mtl008 Chapter 3254 Bloody New City (3)
Chapter 3254 Bloody New City (3)
Chapter 3254: Bloody New City (Part )
The car stopped in front of the municipal building. Schiller wore a suit, which was rare for him. He adjusted his cuffs before getting out of the car, and Bruce followed closely behind him.
When he came into the sunlight, Schiller realized that his face was indeed paler than usual, but he didn't seem to be in any discomfort standing in the sun. The ultraviolet rays in Gotham were indeed too weak.
They quickly walked into the reception hall and took the exclusive elevator. Schiller looked around at the decoration.
The year of this universe is 2007. Modern decorative styles are not popular. The municipal building adopts the most classic American luxury style of decoration. The materials used are very exquisite and the cost should be very expensive.
Schiller had something in mind.
While in the elevator, Schiller looked at Bruce and asked, "Who was the last mayor? Where is he now?"
Bruce was stunned. He lowered his voice and said, "I don't know. I have never heard of it. He disappeared after he left office."
"Can you promise to fully cooperate with me for the next period of time?"
Bruce nodded and said, "Of course, I asked you to be the backbone, and everyone will cooperate with you."
"Then check him out," Schiller said, adjusting his tie. "Find out who he is, his past, and where he is now."
Bruce had a flash of inspiration, but he didn't grasp the key point, so he could only agree to it first.
The elevator stopped and Schiller walked out first. Bruce also discovered more about the difference between greed and arrogance. Greedy is a person who pays attention to efficiency. When it comes to efficiency, he hardly cares about the atmosphere.
Without the need for a receptionist, Schiller walked directly to the door of the mayor's office and knocked. When someone came in, Schiller opened the door immediately.
His expressionless face immediately put on a warm smile. He walked up to the pale knight who was coming out from behind the desk, shook hands and said, "I've heard a lot about you, Mayor Napier."
"You are so kind, Professor. Please sit here."
The three of them sat down in the reception area nearby. Schiller took a look at the decoration of the mayor's office. Everything was new and the style was much simpler than outside. This made him realize that the Pale Knight must have redecorated the office after he took office.
So whose engineering team did he use?
With a calculation in mind again, Schiller said, "Time is short and the task is heavy. I won't waste any more time. What forces can you mobilize now? How much money is left on the account?"
Mentioning this question, Pale Knight was a little embarrassed, but he still said: "The most powerful team I have is GTO."
"A team with Robin?"
The Pale Knight frowned suddenly. He said, "It doesn't matter who they are. They are all doing this for the good of this city."
"Then this is Gotham's team, not yours."
The Pale Knight choked. Schiller seemed to have given up hope. He looked at Bruce, who said, "The criminals in Arkham listen to me, but they cannot show up in public."
"Where are the police?"
"With James Gordon here, we can't do much." Bruce gave a look to the Pale Knight who was about to speak, but the Pale Knight was not stopped by him.
"We can't bribe the police like they do. On the one hand, we don't have the money. On the other hand, the police who are bribed are not good people. They won't risk their lives for us." The Pale Knight tried his best not to appear pedantic, so he didn't talk about justice or anything like that. He just talked about the existing problems.
"Indeed." Schiller nodded.
The Pale Knight's eyes widened slightly. He thought Schiller would refute him. After all, the other party asked them whether they had any power as soon as they arrived. Their answer might not be the answer he wanted to hear.
"What is the relationship between the Gotham Police Department and the Anti-Terrorism Squad?"
"The anti-terrorist team will follow James' orders." The Pale Knight said, "I believe he can lead this team well."
"Yes, I believe that too," Schiller said.
The Pale Knight always felt that something was wrong.
He thought about Greed's behavior in the previous game, and said, "I know you think we need some people to work for us, but the problem is that we can't afford to support our own forces, and I don't want to use justice and ideals to kidnap others."
Schiller nodded compliantly.
This made the Pale Knight even more confused.
In fact, he had talked to Bruce before. Although Bruce was very tactful, the Pale Knight could understand what he meant.
The saying that those who achieve great things do not pay attention to details does not mean that if you want to achieve great things you don't care about details, but it means that you need to use any means necessary.
An honest official is more treacherous than a treacherous official. Justice and sense of morality are a pair of invisible shackles that one puts on oneself. With shackles on, one cannot dance the striptease performed by those shameless people.
The Pale Knight understood this truth very well, and his inner sense of morality did require him not to do those disgusting things, but he felt that he could walk in the gray area without hurting others. The problem now was that they didn't even have the capital to enter the gray area.
It costs money to cultivate one's own power, it costs money to smooth relationships secretly, it costs money to create public opinion and news reports, and they simply cannot afford any extra money now.
"How much money is left on the books?" Shiller asked again.
“Now there’s only about a million dollars left.”
“How much of the tax revenue is used for public security?”
"Basic security maintenance costs are about 1.2 million US dollars per quarter. If you take all the miscellaneous expenses into account, it's almost million."
"Where's the money for your new GTO?"
“About a third.”
Schiller frowned slightly, which made the Pale Knight's heart skip a beat. The Pale Knight said, "I know this is high, but this team has played a very important role. They have significantly improved the law and order situation in Gotham."
“How exactly has it been improved?”
"The crime rate has dropped significantly, mainly because the crime rate of super criminals has dropped to one-fifth of what it was before."
Schiller took a deep breath and said, "Have you ever thought that the crime rate is not decreasing, but should be this low?"
Now it was the Pale Knight's turn to frown.
