Chapter 105: Evacuation and Imperial Spies
Before he could recover from the shock of witnessing the king's assassination, Rhodes was tossed by Sylna again, and he will never forget the horror of stomach lavage for the rest of his life: first he was forced to pour water into his stomach, and then he was forced to spit it out by the female swordsman with a spoon and depressor on the base of his tongue - and so on two times, and the third time he felt almost collapsed, and refused to drink again. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½
Before he had recovered from the discomfort of vomiting in the dark, Dieter called them and the caravan guards out, and a dozen of them left the inn and hid in the alley opposite the inn in the night.
"What for?"
"If it's just the king's assassination, we can do nothing and wait for things to develop, and you will never be implicated in your identity. Dieter cautiously leaned out and stared at the distant door of the inn and explained softly. "But it's not the same if someone wants to kill you. ā
"What's the difference, many people can prove that I didn't do it, including the princess!"
Pauli said angrily: "Idiot, there are many ways to kill you, whether you resist arrest or put you in prison and let you 'commit suicide in fear of crime', if you fall into the hands of others, life and death are not up to you." We don't know who the enemy is, so we can only avoid it!"
The wait did not last long, a large group of hundreds of soldiers swarmed to surround the hotel where they had settled before, half blocked the front and rear doors, and half rushed in indiscriminately to search, causing chickens and dogs to jump in the hotel, and Rhodes who was hiding in the shadows was frightened.
......
"If you're here to cooperate with the investigation, there's no need to send out such a lineup. This is the posture of the Assassin, and it seems that the worst has happened. Dieter watched in the dark as the sergeant who was searching the inn, and his heart sank to the bottom: "Now that the power is probably in the hands of a few important ministers and Duke Tully, those who want to be unfavorable to Rhodes will not let go of this opportunity, and it is not appropriate to stay here for a long time." ā
"Someone framed me as the king's assassin?" Rod asked in amazement, "Is it little Tully, but I didn't do anything to him!"
"Human nature is sometimes far uglier than you think, not to mention that this time you're a Midlander who won the title, and you are really suspicious. The merchant looked left and right, and at this time Sardenburg was already in crisis: "I can't stay any longer, if something so big happens, the city guards will definitely impose a curfew, come with me." ā
His stomach didn't hurt much, but it was very uncomfortable to be empty, and the wonderful feeling of drunkenness at the dinner party was gone, and he was back in the sleepwalking state that he used to get into trouble, and unlike he had done anything before, and this time he had done nothing, not even to understand what was going on, but he had fallen into an incident of unprecedented gravity.
Following Dieter, the group carefully avoided two groups of patrolling soldiers in the darkness and hid in a private house.
This is a one-time safe house prepared by the Imperial Military Intelligence for spies, which is used for temporary residence in emergencies, and is immediately abandoned when it is discovered.
"There's someone in the house. Grom pressed his hand to the hilt of his sword and whispered a warning to the crowd.
"Anyone?" said Dieter, in a strange tone, picking up a few pebbles from the ground in the dark and throwing them at regular intervals and in order.
Hearing a few taps on the inside of the door, Dieter let out a sigh, "Safe, go in." ā
There were indeed people in the house, a small oil lamp was on, and the faint light shone on the three unfamiliar faces, flickering and dimming, and the appearance was unremarkable, and it was impossible to pick out if you put it in the crowd. Rhodes was wondering why the owner of the house had a secret message with Dieter, so he and Ciri were dragged into the next door by Sylna to continue to check for signs of poisoning.
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Although they have never seen each other at all, if they can accurately find this place and give a code at this juncture, then each other's identities will be clear: "There is no need to introduce each other, my subordinates and I passed through here on another mission - you were responsible for the assassination of Illite III?"
The three of them who were hiding here looked at each other, their suspicion and caution revealed, and after a while, someone finally answered Dieter's question: "Yes, the mission is going well, and the person who did it has already retreated." All the participants have now been reduced to zeros to avoid pursuit, and according to the pre-arrangement, the three of us will hide here until the limelight passes. ā
Another unfamiliar face asked Dieter with displeasure: "What's the matter with you, haven't you been warned by your superiors not to enter Sardenberg during this time?"
"Damn. Dieter's heart was cold when he heard this, of course not, according to the original plan, his party would not pass through the capital of Antaili. But he was worried about the threat of wild hunting, and accommodated Rhodes's hope of participating in the martial arts conference, so he temporarily changed the line and came here, but he didn't expect to run headlong into danger. "Didn't you notice that the boy who won the tournament was the son of the Duke of Foster, and that he was also at the king's dinner?"
The spies were taken aback, looked at each other, and shook their heads. Naturally, I didn't find out that they and Dieter were people from different departments and regions, and they had been active in Antaili since they were absorbed into the Military Intelligence Bureau, although they served the empire, there were many people who had never even been to the imperial capital Wenwei City, and Duke Foster didn't necessarily know him, how could he recognize his son?
"Can you not be like those idiots sitting in the palace, who can push anything to us?'Why didn't you find out before so-and-so's rebellion?' 'Why didn't the Imperial army even have an accurate map when they arrived somewhere?' "Why didn't you find out that there was one of your own people in crisis when you carried out the assassination?' We are military intelligence, not immortals, and we operate on enemy territory, even if we are given unlimited funds, it is impossible to keep an eye on everyone!"
The man across from Dieter continued indignantly, "Yes, we hope and are happy that others think that we are omnipotent, so that our adversaries will be full of fear, suspicion, and consideration before committing a crime or becoming an enemy of the Empire. The problem is that I don't know when even our own people began to believe in this system, so that whenever and wherever something happens, everyone immediately thinks of us: Where is the Military Intelligence Bureau dead? Eat? Why can't we find out the problem in time? It's really enough, we don't carry this pot!"
"It doesn't matter if His Majesty the Emperor and the ministers don't know about our work, how can you, as one of us, make such a mistake?" The other spy helplessly stopped his companion's grumbling and stared at Dieter with displeasure: "We are short of manpower, it is impossible and obliged to know the family members of every nobleman in the empire, this is your work mistake, don't try to shirk responsibility." ā
......
Dieter realized that he had lost his temper for a while, and reluctantly apologized to the other party.
No, neither side made a mistake, according to the principle of security and confidentiality, they did not know each other and did not know each other's mission, the imperial spy responsible for assassinating Elite III completed the task with great success, and he was responsible for protecting Rod, although he was of high rank, he did not know all the imperial secrets, and he only changed the route of the "caravan" after receiving the letter from his wife.
The problem lies in the backwardness of the way messages are delivered: it is not possible to use leaky spells to communicate in other countries' territory, and work reports and new orders are sometimes spaced out, and then an unexpected occurrence: a group of spies loyal to the Empire assassinate King Elite, only to put the protection targets of another group of colleagues in danger.
It's like two parts on a magical construct, close to each other but not aware of each other's existence, and not coordinating well leads to accidents.
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