Empire of Shadows

“I hope you’re of some use!”

Elvin put away his weapon. “Take him away.”

Then the group of people left this place. When they stepped over the shorter police officer’s body, besides the taller police officer, no one looked down at him.

He was like a dead mouse in a corner, a cockroach, or some other insignificant little thing. Even if their bodies were there, people would not see them.

As for whether this body would be discovered?

Who cared about this?

After returning to the rented villa, Elvin thought for a moment and gave Lance a call. He had to report the situation here.

Lance couldn’t help but laugh out loud when he heard what Elvin had said. “So we thought it was a case of black-on-black, but in fact, it was eaten by a group of police officers.”

“When we thought it was done by the city police, we found that these police officers were state police?”

“That is to say, the situation has now become more complicated.”He was silent for a moment. “I didn’t want to go over originally, but now it seems I have to.”

Elvin still wanted to say that he could not go over, but in the end, he didn’t open his mouth, because this matter had already been settled. The disappearance of the tall police officer and the short police officer would soon alarm those state police.

At that time, it would become more troublesome to deal with them. If they couldn’t handle the official side here, and directly launched an armed attack on the police captain of the state police section branch, this would definitely be a major case that could alarm the entire Federation.

At that time, even if someone from above helped Lance to cover it up, it would be very difficult not to leave any after-effects. It might even become a huge landmine.

So in the end, Lance had still decided to go over in person.

“You guys take a good rest these few days, and by the way, figure out the gangster organization structure of New Birmingham. Didn’t you say that if they didn’t cooperate, you would clean up the local gangs?”

“This can be done!”

“Be careful. Wait for my arrival.”

Lance hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples.

If these people were the police of New Birmingham, then under the mayor system, the mayor could handle them.

But now they were the state police. If you wanted to dismiss these people, you had to have the chief of the state police come forward to dismiss them, and the appointment of this chief was made by the state government, and the governor might even have a say.

This way, the difficulty had suddenly increased a lot.

However, he was soon relieved. Life is like this. If you don’t fight him, he will fight you. There will always be someone who will leave your life, and there will always be someone who will cut in line and enter your life.

Who goes, and who stays, depends not only on fate, but also on your fists.

The only pity was that Lance might not be able to see the birth of his little baby. It was already early November, and Patricia had already entered the stage of waiting for delivery. Maybe at any time, she would suddenly give birth.

And this trip to Indeno State, it would be impossible to come back in a short time. And even if the matter was resolved very quickly, just the round trip on the road would take two weeks.

The trouble of this matter was very terrible. Lance himself had no confidence in handling it well in a short time, so he could only take it one step at a time.

At present, there was nothing on the Golden Port City side that required a decision. Even if there was, the phone was very convenient, and there was also Mello to keep an eye on things.

This guy was getting more and more steady. Lance still trusted him very much.

The next morning, he went to see Mayor Williams. Originally, this plan was to wait another two days, but now he couldn’t wait.

Although Mayor Williams was a little surprised by Lance’s sudden visit, he still postponed a part of his schedule to chat with him.

After he had welcomed Lance from outside, they sat down on both sides of the desk. After having the secretary bring coffee and pastries, he asked, “Is there something urgent?”

Lance nodded slightly. “I’m going to Indeno State soon. We’ve run into some trouble over there.”

Mayor Williams could imagine these, and he could also make a big fuss to Mayor Wade.

Now both councilmen had become mayors. Although there had been a competitive relationship, now that the two sides had no direct conflict of interest, they would naturally become good friends again.

He could inquire about these news from Mayor Wade, and he also believed that Mayor Wade would not refuse to answer his questions. This was not something that particularly needed to be kept secret in the first place.

So Lance did not consider hiding anything at all. He was a straightforward person, very sincere, and rarely lied or did not lie.

Mayor Williams raised his eyebrows. “Do you need my help?”

Lance shook his head. “Unless you know the governor of Indeno State, and have a good relationship with him. Otherwise, it’s better for you not to interfere than to interfere.”

The more people who interfere, the faster the impression will spread in this matter, and some things will become more and more uncontrollable.

Lance had refused his good intentions. Mayor Williams was not annoyed, but just smiled.

“Alright, it’s good that you have a plan.”

“Are you here to talk to me about the job opportunities this time?” Mayor Williams lit a cigarette. After he had become mayor, his addiction to cigarettes had grown. The ashtray on his desk was almost full.

He would smoke when there were no visitors, and he would also smoke when there were visitors. Smoking allowed him to think more smoothly.

Although he had been coughing a little recently, and his private doctor had also advised him not to smoke so much, for him, these problems were never a problem. He just had to not listen.

Lance proposed an idea. “We can give some of the quotas to the local workers, but these people must join the labor service company and withdraw from the union.”

Mayor Williams’s eyes grew wider and wider, and finally, he stared at Lance. “What the fuck?”

