New Gods of North America

Back at the detective agency, Wayne quickly found Mr. Brooke's business card.

Nathan Brooke, a steel parts supplier, left his address and mailbox pointing to his factory in Richmond.

In fact, Wayne already knew the location of the Brooke family's manor in Georgeburg through Miss Olivia's information.

However, the relationship between men still needs to start through business or "friendship", so Wayne wrote a letter, expressing his desire to visit the other party's factory in three days. Then he did not use the post, but directly asked a trainee agent to help deliver the letter the next day.

Georgeburg is not too far from Richmond. The letter will be delivered tomorrow. We will give the other party some time to react the day after tomorrow, and Wayne will go there the day after tomorrow.

Usually, a direct visit to a factory has the meaning of "potential business coming to the door", and even if Mr. Brooke will not be responsible for the reception personally, the factory will not refuse.

The detective agency's mailbox also received some letters, so I just dealt with them at the same time.

The letters from the mayor and Little Taylor both described the current situation in Blackstone Town.

But the mayor's letter contained more information. It not only mentioned that the "plan" to promote the development of the town was progressing smoothly, but also roughly explained the time for the establishment of Blackstone Town, which was intended to be completed before the bill to officially establish Kansas State was passed.

The specific name of the city has not been finalized, but Wayne's previous proposal of "Gotham" or "Metropolis" has received a mediocre response from the townspeople, so it can be basically confirmed that it will not work.

The most likely city name is still "Wichita", which sounds weird.

If it were called "Wichita City" together, it would sound like a brand of ice cream to Wayne.

This name is basically a patchwork. The first letter "WI" commemorates the late Mr. Wilson, the first mayor and original founder of Blackstone Town. The next letter "C" is taken from Constantine's last name, and then there is "H" representing the mayor Hill's last name, and so on.

However, since it is a collection of surnames of the families that originally founded the town, it has the highest response rate.

Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Stern, who are also considered large landowners and wealthy people, were not included in the list because they settled later.

Therefore, some townspeople prefer this name and probably voted without hesitation.

A little bit unexpected was the female reporter Freddy Lowndes. She got the contact information of the detective agency from somewhere and asked Wayne if there was any news clue worth reporting recently.

Wayne thought about what Ian Fisk had recently said about her, and wrote something like "Looking forward to working with you again in the South."

After writing the reply letter, Wayne thought about building a shooting range and a "sports field" near the courtyard.

It doesn't need to be done too well, just level the place roughly, and then put up a fence and a shed or something.

This was the inspiration Wayne had found from the college assessment and the story of the orphanage with Inissa and Lina these past two days.

In the future, the detective agency is planning to organize some assessments and training, including "shooting assessment", "unrestricted fighting assessment", and a broader "professional assessment", plus a so-called "comprehensive assessment".

If you want to be a senior agent, you must be "excellent" in at least one aspect among the agents. If you are at the bottom of the list in all aspects, don't ask why it is so difficult to become a formal agent.

…

On the appointed day, Wayne took Ryan and a trainee agent to Richmond.

We arrived at Mr. Brooke's factory before noon.

The scale was not too large, but the factory was filled with metal materials, all kinds of dust and metal debris were everywhere, the roar of the steam engine and the knocking of metal were continuous and deafening,

When people walk inside, they have to raise their voices even when talking to each other at close range.

The person in charge of receiving Wayne was Mr. Brooke's eldest son, Alex:

"Our factory mainly accepts orders from steam locomotive companies. Of course, as long as our conditions allow, we also accept orders for other mechanical parts, and even some products are sold to the Old World."

Wayne originally wanted to observe Mr. Brooke closely, but he was not very interested in the factory itself.

After a rough tour inside, he found that the technical content of this processing plant was slightly higher than Wayne had expected. It also involved the production of some steam engine accessories - the process and material requirements of pressure equipment are usually higher than those of ordinary steel accessories.

Alex Brook is also very proud of the level of his own factory:

“Many people think that steel is an indestructible entity, but in the eyes of professionals in our factory, steel is actually similar to dough, a raw material that can be squeezed, rolled, pierced and shaped.

"Of course, the difficulty of processing them is definitely different, and there is a big difference between forgings and castings. But as long as the method is correct, our yield rate is still very high. I wonder what kind of accessories Mr. Wayne is more interested in?"

Wayne was naturally more interested in the members of the Brooke family, but he didn't expect that he actually saw something he was interested in in the finished product warehouse.

Wayne put on the thick cloth gloves handed to him by the staff next to him and took out a rather thick hollow round tube from a covered shelf:

"You can also make gun barrels?!"

Alex glared at the warehouse keeper, then reached out his hand calmly and tried to take the tube back and put it away:

"This is just an ordinary seamless steel pipe. The output of our factory is not high. It is mainly suitable for various high-pressure steam equipment, such as cargo ships or steam trains."

Wayne ignored his nonsense and peeked into the pipe. "Does the inside of the steam pipe of the freighter also need rifling?"

Alex coughed a few times and said, "This is a special heat conduction design. Some equipment has these requirements."

Realizing that Wayne was not a pure "outsider" and was not as easy to fool as most ordinary people in America,

Alex quickly led everyone to his office:

"Mr. Wayne, do you need any accessories? In consideration of Mr. Russell and Mr. Wayne's professionalism, we can give you a certain discount."

Wayne was still more interested in the gun barrel. "I wonder how you sell 'seamless steel pipes' like the ones just now? I would like to buy some for the maintenance and update of equipment."

The price of guns these days is not particularly cheap, especially when they are used in relatively large quantities. After the appearance of fixed ammunition with metal casings, in theory, as long as there is a qualified seamless steel pipe, even a hammer can be used to strike the primer to fire.

However, the production of weapons needs to be approved and supervised. Gun manufacturers certainly prefer people to regularly replace whole weapons with higher profits rather than simply replacing certain parts, so they are quite cooperative with management in this regard.

Alex spread his hands slightly:

"Our factory does not have the corresponding license, and those 'steam pipes' will not be sold in America. We received orders from the Old World. The other party provided the complete process and production process, and we only supply them. Forging and polishing them takes more man-hours, and our output is not very high."

Wayne took a sip of whiskey and said, "Mr. Brooke and I met at a dance at Mr. Russell's house. Ian Fisk was also there. Tom Hagen and I are also friends. I have even been received by Bishop Corleone."

Alex smiled and handed the bottle over to Wayne to refill his glass:

"The church is not interested in these secular matters. However, the yield rate of steam pipes is always difficult to control. Occasionally, when the scrap rate is high, the caliber will just be more in line with our American standards.

"Although the quantity won't be much, we can distribute some of it. What do you think of $13 per stick? This is already a friendly price."