Shadow Empire

Chapter 534 Self-rescue, wedding date, and excessive sentence
Charlie leaned forward in his chair, bent over, and rubbed his cheeks with his hands.

Since when did he become like this?

Scenes of past memories emerged in his mind. In the memories, he was full of yearning to be a defender of justice, but he became a policeman who was actually not particularly popular and was very dangerous.

When he first joined the police force, he believed that being a police officer was a very honorable job and that his job was to fight crime and maintain justice and peace.

But he soon discovered that a real policeman and his ideal policeman were two completely different professions!
That was an era when monopoly capital was still rampant, and the power of capital even surpassed that of the government!

The struggle among capitalists over the Antitrust Act was at its most intense, and every day the newspapers would report that some famous or unknown person had died in an alley.

In order to fight against the Antitrust Act, the capitalists have used all their strength, bribing politicians, murdering witnesses, and even threatening the police...

This has had a severe impact on the world views and values ​​of many people!

Although "fairness and justice" ultimately won, this society did not change at all.

The monopoly groups continue to monopolize in a different form and method, but people seem to think that they have defeated evil.

When Charlie got married, he couldn't even afford to get married in a cathedral, so he had to get married in a small church in the country.

At that time, he still maintained his sense of justice.

It wasn't until his first child was born that something happened and he began to change.

The first sum of black money he collected was only five dollars.

Of course, five dollars at that time was roughly equivalent to about forty dollars today, which was a person’s monthly salary. After all, he was just a patrolman at that time.

When he received the black money for the first time, his heart beat faster, his mouth became dry, and he didn't even dare to look at his partner.

But he was exposed by his partner the next day. The guy said with certainty that he had received the money, and then told Charlie that he also accepted black money and could receive more than ten dollars in black money every month.

He also learned from his partner that accepting black money is itself a manifestation of "loyalty". If you accept money from the Bay Area, they will trust you and you will be safe.

If you are unwilling to accept the money, then they will just take you to a remote place and leave your place to those who are willing to accept black money.

Just like that, he began to become another person. He started to collect money, big money, and kept scheming and climbing up, eventually becoming who he is now.

Look at his life!
Living in a large villa in the Bay Area that ordinary people may not be able to afford with their savings of several generations, wearing a gold watch worth thousands of dollars, wearing clothes worth hundreds of dollars, and having millions of dollars in assets...

What he has, he cannot obtain through his own efforts in several lifetimes, even dozens or hundreds of lifetimes.

Sometimes, when you think about it carefully, life is really boring.

You dare not stop and work hard all your life, but in the eyes of others it is just a night's consumption, or even just a joke.

We are all human!
Due to his unbalanced mentality and some things that happened to him, he became what he is today.

He looked at the watch on his wrist again. If those people were really here to investigate corruption in the police force and were colluding with Lance.

He can't run away.

Everything he has is the most direct and naked evidence!

Although he made some moves, they were of little significance.

He didn't know how long those people could hold on, nor did he know how much they had confessed. At this moment, the only thing he knew was that he couldn't sit here and wait for them to come to his door with handcuffs.

He has to save himself!

Many faces flashed through his mind; their identities, status, and abilities all appeared in his mind.

But he had searched for quite some time and could not find anyone who could help him.

His power and status in Jingang City were given by the wealthy people in the Bay Area, but the people who investigated him were from the State Attorney's Office.

Some of these people in the Bay Area can indeed get in touch with people in the State Attorney's Office, but Charlie is not sure whether they will stand up for themselves or whether they can influence their decisions.

Once the news that he is in huge trouble gets out, the masters in the Bay Area will soon consider whether to save him or abandon him.

The scenes from many years ago appeared before him. Each one of them told how much they had done for the Bay Area. The abandoned guys knelt on the ground, and in the end, their loyalty was only exchanged for a bullet.

Charlie doesn't want to be that kind of person. His destiny should be in his own hands!

He has to save himself!

Charlie's life will definitely not end here!
With Lance's help, Prosecutor Dean's interrogation of these police officers progressed quickly. After all, facing Lance, whose entire family would disappear at any time, it was absolutely impossible for these corrupt police officers to say that they were not afraid.

Yes, they have been defined as "black police", accepting bribes, extorting money, helping criminals escape, and fabricating evidence to frame innocent people...

