novelTelescope
| ← Ch.1142 | Ch.1144 → |
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Leaving Tucson behind and driving along HWY-86, they headed towards west. The landscape they traveled through was wild and pristine. It felt like a place tucked away from the outside world, existing in isolation.
The highway stretched into the most barren area of the Nogales desert. Other than countless green-white patrol trucks, sandstorms were the only thing that moved.
On the third day after the Nogales auction, a fleet of trucks appeared on the highway.
Conrad was sitting in one of the cars.
Princeps was concentrated on driving and his expression was sullen.
Conrad glanced at him and said, "Hey, bro, don't keep a long face. Why happened to you?"
Princeps said rigidly, "Nothing much, I'm great."
Conrad stretched both his hands behind his head. Then, he said, "We've already discussed this, buddy. You don't have enough money now to take down that warehouse. Let's partner up and work together, okay?"
The muscles in Princeps' jaw twitched and he turned his head to look at Conrad. He said, "Who says I do not have enough money?"
"If you have money, why would you need to borrow from your underlings?"
Princeps raised his voice, saying, "That's not borrowing money. This is just the rule of the Tucson gang. Everyone invest together and everyone makes money together!"
Conrad raised his hands, signaling surrender. He said, "Fine, fine, I understand what you mean. You keep your eyes on the road and drive safely. Now, how far away are we from Bullet Town?"
Princeps stopped talking and pressed on the accelerator with a sulky look. The heavy- duty truck ran forward more quickly, its engine roaring.
Bullet Town was a small town west of Tucson city. It was founded in the 19 th century, and at that time, a large amount of whiskey was brought into the town. That attracted money and human traffic, helping the town to speed up its development.
As implied by its name, there had been shootings in Bullet Town. When the western pioneering culture surged in the 19th century, the cowboys of the town solved many disputes with their revolvers.
There were many stalls and old-fashioned western-looking buildings in the town.
Unlike other places, the stalls in Bullet Town were not meant for rearing farm animals.
They were used as venues for the cowboys to fight each other.
In 1881, there had been a legendary gun battle. The Owen brothers and a doctor nicknamed Hurley formed a team against the McLaup brothers and Billy Cranton.
The six of them had been well-known cowboys in the West. They all possessed excellent shooting skills and were ill-tempered. Both groups decided to hold a gun battle to resolve their conflicts for good.
The Owen brothers and Hurley emerged as winners in the three-versus-three gun battle. Meanwhile, the McLaup brothers and Cranton were shot dead. The three of them had been buried at the peak of Kitt Hill. Today, a monument called Shooter Tomb stood there.
The auction that Princeps wanted to attend would be held there. Three days after the smuggler auction, Bullet Town would hold its local public warehouse auction.
The day before, after Conrad learned that Princeps had landed a high-value warehouse, his interest was piqued.
After snooping around when he returned home, Conrad realized that Hans had really brought some people along with him to leave Nogales. Li Du was the only one who stayed behind in Nogales to pack up the warehouses.
Then, he devised a plan to obtain more general information about the Bullet Town auction, shifting his target there. He had done so with the help of a treasure hunter he was close to, who was someone in Princeps' circle.
George Anthony's wide connections were not just for show. Conrad had mobilized his father's contacts. After conducting an internal search with the warehouse association, he realized that the in-charge of the Bullet Town public warehouse was related to
Princeps. The man was Princeps' younger cousin.
Just like that, after learning those details, he contacted Princeps directly to ask him what was going on.
Princeps had attempted to play it down when Conrad called him. He told Conrad that he did not know about the auction at Bullet Town.
Conrad knew he was lying, so he went to Tucson to get hold of Princeps.
In the end, Princeps had no choice but to bring Conrad along to the auction.
The truck stayed on course and Kitt Hill emerged not far away. Now that they could see the peak of the hill, it meant that Bullet Town was near.
Upon entering Bullet Town, Princeps seemed to have given up trying to shake Conrad off. He said, "Listen, Conrad, this warehouse is very important to me. You must know I have suffered great losses by ganging up on the Chinese dude with you guys. I need to make money."
Conrad nodded his head and said sincerely, "Yeah, I know."
Princeps heaved a sigh of relief."I also know that you need to show your dad what you can do. I will help you. When I find a valuable warehouse, I will contact you. This warehouse won't do, I have to get it myself."
Conrad continued to nod earnestly."I understand. It is yours. However, you don't have the funds, do you? Won't it be good for us to work together?"
Hearing that, Princeps drove his fist onto the steering wheel. His blood was boiling.
However, once Conrad glared at him, Princeps lost his courage. He could only raise his voice slightly as he said, "I have enough funds. If someone had not told the Chink about this, I could have taken down this warehouse with a few hundred dollars!"
"What exactly is inside?" Conrad asked."What information do you have?"
After hesitating, Princeps sighed and said helplessly, "Telescopes. There's an astronomical telescope that had once been used in the Kitt National Observatory."
Conrad said, disappointed, "Just a pair of retired telescopes? What's so great about that?"
Princeps laughed coolly."What's so great? That toy is worth millions!"
Conrad was surprised and asked in shock, "How can that be?"
Princeps replied, "This is a pair of international standard telescopes, true optical cannon telescopes. A new one is worth several times as much! Now that they replaced it, they temporarily moved it to the town warehouse. That's why I have the opportunity to take it!"
The peak of Kitt Hill was surrounded by the greatest number of observatories in the world. The location was considered as the heaven of astronomical observatories. The
US government had set up many telescopes of various types there. Every year, some of them would be replaced and stashed away.
As the car entered the town, a middle-aged man who looked just a couple of years younger than Princeps came to receive them.
The man passed a mobile phone to Princeps, showing him some photographs.
While Princeps was looking at the photos, Conrad joined in as well. He saw a photograph of a warehouse full of wooden boxes of different sizes. There were also photos of the different parts of various large optical telescopes.
The middle-aged man said excitedly, "Cousin, you have to grab this opportunity. This telescope has been temporarily stored in the town's public warehouse. However, the observatory has not communicated that to the government. The town council has no idea that there is something so valuable inside. The observatory administration does not know that there will be an auction..."
Conrad patted Princeps on the shoulder and said cheerfully, "Of course, we will definitely grab this opportunity, won't we? Hey, big brother Princeps?"
"Gotta check it out in the warehouse, " Princeps was very cautious. He put down the phone and said, "Cousin Jeremy, you open up the warehouse, I want to confirm that there is no problem with the telescope."
The middle-aged man removed a keychain from his belt and opened the warehouse.
They saw a bunch of boxes identical to those in the photographs.
Princeps handed over a wrench for Conrad to hold between the box and the lid while he loosened the screws to flip the lid open.
Once he did that, he saw an accessory that resembled a handle in the box. It was identical to the one they saw in the photo.
Princeps wanted to open another box, but his cousin said hurriedly, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, come out quickly. The officials are here to check on the warehouse."
Conrad pulled Princeps up and said, "Let's go, that's enough for now."
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