Empire of Shadows

Our

You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/

Advanced chapter until 450+ at /caleredhair

Lukar’s gaze remained fixed on Lance. “You’re very good with words. A lot of girls must like you?”

“That’s my personal privacy, but…”, Lance smiled and nodded, “there are indeed girls who like me.”

“Lukar, I have a very curious question I want to ask you. I wonder if it’s convenient for you to chat with me.”

Lukar had nothing else to do today. The events of this week had been too damn exciting; you couldn’t even see such an exciting plot in those pulp novels.

Even now, he had a sense of unreality, and at the same time, he smelled a very special scent, the smell of gunpowder.

When facing Lance, his reason was somewhat swayed by his emotions. He knew this was wrong, but everyone knows some things shouldn’t be done, yet they still do them.

Just like people know they shouldn’t do illegal things, shouldn’t maintain those bad habits, shouldn’t sit at a desk with a roll of paper to disinfect their hands after a tiring day of work.They clearly know it, but they just can’t control themselves.

Lukar also couldn’t control himself a little, and what came with this lack of control was his hope to discover more from Lance, so he didn’t mind chatting a little longer with him.

“Of course, if I’m allowed to say.”

Lance nodded, as a gesture of thanks. “Why do you like to stare at me?”

“What I mean is… there are so many criminals committing crimes in this city, yet you specifically come to find me, sit here, treat me to a cup of coffee, and then tell me you’ll be watching me.”

“Is it because you have some special hobby?” he raised his hands with a half-smile, making a gesture of refusal. “I respect your personal emotional orientation, but sorry, I can’t accept this.”

Lukar couldn’t help but laugh. He held his forehead, laughing with a rhythm, as if this were a very funny joke.

After laughing for a while, he took a deep breath, stopping the laughter. “Interesting!”

He paused for a moment, as if reminiscing about something. “Perhaps you left a very deep impression on me, Lance.”

“You were just a…”, he made a gesture for a small person, a tiny gesture, “…an insignificant little character, yet you could calmly play with law enforcement and maintain that contemptuous attitude when facing law and justice.”

“This made me notice you. I became interested in you, but rest assured, not in that way.”

“I want to catch you, Lance. I want to see you standing in the defendant’s box, accepting the judge’s harshest punishment. The moment I personally send you to the electric chair, I want to see if you can still laugh like you do now, or like before.”

Lance’s smile was handsome, but the more handsome and sunny it was, the more Lukar felt the displeasure of being played with.

He wanted “revenge,” that was the reason.

After listening seriously, Lance asked, “So, you’re not trying to catch me for the sake of justice in your heart, or for the fairness of the law, but just because you feel I played you?”

Lukar frowned. “That’s only a part of it. But I am a law enforcer, after all. Upholding the dignity of justice and the law is also part of my job. There’s no conflict.”

Lance pressed his hands on the table, leaning his body forward, making a “I have a secret to tell you” gesture.

Lukar was a bit hesitant, but at Lance’s beckoning, he also leaned his body forward a little.

“I’ll tell you a secret.”

“The Red High Heels nightclub is capturing young girls everywhere, forcing them to provide services for the upper class in the Bay Area. Some are even killed and then thrown into Angel Lake.”

“We all know that there are hundreds of oil drums and countless iron chain balls down there. Shouldn’t you be upholding your justice now?”

The furrows between Lukar’s brows were bottomless, and his expression seemed to have frozen.

Lance leaned back, resting against the back of the chair.

After a few seconds, he spread his hands. “See, you’re not as righteous as you imagine yourself to be, Lukar.”

“You’re actually no different from those cops who take bribes, maybe even worse than them.”

“They take bribes, and they do things for the bribes. What about you?”

“Do you take bribes?”

“Do you have principles?”

“Are you really as good as you imagine yourself to be?”

“I don’t think so. You’re just a willful child who will never recognize his own problems.”

“You’re very interested in me, but I’m not that interested in you, because there’s nothing remarkable about you.”

“Oh right, I forgot to ask, do you take money?”

Lance took a wad of cash from his pocket, all in five-dollar denominations.

He counted out a hundred dollars, twenty bills, arranged them neatly on the table, then gathered them together and casually tossed them in front of Lukar. “I’ll treat you to a cup of coffee too.”

Lukar’s expression was already different from before. Before this, when facing Lance, he always had a faint sense of arrogance. As a law enforcer, an agent of justice, facing a criminal, he couldn’t help but feel this sense of superiority.

But when Lance shattered his arrogance with a few simple words, it was like giving him a real mirror, letting him see the real self in the mirror, completely different from what he had imagined.

