Chapter 53 Changes in the United States of the Union
The Petronas Twin Towers, officially known as One and Two World Trade Center in New York, belong to one of New York's iconic buildings. On September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked, two of which destroyed the Twin Towers, another crashed into the Pentagon, and one crashed to the ground before it could make it to Washington due to the resistance of its passengers.
The federal government issued an emergency no-fly order, and all passenger planes immediately stopped flying. The New York City government urgently mobilized and went all out to rescue the city, but there was a problem with the command, and the rescue effect was greatly reduced.
The consequences of this organized terrorist attack were extremely tragic. According to statistics, more than 3,000 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured on the day of the terrorist attack. It is estimated that the loss of buildings, personnel, and post-disaster clean-up and rescue should exceed $50 billion! Insurance companies may have to pay more than $10 billion in compensation for this incident.
The World Trade Center is the office location of many large companies, and this terrorist attack not only destroyed the offices of those large companies, but also killed many important employees of the companies, and almost paralyzed the business of these companies, and lost a lot of data. Notable companies include, but are not limited to, Bank of America, Bank Asahi, Deutsche Bank, Trust Bank International, Kemper Insurance Company, Marsh Insurance Company, Imperial Life Insurance Company, Guy Carpenter Insurance Company, Kanter Fitzgerald Investment Company, Morgan Stanley Financial Company, and the American Commodity Futures Exchange...... Wait a minute.
Affected by these factors, the stock market of the United States has plummeted, and experts have fallen into despair about the changes in the stock market, and some experts even estimate that the loss will exceed $1 trillion.
In the face of such a terrorist attack that shocked the world, Magneto's fraudulent operation was nothing more than a trivial matter with a breeze blowing in the face! The federal government of the United States has red eyes and has mobilized from top to bottom, and the military has been ordered to enter a state of highest alert, ready to strike a devastating blow at any enemy at any time!
It is ironic that in such an emergency situation, S.H.I.E.L.D., which has always been strong, has been kicked out of the game, and his profession is not right! Even Director Nick, who was kicked out, has nothing to say. Therefore, the plan to capture Magneto died halfway through before it could be launched, and it had to be overwhelmed! It's not that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't want to do it on its own, but that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s real strength is far from being as strong as it deliberately shows. Without the support of official institutions and the ability to mobilize on a large scale, even if S.H.I.E.L.D. has its own special operations squad, the world is so big, where do you go to find Magneto?
These are not the biggest headaches for Director Nick, but even more headaches are the changes in the international situation and the transformation of the federal government.
On September 13, 2001, the Secretary of State announced that the top suspects in the terrorist attack were Ben ** and his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda! On September 14, 2001, the House of Representatives authorized the use of force! On September 27, 2001, the Department of Justice made public the results of its investigation into the terrorist attack. On October 7, 2001, the federal government officially announced the launch of troops against Afghanistan, marking the beginning of the war on terror. On October 26, 2001, the Patriot Act was signed!
More and more bad news left Director Nick with a black face all day, even though his complexion was already dark. The Patriot Act gives the federal government and law enforcement agencies more flexibility and more powers, expanding law enforcement and judicial powers. Many of the things that were previously only possible for a secret agency like S.H.I.E.L.D. can now be done by police departments in a blatant manner, such as listening to phone calls, investigating the personal privacy of legitimate citizens, keeping confidential customer information from legitimate companies, and even in some cases, just because of suspicion. These have greatly shaken the foundation of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s existence, eroded and divided the power in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D., and caused much more damage to S.H.I.E.L.D. than any super criminal!
As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Director Nick can look at problems from the height of the country, and after this series of actions, Director Nick has already understood that this is the federal government of the United States to adjust its national policy. The first place in the new national policy is undoubtedly counter-terrorism, and everything else has to be put in the back row. This also means that as long as Magneto no longer carries out terrorist attacks, no matter how loud his counterfeiting business is, the federal government will not support S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight him. This is only a small manifestation of the federal government's policy adjustment, and there will be more moves and even greater changes in other areas! What kind of changes will take place in the internal situation of the United States? In the midst of such tremendous changes, where should S.H.I.E.L.D. go? As the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Director Nick is unshirkably shouldering the heavy responsibility of leading S.H.I.E.L.D. to withstand the pressure and continue to develop in the midst of such drastic changes!
