Empire of Shadows

Behind his desk, Heller was chain-smoking, almost one cigarette after another.

Not every cigarette was necessarily finished in one go; perhaps it started that way.

But soon, he would only take three or four, maybe five puffs from each cigarette, then watch it slowly burn down between his fingers before extinguishing it in the ashtray.

If he didn't have something in his hands, he felt uneasy.

At this moment, the cigarette represented not just a… consumer product, but also a psychological comfort.

“Nothing unexpected will happen, right?”

“With so many of us?”

He looked at the other two trusted subordinates in the office. One was sitting, the other standing. The standing one affirmed Heller's view, “No surprises, boss.”

“Although I hate to admit it, I have to concede that our people are professional gangsters, and the bad things they've done are enough to make your hair stand on end.”

“And what about our opponents?”

“A small group of former dockworkers who can barely make a living. They're no match for us.”

“I don't deny that some of them might be capable, but boss, a few strong individuals might be useful in small-scale conflicts, but they're meaningless in a large-scale gang war like this.”

“So, we're guaranteed to win.”

These simple analyses matched Heller's mood perfectly. A smile appeared on his face, but then he thought it wasn't good to smile before the victory, so he put on a stern face again.

Another trusted subordinate said softly, “Instead of considering whether they can win now, we should consider the Red Heels' future.”

“The Red Heels has established a channel between us and the Bay Area, and it must be in our hands.”

“But you see, the other three seem to want the Red Heels too. How to reasonably put it in our basket will be a problem.”

The purpose of the three senior executives rushing to work tonight was to use the slogan of “avenging Liam.”

After they killed Lance and the Lance family, they could ask Heller to take over some of Liam's businesses.

As loyal subordinates of the gang, they could give up all of Liam's industries except the Red Heels, and the problem would shift to Heller's side.

When Liam started the Red Heels club, no one was optimistic about his business.

Goldenport City has more than a million people, and at least tens of thousands are engaged in similar work—

Not everyone who does this kind of work is necessarily a prostitute. The federal government's definition of a prostitute is “must have sexual intercourse,” so many strip clubs legally put oral sex on the menu.

Because this is not a transaction. As long as it is not a transaction, then these ladies are not prostitutes. They are just… dancers or beer girls.

Of course, some people will engage in transactional behavior, but most of them are not in this kind of legal and formal occasion. But in any case, whether legal or illegal, this place is saturated.

It is not easy to do business for the poor. It is said that in the Xilin District, oral sex is only 50 cents, and it is done by an old man with all his teeth missing, just to earn some living expenses.

It is also not easy to do business for the rich. They need the best girls in all aspects, and these girls are difficult to come out and do these businesses on their own initiative.

Federal women are still relatively conservative.

No one thought that Liam could find a different new track, using satisfying all the rich's perverted desires as a means, and successfully gained a little momentum in the Bay Area.

“Agent Liam” is how people in the Bay Area know Liam. He can get some special girls who can withstand any impulses and desires, as long as you pay enough!

The Red Heels represents not only making money, but also connections.

Heller, who was thinking about how to bring the Red Heels into his arms, hadn't come up with a good solution when the sound of trucks rang outside the window.

He quickly got up and walked to the window. When he saw these people getting out of the car, he had some ominous premonitions.

When the three senior executives returned to the office with long faces, Heller knew that the matter had been messed up.

He looked at these people, his eyes a little grim, but blocked by the brown sunglasses, they couldn't see the ferocity and panic in his eyes at this time.

“So, what exactly happened?”

One of the senior executives held a wine glass and took a big gulp of wine, “They were prepared, and they had plenty of firearms and ammunition.”

“They hid in the room and blocked the doors and windows. It was difficult for us to attack.” He hiccuped, “A dozen guns were pointed at the door. Whoever went in would die!”

“Later, we used incendiary bombs to force them out. In fact, we succeeded. They escaped into the back alley.” - Figure 2

“Their resistance was very tenacious, unlike anyone we had ever seen before, a bit like… a big family. The most important thing is that they have plenty of ammunition.”

“We were constantly exchanging fire, but we couldn't get in. The police station didn't allow us to use bombs. We could only fight hard…”

Openly using bombs in the city… Okay, the federal big families often do this, but there must be a prerequisite to do this.

Either you have enough status to ignore these rules and do what you want.

Or you have to be crazy enough to trample on all the rules and the rule-makers.

The former may be one of the rule-makers themselves, while the latter will be besieged by everyone.

The Camorra gang is neither the former nor the latter. They must abide by some potential rules.

