Chapter 320: The Inspector for the Suppression of Trafficking in Persons

Chapter 317 – The Narcotics Ombudsman
A glimpse of the endless coastal plain above, green grass, warm breeze brushed by, will be upright pasture grass low, revealing the distant pasture fences like clouds of flocks of leisurely foraging sheep.

Suddenly there was a burst of clanging and clanging in the distance, and the sheep, who were still idle just now, were frightened by the sudden noise and ran around in panic, and along with a shrill honking sound, the uneasiness of the sheep instantly rose to the highest point.

They stared anxiously at the pitch-black cave, from which such appalling sounds of hell had been coming out several times a day almost every day since last year.

Every sheep that grew up in Liverpool knew that whenever such a sound appeared, it meant that it wasn’t far from the descent of the long steel worm.

As luck would have it, with the shrill sound of a steam whistle shredding the tranquility, thick white steam suddenly erupted from the darkened cave.

Immediately afterward, the sheep saw the blackened steel worm break through the smoke screen like a wild horse, revealing its barrel-thick body and countless rounded legs.

Inside its stomach, there were countless upright apes flapping its transparent belly in ‘panic’, seemingly calling for help from the sheep.

The timid Mr. Sheep crouched on the grass, a human face deformed by fear swept rapidly before its eyes, and its ears rang with one near hoarse cry of alarm after another.

Being an upright and cultured English sheep, he was indeed tempted to save the upright apes. But reason told it that it would do no good to antagonize the long steel worm.

Last month his little wife was so frightened by the sound of the siren that she couldn’t move and froze right in the path of the big long worm, only to be torn to pieces by it.

Mr. Sheep could only say in his heart, “O dear upright apes! You’d better fend for yourselves. I don’t have the guts to go up against such a ferocious animal.”

Mr. Sheep silently watched this group of poor little things being pulled all the way away by the big long worm, and suddenly, it noticed that among these scared out of their wits crowds there was actually a gentleman wearing a big brimmed hat, holding a newspaper in his hand, and smoking calmly.

When Mr. Sheep saw this, he just lamented, “Poor little fellow, he must have been scared silly, just like my little wife who was torn to pieces. See, he doesn’t even have the strength to scream in fear.”

However, just as he was saying a silent prayer for that gentleman, Mr. Sheep suddenly noticed again a large red face, squeezed to deformity and covering almost the entire window of the car, appearing in front of the window.

It was a fellow with horns on his head just like him, and what was worse, he was rude.

The red devil was seen giving the sheep the middle finger and shouting with wide eyes, “Sheep? I hate sheep!”

Arthur glanced at the red devil as he sipped his cigarette and asked, “Hate sheep? Why? Because Jesus said something like, I am the Good Shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me?”

Agareth turned around and snarled, “That’s right, these sheep are full of shameless bastards.”

Arthur turned to the next page of the paper, “But the Bible isn’t all about putting in a good word for the sheep. Don’t I remember in some of the religious stories it also says that sheep play reed flutes to lure young boys and girls into their traps?”

The Red Devil slapped the table and said, “Arthur, you have to score points. It is goats that lure young girls, but we are talking about sheep. Sheep are gentle and obedient, that’s why they promote it. And goats have horns and are short-tempered and good at talking back, so that’s why they always portray goats in a negative light when they appear in mythology.”

Arthur snapped the ashes from his pipe, “So, you’re a goat too? And a goat that’s kinda goat in hell. After all, you’re not only at odds with God, but even Baal can’t piss in the same pot as you.”

Agareth raised one eyebrow, his eyes almost to the tip of Arthur’s nose, “What? Do you have a problem with that?”

Arthur picked up a piece of sugar and put it in his teacup and stirred it, “Agareth, I’m not putting you down, I’m bragging about you. How can you, the devil, not know a good word from a bad one? Goat, GOAT, do you know what that stands for, Greatest Of All Time! What’s Baal compared to you? You’re the most authentic guy in hell. Doesn’t Hell claim to be the rebel of Heaven? And you, my friend, you are the one who even rebels against Hell, could any other devil be stronger than you?”

