Empire of Shadows

When a kidnapper is asked how to prove that the person they have kidnapped is the person I am looking for, the answer is actually not that complicated.

With Arthur’s screams coming from the receiver in the distance, Mayor Williams clenched his fists so tightly that you could even hear the sound of his skin rubbing together!

James nodded with anger on his face. It was Arthur’s voice.

Mayor Williams could also confirm this. After all, he was a child who had grown up by his side. He could even distinguish the sound of that good-for-nothing’s fart, let alone his screams!

“Can you confirm it now?”

“Your Honor the Mayor?”

The lighthearted and mocking tone in his voice made Mayor Williams let out a heavy sigh of relief. He relaxed his clenched fists.

He had experienced many things in his life. This was not the worst of it.

“What do you want?”

The guy on the other end of the line laughed a couple of times. Just from this laughter, he keenly sensed that these people must be gang members.Their laughter had the arrogance of gang members, the kind of thing that looked down on everyone.

“I don’t want anything. I just want to make friends with Your Honor the Mayor.”

“It’s… 3:15 in the afternoon. You have to be at this location before 3:40.”

Mayor Williams was still waiting for him to continue, for example… some more outrageous demands that he could not fulfill.

He knew very well that Arthur’s kidnapping was definitely not just some ordinary kidnappers trying to extort him. It must have been those people in the Bay Area behind it. They would not release Arthur so easily. They must have a deeper purpose.

But after waiting for a while, the other side said nothing. Although he had some confusion in his heart, his tone did not change in any way. “Is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all. You have twenty-four minutes.”

“If you’re not at this location at 3:40, you’ll get a part of Arthur!”

Then, with his arrogant laughter, he hung up the phone. Listening to the busy tone on the phone, Mayor Williams canceled the call.

He quickly picked up the phone and dialed Lance’s number. “I need your help. They want me to go to… this location. Otherwise, they might take a piece off of Arthur.”

“I need some help.”

Lance did not think too much and directly agreed.

At this stage, Mayor Williams was one of his most important partners. Only when Mayor Williams was in office would the choice of the police chief not be changed.

If he changed to another mayor and Chief Bruce was replaced, even if he controlled the extra income of every police officer every month, there would still be some changes and uncontrollable places.

Greed is always the primary driving force. If the newly appointed mayor not only planned to send him to prison, but also to directly replace him?

Find a puppet, continue to control the city’s liquor market, and the other party could also make the police force follow him wholeheartedly.

So before he had fully grown up, Lance still needed to take care of them.

After hanging up the phone, Mayor Williams immediately stood up. Although he was mentally prepared to “lose” Arthur, as long as there was a chance, he would still not give up.

The people of the Federation may not be able to summarize the refined and direct language of “youngest son, eldest grandson,” but this good-for-nothing younger son definitely had an extraordinary position in his heart!

“I’ll go too,” James also stood up, but Mayor Williams stopped him.

“They want me to leave City Hall. Something must have happened. It might need me to handle it. Only when I’m not here can they succeed.”

While putting on his coat, he looked at James. “When I’m not here, you will be in full charge of handling everything!”

“Believe in your own judgment, believe in your ability!”

He paused for a moment. “You are the best!”

After he finished speaking, he pulled the door open and left without looking back. The other party had no demands, only asking him to leave City Hall. He had already guessed the reason.

This was not an era with mobile communication. Once he left City Hall, he would basically be disconnected from “power information.”

If there was a sudden situation during this period, and he couldn’t receive a call, and the people at City Hall couldn’t find him, and it was a very important matter that required him to make a decision in person, then something would definitely happen!

Arthur…

He pursed his lips. When he got back, he would have to teach this good-for-nothing a good lesson!

He got into the car and patted the back of the driver’s seat. “Drive.”

The vehicle quickly left City Hall. A guy leaning against a utility pole on the opposite side of the road looked as if he were reading a newspaper, but he had been reading this newspaper for a long time.

In fact, he was observing the changes at City Hall. When he saw the mayor’s car come out from inside, and saw Mayor Williams sitting in the back seat, he threw the newspaper into a trash can on the side of the road, and then walked into a phone booth and dialed a number he knew by heart.

“He just left City Hall…” After saying that, he hung up the phone, and then, with his hands in his pockets, he raised his collar, hunched his neck, and walked in the opposite direction.

