Shadow Empire

Chapter 1198 The Whip's Horse
In the cold hospital room, two doctors stared at Governor Wade lying on the bed for a while before leaving.

The Wade family has been identified as being involved in multiple criminal activities, and the state court has approved searches and arrests against them. Some "victims" have also begun to appear in the media, recounting the process and facts of their persecution by the Wade family.

Governor Wade, who was at the center of the storm, was still lying peacefully in his hospital bed.

If he were conscious at this moment, he might prefer to stand in court and be tried.

At least then he would still be alive, instead of being half-dead like he is now.

A dozen minutes later, a male nurse came in. He pushed open the door, came to the bedside, stared at Governor Wade for a while, then unplugged the machine that was maintaining his vital signs and left without looking back.

Twenty minutes later, during rounds, the doctor discovered that Governor Wade had lost vital signs and reported the incident to the state government and police department.

The subsequent investigation determined it to be an accident, and the hospital assumed no responsibility.

"What a useless piece of trash!" The Liberal Party whip tightened the reins, bringing his horse to a stop.

The Liberal Party whip has now become one of the top-ranking politicians in the federal government since the Liberal Party came to power.

The position of party whip granted him considerable power, and as the "majority party whip" in Congress, he had a strong ability to intervene in some proposals, which can be said to put him at the pinnacle of power.

He used to be just a nobody, but now, he's different.

Around him were several men on horseback following him. The current party whip was an old man, a member of the landowning class, who owned his own family farm and had lived on a farm as a child.

He enjoys riding horses, especially good horses, and he also likes to train his own horses to participate in competitions.

Although his racehorses may not necessarily achieve good results, recently there has been a surge in people wanting to breed with the racehorses he has bred.

This has led him to ride his racehorse around whenever he has free time.

The federal government does not prevent government officials from running businesses or making investments, and profiting from horse breeding, as the whip is doing now, is within the permitted scope.

As for how many people actually want the bloodline of his not-so-fast racehorses, that's another matter entirely.

The people around him all wore angry expressions; they knew who the whip was talking about, as they had just been discussing Governor Wade.

This was originally a good thing, a perfect way for the Liberal Party to undermine the Socialist Party's stubborn dissent in Parliament, but it was ruined by Governor Wade.

The party whip was very dissatisfied with this, as a great opportunity had been lost, and he needed to be scolded a few times to feel better.

He rode his horse to the stable, dismounted, and immediately a horse trainer came over to take the reins.

The whip stroked the horse's soft coat, urging the trainer to return it to the stable as soon as possible.

It's too cold now.

The same was true for the others; their horses were all sent to the stables, and these horses were not particularly good, just average.

"I heard that a horse farm recently won some kind of championship in a winter race."

"Contact them and see if we can send all our horses there for training, and maybe even get them bred."

His pursuit of fine horses is like some men's pursuit of the ever-increasing number of luxury cars these days; the more luxurious the car, the more irresistible it becomes.

Of course, he wasn't in the business of horse racing and breeding. He certainly couldn't be like those professional horse farms with a full set of equipment and horse training methods. He only had his own small horse farm where he could have some fun.

The butler, who was standing to the side, immediately agreed, "I'll have someone contact them right away."

Afterwards, the party whip and a few others changed into civilian clothes and sat down in the house at the horse farm to chat.

Let's talk about some recent changes in federal politics, the cabinet, and some things in Congress.

They recently encountered a rather tricky problem.

Former FBI Director Roland disappeared from his position for various reasons.

Subsequently, the Socialist president nominated a new FBI director, which was approved by Congress, thus this FBI director from the Socialist camp successfully took office.

President Porter originally intended to replace him with one of his own people after he took office, but now he suddenly realizes that Congress is very likely not to pass the request, which makes things complicated.

The federal government always practices decentralization: the president nominates, Congress approves, or Congress nominates, the president signs; in short, they don't concentrate all the power in the hands of one person or one department.

Sometimes doing this is pointless. For example, when the Socialist Party was in power a few years ago, the parliament and the presidential palace were staffed by their people.

But sometimes, it has some meaning, like right now.

Although the Liberal Party is the majority party, they cannot pass a one-size-fits-all parliamentary bill. This means that as long as the Socialist Party does not compromise, the FBI director cannot be replaced.

What can be done if the president can nominate someone but Congress doesn't approve them?
And it is foreseeable that Congress will definitely not allow it to pass, which means that the FBI director will stay in this position for a long time!