“You want the workers to voluntarily withdraw from the union?”

His face was slightly flushed. It was clear that he had a lot of emotions that he didn’t know how to vent, and he was holding it in.

The people of the Federation are sometimes very pitiful. When they need to vent their emotions, it’s just a few sentences back and forth, which can’t vent their emotions at all, but on the contrary, will make them even more stifled.

This point is not as good as the language of another world, which is concise and powerful.

With your qi sinking into your dantian, and a deafening roar, a single “idiot” will shake the world!

After a few seconds, he let out a breath, and seemed to have gotten a little better. “Don’t you know that you are challenging the bottom line of the union and the labor federation?”

“They will definitely retaliate against you like crazy!”

Mayor Williams could already imagine the scene at that time. Once Lance could really do these things, it would mean that the twenty million working-class brothers were not as unbreakable as the Labor Federation had said.

So much so that it didn’t even require any high-level means, or a huge expenditure. Just a little trick would be enough to turn the twenty million good brothers into twenty million good jokes!

So at that time, the order of the entire city might have some turmoil. He was very worried.

“We just want to maintain the employment rate, not to let the entire city fall into turmoil!” The mayor reminded Lance, “Your approach is too dangerous!”

Lance, however, shook his head and had a different opinion. “The union itself is something that is joined or withdrawn voluntarily. No one can force the workers to be either a union member or a non-union member.”

“In the laws related to labor and workers, is there any mention that you must hire workers from the workers’ union to be able to organize the production and sale of goods?”

This question of Lance’s made Williams shake his head. “There are definitely no such laws and regulations, but their influence and binding force are too great.”

“Sometimes it’s not necessarily the law that can judge you. Morality and conventional rules can also do it!”

“If there are many people who oppose you, sometimes even if you are right, in the end, you will be classified as the wrong part!”

Mayor Williams was still relatively wary of the people from the union, which was also a very normal thing.

After all, he had experienced more and larger-scale social movements. He was afraid that if these forces were to unite, they would form an uncontrollable major strike.

Whether it was a capitalist or a politician, they were all very afraid of a major strike.

This meant that a certain industry’s production project in the entire society would, due to the lack of workers, come to a complete standstill, and the entire society would be affected!

Seeing that Mayor Williams seemed to have remembered something that had happened in the past, and showed an uneasy expression, he continued to comfort him, “It’s not as terrible as you imagine.”

“In Golden Port City, if they want to have a major strike, then let them have a strike.”

“Have you forgotten how we handled it last time?”

“This place is not short of people who are willing to work. Men, women, the elderly, children, as long as you are willing to give them a chance to work, they are willing to work all day.”

“As long as the production tasks of the new industrial district are not affected, those groups that were not in our plan in the first place, what they do, what does it have to do with us?”

“At that time, this would not be a major strike, but a major parade!”

The impact of a strike and a parade on society is certainly completely different.

A strike is definitely a social activity with the highest level of influence, mainly due to the destruction of production. But for a parade, the destruction is much smaller.

Mayor Williams looked at Lance with some astonishment. He had never thought that things could be analyzed and solved in this way.

He thought for a moment. “It sounds like there’s no problem, but what about the union and the labor federation’s side?”

“They might keep targeting you!”

Lance had an indifferent look on his face. “If they target me, they target me. Although I need workers to work for me, my subordinates are all workers who don’t listen to them, they are all my own workers.”

“Their conventional methods are of no use to me at all. If they want to use a game of rallies and demonstrations to make me lose face, you know, I’m a gangster boss.”

“It’s not the first time a group of troublemaking workers has been attacked. I will make them understand what pain is!”

The last time the dock workers had continued to cause trouble, it had been directly suppressed by Lance.

Thinking of the ground full of blood, and the scene of the workers using brushes to clean the blood on the ground afterwards, Mayor Williams couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Why do you think they would provoke you?”

He paused for a moment. “How many jobs can you offer?”

Lance considered for a moment. “The number of immigrant groups is getting larger, and they charge less, are willing to endure hardship, and will even work overtime for free.”

“To be honest, the local workers have no advantage over them at all. At most, we are still short of some people for some special technical jobs.”

“If you want half and half, I think it might be a little difficult. 35%.”

“Of the ten thousand jobs, 3,500 will be for hiring locals, and this is still for ordinary workers.”

“If you add the technical jobs, it might reach close to 40%, which is not a small amount.”

After Mayor Williams had considered for a moment, from a relatively rational point of view, there was no problem with Lance’s idea.

As long as he was not threatened by the union, and still had a countermeasure, he would not be afraid of the union. “Alright, as you say.”

Lance nodded slightly. “By the way, a little piece of gossip for you.”

“What?” Mayor Williams asked curiously. He tapped his cigarette ash and took another drag.

