America: Starting with the Last Liberty

Chapter 115 Secret Alliance 4K

Lopez, with an air of knowing what he'd been through, continued spouting pretentious nonsense.

"I had a similar reaction when I first saw so much gold. Back when I worked at First Bank, I saw even more gold than this!"

Rosen was one of the most composed people on site, besides the security chief, because he already knew there were five tons of gold in the St. Martin's Bank.

So Rosen complimented Lopez again, and took the opportunity to observe the situation in the vault.

"Mr. Lopez, I didn't know you worked at First Bank."

"Ha! Those are all trivial matters!"

Lopez's expression grew increasingly smug; hopefully, he'll still be smiling in a few days.

The vaults of the St. Martin's Bank were much larger than those of the Pacific Standard Bank branches.

To put it bluntly, the vault of a Pacific Standard Bank branch is not much bigger than the bathroom at Bonanno Manor.

The underground vault of the Bank of St. Martin was more than ten times the size of the vault of a branch of the Pacific Standard Bank.

The surrounding walls are covered with safes of all sizes, numbering at least five or six hundred.

This is a bit troublesome.

Many of the assets Francis transferred were bearer bonds, which were likely stored in these safes.

If he had to pick each lock one by one, Donnie would be exhausted before he could finish.

It seems we need to find another way to open the safe, or at least reduce the size of the safe.

We still need to prepare for both possibilities. Bearer bonds don't take up much space, but their value is equivalent to gold.

These bearer bonds are much more cost-effective than gold.

Inside the vault were some brand-new US dollars, stacked neatly on the table like a brick wall.

However, with the shock of the gold in front of them, these US dollars didn't leave as deep an impression.

"Mr. Lopez, may I film these gold bars and US dollars? I think it would be very impressive for the audience."

"Of course, no problem at all!"

Since Francis was already dead and couldn't possibly oppose Lopez anymore, he was quite generous.

So Rosen carried his camera and filmed the gold and dollars from all angles, and also took detailed pictures of the walls.

To Rosen's surprise, he didn't find any places where the earthquake had caused problems.

The walls inside the vault were in perfect condition, with no signs of repair.

If the walls have been repaired, there will definitely be a color difference, unless all the walls are painted all at once.

But given Rosen's understanding of America's capitalists, they certainly wouldn't do something so unnecessary.

Who pays for the extra cost of painting the whole thing again?

Furthermore, clear water lines were visible on all the blank walls, which perfectly matched the serious water leakage problem mentioned in the intelligence report.

Otherwise, you wouldn't see these water lines.

Could it be that—

Rosen looked at the safe on the wall and a possibility came to mind.

That is, after the structural problems of the underground vault were repaired, the walls were converted into new safes.

The only way to confirm this is to check the condition of these safes.

Unfortunately, Rosen didn't dare to keep filming the safe, and could only wait until Donnie, a professional, checked the video footage to see what was going on.

"Are you done filming? Can we leave now?"

Rosen nodded, and then, out of the sight of the surveillance cameras, threw a spy pen under the table piled with US dollars.

The group filed out of the vault, watching as Lopez and the security chief locked the vault door again.

Megan then prepared to say goodbye to Lopez.

"Mr. Lopez, filming is complete, we're ready to wrap up."

"So eager? Why don't we chat a little longer?"

Megan didn't want to see the greasy Lopez for even a second longer, and hurriedly shook her head.

"No, there's still a lot of work to be done. We still need to do editing, reviewing, dubbing, and so on. Time is very tight."

"That's such a pity!"

Lopez looked regretful, but could only watch Megan leave with Rosen.

However, just as Rosen was about to leave the St. Martin's Bank, he unexpectedly saw an acquaintance.

"Mia?"

Hearing someone call her name, Mia turned her head to look in the direction from which the sound came.

Rosen immediately realized that he shouldn't recognize Mia in his current appearance, and quickly turned his head to look in another direction.

Under the cover of the shoulder-mounted camera, Mia couldn't find anyone calling her and thought she was hallucinating.

