Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt-Chapter 45 - 36: Flames of Midnight

Leo grabbed his coat and rushed out of the community center.

He hailed a taxi and sped toward the construction site in the South District.

From a distance, he could see the towering flames that painted the Pittsburgh night sky a bloody red.

The wail of fire engine sirens shattered the silence of the night.

When Leo arrived at the scene, the largest warehouse on the site, used for storing building materials, had been completely engulfed by a raging fire.

Flames shot out from the warehouse’s windows and roof, licking at the night sky.

Dozens of firefighters were battling to extinguish the blaze.

Fortunately, the fire had broken out at midnight. Aside from a security guard on duty, there were no other workers on-site, so no one was injured or killed.

But the environmentally friendly building materials stored in the warehouse, worth over one hundred thousand US dollars, looked to be a total loss.

Leo watched the blazing inferno, a chill rising from the soles of his feet.

「Before dawn.」

While the fire department was still conducting its preliminary investigation into the cause of the fire, Mayor Martin Carter Wright, with extraordinary speed, personally called an emergency press conference.

The conference was held in the press briefing room at City Hall at six o’clock in the morning.

Carter Wright, dressed in a dark suit, stood at the podium with a somber expression.

"My fellow citizens, I speak to you today with a heavy heart," he said to the cameras in a mournful tone. "Just a few hours ago, a severe fire broke out at a construction site in our city’s South District."

"First, I want to thank our heroic firefighters. Their selfless courage prevented an even greater disaster."

"But at the same time, we must seriously ask: why did this fire happen?"

His tone suddenly shifted as he took direct aim at Leo.

"According to my preliminary understanding, this project is managed by our city’s City Revitalization Committee. The head of that committee, Mr. Wallace, in a rush to meet deadlines and cut costs, hired a large number of unemployed workers who lack professional safety training. This has created a serious safety hazard for the entire project."

"I will not tolerate any project that, under the banner of ’serving the people,’ ends up becoming a ticking time bomb that threatens the lives and property of our citizens!"

With these words, he directly framed the fire of unknown origin as a serious incident of liability caused by Leo’s mismanagement.

Then, he delivered a lethal one-two punch he had prepared long in advance.

"I hereby announce that, effective immediately, the city government will establish a special safety investigation team, led by me personally, to conduct a comprehensive safety review of the cause of this fire and all ongoing projects under the City Revitalization Committee."

"During this period, I will officially issue a Mayoral emergency order, demanding that all ’Pittsburgh Revival No. 1’ project sites under Mr. Leo Wallace’s responsibility be shut down indefinitely, effective immediately!"

Indefinite shutdown.

Those two words were like a sharp sword, striking precisely at Leo’s vital point.

This one-two punch was delivered with speed and viciousness.

First, create an incident. Then, use public authority to blow an ordinary accident out of proportion. Finally, under the guise of "public safety," snuff out the legitimacy of all of Leo’s projects in one fell swoop.

After the press conference, Pittsburgh’s mainstream media, especially the Pittsburgh Chronicle, began to frantically steer the narrative.

The newspaper’s front-page headline screamed in sensationalist fashion:

"Midnight Blaze Sounds Alarm Bells, City Revitalization Project Safety in Jeopardy."

In the article, reporters interviewed several so-called "construction safety experts."

These experts, in an alarmist tone, analyzed for the cameras the immense risks of "having unemployed workers directly participate in infrastructure construction."

They insinuated that this warehouse fire was just the beginning and that if all projects were not halted immediately, more terrible accidents involving worker casualties could occur in the future.

Overnight, the tide of public opinion in Pittsburgh shifted from its previous praise and support to doubt and panic.

「In the Mayor’s Office.」

Carter Wright furiously called Douglas Morganfield.

"Douglas, did you see that? This is the great work of that ’good kid’ you support!" Carter Wright roared into the phone. "I need all the media outlets under your banner to follow up on this immediately and completely destroy this Wallace! Turn him into a charlatan who gambles with workers’ lives!"

On the other end of the line, Morganfield just chuckled nonchalantly.

"Martin, don’t get so worked up," he said. "News reporting needs to be objective and fair, to balance all sides. We can’t just listen to your side of the story, right?"

"I suggest we patiently wait for the fire department’s professional investigation results. Before the report is out, any speculation would be irresponsible."

Carter Wright was trembling with rage.

He knew that Morganfield’s so-called neutrality was, in fact, support for Leo Wallace.

