Senior Agent Dewent slowly raised his hands. Then he felt a hand search his body, and quickly found his service pistol, as well as the dagger on his waist.
After all these things had been thoroughly searched, a voice came from behind, “You can put your hands down now.”
And the person behind him gave him a push. He appeared outside the living room. He looked at his wife sitting on the sofa in the living room, and the young man who was chatting with her. An image of a person immediately appeared in his mind.
Lance White.
Lance turned his head and saw him. His wife also turned her head and saw him. He didn’t see much panic on his wife’s face; there was even a smile.
The two stood up at the same time. She took the initiative to walk to Dewent’s side and said with a smile, “You never told me you had such an interesting colleague!”
Dewent was stunned for a moment, then looked at Lance, who was facing him, and realized that he had used a special identity to enter the room.
What made him feel fortunate was that Lance had not done anything to his wife.
He squeezed out a smile. “Yes, I don’t really like to talk about work.”
His wife didn’t seem to care much either. She had never been interested in the affairs of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. What made her smile so brightly now was not something about his work.
It was the handsome young man and the words he spoke.
Who could refuse a handsome and eloquent young man?
“I’ll go get some snacks. You two sit and chat.”
It was already after dinner when Lance arrived. Dewent often came back after dinner, and he would eat out.
It wasn’t that he disliked the food at home, but that seven or eight o’clock was the time when the bars started to open and were at their liveliest. If they had any arrest operations or needed to investigate some clues, they were often arranged at this time.
No one would be stupid enough to go looking for bars in the back alleys at eight o’clock in the morning. At that time, there wasn’t even a ghost in the bars. It was simply impossible to find anything.
Only at this time, when they began to “spit out” a flow of people, could they discover some clues.
So often, these agents would come back after dinnertime. Their families were already used to them not being at the table for dinner.
“Let’s talk,” Lance said. “To your study.”
Dewent couldn’t refuse. He said a word to his wife and then went to the study.
When designing houses in this middle-class community, they would always leave a home office for the master of the house.
You could call it a study, or you could call it a “home office.” Whatever you called it, in short, this was the master’s secret space.
Lance had two other people with him. They, along with Dewent, entered the study. The two of them walked to a corner and stood, while Lance sat in the guest’s seat.
He motioned for Dewent to sit down. The latter could only obey.
“Someone said you’re planning to find trouble with me.” Lance shook his collar and opened his clothes to make sure he looked decent.
He was more like a gentleman than a bad guy.
People are visual animals. If it were someone else, Lance might not have even been able to get into the room. But when he stood at the door and showed his badge, the righteous light from the badge shone on his handsome face, and the hostess opened the door without much precaution.
As for the people who looked more like bodyguards, he explained them as his “subordinates.”
The woman didn’t know much about the system and hierarchy within the Bureau of Hazardous Materials. She wasn’t interested in these things. When she didn’t think Lance was a bad person, any explanation from Lance was reasonable.
She accepted this view, even now.
When Dewent heard Lance’s words, his whole person felt a chill down his spine!
He had just told Director Dale about this in the morning, and now Lance was in his house. It was impossible for him not to let his imagination run wild.
He licked his lips. “I…” he wanted to say that he had never thought so.
But then he realized that since Lance had already come, there must be evidence, or rather, he had full confidence that this matter existed.
Lying, quibbling, denying—it was all meaningless.
He had studied Lance, just like many of Lance’s enemies or partners. It was just that his research was not as deep as theirs, but he knew one thing.
That was evidence. For this person, it was actually not as important as one might think.
At times, he was like a gentleman, but at other times, he was more of a bastard than a bastard.
The thoughts in his mind were spinning like lightning, thinking. The brain cells were activated by waves of bioelectricity, beginning to exchange information and think.
The human brain is a magical organ. It processes all information in a way that people cannot understand.
Dewent showed a bitter smile. He didn’t even know who had betrayed him!
“Sorry…” In the end, he said such a sentence.
Lance laughed. “No need to be sorry. At that moment, you were a good person, and I was a bad person in your eyes. You arrested me, I don’t think that was wrong.”
“You were just doing your duty!”
Unexpectedly, Lance was so reasonable. Dewent’s emotions also eased a lot. He pursed his lips. “Thank you.”
To say thank you to the head of a criminal group who was originally his target was indeed not an easy thing to do.
Lance nodded. “What do you think of your job?”
This question was very abrupt, so abrupt that Dewent didn’t know how to answer for a moment.
And Lance was very patient, waiting for him. After several minutes, he finally said, “My job… is to eliminate…” he looked up at Lance, a little nervous in his heart, “…evil.”
