Shadow Empire

Chapter 541 Catastrophe
Charlie booked a room for two dollars a night, with a bathroom and hot water. For many people traveling long distances, including professional truck drivers, motels in the wilderness are like oases in the desert.

Not only can they get a short rest here, but they can also relax a little with the girls who work here and relieve the physical fatigue and desire caused by long-distance driving.

This small oasis brings hope and stability to all who travel this road.

"Okay, this is my room tonight!" Charlie couldn't help but say something as he pushed open the door.

Maybe he was telling himself that he hadn't stayed in such a bad hotel for decades, which gave him a very strange feeling.

It’s like... a big shot has arrived here, and they don’t know they are a big shot. It’s a very subtle emotion.

He put the suitcase on the bed, then checked the room, making sure there was no way in except the front door, and relaxed a little.

There was a dull, musty smell in the room, the wallpaper had begun to peel away in the corners, and there was a layer of mold on the wall behind the wallpaper.

He walked to the only window, closed the curtains, bolted the door, and propped a chair against the handle.

Then the only way to enter the room without his permission is through the window.

The windows in the hotel are of the up-and-down type, and there are very few double-opening windows, which is very inconvenient and affects the guests passing through the corridor.

To lift the window, they not only had to find a way to open the window latch, but also had to lift the window up.

So he made a very simple little mechanism, using a sewing kit he found in the drawer, connected the two glasses together with a rope, and then tied the middle to the window handle.

In this way, as soon as anyone opens the window, the two cups will collide with each other.

Whether it is a minor collision or a violent collision, it can at least serve as a warning!

After doing all this, Charlie stood by the window, looking at the soft bed, and finally he slowly lay down on it.

He lay at the head of the bed and placed his weapon under his pillow so that he could shoot at any time and anywhere.

After doing all this, he finally began to fall into a deep sleep in a daze.

He has been in a state of anxiety these past few days. Although this place is full of delicious food and there may be some genetic fragments left in the corners of the room, at least it makes him feel safe.

He took off his watch and placed it on the bedside table, then set the alarm clock on the bedside table. He wanted to leave here in the middle of the night.

It was his decision to stay in Likalai Province as little as possible.

Maybe he was too tired these days, both physically and mentally, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

The night is beautiful, and the night in the wilderness Gobi has a unique flavor. Occasionally, low roars and loud shouts can be heard from some rooms.

It is not easy to make money, especially making money from truck drivers!
It was past ten o'clock in the evening and the restaurant was completely closed. The chef packed up his things and locked the door.

His girlfriend was waiting for him at the door. She had finished work early and didn't need to clean the kitchen. She stood outside the door with her back against the wall beside the restaurant's main entrance, tiptoeing on one foot.

Even though she didn't do anything and just stood there normally, she gave people the feeling that... as long as you spend money, she can go to the room with you.

"The lights were off in his room for a long time," she said.

She had been staring at Charlie's room. She was engaged in illegal business such as prostitution, and occasionally she would get more money from clients through theft and other means.

Even if the guests sometimes discovered that she was stealing money, as long as her boyfriend appeared in front of them in time, the matter would be properly resolved.

The illegality of calling a prostitute is two-way, and if the clients do not want to wait for the highway police to come and go with them to the nearest highway police station, they may even be locked up for a few days.

Then they'd better choose not to call the police.

So this young couple is not honest.

Charlie met all their psychological assumptions about committing crimes——

First of all, he looked quite old, at least 55 years old and above. Being old meant that he did not have enough strength and power to allow them to escape in time if anything unexpected happened.

Secondly, he was very rich. Based on their understanding of rich people, they knew that these rich people were actually very timid and fearful.

They cared more about their own safety than the wealth which was not everything to them, so as long as they showed some fierce expressions appropriately, the old man would give up.

If the girl was not lying, she really saw a stack of twenty-dollar bills in the old man's wallet.

This amount of money alone would be enough for them to squander for quite a long time.

When they drive away, it will not be easy for either the old man or the police to find them.

Crimes committed on federal interstate highways are often difficult to detect, and cooperation between different police forces is not an easy task. Committing crimes on interstate highways is indeed the preferred choice of many professional criminals.

The girl saw the kitchen knife in the cook's hand, flashing coldly in the moonlight. She stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes, as if it was the first day she met him.

"Are you crazy?"

"We were just planning on stealing some money, not killing him!"

The cook put the knife into his sleeve. "This is just a precautionary measure. If he quarrels with us, we have to find a way to shut him up."

"You wouldn't want everyone to know that we were trying to put his money in our pockets, right?"

