For Hector, those camps in the heart of the jungle in Denus meant much more than people would assume.
With that, he made the family one of the richest, not just alone but with the help of James, even though he said it while he was drunk as fuck. But Hector himself took that drunk word to heart and thought that his life goal is to make it possible to start making big money to actually put the family into a position that will be the foundation.
The camps made hundreds of millions, and with the smuggling operation, James himself said it just became the golden mine for them for a long time. But then everything went wrong with that fucking border war. The camps got attacked, and even though he tried to save a lot of the white magic, he barely could save it.
They fucked up his dream he built up, they grabbed from him what he loved the most and what he actually put hard work into.
In other words, Hector wanted revenge over that camp, even though it wasn't the cartel who fucked it up. It was a good reason to go there and fuck them up… at least in his mind.
"I get it that you worked hard for it, but," James looked deep in his eyes, "what you're saying now would just throw us into deeper shit. That's why we're going to do the lab-grown ones and that's it… maybe in the near future, you can go there and kill whoever you want and reclaim what was yours."
Hector kept his head down as James said it because he heard his voice, he heard the threat in it, the danger that one misstep and he would kill him too… yeah, that chance is also true to Hector, and his own dumb reason is not helping the family, rather, it is pushing it into more danger.
"I get it. I'm sorry." He said as he bowed down his head to show respect to James, something that never really happened before. But Hector knew it too, that even though they are little friends, even best friends, he needed to show the utmost respect to James because he is his boss, the Don of the family, the strongest family in the country, not just a simple friend.
"Good." James said as he leaned back. "Then anything else, or we can wait until they call me up?"
"The money. As I said earlier, I don't have enough funds." Finn said as he looked at James.
"How much do you need?" James asked, already knowing very well that if Finn doesn't have money, then the whole family is going to struggle.
"Well… to be truthful, I only need the money if we start with the white magic. If not, then the 10 million I have is enough for the basic needs. But in my opinion, it's better to start preparing for the plants right now, maybe by buying some land." He said, and it was true too, and James wanted to do the same thing.
As he said, all their last bit of white magic is enough for one month to supply the market. Then they will just run out, and no money coming in.
"How would you plan to do it?"
"Well, if we hide it then somehow, the countryside, town, or something." Finn said as he leaned back. "We can buy lands through the real estate company, and if it's done, we just need to build the warehouse and that's it, we're done."
"Yeah, like once we talked about it." Hector cut in. "Benjamin's hometown is poor, but around that are dense forests. We can just buy the forest, then start building greenhouses, which are easy to build, done within a week."
"I thought about the same." Finn spoke again. "Greenhouses already have a good temperature, but with some temperature control, we can pump it up even more or even down and the watering system is easy to build."
"The protection too." Ramirez suddenly said. "It's in the countryside and in a forest, which means we can easily build up a defense perimeter. But not just that, if the whole forest is ours, then it means private property, and by the self-defense law, we can kill everybody who steps in legally." He said, and it was a good point too.
If the peace treaty is over and an attack would happen, it would mean self-defense of the property, and the laws would protect them actually.
"Greenweed too, we can also start that production if we really go with this plan." Finn said again as he looked at James. "We can actually do these two at the same time, which would mean more money to bring in."
"But what about the forest itself?" Sophia asked from the side. "I mean, that's government property like everything in this fucking country, but if we actually use them to acquire the land, that would bring eyes on us because a lot of the forests are protected."
She had a good point about that.
"There's a bigger problem in this fucking country than a forest, people will not really give a fuck about it." Hector said. "I mean, the VP died, the biggest family getting raided, too much happening."
It was actually more than great, because if they start with Benjamin's hometown and around it, it would mean the deal with him is already in motion. But not just that, in the meantime, he can help the town and gather more people around the family.
He can raise their hope in legal ways too.
Buying the forest is one thing, but they can use the forest company to actually cut down trees and sell them, which would give them legitimate money, so they could hide the greenhouses in the forest without any problem.
This one plan can give them everything they need, the white magic, the people, and of course the deal with Benjamin, but in the meantime, there is a problem with it.
Who is going to oversee it? Because Hector can't do it, nor James, nor really anybody in the family especially right now. James needs to be acting as the Don, while Hector and Ramirez need to protect the family.
Or he didn't even need to send anybody there..
James looked up as he smiled and everybody just knew instantly he thought of something and well he really did something that nobody was really thinking about once again.
"We use the government for it too." He said and well it wasn't something that was a mind-blowing statement. "First the forest is in government hands so Linda will help to give it to us, no she doesn't really need to give it to us… the government would do it."
Now that was a mind-blowing statement which nobody really understood.
"What do you exactly mean by that?" Hector asked because he didn't really understand it.
"The government can make project plans, what it the forest will become a project, they can that way build on it or cut the whole shit down, so what they do is a project to help the nearby towns with it, the forest can give work to them, not even talking about the mass land that can give more work to people.
"In that way we don't need to worry about the public…" Finn said because he was getting what James was saying.
The government is something that people not give a fuck about like they can do everything but if a stranger steps into a forest and starts cutting down trees and building it, the people will notice it eventually, not maybe now but in the future, but if the government does it nobody would give a fuck about it.
In that way the government makes a fake project but in the meantime they're working for the Bellini family.
"They can build the greenhouse for us, they have more resources and more workers who can build it more efficiently and quicker, let's say it is a government investment that they build greenhouse and farming in the forest and when they're done with it they will publicly sell it to companies and which company is going to buy it?
"Ours…" Hector said and he understood it finally.
It is basically a fraud, the government writes a fund and invests and builds everything and when it's done they fake list it out for companies as an investment with the government.
Of course it would be just for the public if some journalist wants to dig in deep, so that's why it would seem legal but in the whole time it's just an act and the buyer will be a company that would be James's company.
The good thing about it is that all of the company is under her mother's name so this way it would be more untraceable.
"I don't understand it…" Sophia said, and she was really lost about it… it was too much for her.
Finn looked at her and tried to be as simple as possible with her.
"The government's 'investment' in the forest is just a front, all fake money and paperwork. They hand the contracts to our front company, which can be the real estate, which is under James's mother's name, so no one traces it back to us. They build greenhouses and farms, or at least make it look like they did. Then the government 'sells' the project at auction, rigged so we're the only buyers, and we get it cheap. It's legal on paper, nobody asks questions, and the public thinks it's real. We end up owning the land and making a fortune off their fake investment."
She finally understood it as she looked up with wide open eyes at James and realized she was a little nobody… was on a whole other level, and she wasn't really ready for something … like what the fuck, it was much more than she thought…
Yeah, another big step to build an empire.