Shadow Empire

Chapter 665 It’s easy to look at others [666+16]
About twenty or thirty minutes after Mayor Williams left his office, the phone on his desk suddenly rang.

James, who was sitting on the sofa and thinking about something, suddenly turned his head to look at the phone. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and after it rang twice, he stood up and walked over to answer it.

The phone rang seven or eight times in total. If it wasn't for the need to get through to the mayor, the person on the other end of the line might have hung up on the third or fourth ring.

The fact that he kept waiting for the call showed that this matter was really important.

"This is the mayor's office."

"Mr. Mayor?" Perhaps the person on the other side was not familiar with James' voice, and he felt that this was not the mayor's voice.

"I'm James. The mayor has to leave temporarily for some matters. Tell me if you have anything to say."

The guy on the other end of the phone thought for a few seconds before he said hastily, "There's a large-scale conflict in the old industrial zone. Workers are fighting with people from the demolition company. There are casualties!"

"I don't know what the situation is like outside now, but it looks bad. They are like crazy!"

His tone was anxious, and through the blurry glass window he could see the growing number of people on the construction site!

The most frightening thing about mass incidents is that they cannot be prevented at the beginning. Once they spread, they will become a disaster!

The person who was speaking was the on-site manager of the demolition company. He usually stayed in this simple house. His daily job was to supervise the supervisors and make sure the refugee workers did their work honestly.

If some unexpected situations arise, he is responsible for solving them and the most important job - calling the boss.

This is the biggest difference between a manager and an ordinary grassroots cadre. He has Arthur's phone number and Mayor Williams' office phone number. Only he can notify these two people, while others cannot do it.

Just by having control of two accounts, his position in the company is much higher than others.

So sometimes, whether you can "advance" or not has nothing to do with your own ability, it all depends on whether the people above you are willing to lend a hand.

He was talking about the situation here. He had never dealt with anything like this before and for a moment he didn't know how to ease the situation.

Suddenly, a dozen refugee workers ran towards him, and his originally calm face was immediately filled with panic!

"Mr. James, they are coming towards me. I think I might be in danger..."

Before he could finish his words, there was a fierce knock on the door outside the room, and then a short time later, it turned into the sound of someone kicking the door.

Every loud noise from kicking the door was like a knock on his heart. He was so nervous that he clutched the clothes on his chest tightly with his hands. He felt like his heart was about to stop beating!

His voice became a little weaker, "Mr. James..."

Following a loud bang like the door panel hitting the wall, James' hands trembled slightly, and only begging and screaming were heard in the receiver.

The screams didn't last long and then disappeared completely. All that could be heard was the sound of the rag bag being kicked back and forth and the sound of drawers being opened.

His breathing gradually became heavier. He didn't know what was happening there, but it must have been something terrible.

He pursed his lips, hung up the phone, and immediately called the police station. Chief Blue was not at the police station, but Deputy Chief Duke was on duty.

After hearing what James said, he took it very seriously. Without hanging up the phone, he asked people to gather police forces from various branches to support the old industrial zone. Then he asked a key question -

"Mr. James, what should our officers do once they arrive at the scene?"

James was already filled with anger, and now when he heard this idiotic question he became even angrier, and his face turned visibly red!
"How to do?"

"Of course, we should stop these people from hurting others and arrest them!"

"You are the deputy chief of police. Why are you asking me such a simple question?"

"How did you become the deputy director?!"

His tone was very impolite, because the continuous events that happened made him a little unsure of how to deal with them!

It is still unknown whether Arthur has been rescued after being kidnapped. Problems have arisen at the construction site again. If the demolition of the old industrial area is put on hold, some undercurrents in the city will become strange again.

What’s more troublesome is that if there is a mass conflict, or even a lot of people die, will it affect his father’s power?

You have to know that this is Jingang City and the naval base has just been built. What they need is a mayor who can ensure the administrative stability of the city, not a mayor who will cause riots anytime and anywhere!
A series of various information that made him feel dissatisfied and even fearful constantly washed over his barely tough nerves, and it was good enough that he could hold on.