Prosecutor Dean and his team were shocked and angry at what these people confessed.

In fact, it is false, because what they have done is definitely worse than these people!

It's like a child holding a needle, at most he can poke a person and hurt him, but an adult holding a knife may kill someone.

These corrupt policemen entrenched in the Jingang City police force can actually do very limited bad things. At most, they are accomplices of some capital forces.

But what about the State Attorney General's Office?
They are much more frightening when they do bad things.

But Lance would not expose it, after all, they are now in the same group!

The interrogation was proceeding in an orderly manner, and there was no need for Lance to continue to show up, so he simply got rid of the interrogation.

In the evening, everyone gathered together, and Charlie seemed to have behaved well in the past two days.

Lance thought he smelled an unusual odor and might be trying to protect himself, or asking for help from his dog owners, so he didn't come out for the time being.

So we all get together tonight to discuss some issues about the Kodak family.

"Bandy and Gowrie, one is in their manor and the other is in the Golden Harbor Casino."

"The defense of the Bandi family estate is very strong. If we were to storm it, the losses would be huge."

Morris stood beside a blackboard with some photos and rough hand-drawn sketches, including a photo of the Kodak family estate taken from a distance.

It has a "U"-shaped structure, with a building in the middle. That building is where Bandy and other core members of the family live.

There is a garden-like isolation zone between the two buildings, and the entire manor can accommodate thousands of people.

During this period, they felt a sense of crisis, and the defense capabilities in the manor were significantly improved. In the photos, you can see that there are gunmen patrolling with weapons on the roofs of some buildings.

There are also many security guards patrolling in the gardens on the ground.

Just a cursory glance at the photo showed that there were twenty or thirty gunmen. If we counted those in some invisible places inside, the guard force of the manor would be very strong.

In this kind of environment where there is an obvious offensive and defensive relationship, the price the attacker needs to pay is several times that of the defender!
You never know if someone is going to shoot you from behind a window, and that's the advantage of defense.

Looking at these photos, everyone fell into deep thought.

After a while, Morris continued, "Golden Harbor Casino has also increased its defense force recently. And not just this one, all their casinos have increased their defense force. Preliminary estimates show that it has doubled, and there are more gunmen."

He also showed some photos, some of which were taken from a distance and some were taken inside the casino. The security guards and gunmen everywhere made the casino's safety factor much higher.

Hiram on the side was a little annoyed, "We can't attack their manor or casino, are we just going to waste time like this?"

Lance shook his head. "We definitely can't waste time with them. We don't have that much time." He thought for a while and looked at Morris. "Continue to collect information about the rest of the Kodak family. It's impossible for all of them to hide in the manor and not go out."

"The Koda family has existed in Jingang City for a long time. They have always held a high status. They may be able to tolerate having them hide for a while."

"But for them to stay in hiding, they can't do it."

"If they don't come out, we'll force them to come out and mark out all their properties. Once we've dealt with Charlie, we'll take action immediately."

"Before that, we can use the power of the Hazardous Materials Administration to make them feel less uncomfortable."

Morris nodded. He was still in charge of collecting "external" information.

This is not to say that Bolton cannot do this job. In fact, as the power in his hands grows, Bolton is also trying to collect intelligence from the outside world.

Lance knew it, but did not stop him. This kind of positive competition is beneficial to the family. As long as it is not a vicious kind of competition involving assassination of each other, he will support it.

After he arranged everyone's tasks, he left Morris behind.

"I heard that you and your little nurse have been developing very fast recently?"

Lance heard this from Ennio. He said that Maurice might be planning to marry his nurse, which surprised everyone.

Of course, this is understandable.

When he was injured and had difficulty moving, it was that nurse who took care of him, including the time when he lost his ability to move.

Maybe for a nurse..., this is just a job, and she respects, loves and is loyal to her job.

In fact, there is a shortcut to a man's heart.

For a big boy like Morris, his shortcuts are passed by others every day. Sometimes he can't tell whether it is dependence, gratitude or love, or maybe it's all of it.

If Morris was just an ordinary person, she might be more dependent and grateful. Girls tend to mature earlier than boys.

Whether it is psychological or physical, she will control her emotions.

But when bread and love can coexist, the possibility of love becomes greater.

The nurse had quit her job at the hospital and started living with Morris. Their relationship was very good, and they were even considering getting married.

