Empire of Shadows

“Allen, come here for a moment!”

Erwin poked his head out of the office door and shouted.

Allen, who was chatting with others, hurried over, “What's up?”

Since being promoted to captain, Allen has become more enthusiastic about his work.

Of course, this situation is actually quite normal, after all, going from member to captain is a huge leap forward.

In the past, he always followed other people's orders to do things, but now, others need to listen to his orders.

He can choose some people from a large group of family members to work for him, always, or just once, which is equivalent to giving him great power!

You must know that the core interest distribution of the Lance family is determined according to their actual work situation. Without considering other factors, only by doing more work can you earn more money.

Regardless of whether they sincerely like this family, like Lance, Erwin, and everyone else, making money is one of their goals!

If you want to earn more money, you must have a captain or cadre you are familiar with who often takes you out to work.

Allen has a good relationship with these people. He is very lively and unpretentious. Everyone likes to be friends with him. Now his popularity has become even better, and he is even more enthusiastic.

When the people around a person become good people, he will discover the beauty of this world.

Erwin closed the door and motioned for him to sit in the chair opposite Lance.

“You have performed very well during this period, Allen. You have proven that we were right to give you this opportunity to become a captain.”

“Now there is a very special job that needs to be handed over to you. It is a bit dangerous, but it will also bring you more glory. You can consider it.”

Allen didn't even listen to the content and directly stated that he was willing to take it on. He stood up with a serious expression, “Boss, I obey the family's arrangements. You can't go wrong entrusting anything to me!”

If he didn't know that he was just a small team leader, these words would make him look more like a senior cadre.

Lance smiled and raised his hand, motioning for him to sit down, and then threw a document in front of him.

“Someone has arranged an undercover agent in our gang. Lucar and the others were brought in by this person. We have found him.”

“You know, we never show mercy to people who betray the family, no matter what their purpose is.”

“Allen, get rid of him, and then embarrass the Dangerous Goods Administration, do you understand what I mean?”

“They may think that planting an undercover agent has obtained our intelligence and given us a heavy blow, then we must fight back!”

Allen's expression became slightly serious. He picked up the document, glanced down, and immediately closed his eyes and looked aside.

He raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, “F*ck!”

He knew this person, and they had a good relationship, or rather, he had a good relationship with most people.

In Allen's eyes, this peer was very active, often giving everyone cigarettes, and often treating people to maintain good relationships.

In the past, he thought this might be his habit, but now that he thinks about it, this person always seemed to be subtly asking questions.

At the time, he even thought this guy was pretty good!

“F*ck!”, he cursed again, his heart filled with emotional fluctuations.

This kind of thing is actually like this. As long as you have more contact, it is inevitable that you will have a good relationship, coupled with one party's deliberate catering.

Lance stroked his eyebrows along the contours of his eyebrows, “Is it difficult?”

He came back to his senses and took a deep breath, “I have no problem.”

Lance nodded, “He is just an undercover agent, and he was never one of us from the beginning.”

“All the characteristics he shows are just illusions he created to deceive us, so you don't need to feel any guilt or other emotions. Get rid of him and let the Dangerous Goods Administration know that their plan has failed again. It's not difficult!”

Allen stood up, “I know what to do, Lance.”

He rarely calls out the name “Lance”, only when he is serious and earnest.

Lance made a “casual” gesture, signaling that he could leave, “I await your good news.”

As soon as Allen came out of the office, he saw Beno guarding the door. Beno looked a little worried about him. Before the other party could speak, he squeezed out a smile, “I'm fine, everything is fine!”

Beno just looked at him with a “you're lying” look, which made Allen sigh, “Come outside.”

The two walked from the back door to the alley, lit a cigarette in the corner, “We have a new job, to deal with a traitor.”

“Traitor?”, Beno hadn't reacted yet, Allen added, or rather, more accurately described the target this time, “An undercover agent!”

Almost subconsciously, Beno's scalp went numb, and the cigarette he was holding in his hand fell to the ground.

He quickly reacted, and when he bent down, he made sure that Allen couldn't see the change in his expression, and in the few seconds it took to bend down to pick up the cigarette, he readjusted his emotions.

However, there was still a lot of shock on his face, and even some faint fear, but Allen couldn't see these, and didn't notice them.

“Yes, an undercover agent.”, He said a person's name, and this name made Beno breathe a sigh of relief, it wasn't him.

But he was also a little curious, “How… How did the company find out that he had a problem?”

“Remember the day we went to watch the unloading of the goods before?”, Allen seemed a little annoyed, “He betrayed the location of the warehouse, that son of a b*tch.”

“Lance said that he was the one who called the Dangerous Goods Administration, and he may have been in contact with Lucar, otherwise they wouldn't have come so quickly!”

