Empire of Shadows

In the morning, Vice President Vaughn arrived at the dockworkers' union office early.

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Recently, dockworkers' union representatives from all over the country have come here to participate in the first Likalai State Dockworkers' Games, which is a very special honor.

The local union being able to show its face among the general union, the labor federation, and more parallel unions is of great help to Scott and his own future career development.

Moreover, this is a very special experience!

Vice President Vaughn clearly understood this, so he participated in the entire process almost from beginning to end, whether it was the schedule of the games or how to select, to who to invite and who not to invite, and how to arrange these people, it was all his responsibility.

Although President Scott was also contacting people from all sides, his involvement was not in-depth.

Vice President Vaughn also had his own little ideas. If other unions also wanted to hold similar activities, and they had no experience, then the only person they could ask for advice would be him.

After President Scott was promoted to the general union, he served as the president of the local dockworkers' union, and he showed his face in front of many unions and had friendships with them.

In the future, he could completely go to the labor federation instead of the general union!

Perhaps the labor federation does not have as much influence as the general union in a specific field, but what the labor federation can influence is not just one union, but all of them!

From a broader perspective, the future development trend of the labor federation is better.

He wants to enter the labor federation and become an important member!

Along the way, every union staff member had a smile on their face. Now that the King's Harbor City Dockworkers' Union is in the limelight, they will naturally be very happy.

This means they will have a better future. Who can refuse a better future?

No one can refuse!

He had just sat down and had not yet started to deal with work when the secretary knocked twice on the door and poked her head in before he could respond.

He had a bit of a headache, "I'm working...", he planned to have a good chat with the secretary later. Although they had a good relationship, when working, the order of work was obviously more important!

But soon the secretary's words dispelled this idea, "Mr. Lance is here."

Vice President Vaughn was stunned, and quickly stood up, went around the table and walked towards the door, "He's already come in?"

The secretary nodded, then suddenly looked back and pushed the door open.

Lance was striding over, and Vice President Vaughn's face was immediately filled with a smile, and he greeted him warmly, "You should have given me a call before you came, so I could have picked you up..."

If this scene were seen by the lowest-level staff of those unions, or by those workers, rumors would definitely spread that "Vice President Vaughn is approachable, easy to get along with, and very enthusiastic to people."

But in reality, his approachability and his enthusiasm are selective.

The two shook hands, and Lance said with a smile that he was just passing by, not that he had come specifically.

Vice President Vaughn asked the secretary to get two cups of good coffee, and then invited Lance into his office. He knew that Lance's saying he was just passing by was just a way of speaking.

At his level and status, he would not believe in anything like just passing by.

After the secretary brought the coffee, Vice President Vaughn took the initiative to start the conversation, "We are almost ready, and there is one thing I was planning to contact you about."

"Some other unions are very interested in what we are doing after learning about this, and they also want to come over."

"Debbie and I have discussed this issue, and she thinks this is a good opportunity to expand our influence."

"All walks of life will take what they see here back with them, and then it will become another template. Our influence may spread to the entire federation without us even realizing it."

"So I wanted to ask what you think..."

He picked up the coffee and took a sip, looking as if he wanted to drink some coffee after finishing speaking, but in reality he was covering up his little embarrassment.

The reason for the embarrassment was that the money might not be enough!

Lance could understand what he meant. If more people came, these people would need food, drink, and accommodation. It was impossible to let them find places to live on their own.

Even if they really found places to live, they would still need to be treated to meals, and after so many people came, wouldn't other activities need to be arranged, and wouldn't some souvenirs need to be given when they left? All of this would cost money.

President Scott had already planned to use up the union's remaining money in order to get promoted, and it was absolutely impossible for Vice President Vaughn to take out his own savings and contribute to public affairs.

So now, if he wanted to handle this matter beautifully, the best way was to let Lance continue to pay.

There are always a few things in this world that are difficult to ask for—

Borrowing someone else's car, taking off someone else's pants, and taking money from someone else's pocket!

"If the overspending isn't too much, I don't have any problems with it, but you need to prepare a document for me to take a look at."

"I want to know where every penny is spent!"

Vice President Vaughn breathed a sigh of relief, "No problem, I guarantee that every penny will be used where it should be used."

Lance nodded, and the topic ended there. Vice President Vaughn was in a good mood, and the smile on his face was a little more sincere, "By the way, you came here today..."

Lance continued his words, "I came here also because it has something to do with this matter. This is a very important thing for both you and Scott, and it's the same for us."

"I'm worried that there will be many people on the pier at that time, which may lead to some problems that we cannot predict."

"For example, crowding, someone being pushed into the water, or someone throwing cigarette butts and matches, causing a fire."

