Empire of Shadows

"Fuck!"

"Fuck!!"

"Fire back, show them some color!"

His men scrambled out of the cars, taking cover behind them and opening fire on the warehouse.

The fierce gunfire instantly tore through the silent night sky, filling the air, the whole world, it seemed, with the sound of guns and their echoes!

Actually, there was still time to leave, but Alberto and the others were stunned by the ambush; they didn't realize that now that their intentions had been exposed, they shouldn't stay.

Soon, people on the warehouse roof also began firing down, the spitting fire very conspicuous in the night.

The 'tat-tat-tat' of bullets kicked up puffs of dust on the ground, and several people, unable to dodge in time, were hit and fell.

Alberto's eyes were about to pop out. "Shoot the lights, the floodlights!"

He shouted loudly, while also returning fire at the warehouse roof.

Bullets sparked against the iron sheeting, and it did have some effect.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, those with submachine guns began focusing fire on the few remaining light bulbs, and soon the bulbs were shattered in the barrage, plunging the outside of the warehouse back into darkness.

Fordis, panting, ran back from a car nearby, his face somewhat grave, though Alberto couldn't see it.

"Howard needs to go to the hospital. Little Howard is dead, and two others are dead, and several are wounded."

The ambush was too sudden, so sudden that Alberto hadn't even considered such a situation!

He had indeed thought that there would be people defending the warehouse, but he had absolutely not expected that after they took care of the guards outside the warehouse, there would still be a bunch of people inside waiting for them to come!

This was a trap!

His mind was a mess, but now he had to force himself to think seriously; his eyes darted around in the darkness, clearly without any good ideas.

Fordis trusted him and didn't rush him, just waiting quietly for him to give the order.

Perhaps the surrounding gunfire finally woke him up, he gritted his teeth, "Retreat first!"

Fordis nodded and turned to inform the others, but soon he ran back.

"Howard doesn't plan to leave."

Alberto looked at him, as if asking him why.

"He's badly injured, probably can't get away. He also wants to avenge Little Howard, he said… he's going to take out this warehouse."

When Fordis said this, Alberto knew what Howard was thinking, but it was difficult for him to stop him, because he wanted to avenge Little Howard.

Don't think that the two brothers often bickered and argued, sometimes even fighting and punching each other, but their relationship was much better than people imagined and saw!

Little Howard's death was something Howard couldn't accept; the only thing he could do now was to avenge his brother!

Alberto quickly made a decision, "Help him get things ready…"

The people in the warehouse were starting to try to surround them; they didn't have much time left!

He grabbed Fordis's clothes again, pulling hard, "Tell him, I will avenge him, his brother, everyone!"

Fordis nodded vigorously, the two looked at each other for two or three seconds in the dim light, Alberto let go of his hand, raised his pistol, and pulled the trigger towards the warehouse door.

He had only fired three or four shots when he felt the car door being riddled with bullets.

The crackling 'biu-piu' sounds were chaotic, but this also did a good job of slightly preventing them from coming out.

Bullets were everywhere, 'da-da-da' everywhere!

Fordis bent over and ran to another car, Howard was leaning in the driver's seat, clutching his lower abdomen, he tilted his head to look at Fordis, Fordis nodded, "He agreed."

"He said, he will avenge all of you!"

Howard touched his wound, he could feel his own hot blood, "I can't hold on for too long…"

His spleen might be ruptured, even if they left immediately, he might not be able to make it to the hospital.

Fordis's eyes were a little red, he placed the bomb in the rear driver's seat, "How much time do I give you?"

Howard took two breaths, "Fifteen seconds!"

Based on his own experience, Fordis used a knife to shave off a large part of the fuse, then looked at him, "I'm going to light it."

Howard restarted the engine, almost shouting through gritted teeth, "Light it!"

He had to muster a force, using this force to support him in avenging his brother!

Fordis lit the fuse and slammed the door shut. Howard suddenly raised his head, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, flooring the accelerator!

The tires suddenly made a screeching sound and charged towards the warehouse!

"Fuck you all!"

He roared with a ferocious expression, his face flushed, and at this moment, his momentum alone suppressed the gunmen who were rushing out of the warehouse!

In an instant, the enemy's firepower was all drawn to him, and the others took the opportunity to start the cars and flee.

Bullets shattered the windshield, Howard felt something punch him in the face, making his whole face numb, and felt as if many things were pushing him hard from behind.

In a daze, he thought of many things, but his body shook uncontrollably back and forth, then heavily pressed down on the steering wheel.

