Empire of Shadows

Mr. Chafford doesn't just have a big house; his bank is also a big house, even with a special vault. Lance really wants that.

"You… cough, speaking of Chafford, what's wrong with him?"

Lance said casually, "He might go bankrupt. He's peddling his old stuff to the bank, but the bank can't give him any inflated prices."

"So perhaps we have a chance to get something from him."

Morris was still a little surprised and emotional when he heard the news. "For people who have lived here for a long time, the name Chafford is a sign!"

"I know a lot of people go to his bank to withdraw money, but I didn't know they were about to go bankrupt!"

Only the bank executives and Lance knew about Mr. Chafford selling his collections. Although Morris knew many people and had partnerships with quite a few, he couldn't get his hands on this kind of high-level information.

"Someone is raiding his bank again. What's it for this time?"

Morris's expression became a little strange. "Don't you know?"

Lance spread his hands a little inexplicably. "Should I know something?"

Morris observed for a while and realized that Lance really didn't know, so he explained the reason: "Because everyone heard that the regulatory fees for the police are going to be reduced, many people are withdrawing money to start small businesses."

"You know, the main reason why opening stores wasn't profitable before was because the gangs were collecting money, and the police were also collecting money. Now that we don't collect money, you plan to reduce the amount of another regulatory fee."

"Many operators can already foresee more profits, so there should be a wave of business in the Imperial District soon!"

After listening, Lance nodded in agreement. "It really has something to do with me. I didn't think about that!"

"But this just proves that we are correct on this issue."

He ended the topic, "How have you been recovering lately?"

Morris shrugged. "Okay, but just okay. The doctor said that it's basically impossible for me to recover to the way I was before, but I can still walk after my fracture heals."

He didn't seem to show any frustration. In fact, his condition was more serious than he said. He had multiple organ damage, and even if he could recover relatively well in the short term, this recovery would be at the cost of overdrafting his life.

The doctor said that his lifespan might not be too long, and he would easily get sick in the future.

Faced with this situation, Lance didn't have any good solutions.

Perhaps seeing the question Lance was thinking about, Morris took the initiative to comfort Lance, "Don't think so much. At least I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Lance came back to his senses and made a suggestion, "Do you have a girl you like?"

Morris didn't follow Lance's train of thought. It took him several seconds to react. "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Lance took out a cigarette, intending to give him one as well, but considering that two pieces of his lungs had been removed, he ultimately didn't hand it over. "Lisa and Ponda are getting married."

He exhaled a puff of smoke. Morris looked incredulous, but he also felt that everything was reasonable.

They had known each other for several months, and they had done everything they should and shouldn't have done. Marriage seemed to become a matter of course. "I didn't expect them to really get married."

Lisa used to serve the wealthy in the Bay Area at Red High Heels, and those wealthy people had heavy tastes, otherwise they wouldn't come to Red High Heels to place orders.

In a strict sense, Lisa can be considered one of them, so Morris didn't think… how inappropriate this was. He just thought that maybe it would take longer, or even that they couldn't get married.

Lance also found it a little unbelievable. He could only say that Lisa had her own way of dealing with Ponda. "We can't show up at their wedding, but I plan to send them a gift…"

Ponda has been preparing for the wedding these days.

Marrying Lisa was a decision he made after careful consideration. On the one hand, he really loved Lisa—

She's beautiful, has a great figure, and is very daring in terms of sex, which has given him unprecedented stimulation!

Although sometimes he would wonder why Lisa knew so much, he asked her several times, and Lisa used "I learned it specifically to please you" as the reason, which made him very touched!

Young, beautiful, good-looking, and able to fully satisfy his sexual fetishes, coupled with her dependence on him, Ponda couldn't find a reason to break up with her or not marry her!

Even if he just thought that if he broke up with Lisa, then other men would come to enjoy everything he had enjoyed, he couldn't stand it!

After discussing for a while with Lisa, the two decided on the wedding date. At the same time, Lisa's family would also come from other places to attend their wedding.

His family had also met Lisa and were very satisfied with Lisa, not feeling that she was marrying up to Ponda.

Plus, Lisa's period seemed to be late recently, and everything was foreshadowing good news!

He's going to be a father!

People who haven't been fathers can hardly understand the emotional changes before becoming a father, and for federal people who value family relationships very much, having a child means that they have truly become a "man."

That sense of responsibility and mission does not allow him to retreat!

A new life is staring at him, and everything is moving in a better direction!

