American variety show: The Godfather, the Peace Ambassador, what the heck?

Chapter 138 Golden AK
Albany, at the exit from the city.

The police have set up a checkpoint here, searching each vehicle to confirm its passage. Due to the low efficiency, it has caused traffic congestion, with vehicles lined up in long queues on the road. Many drivers are banging their horns and sticking their heads out of their car windows, cursing the government for not respecting human rights and privacy.

When Hobbes flew overhead, he saw a chaotic scene; even the noise of the propellers couldn't drown out the incessant honking of car horns.

Seeing that there was no open space to park the planes below, he simply took the walkie-talkie and communicated with the police officers who were checking the area. The information he received confirmed that no garbage trucks had left the city, and the 14 trucks were still in the city. The police were trying to retrieve surveillance footage to find the trucks.

However, in this day and age, although surveillance equipment exists, it is not particularly widespread, and government-led surveillance projects are few and far between. Most of the surveillance equipment is private. There have been many citizen demonstrations to protest against the federal government's large-scale installation of cameras in public places, and some have even smashed surveillance equipment.

Freedom and privacy must not be violated!
Secondly, the police don't have enough personnel specifically dedicated to analyzing surveillance videos.
"Hobbs, the salvage team has confirmed the news. They dived into the cargo ship's wreckage and searched; it was full of scrap metal, no gold! The gold is still on land!"

Hearing the news from his subordinates, Hobbes calmly hummed in agreement, his gaze sweeping once more over the congested road below.

A plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain?

But now that the tiger has realized what's happening, where can these foxes hide?
The fox has arrived at a gas station on the outskirts of Newburgh.

There's only one tanker truck here; the other dozens of trucks have all scattered in different directions. At this juncture, it's simply unrealistic to try and transport them all at once. The only solution is to spread the eggs across multiple baskets; if one basket is empty, there are others to take care of.

Moreover, it was Simon's own suggestion that they go their separate ways, which suited Luca's wishes perfectly.

At that moment, Simon stood outside the truck, using his phone to inquire about the other transport vehicles and the current intensity of the official manhunt. The more he learned, the heavier his heart became. Given the current level of the official manhunt, how could he possibly leave the United States?

Running away without the gold would be easy, but carrying so much gold and trying to leave under the watchful eyes of the authorities seems like a pipe dream.
After hanging up the phone, Simon walked to the front of the car and came to Luca's side. "Pigeon, what's your plan now? The federal government has closed the border. We were only able to get through the Albany checkpoint by taking advantage of the chaos, but your tankers definitely won't be able to cross the US border."

I never intended to go there. Luca shook his head: "The land route is blocked. Do you remember where you originally planned to transport the gold from?"

"Sea route?"

“Our family owns garbage transport ships. We’ll transport the gold as garbage. We’ve been using the garbage route for many years, and nobody checks us at sea.”

"sounds good."

Simon chuckled self-deprecatingly and said with a smile, "I should have prepared more ships back then. Even if one was blown up, I could still leave in the other ships."

Unfortunately, Simon ruled out this plan. Taking so much gold by sea would have been like trapping a turtle in a jar; once the Federation reacted, there would be no way to escape at sea.

In the end, he devised a plan to sacrifice his teammates and lure the enemy away from their stronghold. He used the shipwreck and the New York bombing to attract the federal government's attention, luring the authorities to the sea and buying them enough time to escape.

It seems that only half the battle has been won. In addition, the subordinates who went to attack McClain have lost contact, presumably having been dealt with by McClain.

That said, back then, even with so many mercenaries, my brother couldn't take down McKlain alone.

Simon became increasingly upset.

"Where's your bomb? A bomb like the one in the school, we can use it to continue dealing with the Federation," Luca suddenly asked.

“The bombs at the school are fake.” Simon glanced at Luca. “I’m a soldier, not a monster, although I sometimes work for a lot of monsters.”

soldier
Luca's gaze flickered slightly. Even the lowest-ranking soldiers in the Mafia used the word "soldier." When the Mafia Council and the family framework were established, the first Godfather, Luciano, envisioned a mafia family where orders were strictly followed and obeyed unconditionally.

They simply modified the military's methods and applied them to the underworld.

These rules remain in effect today, and the fact that they have made the Mafia the most powerful criminal organization in the United States proves that they are indeed very effective.

Simon continued, "Where do we go next?"

Luca: "The oil refinery is in the way of all this gold. We need to melt it down and then figure out a way to get it away."

Just as he finished speaking, Luca received a phone call—many transport trucks had deviated from their course and were not heading towards the destination Luca had given them.

Upon hearing this news, Luca narrowed his eyes and looked at Simon beside him. "Your men didn't follow the route I planned."

“I arranged it,” Simon explained calmly. “To avoid being caught in one fell swoop, I made them leave the United States through other means.”

"At a time like this, you still want to cause trouble?" Luca's voice dropped a few decibels. "Let me remind you, if you don't follow my instructions and get caught by the Federation, you'll have to bear the losses yourself. I won't be responsible for anything! I'll still get what I'm owed. I'm not going to split the rest of the gold with you."

"So I didn't remove all the cars from your plan, just a portion of them. I didn't touch the portion that belonged to you."

"It sounds like you asked me for help more than just this?" Luca immediately realized this possibility. Simon's whereabouts were exposed by him, which was not part of Simon's original plan. Now this guy actually has other routes to leave the United States?

