Empire of Shadows

While Lance was expanding aggressively in New Birmingham, two other law enforcement agencies were keeping an eye on him.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Hazardous Materials.

It was normal for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be watching Lance. The newly appointed director (Director-General) had very ambitious plans, and the first batch of core agents he had recruited were all capable and ambitious people.

He would not use a simple superior-subordinate relationship to control these people.

A superior-subordinate relationship, discussing obedience or disobedience, is only useful for mediocre people.

A person has, with great difficulty, obtained a good job. You can use ”I’m going to fire you” as a threat, to force him to agree with your decision, to obey your command and orders.

But for an outstanding person with a smart brain, with strong execution ability, who can think independently, if you use ”I’m going to fire you” to threaten him, it’s as funny as a joke!

He will not be threatened by you, because a person with this kind of ability can quickly rise to the top in any industry.

So the director used interests. He had privately talked with the directors of the capital city branches of various states, and had also talked with the directors of some of the city branches. He had used the simplest method, to bind them by interests.

He had told these people about his ambitious plans, and had also made these people personally realize one thing.That is, if he really succeeded, he, and they, would change this country!

The more capable a person is, the more ambitious they are, the more ideas they have, and the more ambitious they are.

A fool just considers how not to lose his job every day, and what to eat after he gets off work.

But for a capable and smart person, there are too many things they consider.

There were also a few of the director’s trusted men on the Indeno State side. Before they had come here, they had also unified their pace.

To find out the situation in each city, the situation of the government officials, the situation of the gang members, the situation of the capitalists, the situation of the non-governmental organizations.

In short, as long as it could be collected, they would collect the intelligence.

Originally, the information collected by these people in New Birmingham had been going well, but suddenly, the arrival of the Lance Family had destroyed all the various information they had collected before.

The director of the local branch had even personally formulated some plans before, on how to clean up these gangs after they had obtained more law enforcement power.

But now it seemed that he didn’t need to do that, because the Lance Family had already done it.

This was not a good thing.

Those weak ones had been killed by the Lance Family. What would rule here next was the stronger, and more difficult to deal with, Lance Family.

They had not yet mastered the law enforcement power and could only continue to watch from the shadows.

And this time, the local police had once again strengthened their own idea—the police could not be relied on!

With just a small trick, the entire police group had been completely bought over.

As for the Bureau of Hazardous Materials watching Lance, this was within reason. After all, next, he was going to sell wine.

The work of Prohibition was to prevent gangs like Lance from selling wine unscrupulously. The prohibition work in New Birmingham could not be said to be very good, but at least it was not too bad.

Of course, the director also knew that some of the agents below had already been corrupted, but as long as he could save face, he would also turn a blind eye.

After all, New Birmingham was just a small city. To be assigned to work here could only mean that he might still be lacking something in terms of connections.

Whether the directors of these city Bureaus of Hazardous Materials could be promoted depended entirely on their performance.

The purpose of Director Dale always wanting to catch a big case was here. Only a big case could make him stand out from a crowd of directors, and only then could he return to the sight of the gentlemen.

Facts have proven that just by relying on these means, it is not necessarily possible to go from a law enforcer who relies on the power in the hands of others to enforce the law, to a politician who holds the power in his own hands.

Some things are innate. If you have it when you are born, you have it. If you don’t, there is a high probability that you are destined not to have it.

To be assigned to a small city like New Birmingham, even if he had swept all the wine in the entire city, it was impossible for him to get a chance to be promoted.

He had already seen through this point, so in the past two years, he had already become a little lax in his firm implementation of the Prohibition.

At this time, he was thinking whether to take some cooked food home after work. His secretary suddenly knocked on the door.

”Come in.”

The secretary outside the door was holding a small package. ”Someone sent you this. They said you have to personally sign for it and open it.”

The director didn’t care. He nodded and signed his name on the receipt, and then casually looked at the small package in his hand, and even shook it.

There was something inside that would make a clattering sound as he shook it. He couldn’t say what it was, but it was constantly sliding.

Then he opened the package. Inside was a small box.

Then he opened the small box. When he saw clearly what was inside, his whole person was stunned there.

Inside was a photo of him and his family. If he remembered correctly, this photo should have been in his home.

At the same time, there was also a small card next to it. On the card was recorded an address. ”Here is the greeting gift I have for you. I hope you will like it—Lance White!”

While a wave of anger surged in his heart, the anger was covered by fear!

Lance really dared to kill law enforcement officers. He had a precedent!

