Deep Sea Embers

Nemo Wilkins suddenly felt a slight dizziness, as if some invisible force swept over his mind, and it seemed that he suddenly woke up from a strange and light sleep, in the belated awakening During the meeting, he suddenly raised his head, and with a little nervousness and vigilance, he looked at the elegant and harmless old gentleman who always had a gentle expression.

Morris returned a friendly and polite smile to the "informant."

However, Nemo suddenly broke out in a layer of cold sweat. He only recalled it now. From the moment he entered the secret passage, the old man's eyes almost stayed on him, a kind of feeling that seemed to search his mind and traverse his memory. Power has always been entangled in his mind, he has been unconsciously answering every question of these uninvited guests, and even almost exposed the situation of other contact points in the city-state!

Even if these uninvited guests held the token of Captain Tirian and knew the code, he shouldn't be so careless! After all, these people came out of nowhere today. According to the rules, I should test them a bit more!

Of course, the sudden change of expression on the face of this "informant" did not hide from Fan Na's eyes. The latter took a step forward, with a solemn and sincere expression: "Mr. Wilkins, relax, we are not enemies—we The tokens and codes you carry are indeed from Mr. Tirian, but for the sake of necessary safety, some tests have been conducted on you just now."

"Test... what test?" Nemo looked at the people in front of him warily, "What is the origin of you...?"

"Simply put, we suspect that a phenomenon of cognitive pollution with a very large coverage has begun to spread in the city-state. This pollution will make people unconsciously produce false memories, lose accurate cognition of the real world, and even become The accomplices of heresy don't know it, we can't be sure whether Mr. Tirian's informants in the city are reliable, so we can only conduct a test," Fanna explained with a serious expression, and then changed the subject, "As for us The origin of the...haven't you heard from Mister Tirian?"

"The captain didn't explain in detail, he only said that there are a few people he can trust," Nemo replied cautiously, "Forgive my doubts—he wouldn't make such inexplicable arrangements before."

Morris thought for a while, came to understand, and looked at Duncan: "Oh, maybe it's because he didn't dare to reveal the identities of us without your explicit permission?"

license? Captain Tirian dare not reveal his identity casually?

Hearing what Morris said, Nemo's expression turned weird for a moment. He subconsciously looked at the bandaged and black-clothed weirdo. He obviously wanted to ask something but didn't know where to start.

Duncan didn't think much about it, he just nodded lightly: "Since it is confirmed that the informant is fine, there is no need to hide it."

As he spoke, he looked at Nemo and pointed to himself: "I am Tirian's father."

The spy of the sea mist named Nemo Wilkins froze for a few seconds, and then he didn't know how to draw his thoughts in his head, and suddenly his eyes widened: "Don't insult the captain!"

Duncan: "..."

The atmosphere at the scene was a bit awkward for a while, and Fan Na and Morris couldn't help but put their hands on their foreheads. Only Alice turned her head to look left and right, but she didn't seem to react, and said to the informant seriously: "It's true. .”

Nemo obviously wanted to speak, but before he could speak this time, Morris suddenly stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder: "Young man, think carefully before you speak—the great 'Steel Vice Admiral' mentioned Ryan has a father too."

At this time, Nemo Wilkins suddenly noticed the subtlety in the atmosphere and woke up from the conversation just now. Immediately afterwards, he recalled those ancient legends about the Abu Normar family, about Captain Tirian's family, about the Lost Home, about the dead soul wandering in the subspace—when he looked up at Duncan again, his eyes were obviously wrong.

"I'm back from the warp," Duncan looked at him with a calm voice, "I'm here to help Tirian with a little trouble."

Nemo thought for a while, rolled his eyes, and fell on his back.

However, Fan Na next to him seemed to have been prepared. Before the informant fell down, she grabbed his arm with one hand, and then took out a whole bottle of refreshing essential oil with the other hand, and flicked the cork on the bottle. Pour it straight up Nemo's nostrils.

Mr. Informant basically went straight out.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Nemo was fully awake, his nasal cavity was filled with the strong smell of ointment. Lifting her teary head, she said nervously while sniffling her nose, "I...I..."

