The Wolf of Los Angeles.

He first won the internal competition and became an outstanding newcomer in the elephant herd, then successfully ran for mayor of Covina, laying the foundation for his political career. Now he has gone to the next level and ascended to the throne of mayor of Los Angeles. No one knows better than Brian what role Hawke played in all this.

If he is the core of the team, Hawke is the absolute soul.

Brian is not stupid. Hawke's contribution in the Los Angeles fire means that the $500 million reward can only be regarded as pocket money he pays.

The two men left the villa and headed towards the shooting range at the rear.

Brian said as he walked: "Among city-level economies, Los Angeles is the second largest economy in the United States, second only to New York. The city government supports some key enterprises every year. Every time a mayor takes office, he will formulate corresponding support policies to support a group of enterprises."

Hawke certainly understands why countless companies, individuals and institutions sponsor elections. Of course, they are not doing good things.

Brian continued, "I have formulated two business development support plans. One is a $14.3 billion enterprise subsidy specifically for supporting high-tech companies. Twitter is now one of the largest Internet media companies and the Internet leader in the Los Angeles area. The $3.6 million subsidy for technology research and development, personnel employment and skills training will be paid in half a year starting in September."

Although there were no outsiders here, Hawke still praised: "The new government team attaches great importance to the development of new industries."

Brian laughed. "The second item is to solve the production and office land problem for enterprises. Silicon Beach is located on the north side of Ocean Park Boulevard in the south of Santa Monica. The equity belongs to the Coast Office Building of the City Hall. It will be fully completed by late October at the latest, and the basic interior decoration is about to begin."

Hawke was not polite at all: "Sell it to Twitter. Twitter's office building is a bit small now."

Twitter's second largest shareholder is Pacific Investment Corporation controlled by the Ferguson family. Brian said without hesitation: "When this office building was first built, it was to support the development of Silicon Beach companies. Twitter is the face of Silicon Beach and Los Angeles Internet companies. The City Hall will sell the Coast Building to Twitter at a preferential price, about $1.5 million."

The Coast Building is not far from Twitter. Hawke often sees it. The building is 16 stories high and is surrounded by four buildings in the east, south, west and north. In the middle are two separated garden entertainment areas and a server building, which can accommodate supercomputers and large servers, and can easily accommodate 8000 people for office work.

This building cannot be built with $1.5 million.

But naturally the lower the price, the better. Using public resources to subsidize large enterprises is a fine American tradition.

Even many large companies in the United States use relocation as a bargaining chip to force the cities where they are located to come up with new policies in order to obtain more subsidies.

The $3.6 million in subsidies from Los Angeles were more than enough to buy the building as its headquarters.

Bryan and Hawke are not worried about this. This is normal in America and the winner of the election should be rewarded.

Last year, Gavin Newson was elected mayor of San Francisco and gave a huge gift package totaling $13.3 billion to the two major financial backers behind him, Pacific Electric and the Getty family.

This does not include tax and policy benefits.

Brian didn't finish his words: "As for other preferential policies, tax incentives and rebates, special support from public funds, and special health assistance for people affected by the fire, let your people talk to the corresponding offices in the city hall."

What could Hawke say? He bumped fists with Brian and said, "Dude, from now on, you are not the leader of the Curse Cult. You are the leader of the Money Gang."

Brian, the bastard, opened his mouth and cursed: "Then I wish you the next time..."

"Stop, shut up!" Hawke interrupted him and pointed at the human-shaped target on the shooting range: "I swear, if you keep talking, I will tie you to the target and let you see how good my shooting skills are."

Brian subconsciously took two steps back: "What do you want to do?"

Hawke picked up the Garand he had played with a few days ago, pushed the magazine with eight bullets into the magazine, quickly retracted his thumb to avoid pinching his fingers, and said, "I've just learned a new shooting technique called tracing shooting. Each bullet will fly close to your body and then hit the target behind you. After a few magazines are fired, your human figure will appear inside the target."

Brian said: "I believe in your shooting skills, but I don't believe in your character."

Hawke came to the target, put on earplugs, raised the Garand, and fired eight shots in a row, hitting the bull's eye with every shot.

Brian grabbed another gun and fired eight shots as well, thanks to his childhood practice and the gun he picked up after the attack in Covina, and all eight shots hit the target.

Hawke took a closer look and said, "Not bad, you've made significant progress. Next time Erica and I go traveling, we'll invite you and Jennifer to come along."

Referring to Jennifer, he asked, "Aren't you planning to get engaged in the second half of the year?"

"Plans don't change as fast as they should. We got engaged because we needed it for the election." Brian put down his gun and said, "After this fire, Antonio stepped down and I was successfully elected. It doesn't matter if we get engaged or not."

