In the Valley of the Mountain Lions - Book 5
Copyright© 2024 by August the Strong
Chapter 23: Complicated Confrontation
Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 23: Complicated Confrontation - The people of this once remote valley in the Andes have new prospects. They now have phones, internet and contact with people. They can finally buy the basics. The group of twelve-year-old girls abducted to Peru are integrating better and better. They often look enviously at the pregnant teenagers and want to have their first sexual experiences too. Above all, there is one important task: to track down the billions of dollars belonging to the dead criminal Rus and put them to good use.
Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa mt/ft Ma/ft ft/ft Teenagers Consensual Fiction Harem Interracial
Something bad must have happened. When Olivia asked the workers why the hot-mix asphalt wasn’t being laid, they didn’t answer her. It looked like they were on strike.
Antonio approached us, looking agitated. “The girls have arrested and imprisoned the construction manager, Li. He’s accused of stealing a lot of gold. According to his orders, the workers aren’t allowed to continue working. I don’t know anything else.”
We drove to the palace. Our heavily pregnant Babette was sitting in the anteroom, sobbing. Our doctor tried to calm her down. Babette stammered in fragments, “Maybe ... I made ... mistakes. He stole. So much gold! Mayari ... and Luca caught him.”
“Please stop, Babette. Calm down first. What do you know, Ramona?”
“Mayari and Luca had seen Li in the forbidden area. They confronted him. He had several nuggets of gold in his backpack. The teenagers locked him in the old dungeon until you returned. They also found tens of kilograms of gold ore in his room. Zarina discovered the worst part. In the ore processing plant, there were six bags, each containing 80 kilograms of gold nuggets, ready to be shipped. Her friend Yu Yuan showed her the bags, which bore the Chinese inscription ‘Construction Management Personally’. Instead of silver, he had been extracting gold for the past few days.”
It was unbelievable, but surely the truth. I took Babette in my arms and said, “It’s all good, Babette. You did everything right. I’ll sort it out. It’s serious, but not worth shedding tears over.”
Babette and Ramona shared a brief hug. I said determinedly, “We’ll let him stew in his own juices for a while. Where’s the gold?”
Lenya and Zarina led me to the ore warehouse. Yu had helped them load the heavy sacks into a container using a handcart, and then seal it. The gold from Li’s room was locked away in the Casa. I thanked Yu Yuan for his help.
Antonio and I went to see the Peruvian workers. The foreman of the road construction workers, Pedro, was convinced that the road through the tunnel could be completed without the involvement of the construction manager, Li. However, he had been instructed to stop work. Pedro estimated that the road could be finished in three days if hot-mix asphalt continued to be delivered. I promised each worker a bonus of 200 euros if they resumed work immediately. Soon, the first transport truck backed into the tunnel and the workers drove to the construction site. This task had been completed.
What now? If Li didn’t cooperate, we had to secure the asphalt deliveries. Zarina translated the messages on Li’s mobile phone, which Babette had confiscated. The asphalt had already been ordered for the next two days. That was fortunate. Zarina ordered five more deliveries for Friday. This might be sufficient, but it still needed to be coordinated with the foreman.
Then Zarina translated a message for me from Zhang. ‘How much have you finished?’
Li’s reply was brief. ‘It’ll be about half a ton by Saturday. It’s going as planned.’
So, Zhang knew. Whether that was good or bad, I couldn’t judge at that moment. Luca and Daja brought Li into my office. His hands were tied. He protested against his treatment. He was hungry and thirsty.
In the presence of Antonio and Ramona, we held a kind of court hearing. First, I said, “Mr Li, you are a thief. You’ve been lucky so far. In Peru, gold thieves are usually shot.”
Li swore and stammered out some excuses, but I remained firm. “Mr Li, we trusted you, but that’s over now. How many sacks of gold have you delivered to Zhang?”
“No. We’re just preparing and wanted to inform you before the pickup,” Li justified.
“Zarina, please go to Yu Yuan and ask him if any gold has been picked up yet.”
Li called her back. He knew Yu would tell his lover the truth. “Good. You’re right. We’ve delivered four bags so far. Sorry.”
I did a quick calculation. It wasn’t pure gold, but you could safely estimate $40 per gram. Four 80-kilogram bags equalled 320 kilograms, worth $40,000. That made it almost $13 million stolen so far. Unbelievable!
“Where did you find so much gold, Mr Li?”
He stammered again, talking about a rocky area near the cemetery. He was completely confused and sweating with fear. Then I realised: They had looted the container where we had stored all the gold-bearing nuggets we had found over the years.
“Mayari, please, check the gold container! Take Sula with you. She knows exactly how much was stored there.”
Li’s bonds were removed. He was given tea and sandwiches while we waited for the results of the inspection. Yes, the container had been broken into. A large portion of our supplies was missing. It wasn’t just grand theft now; it was exorbitant burglary too. Li would pay for that.
“Mr. Li, who broke into the container, our gold storage facility?”
The construction manager was initially uncooperative and evasive in his answers. Eventually, however, he admitted that two of his Chinese workers had transported the valuable rocks to Yu’s ore storage facility using an overhead loader.
