Empire of Shadows

Sitting in his chair, Charlie leaned forward, hunched over, and rubbed his cheeks.

When did he… become like this?

Memories of the past flashed through his mind. He remembered himself full of longing to be a guardian of justice, becoming a police officer, a profession that people weren't particularly enthusiastic about and was very dangerous.

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When he first joined the police force, he thought that being a police officer was a very honorable job, and that his job should be to fight crime and maintain justice and peace.

But he soon discovered that the real police and the police in his ideal were two completely different professions!

It was an era when monopoly capital was still rampant, and the power of capital even surpassed the government!

The capitalists' struggle around the "Anti-Monopoly Act" was at its most intense. Every day, newspapers reported that a famous or unknown person had died in an alley.

In order to fight against the "Anti-Monopoly Act", the capitalists had exhausted all their strength. They bought off politicians, murdered witnesses, and even threatened the police…

This caused many people's worldviews and values to be severely impacted!

Although "fairness and justice" ultimately won the final victory, the society did not change in any way.

Monopoly groups changed their form and method to continue their monopoly, but people seemed to think that they had defeated evil.

When Charlie got married, he couldn't even afford to get married at the cathedral, so he could only get married in a small church in the countryside.

At that time, he still maintained his sense of justice.

It wasn't until his first child was born and some things happened that he began to change.

The first bribe he received was only five dollars.

Of course, at that time, five dollars was roughly equivalent to about forty dollars today, which was a month's salary for a person. After all, he was just a patrolman at that time.

The first time he received a bribe, his heart beat faster, his mouth was dry, and he didn't even dare to look at his partner's eyes.

But the next day, his partner exposed him. That guy said very surely that he had taken the money, and then told Charlie that he also took bribes, and he could receive more than a dozen dollars a month.

He also learned from his partner that accepting bribes was a sign of "loyalty". If you accepted money from the Bay Area, they would trust you and you would be safe.

If you were unwilling to accept money, they would only send you to a remote place and leave your position to those who were willing to accept bribes.

In this way, he began to become another self. He began to constantly take money, take big money, and constantly scheme and climb up, eventually becoming who he is now.

Look at his life!

Living in a large villa in the Bay Area that ordinary people can't afford even with several generations of savings, wearing a gold watch worth thousands of dollars, wearing a suit worth hundreds of dollars, and having millions of dollars in assets…

What he owns, let alone several lifetimes, even dozens or hundreds of lifetimes, cannot be obtained through his own efforts.

Sometimes when you think about life, it's really boring.

You dare not stop working hard for a lifetime, but in the eyes of others, it's just one night's consumption, or even just a joke.

Everyone is human!

The imbalance of mentality coupled with some things he encountered turned him into what he is today.

He glanced at the watch on his wrist again. If those people really came to investigate corruption in the police force, and they were also colluding with Lance.

He can't escape.

Everything he owns is the most direct and naked evidence!

Although he had taken some measures, it was not of much significance.

He didn't know how long those people could last, and he didn't know how much they had confessed. At this moment, the only thing he knew was that he couldn't sit here waiting for them to come to his door with handcuffs.

He must save himself!

Many faces flashed through his mind, their identities, positions, and abilities all appeared in his heart.

But he had been searching for a while, but he couldn't find anyone who could provide him with help.

His power and status in King's Harbor were bestowed by those wealthy people in the Bay Area, but the people investigating him were from the State Attorney's Office.

Some of these people in the Bay Area can indeed touch the people in the State Attorney's Office, but Charlie is not sure whether they will stand up for him, and whether they can influence their decisions.

Once the news that he is in great trouble is revealed, then the masters in the Bay Area will soon consider whether to save him or abandon him?

Scenes from many years ago appeared in front of him. One by one, the guys who said how much they had done for the Bay Area were abandoned and knelt on the ground, and ultimately only exchanged their loyalty for a bullet.

Charlie is unwilling to become such a person. His destiny should be in his own hands!

He must save himself!

He, Charlie, will definitely not end his life here!

With Lance's help, Dean Prosecutor's interrogation of these police officers is progressing very quickly. After all, facing Lance, who can make their whole family disappear at any time, it is absolutely impossible for these corrupt police officers not to be afraid in their hearts.

Yes, they have been defined as "corrupt police officers". Accepting bribes, extorting, helping criminals escape punishment, fabricating evidence to frame innocent people…

Dean Prosecutor and his working group felt shocked and angry at the things these people confessed —

Actually, it's fake, because what they have done is definitely more excessive than these people!

