Shadow Empire

Chapter 256 Inspection

In the morning, Vice President Vaughn arrived at the office of the dock workers' union early.

It was a very special honour for longshoremen's union representatives from across the country to come here recently for the first Likalai Longshoremen's Rodeo.

The local union can have a presence among the AFL-CIO, the AFL-CIO and more parallel unions, which will be of great help to Scott and his future career development.

And it’s a very special experience!
Vice President Vaughn understood this very well, so he participated in almost the entire process, whether it was the competition schedule or how to select people, to who to invite and who not to invite, and how to arrange these people, he was responsible for it all.

Although President Scott was also contacting various parties, his involvement was not in-depth.

Vice President Vaughn also had his own little ideas. If other unions wanted to hold similar events but had no experience, he would be the only one they could ask for advice.

After President Scott was promoted to the Federation of Labor, he served as the president of the local dock workers' union, and appeared in front of many unions and became friends with them.

In the future, he can definitely go to the AFL-CIO instead of the Confederation of Trade Unions!
Maybe the AFL-CIO does not have as much influence as the ACFTU in a specific field, but the AFL-CIO can influence not just one union, but all of them!
From a broader perspective, the AFL has a better future.

He wants to join the AFL and become an important member!
Every union worker along the way had a smile on their face. Now that the Jingangcheng Dock Union has become popular, they are naturally very happy.

This means they will have a better future, and who can refuse a better future?
No one can refuse!

He had just sat down and had not yet started working when his secretary knocked on the door twice and before he could respond, poked his head in.

He had a headache, "I'm working..." He planned to have a good talk with his secretary later. Although they had a good relationship, when working, work order was obviously more important!

But soon the secretary's words dispelled the idea, "Mr. Lance is here."

Vice President Vaughn was startled, and quickly stood up and walked around the table towards the door. "He's already come in?"

The secretary nodded, then suddenly looked back and pushed the door open.

Lance was walking towards him. Vice President Vaughn's face was immediately filled with smiles. He greeted him warmly, "Give me a call before you come so I can pick you up..."

If this scene was seen by the lowest-level staff of the union, or by the workers, rumors would definitely spread that "Vice President Vaughn is not arrogant, is easy to approach, and is very warm to people."

But in fact, he is humble and his enthusiasm is selective.

The two shook hands, and Lance smiled and said that he just happened to pass by here and didn't come here on purpose.

Vice President Vaughn asked his secretary to get two cups of good coffee, and then invited Lance into his office. He knew that Lance's words about being on the way were just an excuse.

At his position and level, he wouldn't believe in anything that was convenient or unconvenient.

After the secretary brought the coffee, Vice President Vaughn took the initiative to change the subject, "We are almost ready. I also plan to contact you about something."

“Other unions found out about this and became interested in what we were going to do, so they wanted to come as well.”

“Debbie and I talked about it, and she thought it was a great opportunity to expand our reach.”

"Every industry and every profession will take back what they see here, and it will become another template. Before we know it, our influence may spread throughout the federation."

"So I want to ask you what you mean..."

He picked up the coffee and took a sip. It looked like he wanted to drink some coffee after speaking, but in fact he was covering up his slight embarrassment.

The embarrassment is that the money may not be enough!
Lance could understand what he meant. More people had arrived and they needed to eat, drink, defecate and urinate. It was impossible to let them find a place to stay.

Even if we really let them find a place to stay, they still need to be treated to meals. And with so many people coming, do we need to organize other activities to entertain them? Do we need to give them some souvenirs when they leave? All these cost money.

President Scott has planned to use up all the remaining money of the union in order to get promoted. It is absolutely impossible to ask Vice President Vaughn to use his own savings to contribute to the work.

So if we want to do this well now, the best way is to let Lance continue to pay.

There are always a few things in this world that are hard to talk about——

Borrow someone else's car, take off someone else's pants, and take money out of someone else's pocket!
"If the overspending is not too much, I have no problem, but you need to get a copy of the materials for me to take a look."

"I want to know where every penny goes!"

Vice President Vaughn breathed a sigh of relief. "No problem. I guarantee that every penny will be used where it should be used."

Lance nodded, and the topic ended there. Vice President Vaughn was in a good mood, and the smile on his face became more sincere. "By the way, you came here today..."

Lance continued his words, "My coming here is also related to this matter. This is a very important matter for you and Scott, as well as for us."

"I'm worried that there will be a lot of people on the pier and that will cause some problems that we can't predict."

"For example, people were pushed into the water due to overcrowding, or people threw cigarettes and matches around and started a fire."

