Empire of Shadows

Chapter 222: Taking Away [Bonus Chapter for Independent Donations + 1]

A dozen or so minutes later, Maurice arrived in front of Lance, bringing a young man with him.

"Tonight, Boton's son, Robb, was there."

"He drank too much, the bartender wouldn't sell him any more alcohol, he wanted to cause trouble, and then he was kicked out."

"He saw Robb go to the phone booth across the street, and then a while later, Lucar and the others came."

Lance glanced at the young man beside Maurice, repeating a portion of what Maurice had just said, "Across the street?"

Who the hell would be stupid enough to run across the street to report?

The young man quickly explained, "It's diagonally across the street, about fifty or sixty meters away from the bar."

Lance looked at him, sizing him up again.

During this period, because people's understanding of "nutrition" was insufficient, coupled with the very difficult lives of the lower classes, many people actually suffered from night blindness, especially the poor.

It was difficult for them to obtain enough nutrition from food, and even now that these people's living conditions have improved, they still have some degree of night blindness.

It's not like you eat a piece of liver today, and you'll be able to see tomorrow; it takes a long process.

This young man didn't look like the type who ate very well, so Lance decided to test him, "I'll have someone take you fifty meters away, and then the three of us will change clothes. If you can say the correct order, then I will believe every word you say."

The young man didn't hesitate at all, looking at Lance with a firm expression, "I'm willing. If I lie, or if I don't do it, I'm willing to accept any punishment!"

Lance patted him on the arm, "Go ahead."

The young man quickly ran far away, perhaps more than fifty meters.

They changed clothes, and then the three of them walked out of the room, standing near the streetlights.

They could see, but not very clearly. They weren't wearing hats, just looking at the young man fifty meters away.

There was another person beside the young man, and they quickly determined the order. When they approached, the person Lance sent showed a look of surprise.

Because that young man told him that one of the people was not Maurice, and he didn't recognize him either.

Without a doubt, he could really see.

Lance couldn't help but pat him on the arm again, "Good lad, what's your name?"

"My name is Carter, Boss."

"Okay, Carter, tell me what you discovered tonight…"

What he said was roughly the same as what Maurice said, and he even pointed out that Robb had driven a car, but hadn't driven away, but had parked it not far away.

The reason he noticed this was because Robb's car was crookedly parked on the side of the road, instead of being properly parked.

Ervin had a bit of a headache, "Boton has been very active at work recently, and he identifies with his current position and work."

Lance shook his head slightly, "This has nothing to do with him; this is Robb's problem. He hurt all of us. Boton knows how to choose."

Ervin was still a little worried, "But he is his own son, after all."

Lance insisted on his own idea, "If he's not willing, send them away together."

"I can't let Robb go just because he gives us work. He hurt all of us."

"Today, he can sell our bar's location to those law enforcement officers; tomorrow, he might sell our location to our rival gangs."

"He will kill us one day."

"As for whether Boton will hate me because of this?"

"He's a real person, Ervin. As long as I run fast enough and don't give him a chance to catch up with me, he won't have such thoughts in his life."

"Do you think I'll lose to him?"

…

In the evening, Boton finished a day's work. The Imperial District was now full of his informants. Lance had increased the funds he gave him by quite a bit. He still only left himself one hundred and fifty dollars each month, using the rest to develop informants.

Developing informants in the Imperial District didn't actually require hiring those people who did nothing all day and just wandered the streets. Those people were too conspicuous.

Although those people were indeed needed, there was a more cost-effective way, which was the old men.

Those old men had already lost their ability to work and had nothing to do all day. You only needed to take a walk on the street to find many little old men scattered in every corner of the street.

They sat on benches by the roadside, or behind the windows of a bakery, or in open-air or non-open-air coffee shops, observing everything on the road through the glass windows.

He only needed to pay these little old men ten dollars, and they would be willing to work for him for a month.

These lines of sight, hidden in the corners and even harder to detect, helped him watch most places in the Imperial District.

