon helped us rent a hundred field tents, which solved the temporary accommodation problem for the soldiers."

"However, they have not yet completely solved the problem of food, so they can only set up a field kitchen as a temporary emergency measure."

"Well, food and accommodation are both important. Only after they are resolved can we have time to consider other things."

David lay down in the seat with his eyes closed, put his finger on his forehead and thought for a moment, then asked Toby.

"Did old Trin's daughter, Mary Sue, come back from New York with us?"

"Ah... yes!" Toby was stunned for a few seconds after hearing the question and replied.

"She was on a flight to Dallas and should have arrived last night."

"Did you contact her after she landed?"

"No, I only contacted Erica, Martha, Old Red and a few others who were on the same flight as her. They said they planned to play in Dallas for a few days, and after Mary Sue went home and made arrangements, they would accept Mary Sue's invitation to visit her home."

"Yeah." David reached out for the briefcase, found a memo in it, wrote the matter down, thought for a while, and asked again.

"Which of you two know any CIA field agents or intelligence personnel sent to various countries in South America?"

"South America? Which country and what kind of information do you want?" Tianniu asked, looking in the rearview mirror.

"Yes!"

"I want intelligence on Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. All about politics, economics, etc."

"For example, the promotion and changes of government officials in these countries, the latest decisions made by the government to deal with the economic crisis, the fluctuations of various key economic indicators in these countries and the latest trends in the banking and financial industries, etc."

"These are not difficult, but they may cost a lot of money." Tianniu answered after thinking carefully for a moment.

"money is not a problem."

"The key is, do you have acquaintances who can get the most authentic intelligence data?"

"I don't have any friends in this area."

"You don't, Odis Parker.. do?"

"Yes!"

“…” David was speechless.

Tianniu smiled and shrugged in the rearview mirror, explaining: "In the past few years, some of the intelligence dealers who had failed to compete with him in the European intelligence circle secretly went to various South American countries to hide their identities in order to avoid Audis Parker's revenge."

"Among them is a guy nicknamed the Sacred Deer (Odin), who moves in secret, never shows his true face, and never sticks to the means of doing things. He is a ruthless villain who only cares about money and has no bottom line."

"Many people thought that the sacred deer and Odin were the leaders of the same organization, so they attributed all the achievements of the organization to him alone."

"But the Deer God and Odin are actually two different people. Although their personalities are very similar, they both like money..."

"But their working styles are different. Odin's reputation in the industry is much higher than that of the God Deer."

"so what?"

"Do you think we should talk to Odin about cooperation?"

"No!"

"Odin has disappeared, and it is almost impossible to find him."

"Now only the divine deer appears occasionally to accept commissions with lucrative commissions."

"The latest news I heard is that he is active in various countries in South America, tracking down war criminals who escaped trial during World War II."

"Tsk." David smacked his lips and shook his head. After briefly writing down the content of the conversation with a pen, he asked Toby.

"What about you?"

"Do you have any friends who can help us?"

"No."

"But I know Ezra Cremo, the director of the CIA New York branch, and he knows several directors of the South American field branches." Toby answered calmly without turning around.

"Oh, I see."

"If I want to ask Mr. Cremo for help, do you think it's possible to contact his friends for help?"

"I don't know." Toby seemed to have finally regained his working state after hearing David's repeated question. He turned his head and looked at him sideways.

"I just heard Ezra Cremo casually mention that several of his old friends were assigned to various branches in South America during the last internal transfer."

"The relocation of the CIA field chief was a major move by Senator George W. Pushke during his tenure as CIA director."

"The Watergate scandal that forced President Nixon to resign also caused the CIA to be questioned and criticized by all quarters in the country."

"So after President Nixon left office, the CIA replaced two directors in succession. President Ford finally had no choice but to find Senator Pushke and ask him to help clean up the mess left inside the CIA."

"After Senator Pushke took office, his first important decision was to set up an internal inspection team to conduct the most stringent internal disciplinary inspections in history on the heads of headquarters and various departments."

"Moreover, he also required the heads of various overseas field branches to return to Langley headquarters to report on their duties within the specified time without affecting their normal work. If they fail the disciplinary review of their performance reports, they will not only be subject to internal punishment, but will also be sent to a military court."

"Oh, so that's how it is."

“No wonder Senator Pushker has received widespread acclaim after only two years at the CIA.”

"Internal monitoring..."

"How many of those people in power can withstand investigation?"

"Yeah." Toby echoed David's exclamation.

"The inspection team chaired by Director Pushke recommended to President Ford the removal of two deputy directors and more than a dozen department heads at the headquarters, and then redefined their responsibilities, increasing the number of deputy directors from two to four."

"Ezra Kramer's former boss, Deputy Director Heidi Collendon, was nominated and promoted by President Ford during Senator Pushke's tenure as director."

"His main job is to manage the intelligence work of several CIA field offices in South Asia and South America, as well as the approval of logistics equipment and activity funds, etc."

"So, if you want to obtain economic data and government decision-making trends of South American countries through official CIA channels~"

"I suggest that you try to contact Deputy Director Colendon through Senator Pushke and ask him for help."

"OK, I'll listen to you!" David wrote this down on a blank page of his notebook and said to Toby.

"Regarding Senator Pushke, I will discuss with Mag Ludwigs how to bring it up after I meet him tonight."

"Then you will go and meet with Deputy Director Collendon."

"I go?"

"Yes, you go."

"I can not."

"Why not?"

"I...I..." Toby stammered as he looked at David, his face full of insecurity and his eyes full of begging for mercy.

David smiled at her funny look and shook his head, asking while writing in his notebook.

"If we calculate it on a 100-point scale, the lower the score, the higher the level of government corruption."

"Based on what you know about the Mexican government, how would you rate it?"

"..." When Mr. Tianniu heard David use the word "you guys", he looked at the rearview mirror curiously, hesitated for a few seconds and answered.

"I think 50 points, no higher..."

"What about you?" David asked, glancing at Toby.

"I...I don't know."

"I know very little about Mexico. I've only seen some TV news reports saying that the political situation in Mexico has been a bit chaotic in recent years. Many large multinational banks with branches in the City of London are cautiously waiting to continue lending to Mexican companies."

"Yeah~ Even someone like you who doesn't pay much attention to foreign news knows about this. Do you think Deputy Director Collendon, who is in charge of intelligence work in South American countries, doesn't know this?"

David wrote down the note paper in his hand that was full of words, handed it to Toby and smiled.

"Both of you have worked and lived in Europe. You should know the meaning of these two emerging terms, European dollar and petrodollar recycling."

"After the last oil crisis that swept the world, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter at the time, announced that it would adopt the US dollar as the only settlement currency for oil exports."

"In the following year or so, all OPEC members and the remaining crude oil exporting countries also announced that they would adopt the US dollar as the settlement currency for crude oil exports and joined the US dollar oil international energy trade settlement system."

"The oil crisis caused a surge in oil prices, which enabled major crude oil exporting countries to obtain a huge amount of foreign exchange in US dollars."

"However, due to the lack of accumulation of industrial and economic development foundations, these countries are unable to absorb all the foreign exchange of US dollars, and can only temporarily deposit the remaining part in major European banks outside the United States."