The long 'beep…' of the car horn sounded, as if sending a warrior to heaven!

Is this, death?

In his dying moments, he sighed, lamented, without much fear, only a kind of joy, he had avenged his brother!

But until his death, he never let go of the accelerator, and his hand holding the steering wheel never wavered!

The car rushed into the warehouse, crashed into the simple sandbags they had set up, and stopped, the raised drive wheels still spinning.

Two gunmen holding weapons went over and opened the car door, then saw the fuse on the back seat that was less than one centimeter long and that big firecracker.

The gunman's face turned pale instantly.

Motherfucking fuck!

The huge explosion, accompanied by the gravel lifted by the shockwave, fell from the sky, the sound of it falling on the car roof, announcing the amazing power of this explosion!

But none of the people who escaped were happy, because just now, they had said goodbye to their brothers who they had spent many years with day and night, a permanent farewell.

Even… they might not be able to retrieve the bodies of some of them.

Alberto punched his leg hard, his leg hurt a lot, but his heart hurt even more!

"We've been betrayed!"

A trace of bloody sweetness permeated his tightly clenched teeth, his gums began to bleed because they couldn't withstand the huge pressure, but he didn't notice it at all.

Fordis didn't speak, concentrating on driving, the tattered convoy sped along the city roads!

"Go to the manor, I'm going to talk to Paul!"

Alberto was not a "petty" person, he could accept death, even accept his own death, this was what he owed Paul.

If God thought now was a good time for him to return everything to Paul, he accepted the result.

But he didn't accept his brothers dying because of betrayal, betrayal, he didn't accept this!

He had to talk to Paul and see where the problem was.

The convoy quickly returned to the manor, although he was hit by his own people driving, but overall, the injury was not serious.

With Fordis's support, he could still walk very fast.

Paul hadn't slept, and he showed some smiles when he saw Alberto, "Was that explosion just now your masterpiece?"

Alberto pushed Fordis away and walked to Paul's desk, he slammed his hands hard on the desk, leaning forward, presenting a very extreme attack posture!

"We've been betrayed!"

"That was a fucking trap!"

Paul stared at him in disbelief, "You suspect I leaked the information?"

Alberto shook his head, "I've never doubted you, but someone must have leaked the information, you have to find this person and then make him pay the price for our dead brothers!"

He clenched his fists and slammed them hard on the table, "A price in blood!"

The glass window suddenly vibrated again, followed by an explosion, Paul looked out the window, then his eyes fell on Alberto, meeting his gaze.

"If someone really leaked the information, I will give you an explanation, I will give everyone an explanation!"

"No matter who that person is!"

"Now, take your men to bandage their wounds, those who need to go to the hospital should go to the hospital, you also need to rest!"

"I don't want you to risk your lives to complete the work and come back, only to not see tomorrow's sun because of too much bleeding!"

Alberto cursed a few more times, although he wasn't cursing Paul, but Paul's face was hot, he felt that Alberto was cursing him.

This also filled his heart with a kind of hatred, he would find the person who betrayed the family's interests and then kill him!

For a long time after the explosion, no one came back, and Paul was already a little restless.

He glanced at the time, it was almost one o'clock.

According to the plan, all the bombs would be detonated at the latest by twelve o'clock, but so far only two had exploded, and other than Alberto, there was no news from anyone else.

He vaguely had a very bad premonition, these people were all finished!

Just like Alberto said, someone betrayed their information, so the Cassia family had made preparations in advance.

Alberto's target was relatively less difficult, and Paul had also considered that he was not a core member, so he gave him this target.

The other goals were much more complicated, more difficult to handle, perhaps that's why they haven't had any news and haven't returned yet.

He slumped back in his chair, his mind blank. If it was a fair fight, he would accept his loss wholeheartedly.

But it was someone who betrayed him and the family!

He picked up the phone and had Muller brought over.

Muller also realized the terrible situation. Two of the six bombs had already exploded. Without a doubt, the other four had met with accidents.

"Who was at the meeting?"

Muller recalled the scene at the time, and began to carefully name each participant.

No matter how big the family, how big the company, how big the factory, a single organization is always shaped like a pyramid.

That is, the higher you go, the fewer people there are.

Even for the scale of the five major families, the number of senior executives would not exceed twenty.

The Pasreto family had only fourteen senior executives. Two died in the explosion, leaving only twelve. Now five more are gone, which means there are still seven people who could be suspects.

"Where did they go after the meeting?"

Muller shook his head, "I'm not sure. We'd have to inquire carefully, but... Paul, if we inquire without concealing our intentions, we might startle them."

