Shadow Empire

Chapter 262 Signs
At the weekend, at the invitation of Chief Bruce, Lance attended the retirement ceremony of the Chief of the Port District Police Station with him.

The director of the Hong Kong District Branch has reached retirement age. In fact, he should have retired at the end of last year, but when various branches are facing some transfers, in order to allow his successor to better secure the position and take over smoothly.

So Charlie made a special call to the old branch chief and asked him to postpone his retirement for a few months, and he agreed.

Now the new assistant director of the branch, or deputy director John, has taken over all the work in the port area, and it is time for the old director to put down his burden.

After all, there are only a few people who can work as a police officer until retirement without any illness or injury, and they retire as branch chiefs.

Therefore, some prominent figures in the Jingang City police force would come here. On the one hand, it was to show the unity of the police force, and on the other hand it was also a kind of prayer and yearning for their own beautiful future.

"I heard John spent a lot of money to become the director."

Lance asked casually on the way to the old director's house.

John made a huge fortune when he left the Empire Division, at least 10,000 or 20,000 dollars, and many people knew about this.

Hearing Lance mention this, Chief Blue showed an unhappy look on his face, "Don't mention that son of a bitch to me!"

"He's a bastard, you know that?"

Seeing Chief Blue clearly wanting to talk, Lance also wanted to get to know him. After all... to him, this guy was a semi-acquaintance. "If you don't mind, I can help you make a judgment."

Chief Blue said as he drove, "You know our income is not high. The City Hall... those sons of bitches won't approve too much budget for us."

He lowered his voice noticeably when he spoke of City Hall.

"Police officers actually have quite a lot of expenses, including leather boots, police uniforms, casual clothes, gun oil... there are many things they have to pay for themselves."

“So forty dollars may seem like a lot, but in reality, our income is not much different from that of the workers on the docks. Moreover, the nature of our work is more dangerous, and sometimes we get injured, but the city hall only allocates us the minimum amount.”

“So we need to have some extra income.”

He glanced at Lance.

Lance sponsors him a portion of the money every month, and there are also many people in the police station who have benefited from Lance. If the police officers of the Imperial Branch are asked to choose between him and Lance.

He believed that he would be abandoned by his close group of comrades.

Ideals are not enough to make a living!

The federals actually have a deeper understanding than the immigrants. After all, they have been whipped by the cruel reality and are unable to resist, while those immigrants still retain a glimmer of fantasy because they are not heartbroken.

"John collected three months' fees from the entire street and extorted some money from some people. He gave 25,000 to Charlie and 5,000 to the old director."

"Then he was transferred there. He will soon take over the position of the old director and become the official director of the Port Branch."

"I heard that he actually gave Charlie more money than this, so once he comes to power, he will definitely find a way to get it back from the port area. People here are having a hard time!"

Chief Blue no longer had much respect for Charlie. He no longer felt oppressed by a police chief who had already resigned.

Moreover, he became the "Bay Area Hound" not only because of his loyalty, but also because of his identity.

There are many people in this city who are willing to be loyal to the masters in the Bay Area, but the masters in the Bay Area won't even look at them.

Unless they are directors or something like that, they have special status bonuses.

Without that layer of skin, the masters in the Bay Area will not care about him as much as before, so Chief Bruce has lost his "fear". As for respect?

A boss who is more greedy and better at acting than him makes him have no respect for him at all!

"I heard Hunter has a great chance?" Lance asked.

He also heard the news. Hunter was very likely to succeed. He and Charlie had done a lot of dirty work for the masters, so he was a good candidate to be the next dog.

Chief Blue shook his head. "I'm not sure about that. Although everyone says so, the people who can ultimately decide who will sit in this position are the masters of the Bay Area."

"And now there's another problem, Mayor."

In a city with a mayoral system, the mayor makes the final decision on all internal issues. Without his nod, Hunter cannot become police chief.

Similarly, he could have directly appointed other people. Now he has not said anything, making it unclear what he is thinking.

And whether he will be able to appoint Hunter as the next police chief is also a question.

The car approached the edge of Priscilla and the port area. There were several communities here with many police residents, and they liked to live here in groups.

This is the advantage of being rich. It allows rich people to stay physically and mentally happy at all times.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw colleagues I got along well with, unlike the lower- and middle-level police officers who lived in the Imperial District and the Port District.

When they opened the door, they saw the dark and urine-stained apartment corridors.

Seeing that Chief Blue had begun to slow down the car, he suddenly seemed to have thought of something and said, "We discussed those two...cases and treated them as illegal immigrants."