Without the full cooperation of Morganfield’s media conglomerate, he couldn’t establish absolute dominance over Leo in the court of public opinion.

’That old fox... he’s really hedging his bets.’

Leo stood before the warehouse, now a burnt-out ruin. The acrid smell of smoke still hung in the air.

Dozens of workers, who had just found jobs again and were full of hope for the future, gathered around him, their faces etched with anxiety and unease.

"Leo, what do we do now? Are we really shutting down?"

"Can we keep working? We’re counting on this salary for next month’s rent."

The media’s cameras and microphones were also aimed at him.

"Mr. Wallace, what is your response to the Mayor’s accusations?"

"Do you believe this fire was really an accident?"

Leo was trapped in an unprecedented predicament.

He felt as if he were caught in an invisible net, unable to break free no matter how much he struggled.

He cursed his bad luck, wondering why such an accident had to happen at this critical juncture.

Roosevelt’s voice echoed in his mind.

"How can there be so many coincidences? Leo, even if this fire was a genuine accident, at this point in time, it must have a clear enemy."

"Otherwise, you and all your supporters will be burned alive by this fire."

"You have only one opponent now."

"And that is Martin Carter Wright."

Leo looked at the charred ruins before him, at the anxious faces of the workers, and at the incessant flashes of the reporters’ cameras.

He knew he could no longer remain on the defensive.

He had to go on the attack.

He dialed Sarah’s number.

"Sarah, notify all media outlets immediately. We’re holding a press conference right here in half an hour."

「Half an hour later.」

Leo stood before the ruins. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

His face wore an expression of calm that surprised all the reporters present.

"First, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to our Mayor, Mr. Martin Carter Wright."

Leo’s opening words stunned everyone present.

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your concern and attention to the safety of our ’Pittsburgh Revival No. 1’ plan."

"The emergency shutdown order he issued this morning has served as a wake-up call, making us deeply realize that in the great cause of advancing community revival, production safety must always come first."

These remarks left the reporters, who had been expecting a spectacle, feeling a bit bewildered.

"In response to the Mayor’s call to action, I hereby formally announce," Leo’s voice rose, "that starting today, we will turn this shutdown period into the ’Pittsburgh Revival Plan’s Safety Production Education Week’."

"During this week, on behalf of the City Revitalization Committee, I will formally invite all officials and experts from the city’s Fire Department, Department of Labor, and Office of Building Permits to come to our site at any time to provide safety training for our workers and to conduct the strictest guidance and inspections of all our construction processes and safety measures."

"At the same time," he glanced at the media reporters present, "we also welcome our friends from the media to track, film, and live-broadcast the entire ’Safety Production Education Week.’ Let all the citizens of Pittsburgh see with their own eyes how our city government is diligently helping us improve the safety standards of our work sites."

Leo’s speech left everyone at the scene dumbfounded.

No one had expected him to respond to the Mayor’s shutdown order in this way.

He had unexpectedly thanked the Mayor for his concern and pushed all the bureaucrats the Mayor would send to make trouble directly into the media spotlight.

"A beautiful response," Roosevelt commented in Leo’s mind. "Carter Wright wants to use his bureaucrats to drag us down, so we’ll use the media’s cameras to tie those bureaucrats, and him, to this war chariot."

"Now, the pressure is on them. They can either genuinely send people to seriously inspect and train us, which will only prove to the entire city that our sites don’t have the safety hazards they claim..."

"...Or, they can go through the motions, or just not show up at all. In that case, they will completely expose their hypocritical facade in front of the entire city."

By seizing the initiative, Leo had fired the first shot in his counter-attack.

But it wasn’t enough.

This event could only temporarily stabilize public opinion; it couldn’t solve the fundamental problem—the truth behind the fire.

Leo knew very well that with his own power alone, he could never determine whether the fire was an accident or arson.

The Pittsburgh city police and fire departments were both under Mayor Carter Wright’s control.

He could fully anticipate that the final official investigation report would inevitably conclude the fire was an accident caused by something like "old wiring" or a "worker smoking in a restricted area."

He needed to bring in a third-party force that wasn’t under Carter Wright’s control.

"The Mayor can control the city police department, but he can’t control the state," Roosevelt’s voice said. "Remember, kid, in the American political system, the federal, state, and city levels of government are checks on each other. When you face injustice at the city level, you must learn to appeal to the higher power of the state."