Looking at Morris's silly smile, Lance said with some blame, "If Ennio hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known you had this idea."

"Our relationship hasn't been completely settled yet. She and I both have our own concerns about whether to get married."

"You know, marriage is not just our business, it's also related to her family. If her parents don't agree with us being together, it will be very difficult to handle."

"I hope to give her a wedding that is blessed by her family, so we are still considering how to face her family." Morris explained, "But if it is really decided, I will definitely tell you."

Lance nodded, "You have to tell everyone in person, or they will say you're hiding it from them."

He paused, "You have a good relationship with the operators of the private casinos in the Empire District?"

Morris nodded, a little hurt, "Thanks to the old man, I have been hanging around in different casinos since I was a child, I am very familiar with them, what's wrong?"

Lance nodded and said, "If I tell them to hand over 30% of their profits to us, we will ensure that their casino will not be attacked by other gangs, especially the Kodak family, do you think they will agree?"

Morris blurted out without thinking, "Of course I agree!"

"If they can operate the casino honestly, it means that even if they give us 30% of the profit, their income will be much higher than it is now."

"As long as they can make more money, there's no way they won't agree!"

Nowadays, these private casinos are all very small in scale. Each casino has two or three gambling tables, twenty to thirty gamblers, and at most forty to fifty.

But in reality, there are hundreds of thousands of residents in the Empire District, and there are definitely more than a few thousand gamblers, there must be more!

There is also the port area, which is also where gamblers gather.

There is a truth -

The poorer the place, the more severe the gambling culture is. These people are the ones who gamble more the poorer they are.

Even though these gamblers can only get thirty or forty yuan a month, once they get addicted, they can not only spend all their monthly salary on it, but also borrow money from the casino to continue gambling!
So don't underestimate the potential value of these people.

"Contact them and tell them I want them to come and have a chat about expanding their business in my area."

This is something only Morris can do. He is very familiar with these casino owners, and they trust each other.

Changing someone else might not be able to accomplish this.

Morris agreed, but was also a little confused. "Didn't you say before that after we deal with the Kodak family, we would also run a casino?"

"Why you……"

In his opinion, these casinos were actually stealing the profits of the Kodak family. The Kodak family's demand was a 50-50 split, and some casinos even demanded 70% of the profits.

If Lance only wants 30%, will they suffer any losses when they run the casino in the future?
Lance shook his head and said, "Even if there weren't these casinos, those people wouldn't go to places like Progress Casino to gamble. On the one hand, they would be afraid of such an environment, and on the other hand, it's too inconvenient."

"So in fact, there is no overlap in the groups of people who run these two businesses. The Kodak family doesn't want to see these private casinos, but they are just used to doing monopoly business."

"So you don't have to worry about that, you just need to connect them and I'll talk to them..."

After the two chatted for a few more words, Morris left. Later, lawyer Robben called Lance and soon appeared in his office.

"I've been so busy these past two days. I've been busy with other things and can't take care of this place. Thank you so much for everything you've done for us. This is a small token of my appreciation."

Lance placed an envelope on the table and pushed it over.

There was a check inside, and Lawyer Robben certainly didn't think that there was only a twenty-dollar bill in it. He took it generously, but did not open it and put it directly into his pocket.

The more times he worked with Lance, the more he understood that Lance was a very generous person. As long as you were useful to him and could help him, you would do anything.

Then he will not be stingy at all to share some of his wealth with you!

Lance has become Lawyer Robben's most important client, no doubt about it.

He smiled and said a few humble words, then talked about the results of his work at the Hazardous Materials Administration in the past few days.

"I have communicated with them and they will definitely prosecute our people, and the sentence will not be too short."

"I don't know if you've heard that they had a senior agent named Weber who died in an accident. Someone outside said..."

Lance nodded, "I heard that, so?"

"I investigated this senior agent Weber. The man behind him is a member of the state prohibition committee."

"Director Dell is eager to shake off his image of incompetence, so he is likely to handle these cases strictly and severely, and the judge will carefully consider their sentencing recommendations."

"The average participant needs at least three to five years to get started, and bartenders and managers need at least ten years. They are unwilling to coordinate on this point."

"So you have to be mentally prepared."

"The case should be transferred soon. The trial will be held before June, and the verdict and execution will be made in June..."

(End of this chapter)