Chapter 1110

In life, one must always face such opportunities once or many times, making choices one is actually not that willing to make.

Perhaps thinking that one day in the future he could avenge his wife and children, the bearded director's mood improved slightly. "I know the Perez family has a warehouse in the suburbs."

"Go on."

The bearded director lit another cigarette; for him right now, cigarettes were the good things that could comfort him.

He took a deep drag, and the thick smoke curled into his lung lobes, soaking into every lung cell, making him feel a sense of security in his body as if he were being filled up.

Along with the exhalation, the smoke disappeared in an instant, and the resulting emptiness made him start looking forward to the next puff.

"The Perez family's main business consists of two parts: one is alcohol, and the other is their maple kite grass. I believe you are quite familiar with their business."

"You burned their farm before."

Burning the farm and roasting the direct members of the Perez family had caused a massive impact throughout the federal underworld. It could be said that this was a super storm released by the Lanse organization! Although every year, some small gangs would ignore the demands of the five major federal families, and might even confront them occasionally.

But such confrontations were always very weak, and they always ended with these small gangs compromising or even being wiped out.

There were occasional ripples, but ripples could be suppressed.

The storm created by the Lanse family that time was not like that; important farms and crops were burned, and important family members were said to have been tied up and roasted.

Everyone was stunned; they were all waiting for the story's logical conclusion, but instead, they got a science fiction story.

Although in the following years this science fiction story had been upgraded to "2.0" and "3.0," in terms of influence, the "1.0" version was still more shocking! So it was not strange that the bearded director had heard of this incident.

Lanse gave an "Hmm." "So you think I should destroy this warehouse?"

"How much pain would destroying this warehouse bring them?"

The bearded director chuckled twice, his voice filled with some hatred. "It will make them hurt very much!"

After considering for a moment, Lanse said, "Give me the address and the situation over there. I'll consider it first and see how to handle it."

Afterward, they ended the call. Lanse took the address and called Hailamu, asking him to go investigate.

And now, Lanse's own main energy was focused on the candidates within the Liberal Party that his subordinates had investigated.

In August, the results of the Liberal Party's internal candidate election would be out. There wasn't much time left, but fortunately, the results of their investigation were already in front of Lanse.

A total of seven documents.

"They have this many nominated candidates?" Lanse looked at these documents and curled his lip; obviously, they all wanted to take advantage.

He didn't wait for anyone else to answer, picked out the file of the guy Senator Cleveland had mentioned—the one with a high probability of winning within the Liberal Party—and began to flip through it.

This guy named "Edwin Porter" was a very typical Liberal. To put it more bluntly, one of his ancestors had once appeared in that oil painting.

This destined him from birth to possess things that the vast majority of people could never have in their entire lives—"the foundation for realizing free will."

When the Liberal Social Party split, he chose to remain within the Liberal Party. He had previously served as State Speaker and Governor, but had never served as a Senator.

And precisely because he had served as Governor, his "historical record" in terms of interest exchange exceeded that of the other nominees.

Capitalists and politicians favored his "ability to repay" and his "honesty," and having served as Governor also gained him many connections; he had quite a few favor cards in his hand to play.

Looking at this document, which wasn't actually very detailed and even contained some typos, Lanse looked up at the gentlemen in the room. "This is why I said you need to study. I've already seen several spelling errors, and this is just the first page."

Allen sat on the sofa, smoking and laughing as he said, "Actually, we could hire some college students; that's much simpler than us becoming college students ourselves."

Lanse didn't refute this point, even agreeing somewhat. "But you have to be able to make these college students loyal to you, loyal to our organization."

He skipped over this topic and continued looking at the document in his hand. Porter had quite a few problems, but as for how fatal they were—whether they could cause a fatal wound to his political life—he couldn't find many.

Things like his record of having call girls were all documented, and they even found the prostitutes who had served Porter, but what use was that? They had no direct evidence. Throughout the entire transaction process, they were arranged into a car where they couldn't see outside, and then arranged into a certain building.

After they finished serving Porter, they were taken away in the same manner. Throughout the entire process, they could only contact Porter during the service; other matters, such as how the commission was paid or who arranged this for them, Porter did not participate in.

These problems couldn't take Porter down at all because there was no actual evidence. Even if the Chief Justice stood on Senator Cleveland's side, these accusations could only serve as a reference, not as facts to judge by.

