Malibu.
Perhaps due to jet lag, Janet woke up before Simon.
The faint morning light sneaked through the gap in the curtains into the bedroom; it was still early.
Feeling the man's breath beside her, Janet quickly climbed onto Simon, enjoying the sensation of their skin touching. She leaned in to kiss him on the face and then snuggled back into his chest, squinting her eyes shut again.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist, bringing them closer together.
Knowing Simon was awake too, Janet rubbed her face against his chest, her voice soft and sandy, and greeted, "Good morning."
"Hmm…"
Listening to the man's languid reply, Janet giggled a few times, opened her mouth to pretend to bite him on the body, and said, "You little rascal, you nearly killed me with your antics last night."
Simon just hummed again.
Janet said so, but her words carried no blame, instead filled with a sense of bliss. His ability to torment her like a little tiger starved for days showed he probably seldom flirted with others while in Los Angeles.
Though she didn't mind him having affairs, she was certainly happy he was so restrained.
After being affectionate for a while and feeling no sleepiness at all, Janet got up to dress and even offered to prepare breakfast herself.
Simon got up as well.
Today was November 18, Saturday.
They left the bedroom when it was just 6:15 AM.
There were no work arrangements for the weekend; everything could be taken slowly.
They played tennis for half an hour, Janet prepared breakfast, and Simon sat at the dining table, flipping through today's newspapers.
These days, the turmoil in Eastern Europe was intensifying.
The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, making the unification of Germany inevitable.
Due to an innate dread of a united Germany, to prevent it from happening, allies like Britain, France, and Italy quickly turned hostile, nearly issuing a war threat, even threatening that if Germany sought unification, they would form an alliance with the Soviet Union for military intervention.
Because of such war-triggering turmoil, James Rebelde suggested more than once that Simon at least postpone the acquisition of Nokia's mobile communications division. After all, if war broke out, Finland, which borders the Soviet Union directly, could be affected, putting billions of dollars at risk.
Simon, clear that no war would occur, did not heed James's advice.
Now was the best time to take over Nokia; once the situation in Eastern Europe stabilized, it would not be so easy to swallow Nokia's entire mobile communications division for two billion dollars.
While reading through the newspapers' discussions on the European situation, Simon also found another interesting piece of news: the Bush administration suddenly halted a 2.3 billion dollar loan to Iraq yesterday, suspecting the money might be used by Saddam to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
So the 'weapons of mass destruction' meme was born this early.
Since the 'U.S.-Iraq Business Forum' in mid-year, Simon had been closely watching the Middle Eastern situation.
This piece of news meant that after failing to seize Iraqi oil sovereignty, the Bush administration officially started to move against Saddam.
Marking the news for clipping, Simon was about to check out the reviews of several new movies released yesterday when Janet walked into the dining room with two breakfasts.
Putting aside the stack of newspapers temporarily, Simon took the food. Janet, still habitually sitting close to Simon, peeked at the news he had just marked, then pouted and said, "A lame excuse."
Simon laughed, "We are all civilized people; an excuse is still needed."
Janet also paid attention to this matter, as Cersei Capital's operation focus next year was on oil.
However, she wasn't in the mood to talk business now and changed the subject, "I've had Sofia prepare our schedule. Tomorrow we go to Europe, staying a week in each city where we own properties, eating delicious food, visiting fun places, and even picking out more houses in other cities. Oh, and we might even witness a war."
Simon glanced at her excitedly flushed face and asked, "You hope for a war?"
"Yes, watching humanity step by step towards self-destruction is quite thrilling."
Simon was inherently a pessimist who believed humanity would ultimately destroy itself. In this regard, Janet was similar, but her thoughts were more radical; she wanted to actively participate in destroying the world.
Hearing this, Simon just smiled, "Aren't you afraid of being affected?"
"Not afraid. If things look bad, we'll immediately hide in Australia."
If a third world war broke out, Australia in the Southern Hemisphere would probably be the safest place.
Simon's choice of Tasmania was almost the southernmost point of the world outside the Antarctic continent, hence even safer.
Thinking this, Simon half-jokingly said, "Perhaps we can build a doomsday shelter in Tasmania, so even if a nuclear war breaks out, we won't be afraid."
