New Gods of North America

"Knock, knock."

Wayne and Pastor Bazzini were still in the middle of their conversation when someone suddenly knocked twice on the door of the parish office.

Before anyone inside could respond, a friar opened the door from the outside.

Then Wayne saw Tom Hagen's indifferent expression.

Wayne inexplicably felt guilty, as if he had been caught red-handed. But Tom Hagen, standing at the door, politely greeted Pastor Bazzini before gesturing to Wayne, indicating that he had something to say outside.

Tom Hagen didn't wait for Wayne. When Wayne hurried to catch up, they were almost jogging down the hallway.

It seemed like something unexpected had happened, so Wayne asked as they walked, "What's wrong?"

Tom Hagen spoke much faster than usual:

"That classmate of yours, Macken Reiff, wants to negotiate with us. We need to go to the church hospital immediately to assess the situation."

Wayne was a little surprised. "So urgent?"

"We'll talk on the way."

They quickly reached the church entrance.

Inessa and several agents, along with Wayne's entourage and some exorcists, seemed to have been notified earlier. Carriages and horses were already waiting.

Tom Hagen had Wayne and Inessa join him in the same carriage. As soon as the carriage door closed, the coachman's whip cracked.

The cathedral's carriage was indeed more spacious than the detective agency's, with better soundproofing and shock absorption.

Wayne was contemplating adding better shock absorbers to his own carriage when Tom Hagen began to report the situation:

"Bad news. The opposition has hidden operatives in Georgeberg, their identities are temporarily unknown. The team escorting Anton Zieg was attacked on the way to the old police station, and now he's escaped."

"The people watching Macken Reiff also brought back news. He says he knows about some 'sealed artifacts' that the Church of Light placed in Georgeberg. The ones in your college's old library have already been 'unsealed', and a team of exorcist priests is dealing with the emergency there."

Huh?!

Creating a disturbance to gain leverage for escape...

This is a trick that criminal gangs in police movies use to rescue 'arrested accomplices'...

Wayne paused slightly, his mind racing. "Is it Pastor Pasil? Does he want to exchange this for 'freedom'?"

Tom Hagen nodded slightly. "That's what I'm guessing too."

Lina is currently guarding Macken Reiff. With her personality and abilities, even if she can't protect him, she probably won't let him escape 'completely unscathed'.

If Macken Reiff's soul has really been replaced, the best option for the replacement would be to lie low for a while and then continue living quietly under the new identity.

But if the opponent believes that their current identity has been completely exposed, then the best solution would be to get rid of the church's supervision as soon as possible, even if it means escaping as a wanted criminal, which is better than being held by the church.

Wayne quickly recalled the information he had about the local pastors while considering possible countermeasures.

He felt that he had been a little complacent recently, thinking too far ahead and not being careful enough about the other party 'flipping the table'.

Pastor Pasil, after all, has a 'family' background and has been cultivating his qualifications in the church for many years.

The authority of the cathedral is certainly useful, and the pastors usually seem gentle and refined, but in a situation of 'desperate struggle' or 'do or die', one cannot be too superstitious about the rules.

According to the American spirit, some people may still choose to pick up the weapons in their hands and 'fight'.

Just like the sheriff in a Western town, no matter how popular he is with the townspeople, if he doesn't have a weapon in his hand when encountering villains, he might be 'nothing'.

...

When they arrived at the church hospital again, the ward where Macken Reiff was being held was under high alert.

The two-story brick building where the ward was located had been 'cleared', and the building was surrounded by guards with serious expressions.

Lina, who was bored and playing with her fingers to the side, approached Wayne and Inessa to whisper when she saw them arrive:

"An intruder just gave that guy something, and he's already swallowed it. I don't know what it is. I think he's in bad shape now, and it feels like he might lose control at any moment."

"What about the intruder?" Wayne asked.

Lina pointed in a direction inside the church hospital. "He was dragged over there, probably sent to the morgue."

This is 'fighting'!...

Wayne nodded towards Lina, gesturing towards the ward, asking if she wanted to go up together.

Lina shook her head, and then the two followed the ever-moving Tom Hagen further inside.

Walking into the small building, the exorcist priests had set up an excessive amount of lighting inside.

