Chapter 355 – The Lurkers
Chapter 355 The Lurkers
Nemo Wilkins suddenly felt a slight wave of vertigo, as if some invisible force had brushed over his mind, or as if he had suddenly awakened from a light and shallow sleep, and in a belated awakening he suddenly raised his head, and looked with some nervousness and alarm at the old gentleman who always wore a gentle expression and looked elegant and harmless.
Maurice returned the “informer’s” smile with a friendly, courteous one.
However, Nemo suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, he only recalled now, from the moment he entered the secret passage, the old man’s eyes almost always stayed on him, a kind of power as if searching his mind, trawling through his memories always haunted his mind, he had been unconsciously answering every question of these uninvited guests, and even almost revealed the situation of other contact points in the city-state!
Even if these uninvited guests were holding Captain Tirian’s token and knew the code word, he should not have been so careless! After all, these people came out of nowhere today, and according to the rules, one should have been a little more tentative with them!
The rapidly changing expression on the face of the “informant” did not escape the eyes of Vanna, who stepped forward, with a solemn expression of sincerity: “Mr. Wilkins, relax, we’re not the enemy – the tokens and signals we’re carrying are from the same source! Both the token and the code word did come from Mr. Tirion, just for the necessary security considerations, just now carried out some tests on you.”
“Tests …… what tests?” Nemo looked at the several people in front of him with a wary face, “What exactly are your …… origins?”
“To put it simply, we suspect that a phenomenon of cognitive contamination with a very large coverage has begun to spread in the city-state, this kind of contamination will make people unconsciously produce false memories, lose accurate knowledge of the real world, and even become accomplices to the heretics without realizing it, we can’t be sure that the informants that Mr. Tirion has left in the city are still reliable, so we can only carry out the tests. “Vanna explained with a serious expression, followed by a turn of phrase, “As for where we came from …… you didn’t receive a message from Mr. Tirian?”
“The captain didn’t explain in detail, he only said it was a few people he could trust,” Nemo replied cautiously, “Forgive my misgivings – he wouldn’t have made such inexplicable arrangements before.”
Maurice thought for a moment, understanding, and looked to Duncan, “Oh, then perhaps it’s because he didn’t dare reveal the identities of just a few of us without your express permission?”
Permission? Captain Tirion is afraid to reveal his identity?
Listening to Maurice’s words, Nemo’s expression was instantly a bit strange, he subconsciously looked at the strange man covered in bandages and dressed in black, obviously wanting to ask something but not knowing where to start.
Duncan didn’t think much about it, he just nodded lightly, “Since it is confirmed that this Mr. Informant has no problems, there is no need to hide it.”
With that, he gazed at Nemo and raised his hand to point at himself, “I am Tirian’s father.”
The Sea Mist Undertaker named Nemo Wilkins momentarily stood still for a few seconds, then his head somehow scratched his thoughts and suddenly glared, “Do not insult the captain!”
Duncan: “……”
The scene is a little awkward for a moment, and Vanna and Maurice can’t help but reach up and press their hands to their heads, except for Alice, who cocks her head from side to side, seemingly unresponsive, and says to the informant gentleman with a serious look on her face, “It’s true.”
Nemo obviously still wanted to speak, but this time before he could open his mouth Morris suddenly stepped forward and patted his shoulder, “Young man, before you open your mouth you think about it again – the great ‘Iron Lieutenant General’ Tirian also has a father.”
At this point, Nemo Wilkins suddenly noticed the subtlety in the atmosphere and woke up from the conversation he had just had, and immediately after, he recalled those old legends about the Ebunomar family, about Captain Tirian’s family, about the Lost Country ship, and about that dead spirit wandering in subspace – when he looked up at Duncan again, his eyes were clearly not right ‘s eyes, they were decidedly off.
“I’ve returned from subspace,” Duncan looked at him, his voice calm, “to help Tirian with a bit of trouble.”
Nemo thought for a moment, rolled his eyes, and collapsed on his back.
But Vanna beside him seemed to be prepared for this, grabbing the informant’s arm with one hand without waiting for him to fall, followed by the other hand pulling out a whole bottle of wake-up oil and pouring it directly into Nemo’s nostrils with a flick of the cork.
Mr. Informant basically scurried straight out.
