New Gods of North America

The time on the pocket watch gradually approached midnight. The teams that had been dispatched to search suspicious locations in the city began to return one after another. Besides Wayne's team, only one other group had found something that resembled a sealed artifact.

Including the old 《Holy Book》 that Wayne brought back, no one had the time to study them carefully at the moment.

As long as they were discovered and confirmed to be "problematic," it was enough to temporarily confiscate them.

Wayne was actually quite curious about what these things could do. According to his understanding, these sealed artifacts seemed quite "ordinary."

It was only because the church was particularly concerned about the heretics of light that so many people were humoring that "Macon Reef."

The contaminated holy emblem, in the end, just bewitched a few people to start committing crimes. The "ghost mirror" was slightly more powerful; Wayne himself was unknowingly affected by it.

If these two items were placed in horror-themed films, they could probably be made into several series of movies or a few seasons of TV dramas.

But they couldn't directly kill many people, and their efficiency wasn't high, at least not as high as some gangs in the West.

If Wayne were to plan it, he definitely wouldn't choose these sealed artifacts.

Although there were no time bombs in this era, simply extending the fuse of a high explosive and connecting it to a candle would create a crude detonating device. If the location was right, blowing up any random target could instantly fill the hospital morgue.

Then, repeating this in places like city bars, simply setting up a few or a dozen of them, simple, convenient, and straightforward, would be enough to keep the local law enforcement on edge all night—high explosives are easier to obtain than extraordinary items, after all.

David Mills, who had no gains tonight and embarrassingly returned to report bad news, choked directly after hearing Wayne's idea, almost spitting out a mouthful of cold coffee.

Tom Hagen, who was next to him, criticized Wayne behind his back to David Mills:

"See? This is one of the reasons why I planned to pretend to trade with that guy upstairs. If they really go crazy without restraint, they might even catch up to Wayne."

David Mills was also convinced, "After this is over, I think I need to seriously study the situation of their detective agency."

Ineisha also led a team to investigate clues tonight, choosing a place with a high density of people in the evening according to Wayne's idea, which, in simple terms, was a "bar."

Such a silver-haired beauty, going to a place where drunkards gather at night with people from the church, and saying that there might be danger there and that they need to search, would of course easily attract some people with a sense of self-importance or those who want to vent their dissatisfaction to deliberately cause trouble. Afterwards, those people were naturally beaten up by Conner, who was also a hunter.

Although nothing was found, the people there tonight were all dispersed, which, in another sense, did "eliminate the risk."

Thus, in David Mills's eyes, the three partners of the detective agency each had their own merits tonight.

Wayne had inexplicably found the escaped criminals and the item, while Ineisha had dealt with "people who might encounter danger" in advance.

Lina was relatively low-key, bringing in the two children who were allegedly to be used as hostages by "Macon Reef." She was just wondering whether to strap high explosives onto Emma, thinking that a little girl always needs to carry something when going out, to prevent the kidnappers from tearing up the ticket.

If Damon McReady, disguised as Willie, hadn't strongly opposed it after finding out, this plan might have really been quietly implemented by Lina and Emma, who found it interesting.

Wayne also felt that this was unreliable. Even if Emma could be "picked up" later, Macon Reef's state was obviously not right at the moment.

If he was really blown up, they might have to worry about him turning into an evil spirit and coming back to haunt their dreams.

The situation that followed was not too surprising to Wayne. Tom Hagen finally agreed to the other party's request for a trade, just in time.

The genuine and fake Willie and Emma were also honestly prepared, ready to get into the carriage and send the other party away at any time.

Damon McReady had already tried to "chop off his hand," but his swollen left arm was indeed tenacious, and the wound healed quickly. An exorcist priest checked his condition and advised him not to be impulsive.

Then Wayne realized that this guy was already quite severely parasitized, possibly like picking off a mushroom on the ground, which would only make the roots underground absorb nutrients more vigorously, and then it might be even harder to predict where the spores would germinate.

Whether it was suddenly missing a hand, or the hand suddenly growing back, or like now, carrying that "Qilin Arm," Damon McReady's image was indeed suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

But everyone could only pretend to be stupid for the time being. If "Macon Reef" didn't object, then let the fake "Willie" be his coachman.

After that "Macon Reef" was awakened again, the situation looked increasingly worse.

Now, not only were his eyeballs completely black, but his body was also covered in bulging veins, and the saliva in his mouth seemed to have turned into black mucus, as if he had just rinsed his mouth with ink when he opened his mouth to speak, making his teeth look a little pale.

Wayne felt that the people possessed by demons in horror movies were probably made up with special effects according to this image.

After seeing the problematic old 《Holy Book》 that had been found, "Macon Reef" even praised Tom Hagen, saying that after all, he was from the cathedral, and he was able to find one of the sealed artifacts, which was much better than some local idiots.

But he was also very confident, saying that the church would definitely not be able to find all of them for a while, and the method of trading was simple: let him go first, and after he left, he would send back a letter telling where the remaining sealed artifacts were hidden.

The main point of contention in the negotiations between the two was this.

Tom Hagen couldn't possibly allow "Macon Reef" to leave with the hostages without any guarantees. The other party certainly didn't trust Tom Hagen either, saying directly that the cathedral would definitely arrange for people to follow in secret.

So, one side was eager to leave, and the other side was worried about causing chaos in the city. After arguing for a while, when the two sides reached a deal, the condition became "as long as the carriage can safely leave the territory of Georgeberg, he will tell the two little hostages the news of the other sealed artifacts."

While the two were pulling each other, Wayne also saw Tom Hagen gesturing to his followers and thugs behind him.

This time, because he had returned early to participate in the conspiracy, Wayne understood the meaning of his gesture this time, probably saying that he had a general grasp and was sure that the current "Macon Reef" had established some kind of "connection" with Pastor Pasiel.

It may be the so-called soul or evil spirit "possession," or it may be that he has some memories of Pastor Pasiel, or it may be affected by some extraordinary level.

But it should have been touched with some flaws, and then confirmed the identity.

The local pastors have good backgrounds. Conversely, in a sense, they are more traceable than those "homeless" thugs.

Even if it's not "evidence," it can be a "handle."

When "Macon Reef" was unchained, he already looked very weak, and his heels didn't leave the ground when he walked.

If it were in a horror movie, the sound in the channel would probably suddenly become abnormally quiet at this time, basically the next shot might suddenly give the audience a "jump scare" in a momentum-building manner.

But fortunately, he didn't "turn his body over and crawl backwards on all fours."

Before getting into the most basic carriage in the area relatively normally, "Macon Reef" looked at Emma, who seemed pitiful, weak, and helpless in the carriage, and then looked at "Willie," who was already sitting in the coachman's seat, holding the reins. His eyeballs seemed to move slightly.

But in the end, he didn't say much. He just slightly checked the situation inside and outside the carriage in place, and then turned his head and gloomily reminded Tom Hagen and a large group of people next to him to "keep their promises," and then sat and lay down inside.

Wayne didn't expect that Damon McReady could actually get away with it by showing only half of his body sideways.

When the carriage was a little farther away, someone separately led the team and began to follow or take a detour in advance.