Empire of Shadows

The second hand ticked, endlessly circling. No matter how many times it went around, no matter how long it ran, it could never escape its confines.

Day after day, year after year.

Whenever you looked up at it, it was moving. If you had to say who was the most diligent person in this office, it would definitely be those big and small second hands.

Nate knew this, knew that the second hand wouldn't disappear just because he didn't look at it for a moment, but he still couldn't help but look up again.

Less than five minutes had passed since he last looked up.

What he was really looking at wasn't the second hand, but time itself.

It was already eleven o'clock.

His gaze returned to the police station's front door outside the window. He had been standing here for quite some time.

This was the benefit of a promotion.

Those low-level police officers and detectives still had to work, while he could allocate his time as he pleased.

He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and already there were quite a few cigarette butts at his feet. Instinctively, he didn't want to smoke, but every so often, he couldn't help but take one out.

The cigarette was unknowingly finished. The physiological disgust and revulsion told him that he shouldn't smoke anymore.

He crushed the cigarette butt with his toe, making sure it was extinguished, and then looked up at the clock again.

The second hand was still ticking away, and only a few minutes had passed. As if caught in a loop, he turned his head and looked at the police station's front door again, his hand subconsciously reaching for the cigarette pack in his pocket.

However, this time, he really didn't smoke again, because there were none left.

Just as he was about to change locations, three cars drove in from outside. He was first stunned, thinking it was Hunt's car, but then realized it wasn't.

Who was it then?

This question didn't last long. After several elite-looking bodyguards got out of the cars, Charlie got out of the car.

He walked into the lobby on the first floor with a serious face. Nate vaguely felt that something was wrong.

He took a deep breath and carefully recalled whether there were any flaws on his side. After confirming that there were none, he returned to his office.

About ten minutes later, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," he said, sitting behind his desk pretending to work, but in reality, he was just daydreaming.

The person outside the door poked his head in. "Nate, Charlie wants to see you."

Nate nodded, put down the file in his hand, tidied it up, placed it on the desk, patted his clothes, and followed the person towards Hunt's office.

Charlie had been the chief of the Goldenport City Police Department for almost thirty years. Strictly speaking, all the police officers here were his old subordinates, including Nate.

They were all old colleagues.

Arriving outside Hunt's office, the person who brought him knocked on the door. "Nate is here, Councilor Charlie."

"Come in."

Charlie's voice came out, and the door was pushed open. Nate entered the office.

"Chief," Nate used the past title to address Charlie. Charlie paused for a moment, then smiled and gestured for him to sit down.

"The chief now is Hunt, not me," he paused. "We've all been very busy lately. How's it going, is work going smoothly?"

Nate nodded repeatedly. "It's alright, not much has changed compared to the past."

The small talk ended there. "Do you know where Hunt went?"

Nate shook his head. "I don't know."

Charlie kept staring into his eyes, because Hunt had mentioned this matter in his previous chat with him—Hunt suspected that Nate was Lance's man, and also used this method to tell Charlie why he had to go in person.

The police department was full of Lance's people. He wasn't so reassured about others.

No one knew how deeply Lance had infiltrated the police force, but whether it was Blue or Duke, they had all entered the police force after graduating from the police academy.

These guys who came in through the process were now almost all middle-level officers in the police force. There was a relationship of "alumni" and "classmates" between them. In the Federation, alumni and classmate relationships were stronger than blood relations!

If you begged your brother to help you see if he could get you a job at the company he worked for, he would tell you not to be delusional.

But if you asked your classmates, alumni, they would tell you that they would try.

The interpersonal relationships in the Federation were complex, but to be simple, they were actually very simple.

With two "nails," maybe Lance could infiltrate even deeper, who knew?

Hunt said that Nate was Lance's man, and he could only believe it for the time being.

He didn't see any emotional changes in Nate's eyes that indicated he was lying. Either he was telling the truth, or his acting skills were very good.

But no matter which it was, Charlie was too lazy to distinguish.

It had been almost four hours, and Hunt hadn't sent back any news. He said he would call himself as soon as possible, but so many hours had passed.

Even if he went to Venus City or other surrounding cities, he should have arrived long ago. Charlie had to think of the worst, whether he had encountered trouble, or something else.

Now it seemed that he couldn't get any useful clues from Nate. He brought up his request, "I want to see the suspect you guys are interrogating."

Nate hesitated a little. "Hunt said that no one can see him before he comes back."

Charlie tapped the table twice with his hand. "Does that include me too?"

His tone was slightly stern. Charlie couldn't contact Hunt himself, and Hunt hadn't called him as promised, which made him feel a little uneasy.

If Hunt was really killed by Lance, it would be a huge problem for the current situation.

