Empire of Shadows

Power is like those hallucinogens that can create a strong dependence.

Once you’ve tasted even a hint of its fragrance, it’s very difficult to quit.

In the past, Ponda was just an ordinary agent in the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, nothing special, just like the other agents in the public office (the main hall).

They were only on good terms with the colleagues around them and in their own group. They didn’t know the ones who were farther away or not in their group at all.

Everyone might know each other, but there would be no contact, and no one would pay special attention to him.

No one would care about his joys and sorrows. When he was happy, others would not be happy because of his happiness, nor would they be sad because of his sadness.

The joys and sorrows of human beings are not connected. This is not to say that these people are wrong; they just haven’t wasted their emotions.

But now, it was different.

He found that people could actually empathize with his emotional changes.

When he came in with a smile on his face in the morning, his subordinates would also report to him with smiles and would proactively seek to share his happiness—”What made you so happy?”People would also restrain their own emotions when he had a straight face, so as not to let their emotions affect him.

See, people can actually see and discover all this.

What changed them was not their friendship with Ponda, but the gap in their status.

Power is like a magical spell. When you hold power, it will turn everyone into the way you want them to be in your mind.

If only I had a little more power, a little bigger.

Would Lisa not be sad anymore?

The call was quickly connected. Because he had his own independent office and a secure line, he was not at all afraid of anyone eavesdropping on his calls now.

“The warehouse in the Triangle District has already been reported, but Director Dale has indicated that he will not make a move for the time being. I think his meaning is not just not to make a move on this warehouse, but not to make a move on anything that happens on your side.”

He said it all in one breath, then took a deep breath. “He seems very worried. I don’t know what he is worried about, but it can be seen that he is indeed a bit… I can’t describe it, as if he is being restricted.”

“Is it related to your connection with the Department of Defense?”

Lance, after listening to him ramble on for a long time, finally said with a laugh, “Did you hear what he said?”

Ponda did not deny it. “This kind of news can only be found out from his side. You know, he used to be from Golden State.”

Lance considered for a moment and chose some content to say. “Maybe he realizes that the gap between us is not as big as he imagined. This is a good thing. At least it proves one thing: he is not a person without a brain.”

“Since he asked you to stop, then stop. This way I can save some money.”

Ponda didn’t speak. At first, Lance thought he wasn’t listening. When he asked, “Are you listening?” Ponda immediately said he was.

It was this process that made Lance realize why Ponda had not spoken.

“You’re worried,” Lance said.

He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled. “What are you worried about?”

In fact, he knew what Ponda was worried about, but as for their special relationship, Lance needed Ponda to be honest with him.

It could be said that this was a test. The result of the test represented Ponda’s status with Lance.

Ponda was also hesitating, thinking, and weighing.

After more than ten seconds, he said softly, “Without a big case, how can I get promoted?”

A slight smile appeared on Lance’s face. People with desires are the easiest to control.

In another world, there was a saying, “He who has no desires is strong.”

This was an easy-to-understand phrase, but when he was young, he didn’t quite understand it until something happened.

He had a friend who wanted to sleep with a girl, not for love, but purely for a relationship of desire.

His desire was so strong that to a certain extent, he had lost his own power.

The girl bossed him around in all sorts of ways, and even asked him to do some despicable things. He refused some, but he did some.

At that time, they were all good friends and often hung out together. The girl really liked this feeling. She even wanted to make Lance her舔狗 (simp).

But Lance had never given her a second glance. Once, when his friend was not there, it was just Lance and the girl. The girl asked Lance, “Why can’t you be like him?”

At that time, Lance had directly given an answer that left the girl stunned and silent—

“Not everyone wants to fuck you.”

His friend wanted to develop this special friendship, so he would bend his back.

Lance had no desire here, so he not only refused those requests, but would also be very firm and not give her a way out.

Without desire, one will not be bent over by desire.

No matter what happens after one succeeds, at least before one succeeds, the back has been bent.

Ponda also had a request, so he couldn’t be considered “strong.” This was a good thing, although Lance was not that girl.

“Do you have any ideas?” Lance asked.

After hearing this, Ponda was silent for a while again. “If Dale’s position doesn’t move, then my next step is only the position of deputy director, which is only half a level up.”