He was very satisfied with his current job, feeling a sense of accomplishment that gave him a… sense of control over the entire Imperial District.

Especially when people saw him, they would take off their hats and place them on their chests, sincerely calling out "Mr. Boton." In the repeated calls of "Mr. Boton," he was a little lost in himself.

Thinking of his cramped house, he had already begun to consider the issue of changing houses. During this period, he had earned almost eight hundred dollars. By the end of the year, he would be able to save more than two thousand dollars.

Damn it, when he used to work honestly, he would only save about one hundred dollars a year.

But now, in just one year, he could earn the sum of his income from the past ten or even twenty years. This gave him a feeling that many people had, an unreal feeling, as if everything he had experienced in the past was just an unpleasant dream.

Now, the nightmare was over, and everything had become comfortable.

He turned on the light and was just about to call Nancy over to take away his clothes when he saw some people sitting in the living room.

He was stunned for a moment, and then began to sweat.

"Sit," Lance pointed to the chair next to him.

Boton was a little at a loss. He glanced at the slightly ajar door and Nancy hiding behind the door, and finally listened to Lance and sat on the chair where he gave orders at home.

His brain began to spin wildly, thinking about whether he had done something stupid recently, but he had no idea what had caused Lance and the others to come over, and in this way.

"Lance… I…" He didn't know what to say, how to say it.

Lance gave him an answer directly, "Robb sold out the location of our bar. That's why they came so quickly."

If they only knew a general location, they wouldn't act casually, because it might alarm the bar's operators.

As long as they didn't catch them this time, they would change locations next time, so they would only really take action after they had completely figured out the specific location of the bar.

The bars that Lance chose were all very hidden, all in alleys, and there were some gang members at the door who looked difficult to mess with.

Strangers would never go looking for trouble!

So it must have been an acquaintance who leaked the information. Boton himself had even participated in the meeting and action to find this leaker.

He also knew that his son had appeared at the scene, but he never expected that Robb would leak the information.

"Could it be a misunderstanding?" He was covered in sweat. Even though he took off his coat and tore open his collar, he still felt like he was heating up, like a red-hot coal.

Lance shook his head, "I heard he bought a car recently."

Boton didn't speak, just sat there blankly.

There was a sound of collision outside the window, as well as the obviously drunken voice of someone cursing.

Maurice walked to the window, opened a slit in the curtain, and looked outside, "Robb is back."

Lance nodded, "Soon we will know the truth."

Robb couldn't control his excitement after seeing Lance's bar being raided. He not only vented his anger, but was also about to receive a large sum of money, because in front of reporters, Lucar claimed that they had seized more than eleven thousand dollars worth of alcohol and cash.

He even actively mentioned that the informant would receive a reward of about two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, and actively encouraged everyone to report, with no upper limit on the bonus.

If anyone could report a smuggled liquor warehouse worth hundreds of thousands of dollars like before, they would be rewarded according to the value of the case.

For the current mayor, including Chief Dale, every bottle of liquor in this city was controlled by the locals.

Their liquor hadn't entered here yet, so they would arrest them hard, without fear of arresting the wrong person!

Having obtained all the emotional release and satisfaction, Robb then went to help a poor girl in need on the roadside, not only giving her a sum of money, but also giving her some much-needed protein.

By the time he had finished all of this, he wasn't so drunk anymore.

He felt the wall and twisted the door lock. The dark room made him feel uncomfortable. He turned on the light switch like Mr. Boton, "It won't save much by turning off the lights…"

In the instant the light came on, a chill crawled from his taint to the top of his head, and the skin around every inch of his spine was bristling with goosebumps. In an instant, the alcohol that hadn't worn off for more than an hour sobered up!

At the same time, in that instant, he turned around and wanted to run. He completely ignored the desire in Boton's eyes, which turned into despair the moment he turned around.

The next second, a huge force kicked him from the door into the room. Ethan walked in from outside and closed the door.