Nate led Charlie to the room. When the young man saw a strange old man appear here, he vaguely knew what had happened.

Hunt should be dead.

He tilted his head slightly and looked at the old man in a nonchalant manner, without saying a word.

Charlie glanced at Nate and motioned for him to leave.

Besides Charlie, there were also his two bodyguards and confidants in the room.

Charlie was also an old policeman. Although he had been doing administrative management for the past twenty years, he had indeed been working seriously during the previous period.

If he didn't have outstanding abilities, he wouldn't have been favored by the big shots in the Bay Area.

Too many people in this city were willing to curry favor with the Bay Area big shots. They wouldn't want just anyone. Only those with sufficient ability and intelligence could catch their eye, such as Charlie.

"I don't know what Lance promised you. Maybe he told you that you would have a single room inside, that someone would take care of you, and that being in jail would be like staying in a hotel on vacation."

"But what I want to tell you is that I have many ways to make you disappear inside."

"Now, use your brain and think carefully, and then tell me, where did Hunt go!"

"You have one cigarette's worth of time!"

Charlie took out a cigarette, stuffed it into the young man's mouth, and then took out a lighter.

With a 'chala' sound, some of the flint was shaved off by the ratchet-rotated fire wheel, turning into sparks in the air.

Some sparks fell on the kerosene-soaked tinder, and the flame burned up in an instant.

Ennio closed the lighter and came to the phone booth outside the motel.

They were on their way back and were expected to return to Goldenport City tonight. After midnight yesterday, they rushed out of the capital without much delay and went straight to the interstate highway.

Both sides of the interstate highway were wilderness, with no phone booths or anything like that.

It was almost noon when they found a motel by the roadside. It not only had motel services, five dollars for a blowjob and ten dollars for a full service, but also food, water, and a phone booth.

The cost of having fun at the motel was higher because it was remote and scarcity made things expensive.

If you didn't care whether the oral sex provider was male or female, then you might be able to get a free technique, but if you cared, then you would have to pay a higher price than in the city.

Everyone else was eating. Ennio took the time to make a phone call to explain the situation.

The phone rang several times before it was picked up, and Lance's voice came from inside, "What's the matter?"

"It's me, Ennio, I found them."

Ennio took a puff of his cigarette and turned to look at the roadside. There was still a car by the roadside. The mother and son were tied up and locked in the car, and there were still people watching them.

The reason for not taking them to the motel was to prevent them from shouting for help and causing unnecessary trouble.

The state highway police were a headache, and once they were targeted, it was difficult to get rid of them.

Ennio didn't want to cause trouble, so he preferred to trouble himself a little first, rather than causing any big trouble.

"They are with us now. We are probably in... this place. We should be able to get back to the city around ten o'clock tonight."

Lance praised his and their efforts, "Is the road still smooth?"

"It's okay, we moved quickly and didn't make much noise. No police cars have chased us so far, so it should be safe."

"We keep changing drivers, which can save some time, and maybe we can get to Goldenport City earlier."

Hearing this, Lance said, "There's no need to rush so much. Hunt has already gone to see God. They are useless. Dispose of them."

"Pay attention to your own safety. I'll treat you to barbecue when you get back."

Ennio was a little surprised, "He has already gone to see God?"

"When did it happen?"

Lance looked at his watch, "Two hours ago."

Ennio didn't say anything complaining, but instead felt surprised that Hunt was resolved so smoothly, "He fell for it?"

“Yes, he fell for it, and then got blown into several pieces. I hope God can recognize him when he sees him!”

“Haha…”

After saying a few more words, Ennio hung up the phone and walked out of the phone booth, chewing on his cigarette holder.

The weather was much warmer, and the sun felt warm on the body, but it was a bit dazzling.

This section of the road had good weather with bright sunshine. The light reflected by the wilderness made people squint. He returned to the restaurant and sat in his seat.

Lunch was hamburgers, potato chips, and steak. They were all from poor backgrounds and didn't care much about delicacies. Filling their stomachs was the most important thing.

The group quickly finished their food. One of them asked for three servings to take away, but Ennio stopped him. “One serving is enough.”

The others looked at him but didn't say anything.

Food was expensive, almost twice as expensive as in the city, but you couldn't complain. This was a motel restaurant, and they'd rip you off if they could.

Of course, it might also be related to the fact that they were driving a small car. If they were driving a large truck, the price would be much cheaper.

After paying, Ennio, with a toothpick in his mouth, led the group back to the car. The car started again and stopped after driving about four or five kilometers.

Ennio opened the car door and walked to the side of the road. He took out a cigarette and lit it.

