Chapter 227: London Paris Secret Service Axis (K4)

Chapter 226 The London-Paris Secret Service Axis (5K4)

Arthur watched Tony hurry out the door, and glanced at Pinkerton, who was nibbling vigorously at his side, clutching his ham-sliced bread, he reached out and knocked on the bar to summon the bartender, and with a flick of his fingernail flicked a coin that landed in the other man’s arms.

“Please look after my little nephew for a while, put whatever he eats on the tab and I’ll settle it later.”

The bartender smiled and nodded, he nodded his head and said: “Officer Hastings, look at what you’re saying, I’m still afraid that you won’t renege on the bill? You’ve just been transferred out of Greenwich not long ago, and everyone is still thinking of you.”

Arthur nodded his head slightly in greeting, then snapped on his hat and walked down the alley behind the tavern.

Before he could walk in, he heard a flurry of punches and kicks.

“Fuck, aren’t you guys going to arrest me and take me back to Paris? Just for a mouthful of food, is it worth your while to work so hard for Louis Philippe, the tyrant?”

“It would be fine if you guys really brought this fat guy back, but you guys not only can’t bring him back, but you’re cheating on my feelings instead, believe it or not, I’m going to throw you guys on the ship? On the ship, you are not only of the right gender, but your nationality also matches their interest! I guarantee that you will be very popular!”

“Alright, Mr. Zhongma and Mr. Carter, go easy on them, don’t really give them problems. Didn’t Arthur just say that? Leave them alive.”

“Tom, I’m not a cop, I’m in the Royal Navy!”

“That’s right, I’m not a cop either, I’m a fucking French artilleryman!”

Arthur lit a cigarette and stood on the edge for a while before puffing out smoke to stop it, “They’re at least part of the French Ambassador’s entourage, you guys can pretty much just take the piss, don’t make it too difficult for me.”

Elder heard this, carrying the coconut tree collar of the hand finally put down, but on the verge of he still did not forget to give this guy’s buttocks to make up a hard foot: “Say, who gave you such big guts, dare to run to Scotland Yard’s turf to spread the wild to come!”

The aside Vidocq heard this and just covered his aching old waist and leaned against the corner, “Today I am planted in the gutter, Mr. Hastings, I didn’t expect you to do things so unruly.”

Hearing this, Arthur just sipped his pipe, “I haven’t heard of any rule that states that the French police can take people in London at will. Mr. Vidocq, you doing this will always make me feel that it wasn’t Britain that won the Napoleonic Wars back then, but France.”

Vidocq covered his neck and took his pipe out of his skirt and held it in his mouth, “Oh, I forgot, you haven’t been on the road. But well, it does seem to be true, your bunch of bookworms are simply more ruthless than our bunch of mudbloods.”

Arthur pulled a match out of his pocket and threw it over, “How so?”

Vidocq lit the fire and took a drag: “You know, the road gangsters talk about morality, the bookish people talk about doctrine, doctrine can be much tougher than morality.”

Hearing this, Arthur just laughed, “Mr. Vidocq, I think you may have misunderstood me. I don’t preach doctrine, nor do I preach morality.”

Vidocq raised an eyebrow at that, “Then what do you want to talk about? It can’t be that you want to throw us in the Thames, can it? Come on, it just didn’t work to kidnap someone, I was wrong this time, but we’ll have a chance to continue working together next time.

I thought you were interested in my theory of policing. I don’t have much to do in the meantime, so why don’t I do some training for Scotland Yard? If that’s not possible, I’ll add some more money. We are all out to make a living, so let your brain be a little more flexible, don’t be too rigid.”

Hearing this, Arthur nodded slightly and said, “Mr. Vidocq, your idea of paying for training is indeed very creative. I mentioned it to you last time, right, I am currently leading Scotland Yard’s criminal investigation department, if we hard count it up, both of us are doing the same thing now.

But …… I think maybe you can continue to add something, although I have not been working for a long time, and I am not as experienced as you, but the advantage of reading a lot of books is here, I know that privately kidnapping people in foreign countries is not a small crime.

