Just as William had expected, the upright Laka refused to accept sponsorship from a gang.
That was when Pang Lai, the Maroni Family's second-in-command, stepped forward.
He looked big and strong, but he was no brainless thug.
First, he beat Laka with his fists and feet until he vomited bile, then grabbed him by the collar and delivered a speech that was half threat, half admonition.
"You don't get to choose where you come from. Either take this dirty money and change Gotham, or cling to your pipe dreams and freeze to death in some gutter or dark alley."
When those words were relayed to William, they left the unlikely transmigrator silent for a long time.
Life rarely offered much choice. He hoped Laka could understand the gulf between ideals and reality.
The good news was that Laka seemed to have come around. In the next morning's paper, the candidate no one had taken seriously had made the front page.
The generous coverage gave him room to fully express his views, bringing the East End's drinking water problems to public attention for the first time.
The acting mayor and his administration also abandoned the hard-line stance they had taken in negotiations with Wayne Enterprises. The head of the Public Affairs Bureau personally held a press conference, promising to resolve the East End's aging pipes and contaminated water within a month.
Power answered only to its source. As election season approached, Gotham's citizens always got a taste of what it felt like to be in charge.
But what William found most puzzling was still the Falcone Family.
By now, Carmine's death was an open secret. Not just the Maroni Family, but even some smaller gangs had begun swallowing up Falcone territory.
Yet Alberto Falcone had done nothing.
Different universes meant different