“The Labor Federation and the General Industry Union are planning to establish a workers’ party, and they are also planning to run for president…”

Mayor Williams even forgot to exhale his cigarette. He just stared at Lance in a daze. After a while, he was startled awake by a cough!

He coughed for a long while. “Are you fucking not joking?”

As a person who had always demanded of himself to be a gentleman, to curse at a time like this was indeed an “breakthrough” in his emotions. He still couldn’t believe that this was true!

The three political parties of the Federation were already annoying enough. If there was another one…

And it was a political party that controlled so many of the working class. He suddenly felt a sense of fear!

If they really controlled twenty million votes, it would be equivalent to them controlling more than half of the Federation!

Thinking of this, he finally asked uncertainly, “The congressional side… they shouldn’t let them succeed, right?”

Lance said nothing, but just smiled. “So you don’t have to worry about this whole thing. Just do as we have agreed.”

Mayor Williams no longer had any problems and agreed.

After solving the small trouble on Mayor Williams’s side, he had a simple talk with the manager of the labor service company, and then he and his men boarded the train to Indeno State.

He couldn’t stand a car journey of at least five or six days. That would drive him crazy!

In fact, even if it was by train, even if you could move around and do many things, to stay in a small space for so long could also make a person collapse!

During the time Lance was on his way to New Birmingham, the other distributors in the city had gradually discovered the problem.

Because before, they had always collected the payment every day or every other day. This was their rule.

On the one hand, it prevented these distributors from running away with too much money. Even if they ran away, it would at most be a few hundred or a thousand, which would not have any impact on the entire sales.

On the other hand, it was also to replenish the goods in a timely and unified manner. It wasn’t just this time for selling wine. In the past, when they had sold other things, it had also been like this.

But for three or four days in a row, the two police officers had not appeared, and they had begun to feel that something was not right.

One of the distributors had spread this matter. Soon, the other state police who also lived in New Birmingham had discovered that the two had already disappeared.

In the morning, several police officers had agreed to come to the place where the two police officers lived. Their girlfriends did not seem to have realized that the two had already disappeared.

They had also had situations where they had been at work for a long time before they came back, and for these two women, what they cared about was the quality of life and enjoyment, not what the person who rode them was doing.

Several police officers had searched the room. Because there were too many traces of life here, no evidence could be found.

After questioning the two women, they had also come to the conclusion that they had not come back at all.

“They probably had an accident on the way back. It’s been several days already.”

Several police officers gathered together and talked. One of them said, “Should we tell the police captain about this?”

The other two looked at him. He explained, “Maybe those people have come.”

He did not specify who “those people” were, but the people here all knew very well what he meant.

Those people were the original owners of this wine.

In fact, at the beginning, these people were not very supportive of making a move on such a large batch of goods. Goods worth several million were enough to have their owner kill them a hundred times!

But it was also precisely because the value of this batch of goods was too high that in the end, they had lost to their greed.

Now the revenge of greed had come, and they were all a little uneasy.

Soon they drove to the section branch and saw the police captain in his office.

The police captain looked at the three who had come together. He looked down at the calendar again. “Today is not the day to collect the bills!”

One of the three said with an ugly face, “David and his partner have disappeared.”

The police captain originally had a lot of smiles on his face. The magic of turning wine into money had made his whole person very good. This time, as long as all the things were sold, he could at least get more than 500,000!

500,000. He hadn’t made so much money in several years. He could completely take this money and then directly retire!

So he had been very happy recently. Along with that, some of the shadows, the unease in his heart, had also been covered up by the gradually increasing money.

Now that two police officers had suddenly disappeared, the unease that had been suppressed in his heart had begun to rise again.

“Did you go to the place where they lived?”

“What about the surrounding hospitals?”

“And the city police department’s side, has anyone reported finding a body or something?”

He had asked several questions in a row. As a result, these subordinates had only gone to David and their director’s place, and had also truthfully reported the situation there.

The police captain actually already knew that these two had probably been arrested by someone, but he still held on to a hope of “what if” and had them go to the city’s hospitals to check, to see if these two fools had had an accident and were in the hospital.

At the same time, he himself had also made a phone call to the city police department to inquire about whether there had been any recent reports of cases related to the state police, and at the same time had them coordinate and check on the car they were driving.

Because it was a “brother unit,” the city police department’s side had quickly arranged for the task. For a case involving the disappearance of a police officer, the city police’s side was also very cooperative and had sent out a large number of police forces.

In just two hours, the streets were full of mounted police and patrol cars.

A little later, in a parking lot next to a relatively remote restaurant in the city, they had found the target vehicle.

The vehicle was parked there intact, but the car window glass had been smashed, and it looked as if someone had ransacked it.

At the same time, the police officers, on the side of the parking lot by the wall, had found some dried bloodstains…

(End of a Chapter)