Baker Street Charterers

The residence of the Hawke family is located in an inaccessible old castle on the outskirts of London, which can be traced back to Richard II.Even after this ancient family gradually declined under the impetus of time and revolution, the castle remained unchanged.

It was late at night, most of the lights in the majestic castle had been extinguished, only the candles in the two rooms on the second floor were still bright.

The young maid carefully withdrew from one of the rooms with the silver tray in her hand. The corridor was so dimly lit that she closed the door, and when she walked to the corner, someone strangled her neck with her arms before realizing where it was. There is still a strange figure hiding!

She subconsciously opened her mouth to shout, but her throat was blocked by a slightly cold hand, the sharp point of the knife was pressed against her waist, and a clear, deep and cold female voice was pressed against her ear, gentle and slightly cold.

"Good evening, Mia."

The maid's eyes widened. How could she know her name?

The woman behind her seemed to have guessed her thoughts, and she let out a very low laugh, "I've been paying attention to you for two days, Miss Mia. Now, tell me, where is Cleveland Hawk's basement?"

The maid was stunned for a while, biting her lips and trying to speak, but the other party's next sentence made her choke back again——

"How about this, for everyone's safety, why don't you take me there?"

Although her voice seemed to contain a slight smile, the tone of her voice and the meaning inside were clearly cold and cold.

In an instant, all opportunities for the maid to call for help were eliminated.

"You...you'd better leave now..." However, the maid is usually well-trained, and at this moment she is not as panicked as the others, but tries to calmly try to persuade her to give up this attempt, "Even if you find ... You, you can't get out—"

"Then you don't need to worry." The woman said softly, and the sharp and cold object behind her pushed forward threateningly, "Please lead the way, Miss Mia."

She had no choice but to reluctantly step on the ancient floor of the castle and walk to the basement under the coercion of others.

"Pay attention to your feet, smart and lovely Mia." The woman who didn't let her see her face suddenly reminded her, seeming to be smiling, "You want to attract the attention of the people in this castle? Oh, I have to say, for For you, this is really not a wise choice."

The plan was seen through again, and the maid finally had no other way. She was shocked to feel that the knife behind her almost cut through her skirt, and pierced her spine coldly.

"You can't escape!" Finally, the maid could only say so bitterly, "Everyone who invades the castle will get what he deserves in the end."

"Really." The woman just replied indifferently, sounding neither surprised nor frightened.

It was late at night, and the shadow of the old castle began to cover everything.Light footsteps like ghosts stepped on the wooden floor, winding down the clean and hard stone stairs.The more the maid walked in, the more disturbed she felt—although she was born in the Hawke family, a descendant of an old servant, and has a good relationship with the family, but she also deeply understands some of the ills of the Hawke family, such as natural indifference, such as crazy obsession Because of some medical research, and more little secrets that she has no way of knowing.

But she also had to admit that although she respected Mr. Hawke more than she loved them, they were still her masters.Not to mention that although Mr. Cleveland is taciturn, he is indeed a nice person and a qualified gentleman.

So what was this woman trying to do with Mr. Cleveland?The visitor must be bad, she has to find a way——

After the visitor behind said a few threatening words at the beginning, he never spoke again, and a suffocating silence permeated between the hostage-taker and the hostage-taken.Mia moved around in fear, seeing the door to the basement not far away, and her key was tied around her waist, she moved her fingers, took a shallow breath, and suddenly spoke in a low voice.

"Mr. Cleveland isn't in the basement, what exactly do you want? You're a woman, why do you come to do these sneaky jobs, you—"

The people behind seemed to smile, she wasn't fooled at all, "You are so cute, Mia." She didn't mention whether she was looking for someone or something, and didn't listen to her seemingly well-intentioned admonitions, and kept her voice from the beginning to the end. A pompously friendly politeness, and a firmness.

She finally lost her attention in her mind, so she could only walk ahead dully, took out the key resignedly, and pushed open the heavy door of the basement under the signal of the other party's knife.

The soft candlelight was reflected from inside, and the thin figure stayed in front of the experiment table very intently, completely oblivious to the noise here.

"K—" the maid wanted to remind him, but the person who came didn't give her this chance, so she slashed down with a knife, and the maid immediately softened her body.She supported her and put her on the ground silently, then gently closed the basement door.

