Empire of Shadows

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“Want to come see?”

Lawn knocked on the window outside the office. When Lance looked at him, he pointed towards the back door and left.

This meant the person had been caught.

So Lance politely inquired.

Alberto shook his head, then stood up, walked to the door, and took his hat from the coat rack. “No, this is your business, I won’t participate.”

“But if you need help, call me!”

After the two hugged, Alberto bid farewell and left.

Lance sat in his office and lit a cigarette. After finishing it, he walked to his desk, opened one of the drawers, and took out a dagger, a gun, and two magazines.He took off his jacket, put on his shoulder holster, then put his clothes back on and turned twice in front of the mirror.

Almost undetectable, he then took his hat and left.

Sometimes, being a little earlier or a little later makes a difference, representing different natures. As a superior, this is especially important!

“When people are waiting for you, your status and authority in their hearts will grow higher and higher.”

“But don’t be too eager or enthusiastic to arrive early; that will make them think they are more important than you in this matter!”

Better to make people wait than to wait for people.

He pushed open the back door and went into the backyard. Lawn stood at the garage entrance. When he saw Lance, he turned and went inside.

Lance walked into the garage and saw the unfortunate person who had been caught.

Even if the other party didn’t speak, from a distance, he could smell the gang scent on this fool.

He walked to the middle of the garage. Hiram dragged a folding chair over and flattened it for Lance to sit down.

Lance took off his hat and handed it to Hiram, looking at the unfortunate person and asking, “What’s your name?”

“Robert, sir, why did you bring me here?”

“Robert… so, who sent you?”

Robert looked about twenty-four or twenty-five, but it wasn’t impossible for him to look older. He seemed very scared, and it was highly likely to be genuine.

Fear is like pain. You can endure pain, but enduring it doesn’t mean you won’t feel it.

Fear is the same. You can force yourself to endure the negative emotions of fear and continue to lie, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be afraid because you’re lying.

“No one sent me, sir, I just wanted to find something in the dumpster… ah!”

As he continued to lie, Lance made a “please” gesture, a very subtle movement, and a baseball bat, the same type used by the Sailboat Team and David the batter, swung onto his back.

Robert was hit and doubled over backward. “Sir, I really don’t know anything, I was just passing by!”

Lance looked at Hiram without concealing anything. “Go get the tarp and spread it out.”

Hiram and Lawn immediately ran to the warehouse. Before long, the two came back carrying two large bundles of tarpaulins.

Almost everyone who frequented the Empire District and the docks, especially the warehouse area, recognized these; there were plenty of them.

Robert didn’t seem to understand what these tarps were for. Their methods of execution were quite crude, so Lance explained it to him.

“When your blood splatters later, it will fall on these tarpaulins, so we won’t need to dig up a layer of the ground.”

“And if we decide to kill you, you’ll bleed a lot. To make it easier for us to clean up the mess you leave, we’ve prepared this.”

Hearing Lance say this, he trembled even more. Lance also saw that he was starting to struggle.

A struggle within.

Persistence is a strange thing.

If you can grit your teeth, you’ll find that you can break through one limit after another, constantly challenging the impossible, making you shout “miracle”!

But conversely, if your persistence has a crack, if it’s not so absolute, if you waver or question your own persistence.

Then, without a doubt, you will soon be overwhelmed by your doubts about persistence.

When the tarps were spread out, Lance had Hiram hoist Robert up. He stood up, took off his jacket, drew his dagger, and walked in front of Robert.

“Last chance. If you don’t speak, your companions are outside. They might not be as persistent as you are.”

“Don’t sacrifice your life for others’ affairs. You are not as important or valuable as you think, Robert.”

“Are you married?”

Robert nodded. “Yes, I am.”

“Think of your mother, think of your wife, maybe you already have a child or a dog you raised. They cannot lose you!”

“And I can promise, if you speak, I will let you leave, alive and well.”

Looking at the sharp dagger in Lance’s hand, feeling the fear that made his stomach ache from facing death head-on, he was sweating all over, and his right leg kept trembling.

When the anticipation on Lance’s face gradually turned to indifference, he shouted, “It’s Liam…”

Lance, as he promised, had him untied and even thoughtfully offered him a cigarette. Robert greedily inhaled the cigarette, as if at that moment he wasn’t inhaling smoke, but life, future, and beauty!