It's like a child holding a needle, which can at most prick someone and make them hurt, but an adult holding a knife may kill someone.

The bad things that these corrupt police officers entrenched in the King's Harbor police force can actually do are extremely limited. They are at most accomplices of some capital forces.

But what about the State Attorney's Office?

If they do bad things, it will be much more frightening.

However, Lance will not expose them, after all, they are in the same group now!

The interrogation work is proceeding in an orderly manner, and Lance does not need to show his face anymore, so he directly freed himself from the interrogation work.

In the evening, everyone gathered together. Charlie has suddenly seemed honest these past two days.

Lance believes that he has smelled an abnormal smell and may be seeking self-preservation, or he may be asking his dog masters for help, and has not come out to jump around for the time being.

So tonight, everyone gathered together to discuss some issues about the Coda family.

"Bundy and Gory, one is staying in their manor and not coming out, and the other is staying in the King's Harbor Casino and not coming out."

"The Bundy family manor has strong defenses. If we were to attack by force, the losses would be huge."

Morris stood next to a blackboard with some photos and rough hand-drawn sketches on it. One of the photos was of the Coda family manor taken from a distance.

It has a "return"-shaped structure, and there is a building in the middle. That building is where Bundy and other core family members live.

There is also a separation zone similar to a garden between the two buildings. The entire manor can accommodate thousands of people.

During this period, they felt a sense of crisis, and the defensive strength of the manor has obviously increased a lot. In the photos, you can see that some buildings have gunmen patrolling and guarding on the roofs with weapons on their backs.

In the gardens on the ground, there are also many security guards patrolling.

Just a rough glance at a photo shows twenty or thirty gunmen. If you count some of the invisible places inside, the manor's defensive strength will be very strong.

In this environment where there is a clear offensive and defensive relationship, the price the attacker needs to pay is several times that of the defender!

You never know if someone will suddenly give you a shot from behind a window. This is the advantage of defense.

Looking at these photos, everyone fell into thought.

After a while, Morris continued to introduce, "King's Harbor Casino has also increased its defenses recently, and not just this one. All of their casinos have increased their defenses, initially estimated to have doubled, and there are more gunmen."

He also showed some photos. Some of the photos contained content taken from a distance, and some were taken inside the casino. The security guards and gunmen that could be seen everywhere made the casino's safety factor much higher.

Hiram on the side was a little irritable, "We can't attack their manor, and we can't attack the casino. Are we just going to waste time like this?"

Lance shook his head, "We definitely can't waste time with them. We don't have that much time."

He thought for a while and looked at Morris, "Continue to collect information on other members of the Coda family. It's impossible for all of them to hide in the manor and not go out."

"The Coda family has been in King's Harbor for a long time. They have always had a high status. They may be able to endure letting them hide for a while."

"But it is impossible for them to keep hiding."

"If they don't come out, force them to come out. Mark all of their industries, and as soon as we deal with Charlie, we will take action immediately."

"Before that, we can use the power of the Hazardous Materials Administration to make them less comfortable first."

Morris nodded. He was still doing the work of collecting "external" information.

This is not to say that Bolton cannot do this job. In fact, as Bolton has more and more power in his hands, he is also trying to collect intelligence from the outside world.

Lance knew this, but he didn't stop him. This kind of positive competition is beneficial to the family, as long as it is not malicious competition like mutual assassination, he will support it.

After he arranged everyone's tasks, he left Morris behind.

"I heard that you and your little nurse have been developing very quickly recently?"

Lance heard from Enio that Maurice was possibly planning to marry his nurse, which surprised everyone.

Of course, this was understandable.

When he was injured and unable to move, the nurse had been taking care of him, including during the period when he lost his mobility.

Perhaps for the nurse... it was just a job; she respected, loved, and was loyal to her work.

Well, in reality, there is also a shortcut to a man's heart.

For a big boy like Maurice, his shortcut was being traversed every day, and sometimes he couldn't distinguish whether it was dependence, gratitude, or love, or maybe a combination of all three.

If Maurice were just an ordinary person, there might be more dependence and gratitude, as girls tend to mature earlier than boys.

Whether psychologically or physiologically, she would control her emotions well.

But when bread and love can potentially coexist, then the possibility of love becomes greater.

The nurse had already resigned from the hospital and was living with Maurice; their relationship was very good, even to the point of getting married.