He finally spoke his mind. To his surprise again, Lance actually nodded in agreement with his view. “Yes, to eliminate evil, to eliminate crime, to eliminate criminals.”
“You can perform your job very well. You are a conscientious person.”
“But, Dewent, may I call you that?”
Dewent nodded repeatedly. “Of course, no problem.”
“Dewent, what is evil, and what is not evil? How do you understand it?”
Lance’s question was a bit deep. It made him think, but thinking could not immediately get an answer, and Lance was still waiting for him.
He hesitated for a while and then said, “The law is the yardstick for defining evil.”
Lance did not agree with his view this time. “This presents a problem, Dewent.”
“Is drinking a crime?”
Dewent subconsciously wanted to answer “yes,” but before he could answer, Lance continued, “Before the Prohibition was enacted, the people of the Federation had a history of drinking for two hundred years. Even before the first generation of immigrants came to this continent, the local natives also had a tradition of brewing liquor.”
“Alcoholic beverages brought courage to people and gave them the power to conquer nature. It is not evil. At least drinking should not be a sin.”
“But why do we now think that drinking is a crime? You know, just a few years ago, people could drink openly, but now they can’t. Why?”
Lance’s fingers tapped on the desktop twice. “Because of legislation.”
“Congress has legislated to prohibit alcohol, believing that drinking will delay production. I don’t know how they came to this conclusion, but everything related to alcohol, from legal to illegal, is because of legislation.”
“Is a law that is implemented through legislation necessarily correct?”
Dewent fell into thought. Lance shook his head. “Some local laws tell you that you are not allowed to stand up and pee after eight o’clock at night. Do you think this law is correct?”
“Do you think that a person who stands up to pee after eight o’clock at night is necessarily an evil criminal?”
“Also, some local laws stipulate that singing is not allowed while taking a shower. Then is a person who sings while taking a shower a criminal?”
“Who did they hurt, or whose property did they steal?”
“No, they didn’t.”
“The law is a yardstick used by Congress and capitalists to restrain the behavior of the people. It cannot explain what is just and what is evil.”
“If one day, Prohibition is lifted again, and some people even admit that Prohibition was a wrong law, then how should you view what you did during the Prohibition period?”
“Making the factories that produce liquor go bankrupt, making the workers lose their livelihood, and having those who just want to have a drink be put in prison…”
Lance shook his head. “Now, you tell me, what wrong has been committed by selling liquor, by drinking liquor?”
The door was knocked on. Lance said, “Come in.” Dewent’s wife walked in with a plate.
“I… heated up some cookies, and also just brewed some coffee.”
Lance smiled and picked up a piece, took a bite. The milky fragrance was rich and very delicious.
“So delicious. You are truly skillful, madam.”
“Can I take some with me when I leave?”
“My family would love them.”
Dewent’s wife’s smile couldn’t be wider. “Of course, of course. It’s so good that you like them. I’ll bake some more for you right away. You can chat for a while longer!”
As she spoke, she left happily. The door was closed again. Lance motioned for Dewent to also try some.
The two of them ate while Lance waited for his answer.
Eating cookies and thinking about Lance’s question, his thoughts were a bit stuck now, because he really couldn’t answer this question.
After waiting for two or three minutes, Lance had eaten two cookies, and he still couldn’t answer. Only then did he clap his hands and say, “The reason you can’t answer this question is not because you don’t know the answer, but because once you answer, you will question whether everything you have done is right.”
“It’s actually not that hard.”
“None of us has committed a crime. We are just unwilling to follow the ideas of some people in Congress. They are manipulating our lives, and in order to prevent us from resisting, they have even turned it into a law.”
“This is the real crime, Dewent. We are not criminals. They are!”
These words were spoken by Lance with ease, but for him, they were like a heavy punch, hitting him on the jaw, making him dizzy.
Lance picked up the coffee and poured some for himself. “You don’t know. I went to Golden State some time ago. Some people know. In fact, I also have people in Congress. You can think of it as my superior.”
“I attended many gatherings, the gatherings of those big shots. They would also drink, drink in groups.”
“The people who enacted this law are themselves leading the way in trampling on it. So it has never been a law that explains right and wrong. It is just a whip, used to whip those ordinary people who are unwilling to obey.”
“And you are the one holding the whip, using that whip to whip those who are unwilling to be manipulated.”
“Dewent, life is already hard enough. It’s rare that some things can reduce their pain a little, but you have to consider this a crime and deprive them of the opportunity.”
“For the people, you are the real criminal. Your actions are the real crime.”
