Shadow Empire

Chapter 144 Who is the Joker and Understanding

Heller, behind his desk, was smoking one cigarette after another.

You don't necessarily have to finish every cigarette one by one, maybe that's the case at the beginning.

But soon, he would only take three or four puffs on each cigarette, or four or five puffs at most, and then wait for the cigarette to slowly burn out between his fingers, and then put it out in the ashtray.

If he doesn't hold something in his hands, he will feel uneasy.

At this time, cigarettes not only represent a...consumer product, but also a psychological placebo.

"There shouldn't be any accidents, right?"

"There are so many of us?"

He looked at the other two trusted men in the office, one sitting and the other standing. The standing man confirmed Heller's point of view, "There won't be any surprises, boss."

"Although I don't want to admit it, I have to admit that the people on our side are all professional gangsters. The amount of bad things they have done is so shocking."

"And what about our opposite side?"

"They are a small group of former dock workers who can barely make a living. They are no match for us."

"I don't deny that there may be some powerful characters among them, but boss, the strength of a few people may be useful in small-scale conflicts, but in this kind of large-scale gang war, it actually has no meaning."

“So we’re going to win.”

These simple analysis words catered to Heller's mood at the moment very well. A smile appeared on his face, but he felt it was not good to smile before winning, so he put on a stern face again.

Another trusted subordinate said softly, "Rather than thinking about whether they can win, we should think about the follow-up issues of Red High Heels."

“The Red Heels have built a pathway for us and the Bay Area, and it has to be in our hands.”

"But you see, the other three people also seem to want the red high heels. How to put them in our basket properly will be a problem."

The purpose of the three senior officials rushing to work tonight was to "avenge Liam".

After they kill Lance and Lance's family, they can ask Heller to take over some of Liam's assets.

As loyal members of the gang, they can give up all of Liam's businesses except Red Heels, and the problem will shift to Heller.

When Liam started the Red High Heels Club, no one was optimistic about his business.

Jingang City has a population of over one million, and at least tens of thousands of people are engaged in similar work.

Not everyone who does this kind of work is a prostitute. The federal government's definition of prostitution is that "sexual intercourse must occur," so it is legal for many strip clubs to put oral sex on the menu.

Because this is not a transaction, and as long as it is not a transaction, then these ladies are not prostitutes, they are just... dancers, or beer girls.

Of course, there are some people who engage in transactions, but most of them are not in such legal and formal occasions. But in any case, whether it is legal or illegal, this place tends to be saturated.

Business is not easy for the poor. It is said that there is even a 50-point blowjob in Xilin District, and the man is an old man with all his teeth fallen out, just to earn some living expenses.

It is not easy for rich people to do business either. They need the best girls in all aspects, but it is difficult for these girls to take the initiative to do these businesses.

Federal women today are still relatively conservative.

No one expected that Liam could find a unique new track as a means to satisfy the perverted desires of all the rich people and successfully make some progress in the Bay Area.

"Agent Liam" is how people in the Bay Area know Liam. He can get some special girls who can withstand any impulse and desire, as long as you pay enough!
Red high heels represent not only the ability to make money, but also connections.

Heller was thinking about how to get Red High Heels into her arms, but before she could come up with any good idea, the sound of a truck was heard outside the window.

He quickly stood up and walked to the window. As he watched these people get off the bus, he already had a bad feeling.

When the three senior officials returned to the office with sullen faces, Heller knew that the matter had failed.

He looked at these people with a grim look in his eyes, but his brown sunglasses blocked their view, so they could not see the ferocity and panic in his eyes at this moment.

"So, what happened?"

One of the senior officials held up his wine glass and took a big sip of wine. "They were well prepared and had plenty of guns and ammunition."

"They hid in the room and blocked the doors and windows. It was difficult for us to get in." He burped. "More than a dozen guns were pointed at the door. Whoever went in would die!" - Picture 1
"Later we used incendiary bombs to force them out, and we succeeded. They fled to the back alley." - Picture 2
"Their resistance is very tenacious, different from anyone we've seen before. It's a bit like... a big family. Most importantly, they have plenty of ammunition."

"We kept exchanging fire, but we couldn't get in. The police station didn't allow us to use bombs, so we had to fight hard..."

Openly using bombs in the city... Well, the big families in the Federation often do this, but there must be a prerequisite to do so.

Or you have enough status to ignore the rules and do what you want.

Or you have to be crazy enough to trample on all the rules and the rule makers.

The former may be one of the rule makers, while the latter will be besieged by everyone.

The Camilla Gang is neither the former nor the latter, and they have to abide by some underlying rules.

