Shadow Empire

Chapter 530 Tit for tat
Making friends is actually not easy at all.

If a beggar wants to be friends with a prince, there is a high possibility that the prince will feel that the beggar is humiliating him and order his guards to kill the beggar.

If people want to become friends, they need an equal relationship.

This does not mean that both parties should ignore their background, status, or anything else, but that the "values" of both parties should be roughly the same.

If a local gang leader presented the Attorney General with a solid gold baseball bat today, there is a high probability that this person would end up being sent to the electric chair.

It’s not that the gift he gave was bad, but that he did something that he shouldn’t have done and absolutely could not have done!
If a master doesn’t accept your bribe, it’s definitely not because he is not greedy, but because you don’t deserve it!
Without considering other things about Lance, just based on his status and position, he is actually not worthy of being friends with the Attorney General of a state.

But who knows that they all have the same "friend", Senator Cleveland?

Senator Cleveland needs a lot of benefits to consolidate and continue to improve his position in Congress. If Attorney General Terry wants to go further, he must have a big shot to protect him.

Lance is another link in the whole machine. Although there is nothing that can be discussed between him and Terry, with the blessing of a special bridge, they are qualified to be friends and they are equal.

Now that we have become friends, some things are easy to talk about.

Terry was very polite and asked Lance to call him by his name, but Lance would never be so reckless.

It's like the Cleveland Senator asking Lance to call him by his first name, but will Lance do that?

Not only the title but also his position should be included.

Big shots use this method to show closeness, they don’t really want you to shout like that!
"I heard from Tom that you came here this time because you need my help with something?" Terry stood up and walked into the restaurant. "Whiskey?"

Lance nodded and said, "There are some problems with the police force in Jingang City, which has seriously affected the stability of society. But... you know, the situation in Jingang City is a bit complicated."

"We are getting it back on track little by little, but our power alone is not enough. We need a higher level of power."

There are currently three departments that can investigate corruption in the federal police system, but only two of them can actually do anything about it.

One is the disciplinary department within the police. Letting the disciplinary department within the police investigate the police force is as ridiculous as "I investigate myself".

Because of institutional issues, the director has almost all the authority. Even if an investigation is launched, as long as he feels something is wrong, he can immediately replace the people in the disciplinary department, and the investigation will naturally not be carried out.

There are two other departments, one is the judicial department, but the judicial department generally does not directly interfere in the integrity of the local police force.

Then there is only one department left, the Procuratorate and the prosecutors.

If we ask the prosecutors of Jingang City to investigate corruption in the Jingang City police force, we still don’t know who they will find out about.

The Bay Area has ruled Jingang City for so many years, and basically everyone from prosecutors to judges has more or less connections with them.

The easiest way to bring down Charlie is to link him to corruption in the police force, and then use the relationship with the Ministry of Justice to directly suspend his status as a city councilor, and then subject him to investigation, ultimately convict him, and send him to prison.

As long as he loses the skin of a "politician", it will be easy to frame him.

Politicians have little sympathy for the losers of political struggles, and dealing with them does not require as much trouble as dealing with those politicians who have not yet failed.

These things have been performed more than once in history—

Before a senator falls, his enemies can only try to bring him down by throwing mud, fabricating evidence, and engaging in political infighting.

But no one ever said anything about assassinating him or harming his family.

But since he was overthrown, he himself died in an accident, his wife died in an accident, his children died in an accident, and the whole family seemed to be cursed and almost died out!
This is the rule of the game and bottom line that federal politicians have always adhered to, and it is also the highest "high-voltage line" in federal politics.

Even though Charlie is just a low-level politician, Lance will not take direct action against him before destroying his "golden body".

So, someone needs to do the work!

Terry was not embarrassed when he heard Lance's request, "What you said is exactly what we plan to do."

“The police corruption issue in Kingsgate last year has already attracted the attention of the state government, us, and the Ministry of Justice.”

"We have actually been investigating the problems of the Jingang City police force since the beginning of the year, but it has been in the secret investigation stage, so you may not be aware of it yet."

"Since you have such a request..." He hesitated for a moment, "Well, let me give you a phone number of the head of the investigation team. What evidence do you have that you can provide him with?"

He didn't ask Lance who to report, nor did he mention anything else, because at his level he already knew it all.

Since these matters could be handled by Senator Cleveland, there must be some congressional bargaining issues involved, and it would not be appropriate for him to ask in depth.