Macken Reiff in the ward was even bound hand and foot with chains. The bed had been moved to the center of the room, and several large candelabras, about the size of children, were placed around a circle of magic arrays, illuminating the ward brightly. It was a setup that even ghosts would shake their heads at.

Unfortunately, the extraordinary are not ghosts after all. Macken Reiff on the bed seemed to sense the movement. After Wayne and the others walked to the bedside from a distance and waited for about a dozen seconds, this guy slowly opened his eyes.

Good heavens,

Macken Reiff's eyes no longer showed any white. His eyeballs had turned pitch black, and blue veins were popping up around his eye sockets. At first glance, the level of horror was comparable to that of little Lori Emma at times.

Tom Hagen chose to preemptively strike, "What should I call you now? Should I call you Macken Reiff, or Pastor Pasil?"

The pure black eyes looked over, the line of sight seeming to fall on Tom Hagen's face, who was avoiding direct eye contact with him.

He didn't answer the question, and his voice sounded hoarse and empty. "Did you go to the college to check? How is the situation there?"

Tom Hagen looked at the candlelight on the other side of the bed:

"Not very good. Dozens of students in the library are said to have been affected, and even more will need to be identified and undergo purification treatment later. But it's still within control."

"Hehehe."

Macken Reiff was laughing eerily at this moment, and his temperament was completely different from the 'dorm head' that Wayne had first met. "I also think that the Church of Light's practice of placing sealed artifacts everywhere like this has little impact on the church. But if they are all unsealed at once, then I guess you won't be able to handle it in the short term."

Tom Hagen was expressionless. "Did you start helping them a long time ago? Or have you already become one of them?"

"It's just a transaction between corrupt people and heretics. I don't care about them, but I want to start a new life now."

"Have you thought about where to go? Maybe I can arrange for someone to send you there."

"Hehehe. I'll only say what I know. The Church of Light has successively placed at least ten sealed artifacts in Georgeberg over the years. The holy emblem in the church was discovered by you, and that mirror was also dealt with by you. There should still be some time before midnight. Do you want to know the next location?"

"State your conditions. I need to confirm whether I am qualified to agree to your request."

"Before midnight, a carriage, a coachman, and then you have to prohibit your people from following. I know you definitely won't keep your promise, so I won't tell you all the locations either."

Tom Hagen pondered slightly, trying to continue to negotiate with Macken Reiff:

"You probably don't have many people you can use now. I guess you may not be able to unseal all the sealed artifacts either. Three? No, maybe unsealing two more sealed artifacts is already your limit."

While he was speaking, he was also silently making gestures behind his back.

A follower outside the ward quietly left after seeing it.

Macken Reiff had a hideous and silent smile on his face, his eyes slowly closing, and then his head slowly rested back on the pillow again:

"I remember there seems to be a half-grown boy in the detective agency in the cathedral? I want to designate him to be the coachman. And a little girl who goes to school at the college, as a hostage."

"The conditions have already been told to you. You can choose to accept or not accept, but I don't accept bargaining. I just want to leave now, and it's not me who is wasting time."

Willie and Emma?

Wayne frowned slightly. This guy knows how to pick, avoiding the church from taking the opportunity to arrange powerful people, and instead using my people to open the knife.

Wayne silently listened and thought to himself, deliberately turning his head to speak to one of Tom Hagen's followers:

"Which are the largest bars in Georgeberg? The bars and the larger hospitals in the city may need to be checked as soon as possible. There should still be some in the college. Monasteries and night schools are also at risk. Try to start with the ones with more people."

Nightlife is not rich these days. The nearest theater has to go to Richmond. If you estimate according to the previously contaminated holy emblem and that 'ghost mirror', the so-called sealed artifact should also have a limited range of influence.

Crowded public places, and need to cause a greater impact at midnight, the preferred options are actually not many.

Macken Reiff's eyes opened again, and Wayne followed suit by avoiding his gaze.

Judging only from perception, it felt like the expression on his face seemed to be getting more and more hideous:

"You might as well go back to your small yard to look for it. Maybe there's something there too."

Who are you trying to scare?

Even if I can't trust myself in this regard, can I not trust the evil god's own daughter? How could there be extra things in the house in advance and I wouldn't know anything about it.

While Wayne was thinking this, he planned to have Lina go back and take a look later, just to be on the safe side...