Empire of Shadows

Betrayal, treachery—how should one describe it?

It's like a membrane.

Before piercing this membrane, much mental preparation is needed, along with some opportune circumstances, such as encountering irresistible forces that ultimately compel one to choose this path.

Then comes the gradual slide into the abyss, but even at the final moment, they will try to hold onto that bottom line, until it is truly breached.

Once it's pierced, some things become inconsequential; previous persistence and adherence turn into a joke, and one's mindset undergoes a rapid transformation.

It's even possible that because this membrane is pierced, one gains access to resources and benefits previously unattainable, thus viewing betrayal as a normal tactic.

People often say that once values are established, they never change. In fact, this view is wrong; they don't change because the force of change is too weak.

When the force of change is strong enough, even one's worldview will change.

Panda heaved a heavy sigh after hearing Lance's words.

"Don't bother Lisa, or my family."

Lance agreed with a smile.

Panda still didn't have a very good impression of him. "If there's nothing else, I should get back to work."

He didn't want to say another word to Lance. That membrane of his, the bottom line in his heart, had just been pierced, and he needed to recover.

But Lance clearly intended to say a bit more to him.

"If you were to report a major clue and crack a case involving hundreds of thousands worth of liquor, wouldn't that help your promotion?"

Panda, who had been planning to ignore whatever Lance said and hang up, suddenly felt his heart beat faster.

He even swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "You said… hundreds of thousands?"

"Yes, hundreds of thousands worth of liquor. I believe Congress and the Hazardous Materials Administration need to establish a new benchmark, a flag bearer."

"If you were to obtain this clue, wouldn't you be highly valued?"

Panda fell into thought. Undoubtedly, he would be valued by Chief Dale, even if only temporarily.

Everyone could now feel the pressure on Chief Dale. As a vertically managed law enforcement department, the chief represents the highest level of management.

Using the term 'ruler' isn't quite right, but they do exercise some of the powers that rulers have.

He thought of many things, a battle of ideologies. He knew this was Lance's 'bait,' and once he bit it, he would slide deeper and deeper.

At this moment, he suddenly understood something!

When he was little, he thought the fish were very stupid. His father and grandfather liked to fish, and he asked them, 'Can't those fish see the hook next to the bait?'

His father and grandfather didn't answer. At the time, he thought the fish were stupid.

Clearly, they could see the hook at a glance, so why did they still swallow it?

But at this moment, he suddenly understood the fish's feelings, because he himself was like a fish.

He knew there was a hook hidden in this bait, but he couldn't help but want to swallow it.

Maintaining his composure, he asked, "What do I need to give in return?"

The devil's voice came from the receiver, "We are friends. Friends should help each other."

Before Panda could react further, Lance ended the conversation. "I'll call you soon and tell you the specific location directly. I have something to do right now."

The busy signal quickly came from the receiver. Panda looked at the receiver in his hand and suddenly felt a little lost.

He returned to his office. His colleagues joked and asked, "Did you have a good talk with your girlfriend?"

Panda scratched his head a little embarrassedly. "No problem."

As his colleagues teased him about when they could attend their wedding, he returned to his seat, but now he couldn't focus on those leads anymore. His mind was filled with what Lance had told him.

Hundreds of thousands worth of smuggled liquor!

With this achievement, he might even become a senior agent!

More income, a better future—only in this way could he build a safe, reliable, and warm home for the battered Lisa!

Mazz felt a kind of inexplicable relaxation these past two days, as if… suddenly there wasn't much pressure.

Before, he felt a lot of pressure, as if someone was always watching him, but he never discovered who was watching him.

In the end, he could only assume it was a deep-cover syndrome. The contact person who trained him had talked about this, saying that he would initially have a very nervous sense of unease.

Once he gradually adapted to his current life, he would soon no longer have that feeling.

He spent each day in an indescribable working atmosphere, getting up around nine in the morning, then eating something and starting work.

He initially thought that gangs didn't need to work, but unexpectedly, gangs also needed to work, moving things or doing other things. After lunch, the afternoon was free time, with at least four or five hours.

He just needed to get to the bar before 5:30.

His identity was that of a dreamer from out of town who ended up penniless due to exploitation by capitalists. Ultimately, with the help of the Empire Immigration status, he joined the Lance family.

So he had no friends or family here.

The contact person would contact him once a week. He needed to record what he had written down on a piece of paper, then roll it up and stuff it into a cigarette.

When the time came, the contact person would appear around him, and he would ask the contact person for a light, handing over the intelligence disguised as a cigarette in the process.

A perfect plan. He and the contact person had rehearsed it several times and were already able to do it very naturally.

