Chapter 326 It’s not just my problem, it’s everyone’s problem (4200)
“Save our schools!”
"Our school! Our future! Our children!"
“School Closure = Race Attention!”
“Stop closing schools!”
…
At the entrance of Gotham City Hall, hundreds of people of all skin colors sat on the ground holding various banners. When they saw the camera sweeping by, they raised the banners high, with angry expressions on their faces and shouted slogans.
Not far from the demonstrators, a dozen reporters from Gotham local media surrounded Rahm Emanuel, with various microphones, recorders and mobile phones with lit screens stuck in front of him.
"As the mayor of Gotham, when you made the decision to close a total of 50 public schools on the South and West Sides, did you consider the impact on the local low-income communities?"
Rahm Emanuel ignored the protesters and looked expressionlessly at WTTW (Gotham Public Broadcasting) reporter Zoe Stinton: "I think this is a deliberate misrepresentation of the impact of this decision by the media."
"The decision to close schools is to address the problem of insufficient enrollment and resource allocation. Closing schools with insufficient enrollment and allowing other schools with better teaching quality to receive more resources is what we should do."
"Some of the criticism is unfounded, as you know, we have decided to establish initiatives such as a community center and job training programs in the converted school building."
“The Aspiration Center project in West Garfield Park is part of this broader vision, where we are transforming closed schools into job centers and career training centers, focusing on job readiness and career training while also connecting the community.”
Before Ram Emanuel could finish his words, an old black man suddenly appeared behind him and angrily said to the camera, "He's lying! He's a liar! He's saying that we're only fit to make fried chicken or screw in screws, and we're not fit to go to school!"
Two uniformed CPD officers quickly responded, twisted Blackie's arm and dragged him away from the camera.
Rahm Emanuel remained calm: "In fact, this initiative has received widespread support in the West and South Side. However, due to Governor Rauner's opposition and John Cass's instigation, this thing that should have been done long ago has never been promoted."
"I think it's time, and if others won't do it, well, I'll take care of it!"
Bruce Rauner is the governor of Illinois and a congratulatory figure, while John Cast is the congratulatory figure's media voice in Gotham.
Gotham's South and West Sides are considered minority settlements, with poor public security and educational resources.
In this case, closing fifty public schools in the area will undoubtedly cause the educational level of these two regions to decline further.
But Rahm Emanuel doesn't care what the citizens of Gotham think, he doesn't even care whether he can be re-elected next time.
What he needs to do is to show his courage to take on responsibilities. His plan for himself is not to take the campaign route, but to take the "behind-the-scenes mastermind" route like McCarthy.
Therefore, he must use various methods to expand his influence within the faction. Labels such as "courageous to take on responsibilities" are a good card for him to return to the White House and enter the core decision-making process.
Sure enough, after he said this, even the WTTW reporters showed expressions of admiration.
Zoe Stinton was conducting the interview while holding up her phone. Just as she was about to ask a few more questions, she saw push notifications from TweetDeck and AP Newsroom popping up above her phone screen.
TweetDeck is a management tool that can monitor facts and trend news, while AP Newsroom is a digital news platform developed by AP specifically for reporters and editors. Basically all current affairs reporters have accounts on these two platforms.
The other reporters did the same, all looking at their phones.
Zoe Stinton just glanced at the notices and couldn't help but open his eyes wide. He clicked on a message, read it for a few seconds, and his face changed drastically. The other reporters at the scene were in the same situation.
What's the breaking news? Is Trump withdrawing from the race?
"Okay, everyone, do you have any other questions? If not, I will continue to serve the people of Gotham City."
Rahm Emanuel gave a businesslike smile.
Before the other reporters could react, Zoe Stinton stopped Rahm Emanuel and said, "Mr. Mayor, there has just been an explosive news. A news broke on all social media that there is a slave issue on Jeffrey Absterne's Little James Island."
"And there may be minors who were abducted to the island. A list of names of people who landed on the island has been leaked, including many celebrities. What are your thoughts?"
Rahm Emanuel's face changed involuntarily, and his heart skipped a beat.
"I'm not very familiar with Absterne. We haven't spoken in over a decade. I still need to verify the specific circumstances of this. I can't comment on unverified information."
Rahm Emanuel responded to Zoe Stinton's questions seemingly normally, nodded, pushed aside the media, and walked into the city hall.
Many people didn't notice that Ram Emmanuel's pace seemed to be much faster than usual.
It seems that we need to complete the decoupling from Aberstein as soon as possible, and notify Zeke and Ali that the people on the island must be dealt with as soon as possible.
Although this is not the first time that Absterne has been accused of such behavior, he has been involved in some lawsuits since more than ten years ago. At that time, as long as he had money and power, any problem could be settled.
But the situation has been different in the past two years. In order to divert public attention from the Jude people and to divert social contradictions, the faction has been tirelessly advocating for gender conflicts and identity recognition. Now it feels like sitting on a powder keg, which may explode with a slight spark.
Last year, Abstern was involved in a lawsuit. Although the case was eventually settled, the whole process was much more complicated and difficult than it was a decade ago.
If this matter can't be suppressed...
It shouldn't be that serious. There are many people who are more anxious than me. They will definitely find ways to settle this matter like they did in the past.
No, we can't leave our fate in the hands of others. Let's first see what the online revelations they are talking about are.
As soon as Ram Emmanuel entered the office, he quickly drew the curtains, turned on the computer, and began searching for news about Absterne on the Internet.
In fact, you don’t even need to search, this is the hot search headline on almost all social media and information websites.
Phew~ Fortunately, there is no news involving adrenochrome and organ transplantation.
Is this... the list of people who landed on the island?
Ram Emmanuel hesitated and clicked on the list, but didn't notice that at the same time, his hard drive light lit up twice.
