After a peaceful night, Lille got moving early the next morning with Matt.
The first step was to establish contact among the landlords.
Humans have created skyscrapers hundreds of meters tall, can kill tens of thousands of lives instantaneously with weapons of war, and can flee this 6 sextillion ton planet beneath their feet to fly into space.
But a single human can easily be tripped by a small stone and die from the fall.
The more scattered and suspicious of each other we are, the easier we fall right into the enemy's hands.
"...Mr. Rigordo, incidents like yesterday are bound to happen many more times, but if we unite, we can certainly curb those ruffians."
Mr. Rigordo was in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, but he was in good shape.
It was clear from that day he nearly fought with the thugs that not only was he tough, but he also had a fiery temper.
Mrs. Rigordo seemed to have passed away early due to illness, but he still had a young son—
Unfortunately, the boy wouldn't listen to reason and got mixed up with a gang; the father and son hadn't been in contact for a year.
"You talk like my father, but you're just a kid whose hair hasn't even grown in properly—you probably haven't seen the news..."
"I'll be the president of the landlords' association; I can take this risk, and I've also hired Attorney Murdoch as our legal counsel."
Rigordo looked at Lille with surprise: "Kid, your mom still owes me three months' rent. Where did you get the money?"
"Uh..." Lille was embarrassed, "I convinced him to be our legal counsel for free.
As for the rent, I'll pay you back. If you don't mind, I can clean for you every day to make up for the interest."
Rigordo took a sip of tea, glanced at Matt beside him, and sized up Lille again:
"If you had only said the first part, kid, I might have considered kicking you and your mother out tomorrow.
But forget about the cleaning, it would be troublesome if you worked yourself to death.
What's your plan?"
"The first aim of increasing numbers is to put pressure on the NYPD. With incidents like yesterday, if there's only one caller, the NYPD can completely ignore it.
But if everyone in the apartment, even everyone on the street, calls together, it's a different story."
"Naive..."
"Plus, if there are many of us, we can certainly catch those ruffians. In fact, that's exactly what I plan to do; I'll handle the evidence, and Attorney Matt will provide legal support."
Clearly, this was more to Rigordo's interest; he swallowed back what he was going to say.
Yes, he just wanted to catch those thugs and give them a beating.
"Catching them is to raise their cost of deploying ruffians.
If they've bribed the NYPD with money, for every additional capture, the NYPD will demand more money from the enemy.
They use violence and fear to divide us, but we can use their greed against them."
Clearly Rigordo didn't want to hear this kind of strategic explanation, and seeing his landlord's frown deepening again, Lille quickly said:
"And obviously, the ones they use to intimidate us are just ruffians—tough-looking on ordinary days but they run as soon as they meet real resistance.
We take care of one, and more will want to band together; then they send more, and we continue to beat them up.
In short, we fight until they're too scared to come back."
"That's the way to do it!" Rigordo breathed heavily through his nose, "Damn it, I've been pissed off at those bastards for a long time!"
As he spoke, Rigordo banged on the wooden stairs with a thud, thud, thud, sounding as if he were going to war.
"Everyone out! Everybody come out—I know you're all home. Not one of you had the guts to stand up yesterday. Now—get out here!"
The residents hesitantly opened their doors, and they all had families, men and women, and children.
Although it was working hours, they were still at home—obviously, they were unemployed.
"Listen up, we can't ever let those damn thugs bully us again. From now on, I'm joining Lille's tenants' association, and you should too."
"Don't think you can keep out of this like you did yesterday. If I really can't stand it and am driven out, you'll have to go too!"
"I might lose some money, but who else will let you stay on credit like this?"
"Nat, Facardo, John, Dean—you lot of big men, so strong looking, yet as timid as women!"
Just then, the woman of the house spoke up, "Rigordo! Shut the fuck up, I told you we should resist! If it weren't for this coward holding me back, I would've gone out and beaten those guys up yesterday!"
Her voice was as harsh as a goose's call, and the woman's shoulders were almost as broad as her husband's. Her six-foot-tall husband looked more like her brother.
"Hmm." Rigordo laughed and gave a gentlemanly bow, "My apologies to you, my Natalia."
Now Natalia's husband, who seemed to be Latino, was displeased, "We have children, Rigordo."
"But you're right; if things are as complicated as you say, we should band together."
"No, we have children!" someone retorted, "Have you forgotten last month's case?"
All of a sudden, Rigordo exploded at the frail Irishman, "Then you scram! We do the hard work, and you enjoy the good life? There's no such thing in this world!"
The other person sulkily shut the door.
There's no denying it, Rigordo indeed had some clout in there; Lille's ears were a bit sore from just a few shouts.
Lille knew it was his time to step up, "Everyone, Mr. Rigordo is telling the truth! If we don't stand up for ourselves, we'll end up homeless!"
"New York is a dump, but it's our home. Right here, this is our home!"
"Think about it! Helping each other is the key to our survival!"
Without further ado, the stakes were clear, yet Lille knew they needed some time to digest everything.
Yesterday the thugs kicked in the apartment's main door; the day after tomorrow, they might break into their homes.
Lille didn't think they were unable to understand that.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Rigordo."
"Hmph, a trifle." Rigordo took another sip of tea and then solemnly said to Lille, "But just like they said, they have families.
You have to promise me, you'll protect them."
"Of course." Lille raised his right hand, "I swear to protect them. In fact, we'll protect each other. That's what mutual protection means."
"Hmm—mutual protection, you talk like...
Get to it; I imagine you're not planning to just sit here and wait for someone to come knocking? If that's the case, I might as well take United Construction Company's money tomorrow and find a place to retire…"
Mr. Rigordo turned and went back to his own room.
Matt said, "All things considered, not a bad outcome. But convincing the rest of the community won't be so simple."
"Right, that's why we need to get the word out and then ensure safety protocols are in place."
"How?"
Lille smiled slightly, "Technology changes lives. We'll use the internet, but before that, we need to register a tenants' association.
Then I need to set up a company that provides community services so that I can offer some technical support to the tenants' association in an official capacity.
Like replacing all this old wiring in the apartment, and then rearranging the security system.
I'm a legal illiterate; I'll need to engage your firm for this matter."
Matt shrugged, "I was already decided on helping you. But you're naturally quite commanding.
Give me some time. But honestly, I've never helped someone register a company before...
Do I count as having a big client now?"
"Not yet." Lille said meaningfully, "But you will in the future."