Chapter 989: Aha, Look What I Caught
Selina basically used cash for her daily expenses; otherwise her and Gold Nugget’s “cash stash” would be completely useless.
Luke had also asked Jenny to give the phone company’s shareholders a small year-end bonus. It wasn’t a lot, but Selina had still earned several hundred thousand.
Compared with last year, Selina had too much money now. Naturally, she chose to buy some gifts for her family.
The things she bought last year weren’t cheap either, but they were all normal household stuff, such as clothes, accessories, alcohol, and home appliances.
This year, the gift she had prepared for her father, Mario, was an Audemars Piguet watch from the Royal Oak Offsh.o.r.e collection, which cost more than 20,000 dollars. It couldn’t be considered too expensive, however — since Selina was getting her mother, Sandra, a diamond necklace that was around 50,000 dollars.
But as long as Mario was willing, he could wear the watch all the time. As for the diamond necklace, it was best to leave it in a jewelry box most of the time.
Selina had heard Sandra joke before that she would be lucky to own a diamond necklace worth thousands of dollars in this lifetime.
This year was a new beginning for the Hayek family. Selina planned to give Sandra a happy Christmas.
On the morning of the 22nd, Luke drove Selina, Gold Nugget, and several boxes of gifts to the airport.
Mario, the owner of Flourish & Prosper Ranch, promised that he wouldn’t be like before, when he wouldn’t leave the ranch for a period of time. He would go to Dallas Airport to pick up Selina so that she didn’t have to worry about moving her luggage.
After seeing Selina off, Luke relaxed.
Seeing that it was still early, he called Elena.
This girl wasn’t going back to France for Christmas this year. She said that it was because plane tickets were too expensive, so she decided to work in New York.
Of course, Luke wasn’t stupid enough to secretly buy her an all-purpose ticket as a Christmas present. A straight man like that deserved to be single forever.
He parked the car at the New Jersey villa and called a rental company to send a Ford Explorer over before he drove to Elena’s college.
Coincidentally, Elena’s college was in North Bergen.
A few kilometers north of the college was the Fraternity’s textile factory.
As Luke drove, he contemplated the Fraternity.
During this period, he would occasionally go to the textile factory in ordinary clothes at night.
However, he didn’t infiltrate it directly again. Instead, he used the mini drones which he had set up inside as surveillance to gather intelligence. After a long period of continuous surveillance, he obtained a lot of particulars about the Fraternity’s activities, and the intelligence he had continued to be fleshed out.
It was very hard to keep anything a complete secret in this world.
It was even more difficult to persevere and not let anything slip.
It was inevitable that there would be a lot of loopholes in an organization which had enjoyed hundreds of years of glory.
They weren’t real dinosaurs, however. Professionals would do a sweep of the textile factory practically every day, including for various electronic equipment.
Unfortunately, their detection equipment fell far short of Tony Stark’s first-rate goods, and Luke’s mini drones weren’t found.
There were also some leads on the origin of the medicinal bath which Sloan, that sly old fox, had been hiding.
Not long ago, the Exterminator had let Sloan know that the medicinal bath was about to run out.
After that, Sloan had gone out once, and when he returned, he gave the new ingredients for the medicinal bath to the Exterminator.
Thankfully, the drone had been keeping an eye on the room with the medicinal bath all this time, but if Luke hadn’t had Little Snail to help him a.n.a.lyze the situation, he might’ve missed this clue.
When investigating Sloan’s trip out this time, the multifaceted system had found traces of him.
Sloan, this outdated old man, had used a fake ident.i.ty and a lot of disguises, but had accidentally been caught by a girl who liked to take selfies. Thus, he was still tagged as a highly suspicious target by the multifaceted system.
Little Snail then investigated the possible routes he might have taken, and even more clues proved that it was indeed Sloan.
There was also a clear destination for the flight he took under a fake ident.i.ty: Iquitos in Peru.
Luke didn’t have time to go to Iquitos himself.
He simply found two famous private detective agencies over the Internet and paid them to investigate leads on Sloan and also investigate if there were any “legends” about something similar to a medicinal bath.
It was just a small amount of money. It would be best if he could get something, but it wouldn’t be a waste if he didn’t.
Once the origin of the medicinal bath was determined, the Fraternity was basically useless.
At that time, all Luke had to do was think about how to take down the entire Fraternity and earn as many experience and credit points as possible.
Taking one last look north of North Bergen, Luke parked the car outside Paland Academy of Art and got out.
On the side of the road at the gate, a pet.i.te figure was stomping her feet and s.h.i.+vering.
When the Ford Explorer drove over, she happened to turn around and walk toward the gate, so she didn’t notice it.
Luke picked her up and spun her around. “Huh? Look what I caught. It’s a beautiful girl.”
Elena, who was still in Luke’s arms, burst out laughing when she heard him. “No, I’m just a lost rabbit.”
Luke put her down and led her to the car with one hand while he patted the snow off her body with the other. “It’s a shame that I’m not a big bad wolf, but an animal protection advocate.”
The girl let him help her clean the snow off and said, “Huh? Shouldn’t you say that you’re a hunter?”
Pondering for a moment, Luke said, “But hunters usually carry double-barreled shotguns.”
Stumped for a moment, Elena didn’t understand what Luke meant as they went to the car.
Putting Elena in the pa.s.senger seat and closing the door, Luke returned to the driver’s seat and got into the car.
The heating was on in the car. Elena took off her beige hat and thick coat and put them in the backseat. She looked at him with a smile. “Are you on break?”
Luke shrugged. “Technically speaking, I’m supposed to be at work, but n.o.body checks up on me.”
Elena was curious. “Didn’t you just come to NYPD? Is your boss so relaxed with you? Wait, were you sent here just to warm an empty bench?”
Luke chuckled. “Let me correct your misconception. The bench is cold, but when I’m on the clock, I do have to sit on it; I can’t leave no matter how bored I am.”
Elena asked, “Then how can you skip work? Or are you planning to go back to work after we have lunch?”
Luke chuckled. “I’m not going to work today. I have a lot of time to show you the scenery around New York.”
Elena was happy at first, but then she remembered something and spat at him, her face turning red.
Hm, it wasn’t because she was shy. It was purely because of the heater.
Soon, they arrived at Times Square. After parking the car, they strolled around this “Crossroads of the World.”