Only if he does this well, Senator Cleveland will naturally remember him. Many times, for those who want to work hard and make progress, it is enough to become familiar to those who can decide their future!

He hand-wrote a number for Lance, and a name, Dean, a prosecutor.

"Prosecutor Dean is an excellent prosecutor. He has very professional abilities, his own ideas in work, and he has a very good relationship with me."

"I believe you two will get along very well!" Terry hinted. He wasn't sure if Lance had sensed his hint.

Fortunately, Lance sensed it and quickly gave positive feedback, "I believe I can become good friends with Prosecutor Dean."

Terry smiled and nodded, "I think so."

Lance put the note away and changed the topic from the main business to other aspects.

Attorney General Terry is a very talkative and enthusiastic person, which fits the perception of the grassroots people very well that "the higher the level of the official, the less airs he has."

The two of them talked about a lot of things. At first, he just thought of it as a polite response, but as the things they talked about started to become profound or cutting-edge, Lance was able to keep up. His impression of Lance changed again.

At least Lance is not a tool without any cultural purity. He still has some value.

After declining Attorney General Terry's invitation to stay for dinner, Lance left. He had no intention of staying overnight.

After returning to the hotel to rest for a while, he met with the leader of the local Imperial gang. After a brief chat and selling 250,000 bottles of wine, he got on the car and started his journey back to Jingang City.

The weather in early April was getting warmer, but the atmosphere in Jingang City was getting colder.

A lot happened in these two days.

First, the city police chief was killed, and it is still unknown who did it.

Although there are many rumors among the people, some of which seem to point to the Lans family, in the absence of definite evidence, such rumors can only be rumors.

The police station also arrested some rumor mongers for this.

Speaking of the police station, we have to say that after Chief Blue took office, he did not immediately make large-scale changes to the police station's personnel. Instead, he continued to use the personnel arrangements from the Hunter era.

But even so, some police officers protested to City Hall, believing that Chief Blue had ties to gangs and was not qualified to lead the city's police department.

After reading part of the report, the mayor publicly stated that in the absence of any evidence, he would not consider replacing the police chief for the time being.

For a moment, the focus of the entire city's storm was actually concentrated on the position of the police chief, rather than the confrontation between the Lance family and the Kodak family.

On the morning of such a day, Lance's convoy returned to Jingang City. After a day and a half of trekking, he felt very uncomfortable.

The feeling of being unable to stretch out in the car made him very uncomfortable. As soon as he arrived at the parking lot behind the office, he couldn't wait to get out of the car. The moment he stood on the ground, his whole body stretched out. It felt like... a curled up seedling stretched out and grew vigorously under the nourishment of the sun and rain!
"What happened in the past two days?"

Lance sat in the chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette. During his absence, Erwin was responsible for the operation of the gang and the daily work arrangements of the company, as well as observing those "struggles".

He brought Lance coffee and said with a smile, "I heard Charlie is trying to arrange a police strike to get Blue out of office."

"You know, once the police go on strike, the city will fall into chaos. No matter if Bruce is at fault or not, his only option will be to resign."

Lance took the coffee and smelled it. The rich aroma of oil filled his nose. He took a sip and the taste was very "heavy", the kind he liked.

"It looks like he's in big trouble."

Erwin smiled and said, "But I believe it won't be a problem. Aren't you back?"

Lance laughed and put down his coffee cup, "When did you learn to flatter people?"

Erwin put down the coffee pot and sat across from him. "I'm not trying to flatter you. I just have confidence in you. You've always been like this."

Lance thought for a moment, nodded and said, "It's not a big problem!"

As he spoke, he picked up the phone and dialed Director Blue's number. After Director Blue came to power, he acted just like Hunter. He directly abandoned Hunter's office and demolished the entire office.

Then he bought a new batch of furniture and picked a room as his new director's office.

Lance has been on the road these two days, so he didn't have much time to talk to Director Blue. Now this call made Director Blue, who was a little anxious, feel relieved.

"Thank God for hearing my prayers. You are finally back!" Director Blue acted exaggeratedly, as if... he couldn't handle these things without Lance!
And the fact is actually so. Because of Lance, he was pushed to a position that he would never have been able to reach. He was not the kind of person who could sit in this position through his own efforts.

He's not even as good as Hunter in terms of talent!
If it is just the job of a police officer and the job of a director, such as personnel arrangements and work arrangements, he can still do it.

