Empire of Shadows

In the Likalai State Prison, Ennio, Ethan, and another companion entered the visiting room together.

Lance, Morris, and a few others were already there, bringing new clothes and other items for their release.

They also brought some fresh fruit, cigarettes, and alcohol.

They weren't short on cigarettes here, but they weren't exactly abundant either.

The warden was a man who only recognized money, so much so that everyone in the prison was the same. A pack of cigarettes sold for two dollars here, the kind that only cost five cents outside.

Although Lance had spent money, the connection was through lawyer Robben. As far as the prison was concerned, they did what they were supposed to do, and then followed their own rules.

According to the regulations of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, this was clearly a violation of the rules, with so many people together and bringing so many things.

But here, no one cared.

The federal prison warden was the biggest, and he could decide the fate of everyone in the prison.

In fact, whether it was a private prison or a federal prison, they were essentially the same. With connections and money, you could get away with anything.

So, regardless of whether it's a federal prison or a private for-profit prison, as long as you can find the right way, they will be like your backyard, allowing you to come and go as you please.

As for a little violation?

Who would bother the warden for such a trivial matter?

"You've gained weight!" Lance patted Ennio on the shoulder and punched Ethan in the chest. The three of them were now fair-skinned and plump!

Morris stood aside and joked, "Is the food in prison that good?"

Ethan grinned, "It's okay. We get a small piece of steak every evening, but we can eat as much of the other food as we want."

"And even though we live in single cells, we can't just swagger out of the cell to the outside, so besides exercise time, we just eat, drink, and sleep."

He was a little embarrassed to say it himself.

He originally thought he was coming to suffer, but he almost got fattened up like a pig. If he hadn't started working out recently, he probably would have gained even more weight!

Ever since the Lance family took down the Camilla gang, the state prison received the news immediately, causing some prison gang members who were originally planning to "test the waters" to give up.

The treatment of people with connections and those without connections is completely different in prison.

After the joking and laughter ended, Lance talked about everyone's recent developments, "We're doing well. If nothing unexpected happens, we'll be able to make a lot of money before summer arrives."

"Soon we will enter a fast track of development. By then, the entire Goldport City, and even Likalai, will be our stage!"

Lance was very sure of this. Whether it's a criminal group, a gang, a family, or a capitalist,

if you want to thrive on the big stage of the Federation, you must do two things: either have connections and money, or have money and be covered in thorns.

For those traditional noble families, they are representatives of the former. When their ancestors appeared in that oil painting, it was destined that they would not need to take risks to have a future that most families could not have in several lifetimes.

And for those who are truly the majority, the vast majority, if they want to get what these people have, they need not only money, but also many other elements.

Luck, decisiveness, shamelessness, willingness to go all out, enough ruthlessness...

Mr. Chobaf was rich enough, but for those people, he was not even considered to be in the top circle. Just a mayor, and he had completely lost control of the situation.

A mayor had him firmly in his grip, let alone the higher-ups.

Only he always felt that as long as he reached a high enough level, he would definitely be able to change his fate.

So, for the sake of the future, he could try to give up some things.

This also aggravated the mayor's change in attitude towards him. The relationship seemed good on the surface, but it was full of dead ends.

As for the higher-ups, they didn't even need to exert themselves to deal with Mr. Chobaf.

It might just be a word, and he could be arrested and sentenced to the electric chair for splashing urine on the edge of the toilet while peeing.

Don't want to die?

Then hand over all the money.

As for the federal law that says splashing urine on the edge of the toilet is punishable by death?

That's not important. They can pass it overnight. As long as the big shot who makes this decision is "big" enough, there is nothing they can't do.

Capitalists from outside the Federation are actually very unlucky during this period. They contributed to social development, and they also paid taxes. When they become rich enough, capitalists and politicians collude to stab them in the back.

Every year, many well-known foreign investors and capitalists are confiscated of their property and thrown into prison for various reasons.

But rarely do we hear of certain large gangs or families being wiped out by the federal government.

On the one hand, the stability of the lower levels of society requires these people. A region controlled by gangs has a much higher level of security than a region without gangs.

On the other hand, these people are now covered in thorns and will hurt themselves if they are not careful. The reason why they are unwilling to hurt themselves is because there are also contradictions and divisions within these groups that can decide certain issues.

But one day, when external conflicts begin to truly affect their rule, or when someone tries to challenge their authority, they will unite.

After chatting about what was happening outside for a while, Lance looked at Ennio, "Before you leave, don't forget to send away the last person we missed."

Ennio nodded, "I will."

