Steel steam and flame

Wells trusted his feelings. During his time at work, he had encountered this situation. At that time, he knew that the nature of the association was not only to earn profits, but also to serve as a secret organization to screen these natural, or less artificially involved, surgeons.

The association has a long history. Every year it makes a lot of money from all kinds of rich and powerful people. But because he has worked in it for many years, Wells has had the opportunity to participate in several similar associations. Wrap up the meeting. In the content of meetings, profits are always discussed at the end. At first, I thought this was because the profits were indeed not high enough, and putting it later could avoid attracting the attention of the ultimate controller.

This was mostly the case for the next several times. Wells didn't care at first, but at one of the meetings, the association's senior leaders were very excited when they reported their work. Later, he found out that because of something, the entire association received generous rewards. As for what the reward was, Wells didn't know, but because of this situation, he secretly conducted a small investigation on his own.

It was also from that time that he suddenly understood that the nature of the association was similar to his own work, as they were both a middleman. The difference is that the middleman, the association, works for specific people and has a larger structure. Not only within the Principality of Ins, there are also associations in other surrounding countries. The radiation spread over a large area, covering dozens of countries. And the association that I belong to is just a branch of this huge structure.

And he encountered the same situation five years ago. At that time, Wells already knew that the real purpose of the association's existence was not to make profits from these bounty hunters and mercenaries, but to collect various information. And some tasks to analyze them specifically and rationally to achieve the purpose of strict screening.

Within the association, task levels are generally divided into five levels. The highest level is the zero level mission. However, there is a tradition here. The first-level and zero-level tasks have always been released only by the senior leaders of the association. What their content is and who will complete it, people like Wells will not know.

So I guessed that these might be the final assessment tasks. Wells had thought this way very early on. Because during the long hours of work, let’s just say that in the area he managed, including the loss of personnel, movement, and deaths caused by mission failures, some people who he had tried hard to offer high conditions to stay, really didn’t know Before he knew it, he completely disappeared from sight.

Wells felt that his conjecture was supported by enough evidence, and coupled with the turmoil involving the entire structure five years ago, he believed that what happened in the past two weeks should be a signal. Five years ago, the association went into full shrinkage within half a month, and the order from the top management was to come in and not accept any tasks for a period of time. Immediately, there was a large summary of information. Wells remembered that at that time, he and the district supervisors like him were gathered together in a huge conference room in a hotel, and people they had never met came to ask for some details. question.

At that time, some of the middle and high-level people he knew in the association were in front of those people, just like he was facing Ms. Rachel. Always keep your head down and keep your smile facing the ground. That was definitely a sign of fear, and Wells, who had a deep understanding of this kind of action, knew it all too well.

"It's just that writing these words out and giving them to Ms. Rachel doesn't seem to be evidence to help me. If I go through the corresponding process and then hand it over to the senior officials for judgment, this time will be enough for me to die many times. ." Wells said to himself, "Why is it me?" It was a sigh, but it was more like a complaint. This is tantamount to asking Wells to explain something that he knows nothing about, and all information must be collected by himself without the assistance of corresponding personnel.

Putting down his pen, Wells walked around the small room several times before he had to sit down. Even if there is no good way, he thinks that he still has to write about this matter. No matter what the result is, it is better than standing there without hope and waiting for himself to be hanged.

"Master Holden's death was most likely discovered during the investigation. After being noticed by the other party, corresponding actions were taken." After Wells finished writing this sentence, he found that suddenly he seemed to There is nothing left to write.

After knowing that Holden died in the area he managed, Wells didn't want to investigate. Arranged personnel to collect all suspicious information within those few days and handed it all over to the association. But he had looked at the information and couldn't extract anything valuable at all. The other party dealt with the traces very cleanly, and Wells believed that the association was still looking for Holden's body and the possible place where he was killed.

It was a futile act. Wells thought of the man he met and felt that he had been targeted a long time ago. This was a planned action. After writing this sentence, Wells put down his pen, stood up, arranged a few pieces of paper, pressed them with a cup, then lay down on the bed, and fell asleep completely within a short while.

He was really tired these days.