"Jack, what's wrong?"

Megan looked at Rosen strangely.

"It's nothing, I mistook you for someone else, let's go."

The TV crew packed up their equipment and drove away from St. Martin's Bank.

Rosen had Franklin make a copy of the video, and then got off at a random place.

By the time Rosen returned to Bonanno Manor with the video recording, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.

As soon as Rosen got home, he saw Audrey waiting for him.

These past few days, Audrey has been greeting Lawson at the door every day, even more punctually than a professional butler.

"Mr. Rosen, you're finally back!"

As soon as she saw Rosen, Audrey started chattering on about what had happened during the day.

Rosen was very surprised after hearing this.

"Such a thing actually happened? What about Madam?"

When Sofia was mentioned, Audrey's expression became somewhat strange.

Mr. Pastore took Sofia and Eva out and hasn't returned yet.

Almost as soon as Audrey finished speaking, Sofia and Eva pushed open the villa door.

"Rosen?"

Sofia looked exhausted and was in a very bad mental state.

"What happened?"

Sofia lowered her head, looking very downcast.

"Rosen, let's go upstairs and talk about it."

Rosen could sense that Sophia's mood was off, so he nodded in agreement.

"What are you going to talk about? Can I join in?"

Audrey didn't want to leave Rosen's side so soon, so she tried to force her way in.

Fortunately, Eva knew about Sophia's situation and pulled Audrey away from Rosen.

"Audrey, don't you like listening to my stories? I'll tell you one now!"

"Ah! Eva, wait a minute! It's not bedtime yet!"

No matter how much Audrey struggled, she was no match for the professional assassin Eva and was eventually dragged into the guest room.

As for Rosen and Sophia, they went to the master bedroom.

Sophia collapsed onto Rosen's lap and suddenly began to cry silently.

This reaction puzzled Rosen greatly.

"Sophia, what happened?"

After crying for a while, Sofia finally answered Rosen.

"In the afternoon, Luca took me to the Cathedral of Santa Maria and made me swear before Jesus Christ that I would never remarry. If I did that, he would hand over the power of the Bonanno family to me completely."

(Sofia Bonanno)

Late at night, in an upscale bar in Saint-Gabriel.

This bar is Antonio Costa's core business; he usually spends his time here, even entertaining guests.

However, Antonio has been in a very bad mood lately, spending almost every day drinking alone in this bar.

Unfortunately, Francis's transfer of assets caused the Bonanno family's cash flow to dry up, preventing Antonio from receiving his share of the dividends in advance.

But Frank didn't care about any of that; he had already helped Antonio kill Francis, so Antonio had to pay the money no matter what.

Therefore, Antonio had to borrow money from all over the place, and finally managed to repay half of Frank's debt. He could only pay back the rest slowly.

There will definitely be interest, and it won't be low.

If you calculate it all, Antonio may have wasted two years of his career.

So at this moment, Antonio was drinking and cursing Francis, completely forgetting that he was the one who was worried that Francis would expose him and was eager to kill him.

Even after Frank's first attempt failed, he spent a huge sum of money to have the other party make a second attempt.

"Mr. Costa, someone is looking for you."

Setting down his brandy, Antonio looked drunkenly at his men.

"Who?"

"It's Mr. Felice Marino."

"what?"

The visitor was somewhat unexpected for Antonio.

At the last gathering at the Church of St. Lucie, Antonio and Felice had effectively broken off relations, so the two would absolutely not meet during this period unless absolutely necessary.

Antonio, his eyes glazed with drunkenness, looked at his subordinates, momentarily unable to understand why Felice had come to find him.

When Antonio's men saw that he was not speaking, they assumed that he did not want to see Felice.

"Mr. Costa, should I say you're not here?"

Antonio shook his head.

"No, let him in! This is my territory, why should I be afraid of him?"

The subordinate nodded and left.

A few minutes later, Felice walked in with two of his men. When he saw Antonio, who was drunk, he couldn't help but smile.

"Antonio, drinking alone? Did something happy happen?"

