Chapter 93: Sam Surrenders Allegiance

"Drop your weapons immediately! Hands on your head! Get down!"

The police captain roared at the top of his lungs, his finger pressed tight against the trigger.

However.

Leo's face showed not the slightest ripple of emotion, and he didn't even pause his steps.

Leo casually brought his cigar to his lips and walked toward the podium in the center of the banquet hall, step by step, as if no one else was there.

"Leo! You've got some nerve!"

On the podium, Sam shot to his feet.

Looking at Leo surrounded by dozens of police officers, the newly elected Governor of New York State's face instantly shed its initial panic, replaced by the extreme arrogance of someone who had their prey trapped.

"I was just wondering where I'd catch you tomorrow, and here you are, you reckless thug, actually daring to deliver yourself to my doorstep!"

Sam smugly adjusted his suit jacket, pointed down at Leo from his elevated position, and sneered, "What? You think with your little gang warfare tactics, you can take on the entire New York State government machine? Today is the day you die!"

Seeing the governor so assertive, the panicked elites in attendance suddenly felt reassured and began chiming in one after another.

"This guy must be crazy! He actually dares to crash the governor's victory celebration alone!"

"Sam's right, terrorists like this should be shot on the spot!"

"He thinks he's somebody special, but facing dozens of submachine guns, does he really dare resist? What an idiot with a death wish!"

Mockery and insults rose and fell, and everyone looked at Leo as if they were looking at a corpse riddled with holes.

Facing the hall full of ridicule, Leo finally stopped walking.

He was less than ten meters from Sam.

"You think you've won?"

Leo held his cigar, didn't even glance at Sam, and simply snapped his fingers with a crisp sound.

Behind him, Olivia understood immediately.

Expressionless, she pulled out military-grade high-fidelity amplification equipment from her tactical backpack and quickly connected it to the banquet hall's main sound system.

The next second.

"Once I become governor, that punk Leo—I'll make sure he dies without a burial place!"

From the speakers suddenly came an extremely arrogant voice that everyone present knew all too well!

It was Sam!

Then, the complete conversation began echoing throughout the entire banquet hall.

"Here's a fifty-million-dollar bearer promissory note. As long as you agree, another fifty million in campaign funds will be transferred into your campaign account, clean and legal, through thirteen shell companies." This was the hoarse, cold voice of the Nightfall organization's representative.

"...Your Nightfall organization is certainly generous... Politicians working with criminal organizations isn't anything new in New York... Once I'm in power, I can just pin some charge on him and send in the National Guard or police to take him down..."

The recording was crystal clear, without a trace of static.

In an instant.

The entire banquet hall fell into a deathly silence.

The political and business elites who had just been clamoring to shoot Leo now all stared wide-eyed, covering their mouths in shock and horror.

One hundred million dollars in political dark money! Collusion with a top international assassin organization! Even attempting to use military forces for personal vendetta!

Any single one of these was a treasonous felony serious enough to put someone away for life!

"No! This isn't real!"

Sam's face on the stage instantly turned deathly pale, the fat on his face trembling violently.

He screamed into the microphone like a madman, saying to the police captain, "This is a frame-up! This is a fake, synthesized recording! He's slandering me! Sir, what are you standing there for? Shoot now! Kill this terrorist who's slandering me!"

However, the police captain didn't immediately order his men to fire. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and a flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes.

"Fake?"

Leo exhaled a puff of smoke, his gaze cutting toward Sam like a knife. "I knew it—someone like you wouldn't admit anything just from hearing a voice."

Olivia sneered, and her fingers flew across the device with a few quick taps.

Behind the main podium in the banquet hall, the massive LED screen that had been used to play Sam's campaign promotional video suddenly flickered.

A high-definition hidden-angle video was directly projected onto the big screen.

In the footage, inside that secretive private club room, Sam's greasy face was clearly visible.

He was greedily reaching out both hands, eagerly stuffing the black Swiss bank promissory note representing fifty million dollars into his suit pocket, the vicious grin on his face forming an extremely ironic contrast with the upright governor image on the screen moments ago.

Ironclad evidence!

The entire hall erupted.

The elites present gasped and involuntarily stepped back several paces, wanting to distance themselves from Sam on the stage.

Harboring the Nightfall organization—that was treason! Anyone who touched it was finished!

The police captain's gun-holding hand was now trembling.

He looked at the "newly elected governor" with damning evidence on the screen, then at the composed Leo across from him, momentarily unsure whom to point his gun at.

"What? Don't know who to arrest now?"

Leo slowly drew out a badge as black as ink from inside his suit.

In the center of the badge was a black dagger.

Around the edge were encrypted runes that only the highest levels of the intelligence system could recognize.

"Don't move!" The police officers tensed up, instinctively gripping their guns tighter.

Leo completely ignored their warning and declared loudly, "Are you still going to point guns at me?"

The police captain's eyes widened. During his training at the police academy, he had once seen a picture of this badge.

The instructor had told them: If during law enforcement, you encounter someone holding this badge...

Obey unconditionally!

Otherwise, see you at the military tribunal!

"All units, listen up!"

The police captain suddenly swung his gun around and roared at the top of his lungs, "Turn your weapons! Lock onto treason suspect Sam! Anyone who makes a wrong move will be killed on the spot!"

The dozens of submachine guns that had been pointing at Leo all swiveled in half a second, now all aimed at Sam's head on the podium.

The situation had completed a stunning reversal in an instant.

Having lost police protection, Sam collapsed like a puddle of mud at Leo's feet. "...Mr. Ashford, spare my life!"

"I was forced! It was all the Nightfall organization threatening me—if I didn't take their money, they would kill my whole family! I really had no choice, sir!"

"No choice? When you were taking the money, you were smiling harder than anyone."

Leo looked down at this blubbering pig from above, without a trace of mercy in his eyes, and directly escorted him to a room.

"I'm giving you two choices."

Leo flicked the ash from his cigar. "First, I arrest you right now for treason. You'll be sent to a black site at Guantanamo, where you'll spend the rest of your life in a sunless water dungeon. Oh, or if I find it too much trouble, I'll use the authority of this badge to shoot you dead right now."

"Second, since you've already taken this governor's seat, keep sitting in it. Except from now on, you're no longer a pawn of the Nightfall organization."

"You'll work for me."

"Starting today, the New York State government is your backyard! Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do!"

For Sam, who feared death and craved power like life itself, this wasn't really a choice at all.