Heller knew the outcome after hearing this. The cadre shrugged and said, "We set their house on fire, and the fire is spreading to the surrounding areas. We have been unable to take it down for a long time. The fire is spreading too fast. They have to intervene..."

Failure to intervene could have resulted in a larger fire, and in this era when brick and wood structures were the norm, once the fire spread, there would be no chance of rescue.

Moreover, the Triangle area is adjacent to the Bay Area, and they cannot allow the fire to pose any threat to the Bay Area, so when the fire began to spread, it was equivalent to ending the fight early.

"So, you didn't actually kill Lance, nor did you kill that many people?" Heller asked, suppressing his anger and emotions.

Maybe Lance is...dead?

The three senior officials looked at each other with a somewhat dusty face, and shook their heads, "I don't know."

"Maybe he's unlucky...", someone said.

But soon he shut up under Heller's glare.

One of Heller's trusted senior officials suddenly stood up and said, "Every one of you said you wanted to avenge Liam and rushed to deal with the Lance family. The boss gave you the opportunity because you were so proactive."

“But this is what you give back to your boss?”

"With the condition of you guys, how can the gang let you run Red High Heels?"

The three of them wanted to say something, but now they were speechless. The red high heels that had been causing some trouble ended up back in Heller's hands. This seemed to be a good thing, right?
But this still couldn't suppress Heller's anger!
"I've spent 140,000 or 150,000 tonight, and I don't even know how much compensation I need to give to your men, and you tell me I got nothing?"

"Now the whole Jingang City is fucking laughing at me!" He slammed the table hard. He wanted to slam it a few more times, but his hands hurt, so he gave up.

There was not a sound in the huge office. The three senior officials hung their heads and said nothing. They also felt very aggrieved.

Someone provided Lance with so many weapons and bullets. In this situation where it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, it would be useless even if Heller went there in person.

Not to mention that in the battle in the back alley, the two sides were constantly exchanging fire, and whoever rushed forward would die.

If the fire hadn't spread so quickly, they believed they would have had a chance to wipe out the Lance family in the end.

But the problem is, if there is no fire, there is no way to force Lance and his gang out of the house.

But as long as the incendiary bomb is used, there will inevitably be a countdown, which is an endless loop!
Heller was so angry that he went back and forth. He spent money, didn't do the job well, and turned himself into a circus clown.

He could already foresee that someone would think of a way to call and taunt him tomorrow. What was even more terrible was that if he failed this time, it would mean that his dominance over the imperial people in the imperial zone was beginning to decline!

He had some pain in his chest, which would be a dull pain every time he was angry, but he went to the hospital but couldn't find out what was wrong. The doctor just prescribed him a medicine that was said to relieve the symptoms.

He opened the drawer and stared at the cadres with cold eyes, took out a small medicine bottle, took out a pill, put it in his mouth, chewed it into pieces, and then swallowed it.

"They won't allow us to open fire again in a short time. Let's defend our own territory first, and then continue to find out what the hell these people are doing every day. On New Year's Day, I will wipe them out!" The natives of the Federation will be very lax during the New Year, and there will not be too many police officers on duty in the police station. He decided to make it a fait accompli this time, and then consider other issues.

As long as he deals with Lance and the Lance family, he and his Camilla Gang will still be an unshakable force in the Empire Zone.

Even if the city managers are somewhat dissatisfied with this, they will continue to tolerate him.

Because of the existence of the Camilla Gang, the people in the Imperial District are particularly honest. This is the art of management.

They never deal with these immigrants themselves, which will cause them to lose votes and have a bad image, but they will support some hidden forces to help them do this.

The obedient gangs helped them deal with the disobedient lower classes, while maintaining social stability. When they needed political achievements or needed to appease the extremely dissatisfied lower classes, they would pick out a group of people and lock them up or kill them, and all conflicts would be resolved.

This is why, even though all the benefits ultimately go into the pockets of the masters, people hate the lackeys who don’t get much benefit the most.

The art of ruling is nothing more than this!
As long as Heller, this lackey, is still useful, even though the masters don't like him, they will continue to use him because he is useful.

The cadres did not dare to say anything more, for fear of irritating Heller, and they all left.

Looking at the tens of thousands of dollars left on the table, after everyone left, Heller burst into an angry and unwilling roar, and was so angry that he even dropped his sunglasses.

So much so that when he changed into a pair of black sunglasses the next day, everyone was a little uncomfortable with it.

At ten o'clock in the morning, in the press hall of the city police station, the assistant chief solemnly recounted the thrilling gang fight that took place in the Triangle District last night under the flash lights.

"We found a total of 43 bodies at the scene and arrested 17 surviving gang members, five of whom were seriously injured and two died after being sent to the hospital."

