Chapter 349: 350. Chapter 346: As You Wish

350. Chapter 346: As You Wish

Summer mornings brighten earlier.

Just past six, the sky was already fully light, yet ninety percent of the city was still asleep.

Whether the working class at the bottom or the tycoons of the Bay Area, they all needed longer sleep to make up for their physical toll.

The rich lost their stamina from battling beautiful girls or handsome boys deep into the night, while the manual laborers were simply worn out from a full day's work!

An eleven-hour-plus work schedule left most heavy-labor workers passing out the moment they hit the bed, leaving them precious little rest.

But some people rise very early — for instance, the workers who took on the city's sanitation contracts. They were up at the crack of dawn every day, yet their pay was pitifully low.

Another example… reporters!

At six fifteen, a large crowd of reporters had once again gathered outside the Hazardous Materials Bureau, making the guard in the duty room so tense he could barely breathe!

Last time the Lans family had hung a leaker from a lamppost outside the Hazardous Materials Bureau, costing the entire department its face!

Even the Federal Daily had a small piece on the news, and Director Dai Er had fired the guard on the spot.

He first checked the lamppost — no one was dangling from it, which let him breathe a sigh of relief. He craned his neck to look at the walls on either side of the street; no one was nailed to those either.

The reporters were clustered around a car. Although the car was parked at the curb and not far from the Hazardous Materials Bureau, it clearly had nothing to do with them anymore!

He even stood aside to watch the show, until Officer Lukaer drove up for work.

He hadn't slept well these past two days. The dock warehouse raid had been a success for the Hazardous Materials Bureau.

Not only had they destroyed one warehouse, they had also shut down a place suspected of openly selling intoxicating beverages and arrested a large batch of people involved.

But for Officer Lukaer, it was a failed operation — he still hadn't caught a single lead connected to Lans, who remained free as the wind!

Yes, free as the wind. Lans had faced no sanction from law or justice; he still enjoyed his freedom, his wealth, and everything else!

Director Dai Er had called him in privately for a talk, feeling he was acting a bit unhinged when it came to Lans. If he really wanted to catch Lans, he needed to settle his mind.

Not seizing on every little thing, not actively provoking Lans — but like a venomous snake, waiting for the right moment to strike a fatal blow.

Officer Lukaer was also reflecting. He had indeed been a bit overzealous in matters touching Lans. He needed to sort out his thoughts again, to analyze the problem from a higher plane or a broader angle.

He had left home early; he needed to check some materials, and to think.

When his car reached the outside of the Hazardous Materials Bureau, he already saw plenty of reporters photographing a car. He drove through the gate and casually asked, "What's going on out front?"

The guard pursed his lips. "Not too sure. A bunch of reporters showed up at dawn and have been photographing that car nonstop. Some new model, or maybe a rich guy's car?"

Officer Lukaer had a bad feeling. After parking, he clipped on his badge and walked over to the car. "Excuse me…"

That line swung a wall of cameras onto him. Crack-crack-crack — a burst of magnesium flash left him squinting. He impatiently pushed through the crowd to the very center, glanced at the guy sitting in the rear passenger seat, and cursed under his breath!

Two minutes later, he made the call to report it.

The Hazardous Materials Bureau had plenty of authority, but when it came to criminal cases, they seemed to come up a little short.

The police arrived quickly — an officer from the Criminal Division of the City Police Bureau, a rookie.

He took one look and said, "Just like last time. Another leaker."

There was a note of schadenfreude in his voice. Recently the Hazardous Materials Bureau had been trying to grab more law-enforcement powers, which was dangerous and unfriendly to the police system. Naturally, the police didn't like them.

The body had already been bagged, but the scene was preserved — supposedly to collect evidence.

By the time people clocked in, the whole Hazardous Materials Bureau knew about it. Only this time, they didn't know whose man had died.

Dai Er called each of the supervisors into his office one by one, Officer Lukaer included.

He told Dai Er the truth: it wasn't his man, but a colleague's. Most likely it was fallout from the warehouse incident.

Director Dai Er looked at him for a moment, then — mindful of Officer Lukaer's consistently diligent work — said nothing, only told him to reflect on it properly.

On his way out, he spotted his colleague. They walked toward each other face to face, meeting each other's gaze.

Officer Lukaer was perfectly composed; his colleague, however, wore a look of grievance.

Just as they were about to brush past each other, Officer Lukaer apologized. "Sorry."

His colleague stopped, turned, and looked at him seriously. "The man's already dead, and you're saying sorry to me?"

His voice wasn't quiet, drawing plenty of attention — including from Agent Agent Pang Da, who had just received a sum of money from Lans.