After opening the list, Rahm Emanuel first looked at the number of entries.
Only a hundred or so? It seems the whistleblower didn't get the complete guest list.
Ram Emmanuel felt relieved. It seemed that the scale of the leak was limited. With Abstein's ability, he should be able to handle it himself.
Let's take a look at who's on this list from the beginning. Maybe the list is made up, oh, it's in order from A to Z...
etc!
Scrolling back to the top, Rahm Emanuel's hair stood on end.
Ali?
The third line clearly states the name of Ali Emmanuel, followed by a note of the number of times he landed on the island between 3045 and 3062.
17 times!
The most recent time of landing on the island was three months ago!
Ram Emmanuel's heart tightened and he did some calculations in his head.
Almost, this number is indeed about the same.
From 3048 to 3056, Ali went there almost once or twice every year. In fact, when Absterne was first established, the island was mainly populated by professional models, and these models were run by a modeling agency run by a Gaul named Brunel under Ali.
In 3054-56, Ali went there more frequently because of the "adrenochrome" and organ issues, but he probably didn't leave any evidence.
Who leaked this information?
Ram Emmanuel continued to scroll down and looked at all the names starting with L and E. He did not find his and Zeko's names, and felt relieved.
He and Zeko had also been to the island. Unlike the second brother who did the dirty work, he and the third brother were more cautious and had only been there once or twice, and they did not go there on Abstern's plane.
They will fly to St. James Island, a large island near St. Thomas, by passenger plane, and then take a helicopter from Cyril King Airport on St. Thomas Island to St. James Island and its final destination nearby.
Ram Emmanuel tapped his fingers unconsciously on the table, thought for a moment, took out an old Nokia 1110 and a charger from a locked drawer, plugged it in, waited for a while, turned it on, pressed the number, and dialed it.
After ringing twice, Ram Immanuel hung up the phone and waited for another five minutes. The other party called him back.
"Aberstein said he didn't know what was going on. His private line is about to explode, but you can tell he's panicking. Fortunately, there's no evidence for this revelation, so it shouldn't have a big impact on us."
"I have just responded to interviews with the New York Times and the Los Angeles Metropolitan News, saying that these are all nonsense and slander. We are not familiar with Absterne at all. We have only met him once or twice and have had no contact for more than ten years."
"Everyone else has denied it now, and it doesn't look that bad."
Although Ali Emmanuel's voice was a little low on the phone, his tone was still relatively relaxed.
"Let's not talk about this for now. Let's have that Jim deal with the materials on the island and evacuate immediately. Don't leave any evidence behind."
Ram Immanuel interrupted his brother, his voice low but unyielding.
Ali Emmanuel was stunned for a moment: "No need? Let's take a look first. Before that..."
Ram interrupted Ali again. "No, immediately. Things are different now. That woman named Zhu Fuer has attracted the attention of certain groups. If these groups take action, the police will have to investigate."
"Although this matter has nothing to do with us, it could easily be implicated in the secrets of Great St. James Island. We can't take any risks now. Have Zeke withdraw all the people immediately and deal with this more cleanly."
No one knew that they had already used Absterne's other identity to buy Great St. James Island next to Little St. James Island, and built an inconspicuous operating room and underground cells on it.
Ali was silent for a moment, obviously caught in a fierce ideological struggle, but when another powerful person who had already made an appointment for the injection sent him a notice of cancellation on Snapchat, Ali made a quick decision.
"Okay, I'll contact Zeke now."
After hanging up the phone, Ram Immanuel breathed a sigh of relief, but less than five minutes later, the MIDI ringtone of Nokia 1110 rang again.
"Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep~" (Who can do the voiceover?)
"Ram, Zeko and Jim are completely out of reach! No one else can be contacted either!" Ali Emmanuel's always confident voice was now a little panicked.
"Clang!"
Ram stood up suddenly, causing his big chair to slide backwards and hit the cabinet behind him heavily.
"What? Can't get in touch?" Ram felt a huge sense of crisis.
"What's even more troublesome is that Absterne has no way of contacting the people on the island. It's as if there's no one there. Absterne checked the remote surveillance and found no one either."
Ali's voice was becoming increasingly panicked. "I just contacted him secretly. He's on his way to the airport with a team. It'll take about four hours to arrive."
"I feel something is wrong, Ram. I feel like someone must be behind this, but I don't know who it is. I have no idea. What if..."
"There is no if." Ram Emmanuel's eyes flashed coldly.
"We don't know who's behind this, and we don't need to know."
"Whoever this person or group is, they have no idea what they are dealing with."
"No matter what evidence he has, he won't have another chance. Call an emergency meeting on Telegram and tell everyone to do their utmost to ensure that social media and traditional media don't report a single word about this incident!"
"This is not just our problem, it's everyone's problem, it's the country's problem!"
"In this information age, I want to see what he can do after all the information is blocked!"
——
West Street, New York.
A double-decker sightseeing bus slowly turned around at the end of the road, and dozens of children on the bus looked out the window excitedly. Some of them had not seen the sun for a week, and some for more than a month.
"Statue of Liberty! That's the Statue of Liberty!" Several of the children, who were obviously smarter and more educated, pointed at the Statue of Liberty in the center of the Hudson River in the distance and screamed excitedly.
Statue of Liberty?
Fang Yu sneered in his heart, thinking that he might have become a slave of the Jude people.
"Sir, is this New York?" Felix asked curiously, blinking his eyes.
He was too young and didn't know where the island they had been to was. He only knew that when he woke up, they were already on this double-decker bus.
"So are we going to the New York police station?" Felix guessed.
Fang Yu's eyes flashed: "No, we are going there."
Fang Yu pointed to an area in the distance that was covered by tall buildings.
"Where is that?"
"UNGA."
(End of this chapter)
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