Empire of Shadows

The next day, early in the morning, Lance saw "Golden Port Today." Alberto bought fifty copies, ensuring everyone in the company could see it. Lance also had one.

On the front page of the lifestyle section was a photo that took up one-fifth of the page. Outside a restaurant, a sewage truck had overturned by the roadside, with excrement splashing onto the sidewalk. You could even see the restaurant's glass curtain wall facing the sidewalk covered in filth!

The name of the restaurant was also photographed with exceptional clarity. The neon sign of the chef modeled after Mr. Anderson waved his frying pan, leaving a blurred afterimage.

The headline of the report was "Drunk Driving is Endangering Public Safety." The entire article discussed the harms of drunk driving, and at the end, it casually mentioned that a restaurant was affected, with sewage flowing into the restaurant, causing it to close.

On the surface, it looked like a report about a threat to public safety, but people weren't interested in the content of the article at all. They were only interested in the unlucky restaurant.

GOOGLE SEARCH TWKAN

Everyone knew that Alberto had been annoyed by this old man Anderson for half a year, and now that he had finally vented his anger, everyone was actually quite happy.

After all... when the boss is happy, his subordinates will also have a better time, at least they won't be arranged to do things outside in the scorching midday sun!

"The boss wants to see you," Fordyce knocked on the door. Lance, who was playing billiards with others, put down his cue and said to his opponent, "Don't forget the one dollar you owe me."

Yes, they were making money. Twenty-five cents per game, and he had lost a total of four games.

And his opponent, besides giving him a dollar, also sent him a "bullshit," and refused to accept defeat and wanted to continue the challenge.

Lance ignored him and went to the manager's office with Fordyce. Fordyce pushed the door open to let him in and then left.

"He just called me, lowered his voice, and called me 'Mr. Corti,' and guaranteed that he would put five thousand dollars on my desk before Friday!"

"Lance, you did a very good job. You not only helped me get back the money, but also let me vent my anger, so I will give you the reward for this job as agreed."

There was an envelope on the table that looked bulging. He picked up the envelope, walked around the table to Lance's side, and placed it in his hand. "Count it."

Lance just squeezed the thickness and put it in his pocket. It was probably twenty-dollar bills, five hundred dollars, a total of twenty-five bills, because they weren't new bills, so they didn't feel too thin.

But they weren't too thick either.

"Mr. Corti, your golden character is worthy of my trust. I will not do anything to harm our mutual trust."

Lance's words sounded very nice, and Alberto felt very comfortable listening to them. Everyone likes the feeling of being flattered. He raised his eyebrows, walked to the bar, poured two glasses of wine, and handed one of them to Lance.

At the same time, he also asked with some curiosity, "What if I gave you a little less?"

Lance took the glass and clinked it with the glass in his hand. "That's impossible, Mr. Corti. I don't believe you think you're not worth even five hundred dollars!"

Alberto didn't react at first, but soon he realized that Lance was still flattering him. He smiled, picked up his glass, and took a sip. "It's really comfortable talking to you!"

"So, what are you planning to do next?"

Lance made some small movements with his hands to deepen his context. "Rent a house and then solve my identity problem."

"Illegal immigration is always an unstable factor, and I have to find a way to solve it before it becomes my trouble."

Alberto shook his head. "I'm afraid this is not a simple matter. Currently, the federal immigration bureau can quickly issue you a permanent residence card through only a few channels."

"Either you are a world-renowned scientist, or you have millions of dollars in wealth and come to the Federation to invest, or the lords above think that some of your identities may be useful to them."

"For example, some distant relative of yours is related to your emperor by blood."

High-end talent, investment immigration, political asylum. These are the easiest ways to obtain legal status in the Federation. Alberto's expression and actions let Lance know that he couldn't meet any of these.

However, Lance was not discouraged by this. In fact, he had done identities that were more difficult to obtain than this before.

From the perspective of the development process of human society, the so-called justice is just patching things up.

Many people revere the law, picking out every word in the law as a treasure, but in fact, they are not clear that the law has always had many loopholes.

It's just that some have been discovered and then exposed, while others have always been quietly used, unknown to others.

Seeing that Lance seemed to already have a highly successful plan, he didn't continue to ask more questions. Whether he could succeed or not would be known in a while.

"Then... I won't assign you any work during this time, and this money should be enough for you to live a good life for a while."

Renting a detached house in a less prosperous area costs at most ten dollars or so. Lance has five hundred dollars, and he can live very well in this city!

The two clinked glasses again, and Alberto still made an exploratory invitation, "I hope we have the opportunity to cooperate in the future. It's very comfortable working with you!"

Lance still didn't refuse, but he didn't accept either. "Definitely if there's a chance!"

After drinking the wine in his glass, Lance temporarily said goodbye to Alberto. He found Fordyce and tried to seek a little help, "Do you know any police officers?"