"I didn't know it would come to this, and it's already done. We did seize a lot of smuggled liquor." Officer Lukaer kept trying to justify himself.

"You didn't know it would come to this, so you just decided to act on your own?"

"It was my man who died, not yours. Of course you don't care."

"You got the glory, everyone's saying you did a great job. Who cares about some fringe guy dying?"

"You make people sick, Officer Lukaer!" His colleague said no more and walked straight into the director's office.

Officer Lukaer stared at the door that had just been slammed shut, threw his hands open with a helpless look, glanced at the colleagues gathered around to watch the show, then turned and left.

Agent Agent Pang Da asked the colleague beside him, "What's going on?"

When he'd arrived, he'd only caught wind of something vague — he didn't know the details.

His colleague knew a bit more and filled him in.

"They caught another leaker. Looks like the Lans family did it — they stuffed the body in the back seat of a car and parked it right outside the gate."

"Officer Lukaer stole the spotlight on the dock warehouse case last time, but from the looks of it, the dead man wasn't his informant, it was…'s."

A few casual sentences pieced together the rough truth. Agent Agent Pang Da filed the matter away in his mind.

Back in his office, Officer Lukaer let out a sigh. He walked to the window and gazed at the sky outside and the white clouds drifting slowly by, lost in thought for a long moment.

A "…knock-knock" at the door pulled him out of his reverie. To him it felt like only a moment, but several minutes had actually passed.

An administrative agent stood outside. "Someone's here to post bail for those workers who caused the trouble."

Officer Lukaer was in charge of this case now. Director Dai Er had given the supervisors broad authority — whether to hold them or not was entirely up to them.

Keeping Johnny served no purpose, and prosecuting him wouldn't yield much either. As long as he stuck to his story that he'd been drinking alone at home, no one could punish him for drinking.

So as for these drunks, as long as they didn't get too out of hand, the Hazardous Materials Bureau wouldn't bother with them.

On top of the informant's death, Officer Lukaer's mood didn't seem as volatile as before. "Have them pay the fine and let them go."

He had interrogated Johnny and the others, but couldn't find much in the way of valuable leads or evidence on them.

Even if they testified that the workers' club was run by Lans, the court would very likely not admit it, because a drunkard's words inherently lack credibility in court.

Add to that the fact that they couldn't produce any actual evidence, so the court simply wouldn't accept these unsubstantiated claims.

Keeping them here is an eyesore — better to send them away early.

The desk agent quickly relayed Officer Lukaer's opinion downstairs, and Johnny and the others were bailed out by the union's legal counsel.

Spending their first two days in a law enforcement agency was also a novel experience for them.

The first thing Johnny did after gaining his freedom was to ask about the situation at the docks.

"The situation is getting more and more tense. The management company's attitude is very firm — there's a high probability they won't agree to a raise."

The men gathered around, and someone asked, "What's the union's position?"

The legal counsel, who was also on the workers' side, said loudly, "Of course we'll stand with you. When the time comes, we'll help you fight for your lawful rights against the company. Don't worry…"

When Johnny returned to the docks, he received a hero's welcome, with many people running over to greet him.

During the two days he was held, rumors about him had been spreading rapidly.

People's previous bad impressions of him had also begun to improve because of the demands he had made of the company this time.

Although he knew that everything he did was a script, a performance, he liked this act and was beginning to immerse himself in it!

Everyone crowded around him — some patted his hair, some his shoulders, some his arms, some his waist.

"Who the hell's grabbing my ass?" he shouted, watching warily behind him as the workers all laughed and giggled.

Someone called out loudly, "Johnny, you bastard, say something to us!"

This was a form of emotional expression unique to the working class — they liked hearing others speak.

Johnny's emotions had reached the right moment. He coughed once, hummed twice—

"Imprisonment and intimidation cannot shut me up. My demand has never changed — give all of us a raise!"

"If they won't give us a raise, I'd rather not do this job."

"I want to show them whether it's them or us that's more important to this dock!"

Very plain words, but the meaning within them made the workers cheer while also beginning to think!

After all, was it the desk workers sitting in their offices who were indispensable to this dock, or was it the men who actually worked here?

Under Johnny's rallying and calls, and with the organization of Won and the union, a strike was brewing and had already begun to threaten the city!

On Tuesday morning, George, who had already tendered his resignation, took the initiative to contact the media. The media gathered in front of his modest house in the Plisia District to attend his speech announcing his candidacy for city council.

Before the cameras and reporters, he laid out his views to them — that since losing him, Jingang's public order had rapidly deteriorated.

This was largely and directly related to the mayor's inaction on public safety. Even now, the city police department had not officially appointed a new police commissioner, precisely because of the mayor's dereliction of duty.

