An invisible cab driver would certainly be very convenient for Luke’s operation.
He could drive himself, but that might draw unwanted attention.
As long as he gave Daniel enough money, however, the man would take him anywhere.
Of course, Luke didn’t ask Daniel to take him directly to his destination. He wasn’t an idiot, and wouldn’t trust someone he had just met so easily.
Actually, it wasn’t the first time that Daniel had taken rich kids who wanted to have fun to the unruly areas.
He felt that Luke had been able to make it back from neuf trois previously only because Luke was lucky. He didn’t make the connection between Luke and that shocking case in neuf trois two days ago – to Daniel, that seemed more like a gang fight.
As they chatted, Luke learned that Daniel was about to get married and was in dire need of money.
Compared with French people, most Americans could almost be considered diligent.
Most French people would bask in the sun or enjoy a cup of coffee if they could choose not to work.
Although not everybody was like that, it was the general attitude in France. It was normal and understandable for most people.
So, although Daniel had made plenty of money as an illegal cab driver, he barely had any savings.
He was about to get married, but didn’t even have enough money to buy his fiancée’s father some gifts.
Luke’s money had helped with some of that. At the very least, Daniel had the money now to buy some presents and some decent clothes.
It was slightly past four in the afternoon.
It was the beginning of January, so the sun was already starting to set. The sky turned gloomy, and it soon started drizzling.
Luke looked at the sky and disappeared into an alley.
Five hours later, Luke returned to the building that his apartment was in. He thought for a moment before he made a call. “Elena? I’m downstairs. Can you toss down the key to the door?”
But the door of the building opened five minutes later. Behind the door was Elena in her pajamas. She was quite excited. “You’re back?”
Luke was both amused and touched to see her. He said, “Just go upstairs now in case you catch a cold.” He then entered the building and closed the door.
Returning to his room, Luke looked back at Elena and said helplessly, “Elena, weren’t you sleeping?”
Elena exclaimed and said, “Of course, I’m going back.” But she didn’t move.
Luke said helplessly, “I’ve had a busy day. I’ll take a shower and go to bed. Good night.”
He entered his room, pulled the curtain shut, and took off his clothes.
Thankfully, Elena soon returned to her room instead of remaining outside the door.
Luke wasn’t in a rush. He still had one more week in Paris.
Thinking that, Luke took out clean clothes from his backpack and took a shower.
Then, he set his alarm, dried his hair, and went to bed.
The bedding which Elena had given him in the afternoon smelled of detergent and sunlight, which was quite comfortable.
Luke soon fell asleep.
At seven the next morning, Luke opened his eyes and got up.
He first did some warm-ups on the roof, mostly to stretch his arms and legs.
This was hardly exercise for him, and was only meant to adjust his body so that it was in prime condition after a night of sleep.
Ten minutes later, he was done with his warm-ups. He stopped by Elena’s room on his way back.
Elena’s curtain was only half-closed. Luke narrowed his eyes and peeped into the room, only to discover that Elena was still sleeping with her back to the window, and that she seemed to prefer sleeping in the nude.
So, Luke had quite the view.
Enjoying it for a few seconds, Luke went back to his room to get ready.
If I’m lucky at the start of the day, I should be lucky the whole day, right? Luke thought optimistically.
Soon, all his preparations were done. He called Elsa on his way downstairs.
Elsa complained angrily and told him to get lost because he was interrupting her sleep.
Luke’s ears were keen enough for him to hear a man on the other end of the phone say, “… You’re up?”
With a weird look on his face, Luke hung up and saw that it was half past eight.
It was the perfect time for people on vacation to sleep in, particularly for a certain woman who might’ve been very busy last night.
He had breakfast in the little coffee shop on the street corner. The boss of the shop generously gave him two additional croissants. Luke thanked him with a smile and got to work.
He took Daniel’s cab to the 13th arrondissement and gave the driver five hundred euros. Then, Luke walked into Chinatown.
The small stores and the square Chinese characters on the signboards were quite familiar to him.
He almost felt like he was on a street in a small city in China back in his previous life, where most people could buy everything they needed within a range of several hundred meters.
Restaurants, butcher shops, barbershops, clothes stores, bookshops, and many other stores could be found here.
Luke enjoyed himself as he wandered around the place and did a bit of shopping.
The greatest benefit of this place was that it was impossible to track what he bought, because there were too many people here.
After a day, nobody would remember that Luke had visited this place.
Luke bought everything he needed in an hour, including certain things that were quite rare on the market, such as certain top-tier electronic products and materials.
It wasn’t hard for him to purchase the items he needed because Luke offered to buy them for much higher than the market price.
Leaving Chinatown in satisfaction, Luke took a cab to the 18th arrondissement and found the lair of the human traffickers.
Luke listened to what was happening in the base from the roof of a nearby building; he had already placed several simple bugs in some of the rooms the day before.
He soon heard a piece of good news.