Today was their agreed-upon time. After lunch, he returned to his room.

After repeatedly confirming the marked cigarette, he tidied himself up and prepared to go out.

"Mazz, going out?"

Before he left, Allen, who was playing darts with someone else, asked.

Mazz smiled and nodded. "Going out for a walk, feeling a bit stuffy."

Allen, while holding a cue, changed positions. "You should go find a girl to relax. They'll give you a good discount!"

Mazz's face turned a little red. He had been in love before, but had never had a relationship that went beyond friendship. This topic made him feel a little embarrassed.

Unwilling to continue the entanglement, he walked out of the company. After he left, the few people who were playing darts all stopped…

After leaving the company, Mazz walked eastward along the sidewalk. His eyes searched the sidewalk, and sometimes he would suddenly look back to see if anyone was following him.

What he didn't know was that two cars were alternating in following him.

Coming out of Wanli事务所 and heading east, there was an intersection. On the side of the road at this intersection was a small garden that wasn't very big.

Previously, many homeless people gathered here, but since the Lance family came here, the homeless people had disappeared.

No one knew where they had gone. Some said they had gone to work, and some said they had been driven away. Who knows?

Now this place had become a place that nearby residents liked to come to. They would sit here, chat, and so on.

Some old people had also set up a few tables in the small garden, chatting or playing cards around the tables.

Mazz saw his contact person here, sitting on a roadside bench, reading an 《International News》.

A look of surprise appeared on his face, to the point that he ignored a car stopping by the side of the road.

He had wanted to walk straight over, but thinking of the handover process, he began to perform.

He put a cigarette in his mouth, then felt around in his pockets, even people who didn't smoke knew that he might be looking for a lighter or matches.

But it seemed like he had forgotten to bring them. So young and his memory was already so bad, what would he do when he got old?

He glanced at the contact person who was reading the newspaper on the bench, his heart began to beat faster, and the beating was also very strong, thumping.

He took out the cigarette containing the information, handed it over, "Sir, do you have a light?"

The man glanced at him, inspecting him for a few seconds as if he didn't know him, then hesitated for a moment, took his cigarette, and took out a lighter.

He used the newspaper to cover the movements in his hand, put the cigarette into his pocket and exchanged it for another cigarette, then lit his own first.

Even if someone was observing, they wouldn't think there was anything wrong with this.

After a brief exchange of glances, Mazz lit the cigarette, said thank you, then returned the matches to the other party and left.

The whole process lasted less than two minutes, very smoothly, and almost no major flaws could be seen, except that Mazz's expression was slightly exaggerated.

Mazz returned to the company without encountering any obstacles along the way, and greeted the others very warmly.

He received his first sum of money after joining the Lance family.

As a latecomer, he was not eligible to receive dividends from the family's profits, but Lance was not too bad to them. Although he had only just joined, he received the federal standard wage.

If he had done anything else, such as resolving disputes, there would be other subsidies.

He bought some food and distributed it to everyone, and everyone thanked him very warmly, but what he didn't notice was that almost all of those foods were eventually thrown into the trash can.

Ethan stood in Lance's office and looked at Mazz. "Why not just kill him now?"

Lance was looking at the recent income situation. The price of liquor was still continuing to rise. He raised his head and glanced at Mazz, who was running around outside the blinds. "Killing them is easy, just a bullet will do."

"But soon they will send a second batch of undercover agents in, and then a third, it will never end."

"Now, let's use him to pass some false information, make the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau realize that sending undercover agents is meaningless, and then deal with him."

He paused, "Has the bar been moved?"

Derry, who was next to him, nodded, "It has been moved."

At Lance's request, the current bar has become "lightweight". To put it simply, the bar's decoration is simpler, no longer pursuing complete decoration.

A bar counter for the bartender to pour drinks, even sofas and chairs are unnecessary, everyone stands and drinks.

For the drunks, they don't care whether they are standing or lying down to drink, as long as there is wine.

Wooden wine glasses are worthless, and the entire bar, besides the wine, has nothing of value.

In addition, the wine is supplied per serving, so even if the bar is caught, the loss is only a batch of a few hundred or a thousand dollars worth of wine.

This method turns the bar into a "disposable" one. As long as there are enough venues, you can change the location every day.

The bars where Maz and other undercover agents have worked will all be moved tonight. The old drunks know how to find these bars, as for those newly joined drunks?

If they are really drunks and really residents of the Imperial District, they also have their own ways of knowing where these bars are and how to get in.

Maz's contact quickly returned to the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau after receiving the clue. He excitedly opened the cigarette and took out a piece of paper rolled into the same thickness and size as a cigarette.

