Chapter 337

Chapter 295: Informants

Thus, Dorothy and Adèle worked together to search through the personnel at the Coal Ash District Police Bureau. Soon enough, Adèle discovered something unusual.

“Hold on, I think I’ve spotted someone interesting. That guy is sitting alone in his office. His clothes and working environment suggest he’s the bureau chief. He sits behind his desk, seemingly unconcerned with the sandstorm outside or the civilians flooding the police station to report alarms… He doesn’t seem to care at all…

“This man appears somewhat anxious, but his desire isn’t focused on the sandstorm or the civilians reporting alarms. He doesn’t care about these things. His desire… is a desire for communication and understanding. With whom does he want to communicate? What does he wish to understand? And more bizarrely… this communication target seems to be within himself?”

Analyzing the situation of the police chief from afar, Adèle murmured, “The desire to communicate, yet the target is within himself? This is intriguing… It looks like we have found our person. Miss Adèle, can you now trigger his desire so that he acts without reservation, doing what he wants to do?”

“Yes.”

Adèle responded simply and began using her abilities to influence the police chief in his office.

…

In the empty office of the Coal Ash District Police Bureau, the well-dressed chief sat behind his desk, gazing out the window at the still lingering sandstorm with a worried expression. Though his face was calm on the surface, a faint trace of worry could be seen between his brows.

The male chief sat motionless in his position, doing nothing and seemingly lost in thought. However, visibly, the worry in his brows continued to grow. He started tapping his foot, pounding the table, and eventually stood up from his seat, pacing back and forth in agitation.

Finally, unable to contain his urgent thoughts, the man returned to his desk, placed his hand inside his inner shirt pocket, and pulled out a small mouse. He placed the mouse on the table and spoke softly to it.

“Mr. Aristotle, what is the current situation? Have those black dogs been lured into the trap? How is my mission progressing?”

The man addressed the mouse on the table. After a brief pause, the mouse became active, scurried across the desk, knocked over an ink bottle, and used its paw to smear a crude phrase on a blank sheet of paper.

“Now don’t disturb me!”

“Yes, yes, I won’t disturb you. I was just nervous. I’ll continue waiting for your message!”

The chief, as the police bureau head, quickly apologized to the mouse on the desk. Hearing this, the mouse stopped and lay motionless on the desk. The man immediately picked up the mouse, put it back in his inner shirt pocket, and sighed before returning to his desk.

…

In a teahouse not far from the Coal Ash District Police Bureau, Adèle and Ed were still seated there. Through the visual provided by the zombie puppet inside the bureau, they both witnessed the scene in the chief’s office earlier. At this moment, both had a hint of amusement on their faces.

“That mouse… is a flesh puppet? He’s talking to a flesh puppet, and through it, he’s conveying messages to the one controlling the flesh puppet?”

Rubbing her chin, Adèle analyzed the scene. In front of her, Ed nodded and added, “Yes, because those people know you have ‘Cup’ spiritual perception, which allows you to detect flesh puppets without ‘Shadow’ protection. Small flesh puppets cannot wear extraordinary items, so the chief first wears a ‘Shadow’ item, then carries the small flesh puppet close to his body, thereby blocking your spiritual perception.”

Drinking tea, Ed looked out the window at the distant police station and continued, “The police station is a public place, not a home, making it difficult to build altars or other means for communication. Dream Anchor Sigils require both parties to be dreaming simultaneously to communicate. Without another way to notify the other party to sleep and dream, using them for timely information transmission is less efficient. Telegraphing takes a long time to encode and decode, and if you don’t understand it, you need additional personnel to handle it.

“So, as an informant, the chief would want to convey information to the mastermind behind the scenes as soon as possible. The best method would be to carry a small flesh puppet controlled by the mastermind. Just take out the flesh puppet and speak to it; it’s quite convenient, like using a mobile phone for a call.”

“Mobile phone? Telephone?” Adèle tilted her head, puzzled by the unfamiliar terms. Hearing this, Dorothy paused, then manipulated Ed to explain further.

“Um… This is something I read in ancient texts, an extraordinary item used by an ancient civilization. It can transmit information efficiently over thousands of miles, very reliable and efficient. It surpasses most extraordinary items and methods available today.”

Dorothy let Ed explain like this. What she said was mostly true. Many extraordinary communication methods in this world were indeed not as efficient as a mobile phone. Even her own ‘Navigation of the Literary Sea’ was akin to WeChat or QQ.

Considering the invention of the internal combustion engine and its ability to identify poisons, this telephone technology likely also had poison recognition capabilities. If she really created a telephone, calling it an extraordinary item wouldn’t be wrong.

“Telephone… mobile phone… an extraordinary item capable of efficient information transmission? Interesting… I hope to see one someday. But for now, Mr. Detective… we’ve identified the informant. How do you plan to use this information?” Adèle asked Ed, who frowned and pondered his response.

“At present, it’s not easy to utilize. The mastermind seems uninterested in this chief, as he didn’t answer the chief’s questions. We can’t extract any crucial information from this.

“Although I could try to seize control of the mouse’s mobile phone, pretending to be the mastermind questioning the chief, if the control is interrupted, the mastermind will notice. Stirring up trouble now is not a good idea.”

Ed struggled to find a solution, echoing Dorothy’s predicament. They had identified the mastermind’s informant, but since the mastermind hadn’t revealed any valuable information, they still couldn’t pinpoint his location.

‘What can we do now to find that person?’

Seated in the carriage, Dorothy pondered. After a short while, she had an idea.

‘I’ve got it… Perhaps we could try this…’