Shadow Empire

Chapter 606 I didn't expect that this trip would not be a gathering

After Lance left, the warehouse returned to calm. Under the light, Director Dell looked at Ponda with a complicated expression, "I never thought it would be you, nor did I think it would be him."

Ponda shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it myself, but it won’t do any harm to us, will it?”

"I didn't think this through at first. I felt that if I joined one side, I would lose something."

"But in fact, I have not lost anything. On the contrary, I have gained more than before."

"Wealth, fame, the fight against crime, anything."

Director Dell raised his hand to stop him from continuing, then stroked his hair, "You don't have to convince me. I've seen much more of this than you have."

"After all, I'm from Golden State," he couldn't help laughing when he said this.

There are even more power-for-money transactions in Golden State. Capitalists always surround politicians in order to convert their wealth into power anytime and anywhere.

Or it may make it easier for politicians to find a short-term tenant for the power they hold.

He had never thought about this before. On the one hand, there was no one here with such profound strength. Secondly, the conflict between him and Lance was also very deep in his opinion.

Under his leadership, the Hazardous Materials Administration closed down many of Lans' bars and destroyed a lot of his liquor. There was no room for negotiation between the two sides.

But he never expected that the price of everything had already been marked, and he was excluded from the transaction.

He walked over to the table and picked up the suitcase.

Owning 100,000 yuan and having full control over 100,000 yuan to do anything are two different things.

"Do you need me to give you a ride?" Ponda followed Director Dell.

Director Dell took out sunglasses from his pocket and put them on his eyes. He glanced at Ponda and said, "I drove here by myself, and..." He stretched out his hand to block Ponda away, "I am the director!"

He walked straight out the door, put the suitcase in his trunk, and drove away.

Ponda stood at the door and smoked a cigarette before leaving with his men.

This is just a very small thing for this city.

Someone holds the position of Director of the Hazardous Materials Administration in order to realize his dream of returning to the Golden State.

But there are also some people whose ideals are not so lofty. They just want to not be discriminated against or humiliated.

Later, Alberto contacted Lance. He wanted to talk to Lance, and Lance asked him to come to his office.

Lance's office was decorated very luxuriously, and anyone who came here for the first time would not think that this was a place where a gang leader would discuss crime.

This place is more like the office of those big capitalists, and the smell of money is everywhere.

"What would you like to drink?" Lance walked to the bar. "Whiskey?"

"coffee?"

"black tea?"

"Or iced lemonade?"

"Whiskey." Alberto rubbed his cheeks and watched Lance come over with a tray.

There was an ice bucket, a bottle of fine Lion Scotch whisky, and two wine glasses.

Lance put ice cubes in each glass, then picked up the bottle of whiskey that had a slightly different packaging, "Try our new product."

The color of the wine is very clear, not turbid and without impurities.

It is poured into the glass, comes into full contact with the ice, and eventually falls to the bottom of the glass.

He handed one of the glasses to Alberto, who took a whiff of it and showed some surprise on his face.

He looked at Lance, and Lance motioned for him to try it first.

He took a sip and immediately had some chemical reaction. He looked at the wine in the glass again, "Incredible, how did you do that?"

"These wines are like magic!"

Lance turned the bottle around so that the label was facing him. Alberto then noticed that there was a label with "Five Years" on it, which was higher than the entire label and could be seen at a glance.

The gold-plated “5” gave it a very noble feel, and Alberto put the bottle down and took another sip, and there were indeed more changes.

"how did you do it?"

He knew that Lance was producing its own wine, and even the Pasletto family now purchased their wine directly from Lance.

Lans saved on storage and transportation costs, and coupled with their relationship with Lans, the price was even cheaper than smuggling from Yalan.

It was precisely because they used wine from Reims that Alberto knew that their wine was not aged.

This wine...is not much different to the user of ordinary alcoholic beverages.

It tastes very "hard" both in aroma and style.

If drinking too much alcohol can cause dizziness, then the dizziness caused by unaged wine is like someone hitting you on the head with a baseball bat.

Those that have been aged will not be that strong. Although they will produce the same dizziness, it will be gentle and not annoying.

The flavor, the smell, the style, it's all different.

If you want to sell good wine at a higher price, it must be aged.

Nowadays, the main thing that ordinary bars use to distinguish between mid-range, low-end and high-end is the alcohol content. If you spend more money, the taste of the wine will be more acceptable and the alcohol content will be higher.

