Empire of Shadows

Charlie booked a two-dollar-a-night room. It had a bathroom and hot water. In the wilderness, a motel was like an oasis in the desert for many long-distance travelers, including professional truck drivers.

Not only could they get a short rest here, but they could also relax a bit with the girls who worked here, resolving the physiological exhaustion and desires that came with long-distance driving.

This small oasis brought hope and stability to everyone traveling this highway.

“Well, this is my room for the night!” Charlie couldn’t help but say as he pushed open the door.

He was probably talking to himself. He hadn’t stayed in such a shabby hotel for decades, which gave him a very strange feeling.

It was as if… a big shot had arrived here, and they didn’t know he was a big shot. It was a very subtle emotion.

He placed his briefcase on the bed, then checked the room. After confirming that there was no other way in besides the main door, he relaxed a little.

The room had a stuffy, musty smell. The wallpaper in the corner of the wall had begun to peel, and there was a layer of mold on the wall behind it.

He walked to the only window, drew the curtains, bolted the door, and propped a chair under the handle.

Now, the only way someone could enter the room without his permission was through the window.The windows in the motel were the sash type that you pull up and down. There were very few casement windows here; they were inconvenient and would affect guests passing through the corridor.

To open this window, besides having to find a way to undo the latch, one also had to lift the window.

So he made a very simple little mechanism. Using a sewing kit he found in a drawer, he connected two glass cups with a string, then tied the middle of the string to the window handle.

This way, as soon as anyone opened the window, the two cups would collide.

Whether it was a slight collision or a violent one, it could at least serve as a warning.

After doing all this, Charlie stood by the window, looking at the very soft-looking bed. He finally, slowly, lay down on it.

He lay at the head of the bed, placing his weapon under the pillow for easy access to shoot at any time.

After doing all this, he finally began to drift off into a hazy sleep.

These past few days, he had been in a state of anxiety. Although this place was full of delicious flavors, and there might even be some genetic fragments left in the corners of the room, at least this place made him feel at ease.

He took off his watch and placed it on the bedside table, then set the time on the alarm clock. He was going to leave here in the middle of the night.

His decision was to stay in Likalai State for as short a time as possible.

Perhaps it was because he had been too tired these past few days, both physically and mentally. He soon fell into a deep sleep.

The night was beautiful. The night sky over the barren wilderness had a unique charm. Occasionally, low roars and high-pitched shouts would come from some of the rooms.

Making money is not easy, especially from those truck drivers. It’s even harder.

At a little after 10 o’clock at night, the restaurant finally closed. The cook tidied up and locked the restaurant door.

His girlfriend was waiting for him at the door. She had gotten off work early and didn’t need to clean the kitchen. She stood outside, leaning against the wall by the restaurant’s main door, one foot on its toes.

Although she wasn’t doing anything, just standing there normally, she would still give people the feeling that… as long as you paid, she would go to a room with you.

“The light in his room has been off for a long time,” she said.

She had been keeping an eye on Charlie’s room. She herself was engaged in the illegal business of prostitution, and occasionally she would get more money from her clients through theft and other means.

Even if the clients sometimes found out she had stolen their money, as long as her boyfriend appeared in front of them in time, the matter would be properly resolved.

The illegality of prostitution was a two-way street. If those clients didn’t want to wait for the highway patrol to come and go with them to the nearby highway patrol station, and even possibly be locked up for a few days, then they had better choose not to call the police.

So this young couple was not honest.

Charlie fit all their criminal psychological presets—

First, he didn’t look young, at least fifty-five or older. An old man meant he didn’t have enough stamina and strength. If any accident happened, they could escape in time.

Second, he was very rich. Based on their understanding of rich people, this type of rich person was actually very timid and afraid.

Compared to their wealth, which was not everything to them, they were more concerned about their own safety. So as long as they showed some fierce expressions, the old man would give up.

If the girl wasn’t lying, she had really seen a wad of twenty-dollar bills in the old man’s wallet.

Then just this amount of money would be enough for them to squander for a long time.

At that time, they could just drive away from here. It wouldn’t be an easy task for either the old man or the police to find them.

Crimes committed on the Federation’s interstate highways were often difficult to solve. Cooperation between different police forces was not an easy task. It was indeed a favorite choice for many professional criminals to make a move on the interstate highways.

The girl saw the kitchen knife in the cook’s hand, glinting coldly in the moonlight. She stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes, as if she were meeting him for the first time.

“Are you crazy?”

“We’re just planning to steal some money, not to kill him!”

The cook hid the knife in his sleeve. “This is just a precaution. What if he argues with us? We need a way to shut him up.”

“You don’t want everyone to know that we tried to put his money in our pockets, do you?”

