Empire of Shadows

Mayor Williams picked up the coffee in front of him and took a small sip.

The milk made its texture smoother, and a small sugar cube also made it easier to drink.

The quality of the coffee itself was not particularly good. He hadn’t drunk such cheap coffee in a long time.

He didn’t know if it was because the raw materials were indeed not good, or because of psychological factors. In short, he just took a small sip and put the cup down.

He turned his head to look at the bustling street outside the window. It was a little after five in the afternoon, with people coming and going. During the winter, the time to get off work would be an hour or half an hour earlier, but correspondingly, their work time might be earlier, or their rest time would be compressed.

He could understand what Lance meant.

Arthur was now in the hands of this group of people. Their purpose was merely to hold him back, so that he would not have time to respond.

A very despicable practice, but it has to be said, very effective.

If he was the kind of person who could be ruthless and see his political life as more important than Arthur’s life, then there was no doubt that they could not threaten him.

A child had died, but a riot had been quelled. Perhaps some people would despise his ruthless practice, but at the same time, he could also gain the support of more people.Putting the safety and stability of society above the safety and stability of his own family, what gimmick could be more pleasing to the lower-class people who could only earn forty dollars a month?

Although they could only earn forty dollars a month, a part of them were important voters.

But Mayor Williams was not that kind of person. Based on his love for his wife, he was also very fond of Arthur, so he knew very well what he was facing now.

That group of people had Arthur as their biggest bargaining chip. If they attacked rashly, would they… use Arthur as a bargaining chip?

Or rather, would they feel that they had no hope of escaping and simply kill Arthur?

There was such a possibility. When a person is forced into a dead end and sees no hope, they can go for broke.

The risk factor of the other choice was relatively much smaller. What he could think of was that Lance would find a way to provoke them, and then force them to leave there as soon as possible.

As long as they showed their heads, they would be killed, and Arthur would be rescued.

If they wanted to hide Arthur, they certainly couldn’t let him show his face. In this situation, it would instead provide a safe environment for Arthur.

Even if he was stuffed into the trunk of a car, he would be safe at that moment.

However, doing so also had a drawback, and that was that if they didn’t find the right kidnappers, Arthur would be taken away by them. Next time they would only be more careful, more secretive.

“The first choice is too risky, and the second choice has a probability of failure,” Mayor Williams sighed. “Life is always about making a choice between two difficult options, no matter when.”

He picked up the cup of coffee again and took another small sip. This time the feeling was a little better, but only a little, a very small amount.

“Find them!”

“If something really happens to Arthur… I want all of them to be buried with Arthur.”

“Including the Bay Area!” He took a large gulp of his coffee. “The coffee is not bad.”

Lance nodded slightly, then stood up. “Three dollars a pot, fine coffee!”

“I’ve already paid the bill.”

After he finished speaking, he picked up his hat and, under the gaze of the coffee shop owner who wanted to get closer but didn’t dare, he left.

Mayor Williams did not leave. He would wait here.

Either wait for that fool Arthur to come over and tell him how miserable he had been these few days.

Or, to wait for a terrible news that would make everyone terrified.

He was tasting the three-dollar-a-pot coffee. It seemed that the difference between it and the coffee brewed from a hundred-dollar-a-pound coffee bean at his home was not that big.

At this time, a guy who had just come out of the deli was holding two large bags of cooked food, mainly pork knuckles and cooked beef.

The people of the Federation did not have the concept of “braising,” but they had a cooking method with the same purpose.

Marinate the beef with spices, and then cook it in an oven with the oven temperature.

The advantage of this non-open-fire cooking method is that after the beef is cooked through, it will not have some charred and brown places like when it is roasted over an open fire, and the fat and meat are fully combined, which will cause the meat to be a little loose.

The beef cooked in this way, the fat will not be excessively rendered out, and will still maintain a relatively complete posture, but it will be softened.

It will have a complete “coat.” After it is taken out, it will be packaged in a brown paper bag and placed on the counter.

Because the continuation of the appearance can allow it to be stored for a longer time in a relatively low-temperature state, and the taste will not become too bad.

If anyone needed cooked beef, the clerk would take it out from the counter, and then cut a piece in front of the customer, and then cut it again or just pack it directly.

After the customer takes it home, they can simply heat it up, or even eat it directly without heating.

Of course, it can also be refried or re-roasted.

In short, this is a very commercialized cooking method. It may not be that delicious, but in terms of the convenience of storage and sale, it is undoubtedly better than other methods.

