Empire of Shadows

Carl stood in the crowd looking at the three soldiers, his expression constantly changing.

His “indecisiveness” made one of the soldiers casually push him again, then drag the girl towards the room.

No one in the crowd spoke up or intervened, and there were no officers here either—

It wasn’t that the officers didn’t need to relieve some pressure, but that the officers had their own officer’s building.

The girls here were all leftovers from the officers’ selection, and then they came to the ordinary soldiers’ building.

The ones who were selected first by the officers would live in the officer’s building on a long-term employment basis. Their lives were relatively more comfortable. They didn’t need to receive many guests, and only needed to receive one guest at a time, and their income was not low.

They had an income of about a thousand a month, and if they were lucky, it would be a little more.

So if some problems occurred in the soldiers’ building, no officer would stand up.

They were all soldiers here, and no one wanted to cause trouble.

Carl looked back. The strong soldier had picked up the girl and had thrown her hard onto the bed, while the two soldiers outside the door had also pushed him away. “Fuck off, bastard!”The two of them entered the room with an arrogant air. They didn’t even close the door. The girl was so scared when she saw this that she was crying and shouting inside, but the soldiers outside were jeering.

The worried heads that poked out from the doors around them were just like their expressions, truly worried about the girl’s fate in the room, because her fate could be theirs!

In Carl’s ears, the whole world was changing. The sound of his blood flowing, the sound of his heartbeat, and those noisy jeers. He was panting heavily.

The playful and mocking gazes of those people were like sharp arrows stabbing at him. The few of his men by his side also gathered around with angry faces.

He walked to the side of the door and said again, “Leave that girl alone!”

The three soldiers seemed to have gotten even more worked up. One of them turned around and looked at him. “Do you want to suck me off?”

Carl was about to explode with anger. He pointed at the floor and said, “This is Mr. Lance’s territory!”

“I’m saying this for the last time. Get the hell out of the room. Don’t force me!”

All the actions and sounds of the three soldiers, and even the noisy soldiers around, paused for a moment, but only for a moment.

They knew Lance White’s status in this city, and also knew that he had a good relationship with Admiral Miles.

If it were any other time, perhaps these three would have given up.

But now, so many people were watching. If they walked out without doing anything, they would probably soon become the laughingstock of the entire navy.

They didn’t know what it was called to be “riding a tiger and finding it hard to get off,” but they could understand their current situation, a dilemma.

Compared to the possible punishment, losing face was obviously more unacceptable to them.

Young people are this kind of people. They can be beaten, they can be punished in a place where people can’t see, but they can’t lose face in front of a crowd.

The three of them continued to do what they were doing. Carl cursed “fuck” and rushed in. The three who were committing violence were actually also very annoyed. Carl rushing in made them feel that the people outside were all laughing at them.

They immediately fought back.

It was impossible for Carl’s subordinates to just stand there and watch Carl get beaten. Their job, it was no exaggeration to say, could be done even by a homeless person on the side of the road. They were not irreplaceable.

So the more at this time, the more they had to show their loyalty!

Soon a group of people were fighting in there. The doorway was full of soldiers watching the fun. They were constantly jeering and cheering. Besides the girl who was curled up in a corner, lost and at a loss, the three soldiers in the room gradually gained the upper hand.

After all, they had strict military training every week. Their physique, their willpower, were much stronger than these ordinary, malnourished, short refugees like Carl.

In fact, among the soldiers outside, there were also soldiers who were recruited as refugees, but they just watched all this happen with indifference.

For them, the “compatriots” in this building were all their shame.

No, they were no longer compatriots.

From the day they enlisted, they were already people of the Federation. They had even less reason to feel sympathy for these shameless women, and for people like Carl.

With Carl and his men being beaten to the ground and unable to get up, a soldier was about to mount him and make a move on the girl. Carl finally drew the handgun from his waist.

With a gunshot, everything stopped.

The soldiers who were watching the fun at the door all returned to their rooms, took their clothes, and left the soldiers’ building. Soon, the military police and also the medics arrived at the scene.

The bad news was that a soldier had been shot.

The good news was that it had only hit his thigh and had not taken his life.

Carl was pressed out by the military police, his head held down and his arms twisted. But his face showed not much annoyance, but was very calm.

On the contrary, the soldier who had been about to mount him was lying on the bed.

The matter fermented very quickly, because a soldier had been injured, so fast that before Lance’s afternoon entertainment was over, he had already heard the news.

“There’s someone at the door who says he’s one of Carl’s men and wants to see you,” a person from the company knocked on the door and said from outside.

He seemed to have looked back. “Let him in.”

