Empire of Shadows

#672 - It's easy to look at others66616

About twenty to thirty minutes after Mayor Williams left his office, the telephone on his desk suddenly rang.

James, who was sitting on the sofa, seemingly lost in thought, abruptly turned his head towards the phone.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and waited for it to ring twice before getting up, walking over, and answering it.

It had rung seven or eight times in total; if it wasn't a call specifically for the Mayor, the person on the other end probably would have hung up after the third or fourth ring.

The fact that they kept waiting to connect indicated that this matter was truly important.

"Mayor's Office."

"Mayor?" the person on the other end asked, perhaps unfamiliar with James' voice, thinking it wasn't the Mayor.

"This is James; the Mayor is temporarily away on some business. What is it?"

The fellow on the other end of the line only pondered for a few seconds before urgently saying, "A large-scale conflict has erupted in the old industrial district! The workers and the demolition company's people are fighting! There are injuries and deaths!"

"I don't know what the situation is like outside right now, but it looks terrible! They're like they've gone mad!"

His tone was anxious, and through the somewhat blurry glass window, he could see the crowd on the construction site steadily growing!

The most frightening thing about mass incidents is the inability to stop them at the beginning; once they spread, they become a disaster!

The person speaking was the on-site manager of the demolition company.

He usually stayed in this simple building, his daily job being to supervise the supervisors as they oversaw the migrant workers, making sure they worked honestly.

If any unexpected situations arose, he would also be responsible for resolving them, as well as his most important task—calling the boss.

The biggest difference between a manager and an ordinary low-level cadre was this: he had Arthur's phone number, and he had the phone number for Mayor Williams' office.

So, sometimes whether or not you can "advance" has nothing to do with your ability; it all depends on whether the people above are willing to lend a hand.

He was explaining the situation here; he had never dealt with anything similar before and didn't know how to defuse the situation for a moment.

Suddenly, a dozen migrant workers ran towards him.

The composure he had originally maintained was instantly replaced with panic!

"Holy crap, Mr. James, they're coming towards me! I think I might be in some danger..."

Before he could finish speaking, there was a violent knocking on the door outside, and then, in a very short time, it turned into the sound of kicking.

Each loud bang from the kicking sounded like it was pounding on his heart.

He was so nervous that he clutched the clothes over his chest tightly with his hand; he felt like his heart was about to stop beating!

His tone also became somewhat weak, "Mr. James..."

Accompanied by a sound like an explosion as the door panel crashed against the wall, James' hand trembled slightly, and all that was left in the receiver were pleas for mercy and screams.

The screams didn't last long before they completely disappeared, replaced by the sound of a cloth bag being kicked back and forth, and the sound of drawers being opened.

His breathing gradually became heavy.

He didn't know what had happened there, but it must have been something terrible.

He pursed his lips, hung up the phone, and immediately dialed the police station.

Chief Blue was not at the police station; Deputy Chief Duke was on duty.

After hearing what James said, he took it very seriously.

Without hanging up, he had people summon police forces from various branches to support the old industrial district.

Then, he asked a crucial question—

"Mr. James, after our officers arrive at the scene, what should we do?"

James was already filled with anger, and now hearing this seemingly idiotic question, he became even more furious, his face visibly reddening!

"What should we do?"

"Of course, stop these people from continuing to hurt others and arrest them!"

"You're the Deputy Chief of the Police Department; do you need to ask me such a simple thing?"

"How did you become the Deputy Chief?!"

His tone was very rude, and his attitude was the same, because the continuous stream of events made him somewhat unsure of how to respond!

Arthur was kidnapped and it was still unknown whether he had been rescued.

Now there were problems at the construction site.

If the demolition of the old industrial district was put on hold, some undercurrents in the city would become treacherous again.

What was even more troublesome was whether the mass conflict, even if many people died, would affect his father's power?

You had to know that this was Goldport City, and the naval base had just been built.

What they needed was a mayor who could guarantee the administrative stability of the city, not a mayor who would trigger riots at any time!

A series of all kinds of information that made him feel dissatisfied, even fearful, constantly washed over his barely resilient nerves.

It was already good enough that he could hold on.

