Chapter 56 Alliance (2/2)
”Alright.”
Red Rock was full of rubbish storage units. Old and run-down, with not much value, the starting bid was low. ”Unit 012, 012 012, the starting bid is fifty bucks, anyone willing to go higher than fifty?”
”Here.”
”Alright someone has taken it for fifty, what about a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, anyone up for it?”
”Five hundred!” A bright voice rang across the crowd, surprising the treasure hunters.
Li Du turned his head and saw that the one who spoke was a huge man with a full beard. He had shades on and wore a stern expression, one like a bodyguard.
Hans looked, and said in a soft voice, ”D*mmit, The President's Umbrella. That guy came too.”
When he heard these words, Li Du was shocked. ”Did I hear you right? That guy has connections with the President?”
Hans laughed. ”That’s his nickname. See, he’s always wearing some neatly-ironed suit, shades and a stern face. Doesn’t he look like a bodyguard? That’s why we call him the ‘President’s Umbrella.’”
This guy was very wealthy and had a good eye. His well-calculated bid scared off almost all the treasure hunters.
Someone made another offer, but The President's Umbrella immediately shouted a bid of eight hundred dollars, successfully crushing the other treasure hunter, and claimed the first unit.
Seeing this, Hans nodded, and said, ”It’ll be him then—follow me.”
The two went to The President's Umbrella. ”Hey, Rawls. How have you been doing? Looks like you’ve been earning well.”
The President's Umbrella remained unsmiling. ”Not too bad. I went to Florida for a while and made some spare change. Not as much as you guys.”
”There’s not much time for small-talk, so I’ll cut to the chase. How about we form an alliance today? We’ll split the profits from the antique clocks.”
The President's Umbrella slowly scanned the two with a fastidious eye.
Just when Li Du thought there was no chance of cooperating, he suddenly said, ”According to the info, there are many clocks here, but only two of them are antique. The rest are replicas. In fact, there were even more replicas, but those were sold off.”
Li Du was shocked. The info that they had gotten was not as detailed as this!
Hans pulled him over without a change in expression. He nodded seriously. ”Correct, only two are real antique clocks. But there’s enough profit to split amongst us, isn’t there?”
The President's Umbrella nodded. ”Besides this, what else do you know?”
Clearly, reading between the lines, he meant that if what you guys know is the same as mine, then there’s no need to cooperate.
Hans was stumped. They really did not know anything more. Andrew did not want them to earn from this auction.
Considering the situation at hand, Li Du smiled and said, ”We know which unit!”
The President's Umbrella took off his shades and studied his expression. Eventually, he nodded. ”Alright, write it down on paper. We’re allies now.”
Both parties high-fived. It was a somewhat successful alliance. With this, Hans heaved a sigh of relief and started explaining to Li Du the rules of alliances amongst treasure hunters.
Sometimes, when treasures appeared in units that one hunter could not handle by himself, or when two people with money had their eyes on the same unit, an alliance was necessary.
The strategy of an alliance was that, because there was always money to be made, both parties would end up in a mad bidding race without it, ending with both sides losing out. Thus, alliances were popular to keep costs lower.
However, most of the time, there were only two people in an alliance. More than that and the profits would have to be split even further, and the strategy would become pointless.
Li Du did not make any moves for the next four units. Except for the first one, the rest were all trash; buying them would not earn the trio a single cent.
When the sixth unit, which was unit 240, started being auctioned, he gave Hans a look. ”This unit is a big one,” he said quietly.
Hans nodded, and then gave The President's Umbrella a signal. The latter entered the crowd, declaring that he was taking part in the bid.