Charlie believed that the mayor, as an outsider, harbored certain prejudices against the local law enforcement agencies and did not trust Jingang's law enforcers.

This would make the relationship between the two sides increasingly tense, and he — Charlie, the former police commissioner — could resolve these problems.

But there was one prerequisite: he had to have a better reason to get involved in these matters than as an ordinary citizen, because in that capacity he wouldn't have the standing to say or do anything about this city.

So he planned to run for Bay District city council, and promised that if elected, he would promptly urge city hall and the police system to communicate effectively, quickly turning the chaotic situation around and bringing it under control!

He also stated that he was not using such an inopportune time and event to gain political capital for himself.

It was because he could not bear to watch this city fall into rapid decline that he had no choice but to step forward again at retirement age.

Charlie's speech pointed the spearhead directly at the mayor, which also caused some internal contradictions within the city to begin surfacing. Immediately, many people voiced their opinions, and some even pointed the blame for the city's chaos directly at the mayor.

Eleven police precincts and one city police department all expressed support for Charlie's candidacy, saying they needed an effective channel of communication with city hall to resolve the many current problems.

The police's tacit endorsement further led the public to believe that the current poor public order was directly related to the mayor.

The matter of Commissioner Charlie being forced to tender his resignation was also brought up again by some, who claimed that his forced resignation was a conspiracy from city hall.

The mayor had used some underhanded methods to force two suspects to commit suicide, then exploited their suicides to strip Charlie of his position.

They even attributed John's death to this being the mayor's conspiracy!

Faced with so much mud-slinging, the mayor had no good explanation. He simply told the citizens that tomorrow, Wednesday, he would hold a public address and clarify many issues, and hoped everyone would come hear what he had to say.

The entire city seemed to be growing restless and uneasy.

That afternoon, after a brief rest, Johnny, as the workers' representative, sat on the other side of the negotiating table from the dock management company, beginning three-way talks.

The dock management company also sent three directors this time; the manager could only sit at the end.

On the union side were Won and the legal counsel, along with a few staff members who would record the entire negotiation process.

As for the workers' side, apart from Johnny, they were all worker representatives representing the workers' interests — their interests aligned with those of the workers. They had only one demand this time: a raise.

As the mediator, Won spoke first. "Commissioned by the dock management company, I contacted the workers' representatives, which led to today's wage negotiation."

"I should have participated in this negotiation from a neutral standpoint, but as the president of the workers' union, it's very hard for me to remain neutral, so I won't speak first."

He looked toward the workers' representatives. "Johnny, in front of these directors, state your demand."

Looking at the three directors sitting across the table, at the contempt hidden in their eyes, a fire rose in Johnny's heart.

Even though he had driven these people to the negotiating table, they still looked down on him — their eyes full of disdainful contempt.

In the past, he could only knuckle under, bowing his head beneath their calm, contemptuous gazes.

But now, he would be a hero — a true hero!

"I have no other demand — we must have a raise!"

"This is our only condition, and it's absolutely non-negotiable!"

The other worker representatives nodded in agreement — they had no other demands, only the raise.

Won asked, "Do you have any requirements regarding the amount of the increase?"

"At least a dollar and fifty cents!" Johnny spoke first again. "Other industries get a raise every six months, at least twenty to fifty cents."

"We haven't had a raise in over two years. Counting from now to the end of the year, you owe us five raises. Thirty cents each is a very reasonable number!"

Before he could finish, the manager slammed the table and stood up. "That's impossible!"

"Our dock workers' income already ranks as middle-class in Jingang City. You won't easily find work this comfortable and this well-paid out there."

"We can make concessions in other areas — twenty extra minutes of rest time each day, slightly better meals — but a raise is impossible!"

He said it with absolute finality, leaving not the slightest room for negotiation.

After listening, Worn also let some displeasure show. "We're negotiating here, Manager. You need to have the right attitude."

"The right attitude?" He let out an "aha" of a laugh. "There's nothing wrong with my attitude at all. Let me tell you this — if you lot think that making a fuss will get you that much more money, then you've got the wrong idea!"

"We will not compromise on this matter. A raise is an unreasonable demand, and we will not agree to it!"

Johnny's temper flared even hotter. "Why on earth is a raise an unreasonable demand?"

"And what would be a reasonable demand?"

"If you're willing to talk, then talk properly."

"If you're not willing to talk…"

The manager cut him off directly. "What, you don't want to work here anymore?"

He tried to back Johnny into a corner with his words. Johnny's face went red, and he braced both hands on the table as he stood up. "You want to fire me?"

The manager slapped the table and stood up abruptly, pointing at Johnny and shouting, "As you wish — you're fired!"