Shadow Empire

Chapter 1003 Call the Police
When faced with death, everyone is afraid, even heroes or those who claim to be fearless.

The young man's trembling body betrayed his inner thoughts; he was even shaking his leg at that moment.

He tried to ease his tension by shaking his leg, and his gaze unconsciously drifted to the pool of blood on the ground; he seemed to have realized something.

Lance placed the table leg on a nearby table, walked back to his chair, sat down, and lit a cigarette. "So, what do you think I should do with you?"

He looked at these people and said, “Without a doubt, the Perez family thinks I can’t kill you all here, so they can send you here to die without any restraint.”

“I don’t like this feeling, as if he’s already won.”

Lance took a drag of his cigarette. Just as he said, the reason these people could come and wreak havoc on his bar was because they were certain he couldn't kill them all.

If you kill one or two people, you can still cover it up, but if you kill so many people at once, there's no way to hide it.

There's a chance that the police or the FBI are nearby. As soon as Lance and his team get the body out, they'll rush over and catch them red-handed.

The struggle between gangs is not just about muscle and violence; they also use their brains sometimes.

This kind of clever little trick can sometimes actually work.

If people know that the Perez family smashed up the Lance family's bar without facing any severe punishment, then their goal has been achieved.

They thoroughly humiliated Lance, avenged Fran, and avenged Peggy for being beaten unconscious.

The room was quiet. Lance glanced at Mador and said, "Have someone go outside and see if anyone is watching us."

Madol nodded and immediately sent his men down to the rooftop. One of them was a sniper with extremely keen observation skills, able to quickly discern things from the surrounding environment.

During this time, Lance simply smoked his cigarette without saying a word; he was also waiting for a result.

During this period, the young people sent by the Perez family to vandalize the bar felt immense pressure, so much so that they could hardly breathe.

Some people's breathing became rapid, and their faces flushed slightly.

Some people now feel the urge to urinate and defecate, while others feel the urge to vomit. These are all things that happen under conditions of high stress.

Their anxious eyes gradually filled with fear; they were afraid of death, just like their companion who had already been dragged in.

They were unable to face death calmly.

About ten minutes later, Lance finished his cigarette and sat there staring at the people in front of him. At that moment, footsteps came from the spiral staircase upstairs.

From the third floor of the bar, a spiral staircase leads directly to the top floor. Mador's men, after observing from the top floor for a while, came down and quickly returned to the bar's lobby.

To those young people, this man, who looked to be in his thirties and whom they had never seen before, sounded like a countdown to death.

The leader was sweating profusely, but he was restrained and couldn't raise his hand to wipe it off.

Some of the sweat that rolled down his skin landed on his eyelashes and then slid into his eyes, stinging him so much that he had to close them.

“There are indeed people watching us around. There are two cars in an alley on the street with people inside. I don’t know if they are also part of the group watching us.”

The sniper truthfully reported what he had seen from above. At this point, it was better to be overly cautious than too careless.

Lance nodded. "Thank you for your hard work."

He turned to look at the young people, especially the one in the lead, and said, "I'm curious about something, and I hope you can give me some answers."

The young man being stared at swallowed hard, shook his head, and felt clearly uncomfortable from the sweat on his face.

Nervousness, stomach upset, nausea, fear—a range of emotions had eroded his will to resist; he wasn't as strong as he had imagined.

He glanced at Lance, then looked away and nodded, agreeing with Lance's question.

"Your family name isn't Perez, so did Fran, or someone else from the Perez family, save your life?"

"So much so that you're willing to give your current life to repay the debt of gratitude they owed you for saving your life?"

He looked at the others, the young people, and said, "This question is also for you. You may know the answer, or you may not."

"But when you took on this mission, I believe there was a high probability that they didn't expect you to leave here alive."

Some of the other young people were stunned for a moment, then they glared fiercely at the leader, who was probably a captain or something.

The captain, who was being stared at, looked conflicted and kept swallowing. "I...I don't know."

Lance shook his head. "Let me ask you another question: Do you want to live, or do you want to follow your friends?"

It's a life-or-death question, but fortunately, one of the choices in this life-or-death question is one that can save you from it.

The young people looked at each other and quickly made a decision.

If one could choose not to die, who would want to die?
Meanwhile, on the street, another member of the Perez family branch stood in a phone booth with his hands in his pockets.

It was just as cold inside the phone booth as outside, and he was getting so cold he could hardly stand it. Why weren't these damn people coming out yet?

