Empire of Shadows

#681 - Carl's three missions and the future and press conference

Carl tried his best to appear more sincere, he was truly willing to become Lance's sword and shield.

Following Bonny as a good person for over a decade, he was still poor and miserable.

But now that he's a bad guy, he's suddenly made a fortune. That's the charm of being a bad guy.

What he didn't know was that every country had enacted laws to prevent people from being bad, or only allow a small number of people to be bad, simply because being bad was too easy for crossing social classes!

Lance looked at him, while he lowered his eyes and head respectfully, his hands placed on his knees, just like a Boy Scout.

"Can I trust you?"

"Carl?"

Carl raised his head to look at Lance, his face showing some grievance, but more of excitement, "Of course, Mr. Lance, trust me, I am your most devout servant!"

Lance nodded, "I need some people, some people from your side."

"Some things happened this afternoon, and they are related to our future development."

"Some people are very dissatisfied with me, with the mayor's rule over this city..."

Before Lance could finish speaking, that look of hatred and anger appeared on Carl's face again!

"Who is it?"

"Mr. Lance, just say who it is, and I'll go take him out immediately!" Lance originally wanted to laugh, but suddenly a flash of inspiration came to him.

Yes, they used refugees as a breakthrough to overturn the rules and the negotiating table, so why couldn't he use the same trick?

He nodded, "I understand your good intentions, but now is not the time."

Carl was stunned for a moment. Although he hadn't received any higher education, he was a clever person. He realized that "not the time" didn't mean "I don't need you," but rather "I'll need you later."

He immediately became honest. With this statement, even a promise, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He needed to show Mr. Lance, who wasn't much older than him, more of his value, and his unbreakable loyalty!

Only in this way could he continue to enjoy everything he was enjoying now!

"First, find a few people and have them admit that they participated in inciting and organizing this afternoon's riot."

"When the time comes, they need to cooperate with us in a play. There will be reporters interviewing them, and they need to follow our script."

Carl thought for a moment, many faces appeared in his mind, and finally he locked onto a few people.

These people all had complete families, with parents and younger siblings, and their relationship with their families was very harmonious and their feelings were very good.

This was their precious life wealth, but sometimes it would also become their shackles, when they really cared about these relatives.

"I already have candidates, I will tell them what to say."

"The second thing..." Lance took out a cigarette, and Carl quickly took out a match to light it, sticking out his butt to light Lance's cigarette.

Finally, he didn't forget to put out the cigarette butt and put it in his handkerchief, put it in his pocket and take it away. Sometimes details determine success or failure, this is not a joke.

Lance was very satisfied with his service. No matter why he did this, at least now, while he still had something to ask for and was still dominated by desire, he wouldn't cause trouble.

Just like Burton, as long as he didn't want to go back to that terrible life in the past and still wanted to live a superior life, he had to wholeheartedly consider Lance.

Carl was the same. He still wanted to wear a suit that was obviously more upscale and didn't match his temperament, wear a gold watch, and live the life of the rich, so he had to ensure that nothing happened to Lance, and even had to block bullets for Lance when necessary.

They were all serious, all sincere, and they wouldn't change their original intentions until a replacement for Lance appeared, or other ways out.

Lance took a puff of cigarette and licked his lips. He liked this action, letting the smoke stay in his lungs for a while.

Then, while speaking, he naturally exhaled it from his lungs, "...Find all those people you know, find their families, and then hide them, and tell me where they are."

Carl nodded again, "No problem, Mr. Lance, I guarantee that you will find them by tomorrow at the latest."

"The third thing, the size of your gang must continue to expand."

Carl was stunned for a moment, and a look of joy suddenly appeared on his face.

Now their small gang added up to only fifty people, because that's all they needed, and Lance hadn't mentioned the idea of letting them continue to expand, so Carl didn't dare to mess around.

The more people, the better for him, of course. Ruling three or five people is just a squad leader.

Ruling thirty or fifty people is a small cadre.

Ruling three or five hundred people is the leader of a gang.

If you can rule three or five million people, then you are the mayor, governor, president, or even the emperor!

If he could have hundreds or even hundreds of people working for him, he could live better.

He would be more important in Mr. Lance's mind!

"How many... how many people should I expand to?"

Lance took another puff of cigarette, exhaling it from his nostrils with his breath, "You must become the largest gang in the refugee community."

"I heard that outside the naval base, besides you, there are others who are also serving the navy."

