Empire of Shadows

Lance decided he needed to speak with Francisco regarding Christopher.

After all, Alberto was like a ”brother” or ”uncle” to Francisco, and even more like a half-father.

After Paul’s death, Alberto was the one who protected Francisco, allowing him to successfully inherit everything Paul had—though it was a broken and incomplete family organization, at least Francisco avoided further harm.

Thinking of this, he walked to his desk, picked up the phone, and called Francisco.

Francisco, who now controlled the Pasoretto family, was still in the process of recovering. The Christopher incident had dealt a severe blow to the Pasoretto family’s reputation.

It was now difficult for them to recruit new members from the island or the Sumurian diaspora.

Joining a gang was not viewed negatively by the Sumurian people, so if they were to join, they would surely choose a better one—or at least, one that wasn’t so fragile.

Joining the Pasoretto family meant opposing the four great families of Sumuri Island, and the Pasoretto family was no longer one of the ”Five Families of Golden Port City”; they had fallen into decline.

After their glory faded, only a few were willing to join them.

So, although Francisco had many ambitions, he could only take things slowly.He was happy to receive Lance’s call. As the Boss of the organization, he couldn’t interact with the uncles and aunts very often, and even interaction with his own siblings was rare.

He barely had any friends left to talk to, which made him feel lonely.

The lonelier he felt, the more he missed Alberto, the man who was both a father figure and a close friend.

Of course, Lance was also his friend, but Lance’s current status was so high that Francisco worried whether calling him would interfere with Lance’s work.

”Why do you have time to call me?”

”Is there something you need my help with?”

His tone was purely joyful and genuinely eager to help if Lance needed it.

Lance laughed and explained why he hadn’t contacted him recently, then brought up the matter of Christopher.

”My people in South Yanan State claim to have seen Christopher, but we haven’t heard about Dover operating in the Federation. I worry they might have made a mistake.”

”So, I hope you can send a few people who are very familiar with Dover—preferably those who can recognize him from the side or even the back, without seeing his face.”

”If they confirm it is Dover, I will make him pay the price once I finish my current work.”

Francisco was stunned by Lance’s words. His eyes lost focus, as if he could see the person far away in South Yanan State.

After several seconds, he snapped back to reality. ”Mr. Lance, are you serious?”

”Dover... he’s in South Yanan State right now?”

Dover was a huge disgrace and a mark that had to be erased for him and the entire Pasoretto family.

He didn’t just kill Alberto; he also killed Paul, which was unforgivable.

For Francisco, the two most important people in his life—his father and Alberto—had died by Dover’s hand.

How could he not hate this bastard?

Lance noticed the slight tremor and excitement in his voice and quickly tried to calm him down. ”Calm down, Cisco.”

”This must be handled by me once I finish my current tasks, not by you recklessly attempting something foolish.”

”Neither Paul nor Alberto would want you to take risks. Do you understand what I mean?”

”If Dover is truly in South Yanan State, it means he is distributing liquor for the four great families of Sumuri Island.”

”He is backed not just by himself or his small group, but by the four major families of Sumuri Island.”

”We must be extremely cautious when dealing with these people.”

”I don’t want to finish my current work only to find I have to avenge you, in addition to Paul and Alberto. Do you understand what I mean?”

Perhaps Lance’s persuasion worked. Francisco quickly calmed down. He pursed his lips, his breathing shallow. ”Yes, Mr. Lance, I understand.”

Lance hummed, then shifted to lighter topics to ease Francisco’s tension.

”I hear you have a girlfriend, is that right?”

Francisco was now twenty years old and had had the chance to attend university.

His academic scores were excellent. Paul often talked about Francisco’s grades when chatting with others and proudly boasted that the Pasoretto family would soon have a college graduate.

But all of that ended on the night Paul was murdered.

Francisco had dropped out of school. Now that he had inherited the Pasoretto family, he was busy dealing with organizational affairs.

University was a distant dream for him.

That included his girlfriend, who was associated with his school life.

Lance’s question made him a little shy, but he decided to be honest. ”Yes, I met a girl, and we’re getting along quite well.”

