1027 Give me the diamonds
Scotty helped the young man who had been beaten up. He dusted the dirt off him as he said, "Look, Charlie, I've told you not to hang out with Buick . . . "
Charlie pushed him away as he chewed his lip and said, "Don't pretend, I know what you're up to. I won't accept any of your goodwill!"
Scotty's face suddenly reddened. He raised his leg and wanted to kick Charlie, but the tall policeman gave coughed loudly. So, Scotty hesitantly let go of Charlie and returned to the squad.
At this moment, Li Du understood what exactly was going on here. This was a group of police abusing their power for personal gain. They were trying to take away the diamonds that the mine workers had found after working so hard.
This had nothing to do with him, but there would always be someone stepping on uneven roads. Even though he had some conflicts with Buick's gang before, after they had cleared everything up, it was actually he who owed Buick a small favor.
Hence, he discussed with Sophie and they brought their men along as they walked over. He said, "Police officers, you all look great."
The tall police stared at him cautiously and said, "Hey, yellow skin, where are you from?"
Sophie said, "We are from America, we're reporters from the New York Times. These are our IDs."
She took out a journalist ID and showed it to the police. Mr. Lion Hunter had prepared this for them. Li Du initially thought they wouldn't need to it, but now they did.
As Sophie was talking to the police, Li Du went over to Buick and said, "If you want to keep your diamonds and get away from this mess, then you have to trust me. Give me your diamonds, we will leave together, and then I will give your diamonds back to you."
Buick was puzzled. "Give you our diamonds?!"
"Everyone's."
With his back facing the police, he took out a small box and opened it. There were beautiful rough diamonds in it; their sizes, qualities, translucency were all fantastic.
Buick was suddenly shocked when he saw these little rocks. He had been searching for diamonds for a living, he was an expert in this field. So he could tell these were all real diamonds by just looking at them, even without any tools.
Li Du said, "They won't dare search our bags. Quick, gather your diamonds, I'll bring them out. Trust me, I don't care about your little things, I just want to help you all."
Time was limited. He could only formulate this plan even if it wasn't the best one.
If Buick didn't trust him, then he had no choice and couldn't help them. But if they were willing to trust him, then he would help them out.
Buick frowned and thought hard about it. He was very charming, and he kept staring into Li Du's eyes. Then, he nodded his head decisively. "Alright, now."
He gathered the group behind him, and everyone crowded into a circle. Then he whispered a few words, and everyone opened their arms and put them on top of each other's shoulders. They had formed a human wall.
The police saw what they were doing. One policeman immediately shouted, "Hey, what the hell are you guys doing?"
Sophie stopped him and said, "Fellow police officers, as a reporter, I want to ask you a few questions . . . "
"We are not answering," the tall policeman said arrogantly. "Get out of the way. Or else I will think that you are assaulting police. Don't say that I never told you—according to our law, if you are assaulting a police officer we can shoot you down!"
The few police cooperated and raised their handguns as they smiled slyly.
Brother Wolf, Big Ivan, Godzilla, and Big Ol opened their backpacks and took out their muzzle folding rifles.
Kachak. They pulled the bolts and the bullets were now loaded.
The black policemen were all afraid now. There was no comparison between a small handgun and an automated rifle. One coward police even threw away his handgun and raised up both his hands when the rifle pointed at him.
Buick quickly finished up his work after seeing both the parties loading their guns.
He had a very high reputation in the mine, thus he could gather the small bag in a short amount of time.
Li Du opened his backpack. Buick looked at him solemnly and put the small bag into it.
As soon as that happened, Li Du carried his backpack over his shoulder and walked toward the two parties who were confronting each other. He said, "Hey, hey, buddies. What's this for? Is there a misunderstanding?"
The tall policeman was scared and angry at the same time. "You guys are illegally possessing guns! Where did you get these rifles from?!"
Li Du showed him their gun licenses and laughed. "If we were possessing guns illegally, and if we had broken the law, do you think we would just be here confronting you guys, instead of killing all of you?"
The policeman in the back was shocked and trembled unwillingly. Dauntless bandits would actually do that in such a desolate place.
Li Du said, "Alright then, let's make this short. We are reporters from the New York Times. We are here by invitation from your country's parliament to make a documentary about the lives of mine workers among the folks. These four buddies are our hired soldiers, they are here to protect our safety.
"There may be some kind of misunderstanding between us, let's just put down all our guns, then you can go and search these miners. If there's no problem then we want to leave as soon as possible."
Sophie agreeably said, "Yes, we have to leave real soon. Look, the weather doesn't seem to be the best. It's possible that there will be another heavy rainfall later."
The tall policeman wanted to say something, but Li Du's documents were all in place. Godzilla, Big Ol, and the others all had violent looks on their faces, and their firepower was also pretty strong. It was really not that great an idea to confront them.
Scotty jumped on the chance and came up to say, "Boss, give me some face, just relax a bit and keep your guns. Please beware of misfiring!"
The tall policeman took the chance to gather his courage. He waved his hand lazily and said, "I'll give you face—put away all your guns now. Go now, do a thorough check on these poor guys!"
The mine workers lined up to get checked. Needless to say, there were no diamonds found on them.
The police could only find some notes on them, but they could not take them away in front of reporters. So they scrunched them up and threw them onto the ground with hatred.
As there were no results, the police shook their heads helplessly to the tall policeman.
The tall policeman's face filled with dissatisfaction. The police across the river had come over by this time, and they were now larger in numbers. There were more than ten of them now.
As such, he got bolder and pointed at Li Du. "Hey, you have to be checked too. You guys are reporters, not diamond dealers nor mine workers. There shouldn't be any diamonds on you, should there?"
Li Du was stunned. Buick and the gang were shocked too. They looked at him in panic.
The police were not fools. Just now when Li Du and Buick's gang gathered together, they knew that they were playing tricks. They guessed that the diamonds were all on Li Du.
The tall policeman seemed pleased when he saw the change in the mineworkers' faces. He said, "Am I right? You guys shouldn't have diamonds with you?"
Li Du said, "Yes, you're right. Of course, we don't have diamonds with us. But you can't search us, you have no right—"
"We have received a complaint," the tall policeman interrupted with a pleased smile. "Someone said that a few white skinned and yellow-skinned men were pretending to be reporters and that they were actually stealing our national property. I'm sorry, we do have the right."
He waved his hand and two police came forward to grab Li Du's backpack away and began searching.
The black men next to Buick were getting nervous, some of them wanted to run forward but Buick stopped them. He said with a pale face, "As long as we are here, we can get back what we have lost!"