Empire of Shadows

"Why isn't Dover here today?"

Kales Gregg was a little surprised. He knew the guy with the middle-parted hair, who often appeared beside Paul. Dover said he was one of his many uncles.

However, there was a lack of respect in his tone.

If you expect a young man to have reverence for an old man, then the old man must be able to determine some of the young man's fate in some way.

For example, if the old man possesses wealth and power and can influence the young man, only then will the young man have reverence for the old man.

It's like half-grown children; they revere their parents not only because they are afraid of being beaten but, more importantly, because they need to rely on their parents to survive.

The middle-parted head didn't seem to wield as much power as Paul. Although he also had a high position in the family, Dover didn't think he could control him.

Consequently, this also made Kales feel that the middle-parted head might just be a butler-like figure.

And he was Dover's friend.

Of course, Kales would still respect this middle-parted head, after all, he was Dover's uncle and Paul's brother.

The middle-parted head smiled, showing no sign of anger. He crossed his legs, placed his hands on his knees, and said, "Dover has no idea where he's run off to play."

"I have to say, Kales, you guys did something not very smart."

Sitting behind the table, Kales asked somewhat cautiously, "What do you mean by 'something not very smart'?"

"Attacking Lance's convoy."

Hearing this, Kales wasn't so nervous. He even showed some smiles on his face, "Sir, you may not know, we were only a little bit away at the time, just a little bit away from killing him."

"If we do it again, I guarantee he will never leave that street alive!"

"They are shameless and modified their vehicles, but this also gives us an idea."

He talked about some of the lessons learned after this attack on Lance, including the modification of vehicles, which was a very important modification.

Not only him, but now probably many people are starting to modify their vehicles to make their cars more solid and less likely to be riddled with holes.

He witnessed the fierce resistance of the Lance family, but also thought of ways to deal with it, "Next time I will bring explosives, I guarantee, this time I will send them all to heaven!"

He thought the middle-parted head came to question him for not succeeding, and he had to make up for it.

The middle-parted head shook his head, "But they left alive this time."

For the middle-parted head, it wasn't about next time or not next time. Lance was still alive, which meant it was the biggest failure.

He didn't know Lance, he had only heard of him. He had no friendship with Lance and wasn't interested in him.

However, he knew one thing, if Lance had died at that time, then there wouldn't be so many things happening now.

But Lance didn't die, so…

"Mr. Paul has some friendship with Lance, which will make it difficult for Mr. Paul. He doesn't want others to know that Dover and you did this. Do you understand what I mean?"

"So if you have told anyone else, you'd better recall that person's name, then find him, send him away, and let him hide in another place."

"After things are over, let him come back."

"Think carefully, is there anyone else who knows that this was your and Dover's decision?"

Listening to the middle-parted head's words, Kales fell into more detailed memories. He recalled everything that happened that day, and finally shook his head, "Only I know about this."

"What I told them was that we wanted to invade the Imperial District, so we had this action."

The underground war in the city center is now very fierce. The Bear Gang is taking over the core position in the city center and is at war with the Keane family, one of the five major families.

No matter who wins or loses, the city center will definitely not be a good territory in the future. It was reasonable for Kales to want to leave, and this statement was justifiable, and it was also his true thought.

If Lance had really died, he should have taken people to attack the Lance family's territory in the Imperial District now, but unfortunately, Lance didn't die, it's such a pity!

He felt a little emotional, but what he didn't know was that the middle-parted head breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Since no one else knew about this, then the matter that Paul entrusted to him was basically half completed.

The middle-parted head recalled the information about Kales he had obtained from the family, "I heard that you and Dover cooperated to get some drugs to sell overseas?"

Kales didn't know why the middle-parted head would ask this question, but he still nodded, "Yes, Federal special medicines are popular all over the world, no matter what, they can sell for a very good price."

"Especially in Sarianna, their prices are several times or even dozens of times the weight of gold!"

Sarianna is another continent. Science and technology on this land are relatively backward, but the rulers are very wealthy.

They fear death and yearn to have healthier and longer lives.

Medicines from the Federation are very popular there. Some powerful kings and emperors would sit on high thrones and have merchants with special medicines put their medicines on a scale.

Then they would discuss the price, adjust the ratio, and then put large chunks of gold on the other scale until they balanced!

Kales wanted to make this business bigger. If this business could be done well, it would be more profitable than selling alcohol!

His purpose in saying this was also to hope to get more special medicines from the Pasreto family through the middle-parted head.

Dover could only give him a small amount of medicine each time, two or three boxes, seven or eight boxes, ten or so boxes, that was the limit.

