Empire of Shadows

The atmosphere was very oppressive.

In fact, bullets are also a kind of gift. As long as it's a gift, there will be a sense of 'gift message' during the giving process.

Giving chocolate is like a disguised confession.

So giving bullets also has a meaning. It means 'You will die from a bullet,' which is mostly used as a 'death threat'.

When Lance put the bullet on the banknote, Officer Fellen suddenly came back to his senses. Greed was repelled by reason, and he even felt a little horrified!

"Lance...", his expression was a little ugly, "I am a police officer!"

Lance shook his head slightly, "Yes, but you're ignoring some issues."

"You are first a person, second you have a family, and finally you are a police officer."

"Are you threatening me?" Officer Fellen felt a little unbelievable. Although federal police officers are often threatened, he still found it unbelievable.

Lance was still so calm, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, "You can think of it as a threat, or you can think of it as a warning."

"You can take the money, and we can continue to be friends. I believe you can get more from me."

"Friendship, or something else."

"Or you can let me put these things away and leave."

"I want to be friends with you, Fellen, but you don't seem to think so."

The two looked at each other without giving way. From Lance's calm eyes, he saw some hidden bad things.

People always have to consider many things when faced with major dangers: family, wife, children, and his current happy life.

The more things you consider, the more you feel... that there is no need to push some things to the point of no return.

When a person's thoughts are no longer steadfastly forward, a moment of wavering will lead to concessions, and continuous concessions.

He opened his hands, avoided the confrontation, and also moved his eyes away, no longer meeting Lance's gaze, "You may have misunderstood me, I just think... we are friends, there is no need...", he waved his hand in front of him, "You know, it is right for friends to help each other."

Lance smiled, put away the bullet, and then counted out two more ten-dollar bills, making it a hundred dollars, and pushed it over, "You are worth this friendship, Fellen, can I call you that?"

"Of course, Lance, just like I call you that, that's how friends address each other."

Lance gave twenty more dollars. Although there was still a small amount of resentment in his heart, it had diminished a lot compared to just now.

He could pocket sixty dollars himself and give his partner forty dollars. Is sixty dollars a lot?

His legal income for a month is still fluctuating. He can get about three hundred dollars a month from the precinct's dirty money system.

It seems like sixty dollars is only one-fifth, but he has actually already gotten something from Lance, plus the current sixty, this is also a large income!

Watching him put the money in his pocket, Lance nodded with satisfaction. A police officer willing to be a friend is always better than one unwilling to be a friend, or more greedy.

"Then tomorrow morning?"

People often, after making a compromise, in order to affirm their inner belief that this compromise is the right choice, will more firmly continue down this path. "I'll come find you at eight o'clock, and then we'll go together."

Lance got up and shook hands with him, then signaled to the boss, who had already prepared the takeout, to bring the food over, "Very good, I'll wait for you at the office. These are for you and your partner to eat during your break."

Looking at the shopping bag, Officer Fellen's expression was very strange. He had clearly been threatened, but he had to admit that Lance had done it very decently.

Adding money and giving extra takeout, although these things may not be of such high value, they can indeed make people feel somewhat favorable.

"Thank you," this sentence was not against his will.

When Lance left the coffee shop, he greeted the other police officer in the police car, who also responded with a smile.

After Officer Fellen went to the bathroom and returned to the car, he handed the paper bag to his partner.

His partner asked curiously, "What did you guys talk about?"

In the police system, a partner is definitely the most important companion, which is crucial to whether one can survive in some emergencies.

He briefly explained, "So we have to get up early tomorrow morning and come over here."

His partner looked at him. He took out sixty dollars from his pocket, counted out thirty dollars, and handed it over, "Your share."

His partner whistled, "Mr. Lance is really generous!"

Officer Fellen started the ignition and began to shift gears, "Who says he isn't?"

As for whether he was or not, only he himself knew.

After a night of fermentation, many people knew that Jamie had been bullied at the dock. During work, a guy named Johnny and his accomplices robbed him of his money and stripped him naked.

Many people were angry after hearing this and wanted to do something to vent their anger. The federal people were too damn unreasonable. Everyone is at the bottom, why can't we take care of each other, but instead persecute each other?

When they knew that Lance was going to seek justice for Jamie, it was like... they gathered outside Lance's office early the next morning without prior agreement.

Of course, not everyone, but at least there were seven or eight hundred people here, and others were said to be outside the dock.

When Officer Fellen's car slowly drove in, seeing so many people wearing uniform work clothes, and even some people staring at him fiercely, he suddenly felt that the dozens of dollars were a little hot to the touch.

