New Gods of North America.

Chapter 237 Rivers and Entrances

Judging from the actual reactions, it is not only Wayne and his team who are on guard against someone leading the team into a trap.
Ever since Wayne took the lead and led everyone into the depths of the forest with an almost "straight-line" momentum,
Chris and Mr. Daggett's team also seemed to have stepped up their security around the camp at night.

If we look at it individually, the people from the detective agency have the largest number of people among the three teams.

But if we consider them as a whole, then the detective agency has to include both Parker and Emma, so that the "number" between them is equal.

Well, Peter the Big Spider and Doug's few birds have no human rights.

If Wayne suspected that the members of the "Thin Gang" took the water route of "first reaching the Ohio River from a tributary, and then going back to the mountains along another tributary" when returning to their base,

So at this time, everyone is walking on the mountain road that goes directly to the place indicated by the "wise sage".

If you plot the two routes separately on a map, they would roughly form a backward capital "D".

Although the distance on the mountain road is obviously shorter, the speed of travel in the deep mountains is always slower, and many sections even require horses to pass.

So it took everyone almost three days to finally reach the target tributary - and this was a speed achieved by the relatively hardworking professionals who had to advance almost the entire day.

It was getting dark by then. The distance between the place where everyone arrived and the "point" that Lina saw was still about two or three hours, so they left a safe distance.

The rest of the route will be along the bank of the water, which should be relatively flat.

Because the probability of encountering an enemy has greatly increased, during dinner, Wayne warned the members of the detective agency while eating, which was actually "killing a chicken to scare the monkeys":
"We have been walking in the mountains for several days, and we may encounter enemies at any time. No matter what ideas or opinions you have, you should continue to be consistent. If anyone does something that increases the possibility of the team being in danger, we will definitely deal with it severely."

The members of the detective agency and other teams were eating and listening quietly.

It seemed as if everyone thought Wayne was speaking to the other party.

But that night, Wayne woke up and saw that the camp seemed quiet.

However, in the 360-degree panoramic view of simple lines, it seems that some members who were resting nearby were actually startled and reached out to touch their guns.
Several members were still hiding in the trees on guard, and from the looks of their faces they seemed to be looking towards Wayne, but they didn't make any sound.

Very good, very energetic.

The next day, after breakfast and packing up the camp, everyone continued walking along the tributary.
This tributary has a decent water flow. According to Wayne, it could perhaps be called a "small river" or a "big stream". The water surface is five or six meters wide, and the depth has not been measured, but looking at the color of the water, it is estimated that it is not a problem for people to drown.

After walking for about half a morning, Lina finally gave Wayne a hint and told him that they had arrived at the place she had "seen".

Then everyone took a short rest and stayed on guard, while Lina looked around the shore and finally chose a spot, saying that she felt like there seemed to be something underneath.

Willy grew up in Kankers, where there are abundant water systems, so it's not surprising that he knows water.
So when the boy said he was good at swimming and volunteered to dive down to take a look, Wayne and the others did not stop him.

But they also hinted, "In a river like this in the wild, it wouldn't be strange to find a corpse. Don't be scared, Willy."

Willy said he was brave and not afraid, then he took off most of his clothes and pants and went down with a "plop".

Wayne thought Willy might feel a "bowling ball" under the water, and then a bunch of bubbles would suddenly emerge from the water or something.

But the reality is that Willy's head went up and down several times for air.

Finally, he lay down on the shore to rest and said that he had searched the area thoroughly, but there seemed to be nothing but mud.

Wayne thought about it, "Could it be that the mud is too deep and you didn't touch the bottom?"

Willy pointed to a spot on his arm and said, "The water flow here is a little bit strong. The mud below is not particularly thick. It's only about this deep. Further down is the hard riverbed."

Well……

Wayne looked around and wondered,
Willy rested for a while, then searched up and down again, but still to no avail.

Lina's experience in some areas might be considered "world-leading". At least most people would find it difficult to get inspiration as steadily as she does.

So she thought about it for a moment and proposed a possibility:
"Although the revelation given by the sage may not be what the questioner wants, it is usually very 'accurate' in a certain sense. If it is not at the bottom of the river, then it may be... somewhere 'further down'." Wayne was actually thinking about this.

At this time, the idea was indirectly approved by Lina, so he notified everyone to search nearby to see if there were any suspicious signs.

For example, the entrance to a cave, or a wild boat.

