Shadow Empire

Chapter 287 Killers, Mobilization, and Crossing the Line
In a room in a corner of the city, an old man and a young man sat opposite the mayor's secretary.

The clothes these two people are dressed very ordinary, no different from ordinary people. If they walk on the street, and you don't stare at them all the time, it only takes a moment for them to blend into the whole street.

They are just the most standard passers-by, with ordinary clothes, ordinary looks, and ordinary hair, but they have extraordinary identities.

Killer.

Killer is a very ancient profession. Since the beginning of human society, killers have been active on the stage of history.

They, along with priests and prostitutes, are considered the oldest professions.

On the coffee table between the two of them, there was a photo with a frontal view of Lance.

He had a smile on his face and looked very handsome, yet a little shy, making it difficult to associate this sunny and handsome boy with the name "Lance Family".

There is no way to associate him with the "one-pound warhead"!
The old man picked up the photo, looked at it for a few seconds, turned it over, and saw a lot of information recorded on the back of the photo.

He then handed the photo to the young man next to him, and then looked at the secretary, "I thought he would not use me until he died."

This sentence actually has a lot of deeper meanings. The old man knows who the mayor is, knows that he is the mastermind behind the scenes, and also knows what he is doing now.

This sentence actually does not contain any sarcasm or ridicule, it simply describes a fact.

A mayor was forced to use a killer, which shows that he was indeed in big trouble that he could not solve by himself.

Under the mayoral system, there are indeed not many opponents who can make a mayor feel powerless.

The secretary smiled, took out half a dollar bill from his pocket and handed it over.

The old man also took out half a bill from his arms and put the two halves together. Although they couldn't fit together perfectly, it was basically clear that they were the same banknote.

He put the two half notes together, lit them with a match, and burned them to ashes.

No one spoke during the whole process.

The profession of killer is actually not as... interesting as people imagine, with no rankings or anything like that.

All famous killers eventually died early, just like their former targets.

Only those unknown killers can survive to the end.

The old man got into some trouble when he was young, and the mayor showed up and gave him a hand, not only allowing him to survive, but also allowing his family to survive.

In order to repay the mayor, he promised to do one thing for the mayor and kill someone.

Although there is no concept of "chivalry" in the Federation, some people also attach great importance to promises!

Even if you ask them to risk their lives to fulfill their promise, and they may scold you to death, they will eventually fulfill their promise.

For some people, this is their belief in life and the spiritual foundation for everything they pursue.

The stronger a person is inside, the more he cares about what he promised. This old man is like this. He is very strong inside and he cannot avoid this matter.

Otherwise, he will begin to question himself, and everything he is proud of will be shaken, collapse and disintegrate.

"This guy is very troublesome. It's not easy to deal with him using conventional means. And you know, he's a gang member."

"He can break the rules, but he was the first to break the rules."

The old man's calm gaze seemed to be looking at a ball of air. "I don't care who he is. I came here to repay what I owe him. After I'm done, I'll leave."

"But you have to understand that my grandson and I are just gunmen. We are different from the killers you know who can take out an entire legion by themselves."

"He should have told you."

The secretary nodded again, "Yes, so someone will cooperate with you to find a way to lure Lance out, and then you can kill him."

In fact, strictly speaking, the grandfather and grandson are "snipers". It is impossible for them to take down an entire legion of modern soldiers by themselves as described in those literary works.

What they are best at is preparing in a place suitable for ambush, then waiting for the opponent to come to them, and then pulling the trigger!

Bullets can talk!
It can also prove their abilities. In fact, rather than killers, he prefers others to call them "sharpshooters."

The old man nodded slightly. "That's easy. Last time we met a guest who thought that if we gave each of us a pistol, we could help him get rid of all his opponents."

The grandson beside him showed a smile on his face. They finally completed the task, but the client's loss was a little bit large.

"Our plan is to..."

The old man interrupted him, "You don't need to tell me what your plan is, you just need to tell me where the target will appear, and then the rest is our business."

The secretary was not used to his dominance, but considering that the other party was a professional killer, he took out the prepared map and drew a few circles.

"This is where he lives. This is where he often appears. His movement pattern is very simple now. Every time he goes out, there will be a large number of people following him..."

The old man picked up the map, put it in his pocket, and then stood up. "I know."

The secretary curled his lips as he watched the grandfather and grandson leave, but thought about what the mayor told him, that this old guy was very powerful, and perhaps powerful people are all a little weird.

