Carlos's lawyer, who was far away in Houston, was discussing the price and countermeasures with the Grevit family using the recording provided by Weiran. At the same time, Nineel and Ania, who were still in August, were also busy preparing for the next blackmail.
Making preparations.
In comparison, it was much easier for the aircraft that had landed at the Canadian border city of Sault Ste. Marie Airport.
Just as he was pushing his small luggage and following four girls who were chatting and laughing out of the airport, he saw Paul, the head of real estate management of the Elk Foundation, far away.
Originally, he thought that there was a high probability that he would not have anything to do with this American red neck who was responsible for providing daily services and real estate management for Dominic and Coco in the future, but he did not expect that he would have a chance to meet him.
Under the leadership of this particularly enthusiastic red-neck, the group walked out of the terminal and immediately got into a black Saab car that was large enough for everyone to sit down.
"Uncle Paul, can you tell me about that farm?" Koko asked in German that was not very proficient at Suisui's prompting.
"certainly!"
Paul cleared his throat and introduced while driving the car away from the airport, "The farm is located in Bachawana Bay on the northeastern shore of Lake Superior. It is about 50 kilometers away from our current location in a straight line."
After a pause, Paul continued, "The total area of the farm is about 500 acres. It was actually a gold mine originally invested by Mr. Dominic, but unfortunately, it is said that it was a very failed investment, and the gold mine there was of very low grade.
.But fortunately, the environment and scenery are very good. I heard Sebastian say that Mr. Dominic used to go hunting there often."
"What now?" Koko asked, "So it's a hunting ground now?"
"of course not"
Paul shook his head, "There are a lot of sugar maple trees growing on that farm, which can produce the best quality 1AA maple syrup every year. The farm even has a set of small processing and filling equipment. The maple sugar and Hawaiian maple syrup are
The coffee has always been given by Mr. Dominic as a gift to his friends."
"I thought it was a farm with many cattle and sheep..."
Kou Kou whispered a little disappointedly in French. Obviously, this girl had begun to miss the days when she killed sheep and put pig eggs in the French countryside.
"The climate there is not suitable for raising cattle and sheep, but it can be used to raise some reindeer." Paul said with a trace of apology - even though he was not blamed at all for this matter.
"I'm just talking." Kou Kou quickly waved her hand, changed the subject and asked, "How do we get there?"
“How about taking a sightseeing yacht?”
Paul suggested, "Originally we had a small helicopter here, but since Mr. Dominic's physical condition became worse and worse, that helicopter was taken over by that old German Sebastian who couldn't laugh two years ago.
It was sold, and now all that’s left is a yacht that cannot be sold.”
"Sounds good, I haven't been on a yacht yet."
Kou Kou, who was a little disappointed just now, immediately brightened up. Even Suisui, who couldn't understand German and therefore couldn't get in the conversation, showed interest after listening to Anfisa's translation.
Seeing this, Paul secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then increased his speed and drove clockwise around the road outside the airport for more than half a circle. Without letting the airport leave everyone's sight, he arrived at a terminal that was not too big.
On one side of the pier at the wharf, there is a cargo ship that looks to be docked. There is a particularly conspicuous silhouette of an Indian head with a feather crest on the outside wall of the ship's cab.
On the other side of the pier, there is a sightseeing yacht more than ten meters long. Not only does this yacht have the same Indian head silhouette, but it also has the logo of the Elk Foundation. Of course, on this yacht
On the deck, there was also a man with shawl hair.
"The old guy on the boat is Mr. Dominic's old friend Mr. Tatanka, and their family usually takes care of the farm."
As Paul spoke, he had already parked his car next to the pretty wooden house next to the dock. "This house is his home, and the cargo ship is also his property."
"It doesn't sound like an English name." Seeing that the other party was not in a hurry to get out of the car, Wei Ran simply didn't open the door.
"certainly"
Paul nodded and explained, "Mr. Tatanka is an Indian. When he was young, he was even Mr. Dominic's bodyguard and driver. He will be responsible for accompanying you on your next trip to the farm. If you are interested,
, you can let him show off his best Indian axe."
"So you're not going to go to the farm with us?" Kou Kou asked belatedly.
“It is true”
Paul spread his hands regretfully, "We are currently busy maintaining and inventorying some properties in the continental United States in order to rent them out according to your wishes, so I may not have time to accompany you on vacation here."
"I can use the rent from those real estates at will, right?" Kou Kou deliberately asked in front of Wei Ran, the property guardian.
"certainly"
Paul replied without thinking, "All rent, after deducting tax and 10% maintenance fund, will be paid to your account on a quarterly basis.
If you are worried, the foundation will send you and Mr. Victor a detailed list of rental income and expenses after each transfer."
"Then give me one," Kou Kou said with a smile.
