Xia Lei and Zhu Xuanyue stayed in a hotel in a small town named Free Mary. Its name was derived from an incident which happened during the founding of the United States, where a woman had bravely violated the alcohol ban to brew cheap and delicious booze for everyone. In honour of her bravery, they had named the town after her.
A majority of the town’s inhabitants were Lockheed Martin employees, but most of them were regular labourers for the production line. However, there were also people from the management and designing departments. Due to their higher income, these people rarely bought properties in this town. Most of them lived in Washington city.
These were intel Xia Lei had obtained from the web. He did not need to hack into their servers. He had gotten it off social media instead.
There was no hacker in the world who would be stupid enough to breach into Lockheed Martin. The company that programmed and produced most software was not Microsoft but Lockheed Martin. The latter had invested greatly in its manpower, material resources and intelligent technology every year. Its investment was even greater than that of Microsoft. Surely, its defence against hackers wouldn’t be weak.
Lockheed Martin possessed the world’s most advanced fighter jet technology, missile technology, drone technology, military-use software and so forth. These vital technologies were the base of America’s status as a hegemony. Even with his mastery of hacking, Xia Lei would not dare to invade Lockheed Martin’s network. It was suicide!
If he couldn’t hack, he needed another way to breach their system.
After enjoying a brief rest in their hotel room, Xia Lei brought Zhu Xuanyue on a stroll around the town.
Xia Lei bought some clothes for them along with some other necessities. He even bought Zhu Xuanyue some cosmetics. Following that, he brought the woman to the only bar in town.
The establishment had an eccentric name, The Flaming Skeleton. This was a place where everyone gathered to enjoy some downtime, which made it the perfect place for Xia Lei to obtain information.
“Behave yourself inside, okay? Keep your hands to yourself and say nothing. Do you understand me?” reminded Xia Lei.
“Yeah.” Zhu Xuanyue obediently nodded.
But Xia Lei knew this was just a facade.
The bar was crowded with customers, most of them Caucasians.
“What would you like to have today, Sir?” The bartender was a pale female blessed with a curvy body.
“Two red wines, please,” ordered Xia Lei politely.
The bartender left them momentarily to retrieve a bottle of wine off the rack.
Xia Lei noticed that she took the cheapest red wine available. “Not that one. What is the most expensive wine you have here?”
“Lafite, no doubt.” The bartender studied Xia Lei before curling her lips into a mocking smirk. “But a glass would set you back a hundred US dollars. Are you sure you want it?”
One hundred US dollars was equivalent to a day’s pay! Who in the right mind would pay that amount just to purchase some red wine for a drink?
With schooled nonchalance, Xia Lei replied to her. “Are you saying that I can’t afford it? Very well, I’ll treat everyone here with one glass of that wine each.”
The bartender gaped in shock.
But Xia Lei had already pulled his wallet out to present a fat stack of bills on the countertop. “Do you need to examine its authenticity?”
“No, no, no. I’m terribly sorry, Mister. I’ll get you your wine right away.” The bartender smiled, prior hostility melting away.
A roar of whistles and applause erupted from all corners of the bar. There were a few patrons who raised their glass to thank Xia Lei for his generosity.
Xia Lei turned around and nodded in acknowledgement. He drank his alcohol quietly at the counter.
“Mister, is this your first time here?” The bartender returned after passing the other customers their orders.
Xia Lei nodded. “Yeah, I’m on a trip around America with my sister.”
“Why did you choose to come here?”
“We were on a road trip, stopping by every town or so. Our destination is Washington.” Pausing briefly, Xia Lei took out a few more hundred-dollar bills and pushed them towards the bartender. “Sorry, I forgot to tip you. This is yours.”
“Whoa! Thank you so much, mister. You’re really generous.” The bartender beamed joyfully, happily stuffing the cash into her bra.
As she stashed the bills, Xia Lei winked at her discreetly.
The bartender interpreted his gesture, slowly bending over to whisper into Xia Lei’s ear. “I’ll be done with work around ten tonight.”
To which Xia Lei nodded lightly.
“My name’s Caitlin, by the way.” She said.
“I’m Costa,” replied Xia Lei with a tender smile.
“Costa, feel free to holler me over if you need anything. I’m going to excuse myself now,” uttered Caitlin with a bright smile.
“Sure, see you tonight.”
Honestly, Xia Lei knew her name despite not having been acquainted before. The town’s population wasn’t big and many of them had accounts on Facebook. A majority of them loved to share their most recent selfies and pictures of family on their feed. It was also there that Xia Lei had found Caitlin.
