Empire of Shadows

"This is the command radio of the Jingang City Police Department, repeat, this is the command radio of the Jingang City Police Department, now notify the following situation."

"Ten minutes ago, the 'Kodak Club' located in the Starlight District was robbed. The robbers were all wearing hoods, and no facial features can be provided."

"They are uniformly wearing gray work clothes similar to those of a certain factory, and are moving from east to west along... road. Please mobilize all patrol vehicles in the city immediately to find relevant information about the robbers."

"The robbers' convoy consists of five vehicles, including..."

Two patrol officers in the city center were eating hot dogs and fries while listening to the dispatch information on the radio.

For Jingang City, there are only four places that require night patrols.

The city center, the Presia District, the Starlight District, and the Bay Area.

The city center has a large number of high-end shops, office buildings, and many company offices are located here.

As for the other three districts, they all have their own reasons for needing stable public security.

In order to ensure the public security situation in these four districts, the City Police Department claims to the public that there will be police cars patrolling around the clock every day.

Of course, this is just a statement made by the police department to the public. In reality, there will not really be police cars patrolling around the clock, just like now.

The patrol officers bought a large bag of food from a late-night fast food restaurant, and then found a spacious alley to park the police car in, hiding in the dark.

Then they would chat while enjoying their supper.

If it was too fast, they would choose to sleep for a while after finishing their supper, just for a while!

After all, they still have to patrol.

This situation is very common and very common. No one accuses the police officers of not working hard enough, after all, their legal income is only forty yuan.

No one will risk their lives for forty yuan, and no one will stay up all night for forty yuan.

Both police officers were slightly fat. The night shift life was very nourishing. The two couldn't help but discuss while listening to the radio in the police radio.

"I remember that the Kodak Club is a Kodak family property. Are there still people who dare to rob their casino?"

"It sounds like something that would only happen in the last century!"

The police officer driver took small bites of the bread on both sides of the hot dog. He had a habit of eating the parts he didn't like first, leaving the part he liked the most.

The bread part was what he disliked the most, but he loved the hot dog sausage!

The police officer in the passenger seat curled his lips, "It should be the Lance family who did it."

His partner turned to look at him, "Why do you say that?"

The police officer in the passenger seat shrugged, "Everyone says so, they have a feud!"

The driver police officer didn't quite agree with this view, "The five major families have become four major families. Maybe it was done by their own people. The Lance family has risen very quickly, but haven't you noticed?"

"They don't just provoke trouble!"

He had almost finished biting off the bread around the hot dog sausage, leaving only the hot dog sausage and the thick sauce on the hot dog sausage!

Next, it was the moment he was most looking forward to!

He would stuff the entire sausage into his mouth, fill his mouth, and then chew hard!

This way, every chew could feel the wonderful touch of the hot dog sausage being cut and squeezed in his mouth, and at the same time, the meat juice and sauce mixed together, making it so delicious that people could forget all their troubles!

Just as he was about to put the hot dog sausage into his mouth, his movements suddenly stopped, because he saw a convoy of five cars, similar to the situation described on the radio, passing quickly on the road in front of them.

His beloved hot dog sausage accidentally rolled onto his crotch. He reacted cleverly, and his hand was already on the control switch of the siren.

But at the same time, his partner's hand was also on his hand, and then slowly shook his head.

The two looked at each other in the darkness, and the faint light allowed them to see each other's eyes.

Confusion, rejection, warning, understanding, relief, composure...

These complex emotions can be expressed without any description of scarce language.

The police officer in the passenger seat let go of his hand, "Your hot dog sausage fell."

The police officer in the driver's seat also took his hand off the siren switch. He glanced down at the hot dog sausage on his crotch. He had fantasized about it being so thick, so big, and so long.

He was silent for a while, then picked it up, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed hard.

"We didn't do anything wrong, we just don't want to cause trouble!"

Next was the silence with only chewing sounds.

After about two minutes, the police officer in the driver's seat swallowed all the food in his mouth and said softly, "Sorry, I almost... harmed us."

Two patrol officers with only defensive revolvers on them, facing fierce bandits who dared to rob the Kodak family...

Perhaps at the moment the siren was sounded, their lives entered a countdown!

Although the police officer in the driver's seat was activated by some sense of justice for a moment, he wanted to catch up, but fortunately his partner saved him and also saved each other's families.

His partner patted him on the shoulder and then shared his onion rings, "It's okay, we're partners!"

"Come on, try my honey mustard onion rings."

The two quickly immersed themselves in the food, seemingly forgetting that not long ago, the wanted convoy had swaggered past them!

