Manhattan Reborn 1978

Asia.

It’s almost noon in the island country of Tokyo.

In front of a hotel near the internationally renowned landmark Tokyo Tower.

Mr. Dwight Lane, who had worked for the Rothschild family for many years, successfully met with Van Batine, one of the family's leaders in charge of intelligence work in Asia.

Mr. Batney is just over 195 years old this year, over cm tall, and has short dark blond hair.

His tall and strong figure and tough facial lines, coupled with a high-end custom-made suit and the latest spring short windbreaker, attracted countless people's attention the moment he walked into the hotel door.

. . .

About ten minutes later, in a room on the seventeenth floor of the hotel.

Carnes was lazily lying on the sofa in the spacious living room. When he saw the tall figure following Mr. Dwight Ryan in, he put his hand on his forehead and smiled.

"Hi~ We meet again, Batine!"

"Good afternoon, sir."

"You're welcome. Please take a seat. I'm waiting for a call."

"Okay." Mr. Batine walked to the single sofa at Carnes' feet and sat down, with a calm expression, looking straight ahead, sitting properly, waiting quietly.

At this time, in the room where there were only three of them, Mr. Ryan temporarily played the role of waiter. He poured him a cup of hot tea, placed two plates of desserts in front of him, and said to Carnes.

"Bill has led Kihara Nobushige, Edward Dyke, and Mr. Yuri Orlov into the restaurant downstairs for dinner."

"When will you eat?"

"I'm not in a hurry. Wait a little longer." Kanes rubbed his forehead with his eyes closed. After a moment of silence, he seemed to remember something and suddenly asked Van Batine with his eyes closed.

"As I recall, you're married?"

"Yes, sir." Batinet smiled on his tough square face. He leaned forward and answered in a moderately controlled voice.

"Where's your wife? Is she with you in Tokyo?"

"No, she hasn't been in Tokyo during this time."

"You two live apart?"

"Yes."

"What about your children? I remember your daughter was still very young, right?"

"..Yeah!" When Batine heard Kanes mention his child, he couldn't help but reveal a happy fatherly smile and nodded.

Kanes sat up slowly, half-opened his eyes and looked at Batine. After thinking for a few seconds, he asked again, "I need an assistant who specializes in intelligence gathering. Are you willing to help me?"

"..." Batine and Kanes looked at each other with surprise in their eyes, but they did not answer immediately.

Mr. Ryan listened to the conversation between the two silently, took a sip of the black tea in the cup, and spoke to break the silence in the room.

"Batinet, if you have any concerns about this matter, you can speak up directly."

"..."

"You, are you still hesitating?"

"As I recall, you are not a person with a sane mind!"

"Do you really think you can refuse?"

"..It is my honor to serve you, sir." Batinet did not look at Mr. Ryan, but kept staring at Carnes. Under his emotionless gaze, he gradually "failed" and lowered his head.

"Okay." Carnes opened his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth turned up, and he felt very satisfied and happy, leaning back on the sofa again, shaking his feet and saying.

"I remember Bill mentioned to me that you like France very much and hope to buy a winery after retirement so that you can sit by the fireplace in your spare time, listening to your favorite music and drinking your own wine, right?"

"..Yes, sir."

"It just so happens that I have three villas in France that are currently vacant. Two of them have their own vineyards and winemaking workshops, which should be very suitable for your requirements."

"Ryan, organize their information and give it to Batine. Let him choose one. This will be my gift to him for joining the company."

"Ok."

"Batinet, don't be so restrained, relax a little!"

"Now, do you have any other requests?"

"..No more, sir."

"OK." Kanes closed his eyes, shook his feet with an even more intense smile, and continued to talk to himself.

"Recently, I am temporarily unable to provide you with sufficient intelligence funds..."

"Tomorrow, I'm leaving here for Houston. You should come with me to meet my friends."

"His name is David. He is very smart and has a very broad vision."

"he.."

"Ling ring ring~"

Just when Carnes felt tired of talking and was about to take a break, the phone next to him suddenly rang.

He squinted his eyes and picked up the phone. After listening for a few seconds, he said loudly with indignation and complaint in his voice: "Asshole, you made me wait for more than two hours!"

"What? Shopping?"

"You XXX! Didn't you say you hate shopping?"

"Ah? You found a new lover?"

"FXXX!"

"Aren't the women you keep at home enough?"

"What do you mean I'm too controlling?"

"You're such an asshole, alright!"

"Tsk tsk~ Keep on quibbling."

"Get lost! You f**k..."

"Come on, stop talking nonsense. I have something serious to talk to you about."

"Yes, I just arrived in Tokyo this morning..."

"Yes, I have met Kihara Nobunari, Edward Dyke and Yuri Orlov."

"Nonsense, I know better than to meet Marat, you don't need to remind me..."

