Merlin hurriedly explained, “Young Master Wade, I’m not afraid of taking risks...”Charlie nodded. “I know, and I do not doubt your courage, but as you’ve just said, the contact is mutual, so it’s better to be cautious. If contact is really necessary, it’d certainly be safer for me to make contact instead of you. So, you should just do the preliminary investigation and leave the rest up to me to decide.”Merlin’s purpose was to remind Charlie to be more careful and cautious.When he saw that Charlie had accepted his advice, Merlin felt relieved and said, “Young Master Wade, in that case, I won’t have any worries. I will let you know as soon as I make any progress.”***That night, as Charlie drove back to Providence, Merlin took a Virgin Atlantic flight to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, via London.After a twelve-hour flight, Porter used a helicopter to pick Merlin up personally and brought him to Ten Thousand Armies’ base in Syria after the plane landed in Beirut. Due to the
Merlin arrived at the core area of Ten Thousand Armies’ base here under Porter’s guidance.The so-called core area is a central area of four square kilometers in the center of Ten Thousand Armies’ base. Although the base was not completed yet, a high wall had already been erected in the core area, and there were a large number of frame buildings of different heights inside the high wall. These frame buildings were all modular building units that Ten Thousand Armies procured from Oskia which could be put to use in the shortest possible time after being assembled quickly. However, these buildings were only a temporary transition. Once the permanent base was completed, these buildings would gradually be dismantled and eliminated. Porter led Merlin to a six-story building. At this time, rapid renovation had been completed in the interior of the building. Although the construction site was still in full swing outside, there were basically no traces of construction inside. A few m
547 had long hated the organization that controlled his destiny, and he had been hoping that Charlie could find the location where his own line of dead soldiers was stationed so that he could rescue his wife, children, and family members at the same time. So, he naturally would provide his full cooperation to Merlin.Merlin nodded, and without talking too much nonsense, he went straight to the point and said, “The immediate task at hand is to find a way to determine the location of your residence on the map. Before that, I wonder if you have any valuable clues that you can share with me?”547 shook his head and said, “Chief Lammy, to tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking about this issue for a while, but the organization is extremely cautious and didn’t leave me with any valuable information at all.”Merlin smiled slightly, took out the major natural disaster data that he had sorted out, and asked him, “547, how old are you this year?”547 hurriedly said, “Chief Lammy, I should pr
“Was the water salty?”547 thought about it for a while and then frowned as he said, “Well... I really don’t remember clearly. After all, it’s been too long, but as far as I can remember, it seems that at that time, there were some white residues on the ground and clothes. Could that be the salt precipitated from the seawater?” Merlin nodded and said, “There is a high probability that’s salt. If so, what you experienced at that time could be the Indonesian tsunami. The reason for the flooding was because the earthquake triggered a tsunami, and many surrounding countries were also affected by the disaster, including your place of residence.”Having said that, Merlin circled two areas on the map and said, “From this point of view, your location may be in the west of South Asia or in the eastern part of Southeast Asia.” Merlin then saw a few more entries of the data and muttered, “The epicenter of the tsunami in Indonesia has also experienced earthquakes in recent years but of a low
“In a coma.” 547 said truthfully, “When we are about to go on a mission, we will first take a medicine that puts us into a deep coma. We will already have arrived at the location when we wake up.”Merlin asked again, “How can you be certain that you took a plane every time you went out, then?”547 explained, “I would ask my wife to help me calculate the time every time I go out on a mission. Although our time is not accurate, the error is not too big with a relatively short timeline.”“Each time I go out on a mission, the time that I can’t grasp is the round-trip distance. I can record the time for the execution of the mission accurately, so every time I go back, I will check the time with my wife and use the time she had recorded minus the time I used to execute the mission to calculate the time spent on the round trip. Under normal circumstances, no matter where we go on a mission anywhere in the world, the time we spend on the round trip would not exceed six or seven days. This s
“Mexico?!” After hearing Merlin’s analysis, 547 asked hastily, “Chief Lammy, do you mean that when we go to the United States to perform a mission, the plane will land in Mexico first before entering the United States by land?”“Yes.” Merlin nodded and said, “This is the most reliable method, in my opinion. The other methods are too difficult. Since they are transporting dead soldiers by plane, they must have a landing site. Neither the United States nor Canada will allow the dead soldiers to bypass customs and enter the country secretly, and only Mexico has this condition.”547 asked puzzled, “Wouldn’t the plane need to go through customs when it enters Mexico?” Merlin explained, “A plane has to go through two levels. The first is air traffic control, and the other is customs. Air traffic controls the plane before it lands, and customs controls the passengers and cargo after the plane lands. In the world, no one can hide the whereabouts of a plane completely unless he does not w