After the two looked at each other for a moment, the girl compromised, she felt that her boyfriend made sense.

The two of them walked slowly towards that direction, and the cook couldn't help but start fantasizing about the outsiders, as if the money was already in their hands.

"When I get the money, I'm going to buy another car," he said. "I bought our old car, which always gave us trouble."

The girl curled her lips, "How much money do you think is in that box?"

The cook thought for a moment and said, "I've seen a movie where it said a box this big could hold at least 100,000."

"One hundred thousand?"

"God, that's a lot of money..."

Both of their eyes were filled with the desire to get rich quickly.

"When I have money, I'm going to buy the dress we saw last time."

The last time they went to Jingang City, they saw a skirt in a shopping mall in the city center. It was a beautiful skirt with small embellishments made of shells and pearls on it, which looked beautiful.

The dress cost nine hundred dollars, which was breathtakingly expensive. After seeing the price, she found dozens of reasons not to buy it and then left.

As a poor person, a low-level poor person, they always have countless reasons not to buy something, and they even have the ability to find dozens of faults on a product!

But at this moment, the dress that was full of problems and shortcomings no longer had so many problems.

And I don’t need much reason to buy it - I have money!
Both of them came to Charlie's door with beautiful dreams for the future.

Their "dormitory" is also this kind of guest room, and they are very familiar with everything here.

The cook asked the girl to help him keep watch. He took out a piece of iron and inserted it into the crack of the door. The door lock opened and he pushed inside.

The chair that was stuck to the handle at an angle played a very good role. It held up the door and the door could not be pushed open at all.

"Fuck!" He pushed hard, but the door didn't move. He gave up and walked to the window.

The curtains blocked his view of what was going on inside, and he wished the window was unlatched, but unfortunately, Charlie was concerned about his own safety.

He immediately fastened the bolts on the door and the window, and after trying twice without success, the cook left.

Today's theft activity by the male and female thieves seemed to have ended before it even began.

The girl looked at him like, "What the hell do you have to say?"

The cook pulled her away.

"He is very alert. There must be something behind the door. I have unlocked the door, but the door cannot be pushed open." "The windows are also locked. This old man is too cautious!"

"I'm now absolutely convinced that his box is full of money. If it wasn't for money, he wouldn't have to be so cautious!"

In fact, many people do not lock the window latches when staying in motels, and some people even leave the window open a crack.

Whether it's opening a door or a window, there's always a way to get into someone else's room, but this old man...

"What should I do?" the girl asked. "Go back to sleep?"

The cook was unwilling to accept that so much money flashed past his eyes, but he got nothing. After thinking for a while, he said with his not-so-smart brain, "Go knock on the door."

"Should I knock on the door?" the girl repeated, "and then should I tell him to hand over all his money?"

She looked at her boyfriend as if he was a fool!
"You'd better wake up. I know that's a lot of money for us, but we don't have any other options now. This means God has let us stop here!"

The cook couldn't help but interrupt her, "Shut up!"

"listen to me!"

He looked at the girl, and she met his gaze. He continued, "You went to knock on the door and asked him if he wanted any service. Didn't you say he gave you an extra two dollars tip?"

"Just tell him you're grateful to him, and if he doesn't want to do it, give him a blowjob."

"Anyway, just take your chances. As long as he can open the door, it'll be fine!"

The girl was silent for a while. She felt inexplicably resistant in her heart, maybe because... the old man gave her an extra two dollars tip?

But she quickly wiped away these thoughts of resistance. She lifted her skirt and unbuttoned the two buttons on her dress, revealing some of her white flesh.

She ran her hands through her hair to make it fluffy, then she and the cook came to Charlie's door.

The cook stood close to the door. The girl took a deep breath and knocked.

The banging on the door quickly woke up the sleeping Charlie. His hand almost immediately grabbed the pistol and turned off the safety.

There was a gleam of sharp light in his open eyes, but he did not move at all, maintaining the same appearance as when he was sleeping.

If you don't look closely, you won't even notice that he is actually awake.

When he observed that there was no one in the room, he slowly sat up.

"Who's there?", he asked.

He turned on the desk lamp and looked at his watch. There was still an hour left before his scheduled time.

He put the gold watch on his wrist. Although the time had not yet come, he was almost done with rest.

"It's me, the waiter in the restaurant. You should remember me."

The sound coming from outside the door reminded Charlie of the waitress. He rubbed his face and put the pistol into the holster. "I said, I don't need room service."

"Ah...well, sir, I appreciate the tip and I thought I had to do something for you."

