America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 366 Spoils of War

The naval soldiers who landed on the island immediately headed to the vault area.

The littoral combat ship arrived at the coastline of Soro Island half an hour later.

Those Haitian soldiers who had originally planned to sneak away by speedboat completely abandoned the idea after seeing the warships appearing on the sea, and obediently squatted down on the ground with their heads in their hands to surrender.

Soon, the chaotic situation on Solo Island was completely suppressed with the arrival of the littoral combat ship.

Many desperate criminals carrying money seized amphibious vessels in an attempt to leave the port, but they were blocked at the entrance and sunk by a single shot from a littoral combat ship!

Seeing this, everyone became obedient and surrendered.

After the situation stabilized, the hacker team also chose to land on Solo Island by submarine and patrol boat to meet with General Assad, who had been captured by the gunmen.

At that time, Assad was disheveled, with a gun pointed at his head and bound hand and foot. He was no longer the high-spirited man he once was. He even had several holes in his lower body and had lost the ability to move. He was treated with bandages to stop the bleeding.

"Hello, General Assad, it's an honor to meet you. We are members of the international organization ACR." The ACR members immediately greeted him.

"ACR? Is that the gang that specializes in petty theft? I never thought I'd fall into your hands. Are you working for the US military? Have you defected to them? I don't recall having any conflict of interest with the people behind you."

General Assad was pale and completely bewildered. "If you want money, I can give it to you, as long as you spare my life."

"That's not what you said before."

The ACR organization members just felt that he changed his tune too quickly. "As for whether to spare your life, that's not up to us. Even if you're tried and imprisoned, others won't let you off the hook."

"You have ruined me, and I am about to lose everything, but you cannot kill me, or you will be wanted internationally. Cooperating with the US military is not a good idea; once you lose your usefulness, your fate will be even worse than mine," Assad said.

"We never said we were cooperating with the US military; we just wanted to expose the bad things you've done and make some money on the side!" the ACR representative said.

"Don't try to fool me. If you didn't have US military support, where did you get your littoral combat ships from?" Assad sneered.

"The Littoral Combat Ship was stolen by us. After all, didn't you say we're international thieves! There's nothing we can't do, nothing we can't steal!"

A member of the ACR organization said, "A billionaire invested in Silver Island and wrested his assets back from the Colombian guerrillas. This littoral combat ship was his private property, but we took advantage of his inattention, bribed the people on his ship, and stole the combat ship under the guise of a patrol. Don't worry, this littoral combat ship will be back tonight, and no one will notice it left port! Not even the billionaire himself knows."

"..." Assad fell silent after hearing this.

"If it's true, you guys are really bold!! If it's false, I can't even imagine when I offended that billionaire."

Assad sighed. "What conditions will it take for you to let me go? I can give you all my money."

"Fool, even if we kill you, the money on the island will still be ours." The ACR organization member laughed.

Assad was very unwilling to accept this, but there was nothing he could do, since he had already been defeated.

"I have a backup video. If you want to blackmail those South American officials and make them work for you, it might help you, as long as you don't kill me."

Assad has used all the available bargaining chips.

But the Acr organization members didn't waste any more words with him. They simply had him blindfolded, tied up, and put in a car, ignoring his protests.

They immediately led their men to the underground command post in the attic to collect the damaged hard drives.

"Thank goodness, these hard drives only had videos and memory data deleted; they weren't completely damaged!"

"Quickly! Restore the data above immediately!"

"Didn't Assad say he had a backup plan?"

"He must have hidden those things in his base in Haiti. It's too dangerous there because it's full of Assad's people. It would be safer to have a professional steal and make a copy later. If all else fails, you can bribe the soldiers and technicians there."

"The most urgent task now is to open the vault, take out all the gold and treasure inside, and tally up the amount. After Mr. Jin has reviewed it, we can then distribute the profits."

"This is quite a workload. We need to contact the women who were trafficked to the island by Assad, as well as Assad's harem."

