New Gods of North America

Almost simultaneously,

The client of the detective agency, previously known as "Vincent Spaulding," having paid the waiter a tip that was neither generous nor stingy,

Was now sitting in the corner of the tavern, eating and browsing through the newspaper.

He had changed his hair color and style of clothing, looking like a low-profile bounty hunter or a gangster.

He casually tossed a pickled oyster into his mouth, flipped the newspaper over,

And was immediately drawn to a realistic illustration of a jeweled necklace on the page, then quickly read the text below:

"…The ‘Dukesburg Ruby Necklace,’ once praised by Queen Windsor, has been secretly sold by the Duchess…

"…This treasure is being secured by a small private detective agency and is currently being transported secretly from Virginia to Georgia via steam train…"

What's going on?!

He stared wide-eyed, confirming it twice, and after a moment, he realized he still had something in his mouth that he hadn't finished chewing, so he slowly put down the newspaper and continued to chew.

The pickled oyster seemed to have no taste at all.

He had already clearly seen the content of the newspaper, but he couldn't help but bring it closer and read it again, still feeling somewhat incredulous.

There might really be a "Dukesburg Ruby Necklace" in this world, but the "Duchess who sold the necklace" was completely his fabrication.

Even the ruby necklace itself was a "benefit" that the boss had kept for everyone after dealing with fleeing criminals.

This time, it was only being used as bait to attract Damon McReady's accomplices, and it needed to be recovered afterward, having nothing to do with "purchase."

The task the boss had arranged this time was clearly just to make a false commission and then lure as many of the other party's men as possible to Georgia, where it would be easier to take action.

There was no reason for their own people to deliberately release such information.

Could it be that some federal agency in America had noticed their operation?

No! Even the information he had temporarily fabricated was being revealed so specifically; the source of information might be that detective agency, whose specific hidden identities were unknown.

Or worse, perhaps one of the companions who had dispersed and evacuated had been controlled…

It seemed the boss was right; Damon McReady had indeed betrayed the organization, the damned traitor!

The Holy Spirit Church and the American military had repeatedly purged Virginia under the pretext of expelling the Hunter Association.

Under the exposure of those despicable Southern planters, the MI7's intelligence station here was once completely eradicated, and only a few scattered contact points have been restored to this day.

The traitor chose to flee here before, and there was indeed a deeper reason; no wonder he dared to return to Georgia to retaliate against the organization.

Thinking of this, "Vincent Spaulding" cautiously observed the surrounding environment, then threw all the remaining pickled oysters into his mouth, drank the whiskey in the glass in one gulp, and quickly returned to the hotel to pack his luggage.

It seemed he had to leave Virginia as soon as possible…

……

Wayne, Inessa, and Doug were discussing countermeasures.

Being high-profile on the scene when transporting valuable items was one thing; anyway, the people from the detective agency wouldn't stay in one place for long; it was just a show to run away after, and the speed at which the news spread might not even catch up with them.

But having the news and route published in the newspaper for "public announcement" was another matter altogether; it was hard to say that they wouldn't encounter someone with ulterior motives lying in ambush in advance.

"Doug, do you have a way to contact Lena right now?"

Wayne thought about it; the main problem now was that Lena and the agents might not know about this yet.

Traveling by steam train, they were basically on the train during the day, and at night, they might directly choose a place to rest, perhaps not even having the opportunity to see the latest newspaper.

If the goods were targeted by some foreign gang or criminal organization because of this,

With Lena and a group of agents around, Wayne wasn't particularly worried about the items being lost, but he was still worried that there might be accidental casualties.

Doug was obviously powerless about this, "Parrots are not suitable for long-distance flight, pigeons are not very useful for finding people, they are more suitable for delivering messages to specific locations, or for delivering messages back to me.

"Owls can be used to find people, but their eyesight is poor during the day and they are more suitable for flying at night… and it is likely that it cannot even determine which town Miss Lena and the others will stop at on the way, making it very difficult to find them.

"When the distance is relatively far and they are traveling every day, I can at most receive news when they release the pigeons they brought back, but it is difficult to send the news back to them—they should not stay near the place where they released the pigeons for long."

Inessa gave a feasible solution:

"Conner and the others seem to have some connections with organizations like the Underground Railroad; provided the route does not change, they may have a way to find or catch up with Lena and the others along the way and bring the message to them."

This idea felt pretty good,

So another agent who had also come from the Hunter Association, after sending Professor Maisel back to the detective agency, received a new task, and even without packing his luggage, he quickly set off overnight.

With the guess and resentment that "the client of this commission is sick," Wayne once again timed his return to the academy for the night,

As the carriage was moving, Conner, who was driving, suddenly knocked on the carriage twice from the outside.

After pulling open the small wooden partition window in the box-shaped carriage, Wayne heard Conner's lowered inquiry, "Mr. Wayne, it seems that there is a carriage following us behind; do you need to deal with it?"

As a small-town orphan with some family wealth and a somewhat well-known sheriff's family member, Wayne had been familiar with the situation of occasionally encountering bad people by accident since he was a child.

He immediately looked out of the carriage and saw a rental carriage.

The rental carriages in America were so small, and they didn't have strange racial talents, so they couldn't possibly have thirty or so people coming down at once, right?

So Wayne signaled Conner to take a slight detour and let him find a quieter location to see what was going on,

While he touched the revolver on his body and found the family's commonly used lever-action rifle from the hidden compartment under the seat, and also checked the ammunition situation, hoping not to disturb the residents too much in the middle of the night.

Oh, right…

Since Miss Mary's factory can process rifling for seamless steel pipes, then processing a few tapered grooves in a hollow cylinder and machining some engaging threads at the interface should no longer be a major technical problem in this era.

Although the sound of the primer being struck and the bullet itself being fired cannot be completely concealed,

But silencers are not used to "completely eliminate the sound of gunfire."

Their actual role, in addition to reducing the volume of the gunfire, is more importantly to change the "tone" of the gunfire, making it more difficult for people to quickly identify, and also making it more difficult for people to distinguish the location of the shooter.

I feel like I can consider customizing a batch for the detective agency.

After all, the laws of this era do not prohibit people from using some strange little props.

Conner considerately chose a good section suitable for illegal and criminal activities for the other party, and also appropriately reduced the speed of the car,

As a result, after following for a while, the rental carriage suddenly changed direction and turned into another fork in the road.

Wayne couldn't determine whether the fish had escaped or he was just thinking too much; there were no license plate numbers in this era, and there were no manpower to investigate now even if he wanted to.

In the end, after turning back and searching for a while, the carriage resumed normal driving, and Wayne returned to the dormitory on time, turning back into a harmless good student.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone~