Empire of Shadows

Belief is a very magical thing.

The magic lies in the fact that people can do many unimaginable or incomprehensible things for their beliefs.

Just like Ennio's father, he was willing to make himself and his family suffer, even to the point of family separation, in order to find the "Federal Dream" in the book.

Although he has recently begun to awaken somewhat.

Or some immigrants, whose immigrant status has become the final obstacle to embracing a new life, they are eager to get rid of the label of immigrant, even willing to pay a great price for it!

Becoming a Federal citizen, having a job that can remove the immigrant label, has become an obsession for many immigrants, and they are willing to give up a lot to achieve this.

And this concept is being passed on to younger immigrants, perhaps because they have more discussions in their families, making it impossible for them not to notice these things, and then influencing their thinking.

Maz is a typical immigrant descendant, he longs to be recognized by the mainstream society and to integrate into the mainstream group.

Every time he participates in various social gatherings, when they are chatting happily, someone asks him if he is a local and what his parents do, it becomes a social disaster.

It cannot be said that everyone is rejecting immigrants, it is just that the negative effects of the political movements in recent years are still continuing, they are not only rejecting immigrants, but also those skilled cotton pickers, and expressing it more obviously and directly.

Native Federal citizens, under the indoctrination of their old Federal families, are very unfriendly to the skilled cotton picker group and immigrant descendants.

The society also often reports, "They are invading our homes" and "They are taking our jobs", which have become the most feared things for Federal citizens, although they are actually very clear that not having a job is not because the job has been taken away, but purely because they are lazy.

Maz needs a job to become an immigrant who can be accepted by society, and even make people forget his immigrant descendant identity.

And the best choice is to be a civil servant.

But it is not so easy to get into the Federal civil service, maybe you think you are applying for a job with the Federal government, but most likely you will be transferred to a company and not recognized as a civil servant.

Until someone contacted him, promising that if he completed a task, he could join the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau and become a member of it.

This temptation was too great, even though he knew there were great risks, he still agreed.

In a daze, Maz thought of the things his contact had told him, don't make phone calls casually, don't expose yourself casually, don't do things that will attract attention, be sociable, be low-key.

"Hey, Maz, come here.", someone shouted his name.

He came back to his senses, pushed through the crowd and walked towards the bar, this is a bar, the Lance family's bar, he was arranged to work here, said to be in preparation for the opening of other bars.

This group of people have all been given different responsibilities, now the Lance family seems to be very short of people.

"I'm here, brother, what do you want me to do?"

The bartender pointed to the door behind him with his thumb, "We don't have much wine left, the people from Derisi are bringing wine, go and get it."

Maz's heart beat a little faster, he nodded, saying "Okay" while walking towards the back door.

Just as he had taken a few steps out, he was suddenly grabbed by the arm, at that moment, he instinctively felt an impulse to "run away"!

His heart was also telling him that he had been discovered!

But he forcibly endured this instinct and impulse, turned his head with what he thought was the best acting and looked at the bartender with confusion, "What's wrong?"

The two looked at each other for a moment, and after a few seconds, the bartender showed a faint smile, "Run, we are all waiting for your wine."

Maz nodded vigorously twice, the bartender let go, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

The bar now does not use the method of storing a large amount of wine, there is actually not much wine before the bar opens every day, and when there is only 30% of the wine left, Derisi will arrange for someone to deliver the wine.

Ensure that there is enough wine for two hours, but not too much.

This way, even if the bar is discovered and sealed up, the family's losses will not be too great.

Moreover, Derisi comes here not only to deliver wine, but also to take the money away.

When Maz came to the alley from another door, there were already several people here, they seemed to be chatting.

About ten boxes of various wines were scattered on the ground, he did not know Derisi, but he saw the manager handing an iron box to the other party.

He knew that it was all money inside.

"Maz, come and move these in..."

The manager instructed, Maz began to move things, his eyes kept lingering on the license plate number of the van.

His contact told him to remember all valuable information, which would eventually become strong evidence to indict the criminal group.

In Maz's eyes, Lance and the Lance family are the tumors of the Imperial District, the gangsters, he has no good feelings for these people, he does not even feel that he is one with this place, he does not feel that he is an immigrant descendant.

After Maz moved the wine into the bar, the manager continued to chat with Derisi, but as long as Maz was on the scene, they would stop talking, as if they were talking about something very important.

Maz vaguely heard some keywords they said several times, some may be place names, some may be times, he felt that these clues were very important.

He has been firmly

Ten boxes of wine can be moved quickly for a young man, after the last box was moved in, he made an excuse to go to the toilet.

