Alvin was a little surprised that Stark had gotten ready so quickly...
Judging by the size of the camp just now, Stark had probably brought over the Avengers' entire operation. The only question was how many people he'd left behind!
After ending the call with Stark, Alvin quickly forgot the unpleasantness he'd felt earlier from being out of place among the upper crust.
After thinking it over, Alvin called Ivan. Stark had already arrived; there was no reason Ivan should still be making no move.
A few minutes later, Alvin hung up and let out a long sigh...
The gap between having money and not having money, and between having connections and not having them, was enormous. Even though Ivan had just come into $70 billion, he still couldn't match old-money billionaire Stark when it came to mobilizing resources on a massive scale.
To meet the delivery deadline, Ivan had swept up the entire cargo plane market in the United States, but it still wasn't enough to meet the demand for transport.
The United States military, which had been unusually cooperative until now, had turned to Stark's side and clearly wasn't interested in Ivan's combat platforms. Between that and the $50 billion in extortion money they'd been charged for their "tickets," they'd decided to squeeze Ivan a little.
In the end, the Russian General who'd taken an instant dislike to him that day and Zhang Qiang from the Gun Club had stepped in, arranging several hundred military transport flights to solve the problem.
See? Things could be downright bizarre. Someone who seemed to like you wasn't necessarily a friend, and someone who disliked you wasn't necessarily an enemy!
Thinking of how he still had a Helicarrier floating in the skies over Eastern Europe, Alvin felt a little sorry for Ivan's