Hearing this, Agares slowly lost his temper as he sat on the edge of the window and crossed his legs, “Count on your kid’s knowledge. Seeing that you know so much, this time when you go to Liverpool, I’ll give you a little advice, do you want to hear it?”

Arthur responded absentmindedly, he didn’t even move his eyes to him, “If this is just a casual conversation between friends, I don’t mind listening to more advice from friends. But if it’s a business deal, then we’d better make a note. Seriously though, Agareth, I hate doing business with friends, it would jeopardize the purity of our friendship.”

The Red Devil sniffed, but just shook his head and pinched his eyebrows with a sigh, “Arthur, you little bastard, taking advantage of people and still have to say it in such a nice way. As a punishment for your slickness, I’ll just say this. You’ve been reading Hume lately, which is great, or at least much better than you’ve been reading Kant.”

With that, the Red Devil dissipated into thin air with a snap of his fingers.

Arthur put down the newspaper in his hands and craned his head to look at the car window where Agareth had just sat, “Hume?”

He was just wondering what Agareth’s words actually meant when suddenly, he was tapped on the shoulder.

Arthur twisted his head to see that it was none other than Dumas who was excitedly walking around in the carriage.

“I had heard that the train was a marvelous new invention, but today it was my turn to ride on it and realize how amazing it really is! London to Liverpool, 200 miles, and it only takes five and a half hours and hours to reach your destination. Arthur, do you realize what a concept this is? It means that if I were to organize an insurrectionary army in Marseilles, it would only take me half a day to get into Paris! And then it would only take me another half hour’s work to take Louis Philippe by the scruff of the neck and throw him into the Seine from his throne in the Tuileries.”

Hearing this, Louis Bonaparte could not help adding, “My dear Alexander, if you rise from Marseilles, then I will march from Zurich, Switzerland. According to my estimate of the speed and capacity of trains, I need only three Rocket locomotives to bring hundreds of guns to Paris in nine hours.

And after that, I will precede you in organizing the citizens on the Champs Elysees to build barricades and artillery positions, and take the lead in the attack on Paris City Hall.

Out of the small respect I have for Louis-Philippe for having led the French army to thwart an Austrian attack in the early days of the Revolution, I will allow him to use any one of his favorites among solid cannonballs, shrapnel, and grapeshot. Likewise, out of my abhorrence of his subsequent defection from Austria, I shall not permit him to choose the caliber of the shells, which, in my opinion, he must have a sixteen-pounder.”

If anyone else had said these things, Arthur would have laughed at best and passed it off.

But knowing the workings of history so well, he was quite aware that these two French rebels could do more than talk.

One of the two of them already had relevant priors, while the other was always planning to make a whole lot of priors for himself.

Hearing this, Arthur hesitantly thought for half a day, and in the end, he could only shake his head and sigh slightly, “It seems that I have to consider writing a letter to Monsieur Vidocq in Paris, so that he can see if he can forcefully persuade the French government to hold off on its plan to build a passenger railroad in the name of jeopardizing the security of Paris.”

Hearing this, Heine, who was sitting at the next table looking at the scenery, just waved his hand dismissively and said, “Arthur, you don’t have to make such a big deal out of it. As far as I know, the two of them and I together can’t even afford the Colt revolver you’re carrying around your waist, let alone a hundred guns.”

“Whoa? Running out of money that fast?”

Arthur raised an eyebrow as he lifted his teacup, “I can understand Alexander not having any money on hand, after all, he’s always been a spendthrift, and ever since The Count of Monte Cristo made money, he’s always paid double when he asked for a shoeshine or a laundry. Two days ago, when he saw that others did not tip, he even deliberately paid an extra guinea to humiliate them.

