Chapter 866: Seventy-two hours

"We haven't assigned him a room for the night yet. Should we give him a hard time?" Chief Bulu asked Lanse in a low voice over the phone.

Mr. Walter was still in the interrogation room, and he meant to ask Lanse if he should be arranged into one of the multi-person cells.

The holding cells in the police station weren't actually like the cells in a prison; each room had only two or four bunks. Here, it was just a large room with benches welded to the walls, and a toilet in the corner to keep these people from relieving themselves wherever they pleased.

There were single cells, which were smaller, but one could lie down and stretch out.

However, most were multi-person cells; if you were lucky, seven or eight people were together, and if you were unlucky, ten or twenty were crammed in.

Most of the thugs brought in here didn't qualify for a prison sentence. For example, in cases of brawling, if no one pressed charges, neither the police nor the court wanted to waste time and government resources handling such trivial matters.

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, there was no cost to handling these things, but in reality, it was still a job.

As long as it was a job, there was the issue of labor costs.

Spending hundreds or thousands in labor costs to handle a case worth perhaps a few dozen dollars was, no matter how you looked at it, not cost-effective.

Although everyone was reluctant to calculate the things happening in this country in such a way, that was how a capitalized society worked—everything had a price.

Since these people didn't qualify to be sent to prison, they could only be locked up in the police station for seventy-two hours before being released.

Over time, the thugs on the street weren't so afraid of a free three-day stay anymore. Some, even when they got into trouble outside or didn't want to get into trouble, would actively create opportunities to be arrested just to come in and hide for a while.

These thugs who frequently came in were very familiar with this group of police officers at the station. Sometimes, when the police wanted to mess with certain people, they would arrange for them to be put into these multi-person cells.

They didn't even need to say it directly; a few knowing glances or small gestures were enough to make these thugs find every way to give them trouble during those three days, beating them up every single day.

If you were beaten here, you were beaten for nothing.

If Mr. Walter were locked in a multi-person cell, he could at least forget about sleeping well tonight.

Lanse considered it for a moment and rejected the suggestion. "No need. The cases against him now are already enough to ensure he can never turn things around. But we can't let him off too easily either."

"Make him pay for a single room, and you can split the money yourselves."

A smile immediately appeared on Chief Bulu's face. "Good, I know what to do."

Soon, Mr. Walter was brought out of the interrogation room. He knew he might have to stay here for a while.

The officer responsible for taking him to the cell asked him in a low voice, "Do you want to stay in a single room or with others?"

Mr. Walter was stunned for a moment, then immediately said, "I want a single room!"

The officer nodded. He didn't take him over immediately but stopped, lowering his head slightly while his eyes remained fixed on Mr. Walter. "They all say you're a big shot."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Walter knew he was being extorted. He felt like laughing, but he knew now was not the time to express his thoughts.

He had heard of some of the rules in the police station; before, it was just something to listen to as... a topic for entertainment when bored.

Now, this knowledge helped him.

"How much do you want?"

"If it were anyone else, I'd ask for fifty dollars a day."

"But for a big shot like you, if it's not two hundred dollars a day, I can only send you to a multi-person cell."

Watching this officer extort him so brazenly, Mr. Walter was a bit dumbfounded himself.

However, he quickly realized that this perhaps wasn't strange, because this was Lanse's territory. They knew he and Lanse were at odds, which was why they were extorting him so unscrupulously.

He didn't hesitate for long and nodded in agreement. "A very reasonable price, but I have no way to pay you right now."

The officer led him toward the single rooms. "Your lawyer will come tomorrow; you can have him pay for you."

"By the way, you'll have to stay here for at least half a month."

Half a month meant three thousand dollars. When he heard this number, even though Mr. Walter didn't care about three thousand dollars, he was shocked by the greed of this small-time officer.

It took him a while to react. "Aren't you afraid?"

The officer revealed a meaningful smile and then said a sentence he had heard before but never quite grasped the essence of—

"This is Jincheng!"

Without waiting for him to say anything else, the officer stopped outside a single cell and opened the door. "Alright, you can go in."

Then he closed the iron door and turned to leave.

Looking at the space of only about five square meters, Mr. Walter let out a heavy sigh.

"Motherfucker!"

The news quickly reached the Labor Alliance. The Labor Alliance also attached great importance to this matter; after all, as a rotating vice president, Mr. Walter himself represented the face of the Labor Alliance.

The rotating vice presidents of the Labor Alliance adopted a two-plus-three year rotation method. If, during the initial two-year rotation period, they gained the Labor Alliance's recognition for their work—

Then, in the vote, if more than half of the people believed this vice president could continue their work, they could continue for another three years.

After the second term ended three years later, they could enter the cooling-off pool.