Heller roughly knew the result when he heard this. The executive shrugged, “We set their house on fire. The fire was spreading to the surroundings. We couldn't take it down for a long time. The fire spread too fast. They had to intervene…”

If they didn't intervene, it might cause a larger fire. In this era dominated by brick and wood structures, once a fire spreads, there is no chance of rescue.

Moreover, the Triangle District is close to the Bay Area. They cannot allow the fire to pose any threat to the Bay Area, so when the fire began to spread, it was equivalent to ending the firefight in advance.

“So, you didn't actually kill Lance, and you didn't kill many people?” Heller asked, suppressing his anger and emotions.

Maybe Lance… died?

The three senior executives looked at each other with some embarrassment and shook their heads, “I don't know.”

“Maybe he was unlucky…” someone said.

But he quickly shut his mouth under Heller's glare.

One of Heller's trusted senior executives suddenly stood up, “You all said you wanted to avenge Liam and rushed to deal with the Lance family. The boss gave you the opportunity because you were so active.”

“But is this what you give back to the boss?”

“How can the gang hand over the Red Heels to you to run like this?”

The three wanted to say something, but now they could only say nothing. The Red Heels, which was originally a bit troublesome, returned to Heller's hands like this. It seemed to be a good thing?

But this still couldn't suppress Heller's anger!

“I spent one hundred forty to fifty thousand tonight, and I don't even know how much pension money I have to give to your subordinates, but you're telling me you didn't get anything?”

“Now the whole Goldenport City is fucking watching me make a fool of myself!” He slammed the table hard, wanting to slam it a few more times, but his hand was a little sore, so he gave up.

There was not a single sound in the large office. The three senior executives lowered their heads and said nothing. They also felt very wronged.

Someone provided Lance with so many weapons and bullets. In this situation where it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if Heller went there himself, it would be useless.

Not to mention that in the battle in the back alley, the two sides kept exchanging fire. Whoever rushed would die.

If the fire hadn't spread too quickly, they thought they would still have a chance to wipe out the Lance family.

But that's the problem. If there is no fire, there is no way to force Lance and his party out of the house.

But as long as incendiary bombs are used, there will inevitably be a countdown. This is a dead cycle!

Heller paced back and forth in anger. He spent money, didn't do things well, and turned himself into a clown in a circus.

He could already foresee that someone would be thinking of ways to call him and mock him tomorrow. More importantly, this failure meant that his control over the Empire District for the Empire people was beginning to decline!

His chest hurt a little. It would throb faintly every time he got angry, but the hospital couldn't find anything wrong. The doctor just prescribed him a medicine that was said to relieve the symptoms.

He opened the drawer, stared at these executives with cold eyes, took out the small medicine bottle, took out one, chewed it up, and swallowed it.

“They won't allow us to open fire again in a short time. First, guard our own territory, and then continue to find out what these people are doing every day. On New Year's Day, I will wipe them all out!”

During the New Year, the federal natives will be very lax, and there will not be too many police officers on duty in the police station. He decided to make this a fait accompli this time, and then consider other issues.

As long as he solves Lance and the Lance family, he and his Camorra gang will still be an unshakable force in the Empire District.

Even if the city's managers are somewhat dissatisfied with this, they will continue to tolerate him.

Because the existence of the Camorra gang makes these Empire people in the Empire District especially honest. This is the art of management.

They never deal with these immigrants themselves, which will make them lose votes and the image is not very good, but they will support some dark forces to help them do this.

The obedient gangs help them solve the problem of the disobedient lower classes, while maintaining social stability. When they need political achievements or need to appease the extremely dissatisfied lower classes, they pick out a batch, lock them up, or kill them, and all conflicts are resolved.

This is why, even though the benefits ultimately end up in the pockets of the masters, people hate the lackeys who don't get much benefit.

The art of ruling is nothing more than this!

As long as Heller, this lackey, is still useful, the masters may not like him, but seeing how useful he is, they will continue to use him.

The cadres didn't dare to say anything more, afraid of irritating Heller, and they all left.

Looking at the tens of thousands of dollars left on the table, after everyone left, Heller erupted in angry and unwilling roars, so angry that he even threw his sunglasses.

So much so that the next day he changed to black sunglasses, and everyone was a little unaccustomed to it.

At ten o'clock in the morning, in the news hall of the city police station, the assistant director righteously and sternly described the thrilling gang fight that took place in the Triangle District last night under the flashing lights—

"We found a total of forty-three bodies at the scene and arrested seventeen surviving gang members, five of whom were seriously injured, and two died after being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment."

"Goldenport City's attitude towards gangs has always been to resolutely crack down and eradicate them. If we find one case, we will eliminate it, and we will never tolerate it."

