Shadow Empire

Chapter 1161 The Other Side of the World and the Plan

Supervisor Ike looked at Director Roland with a very calm expression. He seemed to feel no remorse for having sided with Lance.

People always want to live, and since joining Lance, Director Ike has started to look at some issues from a different perspective.

Once the filter surrounding Roland is removed, once it stops working, then we can see a Roland that we couldn't see before.

He has all sorts of flaws. Although he talks a lot about ideals, the future, and grand principles, I always feel like he's missing something.

People are like this; only from a more objective perspective can they see what they want to see.

Once that halo fades, all that's left is a mess.

Director Lan Luo frowned slightly as he looked at him. "Is there anything else they're dissatisfied with?"

"Is the money too little?"

“You should tell them that the federal government’s standard compensation for us is only 22,000 or 23,000, but I gave them 30,000 in compensation. They shouldn’t be thinking of asking for more.”

"Otherwise, they can only receive the standard federal pension if everything is done according to legal procedures."

The extra amount cannot be said to be illegal, but it is certainly somewhat inappropriate.

The pension is paid by the federal treasury. The approval process is quite complicated, but the final result is that the federal treasury allocates funds to pay this money.

Whether a little more or a little less is not of concern to those managing federal wealth; they only care whether the documents they receive are compliant, whether they contain valid signatures, and the exact figure.

But if someone says now that this number is wrong, then they will be unhappy.

Although the money doesn't belong to them, they will treat it as their own.

Moreover, paying money in violation of standards will have many negative consequences. If everyone pays various disability compensations according to their own ideas and above the standard, then many people will engage in self-harm.

If these people really want more money, Director Roland will go through the proper procedures with them, ensuring that they not only don't get more, but actually get much less.

As Director Ike watched Roland, the FBI director who had once held a high position in his heart, say these words, he suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. He didn't know why he hadn't seen these things before.

There isn't a single character beneath his illustrious image that isn't so illustrious.

To some extent, being forced to join Lance's camp by Lance may not be a bad thing, at least he saw the real Director Roland.

With Director Roland growing impatient, he explained, "They want to see the bodies of their family members."

These words startled Director Roland, and his brows furrowed even more.

Nobody knows where the bodies went—of course, maybe the supervisor Ike across from him knows, but he won't say, because in his script he doesn't know either.

If he wants to retrieve those bodies, there's one person he can't avoid: Lance.

He doesn't really want to deal with Lance right now, not because he's afraid of him, but because he doesn't want to see this person who annoys him so much.

He used to regard Lance as an opponent and a target, but now in his eyes Lance is just a pile of shit, and a particularly smelly one at that.

Getting involved with it is bad for everyone, so he tries his best to avoid touching this mess.

“The bodies…” He pushed his hair back. “Explain to them that we will do our best to find these bodies and ensure that their souls can rest in peace.”

He paused for a moment, then lowered his voice slightly, "Go to the slaughterhouse and get some animal bones, find a place to burn them to ashes and put them in jars for them. The carcasses can't be brought back intact anymore; they've all been cremated on the spot."

In the past, Supervisor Ike would have thought this was a good approach, primarily because it was based on practical considerations.

If those bodies were found, given the amount of time that has passed, even if they still existed, they would be rotten beyond recognition. They certainly wouldn't just be given to their families like that.

A pile of bones and some rotten flesh—it's an eyesore.

So ultimately they will be cremated first, and then their ashes will be given.

Since they're going to give ashes anyway, why not just use the ashes of some animals to make do? That way, they wouldn't have to face Lance and negotiate with him, and it would also appease the families of the deceased. It would be a very good solution.

But once the filter disappeared, Director Ike felt that Director Roland was a... beast.

These people died because of him, but now he's unwilling to even communicate with Lance and retrieve their bodies.

If he tries to communicate, but Lance makes things difficult for him and prevents him from doing so, then he feels there's nothing wrong with this outcome.

But he simply brushed it off without even doing it, which means those people really died in vain.

However, he didn't show it. He nodded somewhat solemnly, "I know what to do."

Director Roland also specifically instructed, "Make sure to soothe these people's emotions and make them believe that we will help their families get justice and bring the criminals who killed them to trial!"

"Do you have any other questions?"

Supervisor Ike shook his head. "No, the main problem lies here."

Director Roland breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there were no other troubles, this kind of small matter was not trouble at all. "Then do it. I'll wait for your good news."

