Chapter 194
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
We’ve talked about this, Bill.”
“You can give me an answer now. Our time is limited. Let’s not waste each other’s lives, okay?”
Bill glanced at the cadres sitting beside him, looking a bit sullen. “I said, I need time to consider…”
Before he could finish, Lance hung up the phone.
Bill looked at the receiver, feeling very annoyed, but he found it difficult to make a decision. Perhaps seeing the change in his mood, a senior cadre asked, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
He hesitated for a moment. “It was Lance on the phone. He wants us to give him our territory in the Empire District. I didn’t agree.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t agree, but that he needed to consider it. This was a subtle, skillful way of expressing it.
A considerable number of the senior cadres in the office immediately became unhappy.
“On what grounds does he demand we do this?”
“And it seems our business doesn’t conflict with theirs. On the contrary, they have been using cheap liquor to squeeze the sales of our bars.”
“We haven’t caused him any trouble, how dare he cause us trouble?”
Someone also shouted loudly, “Let him try and see if we can hurt him!”
In this group environment, the heroic side of these people’s emotions was amplified, and even Bill couldn’t easily make a decision contrary to their thoughts.
He was just that kind of person. He was older, and sometimes he preferred others to take responsibility rather than himself.
He figured some things out, slammed the table, and said sternly, “Yes, you are right. This is the territory we fought for ourselves. Why should we give it to him?”
“If he wants to take it, he should be prepared to have a tooth knocked out!”
“Tell the brothers in the Empire District to be careful. They might make a direct move…”
Soon, the topic of discussion among the people shifted from “Did Polly plant the bomb?” to “How are we going to fight Lance and defeat him?” Although they had good ideas, Bill always felt a little uneasy.
He always felt that there might be some trouble, and at the same time, he was curious about what prompted Lance to make a decision so quickly.
Didn’t he say he needed a few days to consider?
But what Bill didn’t know was that Lance couldn’t wait any longer and wouldn’t give him any more time to consider.
After considering for a few days, he still had to fucking consider. Did this kind of thing need so much consideration?
To put it bluntly, Bill was too indecisive. He was already old, and Lance decided to help him so that he could make a decision.
After hanging up the phone, Lance walked to the window and lit a cigarette.
Elvin happened to push the door open and enter, and as soon as he came in, he heard Lance ask him, “Where are our new gentlemen?”.
This was a perfect opportunity to test whether these people were reliable.
Some people always talked tough, acting as if each of them was a super killing machine on the battlefield, but when they were really needed, they all turned into God’s lambs.
“They are arranging a training plan. We plan to train our men in rotation.”
This was Lance’s plan, to let more family members receive some militarized training. Even if it was only for a week, it could give them some good progress in execution and combat.
“Call them over. I have a job to assign to them. Also, find some combat captains.”
Elvin nodded in agreement while asking curiously, “Is there an operation?”
Lance did not deny it. “We don’t have time to wait for Bill to make a decision now. And I’m worried that once the trend of the situation becomes clear, not only will he not deploy on a large scale in the Port District, but he might even try to squeeze in on our side.”
“So we must drive them out before they can react.”
Elvin was slightly worried. “Didn’t Bruce say…”
Precinct Chief Bruce’s meaning was to find a way to let the Red Dog Gang make the first move, so that Lance’s counterattack would not be considered a violation of the “disrupting social order” rule.
But now there was no time for that. No matter who planted that bomb, the social order had already been broken!
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. They don’t have time to worry about us.”
Soon, more than a dozen veterans and seven or eight combat captains gathered in the office. Lance stood by the window, watching the police cars with their wailing sirens racing around the streets.
The bombing case had made the law enforcement departments tense. Bruce had just called him and told him to keep a low profile recently.
But obviously, he couldn’t keep a low profile anymore.
“Lance, everyone’s here.”
Lance’s gaze shifted from outside to the people in the room. He walked to the desk and sat on its edge.
“You probably already know, some idiot bombed the Bureau of Dangerous Goods and blew up a senior agent.”
“Next, the entire situation in Golden Port will undergo some unexpected changes. Before these changes affect us, we must complete the unification of the Empire District.”
“Bill of the Red Dog Gang is hesitant, his attitude towards doing things is as indecisive as the bitches under his command, so we will help him.”
“They still have about four bars and a few other places in the Empire District. Your mission is to take care of these bars and drive them out.”
“But I must remind you of one thing: try not to set fires.”
“Many old buildings in the Empire District have not been fireproofed. Once they are ignited, it’s easy to cause a fire, and that will become a huge problem.”
“Drive them out. If they fight back, let loose and get them!”
Elvin stood there. “Where am I going?”