But even with so little, it still made him a lot of money.

At this time, his breathing became rapid. If he could get more special medicines, he could completely obtain a huge amount of wealth in a very short period of time, as well as friendship from the rulers of those backward areas!

People who have never been to those backward countries will never know what privilege means in those countries!

Helping the rulers maintain healthy friendships is enough to make him a small group second only to the ruling group!

The smile on the middle-parted head's face became more obvious. He took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and motioned for him to come over, "See which of these you can use."

Kales was overjoyed when he heard this. He quickly went around the table, walked over, bent over slightly, and reached out to take the directory from the middle-parted head's hand, "Let me take a good look."

The directory listed many special medicines and prices.

Seeing those low purchase prices, compared to the prices of dozens of times the weight of gold in those remote areas in his mind, or even more, Kales's Adam's apple slid up and down several times.

Just when he was concentrating on thinking about which goods to take, he almost subconsciously looked up at the middle-parted head, but he was immediately stunned.

Because the smile on the middle-parted head's face was gone, only a cold expression, and he was looking at her with a colder look!

Just when he didn't understand why the middle-parted head would have such an expression, suddenly he felt something sway in front of him, as if sinking from his face, and then he suddenly grabbed his neck with both hands.

It's a noose!

The huge force seemed to want to strangle the slender rope into his neck, and his whole face turned red in an instant!

The person behind him grabbed the rope tightly, turned around, and carried Kales up like a sack!

He struggled in the air, kicking his legs hard, trying to elbow the person behind him with his elbows on both sides, but although he could hit, it wasn't the elbow, but the upper arm, which couldn't bring any substantial damage to the person behind him!

The tightening noose had deeply embedded into his flesh, and he gave up attacking the person behind him, but tried to tear a gap in the noose to let himself breathe a breath of air!

The middle-parted head watched him quietly with a cup of coffee, his face calm and unsettling.

The more you struggle, the faster you die. His face had already started to turn purple, which indicated that the Grim Reaper's tolling of his death knell had entered the countdown.

After struggling violently a few times without success, his hands naturally drooped down, his whole face was purplish blue, and his eyeballs were about to pop out!

After another ten seconds, he was put down, the noose had already eaten into the flesh, and at the moment the noose was taken off, a circle of flesh on his neck had cracked.

The man helped him back to his chair and helped him to pose. The middle-parted head drank the little coffee left in the cup, then got up and walked to the door.

He picked up the soft-brimmed hat, brushed off some of the cigarette ash that might have been on his body with the brim of the hat, and then pressed it on his head.

Finally, he glanced at Kales, and he left the club with his men.

In fact, he knew that if Lance really wanted to find out the truth, killing only one Kales would not stop Lance.

The best way was actually to hand Dover over, but he didn't think it was possible.

Because of Paul's gratitude to Dover's father, he couldn't hand Dover over.

Dover's father died for him, and if he did this, he would make many people feel disappointed, although everyone didn't like his arrangement for Dover.

The two of them passed through the club and came outside the building. The night wind also carried the restlessness of summer, and it was no longer so cool.

Standing on the steps and looking at the bustling city center, the middle-parted head's heart seemed to be shrouded in a haze.

As they were going down the steps, they saw a dozen cars suddenly stop at the bottom of the steps. The people behind the middle-parted head directly blocked him in front of him, and they looked at these people vigilantly.

When the middle-parted man's gaze landed on Lance's face, he pushed aside the people in front of him, softly saying "It's nothing," and continued walking down.

At this time, some Segan people who were maintaining order outside the club had already noticed something was wrong. They ran back into the club. Amidst the screams of some passersby, Lance and his group chased after them with weapons.

During this process, he caught sight of the man with the middle-parted hair already standing on the edge of the steps. The man stood there, grabbed his hat, and nodded and smiled at him as a greeting.

Lance gave Maurice a signal, and both of their gazes lingered on the middle-parted man. Then, Maurice shook his head.

This person is not Kales.

Lance nodded slightly in acknowledgment, then rejoined the crowd and rushed forward.

The middle-parted man was not as calm as he appeared. He had just breathed a heavy sigh of relief. If they had come any later...

The consequences were unimaginable!

Fortunately, they arrived faster and more timely. Hopefully, the already-dead Kales can give Lance a surprise!

He descended the steps, got into the car, and patted the driver's seat. The car quickly disappeared into the night.

The moment his car disappeared into the night, the sound of gunfire erupted!

More than ten minutes later, Lance kicked open the door to the manager's office on the third floor of the club, and saw Kales, who had been dead for a while, leaning back in his chair.