The director immediately made a phone call back. The call was quickly answered by his family. ”Did anyone come to visit today?”

The one who answered the phone was his wife. The woman immediately said with a laugh, ”How did you know?”

”Our sewer was clogged, and then the community service company had arranged for a plumber to come over. They fixed it in a short while, and they said that this problem was very simple, and there was no need to pay the bill!”

From the sound of it, his wife was really happy from the bottom of her heart. Ever since her salary had to be taxed, she had become more frugal.

The director was silent for a moment. ”Is anything missing at home?”

His wife couldn’t help but complain, ”I haven’t found anything missing from us. How can you think that others are thieves?”

”Honey, who would think of stealing from us? You’re not a rich person!”

As she spoke, she even laughed a few times. The not-malicious sarcastic teasing in her tone made the director a little angry.

However, he did not vent it, but just said, ”It’s good that there isn’t.”

He knew that this was a warning.

Lance was using this method to tell him that he could make his life desperate, terrible, but could also do some other things.

In the torment, half an hour, which was usually unnoticeable, soon ended. He drove his car to the place on the card, a newly developed, but not very populated area. There were many houses for rent here.

They were all street-front shops, but because the city had not developed, they were almost all vacant.

Many were rented to others as warehouses at a very low price, a few dollars a month, which could be said to be of good quality and low price.

He came to the front of the door with the house number on the card. Behind the shop window were all nailed wooden boards, which was also a relatively common practice.

To prevent someone from breaking the shop window and drilling in, causing greater damage, so the owner of the house would seal the doors and windows to prevent this from happening.

As for in the future, if someone wanted to rent this house, then it would be fine to tear it down then.

He looked at this unremarkable house, walked to the front of the door, and looked at the dust-free doorknob. With some hesitation, he held it and then turned it.

The door opened, unlocked.

He looked at both sides of the street, and also looked back for a circle. This terrible place didn’t even have a ghost of a shadow!

But he knew that there must be someone watching him in the dark.

He pushed open the door. The lights inside were on, and a strong smell of wine drilled into his nose.

A mountain of wine. This wine, added up, was worth at least forty or fifty thousand.

His heart began to beat a little faster. On a table closest to him, he saw a piece of paper—

”Looks like we can be friends. I’m waiting for your call!”

Below was a phone number.

He glanced at the phone that was on the side of the table, and then picked up the phone and dialed this number.

The call was quickly answered. ”I’ve been waiting for your call, Mr. Director.”

The director’s face showed no expression. ”I don’t know what you mean by this.”

”It’s very simple, Mr. Director.”

”Every once in a while, I will give you a batch of wine to deal with the people above. I know you also have a work quota.”

”I won’t make things difficult for you!”

”And I don’t want you to make things difficult for me!”

”At the same time, I also hope to be able to make a friend with you.”

”I am a very direct person, and I don’t like to beat around the bush.”

”If you are willing to be my friend, whether you are willing to stay here, or if you have a chance to want to change to another place in the future, I will do my best to help you.”

”To help each other is the duty of friends.”

”If you don’t want to be my friend, and are still overwhelmed by a flood of righteousness, then I don’t mind changing to a new director here.”

”What do you say?”

”Can we be good friends?”

The director glanced at the boxes and boxes of wine in the house again, recalling how Lance’s men had quietly entered his home, and had even taken away the group photo of him and his family that he had placed in the living room.

The choice was, on the one hand, ideals, career, and on the other hand, family, self, and enjoyment.

Lance did not rush him. After a while, he let out a breath. ”Why not?”

More than ten minutes later, the agents and supervisors of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials had all come here. Looking at the wine that was piled up in the room, and at the director who was sitting in a chair smoking, they seemed to have realized something.

Lance had wanted to go back for the New Year, but in the end, he had not been able to succeed. After dealing with some miscellaneous matters, the probability of him going back for the New Year had basically become infinitely close to zero.

He could only stay in New Birmingham for the New Year, and after the New Year was over, he would embark on the journey back to Golden Port City.

What he didn’t know was that some of the situation on the New Birmingham side had already been known to the lieutenant governor.

In his view, Lance and Mayor Wade were a gang.

He had just been warned and could not continue to fight with Mayor Wade, but it did not prevent him from controlling some people and fighting with the people who supported Mayor Wade.

In the years that he had supported the chief of the state police, he had also gotten to know many of the major gangs in Indeno State.

They would surely be very willing to stick their necks out for the lieutenant governor!