Chereads / The Merchant / Chapter 14 - Money Laundering

Chapter 14 - Money Laundering

When Luck came back to the world, he sat on his bed, not knowing what to do with a chest full of gold.

He was happy, very happy, but he was also worried because he had never seen so much gold in his life.

What if someone found out that he had so much gold? What would happen to him? 

After all the countries of the world came together to restore world order and peace after the nuclear war and to make up for the damage they had caused to the world, the crime rate in the countries seemed to have decreased on the surface, but underground it had become more violent than ever. 

After the nuclear war, the individual armament of the population increased enormously, because during and after the war, in case of famine, everyone had to protect themselves and their families, and whoever had a gun was one step ahead.

Although the World Government was aware of this problem and even tried to confiscate the weapons circulating among the population, it was like taking a bucket of sand from the beach.

 A futile effort.

Even Luck's mother knew he had a gun in his closet. 

'I need to find a way to launder the gold I've acquired, but how?'

Luck started brainstorming.

'Should I open a jewelry store?'

'No, who am I going to sell the gold to?'

"Should I try to sell it on the black market?

'no no no no, if it's discovered that I have that much gold, I'll die without knowing which hole I'm buried in.'

Putting his head in his hands, Luck was going crazy.

'damn it I have millions in gold but no way to sell it without getting caught!

'Should I sell the gold again, little by little, in other places? But if I transfer large sums of money into my bank account again, I could be followed by the banks.'

At that moment he thought of a college friend. 

Luck had been close friends with Zack in college, they had both immigrated to Istanbul from different countries and had the same sense of humor, but then Zack suddenly dropped out after he started working in casinos to make a living while studying.

When she talked to Zack later, he was now a very rich man and he had a tattoo of a wolf on his arm which showed that he was a member of a very famous gang.

'Should I trust Zack, he was trustworthy in college, but who knows what he's become in a gang after all this time?'

Hesitantly, he picked up his phone and dialed Zack.

"Hello? Luck old buddy."

"Hello, Zack."

"You didn't call me for chitchat, Luck, what's up?"

"I need your help, but we can't talk on the phone."

"Can't talk on the phone? Come to the location I'm about to send you."

"Okay, bye."

Zack, as usual, was a man who liked to get to the point without beating around the bush.

'At least Zack hasn't changed in that regard. I hope his habit of looking out for his friends hasn't changed either.

Ding!

Luck smiled when he saw the location on his phone.

It was the restaurant where they used to like to go to eat together.

Old Fisherman.

It was cheap and very filling, in the style of a restaurant off a fishing boat by the sea.

...

Old memories swirled in Luck's mind as he walked the familiar path along the seashore. 

When Zack had been dumped by the girl he loved, they had fallen asleep drunk on the benches beside the road.

They had been beaten together at the foot of a pine tree.

When Luck had been chased by a dog on this road, Zack had looked at him and burst out laughing.

While he was lost in all these thoughts, a Ferrari F12 stopped on the side of the road. When the window rolled down, Luck was greeted by his friend's familiar mischievous smile.

"Get in the car, or I'll eat and get up by the time you get to the old fisherman."

When Luck got into the car he was mesmerized by its beauty.

"All the gold I've earned is barely enough to buy this car.

Luck was about to speak when Zack suddenly stomped on the gas pedal.

"You don't look like you've made a lot of money since I've seen you... fuck" 

Zack seemed amused by Luck's fearful expression "You're just as much of a coward as you used to be Luck, hahaha!"

When they arrived at the old fisherman's, Luck's face looked like he had seen a ghost. He had never been in a car that reached these speeds before, so when he got out of the car, he felt a sudden nausea, and he crouched down and vomited.

"Get the fuck away from the car and don't dirty it."

When Luck looked at Zack with piercing eyes, who was looking at him with mocking eyes, Zack was suddenly silent. He knew Luck well, he was normally a coward but when he was angry he would do anything.

After a while, when Luck came to his senses, the two of them got on the boat and ordered the fish bread they always ate.

After chatting for a while, Zack was the first to broach the subject as usual.

'Tell me, what do you want from me?

Luck took a gold coin out of his pocket and pushed it towards Zack. "I have gold to sell."

Zack turned the gold coin in his hand and said, "Why don't you sell it to a jeweler or something, even if this gold coin is an artifact, nothing can happen to you from a single piece."

"Who said I only have one piece?"

Zack waved his hand as if to say never mind "3-5 what difference does it make, you can sell it to different jewelers and get rid of it."

"There are three... a hundred pieces of this gold coin."

Luck had decided to play it safe, if he tried to sell all the gold he had, he would lose 300 gold coins in a worst-case scenario.

It was also a test of Zack's credibility.

"Three is not even noticeable...huh? Three hundred?" Zack shouted without realizing it.

"Shut up, everyone is looking over here!"

Realizing his mistake, Zack leaned forward and whispered, "Did you rob an ancient tomb or something?

Where did you get so many gold coins, Luck?"

"Don't ask me where I got it from."

"Do you have any idea how many dollars each?"

"About 15,000 dollars."

"Fourteen million!" Zack exclaimed again in amazement. He couldn't believe his old college buddy had so much gold.

"Shut up, you idiot!" He hurriedly covered Zack's mouth with his hands.

"Can you help me?" 

His eyes were as serious as ice. He slowly took his hands away from Zack's mouth.

"Yes, I can help..."

Luck's eyes lit up "How? Tell me."

"There are many ways, Luck, but either way you'll have to pay a hefty commission."

"A commission? How much?" 

"About four or five million."

"Holy shit! This is theft!" Luck was shocked that he was going to give away so much of his earnings.

"Luck, if you want to sell the gold you don't know where you got it from, you can go and sell it somewhere else, you're free to do that."

Luck knew that no one but Zack could help him with this, so in desperation he had no choice but to accept whatever Zack said.

"Can't we agree on 3 million?" Luck still tried to negotiate.

"There's no room for negotiation, Luck, and you'll have to pay taxes when you launder the money."

Luck was shocked and confused, "Taxes? How much?"

A mischievous smile appeared on Zack's face. "A couple million."

"F*ck."