Charlie smiled. "Well, here's the plan. While I head over to Duca Mines, you should start acquiring various enterprises… ideally, a food processing company in a remote location. Once that's done, send every employee on a paid acquisition. Tell them you're upgrading the production line or something."Once I'm done with Duca Mines, I will evacuate everyone in phases to those factories where they will live for a while. The first batch must arrive for all to see—just say that they are technicians who will upgrade the production line. As for the ones who come later, they will be given the guise of transporting equipment."A food processing company should have substantial raw food ingredients, processed foods, and everything in between, so it'd definitely be enough to feed thousands for a brief period before we get them out. Just buy more ingredients if you start to run short—no one will suspect anything when it's a food processing company purchasing raw ingredients."In addition, you hav

That was why this canning factory was ideal, overall speaking.When Merlin arrived at the entrance of the food processing company, he noticed that there wasn't even a security guard inside. It certainly looked huge on the outside, but it was also old and almost rundown.The front compound was an open space of about 3,000 to 4,000 square meters, with a worn-out Fiat, bicycles, and cheap motorcycles that were modified beyond recognition parked all over the place.To the right was a loading and storage area—a cargo platform for convenient unloading, along with a single windowless building. Merlin had a hunch that it must be used for cold storage and other raw materials. There was a truck parked in front of the cargo platform, and several loaders were carrying fresh seafood covered with ice from it and moving it into the cold storage at the back.The back of the cold storage was connected to the largest factory floor, which should be the main processing line. There was a similar ca

Forget five hundred grand—the owner would sell his food processing plant without hesitation, even if he was only offered 300,000 US dollars.For Merlin's part, he wasn't jumping to a deal. Instead, he asked for further details and even asked the owner to take him on a tour around the plant. Behind the main building was an employee cafeteria and several warehouses. He naturally noticed that with just around three hundred workers around, a factory this vast could easily hide thousands.In addition, there were about fifteen tons of canned products waiting to be shipped to the transit hub before it was shipped out, and it was worth about 40,000 US dollars in the current market price.After a full tour around the food processing plant, Merlin told the owner, "Well, I've seen everything, but I must be honest—it's way more dilapidated than I expected."The cost of renovations, repairs, and upgrading will be at least several million dollars. I don't like to dilly-dally when doing busines

Merlin's insight left the owner shocked, but he soon nodded in understanding. "I won't lie, sir—I have never even thought about all the things you've just said. It seems that I am very much lacking as a businessman, only knowing how to keep afloat what I have instead of showing vision and helping it grow and succeed."Merlin shrugged. "Well, in this case, you just have to stick to the plan—once we sign the agreement, you can send your workers home. Be sure to tell them that they are on paid leave, that they will be paid half in the next few months, and the remaining half will be given when they come back to work. In addition, they must maintain secrecy and most definitely not work elsewhere, or we will ask them to return our money or ask for further compensation."The owner nodded repeatedly. "No problem, sir! I will make sure that they take this very seriously—they all respect me enough and won't break regulations on purpose, anyway."Pausing, he then asked Merlin, "By the way, you

Merlin definitely worked fast—once the agreement was reached, he paid the owner of the food processing plant twenty grand up front just to sweeten the deal before asking the Acker family's agent in Africa to prepare the remaining cash.Cash was the best solution, too, as they didn't want to leave a trail, so a wire transfer was a no-go.Still, it was not hard for the Ackers to prepare 200 grand USD out of the blue, but the difficult part was yet to come.Not only did they have to send a team bringing tons of food and daily necessities to the food processing plant with some daily necessities, but they also needed a factory-wide security upgrade for the food processing plant to ensure nothing went amiss.Just to be sure, Charlie told Porter Waldron to send his best men, entering Morocco from Algeria, and await his orders at Duca Mines. With their mobility, they could put on a decent disguise and still only need a few hours to travel from Lebanon to Algeria, so they would reach Duca M