Empire of Shadows

After straightening his clothes, Lance knocked on the door of Admiral Miles’s office, knock, knock, knock, three times.

The door was quickly opened. Admiral Miles was sitting in his large chair, and standing behind the door was a young man who bore a striking resemblance to him.

“Mr. Lance, please come in!” The young man knew who he was and invited him in.

Lance entered the room only after taking off his hat, and he said a thank you.

“Just give it to me.” The young officer was very polite. He looked like he was only a major, but for a major to be able to work in Admiral Miles’s office, he was clearly not an ordinary officer.

Lance thanked him again and handed over his hat and coat, then walked towards the desk.

As he was about to reach the desk, Admiral Miles stood up, holding the armrests of his chair, and shook hands with Lance. “What is it that you have to see me so late?”

It was already 8:30. If it weren’t for Lance coming to see him, he would have gone to bed long ago.

“Forgive me for being direct. I’m not one of those politicians. We can skip the meaningless process.”

Lance nodded in agreement. It wasn’t that he really believed that what Admiral Miles said was what he truly showed and thought.Many military men said that they were not politicians, that they didn’t know the tricks of politicians, and that they spoke straightforwardly.

In fact, the reason why they showed this side was not that they didn’t know how to be polite, how to make small talk, how to beat around the bush, but that you were not worthy.

If they were to meet with high-ranking generals of the Department of Defense, with generals of the same rank, or even with senators, Mr. President, I guarantee they would be more like politicians than politicians.

This was actually an alternative, political respect.

Lance was just a gang leader. Although he could bring a lot of benefits and wealth to Miles, this did not mean that Lance was so important in his mind that he also needed to treat Lance completely as a person of the same class.

This was like the chairman of a listed company, who would not have to be polite to the company’s janitor when they met, say some irrelevant things, and then tell him that a water stain in the corridor yesterday was not cleaned up.

The janitor did not have the qualification to make the president do so, so the president would show that kind of impersonal indifference, a business-like appearance.

Of course, this was not to say that Lance was completely worthless. If he was completely worthless, it would be impossible for him to see Admiral Miles at such a late hour, nor would it be possible for him to come to Admiral Miles’s office.

No matter which world, Lance had climbed up from a minor character. His unrealistic ideas had long been shattered by the heavy blows of society again and again.

He would not奢求 impossible respect, nor would he feel that not getting it meant that others looked down on him.

He smiled and took out the prepared envelope, then placed it on the desk, pressed it with a finger, and pushed it over.

The sound of the envelope rubbing against the desk was comfortable and relaxing to listen to. Admiral Miles’s puzzled gaze lingered on Lance’s face for a moment, and then fell on the envelope.

He picked up the envelope, did not open it immediately, but shook it after picking it up. The material of the check was obviously different from ordinary paper, and it made a slight collision sound. “What’s in it?”

Lance did not speak, but raised his right hand and made a gesture of inviting him to open it. Admiral Miles was not worried that Lance would harm him. He tore open the envelope and poured out the contents.

When he saw clearly that it was a check, and the numbers on the check, the lines on his face became much softer than before. He first held the check with both hands and looked at it, and then turned it over so that it faced Lance and held it in his hand.

“I don’t quite understand!”

Lance crossed his legs and leaned back slightly in his chair. “The other share.”

“A share!” Admiral Miles raised his eyebrows. “About what?”

“Prostitutes.”

This word made His Excellency the Admiral’s expression suddenly freeze for a moment, and then he laughed twice. He placed the check back on the desk. “We haven’t talked about this business.”

Lance nodded slightly. “Although we haven’t talked about it, this money can actually be said to have come from military expenditures.”

“I’ve calculated it. By the end of the month, there should be a share of this number, so I brought it over in advance. After all, it’s almost the New Year.”

Yes, it was almost the New Year. It was already late December, and there were not many days left before the New Year.

There were many places where money was needed for the New Year. With this money, Admiral Miles’s other accounts would not need to have frequent fund flows, and there would only be a sum of 50,000 that could be controlled.

He would not refuse.

However, what he cared about was another matter. “Every month?”

Lance spread his hands slightly. “Every month. In fact, if we use some methods, the number of shares will become a little more.”

“Seventy or eighty thousand, or even a hundred thousand is possible.”

At this time, Admiral Miles was finally a little moved. If a few hundred thousand a year just made him feel good, then a million a year was another matter.

He glanced at the young officer who was still standing by the door. “Go outside and see if the children are slacking off. By the way, lock the door.”

Although some things did not prevent him from knowing, he could not know them in too much detail.

The young officer naturally had no objection. He then said goodbye to Admiral Miles and Lance, and then left the room.

“He is my nephew, my sister’s son, a good young man,” Admiral Miles explained. Seeing the more than one million in shares, his mood also became more lively.

