Each of the stowaways only had a spoonful of rice and a cup of fresh water. The distribution was quickly completed. Ulrich Sandmann and his two subordinates skillfully packed up the empty plastic buckets, and the others went down to the bottom warehouse together. However, the members of the smuggler organization groped their way into the crowd. There was a tug and an argument in the darkness, accompanied by begging and sobbing. Soon, seven or eight women were driven away from the crowd and towards the hatch not far away.
The other stowaways just remained silent.
There were very few women involved in smuggling, and Ulrich knew that these were all homeless women. Without the protection of a man, not only now, but maybe after arriving in France, the end will not be good.
The three Ulrichs carried the empty buckets and followed them out of the bottom cabin. As soon as they arrived on the deck, the place was already bustling with activity. Members of the smuggler organization on the ship were all participating, wearing masks and naked bodies, just like a sea under the stars. An open-air carnival above.
Rejecting Captain Renault's invitation, the three Ulrichs returned the empty barrels to the galley, and then returned to their cabins together.
The two subordinates who had been following Ulrich for a long time may have moved in their hearts, but they did not mention any intention to participate in it. Their boss was very gentle when he was gentle, and he was also harsh enough when he was harsh. Even, Ulrich would kill them decisively if necessary.
They cannot participate in the carnival on the deck, not because of any moral factors. They are wandering in the darkness. Let alone morality, the law does not have much binding force on them.
Mainly tasks that may affect them.
That's all.
Returning to their cabin, the three of them played poker for a while, then took a rest. When they woke up again, it was still dark outside.
darkness before dawn.
The freighter quietly arrived off the coast of France.
There was no dock, so more than a hundred people took several speedboats that came to pick them up and arrived at the shore, near Nice, a city in southern France.
Three days after landing, there was another quiet and cautious transfer. A total of 129 stowaways. Except for a few who went to seek refuge with relatives and friends, most of them were divided into several groups and rushed to Paris, the French capital. Ulrich's team continued I followed up and watched the entire smuggling process. The task is not over yet. I still need to investigate the illegal immigrant resettlement network in France.
Led by organized illegal immigration gangs, the smugglers arriving in France are quickly assigned to dark corners of the country based on factors such as gender, age and skills to start their 'new' lives.
After dutifully following up on the entire placement process, Ulrich took his two subordinates to their base in Geneva, Switzerland.
The time is already July 3rd.
This time all five teams under Ulrich's name were dispatched, and they traveled all the smuggling routes to France from Latin America, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. Except for the Asian smuggling team who was still on the way because of the long distance, the others Several groups all returned successfully.
The next step is to organize the information and submit the task report.
In a lakeside villa in the northern part of Lake Geneva, which is somewhat remote from the center of Geneva, Ulrich was carefully drawing with a red ink in front of a huge world map. The door of this large open office was pushed open. , a subordinate hurriedly walked in from outside, holding a document in his hand: "Boss, the results of the election in Russia are out, Yeltsin won the election."
Ulrich's painting hand did not stop at all, and he was obviously not very interested.
Denis Peck, the leader of Ulrich's second team who had just completed a smuggling voyage from Libya to France, saw that his boss was not interested, so he put down the printout of the online news page and casually pulled up an office chair and sat down. , looked at Ulrich's drawing, thought for a while, and said: "Boss, I think I may have guessed what our big boss wants to do?"
Ulrich continued to work in silence.
Dennis Peck smiled helplessly again and turned to another person next to him who was busy in front of the computer: "Raphael, do you want to know?"
A white man in his early thirties named Raphael Creech smiled and shook his head, also looking very embarrassed.
Dennis Peck looked hurt and crazy. He couldn't hold it back. He didn't care whether his companions wanted to hear it or not. He said, "I think our big boss wants to do the exact opposite of what Hitler did back then." thing."
Ulrich frowned slightly when he heard what Dennis said, and finally reprimanded: "Danny, I don't want to hear your words like trying to figure out the above intentions again, otherwise I will report it to you. You are not suitable for this job now."
Dennis Peck shrank his neck when he heard this, knowing that Ulrich was not joking at all, he quickly said: "Boss, I promise, I will never do it again."
