Several minutes later, a middle-aged man behind Takagi coughed.
Takagi then said goodbye to Luke. Clearly, it was about time for his appointment with the major client.
Luke bade him farewell politely and saw the old man off.
After Takagi’s car drove away, Luke walked back with a smile. “Everything about him is great, except that he doesn’t have to be so courteous.”
Selina patted her chest. “Good thing I wasn’t the one who saved him; my back would break from all that bowing.”
Luke couldn’t agree more.
After that coincidental encounter, nobody else disturbed them as they enjoyed lunch in peace.
As Luke drove home at noon, he and Selina analyzed the situation. “That site is too big, and it’s not our jurisdiction. Stark Industries also has tight security. We won’t be able to use the surveillance cameras on the car to monitor sensitive areas in the site, or fly the drones to monitor the environment. We can only count on ourselves.”
Selina also felt helpless.
If it were another company, all they had to do was set up surveillance cameras at a few key locations. Coupled with a few drones, this could have been an easy assignment, and there would be no need for them to patrol on foot at all.
She could only say, “Let Gold Nugget help out. It’s much better than a police dog.”
Gold Nugget whined unhappily, but it didn’t know what it should protest about.
It was indeed better than a police dog, but it still didn’t like the comparison.
Luke nodded. “Alright. If we have to split up, you’ll take Gold Nugget with you, but don’t forget the safety rules.”
Gold Nugget barked again to show that it had already remembered them.
Luke comforted the dog with a smile. “Protecting Selina without exposing yourself is going to be a long-term thing. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I have to remind you when necessary.”
Seeing Gold Nugget fall silent, he comforted it again. “Look, there’s five left of the top quality burgers which I bought at noon. They each cost fifty dollars. Do you know whom it’s for? Tony Stark, one of the richest people in the world.”
Gold Nugget’s little bean-like eyes were filled with curiosity.
Luke knew that this guy had recently become interested in money, and he explained, “Take the house we’re living in, for example. He can buy a hundred of them with the money he earns in one day.” Selina was stunned. “A hundred?” Luke’s villa was worth a million dollars, and a hundred of them meant a hundred million dollars! She couldn’t imagine what it meant to earn a hundred million a day.
Luke shrugged. “That’s just my guess. You can’t take the public financial statements on how much Stark Industries makes annually at face value. In any case, the money he earns in a day is enough for us to have the best burgers for a lifetime.”
Sparkling dollar signs seemed to flash in Gold Nugget’s eyes.
Looking at the dog, Luke coughed and said, “Of course, Stark Industries is mostly focused on military weapons, and generally speaking, companies like these are rougher and wouldn’t mind employing research methods like skinning and slicing.” Gold Nugget trembled and promptly woke up from the temptation of money.
Even if I become rich, I can’t buy good food to eat if I’m dead. There was a whisper in its heart.
What if the fiend is bluffing? There was instantly a retort from another voice.
Don’t forget what we saw in Selina’s memories. If those secret agencies really catch us, they’ll definitely torture us for research, the first voice argued.
Fine, the human beings in this world are really cruel. Let’s just lay low by Selina’s side until we have a better understanding of the situation. The other voice instantly surrendered
During the symbiosis, Gold Nugget had learned a lot of general knowledge through Selina.
In Selina’s mind, the military and certain US government research organizations were like hell. Although these impressions were basically from movies and TV, Gold Nugget believed them without any doubt.
That was because Selina avidly believed them herself.
Everything was peaceful the day before the expo opening
Luke and Selina spent the day familiarizing themselves with the Stark Industrial Park. Nothing happened that required their intervention.
On the day of the expo’s opening ceremony, they arrived at the venue on time and saw hordes of cars and people flooding the site.
A hundred police officers had been deployed from Eastside police department to help maintain order, but it was still complete chaos.
It wasn’t a Stark Industries problem, but the weapon enthusiasts who visited the industrial park were being too disorderly.
Some of them were on their own, and some were in groups. They were absolutely disorganized, undisciplined, and aimless.
When they arrived at the industrial park, they took photos, bantered, bickered, scuffled and ran amok.
The troublemakers were a minority, but with more than ten thousand visitors to the park, the hundred or so Eastside police officers were swamped.
At that moment, reinforcements from the other police departments arrived.
Whoever caused trouble and didn’t listen to reason were escorted to the patrol cars and delivered straight to the temporary holding cells in the police department.
If they calmed down, they would be released at night.
If they didn’t calm down, they would be kept in custody for 24 to 48 hours. If they were still unwilling to give in, they would simply be arrested as long as there was evidence of their misdemeanors, and they would be charged later.
was
If that happened, they would miss the entire week of the expo. Thanks to these heavy-handed measures, while the expo was slightly chaotic, it was still within manageable range. In the morning, Luke and Selina threw a dozen overly restless guys into the patrol cars and had them sent to the police department.
They weren’t all that diligent, and didn’t bother with the ones who only made a minor fuss, or they wouldn’t have time to drink water or even take a piss the whole morning.
At half past twelve, Luke finally sat down in the public square to eat the top-range burgers which Selina had bought beforehand.
It was a good thing he had gotten Selina to buy the burgers and other food at ten o’clock, and put them in an insulated box.
According to Selina, the fast food restaurant was already full when she got there; the regular burgers sold out the moment they were ready.
The top-range burgers were made by separate cooks, however, so Selina was able to return with the burgers in ten minutes.
As they chatted, they observed the crowd around them.
The square which had been empty a couple of days ago was now absolutely packed with people who were lying or sitting everywhere. It looked like a refugee camp.
Luke and Selina searched for a long time before they finally found some shade. They spread out a blanket on the ground and sat down.
Many of the visitors also sat directly under the sun to rest and eat.
Luke was reminded of his visits to popular scenic spots during the holidays in China in his previous life.
Suddenly, he saw a bus arrive at the main building in the industrial park, and a bunch of people who were all dressed in suits got off.
Luke noticed a company name on the bus – Weyland Corporation. He knew that it was a company that dealt in telecommunications and robotics, and that it had a close partnership with Stark Industries.