Antonio looked up and glared at Felice.

"If you're here to spout this nonsense, then get out of here right now!"

Antonio's harsh words did not deter Felice. He gestured for his two men to step back, and then one of them walked over and sat down next to Antonio.

Give me a wine glass.

The bartender dared not offend Felice, who was considered a big shot to him.

Then Felice picked up the brandy in front of Antonio and poured himself a glass.

The two drank a glass of wine in silence, and then Felice suddenly spoke.

"How long has it been since we last drank together like this?"

These words plunged Antonio into a state of nostalgia.

As people get older, they naturally tend to reminisce, and Antonio is especially prone to doing so now.

After a long pause, Antonio looked at Felice with his cloudy eyes.

"Felice, what are you trying to say?"

"I heard that Luca intends to have that woman succeed him as the head of the Bonanno family."

Antonio knew that the woman Felice was talking about was Sofia, but he didn't react much, as if he had already accepted it.

After all, Antonio could support Francis as the leader before, so it wouldn't be strange if he supported Sofia now, as long as it makes money.

However, Felice could not condone Luca's actions of supporting Sofia, so he grabbed Antonio's face and made him look at himself.

This action nearly triggered a stress reaction from Antonio's men on the scene.

Fortunately, Antonio knew that Felice didn't intend to fight, and he gestured to stop his men from coming over.

"Antonio, how long are you going to stay so decadent? The Bonanno family was built by us under old Martin's leadership, how can we hand it over to that pretty face?"

As mentioned before, Felice is a conservative within the Bonanno family, so he can accept Francis as the head, as long as there are no procedural issues.

After all, Francis had served as the Bonanno family's strategist for several years and had been involved in many family affairs.

But what about Sofia?

Before Martin's stroke and hospitalization, this woman was merely a figurehead, never contributing anything to the family.

At most, he presided over family affairs for a few days after Francis was arrested, but this achievement was as good as nothing in Felice's eyes.

Therefore, Felice could not accept Luca's choice at all.

Antonio gave a sarcastic smile; he knew Felice wanted to become the head of the Bonanno family.

This ambition may have existed for a long time, but it only came to light after Martin Jr.'s death and Martin Sr.'s hospitalization.

"Felice, even if Luca chooses Sofia, what can you do about it?"

Luca has the highest prestige among the three, and unless Antonio and Felice join forces, they cannot defeat him.

"Let's join forces!"

Antonio thought he was hallucinating from drinking too much, and kept rubbing his ears.

"What did you just say?"

Felice repeated it again.

"Let's join forces, Antonio!"

"Felice, are you serious? And why should I team up with you?"

Felice looked into Antonio's eyes with a very serious expression.

"I'd rather you be in this position than see that woman as the leader! Antonio, I know you don't have that much ambition, so why don't we make the leader position a term-based system like the president's? I can nominate you as the first leader, and after three or five years, you can hand over the position to me, so I can have my turn too, how about that?"

These words really touched Antonio.

If Antonio were to become the head of the Bonanno family, he would have the opportunity to pay off his debt to Frank in the shortest possible time.

You could even make a fortune!

Moreover, if the two of them team up, they do have a very high chance of defeating Luca.

"Are you really willing to nominate me as the leader?"

"Of course! But we need to draw up a contract: after you've served as leader for a certain number of years, you must hand over the leadership to me!"

Although Antonio wasn't very ambitious, Felice was still worried that once the other leader got used to his position, he wouldn't want to give it up.

Therefore, this contract is still very necessary.

Antonio closed his eyes and thought it over carefully, then made a determined move.

"Okay! I'll do it!"

Antonio filled both of their glasses with wine and then clinked glasses with them.

"Cheers! To our long-awaited collaboration!"

"Cheers!"

The two of them downed their glasses of brandy in one gulp.

"Felice, where should we begin?"

"Antonio, actually, I've been monitoring that woman through the servants at Bonanno Manor. I heard there's a young Asian man with her, they're definitely having an affair! We can do this and that—"