His voice carried an unmistakable sweetness. Lance chuckled. ”Have you looked into her family background?”

”Also, does she know about your situation? That you are the current Boss of the Pasoretto family, and what the Pasoretto family does?”

”Yes, I told her everything. She accepts it.”

”And we’re discussing marriage.”

In the Federation, one could have children at sixteen, marry at eighteen, and drink alcohol at twenty—that was the law before Prohibition.

While the drinking age hadn’t changed, the laws regarding childbearing and marriage remained largely the same.

”Then congratulations!”

”Listen, if you plan to get married, you need to take your safety even more seriously, understood?”

”When I return to Golden Port City, we can meet, and I can give you some small gifts.”

They soon hung up. Lance turned to Elvin. ”Francisco will arrange for a few people to come over in a few days. When they arrive, you place them among our people and send them to South Yanan State.”

”If necessary, they can pretend to be liquor buyers. Aren’t they selling a lot of brandy?”

Elvin nodded. ”Yes, they mainly sell brandy, and some whiskey, though the quantity is small.”

”Our competition locally isn’t very intense, so their whiskey sales are still decent there.”

Lance continued. ”Yes, that’s the plan. Have our people pretend to be buyers who want to talk about a major deal, and see if they can meet their Boss.”

”If it really is Dover, don’t alert them. Just spend the money. The liquor will still be usable once we get it.”

”If we can confirm it is Dover for a small amount of money, I think it’s acceptable.”

He then pulled out the file from his briefcase—the one Mayor Wade gave him—and handed it to Elvin. ”These people are posing a threat to Wade’s campaign. Take care of them.”

Elvin glanced at the files of the three men, then nodded. ”I’ll handle them as quickly as possible.”

Such minor matters no longer required Lance’s personal attention, nor did he need to give Elvin detailed instructions. This was simple work for Elvin.

With the official and private matters concluded, Lance stood up to leave. He needed to go to Golden Port City because Morris was getting married.

Elvin, however, would return in a couple of days.

Morris was marrying the nurse who had cared for him. Ennio had worried that the woman was only with Morris for his money.

As one of the ”original shareholders,” Morris was now worth over ten million dollars, surpassing many capitalists in the Federation of this era.

This was the allure of crime—

Aside from finance, no other business generated wealth faster than crime.

Every day was a process of wealth inflation for these men.

They might have initially cared about their growing wealth, but as it became routine, they paid less attention.

They might not pay attention, but their families and close friends certainly did.

Morris likely knew this. Lance heard from Ennio that he had discussed it with Morris, but Morris dismissed his concerns.

In Ennio’s words, Morris was ”caught in love’s trap” and couldn’t escape.

But from Lance’s perspective, as long as Morris was happy, it didn’t matter if the girl only loved his money.

The rarest thing in the world was something money couldn’t buy, and if she loved his money, and Morris loved her, wasn’t that a perfect, closed loop?

That morning, at the Golden Port City station, a train slowly pulled to a stop at the platform. Passengers laughed as they emerged, but their smiles quickly froze.

They looked nervously at the people on the platform, then hurried away.

A large number of Lance family members were gathered there. Although they did nothing but stand in small groups, smoking and chatting,

The sight of them, uniformly dressed, created immense psychological pressure on the disembarking passengers.

Many passengers knew these people belonged to the Lance family and quickly pulled their companions away.

The atmosphere suddenly became lively as the second train pulled in. The crowd moved toward the train.

With a long hiss as the pressure release valve opened, steam briefly engulfed the platform but was quickly dispersed by the wind.

A gleaming leather shoe stepped out of the train door, followed by straight trousers, and then Lance.

Everyone smiled. Lance embraced Melo, who had come to greet him, then greeted the others.

”There was no need for such a grand reception. It makes me uncomfortable.”

”This is too much.”

Yes, it was too much. An outsider might mistake the crowd for welcoming the President.

Lance’s remark made everyone laugh. Melo laughed back. ”I don’t think it’s exaggerated at all. To quote the old-timers: The King of Golden Port City has returned.”

