New Gods of North America

The next day, Wayne continued to assess the priests' situation, using the cathedral's authority to review their basic information and resumes, gathering information from all sources, and then conducting various "heart-to-heart talks."

Lina, on the other hand, took advantage of delivering meals in the morning, noon, and evening to gather information from exorcists of different factions, even pulling in the little loli Emma and Willie as auxiliary tools to "lower their guard."

In the evening, the investigators met to summarize the situation and arrange follow-up actions. By this time, everyone had already obtained the newspapers to be published tomorrow, confirming that the missing person notice had been published.

Starting that night, the number of people secretly tailing Macken Reeves quietly increased, and even the detective agency managed to obtain several sets of academy security personnel uniforms.

Since there were church exorcists present, the detective agency, although almost all of them were registered as "fallen" by the church, still avoided using extraordinary abilities publicly if possible.

Guys like Damon McReady, Cowardly Peter, and Liam, whose backgrounds were unclear, were not qualified to run around and had to stay at home obediently.

So Lina was not only stirring up trouble but also taking the lead in "neglecting her duties."

"It's past 12 o'clock now, and we're taking all bets on anything happening before midnight. Anyone want to continue betting? You can still bet on whether anything will happen after dawn."

In a small building quietly requisitioned in the academy, Lina was gathering people to gamble in a room that looked dark from the outside, and she had already collected more than a dozen dollars.

Next to her, under a shaded kerosene lamp, were some exorcists on standby or rotating shifts for a late-night snack, as well as Doug and Seth, who were constantly trying to extract inside information.

The treatment of church personnel didn't seem high in this era, and there were many rules and regulations, but because they had free room and board and stable work, they were actually relatively "well-off."

Especially the exorcists fighting on the front lines, whose living habits were mostly simple, and they basically didn't need to spend money on food, clothing, housing, and transportation, so they all seemed to have a good foundation, making them prime targets for scammers as long as they weren't afraid of the church.

For example, Lina took the opportunity of delivering late-night snacks to linger and casually invite people to gamble. Many exorcists could readily pull out dollar bills.

Just the entertainment of "casual betting," with one or two dollars or slightly more per person, could add up to enough for an ordinary working family to eat for a while—for the detective agency, it was probably just a slight recovery of the cost of "free meal delivery."

Wayne quietly extended his telescope by the window, occasionally staring at Macken Reeves' current dormitory with the exorcists, and occasionally glancing at a distant tree, where Ineisha's team was stationed in another direction.

The teams led by the hunters seemed more rigorous, not laughing and joking during the mission, and not even eating, drinking, or talking much.

Because they were already familiar with the local exorcism department personnel, Wayne deliberately created a relatively relaxed atmosphere with the detective agency's deliberate guidance.

The main purpose was to infect the other exorcists who were mixed in, making it easier for the detective agency to gather more information.

In addition to the current investigation mission, for the detective agency, there were not many opportunities to be with the people under other priests in such an "upright" and "collaborative" manner.

With Lina, who seemed to have no guile at this time, taking the lead, the agents took the opportunity to act like problem children, pretending to be curious about "brother units" and trying to ask some things that seemed unimportant and unrelated, but might be useful after summarizing.

Time gradually passed two o'clock in the morning. Suddenly, the lights went out in an outer hut. After Wayne's people noticed, they quickly and quietly made a gesture.

The exorcists on standby and rotating shifts immediately stopped chatting, put down their things, and returned to their predetermined positions to be on guard.

After a while, an exorcist responsible for the outer perimeter, wearing the uniform of an academy security guard, arrived at the small building.

As expected, there was a new situation:

"A carriage entered the academy and stopped in a small forest over there. To avoid alarming the other party, we specially diverted the academy security personnel and did not conduct an inspection."

There were not many people left in the room at this time. After confirming the location on the map, Wayne and Lina silently exchanged glances. The latter took two agents and left stealthily. Doug chased the owl out of the window, and then he and Seth stayed obediently to avoid dragging them down.

Wayne then opened his minimalist vision, led a group of exorcists out of the back door into the shadows, preparing to act when the opportunity arose.

The night continued to be silent as if nothing had happened. They hadn't found anything unusual. After about ten minutes, the owl, which had been circling silently and gradually flying lower, suddenly "cooed" twice in the distance.

A small point of light rose rapidly, flashing a trail of light in the night sky. The owl went directly from "circling" to "flapping" in the air, and then tilted and plunged into the canopy of a tree, looking like a "crash."

"Bang!" A muffled gunshot rang out, sounding like Ineisha's special bolt-action rifle.

"Stop!"

"Don't run!"

The silence and night were quickly broken. Shouts and some lights appeared one after another around the "light spot" launch point, and then quickly began to move further away.

The lights in several nearby student dormitories also turned on one after another, and faint figures could be seen flashing inside the windows.

When Wayne arrived, he found Macken Reeves unconscious at the scene.

There was blood on the nearby grass, but no wounds on his body. The person who was shot was not him.

The exorcists who arrived nearby earlier were still making noise in the distance, seemingly chasing after other people.

After Wayne confirmed that Macken Reeves' breathing was still roughly stable, he planned to leave him to the exorcists behind him to deal with, and he would go to reinforce the "advance team."

...

"Why were so many people injured?"

When dawn was approaching, Tom Hagen listened to the exorcist's report in the church and looked at Wayne beside him.

Wayne was also very helpless about this. The extraordinary ability of the guy named Anton Chigurh was similar to a firearm.

Bulletproof vests that were practically equipped were not yet invented this year, and large shields and armor had been phased out. Exorcists were better at dealing with "evil spirits" or "fallen ones," and they suffered when dealing with guys who used extraordinary versions of "silenced firearms."

Especially since that guy was in the "holy" realm, many emergency measures of the exorcists were discounted when used on him.

But fortunately, that guy was using "extraordinary abilities" instead of real firearms. Although it was silent and had a fast rate of fire, the exorcist priests' special candlesticks and other special lamps could also affect it, and some things said to be "guardian emblems" also played a role.

So although six people were "injured," none were "killed."

At least not yet.

Tom Hagen slowed down slightly, "At least they didn't let anyone run away... You said you caught him in the city?"

Speaking of this, Wayne didn't know whether to be speechless or grateful.

That guy was very familiar with the academy's situation and acted decisively. Wayne and Ineisha's positions were not good. By the time they arrived, the other party had already mounted a horse and completed the initial acceleration.

Then there was a highway飙车 scene belonging to this era, with a horse running in front and several carriages chasing behind.

During the period, people in front and behind also shot each other, and the weapon effects didn't seem to be from the same era, giving Wayne the illusion of using old hot weapons to fight aliens.

In the end, that guy escaped the range of the academy all the way, turned into the deserted section of Georgeberg at night, and turned back at an intersection and "biu"ed, seemingly planning to take the opportunity to turn into a relatively complex area of the road and try to shake off the pursuers.

Then Wayne saw a sudden drunkard with a rapidly rising scream, driving a carriage that was too late to brake and slammed into it...