We conferred briefly. Then I announced our decision: “Mr Li, you have done a good job for us. We are grateful. Your company received excellent payment, as well as silver ore worth several million dollars. Unfortunately, you abused our trust by stealing and transporting gold-bearing rock worth over twelve million dollars. Fortunately, we were able to stop the transport of an even larger quantity. This theft by your company constitutes armed robbery. At the same time, you attempted to enrich yourself with approximately three million dollars’ worth of gold. We confiscated this gold from your room. Do you plead guilty?”
Li declined to comment.
I continued: “Our verdict is: You will remain in custody for the next five days. Your phone will remain confiscated. Mr Zhang, your employer will be informed. If the stolen goods are returned, you will be released. Otherwise, you will be handed over to Peruvian authorities.”
Li protested, but I stood my ground. We had to finish building the road through the tunnel. Afterwards, we intended to release him, but first we wanted to negotiate with his boss, Zhang, regarding the stolen gold.
This time, Mayari led the condemned man back to our ‘dungeon’ without handcuffs. He had no way of contacting the outside world from there. It was fortunate that we had installed sanitary facilities in the basement. Olivia brought him his toiletry bag and shaving kit. Meanwhile, Luca secured the handover with his gun unclamped.
Later, Olivia told me excitedly that Li had been sitting almost motionless on his couch, crying. He would moan to himself. Olivia found out what was troubling him. Every Friday morning, he would usually call his wife in Shanghai. She was pregnant and would be worried if he didn’t call. I smiled. We needed him broken and hopefully cooperative.
I prepared Zarina for her upcoming conversation with Li. Zarina spoke clearly and distinctly in her native language. The construction manager is allowed to call his family on Fridays, as long as he cooperates with us. This was more important to him than his misconduct. Later, he signed various documents confirming that he had been commissioned to deliver gold instead of silver. He also admitted to attempting to steal for his own personal gain. I assured him that his employer would not find out about the theft as long as he continued to cooperate. Zhang would certainly be very angry if Li tried to enrich himself further. Thankfully, we had him under control.
Meanwhile, progress had been made on the road construction work. Another shipment of asphalt was being processed. The fifth truck was waiting to be unloaded. Pedro, the foreman, estimated that a further twelve to thirteen shipments of asphalt would be required to finish the work. Fifteen had been ordered. This would also enable us to pave the road from the Indio village to the fields. I had a feeling that everything was going better than expected.
But that was a miscalculation as it turned out on Friday. Li had already hinted at this. The Chancay port construction site was guarded day and night by a small private army, and Zhang would certainly use his soldiers to rescue the construction manager and seize the remaining gold. That’s exactly what happened, but luckily we were warned.
On Friday, Li was allowed to call his wife in the presence of Zarina and Yu. He was forbidden from making any further calls or sending any more texts, but Yu took the phone away before Li could finish typing. Three words had already been sent: ‘Problem. Gold. You... ‘ Zarina told me. Oh God! That was too soon. How would Zhang react?
Not even an hour later, Zhang called. Zarina showed me his picture on her phone. I answered. “Hello, Mr Zhang. How are you?”
“Youuu? Where is Li?”
“We had to arrest him. He stole a lot of gold, maybe for you.”
Yang huffed, raged, and shouted a few curses in Chinese. “Mr. Berthier, this goes against our cooperation. I’ll come and get Li tomorrow morning.”
“Don’t forget our gold, Mr. Zhang. We want it back.”
Zarina later said that Yang puffed again and cursed like a Chinese rickshaw driver. Finally, he shouted angrily into the phone, “You’ll pay for this, Berthier! Your tunnel will be blown up! That’s it! My patience is at an end.”
Zarina looked at me in horror. “What was that?”
“Don’t worry, Zarina. It was just a threat. He wouldn’t dare. Besides, he doesn’t really know us yet.”
Zarina looked at me in disbelief. “What if he comes with soldiers?”
“He won’t dare. I’ll make sure of that.”
We held a war council and agreed on a series of immediate measures. Classes were cancelled. I gave Sula command of the defence, as Babette’s birth was imminent within the next few days. Each palazzo resident was given a task to prepare for any necessary defence. Sula instructed the most experienced teenagers in the use of weapons. I watched for a moment and couldn’t help but smile. Yes, we were a great team, and Sula had grown into a magnificent personality. I knew I could rely on her completely. She was visibly pleased with my thumbs-up and waved back.
For some precautionary measures, I had to get to Trujillo as quickly as possible. The petrol station attendant was supposed to stop the remaining two asphalt trucks in the petrol station car park until we had passed this point. Mayari drove us. Olivia, Nguyen, Priya, and Antonio accompanied me. I discussed with Priya and Ngu the task of purchasing the equipment needed to install two light barriers on the mountain road and set up video surveillance from our cell tower. There, they had a power connection and the best possible connection to the valley.
During the trip, I called Ernesto, the editor-in-chief of Trujillo’s main daily newspaper. I described our problem with the Chinese to him and asked if he could prepare an immediate report. I planned to send the report to Zhang via Li’s mobile phone and threaten to inform the international public of his machinations. Clearly, the port project was controversial and definitely not in the United States’ interests. Many neighbouring countries were also concerned that the new major port would render their own ports virtually irrelevant. If the story got out, the Chinese government’s project would be in jeopardy. Ernesto even anticipated nationwide demonstrations and serious disruption to construction.