When Ponda found out that the place this “kind person” wanted him to go to was the Empire District, he roughly knew who he was going to see next.
It was a very ordinary house on the side of the road, with a sign that read “Wanli Firm.” He knocked on the door.
Before long, the door opened. The person inside sized him up, “Mr. Ponda?”
Ponda nodded, “That’s me.”
He was wearing a set of clothes that looked a bit casual today, and a fisherman’s hat, covering his features and face as much as possible.
He had his hands in his pockets and was a little nervous.
As a law enforcement officer, this was his first time doing this kind of thing.
The person inside the door invited him in. The slightly dim light bulb, although it could illuminate the corridor, was not like in the daytime.
“Mr. Lance is on the phone. You’ll have to wait a moment. But before that, do you mind if I search you?” A very young face, looking even a little tender.
However, in the eye contact between the two, this young man did not flinch at all. On the contrary, there was a feeling of wanting to provoke!
Ponda felt some unease. This was actually his first time coming into contact with a gang member of this not-so-low level. In the other party’s eyes, he did not see a single trace of reverence for law enforcers, which made him feel uncomfortable, and also felt fear.
As a law enforcement officer, everything he had was brought to him by this identity, including safety.
When he lost the safety brought to him by this identity, it meant that he would become dangerous, just like his colleagues who had been blown to pieces.
He looked at the young man, slowly took out his hands, and spread them out, “What’s your name?”
The young man began to meticulously check if he was carrying anything dangerous, while casually answering, “Alan.”
“Alan, are you the captain?”
Alan laughed twice, “Why would you think that?” He glanced at Ponda’s face again, “As you can see, I’m just a gatekeeper. I’m not any captain, although I aspire to be one.”
As he spoke, he began to continue performing his duties, including touching Ponda’s balls. On one hand, it was to ensure Lance’s safety, and on the other hand, it was actually intended to give Ponda a show of force.
Through this method, Lance wanted to leave a deep impression on Ponda.
The people of the Lance Family were not afraid of his identity as a law enforcer.
And obviously, Lance’s goal was achieved.
“You can go in. There are no secret rooms here. You can look around as you please. When Lance’s call is over, someone will take you over.”
Ponda seemed to be very interested in the Lance Family now. This was not the cold, emotionless text from a file. They could be contacted, talked to, and understood more deeply.
“Why don’t you call him ‘Boss’ or ‘Leader’? Is it because your relationship with him is different?”
Alan walked towards a room to the side, shaking his head as he walked, “Because we are a family, we are brothers. You wouldn’t call your older brother Mr. So-and-so, so we all just call him ‘Lance,’ not anything else.”
“Of course, if you are willing, you can do that. No one will force you to do things you don’t want to do.”
Alan invited him, “We’re playing cards, want to come in and play for a while?”
Ponda looked through the crack of the door at the several people inside who were looking over at the same time, and their cold, somewhat grim eyes. He instinctively didn’t want to go in.
But he seemed to notice the indescribable smile on the corner of this guy named Alan’s mouth. He nodded, “I can watch for a while.”
Entering the room, there was a gambling table that could seat about ten people. There were twelve or thirteen people sitting around the table, very crowded, but they didn’t care.
This was not a commercial gambling table, just everyone playing together for fun when they had nothing to do.
They were playing a popular game where everyone initially had only two cards in their hand…
Everyone was playing with cash, which led to a large pile of cash on the table, looking to be at least several hundred dollars.
Someone cursed, folded his cards, and stood up. Although everyone was a brother, losing money would still make one angry and uncomfortable.
“Want to play a couple of hands?”
“Mr. Ponda?”
Someone invited him, but he refused, “I don’t know how to play this.”
The others all smiled. Whether it was a normal, well-intentioned, understanding smile, or a sarcastic sneer, was unknown.
After about ten minutes, someone came over, “Lance’s call is over. Who is Ponda?”
Ponda stood up. The person who came motioned for him to follow, “Come with me.”
The two walked through the long corridor. There were people in almost every room here. He even saw a group of people sitting at a table counting money through a half-open door!
There were also people constantly piling boxes of coins onto the table. The money on the table had already piled up like a mountain!
When he arrived outside the last office door, he was inexplicably nervous. The person leading him knocked on the door, then pushed it open, “Mr. Lance is waiting for you inside. I remind you, don’t do anything stupid.”
As he spoke, he stepped aside to let Ponda enter the room.
This was an office with a large bookshelf filled with all kinds of books, which suddenly made Ponda’s impression of Lance a little better.
Compared to those gangsters who liked to collect all kinds of bizarre props or weapons, those like Lance who would arrange a bookshelf in their office were ultimately a minority.
If he knew that Lance hadn’t read a single book here, he might not think so.
