The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

If Anton could pull off the dead-resurrection trick, maybe Tim Cohen could too.

"Wait, are you sure that Mr. Tim Cohen is really dead?" Li Shanze asked hurriedly.

The FBI agent looked surprised by Li Shanze's question, but Kate's brows were already furrowed.

Kate's brows were filled with undisguised disgust. "You mean, those disgusting necromancers who manipulate life and death? This disgusting smell won't escape my nose. Tim Cohen can't be a necromancer."

"I don't know. I encountered something in the Old Times Bar before..." Li Shanze paused here and glanced at Julio.

Before, Li Shanze simply said that he had caught George Simpson, the murderer of Mr. Tim Cohen, and he did not have time to discuss the details with Kate. He planned to take this opportunity to communicate with Kate.

Of course, keeping the secret deliberately was Li Shanze's deliberate revenge against FBI agent Julio.

However, unlike Julio, Li Shanze's revenge was effective.

Kate waved her hand to signal Julio to leave first, and the FBI agent left the meeting room with an expressionless face.

After leaving the meeting room, Agent Julio immediately showed an expression as if he had eaten shit. It was obvious that he was dissatisfied with Kate's different treatment.

At this time, Agent Julio happened to hear Bishop O'Connor questioning Father Graham.

"Have you spoken to the Honourable Paul Fitzgerald, Brother Graham?"

Although Agent Julio belongs to the Special Affairs Department, he actually lacks knowledge of supernatural "special things" and has no related abilities.

And Agent Julio is far from pious - in fact, it was precisely because he is not a Catholic that he was transferred to the Special Services Division as an FBI "insider" and served as Kate's subordinate.

In a sense, Agent Julio is one of the FBI's spies in the Special Affairs Unit and Kate's team.

Despite this, because his boss Kate McKenzie belongs to the Catholic Church, in order to facilitate the work and to please his boss, Julio has acquired considerable religious knowledge after making outstanding efforts.

Therefore, Julio immediately confirmed that the Paul Fitzgerald here refers to the 76-year-old Archbishop Emeritus of Boston and the Emeritus President of the Supreme Court of the Holy See (Note: High-ranking clergy who retire after the age of 75 are called "emeritus". Although they retire from their positions, they still retain their titles and honorary status).

Paul Fitzgerald seemed to be highly favored by the Pope. Even after his retirement, His Holiness did not ask him to return his title as Cardinal. There was no doubt that he was a lord with a very distinguished status in the Vatican.

So, Agent Julio hid in the corner quietly and listened carefully to the conversation between Bishop O'Connor and Father Graham.

At this time, Father Graham replied, "Yes, Your Excellency. I have called Your Excellency Fitzgerald to convey our doubts and inquire about the identity of His Excellency Li Shanze."

When the FBI agent who had just suffered a setback at the hands of Li Shanze heard about the identity of Li Shanze, he pricked up his ears even more, fearing that he would miss a word.

"What did Lord Fitzgerald say?" Bishop O'Connor sounded very urgent.

During the Mass, Bishop O'Connor became a little uneasy after being glared at fiercely by Li Shanze.

He suspected that he had offended Li Shanze, and was paranoid and uneasy about it.

This uneasiness reached its peak when Li Shanze openly took out a condom while receiving Holy Communion - this blasphemous act was a public humiliation to him as Bishop of Fern.

For this reason, Bishop O'Connor felt that he had to save himself, but the prerequisite for self-saving was to at least figure out who he had offended so that he could find a way to prescribe the right remedy.

So Bishop O'Connor had to ask for help and spent a lot of his connections to seek help from several archbishops in the United States.

"Like Monsignor Santos... Monsignor Kuczynski, and several others, Monsignor Fitzgerald stated that there had been no technological breakthroughs—at least, he hadn't heard of any," Father Graham said. "However, Monsignor Fitzgerald said he couldn't rule out progress in Asia."

These names are all well-known to those who are familiar with the American Catholic Church, and Kuczynski is the president of the American Catholic Church.

The names of these big names made Agent Julio's pupils shrink slightly: Does Li Shanze's true identity involve so many big names?

At this point, Bishop O'Connor sighed: "Although there are more than a dozen archbishops in Asia, there are only seven reformists: Manila, Bangkok, Cebu, Jakarta, Tokyo, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City... I really don't know which of these excellencies came to the United States."

If Li Shanze heard what Bishop O'Connor said, he would probably be furious: You bastard, you actually confuse me with these sovereign-less wild chicken nations.

However, in the eyes of most white people, even in the eyes of clergymen of the universal church with 1.5 billion members around the world, Asians are all the same.

Agent Julio was filled with shock: this Monsignor Li Shanze was actually an archbishop from Asia!

At this moment, Julio suddenly understood why he was waved out of the room by Kate Mackenzie, who had always been principled and whom he admired.