“Lance walked to a wooden board, casually picked up a pen, and drew a circle on the map. You come with me. We’re going to their biggest strip club here…”
In the evening, the neon sign of the Flower Sea Strip Club lit up. This was the Red Dog Gang’s largest business establishment in the Empire District.
It not only operated the legal oral sex business but also the illegal call-out business.
However, although Bill was indecisive, he was very cautious when it came to running a criminal enterprise.
The call-out transactions did not happen here but in the old apartment building next door.
A total of thirty-six rooms. It was said that when business was at its peak, the girls and their customers had to queue up to find an empty room.
However, as it had been in operation for more than ten years, the business was gradually not as good as before.
The girls were getting older. Even if the girls were rotated from time to time, after more than ten years, the customers were already familiar with every girl here.
This kind of business sold a sense of novelty. When the girls and the clients became as familiar as a married couple without a marriage certificate, the clients lost their excitement.
This wasn’t actually a matter of taste, because their tastes had never changed; they always preferred young, new faces.
But even so, this place was still very lively. Striptease, alcohol, and sex—under the cover of night, these things always attracted people’s attention.
Today, many young people were standing at the entrance of the Flower Sea Strip Club. They stood together in groups of three or five, talking in low voices.
It looked a bit strange. When the customers entered the club, they also found that there were more “people” than usual today.
But soon these customers relaxed. The strangers wouldn’t affect their fun here.
Under the dual anesthesia of alcohol and sex, they soon forgot about these things.
Time ticked by, and it reached ten o’clock. This was also the busiest time for the club.
From time to time, one could see girls leaving the club with customers and going to the old apartment building next door.
Customers had to pay two dollars and fifty cents to take the girls upstairs.
In the management office in the first-floor lobby, there was a character similar to an apartment manager. When a customer paid him the money, he would record something in a book and then give a key to the other party.
The key had a room number on it, so they could find the room based on these numbers.
Usually, these customers would come out in at most a dozen minutes. Few could last until twenty or thirty minutes later. After all, every girl had her own specialty in this area.
Some were technical types. Their natural talent might not be outstanding, but through practice, they had acquired some very special abilities, making people surrender their weapons unexpectedly in the heat of the moment.
There were also some who were naturally gifted. They didn’t need to do anything; they just had to lie there, and soon the customers would surrender their weapons on their own.
As for wanting to linger a little longer?
The thugs downstairs would tell you, that’s impossible!
There were quite a few gang members gathered here, and as time went on, these people also became somewhat sleepy.
Just then, car lights suddenly lit up at the street corner in the distance. In this day and age, those who could afford a car were still a minority. Three pairs of headlights illuminated the road in the night and also alerted the members of the Red Dog Gang at the entrance.
The three senior cadres who were playing cards in the manager’s office also received the news. They put down their playing cards and came to the door with their weapons.
The three cars did not approach quickly. It took several minutes for them to reach the entrance of the club.
The window of the back seat of the middle car rolled down. The neon lights and lights of the Flower Sea Strip Club illuminated his face. He turned his head and looked at the people on the steps through the car window, his expression calm, even somewhat indifferent.
There was not a trace of fear on his face. The people who got out of the other cars stood in front of his car, eight people, standing in a row.
You have to know, at this time, the number of people on his side was less than ten in total.
The senior cadre of the Red Dog Gang also saw Lance. “Lance, this is not a place you should be. Leave now, and I can pretend you were never here.”
Lance took off his black sheepskin gloves. He took out a cigarette, and Hiram took out a match and bent over to light it for him. He exhaled smoke, looking at the people on the steps. “What if I say no?”
The one who spoke, a senior cadre dressed in red sequins, acted as if he had heard the funniest thing. He let out a “Ha,” then spread his hands and spun around on the spot.
“I have so many people. What do you have?”
Lance still looked at him with a calm and detached expression. “Does having more people make you stronger?”
Perhaps it was the large number of people surrounding him that gave him a sense of security. He tilted his chin slightly and looked down his nose at Lance. “Having more people is being stronger!”
Just as he was gloating, someone suddenly nudged him with their elbow, motioning for him to look around.
All around, many people wearing black soft felt hats, black trench coats, and red armbands emerged from the darkness.
Their clothes blended in with the night, making them hard to spot earlier. So no one had noticed that it wasn’t that there was no one around, but that there were people.
As these people continued to close in, just this process alone brought great psychological pressure to the members of the Red Dog Gang, to the point that they didn’t dare to make a rash move!
The Red Dog Gang no longer had the advantage in numbers, and plus, no one knew if there were more people in the pitch-black darkness. They all fell silent.
The senior cadre in red sequins also felt his scalp tingle and his mouth go dry.
“Do you still think you have a lot of people now?”