Dennis Peck has no dissatisfaction with his current job anyway. He doesn't want to be kicked out. In fact, Dennis is definitely not a talkative person. He only becomes talkative in front of Ulrich, mainly because Because Dennis was a subordinate that Ulrich personally brought up when he was in the Stasi. He was not only a teacher but also a friend, and there was even an almost family relationship among them.
Of course Dennis also understood that Ulrich's warning was actually for his own good.
Ulrich was not interested in the results of the Russian election that had just come out, but on this day, the attention of the global media was focused on this matter.
Simon also received the news immediately.
After a difficult campaign that lasted for six months, Yeltsin, whose public support almost collapsed, finally defeated his biggest rival Zyuganov with 53% of the vote and was successfully re-elected as the Russian president.
In Simon's view, this election is also another watershed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
If the Russian economy has collapsed in the past few years, with the results of this election, the major Russian oligarchs who supported Yeltsin's re-election have further controlled all aspects of the country and begun to increase the speed of expansion. Coupled with Yeltsin's second term, The country's economy has fallen into a deeper abyss.
The day after the Russian election ended, it was July 4th.
American Independence Day.
Simon and the two Jennys were busy all day, mainly attending the wedding of Daenerys Entertainment CEO Amy Pascal. This female executive in Hollywood followed Simon along the way and took credit for the development of Daenerys Entertainment. Therefore, Simon also attached great importance to Amy's wedding.
Amy Pascal did not organize it in a big way. The total number of guests she invited was less than 100, but it was still lively all day long. The female executive only planned to spend a short solo day holiday with her husband after the weekend before getting back to work. Work, catch up after the honeymoon.
On the same day, the North American summer season also begins a new week.
Although July 4th is a Thursday, due to Independence Day, this box office week has been moved forward one day. A total of three important new films opened on that day, namely the gay comedy "The Birdcage" produced by MGM, and "The Birdcage" produced by Disney. The action blockbuster "The Island" starring Earn Connery and the comic book adaptation "Phantom" produced by Sony.
Then, the next day, the previous full box office week also came to an end.
From June 29th to July 4th, Daenerys Entertainment's only independently produced blockbuster movie "Sleepy Hollow" this summer, which opened last week, will surpass "Spectre", which previously topped the weekly box office. 》Knocked off the horse and successfully climbed to the top.
Although it has lost the halo of the previous "Batman" series, Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" still received a lot of praise, with a comprehensive media score of 8.8, close to a classic.
Simon even felt that perhaps it was the lack of the drag of the "Batman" series that had gotten worse and worse in the 1990s that allowed Tim Burton's new film to gain more attention and praise. Speaking of which, it is still because there is no "Batman" in the past, Tim Burton's status in Hollywood has been greatly reduced, and all costs can be saved. The production budget of "Sleepy Hollow" was only 70 million US dollars in the end. Far lower than the US$100 million in the original time and space.
In the first seven days of its opening, "Sleepy Hollow" averaged close to $17,000 and earned $51.39 million in its first week.
In the past, the total local box office of "Sleepy Hollow" was only about 100 million US dollars. This time, with the support of Daenerys Entertainment's strong publicity offensive, the film was promoted as "Every frame is enough to be a movie." A fantasy movie with a beautiful poster, it has grossed US$51.39 million in the opening period. Coupled with its reputation as a classic, the local box office can increase by at least 50%.
Considering that the total cost of production and promotion of the film is only US$100 million, the local box office is expected to be no less than US$150 million, which is enough to recover most of the cost. Moreover, most of the blockbusters produced by Daenerys Entertainment are often overseas. Therefore, the box office alone is enough for Daenerys Entertainment to recover considerable profits.
With the success of "Sleepy Hollow", the popularity of the film's leading actors, Johnny Depp and Mia Kirschner, has increased significantly.
Speaking of which, after becoming famous with "Edward Scissorhands", Depp's development in recent years has been bumpy. Although there are still good reputations such as "A Different Sky", his business has been tepid, and he has even appeared in second-tier movies. On the verge of slipping into the third tier, Depp's wonderful performance in "Sleepy Hollow", coupled with the film's commercial success, propelled Depp into the first tier of Hollywood.
The other Mia Kirshner is more typical.
Girl of Westeros.