"I will inform Mr. Sebastian later"
After Paul made his promise, he opened the car door, waved to the old man who had come off the boat from a distance, and then said while helping to unload the luggage from the trunk, "Okay, you can rest assured.
Follow Mr. Tatanka, he will take care of you."
Hearing this, everyone looked at Mr. Tatanka who came over with a pipe.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As he got closer, Wei Ran also noticed that Mr. Tatanka, who was holding a pipe and wearing a goatee, was actually barefoot and had a wrinkled face.
, also looks more like Asian than Caucasian.
In addition, he also wore an Indian ax decorated with furry animal skins, unknown bird feathers, and various silver ornaments on his waist.
Of course, just looking at the beautiful Damascus pattern on the surface of the ax head, you will know that the playing value of this small ax is probably far greater than the practical value.
"Children, come with me."
The old guy said hello in imperfect German, and handed an animal skin bag with beautiful patterns to Paul, "This is a gift for the three of you."
"Thanks"
Paul said, stretched out his hand and pulled out a maple leaf-shaped glass bottle and showed it to Kou Kou, Wei Ran and others as if to show off, "This is the maple syrup produced on that farm. It tastes better than the ones sold on the market."
much better."
"The quality of maple syrup this spring is very good, and the output is also large. It's a pity that Mr. Dominic is no longer here."
Tatanka sighed and waved to Wei Ran and others, "Children, hurry up and get on the boat. We have to sail on Lake Superior for an hour to get there."
After hearing this, everyone said goodbye to Paul, each pulled their suitcases, and followed Mr. Tatanka onto the rather beautiful yacht.
Before setting off, Tatanka first took out a few glasses and poured everyone a glass of ice wine. Then he brought out a large plate of maple syrup pudding that he said he had made by himself. Then he slowly told about his relationship with the deceased Dominic.
The gentleman told the story while driving the yacht slowly away from the dock.
As we walked against the slightly turbulent current, the pier and airport behind us became smaller and smaller, and were eventually completely blocked by the rippling blue lake.
Even the content of Mr. Tatanka's words changed from memories to the scenery of the islands along the way, stories or heroes from some Indian legends.
Listening to stories and sipping wine, I even tried casting a few fish with the fishing rod on the yacht along the way. This one-hour voyage was naturally extremely relaxing and comfortable.
When Anfia was lucky enough to drag a plump American red-spotted baby onto the deck, the yacht slowly slowed down and finally stopped smoothly at the edge of a similarly small pier.
On the shore next to the pier, there are several houses of different shapes scattered among the relatively dense forests.
Even closer, there was a woman in hunting camouflage, with a shiny silver revolver hanging blatantly on her waist, who looked to be in her thirties, waving at them.
"That's my daughter Tantu"
While Tatanka was speaking, he had already put out the yacht, waited until his daughter helped to fasten the boat cable, and then led everyone to the dock.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, especially to Koko's expectations, this woman named Tantu not only speaks German like his father, but is also fluent in French, which is good news for her.
Not only that, according to Tantu, not only did she study abroad in Paris, but her ex-husband was French. Of course, this undoubtedly also implies that this is a divorced single woman.
"Come with me"
As Tantu spoke, he had already opened the door of the black Chevrolet Tahoe parked at the pier, and said apologetically to Wei Ran, "Mr. Victor, can you please take my father's car? This is mine.
The car can only seat five people at most."
"No problem at all"
Wei Ran didn't take it seriously and simply put his suitcase into the compartment of the nearby Raptor pickup truck.
Without wasting any extra time, the two cars set off one after another, first driving along a gravel road hidden among the maple trees onto a fairly spacious and flat road, and then headed north for about five hundred meters.
distance, at this time, a highway extending close to Lake Superior also appeared directly in front of the field of vision.
"See that river that flows into Lake Superior?"
At almost the same time, the father and daughter in the two cars raised their fingers to point to the river in the distance that passed under the highway bridge, and introduced it with almost the same lines, "It's about two kilometers north along that river.
It will turn west, about one kilometer west from the turning point of the river, and you will encounter a gravel road extending south to the edge of the highway, about two kilometers long."
After a short pause, the father and daughter in the two cars introduced again in no particular order, "It is surrounded by the gravel road, the river just mentioned, and the highway bridge you can see from the gravel road.
This two square kilometers of land belongs to the farm."
"So big?" Wei Ran and Kou Kou, who were sitting in two separate cars, gave extremely consistent reactions.
“It’s really a big piece of land”
Father and daughter Tatanka and Tantu sighed with almost identical expressions and tones, "Mr. Dominic once almost went bankrupt by investing in this land, but in the end he did not find gold from this land.
In order to let himself remember the lesson of that impulsiveness, Mr. Dominic turned this place into a farm. When he was in good health, he would come to this farm to calm down almost every time he encountered a difficult decision."