"I can find him some easy little jobs, no danger, just half an hour, of course, it won't earn that much, just pocket money."

Fordyce carefully looked Lance up and down. "So, we can't continue to be colleagues next?"

"There will be opportunities," Lance didn't completely shut down the conversation.

Fordyce seemed a little disappointed. He liked Lance very much, clever, measured, and most importantly, resourceful and capable.

He pulled a note from the front desk, wrote a number on it, and gave it to him. "Officer Braden, we have a good private relationship, you can call this number."

Lance put away the number, gave Fordyce a hug, and then said goodbye.

Everyone wasn't that kind of person... so the separation wasn't sad, and it wasn't a permanent farewell anyway.

In the afternoon, Lance took Melo to see the house together. Melo seemed more mature, very stable, and he could find some problems that Lance hadn't noticed.

After selecting several houses, they finally rented a detached house next to the outer ring road. It had three floors, an independent yard, and three garages, costing twenty dollars a month.

This price was actually a bit high, but the house was very clean, didn't need cleaning, and could be moved into directly. Moreover, the landlady showed Lance the healthy housing bill situation.

She didn't owe any fees, so no one would bother them, and there would be no inexplicable water or power outages.

Looking at the large garage and the large house, he finally rented it.

Then he brought all his companions over. The house was very spacious, with a total area of more than 300 square meters, and more than twenty people could completely live in it.

Although not everyone could have their own room, it was much better than sleeping in a culvert.

Some people even reported that they felt someone touching their little brother when they went to bed at night, which made everyone a little frightened!

But fortunately, now, just like the words that the older people like to say the most, everything will be fine, and it is starting to get better.

Moving, buying new clothes, adding furniture, it took three days. Lance also asked the only two girls among his companions to make some pastries and send them to the neighbors.

The most important thing about joining a new community is to have a good relationship with the neighbors, otherwise they will call the police for no reason, which can drive people crazy to despair!

On Friday, Alberto called Lance and told him that the money had been received. Mr. Anderson had completely bowed his head and didn't have the fiery temper he had before.

Of course, Alberto didn't humiliate him either, and even offered to provide him with a loan, this time for ten thousand dollars, but he would need to pay at least twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars, for a period of nine months.

Mr. Anderson didn't agree, which was equivalent to taking away all his profits. He would be crazy to do that!

Moreover, he never wanted to deal with Alberto and Lance again. He hated these people—although he compromised, it didn't mean that the hatred didn't exist, it was just restrained.

And Lance, in the morning, also found the police officer that Fordyce introduced to him, Braden.

The two met on the street, in a small restaurant, which was Braden's patrol area, his territory, the location he chose.

When the police car stopped outside the restaurant, Lance knew that the person he was waiting for had arrived.

Officer Braden had the characteristics of an old federal person... well, in fact, federal people are not an "ancient" race, not even a race, they are a kind of spiritual race.

He had the characteristics of an old federal person, brownish-red hair, a thick layer of brownish-red beard on his lips, fair skin, a clean-shaven chin, and wore a pair of very large sunglasses.

He looked towards the restaurant a few times, and then entered the restaurant with his partner.

Finally, he sat across from Lance, while his partner stood in the aisle, blocking the view of others towards this side.

He easily ordered a coffee and a hamburger, then crossed his legs, holding the back of the booth with his hand. "So... what's the matter with looking for me?"

Lance placed an envelope on the table and pushed it over. "Mr. Fordyce introduced me."

Officer Brayden raised his eyebrows. He looked at the envelope for a few seconds before picking it up. "What I dislike the most is this, we all know I'm going to count it."

He took the money out in front of Lance. A hundred dollars, which made him whistle and become a lot more enthusiastic, but he put the money back in the envelope and placed it on the table.

"Giving this much on our first meeting…"

"Lance."

"Lance, I'm not quite sure what to do. Why don't you tell me what problems you can't solve first? Maybe I can offer you some advice."

A hundred dollars really was a lot. Officer Brayden only made forty-two dollars and fifty cents a month, plus some subsidies, not exceeding fifty dollars.

Looks like this job isn't bad?

But you have to understand how dangerous it is to be a police officer in the Federation. Not only gang members and criminals, but the bandits they arrest might shoot at them, and even their own people might stab them in the back.

So, a hundred dollars was equivalent to two months of his life on the line.

Of course, the real income can't be calculated like that, that's just on the surface, but even so, this amount of money is not a small sum.

"I have two things that I need Mr. Brayden's help with. I can guarantee you that first, these things are not illegal, and second, you will not have any danger or risk!"

"And I believe we can rely on this… connection to establish a longer-term cooperative relationship."

Officer Brayden didn't immediately agree, but became a little more serious. "Tell me about it?"

"I want to know if there are any slightly poorer families in Goldport City whose children went missing when they were young and are now about the same age as me…"