Chapter 494

“…Okay… okay, I get it. Don’t you worry, I’ll take them to the countryside for a while.”

The woman held the receiver with both hands, her face filled with worry. “You need to be careful over there, too. If anything happens… staying alive is the most important thing.”

“Mm… I know, okay, I’ve got it down.”

The woman was Eugene’s wife. Eugene was already married.

This seemed to be uncommon among gang members, getting married so early.

There were only two types of people who could make it to marriage and family life in the gangs. One type was those who became mid-to-high-level members; they didn’t need to be on the front lines of firefights often, so they were relatively safer.

The other type were those who quit halfway, or were cowards afraid of death, the kind who would shrink back desperately when trouble arose.

Gangs in the Federation, and in fact in most parts of the world, were all the same. The bottom level not only had low income but was also very dangerous.

When a firefight was needed, they would be facing a large group of people with firearms. No one could guarantee they would survive such a firefight, not even if a cadre was present.

The more barbaric the society, the less perfect the system, the more terrible the intensity of gang firefights would be, and the more casualties there would be.

A considerable portion of gang members would not make it to marriage before dying in some firefight.

And most gang members were clearly aware of this problem. Compared to the heavy choice of starting a family, they seemed to prefer drifting between different girls every day, living a life of debauchery.

The reason Eugene married so early was that he followed Stone. He didn’t need to go to the front line. He was already considered a mid-level member in the entire Kodak family.

After Gory retired in the future and Stone took his place to become the number two figure in the Kodak family, then Eugene, who was by his side, would become a senior cadre.

So he got married, had his own family, and his own children.

Before, he hadn’t felt much. Some said that family was a burden for people like them. He treated this as a “joke for not working hard.”

Just like… you complain about your low monthly income, but don’t think about improving yourself, just blaming heaven and earth.

The Kodak family had provided him with a safe environment. He didn’t think this was a problem.

Until this moment.

He was instructing his wife on some matters, telling her to take the money he had prepared and go to the countryside. He said a lot, all about protecting herself.

He was a little uneasy, and also a little reluctant. When a man has a family, he becomes weak.

The sound of a knock suddenly came from the receiver. His wife also stopped talking. “Someone’s at the door, I’ll go see.”

At this moment, a strong sense of unease suddenly welled up in Eugene’s heart. His heart was pounding in his chest. He licked his lips, wanting to say something.

But after racking his brains, he couldn’t find any words suitable for this moment. He couldn’t change anything.

He could only say, “Be careful, don’t hang up the phone…”

His wife agreed and placed the receiver on the table next to the phone base.

From the day she married Eugene, she had vaguely understood what kind of life she might face.

It was just that the comfortable life of these years had made her a little unaccustomed to the current situation. Her body was trembling slightly.

“Who’s there?” she asked from behind the door, without unlatching the bolt and insurance.

“Community service company. Someone said your car is not in its parking space.”

The woman held her forehead and cursed a few times, but still opened the door.

First, the voice outside was familiar to her. It was indeed someone from the community service company. In addition, she wasn’t sure if her car was parked in its space.

Federation people are assholes.

When they’re fucking with others’ balls, they don’t feel it, but when their own balls are being fucked with, they feel unhappy.

“Someone reported that the turf in your yard has turned yellow…”

“Someone reported that your house didn’t hang colored lights for the holiday this year…”

“Someone reported that your dog wasn’t wearing a collar…”

“Someone reported that you were singing while peeing at night…”

For Federation people, for those asshole Federation people, there was nothing they couldn’t report.

Including things like “the car is not parked in its parking space,” and the community service company would definitely manage it. They had to provide necessary services to the other owners, such as maintaining order within the community.

The Federation is a country with the strongest community culture. Here they can even formulate some things like “community laws.”

Of course, you don’t have to abide by them, but that means you can’t move in.

And if you want to move in, you have to abide by those community laws. If you violate them, they will sue you.

Including things like “must keep the turf at the entrance from turning yellow” or “your car must be parked neatly in your parking space.”

The better the middle-class community, the stricter these community laws are, because the saying that only the middle class knows how to live is not an exaggeration.

The woman opened the door, and then looked at the two men outside who were clearly not from the community service company. The next second, she violently tried to slam the door shut.

But she had overlooked the reaction speed of the two strangers outside. One of them slammed into the wooden door with force.

The huge force, with a bang, caused the door panel to hit the woman, knocking her to the ground.

She struggled to get up. The other man grabbed her by the hair and dragged her up from the ground, punching her in the stomach. She immediately fell silent.

“Hello?”

“What happened?”

“Honey, are you still there?”

The voice from the receiver attracted the attention of one of the young men. He walked towards the phone.

His nailed leather shoes made a different sound on the floor than a woman’s shoes. Eugene, on the other end of the line, fell completely silent.

He could hear someone picking up the receiver, and also the faint sound of breathing from it.

Neither of them spoke, just remained silent.

After about ten seconds, Eugene finally asked, “Who are you?”

