The Wolf of Los Angeles.

Chapter 399 The Scumbag Appears
Larry Fink had just sat down in the room he had booked at the Marriott Hotel when his assistant came over to inform him, "Boss, Mr. Dong's investment manager called and told us that the investment cooperation was cancelled due to funding problems."

Roberto Capito's face tensed: "Another one!"

The assistant hadn't finished speaking yet: "As of ten minutes ago, the company's stock price has fallen by 8%. Montana Twin Mountain Mining Company and Silicon Valley's Senten Networks have interrupted their financing negotiations with us on the grounds that the risks are uncontrollable."

The most fatal aspect of this espionage case is the damage to BlackRock's reputation.

Stock prices in the secondary market continued to fall, and multiple financing cases in the primary market were interrupted.

Fink calmed down and said, "We are in crisis, but our foundation is still there. Don't panic."

He looked at Capito, "I'll talk to Hawke Osment."

Capito said: "If his conditions are not too excessive, we can agree to them temporarily until we have recovered from this..."

Fink understood that there were too few people willing to help when a crisis occurred, and everyone wanted BlackRock to go bankrupt.

The more times come, the more we have to struggle to survive.

Fink said, "Find a middleman, preferably a political broker who is hard for the other party to refuse. Contact Hawke Osmond."

Capito sighed: "Willie Brown and Speaker Nunes, who we supported in California before, have all fallen because of the Ackerman family case. The new Newsom family does not want to get involved in the Russian spy case."

At this point, Fink realized that the situation in California was not worsening for BlackRock, but extremely worsening.

At this moment, he regretted that he should have listened to some people's advice and withdrawn the BlackRock Film Foundation.

Fink thought about it and told his assistant: "Find Hawke's contact information and I will call him personally."

The assistant went to great lengths to obtain Hawke's cell phone number from Full Speed ​​​​Public Relations Company through his connections in Hollywood.

Fink called Hawke personally, and the two sides agreed to meet at the Coast Building the next morning.

…………

The sky was pitch black and the neon lights of Sunset Boulevard were flickering.

Russell led Laura out of the Avalon Bar and said, "My car broke down, so I took a taxi here. Can I take a ride with you?"

Laura tucked her long brown hair behind her ears with one hand and smiled at Russell.

Russell spread his hands.

Laura grabbed him and said, “Get in the car.”

The two got into the champagne-colored BMW, and Lola drove west along Sunset Boulevard.

Russell sat in the passenger seat and was responsible for giving directions to Lola.

Ten minutes later, the car stopped under an apartment building.

Russell got out of the car first, held the door, and invited him, "Come up for a cup of coffee? I have coffee beans from Brazil. They taste great when they are freshly ground."

Laura hesitated for a few seconds and said, “Okay, I’ll go upstairs and have a cup of coffee.”

The two went upstairs together and entered Russell's room.

Russell had planned ahead. When he turned on the TV, Fox Channel 11 came out.

He actually went to grind the coffee beans.

Laura looked at her bulging chest, then at Russell who was grinding coffee, and expressed her incomprehension.

Who comes up for a cup of coffee?

She had no choice but to watch TV, but the remote control was not there and it was difficult to change channels, so she could only watch channel 11.

Not long after, the program on Channel 11 switched and "Ace News" began.

Russell brought over two cups of fragrant coffee, some sugar cubes and milk, and sat next to Laura.

Lola added some sugar and milk, but her mind was not on the coffee. There was hot coffee in front of her, and she couldn't drink it immediately, so she could only look at the TV screen.

Russell has been lurking in Los Angeles for eight years. Living like a normal person for such a long time has assimilated him to some extent. His ability to respond has decreased, so he strictly follows the plan made in advance.

"Ace News" broadcast the latest declassified report on the BlackRock Russian spy case.

This naturally involves Twitter.

Television shows are the best topic, Russell said: "This case keeps coming to light, and it feels like BlackRock is going to fall into the mud this time."

Twitter paid Lola a lot of money, so she naturally stood on Twitter's side: "Fortunately, the company discovered it early, otherwise the entire AI Manhattan Project would be leaked, and Twitter's losses would be incalculable."

Russell followed up on her words and said, "Is this a very expensive plan?"

Laura didn't know much, and she was unwilling to talk about confidential matters: "It is said that it has been planned since last year."

"It has been operating for such a long time, and if it was accidentally stolen, the loss must be huge." Russell saw the amount of compensation announced on Twitter during the show: "33 billion US dollars, a sky-high compensation."

Laura's mind was not on this at all. She chatted idly and waited for the coffee to cool down a little before drinking it in a few sips.

Seeing that Russell only moved his mouth but not his hands, Lola's patience disappeared and she finally pounced on him.