Soon, a short man, after being carefully searched, came to the outside of the entertainment room.

Lance and the others were sitting at a gambling table, dressed as impeccably as gentlemen from the upper class, playing cards. This scene gave the short man a great shock, so much so that he could hardly speak clearly.

“Mr. Lance, Carl has been arrested by the military police.”

He seemed to be holding a cigarette and casually took out two cards from his hand and placed them face down on the table. “What stupid thing did he do?”

Some of the people around let out a light laugh. In their eyes, Carl was indeed quite stupid sometimes.

The short man quickly said, “He shot a naval soldier.”

Lance’s movements paused for a moment. He took the cigarette from his mouth and tapped it on the edge of the ashtray. The burnt-out, gray ash rolled in. He looked at the short man again.

“What’s your name?”

The short man said his name, and then Lance had him continue to explain the matter clearly, completely.

After Lance had heard everything, he frowned, and then placed the poker cards on the table. “You guys continue to play. I’m going out for a bit.”

Hiram stood up with him. He had long wanted to stop playing this. He preferred Lance’s poker (stud).

Lance gave him a look, telling him to sit back down. “I can handle this myself.”

Then he put on his coat and patted the short man’s arm. “Let’s go. We’ll go and see what happened together.”

The convoy soon arrived at the naval base. Admiral Miles had instructed that Lance could go and find him directly, so soon he was in Admiral Miles’s office, and saw him.

The short man stood outside the door, waiting anxiously.

In the room, after the two had exchanged a few simple pleasantries, Lance directly stated his purpose. “I hear my men have been arrested by the military police.”

Admiral Miles did not deny it. “He shot and injured my soldier.”

He didn’t wait for Lance to say anything and spoke first. “I can give you face in other matters, Lance. We are close partners.”

“But I have to make it clear to you about this matter!”

“I am a general. The reason why I am a general is because these soldiers all trust me. They believe that I will lead them to gain merits, and will bring them back alive after the war.”

“I know what you want to say, but they are a group of people who are protecting the Federation, protecting the people with their lives.”

“I have heard about the development of the matter, and I also know that what they did was indeed not quite right, but this matter, that young man could have completely solved it in a more appropriate way.”

“By calling the military police, or by calling you, we could have all solved it very simply.”

“The thing he shouldn’t have done the most was to take out a gun, and to have fired it!”

Admiral Miles’s attitude was very serious. “You have to be responsible for your men, and I also have to be responsible for mine.”

Lance scratched his head. “I thought this was just a small matter.”

Admiral Miles nodded slightly. “This is indeed just a small matter, if you don’t interfere!”

Lance thought for a moment. “How are you planning to punish this short guy?”

Admiral Miles frowned. In fact, he also hadn’t thought of how to deal with him. After all, for Lance’s sake, he couldn’t just kill this short guy. That would make it too difficult for Lance to save face.

He thought for a moment. “I’ll give him a hundred lashes, and then lock him in a dark room for a week.”

A hundred lashes?

Wasn’t that like wanting to take half of Carl’s life? After a hundred lashes, even if Carl didn’t die, he would be close to it. This was not okay.

Lance shook his head slightly. “You have your principles, and I have mine. If you don’t mind, I’ll deal with him. I guarantee that you will be satisfied, and that that soldier will also be satisfied.”

Admiral Miles was stunned for a moment. He had thought that Lance was here to plead for mercy, but now that Lance was saying he wanted to deal with the short guy himself, he was a little at a loss for a moment.

He looked at Lance, at his eyes. The two looked at each other for a while, and Admiral Miles nodded. “Alright.”

Lance stood up. “Want to go and see together?”

Admiral Miles hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he didn’t go. If he had gone, there might have been some other things. However, he had his nephew go with Lance, on the grounds that he was afraid Lance wouldn’t be able to find the place, and had his nephew send Lance over.

When Lance came out of Admiral Miles’s office, Carl’s subordinate quickly looked at Lance anxiously. Lance just gave him a reassuring look.

Soon, the major drove Lance to the military police office building, and then in the interrogation room, he saw Carl, who had already been beaten by the military police.

His eye sockets were already bruised and purple, and he was hanging on a rack.

When Carl heard the footsteps and looked up to see that it was Lance, a trace of pleasant surprise flashed in his eyes, followed by some panic and unease. He knew that he might have messed up.

Lance stood outside the door, glanced at Carl, and didn’t say anything about them beating him. “What about the injured soldier?”

“Have him and his friends come over. As Carl’s boss, he has done something wrong, and I will personally punish him!”

(End of a Chapter)