A large bag of beef and a large bag of pork knuckles were enough for them to eat for a considerable period of time. There were also bread in the deli, and he had also bought some bread.

After coming out of the deli, the cold wind blew on his body. The biting cold made him shrink his neck. His attention was on the road.

He saw some not-quite-right cars. There were people sitting in these cars, but they neither got out of the car nor started the car to leave, just stayed where they were.

In addition, when he came out of the alley, he had encountered those two cars. He had a vague illusion that they had been discovered!

The more this was the case, the more he could not expose himself.

Just standing at the entrance of the deli for a while, he immediately felt someone’s gaze fall on him.

He immediately turned and walked towards a grocery store on the side of the road, bought more than ten boxes of cigarettes. Whether it was going in or coming out, he did not look at the obviously not-quite-right cars on the side of the road.

He thought his… disguise was very good, but in fact, he had already been targeted.

“He bought two large bags of meat. The people who live here can’t afford such expensive food.”

A young man sitting in the passenger seat looked at the guy who was holding two large bags of cooked food and also carrying a string net bag, walking towards the distance, a sharp look in his eyes.

They were all from poor backgrounds. If they weren’t from poor backgrounds, if they had, not to say a prominent background, but just an ordinary background, a stable life and future, they might not have taken the huge risk of joining a gang.

So they looked very young, and indeed lacked experience in many matters.

But in the matter of struggling to survive at the bottom, their experience was very rich!

Those foods added up to at least a few dollars, plus the cigarettes, a dozen or so dollars.

Not to mention a week, there were not many people in this district who could spend a dozen or so dollars on food in a month.

The guy who came out to buy things didn’t know that he had exposed himself because he had bought too much food.

If he had known that a spy had been found out because he couldn’t help but secretly eat a piece of meat, he might have become a little more vigilant, not to let his behavior be so out of place with the surroundings.

As he was getting close to their hiding place, he saw some guys in woolen trench coats with red armbands on their left arms, entering an apartment building.

As those people moved, he saw that they were all carrying guns, even submachine guns.

This made him even more nervous, and his pace also quickened.

After he had, as he thought, very secretly returned to their current residence, the closed main door isolated the inside from the outside, and also made him let out a heavy sigh of relief.

“What’s wrong?” Richie was playing cards with others. He saw his subordinate’s uneasy look and couldn’t help but ask.

The guy who had bought the things came to the center of the room with the things. “A lot of Lance Family people have come outside. We may have been exposed.”

The cigarette dangling from Richie’s mouth fell from his mouth, sending up some sparks. And it was these sparks that made him quickly put down the poker cards in his hand. While patting the remaining sparks on his body, he asked with some incomprehension, “How could we have been exposed?”

“We haven’t revealed any news, nor have we let Arthur talk to them, not even given them a chance to exchange signals. How did they find us?”

Richie didn’t understand. He carefully recalled everything. He hadn’t revealed any information at all. How had they found this place?

He had never thought that the honking of the cars outside would be the reason for locking his position, even now.

He walked back and forth a few steps. “Could you have been mistaken?”

The man shook his head. “They all have the Lance Family’s red armbands.”

“Fuck!” Richie cursed, immediately picked up the phone, and didn’t even care about his hungry stomach. He directly dialed Mr. Charles’s number.

The call was quickly answered. Mr. Charles’s mood was very good now, because the demolition site had already been in a complete uproar. It no longer mattered whether Mayor Williams knew about this or not.

This was like arson.

When the flame was just a small flame, any gust of wind could extinguish it, so the arsonist had to protect this small flame.

But once the small flame began to burn fiercely, became a scourge, and evolved into a disaster, then there was no need to pay too much attention. Even if you let the firefighters go and put out the fire, they might not be able to put it out in a short time.

So he was in a very good mood now. “You’ve done a good job!”

Richie directly interrupted him. “Sir, the Lance Family may have found us,” he glanced at Arthur in the cage in the corner. “Should we still keep Arthur?”

Charles was stunned for a moment. What had been a very happy thing had suddenly had such a change. The smile on his face also subsided.

Because for him, this was also a difficult choice!

Kill Arthur, and Mayor Williams will go crazy. He will fight to the death, and the final result may change.

Don’t kill Arthur, and Mayor Williams can free up his hands to concentrate on the current situation. He won’t be so aggressive, but this doesn’t mean he’s easy to deal with.

Life is about choices. It’s either you do it, or he does it!

(End of a Chapter)