The two cases he was talking about were cases of people jumping from a building not long ago. Two people were hung from an apartment building with ropes around their heads. The forensic doctor said they were still alive before the ropes were tightened.

Then, the moment the rope was tightened, both of them were dead.

In addition, their deaths were so "creative" that you could tell at a glance that they were honor kills, a ritualistic way of death.

Others may not know what the situation is, but Chief Bruce knows very well that one of the crimes took place in the Imperial District, and he simply processed the case as an illegal immigrant.

That is to say, it is placed at the bottom of the pending cases, and without external interference, they will most likely never touch this case in their lifetime.

Illegal immigration means that they cannot investigate the person’s identity background, figure out his social connections, and naturally cannot find out why he was hanged.

If the ritualistic style of the killing wasn't so obvious, Chief Blue could have even directly concluded that he committed suicide.

Another case occurred in the port area. Chief Bru and the old chief have already discussed it and are handling it in the same way.

The car soon turned into the internal road of a community on the side of the road. At the gate before entering the community’s internal road, you can see the description “Police Home”.

Those who live here are all middle-level and above police officers in Jingang City.

The old branch chief has his own detached house. Except for the lack of a swimming pool and a court, it is actually a big villa, but they still call it a detached house.

A lot of people had already come to the lawn outside the house, and they were all chatting and talking.

Most people were in plain clothes. It was rare to see so many police officers and sheriffs and deputy sheriffs gathered together, even Charlie was here.

When they arrived, many people looked over, and when they saw Lance, some people didn't quite recognize who he was.

After Chief Blue parked the car, he and Lance came to the lawn.

The old chief took the initiative to come over and hugged Chief Blue, "Thank you for coming!" Then he looked at Lance, "You are Mr. Lance, right?"

"I didn't expect that my retirement would require you to come. Thank you very much for coming. There are many friends here today, and you will definitely gain a lot."

He knew Lance, he had seen him from a distance and had also seen pictures of him.

Lance shook his hand and handed him the small gift he had brought with him. "I don't know if I should give you a gift, but I think since this is something worth celebrating, it would be right for me to give you a small gift."

He said, looking at Charlie next to him, "This shouldn't violate police regulations, right?"

Charlie smiled and shook Lance's hand, "Of course not!"

At this time, Charlie was wearing a well-tailored suit, and when he stretched out his hand, his gold watch was exposed on his wrist. Rather than believing that he was a retired policeman, people would be more willing to believe that he was a wealthy capitalist or something.

This set of things would cost thousands of dollars, and maybe Charlie's mindset had changed after he resigned. In the past, he would cover his gold watch with his sleeves and try not to show off those good things, but now, he is very keen on them.

The old branch chief took the gift and said, "Thank you for the gift. I hope you have a good time..."

While they were talking, John walked over from the side. When he saw Lance, he was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have seen this face somewhere.

He frowned slightly, his brain working frantically. Being able to stand with Charlie and the old branch chief, he must not be some unknown little character.

Lance reminded with a half-smile, "Johnny's bakery."

John slapped his head, "Yeah, Johnny's Bakery, you're Lance?"

He extended his hand enthusiastically. "I've actually heard people talk about this before, but I could never connect you with the situation back then. So, we're still acquaintances now!"

In this era of underdeveloped information dissemination, people's understanding of a stranger often starts with "rumors".

You may have heard of many people's names, but when they stand in front of you, there is a high probability that you don't recognize them.

Because of the spread of reputation, you may even imagine a person's appearance, voice, and even more things in your mind, and only then will you realize the huge difference is unimaginable when you meet them for the first time.

After a brief greeting, the three of them left. Lance watched them go to greet others and glanced at Director Blue beside him. "Now that I ask you to organize the big party, there shouldn't be any pressure, right?"

Chief Blue didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Do you really want to give the money away?"

Lance shook his head. Seeing that Lance was very obedient, he explained, "Congress has been constantly increasing the power of the Hazardous Materials Administration. Now you may still think that they can only investigate smuggled liquor."

"Just wait and see, they will soon extend their hands into your jurisdiction."

"By that time, if the police force is not united enough and there is no core figure, the police profession will be marginalized."

Chief Blue looked incredulous. “It sounds scary, but I believe the federal government will not let it become a reality because we are the guardians of the city.”

He said it firmly, but Lance was less optimistic, "You'll see."

Lance met a lot of police officers here today, including almost all the police chiefs in the eleven districts, as well as their deputies.

They were all happy to meet Lance because everyone knew that Lance was a very generous person, and they also vaguely heard that he was planning to hold a party-like event for the police.