Merlin hurriedly said, “Mr. Porter, it’s not difficult to investigate the aircraft entry records, but can you ensure that your investigation channels are a hundred percent safe?”“No worries.” Porter nodded and said, “Ten Thousand Armies’ information channels have a high level of secrecy. In addition, we have many firewalls, so you can rest assured, Chief Lammy.”Merlin nodded slightly and said, “By the way, Mr. Porter, I also need to sort out the information on all incoming cargo planes.”“No problem.”***Soon, a densely packed document was delivered to Porter. This document recorded the information of all flights entering Mexico in the five days before the New York incident. As the majority of inbound flights were small and medium-sized aircrafts, there were only a small number of aircraft accounted for in the range of more than fifteen thousand kilometers. Therefore, there were less than a hundred flights in total after the sorting out. Among the less than a hundred flig
Speaking of this, he paused slightly and added, “Chief Lammy, this aircraft seems to be prepared for global maneuvering, and coupled with the characteristics of that mysterious organization, I think the series of inferences that you’ve made, including this result, are all correct! This is the target that we’re looking for!”Merlin nodded. “I also think it is!”Porter could not help but exclaim, “Chief Lammy, you’re amazing. You can lock in on the plane used by the other party in such a short period of time. This mysterious organization probably would never have dreamt that they would be discovered so quickly!”Merlin said earnestly, “It’s mainly because of 547’s presence. With him around, he was able to gradually help me lock in on clues while also helping me cross-compare the information at the same time.”“This organization certainly didn’t expect that any of their dead soldiers would survive, and they wouldn’t have expected that their dead soldiers would leak any useful key info
Jacob zipped toward Raymond, his attitude immediately subservient, "I'm sure you've seen what Zachary Evans posted on his Twitter page, and to be honest, it's so terrible that my position in the Calligraphy and Painting Association has been affected too. I mean, you've made a lot of money, right?"Hell, even if you donated ten million, you'd still have another ten million and 970 thousand in net profits. So, all I'd like to ask is for you to post something to disclaim Zachary's post.Jacob's words left Raymond in thought.For Jacob, just being suspected of fraud would definitely be terrible. In fact, his position in the Calligraphy and Painting Association would definitely be threatened—if not dismissed altogether—if he wasn't cleared of suspicion.Since Jacob was Charlie Wade's father-in-law, Raymond had reason not to drive Jacob over the brink.But that also begged another question—it must be under Charlie's intention for Zachary to post his confession, and that meant Charlie in
Raymond couldn't help chuckling just as Jacob finished—he had honestly never heard of anyone who demanded a refund after donating to charity, but he was certainly seeing one now.Still, the receptionist was clearly experienced and slowly explained, "Sir, it's a legal clause of the country that all donations for philanthropy purposes can not be refunded under most circumstances—""It truly was a mistake," Jacob quickly said, cutting the receptionist off. "I was going to donate thirty thousand but pressed an extra zero by mistake. Please discuss this with your management—you just have to refund 27 thousand, see?""Sorry, sir," the receptionist apologized. "But it's a strict rule that we ourselves do not get to access the funds that have been donated into our accounts. Every donation will be screened extensively, and if you consider that there was a major oversight on your part, you may seek legal counsel to appeal for a refund. If the courts back your appeal, our organization will the
Nonetheless, Jacob darted into Treasure Measure and plucked off his mask, asking nervously, "Excuse me, Mr. Cole? It's me… Jacob Wilson…"Raymond looked up, pausing for a moment before acting as if he was actually curious, "Mr. Wilson! What brings you here? Don't tell me—you want that bronze sculpture back too?""No, no, no…" Jacob quickly shook his head. "I would never… I returned all the way from Dubai to apologize!""Apologize?" Raymond smiled faintly, and he did not play dumb this time as he asked bluntly, "Did you come back because of Zachary Evan's post?"Knowing he couldn't deny it any longer, Jacob nodded, "Yeah…"Raymond nodded and said calmly, "That's unnecessary. I was the one who benefited in the end."Jacob wasn't quite keeping up—thinking that Raymond was just trying to be nice by telling him he didn't have to apologize, he quickly pulled out his phone.Tapping on it and bringing up his transaction records, he handed it to Raymond reverently, "Mr. Cole, I understan
