Empire of Shadows

In the morning, Morris hurried back from outside. He coughed a few times, his face a little flushed, but it quickly subsided.

From a medical point of view, his “wound” had completely healed, but the damage done to his body would not completely heal just because the wound had.

These would accompany him for the rest of his life.

At first, he might not have been used to it, but now, he was. Lance had even heard that Morris would go to church with his girlfriend on the Sabbath.

Some people might not understand why some people, after being injured, would suddenly develop faith.

In fact, this is the effect of the fear of death.

According to unofficial statistics, 70% of the people in the Federation believe in God, but not all believers are devout believers.

Some… their whole family believes in God, so he/she can only believe in God. So these people, especially the young people, their faith is not firm, nor devout. They even, under the influence of skepticism, believe that God does not exist.

The group of people who truly have faith, are firm, devout, and fanatical, are the elderly.

The older they are, the more they believe that all of this is true, that there is a God, there is heaven, there is everything.They believe that after they die, they will enter the kingdom of heaven to shepherd for God, and will live forever young and ageless in the glory and gospel of God.

Why?

Why did people who once did not believe, become believers?

In fact, it’s very simple: anxiety, fear, resistance to death.

People are like this. Only when they are afraid will they resist. But death is a law of nature. No one can escape it. How can they resist?

It’s not like a simple matter, for example, if you bleed while masturbating, perhaps this will cast a shadow on the matter for you, thus solving the problem of frequent masturbation.

But death is not something that won’t come to you if you don’t do it.

Whether you are afraid or not, whether you resist or not, it will come.

So people can only choose a method they are more willing to accept to resist death—

Religion, faith!

Everyone actually knew about this, but no one had specifically talked about it. They just treated it as a normal thing.

“It’s been confirmed!” Morris walked into Lance’s office. There were many people here.

During this time, they were all gathered here, ready to respond to Lance’s orders at any time.

Someone proactively brought him a glass of juice. After taking a sip, he said, “The Kodak Family is mobilizing its forces, but it’s not yet clear what they are going to do.”

He sat down opposite Lance and put down the glass. “They’ve laundered their gang’s gunmen into a security company. I found someone who is willing to cooperate.”

“These few days, they have been required to stay in the company and are not allowed to go anywhere. And they may have to go on a mission at any time. He said the company has promised a very high salary and bonus.”

In order not to let those big shots think that he was always just a gangster, something that couldn’t be brought to the table, Bandy had tried his best to whitewash himself.

Not only had he thrown away the knife in his hand, but he had also put on the formal clothes that bound him, which only the upper class would wear.

However, he was not completely defenseless. He had set up another security company, and this security company was Gorry’s responsibility.

The security guards inside were not purely gunmen. In fact, many were just ordinary security guards, but there were also some gunmen who would also undertake related work in society.

So not all of them were original members of the Kodak family gang. There were also some ordinary people from society who had joined.

It might be difficult to persuade those gang members, but to persuade those ordinary people was much simpler.

It was nothing more than giving money and threats. The simpler the method, sometimes the more efficient and useful it is.

Lance nodded when he heard this. “It seems they are already preparing. Is our new script ready?”

Lance looked at Elvin. Elvin nodded. “They’ve already taken the bait.”

“And, I also heard that they argued about this matter.”

“Some people think it’s a trap, but Figal thinks it’s not a trap.”

Lance frowned slightly. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would act willfully.”

Figal is sometimes influenced by his emotions in his judgment, but on such an important matter, there is a high probability that he will think it through clearly before making a decision, instead of arguing with his cadres at this time for something he is not sure about.

“Something’s not quite right!”

Lance rubbed his chin. The stubble was a little prickly. This is what it’s like to be young; everything grows fast.

He shaves on time every day, but in just a short while, he can feel his beard grow out a little.

Especially at night, it grows visibly longer!

The others didn’t feel much. The decision-making has always been Lance’s responsibility.

This was a new plan called “Compass,” but it seemed that they also had some ideas.

“Arrange for more people to keep an eye on things at night to ensure that there are no accidents.”

Elvin agreed. A day passed quickly like this. In the evening, at six o’clock, before the sky was completely dark, four large trucks entered the city from outside.

The shells of these trucks were printed with the names of the surrounding farms, and also a lot of crops.

This kind of transport vehicle from the farm to the city is very common. The farmers around Golden Port City often bypass channel companies such as Riggs and Bellet and send their goods directly to the docks for sale.

The city also consumes a large amount of vegetables and grain every day. They are not like the farmers in other regions, who have things they can’t sell, or can’t afford the high transportation costs.

So this kind of truck is very common, but today’s trucks are not the same, because these trucks are not just ordinary transport vehicles.

According to the information Figal had obtained, these four trucks were full of liquor that Lance had brought in from outside.