“Liam is Heller… he’s from the Camille gang. We all are. He’s a senior cadre.”

“The big boss said you killed Will, so he had to seek revenge on you. We planned to… kidnap you.”

“Kidnap me?” Lance almost laughed. He then looked at the others, but no one else was laughing.

There was only anger in their eyes!

Hiram flipped his hair. “Let’s do this, Lance!”

Lance nodded, pointing at him. “Right, let’s do this.”

He turned back to young Robert. “Where’s Liam?”

“Also, where’s that Heller?”

Robert seemed very nervous. “The big boss is often at Empire’s Night. Liam… I don’t know, he calls us to do things.”

“But he often goes to his strip club…”

Liam had his own business, a strip club, filled with young girls he had tricked and deceived from the Empire.

Violence and death were his powerful weapons for ruling these girls. He didn’t even need to pay these girls a single cent; keeping them alive, rather than selling them to western mines, was the greatest mercy he showed them.

Naturally, in return for his mercy, the girls had to earn him a satisfactory amount of money every day, otherwise he would make their lives hell.

He valued this business of his very much. Everyone knew Red Heels was the best strip club in the Empire District.

You could say it wasn’t very lively, but it was definitely the best here.

It accepted almost any kind of order, whether perverse or not.

This brought him a lot of wealth. As long as he was fine, he would stay here.

Several people looked at Robert, asking Lance if he wanted to kill him. Robert was already crying in fear.

At this moment, he finally thought of his mother, his wife, his child, and the dog he raised!

When “Please” came out of his mouth, Lance helped him up and patted the dust off him. “I am a man of my word. I said I wouldn’t hurt you, and I won’t. But you have to wait here for a while.”

He walked outside. “Immediately arrange for someone to go to Liam’s villa and Red Heels and see if his car is there.”

Through questioning, Lance learned that Liam had a new blue sedan and would drive it wherever he went.

You could touch his women, but you couldn’t touch his car. Everyone in the Camille gang knew this.

Hiram immediately arranged for people to go.

It would take about thirty minutes to drive there from here. After about forty minutes, a call came in. “He’s at Red Heels.”

At this time, Alberto’s guns had already been delivered: a dozen handguns and four submachine guns.

“Wait, Hiram, you take the guns and the men and wait at the entrance of Red Heels. He’ll definitely come out first once he gets the news. Take him out before he gets into his car.”

“Then drive out of the city, dispose of the items, go to the nearest station (train station), buy a return ticket, and I’ll wait for you for dinner tonight. Any problems?”

Lance had just taken out a senior cadre from the Camille gang. If another senior cadre of theirs were to be taken out again, the police department would definitely be watching him closely.

So this time, he didn’t plan to show up in person, but rather let Hiram do it.

This time, he didn’t flip his hair; he ran his hand through it, and his expression was exceptionally serious. “No problem, Lance, I guarantee he’ll die there before he gets in his car!”

Lance gave him a hug. He took a submachine gun; he liked it.

Another thirty minutes later, Hiram called. He was already at Red Heels and ready to start.

Lance hung up the phone and went back to the warehouse, having Robert untied. “I’ll see you out.”

Robert’s face showed some joy of surviving a disaster, but also some terror. “Please…”

Lance put his arm around his shoulder. “I told you I wouldn’t kill you, and I’ll make sure many people see that I didn’t kill you, that you left on your own!”

He put his arm around Robert’s shoulder, walked through the office, and exited through the main door.

The two people standing across the street were clearly stunned when they saw this. They never would have imagined that the person watching Lance in the back alley would come out of his company with Lance!

There was a damn traitor!

One of them immediately ran to a nearby phone booth. He had to tell Liam this news.

Robert at this moment had no idea of any of this. It wasn’t until Lance not only released his grip from his shoulder but also pulled out ten dollars and stuffed it into his pocket that he truly felt the joy of “I survived”!

“Thank you, thank you, Mr. Lance, you are a gentleman of your word, God bless you!”

Lance smiled and nodded. “That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all year!”

Seeing Robert’s bewildered expression, Lance was disappointed that he didn’t understand his humor. He helped him straighten his slightly messy collar. “May God hear your prayer!”

***

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