“Boss, there are a lot of thieves in your inn. Two groups have tried to steal from us already,” said Lu Hao, addressing the innkeeper after he and the others returned to their rooms.
“Cough, cough. The True God will punish them!”
The innkeeper made a gesture of prayer, sincerely pleading for divine intervention, but he dodged the question about the thieves.
Their local customs dictated such occurrences. Theft was common, a matter of survival, and very difficult to pursue.
“This place is too dangerous. Boss, do you have anything for self-defense?”
Lu Hao's words held a hidden meaning.
He wasn't actually interested in pursuing the theft. Instead, he intended to procure some weaponry from the seemingly unassuming innkeeper, a secret arms dealer.
“Oh, I see, I see.”
The innkeeper, realizing a business opportunity, rubbed his fingers together like a shrewd merchant. “Money! Money!”
Lu Hao brandished a thick stack of US dollars in front of the innkeeper. “Enough?”
“Enough, enough.”
The innkeeper's eyes gleamed as he produced his weapon cache – a large crate filled with arms and ammunition.
AK47, MP44, Glock 26, Uzi submachine guns, the usual suspects in Africa, were prominently displayed alongside a smaller crate of pineapple grenades.
No wonder the innkeeper felt confident running his establishment in this chaotic region.
This arsenal was enough to equip a reinforced squad, sufficient to deal with most adventurer teams.
Lu Hao casually picked up a machine gun, his eyes lit up, as relevant knowledge surfaced in his mind.
FN Minimi, a light machine gun developed by FN in the 1970s, was a highly effective firearm currently in widespread use by the American infantry.
The fact that a foreign-made machine gun was favored by the Americans spoke volumes about its exceptional quality.
“Boss, how much for this machine gun?”
“Five thousand dollars!”
The innkeeper boldly held up five fingers, demanding a hefty price.
“Too expensive.”
Lu Hao shook his head, refusing to be taken advantage of. The current international market price for the Minimi was only around three thousand dollars. The innkeeper was demanding an extra two thousand, far too much.
“It's a very good price. This is the only place you can get it. You won't find it anywhere else.”
The innkeeper hurriedly explained the high price, invoking the principle of scarcity. He had the means to procure the machine gun and sell it, but it was essentially unavailable elsewhere.
Lu Hao nodded in agreement. Obtaining a machine gun did require connections. He looked at the pineapple grenades in the weapons cache, pondered for a moment, and then said, “Alright, I'll give you five thousand dollars, but you need to include five grenades and five hundred rounds of ammo.”
He knew he couldn't bring the price down, but he could compensate elsewhere.
“This…”
The innkeeper hesitated. The added value of the grenades and ammunition was about three or four hundred dollars.
“Boss, are you going to sell it? If not, I'll leave it.”
Lu Hao set the machine gun down, and the innkeeper immediately panicked. “Sell! Sell! Sell!” He said with a hint of anguish. “Five thousand dollars. Five grenades and five hundred rounds of machine gun ammo included.”
A small profit was better than none at all.
“Deal.”
Lu Hao grinned in satisfaction. After paying, he packed the machine gun, grenades, and bullets, and under the innkeeper's resentful gaze, went out. He stored everything in his storage ring when he reached an empty corner.
With this machine gun, his adventure would be much safer.
…
Time flew by. The next day arrived as scheduled.
Early in the morning, Jack and the others woke up. Lu Hao greeted Colonel Bird and formally joined their treasure-hunting team.
With the help of local guides, Jack and Ada hired four experienced locals from the market to lead them into the desert.
They filled the water tanks of their two SUVs and then set off, embarking on their desert journey.
Following their departure, Adolf and his hired mercenaries arrived at the Desert Inn, rescuing the two mercenaries who had been captured the night before. They learned from the innkeeper that Jack and his team had set out early that morning.
They pursued them relentlessly in their vehicles.
Originally, Adolf's presence as a guide would have ensured they found the base.
However, years had passed, and his memory had faded. He only vaguely remembered the location. Finding the old Bookey base would take time.
A map of the base would greatly expedite their search.
More importantly, Jack and his team had the keys to the base.
This was the reason they intended to attack them.
“The True God will punish you!”
The innkeeper, pushed to the ground by the mercenaries, gave them the middle finger and cursed angrily as their convoy left.
“Jack, I say that even if we didn't kill those two mercenaries yesterday, we should have broken their legs. That way they wouldn't be a threat to us during the treasure hunt.”
Lu Hao, guided by the military map and the local guides, was already on the way to find Bookey's base. As he sat in the passenger seat, he questioned Jack's decision to let the mercenaries go so easily.
Jack kept his eyes on the road, shaking his head. “We're here to find gold, not kill and plunder. Don't get carried away with violence.”
He was vehemently opposed to using murder as a means to achieve their goal. His past experiences demonstrated that he primarily relied on passive defense. Even when held at gunpoint, he never considered shooting. At most, he might disarm his attacker, knock them unconscious, and inflict some minor injuries.
If his attacker were to encounter any danger, he would likely jump in and try to save them, given his good nature.
While Lu Hao disagreed with Jack's compassionate approach, he had to admit that Jack was a good person.
Good people are often the ones who get pointed at by guns.
Ada and Ilsa exchanged glances in the back seat, simultaneously shrugging their shoulders to indicate their disinterest in the discussion.
They wanted to avoid such heavy topics.
Lu Hao sighed. He knew Jack was set in his ways. No matter what he said, Jack wouldn't change. Since that was the case, he would be the angel, and Jack the devil.
He had no qualms about killing those who plotted against them in the face of abundant treasure.
Thus, he decided to let it go and took out a pair of binoculars to scan the surroundings for any potential threats to their convoy.
At that moment, his gaze sharpened. He said in a strange tone, “Jack, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear?”