Sherlock Holmes

Five hours left

Sherlock needed some quiet time, so he walked out of the small villa, leaned against a street lamp outside, and quietly lit a cigarette alone.

He didn't know how long the snow was going to fall. Those snowflakes fell on his shoulders, and then they seemed to be very magical and could also fall into his heart, making his chest feel a little cold. Fortunately, the pungency of the blues was enough to make this snow fall. After the coolness dissipated, I felt a little more comfortable.

The empire is too big, and the division of power will naturally lead to class divisions, and the group of people standing at the top have a posture that can cover the sky with one hand.

Moriarty once said that the ultimate power of the empire is always in the hands of the people at the bottom.

It's just that there are too many people at the bottom and their will cannot be unified, which makes the terrifying authority seem so insignificant.

That’s why we need media and newspapers. Legend has it that the Imperial Mechanical Institute is using the band technology of telephones to develop something called [radio station]. If it is successfully developed, I don’t know how much money will flow into someone’s pocket. .

In short, if a headline like "Dean Darwin died due to failed experiment" really appears on a large number of newspaper headlines, it means that the blind public opinion of the people at the bottom will make this matter disappear within a few hours. , heading in a direction that cannot be pulled back.

What most people believe is true.

Fortunately, this situation is not impossible to deal with.

In fact, it can be seen that the media are not completely controlled, otherwise they would not be able to listen to this press conference about death. They could just print the death of the old dean on the headlines.

Therefore, if the murderer can be identified in front of everyone when newspaper reporters gather, then the reporting direction of these newspapers the next day will inevitably undergo a 180-degree reversal.

But how to identify the murderer?

We haven't even found the method of murder, so talking about it will only look ridiculous.

Sherlock is undoubtedly a professional in the field of detective work.

So far, he has organized and connected all the clues, except for the murder method.

Why did Dean Darwin suddenly die at the hands of [The Hound of the Baskervilles]?

If his experiment was successful, why was the [Crimson] Demon he controlled suddenly unable to defeat the opponent? In the previous experiment, wasn't it able to completely defeat the [Hound]?

Is it really because the hound is being manipulated?

But Baskerville was still fighting on the front lines at the time and was unable to control his contracted demon.

Or is it that someone is misleading me?

Thinking about it this way, the method of tearing Dean Darwin in half was indeed a bit too obvious, for fear that others would not be able to see it.

But this proves nothing. Reverse thinking cannot bring about any changes.

Sherlock's brain was spinning rapidly, and time was passing rapidly during this kind of thinking. The sky slowly became white, and the first ray of sunlight slowly moved up the long street of the Academy of Life Sciences, and then shone on on Sherlock's face.

He gradually recovered and looked at the glowing outline on the edge of the building. He knew that there should only be three hours left.

"Sir, where are you going?"

In front of him, a coachman who got up early saw Sherlock on the roadside and asked friendly.

Sherlock's brain hadn't stopped thinking yet, so he got into the carriage because it could give his thinking a sense of rhythm. As for the destination, he told the address of Dean Darwin's old house without even thinking about it, because that was where he was. The most commonly mentioned place.

The road in the early morning was not congested, but it took a full hour to get from Eileen's villa to the dean's old house. After getting out of the car, Sherlock saw the servants cleaning the yard and some scissors. The sound of lawn mowing reached his ears.

Catherine seemed to have just woken up. She stood in front of the door and saw Sherlock coming back, with a worried look on her face:

"Where were you last night?"

Sherlock didn't answer, but looked at the other person calmly. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something!

"Is Butler Maud back?"

The words just fell

"Sir, are you looking for me?"

He raised his head and saw Butler Maud coming to the door of the villa. She was wearing white gloves and a small apron. It seemed that she had just gone to supervise the cooking of breakfast.

"Where is Dean Darwin's contracted creature?" He suddenly asked a question that was impossible to answer: "Is it dead?"

Butler Maud was startled and had no idea why the other party wanted to ask about this matter. However, the young lady had ordered her to fully cooperate with the detective, so she replied:

"No, since more than two years ago, the master has become more and more alienated from his contracted creature due to experiments. Soon, they can no longer be compatible, so when the master died, his original demon There has been no backlash and it is still in the laboratory.”