He stood beside the front of the car for a while before turning to look at the mother and son in the car, and then reached out and pressed down on his hat.

The sudden gunshot made the two deer resting in the shade jump up and run away. Some small animals also hid themselves in inconspicuous places in an instant, and only peeked out again after a while.

They didn't actually know what that sound was, but they had an instinctive fear of it, ingrained in their bones.

Fear is an instinct, but there was no fear in the young man's eyes. He tilted his head and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, with a fierce expression on his face as the muscles on his cheekbones twitched.

Charlie didn't like this unruly look very much. He tilted his head slightly, and the bodyguard, who had already rolled up his sleeves, took a stance and punched the young man hard in the abdomen.

His body, restricted to the chair, contracted sharply in an instant, curling up like a shrimp reddened by boiling water, and moaning in pain.

“You're just a small fry.”

“Tell me, where is Hunter?”

The young man continued to look at him with unkind eyes. He walked to the young man's side, took out his pen, twisted out the nib, and stabbed it into his thigh.

It wasn't enough to just stab it in; he also inserted his finger along the wound and dug hard. “Where is he?”

Listening to the screams in the room, Nate felt uncomfortable, not because he had much sympathy for the young man, he couldn't do that.

He was just worried, worried that one day he might encounter such torture.

If he encountered such torture, would he be able to endure it like the young man inside?

He didn't know.

He picked up the phone and dialed Lance's number. “Charlie is here. He's interrogating those young men, and his methods are a bit brutal.”

After speaking, he hung up the phone without waiting for a response, his heart pounding.

Actually, he was also a little worried that the young man might not be able to hold on and would betray him?

Although he had already betrayed him once.

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door of the police chief's office. The screams inside subsided slightly because of the knock.

“What is it?”

A bodyguard walked out from inside. His light blue shirt had a lot of blood splattered on it, which made the police officer at the door twitch his eyes.

Many people didn't actually know how vicious Charlie was and thought he was a good police chief.

He always smiled, was easy to talk to, and even if he encountered police officers who made mistakes, he would pretend not to see them and remind them not to make the same mistakes again next time.

Only a few people knew that hounds had sharp teeth and bite force. They not only wagged their tails, but also tore at their prey!

“There… there was an emergency call saying that a possible shootout scene was discovered, with some of our police officers…”

Charlie wiped the blood off the pen with a tissue, put the pen cap back on, and put it in his pocket. “Check it out and see what's over there.”

He glanced sideways at the weakly breathing young man, a sneer on his lips.

He was now the same as Hunter, believing that there must be Lance's people in the police station.

He had only started the interrogation not long ago, and the clue had come to his door.

These traitors would all be found by him sooner or later and cleaned up!

The wailing police cars quickly drove out of the parking lot, Charlie already had a bad feeling, but he still retained a glimmer of hope.

And these hopes were dashed thirty minutes later.

More police cars arrived at the abandoned old train station, along with two medical examiners—

The reason there were two medical examiners was at the request of the police officers who arrived at the scene. There were body parts everywhere, which had to be searched for and pieced together. This was not a job that one person could complete.

Charlie also came to the scene, but he sat in the car and didn't get out.

The car he was in was bulletproof, given to him by the old men in the Bay Area to protect his safety.

As a hound in the Bay Area, he was also valuable to the old men.

The bodies of several police officers had already been placed in body bags, neatly arranged in rows.

And Hunter?

Several police officers and medical examiners were carrying bags and using pliers to check the surrounding bushes, occasionally picking up a piece and stuffing it in.

When Charlie saw this scene, although he was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but punch the back of the passenger seat.

“Fuck!”

He cursed. He had warned Hunter not to leave the police station.

That young man Lance was much bolder than the local gangsters. He was definitely going to assassinate Hunter.

But Hunter… Charlie actually felt a little bit of guilt, because Hunter was under too much pressure, so when he found an opportunity to solve the current predicament, he would not hesitate to strike!

Charlie was also reflecting on the fact that he hadn't been able to help Hunter relieve the pressure, which led to these things happening.

He also had some responsibility.

But what to do next?

Hunter was dead, and he was no longer the police chief. Although the police station was full of his old subordinates, would these old subordinates really listen to him?

Thinking of Nate's appearance, wouldn't there be more people who had actually defected to Lance?

Having lost Hunter as a bridge, could he still command the police station?

He didn't know, and he wasn't qualified to direct the work of the police station now. He wasn't the police chief.

The most urgent task now was to quickly introduce a new police chief to take over Hunter's position and continue to firmly grasp the personnel power of the police station!

For a time, choosing a candidate became a problem. Other people might not be as easy to use as Hunter, and in a short time, he couldn't even find a suitable candidate!