25 CH : 24 Asking for Help

24 Asking for Help

<18th 1974 of February>

Henry was now finally back to the United States after 11 days of his very tiring journey in Nepal.

Henry wished that he could simply just relax today just like a few days in Nepal but fate seemed to have other plans since Henry never had the time to truly relax in the past few months.

Henry could only sigh as he called the driver in his estate to pick him up.

'I miss cuddling with Susan.' Henry sighed.

Around 20 minutes later, the driver arrived with Henry's car and drove him off to his Estate where he slumped down and took his well deserved rest.

Henry did not know exactly when he fell asleep, but he found himself already yawning to wake up at a new dawn outside his window. He seemed to have passed out instantly on his bed the moment he laid there and woke up in the morning without any dream.

The time now is 19th of February, 1974.

America's involvement in the Vietnam War had just ended last year, so many people still have resentment towards President Richard Nixon.

Henry remembers that in just 2 months, the congress would try to impeach Richard Nixon out of the presidential seat but before the Congress could do so, Nixon would already resign.

'Talk about not getting fired by quitting the job…' Henry chuckled to himself as he sipped on his cup of coffee. 'It's like firing yourself so no one else can fire you.'

As Nixon's term in office went on, President Nixon had grown increasingly paranoid and defensive.

Though he won election by a landslide in 1972, he had resented all those who challenged his authority and approved of attempts to discredit those who opposed him, Nixon had created a lot of enemies within the period of his presidency.

In June 1972, police found five burglars from Nixon's own Committee to Re-Elect the President in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate office building.

Police had soon found out that Nixon himself was involved in the crime, to which he responded by demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop investigating the break-in and telling his cronies to cover up the scandal.

In April 1974, a Congressional committee approved three articles of impeachment: Obstruction of justice, Misuse of federal agencies and Defying the authority of Congress.

Even though the time now is just in early February, the political situation is already up in flames.

Henry believes many figures in the shadows have already acted against Nixon as Congress' decision to impeach Nixon was definitely not done overnight.

Under this hodgepodge political situation now, Henry decided to take this opportunity as most people's attention is focused on the Nixon scandal now.

Nobody would (hopefully) care about some 437 immigrants as every year many immigrants flocked to the United States. There should be a lot more things that the people are focused on right now.

To sneak in 437 Gurkha people at once to the United States is not easy too. This gives Henry a headache when thinking about the way to sneak them in. Even if Henry successfully sneaks the Gurkhas in, their identity still would be that of an illegal immigrant.

Even though there were many illegal immigrants in the United States, Henry did not want to take this risk as he did not want to leave a legal loophole in the future that his future opponents could use to attack him.

If He wants to bring the Gurkhas in a 'legal' manner, this needs some connection into the world of politics.

Henry already thought to use his available connections for now even though his connections are not broad and powerful enough, there was someone who did, and so happened to be one of his close contacts.

It was the Gates family. The Gates family is an upper-class family with a great array of connections.

Mary Maxwell Gates is a powerful businesswoman and William Henry Gates II is a lawyer with many connections too. The Gates family must have some connection to political figures and they can help him.

This was the time to convince the Gates family to help him, so Henry must start with Bill Gates.

Of course, Henry was not ashamed to do this as his network of contact was indeed insufficient as of now as he just debuted to the upper echelon a year ago.

Henry believes this is just a temporary inconvenience as in the future, he will do better with his social circles.

Since the decision was already made, Henry immediately acted.

Henry then drives off to Microsoft headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Many Microsoft employees were already busy as Microsoft was getting bigger and bigger each day.

At the beginning of Microsoft's establishment, there were only 37 employees but now there are 158 employees already.

The 37 original employees already included Henry, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Steve Ballmer.

Bill Gates holds a 10% stake, Paul Allen owns 5%, and Steve Ballmer possesses another 5% of the shares in Microsoft. Adding to this, there's a 2% reward option, while Henry commands a 34% ownership of the company. The remaining 44% is under the control of the Umbrella Corporation.

Henry orchestrated this distribution to maintain a balance of power and accountability, ensuring that he doesn't hold sole ownership of any company in the eyes of the government and the general mass on a technical term. Additionally, it serves as a substantial tax benefit, optimizing the financial structure of the company. This strategic approach extends to Henry's ownership of the intellectual property rights to 'Fellowship of the Ring,' which technically remains under the ownership of 'Wizards of the Coast,' a subsidiary of the Umbrella Corporation.

