Chapter 510

Bandy was very satisfied with Fleming’s plan. This was how the heir to the Kodak Family should be, much better than he had imagined.

Even Bandy himself probably couldn’t have made a better decision.

Sending him to an Ivy League college was indeed worth it, even if it cost a lot of money.

Stone asked in a muffled voice, “What about all the money we lost?”

“And Lance is so cunning. The Bureau of Hazardous Materials might not be able to crush him in one go.”

Everyone’s attention was focused on Fleming, waiting to see how he would recover the losses.

Fleming was confident. “The police, the gangs, the Bureau of Hazardous Materials—the three strongest forces in Golden Port are all starting to move against him. He won’t be able to handle it!”

“Hunter’s deputy was killed by Lance’s men. There’s no longer any basis for a ceasefire between them. Once Lance’s biggest source of income is cut off, I’ll have Hunter constantly arrest Lance’s subordinates.”

“Regardless of whether they can be convicted, just arrest them first. This will further weaken the power in Lance’s hands.”

“He will be constantly weakened. As long as we remain unchanged, we will become stronger in comparison. Not to mention, we still have many allies.”

“Right now, he’s still very strong. If we fight him, we might not have the upper hand. But when he is weakened to his limit, we will have a clear advantage.”

“At that time, we can give him a choice: hand over the money, and we’ll let him go.”

“Or take his money to hell!”

“Lance is a very ambitious person. I’ve never seen anyone like him in his age group.”

“He has ambition and the ability to execute, but that’s as far as it goes.”

Fleming spread his hands. “Even if we don’t get the money back, after eliminating Lance, at least we will be the ones calling the shots when it comes to the gangs.”

“We’ll make money faster than before. This small loss is nothing to us!”

Liquor, loan sharking, and casinos were indeed the most profitable businesses at the moment.

“I hear Lance ships at least several million worth of liquor to other places every month. Now that we know his liquor is self-produced, you can imagine how much profit there is.”

After hearing this, the others had no more objections. Although Stone felt that… it would be better to just lead men to kill them directly, in the end, he still chose to follow Fleming’s plan, because he thought it was a pretty good plan.

Since the family had reached a consensus, the next step was to make arrangements.

As the next family heir and the creator of the plan, Bandy decided to let Fleming be the one to contact the Bureau of Hazardous Materials.

He could take this opportunity to build a good relationship with the Bureau, and maybe even have deeper contact.

That senior agent, Webber, was parachuted in from the State Prohibition Committee. Bandy’s connections could reach this State Prohibition Committee, which, in other words, provided them with a more convenient communication channel.

The fact that the other party could be directly parachuted in showed that they were not rigid or inflexible.

As long as someone didn’t have a moral purity complex, they would eventually fall to desire.

Bandy first contacted his friend, who then contacted Webber’s uncle. Webber’s uncle then called Webber, and only then did Webber contact Fleming.

This way, the initiative was in Fleming’s hands, not Webber’s.

Begging others for a favor and others wanting to get some information from you lead to different outcomes.

The two sides quickly arranged a meeting. Webber was very interested in Fleming, who held a high status among the younger generation in Golden Port. Both were young men, in their thirties, in their prime for getting things done.

Plus, they both had good backgrounds. Fleming was also a graduate of an Ivy League college, with a lot of knowledge and a network of contacts, which made Webber feel that they got along very well.

After first chatting about some matters unrelated to the farm, Webber took the initiative to bring up the topic. “I heard from my uncle that you know where the Lance Family’s distillery is?”

Fleming acted as if he were surprised by his words, his face filled with an expression of disbelief. “I haven’t told anyone else about this!”

His meaning was “Where did you hear that?” This was a small communication trick to make the other party mistakenly believe they were very smart and in control, thereby losing their ability to think critically about some things.

Webber smiled. “No comment, but I can tell you that the source of the information is very reliable!”

