nightcrawler in los angeles

Chapter 229 Thomas' Day

As a non-commissioned officer, Thomas was awakened by the nightmare again.

Thomas glanced at his wife lying on the side and tiptoed out of bed!
I don't know when, those comrades who died for various reasons began to appear in his dreams continuously.

Each dream repeats.

It was as if he was condemning him for not saving them back in the first place!
Thomas soaked his head in the bathtub with a painful face, until he felt suffocation and pain, he raised his head with a flushed face.

Thomas looked at himself in the mirror and kept recalling everything that happened recently~
His headache seems to have happened after a hostage rescue mission half a year ago. As long as his head is hit or exploded, he will have hallucinations!
Or a nightmare!
This feeling is terrible, as a sergeant major, he dare not tell others.

Because SEAL Team 6 has very strict requirements for the first-level combat readiness personnel to attend the mission.

If once his mental state is not good, there is a problem.

Then what is facing him is likely to be endless "rest", and this "rest" is followed by the suspension of the house loan, no one to pay for the daughter's college tuition, and the pressure on the wife is doubled!

Thomas shook off the drops of water on his head and walked out of the house pretending to be calm. He had a lot of things to do today.

SEAL Team 6 has a period of vacation after each mission.

Although they don't know how long this vacation will last, it can be regarded as one of the few rests in their tight lives.

As the first-tier combat readiness force of the United States, their treatment is not too bad.

But that is only relatively speaking, Thomas, who lives in a middle-class community, drove a car to the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs].

Although the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs] has not gone to work yet, there are already many "veterans" standing at the door, some of whom are one-armed or sitting in wheelchairs.

This is not an exaggeration based on the average frequency of wars launched by the United States every year.

"Do you have $5 in your pocket, please? Because I served my country on the battlefield like you did."

Thomas looked at the unkempt man holding a framed photo.

The man in the photo is handsome and high-spirited?Proud boy?After all, the man in the photo is only about 24 years old, but he is already a non-commissioned officer!
But would a non-commissioned officer have no insurance and compensation?

If he hadn't been taking drugs or gambling, he couldn't have been so depressed. Thomas glanced at the man lightly and walked towards the long line.

"Hey, boy, are you from the Marine Corps?" Thomas had just stood at the back of the line when a man who looked very old greeted him curiously.

"take it easy!"

"I just wanted to explain to the man that his retirement package wasn't enough to cover his wife's chronic illness!"

"And our ordinary orderlies don't get a monthly allowance like you do."

Thomas froze for a moment when he heard the man's explanation.

But when Thomas wanted to give that man $5, there were at least 70 people in line behind his ass!
Just when he was hesitating, the man seemed to see Thomas' embarrassment: "Hey! Candace, come on!"

The man holding the photo frame ran over with a smile on his face.

"Candice, this kind man was moved by me!"

"Remember to say hello to your wife for me!"

Candace's beard and smile are particularly handsome against the sun. When Thomas wanted to take out a $10 card, Candice refused: "Sir, we are comrades in arms, although I really want Your $10, but we're poor people, and $5 is enough for me and my wife to live on today."

The man standing in front of Thomas patted his chest: "Candice is very ambitious, he comes every morning to seek help from kind people, and in the afternoon he will work four jobs."

Thomas never said a word.

But the talkative "Oaklando" standing in front of him kept talking, and Thomas found out that "Oaklando" was an acquaintance here, and many people knew him.

He came this time to apply for a loan for her daughter!

The University of Southern California's annual tuition is as high as $7. Although the school waived 21% of his daughter's tuition, he still doesn't want his daughter to have to bear a lifetime of loans after graduating from college.

When the sun was already shining, the team finally moved slowly.

Thomas wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked eagerly, "Hi, I'm planning to apply for a student loan for relatives. My wife came here not long ago. I'm here to check the results."

"Thomas Ken, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps~"

"Oh, I'm sorry, your salary package does not meet the conditions for granting student loans."

The middle-aged woman sitting behind the glass window said this casually, but Thomas' heart sank to the bottom in an instant.

"Then you can take a look, what ways can I use?"

The middle-aged woman sitting behind the window glanced at Thomas and threw out his information: "Excuse me, this is the Veterans Affairs Office. If you need a loan, you can go to the bank to check."

Just as Thomas was about to explode, he heard a crisp gunshot from the door.

Out of habit, Thomas rushed out in an instant.

But what happened in front of him made Thomas stunned, because the "Oaklando" he was going to thank actually swallowed a gun and committed suicide!
"what happened!"

Candace, holding a photo frame in his arms, wiped the corners of his eyes and said softly: "Post-traumatic, because he didn't report to the army when he was a soldier, so the office can't bear his medical expenses, even if it is a free MRI. !These bloody politicians! Our ex-soldiers are used up like garbage and thrown on the ground!"

Thomas gritted his molars and suddenly lost control when he heard all kinds of complaints around him.

All his teammates from his enlistment to the present appeared in front of him one by one, and Thomas's mind kept ringing with condemnation, questioning, and angrily.

Just as Thomas was about to lose control, a voice that made him feel a little familiar came over.

"Thomas!"

"Talk!"

"If you don't want you to do something stupid here."

Thomas shook his head vigorously, and his eyes slowly focused on Tao Xi.

"It's you?"

Tao Xi tilted his head and motioned him to follow him. Tao Xi, who was walking in front, didn't care about the sight around him. Instead, he said to Klein who was standing on the side: "Send some money to his family."