“I’m used to having a few backup plans,” Simon shrugged, speaking frankly. “Pigeon, you can’t guarantee your plan will be 100% successful either, can you?”

Luca laughed. This guy was incredibly audacious, robbing the Federal Reserve was truly unprecedented, yet he was also very cautious in some ways.

new York.

Arms dealer Yuri Orlov once again secretly left home without telling his wife and children, making up an excuse to go on a big business deal.

On the way to the port, Yuri turned on the radio to continue listening to the news: the bombing, the Federal Reserve, and gold.
"That madman Simon actually robbed the Federal Reserve!"

Yuri's hands, gripping the steering wheel, were sweating profusely.

Jesus! At the time, he thought it was just a German lame joke, but it actually became a reality.

“Shit! Where did he get the bomb?” Yuri swore he had only sold some guns and bullets, and at most a few dozen grenades, which was far from enough to blow up the Federal Reserve’s vault.

But there's no point in dwelling on that now. What's more important is that Simon needs to use his channels to ship the gold out of the United States—Yuri has his own transport planes and ships, and they all have proper documentation.

Yes, he is a legitimate private arms dealer.

Although they often use fake documents to sell illegal equipment—for example, selling Russian combat helicopters as medical evacuation aircraft to African warlords—they only need to remove the weapons and missiles from the aircraft and sell them separately.

Selling missiles and aircraft separately is legal, but assembling them together is not.

Yuri admitted that he took advantage of a loophole, but the procedure was proper, and the international police couldn't do anything about it.

Having been in business for over a decade, Yuri has transported all sorts of things: weapons, diamonds, drugs, and more. Because some warlords were short of money, they could only pay with diamonds and drugs. Last year, during a drug raid in New York, drug prices went up, and Yuri found that he had actually made a little extra money.

Yuri never transported gold; it was fresh gold stolen from the Federal Reserve. At most, he helped the son of an African warlord transport a gold AK.

To some extent, Yuri felt that there wasn't much difference between the gold AK and the gold AK; the only difference was the design.

"Let's get the goods over here first." Yuri rubbed his forehead in frustration. Although Simon had agreed to give him a share, he was now being watched by Interpol, and those people had already gotten to his doorstep.

To smuggle this batch of gold away, Yuri needed to consider the best approach. The easiest way would be to mix it with weapons and transport it using official company documents. However, given the current uncertain situation in New York, the stringent federal inspections, and the presence of Interpol, Yuri felt this wouldn't be an easy task.

Ten p.m.

Police and the FBI have cordoned off the area around an auto repair shop in Albany.

“The good news is that we’ve found the missing trucks,” Denham shared with Hobbs, who had just arrived. “The bad news is that all the gold is gone; Simon and his men have moved it a second time.”

Hobbs frowned, strode confidently to the front of the carriage, inspected it, and asked, "Any other clues? Such a large quantity of gold, besides trucks, what other means of transport could they have used on land to move it?"

Such a large quantity of goods could only be transported by land, besides trucks, by rail. Hobbs had already made arrangements for this, and the entire New York State rail system was under surveillance.

The two then exchanged information about the auto repair shop and the inspections at various checkpoints in New York State. After reviewing all the information, they still did not find any car containing gold.

They checked not only trucks, but also passing cars, and still couldn't find anything.

Not long after, Denham received a call from Luca.

Luca: "There's good news and bad news."

Denham: "What a coincidence, that's exactly what I was saying to Hobbes."

"The good news is that Simon is right next to me."

"???"

Denham looked puzzled, then excitedly shouted, "Heavy gift crab! Old Pigeon, you found Simon?! Where is he?"

“It wasn’t me who approached him, but he took the initiative to contact me. He wanted to cooperate with me to help him ship his gold out of the United States.”

Luca joked on the phone, "Denham, he wants to give me half of his gold, which is a whopping 700 billion! To be honest, that's very tempting."

Denham: "Old man! Don't be stupid! You can't handle that gold! It's not just American gold; other countries around the world have a lot of gold stored in the Federal Reserve, including Italy, France, China, Japan, and dozens of other countries and organizations. If you take that gold, you'll be making an enemy of the governments of the whole world!"

Luca was stunned. "Holy crap, China also has gold stored at the Federal Reserve?"
“Uh,” Luca sighed, “that’s why I said this is good news, because I’m planning to help you get your gold back.”

Denham breathed a sigh of relief. "Old Pigeon, I knew I hadn't misjudged you."

Luca, munching on an Oreo, said, "Don't get too excited yet. The bad news is that Simon has scattered these gold pieces. I only know the whereabouts of some of them, and I don't know where the others went. But he's hoping to cooperate with me now. I can stay by his side and help you get information out of him. Give me some time. Also, I need your cooperation to help me gain Simon's trust."

Denham had no doubts about the mix of truth and falsehood in the conversation. Since Old Pigeon had made the call and shared so much information, it meant that he was on the side of the Federation.

Denham immediately found Hobbes and told him the news.

The muscular man with less than 15% body fat looked somewhat surprised when he heard about this.

This mafia is actually pretty interesting.
They really cooperated with the police in solving the case!
After thinking for a moment, he took the phone and spoke to Luca. "Luca, thank you for your help. How can we cooperate with you?"

(End of this chapter)