Shadow Empire

Chapter 254 Discovery, Punishment, and One Step Forward

Belief is a magical thing.

The amazing thing is that people can do many things that are unimaginable or incomprehensible for the sake of their beliefs.

Just like Ennio's father, he would rather suffer himself, his family, and his wife and children, just to find the "federal dream" in the book.

Although he has begun to wake up recently.

Or for some immigrants, their immigration status has become the last obstacle for them to embrace a new life. They can’t wait to get rid of the immigrant label and are even willing to pay a huge price for it!

Becoming a federal citizen and having a job that allows them to get rid of the immigrant hat has become the obsession of many immigrants, and they are willing to pay a lot to achieve this.

And this concept is being passed on to younger immigrants, perhaps because they discuss it more in their families, making it impossible for them not to notice it, which then influences their thinking.

Maz is a typical immigrant who longs for recognition from the mainstream society and wants to integrate into it.

Every time he attended a social gathering, it would become a social disaster when they were chatting happily and someone asked him if he was a local and what his parents were doing.

It cannot be said that everyone is rejecting immigrants, but the negative impact of the political movements in recent years is still continuing. In fact, they not only reject immigrants, but also those cotton picking experts, and they express it more obviously and directly.

Native Union people, influenced by their old Union families, were very unfriendly to the cotton pickers and immigrants.

It is often reported in society that "they are invading our homes" and "they are taking away our jobs" have become the biggest fears of federal people, even though they actually know very well that they are unemployed not because their jobs have been taken away, but simply because they are lazy.

Maz needs a job that would allow him to become an immigrant accepted by society, or even make people forget his immigrant identity.

And the best choice is to be a civil servant.

But it is not easy to get into the federal civil service. You may think you are signing up for a federal government job, but there is a high probability that you will be transferred to a company and will not be recognized as a civil servant.

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

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

In a trance, 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 other people's attention, be sociable, and keep a low profile.

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

He came to his senses and pushed through the crowd to walk towards the bar. This was a bar, owned by the Lance family. He was assigned to work here, reportedly to prepare for the opening of other bars.

All of them have been given different positions, and now the Lance family seems to be short of people.

"Come on, brother, what do you want me to do?"

The bartender pointed his thumb at the door behind him, "We're running low on alcohol. Derisi's people are delivering some. Go get some."

Maz's heartbeat quickened a little. He nodded, saying "OK," and walked toward the back door.

Just when he took a few steps out, his arm was suddenly grabbed. At this moment, he instinctively felt an urge to "escape"!

His heart also told him that he had been discovered!
But he managed to suppress this instinct and impulse, and turned around and looked at the bartender in confusion with what he thought was his best acting skills, "What's wrong?"

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

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

The bar no longer stores large quantities of alcohol. There isn't much alcohol left before the bar opens every day. When only 30% of the alcohol is left, Derisi will arrange for someone to deliver the alcohol.

Make sure you have enough alcohol to last for two hours, but not too much.

In this way, even if the bar is discovered and closed down, the family's losses will not be too great.

And Derisi came here not only to deliver the wine, but also to take the money away.

When Mazlai came into the alley from another door, there were already several people there, and they seemed to be chatting.

About ten boxes of various wines were piled up on the ground. He didn't know Derisy, but he saw the manager handing a tin box to the other party.

He knew that there was money inside.

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

The manager gave instructions and Maz began to move things, his eyes fixed on the van's license plate number.

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

In Maz's eyes, Lance and the Lance family are the cancer of the Empire District and gangsters. He has no good feelings towards these people. He doesn't even feel that he is one with this place. He doesn't think of himself as an immigrant.

After Maz entered the bar with the drinks, the manager continued chatting with Derisy, but as long as Maz was present, they would stop talking, as if they were discussing something very important.

Maz vaguely heard some key words they said several times, some of which might be place names, and some might be times. He felt that these clues were very important.

He has been firmly
It was very quick for a young man to move ten boxes of wine. After the last box was moved in, he found an excuse to go to the bathroom.

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

This was a single room, and he locked the door so he wasn't worried about someone suddenly pushing the door open, and... no one would know what he was recording.