It seems that the routine actions must be consciously slowed down, Director Nick carefully considered, the nature of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s work determines that S.H.I.E.L.D. does not invite those politicians, but the complexity and danger of the world dictate that governments need S.H.I.E.L.D. or organizations similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. to exist. This complexity determines the complexity of S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, and as the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Director Nick is powerless to do anything about it even if he knows it! In a relatively stable environment, it is better, once he is in the turbulence of this kind of change, S.H.I.E.L.D. will expose its vulnerable side, become a target on the bright side, a tool to attack the opponent, and no matter which bigwig wants to use it, he can take it out and beat him violently. If one day you are unfortunate enough to be considered by any big guy that S.H.I.E.L.D. has no use value, it is possible to die directly!
No, it must not be like this! As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the sense of mission is burning in Director Nick's heart, and he must prepare for the back road in advance, and ensure that even if the worst happens, S.H.I.E.L.D. has the capital to make a comeback!
In 2001, the impact of terrorist attacks and the collapse of the stock market left federally owned companies in mourning. In 2002, the economy as a whole did not improve, and federal government statistics showed that the overall economy continued to grow negatively, and many companies went bankrupt. In the midst of many screams, several beverage companies quietly changed their owners, which did not attract anyone's attention at all.
Although the names announced to the public are different, in fact, the owners of these beverage companies are all Magneto. Relying on the cash flow earned from selling counterfeit goods, Magneto took the opportunity to buy a large number of shares and successfully became the owner of these beverage companies. Magneto then hands over the counterfeiting business to the Mutant Brotherhood and lets them continue to work hard. He turned his energy to these formal beverage companies, made drastic changes to the production line, and used the means of decks to legally sell small blue bottles all over the world.
Magneto sat in the wide boss's chair, because of the large amount of small blue bottles, now Magneto looked at least ten years younger than before, he impatiently threw the report in his hand on the desk bigger than the bed, and unceremoniously ordered the secretary, "I don't care what these Indonesian monkeys want to do? They also deserve to be called government officials, our products are the lowest price in the same category, and they dare to blatantly take bribes." Tell our manager to give the monkeys some color, and if we can't get them sorted out by legal means, I can give him a special grant for the event, I've heard that the mercenaries there are very cheap, and I'm sure they'll be happy to have a good paying business!" The poor secretary took a detailed note of Magneto's instructions, trotted out of the office, and deliberately closed the door when he went out.
The demon girl revealed her form from the air, and the corners of Magneto's eyes jumped straight at this effect similar to invisibility, "Eric, it seems that you are very comfortable with your identity as a boss." ”
Magneto was impressed, "It's much easier to be the boss of a company than managing a mutant brotherhood!"
Shapeshifter: "Now everything is finally on track. Our production already accounts for 12% of the total national share of Laos, and theoretically, one out of every ten people is drinking our little blue bottle. ”
Magneto shook his head, "It's not enough, but now we have very little room for development, and there are people staring at us everywhere, and the slightest deviation will usher in a blow." Do you have any new ideas?"
"Magic Girl" drinks now we don't have much room for improvement. But what if we change the brand and engage in snack catering?"
Magneto began to ponder the proposal of the Demon Girl, after making a fake for such a long time, Magneto had already eaten the recipe of the little blue bottle, and if he didn't make drinks, it should not be difficult to find a way to add the little blue bottle to snacks and meals. It's just that I've been playing too much recently, although the assets under my name have skyrocketed, the cash flow has been depleted by the play, and I can't afford to start some large food processing companies in a short period of time.
The Witch comes up with the food truck plan at the right time. Since the Mutant Brotherhood doesn't have the money to play big now, let's just start small. The purpose of the Mutant Brotherhood is to seek power for mutants, and for this reason, peacetime strives to unite the mutant brothers. But in fact, the first-level mutants are in a very awkward position, the mutant ability is not strong, it is useless, and they are estranged from ordinary people. Joining the Mutant Brotherhood can only be a peripheral member, because there are many people, it will consume a lot of the resources of the Mutant Brotherhood, but it usually can't help the Mutant Brotherhood.
The Witch's food truck plan is aimed at these people. Their biggest advantage is that they have an absolute numerical advantage among the mutants, and since the armed struggle is not possible, then use the organizational form of the company to organize them and form a fast-food truck alliance, selling all the things that the mutant brotherhood has added. With an investment of only tens of thousands of dollars, two or three people can drive around, and with a coordinated plan, it can easily be rolled out in the city. Food trucks sell food as a matter of course, and no matter how big the Anti-Monopoly Law is, this kind of organization cannot be controlled. If you have less cash on hand, you can start with ten or eight cars, and when you have more cash, you will gradually increase it, and as long as you accumulate enough to spread it to the whole country, it will not be new! You can also use these fast food trucks as network nodes to organize and mobilize the surrounding mutants. In the future, if it develops well, it is possible that the mutant fraternity will become a large party!