They all like this kind of person who is rich, generous, has status and deterrence from the bottom of their hearts.

The atmosphere at the scene was very good, with everyone talking and laughing, but the sudden arrival of a few cars broke the relaxation.

The Hazardous Materials Administration's car, and the Greyhounds in their uniform got off the car and walked towards this side.

Everyone stopped their socializing and looked at them.

Charlie and the old director went to greet them. Compared to the old director who still had a forced smile, Charlie had no smile at all.

If it weren't for this group of people and the boss behind them, he would never have lost his job!

So let alone pretending to force a smile, he was too lazy to even try.

"Someone reported that you were drinking in a group here, so we need to check it out. Here is a search warrant."

The senior agent directly showed the search warrant in his hand. This kind of legal document is issued by themselves.

Charlie couldn't help himself after all, "Today is his retirement celebration. If you want to check, can you change the time?"

The senior agent shook his head with a cold face. "I don't care who you are. Anyway, someone reported you for drinking in a group, so we have to investigate. This is the job and mission assigned to us by Congress."

"If you have a complaint against me, you can call the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Contaminated Drugs or the relevant congressional committee to file a complaint against me."

"If you don't intend to resist our law enforcement, you'd better get out of the way!"

Charlie's face looked unhappy. He wanted to say something, but the old branch chief grabbed his arm and shook his head slightly.

Today is supposed to be a happy day. There is no need to make it less joyful because of these people.

Perhaps he knew the result in advance. The senior agent raised his lips slightly, his eyes stayed on the two people's faces for a moment, and he strode inside, waving his hand, "Search for me..."

In an instant the party on the lawn was turned into a mess. The agents' movements were so violent that many things were knocked to the ground, including the food on the table.

The police were very angry, but the other party seemed not to notice. They even searched the old chief's house and found two boxes of wine inside.

Seeing them carrying two boxes of wine, the old chief couldn't help but say, "This is what my father left me. The dates on it prove that they existed before the Prohibition!"

The senior agent looked down and saw that there were indeed a few bottles with production dates written on them. He tore off the labels and said, "It's gone now."

Seeing these policemen being angry but not saying anything, the senior agent couldn't help but let out a mocking smile, "Let's go."

After watching them leave, Charlie let go of the old director's arm, "They are provoking us. They did it on purpose, hoping that we would do something extreme."

The policemen all gathered around, and Charlie had a very unhappy expression on his face. It looked like they were suddenly attacking the old police chief's retirement celebration, but in fact they were stepping on his face!
When he was in office, he made it clear that he would not stand on the mayor's side, and now he is seeking revenge.

He looked at the old branch chief and said, "I'll find a way to get your wine back!"

In the end, the celebration ended in a sour mood.

Before leaving, Chief Blue chatted with John in the corner for a while. When he came back, he told Lance that John was asking whether the case he had just handled was Lance's.

"I feel like he will... ask you for money. He has a bad reputation. He is very willing to spend money even if it means risking his life."

“Although there are more people who hate him than those who like him, those who like him are obviously of higher status.”

"If he... forget it, I don't need to worry about this matter. I should be worried about him."

If John really blackmailed Lance, Chief Blue couldn't imagine what would happen to John!
He hoped that he could open his eyes, and he was also sure that John would most likely do so.

As long as there is no confirmed candidate for the position of director, it means that everyone still has a chance!

If he can spend tens of thousands of dollars to become the director of a branch, then it is not impossible for him to spend a little more to become a director!
On the way back to the Empire District, Lance heard fierce gunfire again when he approached the port area. There were people hurrying around, and some of them had a look of fear on their faces.

Some people ran out from the streets in the distance, and it was obvious that that was where the fighting was taking place.

This place is not under the jurisdiction of the Imperial District Bureau, so Chief Blue changed direction immediately. He was not stupid enough to go to the scene to take a look.

"The number of gunfights in the Empire Zone has been increasing recently, and they are constantly escalating."

"Before they would only fight in the late night, but now they are also fighting during the day."

"Those outside gangs have no rules at all!"

"Luckily, Lance, we have you in the Empire District, otherwise I can hardly imagine how bad it would have gotten!"

Lance's gaze was still on the rearview mirror. At the deserted intersection, several young men staggered out.

Some of them even fell down.

They fought back as they retreated, but were soon caught up by another group of people.

The fight ended with three bodies left on one side and seven or eight bodies left on the other side on the main road.

The police car in the distance was coming towards Chief Bruce's car. It was obvious that they had arrived some time ago and only drove out of the alley after the gunfight was over.

This is Jingang City, which is becoming more and more chaotic.

(End of this chapter)