Blackstone was a little town in the desert of Phoenix. It had been established with the construction of the prison there. The town was small and the residents there depended on the prison for a living.
The desert was unsuitable for farming or rearing livestock. Hence, the people there ran small businesses to make a living and depended on prison workers and the families of the prisoners as their customers.
That town was widely known in Phoenix as the ‘Orange Clothes Town’.
Orange was the main color of the prisoners’ uniform, and anyone wearing orange was recognized as one. Most of the residents in Blackstone Town were prisoners who decided to stay behind and live there after being released. Hence, the town was nicknamed Orange Clothes Town.
Like the prison in Miami, Blackstone prison was also meant for prisoners who had committed less severe crimes. Most of the inmates were convicted of offenses like minor theft or fraud and carried little risk to society.
The houses in Blackstone did not have locks, which was unique to the town. The locals would not put up locks in their house because it was useless. Most of the residents had once been thieves. Picking locks was their forte.
The locals understood the situation very well. If someone wished to steal, even putting up locks or having guard dogs would not stop them. In fact, perhaps the thief would even steal the dog.
Hence, the locals did not lock their doors when they left the house. Whoever wished to enter the house could do so freely.
However, there were CCTVs installed on the corners of the streets. If someone dared to trespass and steal, they would not be able to escape easily. It was usually possible to identify the thief from the video recordings.
The situation in Blackstone town was not unique in Phoenix. As the tourism industry boomed across the entire world, as long as a place was special and interesting, tourists would flock there.
The prison and the town have been trying to boost tourism. Just like Pelican Bay and Alcatraz, the town administration was keen to attract tourists to the place by capitalizing on its position as a prison town.
However, it was not easy to develop the tourism trade and earn the tourists’ money. The auction would be a more realistic way for the prison to make a profit.
More than two hundred treasure hunters squeezed into the quadrangle of the prison. The place had never been so full.
Initially, the warehouse was located at the back of the prison grounds. However, the prison warden did not want the treasure hunters to go too deep into the prison. They would be able to walk past the prison cells, and it would be nasty if trouble arose.
Therefore, he had instructed the prisoners to organize and bring out the items in the warehouse. The items were then moved to some of the huts in front of the quadrangle.
Those huts used to be prison cells. However, as time passed, they became unsuitable for living. After the government had built new blocks of prison cells, the huts were evacuated and transformed into warehouses.
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As the huts had not been inhabited, they looked extremely run-down and out of place. The treasure hunters who glanced at them would have thought that those were the prison warehouses and would not have thought that the warden has moved the items to another spot.
That was an important point. In the process of moving the items, the prison warden had found a bunch of people to help retrieve the more valuable ones. Hence, the items left in the huts were those that had less value.
If the treasure hunters had known that, the auction would lose much of its appeal to them. Many of them might even have sued the prison for being involved in business fraud.
Li Du and Hans were aware of that. The former had gone over the surroundings of the prison to check out the auction warehouses the day before. In the end, after letting the little bug enter the prison warehouse, he had found that it was empty inside.
That was when he guessed that the items in the warehouse had all been moved. However, it was unclear where they were now. The little bug could not discover that.
Although Li Du had not been able to check out the warehouse items beforehand, he was neither anxious nor regretful. As there were so many treasure hunters participating in the auction, Li Du had the time to check out the warehouse thoroughly.
Blackstone Prison had accumulated many things over the years. The prisoners had stuffed the items into the huts and there were more than twenty huts full of various things.
The prison warden who was observing it all from a top floor above was dissatisfied. That Hans boy is actually pretty capable. If I knew he could bring in two hundred people, I would have split up the stuff into more warehouses.
The more warehouses there were for auction, the more money could potentially be made.
The treasure hunters started to queue up for a view of the huts. Initially, it was planned that every group would have one minute of viewing time. However, as there were too many people, the auctioneer hired by the prison reduced the viewing time to thirty seconds per group.
That duration was insufficient as the huts were completely filled up with items. The treasure hunters had to observe very carefully to make a decision.
Li Du let out the little bug to begin a more thorough viewing. As long as the warehouses had not been auctioned off, he would be able to continue checking them out.
In the first warehouse, Li Du already found something valuable. On one of the metal shelves, there was a black, rectangular cloth box, and inside it, there was a gun.
That gun was not like a regular one. It had a sci-fi looking exterior. The main body was made from black and yellow plastic material. The gun clip was about half the size of a regular gun’s and there was no bullet inside. It was just a small box of complicated workmanship.
With one look, Li Du understood what it was. That was a Taser gun, The little bug entered the muzzle and Li Du saw that there were two small darts inside. There was a hook at the front of each dart and a thin insulated copper wire at the back of it.
This discovery confirmed his guess. It was a bullet for a Taser gun, known as ‘electrode dart’. Once it struck a human body, it would emit electric current and the person would lose its ability to resist.
There was a label on the gun handle with the serial number of the gun. The serial number was X-26X, which meant that it was the most advanced Taser gun in the American market at that moment.
Previously, when Li Du was shopping for self-defense weapons, he had wanted to purchase a Taser gun. However, restrictions on buying Taser guns were more stringent than on buying a real firearm. Hence, it was not easy to buy a good Taser gun off the shelf in the market.
Taser guns were a common tool among prison workers. Seeing that that Taser gun was of the new X-26X model, it was unclear why it would end up in the warehouse.
A Taser gun was just the self-defense weapon Li Du needed. It was very suitable for self-defense in the city and its power was just right to cause the other party to lose their ability to move without causing serious bodily harm.
Peering in from the door, Hans frowned as he rubbed his hands.
His expression suggested that he had met with something he could not decide on. Li Du casually asked, “What is it?”
Hans surveyed the surroundings and said softly, “What do you think about this warehouse?”
Li Du nodded, “Not bad, we can try taking it down.”
Besides the Taser gun, there was also a box with some silver coins. Those silver coins could be sold for some money.
Hans said, “Very well, then we will take it. I saw something good. There’s a box that might have a gun inside!”
Hearing that, Li Du was shocked. It was quite amazing that Hans spotted the Taser gun. That gun had been wrapped in a cloth bag and hidden among a bunch of rubbish bags, so it was not easy to spot.
He was just about to inquire when the auctioneer walked into the warehouse. He turned to a police officer and said, “Bring out that box, I think there is a gun inside.”
The treasure hunters sighed in unison, “F*ck, he found out!”