Only then did Robb react. He crawled up with his hands and feet, hiding behind Boton, "What are you going to do?"

He didn't notice that Boton's expression was even more ugly than when he got divorced.

Lance looked at him, "How much money did they give you to sell the bar's location to them?"

Rob had a brief pause. He didn't know what had exposed him, but he quickly began to quibble, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lance was disappointed. Hiram flicked his hair and stood up.

Rob had heard of Hiram. This donkey-faced guy with pockmarks all over his face, who still flicked his hair like he thought he was handsome, was one of the most vicious people in Lance's group.

Rumor had it that he had single-handedly taken down more than a hundred people with four submachine guns!

Although no one could imagine how he could use four submachine guns by himself, people believed it anyway.

Rob clutched at Bolton's clothes tightly, "Dad, Dad, do something, do something!"

Tears were streaming down his face, and he was almost collapsing.

Hiram walked over and punched him in the head several times, causing his nose to bleed. Eventually, he didn't dare to grab Bolton's clothes anymore and was dragged like a dead dog to Lance.

Lance used the toe of his leather shoe to lift his chin, "Look at me."

Rob's terrified face was filled with fear, regret, tears, snot, and blood.

"Now, tell me, why did you betray us?"

"I didn't..."

Lance pulled his leg back slightly and then kicked out hard. Rob cried out in pain, covering his face as he rolled back twice.

He screamed and wailed, but no one in the room pitied him, except for his father and his sister hiding in the room.

"I didn't pursue the matter of you mistreating Gerald, nor did I pursue some of your demeaning and presumptuous remarks to me. I didn't bother with you jumping up and down like an immature child."

"I even gave your family hope."

Lance looked at Bolton, who seemed to have aged several years as he sat there, motionless. He seemed to be thinking, or perhaps he was just in a daze.

Lance's gaze returned to him, "But how did you repay me?"

Perhaps realizing that no matter how he quibbled, it was useless, he began to plead, "Lance, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I know I was wrong. I'll give you all the money they gave me, please let me go, for the sake of you not having suffered any losses!"

"I lost twenty thousand dollars and had my brothers arrested, making me lose face in the Imperial District, even in King's Harbor City."

"Now everyone knows that two of my bars have been raided in a row. You say I haven't suffered any losses?"

As Lance spoke, he stood up. Perhaps realizing that something terrible was about to happen, Rob suddenly crawled over and hugged Lance's leg, "Spare me, I'll never dare to do it again!"

Lance pulled out his pistol and pointed it at his head. Bolton's body moved slightly, but it seemed like he didn't move.

"Get your dirty hands off my pants."

Rob was crying so hard that he was almost suffocating. Lance retracted his pistol, "Since you did it, you have to accept the punishment. If one day I betray others, I will accept the same punishment."

"Even my brothers, if they do the same stupid thing as you, I will personally take care of them."

"You should be happy, because I don't want to dirty my hands, so someone else will do it."

"Take him away!"

Rob was shocked and terrified. He turned to seek help from Bolton, but Ethan grabbed him by the back of his collar, choking him around the waist, not enough to kill him, but enough to prevent him from speaking or resisting.

They filed out, with Lance walking last.

Only Lance and Bolton were left in the room. Bolton rubbed his face, "I'm sorry, I..."

Lance patted him on the shoulder, "You're still young, find a young wife and have a few more children."

"Don't blame me for speaking harshly, Bolton, even if we let him go this time, he will still bring trouble to you and to all of us."

"You are Gerald's uncle. I hope we can get along well, but the premise is, don't do stupid things."

He picked up the hat on the coat rack by the door, stood by the door, and grabbed the doorknob, "Good night, Mr. Bolton."

The quickly closing door blocked the line of sight inside and outside, and also, like a sharp blade, cut off Rob's last bit of life.

This is a non-normal bonus update, but its existence is reasonable. If you want to know why, you can ask the people in the group. The group number is in the August summary.