The faint light of the candlelight illuminated half of her face, half of which was bright and the other half was submerged in shadows, her emerald green pupils were as dark and deep as an underground undercurrent.

"Cleveland," she called softly.

The man in front of the test bench immediately paused, turned around suddenly, his eyes widened in surprise and joy, and he opened and closed his lips a few times before he pronounced the familiar name.

"Nora?!"

She smiled slightly, "Long time no see, you seem to be doing well."

A rare smile appeared on Cleveland's face. He wanted to walk quickly, but was stopped by Nora's outstretched hand.

"Don't move," the smile on her face did not fade at all, and her tone was clearly as cheerful and bright as before, but there was only calm in her eyes that were once full of smiles, a kind of indifferent calm, "just stand There, let me see your hand."

Cleveland froze, he stared at her in a little confusion, her strange-looking face.

"You are..."

Nora was silent for a while, watching his pale face that was exactly the same as before, thin and rigid with a bit of nobility, suddenly sighed softly, and said in a very puzzled and regretful tone, "Why? You... I thought it was your father, or your brother, why you, Cleveland... I can't imagine that you would do such a thing."

The former boss looked at her blankly, as if he finally remembered something because of her words, the original confusion disappeared, and his face became paler and paler.He kept silent about her unexplained accusation, but this normal behavior for him was undoubtedly pressing the confession at this moment, and the faint fire in Nora's eyes was finally completely extinguished in this dead silence.

"Why?" she asked, "the Cleveland I know is obsessed with experiments, but he can't do anything with living people, even children... what changes you, you look at them, don't you dream all night that they can't close their eyes face and can’t sleep?”

If she hadn't been investigating the whereabouts of those children day and night, stalking the proprietress who caught Tiantang, and using some methods that are not honorable even in modern times to force out meaningful clues, even when she saw the servants here with her own eyes In the name of sending fresh vegetables and precious flowers and trees from the manor, she sent the vagrant who was on the missing list here... She would never believe that the taciturn but knowledgeable, dull but kind friend was such a bloody hand. people.

She even once convinced herself that it must not be him who did it, but his brother Yake did it, or his father forced him to do it, and he had to do it...

Until this moment, it finally came.

The truth mercilessly tore apart the bond they once had.He finally became the one she had to get rid of.

Cleveland never answered.

"Anyone else, anyone is fine, but you." Nora's voice suddenly became tired, and she shook her head, a kind of hardness and indifference that only belonged to people in the dark shadows that he was unfamiliar with. The corners of her eyes showed, and her tone became extremely calm, "I don't even understand what changed you."

Illegal human experimentation, without the permission of the Prime Minister, attempted to use those unnoticed lower class people to realize their ambitions and ambitions, and for this reason they did not hesitate to cooperate with dangerous people like Moriarty... The Hawke family was arrested. Being "crazy" is not unfounded.

In fact, this is also one of the reasons why a nobleman with a deep and rich family background will gradually decline.Most of the people in their family are carriers of some kind of hereditary paranoid personality disorder, and they all have an irrepressible fascination and obsession with certain things they are interested in.

Generation after generation, it was passed down in the genes like venom, his father, his elder brother, his younger brother...everyone was like this.

But she has always been lucky enough to think that even though, as the second son of the family, Cleveland is inseparable from these conspiracies, at least he didn't do it himself and he didn't participate in those bloody plans, so they are still friends, and she will even try her best to help He cleared the charges until she stood here and saw living people on the laboratory bench filled with various test tubes and infused with unknown liquids.

"How will you face the bloody faces in your nightmare, my former friend?" Nora murmured, "How will you sleep peacefully? Look down, your hands are covered with disgusting blood and pus, It belongs to every one of its kind that you have killed with your own hands."

Cleveland was silent for a long time, and finally spoke under her questioning. His voice was so low that she had to use her strength to hear clearly.

"I haven't changed, Nora," he said, his eyes as calm as ever.

"I haven't changed...but now, you just recognize me more clearly."

Shouldn't she have known?This guy who likes to do experiments, likes corpses, likes the temperature of the living and the dead, and the shuddering touch of the skin... This indifferent and even cold, who doesn't care about other people's lives, weird and terrifying, is the real one. Cleveland Hawk.

Even though he was one of the few friends who had reached out to her, he was a Hawk and that would never change.