“You should be of the same age, but he is much worse than you. He can’t go out and be the master of his own yet, so he can only stay by my side.”

He explained the identity of this young man, so that Lance didn’t have to worry too much, and at the same time, he also flattered Lance, killing several birds with one stone.

See, who said His Excellency the Admiral didn’t know these false pleasantries and political pleasantries?

It was just a matter of whether he was worthy or not, not whether he knew how or not.

Lance smiled and nodded. “A very energetic young man.”

But it was only limited to this. “You just said… it could be a million a year. Tell me your thoughts, and what difficulties there are. We’ll see how to solve them.”

A profit of three or five hundred thousand was not worth him doing too much, but a million was enough for him to do something.

Lance did not immediately say what he wanted, but instead asked, “Your Excellency Admiral, I think for the soldiers, this kind of behavior cannot be considered as simply soliciting prostitutes to vent.”

“Army life is very boring. There is a huge physical and mental pressure. Healthy physical and mental problems are related to their performance in daily training and on the battlefield.”

“Is there a problem with me putting it this way?”

Admiral Miles, for the sake of that money, thought about it seriously and shook his head. “No problem. You’re right.”

A smile appeared on Lance’s face. “Then we can’t see it as soliciting prostitutes. We have to see it as a kind of treatment, to maintain the psychological and physical health of the soldiers. It should be paid for by military funds.”

The moment before, Admiral Miles had been a little unfocused, but with these words, it was as if a bomb had exploded in his mind!

In an instant, his mind went blank. He looked at Lance not as if he were looking at a person, but as if he were looking at a madman, a lunatic!

But he had to admit one thing: what Lance said was not wrong!

Lance continued, “You see, every soldier has a chance to receive psychological counseling. Who pays for the psychological counseling?”

At this time, Admiral Miles’s thoughts had already frozen. He could only answer instinctively, “Military funds.”

Sometimes there would be some dangerous situations in live-fire training. Some soldiers would have a psychological breakdown, so the intervention of a psychologist was needed for treatment.

Lance said with a smile, “Yes, military funds.”

“In some respects, there is no difference between a psychologist and those girls who provide happiness. They are both charged by the session, or by the hour.”

“The comforting effect that a psychologist has, the girls can also have. They can completely, in the way of a psychologist’s treatment fee, be paid for by military funds.”

“To arrange a psychological intervention for a soldier may cost a dozen or so dollars, or even more. Sometimes more than once.”

“And if this money is used to have those girls do this, they can go once a week!”

Admiral Miles finally gradually reacted. He looked at Lance as if he wanted to pry open his brain and see what was inside.

Lance didn’t care if he understood or not, or if he had figured it out. He continued, “Not every soldier is so eager for sex, or some of them, for some reason, prefer to save their income. Their desire to consume will be very low.”

“But if we turn letting them see a girl into a ‘military supply,’ and they don’t need to pay extra, what if we give them four or five vouchers?”

Some soldiers are dominated by desire, but there are also some who fight against desire. These soldiers who fight against desire, if they don’t consume, will not generate profits and rebates.

But now what if they don’t have to pay?

Just like the daily necessities, and even cigarettes, that the army distributes to them every month, they don’t have to pay for them themselves. Will they still refuse?

Of course they won’t refuse!

This method directly expanded the demand market. Admiral Miles couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air again.

“Calculated at a cost of ten dollars a month in this aspect, an army of a hundred thousand people, the expenditure in this aspect every month would be one million.”

“Your Excellency General, you can get a 25% share from this one million.”

He also very considerately explained, “The remaining 50% is the girls’ money. This income is actually not much for this job.”

Admiral Miles really thought according to his line of thought. He even nodded and said, “I understand. A strip club charges five dollars at a time, and if you want them to dance, it’s fifteen or twenty.”

It seems he went there often. Who the fuck knows if you’re a general or an ordinary person when you’re in plain clothes?

Having life experience is good. It makes it more convenient for Lance to explain these structures. “Of the remaining 25%, currently 10% is given to the people who are specifically responsible for maintaining order.”

“The remaining 15% is what I get.”

Admiral Miles nodded again. “Very reasonable. It’s your business, but you don’t earn the most. I really can’t find any fault with it.”

“This way, every month, the rebate you can get is 250,000. A year is three million.”

Admiral Miles, who had originally had no reaction, his pupils contracted again. Then he couldn’t help but take out a cigarette case and lit a cigarette, not forgetting to give one to Lance.

“You’re saying… I can get a share of three million?”

“A year?”

Lance kept making him feel confused about this world. Was making money really so simple?

In fact, this kind of behavior had always existed in the federal army. There were special people arranged internally to provide physiological release for the soldiers.

With the progress of society, the first and second failed feminist movements broke out, and in the end, this department was also abolished.