Actually, he wasn't the only one around; there were other people there, and he was responsible for calling the police.

As soon as he saw Lance's convoy leave the embassy, ​​he would immediately call the police, and then there would be vehicles waiting at both ends of the road leading out of the embassy.

As soon as Lance's car gets close, they will rush out of the alley, ram into Lance's convoy, and force them to stop.

When the police arrive and find a large number of corpses, even if Lance himself can get away with it, his men will definitely not escape, and his bar inside the embassy will definitely have to close down.

With so many dead and injured, it's impossible for the officials in Congress to leave Lance completely unpunished.

In this way, they not only got their revenge, but also severely humiliated Lance.

If the people they sent in came out successfully, with the same result, it would prove that the Lance family was actually powerless against their retaliatory actions.

The guy in the phone booth couldn't help but sigh. Those guys in the family who looked so refined were really damn smart, though they were also truly beasts.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. No one could offend the Perez family and get away with it!

He just didn't know why no one had come out until now.

Whether it was their people, or Lance's people, he was more curious about what exactly happened inside.

Shortly after, a car entered the Lapa embassy, ​​and the person keeping watch in the phone booth immediately made a call to Fran.

"They haven't come out yet. Just now, a car entered the embassy, ​​and I don't know who was inside..."

"Okay, I understand, okay..."

The plan remained unchanged; he continued to keep watch, waiting to see either Lance's convoy or their men emerge.

It was so cold in that damn phone booth that his feet were freezing. He had to stomp on the ground repeatedly to vibrate and stimulate blood circulation in his feet, trying to get rid of the icy coldness that made it impossible for him to feel his feet.

This damn weather!

The police chief got out of the car, his expression extremely grim.

It wasn't that he was afraid of anything. As the police chief of New Gold City, he wasn't afraid of these gang members at all, because he knew one thing very well.

As long as he still represents the federal government's control over order in New Gold City and represents the face of the federal government, these gang members will not dare to kill him.

If one of them killed him, it would mean that these gang members were challenging the federal government and the bigwigs in the city.

Senator, Representative, Big Capitalist.

Let alone him coming here alone, even if he went to the stronghold of the five major families alone, he wouldn't be afraid.

He was a little annoyed that he had been summoned here at night, and he had a premonition that he was being used. After getting out of the car, he stomped his foot and turned to look at the embassy building, his expression slightly serious.

Attacking the embassy... was indeed a very troublesome matter. He cursed the idiots in the Perez family in his heart for always finding something to do for him.

He lit a cigarette, took two puffs at the entrance, and then walked into the bar with his head down.

As soon as he entered the bar, he saw Lance sitting at a table chatting with someone. Lance also saw him, then stood up with a smile, but did not move.

The police chief pursed his lips and walked over. "The phone number you gave me," he said, glancing at a group of people kneeling on the ground in the corner, several of whom had been beaten bloody.

Lance only walked over and shook hands with him when he got closer. "Yes, I made the call."

"These gangsters are too arrogant, openly attacking the embassy. Wouldn't this be considered a diplomatic incident?"

Ambassador Cassia was also present, and as if receiving some kind of "signal," he loudly declared, "I'm going to complain to the Secretary of State!"

The police chief had a terrible headache and really didn't want to deal with these things. "If Ambassador Cassia really complains to the Secretary of State, he'll be the one who suffers in the end."

The only federal law enforcement agency that is legally authorized to combat criminal organizations, i.e., gangs, is the Federal Police.

The FBI is not yet qualified to handle these cases, although the FBI director has been campaigning for greater power and Congress has submitted and voted on proposals, but they have not yet been implemented.

It is said that Congress, taking into account factors such as the war, will wait until after the war to implement these measures.

With such a serious crime occurring in New Goldshire, the Secretary of State will certainly consider it the responsibility of the police department, not any other department.

As the police chief, he is certainly the person primarily responsible.

He turned to look at Lance, somewhat impatient and helpless. "Alright, stop playing these tricks on me. What exactly do you want?"

Lance spread his hands. "Your attitude is unfriendly, Director."

“You are facing a victim right now. You shouldn’t be talking to me like this. I will have my lawyer write a letter to complain about you!”

He couldn't help but chuckle as he spoke, "As for my demands, they are very simple. They have already confessed that the Perez family ordered them to do this. Now I am handing these criminals over to you, and I hope you can give me a satisfactory answer."