I hope Lance can hold on this time. An idea popped into his mind, and then he laughed at himself!
The killer is in place, and it's time to urge Wolfe and the professor.

When the professor received the call, he was discussing cooperation with several small gangs.

"If Bill hadn't wanted to drive us out or even kill us, we wouldn't have fought back so fiercely."

"And you saw that after we defeated the Red Dog Gang, we did not immediately expand outward, but instead discussed cooperation with you."

"Although we are outsiders, we now have a foothold in the port area. To some extent, we are also people of the port area,"

"The phrase I hear most often from people since I came here is 'Jingang City is so big'!"

The young people in the room couldn't help laughing, because this sentence hit the spot exactly!

The proudest thing about Jingang City is that it is very big, much bigger than other cities. This sentence also reflects the pride and arrogance of Jingang people in some ways!
Because they don’t think there is any other city bigger than Jingang City.

But in fact, there are cities that are bigger than it, and there are more than one. It’s just that these cities may not be as famous as Jingang City and are not well known by people.

The professor's appearance was very deceptive. He was gentle and polite, not at all vicious. He spoke slowly and clearly, and wore a pair of glasses, which made him look non-threatening.

The atmosphere in the room was very relaxed. The professor's trick worked wonders. "What I want to say is that Jingang City is so big. We don't need to focus only on the port area. We need to focus on our internal affairs."

"I hit you, you hit me, no matter what the result is, we are both engaging in internal friction."

"We should look further ahead, to places farther away, such as Priscia, the city center, and the Starlight District..."

“These places where you can make a lot of money are where we should aspire to be.”

"Honestly speaking, even if the entire harbor area was occupied by one gang, the benefits we would gain from here would not be as much as what a gang in the Bay Area would gain."

"Why are we fighting each other over this poor place?"

"This is what I don't understand the most. Who the hell stipulated that people like us in the port area can only fight for territory within the port area?"

"If you ask me, we should fight back..."

A Mr. Black sitting in the corner interrupted, "You are quite right..."

But before he could finish his words, someone next to him immediately laughed and said, "There is no cotton here, brother!"

Everyone got the joke and burst into laughter instantly!
The situation of the young cotton pickers is not good, even worse than that of the immigrants.

At least immigrants are still "people". In the minds of some people who have been indoctrinated with traditional federal ideas, these people picking cotton are just animals and cannot be considered human beings.

The guy from the Black gang who was speaking stood up immediately. He was tall and strong. As he stood up, the laughter weakened a little and ended quickly.

There seemed to be some tension between the two sides. The professor sighed in his heart, these bastards are so fucking despicable!
But he still tried to smooth things over and appease both sides, and the method he used was interests!

"If you start fighting now, I'm afraid a lot of people will laugh out loud, me too, and them too."

"Because soon there will be two fewer gangs to share the profits with us." The people on both sides looked at each other fiercely for a while before turning their attention back to the professor.

"What did you mean just now?" asked the tall and strong Black leader. "I don't want to waste time talking to a bunch of idiots here. Just say what you want to say!"

The guy next to him muttered again, "Of course a pig can't think of it!"

Seeing that the two sides were about to have another fight, the professor said quickly, "Wolf and I are going to give you two-thirds of the port area!"

In one word, all contradictions disappeared and all eyes were focused on the professor.

In fact, he was mistaking the concept. The Wolf Gang did not rule the entire port area. They might not even have occupied one third of it.

Therefore, what the professor said about giving up two-thirds is simply nonsense. They have never owned it, so how can they give it up now?
But what he faced was just a group of social dregs who had not received higher education and had not even finished high school.

As a high school teacher, the professor is capable enough to deal with these people!

Sure enough, they quieted down.

"Our plan is to give you the Port District, and we will move into the Imperial District."

"There is only one gang in the Empire District, the Lance Family. If we kill the Lance Family, we will rule the Empire District."

"With the Empire District, the city center, the Priscia District, and the Triangle District are all adjacent to us."

"We can try to touch those places, nibble away at their territory little by little, and eventually gain more territory!"

"A bar in the city center is said to make tens of thousands a day, but here, in the damn port area, a bar only makes a few thousand a day!"

The professor didn't know that the bars in the port area had poor sales, which was related to the Dock Workers' Club.

If tens of thousands of dock workers needed to drink, they would go to clubs and buy cheap drinks.

Other bars were in business to make money, but workingmen's clubs were in business to lose money.

If Lance hadn't refused entry to non-dock workers, their business might have been even worse!