Sherlock knew this before, but when he heard Butler Maud say it himself, he had a different feeling, so he asked again:

"Where is that laboratory?"

"The northern edge of 16th Street."

Hearing this, Sherlock's muscles suddenly tensed up. At this moment, the landmark map of the entire Academy of Life Sciences was displayed in front of his eyes. He could clearly see that Street 16 was right next to the large experimental base.

And that test base was the place where the old dean died when he was showing the test results.

Sherlock took a deep breath, not knowing what he was doing, let alone what was thinking in his mind. He just looked at a certain place in front of him out of thin air, but it was as if he suddenly saw some amazing picture, even His body stumbled suddenly and he took a step back.

"Duncan," he murmured.

"What?" Catherine frowned, she didn't understand.

"Duncan!! Yes, Duncan also participated in that experiment!" Sherlock took a few quick breaths, as if he was temporarily supplying oxygen to his brain.

"Duncan, Duncan, Duncan, Duncan!!!"

He frowned and started pacing. He knew that he was only one step away from the truth, but he couldn't find a small piece of the puzzle.

That guy named Duncan!

Sherlock likes to explore, like to solve puzzles, like to dig out the truth and all unknown things, so this feeling of standing still in front of the truth makes Sherlock feel very unhappy. There is still an hour left, and those newspapers Journalists will flock to the Academy of Sciences, but the truth they need is just a little bit short.

However, Duncan was hidden by someone, and was well hidden a few years ago. Sherlock can connect all the causes and consequences, and his reasoning ability can make everything in sight invisible. The extraordinary ability to see and know everything! But he couldn't travel through time to two years ago to take a look at the person who had disappeared.

In the whole yard, everyone was looking at this guy who kept nagging.

Watching him walking around on the lawn, trampling on the freshly arranged flowers and plants without any sense of morality, his hat was taken off and then put back on, like a neurotic who had fallen ill.

"Duncan, where are you?"

"Let me see you! Look at you!"

"Just one glance will be enough!"

He murmured over and over again

On the highest peaks of the empire, the white snow never melts.

The Holy Light Temple is built on the top of this mountain. It is the closest place to the sun in the entire empire. It seems that this way, the Holy Light can always shine on the world like the sun, overlooking the entire empire.

But no one knows what the Holy Light is.

And no one knows where the Holy Light is.

The Holy Light will only send revelations to the world at the time it thinks is right, and the place where the revelations are sent is actually just a small room like a confessional in the northwest corner of the temple.

In normal times, if the door of the confessional opens on its own, it means that the Holy Light is about to come. A servant of God will walk into the confessional with the most pious awe, and then the whole person will be bathed in the Holy Light. .

But at this moment.

In that small confessional, which was the most sacred and noble in the entire empire, a ray of light rose out of thin air without any warning! ! !

However, because the door was closed, no one could see the light.

At the same time, somewhere in the distant empire territory.

A human was pacing back and forth in the garden in front of a villa.

He was thinking about how many times in the past few minutes, the huge information that had nothing to do with it in the eyes of ordinary people had gone back and forth.

Unfortunately, that crucial piece of the puzzle is missing, leaving this person helplessly watching the truth of everything close at hand, but seemingly never being able to touch it.

Catherine saw the torment in Sherlock's heart, and she walked over worriedly:

"are you OK."

Sherlock turned his head and looked at the other person's worried and concerned face.

Suddenly, he felt a light begin to bloom in front of his eyes!

This light was so dazzling, as if it was unstoppable, as if it would cover everything and everything. Then, a voice sounded in his ears.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

This voice was extremely clear. It sounded like a female voice around 20 years old. It seemed that it was not transmitted through the ears, but resounded directly in my mind. At the same time, the light in front of me was not really in front of me. Because Sherlock found that actions such as blinking could not affect it at all, as if the sound and the light surrounded his mind or soul.

"Who are you?" Sherlock asked.

"I have too many names. It's hard to introduce myself." The voice was soft and slow, very comfortable: "But you seem to like to call me——Thinking Palace."