Lance’s not-so-intense, not-so-forceful, conversational process made Dewent start to become confused, because he suddenly felt that what Lance said seemed to have some truth.
He shook his head, wanting to shake the confusion out of his head.
But thought, the more you think, the harder it is to be forgotten. “I don’t know.”
His expression told Lance that this person was now struggling in his heart, a little entangled. He had begun to question, which was a good thing.
Lance took out a cigarette. “Want one?”
He nodded in hesitation. The two of them each lit their own cigarette. Lance crossed his legs and looked at him. “From a more grassroots perspective, you are the executioner who destroys their happiness.”
“Prohibition not only did not solve the problem of drinking, but on the contrary, it aggravated the problem of drinking.”
“I don’t want to elaborate on the question of who is right between the people and the minority. This is too complicated. I just want to tell you that, after abandoning these factors, between us, you, me, there is actually no right or wrong.”
“We are all doing things that are beneficial to ourselves. So, don’t deceive yourself about how noble you are, and how despicable we are.”
“I’ve told you so much because I think you have a happy family, a wife who loves you, and I don’t want to ruin all of this.”
“I can tell you that it was Dale who called and told me that you had some ideas…”
Dewent’s eyeballs instantly bulged. He looked at Lance in disbelief, as if he were looking at a monster!
Lance, on the other hand, appeared very relaxed. “Think it’s impossible?”
He shook his head. “Nothing is impossible. Just as I said, everything we do is for our own interests.”
“When my interests and his goals are the same, we are ‘our own people,’ and you are not among them.”
Dewent’s expression became complicated. “You’ve told me this. Does it mean I have no choice?”
He knew that when he knew this great secret, he either had to side with Lance or be killed by Lance. He suddenly felt a little regretful. He knew that this matter was not easy to handle, so why did he have to rush into it?
He thought about it seriously. This matter was Ponda’s fault.
Ponda had been provoking Lance, but had not received any “punishment,” which also made him feel that this matter was no big deal.
At the same time, he also extended another idea. “Ponda… is he also your man?”
Lance nodded. “Yes.”
Dewent suddenly burst out laughing, as if he couldn’t help it. He laughed helplessly, at a loss, and his body also trembled with laughter.
He couldn’t figure it out at all. The director of the Bureau of Hazardous Materials, and the “anti-Lance vanguard,” were all fucking Lance’s men. Could there be anything more exaggerated than this?
Now, even if Lance said that the entire Bureau of Hazardous Materials was his, Dewent wouldn’t find it exaggerated.
After laughing for a while, his laughter stopped.
Lance looked at him. After he had completely calmed down, he said, “The entire police force is my people. If Councilman Williams doesn’t have an accident, he will become the new mayor.”
“The gangs in the city are under my control. I also control the docks, the casinos. This city can leave anyone.”
“But, it can’t leave me.”
“Dewent…” Lance raised his left hand, his palm slightly upwards. “Work for me…” Then he raised his right hand. “…or become an accident.”
“You have to make a choice.”
More than ten minutes later, Lance and his men came out of Dewent’s study. His wife happened to be taking some cookies out of the oven.
The rich aroma filled the entire room!
Lance saw the pre-made meal package in the trash can. The lives of the people of the Federation are very convenient.
In the supermarket, there are pre-mixed “cookie ingredients,” which are dough with butter, cream, sugar, and various seasonings added.
The prices of these doughs are different according to their purpose.
After buying them, you just need to put them on a countertop, flatten them with a rolling pin, and then use your favorite mold to press out the shape of the cookie.
Repeat this step until all the dough is used up, then put these pressed cookies on a baking sheet, and bake them for fifteen to twenty-five minutes according to the instructions on the manual, and the cookies are ready.
It doesn’t require the housewife to have any technical operations. The uniform taste and basically completely consistent results are the choice of every federal housewife.
They never feel that this is unhealthy. They only thank those companies for helping them solve a lot of troubles, so that their cooking skills can always be stable.
“Are you done talking?” The woman put these cookies on a hollow rack specially used for cooling, then took off her heat-insulating gloves and went to get a brown paper bag.
“They can be packed in a little while. Just wait a moment.”
Lance said, “No hurry,” and walked to the side with Dewent and chatted for a while.
Not long after, the woman came with two brown paper bags in her hand. “I hope you and your family will like them.”
Lance ended his conversation with Dewent and nodded with a smile. “Thank you for the gift. They will definitely like them very much.”
“I’ve finished talking about things with Dewent. I have to go back. Thank you for your hospitality, madam.”
The woman nodded with a smile on her face. The couple saw Lance to the door and watched him leave before returning to their home.
(End of a Chapter)