Chapter 770: The Fox Borrowing the Tiger's Might

The conference room door closed behind Leo, and the oppressive atmosphere inside vanished.

Adam Halt immediately stood up and strode over to Evelyn.

He clutched the softcover notebook filled with meeting minutes to his chest, his eyes urgent.

“Lady Saint Claude, we need to discuss the initial financial arrangements for the Pennsylvania Energy Administration.”

“What should the salary standards be for the first twenty enforcement officers? And what about the budget for enforcement vehicles, communication equipment, and leasing office space?”

“We need to establish an approval process immediately. I want to post the recruitment notice today.”

Evelyn was straightening the contents of her crocodile-leather briefcase.

Hearing Adam speak, she paused and looked up.

“Discuss?”

An openly disdainful smirk appeared on Evelyn’s lips.

“Director Halt, you don’t actually believe I would sit here and personally haggle with you over the price of a patrol car or an officer’s overtime pay, do you?”

Adam was stunned.

“But you’re the Chief Financial Officer. All budgets require your approval.”

“I am responsible for the macro-leverage of our capital pool—billions of dollars in asset allocation.” Evelyn pulled a solid black business card from her briefcase, holding it between two fingers as she offered it to Adam. “As for how to spend a few hundred thousand in pocket money on batons and Jeeps, that’s a job for my subordinates.”

Adam took the business card.

It bore a name—Brian Collins—and the title of Senior Vice President of Finance for the Saint Claude Family Trust.

“Go to him.” Evelyn stood up. “He will facilitate all of your expenses. The initial limit is ten million US dollars. As long as your spending is within that limit and you provide legally compliant invoices, he will release the funds.”

“Don’t bother me with these trivial matters.”

With that, Evelyn turned and left the room on her high heels, not once looking back.

Adam looked at the business card in his hand and swallowed.

Ten million US dollars.

To be used at his discretion.

Two years ago, just to apply for a new one-hundred-thousand-dollar mass spectrometer, he had to write three justification reports, each dozens of pages long, wait three months for departmental approval, and finally endure the bureaucrats’ nitpicking and budget cuts.

But now, this woman hadn’t even bothered to look at the details before throwing ten million dollars in his face.

This arrogance of capital, to Adam, now seemed like a form of unparalleled efficiency.

He took a deep breath and tucked the business card into his pocket.

The first step to revenge began with building his own private force.

Adam went directly to the Department of Personnel on the second floor of City Hall.

He needed to use the city’s recruitment channels.

In his past experience, Adam loathed dealing with Human Resources.

After decades of evolution, the American bureaucracy had developed an incredibly cumbersome system of liability avoidance.

To avoid accusations of employment discrimination, procedural injustice, or conflicts of interest, the personnel department had established countless hurdles and review processes.

Recruiting a single civil servant required public announcements, background checks, multiple rounds of interviews, and even psychological evaluations. The entire process took two to three months at a minimum.

But Adam only had one week.

He walked up to the counter at the Department of Personnel and knocked on the glass partition.

“I’m Adam Halt, Director of the newly established Pennsylvania Energy Administration.” Adam presented the letter of appointment signed by Leo. “I need to immediately post a city-wide recruitment notice for enforcement officers. Applicants must be military veterans or former police officers. Interviews and onboarding need to be completed within three days.”

The clerk behind the counter glanced at him and frowned.

“Three days? That’s impossible. Sir, this is completely against the rules for municipal recruitment. We need to follow the procedure, which takes at least…”

“This is an urgent task directly ordered by the Mayor’s Office.”

Adam interrupted him, his voice not loud, but exceptionally firm.

He was learning to speak like Leo.

“If you have a problem with it, you can take it up with Mayor Wallace personally.”

“Or, I could call Chief of Staff Hawke right now and have him explain the ‘rules’ to you.”

The clerk’s expression changed instantly at the mention of “Leo Wallace” and “Ethan Hawke.”

“N-no need, Director.” The clerk shot to his feet. “I’ll report to my supervisor immediately and get you on the fast track. Your recruitment notice will be posted on all city platforms before noon today.”

Adam nodded.

He left the Department of Personnel and went to the police logistics and equipment division.

He needed police-issue communication equipment, bulletproof vests, and some non-lethal weapons.

The same situation happened again.

An equipment requisition that would normally be stuck in a pile of paperwork for months was fast-tracked. After Adam mentioned the Energy Administration Bureau and that it was a priority project for the Mayor, the head of logistics personally took him to the warehouse to pick out gear. He even threw in a few recently retired police riot-control vehicles that were still in excellent condition.