"It seems there aren't any major problems." Lanse finished reading the file quickly and tossed it onto the table. "People in his family haven't even had an abortion. From what you've investigated, it's too clean."

"But this very cleanliness actually means there are deeper things we haven't dug out yet. However, I believe that even if we dig hard, it will be very difficult to find them."

"He must have hidden them very well."

Lanse put down Porter's file and looked at the files of the other nominated candidates. The quality of these people's files was actually about the same, but two were slightly worse.

After searching through all the files, he collected them, gave everyone a break, and then took them to Senator Cleveland's office.

Senator Cleveland hadn't been that busy lately, but his social engagements had increased because the general election was approaching, and there would be a huge adjustment in Congressional seats. He couldn't guarantee that they would still occupy important positions and hold the "veto power" after the adjustment.

Everyone was socializing frantically, wanting to get even a tiny hint about the "future" from each other's mouths.

Some were gathering intelligence from each other, some were building relationships, and others were trading frantically at the final moments of their power!

The entire political scene was filled with a very strange atmosphere; it was a bit crude, not so artistic.

When Lanse met Senator Cleveland, he still had some smell of alcohol on him. It was just past lunchtime; generally in the Federation, alcohol was not consumed at lunch; they only put alcohol aside for dinner.

Because dinner was a very important and formal choice in the social system of the Federation, unlike breakfast and lunch, which were just perfunctory, so the sense of ritual was stronger.

Being able to drink at noon meant this was a lunch with political overtones, drinking a little to warm up the scene and increase mutual affection.

The Senator scratched the hair behind his ears vigorously while tearing open his tie. He lay back on the sofa, appearing somewhat less capable.

"This is the situation my people investigated. You should take a look." Lanse sat opposite him and handed over the file bag.

After Senator Cleveland took a look, he had his butler bring him a hot towel. After applying the hot compress to his face for a while, he seemed to be more spirited.

"Let me see." He opened the file bag, took out some of the contents, and specifically picked out Porter's file to read.

As he read, he said, "Porter's market value within the Liberal Party is very good right now. He may have already reached an intention for some deals with some people. If there are no accidents, he will very likely win and be officially nominated as the Liberal Party's presidential candidate."

"So... let me see first."

He read the documents very quickly, which might have had something to do with his work; he was already accustomed to how to quickly browse these documents and find everything he wanted from them.

It only took him ten minutes to finish reading the file, and then he tossed it back onto the coffee table.

"It's about the same as the news I got from other sources. He doesn't have any major flaws, and even if he has some minor ones, there's no way to pull him down from this."

"Actually, I had thought of this long ago, but I was still naively hoping they might have missed something."

He lit a cigarette; smoking after drinking brought a more wonderful experience. "To make him win, his team and those who support him will definitely help him clean up all the stains from his past life. It seems that trying to control his term in this way doesn't seem very feasible."

Senator Cleveland took two more puffs of his cigarette, looking at Lanse twice during this time.

"I've already investigated the matter regarding you."

"The person behind Roland (the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) is Porter, as well as a few people on Porter's side."

"I heard that they are very confident about winning this time, so what they are seeking is the opportunity for the next win, and de-gangsterization is one of the core slogans of their campaign. You will soon see this in their campaign speeches and propaganda."

"This is the campaign content Porter's team created for him: lowering taxes for ordinary people, increasing their disposable income, de-gangsterization, and increasing job positions, as well as carrying out some reforms in other areas."

"We... some friends talked about it while chatting, that there might be more and bigger macro plans within the Liberal Party. They are trying to make the successor to the President come from the Liberal Party again through this win and re-election."

"This way they will have at least twelve, or up to sixteen years of governing time, using such a long time to turn back the situations that are unfavorable to them."

He was talking about the opposition and contradictions between the Liberal Party and the Social Party. After all, they were once one, but later split into two political groups, and the Social Party expanded its influence to the maximum by firmly controlling the governing power.

Now, they wanted to do the same thing the Social Party had done before, so they listed a long-term governing platform to gain more support from voters.

In subsequent political choices, public opinion would change in their favor.

Lanse had roughly understood. In the end, gangs were just a bargaining chip placed on the table by top politicians, a gambling table facing the bottom-level masses. Their chips were policies, and the bottom-level masses' chips were themselves—that is, public opinion.