Almost all animals cannot see themselves. Their perception of themselves comes from external feedback, plus their idealized guesses.

So when a person hasn’t looked in a mirror for a long time, giving them one will make them feel fear, because only then will they discover that they are not “themselves.”

It sounds complicated, but to put it simply, people’s real selves are not as beautiful as they imagine them to be.

Lukar could no longer smile.

Lance didn’t mind provoking him further. “Why did you stop smiling?”

Lukar stood up and looked at Lance. “I’ll be watching you.”

Lance shrugged, crossed his legs, and rested his hands on the arms of the chair. “Whatever you want.”

Lukar then left here in a rage.

Watching the office door slam shut, Lance didn’t feel any particular emotion.

Being watched by a law enforcer, isn’t that a very normal thing?

But whether he could be caught, that was another question!

Elvin soon pushed the door open and came in. “What’s wrong with that guy?”

He saw the Bureau of Dangerous Goods car parked outside and had heard that this guy had entered Lance’s office. But since Lance hadn’t called them, they hadn’t gone in.

The others also crowded in. Lance briefly explained, “This Director Dale is a very special person. His methods are much more clever than the directors of our other local law enforcement agencies.”

“Now he has mobilized the entire Golden Port to deal with Polly. There’s a high probability that Polly is doomed.”

After hearing this, the others all had an indescribable feeling. They had never dealt with this famous “Big Polly” from the Port District, but they had heard many rumors about him.

Polly had shown himself to be more mature than his peers since he was a child, starting to make a living on the streets at the age of seven or eight.

After he became an adult, he joined the Brotherhood with the flow and quickly showed his personal charm within the gang, becoming the leader.

Many people felt that the Port District would usher in the “Polly Era.” The Red Dog Gang had no influence on his dominance. Although the Red Dog Gang was also nominally here, their presence was not strong.

On the contrary, the Brotherhood Import & Export Company and the Brotherhood had a very large influence.

But now, he was about to become a thing of the past.

If one were to give people a title with a sense of historical weight, classifying them as “common,” “elite,” “legendary,” “epic,” then Polly was already above elite.

And a magnificent new era was about to set sail, yet he fell on the eve of the new era. Perhaps people would feel regret when talking about this, but this was the cruelest side of this world.

Perhaps one day, you were shining brightly, but the next day, the sun went out!

“Should we enter the Port District?” a lot of people were crowded in the office. The nightclub over there had also temporarily stopped. Without liquor, who the hell would want to go to a nightclub to watch singing and dancing?

Out of ten customers, maybe only two or three were there to look at thighs. More were there to sit down and have a drink in a nice atmosphere.

Preferably with a female companion who belonged to them only when they came in, and to someone else when they left.

Without liquor, the nightclub had no soul, except for the casino, of course.

For gamblers, it didn’t matter if there was liquor or not. What they wanted were playing cards, dice, chips, and the adrenaline rush of winning or losing in an instant!

So there were more people here today.

Ethan proposed this view, and the others all looked at Lance.

The Empire District was still too poor. Along with the Port District, it was known as the gathering place for the poor in Golden Port. Almost all who lived here were from the bottom of society, workers.

Actually, you could tell from the bars. In the Empire District, their bars had an average daily spending of about twenty-five cents per customer, and some might only be ten or fifteen cents.

They would only order one drink and then drink it slowly.

Lance’s strategy of small profits but quick turnover to capture the market might also be one of the reasons why they were not as profitable as other bars. But in the end, it was because the customers were too poor.

They had heard Lance say that when he went to the bars in the Bay Area with Alberto, a glass of liquor there cost a dollar, and the cheaper ones were fifty or sixty, or seventy or eighty cents.

The profit they made from one glass of liquor could be equivalent to the profit Lance and his group made from a whole bottle here.

This was also the reason why everyone outside wanted to go to more developed areas, because the consumption level was different.

Currently, the city center, the Bay Area, and the Starlight District, these three districts were firmly controlled by branches of the Five Families. Small gangs couldn’t get a foothold at all. So if they wanted to develop, they could only expand their territory as much as possible, in poor places, and deal with poor buddies.

Entering the Port District was a good choice. After a simple skirmish with the Red Dog Gang, everyone discovered that the Red Dog Gang was a soft tomato, easily squashed. So if they also expanded into the Port District, there should be no problem.

However, Lance shook his head. “We won’t expand there for now. We’ll consider expanding outwards again after we have completely digested the Empire District.”

“Expanding outwards now will not only not enhance our strength, but will also bring us some potential risks.”

“Many people are watching us. Although our unification of the Empire District had an element of opportunism, it is enough to make them vigilant.”