"What I mean is that during this period, while we still have plenty of time, we should check the fire hazards on the pier, and also focus on repairing those guardrails, etc."

Vice President Vaughn frowned slightly when he heard this. He knew that what Lance said was correct.

Fire safety has always been a major problem on the pier. In fact, there have been several fires of varying sizes every year in recent years. Perhaps just because of aging wires or short circuits, a fire could be triggered.

Another point is that the air by the sea is corrosive. Many guardrails, even if they are painted with anti-rust paint, are severely corroded. If someone doesn't know this and leans on those dangerous guardrails, they will fall into the sea.

Usually, when this kind of thing happens, the union will become the sanctioner to deal with those capitalists who are unwilling to pay.

But if it happens at an event they are holding, they will become the responsible party.

"Your reminder is very timely and crucial, I will arrange it as soon as possible...", he looked a little headache, "It's just that time is a bit tight now."

Perhaps seeing his distress, Lance took the initiative to say, "I will let Blue Collar Services help, and donate some more fire extinguishing equipment, but there may be a lot of cars coming in and out at that time, will there be any impact?"

After hearing this, Vice President Vaughn's worries disappeared, and he waved his hand, "I dare not say anything big in other places, but on the pier, what I say still counts!"

Sean's people gave Lance a message that they had found a warehouse of wine, and it looked like it had been there for quite some time.

These should have been stored by some people before the Prohibition was issued, and their purpose was to speculate and make big money.

Now, although the price of alcohol has risen very high, there is still no sign of it stopping, so they will not sell this batch of wine unless the profits are maximized.

Even if this batch of wine is legal, it will become illegal when it reaches Chief Dale's hands!

Chief Dale, who is eager to continue working on big cases, will not care whether your storage receipts are real or not. Anyway, to him, all of this is illegal!

Originally, Lance didn't think much about it, but after a turn of his head, he felt that he should do a survey of the warehouse area on the pier, at least to let him know what other good and bad things were there.

So a generous survey began, without the need to be secretive, directly taking a notebook to record the situation of these warehouses.

Vice President Vaughn didn't know what Lance wanted to do, but what he said was indeed not harmful to him, to the pier, and to the dockworkers' union.

He could even use this matter to collect another sum of money from the enterprises and warehouses on the pier, such as "fire protection fees" and the like.

With Vice President Vaughn's cooperation, this matter would be very easy to promote, and Lance asked Vice President Vaughn to contact Sean directly.

And Lance went directly to Alberto, he had some things he needed to talk to Alberto about.

As soon as Lance walked into the door of Lezhu Financial Company, the little beauty at the front desk waved her fingers at him and took the initiative to say hello, and Lance heard the cursing from the innermost part.

He walked to the front desk, his elbow pressed on the front desk, "Hi, you've become a lot more beautiful in the few days I haven't seen you."

Although the girl rolled her eyes, she was still happy, "I've always been so beautiful!"

She was very confident.

Lance nodded his mouth towards the turn at the end of the corridor, "What's wrong with him?"

The little beauty was straightforward, "His bar in the Starlight District was raided."

Lance couldn't help but laugh after hearing this, and the laughter also alarmed the "staff" in the next door.

Someone poked their head out to take a look, immediately came over and hugged him, and turned around and said, "Look who's here!"

Lance could only go in first, the people here were indeed good to him, although the initial "good" was based on Alberto's optimism about him, and not necessarily from their hearts.

It's like—if your boss is very nice to a stranger, especially a nobody, you wouldn't be cold to them; you'd even show some enthusiasm.

Whether they're being sincere or not, at least they're treating him well at that moment.

And now, they probably really are being sincere!

Lance shook hands with them, high-fived them, bumped fists, hugged them—it took a while for it to completely stop.

"Your timing isn't great; he's in a rage right now."

Lance asked curiously, "How much was lost?"

The person speaking laughed and said, "Maybe fifty or sixty thousand."

Lance whistled. "Yeah, he should be furious."

"If it were me, I'd be shooting someone."

Everyone in the room burst out laughing, not really taking the loss of so much money to heart.

The Sumuri people's gang is interesting; what's interesting is that their core members are basically relatives, not complete strangers.

If someone who isn't related to them wants to join, they must have someone as a 'sponsor' to introduce them, but everyone is very cautious when it comes to this.

The situation on Sumuri Island is also very complex; they don't randomly recruit unfamiliar Sumuri people to join.

Of course, they also recruit some people from the Federation or immigrants from other countries, but getting into the inner circle is still very difficult.

When Alberto orders them during work, they won't resist because work is work.

But if it's not during work, some of them are even Alberto's uncles!