You also don’t need to tell me that this matter was actually instructed by the French ambassador Talleyrand, and not to mention whether Mr. Talleyrand was actually involved, even if he was, I guess he would definitely not admit it. So ……”

As soon as Arthur had finished saying this, Elder followed up with a gloomy, “Mr. Vidocq, you don’t want to be sentenced to death by hanging either, right?”

If these words had popped out from other people’s mouths, Vidocq might not have cared so much, after all, it wasn’t the first time he had been sentenced to death by hanging in his life.

However, if these words were to come out of Elder’s mouth, Vidocq would have to consider them carefully.

After all, Mr. Vidocq had always been proud of the fact that he still had some good looks when he wore women’s clothing.

He shivered coldly for a moment, and then spoke, “Not so much not so much, if there’s anything, we can still discuss it. Otherwise, let’s do it this way, you hand over Mr. Zhongma to me, and we can split the bounty fifty-fifty.”

Hearing this, Arthur just shook his head and said, “Mr. Vidocq, I think it’s better to forget about it. As far as I know, in the North American colonies, an adult black slave sells for only twenty-five pounds.”

Elder nodded his head and said, “That’s right, if you offer thirty, maybe we can still consider it.”

“What did you two say?” When Dumas heard this, he burst into a rage, “You actually want to sell a strong French republican soldier for thirty pounds!”

Vaucourt, who was beaten up on the ground, suddenly spoke up, “Mr. Dumas, don’t be angry, didn’t you hear that musical in the theater today? Jesus was only sold for thirty silver coins, and a pound sterling contains seven or eight grams of gold, so that’s not a bad price.”

Coconut Tree also covered his swollen eyes and spoke, “That’s right, the republicans can’t sell thirty silver coins in Paris, and the security department gives them a low price.”

Vidocq smiled and quickly spoke, “Mr. Hastings, we won’t offer such a low price, and I don’t want to hide it from you, Mr. Dumas is worth as much as 60,000 francs, and when I return to Paris to get the payment, I can immediately mail a banker’s acceptance note to you, and which bank is up to you to decide, what do you think?”

Hearing this, Arthur just smiled and shook his head, “Mr. Vidocq, you may have misunderstood me. Although I’m short of money, I’m not so bad that I have to take Alexander’s head in exchange. I remember mentioning to you before that we are planning to organize a literary magazine, and for a magazine, a good reputation means sales.

If word got out at this time that I was conspiring with the French government to get Alexander killed, guess how much of the five thousand pounds I and my partners have invested in the magazine would be recovered?”

Vaucourt couldn’t help but exclaim at this, “Five thousand pounds? That’s a hundred thousand francs.”

Vidocq also smacked his lips when he heard this, he smiled bitterly and advised: “Listen to my advice, don’t go into business when you have money, or it will be the end of me. When I left the police department in Grand Paris, I had already accumulated more than one hundred thousand francs, but I ran away to set up a factory, and as you can see, I am now forced to come back to work again.”

Arthur leaned against the wall and said, “So you know by now that I’m not that desperate for money. So don’t talk to me about Alexander for a while. If I lose him, not only will I lose my job, but my magazine will go cold. So instead, let’s talk about something else …… Want a drink? Mr. Vidocq?”

Vidocq heard this and instantly grasped the meaning of Arthur’s words, he looked around at the circle of minions and sipped his cigarette and exhaled leisurely.

Behind the smoke screen was Vidocq’s bright smiling face.

He stepped forward and put his arm around Arthur’s shoulders: “Older brother, I know that there is always something we can talk about. The road, the jungle, the underground society, is not about a fight and kill, but the relationship between human beings, let’s cooperate in order to win together.”

Arthur also smiled and nodded: “Mr. Vidocq, next time you do it before the best and I chat a couple of words, although I have read a little bit of books, but I am not graduated from Cambridge, nor graduated from Oxford, our graduates of the University of London is not so die-hard.”

Vidocq laughed at his words, “That’s my fault, alas, and it’s my fault that I don’t know much about British universities. Now it seems that the University of London is the one that represents the highest level of education in the UK.”

Just in a crowd of astonished gazes, he and Arthur went all the way down the alley into the back door of the tavern, they hooked shoulders and talked cordially as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for many years, completely unable to see how they had just fought and killed each other.

