The arms trade to Colombia that was embezzled thoroughly disrupted the first team-building exercise of the "Musician" Defense Company.
After Ivan left, the restaurant fell silent for a good while.
"Keep drinking!"
Ferrari suddenly broke the silence and stood up, raising his glass.
"Isn't it just a two million dollar deal? If we really got embezzled, let's consider it tuition. What doesn't cost a little tuition?"
"Chef, I warned you when you impulsively sold those arms. I said selling them thousands of miles away would make it easy to be embezzled, and look what happened."
The Chef sat there with an iron blue face, silent.
Ferrari moved to sit next to him.
"The arms trade isn't that easy. Right now there are three types of arms traders in the world. The first is the small-ti dealers, like so of the retail arms dealers in Africa who can just set up a stand in a market and sell as soon as the weapons are laid out.
These are usually supported by local forces, sourcing from wholesalers, making a small margin, and they generally don't attract too much attention."
"Then there are the underground arms dealers, selling globally in large batches with significant influence, even capable of affecting the situations in so small countries. These rchants have their own transport lines, their own rcenary teams, even their own fleets.
They have countless shell companies in various countries for the sake of transactions and they're familiar with the underground laundering systems and operations. They have connections with key figures in underground armories or ard forces around the world. As long as the money's right, no matter what political stance, they dare to sell. But it's easy to get targeted by these guys.
If they sell the wrong things in a conflict, they could beco targets for intelligence agencies or international police."
"Then there are those with licenses who sell arms above board, the military industrial complexes of various countries. They have their own factories, their own R&D teams, they sell arms under the banner of their nation. They're the emperors of the arms trade market. Anyone who dares touch their rchandise is basically challenging the state behind them; it's tantamount to declaring war."
White Bear couldn't help but interject, "So what kind are we?"
"Us?" Ferrari took a sip of his drink and laughed, "We haven't even reached the level of the first kind of retail arms dealer. At least they dare to sell openly. What about us? We neither have a transport team nor dare to sell openly, and we don't even have the ans to ensure paynt. Frankly, we haven't even touched the threshold of the arms trade."
White Bear was displeased, "We do have sources and transport routes, it's just that we don't have as much reach and we're not in Colombia! If that AUC organization was in the Middle East, it's not impossible for us to send a couple of platoons over there and give them a hard ti!"
"Hahahaha!"
Ferrari burst out laughing.
"You idiot, White Bear! With AUC having more than thirty thousand people, do you think we can handle them with just our two platoons? Do you think our little defense company can oppose an entire warlord group? They're up against the regular army of a whole country, what are we? This world respects power, not brute force."
"Ferrari! What did you say?! Who are you calling brute force?"
Ferrari's words hit White Bear's sore spot. He typically enjoyed mocking White Bear for being brawny but simple-minded, and this ti it was a clear dig.
"Am I wrong? Point out which part of what I said isn't fact."
In a debate, White Bear was definitely leagues behind Ferrari.
"I even doubt you're German. You're a Gaul, aren't you? I think you have more Gaulish blood in you!"
"That's still better than you Russians, always about fighting and killing!"
Before Ferrari could finish, a wine glass flew over, hitting him directly on the head, instantly scattering glass shards and splattering Ali.
Caught off guard, Ferrari howled as he clutched his head and leapt up, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
The wine glass had not been thrown by White Bear, but by Queen Julia.
"Ferrari, if you say another word about us Russians, I'll rip your mouth apart!"
"You shrew! A gentleman uses his mouth, not his hands!"
When it ca to fighting, Ferrari was no match for the White Bear couple.
The scene instantly beca chaotic.
Hunter and Grey Wolf quickly intervened, one holding back each side to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.
Disaster Star watched the commotion with glee, munching on a giant lobster.
Samir sat quietly on the side, not daring to even breathe heavily.
"You? Without Andre having to lift a finger, I could take you down myself!"
When Julia went crazy, she was like a hen protecting her chicks, hissing and cursing while rolling up her sleeves. If Grey Wolf hadn't held her back, she would have probably gone and beaten up Ferrari.
When Ferrari touched his head and saw blood on his palm, he beca even angrier.
"Take it outside! Let's duel!"
"Enough!"
Chef abruptly picked up a wine bottle and slamd it down hard on the table.
The wine bottle shattered on impact.
Blood seeped out from between the fingers of Chef's hand and dripped onto the pristine tablecloth.
The wait staff were already terrified.
Seeing blood, they quickly went to find a dical kit.
Quiet returned to the restaurant once again.
Song Heping, who had been silent all this while, stood up and went to the bar to get two fruit knives. He tossed one to Queen Julia and another to Ferrari, then sat back down in his chair.
"You want to duel? Here you go."
He pointed outside to the beach.
"The sand on this beach is so white and fine that when a knife gets plunged into soone's body and the blood spurts out, it's quite a sight on it."
Queen Julia didn't reach for the knife.
Ferrari seed to have regained his senses as well.
A waiter brought over the dical kit.
Song Heping went over, opened the kit, took out gauze and tweezers, and began cleaning and bandaging Chef's wound.
While dressing the wound, he said, "Each one of you now has tens of millions of dollars in their pockets, yet you fight with your own brothers over a deal worth two million dollars? You guys are real heroes..."
