Chapter 255

In the morning, Vice President Vaughn arrived early at the dockworkers’ union office.

Recently, some dockworker union representatives from all over the country would be coming here to participate in the first Likalai State Dockworkers’ Competition they were hosting. This was a very special honor.

For the local union to show its face among the national union, the Federation of Labor, and more parallel unions would be of great help to Scott’s and his own future career development.

And this was a very special kind of experience!

Vice President Vaughn understood this very clearly, so he participated in almost the entire process. Whether it was the competition schedule or how to select, who to invite and who not to, how to arrange these people, he was in charge of it all by himself.

Although President Scott was also contacting people from all sides, his involvement was not deep.

Vice President Vaughn also had his own little idea. If other unions also wanted to hold similar activities and they had no experience, then the only person they could consult would be him.

After President Scott was promoted to the national union, he would become the president of the local dockworkers’ union, and he would have shown his face in front of many unions and have a relationship with them.

In the future, he could go to the Federation of Labor, not the national union!

Perhaps the Federation of Labor’s influence in a specific field was not as great as the national union’s, but the Federation of Labor could influence not just one union, but all of them!

From a broader perspective, the future development trend of the Federation of Labor was better.

He wanted to enter the Federation of Labor, and become an important member!

Along the way, every union staff member had a smile on their face. Now that the Golden Port Dockworkers’ Union was in the limelight, they would naturally be very happy too.

This represented a better future for them. Who could refuse a better future?

No one could!

He had just sat down and hadn’t started working yet when the secretary knocked on the door twice. Before he could respond, a head poked in.

He had a bit of a headache, “I’m working…” He planned to have a good talk with the secretary later. Although their relationship was good, at work, the order of work was obviously more important!

But soon the secretary’s words made him dismiss this idea, “Mr. Lance is here.”

Vice President Vaughn was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up and walked around the desk towards the door, “He’s already inside?”

The secretary nodded, then suddenly looked back and pushed the door open.

Lance was striding over. A smile immediately appeared on Vice President Vaughn’s face, and he greeted him enthusiastically, “You should have given me a call before you came, so I could have picked you up…”

If this scene were seen by the lowest-level staff of the union, or by the workers, rumors of “Vice President Vaughn has no airs, is very easy to approach, and is very enthusiastic towards people” would definitely spread.

But in fact, his lack of airs, his enthusiasm, was selective.

The two shook hands. Lance smiled and said that he was just passing by, not here specifically.

Vice President Vaughn had the secretary get two cups of good coffee, then invited Lance into his office. He knew that Lance saying he was just passing by was just an excuse.

At his status and level, he would not believe in things like passing by or not passing by.

After the secretary brought the coffee, Vice President Vaughn took the initiative to start the topic, “We are almost ready. There is one thing I was just about to contact you about.”

“Some other unions are very interested in what we are doing after they heard about it. They also want to come.”

“Debbie and I have discussed this issue. She thinks this is a good opportunity to expand our influence.”

“People from all walks of life will take what they see here back with them, and then it will become another kind of template. Our influence may spread to the entire Federation without us even realizing it.”

“So I wanted to ask for your opinion…”

He picked up his coffee and took a sip. It seemed as if he wanted to drink some coffee after finishing his words, but in fact, he was covering up his tiny bit of embarrassment.

The reason for the embarrassment was that there might not be enough money!

Lance could read his meaning. More people were coming. These people needed to eat, drink, and relieve themselves. It was impossible to just let them find a place to live.

Even if they really let them find a place to live, their meals also had to be hosted. And with so many people coming, would other activities be needed to entertain them? Should they give some souvenirs when they leave? All these things required money.

President Scott, in order to get promoted, had already planned to use up all the remaining money in the union. To ask Vice President Vaughn to take out his own savings to contribute to public affairs was absolutely impossible.

So now, to do this beautifully, the best way was to let Lance continue to pay.

There are always a few things in this world that are hard to bring up—

Borrowing someone else’s car, taking off someone else’s pants, and taking money from someone else’s pocket!

“If the overspending isn’t too much, I have no problem, but you need to prepare a document for me to look at.”

“I want to know where every cent is spent!”

Vice President Vaughn breathed a sigh of relief, “No problem, I guarantee that every cent will be used where it should be.”

Lance nodded. This topic was over. Vice President Vaughn was in high spirits, and the smile on his face became more sincere, “By the way, you came over today…”

Lance continued his words, “My coming here is also a bit related to this matter. This time it is a very important matter for you and Scott, and for us as well.”

“I’m worried that with so many people on the docks at that time, it might cause some problems we can’t predict.”

“For example, crowding, someone being pushed into the water, or someone carelessly throwing cigarettes and matches, causing a fire.”