Fleming lowered his head and pursed his lips. “I do indeed know.”

Webber’s eyes were practically glowing. If he could catch a big fish, it would be a great help to his future promotion path.

If he could squeeze out Director Dale, he would truly be in power!

“Fleming, we get along very well. And look, we’re both graduates of Ivy League colleges. Although not the same school, we can be considered… a kind of alumni?”

“And my uncle and your father also know each other and have some contact. Now we also get along very well. Don’t you want our friendship to go a step further?”

“And I hear that you’ve been having some unpleasantness with the Lance Family lately. Why not take this opportunity to give them a heavy blow?”

Every sentence seemed to say, “I’m doing this for your own good.” Although Webber was a parachuted-in senior agent, he wasn’t a complete idiot.

Fleming shook his head. “You don’t think we can’t handle a small-time Lance Family, do you?”

This sentence might have been useful a year ago, but now…

However, Webber also believed that even if they couldn’t deal with the Lance Family, the Lance Family couldn’t do much to them either.

He wouldn’t tell the truth. He needed something from Fleming now; he needed this intelligence. So he said with great sincerity, “We are friends. If they mess with you, they mess with me.”

“As you get to know me, you’ll find that the one thing I hate the most is seeing my friends get bullied!”

Fleming wanted to laugh inwardly, but he still showed some emotion on his face. He hesitated for a moment. “There’s an abandoned farm outside the city. I heard they renovated it to use for distilling.”

Webber clenched his fist. “Cunning bastard!”

The sentence was said so abruptly that it was unclear whether he was talking about Lance or Fleming. But it also made Fleming realize that this man was like a dog.

When you have a bone in your hand, he’ll wag his tail and circle around you. When he’s eaten the bone and you have nothing left, he might just bark at you.

The corner of his eye twitched a couple of times, but he said nothing.

After remembering this piece of intelligence, Webber once again put on a sincere smile. “I’ll go and get revenge for you. After I’ve handled this, we’ll have a drink together.”

“You can bring some of your friends, and I’ll bring some of mine. We can all get to know each other.”

He unabashedly mentioned “having a drink,” seemingly forgetting that his job was to prevent people from having a drink.

But for Fleming, such an unprincipled law enforcement officer was exactly what he liked.

Not just him, all gangsters liked this kind of unprincipled law enforcement officer.

As for whether he had a bottom line, that remained to be seen.

After getting this intelligence, Webber couldn’t wait any longer and went straight back to the Bureau. He unceremoniously pushed open Director Dale’s office door.

Director Dale was on the phone. He glanced at Webber, and not only was there no expression of disgust or dissatisfaction on his face, but he even smiled and pointed at the phone in his hand.

After about twenty seconds, Director Dale hung up and then asked, “Is there something urgent?”

His face was all smiles.

He no longer had much influence or presence in Congress now. Repeated mistakes had caused him to be gradually abandoned by the core of power.

Federation politics was just that realistic. If you have value, you are a good friend in the hearts of the congressmen.

If you have no value, then you should just stay in the garbage heap and not float around like a used piece of toilet paper.

On the contrary, Webber’s uncle was more important to him now, being his direct superior. It was important to have a good relationship.

Webber revealed some of his “findings.” “I’ve obtained a piece of information through some means. There’s an underground distillery outside the city, and it’s not small.”

The fact that Lance was supplying liquor to gangs in other cities was not a secret. They had already investigated it.

During the New Year, those people had also come to Golden Port. Lance was faintly showing signs of becoming the number one figure among the Empire immigrant gangs in Likalai State.

Although everyone knew he was shipping goods, they couldn’t figure out where the liquor came from or how it got out.

Some speculated that Lance had his own distillery, but they had found no clues.

Others said that Lance’s liquor was smuggled in, but they also found no clues from the Coast Guard or the customs anti-smuggling teams.

When Webber suddenly said he knew where it was, Dale also took it very seriously.