"Try to minimize the impact of this matter and prevent them from talking nonsense to reporters. Just say that we are making arrangements in full swing. If they leak the information or alert Lance, it may cause our subsequent plans to fail."

Supervisor Ike quickly ended his conversation with Director Roland. He found Director Roland disgusting, though he himself was actually a disgusting person. Perhaps that's just how people are.

They always express their opinions from a position that benefits them, never considering their own right or wrong or mistakes; everything is someone else's fault.

As he was leaving Director Roland's office, he happened to see Supervisor Ford walking over from the other side of the corridor. The two were both senior detective supervisors and had a good relationship.

However, his stance has now changed, and the way he looks at his supervisors and colleagues, as well as his attitude towards them, has undergone subtle changes.

We used to be colleagues, friends, and comrades-in-arms.

But from the moment he took the weapon Lance handed him in order to survive, he completely severed ties with these people; they were now his opponents, his enemies.

The two nodded to each other from a distance of several meters. "Your injuries look very serious."

After they approached, the Ford executive initiated a brief chat. They were high-ranking members of the FBI besides Director Rowland, and a face-to-face meeting couldn't just end with a nod; they had to maintain a semblance of "high-level decorum."

Ford's words were very "official," but Ike still stopped and walked with him to the side of the corridor to chat. "It just looks serious, but the doctor said I'm recovering well."

The Ford executive sighed. "I've heard something. They threw grenades at you?"

"These people are really too arrogant. I hope we can get rid of this problem as soon as possible."

Seeing the solemn look on Manager Ford's face, Manager Ike wanted to laugh, but he still nodded in agreement with the other's point of view, "Yes, if we can't eliminate them as soon as possible, the Lance family will cause immeasurable serious consequences for the entire Federation!"

There seemed to be no need to continue the conversation at this point. After the two nodded to each other again, Director Ford pointed to the room at the end of the corridor and said, "I need to go to the director's office."

Supervisor Ike also took the initiative to say goodbye, saying, "Perfect timing, I still have work to do."

"So, see you later?"

"See you later!" The two people, each with their own thoughts, walked away back to back, getting further and further apart.

After taking a few steps, Supervisor Ike stopped. He turned around and glanced at his old colleague who was walking towards the office. He didn't know why, but he had a strange feeling that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

He stared at the other person's back for two or three seconds before shaking his head, turning around, and continuing on his way. Perhaps he was being a little sensitive.

After all, he has now been bought off by Lance and is one of Lance's men, so when he sees these old colleagues, a layer of filter naturally disappears, allowing him to see the more real, and also more hypocritical, people.

As Ford was about to knock on the office door, he seemed to have some inexplicable feelings. He glanced back at Ike, and in their brief conversation, he seemed to have detected a strange feeling about him.

They don't seem like colleagues or comrades-in-arms who have been together for several years and are fighting for the same ideal.

There seemed to be something invisible separating the two of them.

Moreover, the hypocrisy emanating from the other person struck him as odd; he couldn't understand why someone who used to be so sincere would turn out this way.

Perhaps it's because of the injury?

During this period, many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder have begun to be disclosed by medical groups, and the crime rate among soldiers returning from the battlefield is on the rise.

In particular, some soldiers in front-line units have gone on killing sprees in their familiar surroundings after retiring from the military.

The most ruthless guy killed almost half the community, and when he was pinned to the ground, he insisted that these people had gathered in the community church to murder him.

Everything he did was for his own protection.

This is a typical mental illness, the kind that's very troublesome.

However, he also heard that the Department of Defense and some companies seemed to be accelerating their communication, and he even heard Lance's name mentioned in the news.

It was precisely because of the attack on Lance that Lance negotiated a contract with the Department of Defense. He would set up a company to hire these potentially problematic veterans and send them back to Tanfield to carry out missions.

This plan initially faced some resistance, with Liberal MPs arguing that allowing capitalists—and it's worth noting that because no one has any evidence or leverage against Lance, his current public identity is that of a capitalist—would be problematic.

This is actually a good thing, a good sign, at least his image in the public eye will be cleaner.

Liberal MPs believe that allowing capitalists to control these veterans with actual combat capabilities would pose a huge challenge to the stability, security, and order of the federal government.

Once these capitalists decide to use their power for something, they will absolutely cause enormous damage to federal society.

However, these problems have been dismantled by a recent series of battlefield trauma psychological issues. The federal government doesn't want to talk about things that haven't happened yet in the future; they just want to solve the problems at hand.

