Shadow Empire

Chapter 202 Give You a Mirror and a Political Joke and Save Me

Lucard's eyes were always focused on Lance, "You are good at talking, there must be a lot of girls who like you?"

"This is my personal privacy, but..." Lance smiled and nodded, "There are indeed girls who like me."

"Lukar, I have a very curious question to ask you. I wonder if it would be convenient for you to talk to me."

Lucar had nothing else to do today. What happened this week was so damn exciting, even in those amazing novels you couldn't find such exciting plots.

Until now, he had a feeling of unreality and at the same time smelled a very special smell, the smell of gunpowder.

When facing Lance, his reason was somewhat led by emotions. He knew that this was wrong, but everyone knows that there are some things that should not be done, but they still do them.

Just like people know that they shouldn't do illegal things, shouldn't maintain bad habits, and shouldn't sit at the table with toilet paper to disinfect their hands after a tiring day at work.

They all knew it, but they just couldn't control themselves.

Lucard was a little bit unable to control himself, and what this caused was that he hoped to discover more from Lance, so he didn't mind chatting with Lance for a while.

"Of course, if I may say so."

Lance nodded as a token of thanks, "Why do you like staring at me?"

"I mean... there are so many criminals committing crimes in this city, and you came to me alone, sat here, bought me a cup of coffee, and then told me that you would keep an eye on me."

"Because you have some special fetish?" He raised his hands with a smile, making a gesture of rejection, "I respect your personal emotional orientation, but I'm sorry, I can't accept this."

Lucard couldn't help laughing. He held his forehead and laughed rhythmically, as if this was a very funny joke.

After laughing for a while, he took a deep breath to stop the laughter, "Interesting!"

He paused for a moment, as if recalling something, "Maybe you left a deep impression on me, Lance."

"You are still just a..." He stretched out his hand and made a small gesture, "... an insignificant little character, but you can easily play tricks on law enforcers and maintain your contemptuous attitude when facing the law and justice."

"This made me notice you. I have some interest in you, but don't worry, it's not that kind of thing."

"I want to catch you, Lance. I want to see you standing in the dock to accept the most severe punishment given to you by the judge. When I personally send you to the electric chair, can you still laugh like you do now, or like you did before?"

Lance’s smile was very handsome, but the more handsome and sunny it was, the more unhappy Lucard felt as if he had been fooled.

He wanted "revenge", that's why.

After listening carefully, Lance asked, "So, you didn't arrest me for the justice in your heart or the fairness of the law, but just because you think I played a trick on you?"

Lucard frowned. "This is only part of it, but I am a law enforcer after all. Maintaining justice and the dignity of the law is also one of my jobs. This is not a conflict."

Lance put his hands on the table and leaned forward, looking like he was telling you something.

Lucard hesitated, but when Lance waved at him, he leaned forward slightly.

"I'll tell you a secret."

"The Red Heels Nightclub is arresting young girls everywhere and forcing them to provide services to the upper class in the Bay Area. Some are even killed and thrown into Angel Lake."

"We all know that there are hundreds of gasoline barrels and countless iron chains down there. Isn't it time for you to do your justice now?"

The ravine between Lucard's brows was bottomless, and his expression seemed frozen.

Lance leaned back, resting against the back of his chair.

After several seconds, he spread his hands and said, "See, you are not as righteous as you think you are, Lukar."

"You are actually no different from those police officers who accept bribes. You are even worse than them."

"They accept black money, and they will do things if they accept black money. What about you?"

“Do you take bribes?”

“Do you have principles?”

"Are you really as good as you think you are?"

"I think not. You are just a willful child who will never recognize your own problems."

"You're very interested in me, but I'm not that interested in you because there's nothing special about you."

"Oh, I forgot to ask, do you charge money?"

Lance pulled out a wad of money from his pocket, all in five-dollar denominations.

He counted out a hundred, twenty bills, and laid them out neatly on the table, then gathered them together and threw them in front of Lukar, "I'll buy you a cup of coffee, too."

Lucard's expression was different from before. Before this, he always had a hidden sense of arrogance when facing Lance. When he faced a criminal as a law enforcer and a messenger of justice, he couldn't help but feel superior.

But when Lance shattered his arrogance with a few simple words, it was like giving him a real mirror, allowing him to see the real self in the mirror, which was completely different from what he imagined.