The gradually gloomy sky began to snow. It was snowing again.

Just short of being late, the mayor stood at the agreed-upon location with a sigh of relief. It was the side of the road in a park. He stood there. Besides three cars and Lance sitting in one of them, no one else could be seen.

Just as the time pointed to 3:40, the phone in a phone booth not far away suddenly rang. Mayor Williams turned sharply and looked at the phone booth. He had a premonition that it was a call for him.

He glanced at Lance. Lance nodded slightly. He strode over and picked up the phone.

“Very, very good, Your Honor the Mayor. You are a person who abides by the time and has a sense of time.”

“But I still have doubts about this. I hope you can get to this… this address before four o’clock.”

Mayor Williams did not say anything and hung up the phone directly. He came out of the phone booth, looked around again, and then got into his own car.

Lance’s convoy also started up from a little farther away and followed him, but at the same time, Lance also had a few people keep an eye on this vicinity.

After Mayor Williams had arrived, the phone had rung. Maybe there was someone nearby observing at close range.

He had some people stay behind. If they saw someone suddenly leave in a short period of time, then he would arrange for people to follow them.

As for him, he would continue to follow Mayor Williams, and at a traffic light, he had Mayor Williams get into his car.

“He’s playing with me, wasting my time. Do you have any good ideas?”

“My mind is in a mess right now!”

After all, it concerned his most beloved younger son. It was already not easy for him to be able to calmly analyze some things.

Lance nodded. “Continue to play this game with him. This time we’ll be a little late. Of course, I’ll arrange for people to go over first.”

“The next address, no matter where he tells you, postpone the time as much as possible.”

“Postpone it for about ten minutes. Just say that it’s almost the evening rush hour, and the road is a bit congested, so you may not be able to arrive at the agreed time.”

Mayor Williams nodded, and then looked at Lance. He did not directly ask why, but asked Lance with his eyes.

If he could answer, Lance would tell him. If he couldn’t, Lance could also choose not to see.

Sometimes this way of expression is more tactful and will not create tension.

“I will catch him. You can rest assured.”

“I’ve already arranged for people to be scattered throughout the city. When the agreed time comes, they will honk their horns.”

“I need you to try to delay the call as much as possible, for example, by asking to talk to Arthur or something.”

“But what you have to do is to listen carefully, to see if there is the sound of a horn in the background, and what it is like.”

Mayor Williams’s eyes suddenly lit up. He looked at Lance with an incredulous look on his face. He had never thought of using such a method to solve the problem!

“You’re a genius, Lance!” From the bottom of his heart, absolutely not flattery!

Lance smiled. “I’m just better at discovering things.”

At the next traffic light, Mayor Williams returned to his own car, and then gradually accelerated, maintaining a certain distance from Lance’s car.

This time, he was about seven or eight minutes later than the agreed time, but similarly, as soon as he arrived, the phone rang.

The guy on the other end of the line was a little angry. “You’re late!”

Mayor Williams repeated Lance’s rhetoric. Although the guy on the other end of the line accepted his rhetoric, he still expressed his dissatisfaction.

“I can accept your reason, but this time, you have to accept the punishment!”

Then he heard Arthur’s screams, but this time, he was not so “nervous,” because he knew that he would soon be meeting these people.

“The next address, you need to arrive… here before 4:30. If you are late, Arthur will be subject to a more severe trigger!”

“Wait a minute!” Before the other party hung up the phone, Mayor Williams said what Lance had told him to say.

“It’s about to be the evening rush hour, and it’s also snowing. The roads are congested with vehicles. I can’t guarantee that I can arrive at the agreed-upon location at the appointed time.”

The guy on the other end of the line seemed to have no intention of compromising. “That’s your business!”

Mayor Williams didn’t indulge him either. “You can kill him.”

The guy was stunned for a moment. After a few seconds, he asked in an uncertain tone, “You… what did you say?”

“I said, you can kill him, and I’ll go back to City Hall now. I’m not interested in playing this kind of game that I can’t do.”

Perhaps feeling the firmness in Mayor Williams’s tone, the guy on the other side made a compromise. “Alright, 4:40. No later.”

“Forty-five!”

“…Alright!”

(End of a Chapter)