Volume 2: Knocking on Heaven's Door Chapter 47 Unequal Transaction
Otilia took a few deep breaths and slowly approached Tommy Hawke, who was standing on the balcony on the second floor of the government building and recording the scenes as material with a handheld video recorder. Tommy Hawke didn't notice Otilia's approach at all. He was concentrating on recording a figure on the street not far away. He was the commander of the country's most powerful armed forces.
The National Police Commissioner, who is in charge of the country's 17 police stations, is Colin John, who has the same name as Tommy Daddy.
A black elite who had served in the British Army and trained in Scotland Yard and won many medals was now wearing headphones and listening to Dennis's Walkman. He was standing on the road in front of the police station, swaying to the strong rhythm, but in the eyes of others who could not hear the music, he looked like a lunatic.
It is hard to imagine that the security of this country is in the hands of a guy who twists his body at high speed in front of Tommy, as if he wants to shake off all the fat.
Dennis was standing on the second-floor balcony of the National Police Station. Although he was in casual clothes, he was surrounded by several black police officers in gray-blue police uniforms, who seemed to be asking Dennis for instructions on his next step.
Apparently Dennis is trying to experience the upcoming government simulation activities in their summer camp as a participant and temporarily serve as the country's police chief. Judging from his expression, he is very interested in this kind of thing.
Because Tommy heard a policeman report to Dennis that a sugarcane field in St. George Parish was damaged, and the local police station hoped that Dennis could bring other people from the police station to the local area for support and to capture the culprit, a total of four wild boars. These wild boars have destroyed many sugarcane fields, and the local police station is somewhat short of manpower and equipment.
Dennis believes that one should not sacrifice in vain, should not let oneself get hurt, and should be good at using advantages to fight the enemy.
So after careful consideration, he came up with an action plan: find a way to find out where the American Embassy is, and then prepare to bring people to drive the four wild boars to the embassy with drums and gongs, and trap the wild boars inside the embassy. In this way, the American Embassy can use the excuse that the American Embassy has been invaded and request the United States to send its battle-hardened Marines to help catch the pigs in hand-to-hand combat.
The reason why they used hand-to-hand combat to catch the wild boar was because Dennis thought that after catching the wild boar alive, he could open a zoo at the same time. Perhaps the Marines who came from afar could visit the local zoo as tourists while taking a break after catching the boar. This way, he could earn some dollars from them and increase the country's income.
The policemen who heard his words subconsciously wiped their faces vigorously. Two of them couldn't help but turn their heads to look in the direction of the government building, as if wondering, where did their governor and prime minister find such an American youth leader? Did he accidentally fall into the sea and soak his brain? Or did a clown fish swim into his brain through his ear? So this young man looked like a clown instead of a leader?
His men were telling Dennis at this moment that there was no American embassy here. More than a dozen countries in the Caribbean share one American embassy in the Caribbean, with its headquarters in Barbados. There was only one liaison office of the American embassy in the Caribbean in Kingston, and it was also in the government building. If they drove the wild boars to the diplomatic office, half of the town on the way would probably be destroyed by the wild boars first.
After listening to Dennis's action plan and comparing the two, Tommy felt that the country's security would be better left to the dancing Chief Colin. After all, Chief Colin just liked to move his body to the music, while Dennis's brain was moving all the time.
"Tommy?" Ottilia's voice sounded a little uneasy.
"Ms. Farrell, what happened?" Tommy Hawke followed the voice and turned to look at Ottilia.
The beautiful teacher in front of me had an apologetic look on her face, with her hands behind her back. From her standing posture, it could be judged that she seemed to have done something that she might feel guilty about.
Otilia looked at Tommy Hawke and said, "Look, when my father learned about my recent job, he kindly suggested that I submit your application to Lincoln High School and prepare an additional copy to submit to other places. I thought his suggestion was good, so I submitted the second copy for you without your consent."
"Besides submitting it to Lincoln High School, I'm not sure where else we need to submit it to." Tommy Hawke shrugged blankly. "As a school-level club, if there are other issues that need approval, the school administration department can also help us deal with them."
"That's true, but you and I both know that Lincoln High School didn't apply further because they didn't think highly of the event you initiated. They only gave us the minimum funding of one thousand dollars to set up a school-level club. This is... I mean, this is a multinational event. Of course they know that the money is not enough, but they are unwilling to support it, which shows that they are not optimistic about you, so... so I submitted another application to the Rhode Island State Superintendent of Public Instruction, hoping to get a little extra support if our funds run out." Ottilia told her what she had done.
Tommy Hawke was a little confused when he heard what Otilia said.
The Director of Public Instruction, the seventh person in the state legislature, seems to be ranked low, being only the seventh in line to the governor's position. He can only take over the position of governor of Rhode Island if the governor and admiral of Rhode Island, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general, the state auditor, and the treasurer all die.
But in reality, this position is not low, because all public education affairs in Rhode Island are led by the director and the state board of education of which he serves as secretary.
All public schools that want to apply for financial support need to report to him. If he disagrees, they can forget about getting state financial grants. The appointment and dismissal of all non-teaching administrative positions in public schools are also subject to his final evaluation. To put it simply, according to the federal system of the United States, where one state is equivalent to one country, this guy is equivalent to the Secretary of Education of Rhode Island.