“If we continue to expand, they will become nervous, and we do not have the ability to confront the entire Golden Port. Moreover, we lack our own political spokesperson.”

“So our best course of action right now is to stabilize for a period, rapidly improve ourselves, and when we have the strength to try new challenges, we will go out again.”

“And!” his voice grew heavier, “Lukar’s visit today actually brought us a piece of news. In the coming period, they will crack down hard on the issue of smuggled liquor.”

“Although our Director Dale has miraculously saved the situation, if he wants to go further in this job and return to the special district, he must achieve outstanding results in a short period of time.”

“For him, seizing smuggled liquor, smuggled tobacco, and explosives are achievements.”

“We will not expand during his craziest time. That would be disadvantageous for us!”

Everyone roughly understood. They always highly approved of Lance’s judgment.

Actually, there was another reason for not expanding outwards, which was that the current Golden Port was too stable.

The Five Families, the local political forces, and City Hall, the three giants, had always been in peaceful coexistence. Before they fell into chaos, there was actually no opportunity for the people at the bottom to get ahead.

Whoever wanted to get ahead, they would push them down. The rule-makers would not allow new people to join them.

So now, the best thing to do was to quietly accumulate strength, and then wait, wait for the day when this stable triangle of power became unstable, or even collapsed!

Perhaps the two bombings against the Bureau of Dangerous Goods in Golden Port were too heinous, or perhaps Director Dale’s methods were outstanding enough, plus he had backing in Congress.

Soon, the whole country knew about this matter and began to discuss it fiercely.

A senator expressed his views in the “Planet Newspaper.” He believed that criminal organizations attacking law enforcement agencies was a provocation to the Federation’s political power, and this trend must be suppressed.

Otherwise, people would mistakenly believe that the Federation’s political power had lost control of the Federation, which would lead to some terrible consequences.

Other senators and congressmen also had similar or agreeing views. The situation was still escalating.

“How to better suppress organized crime” became a relatively hot topic at the moment.

During this period, a very interesting thing happened. It was said that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had requested instructions from the president, believing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation could assist the Bureau of Dangerous Goods in investigating, collecting evidence, and arresting these organized crime groups.

But Mr. President rejected the director’s request. He believed that this had nothing to do with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The most important thing for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to do right now was to find out who was bad-mouthing the president, not to catch some criminals.

Mr. President also told his chief of staff that he felt this director’s brain was not working well. If he couldn’t do it, they should replace him. He didn’t even know who he was supposed to work for!

It’s unknown whether this rumor is true or false, but the person who could spread such detailed details, if not the president, must be the chief of staff.

At least it wouldn’t have been spread by the director himself. He couldn’t just tell everyone “the president doesn’t like me,” that’s not reasonable.

So the whole thing was probably that the president gave the instruction, and the chief of staff revealed an intention to the outside world that they were looking for a qualified “political attack dog” to replace the current director who couldn’t figure out his own position.

What they wanted was an “attack dog,” a “vicious dog,” but definitely not a “nemesis of crime”!

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation actually wants to catch real criminals” also became a political joke in the political arena recently, although for ordinary people, they didn’t know what was so funny about it.

Compared to the various emotions of others, Big Polly was not feeling “big” at all at this moment.

Director Dale’s public speech had already made him realize that this Director Dale was different from anyone he had ever dealt with before.

He was not like Charlie, not like John, not like Bruce, not like any police chief he knew who could arrest him.

He had very powerful methods, did not accept compromises, and what was more troublesome was that now it wasn’t just the Bureau of Dangerous Goods looking for him, but also the police, other gangs, and the Five Families.

After the incident, Polly went into hiding directly. Now he was a little panicked and uneasy. The curtains hadn’t been opened for several days.

Whenever a police car or siren passed by, he would nervously grab his weapon and look outside.

After waiting for two days, he finally dialed a number. His hopes were all pinned on this number.

“Mr. Wade…”, he held the phone with both hands, his face pale with panic, without any of the arrogance he used to have when he stood in his office, a cigarette dangling from his lips, spraying the street with a submachine gun.

Now he was like a dog with a broken leg, whining as it tried to find a shelter in a downpour.

“Polly, what can I say?”

A gentle voice came from the other end of the receiver. Just by hearing the voice, one could imagine a well-dressed gentleman sitting behind a desk, holding the phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

He must be very noble. The quality and speed of his voice told people that he was a well-educated person, a respected person.

Polly squeezed out a smile, although the other party couldn’t actually see it. “Mr. Wade, save me!”

(End of this chapter)

***

Additional chapters: /caleredhair