Shadow Empire

Chapter 1098 Beheading Operation
That evening, after get off work, Hailam randomly found a public phone booth and made a call to Lance.

"I've gathered some information about Peggy Perez. When shall we make our move?"

He's very concerned about this now. Although being a policeman is a very interesting experience for him, it's ultimately just an experience.

He could only experience it for a short while; he didn't want to continue experiencing it.

Lance told him to wait a little longer, "We're still missing one crucial thing, something to get Fran to take the bait, so we'll have to wait a few more days."

Aside from Lance, not many people knew about his plan, not even Hyram, and of course, he had no problem with it.

"I can't wait any longer to make my move."

"They gave me ten dollars today, thinking they could get rid of me. Right now, I want to tear that bastard's face off and shove it up his ass!"

Lance couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Although I don't know exactly what happened, I can tell you're really angry right now."

"Do not worry!"

"The opportunity will come soon."

After exchanging a few more words with Lance, Helam hung up the phone.

He walked out of the phone booth with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, cursed as he got into the police car parked on the side of the road, and then drove the police car back to the apartment building where he lived.

He could sense that he would be playing the role of a policeman for some time to come.

For Hailam, the following period of time was not exactly agonizing, but it was definitely not a comfortable one.

He has to go to work on time every day, not because he can't get up, but because the job is too boring.

Before he joined the Lance family, he always thought that being a police officer was an interesting job, firstly because they could legally use violence.

As undocumented immigrants, being treated as criminal suspects by the police is a common occurrence.

At that time, he thought being a policeman would be very prestigious, and for a while he even felt that only by becoming a policeman would life be a little easier.

They can beat up others, extort money from shop owners, and do many other things.

But now he doesn't think so anymore. Being a police officer is a very boring and hard job. If it weren't for the bearded chief taking care of them, their work would be even more tiring and their income wouldn't be very high.

During this time, he figured out Peggy's entire daily routine, and now he was just waiting for a signal.

The signal came very quickly, and in a way that Hylam had never expected.

"Lance has been attacked."

The moment the news started spreading, Helam called Lance to inquire about his situation.

Not long after Lance returned to Golden Harbor City, he was attacked by a group of mysterious people. It is said that Lance was injured, and his injuries were quite serious.

Perhaps in order to stabilize the situation of the entire Lance family, as well as the situation of the senator, he made a public appearance immediately after the attack.

His arm was in a sling and cast, and it looked like it was broken.

He had some scratches on his face, and I don't know how he got them. In short, he looked quite disheveled.

Fran could tell from Lance's walking posture that he must have injured his leg.

This made Fran's face beam with joy!
"Go and find out who did it."

"Whoever it is, if they want our asylum, let them contact us."

"This is the best news I've heard since the Lunar New Year this year, bar none!"

He looked at Bob and said, "Bring me that bottle of Royal Cognac from my collection."

Bob stood up with a smile on his face, then walked to the very center of the wine cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of wine from the most central shelf.

Royal Cognac, 1981. Due to weather conditions, the vineyards in Royal Cognac experienced reduced production that year, resulting in a very small output of only over 10,000 bottles.

Because its winery has been providing winemaking services to the royal family, the taste and craftsmanship are very solid. Coupled with the publicity of the royal family, each bottle of the 891 Royal Cognac now costs tens of thousands of dollars and is very difficult to buy.

Once a bottle of these wines is drunk, there's one less left; they're basically all treasured possessions of the powerful and wealthy.

They would occasionally take it out to look at it, but not many people actually drank it.

Fran has three bottles, which are spoils of war they obtained after wiping out a gang family. They drank one bottle before, and he has two left. This is one of them.

Bob brought the wine to Fran and opened it. As the cork was pulled out, Fran felt an unusual urge to taste it.

"Okay, let me be alone for a while."

Bob knew this was Fran's habit; sometimes when he was happy or angry, he would spend some time alone.

Bob wasn't sure why he did it, but he didn't care to find out; it had nothing to do with him.

Fran picked up the bottle, poured himself some, and then put the cork back in; the bottle could last for a while longer.

He took his wine glass and went up to the terrace. The attack on Lance was a very meaningful thing for him.

Moreover, the fact that this happened in Golden Harbor City means that after the conflict between the Lance family and the Perez family escalated, people saw through the Lance family's weak nature, so some gangs that they had previously suppressed began to retaliate.

People will keep challenging him and trying to kill him in order to destroy the Lance family's dominance in Licarle State.

Even without Fran and the Perez family lifting a finger, Lance will be deeply embroiled in trouble!

This is what he fears. He knows very well that once a powerful gang begins to face challenges, it means that the gang has lost its former deterrent power, and people start thinking about dividing it up.

Just like Lance's current predicament, Fran believes that new attackers and challengers will soon appear, and Lance and his group will be gradually devoured.

Thinking of this, Fran couldn't help but savor the Royal Cognac.

Actually, he's not a sommelier; his understanding of wine quality is limited to the price of the bottle.

Since the price of the wine was higher, Fran naturally considered this bottle of wine to be a good one.

If a bottle of wine isn't expensive, then it's definitely not a good wine. Although his method of judgment is simple, it must be said that it is quite accurate in some respects.

Just as he raised his glass, he suddenly felt something push him, followed by a loud "bang" in his ear!
It was a gunshot. The moment the gun went off, he fell to the ground. All the guards in the manor sprang into action. A group of them chased after the source of the gunshot, while the others continued to guard the important locations in the manor.