Doomsday shelters aren't a Fallout game original. Due to concerns about a nuclear war erupting during the decades-long Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, many shelters were indeed built across the U.S. to avoid nuclear conflict.
"Great idea, we can have someone draft a plan in the coming days," Janet nodded in agreement, then mentioned, "Oh, my aunt is helping us negotiate for another piece of forest land in central-west Tasmania. This land is very large, over 6000 square kilometers. The Tasmanian government originally planned to designate it as a state natural reserve. As long as we ensure to maintain the ecological integrity without seeking economic gains and provide the state government with additional income, acquiring this land shouldn't be difficult."
Simon already owned about 150,000 acres in Tasmania, the largest being a 500 square kilometer forest by the Arthur River in the northwest, which cost him 7 million dollars.
Calculating by the standard of 1 square kilometer equals 247 acres, a land over 6000 square kilometers would be about 1.5 million acres, expanding Simon's private land tenfold. Also, with Tasmania's total area being 68,000 square kilometers, acquiring this land meant Simon would own nearly one-tenth of Tasmania.
Thinking of this, Simon asked, "How much will it cost?"
Janet replied, "Still discussing, but as long as we take it over as a state natural reserve without seeking economic benefits, the Tasmanian government's quote shouldn't exceed 100 million dollars. The price will definitely be lower after negotiations. I've brought the documents; I'll show you after breakfast."
Talking this way, they finished breakfast, and Janet fetched the documents regarding the land Veronica was negotiating for Simon.
Because of some trifles in Los Angeles, they didn't immediately start for Europe but stayed another day, checking the construction progress of the Dumézil Manor villa and even accepting a lunch invitation from Qintex chairman Christopher Skase.
Influenced by Simon, the big butterfly, the acquisition of MGM by Australia's Qintex Group was a done deal.
Thus, Simon no longer treated Christopher Skase with the initial indifference. Building a good relationship now, if Qintex Group couldn't continue, it would be easier for Simon to arrange for other Australian capital to take over MGM.
The afternoon and evening schedules were also packed.
The next day, they boarded a Boeing 767 from Los Angeles early
in the morning, made a brief stop in New York to pick up the Westeros Company acquisition team heading to Europe for the final negotiations with Nokia, and flew directly to Helsinki, Finland.
Arriving in Helsinki, it was not yet six in the morning local time.
In the mid-winter of the Northern Hemisphere, nights near the Arctic Circle were longer. At six o'clock in the morning, Helsinki was still dark.
Nokia sent cars to pick up James Rebelde and others, and the Boeing 767 took off again for Florence.
Simon and Janet's first stop in Europe was London, heading to Florence because many things prepared by Sofia for them were there, including several maids and chefs responsible for their daily needs.
After several transfers, Simon and Janet finally settled in the famous Kensington Garden Street villa in the center of London on the evening of November 20.
Despite the luxurious Boeing 767, aside from jet lag, they hardly felt any fatigue from the long journey.
Janet detailed to Simon the operation results of Cersei Capital's sub-funds 6 to 10 during the flight.
After the 'mini crash' of the U.S. stock market on October 13, Cersei Capital gained a whopping 1.6 billion dollars in just the following week by closing positions in S&P 500 index futures and various types of short stock and bond positions.
Over the next month, as the North American stock market quickly stabilized, after securing that initial substantial profit, Cersei Capital started to simmer, patiently managing the remaining positions.
By November 17, Cersei Capital's sub-funds 6 to 10 gained another 700 million dollars on top of the initial 1.6 billion dollars.
Thus, excluding the 1 to 5 sub-funds held by the Japanese, Cersei Capital's net asset value attributed to Simon and other investors had reached 7.3 billion dollars.
After discussing, Simon and Janet planned to completely liquidate all positions in the U.S. junk bond market by around December, then shift their focus to the oil futures market.
The memory of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was on August 2, 1990, when oil prices skyrocketed during that period.
However, before the Kuwait War, to force Iraq to act against Kuwait, Western countries joined Middle Eastern oil giants in a concerted effort to suppress oil prices by increasing production, causing international oil prices to fall to as low as 13 dollars per barrel. Therefore, the first half of the year could be used for short selling.
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