“The suburbs… you have forty minutes.”

“If you don’t come in forty minutes, then go and pick out a gravesite for your family.”

As he spoke, the person hung up the phone directly. A strong sense of fear arose in Eugene’s heart.

He quickly dialed the number again, but besides the lonely, stubbornly ringing phone in the house, there was nothing else that could make a sound.

Neither appliances, nor people.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck!”

As if he had been strongly stimulated, he furiously lifted the phone and slammed it on the ground.

The shattered phone parts flew everywhere. One could imagine how much force he had used.

Stone, hearing the commotion from a distance, quickly walked over. He pushed open the door and only saw Eugene sitting on the sofa, his hands clutching his hair, a look of pain on his face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Eugene looked up at Stone. “They’ve taken my wife and child.”

Hearing this, some anger also appeared on Stone’s face. “I’ll call Lance.”

As he spoke, he took Eugene back to his office and then dialed Lance’s number.

Lance was at the company and also answered this call.

“Did you take Eugene’s family?”

“You broke the rules, Lance.”

“You’d better let them go…”

“Wait, wait,” Lance directly interrupted him. “You are the ones who broke the rules, and you are also the ones who want me to abide by the rules. Stone, when you yourselves don’t abide by the rules, you shouldn’t expect me to still abide by them.”

“Bring Eugene over, and I’ll let his family go.”

“Or you can continue to hide Eugene. Besides that, you have no other choice.”

Stone’s good temper had all been used up. He glanced at the pleading Eugene beside him and once again said what he had said to Lance before—

“We have a third choice, bastard.”

“And that is to put a few holes in your head, you son of a bitch.”

“Fuck you.”

After hanging up the phone, Stone looked at Eugene, his face solemn. “You heard. Are you willing to trade your life for the lives of your family?”

Eugene hesitated. He didn’t answer immediately. Although he also loved his family very much, compared to himself, he hoped even more that he could live.

“Even if you really go over, they might not necessarily let your family go. Few of these people are good. What you need to do most right now is to prepare for the fact that your family is already dead, and then take revenge for them.”

“They hurt your family, so you retaliate doubly. This is what we should do.”

“Not crying here.”

He slapped Eugene on the back of the neck and grabbed a handful of skin from the back of his neck. “Avenge your wife and child.”

Eugene calmed down a little. “What do we do now?”

“Should we go and kill them?”

A trace of ruthlessness also appeared on Eugene’s face. After all, he was a gang member, and he had done things like killing people many times.

Stone sat in his chair and thought for a moment, then shook his head. “They have already prepared over there. If we rush over now, not only will we not be able to save them, but we might also leave our own men there.”

The reasoning was this reasoning. Eugene was not a fool, but now that it concerned his family, how could he not be anxious?

Without affecting his own life safety, he still hoped to be able to save his family.

“Then what do we do?” he asked.

“I’ll make a phone call.” Sometimes, when he couldn’t handle things, he would still talk to Fleming.

Fleming went to an elite institution. His brain was also better than his. In some aspects, he would talk to Fleming about problems he couldn’t figure out.

Often Fleming could provide him with some very useful suggestions and help, helping him solve many troubles.

The two talked for about three or four minutes. Eugene was so anxious he didn’t know whether to stand or sit.

Three or four minutes later, Stone hung up the phone and then picked it up again. “Call the police.”

“Call the police?” Eugene, as if he couldn’t understand his words, repeated a sentence, at the same time with a look of confusion and shock.

Hunter, who had the same confusion, looked at the receiver in his hand, confirming that it wasn’t something else that had caused him to have an auditory hallucination.

Stone had actually called the police, saying that the family of one of his subordinates had been kidnapped by Lance’s men, so he was asking the police to help them find the person back.

Hunter didn’t even know if he should laugh out loud now. He put the receiver back to his ear. “Are you saying you want to call the police?”

Stone’s words came clearly from the receiver. “What, can’t I call the police?”

“Isn’t the Golden Port police established to protect the safety of the people?”

“Now we are being harmed by evil forces. You have to help me.”

That’s what he said, but for one of the biggest gang leaders in Golden Port to actually call the police and say he was being harmed, this matter was not just ridiculous, it was also absurd.

“Who, when, and how did they harm you?” Hunter could sense Stone’s attitude. He could only follow the procedure.

“I have a young man under me named Eugene. Lance wants to catch him, but he can’t find him, so he took his family.”

“Chief, no matter if Eugene did something wrong, his family is innocent, right?”

“He now says he has hidden Eugene’s family in the suburbs… this place. I hope you can bring them back.”

“This is a request from a citizen. I hope you will not disappoint us citizens.”

As he spoke, Stone didn’t care if Hunter would handle this case or not and just hung up the phone.

If it were anyone else, Hunter would have cursed a couple of times and then ignored the case. But the person who had called the police was Stone.

If you were to make a chart of the forces in Golden Port now, then among the local gang forces, the Kodak family was second to none. At the same time, they also had a lot of influence in the Bay Area and in the political world.