There is no public similar title in Hollywood. After all, Simon has a lot of famous stars. However, it is obvious that Mia Kirshner is another classic case of someone single-handedly making her famous.
After all, she previously received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress at the age of 20 for "Little Women," which is still one of the few in Hollywood.
Well-informed insiders also know that Simon Westeros originally gave Tim Burton a high level of authority, but did not compromise on the heroine. He insisted on using Mia Kirschner, who has an innocent appearance. The actress with a particularly cold and melancholy atmosphere also interpreted the heroine in "Sleepy Hollow" brilliantly.
So, after working hard in several previous films, Mia Kirschner also became famous in one fell swoop.
This is the true non-existence of moisture.
Blockbuster movies bring actors a boost in popularity that low-budget films with only a few million dollars at the box office can't match.
In the final analysis, if an actor wants to become famous, he or she must fight for popularity. The more people you can let know your name, the higher your status will be. And participating in a blockbuster movie that is destined to be released on a large scale around the world, even if the movie It was not successful, but it was enough for the actor to gain considerable popularity.
With the success of "Sleepy Hollow", Daenerys Entertainment has also taken advantage of the situation to officially announce that Mia Kirschner will star in the new film "The Girl Who Moved" by new Hollywood director James Mangold, and will also star in Oscar Angelina Jolie, daughter of actor Jon Voight.
Due to the Independence Day holiday and the fact that there is not much conflict in the themes of the two films, "Spectre" faced the impact of "Sleepy Hollow" in its third week of release, and the box office decline remained strong. It increased by 31% and collected another US$38.6 million. Within three weeks of its release, the cumulative box office of this 007 series super blockbuster quickly reached a high of US$183.99 million.
Based on the current box office trend, "Spectre" has basically locked in the box office champion position in the 1996 summer season. As for whether it can secure the box office championship for the whole year, it depends on the box office performance of films such as "Wonder Woman 2" and "Charlie's Angels" at the end of the year.
The two blockbusters accounted for most of the box office share, and the other movies on the weekly box office list can only be described as being mixed.
So not worth mentioning.
After the Independence Day weekend, on July 8, a new week, the Westeros System officially launched its bond issuance plan for the second half of the year.
The first announcement was AOL's $3 billion bond financing package.
The continuous reduction of holdings in the Westeros system in the first half of the year has made too many people wary of the risk of the bursting of the new technology bubble. Simon gave up the long-term reduction plan under pressure from all parties. Unexpectedly, just entering the second half of the year, he suddenly came here again. As soon as it came out, many people were caught off guard.
Even though AOL announced that this $3 billion bond would be mainly for overseas investors, the North American stock market still suffered a significant decline on the day the news was announced. The Nasdaq market, which has been making great progress, fell by 1.2% in a single day. , after all, the market is not stupid.
However, wisdom and reason are often two different things.
After Monday's 1.2% decline, the Nasdaq market rebounded by 0.7% on Tuesday, and rebounded again by 0.8% on Wednesday. Therefore, in three days, the Nasdaq market as a whole not only did not fall, but also experienced a slight increase. .
As of Wednesday afternoon's close on July 10, the Nasdaq index had reached 4,215 points.
At the same time, among the leading technology stocks that have attracted the most attention from the capital market, Igret has gradually begun to dominate the market. On Wednesday, the market value of this Internet giant reached US$387.6 billion, following the Nasdaq After the Gram index exceeded 4,000 points, it was obvious that a US$400 billion company would soon appear in the North American stock market.
According to industry forecasts, Igret's final market value may account for about 10% of the entire Nasdaq market.
Compared with the Yahoo of the past, this seems a bit incredible. However, the current Yigrit is far from being comparable to the Yahoo portal.
With the continuous business upgrading, the proportion of portal business in Yigrit Company has become smaller and smaller, even insignificant.
On the other hand, and in fact the most important point, whether it is the basic Internet tool software that Igret has a complete monopoly on, or the rapidly growing online advertising business, or even the e-commerce business with rapidly growing transaction volume, and the cloud computing business that is the largest in the world. The computing business has actually brought a large amount of operating income to Yigrit. This is completely unmatched by Yahoo, which has not yet formed a complete business model even when it has reached the peak of a market capitalization of 100 billion.