Chapter 506: The Unfriendly Locals
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Du looked at the soldiers and suddenly realized: It wasn"t because of G.o.dzilla and Big Quinn that the others stayed away. It was because they knew this was the Air Force"s territory!
Tucson was one of the US military bases, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was located here too. It was probably due to the development of the manufacturing industry. People knew that Houston was the "s.p.a.ce City," and Tucson was known as the "Astronomy Capital of the World."
There were many businesses manufacturing astronomy machines, and they were very close with certain high-tech industries making missiles, parts of aircraft, calculators, electronic equipment, optical instruments and so on.
In the 1950s, Hughes Aircraft Company set up a branch for managing missile systems and it was the largest factory for manufacturing missiles in 1957.
They produced various types of missiles; for example, the BGM-71 TOW, AIM-54 Phoenix, AGM-65 Maverick, Roland anti-aircraft missile, and of course the latest version of the lightweight infrared homing air-to-air missile, the F-16 and F-18.
Therefore, it was not a surprise that Air Force soldiers were here.
Listening to what the soldiers were severely saying, Li Du was scared due to their tone. He thought, Are we gonna get beaten up by these military men?
Li Du was confident that with G.o.dzilla, Big Quinn and his fighting skills, they would win. But not this time—he was afraid of these soldiers with highly-skilled training.
Hans was in a totally different mood; he asked the soldiers carelessly, "What? The hotel we"re staying at said that we can use this area. Don"t tell me it belongs to the Air Force."
The black military officer nodded. "That"s right, can you share some grills with us? We have many people and not enough grills."
"What? That"s it?" Li Du asked in shock.
The black military officer nodded again with a serious expression on his face.
Li Du and his group had borrowed grills from the hotel. They had only needed to show their room key. Since they had brought extra, Li Du gave one of the grills to the soldiers.
The soldiers repaid them with two cans of beer.
Li Du felt relieved; apparently the US military wasn"t as scary as what the media had described.
Hans looked sideways at him and asked, "What were you afraid of?"
"I was afraid of getting beaten up by the soldiers," Li Du answered.
"Bullsh*t," Hans said; he didn"t appear to be bothered much. "There are so many people here that if a fight broke out the media could sneak in. As long as we don"t cause trouble, they won"t do anything to us—even if their base were behind them."
"I don"t think your att.i.tude towards them is very good," Li Du said. "We should be nice to them."
"Why? Why should we treat them differently?"
"These people protect us and the country. Without them, how could we even be here?"
"But I gave them protection money," Hans argued. "I paid taxes on time, so I paid their salary on time too. What"s the problem? I did my job, and they should too."
Li Du was stunned for a while and said, "Anyway, you were not nice to them."
Hans waved his hand dismissively. "Alright, you thought the soldiers were all patriotic like in the movies, right? That"s not true. Some of them are here because of the salary and self-interest. They might not necessarily love to protect the country."
Big Quinn nodded his head in agreement, and so did G.o.dzilla. Li Du stopped arguing with him and realized that different cultural backgrounds will result in different opinions. That was fair enough.
Anyhow, these soldiers didn"t bother Li Du and the group. They barbequed in their own territory.
Li Du wanted to find something out from the army, but was afraid that they might open fire at him if they were in the middle of discussing military secrets.
Fortunately, he had a new man: Lu Guan. He waved at him and asked him to do the job.
These soldiers were apparently talking about former president Bush and current president Obama. After hearing what Lu Guan had said, Li Du was shocked because it seemed like they weren"t happy about the current leader. He thought, Are they gonna start a secret rebellion?
They definitely wouldn"t. It was normal for Americans to curse their president, even for the armies and the Defense Minister. But one thing was for sure: they couldn"t even comment on the person leading the military district.
The next day, they finally drove to their destination, the Red Mount Storage Company.
This storage company was a large area located on the outskirts of Tucson. Along with the transformation of the urban areas, people living around the storage company had moved out one by one. Without the source of customers, the storage company was out of business.
A property developer had taken a liking to the property. The storage company saw the opportunity to gain profit, so they filed for bankruptcy, disposed of all the storage units and sold their property for money.
Li Du stopped the car and went into the storage company with Hans.
A few steps before they entered the building, someone blocked their way. Hans held out the cigarettes he"d brought but the person didn"t accept them.
Hans was puzzled by his reaction and said, "Do these guys think that they are guarding the military base? When did they become so responsible?"
Normally, guards at low-paying storage company positions would take any money offered.
"Next time, don"t buy stuff for them, give them some shopping vouchers. It"s more practical," Li Du said.
"Franklin would be more practical," said Hans. He took out some cash and offered it to the guard. "Bro, here"s 200 dollars, take it and go somewhere else for a minute. This is all yours man—200 dollars in cash."
The guard looked at him cautiously and asked, "What do you guys want to do?"
"Don"t worry," Hans said, "we"re storage treasure hunters. We would like to get familiar with this place before the auction tomorrow."
"If you"re worried, you can come with us," Li Du said.
The guard stared at the money in Hans"s hand; he licked his lips and said, "Alright, how "bout you go in, but not this Chinese dude."
"Why?" Li Du asked curiously.
The guard shrugged and said, "I can"t tell you that. That"s the only way to be familiar with this place."
Hans thought about this and narrowed his eyes at the guard. "I see. So someone has told you that if a Chinese man wants to enter the company, you need to stop him, right?"
The guard glanced at the cash in Hans"s hand. Hans immediately gave him some of it.
"Yeah," the guard blurted out after receiving the money. "That"s right. Bro, I can"t decide on this, it was ordered by our leader. I can"t turn against him, I don"t wanna lose this job."
Hans turned to Li Du. "Alright, someone"s targeting us. Probably the locals who knew that we would come for the auction and want to stop us from entering the storage company."
Li Du laughed, "Is that so? Looks like this city is rather unfriendly. We haven"t even met these people and they are already trying to make things difficult for us."
The treasure hunters were smart enough to realize that Li Du would always get something profitable from an auction. They had studied his treasure hunting pattern and discovered something unusual.