Chapter 383: Subterfuge
Chapter 380 Subterfuge
London, Westminster, 4 Whitehall Street, Greater London Police Station.
Today’s Scotland Yard was still busy, with police secretaries from each of London’s police stations traveling back and forth between the various offices and halls clutching stacks and stacks of daily paperwork.
Only, while they were busy, they could not help but slow down their steps when they passed in front of the Police Intelligence Bureau office.
No one could figure out why the popular Superintendent Hastings was piling up piles and piles of metal wires in his office.
After squatting outside for half a day, someone finally couldn’t help but ask: “What new equipment has the upper management issued to the Intelligence Bureau? Superintendent Hastings can’t stand officer’s knives anymore, so he’s planning to get some materials to make his own nine-tailed whip?”
Officers retired from the Army couldn’t help but shiver when they looked at the pile of metal wires, “Nine-tailed whip …… I haven’t heard that word for years since I got out of the Army. But using this thing to deal with gangsters and hooligans, it is indeed much more practical than the police officer s knife. When our 93rd regiment’s hardest man, under the whip to go but ten times have to shout and a screaming pussy.”
“Heh, ten strokes before shouting is indeed a hard man. To say the least, if it was really just using the Nine Tail Whip to whip us, we would have recognized it. But I don’t know which son of a bitch started to stipulate that the one who uses the nine-tailed whip must be the regiment’s drummer, so whoever has the strongest hands should be the one to do it, what a fucking asshole!”
“Brothers, you can be satisfied, at least we only need to take off our shirts when we are whipped by the nine-tailed whip.”
“What do you mean by that? Could it be that there are still bare asses that have been lashed by the Nine Tailed Whip? We’re not children, only those brats get their asses whipped by their teachers!”
But the Royal Navy’s gang of sea rats can be miserable, their officers there are all graduates of the military academy, in the military academy class, who dares to beat their chests and guarantee that their asses have never been whipped?
However, the Royal Navy is more honorable than our army, those officers trainees will be called to the cabin alone to be executed if they only make a small mistake on the ship. Only when they make a big mistake will they be sent to the deck for public execution. And if it’s for that kind of unforgivable offense, like rebellion and mutiny, then you’re on your own.”
“Wow …… I said why those guys are psychopaths one by one? It turns out that they still have such an unpleasant past?”
“Don’t say it don’t say it, I feel my back itching again. Grandma, when I was whipped in the past, I only thought that I wouldn’t come again. But after not having a whip for so long, I miss that flavor a little ……”
The group turned their heads and immediately greeted the visitor with a warm hand, “Officer Bonaparte.”
“Hiss ……”
“Sam, look at you this poor look, no wonder you are still stuck at the rank of Sergeant. How are you going to be motivated to keep moving up the ladder without giving yourself ample rewards? Besides, it’s only a shilling, can you go anywhere else and buy such a full range of torture devices and find such skilled craftsmen for a shilling? Oh! You’ve no idea how much the lady’s lash made me feel as if I’d seen God!”
“Eh! You’ve really got it right! Have you forgotten? Many of our officers have graduated from regular military schools, and most of them have been greeted with the nine-tailed whip on their bare asses as children. It’s just that children’s bodies are weak and can’t withstand the nine-tailed whip, so I’ve heard that birch twigs dipped in water are usually used in military schools instead.”
“Nothing.” Officer Sam responded casually, “It’s just that the sight of the nine-tailed whip in Superintendent Hastings’ office reminds us of the heady days of yesteryear when the guns were flying.”
“Well …… that does sound kind of assholish.”
“That …… Scarlet, don’t lead me astray, I’ve only just recently tried to save up.”
“What? The big deal is that you’re going to be hanged? What could be worse than that?”
But as soon as he said this, the top of his foot was stepped on by the police officer next to him.
The officers all sucked in a breath of cool air when they heard this, and some even interrupted in a hurry.
“Whether it’s serious or not depends on how lucky you are, to be more specific, it’s how many ships were moored in the harbor at that time. They’ll sentence you to two hundred and fifty to three hundred lashes, and then round up all the ships in the harbor with that number, and after that they’ll drag you to all the ships in the entire fleet to be executed one by one over the course of a few months.”
Louis glanced at the officers gathered in a huddle and asked in great confusion, “What are you all doing here?”