Carefully unfolding it, it recorded the location of the bar, the business hours, and some keywords he had heard.

Such as "warehouse", "dock", "smuggling ship"...

This information was very important, and the contact immediately went to find Director Dale. Director Dale was very satisfied after seeing it and gave instructions, "I won't ask you who he is, bring him back together tonight to reduce the possibility of him being exposed."

"As for the others, we'll talk about it after you come back, go and gather the manpower!"

The contact was very excited and began to apply for manpower and supporting resources. They were looking forward to the arrival of night.

In the evening, at eight o'clock, the agents who had just finished dinner and rested for a while were notified and began to move.

This time they dispatched more than thirty people, an armored vehicle, and everyone was armed and went to the Imperial District.

In the eyes of many people, the Imperial District has now become synonymous with "danger". The Lance family's constant launching of bloody incidents has made people feel the taste of the bloody storms of more than ten years ago.

Including these law enforcement officers, they would feel insecure if they didn't carry a large number of weapons.

Along the way, they didn't sound the sirens, and they tried to take僻静 roads as much as possible. When they were only one intersection away from the intended location, they suddenly accelerated and sounded the sirens to rush over!

In the process of searching the bar in the past period of time, they found that giving the people in the bar some time to react would only make them more chaotic!

Those drinkers would rush out, and the bar could not stop the chaos from within at all.

But when they rushed into the alley, it was quiet to the point of being unbelievable!

Some reporters who had received information also rushed over from the surrounding area at this time. In the end, all that was left for them was an abandoned bar.

The contact bent down with an ugly face and picked up a wooden wine glass from the ground. The wall of the wine glass was still very moist and exuded a strong smell of alcohol.

This shows that it had been used by someone not long ago.

But now, everything is over.

This also made him confused. Was the news leaked, or was Maz lying?

The reporters didn't care about this and frantically pressed the shutter. The flash illuminated the basement like daylight!

At the same time, Maz walked into the new bar with a slightly pale and ugly face. From the doorman to the bartender to the manager, they were all the same group as before, but the place was not the same as before!

His first feeling was that he had been discovered, but soon he got information from other people—

"It will be changed every week. The Hazardous Materials Management Bureau's greyhounds have too sensitive noses and are chasing too closely. This is Lance's decision."

The Hazardous Materials Management Bureau's uniforms are a grayish-white color, which was a very fashionable color at this time. Now some people call them "greyhounds", which is a derogatory term for them.

This news made Maz feel a headache, because he only transmits news once a week. In this way, every time he transmits news, it will be outdated news. He has to find a way to contact the contact.

The bar's business is still as good as before, even a little better!

Because Nick's wine has begun to be mass-produced. These wines have a higher alcohol content than beer, but the price is not high.

Many beer drinkers have begun to drink this homemade wine. Higher alcohol can give them a more satisfying drunken experience.

The whole room is filled with a strong smell of wine.

At the same time, on the dock, several blue-collar workers came to a warehouse.

After they confirmed that there was no one in the warehouse, a guy quickly opened the warehouse door with his own tools.

They left one person on guard, and the others entered the warehouse.

In the warehouse, they looked through a large number of goods, but did not find what they wanted, then closed the warehouse door and walked to the next one.

Melo found some reliable people who were closer to Lance and the Lance family to help them find which warehouse had wine.

In addition to giving them a reward, they will also become peripheral members of the Lance family and receive an extra sum of money from the company every month.

Although not much, who wouldn't want this kind of benefit for nothing?

Moreover, joining the Lance family means that they will no longer be bullied.

Whether they are bullied by outsiders or by their own people.

Recently, some individual phenomena have appeared among the blue-collar workers. After losing the external pressure to survive, some internal problems have begun to be exposed.

For example, there are "work bullies" who don't work themselves, but ask others to complete their work in exchange for not being bullied by them.

Perhaps this is the inferiority of human nature, which will always exist in any world, any era, and any cultural environment.

Melo is not very clear about this matter. In addition to being busy with the affairs of the office during this period, he is also reviewing his lessons and preparing to go to college to study law.

There is a slight omission in the management work, and those who have been bullied are actually not very willing to cause trouble.

Because they can't tell whether the person who bullied them is just an illegal immigrant like them, or a peripheral member of the Lance family.

After turning around more than a dozen warehouses, the few people finally found a warehouse.

As soon as the guy who opened the lock went in, a smile appeared on his face, because there was a faint smell of wine in the air!

They turned on the lights and looked at the mountains of wine, and their faces showed ecstasy!