Before entering the bar, Xia Lei had no plans to woo her. It was the sight of her face that reminded him that one of her selfies was taken beside a Global Hawk with a Caucasian man. The man was Jack, her older brother who worked as a technician on Lockheed Martin’s military drone production line.
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As soon as the picture resurfaced in his mind, Xia Lei made the decision to woo her.
He was now a man of common looks and tan skin. Truthfully, a person’s appearance was only second to their wealth. Being rich would make the entire thing easy, which was why Xia Lei pulled such a generous display and spent thousands to treat the bar patrons to Lafite.
At this moment, a Caucasian youth made his way over with a glass of Lafite. Without much thought, he wedged himself in between Xia Lei and Zhu Xuanyue’s seat at the counter.
The rude action made Zhu Xuanyue scowl, a murderous glint flashing in her eyes.
Xia Lei hurriedly tossed her a glare.
The woman pouted and did nothing else.
However, the man wouldn’t have noticed that Xia Lei had just saved his life. He nudged his elbow against Xia Lei crudely. “You’re from Mexico, right?”
“Yes. What’s the matter?” Xia Lei kept his annoyance in check, tone courteous and polite.
“How are you spending money like this? Are you a drug dealer?” jeered the Caucasian male.
“I don’t like your booze, it’s filthy, I’m returning it to you.”
Following that, the man raised his glass and inclined it, causing its content to splash on Xia Lei’s shoulder blade.
“Michael!” Caitlin quickly rushed over, furious. “What the hell are you doing?!”
“Hmph! You bitch!” Michael turned to yell at Caitlin. “I invited you to a barbeque and you rejected me. You meet this Mexican man once and you’ve already agreed to go on a date! You’re a fucking bitch! You’re a gold digger!”
Abruptly, Michael reached over to grab Caitlin’s collar.
Xia Lei stood and launched a hard punch into Michael’s abdomen, his torso immediately doubling over in pain. Before Michael could retaliate, Xia Lei’s palm gave his neck a harsh chop which effectively blacked him out.
The bar immediately fell silent.
No one had expected this plain-looking Mexican kid to be such a good fighter. The man had not hesitated to defend himself, defeating Michael in a flash.
Xia Lei did not expect to fight even though Michael did splash wine down his shirt. But as soon as the man had touched Caitlin, Xia Lei was left with no choice but to do something. Caitlin was the woman he needed to woo and his motivation certainly wasn’t to enjoy a one night stand. He needed to visit her house to obtain information from her brother. There was surely some valuable information that could be obtained from Jack, he was working for the drone production line after all.
If he was lucky enough, Xia Lei would probably be able to get some intel on the drones that would be provided to the FA Organization soon. For that goal alone, how could he risk disappointing Caitlin and ruin a chance to go on a date after investing thousands of dollars?”
Everyone was gawking at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei cleared his throat. “It’s alright. Everyone’s drinks will be on my tab today. Please help yourselves.”
A round of passionate applause broke out, everyone forgetting the unconscious man in no time.
“Thank you.” Caitlin batted her eyelashes at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei returned her a small smile of his. “I absolutely despise men who are rough to women. Women should be showered with love.”
“You’re an interesting man. I can’t wait till night comes.” Caitlin winked at Xia Lei suggestively.
Xia Lei blinked at her. With a smile, he reminded her, “Miss Caitlin, I’ll pick you up at nine-thirty.”
“See you soon.” Caitlin waved meekly.
Xia Lei and Zhu Xuanyue exited the bar, walking towards their hotel.
“Uncle Xia, are you really going to pick up the freckled lady at night?” Zhu Xuanyue didn’t seem too pleased. “She’s ugly.”
Xia Lei lowered his voice. “I’m going to her house tonight to steal some stuff. Wait for me at the hotel.”
“But I wanna go too,” whined Zhu Xuanyue.
“No, this operation does not require you. You just need to wait for me at the hotel.” Pausing momentarily, Xia Lei added on, “We’ll sleep together when I’m back.”
“Okay, then I’ll wait for you at the hotel.” Zhu Xuanyue beamed.
Problem solved.
She was a fearsome devil but Xia Lei had his ways to handle her.
They walked along the streets. At one point, Xia Lei turned around to spare the bar behind a glance. Then, he looked into the direction of Lockheed Martin. Albeit the distance of two kilometres, the man could see the building clearly.
In his left field of vision, an unfinished F35 roared its engine and speeded along the track. It was only its test flight and the plane looked sleek and majestic.
“When will Thunder Horse be able to create a jet similar to this?” He sighed internally. It was a question only he could answer.