The professor's words resonated with people. Everyone talked about how profitable running a bar was, so why didn't they experience it?
In the grand blueprint simply described by the professor, what they saw was countless money!
Black people seem to be very extroverted and have a strong desire to express themselves. It may be that their ancestors were not allowed to communicate when picking cotton, and this was whipped into their genes, making them have a strong desire to express themselves now.

"What do we need to do?"

"We don't have any demands. Maybe the only request is, don't attack us from behind!"

"In fact, I hope we can become a whole. Only in this way can we have an advantage when we expand overseas."

"Of course this is just a suggestion from me. You can consider it. I don't necessarily want everyone to be together. This is not realistic, but this is indeed a good idea."

"After the merger, you are still you, and we are still us. We just share a gang name..."

Someone knocked on the door, came in, and whispered something in the professor's ear.

Then the professor apologized and left the room. He went to his office and answered the phone.

"gentlemen?"

"professor?"

"Yes, it's me."

"In a few days, I want to see the results of your actions against the Lance family. Don't try to delay the time, even if it's just a little bit. At least let us see it."

The professor leaned over and whispered, "Of course, sir, I promise!"

Glancing at the idiots in the other room, the professor lit a cigarette. It was almost time.

That very night, the Wolf Gang wiped out the remaining forces of the Red Dog Gang on a large scale. What was even more incredible was that some other small gangs in the port area actually joined forces with the Wolf Gang!
This discovery made many people feel incredible. They didn’t know how the Wolf Gang got involved with these people, but they knew that the Wolf Gang had become dangerous.

In fact, it was very easy for the professor to do this. He just told these people that a large part of the Red Dog Gang's territory would be given to them.

Since it is for their own interests, how could they lag behind others?
This also resulted in sporadic gunshots being heard in the port area throughout the night.

At daybreak, the Red Dog Gang officially became a thing of the past. At the same time, the Wolf Gang also began to send people to test the waters and built a house in the Imperial District.

“They opened a bar right on our property.”

When Alvin reported this to Lance, he felt a little unbelievable. Are these people fucking crazy?

Opening a bar in the Imperial District?

But he soon realized that something seemed wrong, so he came early to tell Lance.

Lance raised his wrist to check the time. It was only a little after ten o'clock. "News spreads fast. Who told you this?"

"Some drunkards are saying that Wolf Gang's whiskey tastes sharper."

"So we know that the Wolf Gang intends to plant its flag in our territory."

"Should we send someone to deal with them?"

Lance rubbed his eyebrows, "We just finished those things, and now the Wolf Gang is stepping in. It must be the mayor who put pressure on them."

"Send someone to keep an eye on us first. I feel like they are planning to attack us."

This made Erwin a little nervous, "What will they do?"

Lance shrugged. "Now he can't use the police. The Hazardous Materials Administration doesn't care about people like us. So the only ones he can use are the gangsters from Fides."

"The Wolf Gang is from Fides!"

"You must be careful when traveling during this period. Let Morris go and see if he can find their core members."

"If we can find it, we'll do it again!"

When it comes to gangs, once the top of the pyramid is lost, the people below will quickly fall apart.

This is because the gang’s resources are basically controlled by a few people at the top of the pyramid. Once something happens to these people, it means that the gang will come to a standstill.

But this also made Lance relax a little. If he just used the gangsters, he was not afraid of anyone!

A few other things happened on this day.

For example, Charlie once again demonstrated his influence on the police system. Almost all the police chiefs went to his villa because the chief of the Port District Police Station also died in the previous attack.

So the word "almost" is used here, not all.

In Charlie's villa, he talked about many things, such as the unprecedented challenges faced by the police system recently, such as the Hazardous Materials Administration taking away the police's law enforcement powers, and such as "unity."

Charlie believes that the police system is now confused and at a loss because it lacks someone to stand up and lead everyone in the right direction.

Although he has resigned and is no longer the police chief, he is willing to serve as a bridge between the police system and the Bay Area to help everyone.

At the same time, he also believes that Hunter is a capable person who can lead everyone back to the past.

This party revealed a lot of information. Although everyone agreed to Charlie on the surface and let Hunter take charge of the overall situation temporarily, this actually caused dissatisfaction among some people.

He has already resigned and is no longer the police chief, but he is still trying to use his former status as police chief to influence everyone's choice.

How can this be satisfying?

But there seems to be no other way now, so everyone has to accept it.

But Chief Blue could feel that they were dissatisfied with Charlie and also somewhat dissatisfied with Hunter.

Why should a criminal police officer be in charge of all of them?

(End of this chapter)