Chapter 249
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The Prozen World Expo had succeeded.
It might have been the greatest success in expo history.
Visitor numbers had long surpassed pre-event projections. After the Imperial Pavilion's nightly display became a hot topic, crowds crossed borders every day just to see that light, filling the train stations.
Every hotel in the capital was booked for the next six months. Railway lines and passenger ships kept adding service, while every business in the city, from restaurants and theaters to tailoring shops, drank in the expo boom.
Factories that had shut down because of strikes started running again to churn out souvenirs, while the assembly waved around falling unemployment figures and congratulated itself.
But Jean Pierre knew what lay behind those dazzling numbers.
Whose brother-in-law had received the contracts to build the pavilions and tear them down afterward? Which assemblyman's nephew had won the right to operate the food stalls and entertainment district inside the expo grounds? Why had the exclusive contract to print commemorative stamps ended up with the printing house run by the in-law of the ruling party's financial adviser?
Corruption concentrated solely among the ruling party's families and their acquaintances.