This kind of thing actually didn't just happen once. Those who are required by the police station to be patrol officers in the middle of the night are basically marginal figures from various sub-bureaus.

They often do the most tiring and dirty work, but they get not very high income.

Some people may have some sense of justice, but the sense of justice may not be able to stand in the face of death.

The convoy returned to the Imperial District without any danger. Lance and the others got out of the car and transferred the stolen money and gold bricks, and then asked people to destroy these vehicles.

The five drivers drove the cars directly towards Angel Lake. There is no place more suitable than Angel Lake to destroy evidence and make things disappear.

No one wants to touch Angel Lake, because no one can be sure whether what they go down to salvage is the evidence they want to find, or oil drums that have become big troubles!

After hiding the money and gold bricks, Lance and the others returned to the villa.

More than twenty minutes later, a large number of police cars surrounded Lance's villa. Hunter directly mobilized the police officers under his command, instead of those in the Imperial District.

The candidate for the director of the Imperial Sub-bureau has been determined, but this director has not yet taken office.

This sub-bureau and the Port Sub-bureau have been completely controlled by Lance. Replacing the sub-bureau director cannot take them back from Lance's hands, so the new directors of these two sub-bureaus have not taken office, but are waiting.

Waiting for Lance to be arrested and sentenced.

Waiting for the Lance family to be wiped out, so that they can get what they want very well.

Hunter knew that if he mobilized the police officers from these two sub-bureaus, then their first thing would be to call Lance to inform him, so this time he used his own people.

A large number of police officers surrounded Lance's villa. These people not only brought pistols, but also many rifles.

They were afraid that if Lance opened fire, they would be at a great disadvantage if they only carried pistols!

In fact, for Hunter and the police officers here, the best situation now is that Lance is not here!

If he is not here, it will make his suspicion greater, and he will have more opportunities and reasons to investigate him.

Director Hunter stood by his exclusive police car, holding a loudspeaker and shouted, "The people inside, listen, we are the federal police. Now we need you to cooperate with us to investigate a robbery case..."

Soon the lights in the villa all turned on, and then Lance's voice came from the wired intercom at the entrance of the villa—

"If you can't give me an explanation, you'll be in trouble."

Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. Being able to communicate at least meant that the conflict would not quickly intensify to an uncontrollable point.

"Where were you just now?"

Lance's slightly tired voice came from the loudspeaker of the intercom, "I was of course fucking in my bed, where else do you think I would be?"

Hunter was choked by this sentence. In fact, he knew before he came that there was no point in coming this time, because they had no evidence.

If Lance was a small character, then framing him would be framing him.

He had done similar things for the masters in the Bay Area before, framing people.

He used chemical agents to stun a fool with a strong position, and then faked a murder scene, which solved the problem of framing and cleared away a corpse from the Bay Area.

Then the unlucky guy couldn't argue, all the evidence pointed to him killing a girl out of greed for money and sex.

Although some of the evidence was far-fetched, after all, someone was pushing it. He talked to the person who was framed alone.

If he pleaded guilty, he could ask the judge for a lenient sentence, and he would be out in five or six years.

If the guy who was framed always thought he was innocent, then he would most likely be hanged.

In the end, he signed the confession and was sent in for twenty years.

Pleading for mercy?

Commutation?

No, such a bad case is not enough to appease the public if it is not severely sentenced!

In the end, that person died in a prison fight. People quickly forgot him, forgot that case...

The reason why he was able to do this was because that person was just a middle class, an ordinary person in front of the Bay Area.

He didn't have the power to resist, but Lance was different. He could resist, and his resistance would be strong.

Therefore, framing him was useless. As long as there was no evidence, even if he was taken to the police station, he would be released soon!

However, that didn't matter much to him. Bundy's intention was to have him get Lance to the police station for twenty-four hours, or maybe a little longer.

In a daze, he came back to his senses and looked at Lance. "Someone said they saw you outside, driving a modified vehicle and robbing the vault of the Kodak Club."

Lance's impatient voice came from the walkie-talkie, "Go talk to my lawyer!"

Hunt didn't mind. "We need to take you back for investigation."

"Wait for my lawyer to come!" Lance ended the call directly. Hunt glanced at the people holding weapons, vaguely visible in the villa, and finally chose to give up breaking in.

The Territory Law was implemented in the Federation two centuries ago. Its core content is that if someone forcibly enters your private territory without your consent,

then, in order to protect your personal safety and property security, you have the legal right to use weapons to expel or kill the intruder, and you don't need to be responsible for it.

The passage of this bill was related to the social environment at the time.