"Thank you."

"I'm rich, you don't need to thank me." Tao Xi said indifferently, but Tao Xi's words hurt Thomas, who belongs to the middle class in the United States.

Thomas looked at Tao Xi's RV: "Do you usually live here?"

"That's right! I'm used to it."

Thomas, who looked around the situation in the car, was not in a hurry to speak, but Tao Xi said straight to the point: "I didn't hire you to be my bodyguard. I don't lack bodyguards."

"That's right, after all, you are the godson of the Blood Gang, and Donia gave me a copy of your information."

"Haha! I didn't expect a spy to risk breaking the rules and expose my information. Thomas, you are married, and your wife is still pregnant with a six-month-old boy."

Tao Xi took the initiative to pour a cup of coffee for Thomas and sat opposite him with a relaxed face.

When Thomas heard Tao Xi tell all about his family, he was not nervous at all, because the information about Tao Xi in the CIA information was at the four-star confidentiality level.

And much of Tao Xi's content is not clear in his CIA files.

A big businessman with such strength would not do anything to persecute him because of his small role.

"We're friends!"

"Oh? I don't know if your friend showed you this document?" Tao Xi directly pulled out a document that obviously leaked from the [White House] from the bookshelf behind him.

Thomas has seen this kind of document, and he once provided security for the Grand Commander for two weeks.

Thomas looked at the [Veteran Welfare Benefits Plan] in his hand and nodded with satisfaction, but Tao Xi on the opposite side calmly said a set of statistics: "Is the treatment great? But you can't apply for it for your daughter. Get a student loan! That poor guy in Oakland can only come here every month to get some prescription drugs, and a poor guy like Candice can only go begging on the street for his wife."

"He can improve."

Thomas seemed to want to defend the country he was protecting, but Tao Xi didn't give him face at all: "Are you sure the group of people in the House of Representatives who don't even have a college degree can think of this?"

"There are about 80 incidents like this happening at the gate of the Veterans Office every day, and more than 8000 people die every year because of the help of the Veterans Office."

"No"

Thomas interrupted Tao Xi's conversation with a look of anger: "Stop talking! People like you should be marked as dangerous by the CIA. If I bring a recording pen, you will die in bed tomorrow!"

Tao Xi replied with a relaxed face when he saw Thomas was about to go berserk.

"No no no."

"I'm not here to listen to your threats, nor your complaints."

"I just want to tell you that I formed a union, the North American Locksmiths Union."

"There are about 500 million members in this trade union now!"

"Every member can rely on this union to receive a variety of domestic and security jobs. My union can increase the income of ordinary members of the union by about 400 US dollars per month."

When Thomas heard this number, he immediately wanted to refute Tao Xi, a capitalist.

After all, that's a turnover of 20 billion US dollars per month, who would believe it!

Tao Xi seemed to see the doubt in Thomas' eyes: "You don't believe it?"

Thomas hesitated or nodded.

"The Yellow Pages are convenient for the people! You can find out, the largest free publication in the United States, the United States, Mexico, Canada, as long as there is English, there is my publication, and your wife is also a subscriber of this publication."

"When you are not at home, the sewers, anti-theft doors and windows installation, and lawn repairs in your home are all workers hired from above!"

Thomas frowned and seriously recalled that when he just came home, his wife did give him a brand new key.

As for the magazine [Yellow Pages Convenience Life], he really knew that he even saw a copy of this magazine in the toilet of the army, which was the Japanese naval base in Guam!

"It seems you believe it."

"The next thing will be easy to handle. I plan to hire you as the head of the Veterans Management Office of the North American Locksmiths Union."

"Now there are many veterans of the North American Locksmiths Union, but their living conditions are not very good. For their health, I will open a hospital for them in Los Angeles County!"

"As long as it is a disease that the [Veterans Affairs Office] cannot treat, that hospital can do it. Of course, the premise is that they are my members!"

Tao Xi seemed to suddenly remember something after saying these words.

"Oaklando is also a member of the union. He works very hard. He earns more than $2000 a month!"

Seeing that Tao Xi was determined by his appearance, Thomas couldn't help but want to punch him!
As for why he was appointed as the head of this department, he knew very well that it might be because he had a heroic father.

"I need to think about it!"

Tao Xi pouted confidently: "Of course, today is your holiday!"

Tao Xi was not in a hurry when he saw Thomas leaving. Klein, who was standing outside the car, looked at Thomas leaving and said with regret: "Tao Xi! It's terrible to be friends with someone like you! You put People's hearts are used to the extreme."

Tao Xi did not deny Klein's words.

Regarding the robbing of oil wells in East Africa, Tao Xi still has a sense of crisis in his heart. In the past, Tao Xi did not care much about the current situation in the United States.

Until the best resources in his hands were snatched away.

It was only then that Tao Xi realized that he was an outsider no matter what, and only when he had his own influence behind him could the group of people sit down quietly and negotiate with him calmly.

Veterans are a great strength.

More than 2100 million veterans and more than 7000 million family members are afraid to speak out. If Tao Xi is really angry, will someone here stand up and speak out for Tao Xi?
He needs time, and he also needs respect. Money is not the only thing he relies on.

And Thomas seemed like a good fit.

After all, not everyone's father is an American combat hero, and not everyone can serve in the Navy SEALs for nearly 8 years like Thomas.

"Okay! Klein, go and have a rest."

"I'm planning to go home for vacation. It's nothing serious. Don't disturb me!"

(End of this chapter)