Chapter 254

Betrayal, how to put this?

It’s like a membrane.

Before this membrane is broken, a lot of psychological preparation is needed, as well as some fitting circumstances, such as encountering some irresistible force, and finally having no choice but to choose this path.

Then it’s a step-by-step slide into the abyss, but at the last moment, they will still try to hold on to this bottom line, until it is truly broken.

Once it is broken, some things become insignificant. The previous persistence and adherence become a joke at this moment, and the mentality will also undergo a rapid transformation.

It is even possible that because this membrane has been broken, one obtains some resources and benefits that could not be obtained before, thus viewing betrayal as a normal means.

People often say that once values are established, they will not change. In fact, this view is wrong. They don’t change because the power for change is still too weak.

When the power for change is strong enough, even one’s worldview will change.

After hearing Lance’s words, Ponda let out a heavy sigh of relief.

“Don’t disturb Lisa, and my family.”

Lance agreed with a smile.

Ponda still didn’t have a very good impression of him, “If there’s nothing else, I should get back to work.”

He didn’t want to talk much more with Lance. That membrane of his, the bottom line in his heart, had just been pierced. He needed to recover.

But Lance obviously intended to talk a little more with him.

“If you get a major clue and report it, and a case of liquor worth hundreds of thousands is busted, will it help your promotion?”

Ponda, who had originally planned to hang up the phone regardless of what Lance said, suddenly felt his heart beat faster.

He even swallowed, “You said… hundreds of thousands?”

“Yes, hundreds of thousands worth of liquor. I believe Congress and the Bureau of Hazardous Materials need to set a new benchmark, a new banner.”

“If you get this clue, will you be given an important position?”

Ponda fell into thought. Without a doubt, he would definitely be valued by Chief Dale, even if only for a while.

Now everyone could feel the pressure on Chief Dale. As a vertically managed law enforcement department, the chief represented the highest manager at every level.

It’s not good to use the word ruler, but they did indeed exercise a part of the power that only a ruler should have.

He thought of many things, a mental struggle. He knew this was Lance’s “bait.” As long as he took this bait, he would slide deeper and deeper step by step.

At this moment, he suddenly understood something!

When he was a child, he thought those fish were stupid. His father and grandfather liked to fish. He asked them, couldn’t those fish see the hook next to the bait?

His father and grandfather didn’t answer. At that time, he thought the fish were stupid.

You can clearly see the hook at a glance, why still eat it?

But at this moment, he suddenly understood the feeling of the fish, because he himself was like a fish.

He knew that there was a hook hidden in this bait, but he still couldn’t help but want to swallow it in one bite.

He maintained his rationality and asked, “What do I need to pay?”

The voice of a demon came from the receiver, “We are friends. It’s only right for friends to help each other.”

Before Ponda could have more reactions, Lance ended the conversation, “I will call you in the near future and will directly tell you the specific location then. I still have some things to do now.”

Soon, the busy tone of the end of the call came from the receiver. Ponda looked at the receiver in his hand and suddenly felt a sense of loss.

He returned to the office. His colleagues teased him, “Made up with your girlfriend?”

Ponda scratched his head with some embarrassment, “No problem.”

Amidst the colleagues’ teasing about when they could attend their wedding, he sat back in his seat, but at this time, he could no longer focus on those clues. His mind was full of what Lance had told him.

Hundreds of thousands worth of smuggled liquor!

With this credit, maybe he could also become a senior agent!

More income, a better future. Only in this way could he build a safe, reliable, and warm home for the battered Lisa!

Maz had been feeling a kind of indescribable relaxation these past two days, as if… there was suddenly no great pressure.

Before, he felt a lot of pressure, as if someone was always watching him, but he had never found anyone watching him.

In the end, he could only think that this was undercover syndrome. His contact who was in charge of his training had talked to him about this, saying that he would have a very nervous sense of unease at the beginning.

After he gradually adapted to his current life, he would soon no longer have that feeling.

He spent every day in a work atmosphere that he couldn’t describe. He got up around nine in the morning, then ate something and started working.

He initially thought that gangs didn’t need to work, but he didn’t expect that gangs also needed to work, moving things, or doing other things. After lunch, the afternoon was free time, at least four or five hours.

As long as he arrived at the bar before 5:30.

His identity was a dream-chaser from out of town. In the end, because he was exploited by capitalists, he became penniless. Finally, with the help of his identity as an Empire immigrant, he joined the Lance Family.

So he had no friends and no family here.

The contact would get in touch with him once a week. He needed to record what he had noted down, summarize it on a piece of paper, then roll it up and stuff it into a cigarette.

At that time, the contact would appear around him, and then he would ask the contact for a light, and incidentally hand over the intelligence disguised as a cigarette to the other party.