“Sam, would you say you’re a bitch?”
“That’s not even the most assholish. The most asshole of all is that, according to the rules of the Royal Navy, the whip that lashes you has to be made up by you, and if the quality of the whip isn’t up to par and breaks during the execution, then all the previous lashes don’t count, and you have to start all over again.”
“Scarlet, want to see God do not need to spend a shilling, and even do not need to use the whip, you do not bring armed night to my precinct to wander, it is best to wear your gold pocket watch again, I guarantee that a night’s time you immediately go to see God. Even if you don’t see it for a while, you’re very close at the very least.”
“Sam’s actually right about the whip thing, it’s pretty addictive sometimes. I know a guy who does this kind of business, I’ve been there a few times before, the price is fair, the service is good, and most importantly, the ladies aren’t as rough as our drummers, the force is just right.”
The police secretaries were standing in front of the office door with their mouths full of bullshit when they suddenly heard hard footsteps coming from behind them.
“We actually have quite a few psychopaths in the Army, after all, we have quite a few officers here who didn’t go to a proper military academy, but graduated from a normal public school. Although they do take their pants down and spank them in normal public schools, the extent is certainly not as heavy as in military schools.
Sam then remembered that he seemed to have said the wrong thing, as it seemed that all those great years of his life had been spent in the war against the Bonaparte family.
Sam quickly changed his words, ”Your uncle is indeed an outstanding military genius, I can even say that before Waterloo, his performance in military command was almost perfect. It is only that I was not able to witness it with my own eyes, which is indeed a pity in a sense. I beg your pardon, I joined the army rather late.
But it is good to have you here, and perhaps you might consider replicating the Napoleonic tactics that the Bonapartes did so well at Scotland Yard. I assure you that the Duke of Wellington is not likely to be on the side of the London rogues, and he is certainly on our side this time.”
When the officers heard this, they could not help but follow, “Are you going to take the Duke of Wellington with you straight to Paris?”
Officer Scarlet, on the other hand, rushed at Sam and taunted, “Sam, now I finally understand why you are progressing so slowly. You deserve to be out of pocket for a whipping.”
Louis didn’t get too angry when he heard this, on the contrary, he just felt a little helpless.
If he could, he certainly didn’t want to mix with this group of English big-headed soldiers. But in the Bonaparte family lost power at the moment, compared with Prussia, Austria and other European countries, Britain can be said to be the best choice as a landing place. Louis could only digress and remind them, “Forgive me, you may have misunderstood those things in the office. Those aren’t the materials used to make the Nine Tail Whip, but some insulated metal wires. The Police Intelligence Bureau is currently enabling some brand new technology in an attempt to build a more efficient communication system between the headquarters and the various police stations, and these wires are one of our attempts.”
“Brand new technology? Metal wires?”
The illiterate and habitually illiterate Army veteran police officers heard this, and it took them a while to understand what these snazzy new vocabulary words meant.
“So, the guys know that Superintendent Hastings loves these new gadgets. Don’t I remember he used to give some kind of ballistics and toxicology lecture to our mid-level officers before?”
“And he seems to know Mr. Faraday. I read in the newspaper earlier that Superintendent Hastings is quite accomplished in that electromagnetism thing? This new technology should have something to do with electromagnetism as well, right?”
“Using electric shock as punishment for those prisoners who refuse to confess? That’s a good technique!”
Louis was so confused by their speculations that he didn’t know where to start explaining, but if he couldn’t explain it, then he simply didn’t explain it.
Anyway, Arthur had already informed before that considering the cost and the immaturity of the wired telegraph technology, the technology would only be set up on a trial basis for the time being between a few police stations that were closer to the headquarters.
Moreover, the several police stations that had been issued with wired telegraphs would also be assigned with special Police Intelligence Bureau commissioners to manage and debug the telegraphs.
If the wired telegraph technology jointly developed by Mr. Wheatstone and Mr. Cook passed the reliability verification of the Police Intelligence Bureau within a year, then Arthur would consider a large-scale rollout in Scotland Yard.
In other words, these several wired telegraph equipment erected in advance were all whored out by Arthur from Wheatstone.
