Chapter 774 The Most Terrifying Thing Is Silence

Leo Wallace sat in his chair, his gaze shifting away from the briefing document. Subconsciously, he reached his right hand toward the phone at the corner of his desk.

He was about to call Marcus Crassus, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

He wanted to question that old fox. Why hadn’t he fulfilled his previous promise? Why didn’t the Democratic Party stop this malicious investigation against him in the corridors of Washington?

He had explicitly agreed to endorse the President!

His finger hovered over the dial pad. Just as he was about to press down, his hand suddenly stopped.

He stared at the red telephone. A bone-piercing chill shot up his spine, instantly spreading through his entire body.

No! The Democratic Party shouldn’t have this kind of attitude.

“Put it down, Leo,” Roosevelt’s voice echoed faintly in his mind. “You’ve finally realized it.”

Leo slowly placed the receiver back onto the cradle, his expression growing more solemn than ever before.

“An investigation by the Foreign Investment Committee isn’t something that can be opened in a single day,” Leo reasoned aloud. “It requires coordination across multiple departments—the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice, and the Defense Department.

“As the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Marcus Crassus has eyes and ears planted all over the White House and these departments.

“There is absolutely no way he didn’t know.”

Leo’s gaze grew sharp. “Not only did he fail to stop it, but he didn’t even give me advance notice.

“It defies logic.

“I am their key bargaining chip to win the Pennsylvania election. I hold millions of votes in my hands.

“If I don’t support them, they are finished in the Swing States. Why would he just stand by and watch me get investigated?

“Unless…”

Leo voiced the answer that had struck him in that split second. “Unless, on this particular issue, there are no so-called opponents.

“The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are in absolute agreement.

“They did this on purpose.”

“Exactly,” Roosevelt’s voice echoed in the space of his consciousness, confirming Leo’s suspicion. “Leo, in this city called Washington, you can watch the donkey and the elephant argue over nearly everything.

“They fight over taxes, over healthcare, over abortion rights. They look like sworn, irreconcilable enemies.

“However, there is only one exception.” Roosevelt’s voice turned remarkably cold. “They will act with such tacit understanding that they might as well be brothers sharing the same pair of pants.”

The lights in the Mayor’s Office were bright, yet Leo felt the surrounding walls closing in on him, bringing a suffocating sense of oppression.

“What exactly is it?” Leo repeatedly asked himself in his mind. “Why would stopping me from acquiring a half-decommissioned nuclear power plant be elevated to the highest level of national security?

“If it were just for the election, just for the money, there would be no need to go to such extremes.”

Roosevelt’s voice chimed in at the perfect moment. “Broaden your perspective, Leo.

“Don’t just stare at Pittsburgh, and don’t just stare at Washington.

“Take all the clues we know right now, take all the anomalies you’ve experienced over the past few months, and piece them all together,” Roosevelt reminded him. “Think about Sterling.”

Leo’s brain began to process at lightning speed. Countless seemingly unrelated fragments began to spin, collide, and reassemble within his consciousness.

Clue number one:

A few months ago, Sterling was willing to risk offending Leo to delay the construction of the nuclear power plant.

His excuse was that they had received massive natural gas orders from Europe and Asia.

At the time, Leo thought it was simply capitalist greed—an attempt to profit off a short-term price difference.

But looking back now, the sheer scale of that order was outrageously massive, and the timing was incredibly bizarre.

Clue number two:

Why would buyers from Europe and Asia suddenly purchase massive amounts of United States liquefied natural gas at this specific time?

Back then, he assumed these buyers were orchestrating targeted sabotage against the AI strategy of the United States.

He thought they were buying up all of Pennsylvania’s natural gas to prevent the nuclear power plant from starting construction on time.

But that idea seemed rather far-fetched now.

Could buying up tens of billions of cubic meters of natural gas alone derail a superpower’s technological arms race?

It defied logic.

Capital was far more honest than politicians.

If viewed from a merchant’s perspective, there was an alternative explanation.

These buyers were locking in future energy prices ahead of time.

This kind of frantic sweeping of the market only possessed commercial rationality if they anticipated that future prices would spiral out of control.

This meant that a consensus had already formed within the global capital markets.

Some massive force majeure, powerful enough to disrupt energy stability, was about to occur.

Clue number three:

Right now. At this very moment.

The Federal Government, operating under the name of the Foreign Investment Committee and citing national security, had forcibly taken control of the Pennsylvania Energy Administration.

And this administration had only one objective: to control Three Mile Island.

They didn’t care if Leo was a star of the Progressives, and they didn’t care about the votes in Pennsylvania.

National security…

Leo chewed over this term, finally deciphering Washington’s underlying message.

Based on his previous logic, if the future energy supply chain were severed, Pennsylvania’s natural gas exports would inevitably skyrocket, and the energy tycoons would make an absolute fortune.

However, merely making money wasn’t enough for the White House to employ such drastic measures akin to an administrative takeover.

Unless there was a higher power involved behind the scenes—a power related to natural gas.

So, what global geopolitical strategies involved natural gas?

First, to force Europe to shake off its reliance on Russia’s natural gas as quickly as possible, thereby strengthening the United States’ dominance over European energy security.

Second, to drive Eurasia into signing long-term liquefied natural gas supply contracts, deeply embedding the United States’ energy supply into their national economic systems.

This was Washington’s energy hegemony strategy.

Leo finally understood.

For the sake of this grandiose global strategy, Pennsylvania’s natural gas had to be exported in an endless stream.

Any factor that could possibly hinder this plan had to be eliminated.

The restart of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant would drain Pennsylvania’s infrastructure resources and siphon away capital from Wall Street.

Therefore, it had to be controlled. It had to be delayed.

This was the logic of centralization.

Leo abruptly stood up.

A massive map of the world materialized in his mind.

His thoughts crossed the Atlantic Ocean, leaped over Europe, and ultimately landed on the oil- and gas-rich lands of the Middle East.

There lay a narrow strait—the very choke point of global energy.

“The Hormuz Strait,” Leo muttered to himself.

All the puzzle pieces snapped perfectly together at this moment.

The greed of the energy merchants, the panic of Europe, the ruthlessness of Washington—everything now had a rational explanation.

“My God…” Leo’s voice trembled. “A massive shortfall in the global energy supply is about to happen… Washington is tightening its domestic grip on energy control at all costs.”

He turned around, gazing out at the empty room. “Washington is preparing for war.

“They are preparing to launch a large-scale armed strike overseas, likely targeting the oil facilities of a key oil-producing nation.

“Once this war breaks out, the Hormuz Strait will be blockaded. Global oil and gas prices will instantly skyrocket into the stratosphere, and an energy crisis will sweep across the entire Western world.

“The White House needs absolute energy centralization.”

Leo’s fist slammed heavily onto the desk.

“So my energy layout, my attempt to build an independent energy kingdom, has become a thorn in their side that they absolutely must pull out!

“No wonder.

“No wonder even Cres won’t speak up for me. No wonder the Republican Party and the Democratic Party would sit at the same table to deliver a fatal blow against me.

“Because the moment the war machine starts turning, all partisan differences must give way.

“This is the will of the nation.”

Roosevelt’s voice carried a hint of approval. “You finally see it, Leo.

“This is the cruelty of a great power’s geopolitical game.

“You thought you were playing local politics, but in reality, you’ve always been standing on the edge of a global storm.

“And now, you have become a part of the storm yourself.”