Chris and Mr. Daggett first arranged their team members to cooperate, and then Mr. Daggett came over with questions.

"Have you got any clues? I feel like your actions in the past few days seem to be very purposeful."

Wayne was too lazy to lie about such a small matter, and it was not convenient for him to tell everyone about the "wise sage".
So he looked at Mr. Daggett and said, "We have our own methods in the detective agency, which usually work well in investigations. Mr. Daggett, at least when it comes to finding the 'Thin Gang', we should be on the same page, right?"

"Of course." Mr. Daggett stopped asking questions and turned to join the search team.

According to common sense,
There are deep mountains and old forests here. Even if they wanted to dig a hole to bury the victim, they would not dig under the riverbed. It is more likely that there is a natural cave underneath.

Think about it from another angle.
The places where rivers pass are usually low-lying areas. Even if there is a cave to go down, judging from the surrounding conditions, it is estimated that you will have to walk a long distance.
It doesn't make sense to spend so much effort specifically dealing with a prisoner or victim, but it's okay by the way - for example, the "cave" may be part of the stronghold.

After failing to find it on this side of the river, the group continued to search upstream, looking for a place where it would be convenient to take the horses across the river.
After walking a few hundred meters along the coast, Wayne and Inissa set their sights on a certain area at the same time.

Usually, there are relatively flat lands on both sides of the water flow. However, in some places, there are relatively steep cliffs or mountain walls on the water surface. There are even terrains with mountain walls on both sides and the water flow passing through the middle.
Under the premise that there is "something wrong" with this area, the appearance of a cliff on the other side of the river at this time, although it looks quite normal, is very suspicious.

Willy had just dried himself and changed into a set of underwear, with his wet clothes still hanging on the saddle to dry, when he went into the water again.
Inissa mixed holy oil with some medicinal powder, some small berries she had picked up in the mountains recently, and some other things. In the end, she made a small bowl of something that looked a bit like paint.
Willy swam over with the thing, dragging the board, dipped a small branch in it, and "drew a line" along the mountain wall.

The members of the detective agency have already pulled out their guns and are on guard. Seeing this, the people from other teams also started to grab their weapons.

It couldn't be said to be too unexpected. Willy brushed the paint along the mountain wall one stroke at a time, and when he reached near the middle, he suddenly couldn't brush any further - there seemed to be a real "mountain wall" there, and branches seemed to be able to be "painted" on it, but the "paint" just didn't show any color, and there was no sign of dripping down.

Inissa quickly gestured to Willy to make a circle and come back first, then swim to the other side of the cliff and brush towards the middle from the other side until the same situation occurred.

The width is about three meters or so, and the mountain wall is close to the river. If that is the entrance to the cave, it would explain why the other party prefers to go by water.

You don't even have to bring the boat ashore, just hide it inside.

Mr. Daggett seemed to quickly understand what Wayne and the others were doing. Although Chris's expression looked a bit "confusing but impressive", he did not raise any questions.

Anyway, the meaning is that Wayne and the others probably discovered that there was something wrong with the mountain wall.

"The easiest way to deal with such a 'barrier' is to destroy it violently. It would be best if the exorcism bullet could break it directly, or some blessed cold weapons would work. Otherwise, we have to consider using high explosives. But in this case, wouldn't the noise be too loud?"

Probably because Inessa saw that there was no exorcist priest or the like in the team, she directly proposed a "feasible" solution.

Considering that it might be a gang base, blowing it up might be like stirring up a hornet's nest, so Wayne thought it would be better not to act rashly.

At least we have to solve the problem of how to cross the river first.

The location of this hidden cave is really good. From this side of the river, it looks like an ordinary mountain wall.

Even if you reach the other side, because the mountain wall is close to the water and wide enough, it is difficult for ordinary people to accidentally get close and notice the abnormality in the middle section of the mountain wall.

Finally, they cut down two trees of suitable height, dragged the trunks to the river with horses, pushed them into the water, and then tied them together with ropes.

Several members who were good at swimming drove wooden stakes into the river's other side to fix it, and then used horses to pull the ropes to "straighten" them, thus building a simple floating bridge.

One team will cross the river first, and then plan to hang down from the cliff by ropes, while another team will hold onto driftwood and wade through the water.

The rest will wait on the river bank opposite the mountain wall and counterattack or provide support depending on the situation.

(End of this chapter)