The colleagues in the office also knew that his good things were coming, and he was surrounded by a cheerful atmosphere!

At more than three o'clock in the afternoon, he was processing some work when the telephone on the desk suddenly rang.

Without looking, he directly picked up the receiver, "This is the Hazardous Materials Administration, I am Special Agent Ponda."

"Do you repair radios over there?"

Ponda didn't react at first, "This is the Hazardous Materials Administration, not a repair shop…"

He paused here, and then remembered that this was the agreement between him and Lance.

He quickly glanced at the colleagues who were still working around him, and no one noticed him, "You have to go to the repair shop to fix it."

"What?"

"Don't you know where there is one?"

"You should call the police or the fire department… Okay, okay, I know a place, it's in…"

He gave an address and hung up the phone. The surrounding colleagues looked at him. "Wrong number?"

Ponda's heart was already beating faster at this time. He nodded, "Yes, wrong number. I don't know if our phone numbers are a bit similar. He said he dialed the repair number."

Saying that, he paused, "But fortunately it's resolved."

At the same time, he casually complained that sometimes the phone would inexplicably not connect, or there would be cross-talk, and suddenly someone would join his call, and then he continued to work.

Ponda's heart was pounding violently. After a while, he calmed down, packed his things, and left early.

An agent of his level can be late or leave early, as long as there is a suitable reason.

As for what is a suitable reason, investigation, detective work, or contacting informants are all good reasons.

In fact, most of the time, the internal management system of the Hazardous Materials Administration is not that strict. They will not really review what the agents will do after leaving the office.

Whether they really went to investigate the case, or just went home to sleep.

He drove around the city roads twice and came to the location they had agreed on before. This is a private club that operates some oral sex business.

It is not illegal for on-the-job law enforcement officers to come to such clubs for entertainment, and it does not violate any laws, because all the services here are legally permitted.

At most, it will put him in a moral risk, but moral risk is just a moral issue, and this place is very secret.

Soon he met Lance. When he saw Lance again, his expression changed slightly.

Lucar has been buried. Some people in the Hazardous Materials Investigation Bureau believe that this matter is inseparable from the Lance family.

Although the conclusion provided by the police station is "random robbery and murder," how could an agent of the Hazardous Materials Administration be so easily robbed and then killed?

People who support conspiracy theories not only exist at the bottom of society, but also are common among the privileged class.

Even because they have been exposed to more incredible things, some of them believe more than the bottom people that everything is a conspiracy of the rulers!

Including Ponda, he also felt that this matter had something to do with Lance, so he is a little nervous now.

"Congratulations!" Lance said something that he didn't expect as soon as he opened his mouth.

He was stunned for a while before squeezing out some smiles and asking, "Who?"

"Me?"

"Congratulations on what?"

Lance crossed his legs and flicked his toes. "Congratulations on your upcoming marriage!"

Ponda's expression changed slightly. "Thank you, but don't interfere with my life, and don't contact my family!"

His family and the pregnant Lisa gave him the courage to look Lance in the eye.

Lance looked at him very calmly, his eyes like a stone, or a surface of water without the slightest ripple.

Obviously there is nothing thrilling, but it still gives people an unspeakable pressure.

In the end, Ponda's gaze shifted slightly, missing Lance's gaze.

Lance's chin was slightly raised, "Actually, even if you don't say it, I won't harass your family, provided that there are no misunderstandings between us!"

"Regarding your upcoming marriage, I am very concerned. After all, we are very good partners, so I plan to give you a wedding gift."

"It's for you, for Lisa, and for your unborn child."

Ponda's tightly pursed lips lost their color. "You're monitoring me?"

Lance raised a finger and shook it. "No, to be precise, I am protecting you and your family."

"Don't worry, Ponda, I want you and your family to be safe even more than you do. Only in this way can we cooperate for a longer time."

He paused. "Aren't you curious about what I'm going to give you?"

Ponda took a deep breath. He didn't like this feeling, but now he had to accept it.

He squeezed out a smile. "What is it?"

Lance placed a card on the coffee table and pushed it over. "These are the locations of two bars, and a warehouse, which should have tens of thousands of dollars worth of liquor left."

"I believe these assets will allow you to fill the vacancy left by Lucar."

The name Lucar seemed to trigger something in Ponda. After his eyeballs trembled slightly, he asked softly, "Lance... I want to say, is Lucar...?"

He lowered his head. Although he already vaguely had this feeling in his heart, he was still a little nervous at this moment.

