Chapter 89 (1/2)

Chapter 89: The Great Depression (Part Eight)

One day later, Huang Xuan arrived in New York. He had taken a flight on Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), which had been the most important airline in America from 1930 to when it became bankrupt in 1991. In the 1930s, Pan Am was the biggest airline in the world, but at present, it was a delivery company that was just starting to add in pa.s.senger service.

The headquarters of Pan Am was in New York. In 1929, it had been the most popular stock at the New York Stock Exchange. Fortunately, it wasn't affected much by the depression. To Huang Xuan, taking a flight on Pan Am in 1931 felt special and unreal, as if he had become closer to this plane, to this point in s.p.a.ce-time.

Pan Am named most of their planes as ”Clipper”. These planes traveled between states. The flight route from Detroit to New York was extremely important, the crew all wore formal navy uniforms, and in order to compete with s.h.i.+ps and trains, Pan Am gave first cla.s.s seats to almost all of its pa.s.sengers. In modern times, such a seat would cost at least 8000 dollars, while Huang Xuan paid less than 100 dollars.

Due to the Great Depression, New York, like other large cities, looked depressed and dilapidated, as if it had just gone through a locust swarm, covering the sun in the shadows.

Huang Xuan had seen so much suffering during the depression that he had almost become immune to them, he wasn't a saviour. Time meant everything to him because he could stay in this plane for only seven more days. Even wasting a second would be shameful.

”Rolin, go find the printing factories nearby, especially the ones Edsel mentioned.” Walking in the street of Manhattan, Huang Xuan was reluctant to ask anyone for directions, because he was annoyed and disgusted by the racism of America and the xenophobia of New York.

”You know it will waste a great deal of energy, don't you?” Rolin complained. ”Searching for materials in a plane without data might cost at least a million units of energy.”

”We're just looking for a factory, don't worry, you will be repaid.” Huang Xuan didn't care about a few million units of energy.

”It will cost less if you can tell me more information. ”

Huang Xuan grinned and said in a low voice, ”Rolin, what do you think about us printing the banknotes by ourselves?”

”Here?” Rolin responded without any change in tone.

”Yes.” Huang Xuan answered hopefully. It should be no problem to overcome the anti-counterfeiting technology of the 1930s. Huang Xuan was just worried about the after effects.

”I think it is feasible, but if you want me to retrofit the printers, it might cost tens of millions of energy.”

Huang Xuan said immediately: ”No problem!”. After a moment, he spoke again: ”Rolin, how about we print the banknotes back in P112?”

”Bad idea.” Rolin calmly said: ”Destroying financial order would damage the buffer zone.”

Although Huang Xuan knew Rolin would reject, since the 2nd objective is the safety of the plane, he still added: ”We can increase the energy in the buffer zone, then wouldn't everything be okay?”

”No one can be sure how the buffer zone would recover the financial order. Certainly, it cannot do it by reducing the amount of currency available. Therefore, there will be inflation and economic crisis. Also, to reduce the buffer zone's loss, a direct energy strike maybe possible.”

”What is a energy strike?” Huang Xuan was scared.

”For example, an earthquake or a thunderbolt with you as the target, would solve the problem easily.”

”No way. The buffer zone in your mouth sounds magical.” Huang Xuan was amazed.

”Natural law must be obeyed.” Rolin sternly said: ”The loss caused by printing banknotes in our plane will far surpa.s.s the returns. Printing banks notes will reduce the energy in buffer zone and we would need a strong defense at the base to stop the revenge from the buffer zone. This is a method often used by plane colonizer,

if you don't care about the loss of P112, we can give it a try.”

Huang Xuan was disappointed. ”I thought you were allied with the buffer zone,” he muttered.

”Of course I am not. The energy in the buffer zone belongs to the plane itself. It is the foundation of the plane itself, while the base is the creation of humans, at most it is a powerful tool.”

”What a shame! I thought I had a good idea.”

”The banknotes in your time are all numbered. If we print a lot of banknotes with false or existing numbers, we will be exposed. Besides, P112 is our base area, we shouldn’t exploit it.”

”Fine.” Huang Xuan compromised. ”Find the factory quickly. According to you, if we printed banknotes here, not only can we make money, the energy in the buffer zone would be increased too. ”

”That’s because there is neither plane base nor the interference of the administration here. During the time of the big planes, the s.p.a.ce-time administration only cared about getting buffer zone energy. Making money was the concern of poor time travelers.” Rolin sarcasticly said.

”I would rather be a poor traveler.” Huang Xuan held the suitcase tightly. ”Where shall we go? Which factory can print banknotes?” Huang Xuan felt excited when mentioning printing bank notes, this could be the most direct and simplest way of making money.

”Beta printing factory in the south district can do what you want, but printing notes requires not only materials and workers, but also retrofitting the machinery. Looking at this factory, I estimate we'll need to use over eighty million units of energy. ”

That would be more than seven million dollars. ”We're already at this point, why hesitate? Lets go now. ” Huang Xuan waved his hand and said.