At this time, Beno was a little unclear whether they had made a mistake, because he was the one who called Lucar that day.

However, he thought again, there might not be only one undercover agent, maybe there were others.

As long as he wasn't the one exposed, at the same time, he also felt a trace of fear, because this job was too unsafe, and Lucar… was too utilitarian!

He could have gone a few days later, but he went that night, which was tantamount to telling Lance that there was an undercover agent here.

Fortunately, Lance and the others trusted Allen more, and also identified another leaker, otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable!

“What are you going to do?”, he asked.

Allen had adjusted his emotions, “Make him regret coming into this world!”

He threw the half-smoked cigarette on the ground, stomped on it irritably, and after a few sparks popped out, it was completely extinguished, “Ask where the person is.”

More than ten minutes later, Allen got the location of the undercover agent. He and another person were patrolling on the street.

Four people drove in a car and quickly found them on a bench on the side of the road.

“Hey, Allen, look here!”

Seeing Allen appear here, the undercover agent happily waved his arm.

Because Allen was unpretentious, able to get in touch with the high-level family members, and willing to spend money for everyone, everyone liked him very much.

Allen's expression looked a little unnatural. He squeezed out a little smile, got out of the car, “Actually, I need you for something.”

He gave Beno a look. Beno walked to the undercover agent's partner, put his arm around the other person's shoulder, and walked to the side seemingly intimately, whispering something.

At this time, the undercover agent didn't have eyes behind his head, otherwise he would definitely be able to see his good partner looking at him with horrified, angry, and unbelievable eyes from time to time.

He walked to Allen and took the initiative to hand a cigarette over, “What do you need me to do?”

He looked very cooperative, and also reached into his pocket, took out a lighter and took the initiative to light it for Allen.

Allen took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, “There's something to do later, the company ordered it, but we're short of a manpower, I thought of you.”

The undercover agent didn't have the slightest precaution, “That's great, I'm already tired of patrolling, when are we leaving?”

Allen pursed his lips, “Now.”

A minute later, everyone got into the car. Allen and Beno sat in the back seat, and the undercover agent sat in the middle of them.

“Where are we going?”, the undercover agent was still very lively, and didn't realize what was happening at all.

Allen turned his head and glanced at him, “You'll know when we get there.”

Perhaps sensing that Allen was in a bad mood, the undercover agent didn't continue to talk nonsense, but remained calm.

The car kept heading out of the city, and seeing that he could already see the scenery of the suburbs, the undercover agent finally felt a little uneasy, “Where are we going, Venus City?”

“We'll be there soon.”, Allen perfunctorily said, and then asked, “What do you think of Lance and the others?”

The undercover agent became more and more uneasy, “I don't know what you mean.”

Allen stared at him, “What I mean is, what do you think of Lance, Erwin, Morris, Hiram… What do you think of these people to us?”

The undercover agent was silent for a while, “They are very good to us.”

“Yes, very good!”, Allen sighed heavily, “He gave us a lot of money, gave us the respectable dignity, and gave us everything that we couldn't get at the pier or other places.”

“Honestly, I'm very honored to be able to know them, to be able to join the Lance family. This place is like a real family. Each of us is a family member, just like real brothers and sisters!”

“This is a very novel experience. I have never had so many brothers and sisters. We are together every day, doing the same things, happy, sad, or whatever.”

The car's speed gradually decreased, and a small wooden cabin appeared in the distance.

The undercover agent was already sweating, he didn't know what this place was, but what Allen said was too scary!

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't know what to say, or how to say it.

The car slowly came to a stop, Allen got out of the car, he turned to look at the undercover agent, "Lance told me that we are not a group, because you joined the family with a purpose, why did you do that?"

The expression on the undercover agent's face began to become terrified, and his voice was a little out of tune, "I didn't!"

Beno suddenly punched him in the back, grabbing his hair and dragging him out of the car.

There were four people around, and the undercover agent didn't dare to run, because he knew the family's rules, as long as it was an important mission, the captain would definitely carry a gun.

He couldn't outrun bullets, and there were four people here!

While begging bitterly, he shouted loudly, "I really didn't betray any of the family's information, let me talk to Lance, I've been framed!"

Allen rubbed his face and signaled Beno to send him into the room.

There was a chair in the room, he was tied to the chair, Allen looked at him, his expression a little complicated, "Tell me something we're interested in, and I can give you a quick death."

"Even though you lied to us!"

Death is always the most feared unknown to people, people don't know what will happen after death, so they are afraid because of the unknown!

He begged tearfully, but Allen remained unmoved, he looked indeed very soft-hearted, but the softer he looked, the more angry he actually was at this time!