Early the next morning, Wells woke up from his sleep and felt a severe pain in his head. After going to the bathroom and taking a hot shower, he finally felt better. He sat by the bed and waited until the symptoms completely disappeared. Then he changed his clothes and went to the hotel's free breakfast buffet restaurant.

In fact, there was no need to eat at all. Wells couldn't feel the hunger in his stomach at all. He just needed to do something to distract himself, he was under a lot of pressure. Because he knows that running away is completely useless, and the power of the association is irresistible to him, leaving alone will only accelerate his own death.

It was exactly half past six in the morning, and the sky outside was still dark. There were less than a dozen people in the restaurant. Wells took some food by himself, found a seat by the window and sat down, eating every bite. His attention was so distracted by various things that he suddenly became aware of it when another person pulled out a chair and sat across from him with a plate full of food.

His whole body shook a little, and as a habitual protective action, he immediately touched his hand to his waist, placed it on the pistol on his waist, and then looked to the opposite side. He was a young man, Wells' first impression. An ordinary person's face, but with an indescribable flavor. When Wells reacted, he remembered that this feeling was very similar to the one five years ago.

Those who asked themselves questions in the large hotel conference room felt an indescribable feeling of oppression. Although it was not shown in any words or actions, Wells understood at that time that there was a gap between himself and those people that had accumulated since birth.

When the man sitting opposite saw this, he immediately waved his hand, "Don't be like that, Mr. Wells, this is also a public place, and some things are very troublesome to deal with. It's just that the time is coming, and I have to come out to talk to you. "

Wells took a deep breath, stood up immediately, and picked up his dinner plate: "I don't know you, and we have nothing to talk about. You must have recognized the wrong person, sir."

"Are you worried that someone is watching you?" When the other party saw Wells getting up, he also put down the tableware and said, "Mr. Wells, do you really think the people in your association will be so at ease with you? There are so many people behind you. Aren’t you going to send someone to follow you and take a look?”

"I do not understand what you mean."

"You must know the reason why I can find you and have breakfast with you this morning." The man said. When he saw Wells, he stopped and nodded to tell Wells to sit down, because there were already people around him looking over. "There are a lot of words that you will definitely be interested in."

After about half a minute, Wells, who had been standing still, returned to his seat.

"Yesterday, when you came out of the tavern, you were followed by three people. They were all pretty good, so they should be the people in the association who are good at this. However, not long after they came out, they slipped and fell into the underground sewer, and they all died." The man said, "Want to see evidence? I took photos, but I don't know if you recognize them." He took out three photos, all of which were taken in the state of corpses.

Wells became silent after seeing it and put the photo in his pocket. Seeing this, the man said: "You can only watch it yourself, don't think about handing it over to the association. Before those people from the association come here, I actually don't want to talk to you. It's a complete waste of time. It's just that some people think your You have good abilities, and I like your experience, so before you let me leave here, you must come and have a look to make sure whether it is what he thinks."

Seeing Wells' silence, the man continued to eat the food, "You won't forget, right? We met more than two weeks ago."

"Are you the middle-aged man? The 'boss' the association calls him?" Wells knew he couldn't leave, so after taking a long breath, he began to think of ways, hoping to get more useful information out of the man in front of him. Come on. Because the other party looked like he could crush him to death with one hand, but his attitude seemed a bit contemptuous, at least that's how he felt.

"Yes, I am the middle-aged man who met you. After all, I am outside and need to dress up to protect myself. But the 'boss' you call is not me. The 'boss' is not here now. As for why , because we have estimated your strength, I can probably do everything alone, so there is no need to drag him here because of you. We have been really busy recently."

"As I said just now, if the people from your association don't come over, or the people who stay here don't act, I really don't want to have anything to do with you. Well, it's like watching the ants on the ground migrating because the rain is coming. Just like insect eggs. If you are interested, just take a look. If you are not interested, why not walk around. You, Mr. Wells, should understand what I am talking about, right?" The man stared at Wells, obviously observing the change in his expression.

The result did not disappoint him, he saw what he wanted and heard the answer he wanted.

"I know that the association is just a subordinate organization. But I don't know who it belongs to and who it works for."