Any beautifully developed city will have its dilapidated side, and even the bustling commercial Manhattan district of the imperial capital has left many shortcomings in the process of expansion in the past two hundred years.

Most of the tall buildings full of modern atmosphere belong to foreign merchants, and many of the unlucky aborigines in this urban area still live in dilapidated streets, they live in the lower strata of society, and they can only look up to the high-rise buildings in the bustling streets every day, and they can only take the cheapest rail-type public magic car to commute to work every day, and return to this old street at night to continue their lives.

The narrow alley in front of Lucius was such an old street left next to the business district, the small alley could only accommodate three or four people to pass side by side, the magic car could not drive into it at all, the dilapidated bluestone floor tiles had grown a little moss, and several stores were crowded on both sides of the alley. Lucius parked the car at the entrance of the alley, and Odyssey Knight XI quietly turned off the fire, and he asked Andy to wait in the magic car and walked towards the alley himself.

"Adams' Tom"

In front of Lucius was a bronze medal with several large holes, "Adams's Tom Cat" was the name of this dilapidated tavern, and it could be seen from its appearance that it might be an old tavern, and it was the purpose of Lucius's trip. He straightened his collar, took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, and then stepped into the tavern.

At this time, at 10 o'clock in the morning, there were no guests in the tavern, Lucius looked around, the whole tavern was not too big, the whole was a gray style, which was in line with the old street style, there were a few tin tables on the dilapidated wooden floor, the table top was greasy, and most of the gray wall skin had fallen off, revealing the cyan masonry inside, and there was a not too big bar counter in front of the door, and the person behind the bar was about the owner of this bar, he was not good-looking, and his eyes were almost squeezed into a slit, which could be called ugly。

At this time, he was wiping the glass

In the opinion of the owner of the bar, people like Lucius shouldn't come to drink in such a place.

He was slender and well-dressed, dressed in a slim dark gray suit that could not be seen but was certainly precious, the glow of the silver pocket watch chain on the chest of the suit waistcoat showed its low-key style and value, and at his feet were a pair of shiny leather shoes with fine patterns of brogues, and the young man had a handsome face that often appeared on street advertising posters to fascinate thousands of women, and the lines of his face were perfect, but much softer than ordinary Minnicks, and even more handsome than the stars on the posters.

"Sir, what's the matter with you?" asked the ugly middle-aged man who appeared to be the tavernkeeper, definitely not for drinking.

"I'm asking you about someone. Lucius paid attention to the Tom Cat Tavernkeeper's expression, and the Truth Knight's keen perception made him notice that after hearing this, the bar owner's hand hidden under the bar counter touched something, like touching the blasting button of a remote-controlled bomb, obviously prepared for this situation, as long as he heard the command, he would press and detonate it in the shortest possible time.

"Tell me, though I'm only a tavern owner, I hear a lot from a lot of drunken guests. But the bar owner said these things as usual.

Lucius was noncommittal to his words, and he keenly observed the tavernkeeper's pupils constricting for that moment, and his mouth involuntarily showing yellowish teeth from nervousness.

"Remus Pitt, the serial murderer who was caught yesterday, and that's what I'm going to ask you about, boss. ”

・・・・・・

Tom Adams, a 45-year-old native of Manhattan, joined the "Rat Head" organization 20 years ago, and at the same time bought a tavern in the Manhattan Side Alley, which he has been running ever since.

Unlike the high-end bars and cafes a few hundred meters away, the "Adams's Tom" tavern is cheap, and a strong rye beer costs only half a Galleon in the guest's pocket - Galleon is the universal paper currency of the Dominic Empire, and since the magical Industrial Revolution, the empire has promoted paper money in large quantities, recovering a large number of precious metals used to make gold, silver and copper coins, and using them in the mass production of the Industrial Revolution.

Therefore, the nobles of Manhattan and the white-collar workers who work in commercial buildings do not come to such dilapidated and dirty taverns, only those from all over the world, who come to the city to work, and the workers who build or clean these buildings come here to relax after a tiring and heavy day's work, and occasionally some down-and-out patrol officers of the neighborhood come here to drink and chat, and they boast exaggeratedly in this tavern, curse their bosses indignantly, and talk about the gossip of the big guys.