Runaway slaves, slave-catching teams, wanted criminals, thieves, robbers, bandits…

There were too many bad people!

So the Federation passed this bill, making the cost of invasion very high, which played a very important role in maintaining social order at that time.

It has been applied to this day, and Licalai is a region that supports this law.

According to some previous cases, even the police cannot invade private territory without legal permits such as search warrants and arrest warrants, otherwise they may face retaliation.

If it were ordinary people, Hunt dared to guarantee that they would never dare to shoot, because ordinary people could not afford the consequences of shooting, even if the law allowed them to do so.

But the guy in front of him was Lance and a member of the Lance family. He had a premonition that as long as he went in with people, many gun barrels would stick out and shoot him into a hornet's nest.

Then, in the first half of this year, people would discuss whether the "Territory Law" was appropriate.

They waited at the door for more than ten minutes before Lawyer Robben drove over.

The moment he saw Lawyer Robben, Hunt knew that the next step would be the haggling stage.

Lawyer Robben entered the villa and saw Lance, who had already changed his clothes. "Mr. Lance, can I know what happened?"

Lance told him. After listening to Lance's account, Lawyer Robben was silent.

He knew that Lance was bold, and he also knew his ability… very strong, but he didn't expect that this case would be so big.

Although Lance claimed that these things had nothing to do with him and that he had been sleeping in the villa, Lawyer Robben's talent and instinct told him that this matter was exactly what Lance had done.

But as a lawyer, what he needs now is to clear Lance of suspicion, for the sake of money and connections.

He had already heard that the case in New Gold City had involved high-level officials in the Ministry of Justice, and his connections in the Ministry of Justice had specifically inquired about the situation here.

The better Lance's development, the greater the benefit to him. He would only support it and would not refuse.

After thinking for a while, he said in a deep voice, "No matter who asks you, you must say this, and memorize it forwards and backwards."

"They are very likely to use some tactics to repeatedly ask you questions, adjusting the order, when you are tired."

"Once you answer incorrectly, it may lead to disastrous consequences!"

When people are tired, repeating a question too many times may lead to slips of the tongue, just like you keep telling yourself "1+1 = 3".

When your body and mind are highly exhausted, some people keep asking you all kinds of math problems, and they are all math problems that you are familiar with and are correct.

For example, "1+2 = 3" and so on. They may suddenly ask "1+1 = ?" when your consciousness has begun to be controlled by the subconscious.

If you don't react, you may blurt out the answer.

Lance glanced at Lawyer Robben, "I think there's something behind your words."

Lawyer Robben smiled, "Just a friendly reminder!"

Soon, after they discussed how to respond, Lance and Lawyer Robben, in Lance's car, went to the city police station together.

Being summoned is in accordance with the federal judicial process. As long as someone insists that Lance was the robber, then the judiciary supports Lance being summoned and interrogated.

Hiding and refusing to be summoned is meaningless. The federal judicial process is the most important core.

For safety, Lance was in a bulletproof car, and many people accompanied him.

This was Lance's first time at the city police station, which seemed more solemn than other branches.

The huge police emblem and the sign of "Goldport City Police Station" gave people a sense of solemnity for no reason, and at the same time, there would be a slight sense of tension.

Lance and Lawyer Robben were invited to the interrogation room, and several police officers came together to ask Lance various questions.

Lawyer Robben's job was to find loopholes in these questions. After the police finished asking, he would analyze the questions and then tell Lance whether he could answer or not, to avoid possible interrogation traps.

Hunt and Charlie were in another room observing the situation. As a semi-interrogation expert, Hunt had no hope for the current situation.

"Without getting that lawyer out of the way, we'll never get the answers we want."

Charlie stood aside and just watched quietly. "If you can't get it out, you can't get it out. Do you expect him to confess in the police station?"

He shook his head as he spoke, "Anyone can confess, but Lance will never confess!"

While they were talking, a police officer knocked on the door. After Hunt said, "Come in," the two turned to look at the police officer at the door.

The police officer seemed a little… uneasy, or something else. He licked his lips, "There are many people outside."

Charlie frowned, "Are they reporters?"

"Don't let them in, and keep an eye on whether any of our people are contacting the reporters. Some news is best not to be released yet…"

The police officer interrupted him, "Charlie… Mr. , it's not like that. The people who came are from the Lance family."

"There are a lot of them. They have surrounded the entrance of the police station."

Charlie and Hunt looked at each other and immediately went to a place where they could see the road outside.

Then they gasped.

There were at least dozens of cars parked outside, completely blocking the road in front of the police station. Countless people stood in front of the car lights, giving people a very oppressive feeling!