Of course, there is an aging process during the manufacturing and storage process itself, but the time will not be too long. The first batch of wine from the farm is already on the market, and they have been stored for at most three months.

Three months couldn't even kill the heat from all the alcohol, but these... were clearly not hot anymore.

"The secret of chemistry." Lance did not explain in detail. In fact, they added some thickeners and then added aging essences, and he bought a large number of oak barrels used by other wineries for aging.

In the past, many wineries that had aging wines had a lot of oak barrels, and now many of these oak barrels have been bought by Lans.

They are ground into powder using a grinder and then used as spices in a short-term aging process.

These oak barrels themselves have a special aging aroma produced after long-term soaking. Now that they are crushed and mixed into the new wine, the originally stored flavor will be released.

With some chemical help, it only takes two or three months to produce a whiskey that tastes like it’s aged three or five years.

A bottle of wine like this can be sold on the market for three or four hundred yuan and no one will have any objection to it.

It's more expensive in a bar, with a two-ounce glass costing at least forty bucks, making it a surefire way to make a fortune.

It sounds like the prices are outrageous and unreasonable, but this is the federation, so everything seems reasonable.

The workers' monthly salary was 40 yuan (a slight increase), but it was only enough for the rich people to have a glass of wine in the bar.

Unreasonable?

Very reasonable!
When the average wage was only three or five dollars, there were already billionaires here.

Those with assets worth over 100 million yuan appeared in large numbers.

People always use the word "magic" to describe those incredible worlds, and the Federation is magical.

Magic Federation.

Alberto put down the glass in his hand and said, "I don't quite understand it, but it seems very impressive."

In his heart, he actually realized that Lance would make more money from these wines.

If those people who were angry before and opened the lid were greeted by a strong smell of alcohol, it can be seen that wine is meant to deal with those middle and lower class people who are craving for alcohol.

Then these wines are used to harvest the middle and upper class alcohol addicts.

The taste is not bad, and with some special flavors, it is hard not to sell it at a high price.

"I... have been thinking about a problem recently."

Lance took out a cigarette, gave him one, and lit one for himself.

After taking a puff of smoke, Alberto continued, "Dover has gained some support in Sumuli. He is becoming important. I am a little worried."

"If I let him continue to grow, he will eventually become a threat to us that I cannot imagine, so I have to deal with him."

Dover is a direct member of the Pasletto family, of course they all think so, but in fact he can only be considered a peripheral member.

But because of his relationship with Paul and his own villa in the manor, many people think he is a core member. Such a person returned to Sumuli Island and paid tribute to the four major families. No matter how he came back, the four major families need to do something for what he did.

There he received strong support from the family that adopted him, and the news that Alberto received from his hometown was that he already had more than a hundred people under his command.

They hope to set an example so that the overseas Sumurai people who have suffered from cultural shock can return to their roots.

Decades ago, in order to avoid competition for resources, they drove these people out of Sumur Island and even asked the local government to issue various policies that were conducive to immigration.

But now they are eager to gain recognition from the Sumur people who left and to accept the view that they are the "ancestors".

Therefore, as long as they can support one person, they will not hesitate to give help with their wealth and strength.

"Dover and us are different after all. Paul's failure to return angered them, and they plan to replace us with Dover."

Lance's expression became a little more serious, "How can I help?"

Alberto said, "Thank you," and then, "No, you can't help me. This is an internal problem for us."

"I have to get rid of him before he develops completely."

Lance understood, "This is dangerous."

Alberto shook his head. "Nothing is safe. The experts said that even when crossing the road, there is a chance of being hit by a drunkard and flying into the air. There is also a chance of choking to death when eating. So for me, it is fifty percent and fifty percent."

"The tragedy that happened to me, or I got through it all smoothly!"

He had already made up his mind, and Lance couldn't persuade him no matter how hard he tried. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Alberto took another sip from his glass. He leaned back on the sofa, holding the glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. "Please take good care of Francisco for me."

Lance agreed, "As long as he doesn't leave Jingang City, I will guarantee the safety of him and the Pasretto family."

"I believe you!", Alberto smiled, "That's all I came to you for."

Lance wanted to make one last effort, "You can actually arrange for a reliable gunman to do this. There's no need to go back by yourself."

Alberto shook his head. “You don’t understand. I don’t trust others to do this kind of thing.”

"I'm not saying I have to kill him myself, but the process must be under my control."

"Once we miss this opportunity, it will be difficult for us to get a second chance to take action, and then it will be our turn to be retaliated by them."