Hiram picked him up at the door and walked in. At this time, the office was not open for business. If the workers in blue work clothes outside made him feel棘手(棘手: thorny/difficult to deal with),

Then the more than twenty people in the room wearing tailored suits, trench coats, using pure red pocket squares, and sporting uniform, iconic slicked-back hair made him feel afraid.

These people had killed people!

The first moment Officer Fellen saw them, he found that kind of wanton disregard for life in their expressions and eyes.

He had seen this kind of gaze on many murderers. Whether a person has killed a member of their own species, some things that are expressed cannot be hidden.

Disregard for life, and even vaguely feeling that they are more... superior than others, will be revealed from the inside out.

His palms were sweaty, and he quickly looked away. In his perception, only the fool who was leading him seemed like a good person.

Lance was sitting in the innermost office. Hiram knocked on the door and pushed it open, "Lance is waiting for you inside."

Officer Fellen nodded and even said thank you, "Thank you for leading the way."

Hiram flicked his hair, and the long bangs that almost covered half of his face were flicked behind his ears, but then slowly slid down again, "You're welcome."

Officer Fellen looked at the half-closed door. He took off his hat and held it in his hand, then pushed the door open and entered.

"Please sit down!" Lance motioned for him to sit down. He obediently walked to a chair and sat down.

And took the initiative to say, "I told the radio station that I will be patrolling the dock this morning. No matter what happens, they will contact me as soon as possible."

"I have also arranged things within the precinct. I told my colleagues that a relative from my wife's side might encounter some trouble coming in, and they promised to arrange a safe room for him."

After listening, Lance said "Thank you" seriously and sincerely. Seeing Officer Fellen's desire to express something, he didn't give the other party a chance to speak, "I'm not being polite, Fellen."

"For me, everyone is my brother. If something happens to them, I will definitely help them unconditionally, even if it costs more money."

"I also hope that we can not only become friends, but also become brothers, but we don't know each other very well, and we need some opportunities to increase our understanding of each other."

"I thank you for everything you have done for me and my brothers, and I hope that in the future, this kind of situation can also happen between us."

He paused, picked up the hat on the table, then got up, "Let's go, don't let the brothers wait!"

Officer Fellen quickly stood up, "Yes, it's time to go."

When Lance pushed the door open and walked out, and Officer Fellen followed behind him, the people in uniform in the office hall, whether sitting or standing, all stood up. They waited for Lance to follow Lance in order, and walked out of the office.

When a group of people left the office and stood on the street outside the office, the originally noisy street suddenly quieted down. Officer Fellen only felt his scalp tingle slightly, and there was a kind of indescribable emotion surging in his body.

There was excitement, but also fear. He looked into Lance's eyes and no longer despised him because of his youth. There was already awe of power!

Lance glanced at Jamie standing not far away and waved to him, "You and I will be in the same car. Now, let us go and get justice for you!"

The crowd began to disperse, but it gave people the illusion that a force was gathering!

At eight forty, the peak time for dock workers, Johnny was walking towards Pier One with a few of his good brothers.

The fathers of these people were basically also dock workers. They had no family property or wealth to pass on to these children, only the identity of a worker.

But this is also a good inheritance, at least there is a job to do.

Johnny, because of his strength, had been a bully-type character since he was a child, and still is now.

A friend next to him was wearing Jamie's work clothes. They had removed the nameplate from the chest, and were chatting as they walked towards the entrance.

"During the lunch break, you guys come with me to the stevedores' side and get a few more sets of clothes over here."

"Yesterday..." (a certain local worker) talked to me, he also wants ten sets of this kind of work clothes, and he can pay eighty cents a set."

"I think this is a money-making opportunity."

"There are at least two or three thousand people like this on the dock, which represents two or three thousand dollars."

Someone beside him was a little worried, "If we do too much, will it cause any unnecessary trouble?"

Johnny pushed his shoulder, and his voice also became louder, "Hey, this is Federal Gold Port, we federal people have the final say here, at worst, we'll have another demonstration."

"As long as they still want to make a living here, they have to endure it!"

"Some time ago, we... didn't we? Now aren't these people still working here?"

They didn't do anything good during the demonstration, they only did bad things, not only did no one come to make trouble for them, but those who were beaten by them also disappeared.

Doing bad things didn't cost them anything, which is why they are becoming more and more arrogant.

Just like yesterday, they robbed Jamie and stripped off his clothes, so what happened?

The dock office didn't look for them, the police didn't look for them, but some coworkers expressed their hope to pay to buy some work clothes from them.

On this dock where the strong prey on the weak, fists are the truth!

A group of people came to the dock to change their clothes and prepared to start work, when they suddenly saw a large group of people in blue work clothes walking towards them from a distance, with Jamie in the lead.

Johnny wasn't afraid at all, he was still talking and laughing with the people around him, and even took the initiative to walk towards Jamie.