How much respect can you expect them to have for Alberto now? That's obviously unlikely.

Fifty or sixty thousand dollars is a lot, but after seeing the huge profits from alcohol, their perspective is different from the past.

In the past, Alberto wouldn't let go of even a few dozen dollars' worth of business. If someone came now wanting to borrow a little money, he might just send someone else to deal with them.

Tens of thousands of dollars can be earned back in a week.

In fact, they all knew that the reason for Alberto's anger wasn't the loss of a large sum of money, but simply because he felt he had lost face.

Everyone else's bars are doing fine; it's just his bar that had a problem.

They chatted for a while about the Hazardous Materials Administration's 'Greyhound' biting people everywhere recently. After the yelling and cursing from Alberto's office stopped, Lance said goodbye to these people and went inside.

When he opened the door, Alberto was standing by the window smoking a cigarette, looking gloomy. When he saw Lance, he wasn't as enthusiastic as before; he really didn't have the mood for it.

"Take a seat."

He seemed a little depressed. "You know about it?"

Lance sat down on a chair, casually took out a cigar, and lit it. "Of course. I don't think it's a big deal; I've had two bars shut down on me."

Hearing this, Alberto suddenly felt a little better. He rolled his eyes. "I'm just angry about how they could find the location of my bar so accurately!"

"I trust my customers. We haven't had any new customers these past few days. Someone betrayed me!"

Lance nodded. He hesitated for a moment, which made Alberto seize on something. "What do you want to say?"

He then slowly said, "The Hazardous Materials Administration arranged for an undercover agent to enter my company, and they're sending messages out. If I hadn't found them, another one of my bars would have been finished yesterday."

Alberto seemed to realize something. He immediately picked up the phone. "Tell Fordis to come back; I have something to say to him."

"Looks like you've realized it."

Alberto's mood began to return to normal. "Those sons of bitches! Don't let me catch that bastard, or I'll show him how terrible the anger of the Sumuri people can be!"

In fact, it wasn't just Lance who realized that a chaotic Goldenport City was coming; Alberto and others had also realized it. They were all recruiting, but… it just wasn't obvious usually.

That doesn't mean they haven't been doing anything. Recently, a large number of Sumuri people have been coming to Goldenport City from other places. There might be undercover agents from the Hazardous Materials Administration among them.

Thinking of this, he cursed in the Sumuri Island dialect for a while before letting out a heavy breath, looking much more normal.

"Let's put these unpleasant things aside. Now, I believe you're not here today just to give me a reminder," he quickly judged.

Indeed, that was the case. Lance didn't deny it. "There's something I need to talk to you about. You could also say I need your help."

"Speak."

Very concise. Lance liked that.

"Luigi cut off my supply. He broke the contract."

Hearing this, Alberto's eyebrows shot up again. "That bastard! I knew the Carlos family couldn't be trusted!"

Lance looked at him. "Then why did you introduce us?"

This made him look very awkward. "Actually, most of the time, they're still…" He tried hard to look serious. "…not bad."

"I'll give him a call…"

Lance stopped him. "That's not my style, Alberto."

Alberto also took his hand off the receiver. "Then what do you want me to do?"

Lance also withdrew his hand. "He must still be shipping to the Federation. If any cargo is being sent to Goldenport City, I want to know the delivery location and time."

This would be basically impossible for others to do, but for the Sumuri people with their complex relationships, it wasn't very difficult.

Alberto considered for a while. "No problem. I'll take care of this."

Lance nodded slightly. "Actually, there's one more thing I wanted to tell you today. Next month, Congress will pass a proposal to strengthen the Coast Guard's armament. By then, all smuggling groups will no longer be able to ship goods on the sea with impunity."

Alberto's eyes widened. "I didn't know you had connections in Congress!"

He looked like he had seen some kind of magical creature, full of disbelief.

Lance didn't explain. Sometimes, maintaining a certain level of mystery can help maintain friendship better.

He said with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "I also have connections in the Presidential Palace, but I'm afraid you wouldn't believe me."

Alberto's eyes widened even further. "You have connections like that?"

But then he cursed "Shit" with a laugh in Lance's hearty laughter and laughed along.

Actually, Lance had other things he wanted to talk about, but after thinking about it just now, he still didn't bring them up.

He needed a large number of glass bottles.

He had initially given Mr. Chobaf a suggestion to set a fire, but Mr. Chobaf had refused. Now, he was going to use this trick himself.

So, the fewer people who knew, the better.

Alberto kept Lance for lunch. At the table, he talked about the recent military friction on the Tanfit continent and some issues on Sumuri Island.

This also gave Lance a clearer understanding of Sumuri Island and the international events that were happening…