Whether you send these potentially problematic people out or lock them up, the important thing is to prevent them from running around on the streets!

Therefore, this plan is progressing very quickly, and it is said to be close to the implementation stage.

Ford's wandering thoughts snapped back together in an instant. He turned around and knocked on the office door. Little did he know that just as he turned away, Ike, who was almost out of the corridor, turned back and glanced at him again.

He felt someone was watching him from behind, but when he saw Ford, the supervisor, knocking on the door, he could only attribute it all to the discomfort and sensitivity he felt as a first-time undercover agent for the mob infiltrating the FBI.

"Come in."

"The door is unlocked."

The Ford executive pushed open the office door and went in, closing the door behind him.

"Are you looking for me?"

Director Roland gestured for him to sit down and talk, then began to explain why he had been summoned: "You've been keeping an eye on the Lance family's movements lately, have you made any significant discoveries?"

Every so often, Director Roland would summon the Ford supervisor, whose main job was to assign people to keep an eye on Lance and key members of the Lance family, paying attention to their whereabouts and itineraries, in order to see if they could find anything that might become evidence.

The Ford executive shook his head. "Although I've had people keeping an eye on them, I haven't gotten much out of it. You know, they're very careful."

“When they are likely to commit a crime, our people have no way to get close to them. We can’t have our people kick down their doors in front of them and then ask them what they are doing in there.”

These words left Director Roland speechless, but there really wasn't any good solution.

If surveillance is a panacea, then what other tasks are needed?
All the problems can be solved by simply assigning someone to keep an eye on them.

He sighed. "It's a bit tough for us right now. We'll temporarily halt our crackdown on the Lance family until the president takes office."

"So right now, only your part of the investigation can be carried out normally, which requires you to work even harder than usual."

“Once Mr. Porter is sworn in as president, we can use a special executive order signed by the president to address issues that the judicial system cannot support.”

As an elite member of the law enforcement agency and highly educated, Ford certainly knew what Chief Rowland meant by "support."

Search warrant!
There are certainly many problems in some of the businesses run by Lance, but because of the lack of cooperation in the judicial process and the fact that the evidence obtained is insufficient to constitute valid legal evidence, the Department of Justice is always holding them back.

But with a special order signed by the president, he could even lead a team to Lance Estate for a large-scale, thorough search.

He simply refused to believe that there was absolutely no evidence related to the crime in Lance Manor. As long as he could obtain this evidence and it complied with the judicial evidence collection process, it would be as if he possessed a sharp blade that could pierce through Lance's defenses!
The Ford executive's heart skipped a beat, but his face showed a hint of joy. "So, it seems we're not far from victory."

"The results should be available before the Sacred Farm Festival."

Director Roland gave him another timeframe, "but the presidential decree will not be signed and will not take effect until after January next year."

"So we have two or three months to wait, and during this time your work is very important."

"I need you to keep a close eye on Lance's every move, not missing a single minute, and also his family executives. Can you do that?"

The Ford manager immediately patted his chest and assured him, "You can completely trust me with my work; I guarantee there won't be any mistakes."

Director Roland was very satisfied with his statement. As a superior, he liked such a definite answer. "Very good. Keep an eye on this matter. If you have any needs, just tell me. As long as they are not too outrageous, I will try my best to meet them."

After exchanging a few more words, he asked the Ford manager to leave. Once the door was closed again, he slumped into his chair as if he were about to slide down, and let out a long sigh.

That damn Lance made him look so pathetic for the first time in his life!

He vowed that once "Mr. Potter" became "President Potter," he would make Lance pay a heavy price!

As for now, let him be smug for a while.

Lance is indeed very pleased with himself now.

Major General Bruni called him and told him that his previous proposal had been approved, and the Ministry of National Defense planned to issue special licenses based on the specifications for special supplies such as alcoholic beverages.

Because Liberal Party MPs have some opposition to the Department of Defence's implementation of this plan, although it has been suppressed by current social events, they still oppose it.

In order to reduce conflict or even confrontation between the Ministry of Defence and the Liberal Party, which is about to become the ruling party, the Ministry of Defence has decided not to fully disclose this qualification to the public. Not just anyone can set up such a company to recruit these veterans.

Only after the Department of Defense issues a license can they recruit veterans for the job through a dedicated office within the Department of Defense.

As the drafter of the entire plan, Lance naturally received a license, and the maximum number of people authorized to him was five thousand!
(End of this chapter)