A perfect plan. He and the contact had even practiced it several times and could already do it very naturally.

Today was their appointed time. After finishing lunch, he returned to his room.

After double-checking the marked cigarette, he tidied himself up and prepared to go out.

“Maz, going out?”

Before he left, Alan, who was playing darts with others, asked.

Maz smiled and nodded, “Going out for a stroll, it’s a bit stuffy.”

Alan, while holding a dart and changing his position, said, “You should find a girl to relax. They’ll give you a good discount!”

Maz’s face turned a little red. He had been in love before, but had never had a relationship that went beyond friendship. This topic made him feel a little embarrassed.

He didn’t want to get entangled any further, then walked out of the company. After he left, the several people who were playing darts all stopped…

After walking out of the company, Maz walked east along the sidewalk. His eyes searched the sidewalk, and sometimes he would suddenly look back to confirm that no one was following him.

What he didn’t know was that two cars were following him in shifts.

East of the Wanli Firm, there was a crossroads. At the side of this intersection, there was a not-so-large small garden.

In the past, many homeless people gathered here, but since the Lance Family came here, the homeless have all disappeared.

No one knows where they went. Some say they went to work, some say they were driven away. Who knows?

Now this place has become a favorite spot for nearby residents. They sit here, chat, and so on.

There are also some old men who have set up a few tables in the small garden, chatting or playing cards around the tables.

Maz saw his contact here, sitting on a bench by the roadside, reading a copy of the “International News.”

A look of surprise appeared on his face, so much so that he ignored a car that had stopped on the side of the road.

He originally wanted to walk straight over, but thinking of the rendezvous procedure, he began to act.

He put a cigarette in his mouth, then fumbled in his pockets all over his body. Even people who don’t smoke know that he was probably looking for a lighter or matches.

But it seemed he had forgotten to bring them. So young and such a bad memory, what would he do when he got old?

He glanced at the contact on the bench who was reading the newspaper. His heart began to beat faster, and the force of the beating was also very strong, thumping and thumping.

He took out the cigarette containing the intelligence and handed it over, “Sir, do you have a light?”

The man glanced at him, sized him up for a few seconds as if he were a stranger, then hesitated for a moment, took his cigarette, and took out a lighter.

He used the newspaper to cover the movement of his hands, put the cigarette into his pocket, and swapped it for another cigarette, then lit his own first.

Even if someone was observing, they wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with this.

The two had a brief exchange of glances. Maz lit his cigarette, said thank you, then returned the matches to the other party and left.

The whole process lasted less than two minutes, very smooth, with almost no major flaws to be seen, except for Maz’s slightly exaggerated expression.

On the way, Maz returned to the company without any obstacles and even greeted others enthusiastically.

He received the first sum of money after joining the Lance Family.

As a latecomer, he was not qualified to receive a share of the family’s profits, but Lance was not too bad to them. Although he had just joined, he received the Federation’s standard salary.

If he had done other things, such as resolving disputes, there would be other subsidies.

He bought some food and shared it with everyone. Everyone thanked him enthusiastically, but what he didn’t notice was that almost all of that food was eventually thrown into the trash can.

Ethan stood in Lance’s office looking at Maz, “Why not just kill him now?”

Lance was looking at the recent income situation. The price of liquor was still continuing to rise. He looked up and glanced at Maz, who was running around outside the blinds, “It’s easy to kill them. One bullet is enough.”

“But soon they will send a second batch of undercover agents, and then a third batch. It will never end.”

“Now use him to pass some false information, let the Bureau of Hazardous Materials realize that sending undercover agents is meaningless, and then deal with him.”

He paused, “Has the bar been moved yet?”

Dracy, on the side, nodded, “It’s already been moved.”

The current bars, at Lance’s request, had become “lightweight.” To put it simply, the decoration of the bars was simpler, no longer pursuing that kind of complete decoration.

A bar counter for the bartender to pour drinks. Not even sofas and chairs were needed. Everyone stood to drink.

For drunkards, they didn’t care if they were standing or lying down to drink. As long as there was liquor.

The wooden cups were not worth much. The entire bar, besides the liquor, had nothing valuable.

Plus the liquor was supplied on a per-trip basis. Even if the bar was caught, the loss would only be a batch of liquor worth a few hundred to a thousand dollars.

This method turned the bars into “disposable” ones. As long as there were enough venues, they could change places every day.

The bars where Maz and the other undercover agents had worked would all be moved tonight. The old drunkards knew how to find these bars. As for the newly joined drunkards?

If they were really drunkards and really residents of the Empire District, they also had their own ways to know where these bars were and how to get in.

After Maz’s contact got the clue, he quickly returned to the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. He excitedly opened the cigarette and took out a piece of paper rolled into the same thickness as a cigarette roll from inside.

