Empire of Shadows

Snake watched the young men arrive in someone else's car, his expression slightly displeased, but he didn't say anything.

Most of the Viper Gang members were local to Fides, and now asking them to leave and go to another city, where they might get hurt or even die, made it difficult for Snake to demand absolute obedience.

He knew that these young men had spent the previous night saying goodbye to their families and girlfriends, some even throwing a grand "farewell party."

They invited many girls to join them, and the group went wild all night.

Perhaps this was their ultimate way of saying goodbye to the city that had nurtured them, blasting all the unhappiness, new worries, and anxieties out of their minds.

Alcohol, tobacco, sex—their minds were a mess all night, and in the end, they all lay together and slept until dawn.

Seeing Snake's cold face, the young men felt a little apprehensive, but fortunately, Snake didn't scold them, only urging them to get on the bus as soon as possible.

There were two buses, one truck, and a few cars in total.

The young men were actually full of longing for King's Harbor City, just like young people from ordinary small places always yearn to go to big cities.

They had heard so much about King's Harbor City, and they were eager to see it for themselves.

Perhaps this would be the starting point of their life's legend!

On the bus, the young men were chatting. Some who hadn't attended the farewell party the night before were asking those who had, with envious and jealous tones, what they had done the night before.

Hearing them talk about those uninhibited girls, and that there were even some foreigners, like Imperials and Alan people, made some of the young men's eyes turn red with jealousy!

Those who probably hadn't even held a girl's hand were already cursing!

If only they had gone too!

Amidst the commotion, the anticipation for the new city was gradually replaced by boredom. The scenery on both sides of the Federal interstate highway was unremarkable, mostly desolate wilderness.

Occasionally seeing packs of wolves or other animals passing by was already the most interesting highlight on the road.

From the loud shouts and excitement when they first got on the bus, everything quieted down again as most people curled up in their seats and smoked.

Snake was looking at some information about King's Harbor City.

This information was actually quite outdated, as it still contained descriptions of the Camilla Gang and the Brothers Gang, but he was aware of the situation.

In just half a year, two gangs that were once well-known in King's Harbor City had become a thing of the past. This, like others, filled him with longing for this city where gold seemed to be everywhere, but also with a hint of vigilance.

He didn't want himself or the Viper Gang to become fireworks.

It took a day to get from Fides to King's Harbor City. Everyone couldn't drive all the way, so the convoy chose a motel near the border of Licarri State to rest.

The motel owner was very enthusiastic towards them, and to their surprise, it even offered escort services—

The motel owner's wife and his three daughters.

Although everyone was surprised, they didn't find it unbelievable. After all, they had heard about such things many times. People's lives were not easy, and everyone wanted to make money.

Besides providing a relatively comfortable overnight environment, motels relied on providing what long-haul truck drivers needed!

Early the next morning, the convoy set off again. After entering Licarri State, it was obvious that the situation here was a little better than the neighboring state, and the interstate highway became lively, with many big trucks speeding along the road.

As the port with the largest throughput in the Northern Hemisphere, King's Harbor City left behind goods from all over the world every day, and then sent them to the surrounding areas by land or water transportation.

The noticeably livelier highway also began to restore people's spirits. They would arrive in King's Harbor City by the afternoon at the latest, which filled them with anticipation for their new life and work.

Seeing the road signs for King's Harbor City starting to appear on the side of the road, getting closer and closer, Snake had the convoy stop at a roadside motel near King's Harbor City.

They could eat something here, and he needed to make a phone call.

"I'll be in the city in a little over an hour. You can call Lance and see if you can arrange a meeting."

"Let's take care of him once and for all this time!"

Hearing that Snake had arrived on the outskirts of King's Harbor City, Brinton relaxed completely. He quickly replied, "No problem, I'll contact him right away."

Brinton hung up the phone and dialed Lance's number. Lance's number wasn't hidden, but what wasn't hidden was the front desk number, not the one on his desk.

The call connected quickly.

"Hi, Lance, this is Brinton. I think we should talk."

"Hm?"

Brinton glanced at the receiver in his hand. This was not the Lance he had imagined. He thought Lance should say something to him, not just "Hm?"

But that didn't stop him from finishing what he had to say. "I know there might be a misunderstanding between us. Now there's a good opportunity to clear up that misunderstanding. We can sit down and talk."

"The Imperial District is big, and as far as I know, your bars haven't filled the entire Imperial District. We can coexist peacefully!"

"Even if you're really unhappy with us being here, we can talk about it. Maybe we can go somewhere else, the Bay Area, or even downtown."