"Sorry—I forgot that ordinary people have worse physique than guardians." Fan Na hid the glass bottle in her hand with some embarrassment, "but don't worry, this thing is harmless to the body."

Nemo took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the tears and snot from his face while calming down, and looked at Duncan with fear and hesitation: "It...is it really you? Then...then what can I do for you? ..."

"You are serving me now," Duncan waved his hand, "Don't be so nervous, just tell me more about the situation of Frost City."

"Okay...okay," Nemo nodded repeatedly, and then sneezed a few more times before he settled down, "Then what else do you want to ask?"

"Are you in touch with other informants in the city?" Duncan asked, "How do you usually communicate? Will you gather in this sewer system, or use a more concealed channel?"

"We seldom gather," Nemo said while rubbing his nose, "mainly for safety reasons—after all, many of our members have close ties to the upper city, and they need to be more secluded. Most of the time, we All exchange information through various secret channels, such as codes in newspapers, specific contact points, or rely on some 'messenger' for one-way contact.

"In fact, even we ourselves don't know how many 'insiders' there are in the city. Most informants only know the superiors and subordinates who contact us or a few 'compatriots' in the same area as us, and the complete list can only be known. In the hands of Captain Tirian and Mister Aiden. I can be regarded as the 'connector' of my level, and the list of personnel in my hand is quite a bit more, but it can't exceed ten people..."

Listening to Nemo's narration, Fanna couldn't help but nodded slightly: "It's a very cautious and effective lurking form. Most of the cultists who deal with the guardians are not so professional."

"After all, it's been managed by Tirian for half a century," Duncan said casually, and then looked at Nemo. "Are you the only person in this contact point?"

"There are two more," Nemo nodded, "a man nicknamed 'The Raven', who should be patrolling the nearby passages at this time, and an old man, who spends most of his time in the abandoned plumbing workshop— —Even I don't know what his real name is, we call him 'Old Ghost'."

Duncan exchanged glances with Vanna and Morris.

Nemo Wilkins seemed unaffected by cognitive disturbances, but others who came into contact with him were not.

"Go and say hello too," Duncan nodded and said, "Where is the plumbing room?"

"It's right here," Nemo said while raising his finger to the right of the fork in front of him. "It's the temporary resting place for the maintenance personnel of the Second Waterway. I'll take you there."

The informant walked forward, and on the way, he began to introduce the situation of the "old ghost" to Duncan and others.

"...he is over seventy this year, almost the oldest of us, my grandfather used to work with him, when it was Queen's time...

"The old ghost is not very clear-headed, but as long as it involves the connection between the gas pipeline and the second waterway, he never makes mistakes. The gas pipeline we added here was done by him and his people—sneakily from the upper main pipeline. To take over a side road, but also to ensure safety and not be discovered by others, this is not a job that ordinary people can handle...

"The old ghost seldom goes to the ground. He spends most of his time here. Sometimes he would brag to us about the past when he drank. He said that he was an engineer of the Second Waterway decades ago. At that time The Queen even personally awarded him a medal—but to be honest, few of his words are credible. I have also seen his medal. It is just a piece of iron with nothing on it, obviously from some corner retrieved...

"Well, he probably inhaled too much poisonous gas when he retreated to the Second Waterway-I told you? Fifty years ago, when the last Queen's Guard retreated and blocked the Second Waterway, when the shaft collapsed, some A part of the poisonous gas floated down from the upper floor, and some artisans loyal to the queen ran to seal the leak, and the old ghost seemed to be one of them, and it is said that his mind has not been normal since then."

"Don't mind if he suddenly yells at you about the Queen later...he didn't mean it either."

Accompanied by Nemo Wilkins' rambling all the way, Duncan and others quickly bypassed the fork and came to a rusty iron gate near the intersection of the sewers.

Nemo knocked on the door, greeted the inside, and then pushed the door open: "Old ghost, there are guests here."

As soon as he finished speaking, a hoarse but loud voice came from the door——

"Ah, the Queen has come to inspect!?"