Whispering Verse

The idea was to associate numbers with words in books, but in the end, none of the six possibilities listed for correspondence between books and numbers were meaningful sentences.

"Well, I guessed wrong. Is the idea completely wrong, or is it more complicated than I thought?"

I thought in my heart that this matter has nothing to do with me. If I try again, if it doesn't work, I will burn the letter. So Shade once again observed the characteristics of those numbers. When he saw the last digit of each group of numbers, he thought again:

"Does the last digit not only correspond to the book number, but also the movement? The number one means that after finding the corresponding word, jump to the next word?"

There is no basis for this idea, but it doesn’t cost a pound to give it a try. So, he tried twelve more possibilities based on "move one, two, or three words forward and one, two, or three words back."

Although the densely packed sentences on the page still have no practical meaning, Shade saw some clues:

""Collections of the Western Front" corresponds to 1, "The Queen and Her Lovers" corresponds to 2, and "The Silver Knight" corresponds to 3. After finding the word, move back the corresponding digits. Although it is pieced together, it is still not intelligible. sentence, but after skipping the words corresponding to '2', it seems to have some meaning, isn't it?

Shade's eyes widened slightly:

"The one corresponding to numbers 1 and 3 is moving backward; the one corresponding to number 2 is moving forward?"

Shade seemed to feel heat gushing from his back, and then realized that it was the cat's tail that ran to his shoulder and was brushing his back.

The excitement made him eager to translate again. This time, we only need to re-search for the words corresponding to the last digit "2" in the first 10 groups of words. Then, the first ten words form a sentence and a half:

Gray Eagle, scheduled emergency mission notice

"Oh, it's so easy."

An uncontrollable smile appeared on Shade's face. He looked at the alarm clock on his desk. It was now eleven o'clock in the morning:

"What a fun morning."

[But it’s meaningless. 】

"Yeah, pointless, but very interesting. I'm pretty smart and boring after all."

He gained great satisfaction through this kind of puzzle game:

"Grey Eagle, though? Yes, I've heard that code name."

He looked at the mist-shrouded square outside the window and thought for a moment, then narrowed his eyes slightly:

"I went to collect my salary a month ago, and Mr. Giles Johnson mentioned that this was Carson Rick's Kingsman. Two years ago, MI6 received information that Carson Rick secretly dispatched two Gray Gloves. The ace agent in the organization was lurking in Tobesk. One of them was caught half a year ago, but he committed suicide. The other one is the famous 'Grey Eagle'." (Chapter 368)

Although he was an opponent of the Sixth Bureau, Mr. Johnson's tone at that time also expressed his admiration for this agent. The Gray Eagle has done quite a few things, including stealing special alloy records from the steel city of Gondor, the gold heist ten years ago, and the accident at the Coldwater Port Shipyard eight years ago.

When Shade overlaps the alien ace agent who sounds omnipotent but whose identity is unknown with the poor detective who died in a foreign country, in the inexplicable sense of dislocation, it actually feels that the two should be the same person. .

"Is Sparrow Hamilton the Grey-Headed Eagle of Carsonrick's Kingsman?"

He sat on a chair, holding the cat and looking out the window:

"Obviously he was so amazing and had so many wonderful stories, but he still died here for ridiculous reasons. No one even knows where he is buried except me."

It's really sad to think about it this way.

"The first time I heard about the 'Grey Eagle' was at the 'lucky' dinner at Lakeview Manor. I also heard a lot of news that night, which later proved to be directly related to me. So that's it, it turned out that I had already got it at that time Clues. Sparrow the Grey-headed Eagle" (Chapter 74)

Although the total time the stranger spent with the living Detective Sparrow did not exceed ten minutes, he still missed the detective very much. After the detective died, through piece by step clues, now, the life and past of the detective who was also a foreigner has been roughly restored. Shade can only say that this world is too far for ordinary people. Cruel and dangerous.

The secret letter in his hand is a mission order, requiring Agent Gray Eagle to use the high-level connections he has gained in three years of being in Tobesk to ensure his own safety before the end of the Big City Players Rhodes Contest in the autumn of 1853. In this case, the greatest possible contact came from Virgil Cameron, the court jester of the Principality of Set.

In the order, the Gray Eagle must personally obtain a secret letter from Virgil Cameron and deliver it to the determined location in accordance with the regulations.

"Where is the location that has been determined? This is not important, but it seems that it is really an incredible task to let Gray Eagle risk his identity to get the secret message in person."

Shade sighed in his heart, but then thought of the order given to him by Director Anlos:

"Director Anlos said that the Sixth Bureau suspected that Virgil Cameron would contact the Kasonrik people during the finals of the big city players, and asked me to monitor him as much as possible; and Kasonrik now asked What I did was to obtain and deliver a secret letter, so Office 6 really got the correct information this time, and the Principality of Set is indeed connected to the Kasonrik people."

He seemed to have suddenly become a key figure in this mission. To be more precise, Shade could already say that he could lead the development of this incident.

"But the Grey-Headed Eagle should not be the one who wants to contact Cameron as noticed by the Sixth Bureau, because the order given by the Grey-Headed Eagle is only to do this before the players in the big city end, not as informed by the Sixth Bureau's intelligence. Yes, do this during the finals of the big city players. Hmm.”

He looked at the envelope, put the cat on the table, got up and got the brazier, then lit the envelope and letter paper, and watched them burn to ashes with his own eyes.