Everyone else offered good-natured smiles. Lance greeted the combat captains, some of whom he didn’t know, likely new promotions.

Since Elvin was still ”working,” some members continued to meet the criteria for promotion from regular members to combat captains.

However, no new cadres had been selected. The selection of cadres required Lance’s personal approval.

The newly promoted combat captains looked excited to see Lance. For them and the gang members in the city, Lance was a myth, an achiever of the ”Federal Dream” cherished by everyone at the bottom of society.

Regardless of what he did, he did it the best. That was the Federal Dream!

As the group drove away, the previously ”lively” station quickly became deserted.

Back in the office, Lance sat in his large chair, patting the plush armrest. He let out a deep sigh of relief.

”It’s good to be home.”

Melo smiled beside him. ”You should be back permanently soon, right?”

Lance nodded. ”Yes, by the latest, the first half of next year. Some things are mostly finalized. The rest is just a matter of time.”

There was little chance of further upheaval from Diego. Although Lance had returned, he had people monitoring Diego. If Diego caused trouble, Lance wouldn’t hesitate to replace the Rapa President.

Of course, Diego wouldn’t dare cause trouble; he still wanted to live.

This was the terrifying part. It was like a pipe that allowed only forward movement. Once people entered, they had no choice but to follow the pipe’s trajectory.

Even if there was nothing chasing them, the inability to see behind them forced them to panic and push forward.

Lance didn’t elaborate, as the situation in Rapa was far away.

The group chatted about recent events in Golden Port City, eventually talking about Morris.

Morris scratched his head. He was never one to seek attention, preferring to stand on the periphery of the crowd.

Hearing Lance call him, he had no choice but to leave the edge of the room and approach Lance.

”When is the wedding?”

”This weekend.”

Lance nodded. ”That’s good news, Morris. When are you planning to have a child?”

Morris was a bit shy. ”We aren’t using protection. If she gets pregnant, we’ll keep the child.”

This made everyone laugh and tease him. Aside from Lance, none of the others were married or had children yet.

They were all young, in their late twenties, with the youngest only around twenty.

If they were from ordinary families, they would likely be fathers of one or two children by now.

But they weren’t ordinary people. They were gang members, Lance family cadres. They had moved beyond the environment and class of ordinary people.

Late marriage and late childbearing were normal for these people.

It wasn’t uncommon for people to marry in their thirties, or even forties.

Wealth played a huge role in their lives, making them barely aware of aging.

They didn’t worry about money, didn’t need to work, didn’t have to toil under the sun.

They could spend more time indoors, enjoying life and their hobbies, doing whatever they wanted.

Consequently, their mental development was often slower than others. They might still see themselves as young men, or even children, rather than adults who should marry, have children, and fulfill basic social responsibilities!

Seeing everyone teasing him, Morris couldn’t help but laugh. ”I don’t know why, but I just felt it was time to get married, so I did. That’s all.”

”Also, my situation is special. I went to the hospital recently. The doctor said my recovery is good, but he couldn’t guarantee how long I could last.”

He raised his hand and pressed it against his chest, seemingly feeling his physical condition.

The attack had left him severely wounded. He owed his life to his father’s sacrifice.

However, the doctor gave Morris a simple prognosis: his life expectancy would likely be limited to his early forties.

His injuries were too severe. While he looked recovered now, it was because he was still young.

Once he aged, the lingering effects of the injuries would surface.

Morris clearly knew this. ”I want to leave something behind in this world before I go. At least let God and the world know that I was here!”

His words carried a strong sense of pessimism, but no one knew what to say. Enio walked over and put his arm around his shoulder, offering comfort.

After a few seconds, Lance spoke. ”You don’t need to be so pessimistic. Science is progressing, and so is medical science.”

”In the past, the Black Death could plunge the world into despair. A strange epidemic could make people feel like it was the end of the world. But look at the world now.”

”Incurable diseases that were once thought impossible to beat are now forgotten.”

”From a medical development perspective, your problem is not a problem at all.”

”A person is like a machine. It’s just that some parts of you are broken.”

”If a machine part is broken, we replace the part.”

”And if your organ is broken, we replace the organ.”