"There will be all kinds of gunmen coming here across the ocean and shooting at us. As long as he is alive, there will always be gunmen coming..."

"And we can't go back to Sumurri Island to start a war, and there won't be so many people supporting us."

From this perspective, this is indeed an issue concerning survival and the future, and it is an issue that must be resolved.

"Okay, I won't say anything. I wish you success."

Alberto raised his glass and clinked it with Lance's. "If anything happens to me..."

He hesitated for a moment and said, "Let Francisco temporarily give up everything he has now, lie dormant, and wait for a new opportunity."

"I've already talked to him. I'll need you to take care of him during this time."

Lance clinked glasses with him, "Leave it to me."

He drank the wine in the glass in one gulp. The wine was obviously icy cold, but he exhaled a breath of hot and burning air, "Great!"

Then he took a puff of the cigarette, trying to suppress the ravages of alcohol with nicotine. He blinked and said, "Bring me two bottles back later. I like the taste."

Ten minutes later, two young men carried two boxes of wine and put them into Alberto's trunk.

Fordis sat in the cab and looked at Lance with an innocent look on his face.

Lance stood by the door of the cab, feeling somewhat helpless, "I tried to persuade him, but it was no use."

Fordis sighed. In fact, they had some quarrels among themselves because of this matter.

Others on Alberto's side thought that he had done enough and there was no reason or need to return to Sumurri Island to assassinate Christopher.

There is absolutely no need for this!

That was an internal issue of the Pasletto family and had nothing to do with outsiders like them.

But Alberto felt that he needed to take some responsibility, because if it weren't for Paul, he might still be a farmer in the countryside of Sumurri Island.

Instead of living in a luxurious villa in the Magic Federation and enjoying the best life for at least ten or twenty years.

This was the last thing he did for Paul. As long as Dover was dealt with, all he owed Paul would be paid off and they could live their own lives.

The operation was dangerous and some people didn't want to go, so they had an argument with Alberto.

Eventually their group split up.

Some people have already left, unwilling to accompany Alberto to his death.

But some people stayed. These people also received help and assistance from Alberto, and they also wanted to repay him.

But no matter what, it's always sad.

Those good friends who were like family left in anger...

Lance patted his arm, "Are you going too?"

Fordyce nodded.

Alberto, who had already finished tidying up the trunk, came over and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Lance shook his head. "Everything about the weather."

Alberto laughed twice. He didn't point it out. He walked over to Lance and hugged him. "See you later."

Lance patted his back vigorously, "I'll wait for your good news."

After watching Alberto leave, Lance felt somewhat disappointed, but the disappointment did not last long.

The whole family is still climbing rapidly and moving upward. He can sigh and lament, but he will not stop there.

At the same time, he also realized that if he left, Alberto would most likely never come back.

Sumuli Island is controlled by four major families, and it is their inherited territory.

No one could leave that island if they wanted to.

If everything was as he said, and Dover became a model and a benchmark set up by the four major families, then his death would completely anger the four major families.

Alberto would certainly be trapped on that island.

But such was his resolve, a great and foolish one.

Soon his attention was focused on the mayoral election. Although it was just a formality, no one knew whether there would be another spoiler.

Congressman Williams' schedule is very full. Every day he is either meeting with worker representatives here or giving public speeches there.

The Liberal Party and the Socialist Party have arranged a total of three mayoral candidates, and the other two are runners-up to prove that the federal electoral system is fair and just and that there is no political monopoly.

Some people say that the people of so-and-so are the best people, but Lance firmly disagrees because the people of the Federation are the best people.

Even if their government tells them that the smelly lump on the ground is not shit but soybean paste, they will still pick it up with their fingers and put it in their mouths, shouting "soybean paste tastes great."

The election brought some changes to the entire city, both good and bad.

On Saturday morning of the fourth week of August, Councilman Williams called Lance and said, "I need your help with something."

"What's the matter?" Lance was looking at the newspaper, which talked about the Budget Committee approving a series of new budget expenditures to deal with possible wars.

This has led to a significant increase in the entire Federal Industrial Index, which is not easy, and has led to an increase in almost most stocks.

People are always happily exchanging opinions and talking about how many billions of funds will enter society through what channels, as if everyone can make this money!
“Those refugees, they gathered right where I was going to give a speech this afternoon.”

Lance smiled and said, "Is it to listen to your truth?"

Councilman Williams laughed, "I hope so."

Then what he meant was "no".

(End of this chapter)