As the first rays of the morning sun spread into Naples, Italy, a figure dressed in a suit and bowler hat, wrapping himself tightly in a scarf, knocked on the door of Bojan Gambino's apartment.
Noe inside the door got a good look through the doorway at Elrond, who had pulled back his scarf to reveal his face, before letting go of the pistol in his back and letting Elrond in.
"Dear Elrond, you're finally back, come in quickly. Why are you in this outfit today, making me think it's a secret agent joint. It made me so nervous." Nino Gambino joked as he opened the door.
"Haha ... Nino, my friend." Elrond walked into the room after initiating a warm hug with Nino.
"Dear Elrond, welcome home!" Bojan Gambino also came over to hug Elrond and welcomed him into the den.
"Mr. Gambino, there's been an accident this time, so I came over to talk to you first." Elrond said straight to the point.
"What? There's been an accident!" Nino shouted out anxiously, still thinking that business was out of the question.
"Nino, when are you going to learn to calm down! Can you let the party finish their sentence?" Bojan Gambino said indifferently. It wasn't like the Gambino family had shelled out any capital to invest, so even if there was an accident, it wasn't like they would lose anything, so what was there to still be nervous about?
"Oh .... Nino! Don't worry, it's something good! The amount of goods coming back this time is rather large, so sir may have to notify the rest of the family together in order to digest it." Elrond smiled, not minding.
"Oh! I wonder how large a quantity! We've raised four hundred thousand dollars in the meantime; can't we eat your goods?" Bojan Gambino said calmly. Saying well the first time is also about ten thousand dollars of goods, the family has prepared more than four hundred thousand still can't eat your goods.
"Uh! I'm sorry about this, Mr. Gambino, originally it was me who didn't think enough and only thought of trading with only my capital, but now I got a large amount of investment, so the actual value of the goods that arrived this time is worth nearly a million and four hundred thousand dollars, so I don't know if you can eat it yourself." It was indeed Elrond's own failure to plan properly, at first only thinking of trading with his own capital. It was only later on the ship that he remembered to come by means of crowdfunding, to expand his capital.
"What! Are you sure that one million four hundred thousand dollars worth of goods have arrived?" Bojan Gambino was also shocked to hear the figure Elrond reported.
Nino on one side was even more surprised and almost jumped up. Although Elrond's profit is very high, but they Gambino family if the cigarettes to the front line, will be exchanged for a larger profit, heard that there is such a large amount of course is overjoyed.
"That's right, this time I've pulled in an investment from Your Excellency, in the future we'll have a steady stream of goods arriving in Naples, so as long as you guys prepare the funds, we'll arrange for the navy's transport ships to ship the cigarettes to Naples in batches." Dealing with the mafia, Elrond also had to be careful, at times like this informing the other party that they have the support of a bigger figure behind them, whatever they do next will be taken into consideration, at least they shouldn't have to worry about being blackmailed.
Hearing Elrond's words, the Gambino father and son glanced at each other, and Mr. Gambino slowly spoke, ''Elrond, I can't imagine that you were able to pull in an investment from Your Excellency from the military, it seems that this business will grow bigger and bigger. How about this! I'll go and inform the other members of the family right away, and I'll definitely raise the one million four hundred thousand dollars for the goods before nightfall. How about we trade tonight?"
"Yes, tonight you organize the trucks, my big boss will take care of the access passes, and then I'll take you directly to the warehouse at the military dock to pull the goods." Although Elrond hadn't solved the warehouse problem yet, he had figured out how to get it done, after all, he himself was now a logistics officer in the Brazilian Expeditionary Force Navy, although he hadn't reported to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force yet.
After the two agreed on a specific delivery time and details, Elrond left Gambino's apartment in a hurry. Changing into his uniform, he returned to his barracks and reported directly to the office of, Commodore Niall Jackson, the Chief of Logistics for the U.S. Fourth Fleet.
