Empire of Shadows

The handwriting professor moved away the professional magnifying glass he used for work. He rubbed his eyes, and then a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

He found the source of that handwriting.

This job was actually much easier than the previous ones.

Letters are not like hieroglyphs. Their structure is simpler, and the writing method is fixed. From where to start writing to where to stop, the creation of each letter in the writing process is basically fixed.

The more you write, the more troublesome it will be to recognize handwriting, unless there is something more personal or distinctive.

For example, some people like to write some fonts longer, wider, or flatter, or add some cursive writing styles to make the entire text look more beautiful.

When there are these personal touches, it will be easier to distinguish different handwritings.

The previous handwritings were all the most common handwritings, without any personal touches, just like people writing casually in their work and life, instead of writing deliberately.

The font he picked out was very common, but not so normal. He saw some places where the writing force had changed significantly, so it was a bit troublesome to analyze.

But this time, the material to be analyzed was much simpler.

A group of gangsters, most of whom hadn't written much since high school. The handwriting of each of them is very personalized, and each person's personalization is different!

Some people can even write a circular character into a polygon or even a rectangle. This obvious personal style can be seen at a glance that they are not what they are looking for.

Finally, on one of the materials, he found a handwriting similar to that on the note.

In fact, the handwriting is still somewhat different. Handwriting cannot be exactly the same, just like there cannot be two identical eggs in the world.

The same letter, the same person, the same pen, writing, will also have two different results.

What the professor looks at is the trace of the writing force "flowing" on the paper. Some small details may not be noticed by ordinary people themselves, but in the eyes of experts, they are as obvious as fireflies in the dark night.

In order to avoid errors, he spent more than two days studying these two samples. Finally, he confirmed that these were written by the same person.

After recording this evidence, he properly kept it, and then made a phone call to Lance.

"Mr. Lance, I found him!"

When Lance heard this, he asked softly, "Can I know his name?"

"Of course, this is your right, Mr. Lance."

"The name he filled in on this form is... Beno."

"I think I should let you see in person how I came to these conclusions. Although handwriting analysis has been applied to the federal judicial system, some people think we are all messing around, so..."

Lance did not refuse, "Come over now, I also want to learn a little."

He hung up the phone and looked at the few people in the house, "The mole has been found."

"Who is it?" Hiram asked, playing with a dagger. He had a bit of a cold recently, sniffing his nose, making a rattling sound.

What's even more disgusting is that he would inhale into his nose, concentrate the mucus in his trachea in his throat, and then... you thought he would spit it out?

No, he would swallow it!

The first time Lance saw this scene, he cursed, and even felt a little nauseous!

He asked Hiram, "Are you fucking unable to spit?"

Hiram said stubbornly, "I can."

Lance said again, "Very good, then you fucking spit one now!"

After a brief silence, he had completed ninety percent of the steps of spitting, leaving only coughing up the phlegm and spitting it out.

As a result, Lance saw his Adam's apple slide up and down, and everyone in the room was about to collapse.

But he said innocently, "Okay, I don't seem to be able to!"

Now hearing him ask, Lance rolled his eyes, "You should go and rest for a while, and learn how to spit, I'm serious."

But he still told Hiram who it was, "This university professor told me, it's Beno."

Everyone in the room felt a little surprised. Beno was actually quite popular.

He was able to cater to everyone very well, whether that person was a cadre, a captain, or an ordinary gang member.

Although Lance has been emphasizing that the Lance family is a big family, and everyone is brothers and sisters in the family, but as more and more people come, there will definitely be a sense of strangeness between each other, and there will be conflicts between a few people.

Beno is the kind of person who can quickly become friends with anyone, even if they are not friends in the true sense, they can become friends on the surface.

He knows most people, and usually likes to talk to people everywhere when he is resting. He is a very active group of people in the family, like Allen and others.

It is precisely because he is very active and his personality is very compatible with Allen that they have become good friends.

Now that they know that Beno is highly suspected, the first feeling is "This is very reasonable", because only in this way can he obtain a lot of information and clues, and not be suspected.

Laun scratched his neck, "Allen and the others are delivering goods today, do you want to call them back?"

Lance nodded, "Call Allen back, let Beno continue to lead the others to work."

Twenty minutes later, Allen hurried back to the office, with even some dust on his body that had not been cleaned off.

His face was full of smiles. After pushing the door in and seeing so many people, he immediately greeted everyone warmly, and took out cigarettes and began to distribute them.

