Chapter 496 - The Baldies’ Mutual Love-Hate Relationship
Chapter 496 The Baldies’ Mutual Love-Hate Relationship
“Bu, quan shi jie dou zai liu xing shuo zhong guo hua (No, Chinese is popular all over the world).” Luke smiled and spoke in Chinese without an accent, before he waved and ran into an alley.
The woman was stunned before she laughed. “Zhe lao wai hai zhen you yi si. Zhong guo hua shuo de hai zhen liu (This foreigner is interesting. His Chinese is really good).”
After this little interlude, Luke continued moving as he considered the intelligence that the tattooed man had divulged.
Christophe, also known as Mikhail Tejkovic, was active in South America, in places like Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Columbia and Brazil. He made a fortune dealing in firearms and illegal drugs. This matched the intelligence from the DEA bigshot; Lisa Feng, an informant or agent, had been investigating drug routes.
The troublesome thing was that while it was the tattooed man who had caught Lisa, he didn’t know what happened after she was sent to Christophe.
The tattooed man was just one of Christophe’s lackey leaders. He didn’t know any real inside information.
Luke was quite sure of this.
After all, if the man were important, he wouldn’t be wasting his time in the slums drinking beer and overseeing drug sales.
But the tattooed man did have some other information about the gang, for example, the whereabouts of the guy directly above him: He could be found at a club called Wild Jungle.
Luke bought a tourist map from a roadside newspaper stand and looked at it for a while, but couldn’t find Wild Jungle. Eyeing the harmless-looking owner of the stand, Luke took out a dollar and gave it to him. “Can you point out Wild Jungle for me?”
The owner of the stand looked at the dollar before he smiled and tapped a certain point on the map. “It’s here.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
The man had only given the map a cursory glance, and looked like he had just pointed randomly. The owner of the stand smiled innocently. “For the dollar you gave me, I assure you it’s right there. Also, the chicks there have big butts. You Americans all like it there.”
Luke chuckled. “Are you sure?”
The owner of the stand nodded. “Would a single, strapping boy like you come to Rio to see the statue of Christ? Alright, you’re very generous and easy on the eye, which is why I was straight with you.”
Luke smiled and gave him another five dollars. “You’re also very honest. Have a good day.”
The owner of the stand took the cash and watched Luke walk away. “Wow, American youngsters are really generous. He actually gave me more for complimenting him than for pointing out the way.”
Luke checked the map he was holding as he walked, cross-referencing it with the map he had memorized in his head.
He suddenly heard a din.
His expression changed and he raised his head for a look.
Several people had appeared on a roof dozens of meters away. As gunfire rang out, it became clear that one group was changing another toward the foot of the mountain.
Luke clicked his tongue. As expected of the slums in Rio; someone else had stepped forward while he had yet to do anything.
It looked like two men and a woman were running away, and a bunch of shooters were chasing them.
At first it was only a couple of people chasing them, which became a dozen or so that split up to come at the trio from two sides.
Luke leisurely found a corner with the best view. Holding onto the railing, he leaned forward to watch the chase.
While they were being pursued, the trio very quickly split into two teams.
One of the men, who was bald and brawny, drew most of the pursuers away. He pushed forward firmly over the rooftops of the slums, and reminded Luke of the parkour genius Reto in France.
On the other side, the other man and the woman seized the chance to flee. The distance gradually widened, and it looked like they would be able to escape.
But in the next instant, Luke heard gunfire ring out near the bald man. A window shattered a moment later as another bald man came charging out hot on the heels of the first bald man.
Luke was a little befuddled. What’s this? Everybody’s bald and brawny? Don’t tell me this is a brotherhood drama of mutual love and hate?
But he very quickly came back to his senses.
Putting aside the baldie in the front, the one behind clearly had standard operating equipment on him.
Looking at the badge which swung on a chain around the baldie’s neck, Luke was speechless. Had he run into a colleague here?
Naturally, to dare wear a badge so openly here, it was most likely the FBI. The DEA preferred to keep their identities under wraps, while the CIA wasn’t in the habit of revealing themselves.
The FBI was federal police. It wasn’t wrong to say that they were Luke’s colleagues, but it wasn’t likely that they were here on the same case.
There weren’t that many suspects in Luke’s case.
It could only be said that there were too many cases in Rio.
Luke sighed and watched as the chaotic chase and gunshots moved downward. Finally, with one last burst of concentrated gunfire, everything quieted down.
Only then did Luke walk down unhurriedly.
Passing by the end of a street, he stood on tiptoe behind the crowd as if he were just another innocent and curious passer-by.
The bodies of almost ten masked criminals were lying on the ground with their guns. Several men in bulletproof vests were discussing something. The second baldie was one of them.
Luke only gave them a few quick glances before he turned around and walked away. He wasn’t wrong; these people were from America.
Their actions, bearing and manner of speech were typical of the standard law enforcement teams. Their firearms were also top-class. Mercenaries wouldn’t wear FBI badges. If they went on a killing spree in Rio in broad daylight with FBI badges, that was just asking for trouble.
But why was the FBI here? Luke very quickly tossed the boring question to the back of his mind.
There were too many cases in Rio. He would cross that bridge when he came to it.
He got on a bus and studied the routes on the tourist map.
A moment later, he got off and took another bus.
He was quite relaxed as he appreciated the view outside the window.
At the very least, he had gotten off to a good start and had something to show for it.
As long as he had a lead to track down Lisa’s whereabouts, it would be easy to deal with the remaining problems.
The thing he hated most when working cases was a lack of leads.
As long as there were leads, nothing was too difficult for him.
Seeing that it was almost noon, Luke took the bus to the seaside and had lunch in a small restaurant.
Public hygiene wasn’t bad in Rio, or at least, in the tourist areas and the city center. There were no widespread illnesses here.
Also, as long as you weren’t planning to go into the jungle, a yellow fever vaccine usually wasn’t necessary.
As Luke looked at the girls in bikinis who were slowly gathering on the beach not far from the restaurant, he felt, for the first time, that his extraordinary eyesight wasn’t good enough.