America 1982-Chapter 511 - 98: Beast Fight_2
After hearing everything, Evan Wood felt his scalp tightening in waves. He then looked at his colleague, "How do you see this matter?"
"It’s clearly designed to target Rona, but it’s not very clever, like a messy farce. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken place outside of District 18," the colleague offered his view.
Evan slowly exhaled:
"Farce, messy farce? Do you know why I became the deputy manager while you’re just running errands? You lack attention to detail. This is not a farce. For Rona, this is an outright tragedy. The person who designed this event managed to make everyone at the scene stay out of it; nobody in the crowd was injured, the gunman’s shooting was just a prank, the journalists who came to cover the story got their sensational news, and that candidate gained the most. He got that child, he got the two seniors, and became the guardian of that tragic family. Whoever wants to reach out to them has to give him something in return."
"That prop gun pulled the trigger at the sky. No one was hurt on the scene, but Rona, who never appeared there, is about to be hit by the bullets of public opinion and rumors."
"Most importantly, that gunshot was the signal for the battle to start. That Jeff doesn’t need to strip down and fight himself; he has better options. The Republican Cuban woman is probably already eager to use this against Rona, to swallow up Rona’s Cuban votes, and then curry favor with the Jewish community."
"What about Rona and Tom?" Evan finally asked about Rosario Kennedy and the election team’s manager, Tom Chafee. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
The colleague responded, "Rona has taken people to the city hall to review all the official statements related to that bill from two years ago to ensure that even if the other side sues, they should have no chance. Tom is preparing to get in touch with Jeff Raven’s team leader, Martin Hart, to see if there’s any chance for a sit-down."
"Who is Jeff Raven’s backer?"
"On the surface, it’s a charity foundation called Crossroads. The publicly disclosed data shows that Jeff Raven received two hundred thousand donations from the foundation before, and another one hundred and twenty thousand two days ago. It can be confirmed that the foundation was established for Jeff Raven’s election campaign. However, due to the nature of the charity foundation, they have the right not to disclose the source of the funds, so we don’t know who the real backer is."
"Political dirty money is easy to trace. Not being able to find it through official channels doesn’t mean unconventional ones won’t uncover it. If it’s political dirty money, then that foundation probably doesn’t have much funds at its disposal. Offer the media a boost in their advertising fees to shut them up temporarily, drain their funds, and then wait for the backer to surface," Evan said with clarity as he laid out his plan:
"Have the secretaries immediately prepare a stable press release that makes Rona appear shocked, in pain, sad, and regretful but admitting nothing. Then, let our ’friend’ next to the Republican candidate Eliana Leti leak to the newspapers. Say that it’s very likely that this incident was plotted by Eliana Leti, to slander Rona, because she sees no chance against Rona, who has more supporters among the Cuban community, and besides, the Florida State Senate is investigating Eliana’s husband Dexter for resigning as a state senator to become the state attorney general, thereby directly closing the case that investigated his cover-up of the fake credentials scandal at her private school. She’s made Rona a scapegoat and concocted this baseless scandal."
"Aren’t you planning to use that ’friend’ after the party primary ends, in a face-off?" the colleague curiously asked upon hearing Evan’s arrangements, which didn’t seem to target Jeff Raven, the real schemer behind the event.
Evan shook his head slightly: "No, who the culprit is doesn’t matter. What’s important is to keep a close eye on the strongest opponent in the Arena."
...
"Political elections are like the Arena; the slightest rustle in the grass, and the beasts will attack the opponent that poses the greatest threat to them. Eliminate it, and the rest is just delicious food," Tommy said while munching on an apple, sitting on the couch at Jeff’s place.
Jessica, Martin, Jeff, Allen, Zack, and Marcus stood in a line by the living room window, looking out at the workers unloading sofas and desks from the cargo truck. Page was pulling out banknotes, paying an angry-faced black man who occasionally glanced in the direction of the window.
"Boss, is this why that black furniture store owner chased you and beat you up because he felt you were the biggest threat to him in the store at that time?" Martin turned his head and asked Tommy, who was still eating his apple.
Tommy sighed: "Otherwise, what should I say, the truth? Because I liked a desk in that store and wanted to buy it, it also had a delicate picture frame on it. I liked that frame too, but not the cheap photo in it, so I grabbed a colored marker from the penholder nearby and drew something on that photo. I didn’t mean any harm, but the owner saw my artwork and went crazy like he wanted to teach me a lesson."
