Empire of Shadows

Chapter 285: Aftermath [Completed bonus chapter for 666+20 monthly tickets last month]

The mayor was in a meeting, and as his control over the city increased, the capitalists who had been driven away by local forces, as well as capitalists from the capital and other places, began to converge again.

If they could uproot the stubborn local forces, they would not only be able to obtain a portion of the income from the Golden Port Wharf, but also gain future income from the New Port Wharf.

Capital always chases profits, even if there are risks here, as long as the profits are sufficient and large enough, they are willing to take risks!

Even if there is only a one percent chance of winning!

His personal secretary interrupted his meeting and whispered in his ear, "John is dead, his partner is dead, and some others too."

The mayor was slightly lost in thought. He turned to look at his secretary, the distrust and disbelief in his eyes suggesting he thought it might be a joke.

But his reason told him that his secretary would not joke with him about such things, especially at this time!

After a few seconds of eye contact, the mayor stood up and said, "Sorry, I have an important phone call…"

The others all expressed their understanding, after all, this was the mayor!

He pursed his lips, picked up the things he needed to take with him, and turned to go to another room with his secretary.

"John was shot and killed while dining in a restaurant. Witnesses said that at least three gunmen stood outside the restaurant and strafed him with submachine guns…"

The mayor lit a cigarette. His emotional control was on the verge of collapsing. He needed to use cigarettes to cover up his inner turmoil.

"The Lance Family," he said.

The secretary did not give an opinion of agreement or disagreement, "The style is very similar, but we can't rule out that someone else did it."

"Continue."

"His partner died at the entrance of the precinct. At that time, he was planning to buy donuts by the roadside, and then a car pulled over, and two gunmen shot him. They used pistols, a total of twenty-two shots, hitting him seven times."

"When the ambulance arrived, he was already dead. Almost all the bullets hit his lungs."

"Some people related to John were also shot and killed. Rumor has it that the Five Families have taken action."

The mayor smoked, one cigarette after another. In fact, this was also what he least wanted to see. He had been using some means to continuously disintegrate the Five Families.

For example, this time, the Kodak Family's withdrawal was because he gave up some of the benefits to people in the state legislature.

The state legislature had a deeper relationship with the Kodak Family. The two sides reached some compromises. They would not take away the actual results of the Kodak Family's monopoly on the Golden Port City license—

Superficially, in order to avoid being accused of monopoly, these casino licenses were under the names of different companies, but in the end, these companies were controlled by the Kodak Family.

The Federals know how to make monopolies look reasonable and legal, and anti-monopoly is often just a joke.

He also used this method to turn the Five Families into the Three Families. Under the dual pressure of the Immigration Bureau and the law enforcement system, the Cassia Family could not withstand the pressure either.

Everything was developing in a good direction. He would first solve these three thorny families, and then solve Councilor Wade—

He had already contacted some people through the Mike Party representative, and they would nominate Councilor Wade to take over the mayoral position in another city. The mayor of that city had a small accident, and they were selecting a temporary successor.

In this way, Golden Port City would only have two gangs left who were hesitant to act, and one Councilor Williams.

With his methods, it was not difficult to solve Councilor Williams and his lackeys. After all, he was just a city councilor. Even if he had prestige locally, he could not shake the entire city and confront the mayor!

In the past, they could prevent the mayor from doing anything because these interest networks were intertwined. Dealing with any one of them was equivalent to challenging the entire city.

But with the emergence of the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau, a gap was torn open in the city's defense circle, and by taking advantage of their eagerness to silence him, Charlie was forced to resign.

He was slowly using all his power to leverage this city!

Just as the dawn of victory was already shining, suddenly… it dimmed a little.

"Do you think they killed Eric?" the mayor asked.

The secretary frowned, "I don't know. I've met Lance. I can't quite see through him. He doesn't act like a young man."

The mayor rubbed his temples, "Their actions are very decisive. Now that we've lost John, our control over the police system has been weakened to the lowest point, and what I'm even more worried about is…"

He paused, "It will be difficult for us to find people who are willing to work for us again."

The secretary shared the same view, "John is dead."

"Yes, John is dead. They will be afraid of becoming the next one!"

The mayor slammed the armrest, "They found a good breakthrough. Find a way to investigate!"