The two came to the tavern to find a secluded seat, not waiting for Arthur to ask questions, Vidocq spoke: “You are looking for me to ask about Ambassador Talleyrand, right?” Arthur did not hide anything, “I have a department similar to the security department under my hand, but that organization is a temporary one. If I want to turn it around, I have to do something. After all, we’re not like France here, we have to get the approval of Parliament and the Cabinet to set up a new organization, and I’ll have to pull something hard out of my hand.”

Vidocq leaned back in his chair with a big grin, one arm resting on the back of the chair, completely disregarding ladylike etiquette and exhaling smoke rings, “I have something here, but I don’t know if it’s hard. Ambassador Talleyrand is an old fox, what Paris passed on to him, what orders he gave, he will not mention a word out, we who work below basically can not read his heart.”

If he hadn’t learned about the problems in Poland, Arthur would have been dissatisfied with Vidocq’s answer.

But now there are other intelligence backing, he just need to get a little symbolic stuff from Vidocq’s hands on the line.

After all, sometimes to get the approval of the top, it is not necessary to do things, the most important thing is to let the top know that you are doing things.

In other words, you had to get some proof that you were actually doing something.

Arthur said, “The documents from the French Embassy, whether they’re useful or not, can you get me a couple of them out?”

Arthur was so open and honest, and Vidocq responded very readily, “I won’t get the real documents, the risk is too great. If someone finds out someday, then it’s not just a matter of me not being able to hang around in Paris. I’m afraid that when that day comes, I’ll have to run to London to beg you to take me in like you did Mr. Dumas.”

Arthur just laughed, “That’s fine! Mr. Vidocq, Scotland Yard is very welcoming to people of your caliber. I know that in Paris, quite a few people have attacked you for your questionable composition, saying that a criminal cannot lead the police. But in Britain, the citizens of London have never cared about any criminal past, they instead like to brag about their imprisonment as a talking point in the tavern.”

Arthur said it without meaning to, but Vidocq listened to it with intention, and he half-joked, “Mr. Hastings, I’ll remember your words. But aren’t you worried that I will take your job after I come over? You may not know that I was ostracized in the Grand Paris Police Department for this very reason. Speaking of the reason why I left my job, it’s actually quite absurd. Would you like to hear about it?”

Arthur reached over and greeted the fellow ordering a gin for Vidocq, “Sure, it’s a long night, I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Vidocq took a drag on his cigarette, “At the time, our director’s wife lost a cloak while out and about, so the director made a point of getting me over there to track down the cloak. At that time, I thought, “What the hell, I’m here to investigate cases, and you’re sending me to do this kind of trivial thing? But I had no choice, it was the director’s order after all, so I sent my men to do a little checking.

But in the big Paris to find a cloak is really too much effort, the result is of course nothing. It wasn’t long before rumors began to circulate in the hall that the director was somewhat suspicious of my loyalty because of this incident. A few days later, the cloak flew like a fucking winged instrument into the hands of my immediate superior, Director Di Plessi, who had always looked down on me.

When he found the cape, he called me into his office, shook it in my face, and asked me what I was doing in the security department, and why I couldn’t even do something as trivial as this. I didn’t take him seriously at the time, I thought he was just a little white boy who got to the top by licking women’s asses, whereas I’m a hero who has seized countless criminals for the department, what can he do to me?”

Speaking of this, Vidocq suddenly sipped his cigarette one by one and stopped talking.

Arthur smiled and asked, “As it turns out, being a gigolo still proves to work better than checking up on criminals?”

“Yes!” Vidocq glared and cursed, “It turns out that working in bed is a bit better than squatting on the streets for idiots like us! It’s really fucking French! Even if you ran your legs off and worked ten thousand cases, it wouldn’t carry as much weight as someone taking off their pants and kissing a couple of asses.”

When Vidocq said this, he suddenly took a drag on his cigarette, raised his eyes and asked, “Do you have this kind of thing there?”

Arthur took a sip of tea, “It happens everywhere, it just depends on the degree of severity. We’ve got a gentleman here who’s about to take a judgeship that pays a thousand pounds a year on his wife’s back.”