It could be seen that these chips were very attractive. Lanse himself thought so too, and he believed that the development of society would eventually make de-gangsterization a norm.

Cognition and acceptance were two different things. It was just like how he knew it would be this way, but if this stick fell on him, he would also resist.

"If we take this Porter down, will the situation be a little better?" Lanse asked.

Senator Cleveland's eyes had some subtle changes; he felt he was hiding it well. "Yes, some policies centered on him might not necessarily get the attention they have now. You know, doing something and doing something with all your might—whether it's the beginning, the process, or the result—are completely different."

"Changing to someone else, they might also support de-gangsterization, but compared to this, they are more concerned with some reform plans in the economic field."

"I can't say it absolutely won't happen, or absolutely will. This is a series of platforms proposed by the Liberal Party Committee. Even if the weight of a certain item is lowered, it is still within the platform."

Lanse listened to what he said and responded after a moment, "So even if it's not Porter, it actually doesn't change the overall political direction much?"

Senator Cleveland did not deny this statement. "Unless in four years, we find a way to drag the President off that carriage, and then we climb back up ourselves!"

Lanse rubbed the ruby ring on his finger. "I have two ideas; perhaps I can provide you with some thoughts."

Senator Cleveland nodded. "Please speak."

"First, finish him off."

Senator Cleveland looked at Lanse with a "Are you fucking kidding me" expression, his mouth wide open. But slowly, his wide-open, unclosable mouth gradually closed, and his expression changed from shock and disbelief to frowning in thought.

"Physically solving the person who creates trouble is always much simpler than solving the trouble itself," Lanse added.

"Since they have a 'perfect' candidate, then we will shatter this perfect candidate. Now they don't have that much time to re-select and build a perfect candidate."

Senator Cleveland raised his hand; he seemed to be thinking about whether it was really necessary to do so.

But Lanse knew this was just an illusion, because just now, this Senator had been using some linguistic induction and hints to make him make such a choice.

Now Lanse was just saying the words he wanted to say himself. Notice his seemingly struggling and tangled thinking? Everyone was just acting. Although there was no director, one couldn't ignore the script and mess around because of that.

Senator Cleveland was indeed considering it this way. They chose Porter, so they definitely had to let Porter take the stage without flaws. At least he wouldn't be dragged down from that position because of his own problems.

There was a saying that was very true: when a person's status and class in society reach a certain height, secular laws will no longer have any effect on him.

Whether it was murder, corruption, or even worse crimes, none could serve as a reason or excuse to judge him.

The only things that could judge him were party strife and political infighting!

Only after people standing at the same height as him, and more people, reached a consensus could they impose "divine punishment" on him! The Liberal Party would definitely protect him to the death, so there would be no such thing as divine punishment. Therefore, before he took that step, finish him off and replace him with a less reliable candidate; perhaps that would be more helpful to their later plans.

But now, he wanted to hear what Lanse's second plan was.

"What else?"

"The second option is that he has no problems, but we create problems for him."

"What if his family members committed crimes, but he covered for his family?"

Senator Cleveland considered for a while and said cautiously, "That depends on what crime his family member committed."

"For example... homicide?"

"His son killed a prostitute after getting drunk. As a father, Porter didn't want his son to have any trouble, so he used his power and influence to cover up this fact."

"Or his wife used his influence to engage in fraudulent activities, and after the incident, he also used his influence to cover it up."

"Or... he has connections with foreigners, and a huge international scandal was exposed internationally?"

Hearing these points Lanse mentioned, Senator Cleveland gasped. "You can do what you said?"

Lanse smiled and didn't answer whether he could or couldn't, but judging from the confident smile on his face, it seemed he was very certain he could do these things.

Senator Cleveland couldn't sit still. "If you can do these things... then he is the best candidate!"

"But you must guarantee you can do it!"

Lanse nodded and said, "During the election period, for the sake of stability, he will definitely find a way to cover up these problems, at least for one of them."

"As for the other two, we can wait until after he wins to do them, and doing it then will be much simpler than doing it now."

Because of these words, Senator Cleveland had some changes to some things he had already decided. He stood up and walked back and forth a few times. "Do as you say, as soon as possible!"

"I will have the Governor's side say hello and appropriately give you more space. Get this done, understand?"

(End of chapter)