“My meaning is that during this period, while we still have plenty of time, we should check for fire hazards on the docks and so on, and also centrally inspect and repair those railings.”

Vice President Vaughn frowned slightly when he heard this. He knew what Lance said was right.

Fire safety on the docks has always been a big problem. In fact, there have been several large and small fires every year over the years. Perhaps just due to aging wires and short circuits, a big fire could be triggered.

Another point is that the air by the sea is corrosive. Many railings, even if painted with anti-rust paint, are severely corroded. What if someone doesn’t know this and leans on those dangerous railings, they will fall into the sea.

If this kind of thing happened normally, the union would become the punisher to deal with those capitalists who were unwilling to pay.

But if it happened during an event they were hosting, they would become the responsible party.

“Your reminder is very timely and crucial. I will arrange it as soon as possible…” He seemed to have a bit of a headache, “It’s just that the time is a bit tight now.”

Perhaps seeing his trouble, Lance took the initiative to say, “I’ll have the blue-collar workers help, and donate some more fire-extinguishing equipment, but there might be a lot of cars coming in and out then. Will it have any impact?”

After hearing this, Vice President Vaughn’s frown completely disappeared. He waved his hand grandly, “I dare not make big promises about other places, but on the docks, what I say still counts!”

The people Sean arranged had given Lance a piece of news. They had found a warehouse of liquor, and it looked like it had been stored for a long time.

These should all be from before the Prohibition was issued, stored by some people. Their purpose was to speculate and make big money.

Now, although the price of liquor had risen a lot, there was still no trend of stopping. So, when the profit was not maximized, they would not sell this batch of liquor.

Even if this batch of liquor was legal, by the time it reached Chief Dale’s hands, it would become illegal!

Chief Dale, who was eager to continue to handle big cases, wouldn’t care if your storage receipts were real or not. Anyway, for him, all of this was illegal!

Originally, Lance hadn’t thought much about it, but after a second thought, he felt he should do a thorough check of the warehouse area on the docks, at least to let him know what other good and bad things were here.

Thus, a grand and open survey work began. No need to be sneaky, just directly take a notebook to record the situation of these warehouses.

Vice President Vaughn didn’t know what Lance was going to do, but what he said was indeed of no harm to him, to the docks, and to the dockworkers’ union.

He could even use this matter to levy another sum of money from the enterprises and warehouses on the docks, for example, a “fire safety fee.”

With Vice President Vaughn’s cooperation, this matter would be very easy to promote. Lance had Vice President Vaughn contact Sean directly.

And Lance went directly to find Alberto. He had some things he needed to talk to Alberto about.

As soon as Lance walked into the main entrance of the Lezhu Finance Company, the little beauty at the front desk waved her fingers at him and took the initiative to say hello. Lance then heard cursing coming from the innermost part.

He walked to the front desk, resting his elbow on it, “Hey, haven’t seen you for a few days and you’ve become much more beautiful.”

Although the girl rolled her eyes, she was still delighted, “I’ve always been this beautiful!”

She was quite confident.

Lance gestured with his chin towards the corner at the end of the corridor, “What’s wrong with him?”

The little beauty was straightforward, “His bar in the Starlight District got taken down.”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh out loud after hearing this, and the laughter also alerted the “staff” in the adjacent room.

Someone stuck their head out to look, immediately came over and gave him a hug, and turned to say, “Look who’s here!”

Lance could only walk in first. The people here were indeed nice to him. Although the initial “niceness” was based on Alberto being optimistic about him, it was not necessarily from their hearts.

It’s like—your boss is very easy-going with a certain stranger, and a small character. You won’t be cold to him, but will also show a certain degree of enthusiasm.

But whether they were sincere or not, at least at that time they were indeed nice to him.

And now, they were probably truly sincere!

Lance shook hands with them, high-fived, fist-bumped, and hugged. It took a while before it completely stopped.

“You’ve come at a bad time. He’s throwing a tantrum.”

Lance asked curiously, “How much was the loss?”

The person speaking said with a smile, “Maybe fifty or sixty thousand.”

Lance whistled, “Indeed, he should be angry.”

“If it were me, I would also open fire.”

The people in the room all laughed out loud. They didn’t really care about losing so much money.

The gangs of the Summurian people were very interesting. The interesting part was that their core members were basically relatives, not complete strangers.

If someone who was not related to them wanted to join, someone had to act as an “introducer” to introduce them, but everyone was very cautious in dealing with this matter.

The situation on Summuri Island was also very complicated. They would not casually recruit Summurian people they did not know to join.

Of course, they would also recruit some people from the Federation here or immigrants from other countries, but it was still very difficult to enter the core circle.

At work, when Alberto ordered them, they would not resist because work was work.

But if it wasn’t at work, some of them were even Alberto’s uncles!

If you expect them to have much respect for Alberto now, it’s obviously unlikely.