"Ah~ yeah, what?"

"..Huh?! Are you...just guessing?"

"Um... I did think so, but..."

"I'm not that stupid, asshole!"

"Yeah, Bill and Ryan said that too..."

"So do you want to talk to them?"

"Sure, just turn on the hands-free mode."

Carnes said, put down the microphone and turned on the speaker, turned his head to look at Ryan and said, "Go Bill and come back..."

"Oh, and that Edward Dyke, call him back too.

"Okay, sir." Ryan glanced at the phone in Carnes' hand, stood up and walked away quickly.

. . .

About two hours later.

Ryan, Batine, Bill Gutheran and Edward Dyke brought chairs and sat around Carnes and the phone, finally ending the call with the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Carnes felt his head swollen and lay back on the sofa. While trying to digest the content of the conversation, he asked Batine and Edward Dyke.

"Just now, has the underground foreign exchange trading in Hong Kong been very active in recent years?"

"Yes!" Batine heard Kanes' question, tilted his head and glanced at Mr. Dyke who remained silent, and said softly.

"Since the Hong Kong government decided to relax gold trading controls and implement a floating exchange rate system, it quickly became the most favored capital transit point for international traders."

"Because everyone knows that the British government has very little supervision over its own banking industry, and almost no supervision over Hong Kong's banking industry and financial investment industry."

"So starting from August 74, many island banks began to enter Hong Kong on a large scale, providing a better circulation and exchange platform for the foreign exchange funds earned by domestic enterprises from trade with various countries."

"I have a friend who is the head of the audit department of a Swiss bank's Hong Kong branch."

"In January 77, after returning to Switzerland to spend the New Year with his family, he contacted me and wanted to fly back to Hong Kong with me."

"So we agreed on a time and place, and took the same plane. During the trip, we not only exchanged ideas about our respective work, but also accidentally talked about an investment opportunity."

Batinet said this, then glanced at Ryan and Bill. He felt something was wrong as they were still concentrating on their "notes", so he continued.

"After we got off the plane in Hong Kong, he suggested that I convert all my assets and cash in Hong Kong into Swiss francs, and then look for an opportunity to sell them after the exchange rate fluctuates significantly."

"I didn't take it seriously at the time. I just had a brief discussion with my wife and asked him to help me change all my Hong Kong dollar deposits into Swiss francs."

"A year later, in early February 78, he came to me and said that based on the latest Swiss franc exchange rate of 2:1 Hong Kong dollars, I had made a profit of about 2.49%."

"30?"

"Yes."

"What was the exchange rate when you exchanged Swiss francs in 77?" Bill suddenly looked up at Batine and asked with a frown.

"The exchange rate at that time should be around 1 Swiss franc to 1.86 Hong Kong dollars."

"2.49-1.86=0.63? It is indeed more than 30%..."

"What happened next? Last year, the international foreign exchange market fluctuated greatly. Did you invest?"

"I voted..." Batine shrugged with a smile.

"Last February, after I converted all my savings into Hong Kong dollars, my wife thought I should convert them into US dollars and deposit them in the bank."

"But when I called my friend for advice, he said there was no rush and we could wait and see. If the Swiss franc exchange rate could be adjusted in the short term, it would most likely appreciate again."

"So in April last year, I followed his advice and changed my Hong Kong dollar deposits into Swiss francs. The exchange rate at that time was around 4:1."

"At the beginning of October last year, when I was discussing with my family when to book a flight back to Europe, my friend helped me exchange all my savings back according to the latest exchange rate of 10 Swiss franc to 1 Hong Kong dollars."

"In half a year, I made about 30% in the foreign exchange market."

"Very good returns." After writing this down, Bill glanced at Carnes who was lost in thought, then turned to look at Edward Dyke and asked.

"David just mentioned on the phone that each of the major conglomerates in the island nation has established its own business intelligence agency - the secretariat."

"How much do you know about it?"

Mr. Dyke was slightly surprised when he heard the question. He looked up at Bill with a half-smile: "The secretarial offices, the intelligence agencies within these island companies, originated from the general staff headquarters of the island army during World War II."

"After World War II, Ryuzo Sejima, the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army Headquarters and the chief of staff of the Imperial Army and Navy, was invited to serve as the chairman of Itochu Corporation and brought this organization into Itochu."

"Afterwards, business groups and large families such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Yasuda, Fujii and Funakoshi also began to look for suitable intelligence personnel from the military staff and set up their own secretarial offices, which were responsible for collecting business intelligence and providing intelligence protection."

"But, it's all in the past~"

"Half of the core members of these intelligence offices are professionals hired by island companies from various intelligence departments in the United States at high salaries, and the remaining half are also secretly trained by the intelligence departments of the United States."

“For example, on January 77, 1, the former U.S. Army Security Agency was reorganized to form the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.”