I guess Mr. Li Shanze and Mr. Mackenzie have some secrets of the church to discuss. The less you know about such secrets, the better.

Agent Julio's resentment suddenly disappeared.

At this point, Father Graham asked curiously, "Why do you only list the reformist Excellencies and not the traditionalists?"

Bishop O'Connor smiled and said, "I believe that the traditionalists would not take out such blasphemous things from their pockets when receiving Holy Communion, which go against God's will."

"But aren't condoms permitted by His Holiness the Pope? According to the principle of papal infallibility—"

Before Father Graham could finish, Bishop O'Connor interrupted him: "Please don't misunderstand, Brother Graham!"

"Your Holiness only said that it is moral for prostitutes to use condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This does not mean that other situations are also morally correct! Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, I understand. I will keep it in mind." Father Graham nodded vigorously. "But does that mean those reformist gentlemen don't believe in God?"

Bishop O'Connor sighed and said, "Remember, Brother Graham, I'm only saying this here. I won't admit I said it outside."

Father Graham nodded repeatedly.

"Remember, the more important thing for high-ranking clergy is to manage the church, not to believe in God. Therefore, the traditional lords do not believe in God."

This answer greatly surprised Father Graham. "Ah? So, the reformist lords are actually more pious?"

"No, it's worse than that. These reformist lords not only don't trust God, they don't even trust the Church."

062 Exchange

At the same time, Li Shanze had just told Kate everything about his experience in the Old Time Tavern.

In Li Shanze's opinion, since Kate trusts him so much, he should not hold back on this matter either.

After listening to Li Shanze's story, Kate fell into deep thought.

After a long moment, she frowned and said, "I've never heard of any necromancers working for Mentos Pharmaceuticals. Looks like we need to send someone to investigate this company..."

From the words of the Grand Knight, it is believed that Jean-Pierre Anton, the chief chemist of Mentos Pharmaceutical Company, is actually a necromancer.

Li Shanze has great trust in Kate's judgment.

Since Kate concluded that Anton was a necromancer, then he must be a genuine necromancer.

It seems that we are both right. I am not an ogre, and Anton is not an undead.

Gods, churches, the FBI, witches, bounty hunters, necromancers, mercenaries, a mysterious bartender with a code name, a show called "Hunting Gods", the sudden disappearance of corpses... This mess of things is becoming more and more interesting.

Due to insufficient intelligence, these broken pieces of clues are not only difficult to string together, but also become increasingly confusing and disorganized.

"I've arranged for agents to take over the explosion site of the 'Old Time Tavern', as well as to recover the mercenary George Simpson. I'll have his DNA tested to find out his true identity."

Kate said methodically.

"As for the gun in his bag, I will ask the detective to take it for ballistics testing... However, Tim Cohen's body was stolen. Even after the ballistics test, it is difficult to confirm that George Simpson is the murderer of Tim Cohen."

Li Shanze always found it difficult to connect the dashing and capable FBI agent in front of him, who was full of talk about modern criminal investigation methods such as "DNA testing" and "ballistic testing", with the majestic church knight who rode a Pegasus and held a lance last night.

For Li Shanze, the superposition of Kate's two completely different identities creates a very strange sense of separation.

Li Shanze thought for a moment and continued, "What do you think about 'volunteer' Jimmy?"

"There's too little information at the moment, and it's very unclear," Kate replied. "But if my guess is correct, the 'Volunteers' belong to a secret society."

Because it was not exact information, Kate could choose not to answer as long as Li Shanze asked inaccurately. In a sense, Kate learned more bureaucratic skills in this short day than she had in the previous twenty years.

Li Shanze raised his eyebrows: "What secret society?"

Kate shook her head. "Unfortunately, we haven't even figured out the name. What I do know is that an FBI undercover agent among the drug dealers accidentally discovered this rather mysterious organization."

"Unfortunately, our undercover agent only managed to pass along the codenames 'Volunteer,' 'Professor,' 'Philanthropist,' and 'Ms.' before losing contact. We later found his chopped-up body in a trash can near the Goodfellas herbicide factory."

Li Shanze became serious: "So you suspect that this undercover agent was killed at the Good Buddy Herbicide Factory?"

Kate nodded. "Yes, that's right. In fact, we also suspected that the murderer of the undercover agent deliberately led us to the Good Buddy Herbicide Factory because the locals knew that the pollution there had not been resolved."

"Strangely, though, there seems to be some kind of barrier there, making it difficult for both the church's knights and FBI agents to approach. They always inexplicably return to the streets near Fern Town."

"I gathered all the agents and knights involved in the investigation and drew a map based on their memories. We discovered that there was an area in the center of this massive factory that no one could enter."

"This means we spent a lot of manpower and resources but couldn't find a way to actually get into the core area of ​​the Good Buddy herbicide factory."

Li Shanze then understood why Kate made a deal with him and asked him to investigate the Good Buddy herbicide factory on his own. It turned out that all the official channels she could control were dysfunctional.