The cabbie chuckled. "You're a local yet you're heading to Antique Street right away as soon as you land instead of going home? And you're still saying you're not trying to pick up a killer bargain deal?"Come on, man—it's not just you, I want that too. We cabbies work ourselves to death only for ten thousand per month at best while our friend over there made twenty million in one night. I could keep driving cabs for the rest of my life and still not make that much money."Jacob knew that the cabbie must be talking about Raymond and became even more miserable then, grumbling unhappily, "I'm going to Antique Street for business—I'm not trying to pick up some missed bargain.""No? Then you didn't hear what happened yesterday?"The cabbie was immediately curious, and without waiting for Jacob's answer, he exclaimed happily, "Look, man—it was so ridiculous not even Hollywood would put it in their script. There were these fools who were trying to sell an antique trader a replica, but th
It was nighttime in Dubai as Jacob dragged his weary body from the hotel back to the airport.As he was flying economy this time, he was left sitting at the hard bench near the boarding terminal, waiting for it to open.While he waited, his heart was torn as he tapped into the website of the Aurous Hill Charity Fund, found their donation account, and wired the entire 300 thousand he had made over to them.He had picked the Aurous Hill Charity Fund because the circles of antique collectors in Aurous Hill were all discussing how Raymond had donated half of the 20 million he had made to that same charity fund.After Raymond skyrocketed to prominence in Antique Street and became a star, it could not be denied that people admired his profound ability.However, there were also people who envied his skill in turning the tables just as there were those who were jealous he had made twenty million in a single night.Still, Raymond moved fast—soon after word spread that he had made twenty m
Elaine quickly asked, "Well, what if you can't get it done?"Jacob was apprehensive even as he sighed. "If they really pressed the issue, guess I can't even stay at the Calligraphy and Painting Association now… We will see. If things get bad, I'll just resign. I won't ask for much right now, just as long as I don't have to go to jail."Elaine nodded. "Then you should try to reason things out with Raymond Cole or ask for Charlie's help if push comes to shove. Being humiliated is still better than prison.""Okay!"-It was nighttime at Aurous Hill by the time Elaine and Jacob arrived at their hotel.Charlie and Claire had just had dinner, and Claire pulled out her phone, saying, "I just checked my flight app, and it says my parents should have landed two hours ago. They are probably at the hotel, so I'll check in on them with a video call."She had yet to open her WhatsApp when Elaine called her on a video call.Jacob was planning to check in with Claire and Charlie to put their
Hearing what Jacob had said, Elaine became anxious and pressed him as he hung up, "What's going on? You're leaving? But we just got here! My shoes have just caught Dubai dirt, so why are we leaving so soon—"However, Jacob was wiping the sweat off his brow as he mumbled quietly, "Well, at this point, I have to leave or I won't be vice president anymore."Elaine immediately fumed. "We've been married for half our lives, and this is supposed to be our honeymoon, yet we're just leaving? I've posted about this on social media too—there are plenty of people who're waiting for more posts on our trip!"And don't forget—we spent a lot on our flight tickets and our hotels! The hotel bookings can't be refunded either!"Jacob scowled dolefully. "Well, what can we do? Why don't you stay? I'll go home and get this sorted out first….""Well, how long would that take?" Elaine asked."How should I know?" Jacob sighed, uneasy and annoyed. "Don Albert is saying I have to go back and donate the 300
"But I spent 98 thousand on that bronze sculpture!" Jacob exclaimed in agitation before he knew it. "I made 300 thousand from it, and that means my profit was 200 thousand at best, but I'm supposed to return that to him as well?! That means I'd have lost my own capital too!""I can't help you if you can't bear to part with that money, Mr. Wilson," Don Albert said quietly. "In that case, you'll just have to handle it yourself.""Wait, wait, wait!" Jacob immediately became antsy and cried out right then, "Please, Don Albert! I'll return the money! I'll return it, alright?! The entirety of my profits—202 thousand, okay? At least let me keep the money I spent, okay?""By that reasoning, Mr. Wilson, when a phone scammer is told by the cops to return the money they've made from defrauding, should he be allowed to keep the money he spent on telco charges? ""Oh, I…" Jacob was left stumped and could not come up with an answer.Don Albert then pressed on, "Mr. Wilson, I've offered a prom
"Mr. Wilson, what you boys did was truly heinous!" Don Arnold growled. "I scolded Zachary myself when I found out, and I was the one who told him to post that statement!"Jacob was shocked. "But why, Don Arnold? Are you friends with Raymond Cole?""Never met the guy," Don Arnold replied.That left Jacob even more confused. "Then why are you taking his side?""I've been doing my best to clean up my image over the past couple of years," Don Albert replied coolly. "I rarely get involved in mob business or anything illicit, and everyone in Aurous Hill knows that Zachary is my right-hand man, yet he confessed to committing such a heinous crime behind my back. What is that if not sullying my reputation?"Jacob was left reeling as he didn't expect Don Albert to be so serious, but he quickly explained, "I'm sorry. I didn't expect it to affect you so terribly… It's all Zachary's fault! I wouldn't have been aware that Raymond had returned at all, but he just had to tell me and come up with