"Reporting to the Admiral, Ensign Elrond of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force Navy, has completed his appraisal and comes to report!" Elrond stood in front of Commodore Jackson's desk, waiting for Commodore Jackson to check his appraisal form. Not to mention that Elrond had shown excellent abilities on the ship, the score on the appraisal form wouldn't be low just for the fact that Elrond had brought Captain Cross to earn his share of money.
"Young man, it looks like you're doing oh so well! Our Captain Cross speaks very highly of you, good! That's good, John also asked me to take good care of his benefactor, and judging from the situation, you don't need to be taken care of at all! I'm sure with your abilities you'll soon stand out in the army." Brigadier General Jackson's attitude this time is obviously better than the first time they met, apparently this time the test results, let Brigadier General Jackson arrange Elrond's work, do not have to worry about other people's gossip.
This is simply for the Brazilian Expeditionary Force to discover a rare talent! I don't know what the Brazilian Expeditionary Force Recruitment Office's idiots were thinking, transferring a good naval captain to the Army Infantry as a private.
"Thank you, Your Excellency General, for the mention! John told me about you a long time ago, and the last time we met, we were in such a hurry that we didn't have time to bring a gift and caused you a lot of trouble! I am truly very sorry! This time I found a gift that fits your status perfectly, I hope you will like it." Elrond, in an attempt to get through to the US Navy, pulled out the Patek Philippe watch that Carlo had given himself from his pocket and placed it on General Jackson's desk.
As much as Elrond liked the watch himself, in order to get a grip on the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, he had to turn Brigadier General Jackson into his backstage, rather than relying on John's connections alone to maintain his relationship with the Brigadier General.
When Commodore Jackson saw Elrond placing a watch on the table, he couldn't help but stare and wanted to open his mouth to refuse. As a Commodore there would be no shortage of watches, but when he saw the dial of the watch, his eyes widened, his pupils contracted, and he lost his voice, "Patek Philippe One Fifteen Eight Perpetual Calendar!" Reaching out, he was about to pick it up for a closer look.
After quickly realizing that he had lost his temper, he hastily withdrew his hand again, then forced himself to say, "Elrond, what are you doing!"
When Elrond saw Brigadier General Jackson's behavior, he knew that he had met someone who knew what he was talking about, and it was fortunate that he hadn't met someone who didn't know what he was talking about, and had accepted the watch as an ordinary watch, which would have been a big loss for him.
"Uncle Jackson, you are John's uncle, which means my uncle, isn't it only right for me as a junior to bring a small gift to visit you?" This time can be a good time to pull in the relationship, Elrond immediately turned the relationship from superior and subordinate to uncle and nephew. As long as Brigadier General Jackson accepted this watch, it was equivalent to recognizing this uncle-nephew relationship, and many things would be better in the future.
"Haha ..... You little guy, you are really powerful, I can't imagine that John, would make a friend like you, okay! Tell me, what do you want me to do for you by giving me such an expensive gift!" Jackson obviously wanted to treat this gift as a deal.
But Elrond didn't care, there were times when the relationship of interest was often more solid than that of uncle and nephew. As long as they could keep bringing benefits to both sides, it was believed that their relationship would soon be further advanced.
"Uncle Jackson, you said last time that you would arrange for me to be the captain of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force's transportation ship, then I wonder if it would be alright for me to additionally buy a ship from you myself to run transportation." Since Elrond had already called Uncle Jackson, he wouldn't change back so easily.
"That's right, I've been approached many times by the commander of your Expeditionary Force, General Mascareus di Morais, to have a transport ship of my own to transport the remains and spoils of some of the fallen Expeditionary Force soldiers back home, so my plan is to arrange for you to be the captain of that ship." Hearing General Jackson's plan, Elrond had no objections, although it would be a bit diabolical to say that transporting remains would be a bit of a challenge, he could imagine the Brazilian Expeditionary Force talking about transporting remains and loot back home. It would be more likely that the ship would be full of trophies by then, and the remains would presumably mean just that.