Embers of Embers

Chapter 3 A Gift from the North
Lorenzo said all this confidently. He liked it very much. Although he didn't say it directly, it felt like he was humiliating Shrike's IQ.
Shrike was silent. It was like this every time. Just when he was about to pull the trigger and kill this damn detective, he would always prove his worth and then make himself very angry.
"Is this your plan, to borrow those forensic doctors?"
Lorenzo nodded.
"Shrike, you have to admit that there are specialties in medicine. I went to Wangli Medical College to attend classes before." Lorenzo's face had a distorted feeling that seemed to be the memory of a nightmare.
"To be honest, I feel confused about knowledge for the first time."
"Of course you have your uses, otherwise I wouldn't come to this hellish place like Xiacheng District to see you."
Lorenzo was always so confident and didn't even care that Shrike had pointed a gun at him just now.
"Shrike, I came mainly to ask you some questions."
"what is the problem?"
Shrike put the gun on the table, and he fell into Lorenzo's rhythm again. He was obviously his employer and the leader of the entire downtown area, but when Lorenzo started to talk, he would always lower his voice unconsciously. His head.
Like a teacher and his students, Lorenzo is the bad teacher, he doesn't teach his students anything, he just plays with their minds to show his superiority, as if he can find satisfaction from it.
"Shrike, I need to know the full story of this case."
Lorenzo stared at the shrike closely, his blurry figure reflected in the unique blue-green eyes of the Inverg people.
"A sailor with a secret you want to know... Shrike, I'm a detective, not a writer. I need to know the whole story to find out everything, otherwise I'll just go home and try to make up a reasonable story for you." story."
Grabbing the edge of the table, Lorenzo just pulled himself over. He was close to the shrike. The two looked like close friends.
"So, are you interested in talking?"
Lorenzo asked with a smile.
……
The story starts half a month ago.
According to Inlvig's law, fishing is prohibited from mid-June to mid-September, and all fishing boats are moored at the port and fishing is prohibited. One day half a month ago, a fishing boat arrived in the mist Port of Rendona.
"My people have been tracking that ship for a long time. They set out from the Viking Kingdom of Nobidor. During this period, they changed their route and passed through the ice sea. Finally, they arrived at the port of Rendona half a month ago."
"It doesn't sound suspicious. Every year during the fishing ban period, many fishing boats fish from other waters and finally send them to Old Dunling."
Lorenzo said as he listened.
"The problem is that their fishing boat did not unload the cargo after mooring, and no one came out. It just parked at the dock. After several days of exposure to the sun, the fish and shrimp started to stink, which attracted people's attention."
"So...is this fishing boat worth anything?"
This is an essential question. Everything has its value, even this fishing boat is like this. A fishing boat that has not unloaded its cargo. Lorenzo can't figure out how he alerted the big man Shrike.
"It's not just a fishing boat."
Shrike told the hidden story, and the alcohol heightened the atmosphere, making him feel much better.
"My business is not only here in Old Dunling, but also in the surrounding areas... That ship carried things he shouldn't have taken, and my people have been tracking it, using a new steamship, which is faster than them More than twice as fast.
Originally, they would have stopped them on the North Sea, and then let the unlucky fishing boat rest on the bottom of the sea forever, and send the Vikings back to their Hall of Valor. "
After drinking the remaining wine in the glass, he continued.
"But an accident happened, as if God Odin cared for them, the fishing boat sailed into the ice sea, and my people lost their tracks in the storm, and then they arrived in Rendor as I said At Na Port, those fish and shrimps are just a cover-up, and the real goods have been shipped away long ago."
"So it's the mysterious cargo I'm looking for, right?"
Lorenzo lowered his head and smoked his pipe, nodding as he spoke.
"Yes, according to the list, that Wall was a sailor of the Silver Fish. This group of people seemed to have disappeared from the world after they arrived. Wall and I are the only one who can find traces."
"Including the captain and first mate, there are a total of 17 people. Excluding the dead Wall, the remaining 16 people are still missing."
"But now the only Wall has been killed by you."
Shrike said angrily.
Lorenzo looked at him, his confusion not diminishing.
"Why don't you do it yourself and arrest someone."
"This cargo is related to a certain duke. My people cannot appear at the scene." Shrike is the king in the darkness, but he will still be embarrassed when facing the noble duke.
"What about the goods?"
"I don't know, I only know that it was sealed in an iron box."
Lorenzo smiled.
"Look, another vague request. Can I go to the blacksmith and pick up an iron box to claim the reward?"
Shrike didn't get angry at Lorenzo's provocation this time. He was calm and uncharacteristically calm.
"Do you believe in such a thing as a sixth sense?"
"You mean intuition?"
"probably."
Shrike lowered his eyes and looked at the revolver on the table. The bullet chamber was engraved with paintings of ghosts and gods. He was fascinated by it.
"You know it the first time you see it... It's like a gut feeling, when you see that iron box, you recognize it."
The words were mysterious and mysterious, something Lorenzo had never seen before, and he felt something was wrong.
"Shrike, there are still many things you haven't explained to me clearly."
This is a fragmented story, and even Lorenzo is a little at a loss. There is a shadow behind it that he cannot see clearly.
"You are just a detective I hired, not my accountant. It's best that you don't know so much about my business."
Shrike refused to reveal more, his eyes determined.
"It's for your own good."
"The rest of the information is here. The carriage is waiting for you outside. You can take a look at it on the way to the hospital."
As he spoke, Shrike took out a document, flipped through a few pages, tore out the parts that Lorenzo shouldn't know and threw them to him.
"You know how much I trust you. I am the abominable butcher bird, and you are the iron thorn with which I stab my prey."
