America: Starting with the Last Liberty

Anthony was awakened by the sound of his colleague opening the door. He glanced at his watch and dozed off for about 20 minutes.

Here, your iced Americano.

"Thank you! An iced Americano is the only thing that can save my life right now!"

Anthony quickly picked up his coffee and took a big gulp; the bitter Americano instantly invigorated him.

"Anthony, what's going on?"

"Pete, what could possibly happen in a place like this?"

Pete looked up at the Pacific Standard Bank not far away, his expression turning somewhat strange.

"Why is the bank closed?"

"It's probably lunchtime, and I'm starting to feel a bit hungry. What should we eat for lunch?"

Anthony still didn't pay attention, but Pete sensed something was wrong.

"That can't be right! The bank didn't close at lunchtime yesterday! Did something happen?"

Pete looked at Anthony, whom he had seen slacking off when he got in the car.

There's not much to say about this, since everyone has times when they slack off. But if something goes wrong while you're slacking off, that's a big problem.

Anthony's eyes widened. He had only dozed off for 20 minutes, and hadn't heard anything unusual during that time.

"No, really? I didn't hear anything loud!"

"It would be better to go and take a look!"

Pete quickly got out of the car, checked his service weapon, and then walked toward the Pacific Standard Bank.

Anthony downed his iced Americano in one gulp, wincing from the cold, and pulled out his sidearm to follow.

Upon entering the bank, the two plainclothes police officers noticed that all the windows of the Pacific Standard Bank were covered with curtains.

This is highly suspicious!

"Anthony, you stay here at the front door and keep watch. I'll go around to the back door and check!"

Instead of knocking on the door to ask, Pete wanted to go around to the back to see what was going on. He happened to see four people carrying large and small bags getting into a van.

Three of the four people were wearing overalls and animal masks, while the fourth person was wearing a suit and a clown mask.

"How could a respectable person dress like this?" Pitt revealed his identity and issued a warning.

"LAPD, get out of the car immediately for inspection!"

This question startled the four people in the car, but Pete responded with laughter and something that looked like a walkie-talkie.

Goodbye, officer!

After saying that, the van sped away, completely ignoring Pete and his warning shot.

"Fuck! Stop the car! Stop the car right now!"

Anthony, who was at the main entrance, rushed over after hearing the gunshots and saw Pete in a fit of impotent rage.

"Pete, what happened?"

"I just saw four suspicious people drive away! Fuck! They've probably already robbed the bank!"

"How is this possible? How come there wasn't a sound at all during the bank robbery? Are all the people in the bank idiots?"

Pete glared at Anthony, knowing that the other man's slacking off might put them both in a very difficult position.

"We'll find out when we go in!"

Entering the Pacific Standard Bank branch through the unclosed back door, Anthony and Pete indeed found the vault open and a group of hostages bound, blindfolded, and gagged.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck! The bank really got robbed!"

Anthony immediately took out his phone to contact his boss, only to find that the phone had no signal at all.

"Why is there no signal?"

Pete immediately recalled the walkie-talkie-like object that had been left behind in the van.

At first, Pete was startled, thinking it was some kind of explosive device, but now he realizes it was probably something that interferes with electronic devices.

"Damn it! These robbers are well-prepared! Let's get back to the car and give chase, maybe we can still make it!"

"Pete, what about these hostages..."

"Leave it to the guys behind! Listen, we have to catch up with those guys right now, or it'll be too late!"

Pete remained perfectly clear-headed. He could tell from the fact that these robbers had managed to rob the vault and escape undetected in less than 20 minutes that they were a group of well-prepared, highly intelligent criminals.

They can even produce high-tech equipment like electronic jammers.

If the van isn't tracked down quickly, the Los Angeles Police Department may never catch these people again.

Anthony reacted quickly, and the two ran back to the car. One started the car, while the other called his boss, Vincent.

"Boss, something's happened! Those robbers have already looted and left!"

"Fuck! Why did it take you so long to call me?"

It won't be easy to catch up with the car Rosen is driving, especially since he modified it himself.

Phil and Dennis, sitting in the back row, were celebrating wildly. This time, they not only successfully obtained the large amount of jewelry mentioned in the intelligence, but they also found a batch of gold bars.

That's incredibly lucky!

"Phil, how much do you think these gold bars are worth?"

"It must be a lot of money!"

Phil didn't have the ability to estimate the approximate value of gold, but Rosen provided the answer.

"Around 100 million."

Dennis looked at Rosen with curiosity.

How did you know?

"Based on the current market price of gold, and by estimating its approximate weight, we can calculate its value. However, this is just a rough estimate; if sold on the black market, it certainly wouldn't reach that figure."

Gold is still relatively good, after all, it's a hard currency, and the price fluctuations on the black market aren't too significant. Jewelry, on the other hand, is the item whose value fluctuates the most.

Unless it's a rare, well-known jewel, like the Heart of Africa or the Tear of the Ocean, a top-tier piece of jewelry.

If you take ordinary jewelry to the black market, you're lucky if you can get half the market value in US dollars.

The phone showed that the total revenue from this mission was over 1.6 million US dollars.

This is already the calculated value; it's roughly the same amount you'd get on the black market.

In other words, each of the four people can get about 40 US dollars, which doesn't seem like a lot.

Of course, for most Americans, this is already a huge sum of money.

However, Rosen felt that the risks and rewards of this line of work were not quite equal, after all, it was a life-or-death situation!

If you really want to get rich quick, those on Wall Street are even more ruthless; they truly use legal and compliant methods to harvest wealth from the pockets of every ordinary person.

Just then, Donnie's pants vibrated in the passenger seat; someone must have called.

At that moment, Phil and Dennis were cheering loudly, so they didn't notice.

Rosen glanced at Donnie.

Aren't you going to answer?

Donnie thought for a moment, then took out his phone, ready to throw it out the window.

Rosen grabbed Donnie's arm.

"Don't throw it away! This phone looks pretty good!"

"This phone was a gift from that person, and I never want to see it again!"

Rosen frowned at these words; he knew, of course, that the person Donnie was referring to was Vincent.

"Wait, you're saying he gave you this phone?"

"right!"

No wonder the errand hasn't shown as completed!