Now that Deputy Chief Duke had asked such a stupid question, the flames of anger ignited the line of defense of reason, and he was now inexplicably filled with a desire for destruction!

If Deputy Chief Duke was in front of him, he might have gone up and kicked him hard!

James' tone was very harsh, and so was his attitude, but Deputy Chief Duke was not nervous at all.

He knew very well that the only two people who could decide whether or not he was still in this position were Mayor Williams and Lance.

To put it more deeply, there was only one person, and that was Lance!

So he wasn't as afraid of James and could still maintain his "politeness."

"Councilman James, you may have misunderstood me."

"It's easy for us to go to the scene, but once a riot breaks out, we can't just arrive at the scene to stabilize it again.

We need to do something to quell the riot."

"Do we disperse the crowd, arrest the perpetrators, or just prevent the situation from escalating and prevent the scale from continuing to grow?"

"There are many problems here.

If we disperse them and they don't cooperate, should we fight back?"

"If we arrest them and they resist arrest, should we continue to arrest them, or just shoot them dead?"

"How do we define the standard for not escalating the situation, or within what range should we control this matter?"

"These are all things I don't know at the moment."

Listening to Deputy Chief Duke say so much, James' anger was extinguished in an instant, and his eyes even showed a moment of blankness.

So… complex?

He had never thought about these things, because Mayor Williams seemed to handle similar things easily, and could solve problems with just a few simple sentences.

Why, when it came to him, did it become so complicated?

He didn't think that Deputy Chief Duke was making things difficult for him, because the problems that Deputy Chief Duke raised were indeed objectively present.

And it must be decided by the Mayor, or rather, by him now, what to do.

Every choice meant a lot of changes.

If a gun was fired, would it continue to escalate the situation?

If a gun was not fired, would the situation be uncontrollable?

Arresting those who were committing violence, would it trigger a larger-scale riot and unrest?

If those people were not arrested, would similar things happen at more construction sites?

He closed his eyes in some pain, and his other hand was pulling at his hair!

"Councilman James, are you still there?" Deputy Chief Duke glanced at the assembled police officers outside the window.

"We're about to leave soon, and it'll probably be difficult to maintain continuous contact with you for a short time after we arrive at the scene, so what should we do?"

James forced himself to calm down, and he kept asking himself in his mind, if Mayor Williams encountered this, what would he do?

He even provided himself with another line of thought, if Lance encountered this, what would he choose?

Countless thoughts churned in his mind, and when he wanted to make such a choice, another thought would stop him.

He was completely lost!

But soon he cheered up again.

Now that Mayor Williams was not here, he had to take on this responsibility.

He also realized the purpose of his father being led away was right here!

If such a big thing happened and could not be controlled, it would soon trigger city-wide riots.

What they wanted was not to compromise with the Williams family, what they wanted was to destroy the entire Williams family!

At this moment, there was only one voice in his heart.

That was to take on the responsibility of the eldest son of the Williams family and handle this matter!

He took a deep breath, and the past choices and results of his father and Lance quickly took shape in his mind.

This was actually one of the key factors that ordinary families could never compare to those powerful families!

For people from ordinary family backgrounds, all the troubles you encounter are a brand new challenge for you, with no reference!

But for James, for people from wealthy family backgrounds, they were very likely to find similar cases.

He clenched the receiver tightly, "Control the situation, detain those attackers, and if they resist arrest, fight back..."

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, "Then shoot!"

Deputy Chief Duke's voice was as steady as before, "I know what to do.

I will notify you as soon as there is further news."

After saying that, the communication ended.

James took out a cigarette, lit it with trembling hands, and took a deep breath.

He didn't know what this decision would bring, but he knew he had to do it!

Mayor Williams was unaware that his eldest son had finally taken his own step at this crucial moment, instead of always following behind him, watching him make those seemingly simple decisions.

But even if he knew, he wouldn't have been in the mood to care.

There was indeed some traffic on the road, so he arrived at the designated location a little earlier than the agreed time.

There was still a phone booth by the roadside. He glanced at Lance on the roadside in the distance, and the moment the phone rang, he walked into the phone booth and picked up the phone…