"I have an idea."

Paul looked at him and asked, "What idea?"

"Have you heard the story of 'Who Stole the Pie'?"

This story is a local Sumuli tale, similar to a fable, about a mother who made several pies, but one was missing.

Her children all denied stealing it, so she came up with an idea.

She marked the pies with different colored markings, and then told the children that only a certain color pie was the one they wanted to eat, and the others were not.

Then, in front of the children, she took a pie, broke it open, and revealed a filling that the children didn't like.

The next day, she caught the thief.

This is actually a short story to inspire young children to think, because the real situation may not be so simple, but now, perhaps they can use it too.

Paul had also heard the story. He was silent for a while, "Call them in separately."

Muller nodded and started to call people in.

Paul gave each of them a task and told them not to tell anyone.

After doing all this, he felt an indescribable discomfort.

He actually didn't want to believe that there was a traitor in the family, but the fact was right in front of him.

"I hope everything isn't so bad."

He looked at Muller, appearing very tired.

Muller could only comfort him, "Everything will be alright."

Whether everything will be alright, no one knows.

In the morning, Lance hadn't slept well either. Reid ran over early in the morning and brought some breakfast for everyone.

Lance didn't fall asleep until two or three in the morning. I have to say, that's the good thing about being young. No matter how late you stay up, no matter how early you get up, you can recover quickly.

He didn't even feel uncomfortable!

Unlike older people, if they stay up late and don't get enough sleep, they will feel uncomfortable all over.

Staying up all night is even more of a forbidden zone. Staying up once often takes one to two weeks to recover.

He rubbed his face, looked at the breakfast on the table, and casually picked up a hot dog and started munching on it, "Actually, you could have slept a little longer!"

He said jokingly while eating the hot dog, "I'm not a capitalist. I don't expect you to work without sleeping every day, so you can sleep a little longer, and I can sleep a little longer."

Reid scratched his head, a little embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't think of that. I'm used to getting up early!"

"So you can't become a capitalist!"

Lance casually joked, "Is everything ready?"

Reid nodded, "It's all ready, it's outside."

This made Lance gobble down the entire hot dog in a few bites. I have to say, the hot dogs at this time were really good value. The sausage was big and there was a lot of meat.

After taking a sip of coffee, he went out of the house with Reid and came to the open space.

Several trucks, trucks loaded with packaged new work clothes. These new work clothes are slightly different from the old ones, because they have a cleverly designed badge on the chest.

An anchor hanging from a rope and a wrench crossed together, which represents the image of a dock worker.

Lance took one down and tugged at it hard. The quality was very good.

He threw the clothes to Reid and jumped into one of the cars, "What are we waiting for, let's drive?"

At this time, a large number of striking dock workers had gathered outside the dock again, but at this time they looked a little chaotic, standing together in groups of three or five, without any uniform clothing.

On the contrary, those "temporary workers" on the dock looked more like the main force. They all wore uniform clothing, maintained a certain degree of unity, and looked like they had some kind of action program.

In this strike, they were also the most watched group. Today, more reporters have appeared at the dock, and more cameras are also focused on these blue-collar workers.

Although everyone is on strike, it still makes those ordinary workers feel some emotions that they don't know how to express.

It's like serving the guests well, but the guests give the tip to the wrong person without even looking up.

At the same time, it also made them have some other ideas. They also wanted to have uniform clothing.

In addition to the striking crowd, there were also many capitalists or capital representatives from Goldport City. They did not belong to the category of Goldport City locals, but appeared here because they needed the Goldport Wharf.

For example, branch managers, warehouse managers, or bosses of large and small factories, they all relied on the convenience of the wharf to obtain job opportunities.

If anyone is really nervous about the dock workers' strike, then they must be the first.

Many people were persuading the workers to return to their jobs. To this end, some of them even offered two or three dollars a day for daily wages, hoping that they could load their goods onto the ship or unload them from the ship.

There are also many captains and chief mates watching the excitement here.

They are not very anxious, because the berthing fee must be paid by the ship's owner. Whether they leave or not, their income will not change.

Being able to stay longer in a prosperous port also makes it easier for them to relax here.

Although each time it may only be a few milliliters, ten milliliters, but after all, a little less is a little easier, isn't it?

It's just that the chips offered by those people have never been able to convince these striking people. What they want is not a daily income of two or three dollars, but a stable increase in monthly income!

Just then, suddenly several trucks drove over, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

Those workers who were on strike also spontaneously surrounded them, because they saw Lance.