"The armory on the island also needs to be inventoried. Don't touch anything; those items are all owned and are to be handed over to Mr. Jin."

What will happen to those leaf processing greenhouses and drug manufacturing plants?

"We'll take some photos as evidence, and then wait for Mr. Kim to make a decision before we proceed. Once everything is resolved, we can contact our media friends and ask them to come to the island for an on-site investigation."

The Acr organization is arranging the work on the island in an orderly manner and has also made arrangements for the follow-up work.

Seeing that the situation on Solo Island was under control, the Grand Master on Silver Island also received a message from Captain Spike.

After considering it, Zhang Ailun waved his hand and called over Boketu, "Get the plane ready, we're going to Solo Island."

"Isn't it inconvenient to go there?" Boketu asked in surprise.

"As long as we don't show our faces on camera, it's fine. No one will recognize us in the dark. I only went there to see how much money is in the island's vault and the equipment in the armories."

Zhang Ailun said, "Let's get the plane ready, we're leaving now."

"OK." Boketu nodded, then turned and left the command center, preparing the plane at the airport.

Zhang Ailun also arrived at the airport by vehicle afterward, boarded the Cirrus Fathead Shark, and after Bocktu had adjusted the electronic equipment, the plane started up and left Silver Island for Solo Island.

It was already past midnight when we arrived at the airport on Solo Island.

The ACR group has recovered the data on the encrypted hard drive and obtained hundreds of videos containing scandals and incriminating information about South American officials on the island, including images of American officials and businessmen. No wonder Assad was incredulous about the US attack on him.

However, the Grand Master didn't care much about these things. What he cared more about was how much wealth he had gained from this mission!

The Cirrus Fathead Shark landed at the airport on Solo Island. Zhang Ailun had already contacted Spike and the ACR organization in advance to inform them that he would be arriving on Solo Island. Spike had also prepared manpower to come and meet him.

As Zhang Ailun disembarked, he saw several camouflage military vehicles parked beside the runway. Spike and his men were on high alert. Upon seeing the captain approaching, Spike immediately ran over, saluted, and said, "Reporting, Commander! Captain Spike reporting for duty!"

"No need for such formality, just tell me the current situation on Solo Island," Zhang Ailun waved his hand and asked.

"With the combined efforts of our soldiers, littoral combat ships, and Black Hawk helicopters, everything has been settled. Many fugitives and wanted criminals who attempted to cause trouble and escape have been dealt with. We have also opened the vault on Solo Island and obtained the gold, cash, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings by famous artists, and a lot of equipment from the armory. They are all waiting for you to come and take inventory and make allocations."

Captain Spike reported to the commander. He also took out a prepared list for the chief helmsman to review.

Zhang Ailun only had to pick it up and weigh it in his hand; the thick, solid feel of the printed paper already made him feel like he had made a very good purchase.

He only glanced at it a few times before putting it away and handing it to the person next to him, saying, "Take me over to take a look."

"Understood." Spike accepted the order and immediately began to gather his men to carry out the operation.

Zhang Ailun also boarded the military vehicle and drove to the vault on Solo Island. A dozen minutes later, he arrived at the junkyard, where there were still wreckage from the helicopter crash and armored vehicles burned to the point of being just steel frames.

Zhang Ailun got out of the car and, led by Spike, arrived at the entrance to the vault. The surrounding trash had been cleared away, revealing only an entrance that resembled an underground hangar.

"The vault has two entrances: one is a landfill, and the other is a sewage outlet leading to the sea. In addition to the treasure, the vault also contains clay explosives and C4 explosives. Assad wanted to come to the vault not only because he wanted to detonate the explosives, but more importantly, he wanted to escape through the other exit of the vault," Spike explained.

Zhang Ailun nodded and followed him up the steps into the vault. At first glance, it was a long corridor and passageway with miner's lamps and power lines hanging on it, nothing special.

After walking a short distance inside, there was an open iron gate, as thick as the iron gate of a bank vault. Inside was a spacious room where wooden shelves were piled with a large amount of gold, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, and antiques. Many people were also moving boxes in four-wheeled base vehicles.