Vidocq just grunted when he heard that, “So it looks like you’re not doing so well here either.”

Arthur shook his head, “More unfortunately, I’m not too fond of that Mr. Judge who’s about to take his place, and I’ve been figuring out how best to screw him.”

“That’s easy.” Vidocq took a sip of his wine, “You’re not too bad in terms of appearance, take my advice, go and pick up the skirt of a big shot’s wife, it’ll help you out, after all, that’s how Di Plessi got to the top.”

Arthur had thought that the other party was talking to him seriously, but the result was that Vidocq’s sentence came down and almost choked him to death.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course! Young man, you shouldn’t be embarrassed. These days, a thicker skin is the only way to get enough to eat.”

Vidocq reached out and pulled on the elastic band of his corset, “Look at this, I’ve put on women’s clothing in order to beg for food. But even though the women’s clothes are on, my heart is still a man’s heart. You mustn’t think anything of me, I really let that friend of yours get me scared today.”

Speaking here, Vidocq spoke again, “But if you don’t want to take the shortcut, there are actually other methods, but this may have to be a bit more troublesome.”

Originally, Arthur brought up this topic just for fun and to bring the two sides closer together, but Vidocq actually really intended to give him advice, which was out of Arthur’s expectation.

But the other party was willing to mention it, of course Arthur was also willing to listen, “You please speak, if your method is feasible, tonight’s matter, I can also consider not pursuing it.”

Vidocq spoke, “It’s not really a method, but there is always a general guideline to deal with this kind of thing. Young man, you haven’t been in this business for long, so you may not understand one thing.

Not every supervisor cares if you can do your job well, but if you can solve their personal problems for them, then you can definitely be valued by them.

Public is public and private is private, and they have always been very clear about that. Think of what I went through, that damn cape, and I’m your lesson.”

Arthur gradually came back to himself somewhat as he heard this.

He mulled over the complex and confusingly magical relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Norton and Viscount Melbourne, and suddenly felt as if he could stir up a couple of things here and there.

Vidocq saw his silence and understood that the young man was probably enlightened.

He used the strength of his drink to pull at Arthur, “Let’s talk about the personal side of things here. What you just said about stealing the embassy’s documents is a matter of great importance and extremely high risk, so I’m sorry that I can’t follow your order. But if it’s just a matter of providing you with something to make it easier for you to claim credit from above, I’m more than happy to help you out. After all, as you know, I was once imprisoned repeatedly for forging official documents, so I’m an insider in this area.”

Hearing this, Arthur nodded slightly and said, “It’s better than nothing, but if you’re going to forge documents, I hope that the contents inside will be as ambiguous as possible, or else if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently makes any strategic miscalculations because of these documents, and thus causes any chaos, I’ll have to follow the bad luck.”

“Don’t worry about this, I was in this line of work back in the day, how to do it I know in my heart.”

Vidocq said here and turned his words around, “However, Mr. Hastings, although it’s a bit cheeky of me to say this, but I’ve been beaten up and bloodied tonight, even if you don’t allow me to bring back Mr. Dumas, at the very least you must let me be able to take something to the top to hand over, right? I’m still counting on being able to come up with some solid results in this London conference so that I can help get back to my position as head of security.”

Hearing this, Arthur also understood Vidocq’s meaning, he put down his tea cup and said, “I also don’t want such a good talent like you to be buried in the streets of Paris, because there is no doubt that we will have the opportunity to talk business in the future. But like you said, if I give you something real, the risk is too high.

So I’m going to get you an unimportant document, and then write you some unimportant, half-true, half-false inside information, and you make a document that can be imitated in that format and hand it in, so what do you think?”

Vidocq just grinned when he heard this, he stood up and shook Arthur’s hand, “Mr. Hastings, I can’t imagine that you are actually such a good talker, if I had known that you are such a pain in the ass, there would have been no need for me to fight with you.”

Arthur also smiled and shook his hand, not without warning, “If you don’t fight, how will you realize that I am a better talker? Let’s work together, Mr. Vidocq.”

(End of chapter)