The expression of the red sequin cadre standing on the steps was extremely ugly. He wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.
Lance shook his head slightly and made a “make a move” gesture. The people in front of his car, as if receiving some signal, neatly pulled out submachine guns from under their trench coats.
The three senior cadres on the steps and their trusted men around them had already realized something. Whether they were preparing to draw their guns to return fire or planning to escape, it was already too late!
The one dressed in red sequins, the very flashy guy who had been talking to Lance, looked at the black muzzles of the guns. At this moment, he didn’t even move, just stared blankly, and then said, “Fuck.”
The next second, eight submachine guns opened fire at the same time. The hot bullets not only dispelled the cold of the night but also the silence of the night.
The sound of gunfire echoed through the night sky, accompanied by screams and cries from within the club, adding a touch of Golden Port’s style to the silent night sky!
The entire process lasted less than fifteen seconds. The ones who actually died from the shooting were only the senior cadres and core captains in the middle. On the contrary, the small fry around them did not suffer major casualties.
As long as they didn’t move recklessly, no bullets would chase after them. Lance was sometimes very merciful.
Hiram, holding a pistol, bounded up the steps in a few strides and emptied the magazine into the bodies on the ground. He maintained the Lance family’s style very well—making the medical examiner spend several times longer finding bullets and putting the puzzle together.
The surrounding members of the Red Dog Gang had terrified expressions. Some silently raised their hands and knelt down, followed by more people.
Soon, the thugs at the door were all kneeling in several rows on the ground. To be honest, the weather was still very cold, and the ground was cold and hard, which was a bit painful.
But compared to a headache, knee pain was obviously acceptable!
Lance took his last drag of the cigarette and threw the butt on the ground. Hiram opened the car door, letting him get out.
By now, blood had already flowed down from the steps, layer by layer, flowing to his feet.
He looked down at the cigarette butt extinguished in the blood, at his new leather shoes already stained with blood, shook his head, and lifted his leg, stepping on the blood as he walked up the steps.
He passed over the corpse of the guy in red sequins, lifting his foot to step over his body.
Thirty seconds ago, he had the look of a victor.
Thirty seconds later, he was lying on the ground, looking up at the starry sky. The opportunities in life are just that unpredictable.
At this time, the club was silent. The customers and girls were huddled in a corner. Someone tried to escape from the back door, but there were people at the back door too.
As for jumping out of a window?
They couldn’t bring themselves to do that yet.
As Lance’s men began to enter the club, the resistance inside the club quickly gave up.
The many people outside couldn’t resist this group from entering. The gang members inside the club were very sensible and chose to surrender. After confirming that they had control of the situation, Lance walked in from outside.
“Sorry for the interruption,” he began by apologizing for tonight’s attack. He stood in the center of the main hall. “This is a matter between me and the Red Dog Gang. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Now, if you want to leave, then take your things, raise your hands high, and you can leave through the main door.”
“Please do not make any misunderstood movements, such as putting your hand inside your collar or in your pocket.”
“I don’t guarantee that someone won’t overreact and open fire!”
Some people in the crowd exclaimed, “It’s Mr. Lance!”
“Is it Mr. Lance from the Lance family?”
They suddenly became less afraid. Someone even proactively asked, “Mr. Lance, did the Red Dog Gang offend you?”
Lance shook his head. “They did not offend me. It’s just that Bill made a foolish decision.”
Someone else asked, “Will this place still be open in the future?”
Lance looked as if it were a matter of course. “Why not?”
“I will redecorate it and then reopen it. You can still come and have fun then.”
“But at that time, it will no longer belong to the Red Dog Gang, but to us…”
Hiram walked over from a distance, flipping his hair. “What about those people outside?”
There were too many people to kill them all; it wouldn’t be convenient. So he needed to ask Lance.
Lance thought for a moment. “Leave their weapons behind, and then let them get lost.”
Hiram nodded and returned to the door. He arranged for people to strip these people of their clothes, leaving them only in their underwear, and then told them they could get lost.
It was clearly a shameful thing, but at this moment, to these people, it was like the most beautiful sound in the world!
Their faces, flushed with the joy of surviving a catastrophe, quickly disappeared into the night as they rubbed their body hair.
Overnight, the Red Dog Gang’s territory in the Empire District was swept clean.
But strangely, not many people reported it to the police.
On the contrary, there were more people reporting it in the Port District. The police came a few times, but they all left again soon.
They didn’t see any scene of a firefight, nor did they see any corpses or anything. They only saw cleaning workers diligently washing the ground with chemical agents.
Precinct Chief Bruce personally ran to Lance, but looking at Lance’s calm face, the words he had wanted to say suddenly got stuck in his throat…
(End of this chapter)
