Empire of Shadows

The Death Angels were indeed not well-liked. Everyone who needed to make a living on the interstate highways hated and despised them.

But there was nothing to be done. There were too many of these people, and as the entire gang expanded and grew, they had already begun to more systematically exploit the large trucks that made a living on the state highways.

For some reason, the Perez family had suddenly started to make a move on this group. Their territories overlapped.

But the Death Angels, who made their living on the interstate highways, were certainly no match for the Perez family, who ruled the cities. For a time, they suffered heavy losses.

This move had won the appreciation of a large number of truck drivers. They had also sold out a lot of intelligence about the Death Angels to the Perez family, helping them to better eradicate this group.

Most people didn’t know what they were going crazy about, but some people, a few, understood.

Lance had said it was the Death Angels who had done it.

Whether it was or not, this had given the Perez family a chance to vent their anger. At the same time, they could also show off their own magnificent muscles, to make those who were coveting them restrain their gazes again.

This could also be considered as indirectly doing a good deed for the public, so although they had gone a little too far, society had not tended towards chaos, but on the contrary, had tended towards a more stable state.

The federal government did not interfere with what the Perez family was doing.

Because the Death Angels was a criminal organization that spanned multiple states and had no specific headquarters. Their mobility was very strong.

So to organize their capture would require the cooperation of multiple states. This in itself was a very troublesome matter, so they had also been allowed to act wantonly all along.

For the federal government, besides being able to eradicate a cancerous tumor, the Perez family’s actions also helped them save a large amount of expenditure.

At a time when everything was tilted towards the war, to be able to save a little was always better than to waste a little.

Those who were paying close attention to the war between the Lance Family, the Perez family, and the Death Angels were not only these gentlemen whose interests were involved, but also the newly established criminal investigation department of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Before the new director had taken office, the main work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been “investigating who was speaking ill of Mr. President” and “who was plotting to harm Mr. President,” and at the same time, helping Mr. President to frame his political opponents.

But with the new director’s appointment, the proposal he had put forward to obtain a higher law enforcement power than the local police had begun to be submitted to Congress. Some things had already begun to develop in the direction that the script had already written.

This was actually a clear means of centralizing power, so neither the Presidential Palace nor Congress would stop it. On the contrary, they would help the Federal Bureau of Investigation to implement this matter as soon as possible.

This proposal was still in the submission stage, and had not yet undergone a first or second vote and passage. Within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they had already begun to pay attention to these gangs in the Federation.

The new director-general was a thirty-seven-year-old young man, with golden hair, a thin and long face, and a hooked nose. He didn’t look like an easy character to provoke, and he also gave people a somewhat dangerous feeling.

The people in the room were all characters he had chosen. Behind him, a senior agent was explaining the organizational structure and main members of the Death Angels to these people.

It could be seen that each of them was very serious.

At the same time, they were also very respectful of their new director, not at all affected by some of the outside rumors about “the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is good at licking hooks.”

Almost all of them were alumni of the same school as this new director. Many had also joined the same fraternity, and among them, besides a few high-level managers, the supervisors of the departments below were all young people who had just graduated, or had graduated for only one or two, two or three years.

They were like a blank sheet of paper, and had already begun to be doodled on by the director.

The director, who looked a little older than them, was actually also a blank sheet of paper at this time. And the one who was drawing him was not the president, not Congress, but precisely these young people in front of him, the future that he was drawing!

Perhaps the term “mutual achievement” could better reflect his emotions at this time.

In a daze, he turned his head to look at the blackboard, gave the speaker an encouraging look, and then also began to watch very seriously.

The wind outside the window was rolling the blades of grass and dancing in the air. The real summer had already arrived.

Lance took off his straw hat and stood in the shade of a tree, fanning himself with the wind. To be honest, the weather was really too hot now, but the filming of the movie was almost at its end, just like what they were shooting now.

The male protagonist would ride on the last torpedo, and then control the direction with his hands, to ensure that the last torpedo could sink the battleship of the Dantra Republic.

Although this plot was very absurd, and the two directors, the screenwriters, everyone knew this, the feeling when it was shot gave a very pleasant positive feedback!

The Federation is a country that value individual heroism. When the male protagonist exchanged his sacrifice for the victory of the war, the shock was enough to leave everyone speechless.

Of course, this scene was not easy to shoot, but fortunately, Lance had long had enough creativity.

Using a huge glass tank and some human-powered water wheels to simulate the waves, this way you could also shoot the feeling of being under the ocean.

To put it simply, they had built a transparent swimming pool!

The male protagonist was riding on that huge torpedo. He was clutching a necklace with a photo of his girlfriend and family in one hand, and holding the torpedo tightly with the other.

He controlled the forward direction of the torpedo by stepping on its steering structure with both legs.