“Sit!” Lance gestured for him to sit opposite him, “Smoke?”
He opened the cigarette case lid, pushed it over. On one side were cigarettes, on the other were cigars. Ponda was indeed a little nervous. He took a cigarette and then sat down accordingly.
After he lit the cigarette, Lance looked at him, “Mr. Ponda, I’m a person who likes to make friends, and I am friends with many people.”
“I believe that the purpose of you coming here today is also the same.”
Lance showed a smile as he spoke, “I may have spoken too directly, I hope I didn’t scare you.”
“We didn’t know each other before today. I believe the reason that brought us to sit here and chat is not that I want to understand you, or you want to understand me.”
“Perhaps we will get to know each other as our cooperation deepens in the future, but right now, we only have one goal.”
“Let us become friends first!”
Ponda’s brain couldn’t quite keep up with Lance’s speed of speech. After a good while, he finally said, “You don’t look your age.”
He felt that Lance had a very “old-fashioned” way of speaking, more like someone in their forties, with rich experience and authority. Every word and phrase exuded a kind of see-through and unquestionable quality.
Lance said with a smile, “When you have been whipped by this society until there isn’t a single good piece of skin on your body, you will gain a faster growth rate than others.”
“No one wants to become more mature than their peers, Ponda, because only pain can make a person grow.”
Ponda felt this sentence was very profound and held a deep truth. He could only agree, and then he stated the purpose of his trip, “I need a sum of money, Mr. Lance.”
Lance nodded slightly but expressed nothing. He had to continue, “$50,000, cash or transfer is fine. I can provide you with some intelligence.”
“Five pieces of information!” he deliberated for a moment and stated his bottom line.
The loss from Lance’s bar being taken down last time was basically around $10,000, so he thought that $50,000 for five pieces of information was a very worthwhile matter.
But Lance slowly shook his head, “You haven’t figured out one thing, Ponda.”
“You are not as smart and rational as your colleagues. For $50,000, I can hire at least five of your colleagues to pass messages for me.”
“But you are only willing to give me five pieces of information!”
“You can go out and look around, see if anyone is willing to spend this money on you.”
The word “colleagues” made Ponda start to have doubts about some of his colleagues in the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and at the same time, he expressed contempt for their “bidding” attitude.
More importantly, this competition made him realize that he was not “the only one” for Lance. In other words, it didn’t matter if he was there or not.
When a person is not so important, he will automatically lower many conditions.
$10,000…
Alright, $10,000 was indeed not good. He would have to work for seven or eight years without eating or drinking. In an instant, he suddenly had an epiphany about why there were dirty cops and dirty agents.
Those officials of the Federation government, those people in power, why would they take dirty money.
Because they gave too much.
$50,000, forty years of income without eating or drinking. For a moment, he was also at a loss, not knowing how to deal with the current situation.
Lance looked at his somewhat dazed appearance and said with a smile, “I’ll give you a condition, you listen and see.”
“I’ll give you $10,000 at once, and then an extra $300 a month. For every useful piece of information you pass on, I’ll give you $500.”
“But I must remind you once, only the first person to tell me this news will get this $500.”
“If you work a little harder, earning more than $1,000 a month is a very easy thing.”
“And for some intelligence, I might give you more money, two or three thousand, or even five thousand.”
Lance also took a cigarette from the case, and after lighting it, his hand gestured on the table, “In addition to this, I will also provide you with some intelligence clues for you to solve some cases, to let you have an outstanding performance.”
“This is Golden Port, Ponda. It belongs to the locals!”
“No one knows everything here better than we do!”
“I can get you promoted faster. Senior agent, agent supervisor, even deputy chief and chief, are not without a chance!”
“Our relationship is confidential. No one will know about our relationship. You will become the star of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and even of this system!”
“You should see this as your starting point, not your end point!”
Lance stopped talking and gave the choice to Ponda, “Now, what you need to do is make a decision.”
“Become my friend, or continue to maintain our strange relationship.”
At this time, the Federation did not have “people who resolutely hated crime,” so Ponda’s attitude towards Lance, towards criminal groups, was not so resolute.
Including the current Bureau of Hazardous Materials, their fight against the crime of smuggling liquor was not for justice, but just for a job, and to climb up.
In the end, interest drives the occurrence and result of every matter. This was just a job.
Ponda raised his own idea with some difficulty, “But I need $50,000 now.”
Lance also gave him a solution, “I can lend you another $40,000. You just need to sign a loan agreement.”
Although Lance gave him a plan, he still seemed very troubled.
After a while, he said with some hesitation, “I can’t pay back this money.”
He thought Lance would refuse to lend him the money, but he didn’t expect that Lance would smile and tell him another truth—sometimes paying back money doesn’t necessarily mean really giving money; other things are also fine.
