About to Fall Out

The atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat oppressive. The other deputy chiefs had stopped speaking, merely watching the chief and Vladimir face off.

Lyudmila shrank into a corner, wishing no one would notice her.

Whatever conclusion the heads of the city bureau came to, she would simply carry it out. She had no right to speak here.

The chief curled his fingers and unconsciously tapped the surface of the conference table, his mind racing.

On this matter, Vladimir's words did make some sense.

And Vladimir was waving Mikhail's "tiger skin" like a banner, using lofty principles to pressure him. That made it rather difficult to deal with.

The key issue was how to characterize this matter—the extortion of money from foreigners by frontline police officers!

He, along with everyone else in the police system, naturally wanted to claim publicly that this was merely an isolated incident, a special case that would not cause any serious consequences.

But Mikhail, as well as Vladimir in this conference room, had greatly exaggerated the impact of the matter!

They talked about harming the business environment, affecting foreign investment, even damaging the country's image...

There was no way to continue this conversation!

Yet he had no choice but to take it seriously. After all, the person who said those things was Mikhail, Deputy Speaker of the Duma and currently one of the hottest figures in the upper ranks of politics!

Falling out with such an important figure over this matter did not seem worth it.

But following Vladimir's proposal and producing some detailed plan to rectify work practices from top to bottom was not very realistic either.

What a headache...

After thinking for a while, the chief finally raised his head. He hesitated, then said earnestly, "Vladimir, you know perfectly well what our