Empire of Shadows

Chapter 343: Wrath ++

The convoy entered the dock area and went straight to Warehouse 74. Lucar suppressed the excitement in his heart, biting his teeth tightly.

He now desperately wanted to see Lance in pain, annoyed, regretful, and displaying all sorts of other negative expressions.

He didn't like Lance, never had. He felt that Lance had played him.

A criminal had tricked a law enforcement officer. Although others weren't aware of this, it made him feel ashamed and annoyed when facing Lance!

He felt that he was being looked down upon and made a fool of by the other party, yet he couldn't do anything about it.

He couldn't get over this hurdle!

If he couldn't give Lance a harsh blow, he would feel like a clown in front of Lance forever!

He wanted to prove that he wasn't a clown, he was a law enforcement officer, a law enforcement officer that Lance feared!

Now, he was about to take revenge!

The convoy quickly surrounded Warehouse 74 at the dock. They used professional tools to open the lock. When the lights inside the warehouse were turned on, everyone smiled.

Piles of boxes like mountains!

Lucar strode to one of the boxes and opened it with a box opener—

During this period, wooden boxes were used to hold wine. At the same time, the glass manufacturing process at this time had some minor issues. The glass was more brittle and easier to break upon impact.

Therefore, there would be a simple wooden base inside the box, a grid made of wooden strips similar to a "#" shape.

Some straw was added between the wine bottles to prevent them from directly colliding with each other.

Finally, they would nail a wooden lid onto the wooden box to prevent anyone from stealing the wine along the way. If a box was opened, it meant that someone had opened the box halfway.

The moment the box was pried open, six neatly arranged bottles of wine were hidden in the straw.

Lucar laughed twice. He picked up one of the bottles, beautifully packaged, with sealing wax on the bottle mouth.

There was a raised structure on the bottle neck, with a gold-stamped lion's head on it.

"Golden Lion Brand!" He turned around and showed the wine in his hand to his colleagues, "A brand that has recently appeared, rumored to be from a local winery."

He put the wine back.

Napo Winery was looking for the producers of these wines. They believed that Golden Lion Wine had stolen their trademark. Although Golden Lion and Golden Standard had nothing similar, anyone who saw them would find them very similar, even mistaking these wines as coming from the same producer.

Seeing others earning the money they should have earned, the shareholders of Napo Whiskey were already green with envy!

On the one hand, they were collecting information to sue the wine merchant, hoping to pocket the money earned by the other party through legal proceedings.

On the other hand, it was said that they were also actively looking for a safe place to produce wine. They also planned to secretly produce illegal alcoholic beverages.

With such a huge profit at stake, the capitalists couldn't sit still!

Lucar threw the wine back into the box, "Count them."

He stood in the warehouse with his hands on his hips, looking at the mountain of boxes, not knowing what he was thinking beneath the calm surface.

What else could he be thinking?

He was thinking about how to reveal this news to Lance. He couldn't wait!

At this moment, many workers walked towards this side. They had come to the dock in the middle of the night to seal up the warehouse, and they seemed to be from the Hazardous Materials Administration. They were more or less curious.

In addition, many of these workers had been drinking, and under the influence of alcohol, their control was inevitably a little unbalanced.

"Hey, leave here, no onlookers allowed!"

When some workers intended to approach here, an agent from the Hazardous Materials Administration reminded them, "Law enforcement in progress!"

The few people in the front raised their hands, "Relax, we're just here to see what happened. Are you from the Hazardous Materials Administration?"

The agent saw that the other party didn't take any further action, so he relaxed a little, "Someone reported that a large amount of smuggled wine is stored here. If you don't want to cause trouble, you'd better not come over."

The words he said quickly spread among the onlookers. Everyone knew that they had found a wine warehouse here.

Some people cursed that they were lucky dogs. No one had thought that there would be a wine warehouse here. If they had known, they might have gone in and taken a few bottles.

As dock workers, occasionally stealing something at the dock was as normal as taking a dump every morning and afternoon when going to work at the company. This could also be considered a kind of implicit benefit.

Unless the goods were guarded by someone specifically, like some warehouses that didn't use dock workers and security guards, but hired their own employees to be responsible for guarding the warehouse, just to avoid anyone curious running in and then taking something away.

However, most warehouses wouldn't hire workers separately. Capitalists weren't fools. As long as the value of the things they lost was cheaper than the cost of hiring two workers, they would accept this unspoken rule.

But if the value of their lost property, or the value of their goods, was higher, they would hire employees to guard them, instead of betting that the dock workers wouldn't enter their warehouse.

The workers didn't react much at first, just watching the excitement, but soon someone started saying that this warehouse was actually the club's warehouse, and the stocks piled inside were all wine for the workers to drink, some people couldn't help it.

The crowd, which had been quietly watching the excitement, also became a little noisy.