But he didn't notice that there was a mirror above his head, and someone was watching his every move through the mirror.

The bar was restocked several times that night, and he only moved the drinks once. The other young people who came with him all moved the drinks. In the words of the bartender, they had to try everything.

After three or four days, Alvin had roughly figured out the situation of these people. His expression looked very unhappy. There were four people in total.

These people would record what they saw and heard every day, as well as some of the things that DeRici and the manager said.

None of them made any phone calls. They must have received some brief training and knew that making phone calls could easily expose themselves.

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

"This is my problem. I didn't do a good job of vetting the personnel." Erwin took the initiative to take responsibility. Although these people were not recruited by him personally, he had to assume his own review responsibility.

There were other people in the room, and Lance glanced at him, "Is there a problem with deducting your dividends for three months?"

Erwin shook his head, "No problem."

According to the rules originally set by Lance, 30% of the monthly income will be distributed to them in proportion. Alvin's current job is very important and he is Lance's confidant, so he can get about 2% in dividends every month.

Judging from the family's current profitability, the monthly income is approximately 200,000 yuan. Two percent of 200,000 yuan is approximately 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. In three months, it is just over 10,000 yuan.

This amount of money was enough to make him feel the pain!
Ethan has the best relationship with Erwin, and he couldn't help but say, "I'm going to kill these sons of bitches!"

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

"We haven't yet fully determined who they are and whether they are really passing on information. Besides, it's about time Ponda did something."

"We can use the intelligence he gave us to verify whether he is sincere in cooperating with us."

In Lance's safe there was not only a loan contract signed by Ponda, but also his fingerprints and even a photo with Lance.

Although the money eventually returned to him, Lance felt that since he had earned so much money from him, he should work hard.

Ethan sat back down again, sullenly, “Let me deal with them after this is over!”

Lance nodded, "No problem."

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

"Also, we need to find more houses that can be used to store wine. The situation will become more and more serious in the future, and we can't put all our eggs in one basket."

Laun leaned against the wall and asked Lance a question, "Since we don't use those bars to operate, why do we have to clean them all?" Lance directly pried the lock of Eric's bar and arranged for people to clean the bar, making it look like it was going to be open for business.

Many drunkards have already asked about this, and it’s time to try some strong wine in those places.

"The purpose of taking down the bars is not really to operate in those places. Now many people know about these bars. I believe the people in the Dangerous Goods Administration also know where these bars are."

"As long as we really dare to open it, they will really dare to catch us. I'm not a fool!"

"The purpose of re-establishing them but not operating them is to tell everyone that I have the final say in the Empire District."

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

"Pay it back with interest!"

Laun had no objection and nodded to show his understanding.

The mayor is also very annoyed now. Even if he knew, he would not make things too ugly with Lance, or he simply cannot spare the time to deal with Lance now.

Lance had just made him look bad, and the Viper Gang, which he had thought could replace Lance, was now a thing of the past. Now, even if he wanted to deal with Lance, he had to consider what means to use to do it.

The only law enforcement agency he could call upon was the Hazardous Materials Administration, but the Hazardous Materials Administration could not catch ordinary crimes.

Maybe someone will say... framing is okay, but that is a method used against ordinary people.

You can stop a random person on the street, put a bottle of wine in his arms, and accuse him of transporting contraband liquor, and that's fine.

But if you treat Lance and the Lance family like this, they will resist and the effect will not be as effective as dealing with ordinary people!
In addition, the Viper Gang was wiped out by Lance. The mayor did not have enough power to guarantee their destruction in one go. He would not act like those immature young people and take retaliatory actions that would not cause any substantial harm.

Other regions have also begun to fight back against outsiders, so he has to focus on the big guys.

If he could win in the end, Lance and the Lance family would be easy for him to deal with.

But if he can't win in the end, even if he wins now, he will still lose in the end.

Therefore, the Empire Zone has now entered a very special kind of tranquility. He has no intention of caring about places that cannot bring him benefits but instead bring him troubles.

And the "direct person in charge" was not him, but Eric.

It was Eric who was more embarrassed than him.