Lance was also given one by him. He held it in his hand, and Allen smiled and lit it for him with a match, "Boss, is there anything you want us to do?"

He put the match into the ashtray and patted his chest, "I guarantee we can complete it quickly and well!"

Lance just looked at him with a smile that was not a smile. He was stunned for a moment, and then looked back at the other cadres on the sofa in the room. The expressions of these people made his heart "thump" a little, and he immediately felt a bad feeling.

"What... happened?" He returned to the opposite of Lance's desk, instead of standing next to Lance.

Lance pointed to the chair next to him, "Sit down, you will know later."

Although there was a soft cushion under his butt, for some reason, it felt like there were many steel needles, making him very uncomfortable and restless.

In fact, he already had some guesses, but he was unwilling to admit this result.

While waiting, after an unknown amount of time, someone knocked on the door.

He suddenly turned around and looked towards the door. A person he had never seen before walked in.

The handwriting professor didn't know that there were so many people here, but he thought... maybe this is their style. He came to Lance's desk a little restrained.

"We all want to see how you came to this conclusion, is there a problem?"

The handwriting professor shook his head, "Of course, I don't have any problems, and this is also the purpose of my coming here."

As he said that, he put the materials on the table. These were two enlarged photos.

First, take photos with the best camera to ensure that the two notes taken are clear, and then enlarge them.

After magnifying to a certain extent, you can clearly see some things that you can't usually see, such as the "fluidity" of the pen when writing these letters.

Everyone gathered around, and the professor had already circled some places with a pen, "From these places, we can see that his starting stroke and ending stroke are almost exactly the same."

"There are some changes in the writing process inside the font. Some of these changes are not obvious, but some are very obvious."

"When writing these things, this person noticed not to make his handwriting look the same as he usually writes, but he is not very clear on how to do it, so these places will give people a sense of incoordination and separation."

Everyone was looking at the places he said, Lance was also looking, and looking very carefully, so was Allen.

"...In the end, I came to a conclusion that the handwriting on these two materials should be from the same person."

After saying this, the professor closed his mouth.

Lance also sat back down, and the others returned to the sofa with unhappy expressions.

"Colinda, help me see the professor off!" Lance picked up the phone and asked the girl outside the door to come in, and at the same time took out an envelope from the drawer and put it on the table.

"I gave you two hundred yuan more, thank you for taking the time to do me a little favor, maybe we will have the opportunity to cooperate in the future."

"Of course, if you encounter any trouble, you can also come to me, now you are my friend."

The professor was not embarrassed, and directly picked up the envelope with a smile. Of course, he was not stupid enough to open it immediately and count it.

He looked at Lance and bowed slightly, "This is what I should do.", For the sake of the money, of course he didn't mind having such an all-powerful friend.

Soon Colinda opened the door and stood at the door. She chewed gum and looked at the professor.

The professor glanced at the things on the table and said with a smile, "I won't take these away, then I..."

Lance got up and shook hands with him, "Thank you again for your help, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Mr. Lance."

He quickly followed Colinda away, and Lance looked at Allen and said the name, "Beno."

Allen's expression had been very struggling and painful. He clenched his fists, and soon let go.

He felt terrible because he genuinely considered Beno his brother, but… he couldn't understand why Beno was the mole.

He rubbed his face vigorously. "What should I do?"

Lance's fingertip stroked his eyebrow, following the direction of the hair. "He's your brother. You handle him."

"Ask him something you care about, or don't ask anything at all."

"We only want one result."

Allen stood up, his legs pushing the chair across the floor with a scraping sound. "I understand. I'll go do it."

Lance nodded slightly. "Be careful."

"Allen, you treat him like your brother, but you need to turn around and ask yourself, does he really treat you like his brother too?"

Watching his preoccupied figure leave, Lance heard that damned sound again, coming from his trachea and throat.

"Faugh, Hiram, faugh!"

"I need to find something for you to do. Take some men and follow Allen. If anything unexpected happens, take action immediately!"

Regardless, he needed to get him out of the office first. Just hearing that sound made Lance feel nauseous, like he wanted to yue (vomit).

Damn!

Hiram stood up indignantly, protesting loudly, "This is discrimination!"

"This is blatant discrimination against people who can't hawk up phlegm! I protest!"

His voice was quite muffled because his nose was a little congested, and unlike his usual speech, it was all nasal.

The people around him laughed. Lorn even kicked him in the butt. "Get lost, we can't stand it anymore!"

He patted his butt, cursing under his breath as he left. He picked out a few men, got in a car, and followed Allen.