"Jingang City's attitude towards gangs has always been to resolutely crack down on them and eradicate them. If we find a case, we will eliminate it and we will never tolerate it."

"We will continue to investigate based on the clues we have obtained to see if there are any more details. If there is any new information, we will inform you as soon as possible..."

Before he finished speaking, countless people raised their hands to ask questions, and the constant flashing of the flash lights made him feel very good.

After answering several reporters' questions and promising to give the surviving gangsters the most severe punishment possible, the assistant chief strode away.

Director Charlie only has a few more years left in his job, so the next step is to choose between him and another assistant director to pick one person to take over.

In fact, at present, there is not much actual power difference between the chief and assistant chief of a city police station.

The assistant director is a position that assists the director and is in charge of daily work.

Director Charlie comes at ten o'clock in the morning, takes a two-hour nap at noon, and leaves on time at five o'clock in the afternoon. What can he do and how much can he do?
Almost all of it was done by these two assistant directors.

But it was just a difference in position, and Director Charlie did nothing but got 30,000.

He ran around a lot and had to take certain risks, so he only got 15,000 yuan.

Why not keep climbing?

Now every time he comes to the limelight, it means he is one step closer to that position!
The news quickly spread throughout the city. Although the media newspapers blocked some key words and blurred some names and situations, people still found out that the ones involved in the fight last night were the Imperial Camilla Gang and the Lance Family, which had just been established and was active in the Triangle District and the Port District.

Nowadays, even ordinary people will inevitably be curious about Lance and the Lance family.

It was almost noon when Lance woke up from his sleep. He rubbed his head and found that the office was already open. Many people came today to ask what had happened, but the main members were not there. They were not clear about the situation and some of them were worried.

As for the financial consulting company, it was completely burned down, and the large amount of paper materials inside caused Lance to suffer heavy losses.

The exact amount of cash and some collateral materials needs to be estimated before we can know.

After waking up from a nap, he felt a little better. He looked at the other injured people to make sure they had no accidents before he went to the restaurant.

The two girls were sitting there doing nothing, but when they saw Lance coming down, they immediately stood up.

Lance waved for them to sit down, found a seat for himself, and put some food on his plate.

The food is actually very delicious. Having escaped poverty, they no longer eat only the cheapest food every day like they did in the past.

Beef, eggs, bacon, cheese, ham...

But at this point, eating these things is like chewing wax.

"You guys got up so early, didn't you sleep?" Lance asked casually, just like he was just making small talk while eating breakfast on a normal morning.

Both girls shook their heads, "We slept for a bit, and then we couldn't sleep anymore."

Last night's firefight was the most dangerous and intense one that Lance and the others had experienced since they arrived here.

It's normal to not be able to sleep. We have all been on the brink of life and death.

"Have you eaten?" Lance asked again.

"have eaten."

"no appetite."

Two completely different answers. Lance put down his knife and fork and sighed, "I will avenge them."

The girls didn't say anything, just stayed there in silence.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, everyone woke up one after another, ate something, and gathered in the living room, including the injured.

"I thought about it for a long time last night, and I realized that I made a mistake."

"I have always felt that there is a bottom line in this society."

"Just like we can't do something that is clearly against the law, I'm not saying we can't do it, but we can't do it casually."

"After all, it is against the law and undermines social public order and morality. It cannot exist under the sun."

"It's like... the shadow will never be bigger than the light."

“But now, I understand that sometimes shadows can not only be as big as the light, but can even cover it up!”

"Under the surface of all civilized norms are the most primitive and barbaric laws of survival, as well as a flexible bottom line."

"We lost, but we didn't lose to Heller and his Camilla gang, nor did we lose because we were not vigilant enough about these things. We lost to this damn rule that we didn't understand."

Everyone was listening quietly to what Lance said. Some people might not understand what he said, but some people understood it.

Just like the gunfight last night, the police actually stopped them from leaving and even allowed those people to come and fight with them.

But if you say that these policemen... are all bad, and that we targeted them, but afterwards when they left, we did not stop them!
Just let them go.

Who the hell could have thought of this?

For them, especially Lance who had experienced a more civilized and orderly society, sin would melt away under the "light".

But how could he have imagined that these two natural enemies could actually fucking merge together just for the sake of more convenient rule?
In other words, the control over rulers and order that he once had in another world made him ignore the primitiveness, barbarism, and hypocrisy of this era.

They didn't understand it then, but now, more or less, they understand it a little bit, thanks to Lance's explanation.

"We may not be familiar with it yet, but I believe we will become familiar with it and make better use of it."

“Since everyone is waiting for our performance, let’s show them our wonderful show!”

"Revenge. Waiting one more day makes my heart burn in flames. Let's start now!"

(End of this chapter)