Lance wiggled his toes again. "If he didn't die, how could you rise to the top?"

"Ponda, Senior Special Agent?"

Ponda's heart was very complicated when he heard this sentence.

First, he felt great fear, because the death of a Senior Special Agent had a completely different impact on him than the death of ordinary Special Agents or even external personnel!

It was like a war between ancient nobles. They could launch wars unscrupulously and not be afraid of failure.

The reason was that they could redeem themselves with money after being defeated. Failure was nothing more than losing some wealth and some farmers.

They could continue to be willful as long as they had money.

But when a noble was refused redemption and killed, the nobles' attitude towards war became cautious. They didn't know if they would be the next person to be refused.

Before the Senior Special Agent had an accident, no one thought they would dare to attack law enforcement officers of this level, until this moment!

Even Ponda hoped at this time to verify that Lucar died from a homeless man's impromptu robbery and murder, rather than being killed by Lance.

Because that would mean that if he became a Senior Special Agent, he would be safe.

But now, he knew that even if he became a Senior Special Agent, he might not be safe.

Lance and his people were crazy and lawless. It was said that they even killed the police chief!

Without thinking about these things, Ponda felt that Jin Gang City must be a place that God had ignored, otherwise, how could there be so many evil forces growing uncontrollably here?

The more criminal deeds he came into contact with at work, the more he felt a sense of powerlessness.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't you like my gift?"

Ponda immediately came back to his senses. "No, no, I like it very much... the gift you gave me."

Lance nodded. "You are very likely to become a Senior Special Agent. I don't need you to protect us. Just do what you should do, and just tell us when there is sensitive information."

As he spoke, he took out a briefcase from the side of the sofa and placed it in front of Ponda. "Open it."

Ponda glanced at Lance and finally opened the briefcase. It was full of money.

"There are fifty thousand dollars here. I can't go to the scene to attend your wedding. This is another token of my appreciation."

Looking at so much money, even Ponda was a little shaken.

He owed Lance a sum of money, exactly fifty thousand, which couldn't help but make him think too much.

"You are married, you have children, and there will be many places where you need money."

"The children's education, Lisa's recovery, and your parents will definitely come to stay for a while. You can't let them live in a small hotel all the time."

"You can buy a new house, a bigger one, where the whole family can live, or whatever you want."

"Ponda, I know you still have some resistance to me, but I hope you can understand that we are the best of friends!"

"Senior Special Agent is not your end point, and even the director of the Jin Gang City Hazardous Materials Administration should not be your end point. You should go further!"

As he spoke, he put down his raised legs and then stood up. "Okay, I have to go. You can enjoy yourself for a while before leaving. I've already paid."

"Wait another twenty minutes before you leave, lest someone cause you trouble with these things."

Ponda got up and stood up, watching Lance leave, and sighed heavily.

At this moment, at this moment, someone suddenly knocked on the door, and then they sent in a girl who was blindfolded and fixed on a strange frame.

She didn't have any clothes on, except for those white athletic socks.

Lisa had been pregnant for some time, and he was a little scared. He hadn't had any sexual activity during this time.

At this time, seeing this young girl, seeing her snow-white skin, seeing her blindfolded eyes, a kind of emotion that Ponda himself didn't want to admit, but did exist, began to surge in his body!

He reached out and gently touched the girl's body, and the girl had a very obvious reaction as if she had been electrocuted.

Where he touched, a layer of goosebumps could be seen.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his breathing became heavy, he walked to the side of the frame, reached out and pressed on her body, gently, inch by inch, stroking, as if stroking a work of art!

In the evening, when he returned home, he hugged Lisa tightly. Feelings of guilt and remorse continued to churn in his body. He felt like he was not a human being!

"What's wrong?" Lisa sensed some changes in his emotions.

At this time, Ponda could only hide these surging emotions, but the scenes that happened in the afternoon flashed in his mind from time to time.

"No, it's just that I haven't seen you for a while, and I miss you very much."

Lisa couldn't help but laugh. "You're acting like a child now!"

As she spoke, she pulled Ponda to the sofa in the living room. There were basic picture albums on the coffee table, with some wedding dresses and formal wear, "You can also refer to them..."

That night, there was no doubt that it was difficult to fall asleep.

Lucar's death, the locations of those bars, the fifty thousand dollars in cash now placed in the storage room ceiling, and that young and fiery body, as well as Lisa who was by his side and the child in her belly...

All of this was intertwined, like a magical tune, making him feel terrified, yet reluctant to give up.