Empire of Shadows

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The two stared at each other for a good while.

Finally, John took a step back. He pointed at Lance, said nothing, turned, and walked away.

Elvin blocked his path, his unafraid eyes staring steadily into his, with a seemingly provocative intent!

He twisted his neck slightly, as if to say, “Come on, let’s fight.”

John pursed his lips, feeling a destructive impulse, but in the end, he held it in.

John turned to look at Lance. Lance raised his hand, and only then did Elvin step aside, but he still bumped John with his chest.

Everyone else stepped aside, no longer surrounding the police officers. John walked back to his car and kicked the tire, “Let’s go!”

The other police officers all breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, they didn’t want to offend Lance either.

Being a police officer these days was a truly high-risk profession. Even though Golden Port seemed so “harmonious,” several police officers had still died in the line of duty this month.Some were purely unlucky and got into car accidents, but others were directly shot and killed by suspects during law enforcement.

If you couldn’t climb higher in the police force, then being a police officer was worse than washing dishes.

At least washing dishes was safe; you didn’t have to worry about washing dishes to death.

Being a cop, you really could!

Except for the two unlucky ones who had to stay behind to clean up the scene, still trembling, the other police officers all left cleanly.

Elvin walked over, “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t know what had happened. Robert said someone was having a firefight at the docks, and Lance had them come over. Elvin directly pulled a group of people and drove over.

He floored the accelerator all the way, ran a string of red lights, and there were countless curses on the road from the Empire District.

To this moment, he still didn’t know why the firefight had happened, or who was fighting whom.

Lance shook his head slightly, “Two groups of people broke in and even opened fire on Hiram. One of the groups might be outsiders; I have no impression of them.”

He glanced at the dead driver, “By the way, find out who the person who escaped was. He was the one who led these people here.”

This matter was not entirely John’s responsibility; there was also this person who had brought the trouble over.

If he hadn’t broken into the port, the other gunmen wouldn’t have broken in either, there wouldn’t have been a shooting incident here, and no one would have been injured!

Lance looked at the two unlucky guys who had been hit by stray bullets and were being carried onto stretchers. He had someone talk to the doctor, saying he would cover the costs.

After all, he also bore some responsibility here.

Bill, who had chaotically escaped, didn’t know about these things. Right now, he only wanted revenge!

He had almost died!

If it weren’t for the crowd at the docks, he might have become a corpse lying on the roadside like his bodyguard!

This was the first time he had been so close to death!

So close that his heart was about to jump out of his chest!

These dog bastards!

After he escaped back to the Red Dog Gang’s headquarters, his entire demeanor had changed somewhat. He immediately summoned almost all of the high-ranking cadres.

It wasn’t until everyone had arrived that he spoke of what had just happened.

“I almost didn’t make it back!”

“The Wolf Gang’s motherf—kers ambushed me on the road. If it weren’t for them… I might be dead now.”

“I found a way to shake them off and escaped back.”

“I never understood before why some people, when they have many choices, always choose the most difficult path.”

“Now, I understand!”

“I want revenge, revenge on the Wolf Gang!”

He slammed his hands on the table. The words he spoke had moved himself, giving him a heavy sense of mission.

However, these high-ranking cadres did not support him as he had imagined.

Of course, some were willing to support him, but some were not.

“Bill, we can talk to them. The Port District is so big. If we clear out those small gangs, we’ll have enough living space…”

“We don’t necessarily have to have a winner and a loser. Even if we win completely, can the liquor in our hands support us opening bars in every inch of the place?”

“We can’t do it. Instead of leaving those places empty, why not trade it for a chance for us to coexist peacefully.”

“You can’t get rich from war, but you can from peace!”

Bill looked at him in disbelief, “I almost died, just now!”

But the man had a completely indifferent expression, “But you didn’t die!”

Bill was as if he couldn’t understand him, spinning around in place, “We lost three brothers!”

He tried to awaken this group’s sense of identity with the gang and their brothers, but the man said, “We’ll give them a pension…”

However, there were also people who supported Bill. They shouted that they should indeed show those outside gangs some color, but in the end, their gazes all fell on Bill.

They supported the war, but didn’t want to spend money.

At this moment, Bill fell into deep doubt!

Were they really the opponents of the Fides Wolf Gang?

Meanwhile, John, having returned to the police station, threw a tantrum in his office.

