New Gods of North America

On a Saturday night,

After seeing Miss Aurelia off, an owl silently flew out of the detective agency's small courtyard.

After the silly bird returned, it cooed, confirming that there was only one "fish" tonight.

Wayne then left in a carriage driven by Cowardly Peter.

The first batch of silencer samples had arrived,

But Wayne discovered that installing this thing on revolvers and lever-action rifles of this era wasn't very effective...

A crucial factor affecting the silencing effect is the airtightness of the firearm itself.

If the airtightness is good enough, the high-pressure gas produced by the burning gunpowder will be mostly "squeezed" out from the muzzle, resulting in a better silencing effect.

And coincidentally,

The revolvers and lever-action rifles of this era are precisely lacking in airtightness—causing them to "leak" from other places, and the muzzle silencing's "noise reduction" range isn't large enough.

The silencer worked okay on Ineza's bolt-action rifle, but it blocked the front sight and wasn't very stable, so it needed further modification.

However, weapons with better silencing effects weren't impossible to make. If the revolver's airtightness was poor, then one could consider modifying a single-shot pistol without a "cylinder," striving for a one-shot kill, or else enter the grave oneself.

The same principle applied to lever-action rifles. If simply adding accessories didn't work well, then consider overall modification, blocking any potential air leaks as much as possible, even at the cost of some ammo capacity and rate of fire.

The principle wasn't difficult.

The problem was that "completely modifying firearms to make the sound of firing quieter" seemed far more deliberate than "adding accessories," and its scope of application was also very suspicious.

It could almost be defined as "premeditated crime."

Although there weren't any legal clauses targeting this kind of thing in this era, if it really went to court, it probably wouldn't pass the jury.

So Wayne planned to take some time to visit the Brooke family's steel mill to have a good chat with Alex Brooke.

He would only consider trying it if that guy could keep a secret.

Otherwise, he would find a chance to switch to another one.

Since the silencer couldn't be used tonight, Wayne planned to lure the "fish" to a relatively remote place as much as possible.

Avoid firing if possible, and if he had to fire, he would just run away afterward.

Wayne focused on the mirror in his hand, the surface of which was now covered with Seth's "film."

Not many people were left at the detective agency at this time. Besides Parker and Emma guarding the house and being responsible for his protection, everyone else had been dispatched tonight.

Doug, Seth, and Conner were in a group of three, riding in a carriage together, departing slightly later than Wayne.

The owl was responsible for aerial reconnaissance, and Seth was responsible for information synchronization, basically the simplest "battlefield situational awareness system." Using it to track and locate a carriage was overkill. Conner served as both a bodyguard and a fighter, balancing the group's average combat power.

Wayne and Ineza were originally supposed to be in separate groups. Having three carriages to encircle and intercept without firing would feel more secure.

But in that case, no one would be in charge of the prisoner. Although his attitude was fairly cooperative, he had tried to escape several times unsuccessfully. He couldn't be left alone with the chef or the little loli.

Therefore, Wayne called Cowardly Peter over to be his coachman, half supervising and half utilizing him, while Ineza was alone in a separate carriage.

Seth's "film" could only transmit image information, but fortunately, the synchronization rate was pretty good, even showing Seth's "stroke order." The ability belonged to the concept of "synchronization" or "resonance" in the order domain.

A circled cross symbol had been quickly drawn on the "film."

It represented that Wayne's carriage had already been "bitten" by the other party, and also indicated that Seth's group had entered the trailing state, in the "oriole" position in the "mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind" scenario.

As bait, Wayne's route was planned in advance, with roughly two or three plans, and then improvising as needed.

The other party wasn't following too closely, maintaining a distance of about several dozen to a hundred yards. It wouldn't be easy to notice being followed unless it was a long straight road.

Seth continued to share the other party's direction of travel, basically a straight arrow or a turning arrow. After drawing, the "film" could clear the content and then draw new ones.

Confirming that the target hadn't lost track of him, Wayne turned onto a relatively narrow road according to plan.

Feeling that the position was about right, he took advantage of the turn to have Cowardly Peter pull down the cloth hanging on the spare kerosene lamp, while simultaneously turning the carriage around to chase back.

At this time, the front of Wayne's carriage had two kerosene lamps turned up to their brightest, hanging on the left and right, looking like a pair of beast's eyes in the night.

The detective agency's location in Georgeburg was considered relatively "suburban," and Wayne also made sure not to get too close to the city.

The other party's reaction was also very quick, turning even before getting too close, and dodging into places like small woods or grassy areas along the suburban road that couldn't really be considered "roads."

As Wayne approached, realizing that Wayne was actually turning back to find them, the other party quickly extinguished the kerosene lamps on the carriage and accelerated.

Wayne hadn't expected the other party to be so familiar with the terrain.

The suburbs indeed had many places that "didn't look like roads but carriages could pass through," such as small woods or grasslands.

But the Georgeburg area had a well-developed water system. People who didn't know the roads would easily run into "dead ends" blocked by rivers if they ran blindly off the main road.

The other party seemed to have scouted the area in advance, knowing which directions to avoid and which directions had "forks."

The detective agency wasn't a proper "law enforcement" agency. When dealing with strangers who were merely "unidentified" or "suspicious," they followed the principle of "equal countermeasures."

If you fight hand-to-hand, I'll fight hand-to-hand. If you pull a gun, I'll pull a gun. Although they wouldn't necessarily "refuse to fire the first shot," they wouldn't just randomly "firecrackers." Even if the Heavenly King himself came, the detective agency would still have some twisted logic.

So in the other party's situation of neither firing nor simply fleeing in silence, it really seemed a bit difficult to catch them.

Unfortunately, it was useless.

At Wayne's signal, Cowardly Peter shouted while driving the horses, and Doug's group also cooperated by trying to intercept in advance.

Although the other party tried several times to "quickly turn" or "brush past," the closest they came to breaking out of the encirclement was when they suddenly turned and waded through the water at a seemingly "dead end" shallow beach, causing Doug's group to miss.

But Ineza's position was perfect, quickly circling around to the plot of land across the river and completing the fill-in, not letting the other party escape successfully.

Under the illumination of the kerosene lamps hanging on the carriage, the silver-haired figure was quite conspicuous in the darkness.

This time, the other party didn't try any more dangerous driving.

The carriage gradually slowed down and finally stopped completely. The carriage driver raised his hands over there:

"Don't move... We are from the Exorcist Association."

Huh?!

I noticed I received a message when updating, this book will be free next Wednesday at 2 PM, the dead memories started attacking me again...

Readers, you may want to raise a wave of them and kill them together at that time, of course, I would be very happy if there are still people following up these days.

By the way, if the author's heart is broken, he may temporarily open the fan value comment limit and close it after pushing it down.