144 The Plane’s Damaged (1/2)
The outdoor temperature now was around 10 degrees Celsius. It was a cold feeling as the seawater hit the legs. When the seawater gradually covered his head, Chen Fan leaned his body forward and swam toward the electric eel that was nearby.
At the hideout, the electric eel gently raised the ironclad so that its hatch was above the water. After Chen Fan slipped inside, it fastened the hatch again and dived underwater before tightening the toy-like valve.
What did it feel like laying on the mountain of boxes filled with USD? It would be a lie to say that one was not excited, but the dark enclosed cabin diluted much of the excitement.
After three hours and 15 minutes, the electric eel, as if on steroids, found its way to the seaside of the Virgin Islands.
At the border of Road Town and Russell Hill in the Virgin Islands, Chen Fan smoothed his wet hair and popped out his head on a beach cluttered with reefs. Chen Fan had spent more than 10 minutes finding this location. Its surroundings were covered with palm trees and tall bushes, and there was only one public road passing by a distance away. Not only was transportation inconvenient, its location was also very obscure.
It was already around 11 p.m. local time, and there wasn't even a car on the distant public road. After Chen Fan changed his clothes and attached the Kunwu dagger inside the ironclad onto his waist, he placed the sleeping bag he prepared beforehand under a palm tree and decided to sleep until the next day.
Here in the Virgin Islands where he was a stranger, Chen Fan couldn't find any hotel which didn't require a passport for registration.
......
The 23-year-old Birkdale was extremely happy! After being on the phone the entire night with his girlfriend who lived in Road Town, she finally agreed to go on a date with him to Mount Toro.
”Oh, Mount Toro…” As he was driving, Birkdale took out a small, squarish paper box and kissed it. ”My dear Durex, I'll be depending on you later!”
The journey from Slany to Road Town was over 40 minutes. In order to see his girlfriend earlier, the bright-eyed Birkdale couldn't help but keep stepping on the accelerator of his Ford. After driving for about five minutes, Birkdale suddenly saw something hilarious. At about 500 meters ahead, there was an Asian man wearing a black jacket with a cap and a pair of yurt sunglasses waving fiercely at the cars driving past. Needless to say, he was trying to hitch a ride.
However, this Asian man's luck was terrible. He continuously waved at three cars but not even one slowed down.
Haha, see how I'm gonna get dust on your ass with this Ford! Birkdale was full of evil intentions, and his gradually decreasing car speed suddenly shot up.
Nearing, nearing… Birkdale even started squinting his eyes, ready to enjoy the shock on the Asian man's face.
Screech… Suddenly, Birkdale's pupils magnified six times in astonishment. Within one-fifth of a second, his right foot pushed the brake all the way down, and the Ford under his butt dragged abruptly along the asphalt road for seven to eight meters. After that, Birkdale suddenly displayed the skills of a racing driver, pulling the reverse gear to make a small drift before stopping firmly beside the Asian man.
”Dear sir, is there anything that I can help you with?” Birkdale's fawning tone could even put an emperor's eunuch to shame.
”Go here!” Chen Fan waved the five attractive US bills and a note written in English, opened the door and slipped in.
”Yes, my lord!” Birkdale greedily took the five bills and the note written in crooked English words. Although there were some grammatical errors on the note, it didn't hinder Birkdale from recognizing it.
Seral Street—The world's second largest registered place of offshore companies!
...….
At 9 p.m. that night, an old green Volvo box truck clattered as it stopped on the road.
”Damn, this thing is real difficult to drive!” Chen Fan spat before jumping down from the driver's seat with an annoyed face. Chen Fan gotten the old-fashioned truck from a local Chinese, after paying a deposit of 20,000 USD and a daily rental of 1,000 USD, in order to transport the 20 huge boxes of US bills.
As he walked on the beach, Chen Fan couldn't put his mind at ease and switched to the electric eel mode again. Using its eyes, which were 100 times better than a night vision device to observe the surroundings carefully, he didn't see anything suspicious within 2,000 meters of the eel's sight.
Half a minute later, huge waves suddenly rose up beside a large reef standing underwater at 200 meters on the left, and a dark metal ship slowly came out of the water. Then, the metal vessel suddenly got flung up by a strong force and fell straight onto the beach.
At that moment, Chen Fan who was hiding at the side quickly jumped onto the beach, opened the hatch of the ironclad, and pulled out a huge orange plastic box from inside. The box was bought in Zhongyun. Before coming here, Chen Fan had already placed the bills neatly into 20 identical boxes, with 24 million USD in each box, to facilitate transportation.
Even if Chen Fan's physical strength was equal to that of a world's top athlete, he was still exhausted after spending three hours moving the 20 boxes weighing over 150kg each onto the truck.
...….