Schiller remembers very clearly what the elites in the comics said: "In Gotham, crime is the best investment."
"You spend a lot of money on policing, and the crime rate will never go down," Schiller pointed out bluntly, "because someone is profiting from the money, and they will keep letting the crime rate soar so that they can keep getting paid."
“But now it’s declining…”
"It won't descend for long... Never mind, you guys don't seem to understand this." Schiller thought for a moment and said, "Can you promise to cooperate with me? If not, maybe I'll have to think of another way."
"Tell me your plan first." said the Pale Knight.
"If you are willing to cooperate with me, I will use conventional means to make them spit out the money. At least part of it will be enough for you to make ends meet."
"If you really don't want to cooperate, I can also take some unconventional measures. I can guarantee that no ordinary people will be injured, but it will be quite noisy and look scary."
If Schiller forcefully asked the Pale Knight to cooperate, he would feel more at ease, because in the process of working with Bruce, the two often had such frictions, which was similar with Batman and Gordon.
But Schiller acted as if if you don't cooperate, I have my own way. Considering his performance in the previous game, this method might not be good.
"What are you going to do if I don't cooperate?"
"There are nuclear power plants in New Jersey," Schiller said suddenly. "The state government has been considering lifting the ban on nuclear power. We can start from this aspect."
The conditions at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant are very good and it is very close to Gotham, but it still has the same problems as most nuclear power plants in the United States, such as aging pipelines and tritium leakage. Once a large-scale leakage occurs, it may seriously affect the land prices in Gotham.
The Pale Knight shuddered and immediately said, "I am very willing to cooperate with you! You can do whatever you want, just don't touch the nuclear power plant!"
Schiller smiled and said, "That's right."
"Let's talk about what I will do if you cooperate with me. First, I need to separate the funds for funding GTO from municipal funds."
"I certainly understand the benefits of doing so, but we don't have that much money. No one can spend $100 million a quarter to support a counter-terrorism team. It's not good for them."
"Batman can," Bruce added.
"Batman can't come." The Pale Knight frowned and said, "It's not that I don't trust him, but the problem is that the elite are determined to use him to make money. They are keeping a close eye on him. Even if he pays, the money will be eaten up, just like the natural disaster fund."
"I didn't say the city shouldn't pay," Schiller said. "I said we should separate the funds. The money still has to be paid."
Bruce's eyes rolled.
"Originally, this part of the funds was included in the basic public security maintenance funds, right?" Schiller asked.
The Pale Knight nodded.
"Then from now on, this money will not be paid from the basic security maintenance fee."
"Then where?"
"High-level security maintenance fee."
"what?"
"We are now going to set up a municipal program, give it a name like 'Gotham Police Efficiency Improvement Program', and apply for a special grant for this program. From now on, this money will be called 'High-Level Police Maintenance Fund'."
The Pale Knight was a little confused by what he heard. He said, "What's the use of this?"
"The people who used to manage the basic security maintenance fees can no longer manage the advanced security maintenance fees. If they want to manage the advanced security maintenance fees, they need to recruit new people."
Bruce suddenly realized.
"But..." The Pale Knight was a little embarrassed. He said, "We can no longer afford to pay more employees. Even if we want to maintain the status quo, we will have to cut salaries by 10% next quarter to barely keep the company going."
"The people who are in charge of basic security maintenance are no longer in charge of advanced security maintenance, so there is no need to have so many people," Schiller said. "We can just lay them off."
The Pale Knight was stunned. He said, "But they don't care about the high-level security maintenance fee anyway."
"Yes, but after all, the work of allocating funds to GTO has been cut out, and the workload has been reduced by at least 50%, so it is natural to lay off people."
"Wouldn't it be necessary to recruit new people to manage new projects?"
"Yes, we need to recruit, but whether we can recruit them is another matter."
"what?"
"This project is very important," Schiller said. "We must have graduates from Babson College majoring in marketing and financial management, with internships in the police station or other administrative units, a height between 1 and 79 meters, myopia between 1 and 80 degrees, and preferably six fingers to accommodate the employment of people with disabilities."
"what???"
Bruce understood everything. He said, "Mr. Mayor, this is not about moving the GTO, but about laying off civil servants."
The Pale Knight also reacted. This had nothing to do with public security management funds. In fact, it was just about subdividing the projects, and then laying off people on the grounds that the workload of small projects had decreased. Then, on the grounds that there were delays in recruiting people for new projects, the people from the old projects were allowed to continue to manage them.
In this way, 50% of the original staff can be put into operation, and the personnel funding will naturally be reduced.
"But this will cost many people their jobs." The Pale Knight said worriedly.
"Yes." Schiller did not deny it. He said, "But have you ever thought about how those funds that did not fall into the hands of the poor were robbed along the way? Who did it?"
The Pale Knight opened his mouth and said, "They may have been forced to do so."
"But they have enough to eat," Schiller said. "If you really don't believe it, you can check it out. You are the poorest person in the whole municipal building."
"But if we lay off so many people at once, it will cause chaos, right?" Bruce asked worriedly.
"The goal is to cause chaos," Schiller said. "The next step in my plan is to bribe a few people to go on strike."
"Strike?!" The Pale Knight said with wide eyes, "I can't strike. I have a lot of work to do..."
"Whether the city government goes on strike has nothing to do with whether you work or not."
Just as the Pale Knight was about to speak, Schiller continued, "Or do you have to have a spacious, bright, and expensively decorated office like this to work?"
“Of course not, but if the city government goes on strike, where am I going to work?”
"Wayne Manor."
Batman: ?