Shadow Empire

Chapter 282 Determination and Disintegration

"If you have never seen the city at five o'clock in the morning, you are not qualified to have a dream..."

A cleaner rubbed his eyes. The light inside the car was not strong enough to fully illuminate every word on the book. He looked a little tired.

He was an immigrant who had just arrived in the federation and obtained legal immigration status. He found a job as a street sweeper.

The cleaning work in Jingang City was contracted out to several different companies, and the city hall assigned the work in different areas to them at a price of $42.50 per person, excluding costs such as garbage trucks.

But they only paid these workers 22 dollars, on the grounds that they only needed to work two or three hours a day and they could find other jobs, so it was a reasonable number.

No one knows whether it is reasonable or not, but many people are willing to do it, especially immigrants who have just arrived in the federation.

They spent a lot of money to come to this country, and they desperately need a job so that they won't starve to death.

Although twenty-two yuan is not a lot, it is enough for them to fill their stomachs.

The bus slowly stopped, and the driver banged on the door and shouted, "Number 17, get off quickly..."

There is a cleaner in charge of each section of the road. This is Section 17. The cleaner with a "17" sign on his chest stood up from his seat and put the inspirational book "How to Realize Your Self-Worth" into his pocket.

This is the motivation that has enabled him to persevere during this period. He firmly believes that all his efforts will eventually be rewarded.

He believed that once he saw Jingang City at five in the morning, he would be qualified to realize his dream. When he stood at the top one day, he would be grateful to himself for his active contributions.

He took a broom and began to sweep the street.

He had not thought about this question: how does cleaning the streets at five in the morning have any direct relationship with realizing his dream? At the same time, he could not think about it, because once he thought about it, some things would change.

Number 17 is the road in front of the City Hall. A bus stopped not far away and some people were driven out of the bus.

The two looked at each other in the dim morning light and continued to sweep the floor silently.

Until he found a long object lying on the ground.

“A tarp?”

He bent down and touched it. This thing is actually quite common in Jingang City, because there are often thunderstorms here in the summer. The function of the waterproof cloth is to protect those things from getting wet by rain.

"Who would leave such a big roll of tarpaulin here?" He stood up and looked around. There was no car on the street. He bent down again and tried to pick up the tarpaulin.

This is a considerable income, at least two or three dollars!
But I don’t know why this waterproof cloth is so heavy. Is there something inside?
Driven by curiosity, he pushed the rolled-up tarpaulin forward until he let out a "Fuck!" that startled the whole street!
At around 5:20, a large number of police cars arrived here. John's eyes were red because he didn't go to bed until after 1:00 last night.

Just after taking office, Master Eric was kidnapped. If the mayor has no place to vent his anger, then he is the best candidate.

He did not dare to neglect his work and persisted until late at night, when he took a nap in his clothes in the office.

As a result, the phone rang early in the morning.

There's good news, and there's bad news.

The good news is that Eric has been found.

The bad news is that he's dead!
At this time, John was standing not far away looking at the whole street, his mind was a mess!
Three detective officers came from the criminal case team, and Hunter had recently taken leave.

The on-site investigation lasted until after six o'clock, but no more evidence was found.

"A car passed by here in the middle of the night and he was dropped off. This is just our speculation."

"We don't know what kind of car it is, and we don't know who's in it either."

"There's so much traffic here that even if there were witnesses, they wouldn't know which car it was."

"Nothing of value was found on the tarp used to wrap the body, no fingerprints were found, no blood was found."

"Eric's pants were wet, but there were no urine stains in the tarp, which means they treated any possible traces before wrapping him up..."

John was overwhelmed by what he heard. "Just tell me whether you can find the murderer!"

The three police officers from the criminal case team all shook their heads. This was obviously impossible.

In this era when criminal investigation methods are relatively backward, people still even use "reasoning" to solve major cases.

It sounds like reasoning is very romantic, but in fact it is also a helpless choice due to backward technology.

At the same time, reasoning has also caused many false and wrongful cases, but they need to give an explanation to the public, so sometimes it is better to say that it is making up a story that the public can be satisfied with rather than reasoning!
One of the newly promoted criminal police officers said, "Chief, we should still focus on the hotel. It's impossible that they didn't leave any clues. And that girl, finding her can also solve the problem."

John had a headache, he didn't want to hear this, "Go do your thing."

Then he walked to the public telephone booth, a little hesitant, but the mayor would know about this sooner or later, and he knew how to make himself look like a dog that pleased his master.

He finally made the call, at half past six.

The mayor had woken up at this time and was doing simple exercises. His successive victories had filled him with energy. In order to cope with the various challenges that were to come, he had to ensure that he had a qualified body.

