Ember Gun

  Chapter 3 Gifts from the North

  Lorenzo said all this confidently. He liked it very much. Although he didn't say it directly, he felt that he was humiliating Shrike's IQ.

  Shrike was silent, always like this, just when he was about to pull the trigger to kill the damned detective, he would always prove his worth, and then he was angry enough.

  "This is your plan, borrow those forensic doctors?"

  Lorenzo nodded.

   "Shrike, you have to admit that there is a specialization in surgery. I have attended a class at the Wangli Medical College." Lorenzo's face has a twisted feeling that seems to be a nightmare of memory.

   "For the first time to tell the truth, I am confused about knowledge."

   "Of course you also have your use, otherwise I won't come to see you in this ghost place of Xiacheng."

  Lorenzo is always so self-confident that he doesn't even care that Shrike even pointed a gun at him just now.

   "Shrike, I came mainly to ask you some questions."

"what is the problem?"

Shrike put the gun on the table, he fell into Lorenzo's rhythm again, obviously he was his employer, the leader of the entire lower city, but when Lorenzo started a long talk, he always lowered unconsciously. His head.

  Like a teacher and his students, Lorenzo is the bad teacher. He doesn't teach the students anything, but only plays with their minds to show his excellence, as if he can feel satisfied from it.

   "Shrike, I need to know the whole picture of this case."

  Lorenzo stared at the shrike, reflecting his vague figure in the unique blue-green pupils of the Inervig.

"A sailor has a secret you want to know... Shrike, I am a detective, not a writer. I need to know the whole picture to find out everything, otherwise I will go home and try to make a reasonable story for you. NS."

   Grabbing the edge of the table, Lorenzo pulled himself over. He approached the Shrike, and the two looked like close friends.

   "So, are you interested in talking about it?"

   Lorenzo asked with a smile.

  ...

  The story should start from half a month ago.

According to Inervig’s law, the period from mid-June to mid-September is a no-fishing period. All fishing boats moored in the port are prohibited from sailing and fishing, but one day half a month ago, a fishing boat arrived in the mist. To the port of Rendona.

   "My people have been following the ship for a long time. They set off from Nobita, the Viking Kingdom. During this time, they changed their route and passed through the icy sea, and finally arrived at Rendona Port half a month ago."

   “It sounds nothing suspicious. Every year during the fishing ban, many fishing boats will fish from other waters and send them to Jiudunling.”

  Lorenzo said while listening.

  "The problem is that their fishing boats did not unload after they were parked, and no one came out. They just stopped at the dock. After a few days of exposure, the fish and shrimps started to smell bad before they caught people’s attention."

   "So...is there any value in this fishing boat?"

  This is an essential question, everything has its value, even if this fishing boat is also the case now, a fishing boat that has not unloaded, Lorenzo can't understand how he alarmed the big man Shrike.

   "It is not as simple as a fishing boat."

  Shrike told the concealed story, and the alcohol set off the atmosphere and made him feel much better.

"My business is not only here in Old Dunling, but also in the surrounding areas... That ship carried things that he shouldn't have. My people have been tracking it, using a new-style steam ship, which is faster than them. More than doubled.

  Originally, they would stop them in the North Sea, and then let this hapless fishing boat sleep forever on the bottom of the sea and send the Vikings back to their hall of spirits. "

  Drinking the remaining wine in the glass, he continued.

"But the accident happened, as if Odin was favoring them. The fishing boat sailed into the icy sea, and my people lost their tracks in the storm. Then, just as I said, they arrived in Renndor. At the port of Nagoya, the fish and shrimps are just a cover up, the real goods have been shipped away long ago."

   "So what I want to check is the mysterious cargo, right?"

  Lorenzo lowered his head and smoked his pipe, nodding while talking.

   "Yes, according to the list, that Wall is the sailor of the Silverfish. Since they arrived, this group of people has evaporated. Wall, I am the only one who can find a trace."

   "Counting the captain's chief officer, there are 17 people in total. Excluding the dead Wall, the remaining 16 people are still missing."

   "But now the only Wall is killed by you."

  Shrike did not say angrily.

  Lorenzo looked at him, and the confusion in his heart did not diminish.

   "Why don't you do it yourself and grab the individual."

  "This cargo is related to a certain duke, and my people cannot appear on the scene." Shrike is the king in the dark, but when facing the noble duke, he will still be embarrassed.

   "What about the goods?"

   "I don't know, I only know that it is sealed in an iron box."

  Lorenzo smiled.

   "Look, another vague request, can I go to the blacksmith to bring an iron box and receive the reward?"

  Shrike was not angry at Lorenzo's provocation this time. He was calm and uncharacteristic.

   "Do you believe in things like the sixth sense?"

   "You mean intuition?"

"probably."

  Shrike looked down at the revolver on the table, and there were paintings of ghosts and gods carved on the bullet nest. He was fascinated.

  "You will understand when you first see it...just like intuition, when you see that iron box, you will recognize it."

  The words are mysterious and mysterious, this is what Lorenzo has never seen before, and he feels a little bad.

   "Shrike, you still have a lot of things that you haven't explained to me."

  This is a fragmented story, even Lorenzo is somewhat at a loss, behind which he can't see clearly.

  "You are just a detective I hired, not my accountant. You had better not know so much about my business."

  Shrike refused to reveal more, his eyes were firm.

   "This is for your good."

  "The rest of the information is here. The carriage is already waiting for you outside. You can check it on the way to the hospital."

  Speaking, Shrike took out a document, flipped through a few pages, tore off the parts that Lorenzo shouldn’t know, and threw it to him.

   "You know how much I trust you, I am the hated butcher bird, and you are the iron thorn that pierced my prey."

  Shrike looked at him.