Almost all animals cannot see themselves. Their understanding of themselves comes from feedback from the outside world and their own idealized guesses.

So when a person hasn't looked in the mirror for a long time, giving them a mirror will make them feel scared, because only then will they discover that they are not "themselves".

It sounds complicated, but to put it simply, people's real selves are not as good as they imagine themselves to be.

Lucard could no longer laugh.

Lance didn't mind continuing to goad him, "Why aren't you smiling?"

Lugal stood up and looked at Lance, "I'll keep an eye on you."

Lance shrugged, crossed his legs, and put his hands on the arms of the chair, "Whatever."

Lucard then left angrily.

Looking at the office door slamming shut, Lance didn't have any other emotions.

Isn't it normal to be watched by law enforcement officers?
But whether or not he can be caught is another question!

Erwin quickly pushed the door open, "What happened to that guy?"

He saw the Hazardous Materials Administration car parked outside, and heard that the guy went into Lance's office, but they didn't go in because Lance didn't call out to them.

Others also squeezed in, and Lance briefly said, "This Chief Dale is a very special person. His methods are much more sophisticated than those of the chiefs of other local law enforcement agencies."

"Now he has mobilized the entire Jingang City to deal with Polly. Polly is very likely dead."

After hearing this, the others had an indescribable feeling. They had never dealt with this "big Polly" who was very famous in the port area, but they had heard a lot of rumors about him.

Polly showed signs of being more mature than other children of his age since he was young, and started making a living on the streets when he was seven or eight years old.

When he came of age, he joined the Brotherhood and soon showed his personal charm in the gang and became the leader.

Many people think that the port area will usher in the "Polly era", and the Red Dog Gang will have no impact on his dominance. Although the Red Dog Gang is nominally here, their presence is not strong. On the contrary, the Brothers Import and Export Company and the Brothers Gang have a very large influence.

But now, he is about to become the past.

If people were to be given titles with a sense of historical weight, using categories such as "ordinary", "elite", "legend", and "epic", then Polly would be above the elite.

And a magnificent era was about to set sail, but he fell on the eve of the new era. Perhaps people will feel regretful when talking about this, but this is the cruelest side of this world.

Maybe you were shining brightly the day before, but one day later, the sun went out!

"Should we enter the port area?" There were a lot of people crowded in the office, and now the nightclub has also stopped temporarily. Without alcohol, who the hell would want to go to the nightclub to watch singing and dancing?
Among ten guests, there may be only two or three who come to see the thighs, and most of them come to sit down and have a drink in a place with a good atmosphere.

It would be best to have a female companion who belongs to you when you come in and belongs to someone else when you leave.

Without alcohol, a nightclub would have no soul, except for the casino of course.

For gamblers, it doesn’t matter whether there is alcohol or not. What they want are playing cards, dice, chips, and the adrenaline at the moment of winning or losing!
So there are more people here today.

Ethan made this point and everyone else looked at Lance.

The Empire District is still too poor. Together with the Port District, it is known as the gathering place for the poor in Jingang City. Almost all those who live here are from the lower class of society, workers.

In fact, it can be seen from the bars that in the Empire District, each customer spends about 25 cents a day in their bars, and some may only spend 10 or 15 cents.

They would just ask for a glass of wine and drink it slowly.

Lance's strategy of small profits but quick turnover to grab the market may be one of the reasons why they are not as profitable as other bars, but in the final analysis, the customers are just too poor.

They heard from Lance that when he and Alberto went to a bar in the Bay Area, a glass of wine cost one dollar, and the cheaper ones cost fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty cents.

The profit they make from a glass of wine may be equal to the profit Lance and his team make from a bottle of wine.

This is also the reason why everyone wants to go to more developed areas outside, because the consumption levels are different.

At present, the city center, the Bay Area, and the Starlight District are firmly controlled by the branches of the five major families. Small gangs cannot get involved at all. If they want to develop, they can only continue to expand their territory as much as possible and deal with poor people in poor places.

Entering the port area is a good choice. After a brief exchange with the Red Dog Gang, everyone found that the Red Dog Gang is a soft tomato that will rot if squeezed, so if they also develop towards the port area, there should be no problem.

But Lance shook his head and said, "We won't develop here for now. Wait until we have completely digested the Empire District before considering further expansion."

"Expansion now will not only fail to enhance our strength, but will bring us some potential risks."

"A lot of people are watching us. Although we have used some tricks to unify the Empire, this is enough to make them wary."