Mr. Walter was currently in his second term, and he had quite a few supporters within the Labor Alliance.

When the lawyer representative reported his current predicament, the Labor Alliance held an emergency meeting overnight, while also connecting with the lawyer representative.

"... My current thought is that you should dispatch a new team, one that doesn't belong to the same law firm as us. We can discuss it with each other; perhaps they have new methods."

"Besides that, my personal view is that the Labor Alliance needs to handle the relevant public relations well."

"I have always held a pessimistic attitude toward this matter. Once he is convicted and needs to go to prison, given the current practices of the mainstream federal media, they will certainly report it extensively."

"The image of the Labor Alliance in the minds of the public will encounter some problems, which might be a heavy blow to the upcoming formation of the Workers' Party!"

If people discovered that the future high-level official of the Workers' Party was actually a pervert who attempted to assault a low-level waitress, they would not only be disappointed in Mr. Walter, but also in the entire Labor Alliance!

The lawyer's words made the faces of the gentlemen in the meeting room look quite grim. They had been cooperating with the lawyer representative's firm for a long time and knew him very well; otherwise, they wouldn't have let him go to Jincheng with Mr. Walter to handle this crisis.

Since the other party had already said so, it meant there was a high probability that it was irredeemable.

"What if we obtain the understanding of that... victim lady now?"

Was it possible to turn this case into a misunderstanding?

The lawyer representative's voice was as steady and neutral as ever, without too much personal emotion mixed in. "This is clearly a trap set by the Lanse family. It's very difficult for us to break it, unless we can persuade the congressional forces behind Lanse to pressure him from the top down."

"Otherwise, neither the local court nor the circuit court is likely to support providing a not-guilty defense for Mr. Walter, and the Supreme Court is almost entirely controlled by Congress."

"Regardless of whether you want to resolve this matter through the court or not, the only way is to take the high-level route."

After the other gentlemen communicated for a while, another rotating vice president said, "Thank you for your suggestion. If there is any news, we will contact you again."

"You're welcome, this is what I should do."

"Also, I have a bill here that has already been faxed back; I need you to handle it."

"I won't disturb you any further. Good night, gentlemen."

After ending the call, the rotating vice president looked at the people around him. "Tell me your thoughts."

These were the high-level officials of the Labor Alliance, and also the high-level officials of the Workers' Party. Of course, it didn't exclude the possibility that some people might not want to go to the Workers' Party and would rather stay in the Labor Alliance.

But no matter what, the high-level officials were always the high-level officials.

"The lawyer just said it's a trap, an inescapable trap. Both the local court and the circuit court are influenced by the Lanse family and will make unfair judgments against us."

"You are also very clear about the situation of the Supreme Court. Congress will not show us goodwill. We have no way to deal with this issue."

Another high-level member continued, "That is to say, Walter's ending is very difficult to change, and now we have an additional public relations crisis to handle."

Someone asked, "Can we talk to Lanse directly?"

"Our most important work now is to form the Workers' Party. His de-unionization in Jincheng will have a certain impact on us, but the impact won't be too great."

"But if Walter's matter comes out, it is more likely to cause us a huge negative impact."

"We can hand over Jincheng or even Laizhou to him in exchange for him releasing Walter."

It's very simple to solve a case that is clearly a setup. As long as the plaintiff, that is, the girl, stands up to clarify that everything was actually a misunderstanding, then the problem is solved.

But clearly, this girl wouldn't stand up, so they could only consider other methods.

Giving up a state to overcome this crisis didn't seem impossible, but... this wasn't the best choice either.

After all, they would be abandoning millions of worker brothers in Laizhou, which would very likely create some contradictions or even splits internally!

So they hadn't come up with a solution in a short time.

One of the high-level officials hesitated several times to speak. His situation was discovered by the rotating vice president, but he didn't make it public.

After this temporary meeting ended, he pulled this guy into his office alone.

Because not everyone was here tonight, there would be a meeting with more people tomorrow.

But before that, he wanted to hear what his colleague had to say but didn't dare to.

"I saw you stop several times when you wanted to speak at the meeting. Do you have any good ideas?"

Seeing that the other party still had that hesitant look, he actively comforted him, "We are all for the Labor Alliance and the Workers' Party. As long as your ideas are meaningful and valuable for us to solve the current problems, we will definitely adopt them."

"The Labor Alliance is a brother organization; you shouldn't have such strong defensive psychology!"

That high-level official pursed his lips. "We can actually change our thinking and just abandon Walter directly."

"We were also deceived by his hypocritical side."

"We won't shield him; we believe in fair law. Which organization doesn't have a few scumbags?"