Four trucks, a total of 320,000. This amount of money was already quite a lot.

Recently, the financial situation of the Keane family has been very bad. Since they started a war with the Lance Family and their bars were attacked, their customers have decreased sharply.

Who the fuck would risk great danger to drink in those bars where a gunfight might break out?

It’s not like there are no other bars in other places, so their income has been a bit difficult recently.

Any other business now is not as fast and profitable as the liquor business.

Even if Maple Iris Grass is extremely profitable, not everyone will have one or two a day. Most people will only think of using it once every few days.

Losing the lucrative liquor business, plus the constant injuries and deaths, and the continuous payment of pensions, Figal was also really having a headache.

At this time, he heard this news from a friend, so he planned to make a move on these liquors.

Whether it was to rob them and sell them himself, or to destroy them to make Lance feel the pain, were all good choices.

At the same time, he also had a feeling, a feeling that something was not right.

How could he have known about this kind of highly confidential information?

Although he believed that his good friend would not deceive him, but… this was still a bit unreasonable.

That’s why the argument in the office happened. He had his men go to rob this batch of goods, but his men thought that there was something wrong with this batch of goods and it was not suitable to follow up now.

The two sides had a big argument in his office, and finally broke up unhappily. But as the head of the family, he had absolute control in the Keane family.

The guy who had argued with him, although he was not willing to follow up on this work, in the end, he still obeyed.

Of course, he would not go himself. He had arranged for his men to go.

At that time, his subordinate had shouted “you will get everyone killed” outside his office in front of many people, which also aroused some people’s sympathy.

In the war with the Lance Family, they have always been at a disadvantage. Even though the number of casualties on both sides has been rising, their losses are obviously greater.

Some people think that this is the same result as in the past, and that they will eventually become “the past.”

But some people are more optimistic. If they can get this batch of goods back, at least they can get a quick sum of money in the short term.

With money, even if the people below have a little complaint, they can be appeased by the power of money.

At a little after nine o’clock in the evening, after several hours of trekking, the four large trucks finally arrived at the designated location—

A warehouse on the border of the industrial district and the Empire District.

The air here had a faint smell of machine oil and various kinds of dust that rose into the sky from the boilers. This was also the place with the worst air quality in Golden Port City.

The only thing that was gratifying was that it was always downwind.

The wind blowing from the sea would not bring these dust and smells into the city, but would blow it to the suburbs on the west side of the city and further away.

There were wilderness, forests, and various plants there, which would soon be metabolized by nature.

The environment in the industrial district was a bit gloomy. In the dark night, the huge chimneys that rose from the ground were darker than the color of the night. For some people with megalophobia, they were like huge monsters hidden in the night, which was unsettling.

The oppressive and unpleasant smell made the industrial district almost deserted at night.

Except for those 24-hour production lines, there were basically no pedestrians outside.

This also allowed many criminal trades to be carried out here. The complex environment and no pedestrians became the best paradise for evil.

It is said that 40% of the entire city’s Maple Iris Grass transactions are carried out here.

The four large trucks slowly stopped outside a warehouse. As the warehouse door was opened and the lights were turned on, they slowly entered the garage and stopped.

Then the four drivers and two people who were supposed to be escorting the goods got out of the car. After they had completed the handover with Lance’s men, they drove away in the car that had been prepared in advance.

At this moment, gunshots suddenly rang out!

The fierce gunshots instantly tore through the tranquility of the night. Echoes of gunshots were everywhere. Lance’s men outside the warehouse didn’t even have time to fight back and directly got into their cars and ran away.

The captain who rushed out from the shadows had a look of disbelief on his face. This was the easiest time he had ever heard of fighting the Lance Family!

He stared blankly at the taillights of those cars disappearing. He snapped back to his senses. “Quick, drive the trucks away.”

Someone asked, “Should we check the trucks first?”

The captain hesitated, but at this moment, someone suddenly shouted, “They’re back!”

“Fuck, they must have found someone. Quick, drive the trucks away. We’ll cover the rear!”

Several young men ran onto the large trucks, directly broke through the main gate, and then drove in the other direction.

And the people who were left behind, while retreating, were exchanging fire with those of Lance’s men.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the other side didn’t seem to be very fierce. It just seemed like they wanted to entangle them.

But at this time, who could think clearly about these situations?

In order to ensure that the liquor, which was worth 320,000 in the intelligence, could be successfully transported away, this captain also went all out, proactively slowing down to buy time for the four large trucks.

Seeing the four large trucks getting farther and farther away, and even their taillights could no longer be seen, the captain was just about to tell the driver to speed up and shake off the people behind them when a forklift that suddenly appeared in the middle of the road made the driver swerve sharply and hit a fire hydrant on the side of the road.