Losing John was not terrible. What was terrible was losing control of the police system.

The police can interfere with everything.

Even if you speak a little louder, others can call the police, and the police can handle it.

Not only that, it can be said that as long as someone calls the police, the police have the right to investigate, even if it's just a trivial matter.

But the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau can't do that. It's not under their jurisdiction, so when John became the last piece of the mayor's puzzle, he felt he was bound to win!

But what he didn't expect was that the local gangs were so tough and unreasonable!

He took the last puff of his cigarette and looked at the secretary, "Let them go and kill Lance. I'm fed up with him jumping around under our noses."

"I have a feeling that they killed Eric!"

"Although I don't have any evidence."

The secretary nodded, "I'll arrange it now."

The mayor suddenly stopped him, "Let Wolfe's people go too. I want to see them disappear from Golden Port City completely!"

The secretary knew that this was a manifestation of his extreme anger.

Gangs assassinating politicians, politicians assassinating gangs, or them assassinating capitalists, or capitalists assassinating them.

This kind of thing is too normal in the Federation, but politicians don't easily make such decisions, because the Federals hate "dictators" and "tyrants". Terrorist rule is a characteristic of these two types of people.

Once a politician is discovered using excessive methods, or even if they are not discovered, as long as someone guesses it, their approval rating will decline.

In this country where approval ratings are very important, physical means are always the worst option for politicians.

The mayor still hoped to be able to force them all into a desperate situation step by step through some political means.

But now it seems that he was too idealistic!

He adjusted his emotions and returned to the conference room with a calm and confident smile on his face, "Where were we just now?"

Someone took the initiative to bring up the topic they had just discussed, and the discussion in the conference room unfolded once again.

At the same time, the Professor received a call.

He felt somewhat surprised by this call, and at the same time realized that it must be related to what happened today.

"I understand… Okay, I'll do it right away… No problem!"

After hanging up the phone, the Professor came to Wolfe's office. Wolfe was reading a newspaper.

He raised the "Tide News" in his hand. This was really interesting. Why didn't Fede have this kind of newspaper?

The Professor's expression was very serious, which made him quickly sit up straight again and throw the newspaper on the table, "What's wrong?"

The Professor looked at him for a while and sighed softly, "They want us to start a war with the Lance Family."

"Now?" Wolfe's voice was much louder, "We haven't dealt with those little bastards yet, and we haven't digested the territory in our hands!"

"The remaining forces of the Red Dog Gang have not been cleaned up. If we attack the Lance Family now, we may suffer heavy losses!"

The Professor pushed his glasses, "This is decided by the higher-ups."

"Fuck!" Wolfe slapped the table. He stood up, unable to sit still, and paced back and forth, "Fuck!" he cursed again.

"Can we only do this?"

The Professor nodded, "We have no choice but to do so, but I believe that we are not the only ones being mobilized. There must be others cooperating with us."

"In addition, I'll talk to those small gangs. We must first show that we are going to start a war with the Lance Family, so that the person above can feel that we are not dragging our feet."

"When I have dealt with them, we can take action."

Wolfe could only nod after listening, "There is no other choice."

He didn't understand, "Why do we suddenly have to take action?"

The Professor took off his glasses and rubbed his stiff face, "Because John is dead!"

"The mayor is losing law enforcement power again. Once law enforcement power falls into the hands of the Five Families or the two councilors, he will become passive again."

"I don't know what role the Lance Family played in the whole thing, but it must be a very important role."

"In fact, no matter what role he played, it has nothing to do with what we have to do. We just need to find a way to kill him and his people, that's enough!"

John's death brought about far greater changes than people imagined!

John died in the morning, and Hunter returned to the office in the afternoon.

Many people looked at him with strange expressions, because everyone knew that John was dead.

In fact, not only John died, but also several police officers John had promoted.

For example, a new police officer from the criminal investigation team. It must have been one of his informants who gave him a lead, and then he followed the lead to a place that was said to have possibly held Eric.

Along with him, the four of them were shot to pieces as soon as they got out of the car.

There was also a police chief who was found drowned in a toilet.

Now that Hunter has suddenly returned, everyone seems to realize that the flames of the high-level war have finally begun to spread downwards!

Charlie has been missing everyone lately. If you have time, we can go for a visit. He has some things he wants to discuss with you all!