Everyone was stunned for a moment. Lance wiped the blood off his face, walked to the desk, and felt Kales's neck. It was completely cold.

Erwin was also somewhat incredulous. Before they could even make a move, Kales was already dead.

"Go grab someone," Lance said.

Soon, a Segan man was dragged in by his hair. Lance had him stand in front of Kales, pointed at Kales, and asked, "Who is this?"

The man looked dejected and incredulous. His eyes were fixed on Kales's purplish-blue face, and he said in disbelief, "You killed Kales..."

Lance raised his hand and fired a shot. The bullet blew off the back of his skull and embedded itself in the floor. He retained the look of shock on his face until his death.

Hiram walked to Kales's body and examined his wounds. "He was strangled to death."

This sentence made some people laugh, and someone joked, "If you hadn't said that, I really wouldn't have noticed!"

"He was silenced," Lance said, putting away his weapon. "Let's go, the police are coming."

The group quickly left the club. In terms of their objective, they had completed half of it. Kales was dead.

But no one felt happy, because Kales was not killed by them, and his death meant that someone wanted him to keep a secret, not to vent Lance's anger!

Police cars quickly surrounded the club, but other than a floor full of bullet casings and fallen corpses, there was nothing else of value.

The newly appointed chief of the city center branch strode into the manager's office and immediately saw the corpse slumped backward on the ground, with a hole in its head.

And Kales, sitting in his chair, tilting his head, "looking" at him.

He had actually been here several times. Everything here was very familiar to him. He came to Kales's side and examined him with a grim expression, confirming that Kales was also dead.

The officers seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. This was probably the best outcome.

Scum fought with scum, and then a bunch of scum died.

This is also one of the reasons why the police were very slow to respond to alarms during this period. On the one hand, they needed to mobilize police forces to deal with firefights.

On the other hand, they also hoped that the two sides in the firefight would die a little more, preferably until only the last person was left, and then they would come out to clean up the mess.

In fact, it may not be that all the police officers know who did this case, but those above the middle level are very clear.

They had just attacked Lance's convoy and were immediately retaliated against. No one could believe that this matter had nothing to do with Lance!

On the way back, the more Lance thought about it, the more he felt that the person who greeted him on the steps was not quite right.

But it was too dark at the time, and he didn't get a complete look at the person's face, just a vague impression.

Relying on a vague impression to find someone in Goldport City would probably be too difficult!

Clearly Kales was dead, but Lance couldn't be happy at all.

What made him even more unhappy was what happened the next morning. The entire Goldport City was spreading the news that Lance had killed Kales again.

They even gave Lance a nickname—"Boss Killer"—to mock the fact that three gang leaders had already fallen into his hands.

Alberto also called early in the morning to inquire about what happened last night.

"When I entered the office, Kales had been dead for a while. Obviously, someone killed him to silence him. Do you understand what I mean?"

Originally, Alberto's purpose in making this call was to probe Lance's tone, to see if he had obtained any information from Kales.

But he didn't expect that Lance didn't seem to have obtained anything, but he also got what he wanted.

When he began to suspect that someone in the Pasreto family had betrayed his information, he wasn't so sure.

Kales being silenced meant that his guess was confirmed.

This also made Alberto feel a little tricky. He opened his mouth several times to say something, but he didn't know where to start.

Remaining silent all the time was not a good idea. He suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of something, "Didn't you ask me last time when Luigi was going to deliver goods?"

"Recently, the Bear Gang ordered a large batch of wine from them, at least two transport ships' worth, which should arrive around the eighth or ninth."

Alberto avoided the previous question and context, which actually made Lance breathe a sigh of relief.

Alberto had helped him a lot. If this matter led to a falling out, it was not what he wanted to see.

But he believed that, whether it was Alberto or himself, they would eventually not be able to avoid this matter, they had to face it.

At this time, Lance hadn't figured out what to do yet. He first thanked Alberto, and then, after a period of thought, he said softly, "I want to meet Paul. Can you arrange it for me?"

Alberto thought for a long time before answering him with an "Okay." "I'll let you know if I hear anything."

"Okay... Thank you for the information."

After saying that, they each hung up the phone. Alberto hesitated for a long time, but still picked up the phone and dialed Paul's number.

Today, Paul's mood seemed to be a little better than the previous two days. At least he didn't impatiently hang up the phone.

"Lance said he wants to meet with you. He probably knows that our people did it. Last night, he found Kales, but he was silenced one step ahead. He has increased his suspicion of the family, Paul."

Paul also had a headache. After thinking for a while, he told Alberto, "At your bar..."