"But first, we have to talk, don't you think?"

Lance's reply was still concise. "Yes, so?"

"So we have to talk. I said, sit down and talk face to face!"

He emphasized the words "face to face". "Many issues can't be discussed clearly over the phone, so we have to sit down and talk. It's also a sign of sincerity, right?"

"Whatever the outcome, I will accept it."

Lance seemed to be moved by what he said and agreed. "What time and place?"

This made Brinton overjoyed. "Nine o'clock tonight, 118 Ninth Road. There's a restaurant there. I'll be waiting for you!"

118 Ninth Road was on the west side of the Imperial District, near the industrial area, a bit out of the way.

"No problem."

Brinton hadn't considered asking Lance to leave King's Harbor City, but that was obviously unlikely. The two sides were already in an adversarial relationship. Asking Lance to negotiate with you outside the city… that didn't sound like a good thing!

So in the end, he chose a relatively remote location. The industrial area was deserted at night, and the people who lived nearby didn't like to interfere. It was also close to Interstate 24.

Snake and his men could cross the entire industrial area directly to reach Ninth Road.

After doing all this, Brinton seemed much more relaxed. The boulder pressing on his chest seemed to have been moved away by some mysterious force. He quickly dialed the number Snake had left and explained the time and location. After the two agreed, Brinton hung up the phone.

He now needed to prepare for the negotiation tonight. He had even begun to imagine sitting at the table that night, seeing Lance kneeling at his feet, begging him not to kill him!

Thinking of this, the depression, unease, and fear of this period turned into laughter!

But he quickly restrained his smile. He felt that there was a traitor inside the nightclub, so he had to be low-key…

He just didn't know that the person he was talking to wasn't Lance.

The real Lance was in a room on the second floor of the motel, peering down through the gaps in the blinds.

"Several cars, at least sixty or seventy people, but they don't seem to be carrying weapons."

Ervin was standing by another window. From their vantage point, they could see the motel's restaurant. The young men were sitting scattered, eating and laughing.

"Mador, what do you think our chances of success are?"

Mador was also there, observing the situation below. He saw that several drivers hadn't gone to the restaurant to eat, but were gathered around the convoy.

"The positions those drivers are standing in, those cars, might be the vehicles they use to store important supplies."

"Weapons, or money, or other things. Let's take out those few people first, and then prevent them from getting close to the cars."

The two men's eyes looked at the few drivers. There was no obvious cover around them, only cars.

Lance didn't think this was a problem. "Hiram can take care of them in no time."

Mador continued, "Then the rest are the people in the restaurant and their leaders."

"I think their leaders might be carrying weapons, but we can't guarantee that their ordinary members aren't carrying weapons either, so we have to catch them off guard…"

Lance turned to look at him. "For example?"

…A few minutes later, Snake hung up the phone. Brinton had already told him the result. Seeing that he was about to eliminate the Lance family, he finally felt a little relaxed.

He ordered a hamburger and extra fried chicken and went back to his room.

It wasn't that he didn't like being with these gang members, but he was a little older and the leader of the gang. If he always mixed with these lower-level members, it would make people lose their respect for him!

He didn't trust the books written by those big capitalists, nor did he believe that befriending employees could increase productivity, because he was originally from the bottom rung.

He knew very well that if a factory boss befriended a worker on the assembly line, that worker would very likely ask for some excessive things.

For example, asking for a better position, more benefits, and more pay.

If the boss refused, it would only destroy the facade he had previously created of wanting to be friends with everyone, so from the beginning, Sneak would not allow this situation to occur.

Not long after he left, a car entered the parking lot.

The drivers, who were gathered together smoking and chatting, all looked towards the car.

This was a motel, so it was normal for cars to come in. Their current job was to prevent people from approaching their convoy, in case of thieves or anything.

These days, you can't judge whether someone is a thief based on whether they drive a car or not. There are still people who drive around stealing things.

The car was very close to them, and they noticed there were several people inside. One of them was like a dumb son of a farmer, constantly flipping his hair.

Just as the car approached them, it stopped.

The hands of several drivers immediately went into their pockets or behind their backs. The guy in the passenger seat, as if he didn't see that these people were not right, asked loudly, "Hey, friends, do you know this place?"

He took out a map, complaining, "I've been driving around here for a while and can't find this place. I can tell you guys are knowledgeable. Maybe you're smarter than this dumb driver and can tell me how to get there!"

Originally, the drivers didn't plan to pay attention to him, but this guy spoke nicely, which made the drivers relax their guard a little. At the same time, they all looked at the map in the passenger's hand.

It was a federal map with a circle drawn on it in red pen.