After receiving the call, he was silent for a while and asked people to prepare for the trip. However, there was no sadness on his face, only solemnity.

At seven o'clock, a large number of reporters gathered in the city hall. The mayor looked much more "normal" at this time, haggard, sad, and all kinds of emotions were piled up on his face.

He choked up several times and couldn't speak, but everyone knew what happened.

Eric is dead and he's going to declare war on evil!
This seemed... to be something he had to do. If he still had the choice to resign before the news of Eric's death came, then only one day later, less than twenty-four hours later, Eric's death made it impossible for him to resign. Instead, it strengthened his determination to eradicate evil!
Many citizens who were still looking forward to the subsequent development of the plot were dumbfounded, because many people believed that Eric would return safely in the end, and they would definitely make some shady deals.

But now, Eric is dead!
Those poor people who earn twenty or thirty dollars a month, live in cheap apartments full of mold and urine smell, and can't even afford a full steak, began to empathize.

They actually began to sympathize with the mayor's situation. Perhaps this was the most fantastic scene in the world!
Food sympathy eaters!

What’s even more interesting is that although it should be the mayor who showed extreme anger, the ones who were truly angry at this time were the five major families.

They felt that someone was forcing them to go to war with the mayor, because now that Eric was dead, they had no basis for negotiation, and it also gave the mayor an excuse to kill them all.

Now it’s not a question of whether to start a war or not, but a question of how to protect ourselves and drive the mayor away!
At nine o'clock in the morning, a new piece of news came that Congress passed the final voting resolution to comprehensively strengthen the armed forces of coast guard teams in various places.

Some of the navy's warships were eliminated and handed over to local coast guard teams, and a large number of new warship production and construction plans were approved.

It was announced to the outside world that this was a normal process of elimination and replacement of military equipment, but in fact some bad judgments about the future international situation were being confirmed. Congress also felt the shadow of war and they began to rearm.

Some people are worried about this, while others feel that... this is not something worth people's concern because the war is far away from them!

Different from what ordinary people are paying attention to is that the smuggled liquor industry has experienced its first real earthquake!
Smuggling through the sea became more dangerous, the price of alcohol began to increase again, and drunkards groaned. It seemed that everything was moving in the direction that the congressmen had expected.

In the afternoon, Chief Blue came to the company to meet Lance.

As soon as he entered the office, he sat down on the sofa, took off his wide-brimmed hat, lit a cigarette, and said in a dull voice, "John looked for me."

Lance sat behind the table, a little surprised, "Shouldn't he be pursuing Eric's case and looking for the murderer now?"

"What does he want from you?"

Chief Blue looked depressed. "He asked me to stand on his side."

He looked up at Lance and said, "Now many police officers in Jingang City have defected to him. Lance, I am very worried that John can truly control the entire police force in Jingang City."

John was his old subordinate, and he was a little depressed that his old subordinate had suddenly become the director of the Hong Kong District Police Station.

He and John didn't have a good relationship. When John left, he made a lot of money and left nothing for the police station.

The attitude he showed when he came over now was somewhat threatening, and John gave him two options: either obey him and join the new police system with him as the core.

Otherwise, just become a thing of the past along with Charlie and those old fogies!

He and the mayor are going to reorganize the police system and all those who disobey will be kicked out.

"I don't question whether he has the authority because the mayor is behind him."

“No matter who it is, the five major families, the Bay Area, or Councilman Wade or Councilman Williams, they do not have the power to directly appoint the police chief or precinct chief, but the mayor does.”

Chief Blue rubbed his face and said, "He gave me three days to think about it..."

Lance frowned after hearing this, "So you also gave me three days."

Chief Blue said immediately, "That's not what I meant, but I really don't have any good solution. I can't resist them!"

"We are not on the same page now. If I don't do it, there are plenty of people willing to take my place!"

"You, you guys, have to do something!"

It can be seen that although the branch chief really doesn't want to get involved with John, he doesn't want to lose his current job.

Everyone says that being a policeman is bad, but no one says that being a police station chief is bad.

Lance nodded slightly and said, "You have a point. I'll make a call."

He picked up the receiver and dialed Paul's number.

"This is the Pasletto Manor..."

"I want to speak to Mr. Paul, this is Lance."

"Please wait."

After about four or five minutes, the phone was picked up again. "This is Paul."

"Mr. Paul, my friend Blue, the director of the Imperial Branch, is here with me. He told me that John is forcing them to make a choice."

"Either stand on John and the mayor's side, or pack up and leave. I feel I need to tell you about this..."