He carefully unfolded it. On it was recorded the location of the bar, the operating hours, and some keywords he had heard.

For example, “warehouse,” “docks,” “smuggling ship”…

This piece of intelligence was very important. The contact immediately went to find Chief Dale. Chief Dale was very satisfied after seeing it and also gave instructions, “I won’t ask you who he is. Bring him back together tonight to reduce the possibility of him being exposed.”

“As for the others, we’ll talk after you get back. Go and gather the men!”

The contact was very excited and began to apply for manpower and supporting resources. They looked forward to the arrival of night.

In the evening, at eight o’clock, the agents who had just finished eating and rested for a while received a notice and began to act.

This time they dispatched more than thirty people, one armored car, and everyone was armed as they headed to the Empire District.

The Empire District, in the eyes of many people now, had become synonymous with “danger.” The Lance Family’s frequent bloody incidents gave people a taste of the bloody storm of a dozen years ago.

Including these law enforcers, if they didn’t carry a large number of weapons, they would feel unsafe.

Along the way, they did not turn on their sirens and tried to take remote roads as much as possible. When they were only one intersection away from the predetermined location, they suddenly accelerated and rushed over with their sirens blaring!

In the past period of searching for bars, they found that giving the people in the bars a little reaction time would instead make them more chaotic!

Those drinking drunkards would rush out, and the bar simply couldn’t stop the chaos from within.

But when they rushed into the alley, it was unbelievably quiet!

Some reporters who had gotten the information also rushed over from the surrounding area. In the end, what was left for them was only an abandoned bar.

The contact bent down with an ugly expression, picked up a wooden cup from the ground. The wall of the cup was still very wet and exuded a strong smell of liquor.

This showed that not long ago, it had been in use by someone.

But now, everything had come to an end.

This also made him confused. Had the news been leaked, or was Maz lying?

The reporters didn’t care about these things, frantically pressing the shutter. The flashbulbs illuminated the basement as if it were daytime!

At the same time, Maz also walked into the new bar with a slightly pale and ugly face. From the doorman to the bartender to the manager, it was the same group as before, but the place was not the same as before!

His first feeling was that he had been discovered, but soon he got information from others—

“We change places every week. The greyhounds of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials have noses that are too sensitive and are chasing too closely. This is Lance’s decision.”

The uniform of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials was a kind of grayish-white, a very fashionable color in this period. Now some people called them “greyhounds,” which was a derogatory term for them.

This news gave Maz a headache because he only passed on information once a week. By this calculation, then every piece of information he passed on would be outdated. He had to find a way to contact his contact.

The bar’s business was still as good as before, even a little better!

Because Nick’s wine had begun to be sold on a large scale. The alcohol content of these wines was higher than beer, but the price was not high.

Many people who drank beer began to drink this kind of self-brewed wine. The higher alcohol content could give them a more satisfying drunken experience.

The whole room was filled with a strong aroma of wine.

At the same time, at the docks, a few men in blue work clothes came to the side of a warehouse.

After they confirmed that there was no one in the warehouse, one of the guys quickly opened the warehouse door with a tool he had made himself.

They left one person to keep watch, and the other few entered the warehouse.

In the warehouse, they rummaged through a large amount of goods but did not find what they wanted. Then they closed the warehouse door and walked to the next one.

Mello found some reliable people who were closer to Lance and the Lance Family to help them find which warehouse had liquor.

Besides giving them a sum of reward money, they would also become peripheral members of the Lance Family and receive an extra sum of money from the company every month.

Although it was not much, who wouldn’t want this kind of free benefit?

And joining the Lance Family meant they would never be bullied again.

Whether it was being bullied by outsiders or by their own people.

Recently, some individual phenomena had appeared in the blue-collar worker group. After losing the external pressure of survival, some internal problems began to be exposed.

For example, the appearance of “workplace bullies.” They didn’t work themselves but demanded that others finish their work for them in exchange for not being bullied by them.

Perhaps this is the depravity of human nature, which will always exist in any world, any era, any cultural environment.

Mello actually didn’t know much about this matter. Besides being busy with the firm’s affairs during this period, he was also reviewing his lessons, preparing to go to university to study law.

He was a little negligent in management work, and the people who were bullied were actually not very willing to cause trouble.

Because they couldn’t distinguish whether the person who bullied them was just an illegal immigrant like themselves, or a peripheral member of the Lance Family.

After a few people had turned over a dozen warehouses, they finally found a warehouse.

The guy who picked the lock smiled as soon as he went in because a faint aroma of wine was floating in the air!

They turned on the lights and looked at the mountain of wine, their faces showing ecstasy!

Access advanced chapter until c700+ by support my patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/caleredhair