Empire of Shadows

“Fuck!”

“FUCK!!”

“Return fire, show them some color!”

His men scrambled out of the cars, taking cover behind them and began to shoot into the warehouse.

The intense gunfire instantly tore through the silent night sky. The whole world, the whole sky, seemed to be filled with the sound of gunshots and their echoes.

In reality, if they left at this moment, they could still make it. But Alberto and the others were stunned by this ambush. They didn’t realize that since their intentions had been discovered, they shouldn’t stay.

Soon, people on the roof of the warehouse also began to shoot down. The muzzle flashes were very conspicuous in the night.

The rat-a-tat of bullets kicked up plumes of dust from the ground. Several people were not able to dodge in time and were hit, falling to the ground.

Alberto’s eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. “Shoot the lights, the lights!”

He shouted loudly while also returning fire towards the warehouse roof.The bullets sparked against the iron shed, and it did have some effect.

Taking this opportunity, those with submachine guns began to concentrate their fire on the few light bulbs. Soon, the bulbs were shattered by the sweeping fire, and the area outside the warehouse was plunged back into darkness.

Fordis, panting, ran back from a nearby car. His face was grim, a pity Alberto couldn’t see it.

“Howard needs to go to the hospital. Little Howard is dead. Two others are dead, and several are injured.”

This ambush was too sudden, so sudden that Alberto had never even considered this situation.

He had indeed thought that there would be guards at the warehouse, but he had absolutely not expected that after they dealt with the guards outside, there would be a group of people inside already waiting for them.

This was a trap!

His mind was in a mess, but at this moment he had to force himself to think seriously. His eyes darted around in the darkness, clearly having no good ideas.

Fordis trusted him very much and never urged him, just waited quietly for him to give the order.

Perhaps it was the surrounding gunshots that finally woke him up. He gritted his teeth. “Retreat first!”

Fordis nodded, turned to inform the others, but he quickly ran back.

“Howard isn’t planning to leave.”

Alberto looked at him, as if asking for the reason.

“He’s seriously injured and probably can’t make it. He wants to avenge Little Howard. He said… he’ll take out this warehouse.”

When Fordis said this, Alberto knew what Howard was thinking, but it was difficult for him to stop him, because he had to avenge Little Howard.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the two brothers often bickered and argued, sometimes even fighting and throwing a few punches at each other. Their relationship was much better than people imagined and saw.

Little Howard was dead. For Howard, this was something he couldn’t accept. The only thing he could do now was to avenge his younger brother.

Alberto quickly made a decision. “Help him get the stuff ready…”

The people in the warehouse were beginning to try to come out and surround them. They didn’t have much time left.

He grabbed Fordis’s clothes again, pulling hard. “Tell him, I will avenge him, his brother, and everyone!”

Fordis nodded vigorously. In the faint light, the two looked at each other for two or three seconds. Alberto let go, raised his pistol, and pulled the trigger in the direction of the warehouse door.

After only three or four shots, he felt the car door being hit by concentrated fire.

The sound of bullets hitting the car was chaotic, but it did a good job of slightly delaying their exit.

There were bullets everywhere, rat-a-tat-tat everywhere!

Fordis ran bent over to another car. Howard was slumped in the driver’s seat, holding his abdomen. He tilted his head to look at Fordis. Fordis nodded. “He agreed.”

“He said he will avenge all of you!”

Howard touched his wound. He could feel his own hot blood. “I can’t hold on for much longer…” His spleen might be ruptured. Even if they left immediately, he might not make it to the hospital.

Fordis’s eyes were a little red. He placed the bomb on the back seat. “How much time should I leave you?”

Howard took two breaths. “Fifteen seconds!”

Fordis, relying on his experience, cut off a large part of the fuse with a knife, then looked at him. “I’m lighting it.”

Howard started the car again, almost shouting through gritted teeth, “Light it!”

He needed to summon a burst of energy to support him in avenging his brother.

Fordis lit the fuse and slammed the door shut. Howard suddenly raised his head, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, and floored the accelerator.

The tires suddenly screeched, and the car charged towards the warehouse.

“FUCK ALL OF YOU!” he roared with a ferocious expression, his face flushed. In that instant, his aura alone even suppressed the gunmen rushing out of the warehouse.

In an instant, the enemy’s fire was all drawn to him, and the others took the opportunity to start their cars and begin to flee.

Bullets shattered the windshield. Howard felt something punch him, hitting him in the face. His whole face went numb, and he felt his body being pushed back by many things.

In a daze, he thought of many things, but his body, out of his control, swayed back and forth before pressing heavily on the steering wheel.

