New Gods of North America

Judging from the actual reactions, it wasn't just Wayne and the others who were wary of someone leading the team into a trap.

Ever since Wayne took the lead, heading almost 'straight for' the depths of the mountains, Chris and Mr. Daggett's teams seemed to have increased their vigilance at the camp during the night.

Looking at them individually, the people from the detective agency had the largest numbers among the three teams,

but if you look at them as a whole, then the detective agency has to count Parker and Emma as well, so that the 'number of people' is equal.

Well, the great spider Peter and Doug's birds have no human rights.

If Wayne suspected that the members of the 'Skinny Gang' were returning to their base via a waterway that 'first reached the Ohio River from a tributary, and then circled back into the mountains along another tributary,'

then the route everyone was taking at this time was a mountain road leading directly to the location indicated by the 'Wise Sage'.

If the two routes were drawn separately on a map, they could be pieced together to form a reversed capital letter 'D'.

Although the mountain road was clearly shorter, the speed of travel in the deep mountains was always slower, and in many sections, they even had to lead the horses.

As a result, it took everyone almost three days to finally reach the target tributary—this was only achieved because the relatively hardworking professionals were pushing forward almost all day long.

By this time, it was already getting dark, and the location where everyone arrived was still about two or three hours away from the 'point' that Lina had seen, which could be considered a safe distance.

The next route would be along the bank of the water, which should be relatively flat.

Because the probability of encountering the enemy had greatly increased, Wayne ate dinner while warning the members of the detective agency, which was also meant as a 'warning to the monkeys by killing the chicken':

"Everyone has been walking in the mountains for a few days, and now we are likely to encounter enemies at any time. No matter what ideas or opinions you have, you should continue to maintain consistency. If anyone takes any action that increases the possibility of the team encountering danger, then we will definitely deal with it severely."

The members of the detective agency and the members of the other teams were eating their food quietly, as if they all thought Wayne was talking to the other side.

However, when Wayne got up in the middle of the night, the camp seemed quiet at first glance,

but in the 360° panoramic minimalist view, it seemed that some members who were originally resting nearby were actually alarmed, and reached for their guns first.

Several members were even hiding in the trees, looking in Wayne's direction, but without making a sound.

Good, very energetic.

The next day, after everyone finished breakfast and packed up the camp, they continued along the tributary.

This tributary was the type with a decent flow of water. According to Wayne's idea, it could be called a 'small river' or a 'large stream', with a water surface width of five or six meters. The depth had not been measured, but looking at the color of the water, it was probably deep enough to drown someone.

After walking for about half a morning, Lina finally gave a hint, telling Wayne that they had arrived at the location she had 'seen'.

Then everyone rested and stood guard in place, while Lina looked around on the shore, finally choosing a location, saying that she felt like there was something under here.

Willie grew up in Kankakee City, where the water system is also abundant, so it's not surprising that he knows how to swim.

So when this kid said that he was very good at swimming and volunteered to dive down to take a look, Wayne and the others didn't stop him,

but they also hinted at the side, "In this kind of wild river, it wouldn't be surprising to find a corpse, Willie, don't be scared."

Willie said that he was brave and not afraid, and then took off almost all of his clothes and pants, and 'plop' went down.

Wayne originally thought that Willie might find a 'bowling ball' at the bottom of the water, and then a series of bubbles would suddenly come out of the water or something,

but the reality was that Willie floated his head up and down to catch his breath several times,

and finally lay on the bank to rest, saying that he had searched the bottom, but there seemed to be nothing but silt.

Wayne thought for a while, "Could it be that the silt is too deep and you didn't touch the bottom?"

Willie pointed to a position on his arm, "The water flow here is relatively large, and the silt below is not particularly thick, only about this deep, and below that is a hard riverbed."

Hmm...

Wayne observed the surroundings and pondered.

Willie rested for a while, and then touched around up and down again, but still to no avail.

Lina's experience in some aspects can be considered 'world-leading', and at least most people are probably unable to get revelations as steadily as she does,

so after a little thought, she proposed a possibility:

"The revelations given by the sage may not be what the questioner wants, but usually, in a sense, they will be very 'accurate'. If it's not at the bottom of the river, then maybe... it's in the 'lower' position."

Wayne was actually considering this as well.

At this time, his idea was endorsed by Lina from the side, so he informed everyone to search nearby to see if there were any suspicious signs.

For example, the entrance to a cave, or a wild boat.