The two looked at each other for a moment. The girl compromised. She felt that her boyfriend had a point.

The two slowly walked over there. The cook couldn’t help but start to fantasize about the future, as if the money was already in their hands.

“When I get the money, I’m going to get a new car,” he said. “I’m sick of our old clunker. It’s always giving us trouble.”

The girl pursed her lips. “How much money do you think is in that box?”

The cook thought for a moment. “I saw a movie. It said a box this big can hold at least a hundred thousand.”

“A hundred thousand?”

“God, that’s a lot of money…”

The eyes of the two were filled with a desire for sudden wealth.

“When I have money, I’m going to buy that dress we saw last time.”

The last time they went to Golden Port City, they had seen a dress in a department store in the city center. A beautiful dress, with small embellishments made of shells and pearls. It looked beautiful.

That dress cost 900, which was breathtakingly expensive. After seeing the price, she had found dozens of reasons not to buy it and then left.

As a poor person, a person from the bottom of society, they always have countless reasons not to buy something, and they have even mastered the ability to find dozens of faults in one product.

But at this moment, that dress, which was full of problems and shortcomings, no longer had so many problems.

And buying it didn’t require too many reasons—I have money now!

The two, with beautiful dreams of the future, came to the outside of Charlie’s room.

Their “dormitory” was also this kind of guest room. They were very familiar with everything here.

The cook had the girl keep a lookout for him. He inserted a piece of iron into the door seam, and the lock opened. He pushed in.

The chair wedged against the handle worked very well. It held the door, and the door couldn’t be pushed open at all.

“Fuck!” he pushed hard, but the door didn’t even move. He gave up and then walked to the window.

The curtains prevented him from seeing the situation inside. He hoped that the window latch was not locked, but unfortunately, Charlie was very concerned about his own safety.

He had immediately bolted the door and latched the window. After trying to lift it twice and failing, the cook left.

Today’s Bonnie and Clyde-style theft seemed to have ended before it even began.

The girl looked at him, as if asking, “Do you have any other fucking ideas?”

The cook pulled her to a distance.

“He’s very vigilant. There must be something against the door. I’ve already opened the lock, but the door won’t open.”

“The window is also locked. This old man is too careful!”

“I’m now completely convinced that his box is full of money. If it wasn’t money, he wouldn’t have to be so on guard against everything!”

In fact, many people who stayed at motels would not latch the window. Some would even leave the window open a crack.

Whether it was opening the door or opening the window, there was always a way to get into someone’s room. But this old man…

“Then what should we do?” the girl asked. “Go back to sleep?”

The cook was unwilling to let so much money slip through his fingers. He thought for a while, and with his not-so-bright brain, he said, “You go knock on the door.”

“I go knock on the door?” the girl repeated. “And then I tell him to hand over all his money?”

She looked at her boyfriend as if he were a fool.

“You’d better wake up. I know that’s a lot of money for us, but now we don’t have any good solutions. This means God wants us to stop here!”

The cook couldn’t help but interrupt her. “Shut up!”

“Listen to me!”

He looked at the girl, and the girl also met his gaze. He continued, “You go knock on the door and ask him if he wants service. Didn’t you say he gave you an extra two dollars as a tip?”

“Just say you’re very grateful to him. If he’s not willing to do it, you can give him a blowjob.”

“Anyway, you just play it by ear. As long as he can open the door, that’s enough!”

The girl was silent for a moment. She inexplicably felt some resistance in her heart. Maybe it was because… that old man had given her an extra two dollars as a tip?

But soon these resistant thoughts were gently wiped away. She lifted her skirt, unbuttoned the top two buttons of her dress, revealing a bit of her pale flesh.

She ran her hands through her hair to make it fluffy, then she and the cook came to the outside of Charlie’s room.

The cook stood close to the door. The girl took a deep breath and knocked.

The sound of knocking quickly woke the sleeping Charlie. His hand almost immediately grabbed the handgun and released the safety.

A sharp glint shone from his opened eyes. He didn’t make any movement, maintaining the appearance of being asleep.

If you didn’t observe carefully, you wouldn’t even notice that he was actually awake.

After observing that there was no one in the room, he slowly sat up.

“Who’s there?” he asked.

He turned on the table lamp and glanced at his watch. There was still an hour before his scheduled time.

He put the gold watch on his wrist. Although the time was not up yet, he had rested enough.

“It’s me, the waitress from the restaurant. You should remember me.”

The voice from outside the door immediately reminded Charlie of the waitress. He rubbed his face and put the handgun into its holster. “I said, I don’t need room service.”

“Ah… um, sir, I’m very grateful for your tip. I feel I have to do something for you.”

“Or I can give you a blowjob?”

“I just want to repay you.”