Shrike looked at him.
"So get out of here, if you don't do this well, I will put the last bullet in it." He was referring to the revolver with a [-]/[-] probability.
"Okay okay."
Lorenzo stood up, picked up the file, turned to leave, but stopped again.
"Still do things my way, right?"
"I only care about the outcome of this matter."
This was probably an answer. Lorenzo pushed open the iron door and left without looking back.
……
Walking out of this stone castle, the cold air rushed into Lorenzo's nasal cavity in an instant. The air was so humid, cold and oppressive.
so cold...
Old Dunling is like this. With thousands of tons of water vapor filling the air day and night, it is always rainy here. They gather over the city, as if a dome of clouds and fog covers everything. The sun will illuminate the cloudy sky golden, like the sky. It's also burning.
The coachman was already waiting for Lorenzo outside. This time Lorenzo walked directly into the carriage and started looking through the documents.
The scenery outside the car window slowly changed. After several inspections, they entered the outer city. Different from the dilapidated and desolate lower city, towering Gothic and Barot-style buildings could be seen everywhere here, and tall steam towers stood in the sky. Between each block, thick smoke rose from the chimneys, turning everything gray.
This is the birthplace of steam technology, the most advanced city in the world. With the innovation and development of technology, everyone lives with hope.
The documents are mounted on an exquisite iron frame, with mottled brass trim around the edges.This is a common decorative technique in this era. Gears and pipes seem to be like steam machines. For this reason, there are still a group of people who worship those hot machines and think that they are the power given to people by the gods.
Lorenzo opened the document and read it carefully in the shaking carriage.
What is written here is much more detailed than what Shrike said. Most of them are from the personal dictation of the person under investigation. The words are messy, but all of them have been recorded without exception.
It was only after seeing this that Lorenzo felt more comfortable. In the past, those people only kept the important and streamlined parts of the case, which made some records look extremely cold.
It was Lorenzo's suggestion to write down every sentence in detail. Only in this way can Lorenzo feel that he is facing a person when facing this piece of paper, a real person of flesh and blood. , Say everything slowly.
He reached into his arms and took out an exaggeratedly carved iron box, which was neatly filled with cigarettes.
Picking up one of the red-lined cigarettes, Lorenzo took it in his mouth and looked at everything on the document.
Smoke filled the carriage and slowly rose.
Time seemed to slow down. The things contained in the tobacco spread to his nerves after the blood exchange, and his gray-blue eyes shimmered.
As if the carriage had entered another world, the window darkened, and finally turned into pitch black, in which only the sparks of Lorenzo's cigarette remained.
"Let me see you..."
Lorenzo whispered, with the faint light from the cigarette, his fingers rubbed the rough paper, and he silently read the words on the document in his heart.
To put it simply, the so-called spirit of words means that words come into being, just like the classic "God said there should be light, so there was light."
It is a narrative from the bottom of the heart, so the "spirit" is fermenting in the darkness.
Lorenzo looked at the documents under the firelight, and suddenly there was a rush of wind in the darkness, sweeping himself with the fishy smell of sea water.
Something seemed to be approaching Lorenzo. It crawled slowly on the ground, making a sticky and disgusting sound. Its eyes were silently watching the meditating man, and it stopped not far away.
Thunder struck, lighting up the darkness for a moment under the threat of the storm, and the earth shook.
Although it was only for a moment, you can still see Lorenzo sitting on a chair with his head lowered in thought. If you zoom out, you will see that he is on the Silver Fish at this moment.
The sea pounded the ship on the verge of sinking, the strange cold wind caressed him, and the cracked and damp deck in front of him was now full of people.
As if none of this existed, Lorenzo raised his head coldly and looked at the silhouette that was reflected pale by the thunder, with the seaweed-like hair swaying in the wind, and the water dripping like blood.
Lorenzo showed no fear at all, as if everything was normal.
"Where on earth have you been?"
He asked towards the strange darkness.
The crew disappeared out of thin air, the mysterious cargo.He was looking for the weirdness hidden between the lines, the thing that really drove it all.
The momentary thunder was about to leave, and at the end of this light, Lorenzo felt a trace of old blood.
The creature that stared at him in the dark.
Turning his head suddenly, Lorenzo found the key point.
His eyes quickly swept away, and he saw that it was a ferocious corner, but then the corner overlapped with a familiar face, and a voice sounded.
"Mr. Holmes?"
The coachman opened the door and looked at Lorenzo surrounded by smoke. His eyes were dull and empty, as if he was looking at himself.
It wasn't until the ash burned Lorenzo's fingers that he reacted as if he had just woken up from a dream, and threw away the cigarette butt.
As the coachman opened the door, everything that was strange and dreamlike ended.
The sky was still gloomy, and the coachman looked somewhat disappointed.
"Sir, I thought you wouldn't touch hallucinogens or anything like that."
It had been a long time since he arrived at Victoria Central Hospital. He called Lorenzo many times but there was no response. He even said that when he opened the car door, Lorenzo was still as sluggish as if he was in a dream.
Although he works for the boss of all gangs, the coachman still instinctively resists things like hallucinogens. The young man thinks that this is the key to heaven, but in his opinion, it is an invitation to hell.
"You know, sometimes in my line of work I need some inspiration."
Lorenzo smiled and did not answer directly.
The coachman sidled out of the way, muttering as Lorenzo alighted.
"If you need it, I know a few good addiction therapists...but their methods are a bit rough."
Out of politeness, Lorenzo smiled and thanked the coachman for his concern, and strode forward towards the magnificent castle-like hospital.
(End of this chapter)