This was an affirmative sentence. The navy, a group with spending power and spending desires, must have attracted the streetwalkers of the entire Gold Harbor City, and they must be concentrating here.

Carl nodded, "There are not too many people now, and the competition is not very fierce, and our work is basically full."

"But in the future, it's not clear."

Lance nodded, "So I plan to set aside a special area from it and hand it over to you to operate. In the future, the soldiers will only go there to solve personal problems, and only our people can enter there."

"As for those people outside, if they want to come in, they have to pay according to the rules."

"In the future, it will not only be engaged in flesh trade, but also other businesses, tobacco, alcohol, and even maple oriole grass."

Lance had been thinking about one thing recently, he was considering whether there was a way to include alcohol in the important military supplies.

Just like biscuits, chocolate, cigarettes, chewing gum, and candy, those personal military supplies, becoming essential supplies for every soldier.

He heard from Major General Bruny that the federal government would have about four to five million active soldiers in this expansion.

If each person needs to consume even just a small bottle of wine each month, the kind worth forty or fifty dollars, there would be hundreds of millions in sales each month.

That's billions a year. With such a huge income, the military, the group in Congress, Lance, and other alcohol suppliers can all be fed!

However, this matter cannot be mentioned for the time being. After all, the Prohibition that began to be promoted the year before last is now openly making exceptions, and even if the Congressional side has a thick skin, it will deny it.

To make this happen, you can't look for it, you need an opportunity, an opportunity brought about by the outbreak of war.

Although that can't be done now, he can prepare in advance.

However, there is no need to tell Carl about these plans, he only needs to know that the future is bright, incomparably bright, so bright that it can blind people's eyes, that's enough!

After a few things were entrusted, Carl's heart had already begun to beat wildly. Who doesn't want a better future?

"In addition to these, you can leave a portion of the money you previously turned over to the company each month, 10%, for the development of your gang."

"I won't give you any additional funding. If you can do well enough, the income from the girls, in addition to giving them their share, can all be given to you."

At this moment, Carl was dry-mouthed, and his mind was full of beautiful dreams. He had never thought that making money could be such a simple and easy thing, and if he really monopolized this part of the business, I am afraid that the income would only be more.

Lance looked at his flushed face and knew that his mind was now full of beautiful dreams, and he also reminded him a few words.

“If we take over this part and do exclusive business, we must provide them with better service. I need you to regularly check the girls' bodies and put their check-up reports in the most conspicuous place.”

“In addition to this, what other services do they need? Even if they are slightly excessive, as long as they don't harm the girls and the girls are willing, then we can agree to them.”

“Of course, the price has to be increased!”

“We do rely on them and the girls to make money, but that doesn't mean we are making money on our knees, understand?”

Karl's excited expression cooled down slightly. He nodded repeatedly, “I understand.”

“Mr. Lance, I guarantee I won't mess up anything!”

Lance nodded, “I believe you can do it, Karl.”

“From the first day I saw you, I knew you were someone who could become a big shot!”

The look in Karl's eyes changed slightly. Lance saw that he seemed to have something else he wanted to say. He glanced at his watch, “We don't have much time. If you don't have anything else, go to work.”

Karl immediately said, “Mr. Lance, I have an idea. You see, don't all the members of the Lance family have red armbands?”

“Then we…” he said cautiously, “Can we also get something similar, so that people can easily distinguish our logo?”

“For example… a red and white armband?”

Lance was stunned for a moment, as if he had thought of something, but in the end, he agreed, “Yes, but not now. We'll talk about it later.”

He took the last puff of his cigarette and then threw it into the ashtray, “If there's nothing else, that's it!”

He was about to shake hands with Karl to show his “respect” for him and then let him go to work.

But Karl's gaze was focused on the ashes flying from Lance's action of throwing the cigarette butt. He saw the ashes falling on Lance's shoes, immediately took out the white pocket square from his jacket pocket, and bent down to wipe Lance's leather shoes.

“Mr. Lance, the ashes have soiled your leather shoes. I'll help you wipe them off!”

He straightened up, his face still a little flushed. Lance canceled his original idea of shaking hands with him and instead put his hand on his shoulder, “Good boy, I appreciate you.”

Karl was so excited that he couldn't speak, “No matter what, I am willing to serve you, sir!”

“Very good, first complete what I entrusted to you. The future is still very long, and we all have the opportunity to see the most beautiful future!”

Carrying the description of a beautiful future that Lance had imparted to him, Karl left Lance's office with his head held high. He was now full of strength, and he felt terrifyingly strong!

