Chapter 592 - 276: Capital is Supreme

"You’ve won the battle, but you’ve backed yourself into a strategic corner."

The night wind blew past.

Leo felt the hairs on his arms stand on end.

"So what should I do?"

Leo gripped the railing, his knuckles turning white.

"You only have one path."

Roosevelt replied, "You need to turn the Industrial Revival Alliance into an iron fortress. Even if Washington cuts off all your supply lines, even if all of America blockades you, you have to be able to survive."

"You need deeper foundations."

"Foundations?" Leo asked. "I have public support."

"Public support is ephemeral. Once people’s stomachs are empty, it vanishes," Roosevelt said. "You need something tangible."

"Two things."

Roosevelt held up two fingers.

"First, money."

"You need a massive, constant stream of cash flow."

"You need to give Pittsburgh the ability to generate its own lifeblood."

"Your Industrial Revival Alliance, your Alliance Trust System—right now, they’re just prototypes, gray-area products skirting the edges of the law."

"You need to turn it into a true financial empire."

"You need to make it so big that not even the Federal Reserve would dare to pull the plug."

Leo nodded.

He had thought of this. He needed a more fundamental economic base.

"Second."

Roosevelt’s voice took on a meaningful tone.

"You need a steward."

"A steward?" Leo paused for a moment. "I have Ethan, Sarah, and Frank."

"They are your generals, your mouthpiece, and your enforcer."

Roosevelt shook his head.

"Ethan is a good chief of staff. He’s suited to helping you with paperwork, not managing a commercial empire."

"Sarah is a propagandist, but she doesn’t understand money."

"Frank can handle your ground game, but he can’t manage a ten-billion-US-Dollar ledger."

"Your current team is an excellent political strike force. You can fight wars, you can seize power."

"But, Leo, you must understand one thing."

Roosevelt paused, his tone becoming exceptionally grave.

"From governing a country to managing a state, or even just running this city... when you get down to it, it’s all about balancing the economic books."

"Back in my day, I excoriated those Economic Royalists on Wall Street. I had the SEC investigate their books, and I had the Department of Justice break up their Trusts."

"I controlled the capitalists. I limited their greed."

"But I never opposed capital itself."

"Many people think finance is a vampire, that the folks on Wall Street just tap on keyboards in their offices without creating any real value. That is an extremely naive view."

"It’s true that finance doesn’t directly bake bread or forge steel."

"But finance is the catalyst."

"If you say that industry is the bones and muscles of this country—the solid factories, railways, and bridges..."

"...then finance is the blood vessels."

"It’s responsible for delivering oxygen and nutrients—that is, capital—precisely to every single muscle. Without that delivery from the blood vessels, even the strongest muscles will necrotize, and even the grandest factories will turn into rusty scrap metal."

"You are in the United States of America, Leo. This is the most thoroughly capitalist country in human history."

"Here, ’capital is king’ isn’t just a slogan; it’s the underlying operating system of this nation."

"Executive orders have boundaries. Legal jurisdiction has limits."

"Only capital has no borders."

"In this system, if you don’t have a professional team that can expertly wield capital and use financial instruments for both offense and defense, you are destined not to go far."

"You need someone."

"Someone cold, precise, unburdened by morals, who is only accountable to numbers and efficiency."

"He must know how to turn this city into a highly efficient corporation."

"He must understand how to use leverage, how to securitize assets, and how to turn future earnings into present cash flow."

"He will be your chancellor of the exchequer, your private banker, the guardian of your purse strings."

Leo fell silent.

He frantically searched his mind, running through everyone he knew.

’A professor from college?’

’One of the Wall Street elite?’

’A local banker?’

’None of them.’

His team was full of hot-blooded idealists or traditional political elites.

He needed a monster.

A monster who understood the rules of finance, yet dared to trample all over them.

But a person like that was incredibly hard to find.

"Where do I find someone like that?" Leo asked.

"You will find him,"

Roosevelt said.

"When power becomes highly concentrated, people like that will come to you of their own accord, like moths to a flame."

"You are now the most powerful man in Pennsylvania."

"Your light is too bright. It will attract many monsters."

"What you must do is pick the most capable one from among those monsters."

"And then, put a collar on him."

Leo gazed at the distant lights.

He understood.

The previous struggle was to seize power.

The next struggle would be to consolidate it.

It would be more tedious, more complex, and also more dangerous than before.

"Alright."

Leo crushed the empty beer can in his hand.

"The money, I’ll take care of it."

"The steward, I’ll find him too."

"Since they want to trap me on an island..."

"Then I’ll turn this island into a fortress they can never breach."

"A fortress may be built," Roosevelt’s voice rang out, "but you cannot remain a defending general forever, Leo. Defense doesn’t win wars."

"I know." Leo’s voice was clear in the wind. "Next, we need to complete our initial plan. Establish the Mutual Aid Alliance and seize control of pharmaceutical pricing from them first."

"Timing is crucial," Roosevelt reminded him. "The presidential election is imminent. You must use this opportunity to expand your sphere of influence beyond Pittsburgh and take complete control of all of Pennsylvania."

Leo tossed the flattened aluminum can down.

The metal can struck the top of a shipping container below, making a sharp, clear sound.

The sound echoed through the empty port like the sounding of a war horn.

Leo turned and started down the access ladder.

His leather shoes crunched on the gravel.

A black SUV was parked not far away, where Ethan was waiting.

Its headlights cut two long, narrow beams across the ground.

Leo walked over and pulled the car door open.

He sat in the shadows of the back seat, watching the silhouettes of factories recede rapidly outside the window.

Pittsburgh’s old shell was peeling away, and a new skeleton was breaking through the earth.

The war had already begun.

The car accelerated toward the city center, leaving the dark river and the forest of steel behind.

This was no longer the road home.

This was the start of a conquest.