New Gods of North America.

Chapter 437 Trouble
After a few more struggles with Mackenzie Reeve, the guy gradually turned into a dead dog with an expression that said, "I've said it all, you guys can do whatever you want."

Seeing that they could not get any more information for the time being, they temporarily left the ward and walked outside the small building.

After they were a little further away, Tom Hagen began to give orders to his followers as he walked:

"Arrange some people to disperse throughout the city to monitor and report any suspicious persons immediately. This guy doesn't have many people he can use right now. I guess there are less than ten of them, roughly the size of a small group, but they may act separately. These people should be relatively loyal and core accomplices, and their average quality may not be low.

"Prepare what he asked for as soon as possible and 'pre-treat' the carriage in advance. This guy chose to negotiate, which means he can no longer escape from captivity on his own, but we must prevent the losses that may be caused by 'violent rescue' and 'fallen people out of control'.

"Arrange for people to return to Richmond immediately and take preventive measures. The heretics of the Light have placed so many seals in Georgeburg. There may be seals in Richmond and other cities as well. This guy's actions may trigger a chain reaction among the heretics of the Light."

Tom Hagen was very experienced in this area, and Wayne's solution for the time being was similar to his.
Several followers quickly conveyed the order. Wayne recalled the impact of the "contaminated holy emblem" and the "ghost mirror" before, and tried to comfort Tom Hagen a little:

"On the bright side, the things the Church of Light deployed previously were basically the type that created chaos in secret. Judging from the motives, the proportion of them that would cause a large number of casualties in a short period of time should not be high, so we still have plenty of time."

In this day and age, if you want to cause a lot of direct damage, based on what Wayne knows so far, the most effective civilian tool is high explosives.
If he lit a candle and tied high explosives to it, Wayne felt that it would probably create panic even faster than the so-called "sealed object".

The survival strategy of the Church of Light currently seems to be mainly "parasitism". Simply creating large-scale riots is of little significance to them. The more likely motive before was that they wanted to secretly cause pollution, or cause riots to "get rid of" people, and then place their own people in the place.

At least they are not one of those heretical organizations known for reaping or sacrificing lives.

Tom Hagen's expression did not relax:

"This is actually the more difficult part. If the threat is big enough, under the premise of 'the enemy must be eliminated', 'casualties' will no longer be a priority.

"The guy is using the seal of the Church of Light as a bargaining chip, which is at most a level III to weak level IV threat. The two more troublesome things to deal with, 'ensuring the confiscation of the seal' and 'avoiding casualties', will become the key to evaluating the situation afterwards."

Well……

This is not incomprehensible.

Just like when a small town is attacked by a large-scale gang, people will think that some losses in the process of resistance are inevitable.
But if only one or two fierce criminals attack, people will feel that any losses are the fault or dereliction of duty of law enforcement officers.

……

Lina was forced to run back to the detective agency with her people to pick up the baby.
Willy is fine, but Emma is involved. I wonder if Damon MacCready will get angry or quit.

Moreover, these people from the Church of Light seemed weird, and Wayne was actually worried that they might pollute the two children.

But just like in the police and gangster movies, sometimes in order to hook other criminals, they always have to pretend to cooperate with the acting on the surface.
For example, even if you have to use newspapers to make fake ransom or secretly install a locator, you have to prepare money for the kidnappers.

Tom Hagen stayed here to try to delay the time as much as possible, while Wayne and Inesa, like several exorcist priests, led a team to check for possible problems.
After the holy emblem was contaminated, theoretically the church should have conducted a post-incident inspection of important locations in the city. If they really have always existed and have not been discovered, it means that before being "unsealed", they should have looked like ordinary things.

In this sense, schools and hospitals are more likely to be suspects than bars.

After all, the former two are public facilities in a sense, and the impact caused by accidents will be greater. Even if the latter explodes into a mushroom cloud, according to the public opinion atmosphere of this year, it can basically not be blamed on the church or law enforcement agencies.

