Chapter 506 You Think Money Is Everything?
Luke rummaged around in his knapsack again and took out another black bag. He threw it to the short man in the convertible and said, “Don’t tell anyone you sold me a car, or you know what’ll happen.”
The short man scoffed. “You don’t need to tell me that.”
Chuckling, Luke got into the driver’s seat of the Hummer, closed the door, and waved at Vanessa. “Thanks. Next time I need a car, I’ll ask you for a recommendation again.”
The short man couldn’t help but interject, “Hey, can’t you come straight to me? I have a lot more cars…”
Vanessa looked at him in disdain but didn’t say anything
This shortie was a tycoon in the black market car trade. He definitely wasn’t bragging.
Luke, however, shook his head regretfully. “Sorry, I’m not into men, so I don’t want you to earn the commission.” He then hit the gas pedal and drove the Hummer away with a deafening noise.
Stunned for a moment, the short man then raised both his middle fingers at the Hummer. “I’m not into men, either!”
After he was done cursing, he turned around and looked at Vanessa, before he heaved a sigh. “Fine. If I were him, I would prefer to make a deal with you, too.”
“Give me my share and get lost,” said Vanessa coldly.
The short man snorted and quickly examined the cash inside the black plastic bag. He wrapped up two wads of cash in a newspaper and tossed it to her. “Okay. Recommend me to this spendthrift the next time he needs a car. Look, I’m very trustworthy. I said I would give you 10%…”
Vanessa took the cash and left without another word.
Speechless for a moment, the short man then grumbled angrily, “So what if you have money? You think being rich is everything? … Hm, fine, being rich really is everything.”
Luke drove along the road.
He filled up the gas tank at a gas station on the way. He also bought some water, food and juice at a nearby supermarket.
Ten minutes later, he resumed his journey and drove over the sea bridge to Niteroi.
As he drove, he recalled the intelligence he had obtained from Pedro.
He had to admit that Pedro, this small boss, was pretty cunning. The sites he had told Luke about weren’t where Christophe would be, but Hernan Reyes’s major nests.
If Luke broke into those locations recklessly, he would probably face a barrage of hundreds of guns. Unfortunately for Pedro, Luke interrogated his two bodyguards separately. They followed Pedro every day, and thus knew a lot of things.
After cross-checking all three confessions, Pedro’s plan to get Luke killed by Hernan went up in smoke. Of course, dead Pedro didn’t know that Luke would have gone after Hernan sooner or later anyway.
In Luke’s eyes, this bigshot was a big gift bag of experience points floating around on the map of Rio.
Christophe, on the other hand, had gone abroad a few days earlier, and the bodyguards didn’t know for sure if he was in America or any of the other South American countries.
But Luke now had the whereabouts of Lisa Feng, his main objective.
It was precisely Pedro and those two bodyguards who had caught Lisa Feng.
They had escorted the female DEA agent to the Itaoka mountains to the northeast of Niteroi.
The bodyguards couldn’t tell him the exact location. They didn’t go to that mountain stronghold often. They didn’t even remember how far they drove to get there. Since it was located in the mountains, there were no buildings or streets that could be used as landmarks.
Luke wasn’t too worried.
After he entered the mountains, he could send out a drone to check for locations where people were gathered. It wouldn’t be hard for him to locate this secret stronghold.
The only thing that he wasn’t sure of was how long it would take for him to find the place.
He hoped it wouldn’t be too long; he still needed to go claim the experience gift bag that was Hernan Reyes back in Rio.
Under the cover of night, Luke drove over the sea bridge and followed the highway along the sea northeast.
At two in the morning, he pulled over and slept for two hours.
The advantage of this modified Hummer was that the iron plates on it could withstand regular rifle bullets.
Lying inside the car, Luke didn’t have to worry about someone shooting him.
At four in the morning, Luke got up after a good rest. He stretched comfortably and freshened up.
After eating breakfast on the grass outside, he patted his belly in satisfaction before he set off again.
He sent the drone out again. It moved ahead of the car at a fixed distance.
Luke had searched the entire way as he drove last night, but didn’t find the mountain stronghold.
He had been busy the whole of yesterday, and had needed some rest to recharge.
Now, he was full of vigor and his stomach was full. He couldn’t wait to get to work.
The drone spotted something twice, but they turned out to be the mountain villas of some tycoons.
After two false alarms, it sent a third notification an hour later. The moment he saw it, Luke felt that this was the place.
It was a wooden building next to a river and which was surrounded by barbed wire. There were also sentry towers and armed guards, just like the bodyguards’ description. This place looked more like a prison than a holiday home of the rich.
Luke hid the Hummer among the trees off the road. He then began to use the tablet to operate the drone for reconnaissance.
He had a visual on five guards in the mountain stronghold; these were just the guards who were on night duty.
Logically speaking, there couldn’t be fewer than fifteen guards here in order to arrange a patrol shift.
Brazil was never short of people who would risk their lives for money, so there were probably more guards, anywhere from between twenty to twenty-five.
As the drone hovered in the air, it suddenly sent back another image.
Luke looked at it, only to discover that the image was of a camp two kilometers away.Compared with the stronghold here, this looked more like a military camp, with more people on patrol and buildings that looked like barracks. There were more than a hundred people in this camp. Also, a road directly connected the camp to the stronghold. Luke rubbed his chin. Why did it look like a personal military camp of Christophe’s? Suddenly, the drone sent out an alarm.
Blank for a moment, Luke then quickly had the drone descend, and adjusted the camera so that it faced the sky.
A moment later, a small drone that looked like a model plane flew across the sky. Luke scratched his head. So, he wasn’t the only person doing reconnaissance here? He thought for a moment, then sent out another drone from his inventory.
Instead of approaching the stronghold, this drone hovered high above his car to examine the stronghold’s surroundings.
It wasn’t long before Luke picked up an abnormality.
A team of six was lurking in the dim forest a hundred meters away from the stronghold.
The distinctive combat equipment on them was clearly in an American style, and their night vision goggles were just as fancy.
What American style? To summarise in one word: Expensive!