In the toilet, he took out a pen from his pocket and wrote down what he had just recorded on a piece of paper torn from somewhere.

This is a single room, he locked the door, not worried about someone suddenly pushing the door in, and... no one will know what he is recording.

But he did not notice that at this time, there was a mirror on top of his head, and someone was observing his every move through the mirror.

The bar replenished wine several times that night, he only moved it once, the other young people who came with him had moved it, in the words of the bartender, they had to try everything.

For three or four consecutive days, Elvin has roughly figured out the situation of these people, his expression is very bad, there are four people in total.

These people will record what they see and hear every day, and record some of the words that Derisi and the manager said.

They did not make any phone calls, they should have received some short training, knowing that making phone calls easily exposes themselves.

They may be waiting for an opportunity to pass on the message, but it is not yet known how they plan to pass on the intelligence.

"This is my problem, I did not do a good job in personnel review.", Elvin took the initiative to take responsibility, although this group of people was not personally recruited by him, he had to take his own review responsibility.

There were other people in the room, Lance glanced at him, "Deduct three months of your bonus, any problem?"

Elvin shook his head, "No problem."

According to the rules initially set by Lance, 30% of the monthly income is distributed to these people in proportion, Elvin's current job is very important, and he is Lance's confidant, he can get about 2% of the bonus every month.

Judging from the current profit situation of the family, the monthly income is about 200,000, 2% of 200,000 is about three or four thousand, three months, more than 10,000.

This money is enough to make him feel the pain!

Ethan has the best relationship with Elvin, he could not help but say, "I'm going to kill these sons of bitches!"

Lance raised his hand to stop him, "Don't move them for now."

"We have not completely determined who they are all from, and whether they are really passing on intelligence, in addition, Ponda is almost time to do something."

"Just use the information he gave us to verify whether he is really cooperating with us."

Lance's safe not only has the loan contract signed by Ponda himself, but also his handprint and even a photo with Lance.

Although the money eventually returned to his own hands, Lance felt that he had taken so much money from him, he should work hard.

Ethan sat back, sullen, "Let me handle them after it's over!"

Lance nodded, "No problem."

He said and began to arrange new work, "Don't worry about Eric's bars for now, continue to look for other places suitable for opening bars."

"In addition, look for some houses that can be used to store wine, the situation behind will become more and more severe, we can't put all our eggs in one basket."

Lorn leaned against the wall and asked Lance a question, "Since we are not using those bars to run, why do we have to clean them all up?"

Lance directly pried open the locks of Eric's bars, and arranged for people to clean the bars, looking like they were going to run.

Many drunks have already asked, it is time to taste the strong wine in those places.

"The purpose of taking down the bars is not really to run them in those places, now many people know these bars, I believe the people from the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau also know where these bars are."

"As long as we dare to open them, they will dare to arrest, I'm not a fool!"

"The purpose of re-establishing them but not running them is that I want to tell everyone that in the Imperial District, I have the final say."

"Even if he is the mayor's illegitimate son, if he eats mine, he has to spit it out!"

"Spit it out with interest!"

Lorne had no objections and nodded in understanding.

The mayor was also quite irritable now. Even if he knew, he wouldn't have a falling out with Lance. Or rather, he couldn't spare the time to deal with Lance right now.

Lance had just embarrassed him. The Viper Gang, which he had hoped would replace Lance, was already a thing of the past. Now, even if he wanted to deal with Lance, he had to consider what means he could use to do so.

The only law enforcement department he could call upon was the Hazardous Materials Administration, but the Hazardous Materials Administration couldn't arrest ordinary criminal behavior.

Perhaps some might suggest… framing him, but that was a tactic for ordinary people.

You could randomly stop someone on the street, stuff a bottle of liquor into their arms, and accuse them of transporting smuggled alcohol, no problem.

But using that on Lance and the Lance family, they would resist, and the effect wouldn't be as good as it would be on ordinary people!

Plus, with the Viper Gang wiped out by Lance, the mayor wouldn't do anything retaliatory that wouldn't cause any real damage, like those immature young people, unless he had enough power to guarantee their complete destruction.

Other regions were also starting to retaliate against outsiders, so he had to focus his attention on those big guys.

If he could ultimately win, Lance and the Lance family would be easily dealt with.

But if he couldn't ultimately win, even if he won now, he would still lose in the end.

So, the Imperial District had now entered a very special state of tranquility. He had no interest in managing places that couldn't bring him benefits but would instead cause him trouble.

Besides, the "direct responsible person" wasn't him, but Eric.

It was Eric who would lose face, not him.

