Yang Yi’s first task wasn’t to contact Justin or to call Alexander, but to inform Trident of his plans.
He’d just wanted to discuss it with Brian, and if Brian had been against the gold heist too, Yang Yi would have refrained from mentioning it to anyone else. Now that Brian had expressed his approval, it was time to move on to the implementation phase.
Yang Yi was busy all day and it wasn’t until the evening that he finally gathered everyone together.
"We’re not going to leave Ukraine for the time being, we’ll leave only after we complete a certain task."
Yang Yi played the recording he had eavesdropped on, then said to everyone, "You’ve all heard it, there’s a batch of gold about to be moved out of the Ukrainian treasury, and we’re going to get our hands on it."
The reactions of the group varied. Xiao Ran had looked downcast, but upon learning that Yang Yi planned to seize a batch of gold, her eyes sparkled with excitement and she seemed filled with a fighting spirit, as if she couldn’t wait to rush out right away.
"Is this heist definitely going to take place?"
The first to question Yang Yi was Chris. Yang Yi smiled and said, "It’s currently in the planning stage. Do you have any objections?"
"If you’re asking for opinions, then I’ll speak. Are you kidding me? This is thirty-five tons of gold we’re talking about, and it’s hidden in the Ukrainian treasury. Even if we know someone is going to move it out, so what? Does that mean we can get our hands on it? I even know where the gold in the United States is, right in New York, in the underground vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank, and there are thousands of tons of gold there!"
Chris obviously disagreed with the idea of seizing the gold, but Rodriguez raised his voice, "That’s the United States, but this is Ukraine!"
"What about Ukraine? Does that mean a few of us can actually get our hands on the Ukrainian gold?"
Rodriguez looked at him scornfully and said, "You’re just a coward!"
Chris became furious, "I’m not a coward, I’m just still rational, you brainless idiot!"
Rodriguez was angry too, but before Yang Yi could intervene to stop their argument, Brian just glanced at Chris, and Chris immediately shut up, not daring to even breathe too loudly.
Xiao Ran said eagerly, "Why can’t we rob it? It sounds exhilarating!"
Kate said softly, "The gold will definitely be transported by vehicles once it leaves the vault, and the recording made it clear they plan to use a plane to take the gold to the United States, so it will surely go from the vault of the National Bank of Ukraine to the airport. I don’t think it’s a good idea to hit them on the way there. First of all, there will surely be numerous guards protecting the gold, and we only have eight people. Even if we succeed, what then? That’s thirty-five tons of gold, not thirty-five kilograms. We would need a large truck to haul the gold away. Before we could even leave Kyiv, we’d be riddled with bullets."
Yang Yi didn’t answer Kate’s concerns directly, turning instead to Zhang Yong, who seemed to be lost in thought, and smiled, "Brother Yong, what do you think?"
"Uh, oh, are you asking me? Well, I was just thinking about how big a pile thirty-five tons of gold would be. I’ve seen a gold ingot, this size, one kilogram. They call it a gold brick, but it’s really a bar, really heavy. Thirty-five tons of gold... We won’t be able to move it."
After wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth, Zhang Yong looked at Yang Yi and said, "It’s going to be tough; we’ll need to get a forklift ready."
Yang Yi looked astounded and said, "Huh?"
"Get the forklift ready! Think about it, thirty-five tons of gold, we can’t move it by hand. Even if we hijack the vehicle transporting the gold, we can’t drive it forever. We’ll need to transfer the gold, and how can we do that without a forklift?"
Yang Yi, barely able to withhold laughter, said, "Can we not think about that right now? Can we first focus on how to make our move and then think about how to transport the gold later?"
"Sooner or later, we have to think about it."
Yang Yi sighed and said, "If we want to get our hands on this batch of gold, we must know the exact information, so the most urgent task now is to obtain intelligence, everyone."
Yang Yi smiled and said, "Forget about our identities as mercenaries, we are no longer mercenaries, now we are spies."
Yang Yi didn’t rush to talk about the collaboration with Justin and Alexander because it was currently the stage of gathering intelligence. If they couldn’t even find out when the gold would be transported, all the subsequent steps would be meaningless.
"First, we have to surveillance Arseny and figure out a way to get close to him, but how can we approach him, does anyone have any ideas?"
Xiao Ran said without hesitation, "Now that Arseny is the Prime Minister of Ukraine, his status is different than before. It won’t be easy to get close to him, and we don’t even know where he lives. Even if we did, we couldn’t possibly sneak in to plant bugs!"
Yang Yi said in a deep voice, "It’s not difficult to find out where Arseny is living, the hard part is how to ensure that we are aware of his every move, listen to all his calls. He said there would be a meeting at his usual residence if there were any major developments, but what if they change the location? Then we would have no opportunity to take action."
The group fell silent. Yang Yi smiled and said, "Now I already have a plan; I just need everyone’s cooperation to carry it out, first of all..."
Before Yang Yi could finish, his satellite phone rang, and he had to interrupt the conversation to answer the call.
The call was from Tang Guo.
"Boss, the bugs have a new yield, a conversation is in progress, and I am transmitting it to you in real time."
Following Tang Guo’s words, Arseny’s voice came through.
"Everything is ready now; all that’s left is the departure. I’ll arrange for someone to transport the gold to the airport; now it all depends on when you can send a plane to carry it away."
The conversation started in the middle, but the key part was not missed. A person named Roy said, "Wait a moment."
After a short wait, Roy whispered, "Hey, boss, the cargo here is ready to be transported. I need to know when the plane will come?"
After another brief pause, Roy said in a low voice, "On March 5th, a United Airlines flight will arrive at Kyiv Airport. It will be a Boeing 747, with the tail number 176. I will inform you of the specific landing time in advance."
"It’s on a United Airlines passenger plane, right? Very good, a passenger plane is better than a cargo plane, but it has to be quick, and the transit time should be minimized as well. The situation at Kyiv Airport is complex, and I don’t want too many people to see."
"Of course, as soon as the airplane is loaded with the goods, it can take off immediately."
There was no need to listen further.
Arseny was truly efficient, and Yang Yi and his team were also very lucky.
Yang Yi had been busy all day, his brain nearly drained dry, finally coming up with several methods with Brian to approach and monitor Arseny, but now, all of these were unnecessary because they had obtained the most crucial intelligence.