The Greatest Conglomerate Ever With the American Lottery

9. We were brothers.

Now it was just a matter of waiting a week for the green card to come through.

US Lotto representatives Manhoon Lee and James came by the bank with me and asked me to go out for a drink after I put the lottery ticket back in the safe deposit box, but I put it off since I had presented the ticket to the Lottery.

I thought he was trustworthy enough, but I didn’t want to take the 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 10,000 risk.

Until I’m 95% sure I can hand over a physical lottery ticket to the lottery, I’m not going to drink outside.

I’ll have a beer at the hotel.

“By the way, what happened to my request from Korea?”

“Which one are you talking about?”

“A personal bodyguard.”

I’m going to be in the U.S. for over two months, and I don’t want to be stuck in a hotel.

So, I asked for a personal bodyguard to be my friend.

Someone who would also be my guide and help me improve my English, preferably someone with a good grasp of LA geography.

It’s not like I couldn’t knock out a few pistols on my own, but this is the United States, where the civilian population has 270 million guns.

I didn’t want to spend a trillion dollars and get killed before I had a chance to use it.

“Oh, look at me. I’ve been out of sorts lately, hahahahaha! He’s coming with me tomorrow morning.”

“How, is he a good guy?”

“I don’t know much about your line of work, I just got a referral from a security company that’s rumored to be an elite few, and I asked for the most expensive bodyguard who knows LA geography. Take a look, and if you don’t like him, just tell me. I’ll replace him right away.”

“Okay, sorry for the hassle.”

“hahahaha, no, you’re not. If you need anything else, just ask. We’ll do anything within our power.”

“Oh, just one more thing, I’m Jeffrey Chang, the lawyer.”

“What? Jeffrey?”

Why?

I’m just curious.

“He seems very competent, what is he like?”

“hahahaha, you’re looking at the right guy. He’s very competent and very expensive. Almost the best among the Korean diaspora.”

“Really?”

“He went to Harvard Law School, was admitted to both the New York and California bars, and hasn’t been out of the top ten among California lawyers, including LA, in the last decade.”

“Huh?”

“I’m unrivaled in almost every area of civil practice, but I’m also known for never doing criminal defense.”

“Why?”

“Well, in the United States, there’s criminal, then there’s civil, and then there’s your own specialty, but that’s not why Jeffrey doesn’t do detective work. He’s been a genius since he was a kid, so it’s not like he can’t do it. Besides, detectives make money in the United States.”

“But why?”

“Because when you get your hands on a case, all the real bad guys go free?”

“Wow, that’s some confidence!”

“hahahahaha! I don’t know if that’s confidence or not, but a lot of people can relate to that, because he’s that good.”

So, how much did you pay for someone so great?

“How much did you pay him?”

“One million dollars.”

“A million? For something like this?”

“I don’t usually get jobs like this, and I got a seniority discount.”

“A junior discount? You’re senior to him?”

“Yes, we’re five years senior in the same elementary school. hahahahaha! Anyway, didn’t you get your money’s worth? It’s not every day you get to speak directly to the governor of California.”

In retrospect, $1 million didn’t seem like a lot of money for his ransom.

There didn’t seem to be anyone else who could “grease the wheels” so well at the right time.

I got back to the hotel early and had nothing else to do, so I went to the hotel’s fitness club and ran around on the treadmill until I was out of breath.

“Pfft! Pfft!”

My belly has gotten so greasy over the years.

I used to be able to do 40+ pull-ups in a standing position and run 10 kilometers in a straight line.

Let’s build a body.

You can’t listen to a pig in a poke, can you?

10:10am the next day.

I ate breakfast, went for a quick swim, and was just getting out of the shower when my phone rang.

Tiriri! Tiriri!

“Hello?”

– It’s me, James. It’s the lobby, do you want to come up?

“Ouch! Why don’t you just come right up?”

– hahahaha! I was just wondering if you might be with someone.

With who?

Are you saying this in case he’s got a call girl or something?

Ding! Ding!

There was a knock on the door and I opened it.

“Restful night, Mr. Kang?”

“About the same.”

“hahahaha! Ah! Come in, Mr. Patton!”

Mr. Patton? I’ve heard that last name a lot.

A stout white man walks in behind James.

He’s a little shorter than me, but he reeks of military training from the way he walks.

This guy is trained.

“Say hello, this is George Patton from Aegis Company, and this is—.”

“Oh, Alex?”

How long has it been since I’ve heard my own English name?

By the way, that guy!

The washbasin looks very familiar.

“Huh? No way, Joe, George?”

I was stunned and speechless.

The unit I was in was doing a lot of joint training with our allies, especially the U.S. military, and we interacted with the U.S. Navy SEALs almost regularly.

So, this white guy in front of me, Petty Officer George Patton, and I have tangled and rolled with each other too many times in the past.

But, why is this guy here?

He’s in the army?

“George, why are you here?”

“Alex, you asshole, that’s for me to say, why is this Korean guy here?”

“Is that so?”

Oh, did I mention he was from L.A.?

“You two know?”

James asked, looking dumbfounded by the unexpected turn of events, but neither Georgie nor I answered.