The long “Beeeeeep…” of the car horn was like a send-off for a warrior to heaven.

So this is… death?

In his last moments, he sighed with emotion, lamented, with not much fear, only a sense of satisfaction. He had avenged his brother!

But until his death, his foot never left the accelerator, and his hands on the steering wheel never wavered.

The car crashed into the warehouse, stopped after hitting the simple sandbags they had set up, its raised drive wheels still spinning.

Two gunmen with weapons went over and pulled open the car door, then saw the less than one-centimeter fuse on the back seat and that big firecracker.

The gunman’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

Motherfucker!

The huge explosion was accompanied by sand and stones thrown up by the shockwave, which rained down from the sky. The sound of them hitting the car roofs announced the amazing power of this explosion.

But none of the people who escaped were happy, because just now, they had said goodbye to the brothers they had spent day and night with for many years, a permanent goodbye.

Even… they might not even be able to retrieve the bodies of some of them.

Alberto slammed his fist on his leg. His leg hurt, but his heart hurt more.

“We’ve been betrayed!” A sweet, bloody taste seeped from between his clenched teeth. His gums began to bleed from the immense pressure, but he didn’t seem to notice at all.

Fordis said nothing, concentrating on driving. The battered convoy sped through the city streets.

“To the estate, I’m going to get an explanation from Paul!”

Alberto was not a “petty” person. He could accept death, even his own death. This was what he owed Paul.

If God thought now was a good time for him to return everything to Paul, he would accept that result.

But he would not accept his brothers dying because of betrayal. He would not accept this.

He had to talk to Paul and see where the problem was.

The convoy quickly returned to the estate. Although he had been hit by one of his own cars, overall, his injuries were not serious.

With Fordis’s support, he could still walk quickly.

Paul was not asleep. He showed a slight smile when he saw Alberto. “Was that explosion your masterpiece?”

Alberto pushed Fordis away and walked to Paul’s desk. He slammed his hands on the desk, his body leaning forward in a very extreme attacking posture.

“We’ve been betrayed!”

“That was a fucking trap!”

Paul’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at him. “You suspect me of leaking the news?”

Alberto shook his head. “I have never suspected you, but someone must have leaked the news. You have to find this person and make him pay for our dead brothers!”

He clenched his fists and slammed them on the table. “A price in blood!”

The glass window suddenly vibrated again, followed by the sound of an explosion. Paul looked out the window, then his gaze fell on Alberto, meeting his gaze.

“If someone really leaked the news, I will give you an explanation, I will give everyone an explanation!”

“No matter who that person is!”

“Now, take your men to bandage their wounds. Those who need to go to the hospital should go to the hospital. You also need to rest.”

“I don’t want you to come back after risking your lives to complete the job, only to not see tomorrow’s sun because of too much blood loss.”

Alberto cursed a few more times. Although he wasn’t cursing Paul, Paul’s face burned. He felt that Alberto was cursing him.

This also filled his heart with a kind of hatred. He would find the person who betrayed the family’s interests and get rid of him.

For a long time after the explosion, no one returned. Paul was getting restless.

He glanced at the time; it was almost one o’clock.

According to the plan, all the bombs should have been detonated by twelve o’clock at the latest. But so far, only two had gone off. Apart from Alberto, there was no news from the others.

He vaguely had a very bad premonition. These people were all done for.

Just as Alberto said, someone had betrayed their information, so the Cassia Family had made preparations in advance.

Alberto’s target was relatively less difficult. At that time, Paul had also considered that he was not a core member, which was why he had given him this target.

The other targets were much more complicated and harder to deal with. Perhaps this was why they had no news and had not returned.

His mind went blank, and he slumped in his chair. If it had been a fair fight and he had lost, he would have accepted it willingly.

But it was because someone had betrayed him and the family.

He picked up the phone and summoned Mueller.

Mueller also realized the terrible situation. Six bombs, only two went off. Without a doubt, the other four had met with an accident.

“Who was there when we had the meeting?”

Mueller recalled the scene at that time and began to list everyone who had participated.

No matter how big the family, the company, or the factory, a single organization is always in the shape of a pyramid.

That is, the higher up, the fewer people.

Even for a family the size of the Five Families, the number of senior cadres would not exceed twenty.

The Pasoretto Family had only fourteen senior cadres. Two had died in the explosion, leaving only twelve. Now another five were gone, which meant that there were still seven people who could be suspects.

“Where did they all go after the meeting?”

Mueller shook his head. “I don’t know, I’d have to inquire carefully, but… Paul, if we inquire without any cover, we might alert them.”

“I have an idea.”