After listening to this, Paul said, "Thank you for the information, Lance..." He was about to end the topic, but then he thought of something else, "Since you have discovered this problem, are you interested in helping us solve it?"

"What do you mean?"

Paul let out some laughter. "John, of course."

Lance was silent for a moment, "Are you asking me to get rid of the police chief?"

Paul could tell from his words that he was unhappy. "He is the acting director, and he is an acting director who is not recognized by us. No one will investigate this issue further."

Lance didn't say anything for about ten seconds, and Paul should have felt Lance's resistance.

He is in some trouble now. The five major families have just had a meeting together, and some problems have arisen within their ranks.

Eric was dead, the mayor was "crazy", and they might have received some information from other places, so the Kodak family was the first to withdraw.

As the most profitable family in Jingang City, their connections are spread throughout Likalai State and Congress, and a large amount of funds are transferred to the state government, state legislature and Congress through various means every year.

As long as they ensure that the benefits continue to be transferred, someone in Congress will stand up to protect them.

Bandy knew very well that the Kodak family was not irreplaceable. Anyone else, as long as he had so many licenses, could build up the casino industry in a very short time even if he had no foundation.

On the contrary, if the Kodak family loses these, it will be left with nothing.

Some people in the state government support the mayor in breaking up the stubborn local forces in Jingang City. Bandy has backed off a bit, and it is possible that he has reached some deal with the state government.

One of the five major families is missing, and the remaining four families seem to be able to fight against the mayor.

Later, Rick, the representative of the Cassia family, also put forward a similar idea. He wanted to make concessions. He felt that it was not them who killed Eric, and they had no reason to clean up the mess for others.

Moreover, the core business of the Cassia family is human trafficking and serious criminal cases. If there is no support from the police, or if they turn a blind eye, then their family business will shrink across the board!

Especially since Congress had just announced that it would strengthen the Coast Guard, their business had suffered a double blow.

Two of the five major families died at once, and although the remaining three still wanted to hold on, they were obviously unable to do so.

They felt that the Cassia family and the Kodak family must have known something, or someone had promised them something, so they suddenly withdrew.

This anger of betrayal made the remaining three major families feel angry!
At the same time, they also felt something was not right, because now they not only had to fight against the mayor's gang, but also had to fight against possible stabs in the back from their former friends!
Who knows whether the Cassia family and the Kodak family will attack them when they are not paying attention in order to comply with the orders of some big shots?
Paul has a lot of people guarding their core industries, so there are not many people who can be spared.

In addition, killing John is a dangerous job with more political risks. Paul suddenly thought of Lance, who has unified the Empire Zone, and he might be a good candidate.

"I'll give you a bar in the Starlight District. Also, if you need it, I'll publicly support you in public."

After a moment of silence, Lance said softly, "Deal!"

He hung up the phone and looked at Chief Blue, who straightened his spine immediately and said, "I won't say anything. Don't worry, Lance, I'm very tight-lipped!"

Seeing that Lance didn't seem to want to talk to him, he picked up the wide-brimmed hat on the table and stood up, "I have something else to do..."

Lance signaled him that he could leave, and he left immediately!
It's so fucking scary. They are talking about how to get rid of the police chief in front of him. These people don't even regard the chief as a police officer!
However, Chief Blue was not angry. If Lance could really kill John, he would cheer instead!

So... can he do it?

Lance called everyone else over to the office, "Paul asked me to kill John, and I agreed."

They didn't ask why, they just asked one question, "When will we do it?"

Lance shook his head slightly, "We still have a few days left, and we must maximize the benefits of this matter."

"Maurice, do a few things. Keep an eye on John and some of the people he's close to."

"Hiram, get our weapons and magazines ready. I don't want the operation to be hampered."

"Mero, prepare the vehicle. Our opponent this time is not easy to deal with. Ask them if they can install some steel plates in the door panels..."

Lance gave orders in an orderly manner, making sure everyone knew what they had to do and how to do it.

After some of them received the instructions, Lance asked them all to leave and make preparations.

Erwin stayed, "Is it necessary to do this?"

"If we don't take action, the five major families will definitely take action!"

Lance shook his head. "They have already fallen apart internally."

If Lance's previous conflicts with the mayor and his people had not reached an irreparable point, and if he had not refused the mayor's recruitment, then he could completely ignore these things now.

No matter how much he is cleaned, he will survive in the end.

But the problem is that not only did he refuse the mayor's recruitment, he also killed the Viper Gang members, giving the mayor a hard time!
Once the mayor takes full control of Jingang City, it will be his end!

Between being unlucky himself and being unlucky for others, Lance chose to have others suffer misfortune.

(End of this chapter)