Chapter 90: That Time I Built a Casino in South America (5)

TL: Skye

Two weeks later. Antonio, who'd left for the States, was back.

When I saw him again, the exhaustion was written all over him, yet his eyes alone burned with a fierce light.

With the swagger of Guan Yu returning with an enemy general's severed head before his wine had a chance to cool, he set a thick stack of documents down on my desk. [TL: Guan Yu, a Three Kingdoms warrior famed for beheading an enemy general before his cup of wine had gone cold, i.e., a swift, effortless triumph.]

"Reporting, Your Excellency. These are the results of the first round of investment."

I skimmed through the documents.

[Hilton Group, Merit International, MGM Resorts...]

A whole string of names anyone would recognize, global hotel chains and casino groups, one after another.

"I'd heard these outfits run mostly on a franchise model? They're saying they'll invest directly and operate the hotels themselves?"

"They must have judged it a sure enough bet."

And it was too soon to be surprised yet.

When I turned to the next page.

"Las Vegas Sands?"

A name I never would have expected leapt out at me.

Sands, wasn't that the industry titan with a stranglehold on Macau and Singapore?

And they wanted to invest in San Marcos, a place that might well become their competitor?

"I'd expected them to get in our way, and instead they're hoping to invest... How on earth did you pull it off?"

Antonio grinned at my question and answered.

"Going with the current is a businessman's most basic virtue, wouldn't you say?"

"The current, huh..."

"The truth is, Vegas has been having a rough time of it lately."

"Vegas?"

"Yes. Ever since online gambling was legalized, they've had a good chunk of the pie taken from them. So rather than casino-centered operations, they're looking to pivot toward integrated resort complexes. Investing in San Marcos would be their first step down that road."

"So you read the current perfectly, Advisor Antonio."

"Not at all."

Antonio lowered his voice.

"It was only possible because Your Excellency laid such a splendid board for me. All I did was cast the bait Your Excellency had already set out."

It was a humble thing to say, but there was no mistaking that Antonio's skill had been considerable.

In any case, the result was a resounding success.

With capital on this scale flowing in, construction of the new city would clearly proceed without a hitch.

"Good work. Thanks to you, Antonio, we've cleared a major hurdle."

"You flatter me. Only..."

Antonio let his words trail off.

It seemed he had something more to say.

"What is it? Is there a problem?"

"Yes. There's one stumbling block."

"A stumbling block?"

"The investors want to meet you in person, Your Excellency."

"What? Me?"

I cocked my head.

"Didn't you already tour the whole of America laying it all out for them, Advisor Antonio?"

"About that... it's the one part I can't resolve on my own."

Antonio scratched his head, looking troubled.

"What is it they want?"

"Certainty."

"Certainty...?"

Seeing my puzzlement, Antonio carefully explained the reason.

"The investors have looked into the situation in San Marcos... and they harbor doubts about the regime."

"Doubts about the regime, meaning..."

"They're afraid the regime might change, and that the terms might change along with it."

Ah.

Now I understood.

"So they're worried that if the regime changes, their money will vanish into thin air."

"...The phrasing is a touch severe, but yes, exactly."

He wasn't wrong.

In developed nations like the US or Europe, it's a given that existing contracts and policies survive a change of government, and investors trust that they will.

But here in San Marcos, that's not so easily guaranteed.

Because...

'Until not long ago, this place was a dictatorship.'

Honestly, when a developing country is also a dictatorship, of course it can't be trusted.

History was littered with cases of a president suddenly being shot dead and the incoming regime declaring the previous government's contracts null and void! before nationalizing everything.

Hadn't Venezuela's Chávez government done exactly that in 1999, invoking resource sovereignty to declare the nationalization of oil, cement, and other key industries, and stripping every American company that had moved in of its assets?

If that sort of thing could happen right in America's own backyard, then their position was understandable.

"Hmm... I can certainly see how they'd feel that way."

"That's why they want to meet Your Excellency. To confirm with their own eyes just how trustworthy the president of San Marcos is. Just how solid the regime is."

Antonio added, watching for my reaction.

"How would you like to proceed? If you'd rather decline, I'll come up with some excuse..."

"No. We're the ones in a hurry here. If they need certainty, then we give it to them."

"Then...?"

"Set up the schedule. Have every last one of the investors come to Libertad. I'll meet them myself and put their minds at ease."

"Understood! I'll get word out at once."

Antonio's expression brightened.

***

After Yu-jin decided to meet with the investors, Lucio, on hearing the news, quite literally hit the roof.

"What?! They dare doubt His Excellency?!"

Lucio, eyes bloodshot, grabbed the pistol at his hip.

"These goddamn Yankees! His Excellency graciously offers them the chance himself, and they've got the nerve to size us up? I'll drive straight to the airport and put a hole through every last one of their skulls!"

Antonio, aghast, seized Lucio's arm.

"They're investors! Guests who've come hauling their money with them! Do that and we're truly finished!"

"Money be damned, I will not forgive anyone who lays a finger on His Excellency's dignity!"

"I'm begging you, hold it together! His Excellency himself gave this his blessing!"

At the words that His Excellency had approved it, Lucio, huffing and snorting, let go of the gun. Still unable to shake his fury, he ground his teeth with a hard crunch.

"This won't do. I think I'll have to show them what's what."

"...What's what? What do you mean, what's what?"