"So why are you so sure that the other party will accept your application submission at a higher level instead of just returning it?" Tommy Hawke stared into Ottilia's eyes and asked.
"Because the current Director of Public Instruction, Mr. Frank Chaffee, is my godfather." Otilia said, "But I didn't change any words in your application. I just... sent the application to his office with an envelope with my name on it."
"Then why did you decide to tell me? You meant well, so according to your personality, you would definitely not tell me." Tommy Hawke looked at the teacher in front of him who looked guilty and comforted him, "It's okay."
Otilia took a few deep breaths and said, "I'm not sure if I did the right thing or the wrong thing now, because an hour ago, I followed the normal process and called Lincoln High School to report the situation. I learned a shocking news. I don't think it's possible because we can do it through our own efforts. I'm not denying your efforts, but... it doesn't seem to have anything to do with hard work."
" What news?"
“You know, there’s no official summer camp at Princeton University, right?”
"You said in a previous chat that you had not participated in any unofficial summer activities involving departments or professors."
"Yes, that's the call I received. The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University learned about the CSLS project and called Lincoln High School to find out more about it. They also said that a professor at the school was interested in the Caribbean Summer Summit we mentioned and hoped to learn more about the summer camp content. They asked Lincoln High School to fax them a more detailed introduction to the event in the near future. Our principal dialed the number four times to check the other party's phone number and found out that it was indeed from Princeton University. Only then did he believe that he was not dreaming. The school is now holding a meeting to calculate the highest salary the school can pay if the other party is really willing to attend our summer camp. According to the principal's insane statement, even if he has to take Vice President McDyess and Dean of Academic Affairs Mrs. Walton to do part-time striptease to make money, he must seize this opportunity. He hopes that you will return to school as soon as possible after the inspection and come up with the most detailed and comprehensive summer camp plan. He will review it word by word and fax it to the other party in person."
Tommy Hawke's eyes widened subconsciously. A professor from Princeton University was willing to attend the summer camp initiated by his public high school. Not to mention that the principal was willing to dance striptease. Now Tommy Hawke was willing to take Dennis and Pam with him, dancing striptease all the way from St. Vincent to Rhode Island to make money. That was Princeton!
Look at how many tour groups there are this summer that just take high school students to Princeton University for a tour without any real academic plan, but are called summer camps. There are more than a dozen of them, and they are all full! Parents of American high school students are willing to pay for it.
As long as the news was true, Tommy Hawke felt that there was no need to promote anything else. By using the name of the Princeton professor, he could get hundreds or thousands of truly elite high school students to pay money.
After Tommy Hawke came to his senses, Otilia whispered again, "And my godfather graduated from Princeton University. I think all this is very likely related to him."
"Princeton, which is hundreds of kilometers away, can't have come to us just because they saw our advertisements, right? Because we haven't really started the promotion yet. Even if they saw the advertisements, they wouldn't be interested in learning about a school-level summer camp activity of a rubbish high school." Tommy Hawke exhaled, looked at the sea in the distance, took a few deep breaths in succession, tried to digest the news, and then turned to look at Otilia:
"So, what did your father, Mr. Farrell, want me to add to my application? Don't hide it. He must want me to add or modify something. I understand. And it doesn't matter what you add. It's all right. Miss Farrell, your godfather and his people gave me too much. It's so much that I think it's unreal. It's just a summer camp. Is it worth your godfather to bring up the name of Princeton? This is too scary. Doesn't he know that the name of Princeton can attract countless high school students who are eager to have an intersection with Princeton? Just let you create one yourself."
Otilia lowered her head, as if she was still ashamed of her father's words: "Put your name humbly behind mine, that's what my father said arrogantly at the beginning."
"Don't mention being behind your name. I can completely cross out my own name and help you silence Dennis and Pam who know about it to prevent anyone from leaking the secret!" Tommy Hawke made an exaggerated expression and said to Otilia with a smile:
"I already felt that this world was a little unreal, because this small country was too perfect. It existed just for our summer camp. The black people were friendly and open-minded. Now, even more unreal news has appeared. Your godfather has thrown out news that makes me feel that this world is even more absurd. Even if I change the club to only have your name, I still feel that what he has paid is not as much. It's too much, really too much. This is a completely unequal transaction."
"I just hoped that when we were short of funds, he might see my name and ask the school to approve more funds to support our activities. I didn't expect it to turn out like this, Tommy. I didn't think of taking away what belongs to you. I even called him and my father just now, but they didn't admit it."
"Whether they admit it or not is meaningless. What's important is that they have made arrangements. What you can do now is not to disappoint these arrangements and favors for you. I will withdraw my application and revise it after I go back. I don't care. I just want to earn tuition and have a good resume on paper. Now he has added the word Princeton, which means that as long as I complete this summer camp, I will have everything. And you know, with the name of Princeton and the ideas provided by the Prime Minister of this country, I suddenly feel that our summer summit seems to be completely real." Tommy Hawke said to Otilia with a sparkling look in his eyes:
"I mean real American elite high school students, a real summer summit, not American teenage student leaders like Dennis who can come up with the idea of asking the U.S. military to help catch wild boars."
