Empire of Shadows

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Chief Dale stood at the entrance of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials to welcome his “heroes” home. When Lukar got out of the car, he didn’t hesitate to give the man a hug!

“Well done, I heard about the situation at the scene. You handled it very well, especially how you mentioned the reward at the end!”

In this era where the average person was poor but also rich, the profit from reporting a bar would drive people crazy!

Even those drunkards would report bars because they needed money.

As long as bars still existed and they had a place to drink, it was impossible for them not to be able to buy liquor.

But on the other hand, if the whole city was full of bars but they had no money, that would be what prevented them from buying liquor.

With money, what can’t you buy?With the news fermenting tomorrow, he believed that more and more people would start reporting bars.

The group entered the lobby. The agents on duty stood up and applauded. It was another “major bust.” A bar case with a value of over ten thousand was very impressive at this time.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so unimaginable in the future, but at this moment, it was absolutely shocking.

After listening to a more direct report, Chief Dale let them all go to rest. It was already late at night.

As for the bartenders and others who were arrested, if nothing unexpected happened, someone would come with bail money to take them away tomorrow.

The city’s judicial system was rotten to the core. The judges clearly knew they shouldn’t approve their bail, but these judges who had taken dirty money would still violate their work principles, so Chief Dale didn’t give any special instructions regarding these people.

In Chief Dale’s eyes, they were equivalent to… some cash!

However, Lukar did not go to sleep. He still had to have a good chat with the bartender.

The bartender had just sat down when two agents had him come out. “Lukar wants to see you.”

Some other people around stood up again, and their movement immediately alerted the two agents outside the door. They put their hands on their holsters and stepped back nervously, “Get down, all of you get down, or I’ll shoot!”

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became tense, but what was strange was that these two agents clearly knew that closing the iron gate could prevent all this, but they just didn’t close it.

The bartender raised his hands, “The most they can do is beat me up. Don’t act rashly. Someone will stand up for us.”

This sentence made the other young men slowly squat back down. Some of them stared intently at the two agents outside the cell, as if to completely memorize their faces.

He held up his hands to show he was harmless and slowly walked out of the cell.

Lance had given them some brief training, telling them how to “cooperate” with law enforcement agencies during interrogation in the police station or other law enforcement agencies.

Including telling them what methods these law enforcers would use to “lure and kill” them, so no matter what, they should not let these law enforcers find an excuse to pull the trigger on them.

If any of them crossed that iron gate, even if the two agents shot and killed them all, the judge would not be on their side.

So the most correct approach was not to fall for the trap. After their detention status was lifted and they left this place, they could do many things.

The bartender, with his hands cuffed behind his back, was pushed into an interrogation room.

Lukar had just lit a cigarette. He pointed to the chair opposite him, motioning for the bartender to sit there.

The bartender walked over and sat down, his face full of indifference.

“Who is your boss?” Lukar asked.

Although he knew there was a high probability that he wouldn’t get any results from asking, he still wanted to try.

He didn’t like Lance, didn’t like Lance making a fool of him, and didn’t like the things Lance said to him that day, which even made him question his own sense of justice!

He wanted to arrest Lance, to let him feel whether his own justice was dazzling, whether it was sharp, whether it was carried through to the end!

The bartender tilted his head and said nothing.

Lukar sneered. He stood up with a cigarette in his mouth, took off his coat, and hung it on the coat rack.

A gray small-plaid vest and a white shirt, a very stylish and common attire.

He also took off his watch, put it in his coat pocket, and then unbuttoned his cuffs.

“You know what?”

“Before I came here, I was in the homicide division of the Golden Port City Police Department. I dealt with heinous criminals every day.”

“Most of them, the least serious crime they committed was murder.”

“But in the end, they would all tell me what I wanted to know. And you…”

He walked up to the bartender, his rolled-up sleeves revealing hairy arms. He looked down at the bartender, “Stand up.”

The bartender stood up. The moment he stood up, Lukar delivered a hook punch to the bartender’s stomach. The bartender crashed onto the table with a thud…

More than twenty minutes later, the bartender was dragged back to the cell like a dead dog. The young men all crowded around.

Fortunately, his life did not seem to be in danger.

On the other side, Lukar was panting slightly. He spat on the ground.

This hard bone made him feel it was not easy to handle. Recently, these people’s bones were much harder than the criminals of the past, or rather, all of Lance’s subordinates were like this, all hard bones. He didn’t know what ideas Lance had instilled in them.

The agent in charge of detaining these people stood at the door and couldn’t help but complain, “That’s just a young man…” He glanced at the urine stain on the floor; the young man had been beaten by him to the point of urinary incontinence.

Lukar didn’t seem to be interrogating; he was just using the interrogation as a pretext to vent his inner negative emotions.

Now that he was satisfied with his venting, his brain began to return to normal.