The FBI is a new product of centralized power. The Socialist president and Congress granted the FBI a great deal of authority, and it is now virtually impossible to take back those powers. So, the Liberal Party is certainly not happy that such an important position has fallen into the hands of the Socialists.

"...Porter's idea is for us to re-establish a department with some overlap in its authority with the FBI, so that we can delegate some things to the new department instead of letting the FBI get involved."

"Doing this will prevent us from giving the other party leverage on some sensitive issues, or from them refusing to handle the aftermath of some of our troubles."

Several other politicians echoed this sentiment, saying, "It's a great idea, but there are some problems. Where will the staff for the new department be transferred from?"

"And what if Congress rejects this proposal?"

The whip nodded and said, “This is another problem we face: finding something we can trade with the Socialists. So you can also think about whether we have anything they urgently need that won’t affect our balance, and offer it to them in a deal.”

As they were talking, the butler came in from outside. "Master, the horse farm has agreed to our request. They will come and transport the horses away in the next few days and return them after spring."

The whip nodded in satisfaction, saying that sending these horses to a professional horse farm was a good solution.

The weather is too cold now, it's not suitable for horseback riding, whether it's the horse or he.

His horse farm here is, after all, a private operation and not very professional. Professional matters should be left to professionals.

Moreover, he can also get the bloodline of a champion horse for free, so he doesn't lose out no matter how you look at it.

As for the mating fee?

He wasn't worried about that at all. He hadn't even asked the other party for money, so how could those people dare to ask him for more?

"Be careful not to hurt my babies. Send someone with them and they'll come back after it's all taken care of."

The housekeeper quickly made the arrangements, and they began discussing how to establish a new law enforcement agency.

As the majority party whip, he has the authority to oversee the proposals and votes in Congress, so ultimately, this matter still requires his cooperation to push forward.

After learning about this, the people at the horse farm felt as honored as the party whip had predicted; in fact, they felt extremely honored!
Having the ruling party whip's horse boarded at their horse farm is more effective than spending money on advertising!

The ruling party whips, as owners of horse farms, were well aware of the weight of their positions, and they immediately agreed.

It took them two or three days to reach the horse farm of the Party Whip.

The ruling party's whip felt somewhat reluctant as he watched his beloved horses being loaded into special carriages.

Those in positions of power are more likely to be like this on certain issues; they would rather believe small animals than the people around them, even those with whom they have close relationships.

After watching the horses depart, the whip returned his attention to his work. The election was about to end, and the next round of Senate seat changes was also coming to a close.

There are still many things waiting for him!
While he temporarily forgot about his horse, Lance was also talking about the horse farm.

“These horse farms have many employees, and different feeding strategies are used in different areas. Whether it’s poisoning or directly infiltrating to kill the horses, it’s very difficult to go undetected.”

The person in charge of this matter is reporting to Lance on the phone. They actually found the horse farm some time ago and did some detailed investigation, but the results were not optimistic.

Professional horse farms definitely have professional feeding programs. Different stables are located in different places, with a rather large span, and there are many horses and many people.

It's very difficult to kill all the horses without alerting anyone. After listening, Lance thought for a moment, "We can not consider killing all the horses, but just get rid of their best horse, those champion horses, the ones used for breeding or something."

"These horses are the most valuable; we won't consider the other ordinary horses."

The person in charge on the other end of the phone nodded in agreement, "If that's the case, it's not difficult."

Lance immediately made the decision, "Let's do it that way."

In another city, the captain in charge of the matter put down the phone, rubbed his wrist, and looked at a floor plan on the table. It roughly depicted the entire horse farm, with several places circled in red.

He waved to the people around him, calling them over, "I've talked to the Boss. Take out the horses in these areas, and don't worry about the others."

Suddenly someone said, "We can set a fire. There's a lot of hay and wooden structures in the horse farm. It's winter now, so it's very dry. Once it's set on fire, it will spread very quickly."

After considering it for a moment, the captain thought it was a good idea and agreed.

"Now I'll assign the tasks..."

With tasks assigned, these people began preparing for the operation.

After all, this is not Likale State, nor is it Lance's territory. They need to prepare various contingency plans before implementing them.

February arrived in the blink of an eye, the weather became colder, and there were far fewer pedestrians on the street.

A convoy of transport vehicles entered the horse farm through the gate, where several shareholders gathered to personally receive the horses as a sign of their respect for the whip.