Bob and his men frantically burst through the door to Fran's study, where they saw Fran crawling from the terrace toward the room, a pool of blood beneath him.

Perhaps seeing Bob, Fran reached out and cried out "Help me," words that seemed out of character for him, his face still showing fear.

Bob immediately led his men to help him inside and then drew the curtains.

The Perez family has a private doctor on call 24 hours a day at the estate. Given that the life of a gangster inevitably involves surgical issues, the doctor here is qualified to perform the surgery.

They examined Fran's injuries, and the doctor's expression was not optimistic: "The bullet pierced his right lung through his left shoulder and eventually left his body naturally."

"This is a good thing, at least we don't have to worry about how to remove the warhead."

"But the bad news is..." the doctor glanced at the people here, "He's not young, and with such severe injuries, even if he survives, there's a high probability he won't be able to recover to his previous state, and it's even unknown whether he'll still have the ability to take care of himself."

If the injury to the right lung is severe, it may need to be removed to prevent further deterioration within the body.

Furthermore, doctors at this time generally believed that removing injured organs was beneficial to the body's recovery, at least the body did not need to expend more energy to restore an organ that could not be restored.

Bob's expression shifted repeatedly. "Please help me save him right now. Fran can't die, at least not now."

"Furthermore..." he said, turning to look at the others, "no one can leak this information."

"If anyone asks, just say there was an accidental discharge of fire, it was just a mistake, there was no attack, and no one was injured."

Some people looked at Bob with a strange expression, while others had a look of ecstasy on their faces, and of course, there were still some people with no expression at all.

They all understood what Bob's purpose was in doing this—

If Fran becomes unable to care for himself or does not wake up, then Bob, as the second-in-command of the family, is qualified to give orders on Fran's behalf.

But if Fran dies, the family will have to elect a new head, and there is a high probability that this opportunity will fall to Fran's own children.

No matter how well Bob has done over the years, even better than Fran's son, he is still lacking in the aspect of succession. He is not Fran's son, and even if his achievements are greater than anyone else's, he cannot become the next head of the family.

Only by taking advantage of the current opportunity when Fran might fall into a coma or become unable to care for himself, and by controlling the family through the comatose, speechless, and decision-making Fran, can he ultimately increase and consolidate his power and position, and have a chance to become the next head of the family.

No one here explicitly opposes his current demands; everyone seems to agree with the decision.

This made Bob relax a little.

"What we need to figure out most right now is who did it!"

When this is mentioned, most people will think of the same person: Lance.

Bob's trusted subordinate immediately spoke up, "It must have been Lance who did it."

All eyes were on him, but he showed no fear. "Lance was just attacked, and he'll most likely think it was us, so he arranged for a gunman and found an opportunity to wound Fran."

"I can't think of anyone else who would do this besides him. If someone else wanted to do it, and would do it, it's impossible that this is the first time in so many years!"

Bob nodded noncommittally. "Now that we have a suspect, we should investigate and find out exactly who it is!"

Whether or not Lance was actually not that important to him, but they did need a target, and Lance just happened to be the one.

The tension at the manor was quickly relieved. Apart from a few people, most people were still unaware of what had happened. They genuinely thought it was just an accidental shooting that had caused a riot.

Meanwhile, Helam was on the phone with Lance, "...So, all of this is fake?"

Hearing this, Hailam finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew it! Who would dare attack you in Golden Harbor City?"

"If anyone attacks you, I'll kill Bolton first!"

"What you're saying now makes more sense; that kid was lucky."

The "kid" he was referring to was Bolton, who is now in charge of intelligence work at headquarters and in Indenau State.

Leaving aside other places, if someone in Golden Harbor City really could penetrate the intelligence system to attack Lance, then Bolton must have been involved as well.

Even if he wasn't one of them, he tacitly approved of their attack on Lance.

So Hyram said that if Lance was really attacked, he would go back immediately and kill Bolton.

Fortunately, it was all just a false alarm; it was all a trap.

The two were chatting, and Lance was explaining his plan when he suddenly stopped. "Don't hang up yet, I have another call to take."

After hanging up, he answered another call from the gunman arranged by Madol.

"Boss, I hit him, and then he fell to the ground. I couldn't shoot anymore, so I retreated."

"But I can assure you, I shot him in the upper body."

"If possible, I'd like to find an opportunity to fire two more shots."

Hearing the other person's somewhat remorseful tone, Lance offered a few words of comfort, "Shooting him to death might not be a good thing, and his survival might not be a bad thing either."

"Fran is so old, no matter where this bullet hits, as long as it hits him, his days ahead won't be easy."

"You've done a great job. You can go back and relax. I'll have Mador give you a vacation so you can have some fun with your family. The newly built water park is nice."

He spoke with the sniper for a few words and then hung up the phone.

Fran's manor has a very high level of security. The area within 200 meters is his private territory, and there are constant patrols. Moreover, there are no tall buildings, so it is practically impossible to find any place to attack.

After several days of searching with snipers at the scene, Madol finally found a cedar tree about 200 meters away that offered a view of the terrace.

The sniper climbed the tree, secured his weapon and body, and managed to hit the target, even hitting the upper body. Lance thought this was quite remarkable.

After hanging up the phone, he picked up Hailam's phone. "You can do what you want now..."

(End of this chapter)