His dissatisfaction with Webber was instantly overshadowed by this news, and his expression also became serious. “Where is it?”

Webber didn’t say, just looked at Director Dale. Director Dale was slightly taken aback, and dissatisfaction with him surged in his heart again. “How do you need me to cooperate?”

Only then did Webber show a smile. “I need command…”

About ten minutes later, Webber came out of the director’s office. Shortly after, another senior agent with a puzzled look on his face went into the director’s office.

This guy had a good relationship with Webber. Considering that he might be the director in the future, he would definitely need his own people, so he was trying to win him over in advance.

When this guy came out of the director’s office, he also had a look of surprise and shock on his face. He went to Webber’s office, and the two talked for a long while.

Then, their subordinates all received a notification that there was a mission tonight.

This kind of thing should not be delayed. If word got out and Lance and his crew made preparations, they would get nothing.

In fact, some people within the Bureau of Hazardous Materials also suspected that these gangs might have arranged some moles in their bureau, but for a while, they didn’t know who was a mole and who wasn’t.

So it was very troublesome.

Ponda was also notified. Although Webber didn’t like Ponda, he had read Ponda’s personal file and knew that this guy was very good at solving cases.

And he had personally busted five or six of Lance’s bars and two warehouses, racking up a case value of over a hundred thousand against Lance in total.

Anyone could be connected to Lance, but Ponda was the exception.

At this moment, Webber was thinking from a higher perspective. He even had a separate talk with Ponda.

Once he was promoted to director, he could totally promote Ponda, so the conflict between them would no longer exist, and at the same time, he would gain a subordinate who was skilled at solving cases.

Ponda also accepted Webber’s sudden and inexplicable show of goodwill. It looked as if… they had buried the hatchet.

Towards the end of their conversation, in order to win over Ponda, Webber even took the initiative to talk about the matter. “There’s an operation tonight. You’re an old investigator, we need your help.”

Ponda nodded and said, “I understand. I’ll definitely lead everyone well.”

Webber asked, “Aren’t you curious about what the operation is?”

Ponda, who was thinking about how to kill him or get him removed, was stunned for a moment. His current cooperation was based on not wanting the conflict with Webber to escalate and explode too early, and also not wanting to arouse suspicion from others afterwards.

But Webber’s current out-of-character behavior made him a little curious. He then said with a smile, “I’m curious, but I believe that when I’m supposed to know, I’ll definitely know. When I’m not supposed to know, I shouldn’t ask.”

With just these few words, Webber’s opinion of him improved a little more. Considering that the two had just resolved their conflict, Webber didn’t mind revealing some information to him to make him feel that they were now on the same side.

“Don’t tell anyone about this. I’ve received a piece of information. The Lance Family has a distillery in an abandoned farm in the suburbs. Tonight, we’re going to raid this distillery. This is definitely a big case…”

When Ponda came out of the office, he was a bit dazed. He was still thinking about how to reasonably remove Webber from his position.

He himself didn’t have any good ideas, but Webber had given him this opportunity on a silver platter.

When he returned to his desk, his deskmate couldn’t help but ask, “Did he give you trouble again?”

Ponda smiled, his eyes a little deep. “No, he asked me to participate in this mission as well.”

His deskmate pursed his lips. “You be careful. Watch out for him playing dirty tricks.”

Ponda nodded and tidied up his desk. “I’m going to tell my wife that I might be late tonight or not come back at all.”

His deskmate nodded. “You should. If anything comes up, I’ll cover for you.”

Ponda quickly left the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. After he got home, he went straight into his study and made a phone call to Lance.

“This is Ponda.”

Ponda’s proactive call surprised Lance a little. “What’s up?”

“Do you guys have a distillery in an abandoned farm in the suburbs?”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “How did you know?”

Ponda didn’t tell him how he knew, but continued, “We’re planning a surprise raid on this distillery tonight. Webber is leading the team…”

(End of Chapter)