Hearing this, Li Shanze stood up and said, "Remember to contact me if you have any new clues."

"where are you going?"

"I'm going to take a look around the 'execution site,' then explore the neighborhood where the body was found. Finally, of course, I'll try my luck at the Goodfellas herbicide factory. Isn't that exactly the purpose of your deal with me?" Li Shanze said with a smile, "Don't forget my legal identity."

Since Li Shanze had already mentioned it, Kate could only reluctantly say, "The FBI has already processed your ID... but your identity is still not legal. The police will find problems when they search your identity in the internal system."

"Oh, thank you." Li Shanze raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect Kate to be so generous. "I'll consider this as a down payment. The rest will be paid after our transaction is completed."

Then Li Shanze picked up the FBI ID and left, leaving Kate looking at his back with an uncertain expression.

In Li Shanze's opinion, since they killed Tim Cohen, they would definitely find something if they followed this clue.

There may be some lost clues at the crime scene of producer Tim Cohen, and the neighborhood where his body was lost may have hidden mechanisms. As for the herbicide factory, Li Shanze intuitively feels that it is the final place where all the secrets are hidden.

Kate can mobilize the power of the FBI and the Knights of the Church, and this group of people can even do things under Kate's nose. They must have a secret base.

Li Shanze quickly left the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and his phone rang again.

It was Charlie who called.

Charlie's voice sounded very happy: "Angel is back, and so is her lover, Grey."

Li Shanze suspected he had misheard: "Wait, who?"

"Lawyer Grey Hamilton, didn't you meet at Kate's place?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Ah, yes, yes, we have met. But you said she is Angel's lover?" Li Shanze asked in disbelief.

Xia Li held the receiver in one hand and played with her hair with the other. She smiled and asked Li Shanze, "Yeah, that's right. Gray is Anjie's lover... Why are you even more old-fashioned than me? Can't you accept this kind of thing?"

"Ah, it's just a little unexpected, um, unexpected."

Li Shanze said with a laugh.

In fact, Li Shanze was confused by the news.

That doesn't make sense? Anjie is a lesbian? Then why did she throw herself at me and give me her virginity?

Li Shanze recalled the passionate morning, recalled Anjie's initiative to throw herself into his arms, recalled her passionate and lustful appearance, no matter how hard he tried, he could not imagine that Anjie was actually a lesbian.

Could it be that Angel used me as a cover when she stole the ring this morning, and she felt attracted by my flirting and wanted to taste the feeling of a man?

If so, you are welcome to come and try it anytime.

Li Shanze felt that he had finally found a reasonable explanation, so a somewhat smug smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Coincidentally, Charlie on the other end of the phone also laughed: "Hehe, I just checked Anjie, and there's no longer any effect of the spell. It's just that her body is still a little injured, and it's not convenient for her to walk. Hey, Li, are you okay?"

"Cough, cough, cough, I'm fine, um, I'm fine."

Li Shanze knew clearly that the injury that caused Anjie to be unable to walk was caused by him.

"You're not catching a cold, are you? It's so cold and snowing so heavily. You should take care of yourself, Li." Xia Li warned seriously.

In this foreign country, listening to Xia Li's concern, Li Shanze felt warm in his heart. He unconsciously softened his voice: "Well, don't worry, Xia Li, I will pay attention."

"Hehe, that's good. I'm going out to pick some herbs to treat Anjie's injuries. I'll also make some herbal remedies for you to prevent illness."

Li Shanze felt that Xia Li was making a big deal out of nothing, so he advised, "It's snowing now. Are there any herbs left in there in winter?"

"Black birch bark, dandelion root, plantain, mugwort, wild chrysanthemum..." Charlie perked up when she heard about herbal medicine, a witch's specialty. She listed many herbs with great enthusiasm. "There are so many herbs you can collect in winter. I'm an expert in this area!"

Even through the phone, Li Shanze seemed to see Miss Witch's smug look, her nose almost turned up to the sky.

"Besides, since the show 'Hunting Gods' has been canceled and Buchaska is no longer in danger, I don't have to conserve my energy for a possible battle, hehe."

No wonder Charlie was in such a good mood, it turned out to be because of this...

"No, Charlie, Fern Town is still full of dangers. Many strange guys have come to Fern Town. You'd better be vigilant." Li Shanze advised seriously.

Author's words: My friends in the group said that there should be three updates before the book is released, so there are three updates...

063 Prevarication and Vines

Obviously, Xia Li did not take Li Shanze's warning seriously.

The witch lady was still smiling: "Hehe, it's okay. I can always use Buchaska's power here. No one can hurt me."

Li Shanze felt that Xia Li simply had the burden off her heart lifted, so she suddenly relaxed and wanted to find something to do.

Instead of letting Charlie run around in this dangerous place, it would be better for the two of them to act together so that they can look after each other.