Looking at Maurice's silly smile, Lance said with some reproach, "If Enio hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known you had this idea."

"Our relationship hasn't been completely settled yet; whether to get married or not, she and I both have some of our own concerns."

"You know, marriage isn't just about us; it also has to do with her family. If her parents don't agree to us being together, this matter will be very difficult."

"I hope to give her a wedding blessed by her family, so we are still considering how to face her family," Maurice explained, "But if it's really settled, I will definitely tell you guys."

Lance nodded, "You have to tell everyone personally, lest they say you're trying to hide it from them."

He paused for a moment, "Are you on good terms with the operators of those private casinos in the Imperial District?"

Maurice nodded, somewhat hurt, "Thanks to the old guy, I've been wandering around different casinos since I was a kid. I'm very familiar with them. What's wrong?"

Lance nodded and said, "If I said, let them hand over thirty percent of their profits to us, and we'll ensure that their casinos won't be attacked by other gangs, especially the Coda family's suppression, do you think they would agree?"

Maurice blurted out without thinking, "Of course they would agree!"

"If they can operate casinos openly and aboveboard, it means that even if they give us thirty percent of the profits, their income will be much higher than it is now."

"As long as they earn more money, there's no way they wouldn't agree!"

Currently, these private casinos are all small-scale, with two or three gambling tables per casino and twenty or thirty gamblers, and at most forty or fifty.

But in reality, the Imperial District has hundreds of thousands of residents, and there are definitely more than just a few thousand gamblers; there will only be more!

And there's the Port District, which is also a gathering place for gamblers.

There's a truth—

The poorer the place, the fiercer the gambling atmosphere; the poorer, the more they gamble, that's what these people are like.

Don't underestimate the potential value of these people, even though these gamblers can only earn thirty or forty dollars a month, but once they get carried away, they can not only throw in all of their monthly salary, but also borrow money from the casino to continue gambling!

So don't underestimate the potential value of these people.

"Contact them and say I'd like to chat with them about expanding their operations in my territory."

Only Maurice can do this, he is very familiar with these casino owners, and they trust each other.

Someone else might not be able to make this happen.

While agreeing, Maurice was also a little confused, "Didn't you say before that we would also operate casinos after we dealt with the Coda family?"

"Why do you..."

In his opinion, these casinos are actually stealing the Coda family's profits. The Coda family's requirement is to split the profits in half, or even demand seventy percent of the revenue from some casinos.

If Lance only wants thirty percent, will there be any losses when they operate casinos in the future?

Lance shook his head and said, "Even without these casinos, those people are unlikely to go to places like Progress City Casino to gamble, partly because they would be afraid of that kind of environment, and partly because it's too inconvenient."

"So in reality, the people these two groups cater to don't overlap. The Coda family doesn't want to see these private casinos, but they're just used to doing monopoly business."

"So you don't have to worry about this, you just need to connect them, and I'll chat with them..."

After chatting for a few more words, Maurice left. A little later, lawyer Robben called Lance and quickly appeared in his office.

"Thank you for your hard work these past two days. I have other things to take care of and can't attend to this side. Thank you very much for everything you've done for us. This is a little token of my appreciation."

Lance placed an envelope on the table and pushed it over.

There was a check inside. Lawyer Robben certainly wouldn't think there was only a twenty-dollar bill inside. He generously picked it up, but didn't open it, and put it directly into his pocket.

The more he cooperated with Lance, the more he understood that Lance was a very generous person. As long as you were useful to him and could help him.

Then he would not be stingy to share a portion of his wealth with you!

Lance had become lawyer Robben's most important client, without a doubt.

He smiled and modestly said a few words, and then talked about the results of his handling of the matter at the Dangerous Goods Administration these days.

"I've communicated with them, and they will definitely prosecute our people, and the sentence will not be too short."

"I don't know if you've heard that they had a senior agent named Weber who died in an accident. Some people outside are saying..."

Lance nodded, "I've heard, so?"

"I've investigated this senior agent Weber. The person behind him is a member of the State Prohibition Committee."

"Director Dale is eager to get rid of his image of incompetence, so he is very likely to handle these cases strictly and severely, and the judge will carefully consider the sentencing recommendations they put forward."

"Ordinary participants will start with at least three to five years, and bartenders and managers will be sentenced to ten years or more. They are unwilling to coordinate on this point."

"So you have to be mentally prepared."

"The case should be transferred soon, and the trial will be held before June, and the verdict and execution will be in June..."