Zhang Ailun's gaze was drawn to a square bronze artifact. Spike immediately introduced it, "This appears to be an antique bronze piece from Asia, over three thousand years old. It was purchased by Assad at a private auction for $2600 million. It also comes with a bronze lamp engraved with inscriptions. The seller seems to be from some antique company. According to him, the real ones are here, and the fakes are in museums."

"Yes, it's mine."

Zhang Ailun nodded and smiled: "It just so happens that I don't have many collections on my island yet, and the rooms are empty. I'll take it back and have someone make a fake one, sell the real one, and display the fake one on the island to make it look nice."

Anyway, he won't put the real stuff out for people to see. He's not afraid of thieves stealing it, he's afraid of thieves eyeing it.

"Understood." Spike nodded and immediately took out his notebook to write this down.

He then led the Grand Master to the place piled high with gold and explained, "According to Assad himself, most of his wealth doesn't stay in his possession. He spends it quickly after earning it, or he launders it and deposits it into bank accounts. So his actual wealth isn't as much as you might imagine. The actual value of this island is more than his money. After all, he supports so many people, undertakes so much construction, and has a harem of several hundred people—it's a huge expense!"

"The island has only $16 billion in cash and $5 million in gold reserves. Even with the collectibles, the entire vault is worth less than $30 billion! It's roughly $28-29 billion."

Zhang Ailun fell silent after hearing this.

What does it mean to only have 16 billion in cash?

Gold worth 5 million? That's less than 30 billion?

Damn, that old man Assad is really rich!

Hundreds of women, how can you handle them all?

However, as the owner of a private island, Assad also ran a drug trafficking operation, so the island's $3 billion income was relatively low. This was also because he was extravagant and spent a lot of money, making it difficult to save.

Colombian drug lords and cartels once amassed billions of dollars solely through drug trafficking in the last century. They had so much money they had nowhere to hide it but to bury it, and by the time it was unearthed, the money was moldy. In today's inflationary terms, it would be worth at least hundreds of billions of dollars!

The Grand Master couldn't help but marvel at how vigorous this guy was for his age; he must have been taking a lot of drugs regularly.

Looking at those collectibles, calligraphy and paintings by famous people, antiques and the like, he knew that if he wanted to sell them for money after taking them home, he would have to find someone to consign them, which would take a lot of time.

He pondered, "We only need a portion of the cash and all the gold. We'll ship all the money onto the littoral combat ship and take it back. Once things are on track on Silver Island in a couple of days, you can go back."

"Understood." Spike nodded in agreement immediately.

"Take me to the armory to see what's inside."

Zhang Ailun turned and led his men out of the vault. Spike followed them out, called for a car, and they drove to the armory.

"There are three armories on Solo Island, with hundreds of rifles, 26 military vehicles, only 2 armored vehicles left, and two Gazelle attack helicopters, but they look quite old. They weren't used in this operation, probably because there wasn't enough time, or maybe there were some internal problems. There are also 4 private planes of various models, which we intercepted from the airport."

Upon arriving at the armory, the leader got out of the car and saw the vehicles and weapons parked on the flat ground outside.

Spike also introduced the island's air-to-air and anti-ship missile systems to the leader, saying, "More importantly, there are the anti-air and anti-ship missile systems on the island. Because of this operation, they were suppressed by our intelligence and signal jammers throughout, so they were not used much. These missiles have a range of about 75 kilometers and are in relatively good condition. If we bring them back, they should also play a role in the island's security."

Zhang Ailun looked at the unidentified missile and fire control equipment, nodded, and said, "Then take them all back."

After touring the area with Spike, Zhang Ailun pointed to the armored vehicles and private jets and said, "All the private jets that can be flown will be flown to Silver Island. The armored vehicles and Gazelles will also be transported to Silver Island by ACR personnel. After that, they will be transported to Jehovah Island together, where our people will inspect and repair them before selling them through the Armed Nation's channels."

"Understood," Spike nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)