Therefore, from the perspective of "personnel density" and "risk consequences", Inissa went to the monastery-like girls' dormitory in the college.
Wayne chose a public hospital in the city that was located in the opposite direction of the college. While there was still time, he assumed the worst of the other party and prevented them from deliberately causing trouble on both sides to avoid being forced to run back and forth.

Even if the sealed object does not show any abnormality before it is unsealed, considering the time point of "before midnight",
Assuming that the corresponding thing is of the type that "takes effect immediately after unblocking", then there should be "suspicious persons" ready to take action near the thing at this moment.
If the corresponding things need to "take some time after the blockade to take effect slowly", then it is probably relatively easy to find now. Perhaps it is a combination of the land prices in the city and the fact that ordinary people may not have private transportation. The location of the public hospital is probably on the so-called "fringe of the downtown area".
It's not particularly remote, but it's a little far from the relatively lively commercial areas. It can be considered a suburb of the city.

The carriage had reached a similar point, about 70 to 80 percent of the way, and the streetscape was no longer bustling.

Wayne saw the sign of a private clinic on the side of the road. He took a look and noticed that the curtains on the second floor were drawn and the lights were on. So after he walked a little further and passed the next intersection, he asked Sanders to stop the carriage.

"What's wrong?" The accompanying exorcist quickly came over and asked about the situation.

Wayne is actually suffering from paranoia:

“That killer named Anton Chigurh should have been injured when he was rescued, right?

"This place is not far from where the problem might occur, and the area is not too busy. I think the criminals may first find a place to deal with the emergency and rest, and then act according to the predetermined plan when the time is right. The private clinic just now looks very suspicious."

This team is currently under the command of Wayne. There is nothing wrong with the reason Wayne gave. Looking back now, it is still "on the way".
So the exorcists quickly cooperated and turned around. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, they consciously arranged for several people to return separately, and some took a detour just in case.

Because they were not far away, everyone quickly took their places.
Wayne and one or two people rang the doorbell of the private clinic in plain sight, pretending to need emergency treatment.

Considering the characteristics of this era, some private doctors actually live in the clinic, working and living at the same address, making it easier for patients to find them. It is not particularly strange to have the lights on at night.
It makes sense that the first floor was pitch black but the second floor was lit. After all, kerosene and candles cost money, and even if private doctors have a high income, it's not a bad thing to save money.

But suspicion is like cockroaches in the house. If Wayne feels there might be something wrong, he will still feel uneasy if he doesn't take a look.
The main reason is that the layout here does not seem to be suitable for daily living of the middle class. People with decent and practical professions like private doctors are very welcome "good neighbors" in many communities these days, and some landlords may even reduce or waive rent for this.

Americans still pursue the philosophy of "work is work, life is life". For example, it is not surprising that the mayor of Black Rock Town appears in the farmland and chats with the townspeople during the day, but if he suddenly plans to live in a shabby cabin on the farm at night, it would be worthy of attention.

A middle-aged man's voice came from behind the door, indicating that the doctor had gone out and was temporarily unavailable.
In the dark, a member of the local exorcism department instantly changed his expression from relaxed to alert, as if he thought the sound was wrong.

I didn't expect that there really seemed to be some gains.
Seeing him shaking his head slightly at him, Wayne continued to knock on the door, saying shamelessly that his stomach hurt so much and just wanted some painkillers.

The person inside the door refused twice, and Wayne looked more and more like a villain. He cursed and kicked the door twice.

As Wayne's noise grew louder, the voices from inside the door gradually moved to the back of the door.

The double doors were chained, and one of them was opened.
Half of a face appeared through the crack in the door, revealing a mushroom-shaped head with a mouth that curved like parentheses when smiling.

The other party did not seem to recognize Wayne as the man who had chased him before, but Wayne had seen this guy in the church hospital after he was knocked unconscious by a carriage.

So Wayne kicked forward, and the pistol that he had secretly prepared was fired at the same time.

"boom!"

The sound of gunfire and kicking the door merged into one, and a spot of light "biu" came out from the crack in the door.

Wayne dodged reflexively and got hit on the face.
Lying trough,

This guy is really poisonous. The bullets are even tempered with chili pepper?

(End of this chapter)