Allen didn't notice he was being followed. His mind was filled with the fact that his good brother was a mole. He was very hurt!

His mind was a bit chaotic all the way. When he arrived at work, Beno even greeted him proactively.

"What did the Boss ask you to do? Is there a new mission?"

In the past, Allen might have thought this was his enthusiasm and attitude towards work, but now, after accepting the fact that Beno was a mole, it seemed like a probe, an inquiry.

He shook his head. "Come over here, I need to talk to you.", he stood outside the warehouse.

Beno glanced back at the people working in the warehouse. He had no choice but to put down what he was doing and walk towards Allen.

These past two days, he had secretly gone to Lucar's house. Lucar's wife had returned to her parents' home. She felt afraid of that house!

She would always subconsciously think of Lucar and start to feel scared, so it was easy for Beno to knock on the door and barge in.

He searched many places in Lucar's house, but didn't find any information about him being a mole.

He suspected that Lucar might have put it in the Dangerous Goods Administration. He was currently considering how to sneak in.

If he couldn't confirm it himself, this would always be a hidden danger, a ticking time bomb!

He wiped his hands on a rag, took out a cigarette, and walked over, putting one in his mouth. "Want one?"

Allen took it and took out a match to light it himself. This surprised Beno slightly, because most of the time, he was the one who lit the cigarettes.

"Something on your mind?", he asked.

Allen nodded. At this time, Hiram's car was diagonally across the road.

However, both of them had things on their minds at the moment and didn't notice them.

"Lance said there's still a mole in our family. I've been thinking about it. Who do you think it could be?", he looked at Beno.

Beno's heart tightened, but a smile appeared on his face as he shook his head and said, "I don't know. I don't dare to guess about this kind of thing."

Allen added, "Actually, who it is doesn't matter. He should stand up."

"Lucar is already dead. If this person can stand up, maybe he can get Lance's forgiveness."

Beno's expression didn't change much. He took a deep drag of his cigarette. "Who knows?"

The two were silent for a while, neither of them speaking.

Suddenly, Allen asked, "Don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

The unease in Beno's heart became stronger. He smiled and shook his head. "Say what?"

"I'm not… that kind of person!", he patted his butt with a smile, then added, "Going to work now. They all think that joining the gang must be crazy and you don't have to work, but they definitely don't know that joining the gang also requires work!"

Watching his seemingly carefree figure, Allen sighed silently. "You're a mole, Beno."

Beno's steps faltered and he stopped. He slowly turned around, the expression on his face changing a lot in the process. When he faced Allen, he had returned to the way he should be acting.

Confusion, incomprehension, and some anger.

"You're saying I'm a mole?", his face was full of natural expressions, disbelief, and anger!

"Faugh, Allen, I've contributed so much to the family just like you. I went into the bar with you guys that time and took a huge risk!"

"And… those few times, I was always at the front. You can't say that everyone was cooperating with me in a performance, can you?"

His neck started to turn red, and his voice became much louder. The people working in the warehouse stopped and looked towards them. "Anyone can say I'm a mole, but you can't, Allen, you're my brother, damn it!"

Allen looked at him sadly. "If you admit it now, I'll immediately plead with Lance for you. I'm begging you, tell the truth, I'm fucking begging you!"

His voice also became louder!

Beno looked disappointed. "You actually don't believe what I'm saying!"

"Why are they saying I'm a mole?"

"Do they have evidence?"

His heart was pounding wildly at this moment!

Allen was silent for a few seconds. "The note you wrote to Lucar is in Lance's hands."

At this moment, Beno's blood instantly turned half cold. He pursed his lips. "A note, no one can prove who wrote it. It could have been written by someone else. Why say I wrote it?"

Actually, at this point, Allen also sensed it. He was panicking.

"It's really you?"

Just as Beno was still considering how to deal with this situation, he suddenly saw Allen's hand go into his clothes and then quickly raise up.

This was obviously a gesture of drawing a gun. He jolted, pushing away Allen's hand that had just been raised with one hand, while simultaneously grabbing Allen's neck with the other.

But then, he was stunned.

Because Allen didn't have a gun in his hand, he just made a gesture of a gun with his hand, followed by a look of disbelief on his face.

"It really is you!"

Feeling that he had completely screwed up, Beno pushed Allen away violently and rushed out, his heart pounding wildly.

Hiram, who was smoking, took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it on the ground. The car, with the engine still running, floored the accelerator and crashed into Beno!