Paul looked at him and asked, “What idea?”

“Have you heard the story of ‘Who Stole the Pie’?”

This story was a local Summuri fable-like story, about a mother who made several pies, but one was missing.

None of her children would admit to stealing it, so she came up with an idea.

She marked the pies with different colors and told the children that the pie of a certain color was the one they wanted to eat, and the others were not.

Then, in front of the children, she took a pie and broke it open, revealing a filling that the children didn’t like.

The next day, she caught the one who had stolen it.

This was actually a small story to inspire young children to think, because the real situation might not be that simple. But now, perhaps they could also use it.

Paul had also heard this story. He was silent for a moment. “Call them in one by one.”

Mueller nodded and went to call the people.

Paul gave each of them a task and told them not to tell anyone.

After doing all this, he felt an indescribable sense of discomfort.

He was actually still unwilling to believe that there was a traitor in the family, but the facts were right there.

“I hope things are not that bad,” he looked at Mueller, appearing very tired.

Mueller could only comfort him, “Everything will be fine.”

Whether everything would be fine, no one knew.

In the morning, Lance hadn’t slept well either. Ryder ran over early in the morning, bringing some breakfast for everyone.

Lance didn’t fall asleep until two or three in the morning. It had to be said that this was the good thing about being young. No matter how late you stayed up or how early you got up, you could recover quickly.

He didn’t even feel any discomfort.

Unlike when people get older, if they stay up late without enough sleep, they will feel uncomfortable all over.

Staying up all night is even more of an impossible forbidden zone. Staying up all night once often requires one to two weeks to recover.

He rubbed his face, looked at the breakfast on the table, and casually picked up a hot dog to chew on. “Actually, you could have slept a little longer.”

While eating the hot dog, he said jokingly, “I’m not a capitalist, hoping you guys work without sleeping every day. This way you can sleep a little longer, and I can too.”

Ryder scratched his head, a little embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t think of that. I’m already used to getting up early!”

“That’s why you can’t be a capitalist!” Lance teased casually. “Is everything ready?”

Ryder nodded. “It’s all ready, just outside.”

This made Lance finish the whole hot dog in a few bites. It had to be said that the hot dogs at this time were really good value, with large sausages and a lot of meat.

He took a sip of coffee and went out with Ryder to the open space.

There were several trucks, loaded with packaged new work uniforms. These new uniforms were slightly different from the old ones because they had a cleverly designed emblem on the chest.

An anchor with a rope and a wrench crossed together, representing the image of a dockworker.

Lance took one down, pulled it hard. The quality was very good.

He threw the clothes to Ryder, then jumped onto one of the trucks. “What are you waiting for, let’s drive.”

At this time, a large group of striking and picketing dockworkers had gathered outside the docks again. But at this moment, they looked a bit messy, standing in groups of three or five, with no uniform clothing.

On the contrary, the “temporary workers” on the docks looked more like the main force. They all wore uniform clothing and maintained a certain degree of unity, looking as if they had some kind of action plan.

In this strike, they were also the most eye-catching group. Today, there were already more reporters at the docks, and more camera lenses were aimed at these workers in blue.

Although everyone was on strike, this still made the ordinary workers feel some emotions that they didn’t know how to express.

It was like providing excellent service to a customer, but the customer, without looking up, gives the tip to the wrong person.

At the same time, it also gave rise to other ideas in them. They also wanted to have uniform attire.

Besides the strikers, there were also many capitalists or capital representatives from Golden Port. They did not belong to the category of Golden Port locals; they were only here because they needed the Golden Port docks.

For example, branch managers, warehouse managers, or owners of large and small factories, they all relied on the convenience of the docks to get work opportunities.

If there was anyone who was truly nervous about the dockworkers’ strike, they were definitely number one.

Many people were persuading those workers to return to their posts. For this, some of them even offered daily wages of two or three dollars, hoping they could load their own goods onto the ships, or unload them from the ships.

There were also many ship captains and first mates watching the excitement here.

They weren’t in a hurry, because the berthing fees were definitely paid by the ship’s owner. Whether they left or not, their income wouldn’t change.

Being able to stay in a bustling port for longer was also more convenient for them to relax here.

Although it might only be a few milliliters, or a dozen milliliters each time, but after all, a little less is a little more relaxed, isn’t it?

However, the chips they offered could not convince these strikers. What they wanted was not an income of two or three dollars a day, but a stable increase in their monthly income.

Just then, several trucks suddenly drove over, immediately attracting everyone’s attention.

Those striking workers also spontaneously gathered around, because they saw Lance.

(End of chapter)