"Or maybe I could give you a blowjob?"

"I just wanted to repay you."

Charlie smiled after hearing this and said, "Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need it. You see, I'm already very old. I don't have any needs in this regard."

In fact, Charlie still had needs, but not at this time, and not for a woman of this level.

Even though he has lost his status and everything he owns now, as long as he still has money, he can enjoy the best treatment in another city instead of staying in this rural place and taking the same route as those truck drivers.

Who knows if there is a smell of engine oil in it?
She looked at her boyfriend in a daze. The cook leaned close to her ear and whispered something. Then the girl's voice came from outside the door again.

"Sir, you are a good man, I tell the truth."

"I didn't get any work tonight. If I can't pay, they will beat me. Please, let me do something for you..."

Charlie frowned. He didn't analyze the girl's words too seriously, but just had a rough understanding.

In this seemingly ordinary motel, there actually exists a small force that organizes and operates call girls?
But then he thought about it and felt that it was not strange, because these businesses here are "exclusive businesses".

There may be only one motel like this every two or three hundred kilometers. Their business is very stable and the prices are not cheap, even much better than those of some small gangs in the city.

If we can also sell some alcoholic beverages, it will definitely be a business that can make a lot of money.

But he really didn't need the girl's service, and considering that he didn't want to get into trouble or draw attention, he finally decided to help the girl.

Let her into the room, then don't do anything, give her ten dollars, and let her stay in the room until dawn.

And if he drove away at this time, some people who had an impression of him might think that he had just left in the morning.

Although there is a high probability that he will not need these people, what if?
He removed the chair from behind the door, unbolted it, and opened the door.

The girl was just outside the door. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly thanked him and walked into the room.

Charlie turned around and was about to close the door, but there was no sound of the door closing. He looked back in surprise and saw a young man rushing in with a knife in his hand, and the knife was already on his neck.

The girl stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes, "Are you fucking crazy?"

The cook glanced at him sideways, said nothing, just pushed Charlie into the room and closed the door.

Charlie tilted his head to glance at the girl, then looked at the cook. He pointed at the clothes on the bed and said, "The wallet is in my coat pocket. You can move the knife away. I will cooperate."

He already understood that he was targeted by the two thieves because he showed the "change" that he had never cared about.

He really wanted to curse now, but he held it back because he had to ensure his own safety.

He has handled many cases, many of which were similar situations. Everything was going peacefully, but a tragedy occurred because the victim yelled or provoked the perpetrator through other means.

People like this who come to rob with a knife are generally impulsive. If they are provoked, Charlie really thinks he will stab him.

The cook's attention was fixed on the clothes, and he motioned to the girl to get the wallet.

Seeing that things had developed to this point, the girl had no choice but to do as she was told.

Soon, she took out the wallet, and when she opened it, the thick stack of cash inside made both of them look wildly surprised!
"So much money!" The girl took out the bills and was about to count them, but was stopped by the cook.

"Go check the suitcase."

The girl reacted at this time and walked towards the suitcase. The suitcase had no password, so she opened it directly. Several stacks of twenty-yuan bills tied with rubber bands inside drew the two people's attention away from Charlie.

One stack is two thousand yuan, and here there are about fifteen thousand yuan. Although it is still quite far from the chef’s "dream", it is already very good for them!

"We're rich!"

The girl turned around and looked at her boyfriend in surprise, but the surprise on her face soon turned into shock. She saw that Charlie was already some distance away from her boyfriend, with a cold expression on his face and his hands already in his arms.

"He's armed!" the girl screamed.

The cook turned his head suddenly and looked at Charlie. Seeing Charlie took out the weapon in his arms, his scalp tingled and he advanced instead of retreating.

Although he is just a minor character, he also has his own judgment and ferocity. At this moment, he exploded!

At the moment when the gunshots rang out, he didn't even feel any pain. The knife in his hand was swung at Charlie as Charlie kept shouting "Fuck!"
He felt that he could easily kill Charlie alone, because the gun was not as fast as his knife!
But in the next second, he fell to the ground with a thud, and all he could hear was his girlfriend's screams and Charlie's curse of "bitch".

Bang, bang, bang, three more shots. Charlie cursed and looked at the cut wound on his arm. He kept cursing the most unpleasant words in his life, closed the suitcase again, put on his coat and rushed out!
The gunshots alarmed the entire motel. The lights in some rooms went out all of a sudden, but the lights in some other rooms suddenly lit up.

Charlie rushed back to the car, started the engine, stepped on the accelerator, and the car rushed out in an instant and disappeared into the night...

(End of this chapter)