"As long as our attitude is good enough and active enough, the more we suppress him, the less people will reject us."

Listening to this person say such things, the rotating vice president's face didn't change much, but there were some ripples in his heart.

This might not be a bad way. As long as they showed the Labor Alliance's stance—that they would absolutely not protect Walter just because he was one of their high-level officials, but instead turn to protect the rights and interests of low-level workers—this would certainly make workers feel that they were a fair organization.

Thinking of this, there was already some light in the rotating vice president's eyes. "Your suggestion is very important; I will mention it to the president."

The guy who proposed this idea scratched his head. "Can you not tell others that I suggested it?"

As the person who proposed abandoning Walter, even if he was promoted to a more important position, it would be difficult for him to form a trusting relationship with others in a short time.

Who the fuck would want to be friends with someone who would abandon them at any time?

Tired of living?

This was also the reason why he hesitated several times at the meeting. Saying it out would only offend Mr. Walter alone, but at the same time, he would become more distant from others.

The rotating vice president nodded. "I won't tell them it was you..."

At the same time, Pang Da's United Fleet was sailing on the East Ocean, three days away from Jincheng.

"Sneak Attack on Jincheng" brought everyone some thoughts about this war, and also made the Dantela Navy consider whether the Federation would establish an observation mechanism in the Yalan area to observe the nearby sea area.

If they couldn't strike the federal mainland hard, it would be difficult to pull the Federation's attention to the war away from the main battlefield of the Tanfeit Continent.

With the Federation's current control over the war situation, if they were left to act recklessly on the land battlefield, the Dantela Republic might not necessarily be their opponent.

The Federation's war potential was too strong, with a steady stream of troops pushed to the front line, and the mainland, far from the war, frantically creating blood for the war.

Sneaking an attack on Jincheng, from a side perspective, was also a result of having no other choice.

The Dantela Navy's plan was to completely cripple or even destroy Admiral Myers' navy, so that the Federation's other naval fleet wouldn't be able to leave federal waters at will, avoiding coastal cities being shelled again.

You have to know that Jinzhou was also a coastal area, and New Jincheng was right by the sea!

The core of federal politics, economy, and culture was within the range of naval guns. Their fleet must guard New Jincheng. If New Jincheng were shelled, the Federation would lose a lot of face.

In this way, only the Dantela Navy could roam back and forth on the East Ocean, whether it was pressing toward federal coastal cities to make them increase their defensive strength on the mainland—

Or cutting off the material transportation between the Federation and the Tanfeit Continent, it could play an important role in the war!

If it weren't for the Federation's current blood transfusion and the provision of various scarce materials, it would be difficult for Slader to maintain their current morale!

Of course, more importantly, the Dantela people didn't want the Federation to truly master the dominant position in the Slader Military Alliance. Even if Dantela eventually lost the war, they hoped that it would be the Slader people who accepted their defeat, not the Federation people who had already exposed their ambition and greed!

If the Slader people won, it might not hurt their foundation, but the Federation people definitely would!

For the national destiny of Dantela, for the future of the Dantela people, this was a just war!

In the meeting room of the command ship, the Naval Commander-in-Chief responsible for this attack plan contacted the captain of every warship via radio.

"They say we can reach Jincheng in seventy-two hours, so this might be our last pre-war meeting before the war begins."

"This battle concerns whether we can regain the initiative in the following war, so everyone..." The Commander-in-Chief's voice paused here. Although he didn't make any more sound, maintaining silence, one could feel a force spreading silently.

This put great pressure on the captains, but it wasn't entirely pressure; it was more of a trust, an encouragement, a mobilization!

"We shoulder the direction of the war and the destiny of the country. Now is the moment we need to be psychologically prepared for sacrifice."

"If anyone doesn't advance when they should, or doesn't retreat when they should, I guarantee you won't even see the day the military court tries you!"

"I have already prepared for sacrifice, and I hope you are too!"

He paused for a while, his tone softening slightly. "Of course, this battle may not necessarily fail. The Federation people don't know our combat plan, nor would they think that one of their movies would actually give us such great inspiration!"

The captains listening to the radio let out light laughter. Formulating a war plan based on a federal war movie sounded like a joke.

But it actually happened!

They couldn't even think of doing this themselves, so the Federation people couldn't possibly think of it.

"After our plan succeeds, the Federation's navy and military will become a joke, and we are the ones who created this joke!"

"Gentlemen, for the glory of Dantela, please bet everything and fight for Dantela!"

The fast-moving warships left white marks on the sea, which quickly dissipated, leaving not a trace, as if no one had ever been here.

The Commander-in-Chief looked up at the wall clock in the combat command room. Seventy-one hours and fifteen minutes until entering the combat zone!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 867 =====