“Ah …… ah …… ah …… ah sneeze! Achoo!” Nemo was fully awake, his nostrils filled with the powerful odor of ointment, and he sneezed several times in place before he managed to stop, looking up with a sniffle and a tear in his eye, sniffling as he spoke with a face full of nervousness, “I …… I… …”
“I’m sorry – I forgot that ordinary people’s physiques are worse than Guardians,” Vanna hid the glass bottle in her hand with some embarrassment, “but don’t worry, it’s harmless to the body.”
Nemo fished his handkerchief out of his pocket and composed himself while wiping the tears and snot from his face, his eyes looking to Duncan in awe and hesitation, “Is it really …… really you? Then …… what can I do for you …… then?” “You are serving me,” Duncan waved his hand, “Don’t be so nervous, just tell me more about the Frost City State.”
“Good …… good,” Nemo nodded repeatedly, followed by a few sneezes before settling down, “so what else do you want to ask?”
“Are you in contact with any other informants in the city now?” Duncan asked, “What is your usual method of contact? Would you meet in this sewer system, or use a more hidden channel?”
“We rarely congregate,” Nemo said while rubbing his nose, “mostly for security reasons – after all, there are many of our members who have close ties to the Uptown area, and they need to be more covert to do so. For the most part, we exchange information through a variety of clandestine means, such as coded messages in newspapers, specific meeting points, or rely on a few ‘messengers’ for one-way contact.
“The truth is that even we don’t know exactly how many of ‘our own’ there are in the city; most informants only know their superiors and subordinates who are in contact with them or a few ‘compatriots’ in the same area as they are, and the complete list is only in the hands of Captain Tirion and Mr. Aiden. I’m considered the ‘connector’ of my level, and the list of people in my hands is a bit more, but it’s no more than ten people ……”
Listening to Nemo’s narration, Vanna couldn’t help but nod lightly, “A very discreet and effective form of infiltration, most of the cultists circling the Guardians aren’t this professional.”
“After all, it’s half a century of Tirian operations,” Duncan said casually from the sidelines, and then looked to Nemo immediately afterward, “Are you the only one resident at this contact point?”
“Two others,” Nemo nodded, “One nicknamed ‘Raven’, who should be patrolling the nearby passages at this time of day, and an older man who spends most of his time in the abandoned pipe shift room –Even I don’t know what his real name is, we all call him ‘Old Ghost’.”
Duncan exchanged glances with Vanna and Maurice.
Nemo Wilkins appeared unaffected by the cognitive disruption, but the others he’d come into contact with weren’t necessarily.
“Go say hello too,” Duncan said with a nod, “Where’s the plumbing squad room?”
“Right this way,” Nemo said as he raised his hand to point ahead to the right of the fork in the road, “It’s where the maintenance crews from the former Second Waterway took their temporary breaks, I’ll take you there.”
The informant stepped forward, and on the way, he began to tell Duncan and the others about the “old ghost”.
“…… He’s over seventy this year, almost the oldest of us, my grandfather used to work with him when it was still the Queen’s time ……
“The old geezer isn’t very lucid in the head, but he’s never wrong when it comes to anything involving the gas pipeline and the various connecting sections of the second waterway, and he’s the one who led the way to get the additional gas pipeline we’re installing here – sneakily picking up a branch from the upper main line, and making sure it’s safe, while staying out of the way. It’s a job no ordinary person can handle. ……
“The old geezer seldom goes above ground, he spends most of his time down here, he sometimes brags to us when he’s drunk, he says he was the engineer of the second waterway decades ago, the Queen even gave him a medal – but to be honest, not many of his words are believable. I’ve seen that medal of his, it’s just a piece of iron with nothing on it, obviously picked up from some nook or cranny ……
“Alas, he more than likely inhaled too much poisonous gas when he retreated to the Second Waterway back in the day – I told you about that, didn’t I? Fifty years ago when the last Queen’s Guard retreated to block the second waterway, when the shaft collapsed, a part of the toxic gas floated down from the upper level, some craftsmen loyal to the Queen ran to seal up the loophole, the old ghost seems to be one of them, and it’s said that he hasn’t been quite right in the head since that time.”
“Don’t mind if he suddenly yells something about the Queen to you guys later …… He didn’t mean it.”
Accompanied by Nemo Wilkins’ ramblings along the way, Duncan and the others soon rounded the fork in the road and arrived at a rusty iron gate near the sewer intersection.
Nemo went up and knocked on the door, and after greeting the inside, he pushed the door open as soon as he could, “Old ghost, we have a guest.”
As soon as his words fell, a hoarse but loud voice came out of the door-
“Ah, the Queen has come to inspect!?”
(End of chapter)