He walked to the side of the wall, took down a steel bar, turned around and inserted it into the undercover agent's thigh!

"Why?!"

"Why did you betray us?!"

He became unlike his usual self, especially the him just now!

His expression was a bit ferocious, his face flushed red, and the hand holding the steel bar stirred, the undercover agent's wound was pierced and torn, causing him to scream!

He was much more fragile than he imagined, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Allen, it's all my fault, spare me!"

Allen looked at him and let go of his hand, he lit a cigarette, "How do you pass information to the outside each time?"

The undercover agent could only tell the truth, he didn't want to die, and he was afraid of pain!

"I write the information on the newspaper, and then pass the information by placing the newspaper on a designated bench…"

He would record the information he obtained each time, and then write a "password" based on the words reported in the newspaper.

For example, if the first word of the first sentence of the first headline on the first page is "we", then this is four "1"s.

If someone who doesn't know this decryption method sees the newspaper, they will only see a string of meaningless numbers in the corner of the newspaper.

He used this method to pass a lot of information out, and he thought that no one thought there was anything wrong with him.

In addition, his main job is to patrol the streets, and it is normal to bring a newspaper when he is bored sometimes.

Allen was just about to ask him who he was passing the message to when Beno suddenly walked over and punched the undercover agent in the abdomen, as angry as Allen, "You son of a bitch, we trusted you so much, how could you betray us?"

Allen was a little surprised, but quickly began to comfort Beno, "I'm just as angry as you, but now we need to figure out some things first."

Beno nodded, he took the lead and asked, "Was the information about unloading the goods at the warehouse passed out by you?", without waiting for the undercover agent to answer, he shouted loudly, "Don't quibble, we have already grasped the evidence!"

Although what he asked was not what Allen had just planned to ask, at least it wasn't wrong, so he didn't say anything, just watched from the side.

The undercover agent nodded, "Yes, it was passed out by me…"

"Fuck!", Beno gave him a few more punches as if he was truly angry to the extreme, before Allen pulled him away.

He breathed slightly, "You lured Lucar and the others from the Hazardous Materials Administration over, what good is it for you?"

"What did they promise you that made you willing to do these things for them?!"

This question, strictly speaking, is equivalent to announcing the answer, the undercover agent, in a state of panic and anxiety, is now subconsciously following his words.

"They promised that after Lance and the others were arrested, they would let me enter the Hazardous Materials Administration…"

He said a lot of things, but it didn't involve the most crucial issue, that is, who his superior was!

Beno used a method of shifting the concept to make everyone think that his superior was Lucar, and then stopped mentioning anything related to these things.

He didn't say too many valuable things, he didn't know enough about the operation of the Hazardous Materials Administration, he simply thought that after this job was over, he would be able to enter the Hazardous Materials Administration.

Although sometimes he would feel guilty, he had no way to turn back, once he embarked on the path of being an undercover agent, he would never have a chance to turn back!

When the last question was over, Allen seemed to have completely calmed down.

"Please, help me bandage the wound, for the sake of my cooperation… and for the sake of us being brothers before!"

"It's been bleeding, I'm going to die!", the undercover agent looked at them tearfully begging, the pierced thigh wound was still bleeding, and it couldn't stop.

Allen looked at him, although his emotions had calmed down, but hearing him say the word "brother", he still felt angry!

He took two steps closer and pointed his finger at his nose, "Don't tarnish this word brother, you don't deserve to be brothers with us!"

He paused, "Actually, you know, we brought you here today, you have no chance to leave alive."

"For the sake of your cooperation, the only thing I can give you is a quick death!"

He suddenly looked at Beno, "You hate him so much, the chance to kill him is given to you."

Beno was a little nervous at first, but then he breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay, that's the best!"

As he spoke, he took out a dagger, walked up to him while the undercover agent was crying and begging, his lips moved slightly, he said I'm sorry, but only he could hear this sentence.

Ignoring the undercover agent's pleas, he stabbed the other party's heart with a knife, and the blood quickly took away strength and life from his body.

In less than thirty seconds, he lost all signs of life.

They carved the word "undercover" on his body, and then did some processing, wounds, severed limbs, and handled it according to the family's practice, waiting.

The smell of blood in the room made Allen a little uncomfortable, he didn't know if it was the smell of blood in the wooden house that made him uncomfortable, or some emotional changes, he leaned on the car, lit a cigarette, and looked at the setting sun that was about to fall.

The whole person looked very melancholy.

Beno washed his hands and came to his side, asked for a cigarette, and the two leaned side by side on the car, neither of them spoke, just stared at the setting sun.

The fiery red sunset fell on them, making them look red all over.

Just like blood, fresh and bright.