He even had reason to leave these things alone because Eric was just his "illegitimate son".

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

Ponda is analyzing some documents. There are some scattered clues in the files. They are trying to find some key clues to catch another big guy!

Director Dell has been under a lot of pressure recently. Hazardous materials management bureaus across the country have begun to get into gear. Today they catch a case worth tens of thousands of dollars here, and tomorrow they catch a case worth tens of thousands of dollars there.

Although he won a jackpot, he gradually became less conspicuous among the major cases that continued to occur in various places.

For politicians, unless they have a very deep connection with each other, if they do not appear in front of them for a long time, they will be marginalized by this circle and eventually forgotten.

But before being marginalized and forgotten, even the appearance of a name can remind them who the hell this person is.

The conflict between the mayor and the locals is still escalating. Director Dell now feels that his previous decision was a bit hasty. The locals are too powerful and it is not so easy to deal with them!

The only thing that makes him happy now is that Congress intends to continue to strengthen the power of the Hazardous Materials Administration, and Congress has also sensed the resistance to the Prohibition from local areas.

Even local governments were resisting Prohibition!

Now it is actually no longer entirely for the purpose of a social experiment to promote strict enforcement of prohibition, but more of a political game between Congress and local governments.

This is the purpose of the vertical management of the Hazardous Materials Administration. They are trying to break up factionalism through some means, but it is hard to say what the outcome will be.

It was done and everyone was happy.

If they don't do it well, the only ones who will suffer are the Hazardous Materials Administration, and the bosses are still high and mighty.

In political games at this level, the executors are often cannon fodder. Director Dell does not want to be cannon fodder, so he must make some outstanding achievements as soon as possible to make up for his previous losses.

Catching big cases, or even "committing" big cases, has become his obsession.

Whoever can help him will be able to become an important figure in the Hazardous Materials Administration!
The sudden ringing of the phone on the desk almost scared Ponda. He calmed himself down before answering the phone. "This is the Hazardous Materials Administration. I'm Agent Ponda."

"Ponda, I thought you would call me as soon as you got back, but it seems like you just want to take my money and leave?"

When he heard Lance's voice he felt his bladder tighten and he almost peed!
"Are you crazy?" He turned his back to everyone else and lowered his voice, but you could still hear the disbelief in his tone.

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

"Don't worry, no one will monitor our calls. If anyone does, give me his name and I promise there won't be any more."

He paused, "You took tens of thousands of dollars from me, but there has been no news so far. You have disappointed me."

Pang Da was actually still struggling a little bit in his heart, "Those lists are not easy to check." He glanced at the paper at the bottom of a pile of files, which had a few names written on it.

He actually got it, but he didn't want to give it to Lance, and he had his own bottom line.

Lance's disdainful laughter came from the receiver. "Actually, I already know who the lackey is, but I just want to see if you really want to cooperate with me, Ponda."

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

"Lisa?"

Pang Da stood up all of a sudden. Many eyes looked at him. He covered the microphone and said, "My girlfriend is calling."

As he said this, he took out the piece of paper with some names on it and put it in his pocket. Then he said to Lance, "I'll call you later," and hung up the phone.

Everyone else smiled kindly. Although young people's love is full of stench, it is ultimately a beautiful thing.

He strode out of the hazardous materials administration office, found a telephone booth and went in, "Don't fucking touch her!"

As soon as the phone was connected, he roared.

Lance still spoke in that unhurried tone, "If you speak loudly to me again, I promise we will meet soon, tomorrow, at her funeral!"

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured down on him. Pang Da suddenly calmed down, as if he had shrunk in size.

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

Lance said with a smile, "It depends on whether you consider me as your friend, Ponda."

"Now, give me a list and let me see if you are lying."

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

Lance reminded him again, "Although it is indeed despicable to do so, Ponda, think about Lisa."

"Fuck!" Ponda punched the public telephone booth so hard that the whole booth shook with a bang, attracting some passers-by to look over here.

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

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

This sentence was full of unquestionable things, which made Pangda suddenly feel his scalp itchy and startled.

He spoke more slowly, "Now, is that right?"

(End of this chapter)