New Gods of North America

In this era of the American Federation, sweets without strange flavors mixed in were still a luxury.

Winchester's restaurants had local apple pie, limited in quantity, with a generous amount of sugar, but not as sickeningly sweet as in some North American countries of the modern era.

So the agents ate happily.

Unfortunately, ordinary people of this time hadn't yet been acclimated to the tastes of the sugar industry.

Therefore, the general impression of apple pie was roughly like this—

The first serving: 'A delicacy!', the second serving: 'It's alright, I guess.',

By the third consecutive serving, even Emma, who preferred sweets, wouldn't finish a whole slice of apple pie in one go.

So, after resting for two days, the detective agency packed some shelf-stable dry food and provisions, estimating enough for ten days or so, and began heading into the mountains, towards the steam train lines.

Having learned from their experiences in the West, to adapt to 'mountainous' or even 'high-mountain' terrain,

the carriages were now in 'four-wheel drive' or 'two-wheel drive' configurations, the goal being to ensure at least one horse per person, for easy escape when needed, or to switch horses for pursuit.

It was a pity that bolt-action rifles were indeed hard to buy in America. Inesha's rifle was supposedly a custom experimental model made by a master craftsman from some artisan association.

Otherwise, Wayne would have liked to get a batch to put in the detective agency for agents to earn through contributions.

These days, wanted posters were mainly compiled and issued by the state governments, with some local organizations or wealthy individuals offering rewards and entrusting authorized agencies to publish them.

Therefore, many wanted posters had a 'scope' issue.

Typically, a state's wanted posters were mostly sent to neighboring states and those the criminal might flee through, not 'broadcast' across the entire Federation.

For example, a wanted criminal who committed crimes in the South on the East Coast wouldn't have their wanted poster inexplicably sent to the West, and vice versa, unless it was determined that the criminal was born or lived in that location for a period.

Wayne and the others had also spent the past two days scouring the Winchester police station for wanted posters, then comparing them with those they had collected in Richmond and Georgeburg,

removing duplicates and adding any new ones.

Many agents had done similar things before and were familiar with them. Wayne also intentionally involved them in leading this part of the affairs,

after all, it was a bit far from Georgeburg, and Wayne didn't want to have to shuttle back and forth between the two places all the time.

It would be best to initially clean up this area for a while, then leave some agents to rotate on the spot, unless a large gang or a powerful individual appeared later, in which case they should try to resolve it themselves.

For this purpose, Wayne introduced the agents to some 'big data' analysis methods,

such as recording all steam train robbery cases that had occurred on this line, then categorizing them. Which sections were high-incidence areas, how often cases occurred on average, how often major cases occurred, and so on.

For some relatively active gangs, problems could also be discovered from the updates to their wanted posters.

For example, by statistically analyzing the times they committed crimes, their cycle from robbery to fencing to becoming 'hungry' again could be roughly determined, allowing them to wait for them in advance.

The possible range of their strongholds could also be roughly framed by backward time tracking.

Then Wayne and the others were also quite simple.

Since the main force had come all this way, they would strive to start cleaning up from the larger, more active gangs.

As for some who disbanded and fled after a few jobs, they posed little subsequent threat to the steam train lines, and chasing them down was too much trouble, which was a problem for regular law enforcement agencies to worry about.

So they could only 'accept all comers, and let those who leave go'.

……

Snakes have snake paths, rats have rat paths,

The group headed northwest until they reached a high-incidence area marked on the detective agency's map, and then began to investigate routes in the area.

Although many people think that the so-called 'outlaws' live exciting and stimulating lives, and are outlaws wherever they go,

in the territory of the American Federation, the killings and robberies of outlaws are mostly 'work'. The starting point is probably similar to 'working hard for a few years, saving up a sum of money, and then moving to a new place to live a stable life'.

Just like many once-ferocious pirates, when they finally came ashore, they would choose to be law-abiding citizens.

Only some people who know that they can no longer 'come ashore' will truly have such an 'exciting life'.

The detective agency's focus at this time was also on the location 'between the state border and the steam train line'.

“According to conventional reasoning, the strongholds of some large gangs are usually located near the state border, and relatively active gangs often need some 'supporting facilities'.

“For example, in addition to a 'stronghold' that is relatively easy to escape from and difficult to detect, they often have a relatively familiar 'hunting ground' and a 'rest area' for fencing and relaxation during their active period.

“Assuming that the line we are currently on is a certain gang's 'hunting ground', then a small town in the adjacent state should be their 'rest area' where they don't commit crimes. So we can probably infer in reverse at this time that as long as we connect the nearest towns in the adjacent state with this place, the range framed is the most likely place for their stronghold to appear.”

After Wayne unified opinions with Inesha and Lina, he was now holding a meeting for the agents on a flat ground by a stream.

Since the agents had been taught that Wayne could roughly determine the time of death based on the state of the corpse, and even lock onto criminals through so-called 'fingerprints' and 'blood types',

they gradually developed unrealistic illusions about the detective agency's partners, thinking that these bosses were probably very 'professional' and 'not to be trifled with'.

——In general law enforcement agencies, as long as criminals run a little further, change their names and appearances, they may have a chance to escape pursuit and live out their lives in peace.

Most people, it was the first time to hear someone say so firmly that, similar to this 'as long as you leave a piece of evidence, you can be pursued for life and always be able to confirm your identity' method.

Even small experiments have been done in the detective agency, and indeed no two fingerprints are exactly the same. No extraordinary abilities are needed to detect them.

Belonging to the type that if you want to be ruthless, you may be more terrifying than the police in various places.

Even the police chief of Georgeburg thought that what Wayne said made sense, indicating that the police in other places might also recognize their statement,

then this is like the legendary Damocles sword, if you are really targeted, you may really hang over your head for the rest of your life, and you don't know when it will fall.

So for some inferences that sound more 'ordinary' and 'normal', the agents are now even more convinced,

and each of them has developed Lina's recent little habit, taking out paper and pens at every turn.