Chapter 915 (1/2)
The destination is in a 37 story red brick style building at the intersection of 63rd street and second avenue in Upper East District.
Two months ago, Sofia was responsible for building a network of personal club connections, and soon decided on the first one, because someone happened to transfer the failed business club to take over.
The name is very low-key.
Since it's on East 63rd street, it's called Club 63.
Simon is not satisfied with this. Although he occupies the top three floors of the building, it is not private enough. Because this is a public office building, many companies have moved in, and it is a bit old. It is impossible to transform a special elevator. Therefore, it will only serve as a peripheral club for senior executives of New York subsidiaries of the Westeros system to entertain distinguished guests or hold small-scale business receptions.
The original business club is such a function, so even major changes are not needed.
Simon can also avoid entertaining guests in his private residence this time. He has always resisted this. It's what Janet said a long time ago, the lion's territorial instinct.
At six o'clock, Mickey Cantor, who just took office last Friday, arrived on time.
This is a brown haired man in his fifties, who is very short and looks older. He has a deep smile and big ears. He is a bit like Mr. Bean.
The first time I met a young tycoon, Mickey Cantor was very warm. Originally, he wanted to give each other a familiar hug. As soon as he raised his arm, he was already held by Simon's hand. Then he changed his action. There was no difference in his expression: ”Simon, nice to meet you.”
Simon said with a smile, ”me too, Mickey. Although Ron's leaving is a pity, congratulations on your promotion.”
”Thank you.”
After a few simple greetings, Simon made a gesture of invitation. They went to the restaurant on the first floor of the club under the guidance of the other two waiters. As they walked through the corridor, Mickey Cantor noticed that the young men around him had obvious feminine fragrance. The stronger one was obviously not a simple touch. Let's look at the two slim young women in front It's hard to avoid envy
but Mickey Cantor knows that the Minister of commerce is the pinnacle of his career.
Due to his unsatisfactory performance in the US Japan auto trade negotiation process, Clinton gave him this position as a reward before leaving his job, allowing him to accumulate some resources and contacts in this position, which is convenient for him to engage in relevant private positions after leaving his job.
So even if he was envious, even a little envious, Mickey Cantor didn't dare have any different ideas in front of Simon.
The gap between power and status is too big.
In Mickey Cantor's opinion, it is the most correct way to help the other party coordinate this trip to China as much as possible. In this way, we can gain a lot of human feelings from the westero system, and it will certainly be no problem to easily attach ourselves to one or two directors of the core enterprises of westero system after leaving the company in the future.
During this period of time, for example, Simon westero supported Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, to run a pharmaceutical company.
There are many advantages.
A very generous young man.
They enter the dining room and sit down. This is a window position with excellent view at the southwest corner of the building. In the setting sun, you can see the westero building not far away.
The dinner had been arranged in advance. The waitresses first served appetizers and red wine, then left quietly without stopping.
The dinner will last for an hour, and we are not in a hurry to get to the point. Mickey Cantor picks up the tableware and signals to the westrow building in the sunset outside the window: ”Simon, this building should be capped soon, right?”
This is the 35th floor of their building, about 150 meters. The westero building, a few blocks away, is designed to have a ceiling height of 622 meters. At this time, the helicopter apron with a height of 560 meters in the design drawing has been installed.
Since the beginning of construction, because of Simon's strict requirements on construction quality and more and more rich personal wealth, the construction of westero building can be described as luxury, which has already exceeded the original budget of 1 billion US dollars.
Just to imitate the high-altitude helicopter apron of Avenger building in my memory, I initially planned to use a kind of high-strength light aluminum alloy material because of cost considerations.
Regardless of the cost, the construction team of westero building selected several times and obtained a new type of titanium alloy from Oak Ridge National Laboratory directly under the US Department of energy. Its hardness is 20% stronger than that of the common titanium alloy used in aviation structure, and it is more than twice as strong as that of the aluminum alloy originally considered. Moreover, it has excellent toughness and ductility, which fully meets the requirements of 500 The building environment at the height of more than 10 meters.
The westero building construction team spent $20 million just to get the production license for this material and to transform a smelting plant in Tennessee that can produce this titanium alloy material. The cost of the complete apron structure is more than $200 million.
In order to avoid Simon's accusation of extravagance after information leakage, all the people involved in the project have signed strict confidentiality agreements, and few people really know the construction cost of the apron.In the dining room.
Simon also looked up and said with a smile, ”the ceiling will be closed at the end of this year. However, it will take two to three years to live in it.”
”I wish I could go up and have a look then.”
”I'll send this invitation now, Mickey. I hope you don't forget it then.”
”Oh, it's an honor. By the way, how high is the building?”
”2040 feet.”
”It's amazing. I don't think there will be any more buildings than it in the next 50 years.”
”The world is changing all the time. It's hard to say,” Simon said with a smile. He changed the topic appropriately. ”I heard that Washington is in a mess recently?”
Mickey Cantor immediately sighed: ”yes, bill has just won the single veto, and everyone is against it. I also think it's hard for this power to last too long. And Ken Starr, he's completely out of his mind now. The special court only authorized him to investigate the Paula Jones case, but he has now extended this matter to all the people related to bill, which is totally.. ”
”In fact, the key is Paula Jones. Why don't the White House try to reconcile?”
”Now even Paula Jones wants to get away, but, you know, the Republican Party won't let that happen.”
Simon could only shrug his shoulders with regret.
Privately, the white house still had an intern named Monika Lewinsky last year, and Ron Perelman recommended it. Now it's 1996. What should have happened has happened, and zipper doors have a great chance of happening again.
Now Simon has the ability to intervene a little bit.
I just didn't do it.
At the end of the day, it's an internal struggle in the Washington Circle that has little direct interest to do with the westero system. Simon gets in and gets nothing. On the contrary, he gets into a mess.
They talked about all kinds of topics in the near future. Until the waitress showed up again and offered dinner, Mickey Cantor took a sip of red wine and finally said, ”Simon, I have to be frank. Even if you are optimistic about the Chinese market, there is no need to lead a large number of high-level vistro officials to visit China. You should understand the significance of this incident and the subsequent impact. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has been the most important strategic opponent of the United States. I don't think helping China will do us any good. ”
Simon was not angry because of Mickey Kantor's outspoken views, but still with a smile: ”Mickey, I think since the emergence of nuclear weapons, it has been very difficult for great powers to have confrontation like the two world wars half a century ago. Think about the Soviet Union, how it collapsed, not war.”
Mickey Cantor didn't respond for a moment.
Simon pointed out directly: ”in my opinion, the real power confrontation in the future will be the economic confrontation.”
In fact, with Simon's pessimistic attitude towards human society, he did not believe his words. Since the birth of nuclear weapons, nuclear war is inevitable. Human reason has never been reliable.
Of course, these words will not be casually said to people.