As for Louis, I can understand that he has no money, after all, he is now receiving the salary of a second class patrolman, if he does not accept his uncle’s financial assistance, he wants to maintain the standard of living of the royal family members is still quite difficult.

As for you, Heinrich, why are you broke? I remember that the editorial office just settled the payment for the first volume of Traveling Sketches to you the day before yesterday, didn’t it? Even if it had been placed in London, twenty pounds would have been enough for a single decent gentleman to live comfortably for three or five months.” Hearing this, Heine clutched his head in chagrin and complained, “Twenty pounds would indeed be a large sum of money if I were simply living my life. But haven’t I believed in Alexander’s evil? A while ago the two of us got tired of watching the theater, so Alexander then led me to a casino to play. And he told me that someone had made a lot of money there two years before. He and I played there in the dark, and as you probably guessed, we both went in with our pockets full and ended up just short of coming out naked.”

Dumas was furious when he heard this, “Heinrich! You’re the one who said you were a veteran before I took you there! I wouldn’t have taken you to the casino if I knew you were such a bad poker player. There are quite a few charitable organizations in London, let’s donate money to the casino, we might as well go to the streets to give porridge to beggars!”

Heine retorted unconvincingly, “I didn’t lie to you! When I was traveling in Saxony’s Nordenay Island, I was a regular in the casino. And didn’t you see? We were all winning in the beginning!”

Dumas asked rhetorically, “You won money on the island of Noordnay?”

“That’s not true.” Heine answered honestly, “I lost fifty quintals in four weeks. Even though I am the most learned man in all of Germany, I have to admit that as soon as I enter a casino, I am as stupid as an ass. That time in Noordnay, I even had to borrow money from a friend to get home. This time in London, I don’t suppose I’ll have any money to go back to Paris without waiting for the fee for the second volume to be sent out.”

The German gambling monster’s statement made Arthur’s eyebrows furrow, and he suddenly seemed to remember something: “Wait, the casino you two went to wouldn’t be the one on St. James Street, would it?”

Heine first froze at his words, then suspiciously said, “You sent someone to follow us?”

Louis also looked like he remembered something, Arthur had specifically sent him to investigate that casino before.

He spoke, “The only London casino that has let people win big money in the past two years is the one on St. James Street, and we still know who the winner was. Heinrich, listen to a word of advice, you can’t learn the way he wins money, for the average person, it’s better to stop gambling in time.”

Heinrich sniffed and asked, “Why, does he have some sure-fire winning secret? Heh! I knew that there must be something wrong with that casino. There’s no way my card skills could be that bad, someone in them must have cheated!”

Hearing this, Arthur held his forehead with one hand and said, “Heinrich, how I wish I didn’t know you. You, this guy, have simply destroyed your image in my mind.”

Heinrich sniffed and followed Arthur’s words back, “Arthur, how I wish I hadn’t known you either. You, too, have spoiled the image of the police clean in my mind. If all the police in Prussia worked like you, then I wouldn’t have to leave there.”

Hearing this, Dumas just pursed his lips and widened his eyes as he shook his head on Heine’s shoulder and said, “Heinrich, if you think that way, then those dozen or so Barbary pirates who died at his hands surely can’t agree. Our Officer Hastings is a ruthless man, if you think he is gentle and lazy, it’s purely because he doesn’t want to deal with you. If you don’t believe me, ask Louis; his experiences since arriving in London would be enough to write a short story about, if you looked into them.”

Hearing this, Louis hurriedly digressed.

After all, that story was not a wonderful memory for him to savor.

Louis handed over the bound documents in his hand to Arthur and said: ”I have already organized the relevant situation in Liverpool. It’s just that we left in too much of a hurry, so I guess we can only continue to inquire from the relevant departments when we arrive in Liverpool for some of the details.”

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly remembered Agares’s ill-meaningful exhortation just now as well as Director Rowan’s suspicion in front of the Chancellor’s Hall.