“You don’t have to worry about not being able to pay back the money, Ponda. As long as you are still in the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, you will be able to pay back this money.”
“Believe me, I am a professional in this area!”
He paused, “If you have no problem, we can sign an agreement, and then I can give you the money now…”
When he came, Ponda came empty-handed. When he left, he left with a suitcase full of money, all cash.
He didn’t dare to take a check because a check needed to be cashed. What if the people at the bank knew him, it would be a big problem. Although Lance proposed a way to have someone help him pay, he still refused.
Money, only when it is in one’s own hands, does it truly have the meaning of money!
He told himself that all of this was for Lisa. He loved Lisa and was willing to do anything for her.
At the same time, Lance also gave him a task: to find out exactly how many undercover agents the Bureau of Hazardous Materials had sent to him, and who they were.
In fact, if Ponda had some doubts before about whether Lance had really bribed others, then now he didn’t have many questions, because this matter was very confidential, and only the people in their team knew.
Someone had really gone over to Lance’s side. The faces of his colleagues flashed through his eyes one by one. His eyes showed a complex emotional fluctuation that was both disgusted and somewhat intimate.
Disgusted because these people had betrayed Chief Dale, and intimate because they were all undercover!
After having someone send Ponda off, Lance called Elvin over, “People from the Bureau of Hazardous Materials may have already infiltrated.”
Elvin found it a bit hard to believe because he had always been supervising the matter of recruitment.
He used to recruit people himself. Now that he had more things to do, he would still personally check the people he recruited, so he felt a very unhappy feeling.
His expression was also a bit grave, but he still confirmed again and again, “Is the news reliable?”
Lance nodded, “I asked him to check which ones were their people. His reaction was very surprised, as if he had a feeling that I shouldn’t know about this.”
“A person’s first reaction is hard to fake. He’s not a politician, not an actor. I don’t believe he would specifically go to learn this.”
This is like when someone suddenly calls your name. Your first reaction is definitely to see who the hell is so bored as to call your name on the street.
Turning your head is an instinct, a first reaction.
Even if you tell yourself not to turn your head, when someone calls your name, you will still have a very brief hesitation.
Lance believed his own judgment, “Even if what he said is false, checking it out won’t cause any accidents.”
Perhaps considering that Elvin didn’t know how to check, or where to start checking, he made a suggestion, “Divide them into three groups and send them to three different bars.”
“Arrange for people to watch them, and you’ll know by seeing if their behavior is abnormal…”
Ponda returned home. The moment he placed the suitcase full of $50,000 on the table, he felt his whole person had sublimated!
Lisa, who had already made food, once again threw herself into his arms. After the fierce battle ended, Lisa held Ponda’s face and kissed him, “I have never felt such happiness!”
“You are my whole world, Ponda. I can’t describe my love for you with words. Even if you asked me to die, I wouldn’t have the slightest hesitation!”
“You are the only one who has walked into my heart, and also the last. I will never fall in love with anyone else besides you!”
Listening to Lisa say these words, Ponda felt that everything he had done was worth it!
After eating dinner and regaining his strength, the two fought for another two rounds.
Young people’s bodies are just good, unlike those middle-aged people with money and status, who spend most of their time using props and torture!
The two fell asleep in each other’s arms. The next morning, they went to the bank together and deposited the money into Lisa’s account.
Then Ponda took Lisa to the station. After watching her get on the train, he returned to the Bureau of Hazardous Materials to start a new day of work.
What he didn’t know was that Lisa did not take this train, but got off at the nearest city, Valley City, and quickly returned to Golden Port, eventually placing the check for the $50,000 back in front of Lance.
Lance looked at the check, then at Lisa’s beautiful face, and said with a smile, “He trusts you very much.”
Lisa skillfully took a cigarette from the cigarette case and lit it.
She crossed her legs. Her red lips, long skirt, and the cigarette in her hand formed a very era-defining picture. She shrugged, “A kid with no experience in relationships.”
After all, it was $50,000, not a small sum, and he just gave it to Lisa like that.
Lisa also found it a bit incredible. This kind of man was simply a rare animal. She hesitated a little, “Lance, can you… not hurt him?”
Only then did Lance pick up the $50,000 check and put it in a drawer, “I promise, as long as he doesn’t do anything stupid, he can live to the final chapter.”
“The final chapter?”
“The end of life!”
Now Lisa understood. She couldn’t help but smile, “You have to say something we can understand.”
Lance, on the other hand, was quite interested in exploring, “Did you get into your role, or did you get immersed in it?”
Lisa suddenly showed some annoyance. She took two consecutive drags on her cigarette, the hand holding the cigarette trembling slightly, “I don’t know. The moment he gave me the money, I felt I might have screwed up!”
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