Upon hearing Song Heping's words, Queen's anger dissipated, feeling that she had indeed been impulsive earlier.
The mont Ferrari thought about his current net worth, he also cald down.
White Bear, hugging Yuliy's waist, cajoled her like a little girl: "Sweetheart, the boss is right, we were impulsive. Don't be angry anymore. I'll buy you a Patek Philippe when we go back and change planes..."
After finishing bandaging the chef's wound, Song Heping returned to his seat, wiped the blood off his hands with a tissue, and then looked around and said, "If this deal was indeed a scam, it's not worth risking our lives in South Arica fighting with those Colombians.
Ferrari is right, with our current strength, it would be difficult to take on more than thirty thousand people; going there would be suicide."
He turned his head to the chef and said, "If the money is gone, it's gone. Tell Ivan that these are all external possessions and advise him not to go seeking his death over it, it's aningless."
The chef responded gloomily: "He has to go. If he doesn't, he won't be able to explain to . Even Russian gangs follow rules; if he doesn't go, others will think he pocketed the money. So, Ivan will definitely go."
Song Heping said, "Warlords won't be reasoned with."
The chef fell silent.
At that mont, Song Heping's phone rang.
He picked up the phone and pressed the call button.
On the other end was Old Demon.
"Heping, I'll be bringing the boss to Baghdad in three days. Arrange for us to inspect the goods when we're there."
"Have you booked a hotel?"
"Not yet, hotels in the Green Zone are hard to book."
"Then I'll arrange it. Let's book the Jade Palace Hotel."
"Jade Palace?"
Old Demon sounded surprised.
After all, the Jade Palace Hotel in the Green Zone was currently one of the most luxurious hotels in Baghdad.
"Heping, haven't seen you in a few months; you've started living large, huh!"
"It's alright, I manage to make a living now."
"Alright, see you then. My flight is at eleven in the morning."
"I'll co to pick you up. Baghdad is still not safe."
"OK! The boss I'm bringing this ti is no ordinary person. He's very powerful, deals in everything, and travels all over the world. You can work with him if you have any business opportunities in the future."
Song Heping thought to himself, would he be doing arms deals?
But he still pretended to be polite: "No problem, I'd let him take to fortune if I have the chance!"
After ending the call, he looked around at the others in the restaurant.
Song Heping spread his hands: "What are you all standing around for, continue eating, continue with the vacation."
Seeing this, everyone else sat back down and started eating again.
White Bear brought a drink to Ferrari to apologize.
Ferrari too took the opportunity to gracefully accept the apology.
Alcohol is the lubricant between n.
After a few drinks, they started to hook arms and call each other "brother" with great affection.
Only the chef seed downcast, as his mood had been low ever since Ivan left.
Song Heping sat beside him: "I will return to Baghdad in three days."
The chef said, "Then I might as well go back too."
Song Heping said, "This place is booked for 7 days; don't waste it. Stay here and continue the holiday with them. A fellow countryman is coming to see . He's interested in buying the wood we saw at Yusuf's last ti. Our dostic furniture factories really like this type of wood."
The chef shook his head: "I'm not staying either... Song, I'll cover the losses this ti."
"Cover your ass," Song Heping said. "It's a company business mistake; there is no reason for personal compensation."
The chef said, "It was all my negligence..."
Song Heping said, "Don't take all the responsibility on yourself. Like Ferrari said, who doesn't pay tuition in business? Look at , I lost everything when I opened a shop selling generators in Baghdad..."
The chef said, "Right now, I am most worried about Ivan. I know his personality; he can't be stopped..."
Song Heping said: "If you can't persuade him, let him go. Sotis, n act even if they know it's dangerous, like intentionally going to Tiger Mountain; otherwise, they're not considered n."
The chef squeezed Song Heping's hand gratefully: "Good brother!"
Song Heping said, "Don't be so lodramatic; that's not like you."
After a pause, he continued: "Let's wait and see the situation. Actually, if those warlords really are too unreasonable, even if we can't eliminate them, we can't let them off without teaching them a lesson. Besides, we don't know the details of this black-on-black operation. Stay in touch with Ivan and find out why our goods were intercepted. Shouldn't we find out if we stepped on soone's toes?
Otherwise, arms transport is secretive; how could they intercept it without an insider?"
The chef's eyes lit up: "Right! There must be an insider! How could I not think of this before?! I was blinded by anger! I'll call Ivan later and ask him to check it out. We need to find out where the goods were robbed, by whom, and how."
"Okay, you handle this matter; I won't intervene. As for the money, I still stand by what I said, we're not too short on cash right now."
Song Heping patted the chef's shoulder: "If we really want to retaliate, it's not because of the money; it's because of our Defense Company's reputation. We've just ventured into this business, and if we let our first transaction go without a word after our goods have been swallowed, then others will dare to swallow our goods in the future."
"But, the opponents are ard warlords." The chef had to admit to himself the might of the AUC forces: "They have more than thirty thousand n; if we touch them, we could get wiped out ourselves."
"I'll think of a way; you just need to clarify the cause of the issue and who's involved. After that, we'll figure out a plan together!"
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