   "So go, if you don't do it well, I will fill in the last bullet." He was referring to the one-sixth probability revolver.

   "Okay, okay."

  Lorenzo got up and picked up the file, turned and left, but stopped again.

  "Is it still my way, right?"

   "I only care about the outcome of this matter."

  This is probably an answer, Lorenzo pushed open the iron gate and left without looking back.

  ...

  Walking out of the rocky castle, the cold air poured into Lorenzo’s nose in an instant. The air was so humid and cold and depressed.

  It’s so cold...

Old Dunling is like this. With thousands of tons of water vapor permeating day and night, it will always be rainy and rainy. They gather above the city as if a cloud dome covers everything, and the sun will illuminate the cloudy sky golden, like the sky It is also burning in general.

  The coachman was already waiting for Lorenzo outside. This time Lorenzo walked directly into the carriage and looked through the documents.

The scenery outside the car windows changed slowly. After a few inspections, they entered the outer city. Unlike the run-down and desolate of the Xiacheng District, you can see towering Gothic and Balot-style buildings everywhere, and tall steam towers erected there. Between each block, billowing smoke rose from the chimney, turning everything gray.

  This is the birthplace of steam technology, the most advanced city in the world. With technological innovation and development, everyone lives with hope.

  The document is fixed with a delicate iron frame, and the edges are decorated with mottled brass. This is a common decoration technique in this era. Gears and pipes seem to be like steam machines. For this reason, there are a group of people who worship those hot machines, believing that they are the mighty power bestowed by gods.

  Opening the document, Lorenzo read it carefully in the swaying carriage.

  What is written here is much more detailed than what the Shrike said, most of which are personally dictated by the person under investigation, and the words are messy, but without exception, they are all recorded.

  I feel more comfortable seeing Lorenzo here. In the past, the people who handled the case only kept the important and concise parts, causing some of the accounts to look extremely cold.

To write down every sentence in detail is Lorenzo’s opinion. Only in this way can Lorenzo feel that he is facing a person when facing this piece of paper, a real flesh and blood person, he is talking about , Speak out everything slowly.

   Reached his hand into his arms and took out an exaggerated iron box, which was neatly filled with cigarettes.

   Picking up one of the red-lined cigarettes, Lorenzo picked it up and looked at everything on the file.

  The inside of the carriage was filled with smoke, slowly rising.

  Time seems to have slowed down. The contents of the tobacco spread to his nerves after the blood exchange, and his gray-blue eyes were gleaming.

  As if the carriage stepped into another world, the window darkened, and finally turned into pitch black. In this darkness, only the light from Lorenzo’s cigarette was left.

   "Let me see you..."

   Lorenzo whispered softly, and with the faint light from the cigarette, his fingers rubbed the rough surface of the paper, and he muttered the words on the document silently in his heart.

  The so-called “speaking spirit” is simple to understand, that is, the words are spoken and they are spirited, just like the classic “God says there must be light, so there is light”.

  That is the narrative from the bottom of my heart, so the "spirit" ferments in the dark.

  Lorenzo looked at the documents under the firelight, and suddenly there was a rapid sound of wind in the darkness, sweeping over him with the fishy smell of sea water.

  It seemed that something was approaching Lorenzo. It was crawling slowly on the ground, making a sticky and disgusting sound, and its pupils watched the pensive man quietly, and it stopped not far away.

   A thunderstorm passed by, and the darkness was lit up for a moment under the hold of the storm, and the ground shook the mountains.

  Although it was only a moment, it was still possible to see Lorenzo sitting in a chair and lowering his head in thought, with his vision zoomed out, and he would see that he was on the silverfish at this moment.

  The sea beat the sinking ship, the strange cold wind stroked him, and the cracked and wet deck in front of him was now full of people.

  As if none of this existed, Lorenzo coldly raised his head and looked at the silhouette paled by the thunder, seaweed-like hair swaying in the wind, and the sea ticking like blood.

  Lorenzo had no fear at all, as if everything could not be more ordinary.

   "Where have you been?"

  He questioned the weird darkness.

  The crew disappeared out of thin air, the mysterious cargo. He was looking for the weirdness hidden between the lines in this word, the thing that really pushed all of this.

  The flash of thunder was about to leave. At the end of this light, Lorenzo noticed a trace of old blood.

  The creature staring at him in the dark.

   Turning his head abruptly, Lorenzo found the key point.

   His gaze swept away quickly, it was a hideous corner, but then that corner overlapped with the familiar face, and the voice sounded.

   "Mr. Holmes?"

  The coachman opened the door and looked at Lorenzo in the smoke. His eyes were dull and hollow, as if he was looking at himself.

  It wasn't until the ashes burned Lorenzo's fingers that he reacted like he was waking up from a big dream and dropped the cigarette butt.

  As the coachman opened the door, everything that was strange and dreamlike was over.

  The sky is still gloomy, and the coachman’s face is somewhat disappointed.

   "Sir, I thought you wouldn't touch hallucinogens or something."

  It has been a long time since the Victoria Central Hospital has arrived. Lorenzo did not respond after he called many times. He even said that when he opened the door of the car, Lorenzo was still in the illusion of sluggishness.

   Although working for the bosses of all gangsters, the coachman still instinctively resists things like hallucinogens. The young man thinks this is the key to heaven, but in his opinion it is an invitation to hell.

   "You know, sometimes I need some inspiration in my business."

  Lorenzo smiled and did not answer directly.

  The coachman stepped sideways and stepped aside, still muttering when Lorenzo got out of the car.

   "If you need it, I know a few good drug addiction specialists... just a little rougher."

  Out of courtesy, Lorenzo thanked the coachman for his concern with a smile, strode forward, and walked towards the magnificent castle-like hospital.

  (End of this chapter)