New Gods of North America

Gangs, sometimes, are like the mice in your house.

You don't go looking for them, but they'll come out for a stroll on their own.

But when you actually grab your tools to deal with them, they become quite hard to find.

So, after staking out the steam train line for two days in a fruitless attempt to wait for them to come to them, Wayne and the others, failing to slack off, had to resort to 'following the trail'.

Compared to ordinary travelers, merchants, or hunters, gangs usually have two distinguishing characteristics when they travel.

One is that their personnel movements usually require relative speed and density, and the other is that their 'turning point' is often near the scene of the crime.

Because their movements need to be relatively fast and dense, the team usually relies on horses, and the number of people is not small.

And because they are about to turn back, they don't pay much attention to the consumption of supplies.

Taking everything into account, then, within a defined area close to the steam train line, as long as you find a relatively large number of wine barrels or bottles slightly away from the main road, or relatively abundant meat scraps, such as relatively scattered cooked bones, then it's basically a sure thing.

After all, robbing a steam train is a risky business; you have to recuperate before the action and have a good meal.

Ordinary travelers often don't start improving their meals until they are close to a town, and this is still a bit far.

And when hunters catch prey, they usually skin it and eat the meat first, taking away what they can and discarding what they can't, rarely cooking everything, and are unlikely to carry a large amount of alcohol.

Then, find the initial suspicious location and trace it all the way back towards the state border.

Although there is a possibility of failing or being misled, it's like looking for animal droppings in the forest; difficult for those who don't know how, but easy for those who do.

After tracing a possible route for two and a half days, the group ran all the way from the steam train line to the state border, and even hunted a black bear along the way, but still didn't see a suspicious stronghold.

The agents were still full of confidence, but Wayne was starting to feel a little unsure.

Fortunately, the gang in this stronghold didn't seem to have encountered an organization that would chase them so far.

In the end, the detective agency found a gang stronghold in the territory of Pennsylvania.

It looked like something rebuilt from an abandoned native village, but there were a few relatively new wooden houses inside, which may have once been sheds used by hunters to rest.

So Wayne perked up again and continued to give the agents a practical summary lesson:

"In fact, many gangs change their strongholds from time to time, so it's normal for everyone to occasionally come up empty, and there's no need to be discouraged.

"As for judging whether a place is a gang's stronghold, we can usually start from the following aspects: First, such strongholds are usually not close to towns or villages, and they don't engage in production, so you often don't see any signs of labor; second, they have a relatively large number of people, mainly adult males, but they don't have standard uniforms or weapons, and they don't conduct daily drills, which can be used to distinguish them from military camps; finally, you can still observe the state of the personnel. If they have people and horses but gather together to play cards and drink during the day, I think they are worth focusing on."

After the agents finished the lesson and took notes, the real reconnaissance had to continue.

Doug's pigeons were quite useful in this situation, and Peter's performance was still stable.

A trainee agent's extraordinary ability also emerged at this time, which could actually be used for stealth.

Unfortunately, the principle of his 'stealth' was a bit like a chameleon. It wasn't a big problem if you kept your distance and glanced at it, but it wasn't very good in a clear environment or close to finely detailed colors, and it couldn't stand scrutiny.

It also seemed not very good when encountering something that could detect extraordinary abilities; Peter could find him with pinpoint accuracy.

In Wayne's minimalist line of sight, it was even more exaggerated, a large pile of lines stirred together, even more conspicuous than the 'outline' before using the extraordinary ability.

But this kind of extraordinary ability should still be okay to deal with normal criminals, and he himself was eager to try.

Therefore, everyone didn't stop him and let him go to偵查 after dark.

Compared to Peter's 'sign language' and the information fed back by the silly birds, the news that humans can侦查 is still richer and easier to understand.

So, comparing the information with each other, these guys were indeed about to gather to commit a crime again.

There were currently eleven people, and three or four others had gone to a small town called 'South Houston' to buy wine and other things, and they hadn't returned yet, just waiting for them.

This involved the question of whether to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Wayne thought for a while and chose to leave it to the agents to decide for themselves.

He also hinted that if the detective agency could turn the security of the steam train line into a long-term commission,

Then he planned to set up a non-permanent management position here, rotating every few months, during which time he would be responsible for direct on-site management and decision-making in this area.

Doug and Ryan were more experienced, and in the end, they persuaded the agents to wait a little longer.

Because according to common sense, since they bought wine, they would inevitably have to drink a lot first,

And when people drink heavily, they tend to be very complete, and they are usually easier to deal with. At least it saves trouble compared to chasing and escaping.

However, Wayne had actually mentally rejected the possibility of Doug staying here by half. It wasn't that he couldn't do it, it's just that the detective agency couldn't be without a 'walkie-talkie' that could make city calls.

Then the detective agency monitored here from a distance for two more days, basically picking out all the criminals that could be matched with wanted orders, but there were still people who hadn't been wanted.

Because it was inconvenient to make a fire, everyone could only eat jerky and gnaw on hard bread.

On the contrary, in the stronghold that seemed to be an abandoned village, a group of people had wine and hot soup all day long, and it seemed that there was also barbecue.

This contrast had a relatively large impact on morale.

For example, Lina, the attack plan she initially proposed was to let Peter go in to ambush some, and then everyone would break in to arrest some, trying to avoid letting the gang members escape as much as possible,

After watching others eat and drink, and gnawing on hard bread for two days, her attack plan had undergone a drastic change, wishing that Doug's owl would drop high explosives in the middle of the night and blow those guys up one by one.

The little loli Emma was quite considerate and even followed Lina to hand-crank super-long fuses until she was picked up by Wayne and taken away to do her homework before she stopped.

It wasn't until the evening of the third day that a carriage carrying several wine barrels and goods entered the stronghold under the escort of two people on horseback.

According to the plan, the partners should, in principle, try not to directly participate in this operation.

So Inisa took Lina to a sniping point a little further away to prevent anyone from escaping,

And Wayne announced the start of the operation:

"Let's still try to be formal, with the primary goal of avoiding casualties among our own people.

If someone gives up resistance and surrenders, we can consider capturing them alive, as for other situations, we can only disregard their life or death."