New Gods of North America

"Right now, our most crucial task is to confirm the whereabouts of his accomplices."

"Logically, once he, the key figure, successfully and safely escapes, the other accomplices might receive the news through some unknown channels. Then, they'll either split up and evacuate according to the plan, or they'll gather at a pre-arranged meeting point."

"Moreover, we can't completely rely on them to keep their promises. Even if he does reveal the locations of the other sealed artifacts afterward, his accomplices might prematurely unseal some of them tonight to divert our attention, allowing him to truly escape the Church's control."

Before Tom Hagen officially completed negotiations with "Macon Reef," some matters had already reached an internal consensus.

Although the real Willie wasn't present, because both hostages were from the detective agency, the detective agency prioritized the task of tracking, leaving the handling of potential minor disturbances in the city to David Mills.

Unfortunately, Owl was injured by that Anton Chigurh. Although he won't die, one of his wings has been clipped and bandaged.

The detective agency, now without its "little airplane," had to resort to clumsy methods, such as Peter using a strand of spider silk and secretly attaching a bottle with small holes under the carriage, which would drip a drop of blood every so often.

They were hesitant to use other extraordinary means, as the opponent looked neither human nor ghost this time around.

They also worried that he might develop some strange sensitivity to extraordinary powers, which would be counterproductive.

Inessa was also a bit worried, saying that if the distance was too great or if it was daytime and crowded, she could easily lose the target.

However, Wayne was quite confident in her. "Having a trail to follow" is always more reliable than "searching for a needle in a haystack."

There's no need to talk about chivalry with such insidious villains, but it's best to keep the table from being overturned before they reveal the information about the other sealed artifacts.

Although the Church seems to have a lot of manpower, it's really not enough when spread throughout the city.

To show sincerity, and also to prevent possible abnormal situations in the city, Tom Hagen really temporarily withdrew personnel from a large area, as agreed upon in the negotiations.

Only a few sentries were stationed at key intersections to ensure that the opponent's movements wouldn't be completely lost.

More people acted separately, striving to quickly quell any abnormalities that arose, and it would be even better if they could catch the troublemakers along the way.

Wayne's pursuit team also adopted a decentralized and relay tracking mode as much as possible to avoid alarming the opponent.

Maintaining distance and temporarily avoiding losing them was the main goal.

Some things do sound a bit long-winded. Some of the more aggressive exorcists in the Church previously stated that they shouldn't negotiate with criminals. A dozen sealed artifacts are nothing; even if they cause some casualties, they won't affect the operation of the entire city. It would always be possible to interrogate them with some time and coercive measures.

In fact, according to Tom Hagen and Wayne's personalities, things would be simpler if they could do that.

However, law enforcement officers sometimes have to act like wimps.

The opponent isn't currently holding hostages, where they could just find an opportunity to kill them and solve the problem. Instead, there are accomplices hidden in the dark, and the resulting casualties are still unknown.

The possible number of casualties, placed in the entire city, might only be a few per thousand or a few per ten thousand, but for the specific innocent individuals, the probability is 100%.

Wayne isn't afraid of those accidents happening to himself, but he can't bring himself to bet on the safety of ordinary citizens.

In a sense, not easily gambling with others is what makes a qualified law enforcement officer for ordinary people.

Even Emma, that little loli, only came here with his consent.

Wayne was sitting in the same carriage as Inessa, driven by Connal, while Wayne was looking at a map in the carriage.

The city was still relatively quiet at night. Although they couldn't see the carriage in front, the straight-line distance was estimated to be less than a kilometer.

The sound of horses' hooves couldn't be completely avoided. If they formed a "convoy," it would be very obvious in this situation, so everyone could only try to disperse and control their speed.

After about ten minutes, the carriage arrived at the so-called "slum area" of the city.

The road conditions in this area were obviously starting to become relatively narrow and crowded. The horse manure on the road wasn't cleaned up as promptly as in the prosperous areas, and it felt like it had fermented a bit.

As they passed an intersection, Wayne listened to the direction pointed out by Inessa and the seemingly sudden increase in the sound of hooves in front. Looking at the map, he felt something was wrong.

He looked up at Inessa, and then saw that she seemed to have noticed it.

Inessa nodded slightly, "Yes, they seem to be circling around now. We just passed the next intersection not long ago."

The spider silk and scent were afraid of being confused. Lina was secretly holding the line, so she was following the opponent's route. Inessa and Wayne were slightly offset from the route, in a relatively "flanking" position.

If they circled around here a few times, even if the bottle on the carriage wasn't discovered, it would be easy to lose them.

Wayne chose to have Connal speed up slightly. There would occasionally be other carriages in the city at night, so the opponent shouldn't be surprised to have pursuers behind them.

He himself opened the vision of simple lines and began to observe both sides of the road with Inessa.

Theoretically, if the people planning to escape start to detour, either someone might be secretly monitoring and watching, or they might be planning to suddenly do something, such as wanting to slip into an alley.

Sure enough, not long after passing two intersections they had already passed, the sound of hooves in front seemed to suddenly disappear.

When they continued to move forward, Wayne saw a roadside sign and realized that things seemed to be going wrong.

"Damn it, his original plan might not have been to leave Georgeburg at all. Connal, turn around quickly, go to the orphanage we passed earlier."

The roadside sign was a somewhat ugly and simple directional sign, relative to modern society.

The information on it was very simple.

On the one hand, it reminded people how to get to that orphanage after seeing this sign.

On the other hand, it told citizens that the orphanage had received donations from Cohen Pharmaceutical Company, so it helped them promote their good deeds.