But he wouldn’t admit that he did this just to vent the embarrassment Lance gave him on his men. He emphasized, “Even if he just came of age, he is still a criminal!”

The agent in charge of this area raised his hands, “No offense,” he said, shaking his head and turning away.

Although Congress allowed them to use weapons during the arrest of bootleggers and also allowed them to cause casualties, but… it was just a bartender.

Lukar glanced at the yellow puddle of water on the floor, cursed “f—k,” then put on his coat and left.

Someone would come to deal with the situation here. As for the record book he left here?

There wasn’t a single word on it. There was no need for him to take it with him.

Now, after a period of mental excitement and a bit of boxing practice, he was tired. He needed to sleep.

Behind the Bureau of Hazardous Materials were the dormitories. Even the chief’s office and the senior agents’ offices had rest rooms.

The “specifications” of this department were very high. Congress allowed these mid-to-high-level offices to have rest rooms.

Lying on the small bed, Lukar thought of the morning news, a smile appearing on his face.

Even in his dreams, he slept with a smile. He dreamed that he had become the nemesis of evil…

At four o’clock, several cars slowly stopped by the gate of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. Then some people got out of the cars.

One of the young men skillfully pried open the panel on the base of the streetlight, took out the switch, and turned off the light.

The streetlight on one side of the entrance flickered twice and went out. The agent on duty at the entrance just glanced over, then looked away, continuing to doze off leaning against his chair.

After everything became quiet again, the young man quickly climbed up the streetlight. Then the people below threw up a rope. He wrapped it around the lamppost’s arm twice and threw it back down.

Before long, a swaying object was hoisted up…

At five o’clock, almost all the newspaper offices in Golden Port, and some well-known journalists, were harassed by phone calls. The content of the harassment was that there was big news at the entrance of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. If they were late, they wouldn’t see it!

Regardless of whether those newspaper offices believed it, they all arranged for reporters to rush over for an interview. Those well-known journalists were more sensitive to news; they immediately associated it with the Bureau of Hazardous Materials’ recent crackdown operations.

This might be a “counter-attack” by those gangs, the locals, against the Bureau of Hazardous Materials.

At ten past five, Golden Port, which was already close to daylight saving time, had turned off its streetlights, but the light was also starting to get brighter.

A large number of reporters appeared outside the gate of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. At first, the guard was indeed alarmed, but when he found out they were reporters, he didn’t pay much attention.

Because last night, Chief Dale had told him that there would definitely be many reporters visiting today. After all, they were interested in last night’s haul and whether the two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars could be cashed out.

Chief Dale had even specifically instructed not to let these reporters enter the Bureau of Hazardous Materials and disrupt the work order here.

Around six o’clock, the entire sky of Golden Port became bright under the light of the newborn sun. The guard, who had been dozing, was awakened by the constant noisy discussions. He opened his eyes with a start.

The reporters at the gate had not left yet. He somewhat admired these reporters, coming before dawn just for the front-page headline.

He suddenly felt very grateful to the Federation government for giving him such a job.

He wouldn’t be sunburnt, nor would he be cold, no need to run around, just sit here and prevent some people from slipping in…

He straightened his uniform and walked to the gate. He thought the reporters would swarm him, but he found that their target didn’t seem to be here.

The high courtyard wall blocked his view. He walked to the large iron gate and glanced towards where the reporters were gathered. In an instant, his legs went weak and he almost couldn’t stand!

He stumbled back to the guardhouse and dialed the number for Chief Dale’s office…

At this time, Chief Dale was actually in a state of being half-asleep and half-awake.

The pillow in the office was very uncomfortable to sleep on. He tossed and turned all night, waking up for a while, sleeping for a while. In the future, if he could avoid resting here, he would.

The “dring dring dring” of the telephone bell rang, and he was already awake on the first ring.

He slapped his cheeks, slowly sat up, waited for it to ring twice more, then picked it up.

“Chief, it’s the guardhouse. Something’s happened…”

Seven or eight minutes later, a large group of agents walked out of the office building. The sky was now completely bright.

When the reporters saw Chief Dale come out, they turned around and started to swarm towards him. The surrounding agents cleared a path for him, allowing him to see the body hanging from the streetlight at the entrance.

The person who hung the body up seemed to have thoughtfully written the word “INFORMANT” on the chest of the corpse…

Seeing this scene, he finally couldn’t hold it in. A “f—k” escaped his lips. Many reporters were so excited they couldn’t control themselves, their voices growing louder!

“Chief Dale, is this a provocation by the gangs against your previous law enforcement actions?”

“Chief Dale, why was an informant hung here? Did someone inside your agency leak the informant’s identity?”

“Chief Dale, how will you ensure the safety of other informants…”

Lukar also quickly arrived, wrapped in his coat. He looked at the hanging corpse, his face also ashen. He kicked a triangular cone at his feet, sending it flying!