Charlie smiled after hearing this. “Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t need it. You see, I’m already very old. I don’t have this kind of need.”

In fact, Charlie still had needs, but not at this time, and not for a woman of this level.

Even though he had lost his status and everything now, as long as he still had money, he could enjoy the best treatment in another city, instead of being in this kind of countryside place and walking the same path as those truck drivers.

Who knew if there was a smell of engine oil in there?

She looked at her boyfriend in a daze. The cook leaned close to her ear and whispered something. Then the girl’s voice came from outside the door again.

“Sir, you are a good person. I’m telling you the truth.”

“I didn’t get any work tonight. If I can’t hand over the money, they will beat me. Please, let me do something for you…”

Charlie frowned. He didn’t analyze the girl’s words too seriously, but just had a rough understanding.

In this seemingly ordinary motel, there was actually a small force that organized and operated prostitution?

But then he thought about it and didn’t find it strange, because this kind of business here was an “exclusive business.”

There might only be this one motel for two or three hundred kilometers in either direction. Their business was very stable, and the prices were not cheap. It was even much better than the business of some small gangs in the city.

If they could also run some liquor business, it would definitely be a big money-making business.

But he really didn’t need this girl to serve him. Considering that he didn’t want to cause trouble now and didn’t want to attract attention, in the end, he still decided to help the girl.

Let her into the room, then do nothing, give her ten dollars, and let her stay in this room until dawn.

And he would take advantage of this time to drive away. Maybe some people who had an impression of him would think that he only left in the morning.

Although there was a high probability that he wouldn’t need these people, but what if?

He moved the chair away from the door, opened the bolt, and pulled the door open.

The girl was right outside the door. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly thanked him and walked into the room.

As Charlie turned around and was about to close the door, he didn’t hear the sound of the door being closed. He looked back in surprise and saw a young man rush in with a knife in his hand, and the knife was already at his neck.

The girl stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes. “Are you fucking crazy?”

The cook glanced at her sideways, didn’t speak, just pushed Charlie into the room, and then closed the door.

Charlie tilted his head and glanced at the girl, then at the cook. He pointed at the clothes on the bed. “The wallet is in the pocket of my coat. You can take the knife away. I will cooperate.”

He understood now. Because he had exposed the “small change” that he didn’t care about at all, he was targeted by these two small thieves.

He really wanted to curse now, but he held back. He had to ensure his own safety.

He had handled many cases, including similar situations. Originally, things were fine, but because the victim cursed or used other methods to provoke the perpetrator, a tragedy occurred.

People who rob with a knife like this are generally more impulsive. If they are provoked, Charlie really believed he would get stabbed.

The cook’s attention was all on the clothes. He signaled the girl to go and get the wallet.

Seeing that things had already reached this point, the girl could only do as she was told.

Soon, the wallet was taken out by her. The moment she opened it, the thick wad of cash inside made the two of them have a look of ecstatic surprise on their faces.

“So much money!” the girl took out the banknotes and was about to count them, but was stopped by the cook.

“Go check the briefcase.”

The girl reacted at this moment. She walked towards the briefcase. The briefcase had no combination, and it opened directly. The few stacks of twenty-dollar bills tied with rubber bands inside made the two of them take their attention away from Charlie.

One stack was two thousand. There was about fifteen thousand here. Although it was still a considerable distance from the cook’s “dream,” for them, this was already very good!

“We’re rich!”

The girl turned her head and looked at her boyfriend in surprise, but the surprise on her face quickly turned to fright. She saw that Charlie was already some distance away from her boyfriend, his face cold and his hand already in his coat.

“He has a weapon!” the girl screamed.

The cook turned his head sharply and looked at Charlie, saw Charlie take out the weapon from his coat. His scalp went numb, and instead of retreating, he advanced.

Although he was just a minor character, he also had his own judgment and ferocity. At this moment, he exploded!

The moment the cracking gunshots sounded, he didn’t even feel any pain. The knife in his hand, amidst Charlie’s continuous “fucks,” was randomly swung at Charlie’s body!

He felt that he could completely solo Charlie. The gun was not as fast as his knife at all!

But in the next second, he fell to the ground with a thud. The only things he could hear were his girlfriend’s screams and the “bitch” that Charlie cursed out.

Crack, crack, crack, three more shots. Charlie, while cursing, glanced at the cut on his arm. He kept cursing the most unpleasant words of his life, closed the briefcase again, threw on his coat, and rushed out!

The gunshots alarmed the entire motel. The lights in some rooms went out in an instant, but the lights in some rooms also came on in an instant.

Charlie rushed back to his car. He started the engine, stepped on the gas, and the car shot out in an instant, disappearing into the night…

(End of a Chapter)