At this moment, whether it was reasonable or not was no longer important!

The moment he crashed into the “hull” with the torpedo, the set suddenly became quiet.

The two directors, after a silence of about twenty or thirty seconds, looked at each other and nodded. All the live-action shooting was over!

The male protagonist jumped out of the swimming pool. He shook the water from his head and panted slightly. “I want to know, did I survive in the end?”

This was a very stupid question. He also knew that this movie had many parts that were not logical, and were not reasonable, but it did not prevent him from feeling the core of this movie.

An individual’s attachment to his family and lover, and his responsibility to his country, their collision, entanglement, struggle, and the final explosion, had been completely sublimated!

The character he played had told people with his own choice that without a country, there is no home.

And this was also a line of the male protagonist. Just before he was about to “set off” on the torpedo, he had taken out the last half of a cigarette and had lit it. While savoring it, he had said to the officer who was trying to stop him—

“If I don’t go, you don’t go, and no one goes, then the next time it will be our parents, wives, and children who will face them!”

“We should do our thing, to make this country a guardian of every home. Without a country, how can there be a home?”

He looked a little haggard, but a glimmer of light shone from his narrow eyes. “Now it’s just my turn to defend our country, to defend our home. You should be happy for me, not sad.”

“I have fulfilled a man’s responsibility, fulfilled a soldier’s duty. May…” he took a final drag on his cigarette and handed the remaining not-so-much cigarette butt to his officer, “the Federation prosper!”

Then he had resolutely fixed himself on the torpedo. In order not to be pushed down by the current in the water, he needed to tie himself completely to the torpedo.

A charge that was certain to be fatal. He did not hesitate in the slightest. After ignoring all the unreasonable aspects, the powerful inner strength he had shown had shocked everyone!

Facing the actor’s question, the two directors smiled and said nothing, just shook their heads.

In fact, there were two endings here. The first ending was that everything ended in an explosion, but there was also another ending.

One morning, after the female protagonist had been in a daze for a period of time after reading the letter from the military, a guy with his coat hooked over his finger, with a roguish look, was leaning against the door and looking at her with a half-smile, and said the ending of “good morning.”

It was just that the male protagonist himself didn’t know, because this scene had already been shot and had been used at the beginning of the plot.

Next were some “special effects shooting.” A torpedo navigated by a human had sunk the last battleship of Dantra, which had won precious time and space for the federal navy to regain control of the East Ocean, and even to counterattack the Dantra Republic.

After all, this was not a story that had really happened, so some of the subsequent content was just a brief mention.

Next was to cut all the footage into a film, and then to have a test screening.

Because the entire project was Lance’s personal investment and decision, he also had a lot of power when it came to editing.

This whole process took more than a week. Pushing to the end of July and the beginning of August, the final film was produced.

It is worth mentioning that during this process, the Federal Film Committee that Lance had applied for was also approved. Of course, this was not without the effort of Senator Cleveland.

It was said that he had also had some unpleasantness with the other two senators, but these were all things that Tom had told him.

After all, Golden State was too far from here. Lance was not clear what had happened in here, but he would let Senator Cleveland realize that helping him was valuable.

At a little after seven in the evening, the main creative team came to Lance’s movie theater. There was a small test screening here today.

Patricia was already showing, and had some reactions. Considering her health, Lance had not let her come.

The movie was a total of one hundred and ten minutes long, which was already a super-long movie in this era.

Now, movies were generally about an hour, fifty minutes or so, and rarely so long.

Of course, this was not to say that there were no major productions. There were also movies that were three or four hours, or even five hours long.

After the lights in the movie theater had dimmed, the people began to be attracted by the things on the big screen.

Sometimes you have to admit that a movie shot on black and white film has a strong flavor of the era.

And also the unique tone of this era, which still clearly carried a stronger and more intense opera style. People would perform in a relatively exaggerated way, and had not yet escaped the influence of opera, of stage plays on movies.

The more outstanding the actor, the more so, because they were not just movie actors, but many times also opera actors.

The beginning of the film was slow-paced, but there were all kinds of scenes that foreshadowed a terrible future. For example, a huge warship model in a souvenir shop by the sea in Golden Port City suddenly sank to the bottom of the sea.

For example, a large flock of seabirds suddenly flew into the distance without looking back. For another example, the male and female protagonists would have some small accidents at work and get themselves hurt.

There were many such hints and omens. The two directors both claimed that this was a new cinematic language. They were fascinated by it and believed that Lance was currently the most outstanding producer, director, screenwriter, and possibly even actor in the film circle.

The pace of the movie became very fast after the warm early stage. The real shelling scenes and the shaking shots made many people exclaim in surprise.

Lance suddenly felt someone grab his hand. He tilted his head to look at Barbara, who was sitting next to him. Her palms were covered in sweat.