The attack points Hawke had prepared for Brian were not used.

The fire was too severe, and the performance of functional departments at all levels was much lower than his worst expectations.

Who could have imagined that the second largest city in the United States, ranked among the top five cities in the world, was helpless in the face of such a fire, and only ended when everything that needed to be burned was burned.

Is this still the America that the world knows?
After dinner, Hawke and Erica returned to the Silver Lake community.

This place was less than three kilometers away from the fire scene.

Fortunately, I was lucky and was not affected by the fire.

This also illustrates one point, Hawke really did not expect the functional departments to be pulled to this extent.

Erica was sitting in the passenger seat and said, "We shouldn't run into any black robbers, right?" Hawke turned around and saw some black people in front of him. "Honey, I just promoted Brian to the position of leader of the Money Gang. Do you want to inherit his position as leader of the Curse Cult?"

Erica ignored his joke, stared at the seven or eight black people in front of her, and took out a Glock pistol from under the armrest.

Hawke pressed the button on the head of the turn signal lever, and the side of his left leg popped open, revealing the handle of a short submachine gun.

Erica's Mercedes-Benz G has been modified and has several secret compartments for hiding weapons.

The blacks also stopped and looked towards the car.

Suddenly, there were flashing lights from behind, and three armed Humvees belonging to the National Guard drove over from behind.

These armored military vehicles have M2 heavy machine guns and M249 light machine guns mounted on their roofs.

In downtown Los Angeles, this is truth, the most persuasive tool.

The black men dispersed in a hurry.

Erica put the gun back and said, "The fire is out, but the safety in downtown Los Angeles is even worse."

Hawke asked casually, "Are there more serious cases?"

"Many black people have learned to use Motolov cocktails," Erica said, rubbing her forehead. "They are easily impulsive, and once they get impulsive, they will take action. This thing is very troublesome, and once it starts burning, it is difficult to put out."

“Pandora’s box has been opened,” Hawke said.

Erica thought for a moment and said, "Fortunately, this time it didn't turn into a major riot in Los Angeles."

Hearing this, Hawke suddenly had an association and asked, "Was the last black riot in 1992?"

"Yes, in 1992, there was a big riot in Los Angeles." Erica saw it with her own eyes: "Black people poured out from the South City and took to the streets to smash, loot and rob. Then the Los Angeles authorities suppressed the black people and other minorities who participated."

Hawke heard Edward recount the incident: "I remember the incident was triggered by a white policeman attacking a black man."

Erica has read the internal documents and has her own position: "The biggest problem with black people speeding while drunk is that Officer Rodney King used violence. He and his colleagues used batons to attack the black people 58 times. What's worse is that a nearby resident filmed it and sold the video to a TV station."

It is not difficult for Hawke to imagine what happened next: "The media launched a propaganda war and instigated others, and everything happened naturally."

Erica nodded slightly: "Almost."

Hawke added: "The incident happened in 1992, which was an election year. California was red at the time, and a series of measures taken by California would surely make minorities uneasy. In the subsequent election, California turned from red to blue, and LaZitton won a landslide victory in the traditional red state."

Erica turned her head to look at Hawke and said, "When I was a teenager, my grandfather said something similar to you. He thought that the Donkey Party was behind the exaggerated public opinion and violent actions. He also said that Xilali was not a simple woman."

Hawke pondered that every time a state changed its color, in addition to the subtle long-term operations, a larger-scale collision might occur at the moment of transition.

The last time was probably the Los Angeles riots.

This time, will it be the Los Angeles fire?
Just after entering the Silver Lake Community and before reaching the specimen villa, Erica received a call and said after hanging up: "Sorry, dear, I have to work overtime tonight."

Hawke sped up the car: "Emergency case?"

Erica said, "Three girls died in Beverly Hills. All of them had religious marks on their private parts. This case in a wealthy community cannot be delayed. Regardless of whether the case can be solved or not, the Detective Department must take a stand."

Hawke parked the car in front of the villa and said, "Be careful."

Erica switched to the driving seat and waved to Hawke: "You go to sleep first, no need to wait for me."

Hawke entered the living room of the villa and sat on the sofa alone to think, especially how to proceed with the subsequent plan.

The National Guard he had just encountered and the increasingly deteriorating public security in Los Angeles also made him pay more attention to security.

Hawke made a phone call and asked Campos to come over.

Half an hour later, Campos arrived.

Hawke took out the safe key from Melissa Ackerman and said, "I checked. This is the safe key of Citibank in Las Vegas. Only keys are used to access items. Send a few more people over and cooperate with each other to check what's inside."

Campos took the key he had given Hawke earlier and said, "I'll take someone over to take a look myself."

Hawke added: "I plan to expand the Butterfly Company and formally establish a security company." (End of this chapter)