Empire of Shadows

Hunter made a phone call to Charlie.

Although he was the chief now, he still had to defer to Charlie.

Don’t look at the fact that Charlie wasn’t the chief anymore; he was about to become the Bay Area’s municipal councilman.

The nickname “Bay Area’s Hound” would most likely continue, as a reward for his loyalty to the Bay Area.

Once he became a municipal councilman, he could do much more for the wealthy people of the Bay Area, and Hunter himself did not have close ties to the Bay Area. He could only rely on Charlie’s help.

When he told Charlie that this matter might be related to Lance, Charlie’s brow furrowed as well.

“Lance has some connections with the Secretary of State and the State Attorney General. I’m not sure what their relationship is exactly.”

“Investigate this matter according to procedure first. If there’s evidence against him, then summon him.”

“If there’s no evidence against him, then pretend you don’t know about it.”

Hunter asked softly, “Bruce and Duke have been getting very close to Lance recently. I’m a little worried.”“Are you worried about that ‘profit-sharing’ thing they came up with?” Charlie’s frown deepened.

Without waiting for Hunter to answer, Charlie thought for a moment. “I don’t have time these few days. After the municipal councilman election is over, I will have a talk with him.”

Hunter heard the concession in Charlie’s words. You have to know, last month they weren’t saying this.

Charlie’s attitude at that time was very clear: he expressed strong dissatisfaction with Lance’s interference in police affairs and also stated that he would stand on Hunter’s side.

How long had it been, and his attitude seemed to have changed a bit, becoming somewhat yielding.

Hunter vaguely understood that this might be related to Lance having communicated with the Secretary of State and the others.

Charlie was an old dog who was keen on power; everyone knew this.

The rich in the Bay Area knew, and Hunter knew too.

Even Charlie himself knew what he looked like in the eyes of others.

But he didn’t care.

Because he had received tangible benefits. He was about to become a municipal councilman. Although a municipal councilman had no direct, substantive government position…

But they could influence the city hall’s strategic adjustments in governing the city through various means. This was power.

A person who is keen on power, before he has a clear understanding of the situation, is unlikely to conflict with the higher-level privileged class.

He was very sensitive to power, and also very sensitive to the troubles he might encounter.

Hunter was a little dissatisfied. If Charlie were still the chief now, he would definitely strongly oppose Lance’s interference in police affairs.

But now that he wasn’t, he had yielded a little. Although it was his interests that were being harmed, in fact, Charlie’s base was no longer entirely the police system of Golden Port.

He had realized his self-worth and had been promoted. The options he held in his hands were also more numerous.

Hunter was a little gloomy, because now the police system was his real base.

Lance’s profit-sharing system was shaking his base. If all the major sub-bureaus became Lance’s men, there would be no point in him being the police chief.

Now he had no good way to deal with these problems and could only mutter, “I hope you two can reach an agreement.”

Charlie also seemed to have heard the dissatisfaction in his tone and immediately comforted him, “Hunter, you know me. I don’t mean to let his actions go unchecked.”

“The police are our base, after all. I just feel that we were friends before, we can talk about it first.”

“If we can both take a step back, then that is the best result. But if he is unwilling to give way, then we need to consider counterattacking.”

“After all, the Lance of today is no longer the Lance of the past.”

“Our attitude when facing him, and the means we use to deal with him, cannot be the same as in the past.”

Charlie didn’t say exactly what was different, but Hunter could understand.

The two chatted for a few more sentences and then hung up. They both sat at their desks, their eyes fixed on the phone, their minds on the matter discussed in the phone call just now.

The impact of the firefight at the entrance of the Golden Century Hotel was still expanding.

Everyone in the entire city was discussing the super-major event that had happened today, the deaths of Rick and Sarif.

As soon as Lance returned to the company, he saw Arthur chatting with Corinda.

He was leaning over the front desk, his face wearing the kind of smile one has when seeing prey.

The Empire race was just a small group in the Federation. Some Federation people thought that the Empire people had a very “imperial flair.” This was one of the reasons why the Red High Heel was able to open up the situation in Golden Port before; they had something special.

A portion of the girls from the Empire would give people a feeling of cold severity. This was a contrast to the sweetness of the popular big Federation girls at this time.

Some people like to eat sweet, and some people like to eat sour. When the mainstream aesthetic of the whole people is focused on those blonde, blue-eyed girls in red dresses, there are also some people who like those girls who look more distinctive.