“Are you nervous?” Lance asked.

Barbara nodded. Lance took out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat from her palms, and then rolled it into a ball and stuffed it into her hand. “Patricia is already four months pregnant.”

He reminded Barbara. It wasn’t that Lance’s little dog was no longer useful, but that after experiencing so much, he had gained self-control.

Barbara’s expression was not so good. She no longer looked at Lance.

After one hundred and ten minutes, the movie was over. Everyone at the scene couldn’t help but stand up and applaud.

The big director took the initiative to come over and hug Lance. “This movie and you will be recorded in the annals of history, Mr. Lance!”

This sentence made Lance very happy. This could also be considered a kind of immortality.

He patted the big director’s arm. “You too!”

Then Lance received more praise and blessings. This was definitely a cross-era movie, with a thrilling plot, unreasonable but full of visual effects and emotional scenes.

All of this was telling people one thing: this movie would be a big hit!

Lance had no intention of taking the movie to Golden State to show it to Senator Cleveland. On the contrary, Senator Cleveland would soon be coming to Golden Port City, because the naval base was here.

Many of the military supplies were also transported to the front line from here. This place currently had an extraordinary role.

As a relatively core member of Congress, to a certain extent, a part of the duties he had to perform also belonged to the president.

It had been four or five months since the war had started, and no heavyweight politician had yet visited the “front line,” which was not right.

They might have been discussing who would come and who wouldn’t. Senator Cleveland had been chosen, or it was possible that he had competed for this result.

As for the real front line, it might require a visit from someone like the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate.

Besides these matters, the person that Lance had arranged to meet had also arrived in Golden Port City.

The Undersecretary of Commerce of Rapa, Mr. Cassia.

This Mr. Cassia and Alberto had a good relationship. Last time, he had been invited to come to the Federation for a business inspection.

But the result of the inspection had greatly disappointed him. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen anything of value from the Federation, but that what he had seen and heard was of no help to Rapa at all.

Rapa was a purely agricultural country in the Yalan region, with a population of 12 million. It was not a small country in Yalan.

However, the economic pillar of this country was the primeval forest and agriculture and animal husbandry. The economy of the Federation was built on a complete industrial foundation.

He had seen many excellent projects, but his country had no industrial foundation at all. Even if it were introduced, it would be a big trouble.

He could only bring back some of the light industrial content that did not require electricity or machine tools, and through the rough processing of raw materials, he could export them to the Federation to obtain some economic growth.

This was his second time in the Federation, and it was still of a private nature, invited by Lance.

When he was picked up, Minister Cassia asked with some curiosity, “Why didn’t my friend Alberto come?”

He and Alberto did have a good relationship. On the other hand, it was also because he and Lance had only met once, and there was still a lack of mutual trust. If there was a friend they were both familiar with, it would be much better.

So as soon as he opened his mouth, he asked where Alberto was. This was also to hint to Lance that it was best to find Alberto.

Lance shook his head slightly. “I’m sorry to tell you, Mr. Cassia, Alberto is already dead.”

“If you want to see him, he is now buried in a public cemetery.”

Because he did not have the bloodline of the Pasoretto family, nor this surname, he could not be buried in the Pasoretto family cemetery, but could only be buried in a public cemetery.

Minister Cassia, who had heard this news, had a look of shock on his face. “This… is really too bad!”

“I didn’t expect such a thing to happen. When did it happen?”

Lance briefly recounted the cause and effect of the matter. After he had finished listening, he let out a heavy sigh.

“A respectable man!”

Lance agreed with this view.

The convoy seemed to be wandering around the street aimlessly, wandering around in the prosperous area.

After a while, he finally asked, “Mr. Lance, then why did you invite me over this time?”

Lance handed him a cigarette. “To make money.”

“To make money?” Minister Cassia, who had just received the cigarette, was stunned for a moment. He didn’t react, but soon he realized that he was being a little embarrassing.

He quickly put the cigarette in his mouth and took out a lighter to light it for himself. “Are you referring to me personally, or to Rapa?”

“Both.”

Lance’s words were ambiguous, but in Minister Cassia’s ears, they had a different taste.

If a person has never seen heaven, then he will feel at ease even if he is in hell.

But when he has seen heaven, he can no longer tolerate hell.

This change, perhaps he himself could not feel it. After returning to his country, the most he often said was “how is the Federation.” It seemed that he wanted to prove that his point of view was correct in this way.

Because in their eyes, the Federation, which was just across the sea, was a typical representative of success!

Sometimes he would also think, if he lived in the Federation, or was even a citizen of the Federation, he would not have so many troubles.

At this time, when Lance said these words, he might not have realized it himself, but he was not repulsed.

“Although I am the Undersecretary of Commerce, Mr. Lance, I don’t really know how to make money!” he replied.

(End of a Chapter)