Chris and Mr. Daggett first arranged for the members of their respective teams to cooperate, and then Mr. Daggett still came over with questions.

"Have you mastered any clues? Your actions in the past few days seem to be very purposeful."

Wayne didn't bother to lie about such trivial matters, and it was inconvenient to talk about the 'Wise Sage' everywhere,

so he looked at Mr. Daggett, "Our detective agency has its own set of methods, which usually play a role in investigation. Mr. Daggett, at least on the matter of finding the 'Skinny Gang', we should be consistent, right?"

"Of course." Mr. Daggett then stopped asking questions and turned to join the search team.

According to common sense,

even if you want to dig a hole to bury the victim in this deep mountain forest, you don't have to dig to the bottom of the riverbed. It is more likely that there is a natural cave below.

To think about it from another perspective,

the location where the river passes is usually a place with lower terrain. Even if there is a cave to go down, judging from the surrounding situation, it is estimated that you have to walk a certain distance.

It is not reasonable to spend so much effort to deal with a captive or victim, it's more like it would be done conveniently—for example, the 'cave' may be part of the stronghold.

After not finding it on this side of the riverbank, everyone continued to search upstream, and by the way, see if there was a place where it was convenient to take horses across the river.

After walking along the bank for a few hundred meters, Wayne and Inessa simultaneously spotted a place.

Usually, both sides of the water flow are relatively flat, but in some places, there will be relatively steep small cliffs or mountain walls on the water surface, and even terrain where both sides are mountain walls and the water flows through the middle.

Under the premise of thinking that this area is 'problematic', a mountain wall location that appears on the opposite side of the river at this time, although it looks quite normal, is very suspicious.

Willie had just dried his body and changed into a set of close-fitting clothes not long ago, and his wet clothes were still hanging on the saddle to dry. At this moment, he went into the water again.

Inessa mixed holy oil with some medicinal powder, and some small berries that she had recently picked up in the mountains, and didn't know what else she mixed in. Finally, she made a small bowl of something that looked a bit like paint.

Willie took that thing and dragged a wooden board over there, dipping it with a small branch and 'drawing lines' along the mountain wall.

The members of the detective agency had already taken out their guns and were on guard. When the people from the other teams saw this, they also successively held their weapons in their hands.

It can't be said to be too unexpected. Willie used paint to brush the mountain wall little by little. When he reached a position close to the middle, he suddenly couldn't brush it on no matter how he brushed—there seemed to be a real 'mountain wall' there, and the branches seemed to be able to really 'draw' on it, but the 'paint' didn't show color, and there was no sign of it dripping down.

Inessa quickly gestured for Willie to go around and come back first, then swim to the other side of the mountain wall and brush towards the middle from the other side until the same situation occurred.

The width is about three meters to almost four meters, and the mountain wall is close to the river. If there is a cave entrance inside, it explains why the other party likes to take the waterway.

They don't even need to carry the boat ashore, they can hide it directly inside.

Mr. Daggett seemed to quickly understand what Wayne and the others were doing. Chris's expression was a bit 'unclear', but he didn't ask any questions.

Anyway, it means that he knows that Wayne and the others probably discovered that there was something wrong with the mountain wall.

"The easiest way to deal with such a 'barrier' is to destroy it violently. It's best if exorcism bullets can break it directly, and some blessed cold weapons are also fine, otherwise, we have to consider using high explosives. But in that case, wouldn't the noise be too loud?"

Inessa probably saw that there were no exorcist priests or the like in the team, so she directly proposed a 'feasible' method.

Considering that there may be a gang's stronghold inside, maybe blowing it up would be like poking a hornet's nest, Wayne felt that it was better not to act rashly for the time being.

At least we have to solve the problem of how to cross the river first.

The location of this hidden cave is really well chosen. Looking at it from this side of the river, it is an ordinary mountain wall.

Even if you get to the other side, because the mountain wall is close to the water and wide enough, it is difficult for ordinary people to accidentally get close and notice the anomaly in the middle of the mountain wall.

In the end, everyone cut down two trees of suitable height, used horses to drag the trunks to the river and push them into the water, and then tied them together with ropes.

Several members who knew how to swim drove wooden stakes on the opposite bank to fix them, and then used horses on this side to pull the ropes 'straight', setting up a simple pontoon bridge.

A team of members crossed the river first, and then planned to hang down from the top of the mountain wall with ropes, and a team of members would hold the driftwood and wade across the water, taking the waterway.

The rest would squat on the riverbank opposite the mountain wall first, and counterattack or support depending on the situation.