Regardless of whether Lance could earn money elsewhere, at least the dock workers' club wasn't making money!

They couldn't help Lance stop these people from sealing up the warehouse, but they could try to deter these people in terms of momentum.

The onlookers suddenly became more numerous, and some people who were still drinking in the club also ran out. A lot of people gathered outside the warehouse.

Lucar, who was inside staring at the clearing numbers, suddenly frowned. The noise outside was getting louder and louder. Just as he was about to ask what had happened, an agent ran in.

"Supervisor, a lot of workers have come, I'm worried the scene will get out of control."

Lucar frowned and walked out. He had heard that dock workers often secretly drank alcohol, but he had never really cared about it.

When he walked out, looking at the countless heads under the lights, he couldn't help but frown.

"I'm the person in charge here. If you have any questions, send a representative!"

"You can't solve the problem like this!"

Three representatives who looked very prestigious were elected, including Johnny.

Johnny did a very good job today. These people's love for him soared to the sky!

As long as Johnny didn't become their stepfather, no matter what he did, everyone would most likely accept it.

This was Johnny's highlight moment. Although he knew that all of this was a script, when people pushed him to the front and were willing to let him represent everyone, he suddenly developed a thought that he had never had before!

This is actually pretty good!

He stood in the front, with Big Beard and a somewhat thin middle-aged man beside him.

The middle-aged man used to be a school teacher, but he was expelled from the school because he fought with a student's parents, so he had to come to the dock to work.

Although he wasn't the most outstanding in terms of work ability, everyone still respected him because he was educated and could be consulted when encountering problems.

The three represented these people, but as soon as they walked up to Lucar, Lucar smelled the smell of alcohol on them.

He didn't speak immediately, which might make these people become defensive. He first asked the others, "Why are you blocking here?"

The teacher answered this question first, "Do you have a search warrant?"

Lucar's gaze stayed on the thin teacher for a moment, then he turned back and asked his assistant to bring the legal documents from the car.

Not everyone knows that the Hazardous Materials Administration has its own judicial office. Many people think that they still need to apply for judicial support like the police before they can enforce the law.

But that's not the case. They only need to go to the judicial office and say the situation, and then the person sitting behind the desk picks up the document, signs it, and stamps it, and the judicial document is considered issued.

The purpose of simplification is to allow the Hazardous Materials Administration to serve the Prohibition Law more efficiently. The members of Congress are not all fools. They know very well that local forces will unite to resist the orders of Congress, especially such unreasonable orders.

So they directly equipped the Hazardous Materials Administration with a judicial office that they shouldn't have had in one step.

Not to mention search warrants, they can even get arrest warrants!

But if you really want to sentence someone, you still have to go through the local judicial system, but even that is outrageous enough.

This is simply a direct violation of the judicial process, destroying judicial justice completely, but what can be done if the congressmen like it?

Soon the search warrant was brought over. The professor read it carefully, and handed it back to Lucar with a somewhat ugly expression.

Lucar put it away, then looked at the few people with his hands on his hips, "So what's the problem now?"

The teacher reacted quickly, "This is the property of the dock. You have invaded here. Although you have legal documents, did you notify its owner?" Lucar smiled a little on his face, "Do you want to listen carefully to what you just said?"

"If you can help me contact the owner of these wines, you can contact me now. If he can come over, I can make the decision and give you a few boxes!"

The bearded man stepped forward, "No matter what, you won't be taking these things away tonight."

He tried his best to maintain his ability to think, "We've never seen a real search warrant, how do we know it's real?"

"Whatever you want to do, wait until dawn!"

The surrounding workers were also gathering towards this side, but Lucal's gaze remained firm.

He didn't really like going head-to-head with these workers, because the end result would definitely not be to his advantage.

But now he had to maintain his position, he quickly glanced at the three people, confirmed that they had all been drinking, and that the dumbest-looking guy in the middle should have drunk the most, so he casually asked, "How much have you all had to drink?"

"Send a few sober people over here to talk to me!"

The teacher's face was very red, whether from drinking or something else, he seemed to be thinking about something and didn't react.

Johnny's reaction was very quick at this time, and he couldn't help but retort, "Not many drinks, it doesn't prevent us from talking about things."

Lucal's reaction was obviously much faster than these drunk people, "How many is not many, two drinks?"

Johnny blurted out almost immediately, "Five drinks, goddamn it!"

A hint of a smile had already appeared on Lucal's face, "Where did you drink them?"

The teacher's mind was still on other things, and when he heard this sentence, he was stunned, and just as he turned to look at Johnny to signal him not to speak, Johnny had already said it, "The club!"

Lucal took two steps back, he looked at Johnny and pointed at him, "I'll have the mayor give you a 'Good Citizen Award'!"

He turned to look at the others, "Request backup, and then take people to check out the club."

The teacher was a little annoyed, "He's joking, sir!"