We were too happy to, anyway.

“Well, good to see you! Brother! hahahahaha!”

“You’re seeing things, brother, hahahahaha!”

We hugged.

We were brothers.

“James, I’m a friend from the army.”

“Army? No, I thought Mr. Kang was in the Korean army, and Mr. Patton was a Navy SEAL?”

“I was in a place called Udangtang.”

“Udangtang?”

“UDT/SEAL, Navy SEALs.”

“Aha! So?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Waving James away, I pulled out a whiskey and turned to face George.

“Let’s have a drink, cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Clink! Clink!

“hahahahaha!”

“hahahahaha!”

Only after a few shots of whiskey were downed neat and straight did I ask George.

“What happened to you, George, weren’t you in the army until you emailed me three years ago?”

“I was.”

“And then?”

“I got out a year and a half ago.”

“Why, I thought you said you were going to stay in the army until you got your pension?”

“Alex.”

“Why?”

“Juan died.”

“Huh, Juan?”

Juan Carlos.

He was the best friend of the three of us, me and George—.

I can’t believe he’s dead.

He and George were like brothers, especially since they grew up in the same neighborhood and enlisted together.

I didn’t need to ask why George had left the army.

Without another word, I filled my whiskey glass to overflowing.

“To Juan!”

“To Juan!”

Clink! Clink!

“So why are you in bodyguarding anyway? I mean, I don’t look down on bodyguarding, but your career isn’t really built for this, is it?”

“We’re not a bodyguard company.”

“Then?”

“A PMC, private military contractor, to be exact.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Well, it’s—.”

George looked embarrassed for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“The company’s in a bit of trouble, so—.”

“…”

I was dumbfounded.

This was what George was saying.

After Juan died and I got out of the army, I just hung out for about six months.

And then I realized that what I had learned to do, what I call stealing, was shooting and killing people.

So, that’s how I got to Aegis Company.

However, the reputation of the company brought them together.

If the boss didn’t want you to do something dangerous or dirty, he wouldn’t let you do it.

So, it was no wonder that the U.S. military, their biggest customer, didn’t like them.

After all, in a small PMC with less than 100 employees, including support staff, only 30 to 40 of them find work, and the rest of them work in security.

“Where’s the president from, a Navy SEAL?”

“No, he’s from Delta.”

“Delta?”

“Yeah, a few years ago they were calling him a future commander in SOCOM (United States Special Operations Command). He went to West Point.”

“And?”

“Apparently, one of his missions went wrong and some of his guys got killed, and the CIA was responsible, so he thrashed the CIA officer, and he took his clothes off for it.” “He’s a cool guy.”

“Isn’t he? Heh, heh, heh, heh. So, everybody loves him.”

“So they come from a lot of different backgrounds?”

“A lot of Deltas on the executive team, a lot of Green Berets and DevGurus on the staff, and our own Navy SEALs, with the occasional 75th Ranger or Marine Raider.”

“No, how does it make sense that you can’t do business with a workforce like that?”

“Because our boss covers our asses. Dude, let’s be honest, why would the military hire us? They’re using PMCs for dirty, tricky, hard work, and even if it’s dangerous, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to active duty getting killed?” “Right?”

“But my boss doesn’t, so I’ve been getting less and less work, and since I can’t make fun of the rest of the workforce, I’ve taken on bodyguarding rich people.”

“Is it any better?”

“Dude, don’t even get me started! I just had to guard a Hollywood star not too long ago, and I tried to kill him, but I stopped myself. He was on drugs and had a little girl—. Enough.”

He didn’t have to say it, I knew it.

“Hey! Alex! It’s me, and what happened to you? How did you end up on our expensive bodyguard list?”

“How expensive?”

“As I understand it, we’re paying you $30,000 a month.”

It was expensive.

Though it did sound like James was paying attention.

“Have you heard anything at all?”

“No. He’s a Korean bodyguard, so I know he’s a second-generation Korean tycoon, but I taught you some Korean, didn’t I?”

“‘Hurry up,’ ‘sh*t,’ ‘f*ck,’ that sort of thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuhahahahaha!”

I couldn’t believe it.

And I thought, what a coincidence.

George, one of my comrades-in-arms, coming to guard me?

Was this another sign?

“Shut up, you’re staying with me for a while.”

“I’d be happy to, but what the hell is going on?”

“I’ll tell you later, you’re not telling the company anything?”

“I can’t tell the company what happened in the first place.”

“Okay, then. You look like you’ve got a greasy stomach too, let’s get some exercise.”

“f*ck! I’m as good as you. Where the f*ck is that sleek Alex?”

“Dude, you should try running sales in Korea for a few years, you’d be worse off.”

I worked with George to rebuild my body.

About four days later, I got the news that my green card came through.

The day after I got my green card, I traveled to Sacramento, California, with James, Jeffrey, and Eric.

We went to the lottery office, and only a representative and the chief of the lottery office came out to verify the lottery and the recipients.

I showed my credit card receipt from US Lotto, my passport, etc. to prove that I bought the Powerball, and I also showed my share agreement with US Lotto.

Now I just have to wait for about a month and a half.