So from the perspective of pushing this matter through, there was no problem at all. Even if the Department of Defense was not easy to talk to, if he applied for a new budget on his own, and had a non-written chat with the Department of Defense, they would definitely approve it.

Two dollars a time was just the market price. The Department of Defense would not make things difficult for him for a few million a year.

The military expenditure for those useless psychologists was also several million a year.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was a fucking good idea!

Lance waited for him to think for a few minutes before he continued, “What if the scale of the qualified naval base is maintained at 200,000?”

“Your Excellency General, six million a year.”

“Fuck!” Admiral Miles suddenly cursed. The cigarette ash fell on his desk because of his excited actions and emotions. “You’re a fucking genius, Lance!”

He couldn’t sit still anymore. The Golden Port naval base, as the closest deep-water port to the Tanfit continent, was bound to be the front line of the navy.

In their plan, they had not only thought of a garrison of 100,000 or 200,000, but more!

The thought of his annual income being in the tens of millions, how could he sit still?

Lance watched him stand up and walk back and forth. He knew that he had completely moved this general. After all, even Senator Cleveland couldn’t resist the temptation of an annual income of tens of millions!

Not to mention, a high-ranking military officer who was relatively more independent and dictatorial than a government official. Who would dare to find trouble with him, who could find trouble with him?

He could take this money with a clear conscience, and he didn’t have to be afraid of trouble!

This was definitely a big business!

Lance then said again, “Actually, it’s not just sex life that we can provide like this. Everything that the soldiers need, we can provide for them.”

“I was thinking about a problem before I came here, Your Excellency General. Do you think that the soldiers need to consume alcohol?”

“One bottle of wine is enough for them to sleep with two or three hundred girls. If each person is allowed to have one bottle a month…”

“Fuck!” Admiral Miles couldn’t help but curse again. “Tell me, Lance, what is that number?”

His eyes were already a little red.

“According to an ordinary whiskey, a 750ml bottle costs two hundred. A hundred thousand soldiers would be twenty million.”

“I can give you a 10% commission, which is two million a month, for a hundred thousand people!”

“Because this matter still requires a lot of help, and it also needs the approval of Congress and the Department of Defense, and even Mr. President has to be taken care of.”

“So 10% is what I can guarantee. If conditions permit, I will make it a little more.”

The admiral directly crossed the desk and came to Lance’s side and sat down. He looked at Lance. “You’re not joking with me, are you?”

Of course, Lance was not joking with him. “How could I be joking with you?”

“Your Excellency General, I am a citizen of the Federation. I am willing to do something for this country and its people, and I am also willing to make some money on this basis, and I am even more willing to make friends like you.”

“At the same time, I also believe in one thing, and that is that everyone should make money together!”

“Of course, in the short term, we can’t push this matter, because the Prohibition of Congress is blocking us.”

“But, after the war breaks out, this matter will be feasible!”

Admiral Miles stared at Lance without blinking. After confirming that he had not avoided his gaze, he grabbed his wrist. “Good, it won’t be long!”

“If this matter you… can really be done…” he threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, his expression becoming extremely serious, “you are my best friend, Miles, and also the best friend of the Miles family!”

For a kickback of possibly thirty million, even God would descend and be friends with Lance, let alone Admiral Miles, who wasn’t very good at making money in the first place!

Lance couldn’t help but laugh, the kind that came out loud. “Haven’t we always been friends?”

Admiral Miles was stunned for a moment, and then a smile also appeared on his face. “Yes, we have always been friends!”

He now found Lance to be more and more pleasing to the eye, and of course it also had something to do with the huge rebates that Lance had promised.

After his emotions had calmed down a little, Lance reminded him, “I am more anxious about the matter of the liquor than you are, because this is my main business, but the physiological and psychological counseling side cannot be relaxed either.”

“After all, this money can be obtained immediately. Don’t you think so?”

Admiral Miles also broke free from that fanatical and excited mood. He lit another cigarette, nodded, and did not say that he wanted to go back and sit down, but just sat in the chair next to Lance.

“Not bad. How do you plan to do it?”

Lance explained his idea. “I will set aside an area on the north side of the base and establish a naval club.”

“It will provide most of the things that clubs provide, including those girls.”

“At that time, all you have to do is to issue them vouchers.”

Admiral Miles was a little puzzled. “If we go through military expenditure, can’t we just pay them a salary according to a certain proportion?”

Lance shook his head. “That’s not good. Some girls are more popular, some are not so popular.”

“If the popular ones and the unpopular ones get the same amount, it will make them slack off and hate their jobs, and our soldiers will not be able to get real comfort.”

“So every month, at the end, I will settle the accounts with them according to the vouchers.”

“As for the name of the project itself, let’s just use ‘physical therapy’!”

(End of a Chapter)