Louis took out his pocket watch and glanced at it, and suddenly opened his mouth, ”You all better report to the conference room first, in a while this week’s routine police meeting for each police district will begin. Sir Mayne will more than likely be furious if you are absent, after all, today is the first London Metropolitan Area Routine Police Meeting since the reorganization of Scotland Yard.”
“Whoa! Oops! Almost forgot about that.”
After getting a reminder from Louie, the officers realized that they had almost delayed business.
The group of people who had just been talking and laughing immediately scattered, each one rushing down the spiral staircase to the conference room on the third floor in a hurry.
Louis looked at this group of police officers who came as the wind and went as the rain, and just gave a soft grunt, and then walked into the office with the documents in his arms.
He had just pulled out a chair with the intention of sitting down when he suddenly looked up and spotted Arthur behind the chief’s desk, hidden inside a pile of wires.
Louis cried and laughed as he asked, “Arthur, so you’re here?”
Arthur nonchalantly took out his cigar box and slowly lit one, “What else? Where else would I be during office hours?”
Louis got up and took the sherry out of the liquor cabinet and poured two glasses, one for himself and one for Arthur, “If the guys know you’re sitting right here in the office, most likely they won’t dare to talk too much outside.”
Arthur nodded slightly, “You’re right, that’s why I can’t let them see me. You don’t know, Louis, that once upon a time, when I was on the front line as a patrolman, it was always easy and quick to get some news from the hall, and the secretaries and guards at headquarters were happy to chat with me.
But since I’ve been sitting in this bloody office, my channels of information at Scotland Yard have instead become somewhat narrower. Take the matter of Rowan’s previous intention to move on the Criminal Investigation Department, and I, the man in charge, was actually the last one in the office to know about it.”
“So that’s why you came up with such a damaging move? But Arthur, with all due respect, you can’t know everything. As the head of Police Intelligence, you even know which pair of underpants Mr. Disraeli wears when he goes out today, and it’s already to that extent, so what more do you have to ask for?”
Arthur sat in the pile of wires as if he had put a swimming ring around himself, “I’m not interested in what underwear Benjamin wears, I don’t mind not knowing anything about what Benjamin wears if our agents can provide me with some more valuable information.
But the fact of the matter is, they can’t get anything else, so they have to stare at Benjamin and write about something that’s not there. After all, the guy is standing on the street like a colorful peacock, and if you want to know what color the peacock’s butt is, do you have to wait for him to open his screen? It’s not something that’s challenging.”
Louis looked at Arthur’s comical appearance and said with a loud laugh, “Burying yourself in wires, aren’t you afraid of electromagnetic induction yourself?”
Arthur took a sip of wine, “Louis, although I don’t want to criticize your cultivation in electromagnetism, but the necessary condition for electromagnetic induction is that you have to be in motion, and you can’t generate an induced electric field if you’re motionless like me.”
Louis sniffed rather regretfully and put his elbow on Arthur’s shoulder, “Arthur, you mustn’t say that, the ladies would be disappointed if you were motionless.”
Arthur unfolded the newspaper and said, “It seems you’ve made a major breakthrough in book and newspaper censorship recently, but as your superior, I also wish to remind you that at your age, it’s best not to censor too much.”
Louis just pursed his lips at this and said, “Instead of coming to worry about me, you should worry about worrying about Alexander. Censoring a few books won’t be too much of a burden on my body, but if I get my hands on practical work like Alexander, it can be ……”
“Alexander?” Arthur craned his head to look at Louis, “What happened to our great writer?”
“I don’t know, maybe he was inspired by The Red and the Black a while back, he seems to be addicted to playing Yulian lately. Of course, Alexander’s purpose for doing so is much more innocent than Yu Lian’s, or perhaps his means and ends are highly consistent in the first place.”
Arthur picked up his wine glass and said, “Wouldn’t you just say that his flirtatious nature has broken out again? But it’s no big deal, isn’t the French ethos inherently open? And as the author of The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander has never lacked female supporters. This fat man laying his hands on them is also something I had predicted beforehand.”
Louis smiled and said, “If it was just like that, I wouldn’t have brought this matter out to talk to you. In fact, I learned from the Astley Amphitheater, which worked with The Englishman on the adaptation of the play, that Alexander appears to be using his authorial powers to hook up with actresses who want to get a chance to star in the play.”
(End of chapter)