He smiled and raised his eyes to Louis to open his mouth and asked, “Louis, have you read Hume?”

“Hume?” Louis nodded his head and said, “Although not as much as I read Voltaire, I have more or less read a little bit of Hume’s books, after all, he is also one of the representative figures of the Enlightenment after all.”

“Very good.” Arthur said, “Since you’ve read Hume, I’m sure you’re aware of his principle of the Scoundrel’s Assumption?”

At this moment, without waiting for Louis to pick up the question, over there, the most learned man in Germany was already the first to grab the answer.

Heine put up one finger and recited, “Hume assumes that human nature is evil, and that therefore every person who enters into power is likely to be a scoundrel. On this premise, when designing the mechanisms of power, it is necessary to keep a close eye on the weaknesses of human nature and to ensure that scoundrels are strictly guarded institutionally.

Because Hume believed that in human nature, ambition accounts for a large ratio, so the desire is very difficult to fulfill. If a man lives at the lowest level of society, say a thief, then he seeks to be at the very top of his level, i.e. to be the king of thieves.

And once he reaches the top and becomes the king of thieves, then he will seek to leapfrog his level, for example to become a decent gentleman, or to elect a parliamentarian. And he will also try to do everything he can to evade the constraints placed on him by the appropriate mechanisms, such as destroying his criminal record and spending money to cover up the immoral things he has done.”

Arthur nodded slightly as he smiled and spoke, “Yes, exactly. But as Hume also admitted, it’s obviously wrong to treat everyone as scoundrels. But when we are designing a system, we should expect the worst, not the best.

Hume also emphasized that in designing any system of government and in determining the several checks and balances in that system, it is necessary to conceive of every member as a scoundrel, and to conceive of everything he does as being for private gain and for no other purpose.

And I think that this theory is immensely sound, and can be applied equally well to our case. The information supplied by Liverpool we must of course refer to, but its credibility must be put into question. Louis, I believe you have made a good discovery on Scotland Yard’s statistics on London strays as to how credible the government’s information really is.”

“This ……” Louis held the document and thought about it for half a day before he stood at attention and saluted, “Understood, sir.”

Accompanied by a long whistle and a series of brakes so harsh as to be almost a little harsh, the tracks erupted into flashes of sparks as the train slowly pulled into Lime Street Station, located in the center of Liverpool.

The conductor struggled to pull open the cast-iron doors, but before he could catch his breath, two rows of gentlemen with canes and formal attire waiting to meet the train in front of the station caused him to freeze in mid-sentence.

Some of them looked familiar to him.

As a one-year old conductor, he remembers that when the Manchester-Liverpool Railway opened last year, a few of these gentlemen had also appeared on the platform of Liverpool station waiting for the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, to receive them.

Just as the conductor hesitated to go up and greet the great men, he suddenly heard a gentle voice from behind him, “Sir, please can you move aside?”

The conductor twisted his head to look, it was a young face, this gentleman who had previously been leaning against the window reading a newspaper had changed into a Scotland Yard uniform at some point, at this moment, he was putting on his white gloves unhurriedly.

Under the sunlight, the St. Edward’s badge on his shoulder and the King’s court sword hanging at his waist glittered.

“When …… course, sir.”

The conductor hurriedly dodged out of the way.

With Arthur leading the way, Louis and the others, carrying large bags, walked out of the compartment with him.

Arthur loosened his hand holding the hilt of his sword, his gaze first scanned the crowd, then slowly raised his hand and saluted towards the various officials waiting for his arrival in front of the station.

“Introducing myself, Arthur Hastings, Senior Superintendent of Police and Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Greater London Constabulary, Director of London Police Intelligence, appointed by the Privy Council and House of Lords, and the four departments of the Lord Chancellor’s Department, the Admiralty, the Home Office and the Customs and Excise, and the new Special Anti-Smuggling Ombudsman for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Liverpool. ”

(End of chapter)