Lucal looked at him and asked rhetorically, "Do you think I'm as stupid as him?"

In fact, they all knew that there was a large bar near the port area and the pier, and the information the Wolf Gang had reported was that very few people bought alcohol on the pier.

Pier workers have always been heavy consumers of alcohol, and it is obviously unlikely that they will now voluntarily abide by the prohibition order.

Previously, they suspected that there should be a large bar near the pier, but before they had time to investigate this matter, Dale asked them to aim their sights at the bars in the Starlight District and the Bay Area.

Shutting down a bar mainly frequented by workers would not cause a great social impact, but would instead make people feel that they were a bit inhumane.

But shutting down a bar where a group of wealthy people were having fun would not only seize a large amount of alcohol, but also deter those wealthy people in the Bay Area.

Let them know that they may not be able to cover the sky with one hand in this city!

It's just that now it's being delivered to their door, and it's also related to Lance, Lucal feels that he can give it a try.

Soon, a large number of reinforcements arrived at the scene, and a large number of workers were asked to leave the bar, and bartenders and others were handcuffed.

In fact, at this time, although there were contradictions, the contradictions had not yet escalated into conflict.

The people on the pier are very grateful to Lance, and they are willing to do what they can for Lance, but that does not include directly confronting law enforcement agencies!

It's like having an older brother who is very good to you, and he will treat you to consumption in his shop at cost price.

But now this older brother has broken the law, you won't stand up for the older brother just because you usually take advantage of him a little!

What you are more likely to do is say a few good words for him, nothing more.

Due to the needs of the script, Johnny suddenly pushed an agent, "You can't take them away!"

The agent immediately began to warn him, but obviously Johnny wouldn't listen, this was his performance, he had to finish his role!

Some actors standing in the crowd began to cooperate with him, Johnny pushed these agents trying to rescue the arrested club staff, but the result was that he was also pressed to the ground.

His face was pressed tightly against the ground, he gasped for breath, roaring angrily, like an injured beast!

As today's hero, coupled with the cooperation of some actors, more people tried to rescue Johnny, which led to the situation of friction escalating!

Some workers who didn't intend to do anything also became restless, after all, people are group animals, and when group thinking begins to take effect, they often do things that they can't even understand!

Seeing that the scene was starting to get out of control, Lucal's eyes were as firm as ever, he walked to an open space and pulled out his pistol and fired several shots into the sky.

The gunshots suddenly woke people up, and the conflict that was about to escalate also calmed down again.

"Arrest these people!", Lucal pointed at some people, "The charges are gathering to drink alcohol, assaulting the police, obstructing the fairness of justice..."

The workers watched the machine guns on the armored vehicles turn their muzzles at them, and although everyone was very angry, they didn't dare to move around casually.

It seems that the only thing they can do now is to greet these law enforcers and their families.

Lucal has never taken these greetings to heart, the only thing he wants to know now is what Lance is thinking.

Lance will not have any thoughts, but will thank him for his cooperation, in fact, most of the boxes piled up like mountains in the warehouse are empty bottles.

Although they are empty bottles, this can also be used as evidence of "operation", proving that they have sold so much alcohol here at least.

This is a serious crime!

As for the minor riots of the workers on the pier?

In fact, no one took it to heart.

But Lance knew that the workers' anger was constantly accumulating.

A little after eight o'clock in the morning, Vaughn returned from a "business trip" from another place, and as soon as he entered the office, the phone rang.

After answering the phone for a while, he rushed to the office building of the Pier Management Company and went directly into the manager's office.

"You have to help us suppress this matter!", the manager leaned back in his chair, the board of directors gave him one last chance, considering that he has done a good job in these years!

His fingers were pressed against each other, and his heart was full of anxiety.

Vaughn's expression was very serious, "This is your fault, now the workers' emotions are very unstable, I can't guarantee that I can persuade them."

"And you have to come up with some compensation measures, such as giving them a raise."

The manager had a headache, "We have to talk on the basis of not raising wages first, I can't just give them a raise every time they make trouble, if they make trouble every day, do I have to give them a raise every day?"

"Raising wages is just a last resort, you know what I mean?"

"Let's start with not raising wages, I can represent the company to give Johnny some compensation, a few thousand dollars, and adjust a position for him, a management position, fifty-odd dollars a month."

"This is already very good, Vaughn."

He lowered his voice slightly, "If you can handle this matter, we will donate five thousand dollars more next year, and the company will thank you separately!"

Vaughn didn't agree immediately, but the manager became a little impatient, "Okay, Vaughn, we're not meeting for the first time, tell me what you want, don't make me guess!"

After waiting for a while, he said, "You have to increase their wages by at least a little, one dollar, or one dollar and fifty cents."

"Just like they said, they haven't had a raise in two years, as long as they get a raise, everything will be solved!"