Empire of Shadows

What does it feel like when your body is full of adrenaline?

Carl felt the blood vessels behind his ears throbbing. The sounds around him seemed to be coming from a very distant place, and he could only hear his own heartbeat.

He was holding a steel pipe in his hand and rushed towards the person closest to him, his whole body filled with a kind of strength.

His eyes were slightly red from the rise in blood pressure. He swung the steel pipe in his hand and smashed it down on the person’s head.

”Motherfucker!”

He cursed. The vocabulary of his limited common tongue, besides these simple words, had no words that could let him fully vent his emotions!

The person facing him had a look of panic and astonishment on his face. The intense pain had frozen his ability to think for a moment, and then Carl swung the steel pipe and came down again.

The hand holding the steel pipe was even trembling with pain!

The head that had been hit was bleeding, but not much. After all, a steel pipe was not a square piece of wood, and it had no blade.

The bleeding was also due to the contusion, so the blood was not flowing fast.But the person whose head he had broken had begun to push and shove, trying to fight back, and even trying to call for help!

Carl didn’t care about these. The only thought he had now was to knock all these people down!

At the same time, the police who had formed a human wall around them, who had not even moved before even when they were provoked, suddenly began to move.

The striking worker who was leading the strike and was holding his head breathed a sigh of relief. He pointed at Carl and shouted loudly, ”It’s this person, it’s this person. He’s the leader of this group!”

Under his watch, the police rushed over. A smile appeared on his face, but soon the smile froze!

Because the police’s rubber batons, which were very painful when they hit people, were ruthlessly hitting him on the head.

The head that had been hit by a steel pipe twice had once again experienced the beating of a solid steel rod wrapped in rubber. His mind instantly went ”buzz,” and his eyes began to stare blankly.

Two police officers pressed him to the ground and forcefully went for his head.

The iron cleats on the soles of their leather shoes directly tore open the worker’s scalp, and blood gushed out at once.

The two police officers took off their handcuffs and handcuffed this guy. One of them nudged Carl with his elbow, signaling for him not to be in a daze.

Carl came back to his senses and immediately rushed towards the second one!

The rushing blood was thundering in his body. At this moment, he felt terrifyingly strong!

In an instant, the street was in complete chaos. In this chaos, it was actually very difficult for people to confirm whether the ones who were arrested were the perpetrators or the demonstrators.

The reporters also didn’t care who was arrested. The only thing they cared about was the big news.

And the onlookers were screaming and fleeing this place. Every time a riot occurred, there would always be an unlucky bastard who was really unlucky!

These striking people had not reacted when they were first attacked, but now they had gradually reacted. They tried to fight back against these ”attackers,” but the effect was not very good.

Because these attackers were holding steel pipes, wooden sticks in their hands, while they had nothing.

These things might not be able to kill a person, but to be hit on the body, on the head, was really painful!

And the most crucial point was, what if they were injured? Who would bear the medical expenses?

In people’s eyes, the arm of a striking demonstrator, in the process of blocking a steel pipe, was suddenly broken, and was twisted at a strange angle.

This scene had scared many people!

As a worker, the foundation of everything they had was on their body and their arms and hands!

If their arms were broken, they might lose their ability to work.

What did it mean to lose the ability to work in this terrible society?

It meant that they would lose the job they now had, lose their stable monthly income, and their wives and children would leave them, because he could not support a family!

In the end, they might, because they could not afford the property tax, the land tax, maybe just one or two dollars, have their houses taken away by the bank, and be disposed of at a price that was half-buy, half-giveaway, and then be kicked out onto the street.

They would lose the remaining money in their pockets, and then, with their street friends, they would become homeless, and would gradually disappear from people’s memory!

The parade and demonstration team began to fall apart. Although there were still people who were resisting, the people who were resisting would soon be surrounded and beaten by the refugee group.

After being beaten, they still had to be beaten by the police, and after being beaten by the police, they still had to be pressed to the ground and handcuffed!

The demonstrators in the back did not know what was happening in the front. They could only see some of the people in the front, with their heads and faces covered in blood, fleeing in a panic.

Fear also made these people in the back begin to flee.

The group of people who were standing at the very back in the parade and demonstration were mostly morally blackmailed by their colleagues. They were not necessarily really willing to participate in this strike activity, so with a way to avoid it, they had scattered and fled at the first opportunity.

The originally magnificent strike, with the continuously dispersing crowd, had finally miraculously dissipated. The whole process had not even taken forty minutes.

Carl, with his heart pounding, threw away the steel pipe and dispersed with the crowd, but there were also some refugees who were arrested. This was all a script.