"I mean, we still have plenty of time to check the fire hazards on the dock and repair the guardrails."

Vice President Vaughn frowned slightly when he heard this. He knew that what Lance said was correct.

Firefighting has always been a big problem at the dock. In fact, there have been several large and small fires every year over the years. Perhaps it is just because of aging wires and short circuits that a big fire can be caused.

Another point is that the air at the seaside is corrosive. Even if many guardrails are painted with anti-rust paint, they will still be severely corroded. If someone really doesn't know this and leans against those dangerous guardrails, they will fall into the sea.

When this happens normally, the union will become the sanctioner against those capitalists who are unwilling to pay.

But if it happens at an event they host, they will be held responsible.

"Your reminder is very timely and crucial. I will arrange it as soon as possible..." He seemed to have a headache, "but time is a bit tight now."

Perhaps seeing his troubles, Lance took the initiative to say, "I'll ask Blue Work Clothes to help and donate some fire-fighting equipment, but there may be a lot of cars coming in and out at that time. Will it have any impact?"

After hearing this, Vice President Vaughn's worried expression disappeared and he waved his hand, "I don't dare to say anything big in other places, but at the dock, my words are still effective!"

The people Sean arranged gave Lance a message that they had found a warehouse of wine, and it looked like it had been there for quite some time.

These people probably existed before the Prohibition was issued, and their purpose was to speculate and make a lot of money.

Although the price of alcohol has risen very high now, there is still no sign of stopping, so they will not sell this batch of alcohol unless the profits are maximized.

Even if this batch of liquor is legal, it will become illegal when it reaches Chief Dell's hands!
Director Dell, who is eager to continue to work on big cases, doesn't care whether your storage receipts are real or not. To him, all of this is illegal anyway!

Lance didn't think much about it at first, but then he thought that he should do a survey of the warehouse area on the dock, at least to let him know what other good and bad things there are here.

So a thorough investigation began. There was no need to be sneaky. We just took a notebook and recorded the conditions of the warehouses.

Vice President Vaughan had no idea what Lance was going to do, but what he said certainly did not do any harm to him, the docks, and the dock workers' union.

He could even use this incident to collect some money from the businesses and warehouses at the dock, such as "fire fees" or something like that.

With the cooperation of Vice President Vaughn, this matter can be promoted easily. Lance asked Vice President Vaughn to contact Sean directly.

Lance went straight to Alberto. He had something to discuss with him.

As soon as Lance walked into the door of Lezhu Financial Company, the beautiful girl at the front desk waved her finger at him and greeted him, and then Lance heard the shouting and cursing coming from the innermost part.

He walked to the front desk and put his elbow on it, "Hi, you look much prettier now since I last saw you in a few days."

Although the girl rolled her eyes, she was still very happy, "I have always been so beautiful!"

She is very confident.

Lance pointed at the corner at the end of the corridor and asked, "What happened to him?"

The pretty girl was straightforward and said, "He was busted in a bar in the Starlight District."

After hearing this, Lance couldn't help but laugh out loud, and his laughter alarmed the "staff" in the door next to him.

Someone stuck his head out to look, then immediately came over to hug him, and turned around and said, "Look, who's here!" Lance had no choice but to walk in first. The people here were indeed nice to him, although their initial "niceness" was based on Alberto's liking for him and was not necessarily sincere.

Just like - if your boss is very nice to a stranger, especially a small person, you will not be cold to him, but will show a certain enthusiasm.

But no matter whether they were sincere or not, at least they were nice to him at that time.

And now, they probably really mean it from the heart!

Lance shook hands with them, high-fived, bumped fists, and hugged them, and it took a while for him to stop completely.

"You came at a bad time. He was having a tantrum."

Lance asked curiously, "How much was lost?"

The person who was speaking smiled and said, "Maybe fifty or sixty thousand."

Lance whistled, "We should be angry."

"If it were me, I would still shoot."

Everyone in the room laughed, not really taking the loss of so much money too seriously.

The gangs of the Sumurai people are very interesting. The interesting thing is that their backbone members are basically relatives, not complete strangers.

If someone who is not related to them wants to join, someone must act as an "introducer" to introduce them, but everyone is very cautious about this matter.

The situation on Sumurai Island is also very complicated, and they will not randomly recruit strangers from Sumurai to join.

Of course, they will also recruit some people from the Federation or immigrants from other countries, but it is still difficult to enter the core circle.

Alberto ordered them around at work and they didn't resist because work was work.