Arthur’s life had not been long, a little over twenty years, but he had been in contact with many girls. Since high school, he had been constantly dating different girls.

However, he had never dated a girl like the one in front of him. He had now become a hunter, using the jokes he had learned from outside to make Corinda laugh non-stop.

But when Corinda called out the name “Lance,” Arthur quickly turned around, his face also slightly embarrassed.

He put his hands behind his back, like a child who had stolen something, but then quickly took them out, raised his hand, and greeted Lance.

Lance looked at him. He originally wanted to shake Lance’s hand, but in the end, he pulled his hand back.

“Dad wants to see you.”

Councilman Williams wanted to see Lance because he had also heard about the firefight at the entrance of the Golden Century Hotel. This was the largest-scale firefight in recent years.

So many people had died. Everyone in the city was shocked by this number.

And two key figures had also died. He was even more eager to understand some of the truth.

Lance had someone deal with the things and then went to the Williams estate.

Here, he saw Councilman Williams and James.

After Lance entered the room, Arthur also wanted to squeeze in, but James stood in his way. The two brothers looked at each other for a moment, and Arthur took a step back. “Alright, I have something else to do…”

A smile appeared on James’s face. He walked out and hugged Arthur. “Go on, be safe.”

When the door was closed again, a touch of loss appeared on Arthur’s face, along with something indescribable, but he quickly hid it.

When he was a child, he didn’t feel that his father, that is, Councilman Williams, was biased, because he could always get the best things and also more tolerance and forbearance.

But after he grew up, and now, when he started to understand things, he realized that this kind of favoritism was actually not real favoritism.

He would not inherit any political legacy from Councilman Williams. He could only inherit a part of the family business, the commercial side.

His truly valuable political legacy was all for his elder brother, James.

Arthur’s mother had hinted to him more than once that he should spend more time with Councilman Williams and participate more in serious matters, instead of thinking about dating girls all day. He had actually done so.

But perhaps because he had not shown extraordinary political talent since high school, he had been given up on by Councilman Williams early on.

This abandonment was actually also a kind of favoritism. At least he didn’t have to bear more responsibility.

Being born into such a large family, the pressure of bearing responsibility is great, and not everyone can bear it.

In fact, Councilman Williams not letting him participate in political affairs was also a form of protection for him.

Living happily, without any burden, isn’t that good?

Of course, he might not understand, but that was not important.

After James closed the door, he walked to the bar. “Coffee, juice, or water?”

“We also have some custom whiskey and brandy here.”

“Coffee, please,” Lance chose casually.

Soon James came over with coffee and pastries.

The pastries were placed in a glass cabinet. At one or two in the afternoon, the family’s chef would make these pastries and then put them in the glass cabinet.

If they needed them, they could take them at any time, because of the airtightness of the glass cabinet, there was no need to worry about them becoming soft.

When you ate them, the texture was not much different from when they were freshly baked.

If they couldn’t be finished, the butler would come over at night and take these pastries away to become the servants’ midnight snack.

After James also took his seat, Councilman Williams finally spoke. “I hear Rick and Sarif are both dead?”

Lance neither nodded nor shook his head, but said lightly, “Shot dozens of times. If they can still live through that, then I’ll immediately start believing in God.”

Councilman Williams was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled softly. “It’s good that they’re dead. Things will become much simpler.”

He said with some wistfulness, “This time last year, me, Wade, the Five Families, everything was the same.”

“In just one year, Wade has left, three of the Five Families are in trouble, and there’s one disabled person and one Kodak family with no problems left.”

“Some things change really too fast!”

Councilman Williams let out a long sigh. “This guy Sidney is really a scourge.”

If the Mayor hadn’t been frantically placing bets, actually nothing would have changed. Everything would have been as stable and calm as before.

But this was also good. At least it gave the Williams family a chance to go up another level.

At this time, James, on the side, finally reacted. Lance said that those two big guys had been shot dozens of times. If he wasn’t at the scene, he would never have known this detailed situation.

But if he was at the scene, what role did he play at the scene?

This discovery made James fall into deep thought, and this was also the reason why Councilman Williams was optimistic about his eldest son. He was a little more sensitive than that bastard Arthur.

If it were Arthur, he would probably just exclaim and then say “WTF…”

(End of chapter)

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