Just as Chief Dale was about to have someone take the body down first, suddenly, several police cars arrived.

The police officers stopped their movements, which made the atmosphere at the scene a bit stiff, but the reporters were so excited they were about to climax. They kept taking pictures, and the scene was lit up by the flashes as if it were daytime!

“This person may be our informant, and him being hung here has had a great impact on our work. Have someone take him down first,” Chief Dale said, looking at the guy who had stopped him with a hostile expression.

This guy was the precinct chief of the city center precinct. Lukar had dealt with him before.

However, he gave Chief Dale no face at all. “This is a crime scene. There may be a large amount of evidence left on this… streetlight.”

“Before we have collected all the evidence, no one is allowed to tamper with the scene. Now, please leave immediately.”

The precinct chief showed no mercy and emphasized, “All criminal cases that occur within Golden Port are handled by our police department.”

This was indeed not within Chief Dale’s scope of authority. He did not have the right to interfere in the law enforcement work of another law enforcement department, and this work had no contact with the Bureau of Hazardous Materials at all.

Even if the person had “informant” written on his chest, there was no evidence to prove that he was one of the informants in the previous bar raids.

So this case could only be handled by the police.

Watching those police officers start to clear the ground around the streetlight, looking for non-existent footprints and fingerprints, Chief Dale’s face became even uglier.

He knew that the Bureau of Hazardous Materials was going to be famous, and he was going to be famous too, but it definitely wouldn’t be a good reputation!

But he was helpless about it. He didn’t let others interfere in their work, so naturally, others wouldn’t let him interfere in theirs.

“You’d better search carefully, don’t miss a single clue!” The words Chief Dale spoke seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth. He turned and walked towards the courtyard, “Let’s go.”

A contemptuous smile appeared on the corner of the precinct chief’s mouth. He actually knew who did it, but he wouldn’t say, nor would he make a move.

This was not a conflict between law enforcers and criminal groups, but a conflict between locals and outsiders. It had escalated!

In the end, the police still figured out who the body was.

His name was Rob. He was killed for leaking secrets. His eyes and tongue were held in his left and right hands respectively, and the wounds were also sealed with thread.

This was similar to a myth from the Empire. A leaker revealed some intelligence, leading a war that should have been won to a disastrous defeat.

The hero and the gods deprived him of the ability to see and speak, making him fall into the hell of darkness and silence forever…

However, their speed of collecting evidence and clues was too slow, so much so that almost the entire city knew about this matter.

More importantly, many newspapers, including the “Golden Port Today” and even the “Tide Newspaper,” had changed their front-page headlines since five o’clock.

When the mayor got up and came to the dining room, his family had already prepared breakfast. After finishing breakfast, he still had thirty minutes of free time before he would go to work.

But just as he sat down, his personal secretary delivered a newspaper, “You’d better take a look at this.”

The mayor glanced at the newspaper in his hand, swallowed the food in his mouth in a few bites, then wiped his hands and spread it open.

Almost half of the front page was occupied by a photograph. The streetlight on the far left, and the hanging corpse occupied one-third of the photo. The rest was the gate of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and the dozing guard.

They used a bold font to give people an unsettling headline—”Who Killed the Informant”

This was a very sophisticated headline. It left a lot of room for imagination for people. It seemed to be asking who the murderer was, but it was more of a reminder to people of who had caused all this to happen!

It seemed like they were just reporting the news, but the mayor could feel that this was a warning from the locals to some “traitors.” They were using this incident to make a point.

The confrontation between smart political forces followed a pattern, but the traces would not be too heavy, especially for this kind of thing aimed at the public.

They couldn’t possibly stand up and shout, “All locals must stand with us. Whoever does something stupid, we will kill them.”

But they could use this method to make people understand that being an informant was not just about having a bad end!

This news story ruined the mayor’s good mood. He had only taken a small bite of bread, but now, he couldn’t eat anything.

He went straight to the study. He wanted to call Chief Dale, but then he put down the receiver he had picked up.

What was the point of calling?

It had already happened!

But in the end, he still picked up the receiver.

“Who did it?”

Chief Dale was also having a headache at this time. He thought they were going to have a big showdown this time, but he didn’t expect everything to be ruined by a hanging corpse.

Those who were trying to inform would have to start considering the price. The cost of informing was too high. If you were discovered, you would die. Who would dare to inform casually?

And some reports even claimed that it was very likely that there were problems within the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and they had leaked the informant’s identity, which led to the informant being honorably killed.

From the clearly ritualistic features of the death, it could be seen that this was the work of a gang!

So at this time, asking who the deceased was, was meaningless.

Even if the deceased was a homeless person, people would think that the deceased was the leaker.

Chief Dale stood by the window, watching a group of people walking out of the main gate, “I think it’s very likely that Lance did it.”

Because someone had already told him that Lance’s car was parked on the road opposite the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and he himself was there!

***

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