Lance looked at the three of them, "You will be released in a week. You better do it on the night before you leave. The prison will give you some convenience..."

Lance and the others left quickly, arranging the time to pick them up.

In fact, Ennio had been observing the last "lone survivor" of the Camilla gang during this period. When he first came in, he seemed to have some "social status".

The Camilla gang was more or less a well-known gang in Goldport City, and it was still active outside.

As long as they are not the only one left in the family in prison, they are actually not willing to offend this kind of active gang, mainly because they are afraid of retaliation against their family members.

But as the demise of the Camilla gang spread in the prison, his life became not so easy.

The prison is a more dog-eat-dog society than the outside. Here, if you are slightly weaker, you will live a very painful life.

It's not just as simple as not having enough to eat. You get beaten for no reason, and you even have to pick up soap every day.

After making appropriate concessions, and showing an attitude of maintaining the bottom line, and fighting a few fierce fights, and vowing not to compromise, those people stopped bothering him, because he was a "prickly head."

The day before Ennio and the others were to leave, the prison arranged a lot of work, which happened to be the turn of the Camilla gang's senior cadres to do in their cell block.

These jobs were all indoors. It was said that the warden was planning to clean up an old warehouse to do something new, and they needed to clean the warehouse.

There were many things in this dilapidated warehouse. A group of about thirty people moved things from one warehouse to another, and then had to clean it up.

It took four or five hours to complete, which made everyone sweat.

It was indeed not easy to be so tired in the middle of winter. The warden seemed to have a conscience and allowed a hot shower at night before going to bed.

Even now, in the middle of winter, there is no hot water in the prison, only cold water.

Only the prison guards can take hot showers, which is simply a blessing for these people!

The fatigue and unhappiness during the afternoon's work seemed to become less important in the face of a hot shower.

After dinner, they went to the small bathroom in batches, only here there was hot water.

The moment the shower head was turned on, scalding hot water sprayed out from the shower head and fell on his skin, the senior cadre felt comfortable all over.

He ran his hands through his hair, the hot water splashed on his body, at this moment, the hot water took away all the fatigue and irritability on his body.

The hot water was like a magical elf, able to smooth out all the pain on his body, even in his heart.

His mind was empty, as if he was thinking about many things, but it seemed that he was not thinking about anything, just enjoying the water.

There was no soap, but there was some bath powder, this thing stung the skin a little, but... whatever.

He rubbed the bath powder on his body while thinking about the future.

Over the years, he had also secretly hidden a lot of money. After getting out, he would take the money, leave this damn place, and live the rest of his life in a low-key manner in other places.

A total of more than 100,000 yuan, which is a huge sum of money for this era!

In fact, to some extent, if he could take this opportunity to break away from the Camilla gang and get away from Heller, then it might not be a bad thing!

A new life was beckoning to him, and he had even made plans for the future—buy a house and live a life of collecting rent.

The bath powder reacted with the water on his body, creating something like soap suds, which stung his eyes a bit. He squinted slightly and washed his head as well.

In prison, how to keep your hair clean is also a problem.

He didn't know what the bath powder was, it would make his body feel hot and dry after washing, but... it was indeed very useful in terms of cleaning!

He started taking a shower, the surroundings were filled with steaming smoke, he didn't even notice that the people around him had almost all left, leaving only himself.

Danger had arrived, yet he was completely unaware.

Just as he was humming a little tune, washing away the fatigue from his body and mind, a strong arm suddenly clamped around his neck.

At first, he didn't react, thinking someone was playing a joke on him. He even patted the arm a few times and said in a low voice, “Stop it, I'm taking a shower…”

But as the arm suddenly began to tighten, he immediately struggled violently. But by this time, it was already too late!

He was spun around by the person behind him, and then he saw Ennio.

He didn't recognize these people, but he knew that there was a group of people in the prison who had connections and had paid money.

They were all registered with the warden, and no one could offend them casually. And this person was one of them.

His face was already flushed, whether from the hot water or from lack of oxygen. He struggled and tried to say something.

Ennio had a knife made from a sharpened piece of iron, which he wrapped in a towel. He said, "Mr. Lance had Heller and the others around him when they left, but you were the exception."

“He couldn't come personally to send you to meet God, so…” He pressed the towel and knife in his hand, staring into his eyes, “He asked me to say hello to you. Good night, you bastard!”

As he spoke, he poked the senior cadre's chest a few times with the towel-wrapped dagger. Blood began to gush out, mingling with the hot water spraying from the showerhead, and was swept into the drain in the floor.

