"Grass!!"

"What the is going on!"

"Quiet, don't panic!"

Frightened, frightened, or frightened by the sudden darkness, some loud shouts sounded in the crowd of guards around the villa, but panicked, everyone acted without any hesitation, accompanied by the unique loading sound of squeaky guns, these guards quickly pulled out their weapons, and some searchlights with portable energy sources quickly lit up, bringing some light to the thick darkness.

And in the rooms in the villa, Nopa's reaction was even faster than the professionally trained Imperial royal investigators below.

Or, the portable searchlight she was holding lit up more than twice as fast as a traditional flare light, so the darkness in the room lasted less than a minute before the light reappeared. By this time, Hopkins had crossed his arm in front of Nightingale, and behind him was Captain Gregson, the two huge revolvers constantly looking for something wrong in the corners of the room, and a bright scalpel was pinched on Watson's fingertips, flickering with a cold chill under the light.

". What the! Gregson muttered, and after looking around the room, he finally made sure that no one had broken in, and then lowered his gun slightly.

"It's not just the villa area, it's pitch black beyond, the lights on the Thames Bridge are gone, and it's estimated that there is a power outage throughout London." Sherlock looked out the window and said calmly.

Blackouts are a recent buzzword, and they are only heard in London, the city where new energy is the first to be popularized.

"The current urban power grid is not fully laid, all the energy comes from the original steam function bureau, and the huge generator buried in the ground is temporarily the terminal of all the circuits, if someone turns that thing off, the whole city will fall into a big blackout."

Nopa quickly explained to the others that she was the most powerful person in this room for the time being.

No one would ask the question of "who turned off the generator", and as for how to turn it off, no one would care, and now the people in the room only care about one thing

"How long will this outage last?"

Nopa took a deep breath to relieve his tension: "If it's just a simple line break, it can be repaired within two hours, but if the generator is damaged. Then tonight, there should be no possibility of fixing. ”

This sentence is like a ruthless big hand, which drilled into everyone's chest at the same time, and then grabbed the beating heart, kneading it desperately.

Because everyone knows that the deflagrated lights outside can only last for three hours at most. And at this juncture, darkness means danger, and no one dares to guarantee that in those places where the lights do not shine, there is not a single gun quietly aimed at this villa, and no one dares to guarantee whether a large bundle of explosives will suddenly be thrown from a certain direction, and then turn the whole building into a sea of fire, and no one even dares to guarantee that in that moment of light and darkness, Miss Nightingale's throat will be slit by something invisible.

Before, the Ripper was so silent in killing, but it may be because today's defense is really tight, and the combined protection of the Inquisition and the Imperial Royal Investigation Team makes it impossible for the Ripper to approach this villa at all.

Therefore, his hand is also more outrageous than every murder in the past, directly dragging the whole of London into darkness

"No, it's too passive!" Hopkins said resolutely: "People can't disperse, in the whole area, just our part is lit up, it's like a live target." ”

"What are you going to do?" Gregerson said in a deep voice.

"Two approaches,

First, bring dozens of deflagration lamps over, and if you use them in turns, you will definitely be able to survive the night.

Second, transfer a few armored vehicles, let's get out of here quickly, the electricity laying in London is not completely completed, we can go to the neighborhood where the steam lighting is still preserved.

But obviously, our current position has been exposed, so I prefer the latter. ”

Hopkins was quick to say the right decision at the moment. A few months ago, he successfully became the top judge of the third division of the trial court, and his ability to make decisions and mobilize resources has been fully demonstrated after a short period of training.

So, after 20 minutes, the roar in the darkness came from far and near, and several armored vehicles were already coming.

Of course, these armored vehicles were stopped outside the dacha and subjected to the most detailed inspection.

After the power outage, people are likely to move to areas where there are no circuits, and Hopkins thinks that the ripper can also get it, so it is necessary to eliminate hidden dangers such as vehicles being passive or placing bombs.

After more than ten minutes of careful inspection, Miss Nightingale was finally embraced, walked out of the villa, and sat into one of the armored cars.

"You come out!"

Hopkins said to the driver of the armored car.

"Huh?"

The driver didn't react for a moment, but Hopkins was in no mood to explain, so he drove the person in the seat and sat down in the cab himself.

There is no problem with the car, and naturally there is no problem with the person, so he will definitely not let anyone else control the car, even if the other party is his subordinate.

"Don't worry, I taught myself a lot of useful things before I officially joined the Inquisition, this kind of armored car made by the Imperial Mechanical Academy, I drove it when I was a teenager."

Hopkins said as he inspected the armoured car's console, he could be called a genius, of course he was involved in all these things, but now he was not showing off, just trying to reassure Miss Nightingale in the back.

At this moment, Nopa hurried over, carrying her huge satchel, ready to get into the car.

But as soon as one leg stepped up, one hand grabbed her collar and lifted her with all the bags she was carrying.

"What are you doing?" Nopa waved four of them in mid-air, scolding.

Sherlock casually pulled her aside, and sat down beside Nightingale:

"You can find another place for yourself, and I'll follow this car."

After saying that, he didn't even pay attention to the other party's expression that was about to explode, dragged the door of the armored car, and closed it directly.

Nopa glared angrily, as if trying to penetrate the armor's guard and stab the hateful creature to death. But suddenly, she thought about it rationally again, and realized that it seemed safer to let Sherlock follow Miss.

In short, after a series of rearmaments, escorted by several other armored vehicles and a large number of guards, the convoy took to the streets of London.

The whole city was plunged into darkness as the street lights were all extinguished, and the moonlight was thinned by the usual hazy weather, and some residents found candles that had not been used for a long time, and the windows on both sides of the road flickered faintly in the dusk.

Nightingale sat inside an armored car, and the crowded environment gave her some sense of security

"Rest assured, no one will be able to approach you under this kind of guard." Hopkins spoke again and comforted.

I don't know if this kind of comfort is just calming Nightingale's state of mind, or if it is also for myself.

Miss Nightingale smiled, "Of course, I trust you. ”

This is actually a very much in line with the current situation, at this juncture, everyone wants to relax, but Sherlock is very unsightly, and brings up something unsettling.

"This environment now seems to be very similar to your previous escort mission." He said.

It even explained it very inappropriately:

"It's the time you used the train to escort a person on the murder list, but at that time you were on the train, and this time, we were in an armored car, but between the time you said, in the blink of an eye, the person sitting across from you was killed, so if the Ripper can really do this kind of thing, in fact, at this moment, we are not very safe."

No one knew why Sherlock had to bring up such a thing at this time, and in short, the atmosphere in the car fell silent for a moment.

But Sherlock continued to mutter, as if nothing had happened:

"I remember squinting your eyes because of the reflection of the lake at sunset, right?"

"Yes, but in this situation, it shouldn't be suitable to talk about this." Hopkins reminded awkwardly.

"No, I think this is the right time." Sherlock's tone seemed to have changed subtly:

"Because, at that time, you were transporting the man from the city of London to a military base on the west side of the city.

The direction of the sunset, the direction of the vehicle, and the direction of the seats are all perfect arguments, because theoretically there will be reflections on the surface of the lake.

But you may not know that this year, on the south side of the lake, in the direction of the steam rails, the crown grass is growing very well, and has reached a height of about half a meter.

And at that angle. If a steam train passes by, the light of the setting sun will not shine on the window of the train. ”

(End of chapter)