As the topic reached this point, the two cars also crossed the lakeside road and came to the edge of the more than 20-meter-wide river that serves as the land boundary. They passed through the barbed wire fence with the words "Private Domain" on it, and finally stopped at two buildings.
In the open space between houses.
"This is our sugar factory"
Tatanka opened the door and pointed to the slightly larger building and said, "Every spring, we collect the sap from the sugar maple trees through the vacuum pipeline system and transport it here for purification and bottling. Behind us
The building is an office, a farm machinery warehouse and a dormitory for temporary workers."
"Where's the other side?"
After Suisui got off another car and listened to Anfiya's translation, she pointed to the particularly lively open space on the other side of the river and asked directly in English.
“It’s an RV campground.”
Tantu, who was closer, replied directly in English, "We jointly own the right to use the river as the boundary of the land. But our land area is larger than theirs, and we also have mineral mining rights."
"So there are only two buildings on this farm, and the rest are all... uh... maple trees?" Koko asked disappointedly. Looking at it, except for the intricate paths in the forest, there was nothing at all.
She thought of farmland and pasture and cultivated land.
"There is also a redwood tree that is prohibited by law from being cut down."
Tatanka paused deliberately when he said this, and then pointed at the farm... No, maybe it should be called a forest more accurately. In short, he pointed deeper into the land and said, "At the end of the farm.
There is an open space in the center, where Mr. Dominic built a hunting cabin. If you are interested, you can go there and have a look."
"But there are wolves and moose in this forest, and our chain-link fence can't stop them, so you'd better be armed."
While Tantu was speaking, she had already opened the trunk of the car she was driving. The trunk of this car was completely a custom-made gun cabinet. In addition to various styles of pistols, there were also various
style civilian shotgun.
Wei Ran even saw a row of Indian axes inside that were obviously more practical, as well as American hunting bows and a large barrel of bows and arrows.
"Can we use these casually?" Suisui immediately became interested and took out a revolver from it without thinking.
"Of course," Tantu said very generously, "as long as you remember to return it to me when you leave."
"I'll use this"
Wei Ran, who had no shortage of weapons at all, took a black hunting bow, and then took a quiver and put it on his shoulder. Although he didn't know how to use this thing, it looked much more interesting than hot weapons.
"Don't leave it empty," Tantuhun said nonchalantly and said nothing more. At the same time, the Katenka sisters each took away a shotgun and a cowhide bullet belt.
But Kou Kou, this girl picked out an axe, two hunting knives, one large and one small, and hung them on her waist very skillfully.
"Don't you get a gun?" Suisui couldn't help but ask.
“No need”
Kou Kou shook her head, "You have all taken so many weapons. If you can't kill the ferocious beasts that attack us, it will be useless even if I take them."
“What a smart girl”
Tatanka praised him without concealing it. At the same time, he opened the rolling shutter door of the garage with the key. He pointed at the four-wheeled motorcycles parked neatly inside and said, "The keys are all up there. I installed the battery just the day before yesterday. I'll give it to Tatanka later."
Tu goes ahead, how about we go to the hunter's cabin first and take a look?"
"I have no objection," Kou Kou was the first to respond.
The owners of this land didn't have any objections, and Wei Ran and others naturally had no objections. Seeing this, Tantu immediately took a shotgun with a scope from the car, and then drove a bright red four-wheel motorcycle
He roared out of the garage.
"Do you want to ride in a car with me?" Wei Ran, who was pretending to be carrying a bow and quiver, waited for the Katenka sisters to set off first, and then extended an invitation to Suisui.
"I want to try it myself!"
Before Suisui finished speaking, she and her rich lady friend had already climbed onto a four-wheeled motorcycle and followed them in no particular order. Seeing this, Weiran also casually got on a motorcycle and followed leisurely.
behind.
After the group of them had gone away, Tatanka, who was left at the end, calmly shouldered a pump-action shotgun, then drove both cars into the garage and locked the rolling shutter door, and finally even connected the two cars next to each other.
The barbed wire gates of the road were locked, and then he slowly followed on a four-wheel motorcycle.
Compared with the carelessness he was accustomed to, Wei Ran and others walking in front felt much fresher at this time.
Along the way, the path less than two meters wide was lined with tall sugar maple trees with a diameter at breast height of at least thirty or forty centimeters on both sides.
There are also plastic signs hanging on the trunks of these sugar maple trees, which are not only marked with unknown numbers, but also have a handwritten time.
And underneath the tree trunks, it was so clean that it didn't look like a virgin forest at all. In some places, gravel was used to pave open spaces that were not very large. On those open spaces, there were areas less than half a meter each.
There was a high cement platform, and on some platforms, there was a stainless steel water tank with an estimated capacity of one ton at most.