You can’t just arrest the striking and parading people. You have to arrest some refugees, and then from their mouths, get the content that the media, the public opinion, and the society wants to know.

A large number of the wounded were taken to the nearby police station with their injuries, and there were also some who were seriously injured and were sent to the hospital.

The news spread very quickly.

Mayor Williams, who had been standing by the window all along, smiled and shook his head, and returned to his desk to continue to work.

Some of the capitalists in the city also showed a satisfied smile and began to indulge in their lives.

Attorney General Terry, the first moment he knew this news, had demanded that the local prosecutor find out if there were any individuals or organizations who were trying to use this parade and demonstration to achieve some ulterior motives...

Tom had also immediately told the senator the news. The senator had appeared very calm. This was not yet a pass. This was just the beginning, but Lance had started off well.

Everyone had a different view on this matter, and they were also looking forward to the further development of the matter.

Lance himself was actually at the scene, but in a place where people couldn’t notice him. When he watched the crowd of demonstrators on the street being dispersed, he nodded with great satisfaction. ”Carl did a good job.”

The others also nodded one after another. They had also seen Carl, who was charging at the very front. He was very hardworking, and everyone liked this kind of person.

Seeing that this strike had temporarily ended, Lance picked up the phone. ”It’s time for the next step.”

Soon, the editor-in-chief of the Golden Port Today newspaper office personally came to Lance’s office.

In the past, the fact that George had Lance’s exclusive resources had made many people in the newspaper office very envious and jealous. Even the editor-in-chief had felt that this kid’s luck was too fucking good.

But with some things happening, he had also realized that good luck does not always accompany everyone.

After George had gotten into trouble, he had taken the initiative to give Lance a call, had explained the situation, and had then stated that if Lance had anything he needed the newspaper office to do, he could contact him directly.

The editor-in-chief had not written a draft himself for a long time, but he was definitely a master in this.

When he saw Lance, the editor-in-chief’s face was full of a fawning smile. Today’s events had once again made him realize that whether this city was chaotic or not was entirely up to Lance!

”Mr. Lance.”

”Please sit!”

After the two were seated, Lance finally said, ”I hope you can arrange for some reports as soon as possible.”

The editor-in-chief took out the notebook and pen he always carried with him. ”What aspect of content would you like us to report on?”

The News Group was on Mayor Williams’s side, which also indirectly meant that it was on Lance’s side, so the editor-in-chief had no burden at all.

Even if the News Group’s side knew what he was going to do, they would only cooperate with all their might, and would not stop him.

And Lance was also a major shareholder of the television station. No matter what, Lance’s request would not be refused.

”The first thing, to interview some of the people who were bleeding and injured in this conflict. I noticed that many people had their hands and feet broken. Interview them about their situation.”

”Then do a follow-up report to see who is paying for their medical expenses.”

”And after their treatment is over, how the union and the Labor Federation will arrange for them.”

Lance paused for a moment. ”I hear that the places where they work are planning to fire them.”

”Find a way to lead them to the union and the Labor Federation. They were responding to the call to parade and demonstrate. The injuries they sustained are not considered work injuries, and the enterprise does not need to be responsible.”

”Those refugees have no money. They can’t afford it. Only the Labor Federation and the union have money, and have a reason to pay. Report these out.”

The editor-in-chief’s eyes lit up. He knew Lance’s purpose, to create a conflict between the laborers and the union, and also the Labor Federation.

In the Federation, treatment costs are not a small sum. Now it is wartime, and the price of medicine is doubling. Just a fracture might cost up to a thousand in medical expenses.

If surgery is still needed, and the difficulty of the surgery is complicated, the cost is estimated to be even more!

There is a high probability that the Labor Federation and the union will not pay this money, because once they do, it will become a ”precedent.”

In the future, once it is a parade and demonstration they have initiated, if anyone is injured, they will have to pay. They themselves can’t stand this kind of expenditure.

There will definitely be some who will join the event and then take the initiative to get hurt. There are too many such people.

”In addition, report on the damage to production caused by their strike for their own selfish desires, and the damage and inconvenience caused to society.”

”Interview those factory owners and have them talk about the situation they are now facing because of the workers’ strike.”

”They are about to be fired. Interview their families and report on the problems they are about to face.”

”You can choose some of the particularly tragic reports, and even process them artificially. In short, it must be tragic.”

”Finally, go and report on the workers and factories that did not participate in the strike, to let people see how great the benefits of a stable society are for the factories, for the laborers. There has to be a contrast...”