"They seem to be running their mouths without understanding His Excellency's greatness, so I mean to educate them personally."

At Lucio's chilly smile, a shiver ran down Antonio's spine.

"D-don't you worry. I won't have them shot."

"No, listen, that's exactly what'll get us in trouble!"

Two days later. A government guesthouse near Libertad Airport.

The investment delegation that had flown in from America was resting off the fatigue of the journey, a single day out from their audience with Yu-jin.

Knock, knock.

"Who is it?"

When the door opened, men in black suits packed the hallway wall to wall.

Standing at their center, Lucio spoke in a tone that was courteous yet impossible to refuse.

"I'm Lucio, Director of the San Marcos Intelligence Agency. Before you meet His Excellency, I wanted to show you the true face of San Marcos, so I've come to call on you separately."

"Hmm? This wasn't on the itinerary."

"You won't regret it. If you're deciding whether to invest in San Marcos, surely you ought to know what lies where?"

"...Ahem, I suppose that's true."

And so the investors followed Lucio and boarded a bus.

Beyond the windows, jeeps carrying armed soldiers fell in behind them like an escort.

The investors, taking it for a ceremonial honor guard, were pleased, but the place they actually arrived at was an enormous farm far removed from Libertad, set deep in the Central Mountains, Tortilla Farm.

"This is... a farm, isn't it?"

"Indeed. This is Tortilla Farm, the pride of the San Marcos government. Its output per unit of land rivals the very best in the world."

The investors stepped off the bus and couldn't close their mouths.

In cornfields that stretched past the horizon, thousands of laborers worked like a swarm of ants.

Their eyes were hollow, but their hands moved with machine-like precision and speed.

Not one of them cut corners or took a break; it was diligence bordering on madness, plain and simple.

"Why in the world have you brought us here?"

To the question from Adel Sand, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Group and the de facto head of the investors, Lucio answered without batting an eye.

"Do you know who those people are?"

"How would I know that? Just farmers, aren't they?"

"Half of them were gangsters who peddled narcotics, and the other half were corrupt officials who siphoned off state funds."

"...!"

The investors' faces went white.

Gangsters? Corrupt officials? Those guileless-looking farmers?

"The moment His Excellency took office, he rounded up every last cancer on society and reformed them into the diligent laborers you see before you."

Lucio said it proudly.

"W-we have to notify the UN, right now..."

One investor cried out as though shrieking.

But Lucio only scoffed.

"And what would you accomplish by notifying the UN? Believe it or not, by San Marcos standards this is quite a well-paying job. The laborers are perfectly content, in fact."

Lucio's gaze swept over the investors.

"I've brought you here to show you the greatness of His Excellency's rule, a rule that recycles even garbage. I wanted you to understand that in San Marcos there is no such thing as 'impossible', and no such thing as slacking off."

A threat that wasn't quite a threat.

"There's something I'd like to show you on the way back."

At Lucio's direction, the bus turned toward downtown Libertad, where darkness had settled in.

And the scene beyond the windows overturned every one of their expectations.

Beneath dazzling streetlamps, citizens strolled freely through the streets.

What's more, a young woman could walk alone and not a soul would trouble her.

And not just one, but dozens of women roamed the night streets.

"Is this... even possible?"

Even in Las Vegas the back alleys were dangerous late at night. And here, of all places in Latin America, a sight like this?

"As little as a year ago, public safety in Libertad was rock bottom. But now, as you can see, it's become the safest place on earth."

Lucio whispered low.

"It's because every citizen knows that the instant they commit a crime, they'll be dragged off to those cornfields you saw earlier. In San Marcos there are no strikes, no protests, no robbers. There is only His Excellency's order, and nothing else."

A while later, as the bus made its full circuit of Libertad and turned back, only a heavy silence hung inside it.

In that silence, they quietly worked the numbers.

And soon they realized it.

'This country is insane.'

That the San Marcos regime held power so absolute it could stand comparison with North Korea's Kim dynasty.

Worried the regime might change?

Not a chance.

This regime would never fall.

How could an iron-fisted rule collapse, one that had America watching its back and shipped every internal enemy off to the cornfields or the coal mines?

The risk of policy continuity vanishing?

No chance of that.

Those who knew of the puppet regime perched at the top of the Korean Peninsula sensed it in their gut.

This regime would be handed down, generation to generation.

And what that meant was.

'This... this is a winning hand.'

'An investment safe enough that President Drump himself vouches for it...'

'If it pans out, even if it's not Dubai, it's at least Macau.'

It also meant this investment would turn a profit.

***

The next morning. The reception hall of the Presidential Palace.

Yu-jin received the neatly turned-out investment delegation.

Believing himself to be the one at the disadvantage, he put on the gentlest smile he could manage and moved to offer a handshake, but.

"A pleasure. You've come such a long way..."

"Your Excellency!"

Someone called out to Yu-jin.

It was none other than Adel, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Group.

"We, the Las Vegas Sands Group, will join the San Marcos new city project and build two hotels!"

"...I'm sorry?"

"We'll wire the funds immediately! Just designate the site! We'd like to sign the contract this very day!"

Right behind him, the other investors shouted over one another.

"Hilton will join in too!"

"MGM here! Give us a single plot and we'll build the finest resort there is!"

An absurd situation.

Yu-jin looked at them, dumbfounded.

'What the hell? What's gotten into them all of a sudden?'

*****

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