“If we continue to expand, they will become nervous, and we don’t have the ability to fight against the entire Golden Port City, and we lack our political representatives.”

"So the best thing for us to do right now is to stabilize for a while and improve ourselves quickly. When we have the strength to try new challenges, we will go out again."

"Moreover!" He said in a heavier voice, "Lucard's visit today actually brought us a message. In the next period of time, they will crack down on the problem of smuggled liquor."

"Our Chief Dell has miraculously saved the situation, but if he wants to go further in this job and return to the Special Administrative Region, he must make outstanding achievements in a short period of time."

"For him, catching smuggled liquor, catching smuggled tobacco, catching explosives is an achievement."

"We don't expand when he's at his craziest, that's not good for us!"

Everyone roughly understood what was said, and they all agreed with Lance's judgment.

In fact, there is another reason for not expanding outward, that is, the current Jingang City is too stable.

The five major families, local political forces and the city hall, the three giants have always coexisted peacefully. Before they caused chaos, in fact, there was no chance for people at the bottom to stand out.

They will suppress anyone who wants to stand out, and the rule makers will never allow new people to join them.

So now, the best thing is to quietly accumulate strength, and then wait until the day when this stable power triangle becomes unstable or even collapses!

Perhaps it was because Jingang City's actions in the two explosions against the Hazardous Materials Administration were too bad, or perhaps it was because Director Dell was good enough and had a backer in Congress.

Soon the whole country knew about this and began a heated discussion.

A senator expressed his opinion in The Planet, saying that criminal organizations' attacks on law enforcement agencies were a provocation to the federal regime and that this momentum must be suppressed.

Otherwise people will mistakenly believe that the federal regime has lost control of the federation, which will lead to some terrible consequences.

Some other senators and congressmen also have similar or agree with his views, and the situation is still escalating.

"How to better curb organized crime" has become a hot topic at present.

During this period, a very interesting thing happened. It is said that the director of the FBI asked the president for instructions, believing that the FBI could assist the Hazardous Materials Administration in investigating, collecting evidence and arresting these organized crime groups.

But the President rejected the Director General's request. He believed that these had nothing to do with the FBI. What the FBI needed to do most now was to find out who was saying bad things about the President, rather than catching any criminals.

The President also told his chief of staff that he felt the director general's brain was not working very well, and if it didn't work, he should be replaced by someone else. He didn't even know who he should be working for!
It is not known whether this rumor is true or not, but the person who could leak such detailed information, if not the president, must be the chief of staff.

At least it wouldn't have come from the director general himself. He couldn't tell everyone "the president doesn't like me". That wouldn't be reasonable.

So the whole thing was probably instigated by the president, and the chief of staff revealed an intention that they were looking for a qualified "political thug" to replace the current director general who doesn't know his position.

What they want is a “thug” and a “vicious dog”, but not a “crime killer”!
"The FBI actually wants to catch real criminals" has also become a political joke in recent political circles, although for ordinary people, they don't know what's so funny about it.

Compared to the various emotions of other people, Big Polly at this time was not "big" at all.

Director Dell's public speech had already made him realize that this Director Dell was different from everyone he had ever met before.

He wasn't like Charlie, not like John, not like Blue, not like any of the police chiefs he knew who could catch him.

He has powerful means and does not accept compromise. What's more troublesome is that it is no longer the people from the Hazardous Materials Administration who are looking for him, but also the police, other gangs, and the five major families.

After the incident, Polly went into hiding. Now he is a little panic-stricken and has not opened the curtains for several days.

Whenever a police car or siren passed by, he would nervously grab his weapon and look outside.

After waiting for two days, he finally dialed a number. All his hopes were pinned on this number.

"Mr. Wade..." He held the phone in both hands, his face panicked, without any of the arrogance he had in the past when he stood in the office, cigarette in mouth, holding a submachine gun and shooting at the street.

Now he was like a dog with a broken leg, whimpering and trying to find a habitat in the heavy rain.

"Polly, what should I say?"

A gentle voice came from the other end of the receiver. Just by listening to the voice, one could imagine a well-dressed gentleman sitting behind a table, holding a phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

He should be very dignified. The texture of his voice and the speed of his speech tell people that he is a well-educated and respected person.

Polly forced a smile, even though the other party couldn't see it, "Mr. Wade, help me!"

(End of this chapter)