Consequently, the Umbrella Corporation's account serves as a financial hub, with funds allocated to support Henry's various ventures. Within this framework, Henry maintains full ownership of a single company within the Umbrella Corporation's portfolio.

Plus it had many more benefits that were not needed to be mentioned.

Now Microsoft market value is just over $1 Million as it just started last December, but this is already good enough.

When Henry walks inside the building, many of the employees immediately greet him as they already knew that Henry is the Chairman and the owner in their eyes. Henry simply exchanged a few greetings with many of the new employees so they could better recognize him before he directly went to the CEO office where Bill was currently at.

When Henry opened the door, Henry saw Bill Gates doing something on a computer on his desk.

Bill immediately reacted with irritation when someone opened his door without knocking, but upon seeing it was Henry, he simply snorted.

"Bill's initial irritation dissolved into amusement when he realized it was Henry at the door, prompting a chuckle. "Oh, it's just you, Henry. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten all about us here at Microsoft—or that you even had a company to begin with!"

"Ah, well, I've been wrapped up in something lately, didn't have much time for Microsoft," Henry replied with a laugh. "But I need your help with something a bit complicated this time."

Setting aside his work, Bill turned his full attention to Henry, his expression serious. He knew Henry wouldn't ask for help unless it was truly important.

Last time Henry needed help, it was for his mother lobbying them to IBM. This time, it must be something of equal importance too.

"What do you need my friend?" Bill asked earnestly. "If it's something within my power, consider it done."

"I need your family connections to help me lobby some government officials," Henry explained, his tone grave. "I intend to bring 437 immigrants to the United States. It's for a purpose, I assure you."

'Rather than doing something bad, it's more like they might just build a small town somewhere.' Bill closed his eyes in disbelief.

Bill Gates listened attentively and soon fell into a state of deep contemplation.

Not to mention hundreds of immigrants, he could not tell why Henry would want to bring in immigrants in the first place.

Compared to the favour with IBM, this was something completely illogical to Bill as this had no impact whatsoever to the company.

"Why do you need to bring 437 people here? Are you planning to start a village?" Bill asked Henry incredulously, his concern evident. "You must be aware of the current political climate—it's quite unstable. And racism is rampant, making it challenging to integrate immigrants."

"No, I'm not planning to start a village," Henry clarified, his tone thoughtful. "The thing is, I need to bring an entire tribe to the US."

Bill's eye obviously twitched at the mention of 'an entire tribe'.

'It's Henry, it has to be something completely beyond me…' Bill closed his eyes and thought to himself. 'This is totally not abduction… right?'

Seeing as Bill was already in deep thought, Henry continued to explain the situation.

"It's related to a private matter, and ensuring their integration into society is something I'll handle down the line," Henry explained, his tone earnest. "Your task is to persuade your family to assist me. Let them know that if they help me now, I, Henry William, will owe them a significant favor." Henry emphasized the importance of his favor, underscoring that it wouldn't be offered lightly.

When Bill heard this, he was quite surprised as he did not expect Henry to owe anyone a favor.

He knows Henry was destined to be a great man just from his vision of the future and his genius intelligence. With just both of them combined, Henry destined to be more than just successful.

This meant that when Henry ultimately becomes someone great in the future, his favor will be extremely precious.

Many times a favor can save someone's life just like how Gerald Ford owes a favor to Richard Nixon.

With that favor, Nixon manages to gain a pardon from the law because of Gerald Ford. If not for Gerald Ford helping him to gain pardon, he would have long been in jail or executed because of his mistake in his presidential term.

With a newfound appreciation for the significance of Henry's request, Bill promised to do everything in his power to persuade his family to help. After all, he understood that when Henry William fulfilled his destiny and rose to greatness, his favor would be worth its weight in gold.

Henry was satisfied with this because the Gurkhas would be important for him. If Henry manages to gain the Gurkhas tribe, he can use them to further lobby many other tribes in Nepal and Africa.

With just that one favor, Henry would manage to gain access to entire Gurkha ethnicities in the future.

For the favour he gives to Gates' family, it can be returned in the future when they need him to repay it.

Henry smiled as he thought of all the possible things in the future where the Gurkhas would be extremely helpful in his plight of reshaping the world around him.