Empire of Shadows

The skinny guy looked at the unyielding toughness on Ryan’s face. After the two stared at each other for a moment, he was the first to soften.

“Ryan, how long have we known each other?”

Ryan still looked at him coldly. “If you’re planning to play the sentiment card, then you can consider changing your strategy. That trick doesn’t work on me.”

“We have always been a relationship of mutual use. You are not my brother!”

The skinny man cursed a few times in his heart. Why couldn’t this fool understand such a simple thing?

That wasn’t a city councilman who was like a decoration in the city, nor was it a state legislator in the state legislature who had to listen to the governor for everything. That was a fucking Federal Senator!

His eyes became a little hard, a little straight. This was the look of someone who wanted to kill, but it quickly disappeared.

He rubbed his face. “You still haven’t figured this out, Ryan.”

“The people above asked me to tell you, don’t target Lance anymore, and don’t look for trouble with him. All matters, draw a line under them at this moment, understand?”

“It’s over, everything is over!”“Whether you killed his men or he killed your men, it’s fucking over!”

“This is the senator’s decision!”

The senator of their faction did not want these things under his command to compete with the popular person in front of Senator Cleveland. Evasion was a good choice.

When you know that a collision has no value and will only get you beaten bloody, avoidance is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of wisdom.

But different people will have different perspectives and views on the same thing. In the senator’s view, this was just a small matter that could be stopped at any time with a phone call, a message, and it was solved.

For the middle class that the skinny guy represented, which could be seen as a privileged class, they thought that this was just a matter of conveying the highest order, and they didn’t need to do anything else.

Success or failure would not bring any trouble to them, to the entire chain, and based on the capitalists’ control over risk and profit, they believed that doing so was the most appropriate choice!

But when it came to Ryan, everything was different.

No matter how anxious and irritable the skinny gentleman looked, Ryan was still the same. “It has nothing to do with me. I only know that Lance’s men killed my men, more than once. I want revenge. That’s enough.”

“If you don’t plan to help me, fine, no problem. I won’t think that you should do anything for me. This is your duty.”

“But!” he suddenly pointed his finger at the skinny guy across the coffee table, which made the latter feel a sense of shame as if his finger were poking his body, or even his soul, “…you don’t stop me either!”

“Now, get the hell out of my house, before I get angry and drown you in the dog bowl!”

The skinny guy jumped up as if he had been startled. He picked up his bag and walked outside. While striding out for fear of being killed if he walked slowly, he cursed, “You’re fucking crazy, Ryan!”

“I was kindly advising you, and you actually wanted to kill me. You’re a fucking low-life bastard. Even if you live in this…”

Ryan grabbed a wine glass from the coffee table and threw it at him. The skinny guy ducked his head and scurried forward, running out.

It wasn’t until he got into his car that his cursing could no longer be heard.

A subordinate came in from outside, cleaned up the glass shards on the floor, and then stood by his side.

There were more than a dozen people here, all of them his trusted men, and also the core backbone of the Death Angels.

He put his two legs up on the coffee table, lay back further, and lit a cigarette. “Any questions?”

Among the people in the room, a guy wearing glasses, who looked as if he had received a higher education, nodded. “Without them, we would lose contact with the state police in several regions here.”

“And our bars in the city might also be hit.”

The reason why the Death Angels could plunder unscrupulously on the state highways of several northern states was directly related to these interest groups behind them.

They controlled a portion of the state police through direct or indirect means. They didn’t need all of them, just a portion was enough.

To give the green light for the activities of the Death Angels, or to notify them in advance when there was a capture mission.

There were also the police in those cities, some Prohibition agents. They were more or less influenced by the capital forces of those interest groups, which was why they would turn a blind eye to them.

But now, if he did this, would he be abandoned?

Ryan’s mouth curled into a mocking smile. “You’ve been to college, and you have the highest level of education among us, but in terms of social level, you are still lacking a bit.”

“We are one of the largest gangs in the north, and we control multiple interstate highways. They need us more than we need them!”

He shrugged. “There are plenty of people who are willing to take over those goods, and other shipping companies are also willing to provide us with some help.”

“So don’t worry so much. We are irreplaceable!”

“What we need to consider now is how to make Lance and the Lance Family pay the price!”

The guy with the glasses pushed up the frame of his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “I have been paying attention to Lance’s movements recently. He has, through some means, controlled the entire liquor supply relationship in Likalai State.”

Lance had not done this in a hidden way. Anyone who wanted to know could definitely find out if they just looked into it.

Many of the small private brewing workshops had already received the news, as well as the places where liquor was sold in various places. Whether it was a bar or some other place, as long as they sold liquor to the outside, Lance had let them know about this matter.

They could only buy from him, and they could only sell to Lance.

Ryan had also heard of this matter, and it was from the man with the glasses. “Go on.”

“Diamond is actively preparing to open up the southern liquor market. If, and I mean if.”

“If a group of people in Likalai State were to place an order with Diamond, what do you think they would do?”

The others all looked at the man with glasses with shocked eyes, as if they were shocked that he could come up with such a plan!

After thinking for a moment, Ryan nodded slightly and teased, “It seems that going to school is still somewhat useful!”

The Diamond that the man with the glasses was talking about referred to Diamond Perez, who was currently one of the top gangs with the greatest power in the Federation. He was a Resedian, one of the early immigrant groups of the Federation, and could be said to be a branch of the old Federation people.

It was just that the ancestors of the Perez family… unlike the ancestors of the other big families, did not appear in that oil painting. Even if they were just standing in a corner, and their full appearance could hardly be painted, his ancestors had not achieved it.