"We will continue to investigate whether there are more situations based on the clues we have obtained. Any new news will be notified to everyone as soon as possible…"

Before his voice finished, countless people raised their hands to ask questions, and the constant flashing of lights made him feel very good.

After answering questions from several reporters and promising to give the surviving gang members the most severe punishment possible, the assistant director strode away from here.

Chief Charlie doesn't have many years left to work, so next, a choice will be made between him and another assistant director to choose someone to take over.

In fact, as far as the current situation is concerned, there is not much actual power difference between the city police chief and the assistant director.

The assistant director is a position that assists the director and presides over daily work.

Chief Charlie comes at ten o'clock in the morning, sleeps for two hours at noon, and leaves on time at five o'clock in the afternoon. What can he do, how much can he do?

Almost all of it is done by their two assistant directors.

But it's just a difference in position. Chief Charlie didn't do anything and took 30,000.

He runs around and takes on certain risks, but only takes 15,000.

Why not continue to climb up?

Now every time he makes a big splash, it means that the distance to his position is one step closer!

The news quickly fermented throughout the city. Although the media and newspapers shielded some key words and blurred some names and situations, people still had ways to find out everywhere that the gang fight last night was between the Imperials' Camilla Gang and the newly established Lance Family, which is active in the Triangle District and the Port District.

Now, even ordinary people will inevitably be curious about Lance and the Lance Family.

Close to noon, Lance woke up from his slumber. He rubbed his head. The office was already open. Today, many people came to ask what happened, but the main members were not there. They didn't know the situation, and some people were restless.

As for the financial consulting company, it has been completely burned down, and the large amount of paper materials inside caused Lance to suffer heavy losses.

Cash, some mortgaged materials, the exact amount will not be known until after an estimate.

After waking up from a sleep, he felt a little better. After making sure that nothing had happened to the other injured people, he came to the restaurant.

The two girls were sitting there blankly. When they saw Lance coming down, they immediately stood up.

Lance waved his hand to let them sit down, found a seat for himself, and put some food on his plate.

The food is actually very delicious. Having gotten rid of the poverty label, they won't eat the cheapest food every day like they used to.

Beef, eggs, bacon, cheese, ham…

But at this time, eating these things is like chewing wax.

"You guys got up so early, didn't you sleep?" Lance asked casually, just like a normal morning, making small talk while eating breakfast.

The two girls shook their heads, "We slept for a while, and then we couldn't sleep anymore."

Last night's firefight was the most dangerous and intense one that Lance and they had experienced since coming here.

It's normal to not be able to sleep. Everyone has walked on the edge of life and death.

"Have you eaten?" Lance asked again.

"Eaten."

"No appetite."

Two completely different answers, Lance put down his knife and fork and sighed, "I will avenge them."

The girls didn't say anything, just stayed silently.

After waiting for twenty minutes, everyone woke up one after another. After eating something, they gathered in the living room, including the injured.

"I thought about it for a long time last night, and I realized I made a mistake."

"I always thought that there was a bottom line in this society."

"Just like we can't do some things that obviously violate the law. I'm not saying we can't do them, but we can't do them casually."

"After all, that is something that violates the law, destroys social public order and morality, and cannot exist in the sunlight."

"It's like… shadows will never be bigger than light."

"But now, I understand that sometimes shadows can not only be as big as light, but even cover the light!"

"Under the guise of all civilized norms are the most primitive and barbaric survival rules, and flexible bottom lines."

"We lost, but not to Heller and his Camilla Gang, nor because we were not vigilant enough about these things, we lost to this damn rule that we don't understand."

Everyone was listening quietly to what Lance was saying. Some people may have been confused, but some people understood.

It's like last night's firefight, the police actually stopped them from leaving, and even allowed those people to come over and fight them.

But if you say that these police… are all bad, are targeting them, but afterwards, when they left, they didn't stop them!

They just let them go.

Who the hell could have thought of this?

For them, especially for Lance, who had experienced a more civilized and orderly society, sin would melt away under the "light."

But how could he have imagined that these two natural enemies could actually merge together, just for the convenience of ruling?

Or rather, those controls over rulers and order in another world made him ignore the primitiveness and barbarism of this era, and its hypocrisy.

They didn't understand it at that time, but now, more or less, they understand a little, under Lance's explanation.

"We may not be very familiar with it yet, but I believe we will be familiar with it and use it better."

"Since everyone is waiting for our performance, then let them see our wonderful performance!"

"Revenge, waiting one more day will make my heart burn in flames, so let's start now!"