The other car crashed into the other side of the road and was finally stuck by some concrete barriers.

The captain’s whole world was blurry and trembling.

Water was constantly splashing in from outside, making him feel a trace of coolness. The fire hydrant had been broken, and the huge water pressure spewed out a huge column of water.

He held on to the back of the front seat and looked around. Just as he was about to struggle to leave, a sudden bright light from outside made him turn his back involuntarily.

The door was pulled open. He shielded his eyes from the light and looked at the person facing him. It wasn’t one, but several. They were all holding handguns and pointing at him.

His companions around him also gradually woke up from the violent impact, and then looked around with some confusion and at a loss.

What awaited them were the muzzles of guns that were constantly spitting out flames.

The world seemed to have been muted at this moment. He couldn’t hear anything, and could only keep shaking his body because of the impact of the bullets.

Perhaps a few seconds later, he slumped in the car, his body full of bullet holes.

The other car was about the same. Soon the people inside were riddled with bullets.

And the person in charge of executing this plan walked to a phone booth on the side and dialed the number of Lance’s office.

“The goods have been sent out… we…” he looked back, “someone is injured, but no one has gone to see God. We ran quite fast…”

“I understand. I’ll be back soon.”

The bodies were quickly dealt with and put into body bags. The car that had been crashed and stalled would soon be towed away by a tow truck.

These things were highly likely to disappear in Angel Lake, just like the people they had dealt with in the past.

The first four trucks and two cars left the industrial district and drove north, arriving at the buffer zone between the industrial district and the city center.

After confirming that there were no pursuers behind them, these people all breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, they also seemed a bit gloomy, because their captain had not caught up yet, and there was a high probability that he was finished.

To be chosen as a captain, besides having to have made contributions to the family, you also needed to have a certain degree of popularity.

A disgusting guy, even if he had made a lot of contributions, they might not necessarily be able to become a captain.

Even if they became a captain, there was a high probability that no one would work with them.

Gangs are like this. This is also why many gangs are blood-kin families, because if you don’t do this, small groups will be very prevalent.

The situation on Lance’s side is a minority. Perhaps after a few decades, if they have not disappeared in the long river of history, the second generation, the third generation, will also have many small groups, and will also split due to the problem of interests.

But now, as a fledgling gang, before they have tasted success, they will not have problems so quickly.

The vehicles were parked on the side of the road. Having lost their captain, they were a little lost. One of them took the initiative to get out of the car and went to a phone booth to make a call to a cadre.

The call was quickly answered. The other side also felt a little incredible, but in any case, it was a good thing to have really snatched the goods.

Then they were ordered to take these goods to the warehouse.

In the office, Figal also found it hard to believe that this was true. They had actually snatched Lance’s goods!

Not only could they make a big profit, but it could also boost their morale.

At that time, he would directly declare to the outside world that he was transferring a batch of liquor snatched from Lance. This would definitely let everyone know what had happened!

As for their little plan?

It didn’t matter. He heard that the captain was dead. That was enough.

Thinking of this, he let out a heavy sigh of relief. Tonight, he could have a good sleep.

The four large trucks arrived at a warehouse of the Keane family. A large amount of wine and other things were piled up here.

After the large trucks had stopped, they put away their weapons, came to the back of the trucks, found some pliers, and forcefully cut the lock on the carriage door. Then the two of them grabbed the handles on both sides of the door and pulled it open forcefully.

“How is it? What kind of liquor is it?”

A gang member standing on both sides of the truck asked, but what made them feel strange was that those who were preparing to get on the truck to move the goods were all standing there dumbfounded.

They walked over with some curiosity, and then looked inside.

The next second, they were also stunned on the spot like the others.

“Motherfucker, do you fucking know how to drive?”

“Son of a bitch, go to hell!”

The cracking sound of submachine guns rang out in an instant. These people behind the truck had nowhere to hide and were instantly riddled with bullets.

Soon they rushed down and opened the other large trucks, letting out the people inside.

In less than ten minutes, they had completely cleared the entire warehouse!

The fierce gunshots could not be hidden in the night. They also did not intend to empty the warehouse here. The plan was very simple: destroy everything here!

There was wine everywhere, flammable liquor. Those weapons sprayed at the cases and cases of wine. The entire warehouse was instantly enveloped in a strong smell of wine.

They destroyed while retreating. When everyone had retreated, Hiram, holding a gun, stood at the entrance of the warehouse. He took a cigarette from his pocket, then took out a silver lighter and lit it.

He took a puff, then threw the still-lit lighter into the warehouse, and left without looking back.

The spinning lighter rotated in the air. The wick, soaked in kerosene, would not be extinguished by such a small wind speed.

Finally, it landed on the ground. The flame licked the liquor, and a blue flame instantly spread in all directions along the ground!

(End of a Chapter)