Some scientists say that when an area is artificially marked in an image, even if the people observing the image previously knew they didn't need to observe the marked area, they would subconsciously look at that part.

Just like at this moment, they were all attracted to the red circle, ignoring that the dumb son of the landlord in the car flipped his hair and raised a submachine gun from under the seat.

The sound of gunfire suddenly rang out. These drivers didn't even have a chance to hide. Although they had already made a move to escape, under the fierce fire of two submachine guns, they had no chance to leave!

The young people in the restaurant were immediately alarmed by the sudden gunfire in the parking lot. They immediately stood up, and some of them drew their pistols.

Just as their attention was focused outside, Lance and his group were quickly passing through the back kitchen!

"Gentlemen, this is not allowed…", the waiter whose nose hairs curled and stretched out from his nostrils didn't even have time to make them leave before a gun was pointed at his head.

He immediately raised his hands, showing an ugly smile. Elvin pointed to the corner, "There's going to be a firefight here soon, you better leave!"

The chef shivered. Elvin's gun muzzle shook towards the back door. He ran two steps, somewhat worried, and seeing that Alvin didn't shoot, he ran away without looking back!

Lance walked in front, pushing open the door of the restaurant, leaving them all with their backs to him!

Fortunately, he was using a submachine gun, and he wasn't Niko.

The vast majority of people in the restaurant were attracted by the gunfire in the parking lot. Before they could figure out what was happening, they were all looking in that direction.

Several young people had already gone out, trying to figure out what was going on.

Just as everyone was watching the excitement, they suddenly discovered that some of their companions cursed "Fuck" and shrank under the table.

Before they could react to what was happening, they heard the sound of bolts being pulled behind them.

More than a dozen people stood in a line, one foot forward, one foot back, their bodies prepared to resist the recoil. The next second, more than a dozen submachine guns fired at the same time!

The golden shell casings were ejected from the ejector, like a rainstorm, just like the bullets that spewed out, instantly becoming people's nightmares!

The whistling bullets instantly tore the peace within the restaurant. The Viper Gang's young people cried and wanted to escape, but even if some people had weapons in their hands, it was difficult for them to aim in the pushing and shoving of their own people.

The crowd fell as neatly as if they were cutting wheat. Even if someone tried to resist, it was difficult to escape.

Only the first few who had already gone out ran out, but what greeted them was a car that suddenly appeared beside them, and Hiram, who was sticking out of the car window, holding a submachine gun in his hand.

"Do you like this surprise?"

"Bastard?!"

Those who escaped from the restaurant twisted their bodies and quickly died on the concrete floor at the entrance of the restaurant. The car stopped, Hiram changed a magazine, walked to a guy who hadn't completely died, and pulled the trigger at him.

Holding the gun with one hand, he almost couldn't hold down the muzzle. One bullet was less than a centimeter away from his toe!

He cursed, and quickly released the finger that was tightening the trigger. Seemingly not relieved, he took out his pistol and sent a few more bullets to the unlucky guy.

A strong smell of blood permeated the entire restaurant, like the smell of a slaughterhouse!

Lance skillfully changed magazines, checked every corner, and gave those who looked like they were playing dead a shot to make sure everyone was dead.

He casually threw the submachine gun to Elvin and walked out on the blood-covered, wet ground.

Surprisingly, there was no firefight on the motel side. They had actually locked onto several of Sneak's rooms, but they were hiding in the rooms, which made them difficult to deal with.

If they were to break down the door, they would most likely be shot, so what needed to be done now was to find a way to force them out.

"We can use gasoline to make some Molotov cocktails," Lance suggested.

But soon everyone's eyes were focused on Hiram, who took two grenades out of his pocket…

Sneak, who was hiding in the room and could hear his own heartbeat, had cursed everyone. Without a doubt, these people were coming for them!

Their intelligence had been leaked, but he didn't know how it had been leaked. He knew that he had just told Brinton where they were.

Even if Brinton betrayed him, these people couldn't have come this fast.

He almost subconsciously thought of the "farewell party" last night, and the enthusiastic girls from all over the place that they talked about!

These sons of bitches must have been talking nonsense after drinking too much, and leaked the information.

He cursed a few more times, holding his gun, hiding behind the bed.

Most of the buildings in the Federation are wooden structures, including this two-story motel, which is also a wooden structure.

Those wooden walls can't stop bullets!

Just as he was about to shout and talk to the people outside, indicating that he could pay a sum of money to buy his life, suddenly something was thrown in from the outside.

He only glanced at it and almost shit himself!

"Fuck!"