New Gods of North America

“Fire in the hole!”

“Bang, bang, bang, bang.”

At five in the morning, after several agents shouted the line in succession, the Molotov cocktails filled with kerosene, asphalt, sulfur, and cotton strips shattered the glass and flew into a house.

Lane felt like he was a little behind the times. As 'Static' kicked open the back door, he took a moment to ask Liam, who was on his three-man team, "What does that phrase mean?"

Liam had already used his extraordinary ability in the thick smoke, his figure becoming faintly visible in the smoke and darkness. "I'm not sure, but the boss occasionally shouts it after throwing explosives."

There were two guards near the back door, both already drawing their guns. 'Static' hid behind the nearest obstacle and snapped his fingers, causing an explosion to suddenly erupt on the other side of the two guards.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Liam, in his transparent state, pounced on one of them in the smoke for close combat. Lane, meanwhile, abruptly implanted an image into the mind of the other guard, a picture from a magazine he had recently seen, focusing on the shiny headlights of a sexy woman's car.

“It's great to have smoke bombs for cover; it's rare for the boss to allow us to use our abilities on ordinary people,” Liam said, dusting off his hands as he stood up.

After knocking out his opponent with the butt of his gun, Lane lightly tapped Liam on the back of the head. “Keep a low profile; the police are outside. If ordinary people see us, be careful Miss Linna will punish you by making you report to the Grand Cathedral yourself.”

“Yes, sir!”

...

In the carriage, Chief William watched the commotion caused by the agents simultaneously breaking into several houses and quickly realized something was wrong. “Mr. Wayne, this isn’t the way to arrest ordinary criminals, is it?”

A police officer also in the carriage nodded slightly, agreeing with Chief William's view.

Wayne smiled, standing by the door, and explained, “We didn’t understand the situation before; this is our detective agency’s usual style.”

After specifically bringing Chief William and several police officers from the police station, the detective agency didn't give them advance notice. As soon as they arrived, they launched the attack according to plan.

Considering that this was a local intelligence organization's stronghold, Wayne ordered the agents to use their extraordinary abilities and strive for a quick victory, not giving the other party time to transfer the assassin's accomplices again, and also preventing them from silencing anyone.

Chief William and the police officers were now both witnesses to the detective agency's actions and backup options for Wayne to take the blame.

Wayne had already thought of an excuse: he would say that the detective agency received a tip that one of the assassin's fleeing accomplices was in the house.

As for where the other people in the house came from, Wayne would say he didn't know.

Anyway, anyone who was in league with bad people, even facing a jury, Wayne could say, “We fought, and we couldn’t consider so much in an emergency.”

The commotion in the house didn't last long, but the intensity of the noise created in a short period was actually quite high. Many houses in the neighborhood lit up one after another, and residents peeked out of their windows to observe.

Chief William initially only had “slight dissatisfaction,” but when he saw the captives being escorted out of the house by the agents, his face quickly changed.

Unfortunately, Wayne was already shouting loudly at the nearby houses: “Please rest assured, residents, this is a police action. Everyone will probably be able to understand the situation in the newspapers within a few days. The brilliant and wise Chief William is leading the police officers in solving organized crime.”

The enthusiasm of the city people was a little less than that of the townspeople, or maybe it was because the culture of each neighborhood was different. After shouting this time, no one cheered or applauded.

Many curtains were quickly pulled back, and the lights gradually went out, appearing slightly indifferent.

Wayne turned back a little dejectedly and saw that Chief William's face was already flushed: “This is slander! I’m going to complain to my superiors about you!”

Very energetic...

Wayne and Linna next to him looked at each other, and then looked at Chief William in unison, blinking innocently, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

...

Out of consideration for the local intelligence organization’s previous friendly attitude, Wayne asked the agents to try to capture them alive tonight and avoid causing too many casualties.

But Wayne and Linna didn't really like their previous polite approach, so they didn't mind if there were some minor bumps and bruises.

Wayne initially thought that the bruises on the faces of those prisoners were retribution for their evil deeds, but then Lane quickly came over to report:

“This looks like a 'safe house' used for temporarily detaining prisoners. No internal letters or other clues were found. There were a total of five guards in the stronghold. It seems that only the sleeping squad leader was an extraordinary person. We followed Miss Linna's instructions and punched them in the face twice.”

Ah, this...

The latter quickly scurried into the back carriage when Wayne turned his head, once again displaying her innocence. Wayne could only “forget about it” and find a chance to deal with her later.

It’s not surprising that there are extraordinary people in intelligence organizations. It's also normal for extraordinary people to be promoted faster in specific industries, but according to this estimate, there seem to be quite a few extraordinary people in the local intelligence organization...

After having a general idea in his mind, the detective agency was careful this time. Before packing everyone up and transporting them to the police station, they first recorded their facial features and took their fingerprints for future reference. If they escaped, they would directly apply for an arrest warrant and let them see what is meant by 'the net of heaven is vast, and its meshes are wide, yet nothing slips through'.

So they split into two groups.

Linna, who had just been let out for air and caused trouble, and Willie, along with several agents, continued to stay here to secure evidence, while Wayne, along with Chief William, who had obviously reacted, took the main force back to the police station.

No matter how innocent the detective agency pretended to be on the surface, they had essentially kicked the local intelligence organization under the table tonight, so Wayne was now brewing a contingency plan in his mind, waiting for the other party's follow-up and seeing if there was still room for negotiation later.

The ideal situation would be for Mr. Walter to throw out a relatively important subordinate to take the blame, admitting that the local intelligence organization had problems in this matter. This way, the detective agency could basically complete the task and shrink back to Georgeberg to watch the big shots wrestle and tear each other's hair out.

The more unfavorable situation would be that Mr. Walter ended up with no problems, but the detective agency was completely resented by the other party. Then future business might become difficult, and they might be targeted in various ways.

But they had to kick this foot tonight. The clue that the 'local intelligence organization knew in advance' was provided by Pastor Tyrell. If the detective agency didn't show its attitude, this might be used by Pastor Tyrell to manipulate the detective agency in the future. If he reported this situation to Bishop Corleone first, the detective agency's position would instantly become suspicious, and even the special permit might be confiscated.

So Wayne could only continue to be 'matter-of-fact' and 'impartial', otherwise, if his persona collapsed, then the detective agency's previous refusal to design Mr. Walter together would easily be regarded as 'taking sides'. If they wanted to please both sides, then they would wait to be destroyed by both sides and the Grand Cathedral.

Therefore, after arriving at the police station, Wayne only focused on interrogating the accomplice of the assassin, while the remaining prisoners were locked up separately and left aside, waiting for Mr. Walter's response.

Because Chief William was obviously emotional, many police officers who were barely familiar with the detective agency also began to keep their distance. It wasn't until daybreak that a police officer came to find Wayne:

“Mr. Wayne, a young lady has come to report a case. She is very beautiful. Her matter should be related to your detective agency.”

Huh?!