He struggled frantically, almost breaking free from Ennio's control, but ultimately he was not as strong as Ennio and was steadily suppressed.

Soon, he didn't have much strength left, and even the intensity of his struggles lessened significantly.

The water continued to patter against him, but this time, he didn't feel warmth and comfort, only that his body was getting colder and colder, and his consciousness was becoming more and more blurred.

His struggles became weaker and weaker, and a sense of despair began to envelop him. He thought of many things, of his former brothers, of Heller, and of the hundred thousand dollars he had buried, wondering who would benefit from it.

The arm around his neck was as unyielding as steel. In this moment of impending death, he suddenly had an epiphany.

He had harmed so many people before, and some of them had cursed him with roughly the same words before they died, cursing him not to die in a warm bed after exhausting his lifespan, cursing him to die violently outside like them.

He had always scoffed at this, never thinking that an accident would happen to him, but at this moment, he realized that there seemed to be a force in the dark that forced him to bow his head.

When his body weight was completely hanging on Ennio's arm, Ennio released him.

He fell to the ground, blood flowing from the wound, but not as much as at the beginning.

Then another person pushed a trash can over, and the two of them threw him into the trash can. Someone would clean it up completely.

Every year, many people disappear from the federal prison. The warden doesn't even need to rack his brains to make any "plans." He just needs to tell people that the missing person tried to escape and was killed.

Then burn it to ashes, scatter the ashes in the surrounding wilderness, and then write a report.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons once issued a document that mentioned that prisoners who try to escape should be attacked bravely. The general idea is: don't be afraid to shoot, kill those sons of bitches!

After taking a shower, the three of them left the bathroom calmly and returned to the cell.

About ten minutes later, the entire prison was filled with alarms, and then a large number of prison guards with guns began to enter the prison area.

Everyone was required to come out of the cell and stand at the door, and then someone searched one by one.

The three of them knew what had happened, so they cooperated very well.

Halfway through, gunshots suddenly rang out outside, and then quickly subsided.

About seven or eight minutes later, everyone was asked to return to their cells.

Immediately afterwards, the news that someone was taking a hot shower in the prison guard's bathroom, but was thinking of escaping, and was shot dead as a result, spread throughout all prison areas.

Some people didn't believe it, because some of them knew the senior cadre and knew that he didn't need to escape at all.

But now that the person was dead, and the prison said what it said, and they had no intention of seeking justice for the senior cadre.

The three of them slept soundly. The next morning, at the prison gate, they saw the motorcade that came to pick them up.

It's only a little over a hundred kilometers from Goldenport City to here, a three-hour drive.

The icy and snowy weather had finally improved a lot in the past two days. As soon as the three of them came out, the smiles on their faces couldn't be controlled. Almost everyone had come!

Lance stood at the front. He hugged Ennio and gave him a newspaper, "I read today's news. Well done!"

There was a small, palm-sized area on the newspaper that published a piece of news, saying that a fugitive tried to escape last night, refused to surrender during the escape process, and was shot dead on the spot.

Next to it was a photo of the senior cadre.

The report stated that this was the seventeenth prison break incident in the state prison in the past five years, but none of them were successful. It is the impregnable castle of Likalai State and the loyal executor of the law!

The article boasted a little, saying that these were all the warden's achievements.

But in fact, no one knows how many of the sixteen people besides the senior cadre actually died because of the prison break.

Ennio was a little embarrassed. His childhood was spent in denial and domestic violence. His father never praised him, so Lance's praise, even if it was just an ordinary sentence, made him a little embarrassed.

“Ethan and the others also made great contributions. Without them, I might not have been able to do this alone.”

Lance nodded and hugged Ethan and the other person again. After everyone greeted each other, Lance asked the motorcade to go to the Goldenport City Cemetery.

He specially bought a piece of land to bury the deceased members of the family.

Several tombstones are not alone together, and the scene has been cleaned up - Lance had called before and said that he would come to see these guys today.

The cemetery management office arranged for people to clean up the snow here, after all, they have to charge management fees every year. If they don't even do the superficial work, it would be too much.

Lance lit the newspaper and placed it in front of the tombstone.

No one spoke, everyone just stood quietly.

When the last bit of newspaper was burned to ashes, Lance breathed a long sigh of relief, "Go home!"

In February, the weather already showed signs of warming up. Some branches that had been dry for a winter had already begun to sprout tender green buds the size of sesame seeds.

Although it is still very small, it can already make people feel that the tenacious, unyielding and great vitality is being brewed.

When the time is right, it will dye the whole world green!

Winter is over, and spring is not far away!