He even had reason not to deal with these matters, because Eric was just his "illegitimate son."

After arranging the task, Lance picked up the phone, thought for two seconds, and dialed Panda's number.

Panda was analyzing some documents. There were some fragmented clues in the files, and they were trying to find some key leads to catch another big fish!

Director Dale had also been under a lot of pressure recently. Hazardous Materials Administrations across the country had started to get into gear. Today, they seized tens of thousands of dollars' worth of goods here, and tomorrow, they seized tens of thousands of dollars' worth of cases there.

Although he had scored an initial victory, he was gradually becoming less noticeable amidst the constant stream of major cases across the country.

For politicians, unless they had deep connections with each other, they would be marginalized and eventually forgotten if they didn't appear in front of them for a long time.

But before they were marginalized and forgotten, even just the mention of a name could make them remember who the hell he was.

The conflict between the mayor and the locals was still escalating. Director Dale felt that his previous decision had been a bit rash. The power of the locals was too great and not so easy to deal with!

The only thing that made him happy now was that Congress planned to continue to strengthen the power of the Hazardous Materials Administration. Congress had also felt the resistance from local areas to the alcohol ban.

Even local governments were resisting the alcohol ban!

Now, it was no longer entirely about promoting the strict enforcement of the alcohol ban for social experiments, but more of a political game between Congress and the localities.

The purpose of the Hazardous Materials Administration's vertical management was to try to disintegrate local factions through some means. As for the outcome, it was hard to say.

If it went well, everyone would be happy.

If it didn't go well, only the Hazardous Materials Administration would be unlucky. The lords would still be high above.

In this kind of political game, the executors were often cannon fodder. Director Dale didn't want to be cannon fodder, so he had to make some brilliant achievements as soon as possible to make up for his previous shortcomings.

Catching big cases, even "creating" big cases, had become his obsession.

Whoever could help him would become an important figure in the Hazardous Materials Administration!

The sudden ringing of the phone on the desk almost startled Panda. He steadied his mind before answering the phone, "This is the Hazardous Materials Administration, I am Agent Panda."

"Panda, I thought you would call me immediately after you went back, but it seems you just wanted to take my money and leave?"

Hearing Lance's voice, he immediately felt his bladder tighten, almost peeing his pants!

"Are you crazy?" he turned his back to the others, lowered his voice a little, but you could still hear the disbelief in his tone.

This was the Hazardous Materials Administration, and Lance actually called directly!

"Rest assured, no one is monitoring our calls. If there is, give me their name, and I guarantee there won't be a next time."

He paused, "You took ten thousand from me, but there's been no word from you so far. You've disappointed me."

Panda's heart was actually still struggling a little, "Those lists are not easy to check," he glanced at the piece of paper pressed under a pile of files, which recorded several names.

He had actually gotten them, but he didn't want to give them to Lance. He also had his own bottom line.

Lance's disdainful laughter came from the receiver, "Actually, I already know who the lackeys are, but I'm just seeing if you really want to cooperate with me, Panda."

"I heard your girlfriend's name is what?"

"Lisa?"

Panda stood up abruptly, and many eyes turned to look at him. He covered the microphone, "My girlfriend's calling."

Saying that, he took the piece of paper with some names on it and put it in his pocket, then said to Lance, "I'll call you back later," and hung up the phone.

The others all showed kind smiles. Young people's love, although full of a rotten smell, is ultimately a beautiful thing.

He strode out of the Hazardous Materials Administration, found a phone booth and squeezed in, "You fucking leave her alone!"

As soon as the call was connected, he roared.

Lance was still in that unhurried tone, "If you raise your voice to me again, I guarantee we'll meet very soon tomorrow, at her funeral!"

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured down, and Panda suddenly calmed down, as if his whole body had shrunk a circle.

His breathing was heavy, "I apologize for my irrationality, but don't bother her!"

Lance said with a smile, "That depends on whether you consider me your friend, Panda."

"Now, give me a list, let me see if you're lying."

After waiting for more than ten seconds, he still had a trace of hesitation, still making a final struggle.

Lance reminded him again, "Although it's indeed despicable to do this, Panda, think of Lisa."

"Fuck!" Panda punched the public telephone booth hard, and the whole booth shook with a bang, causing some passers-by to look over.

He quickly reported three names, "Are you satisfied now?"

Lance was still in that tone, "I already knew who they were. I said, I just wanted to see if you really knew what you were doing."

These words were filled with unquestionable things, making Panda suddenly feel a tingling scalp and a shock in his heart.

His speaking speed slowed down a bit, "Now, are they a match?"