Now it involves political struggle, and he is not capable of handling it at his level. Even if he knows that he cannot let the police unite to go on strike, he doesn't have any better solution.

You can’t just go over to the police officers who are planning to or have already joined the strike and say something like “Quit the fucking moment or I’ll make you pay,” right?
Fortunately, Lance came back at this time, and his emotions stabilized immediately.

After listening to some more detailed information from Chief Blue, Lance thought for a while and gave him a solution, "Capture these people first..."

He mentioned some names, all of which he heard from Chief Blue. These policemen were Charlie's diehard followers in the police management and were also veteran policemen.

The police force is a very special place, and there is something called "inheritance" here.

Behind an experienced policeman there are often three to five, or even a dozen or twenty policemen with whom he has a very good relationship. Chief Blue is a little nervous about arresting so many people at once!
But he trusted Lance, and Lance made him the director. What could be more convincing than this?

"What reason do I have to arrest them?"

"After catching them, do you lock them up directly?"

Lance took a puff of cigarette and exhaled it as he spoke. "After arresting them, send them to the Imperial District Bureau and lock them up. Arrange for your trusted men to explain the interest relationship between Charlie and them."

Director Blue was stunned for a moment before he suddenly realized, "You want me to investigate their occupational crimes!"

"It's not us, it's the State Attorney's Office. You just have to do what I say."

Director Blue nodded and said, "I know what to do!" His tone became a lot more relaxed, but it was obvious that he might not know it completely.

Lance took a final puff of his cigarette and put the butt into the ashtray. As he did so, he said, "Whether they did it or not, whether they admit it or not, they have to write a confession."

"Don't they like to persuade our people to plead guilty and get a reduced sentence?"

"Arrange some for them, too..."

"Now you can do it!"

After hanging up the phone, Erwin looked at Lance and asked curiously, "Will this cause an extreme reaction from Charlie?"

Lance shook his head. "No, it won't. Not only will it not work, it will make those people become unstable."

"Humans are intelligent animals, and all intelligent animals are selfish!"

Director Blue acted quickly. After hanging up the phone, he called all his confidants into his office.

In the past two days, there have been rumors within the police force that they are going on strike against Chief Blue. They are a little worried that if there is a real police strike, Chief Blue will have to give up the position of chief that he has just sat on for a few days.

Everyone had a sad look on their face, but Duke was the first to notice something was wrong. He saw a hint of a smile on Chief Blue's face, which was very wrong.

After almost everyone had arrived, he said, "Go back to the Imperial District Bureau and bring your men to arrest everyone on this list and interrogate them strictly..."

He handed the list in his hand to Duke, who was closest to him. Duke took a look at it and passed it on.

The list includes not only mid-level officials and office heads of the city police department, but also several branch chiefs and office heads of other branches.

Everyone's heart skipped a beat when they saw the list. Some even looked at Director Blue in disbelief. There was an indescribable look in their eyes, as if they were asking "Are you fucking crazy?"
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette, and shook the match in his hand to let the fire go out.

"After catching these people, let them tell us about the interest connection between them and Charlie, and what dirty work they have done for Charlie."

“It would be best if they could speak out.”

"If they can't tell it...", Chief Blue smiled, "then let them make it up!"

"Try not to make too much noise when arresting people. If anyone dares to stop you, you can start the arrest first!"

His tone suddenly became stern, “Brothers, this is not the time to joke with you. This is a big issue of whether we will spend the future in prison or outside.”

"You're not so naive as to think that if we get rid of Charlie, we can still have a 'good ending', right?"

"He will just do whatever he can to get us killed, and he might even send us to jail."

"You know better than me what happens to police officers when they are sent to prison."

"So, gentlemen, for our future and our safety, between us and them, we must do this!"

"Besides!", he looked at these people, "Lance will cover us!"

He spoke very simply and people soon took action. Even though Charlie was trying to shake his position now, until he was dismissed or resigned, he was still the chief of police and he held the righteousness!

Soon, police cars were running all over the streets. Policemen were suddenly pinned to the ground and taken away by policemen who rushed out from the surroundings. For a while, more strange rumors began to spread in the city.

At this time, Lance dialed the number given to him by Attorney General Terry.

"Hello?"

"Excuse me, is this Prosecutor Dean?"

"I'm Lance!"

In the hotel room, Prosecutor Dean stood by the window with a smile on his face. "Hello, Mr. Lance. Attorney General Terry has spoken to me. When can we meet?"

(End of this chapter)