But if they weren’t at work, some of them would even be Alberto’s uncles!
You expect them to have much respect for Alberto now, which is obviously unlikely.

Although fifty or sixty thousand yuan is a lot of money, after seeing the huge profits of alcohol, their perspectives are different from before.

In the past, Alberto would not let go of even a business worth a few dozen dollars. If someone came to borrow some money now, he might just send the person to someone else to receive it.

Tens of thousands of dollars can be earned back in a week.

In fact, they all knew that the reason Alberto was angry was not because he lost a lot of money, but simply because he felt he had lost face.

Everyone else's bar was fine, but his bar had problems.

They chatted for a while about the recent incident of greyhounds from the Hazardous Materials Administration biting people everywhere. After the shouting and cursing in Alberto's office stopped, Lance said goodbye to them and went inside.

When he pushed open the door, Alberto was standing by the window smoking a cigarette. When he saw Lance, he was not as enthusiastic as before. He really did not have the emotional support.

"Sit anywhere."

He looked a little depressed, "You know?"

Lance sat in a chair and lit up a cigar, "Of course, I don't think it's a big deal. I was taken to two bars."

Alberto suddenly felt better after hearing this. He rolled his eyes and said, “I’m just angry about why they could find the location of my bar so accurately!”

"I trust my guests. We haven't received any new guests in the past few days. Someone betrayed me!"

Lance nodded, and he hesitated, which made Alberto grasp something, "What do you want to say?"

He then slowly said, "The Hazardous Materials Administration arranged an undercover agent to enter my company, and they were passing the message outside. If I hadn't found them, I would have also lost another bar yesterday."

Alberto seemed to have thought of something. He picked up the phone and said, "Ask Fordis to come back. I have something to say to him."

"It seems you realize it."

Alberto's mood began to return to normal, "These sons of bitches, don't let me catch that bastard, or I will let him know how terrible the anger of the Sumurians is!"

In fact, it was not just Lance who realized that a chaotic Golden Port City was about to come. Alberto and others also realized it. They were all recruiting troops, but... it was not visible at ordinary times.

This does not mean that they have done nothing. Recently, a large number of Sumul people have been coming to Jingang City from other places. There may be undercover agents from the Hazardous Materials Administration among them.

When he thought about this, he cursed in the Sumuli Island dialect for a while before he let out a long breath and looked much more normal.

"Let's let these unpleasant things pass first. I believe that you didn't do this just to remind me." He made a quick judgment.

This was indeed the case, Lance did not deny it, "There is something I need to talk to you about, or you could say I need your help."

"explain."

Very concise, Lance likes this.

"Luigi cut off my supply. He broke the contract."

When he heard this, Alberto's eyebrows stood up again, "This bastard, I knew that the Carlos family was unreliable!"

Lance looked at him, "Then why did you introduce us to each other?"

This made him look very embarrassed. "Actually most of the time they are..." He tried to put on a serious expression, "...not bad."

"I'll give him a call..."

Lance stopped him, "That's not my style, Alberto."

Alberto also took his hand off the receiver. "So what do you want me to do?"

Lance also withdrew his hand, "He must still be shipping to the Federation. If there are goods sent to Jingang City, I hope I can know the place and time of delivery."

This is basically impossible for other people to do, but it is not very difficult for the Sumurai people with complicated relationships.

Alberto thought about it for a while and said, "No problem, I'll take care of it."

Lance nodded slightly. "Actually, I came here today to tell you something. Next month, Congress will pass a proposal to strengthen the Coast Guard's armaments. By then, all smuggling groups will no longer be able to deliver goods on the sea with impunity."

Alberto's eyes widened, "I didn't know you had connections in Congress!"

The look was as if he had seen some kind of Pokémon, full of wonder.

Lance didn't explain. Sometimes maintaining a certain sense of mystery can help maintain friendship better.

He said with a half-smile, "I also have connections in the Presidential Palace, but I'm afraid you don't believe it."

Alberto's eyes widened. "You still have such a way?"

But then he cursed "Shit" and started laughing as Lance laughed too.

Actually, Lance came here for other things, but after thinking about it, he didn't talk about it.

He needs lots of bottles.

He had offered Mr. Jobaf the suggestion of setting a fire, but Mr. Jobaf had refused, and now he wanted to use the trick himself.

So the fewer people who know about it, the better.

Alberto invited Lance to have lunch with him. At the table, he talked to him about the recent military frictions on the Tanfit continent and some problems on Sumurri Island.

This also gave Lance a clearer understanding of Sumuli Island and the international events that were happening...

(End of this chapter)