The police chief glanced at Lance with some surprise. "Since when have your gang fights required the police to get involved?"

He almost blurted out, "This is against the rules!"

Gang fights rarely involve law enforcement; almost all gangs prefer to take revenge themselves rather than have others carry out their plans.

He couldn't understand Lance anymore. Even the street gangs knew what they were supposed to do, yet Lance called the police and made him do it.

This is also "gangster"!
Lance didn't show much change in expression. "That's defamation, Chief. If you don't have solid evidence that I'm a gang member, watch out, I'll have my lawyer add this clause to the complaint!"

"Shit!" The director glanced at the young people kneeling together again; he was actually a little troubled as well.

If Lance hands these people over to him, he will definitely need to give an explanation, otherwise the credibility of the police will be lost, but this explanation is not so easy to give.

The fact that the Perez family is considered one of the "Five Great Families of the Federation" means that they are definitely not just a criminal organization.

They have their own companies, their own social connections, and advocates in Congress.

Offending them is easy, but what happens after that?
Will they embarrass themselves?

The police chief was also having a headache. Lance had given him a problem, and he couldn't understand why Lance, who was rumored to be very irritable, didn't just kill all these people. That would have made it easier for him to handle the situation.

He looked at Lance, and seeing from Lance's eyes that he wouldn't change his mind, the police chief could only ask in a muffled voice, "Where is the phone?"

Lance pointed to the bar. "Right there."

The police chief went over, made a phone call for backup, and emphasized that the sirens should not be sounded.

After hanging up the phone, his attention was focused on Lance. This was not the first time he had been in close contact with Lance, but it was the first time he had been able to observe and talk to Lance without any external force (Tom).

He was indeed a difficult person to deal with, and he could actually understand Lance's purpose in doing so.

Eliminating these people is unrealistic. If the Perez family has any backup plans, Lance might find himself in a very passive situation.

If Lance were to simply let these people go, even if he beat them up and broke their legs, he would lose face.

They smashed up his bar, but he didn't dare kill them all.

But handing it over to him is different. These people haven't gained "freedom" yet, and things are still developing. Lance has turned his own troubles into the police station's troubles.

If Ambassador Kassia does indeed protest and complain to the Secretary of State, then nobody knows how this matter will turn out.

Lance is dragging more people down with him.

Now, all he can do is take these people to the police station and see how he can make a big deal out of it and then let it go.

Before long, seven or eight police cars arrived at the embassy. The Perez family members who had been watching from outside were a little dumbfounded, especially the guy who was stomping his feet in the phone booth.

He stared in disbelief as the police entered the embassy, ​​and after a moment of stunned silence, he immediately dialed Fran's number.

"Boss, Lance has called the police."

Fran on the other end of the line was also taken aback. "Did they call the police?"

The guy on the phone stamped his foot as he said, "Yes, I saw a lot of police cars go in."

Fran fell silent for a few seconds, then couldn't help but curse, "That son of a bitch, he actually called the police?"

"Fuck, are all gangs in the South this unruly?"

In the course of their long-established gang's development to where they are today, they have almost never encountered such a situation where they need to call the police.

Even when some gangs or their members face trouble from more powerful forces, they will actively avoid the police who offer to help them.

It is a tacit agreement that the police are unwilling to intervene in gang fights and conflicts.

Lance broke the rule; he was a bit "unconventional."

But it was this lack of attention to detail that made Fran feel a bit troubled.

"Okay, you guys come back first."

He hung up the phone in a huff. In his warm room, several of the family's "brains" looked at him. One of his cousins ​​asked, "Did Lance call the police?"

They had just heard what he said on the phone.

Fran nodded. "He called the police, and the men we sent should be in their hands now."

These family members, who seemed more like intellectuals, all frowned. Looking at them, Fran had a vague feeling that this matter might turn into a problem.

"They've just been caught, how could they possibly cause us any trouble?"

His cousin neither nodded nor shook his head, giving him no clear answer. "It depends on how things are handled. Can we trust the people we send?"

Fran was also a little unsure at this point, "He should be reliable."

He quickly realized, "You're worried they'll implicate us?"

His cousin nodded. "Under normal circumstances, it's unlikely. We can find someone to pull some strings, and the police station should close the case quickly."

"But since Lance called the police, I think there might be more to this than meets the eye, and it could get a bit complicated..."

(End of this chapter)