Although $50,000 or $60,000 was a lot, after seeing the exorbitant profits of liquor, their perspective had also changed from the past.

The past Alberto wouldn’t even let go of a business of a few dozen dollars. If someone came to borrow a little money now, he might directly send them to someone else to receive them.

Tens of thousands of dollars could be earned back in a week.

In fact, they all knew that the reason for Alberto’s anger was not the loss of a large sum of money, but simply because he felt he had lost face.

Other people’s bars were all fine, but his bar had a problem.

Everyone chatted for a while around the recent incidents of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials’ greyhounds biting people everywhere. After the cursing in Alberto’s office stopped, Lance then said goodbye to these people and went inside.

When he pushed the door open, Alberto was standing by the window smoking sullenly. When he saw Lance, he was not as enthusiastic as in the past. He really didn’t have the mood to support it.

“Sit wherever.”

He seemed a little depressed, “You know?”

Lance sat in a chair and casually took a cigar and lit it, “Of course, I think it’s nothing. I’ve had two of my bars taken down.”

Hearing this, Alberto suddenly felt a little better. He rolled his eyes, “I’m just angry why they could find the location of my bar so accurately!”

“I trust my customers. We haven’t received any new customers these past few days. Someone sold me out!”

Lance nodded. He hesitated for a moment, which made Alberto catch something, “What do you want to say?”

Only then did he slowly say, “The Bureau of Hazardous Materials arranged for an undercover agent to enter my company, and they were passing information to the outside. If I hadn’t found them, another one of my bars would have been finished yesterday.”

Alberto seemed to have thought of something. He directly picked up the phone, “Get Fordis back here. I have something to say to him.”

“It seems you’ve realized.”

Alberto’s emotions began to return to normal, “This bunch of sons of b—tches, don’t let me catch that bastard, or I’ll let him know how terrible the wrath of a Summurian is!”

In fact, it wasn’t just Lance who realized that a chaotic Golden Port was coming. Alberto and others had also realized it. They were all recruiting soldiers and buying horses, it’s just that… it wasn’t usually apparent.

This didn’t mean they had done nothing. Recently, a large number of Summurian people were coming to Golden Port from other places. Among them, there might be undercover agents from the Bureau of Hazardous Materials.

Thinking of this, he cursed for a while in the Summurian dialect, then let out a heavy breath, looking much more normal.

“Let these unpleasant things pass first. So, I believe you’re definitely not just here today to give me a heads-up.” He quickly made a judgment.

The fact was indeed so. Lance did not deny it, “There’s something I need to talk to you about, you could also say I need your help.”

“Speak.”

Very concise. Lance liked this.

“Luigi cut off my supply. He breached the contract.”

Hearing this, Alberto’s eyebrows shot up again, “That dog bastard, I knew the people of the Carlos family couldn’t be trusted!”

Lance looked at him, “Then why did you still introduce us?”

This made him seem very embarrassed, “Actually, most of the time they are still…” He tried hard to put on a very serious expression, “…still not bad.”

“I’ll give him a call…”

Lance stopped him, “This is not my style, Alberto.”

Alberto’s hand also moved away from the receiver, “Then what do you want me to do?”

Lance also withdrew his hand, “He must still be shipping to the Federation. If there are goods being sent to Golden Port, I hope I can know the receiving location and time.”

This matter was basically impossible for others to do, but for the Summurian people with their complex relationships, it was not very difficult.

Alberto considered for a moment, “No problem, I’ll take care of this.”

Lance nodded slightly, “Actually, I came over today for another matter to tell you. Next month, Congress will pass a proposal to strengthen the armament of the Coast Guard. At that time, all smuggling groups will no longer be able to deliver goods on the sea with impunity.”

Alberto’s eyes widened, “I didn’t know you had connections in Congress!”

That look was like seeing some kind of magical creature, full of disbelief.

Lance didn’t explain. Sometimes maintaining a certain sense of mystery can actually help maintain a friendship better.

He said with a half-smile, “I also have connections in the Presidential Palace, I’m just afraid you won’t believe me.”

Alberto’s eyes widened even more, “You have such connections?”

But then he laughed and cursed “shit” amidst Lance’s loud laughter, and also started laughing along.

Actually, Lance originally had other things to do when he came over, but after thinking for a while just now, he still didn’t bring them up.

He needed a large number of glass bottles.

Previously, he had given Mr. Jobav a suggestion to set a fire, but Mr. Jobav had refused. Now he wanted to use this trick himself.

So the fewer people who knew, the better.

Alberto kept Lance for lunch together. At the dinner table, he talked with him about the recent military friction on the Tanfit continent, as well as some problems on Summuri Island.

This also gave Lance a clearer understanding of Summuri Island and the major international events that were happening…