In the afternoon, Adam returned to his office and started making calls to Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania Energy Administration was a state-level agency. Even though Leo had established its office in Pittsburgh, Adam still needed to coordinate with Harrisburg.

What Adam had to do now was establish data links with departments like the state’s environmental protection agency and land use planning office.

On the phone, the state bureaucrats initially gave him the runaround, trying to deflect with excuses like complicated procedures and incompatible systems.

“This is Adam Halt, Director of the Pennsylvania Energy Administration,” Adam said coldly into the phone. “I was appointed by Governor William Saint Cloud and the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Leo Wallace.”

“I’m sure you don’t want the Governor’s Office sending an official inquiry about your work efficiency, do you?”

The stonewalling on the other end of the line softened.

“Of course not, Director Halt. We will immediately convene an internal coordination meeting to discuss the technical details of opening the data link.”

“Rest assured, we will give you a definitive answer before the end of the workday today.”

Adam breathed a sigh of relief.

For someone accustomed to the workings of the bureaucratic system, getting a specific time commitment was already a huge step forward.

Pushing any harder would make him seem ungrateful, like he was pushing his luck.

One day.

Just one day.

Adam Halt, within the very bureaucratic system that had once shut him out and driven him to despair, felt completely unstoppable.

Every red light was turning green for him. Every obstacle automatically cleared the path the moment that name was mentioned.

Leo’s control over this administrative machine ran bone-deep.

「8:00 PM」

Adam sat at his desk.

On the computer screen in front of him, he had already received over two hundred applications.

The ten-million-dollar credit line from Saint Claude was active and ready to be used.

The state agencies had responded about the data link; they had already assembled a technical team and were just waiting for the Energy Administration Bureau to coordinate with them.

Adam took off his glasses and rubbed his tired but excited eyes.

He hadn’t expected that the American bureaucratic system, known for its inefficiency and corruption, could actually be so efficient.

For the past two years, he had been living like a walking corpse.

He had sealed himself off, avoiding the news, ignoring current events, and deliberately shunning anything related to politics.

But he was a smart man.

From the reactions at the Department of Personnel and the logistics division, and the subtle shift in the state officials’ attitudes, he keenly sensed that something was off.

This was definitely not normal American administrative efficiency.

In the unique federalist system of the United States, state powers are significant but also extremely fragmented.

Every department, every committee, has its own legal basis and operational logic.

Getting this vast, rusty machine to run at full speed toward a single goal would normally require years of political games and backroom deals.

But Leo seemed to have broken through it all with just a name.

What shocked Adam most, however, was that this power didn’t stem from the pressure of Leo’s physical presence. It came from a ripple effect that seemed to defy all political logic.

In politics, power is usually non-transferable.

A powerful figure can personally call a subordinate and order them to do something, because the subordinate reveres the voice and the position on the other end of the line.

But if that same figure simply gives a newcomer with no backing a verbal authorization or a business card, the effect is usually greatly diminished.

Bureaucrats have a thousand ways to feign respect while using procedure and red tape to grind things to a halt.

They will pay lip service while quietly obstructing, question the newcomer’s clout, and probe to see just how important the matter truly is to the powerful figure.

“The fox borrowing the tiger’s might” often doesn’t work in a complex administrative system, because the tiger isn’t always present.

But today, from the clerk at the Department of Personnel to the head of logistics, and even to the state officials on the phone all the way in Harrisburg, the moment they heard Leo’s name, they didn’t just show cooperation—they showed an almost instinctual obedience.

This showed that Leo’s power had become a kind of omnipresent, institutional fear.

He not only controlled these people, he had also tamed the machine itself.

This power was terrifying in its magnitude.

This young mayor… his plans did seem a bit fanciful to Adam, perhaps even arrogant.

Restarting a nuclear power plant in two years, carving a path for himself in an energy market dominated by giants—it was nothing short of a fantasy.

But if…

Adam looked at the two hundred-plus résumés on the screen, at the ten million dollars in funds available at a moment’s notice.

If Leo could really drive the administrative machinery of Pennsylvania to this degree, if he could truly make every bureaucrat serve his will…

…then in America’s political system, where sorting out the state government allows one to largely push back against federal oversight, perhaps he really could pull off something world-shaking.

Adam clenched his fists.

He had to seize this opportunity.

In his whole life, this might be his only chance to turn the tables.

He would make those high-and-mighty people who once swept him out like trash kneel before him.

He had taken a solid first step on the road to revenge.