"Mr. Tatanka, what are those water cans used for?" Weiran slowed down the car slightly and asked the old guy following behind.
"For collecting maple sap"
Tatanka pointed around and introduced loudly, "In the spring, we will drill a pencil-thick hole in each tree, and then connect the vacuum pipes, and those water pipes will eventually be collected into those water tanks.
Whenever the water tank is almost full, workers will drive the water tanker to transport the sap to the sugar factory. It is a very hard job, and we only have less than two months every year.
, but we have to collect sap from tens of thousands of trees."
"It sounds like a lot of hard work," Wei Ran agreed mindlessly.
"But it's also very sweet." Tatanka smiled honestly, "Because the trees are old enough, the maple syrup we produce here is also of the best quality."
Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled in response, speeded up slightly, and caught up with Suisui who was running ahead.
Only a kilometer away, when everyone stopped their motorcycles one after another, a small forest clearing with sparse vegetation appeared directly in front of them.
It was through this open space that everyone also saw a stand of redwood trees growing in the distance.
And even closer, next to a tall sugar maple tree, is a log cabin with an American country style.
“This is it”
Tantu had already extinguished the quad bike while he was speaking, then pulled out the pistol from the holster on his waist, pointed it above his head and pulled the trigger.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Bang!"
After the crisp gunfire, a group of unknown birds flew up from the trees in the distance, and two quacking wild ducks flew up on the water surface that was at best a pond.
"Bang bang!"
The Katenka sisters pulled the triggers on the two wild ducks in no particular order, knocking them down easily, and then looked at Suisui and Wei Ran eagerly.
"Understood!" Suisui patted her forehead, "That's enough beer for the night!"
Hearing this, the Katenka sisters, who were still riding on their motorcycles, immediately high-fived each other. Then one of them rushed to the creek connected to the lake, looking for ducks to survey the surroundings, while the other stayed in Sui.
Sui's side continued to act as a translator.
"Their marksmanship is really good."
Tantu admired in surprise, then took out a key from her leg bag and opened the door of the wooden house. At the same time, she did not forget to explain, "Please come in, my father and I just cleaned this place a few days ago.
This wooden house was originally my grandfather’s house. After this land was bought by Mr. Dominic, my grandfather still lived here and helped him manage the land.”
"After my father passed away, Mr. Dominic asked me to take over this management job." Tatanka recalled with a nostalgic look, "Later I became Mr. Dominic's bodyguard and driver, and he liked to see me very much.
My most successful ax throwing performance was when I killed a running raccoon with an axe."
"Can you give us a show?" Koko said, having already taken off the ax hanging from his waist and handed it to Tatanka.
"certainly!"
Tatanka took the ax with a smile, rounded his arms and threw it away without any hesitation.
"Duh!"
With a soft sound, the ax flew out and accurately nailed the plastic sign hanging on a sugar maple tree in the distance.
"Phew! Awesome!"
As soon as the ax flew out, no matter Wei Ran, Suisui or Kou Kou, they all shouted and started to applaud. Even Anfiya, who stayed behind to act as translator, raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I learned how to throw axes from my father," Tatanka said as he motioned for everyone to walk toward the wooden house. "He is the real master."
"Is your father a soldier?" Kou Kou, who was the first to walk into the room, asked in surprise as he looked at the photo frames hanging on the wall.
Although this is Mr. Dominic's land, none of the picture frames hanging in this wooden house are related to him. Instead, most of the protagonists are soldiers wearing the uniforms of the U.S. Navy during World War II.
What is special is that this Asian-looking soldier has an Indian ax on his waist, but the uniform on his body does not have any badges at all.
"right"
Tatanka spread his hands, "But he has never told us anything about his time in the military. Even these photos were accidentally discovered when Mr. Dominic came here for the last time and asked us to renovate and rebuild the wooden house."
Having said this, Tatanka spread his hands and said, "After discussing with Mr. Dominic, we hung these photos here. If you think..."
"No, no, no, just hang it here!"
Koko quickly said, "No need to move them. I'm just curious. I don't want to clean out these precious photo frames."
"There are some things left by my father in the attic." Tatanka pointed to the upstairs and said nonchalantly, "If you are interested, you can go and see for yourself."
"Can we stay here for a few days?" Suisui, who had been silent just now, asked.
"sure"
Tatanka switched to English and said, "If you plan to stay here for a few days, I will send you the vegetables, fruits and meat that I have prepared in advance. In addition, let Tantu stay with you. She is very interested in this place and
I'm just as familiar with her, and she's a very good hunter, so she can at least ensure that you won't be hurt by wild animals."
"Then I'll trouble you."
Suisui thanked her politely, but just by looking at her chattering eyes, she knew that this little girl was probably thinking about something again.