Lance watched Karl's figure gradually disappear behind him. He shook his head. Why did the Bay Area like Charlie?

Because Charlie was a dog without a bottom line. He was clearly a representative of justice, an executor of law and fairness, but he became a tool for the Bay Area's wealthy.

Helping them to dispose of corpses and eliminate traces, helping them escape legal sanctions, helping them plunder wealth, and helping them destroy justice.

From the owner's point of view, it's really great to have a dog!

He didn't let Karl go to find Hope. Hope must be hiding now, and Lance could even guess that he was definitely in some villa mansion in the Bay Area.

Now was not the time for him to appear, so he would not show up.

He returned to the chair and sat down, opened the drawer, took out a checkbook from inside, and after a little thought, filled in the number “50,000” and then signed his name.

Then he put on his hat again, put on his trench coat, and left here.

At the same time, media reporters had gathered at the City Hall press conference. Almost all the reporters who could come from Goldport City were here.

What happened in the afternoon had already begun to spread around, and there were also some rumors in society that Mayor Williams' son, Arthur, was using refugees as slaves, which eventually led to confrontation.

In order to prevent the situation from becoming uncontrollable, Arthur used Mayor Williams' authority to have Chief Blue bring the police over to support him.

And at their request, a large number of people who resisted exploitation and oppression were shot dead.

As soon as this rumor came out, those little experts in Goldport City who were born with the skill of picking cotton were immediately boiling!

The attack of public opinion is never aimed at one point, but at the entire surface!

Someone dug up the old accounts of the Williams family, saying that they were previously major landlords who employed thousands or even tens of thousands of slaves!

The land under Goldport City hides the flesh and blood of countless slaves they killed, and the early construction of this city was also based on the countless deaths and injuries of slaves!

Now they are using refugees as slaves. These little cotton-picking experts feel the same way and also want to take advantage of this incident to fight for their own rights.

Although many people think they are not very smart, even if that is really the case, out of 10,000 people, 100,000 people, or 1 million people, there will always be one who is smart!

According to the Federal Constitutional Amendment, even these people can become voters and legally have the right to vote and stand for election, but in reality, there are very few places where this is implemented.

The three major parties will not nominate these aliens to become political candidates, and their votes will be marked, and they can do nothing about it.

They want more social attention, so they need more “atrocities.”

In some ways, the ideas of some of them are consistent with Hope's.

When the federal government feels that it cannot tolerate it and cannot erase these people, they will have to compromise!

With the addition of these people, the speed of public opinion fermentation is very fast, and reporters also want to know what exactly happened.

When the time pointed to 7:45, Mayor Williams, Councilor James, and his brother Arthur appeared at the venue.

But before people had time to ask anything, everyone's eyes were focused on Arthur!

“WTF, what is that on him?”

“Is that shit?”

Such a voice suddenly came from the quiet press conference, and at first, someone laughed, but the laughter quickly stopped.

A reporter said, “Mr. Mayor, what exactly happened?”

Arthur stood at the front, and people realized that something was wrong. There were traces of something whipping on his body, face, and head, and the streaks were all bloody, which looked a little scary.

Everyone knew that Mayor Williams' favorite was his youngest son, although he himself didn't admit it, everyone knew it.

He could ask others to do something for Arthur, but he rarely or never asked others to do something for James. He only asked James to do better!

Obvious favoritism, so no matter who it was, no one would provoke Arthur.

Many people had a common idea, which was that if they were bullied by Arthur, they would just treat it as being bitten by a dog, and it would pass if they endured it.

But now seeing him like this, people had realized that this matter might not be as simple as the rumors outside.

“From noon until now, no one at City Hall has seen me because I went to find my son Arthur.”

“He was kidnapped, someone kidnapped him and asked me to follow their instructions and circle around the entire city.”

“I am an old man, I love my children, I left here!”

He poked the table with his finger. Although his hands were full of wrinkles, the feeling of poking the table was like a steel bar poking the table, with a loud bang!

“Not long after I left here, there was a problem at the demolition site in the old industrial area.”

“Those refugee workers, organized, disciplined, and purposeful, destroyed the demolition equipment and brutally killed the supervisors, managers, and all non-refugee federal citizens on the scene!”

“They are still spreading outwards, smashing, looting, and robbing shops on the roads in the old industrial area, and attacking passers-by to rob them of their money.”

“This is not a story of oppression and resistance as you know it, this is a conspiracy!”