Russell wanted to say more, but was suppressed by Laura, who attacked his vital points directly.

After eight years of living a life of debauchery in Los Angeles, Russell is no longer the iron-blooded spy he once was and chooses to follow his own desires.

The next morning, before the two woke up from their sleep, Laura's cell phone rang.

She quickly opened her eyes and took out her phone, then answered the call. After hanging up, she said to Russell, who was awakened, "The transmission of one set of servers is not smooth enough. I need to go to the company immediately."

Russell said, "It may be a line problem. I will go to the company to call someone and rush over later."

Laura went into the bathroom, washed quickly, put on her clothes, picked up her bag, and left the apartment without looking back.

Russell watched her leave and suddenly felt like he had met a scumbag.

Russell also hurried out of the apartment and called his technical backbone when going downstairs.

…………

Coast Building, Hawke arrived at the company early in the morning.

Not long after work, Edward opened the door and came in and said, "Larry Fink is here. I had someone take him to the reception room on the first floor."

"Let's go and meet him." Hawke came to the first floor and entered the public reception room.

Larry Fink had met Hawke once and stepped forward to shake his hand: “We meet again.”

Hawke gestured: "Sit wherever you want."

Fink sat back on the single sofa and said, "Some time ago, there were some misunderstandings between Twitter and BlackRock, which led to the current situation. Our two companies are not enemies."

The two sides had exchanged bullets, and Hawke was not polite. He asked, "Where were you in Covina when that Corolla loaded with explosives hit me and a group of mercenaries were shooting at me with automatic weapons?"

He laughed. “Where were you when your subordinates stole Twitter’s most important business and technology development plan for the next decade?”

Fink frowned, and was more fully prepared for the difficulty of today. "Regarding the Covina incident, I don't want to say it was a misunderstanding, but the people who did it have already paid the price. As for the spy incident, Blackrock knew nothing about it."

As if the spy case was not concocted by him, Hawke's face was full of doubt: "Really?"

Fink said something he himself didn't believe: "I seriously suspect that Russia is aware of the conflict between BlackRock and Twitter and deliberately planted spies in BlackRock to provoke internal fighting in the United States."

He paused and emphasized: "Our two families represent two completely different political forces that will cause civil unrest in America..."

Hawke raised his hand to interrupt Fink and said, "Putting all this aside for now, a senior employee of BlackRock, a spy who has been caught by the FBI with solid evidence and confessed, and two people who were recruited by this spy, have caused huge losses to Twitter through wiretapping and stealing!"

Fink was full of sincerity: "BlackRock can compensate Twitter for its losses."

Hawke looked at him but said nothing.

Fink said: "The entire BlackRock Film Fund can be owned by your company as compensation. Although there is not much money in the foundation, it has invested in many Hollywood movies, including a $9000 million investment in New Line Cinema's "The Golden Compass."

Hawke thought to himself, wow, this is the biggest investment, how many millions can we get back?
Boomerang again?

The hole you dug yourself will eventually bury you?
Hawke shook his head slowly.

Fink knew that BlackRock needed a breather, and said, "BlackRock is willing to pay $3 million in compensation and reach an out-of-court settlement with you."

"Twitter's demands are very clear in the lawsuit," Hawke said.

Fink was about to speak again when someone knocked on the door of the reception room from outside. Edward walked in quickly and said, "It's an emergency."

Hawke glanced at the gesture Edward made quietly and knew it was very urgent, so he immediately said, "You should carefully consider Twitter's legal claims. I have something urgent to do here, so I won't send it."

He walked quickly towards Edward and they left the reception room together.

The supervisor in charge of the front desk and reception came in at this time.

Fink had a blank expression on his face, said nothing, and quickly left the Coast Building.

…………

Ten minutes ago, Lola and the technical department staff spent some time and successfully solved the problem of a server not running smoothly.

The assistant brought her breakfast.

Lola returned to her office, hurriedly ate breakfast, opened the internal office software on her computer, wrote a written report on the failure, and sent it to Director Harland and Director of Operations Caroline.

After sending the email, she casually opened her mailbox, quickly browsed through the unread messages, and her eyes fell on a notice written in red.

That was a notice jointly issued by the Chairman's Office and the Operations Director's Office, and the recipients were all supervisors and above.

Lola clicked it again, and the notice reminded managers not to disclose key information about the AI ​​Manhattan Project and the Russian espionage case.

Most people want to do this but can't, including Laura, who has no idea of ​​the specific situation.

Another point in the notice is that if anyone deliberately inquires about the relevant content, they should report it to the Security Department.

Laura let go of the mouse and thought about last night.

Was Russell making small talk about the TV show, or was he snooping?
Laura couldn't tell the difference, so she simply filed a report with the security department.

(End of this chapter)