“Or find a way to get into the State Prohibition Committee, but I hear it’s not an easy thing to get into that place.”

The State Prohibition Committee is under the management of the Federal Congressional Prohibition Committee. It is a subordinate agency, directly responsible to the Congressional Committee.

The people who can enter this place basically have some background, at least they are not ordinary people.

Ponda did not have any prominent background, no hard enough connections, and even if he handled a big case, it would be difficult to handle it at the administrative level.

Administration and the front line are not the same thing. This is like Chief Bruce and the front-line patrolmen. Maybe Chief Bruce’s professional ability is not as good as a young police officer who has just graduated from the police academy.

But he can manage the other party, decide the other party’s fate, because of the power behind him, not his own power.

If nothing unexpected happens, the end point of an ordinary police officer’s life is to retire as the first or second in command in various offices of the city police department.

These positions are related to ability, but further up, ability is no longer important.

Ponda was now facing such a problem. He was almost at the top of his promotion.

If Dale didn’t move, then he would basically be at the top of his promotion now.

This made him very troubled. He didn’t want to be in this position, not because he was dissatisfied with the job of a senior agent, but because this job could not let him get revenge on the Bay Area, and could not give Lisa the sense of security she wanted.

So he had to climb up!

“Last time you said… you were going to deal with Dale. Is there anything I can do to help?”

From passive to active, this was a good change.

Lance hesitated for a moment. “I still need to arrange this matter. I’ll contact you later.”

Then he hung up the phone, thought for a moment, and dialed Tom’s number.

Tom was on “vacation” with his family. To say it was a vacation, it couldn’t really be considered a real vacation.

Senator Cleveland had gone to the north for an inspection, taking with him two other aides who had connections in the north. The main purpose was to check the situation of the Federation’s heavy industry and see if it could support a full-scale war.

If it could support a high-intensity full-scale war, then they would have to start moving.

If it couldn’t, then the federal government would have to immediately strengthen these constructions.

In fact, this worry was unnecessary. During the period of slaughtering the natives, the Federation had already achieved self-sufficiency in weapons and had successfully lit up the relevant technology tree.

So this trip was essentially a potential exchange of interests—

They were using this method to express their attitude to the military-industrial complex and the heavy industry group, and at the same time, they hoped to gain the attention and support of the military-industrial complex and the heavy industry group.

With the full support of these two interest groups, many problems would be solved.

This way, Tom had a vacation, a total of about six or seven days.

He couldn’t go far, and he had already played in all the nearby places, so he could only stay at home with his family.

But they had recently bought a television, which cost a thousand dollars. It was very expensive, but it was indeed quite interesting.

Lance had also contributed a lot to this television.

Recalling the fun brought by the television, Tom had a smile on his face. “Is there something?”

Lance did not beat around the bush with him. “Do you know Dale?” He recounted Dale’s full name and his current job.

Tom searched in his mind for a while and found such a character. “I think I know who it is.”

“A minor character in the Socialist Party, graduated from a prestigious university, and… is an alumnus of… After graduation, he has been working for him.”

“But this guy is just a marginal character. What about him?”

This minor character was no different from a passerby on the street to Tom. But at the same time, this “minor character” was the end point of an ordinary family’s life.

They had to be lucky enough, lucky to the extreme, to be able to get out of the increasingly rotten public education quagmire, and then they also had to have excellent high school grades to be able to get an invitation from an elite university, and their family had to support them to go to college.

During college, they also had to be good at socializing, and be able to recognize a bloody reality as a “social elite”—I am just an insignificant supporting role in someone else’s life!

This was actually very difficult, because a person had worked hard for eighteen years to finally enter a top university with excellent grades as an ordinary person, only to realize that studying was just to give them a chance to bark.

They would not admit that the efforts of these eighteen years could only be exchanged for such an ending.

Those who cannot recognize reality will quickly disappear from people’s sight after graduating from college. Only those who can recognize reality and are willing to bend down to suck up to those classmates who are not good at studying but have excellent social skills and a prominent background can truly take a crucial step in society.

But even if they could do this, to the extreme, and completed the “awakening” of each age group at different ages, he had done his best!

In the end, he was just a marginal minor character in this circle.

(End of a Chapter)