While those gentlemen were busy running around to establish the Federation, his ancestors were doing illegal business, so much so that crime ran through the entire history of the Perez family.

During the slave emancipation movement, the Perez brothers had formed a slave-catching team, specializing in catching runaway slaves for money.

Gradually, these people had made some money. They began to arm themselves, to make themselves stronger, and then they could catch more slaves, exchange them for more money, and form a more powerful force.

At that time, they had indeed done so, and had also thought so. It was just that in the process of implementation, some deviations had occurred.

After they had firmly held the gun barrel in their hands, their thoughts had undergone some subtle changes.

Those people walking on the road, were they slaves or citizens?

At that time, the older of the Perez brothers had proposed a method of judgment. If these people could not prove that they were not slaves, then they must be slaves!

As for why there were light-skinned slaves, it might be because of too much mixing of blood for too long. Although they looked light-skinned, their bloodline could not be changed.

Using this method, they had crazily turned all the people with a slightly darker skin in their sight into slaves and had completed the primitive accumulation for the rise of their family.

In the following decades, they had always been constantly growing stronger, bold and meticulous. Soon, they had become a rare evil force in the central region of the Federation.

They were like the capitalists. While doing things for Congress, they were also trying to infiltrate Congress. They had several spokespersons in Congress, and their criminal businesses spanned dozens of industries!

Among them, of course, was the recently very profitable liquor.

They had also found a licensed distillery to cooperate with. The distillery would produce the wine. Besides meeting the military’s orders, the rest would be sold in its own channels with all its might.

In fact, Congress and the military also knew that these wineries did not make much profit from these liquors, and they also knew that some of them were secretly selling liquor to the outside.

As long as these people were not too excessive, and did not sell them openly, the congressional side would just pretend not to see it.

What they had lost, they had to make up for from other places. This was the way of cooperation.

If a gangster from the Perez family ordered a large amount of liquor, would he take the order, or not?

Would Lance allow their liquor to enter Likalai State, or would he not allow it?

This became a problem.

The man with the glasses analyzed his plan, and Ryan and the others were all very satisfied.

“As long as the Perez family makes a move on Lance, we can assist from the side. This way, we can both account to the higher-ups, and also let Lance and his men go to hell to repent for what they have done!”

After listening, Ryan thought for a moment. “Not bad. It is indeed a good idea. Let’s do it!”

He didn’t ask why there would be a bar or a gangster force ordering liquor from the Perez family. Anyway, someone would do it. Even if no one did, some people would be made to do it.

Lance was not clear about these things that had happened in New Golden City. The filming of “Surprise Attack on Golden Port” had already officially begun.

In recent years, because Golden Port City was close to Creek Valley City, sometimes the filming crews from Creek Valley City would also come to Golden Port City to shoot scenes.

Especially for the scenes that needed to be shot in a casino, almost all of them were completed in the Golden Port Casino.

People had become accustomed to seeing a group of people suddenly appear, chasing a few actors with all kinds of cameras.

At first, they would make a big fuss and go to watch, and even disrupt the order of the set.

But as more and more people were arrested for causing trouble, the filming environment was now much better.

At the very beginning of the movie, it was certainly to let people feel the leisure and beauty of Golden Port City.

It just so happened that this was also a suitable season. When Barbara appeared in the frame wearing a big red sleeveless long dress and a straw hat, and her dress rustled with the wind, that summer feeling seeped into people’s hearts.

The two directors, while watching, were chatting with Lance. “Barbara is a very outstanding actress. She is very relaxed.”

“Many actors, even if they have participated in many shootings, will still unconsciously look at the direction of the camera, or be disturbed by the camera.”

“Barbara doesn’t have these. She is clean and pure, and we can feel that she enjoys this feeling very much, being exposed in front of the camera.”

Lance didn’t quite understand the experiences that only artists had. He just looked at Barbara on the set. She was indeed very relaxed.

Whether it was her actions or something else, her expression, her lines, were all very relaxed, not tense at all. This was a very good state for filming.

Barbara on the set came out of a seaside guest room. The sea breeze was lifting her long dress. She held down the hem of her dress with one hand, held a camera in the other, and walked towards the distance.

She was playing the role of a female reporter. The first two failed feminist movements in the Federation had not been completely without leaving anything behind. At least they had won the freedom of women in movies.

In the past, there were almost no female photographers. The young women who could afford to play with photography were most likely not interested in this.

The people who were interested in this were often not necessarily able to afford a camera.

This rarely seen character could catch people’s attention as soon as she appeared. In addition, with her good figure and good face, the two directors were very satisfied with the footage they had obtained.

The filming was very tense, because Lance wanted to release it around the Harvest Festival, which meant that their overall filming time was at most only three months. In this, they also had to prepare for the “great naval battle” and the “landing battle,” which were all grand scenes.

What was fortunate was that Golden Port City had a large group of cheap laborers. For just one dollar, they were willing to work for Lance for a whole day.

During this process, many of the small brewing workshops had also come to their door. They had said that the councilman and Lance were cooperating, and that they would only sell the liquor to Lance.

For Lance, whether this matter needed a written document or not was actually not important, because he believed that these people would not dare to deceive him. At least they could not use their little lives as a bargaining chip to deceive Lance.

The entire state’s liquor market had been thoroughly cleaned once. A portion of the small brewing workshops that were unwilling to cooperate and believed that they could eat their fill in other places had moved out of Golden Port City.

Lance had also set up offices in various cities, including the towns, to record the specific number of bottles of liquor that these areas used each month.

Through this method, Lance had firmly controlled the entire liquor market of Likalai State.

The movie had also been filmed to a climax in the early stage of the movie, with the Dantra navy beginning to bombard Golden Port City…

(End of a Chapter)