Shade didn't plan to do it because he had no reason to do it, and Detective Sparrow just asked him to burn the letter. He had no intention of telling MI6 the information he had learned, which would cause him to have to explain more things.

"I haven't read this letter. I don't know the identity of Sparrow Hamilton at all. I just succeeded Uncle Sparrow and continued to run this detective agency. I know the orange cat Mia, but I don't know the gray cat." Eagle."

Shade whispered to himself in his heart.

He has enough troubles because of the matter with the Chosen One, but he must not get involved with foreign spies again.

After burning the envelopes and stationery, I planned to take the cat out to eat. It was a celebration that I had finally settled all the contacts with Detective Sparrow. The mission that lasted for two and a half months was finally over, and he could be considered a true inheritance. All the detective's legacy.

But when I thought about the burned envelope, I felt that the eight-digit password seemed familiar. Then I remembered that on the weekend when Lesia returned to Tobesk, while Shade was waiting for the carriage to be picked up at the entrance of Silver Cross Avenue, he was hit by someone and then picked up a newspaper with something like this written on it. password.

"Is there such a thing?"

He sat in the chair at his desk and recalled that day.

The way Dorothy told him to connect to the carriage was to wear gray gloves on both hands and an animal brooch on the chest. That brooch was a brass brooch with an eagle head that Shade found in the late Detective Sparrow's bedroom desk.

"Um"

Later, he met President Stan of the Prophet Association on Silver Cross Avenue. Of course, Shade would not say that he was waiting for Princess Lesia, so he casually pretended that he was on a detective mission to prepare for a connection.

So President Stan performed a divination on Shade on the spot, and gave the suggestion to "wear the gray gloves inside out, replace the newspaper in your hand with the Threepenny Newspaper, and then buy a red rose and hold it in your hand." .

"Is there really such a thing?"

President Stan is the best fortune teller in the Tobesk region, and the fortune telling he once gave Shade about the "Knight" was very accurate. And if President Stan was really divining "how to make the connection with Shade smoother" that day, then the suggestions he gave might really be helpful to the "connection".

Thinking of this, Shade rummaged through the row of bookshelves behind him and found the newspaper he had brought back that day. After copying down the digital code on the edge of the newspaper, I cracked it according to the rules just obtained, and then I actually got a complete sentence:

[Confirmed that Grey-headed Eagle made a single-line contact request, and now provides the dynamically changing intelligence network]

This is the sentence at the top of the first page, which means that in fact, the person who threw the newspaper did not know the true identity of "Grey Eagle" because he did not see through Shade. Detective Sparrow, on the other hand, seems to be able to only receive information and cannot actively communicate, so he cannot report that he is going to die.

[There is currently no information change on the special missions that will be carried out in September. If you give up the mission, please go to the old place tomorrow night and write the Delarian language - eternal loyalty. If you do not complete the task or give any response, your identity will be exposed and please evacuate on your own. 】

This is the sentence in the lower margin of the first page, and "tomorrow night" is long gone.

Shade finally knew why he was asked to burn the letter. Of course, it seems possible if Detective Sparrow doesn't find anyone and just dies on his own, but the detective is probably worried that the sudden closure of the detective agency in the city center or the strange change of ownership of this "haunted house" will trigger a military incident. Six attention.

Judging from the location and the status of the neighbors, this is almost a given. Therefore, we hired Shade, a man with "some brain problems," to temporarily run the business for three months. When everything disappeared and the Gray Gloves gave up on the "Grey Eagle" that had not responded for a long time, it would all be over.

"It's really 'eternal loyalty'."

Xia De sighed.

[Please pass the information you receive to No. 1 Vic Street before the Harvest Moon and receive this year’s 2,000 pound action fund. 】

"2000?"

Shade now understood how the detective agency in Sparrow's era could support his consumption of high-end black tea when it was only engaged in searching for pets and investigating mistresses.

[Will you withdraw the 2,000 pounds? 】

"Of course not. I am now playing the role of a loyal Delarian. How can I pass information to the enemy country?"

[What’s the truth? 】

"I am not short of money now, so there is no need to get involved in trouble for 2,000 pounds. However, the address is not written on the order. Detective Sparrow must know the address, but for everyone else, except for me who happened to bump into President Stan , got this secret information, otherwise even if we got Mr. Cameron’s secret letter, we wouldn’t be able to get involved in this matter.”

Then came the last line of cipher text in the newspaper:

[If there is no special need, please do not enable the information network frequently. 】

This sentence is written in the cracks of the advertising area of ​​the second page.

Shade sighed and dropped the pen in his hand on the desk. "

He was certain that what he had glimpsed so far was only a corner of the complex intelligence system of Carsonrick's "Grey Gloves" organization. Detective Sparrow was dead, and no one could know how that complex system worked.

But what is certain is that Sparrow Hamilton's mission is to lurk for a long time. He cannot take the initiative to provide any intelligence to his superiors, and his superiors may not even know his true identity. His only role is to remain silent, accept the mission, and then complete it.

"This kind of spy is really powerful. If it weren't for getting some information, I would never have imagined that an ordinary detective would have such an amazing identity and background."

Thinking in his mind, he threw all the newspapers and translated texts in his hands into the brazier and burned them to ashes.

In the firelight, the pages burned away bit by bit. Shade looked at the bright brazier and suddenly understood that the last traces of the former detective had also disappeared in this home.

He sighed softly:

"Farewell, Detective Sparrow Hamilton."