Now Deputy Director Duke asked such a stupid question again. The flames of anger ignited the defense line of reason, and he was now inexplicably filled with a desire for destruction!

If Deputy Director Duke was in front of him, he would probably go up and kick him hard!
James' tone was very bad, as was his attitude, but Deputy Director Duke was not nervous at all. He knew very well that there were only two people who could decide whether he would remain in this position: Mayor Williams and Lance.

On a deeper level, there is only one person, and that is Lance! So he is not so afraid of James and can still maintain his "politeness".

"Congressman James, you may have misunderstood me."

"It's easy for us to go to the scene, but once a riot occurs, we can't stabilize it just by arriving at the scene. We need to do something to calm it down."

"Should we disperse the crowd, arrest the perpetrators, or just prevent the situation from escalating and growing in scale?"

"There are many issues here. If we disperse them and they don't cooperate, should we fight back?"

"If we arrest them and they resist arrest, should we continue to arrest them or just shoot them dead?"

"How do we define the standard for not escalating the situation, or what is the scope within which we should keep this matter under control?"

“These are things I don’t know at the moment.”

After listening to Deputy Director Duke's long speech, James' anger was extinguished in an instant, and his eyes even became dull for a moment.

So... complicated?
He never thought about it because Mayor Williams made it look easy to deal with similar things, and the problem could be solved with just a few simple words.

Why does it become so complicated when it comes to him?
He did not think that Deputy Director Duke was making things difficult for him, because the problems Deputy Director Duke mentioned did exist objectively.

And it is the mayor, or him now, who must decide what to do.

Every choice means a lot of changes. Will the situation escalate further if the shooting is carried out?
If we don’t shoot, will we be able to control the situation?
Will arresting those who are committing violence trigger larger-scale riots and unrest?

If those people are not arrested, will similar incidents happen in more construction sites?
He closed his eyes in pain, and grabbed his hair with his other hand!
"Congressman James, are you still there?" Deputy Chief Duke glanced at the assembled police officers outside the window. "We will be leaving soon. I'm afraid it will be difficult to maintain continuous contact with you in a short period of time after we arrive at the scene, so what should we do?"

James forced himself to calm down. He kept asking himself in his mind, what would Mayor Williams do if he encountered the same thing?
He even provided himself with another idea: if Lance encountered the same thing, what would he choose?

Countless thoughts were churning in his mind, and when he wanted to make such a choice, another thought would stop him.

He is completely confused!

But he soon cheered himself up. Now that Mayor Williams was not here, he had to take on this responsibility.

He also realized that this was the reason why his father was led away!

Such a big thing has happened. If it cannot be controlled, it will soon cause riots in the entire city. What they want is not to compromise with the Williams family, what they want is to destroy the entire Williams family!

At this moment, there was only one voice in his heart.

That is to take on the responsibility of being the eldest son of the Williams family and get this done!

He took a deep breath, and the choices his father and Lance had made in the past and their results quickly took shape in his mind.

This is actually one of the key factors why ordinary families can never compare to those powerful families!

For people from an ordinary family background, all the troubles you encounter are brand new challenges to you, with no reference!

But for James, for people who come from powerful families, there is a high probability that they will find similar cases.

He clenched the receiver, "Control the situation, arrest the attackers, and if they resist arrest, fight back..."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Then shoot!"

Deputy Director Duke's voice was as steady as before. "I know what to do. I will notify you as soon as I have further news."

After the call ended, James took out a cigarette, lit it with trembling hands, and took a deep breath.

He didn't know what this decision would bring, but he knew he had to do it!

Mayor Williams had no idea that his eldest son was finally taking his own step at a critical moment, instead of following behind him and watching him make those seemingly simple decisions.

But even if he knew, he wouldn't have the heart to do so.

There was indeed some traffic jam on the road, so he arrived at the designated location a little earlier than the agreed time.

There was still a telephone booth on the roadside. He glanced at Lance on the roadside in the distance. As soon as the phone rang, he walked into the booth and picked up the phone...

(End of this chapter)