Whenever this happens, Tom Adams will deliberately nod his head sympathetically, sometimes pretending to give a few drinks generously, sometimes asking some errant questions, and every day after the tavern closes, Adams will carefully sort through the news, he is a natural intelligence officer - he has a keen sense of information, he can replay what he sees and hears every day in his mind like a marquee, even down to every detail, including their clothing, Their different body shapes, their different accents, and their small habitual movements have made him develop from an ordinary member to the core number three of the "Rat Head", although he is in an organization called "Rat Head", but those old people jokingly call him "Tom the Cat", because every time he can smell the smell of mice like a cat, Tom also saves one trouble after another for the shrinking "Rat Head" organization. Today, Adams' Tom Cat has become the intelligence center of the Manhattan gangster "Rat Head".

Nowadays, the old imperial capital gangsters like the "Rat Head" are having a hard time, since the expansion of the imperial capital of St. Louis 300 years ago, annexing large swathes of suburban land outside the former imperial city. Gangster forces like them, who used to belong to the suburbs, have also been included in the territory of the imperial capital, and there is absolutely no room for other armed forces to run rampant at the feet of the Son of Heaven. In the face of the powerful and ruthless state apparatus, the gangsters, known for their bloodthirsty and viciousness, are like slag.

Over the past 100 years, the Imperial Capital Public Security Garrison has never stopped encircling and suppressing the gangsters, they can only clamp their tails and be people, and integrate into the citizens in various ways such as whitewashing and hiding, just like the "rat heads" scattered in Manhattan.

So, when the ugly-faced tavern owner Tom Adams heard the name "Remus Pitt", his heart was shocked. He knew the person Remus Pett, he used to be a member of the "Rat Head", Tom used to see that strong young man when he held a gangster enlargement meeting, but Remus, who was not very good, was rightfully remembered by Tom, who was not good, but Remus defected from the organization five years ago. Of course, the organization will not let the traitors go, and sent people to eliminate the traitors several times in a row, but they were all secretly killed, and it is said that Remus took refuge with a mysterious big man and fled to the St. Louis Ana district - where there are the most magic towers and magic academies in the imperial capital, and the mysterious and powerful magicians hate people to violate their authority the most, and it is not a place where the "rat head" can reach out and cause trouble at will. In this way, the gang gave up their pursuit of him.

It wasn't until yesterday that Tom Adams read the third page of the Imperial Capital Daily, which was Tom's daily habit as an intelligence officer, that he learned that the defector had been arrested for the serial murder and cremation of corpses in the past few years, and intuitively realized that Remus Pitt might reveal all sorts of information about the "rat head" during the interrogation of the National Police Department - not many people could hide secrets in the interrogation room of the brass hat officers at the National Police Department.

In fact, since he saw the newspaper yesterday, he hurriedly reported the situation to the leader, and suggested that all the staff should be evacuated and a new stronghold should be laid, but the stubborn leader did not agree, he believed that Remus was not a core member at that time, and only knew some peripheral information about the gang, and many of the previous strongholds had changes that Remus did not know, the most important thing was that the leader was unwilling to give up the information and intelligence station that had been developed for 20 years. Tom gave up when he tried to persuade him to no avail, and reassured himself that there should be nothing wrong, but he never expected that someone would come to the door so soon.

"Sliver, it must be a damn sliver, it must be Remus who confessed to the gang's stronghold during the interrogation, damn traitor, if that's the case, the gang is likely to face a huge crisis. Tom Adams thought anxiously to the handsome and elegant young man in front of him, who looked pampered and not like a man of great prowess, but who stood in a straight and upright manner like a police officer trained in military posture. "It should be the son-in-law who just graduated from the military academy and went to the police department to be gilded, and when he found a clue, he hurried over, wanting to confirm his own merits. Maybe he didn't explain it to the police department at all in order to take the credit for himself, otherwise he wouldn't have come alone, and he looked defenseless, in this case, it's better to "

At this point, Tom Adams's eyes flashed with a hint of viciousness, "Although he must have an extraordinary background, the safety of the gang is in jeopardy right now. The sensitive and confident Tom directly defined this situation as a critical moment for the life and death of the gang, "Although it will bring a lot of trouble, it is always better than the current situation, there is always a way to solve it, the big deal is that we will leave, change our face, develop a few new strongholds, and simply stop all the activities of the gang during this time"

Tom Adams's mind was full of thoughts, and finally he looked at the young handsome, elegant and luxurious man in front of him, his face stretched sharply because of his hard thinking and extreme nervousness, and his left hand, hidden under the bar, quickly pressed the emergency support button, and his clenched brown teeth and wide eyes seemed to express a crazy thought hysterically:

"Do him, kill this damn strip!"