Then they personally took the horses to a specially cleared, high-class stable to ensure that each horse would be well cared for by a dedicated person. They took some photos with the people who came with the horses before returning home satisfied.

"This matter needs to be publicized so that more people know that Dangbian's horses are being fostered here. We have the best equipment, horse trainers, and the best racehorses!"

Another shareholder asked, "He also sent over two mares, saying he wanted to breed them. How much should we charge him?"

The major shareholder, who had spoken earlier, couldn't help but curse, "Is there something in your head that doesn't belong there?"

"Isn't this a better way to promote?"

"Even the party whip needs our racehorse pedigree, is there any advertisement more trustworthy than that?"

"Don't charge him any fees, just make sure these two horses give birth to healthy foals, understand?"

The shareholders all agreed that there were no problems, and the matter was settled.

In the evening, after the work at the horse farm was finished, most of the workers left and returned to their dormitories.

Only a very few stables still had some horse trainers remaining.

Under the cover of night, Lance's men had already entered the area.

"They brought in several more horses today, and these horses look quite special; the shareholders all showed up."

The speaker was a family member who had infiltrated the place beforehand as a temporary worker, and he recounted the events of the day.

Where were they sent?

The undercover agent gave a stable number; these high-class stables were all located in roughly the same area.

The captain considered it seriously for a moment, then said, "Let's deal with them together."

Led by the undercover agent and under the cover of night, they soon arrived outside the high-class stables.

The doors to these stables aren't locked; they're just secured with latches. There's a lot of work to do every day, and locking and unlocking them repeatedly would be too much trouble.

The lights in the stables weren't all off; two were still on, allowing one to roughly see what was there.

When the captain entered the stable with his pistol, the horses inside immediately woke up.

They looked at the captain, a stranger, with wariness and distrust in their eyes, and the horses visibly became tense and agitated.

They kept stomping on the ground, and one of the horses even neighed.

But the next second, everything calmed down.

Not too far away, the horse trainer, who hadn't fallen asleep yet, suddenly looked up in the direction of the stables, the area he was in charge of managing, and a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

"Did you hear that hissing sound just now?" he asked, turning to his roommate.

His colleagues were already huddled in bed; the horse farm was cold in winter, even though the buildings weren't well-ventilated.

"Have it?"

"No way?!"

"You might have misheard, or it might be a mouse or something. You know, it's winter now."

The stables are heated in winter, which attracts some small animals, such as mice.

Some mice might startle the horses, so it's normal for them to occasionally neigh.

The startled horse trainer hesitated for a moment, then lay back down. "Maybe."

After all, the sound just now was faint, and he himself couldn't be sure whether it was there or not.

Meanwhile, in the stable, the captain looked at the horse that had fallen to the ground, put down his pistol, and then drew a sharp dagger from his waist.

When Lance was talking to him about this, he also gave him a small task.

That means cutting off the heads of all the horses that were killed and then putting them together.

Although the captain didn't know what the special significance of doing this was, as the head of the family, he still obeyed Lance's request.

The stables seemed rather unsettled tonight. The horse trainer, who was half-asleep in bed, suddenly sat up, staring at the pitch-black night outside the window with a look of surprise and doubt on his face once again.

The colleague sleeping opposite me turned over and asked, his voice muffled, "What's wrong now?"

He made quite a commotion when he got up, which may have startled the other party.

"I think I heard a horse neighing."

His colleague pursed his lips, without even opening his eyes, "You're being too sensitive. How come I didn't hear you?"

Doubt and unease, once they take root in the heart and begin to sprout, will continue to grow until they are completely eradicated.

It's like when you've just left your house and come downstairs, you suddenly start to wonder if you forgot to lock the door when you left. You can't help but go back and check the closed door, even if you've left the neighborhood.

That's how it was for the horse trainer; he couldn't sleep anymore, so he got up, put on his clothes, and insisted on going to check on things.

After he left the dormitory, his colleague cursed "crazy" and turned around to cover his head and continue resting.

Being a horse trainer is no easy job; it requires considerable physical strength, and since it's winter, some tasks are not as easy as they are in the summer.

Instead of wasting time looking at those horses, I'd rather sleep a little longer.

There are many horse trainers at the horse farm, and the owners won't pay you more just because you're more responsible than others at night.

Since we're getting the same amount of money anyway, why make trouble for ourselves?
What a leisure time!

A dozen minutes later, screams erupted from the horse farm, filled with anger and terror!

(End of this chapter)