Under these circumstances, Hunter had to respond to this report.

He was silent for a moment, then dialed Charlie’s number.

“I’m at a social engagement. If there’s anything, make it quick,” Charlie’s tone in the receiver was clearly tinged with a hint of impatience.

As the most loyal running dog of the Bay Area, he now had a little bit of achievement in politics. Several wealthy people from the Bay Area were entertaining several officials from the state government, and Charlie was accompanying them.

They wanted to give Charlie more value and help. Only in this way could Charlie better serve them.

Although not many people knew about Mr. Hoff’s affair, it wasn’t as if absolutely no one knew.

Some of them knew that Lance had slapped Mr. Hoff in the face, and there was no good solution.

This is what’s not so good about political figures. Once there’s a scandal, they will soon be abandoned by the public.

This makes it inconvenient for them to personally take action in many matters.

But it doesn’t matter. They can indirectly have Charlie take action to help them solve their troubles. Charlie and Hunter controlled more than half of the city’s police force.

They were innately a force that stood against Lance’s gang. Using Charlie and Hunter to restrain Lance was also one of the methods these people had come up with.

As for using gang power?

The Five Families were already almost useless. Bandy was so keen on whitewashing. They were no longer the best choice.

In other words, among the gang forces in Golden Port now, the Lance Family was already in the first tier.

Using a gang to restrain a gang was not very realistic. They could only rely on official power.

Hunter recounted what Stone had reported just now. Hunter, standing in the corner of the main hall, glanced at the officials from the state government in the distance. He quickly made a decision.

From the day he had joined the police force, he had understood a principle.

If you are not willing to pay, then you will not be able to reap.

If you want to get more, then you must pay more than others.

Dignity, decency, or whatever, in short, it’s what you have, and what others also need.

Otherwise, an ordinary sub-bureau chief, how could he possibly quickly become the chief and stay in this position for more than twenty years?

The name “Bay Area’s Hound” sounds ridiculous?

But he was now a municipal councilman, lived in a luxurious mansion, drove a luxury car, and had a gold watch worth tens of thousands on his hand.

“Since he has called the police, we, as the police, need to treat every call seriously. Arrange for people to go over and take a look.”

“Notify me in time if there are other matters.”

Charlie hung up the phone. He returned to the social circle with a full smile on his face.

A wealthy person from the Bay Area walked to his side and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”

Charlie lowered his head slightly and explained humbly. After listening, the wealthy person nodded. “You’ve done well. Entertain our guests well. I’m going to make a phone call.”

Charlie held his wine glass and quickly walked into the crowd. He was no longer that insignificant little character. He was now a municipal councilman. Even if he was the lowest-level politician, he was still a politician.

Glamorous, bright.

Hunter’s experience in these matters was indeed not as rich as Charlie’s, but he had one advantage, and that was that he was obedient.

Soon, more than a dozen police cars carrying fully armed police officers headed for the place they had agreed on. A few of the police officers in the cars were very nervous, because before leaving, Hunter had had a private talk with them and had told them…

If necessary, they could open fire.

This made them all very nervous, worried about their subordinates, worried about themselves, and also worried about the other party.

The wailing police cars sped through half the city and then headed out of the city. Although many people were very curious about this, they did not plan to follow.

In the suburbs, Alan, who was watching the time, was already getting a little impatient. Just at this moment, the sound of wailing police sirens came from outside, which made everyone stunned.

Alan stood by the window and looked outside. A large number of police officers got out of the police cars and found cover.

One of them held up a loudspeaker and said, “This is the Golden Port police. The people inside, immediately put down your weapons, raise your hands, and walk out of the main gate in order. Otherwise, we will take all necessary measures.”

“Repeat…”

It was the first time Alan had encountered this situation. His subordinates all looked at him. He turned and made a phone call to Lance.

“Boss, the situation is a bit off.”

Lance asked, “They didn’t go and find you?”

Alan said truthfully, “No, they called the police. Now it’s all police outside.”

Lance was also silenced for a moment. After seven or eight seconds, he finally asked, “Are you saying that Stone and his crew called the police, and now the police are on their side?”

“Mm, that’s what I mean.”

Lance was lost in thought for a moment, but soon he laughed. After all, it was the Kodak family. They were no longer a pure gang.

Then you can’t completely use the method of dealing with gangs to deal with the Kodak family.

He knew that whether it was Charlie or Hunter, they were actually on the same side as the Bay Area and the Kodak family. The probability of them uniting was certainly not small.

He thought for a moment and then said, “Hide your weapons, and then hand the people over to them. If the police want to detain you, then go with them.”

“I will arrange for Roben the lawyer to bail you out.”

He hung up the phone and then made a call to Roben the lawyer, briefly explaining the situation.

Roben the lawyer immediately stated that he would bring people to handle the legal documents and bail them all out.

Lance leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette. “It’s getting more and more interesting.”

(End of chapter)