Free Web NovelChapter 377: Chapter 377: The Look_1
The potential for cooperation between the Heresy Tribunal and the Witch Assembly...
Heinz mulled over it in his mind, feeling that the possibility was exceedingly low.
He was very familiar with the tendencies of the Heresy Tribunal. While police might collaborate with criminals under certain conditions, and even secret police like them might be willing to directly employ a criminal organization to get things done, because of The Covenant’s involvement with the special status of multiple countries, it was almost impossible for any country’s heresy tribunal—except perhaps for Neidlan—to let go of their dignity in this way, for fear of giving other nations something to talk about. And this was even more true for the autonomous state’s heresy tribunal.
Mutual exploitation was plausible, but was that really enough to take care of the Harvest Mother Cult?
If it was the Witch Assembly that openly defeated the Harvest Mother Cult, with the Heresy Tribunal of Silvertown then stepping in to do the mop-up work, that could be understood. But if the Heresy Tribunal wasn’t involved, there was no need to be secretive about it. The Harvest Mother Cult wasn’t an old-school terror cult in the autonomous state, and taking credit for the Witch Assembly’s victory wouldn’t earn them much merit.
The Royal Secret Police had also collected information on the Witch Assembly—after engulfing the territory of the Old Lese Kingdom, the Abyssal Forest then bordered with Gistas, with even a small part falling within the Kingdom of Gistas. Later, the Great Witch Abigail established a base there and restarted the Witch Assembly, with Gistas maintaining a watchful and cautious stance ever since.
The core of the Witch Assembly centered around a few Great Witches with Abigail at the heart, and in the past few years, two Great Witches had been captured in the autonomous state, both imprisoned in the Rose Iron Prison managed by Aiden Galahad...
In other words, this Aiden Galahad was both a former Heretic Inquisitor with connections to his old employer and the jailer guarding two Great Witches.
Heinz’s expression grew increasingly solemn.
As the head of the secret police, he had encountered intelligence on many special individuals, and his accumulated experience and professional instincts allowed him to sniff out who might be "dangerous" from personal records and related information. And this Aiden Galahad—while his subordinates hadn’t found any decisive evidence in such a short time—he could smell the danger from this pile of information.
This warden had once suppressed an insurgency and a large-scale jailbreak; the initiator of the insurrection was rumored to be the notorious killer trapper Meiruki Slave, and the Red Shark Pirate Gang responsible for the jailbreak had once successfully raided the Empire’s capital prison without a scratch.
To carry out an assassination on this man’s turf?
If the assassination failed and the person on the mission got caught, rescuing them from the prison would be next to impossible.
Perhaps his subordinates could keep their mouths shut, but that didn’t mean the other side absolutely couldn’t pry the truth out.
Heinz flipped to the following pages—the information on the other prison management staff was relatively simple, mostly old guards who had been working at the Rose Iron Prison for over ten years.
"The mission must not fail; risk should not be courted unnecessarily from the first move. First..." After reviewing the information, Heinz quickly made a decision, "start by clarifying the target’s confinement block. Gather some information on the female prisoners who have been recently incarcerated, find a way to use visitation to contact them, and probe for information on the target’s block in the prison."
"And then?" his subordinate inquired.
"Try to bribe the block warden to work for us," Heinz stated calmly, "the identity for contact will be fabricated as a gang member, and the reason... you can pick a suitable one yourselves. The bribe must be enticing enough, but not too extravagant, to avoid alerting others that the backing force exceeds that of a mere gang."
Several team leaders looked at each other before one of them raised his hand, "Commander, if a criminal case occurs inside the prison, it’s the prison’s responsibility to investigate. There are people above the prison’s middle management overseeing them, and with criminal deterrence in place, they might not necessarily be bought by money. Since they’re bribed, why not simply bribe the warden there?"
Heinz thought for a moment then replied, "There are still some mysteries about this person that haven’t been clarified. There is no need, for now, to avoid contacting him if possible. Continue digging for his information without letting him notice. If the bribery of the prison wardens doesn’t work, then try starting from him."
"Commander, if bribery doesn’t work, should we try abducting the family members of the middle managers?" a team leader suddenly suggested.
"Kidnap the family members of local military and police personnel? Are you serious?" another more senior team leader immediately raised objections, "What if the other side doesn’t comply, our adversary will be the entire city’s police force! Don’t forget, this is not our turf; if the mission fails, you won’t have enough heads to be executed by firing squad!"
"You’re right, kidnapping and coercion are only to be used when there are no other options, or they must be absolutely successful, otherwise they are pointless," Heinz agreed with the latter’s opinion, "Our policy should be to consider low-risk methods first and only try high-risk methods after ruling out other options. I’ll head to Silvertown tomorrow, let the people in the city conduct the investigation first, that’s it."
With that, he stood up to signal the meeting was over, and the other team leaders stood up as well.
"Everything for our Kingdom," Heinz said slowly.
Including the secret policeman guarding the door, all the team leaders of the task force saluted together.
Heinz read firmness and fanaticism in the eyes of every one of his subordinates; he just hoped that the look in his eyes at this moment was as clear of any doubts as theirs.
...
In the Rose Iron Prison, Aiden sat in the meeting room, sizing up the female prisoner who had just been brought in across the iron table.
Prisoner 0168 of the first prison zone, Sera Rekhsia, sat with her head hung low, her hands clasped together, nervously rubbing her fingers.
She had no idea why she was suddenly "summoned for inquiry" by the warden of this prison; the several imaginations that emerged made her deeply uneasy—what if those people’s claws had already extended into this prison, what if the leader of this prison had been bought...
She tried to glance cautiously at the person opposite, but at the moment her eyes met his, she felt a throb in her heart and involuntarily looked away.
The look in his eyes did not reveal any emotion, but it inexplicably carried a certain formidable presence, staring directly as if it wanted to see through every secret hidden at the bottom of her heart.
That man’s eyes would also sometimes reveal such a gaze, like the edge of a sword; she had once been deeply fascinated by that kind of look... until her father suddenly passed away, the new King ascended to the throne, and his stance drastically changed, from the knight who protected her to the executioner responsible for her execution. Memories that were once cherishable have become entangled with thorns, unreachable anymore. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Just the thought of that man pointing a gun at her face with that kind of look in the future made her heart ache.
"Why do you look so guilty?" Aiden broke the silence first, "Prisoner 0168, I just have a few questions for you."