He looked at the brand-new work clothes Jamie was wearing, as well as the people around him, and a kind of greed appeared in his eyes.

"What, you called so many people over here, do you want to hit me?" He wasn't afraid at all, but laughed arrogantly, "Tell you these Imperial bastards, I'm here today, if I get even a little injured, I guarantee you'll all go to jail and then get the hell out of the Federation!"

The laws of the Federation, to some extent, fueled the malice of these villains, regardless of right or wrong, it's all the fault of the illegal immigrants, that's why he dares to be so arrogant.

Especially the Imperial people.

If it were the Sumuli people, or others, he might not dare to do this, because there are many ruthless characters among those people, but the Imperial people don't have them, they are as honest as God's lambs, and can only bleat.

Johnny's wild laughter and the fact that Jamie and the others didn't move any further made the people around Johnny laugh as well.

They liked this feeling, they felt extremely happy!

After laughing twice, seeing that Jamie didn't say anything, his laughter gradually stopped, "If you just wanted to see me, now you've seen me, you can get out of here."

"By the way, come and find me at noon, don't force me to come and find you!" He continued to threaten Jamie in front of many people.

The whole crowd was extraordinarily quiet, so quiet that he also felt a trace of abnormality, just as he was planning to say a few harsh words and then leave here first, suddenly the crowd parted.

More than twenty people in black trench coats walked out of the crowd, they were wearing tailored suits, dark vests, red ties, and hats.

This feeling gave people a terrible sense of oppression, Johnny swallowed, and took two steps back.

Immediately afterwards, he looked at Jamie fiercely, "These are the helpers you found?"

Lance walked to the front, carrying the Sailboat team's baseball bat, and walked up to Johnny. Johnny looked at him with a fierce expression. He had scared off many people with this expression.

"You want to hit me?" He grinned and pushed his head forward, tilting his head, letting one side of his cheek face Lance, pointing to his face and said, "Come on, hit here."

When he turned his head, he looked at the coworkers around him and behind him, revealing an arrogant expression. He didn't believe Lance would do it!

But immediately afterwards, he seemed to be in the middle of an intense baseball game, because he heard the sound of the bat swinging in his ear.

The wind was squeezed away by the powerfully swung bat, making a "嗡——" sound, and finally a muffled "咚" sound!

Home run!

All around him were the cheers of the crowd!

Next, his world began to tilt, and he fell heavily to the ground, his head still buzzing.

The world tilted ninety degrees, but his body, his consciousness, seemed to be still stuck in just now!

His companions seemed to want to help him, but they were quickly pressed to the ground and beaten hard. Tinnitus, dizziness, Johnny, whose brain was blank, just like those who had been bullied by him in the past, actually developed a sense of helplessness in his heart at this time!

"Do something!"

"Do something quickly!"

He was talking to himself, but his body didn't react at all.

After a while, the severe pain made his body react, and he suddenly let out a shrill scream, his arm was broken.

He wanted to get up, but Lance stepped on his head, stomping hard, and stomped his raised head back down.

The rough ground on the dock was corroded with pits and bumps due to wind, rain, and salt in the sea, and he felt intense pain and discomfort.

The Sailboat team's baseball bat poked at his face, and a mouthful of saliva was spat on his face, "You're not as strong as you think, Johnny."

More and more people in blue work clothes surrounded him, and shouts of "Kill him" began to come from the crowd. When these shouts began to coalesce into one voice, Johnny, who was still thinking about struggling, suddenly became scared!

Lance raised his foot, handed the baseball bat to the person next to him, and took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his palms, "If you want to take revenge on me, or anyone, feel free to come, I'll let you know what the consequences of making the wrong choice are."

"Now, this is just as a reward for you hurting my brother Jamie, whether to apologize to Jamie and end it here, or to escalate the situation, the choice is up to you."

He threw the handkerchief at Johnny, covering his face, and the others who participated in this matter were also pressed down and beaten black and blue.

From the moment the two sides met to the outbreak of the conflict, only two minutes had passed.

Someone on the dock had already called the police, and at this time, two people eating donuts outside the dock were chatting.

The Sailboat team is going to meet a formidable opponent, the Duke Kate team, this weekend, and they were discussing who had a better chance of winning when the radio suddenly crackled and then made a sound.

"Someone reported a fight at Pier One, who's free to go take a look?"

Officer Feren picked up the walkie-talkie immediately, "This is Feren, I'm near Pier One, I'll go take a look."

"Okay, Officer Feren is responding, this police situation is assigned to you, keep in touch at all times..."

Officer Feren handed the donut to his partner, "Let's get to work!"

Then he turned on the siren, stepped on the accelerator, and the police car whizzed into the dock.