It was 8 a.m. the next day at the Swiss International Bank's branch on Seral Street in Road Town. The Swiss Bank is the world's largest asset management company and also the largest investment guarantee bank. Not only does it control a quarter of the world's wealthy people's assets, it is also the world's largest offshore financial center holding 30 percent of the world's offshore currency amounting to a total of 2 trillion Euros.
There was once a joke circulating among the employees about a wealthy man bringing a load of US bills into a Swiss bank and requesting to open a deposit account. The bank teller asked him, ”Sir, how much would you like to deposit?” The wealthy man looked around nervously before whispering, ”5 million USD.” The bank teller replied apologetically, ”I'm sorry sir, please go to the counter at the side for small deposits.”
As Chen Fan pulled a huge box into the 27-story building with a logo of three intersecting silver keys, he was totally stunned by the grandeur. There were countless rich people in suits and ties, and strong bodyguards beside them. The bodyguards were all carrying large aluminum boxes filled with money notes, and many were carrying one box with the help of a few of the others.
The black marble floor which reflected clear silhouettes beneath his feet, the luxurious crystal chandeliers above him, and the heavily armed guards cruising in the crowd fully showed Chen Fan the magnificence a world's top bank should have.
”Eighty-one, eighty-two…” Chen Fan stared blankly the endless bank counter number. The counters here could only be described as a super luxurious VIP rooms. Not only were they separated by black crystal walls, leaving only two thick glass doors, there was also a huge alloyed safe at the back of the room.
Chen Fan suddenly felt like a failure. He had initially thought that he was very cool pulling a huge box of 25 million USD, and hence walked arrogantly. However, he suddenly realized that he was wrong. The huge orange box in his hand did not attract anyone's attention at all, even though everyone knew that it was either US dollars or British pounds inside.
”Frog in the well!” Chen Fan sighed as he pulled the box toward the counter.
Two expressionless bodyguards with electric batons and pistols on their waists opened the glass door on each side to let Chen Fan in.
There were two blonde-haired, blue-eyed young ladies in black suits sitting beside the long table in the center. ”Hello sir, how can I be of service to you?” They asked in fluent English and a professional smile.
”Save.” Chen Fan lifted up the orange box at his feet and passed her a crumpled note. Although Chen Fan couldn't understand what the girl was saying, but the opening lines in a bank were roughly the same.
Swish, swish! Two white security guards quickly came over and lifted the box up before sending the stacks of US bills into the professional counterfeit money detector. In less than 20 minutes, the four employees, including the guards, settled the 24 million USD, and Chen Fan successfully received a proof of deposit which he couldn't understand.
After repeating the same thing for nine different counters, Chen Fan suddenly realized that what he did was a little unnecessary. This was overseas, and this was the world's second largest assembly point of offshore companies. This was also the Swiss bank which controlled the wealth of 30 percent of the world's offshore companies.
”Go, go.” Chen Fan patted the shoulders of the two security guards, pointed at the empty box on the floor and then gestured for them to follow him.
The two security swaggered as they followed Chen Fan out. After seeing that there were 10 identical huge boxes in the Volvo, they looked at each other before giving Chen Fan a ”you're impressive” stare.
In less than three minutes, 20 security guards rushed out from the bank and unloaded the 10 huge boxes from the car. Behind the guards was a staff-member who spoke fluent Mandarin.
”Dear honorable guest, how can I be of service to you?” The person bowed before asking in fluent Mandarin.
”Deposit this money into my company account.” Sitting on the soft couch, Chen Fan gave the cap on his forehead a tug as he took out a piece of paper with the bank account of ”Cruiser” offshore company and passed it to him.
”Just a moment please, we're verifying the funds!” The staff had the look of an old butler of an aristocratic family. It couldn't be helped, since 240 million USD and 24 million USD were not significant at all.
”Dear honorable guest, please do not worry. No other bank in the world can match our security measures here.”
”We've always implemented a ”no questions asked” confidentiality policy for deposits, and a ”no questions will be answered” policy for checks on customer data.” The staff-member probably saw Chen Fan's concern. ”As long as the offshore company account is registered here, I can guarantee that it will be the world's safest account.”
”Oh!” Chen Fan nodded, but still didn't remove his cap and sunglasses. Instead, he crossed his legs and leisurely drank the freshly ground coffee in the cup.
One hour later, the staff-member handed him a high-quality black bank card with three silver keys on it. ”This is the VIP card our bank specially provided for you!”
The person pointed to the bank card in Chen Fan's hand. ”You can go to any Swiss bank in the world and enjoy unrestricted manipulation of the remaining funds in the account, without the need to make any appointment. We also have dedicated service staff at your service 24/7, you only need to call the number here, and you will have ready access to your account information.”
After changing the password on the computer, Chen Fan kept the card and said, ”Alright, bye!”
”Please hold on.”
”We have the world's most professional wealth management team here at Swiss bank. If you entrust your assets for us to manage, we can guarantee that you will receive a minimum return of five percent! We also…”