He felt that he had… not wronged Lance. He had arranged for one-tenth of the police force to maintain order at the docks. He had already… given a lot!

And as he said, it was just $3,000, not $30,000, not $300,000!

If Lance had really given him $30,000, he could guarantee that every police officer would be mobilized, including the ones answering the phones!

But it was only $3,000. After giving each officer twenty dollars, he was only left with $2,000 himself!

What else did he expect?

For him to pay out of his own pocket to help Lance maintain order?

That was impossible!

As for why the police didn’t intercept the vehicles that were in a firefight and chasing each other, he actually felt that this part was fine. Police officers are also human, they can get injured, and they have to protect themselves!

When police officers encounter sudden problems, as long as the decisions they make do not break the law, then he has nothing to criticize. Even many police departments encourage this kind of thinking.

Protect yourself first, then protect the people!

Besides… John only gave them twenty dollars each. To expect them to risk their lives fighting gangs for twenty dollars, how could that be possible?

Lance’s merciless temper tantrum made him very angry and also made him lose face in front of his subordinates. He slammed the desk hard, as if venting his emotions.

Someone outside the door heard him slam the table. A burly man pushed the door open and entered.

His old partner.

After he was transferred, he had his partner transferred over as well. Now he was the chief, and his old partner was the assistant chief.

He rearranged his attire to make himself not look like someone who had just been in a powerless rage, just hysterically shouting.

“Whose men were they?” he asked.

“The Wolf Gang’s men attacked Bill. They followed the highway and broke into the dock area.”

John couldn’t help but ask again, “Did our men not intercept them?”

The burly man shrugged, “You expect them to intercept a gang in the middle of a fierce firefight?”

“If they really did that, I think there’s a high chance they would have been riddled with bullets!”

John slammed the table again, “F—k!” After cursing, he rubbed his cheeks with both hands, then put on his hat and stood up, “Come with me to the Wolf Gang’s place.”

His partner hesitated for a moment, but still followed him, and also called two good hands.

Four people, one car. Soon the car appeared at the Wolf Gang’s headquarters, an arcade.

There were many tabletop games here, including the pinball machines that had recently started to become popular. It cost two cents a play, and if you were lucky, you could play for a long time.

But if you were unlucky, it might be over in a few minutes.

Many tabletop game rooms were starting to put these in. Some experts said that playing pinball games could effectively help people improve their hand-eye coordination and also train their reaction speed.

Although it was unknown whether what the experts said was true or not, it was certain that it cost money.

The person who had appeared at the docks was in the innermost office, “We almost caught up with him. There was some event at the docks today, there were a lot of people there. He took advantage of the chaos and ran away. We also saw people from the Lance Family and had a brief exchange of fire.”

The leader of the Wolf Gang looked a bit thin, but he was definitely a ruthless character.

He had raised two wolves when he was in Fides. There was a legendary version where he went into the mountain forest alone and then met a she-wolf with two little wolf cubs.

The she-wolf saw him as an enemy and food and then fought with him. He killed the she-wolf with his bare hands and brought the two little wolf cubs back and raised them.

He had a very special feeling for wolves. He hoped to be the wolf king of the “wolf pack,” hoping they could roam the world like a wolf pack roams the mountain forest!

As for whether this story was true or false, perhaps only he himself knew clearly, but there were indeed two dogs next to him that looked very much like wolves, which made the rumor a bit more real.

The strength of the Fides Wolf Gang should not be underestimated. It was not inferior to the already eliminated Viper Gang.

And they came more thoroughly, more decisively, and also established a foothold faster than other gangs.

“Lance’s men,” the leader, Wolf, sat in a chair, leaning back, his legs propped up on the table. He was toying with a dagger. “So Lance’s men are the reason you didn’t succeed?”

The blue-eyed guy nodded, “They must be in it together. I heard Bill gave the Empire District’s territory directly to Lance. Perhaps that’s the reason he ran to the docks in the end.”

Wolf listened and nodded noncommittally. Just then, the phone on the desk suddenly rang.

He frowned and picked it up, then quickly hung up.

“We’ll talk about this tonight. Someone’s here now.” He still hadn’t changed his posture, just shifted his gaze from his subordinate to the office door.

Before long, the door was violently pushed open. John strode in and sat directly opposite Wolf, “I told you, don’t f—king cause trouble at the docks today!”