New Gods of North America.

Chapter 39: Exorcist Team
The church's first wave of reinforcements came quickly, a total of five people, who arrived at noon the next day.

These five people are affiliated with the county church. It is said that they are the exorcist team at the county level that is responsible for handling various extraordinary events. All members have arrived.

——According to Wayne’s understanding, this group of people is probably the so-called “serious crime squad”.

The "county" of the Commonwealth of America is an administrative land division, and its area is roughly the same as a "city" in China where Wayne lived in his previous life.

However, the difference is that in the past China, the "city" in the usual sense actually refers to "the urban area directly under the jurisdiction of city XX" plus "several surrounding counties."

But in the United States, the so-called "city" only includes the urban area directly under the city. Other small towns and other places around it are not under its jurisdiction.

Therefore, in terms of area alone, the "counties" in the American Federation are usually larger than the "cities" in the American Federation. A county can even contain several small cities. There are actually giant cities whose urban areas are larger than "counties", but there are only very few exceptions.

What’s even more interesting is that the residents’ right to autonomy is “exclusive”, so the “towns” and “cities” in the county do not have a so-called superior-subordinate relationship with the county government.

For example, if the county governor wants to intervene in matters within the scope of residents' self-governance, he or she will need the "support" and "cooperation" of the local mayor or town head.

However, the county governor does not have the power to directly "give orders" or directly replace the local mayor or town mayor.

Some mayors or council members who have good connections, qualifications and are good at management can even easily replace or send away the so-called "county mayor" during the county council election.

It's not certain who is afraid of whom.

The reason why I mention this is,
As soon as the county's exorcism team arrived, Wayne, Pastor Huck and Inissa seemed to have been kicked out of the investigation team.

The captain of the exorcist team was a young man in his early twenties named Joffrey.

He has a slicked-back hair and powdered face, and pays great attention to his appearance. He looks down on people, like a spoiled and self-centered young man.

As soon as this King Joffrey arrived, he immediately started with a series of three denials -

"The sheriff of the town? Matters involving the 'Fallen' are not under the jurisdiction of the sheriff. When we need you, all you have to do is cooperate."

"New pastor? I guess you're not familiar with this place yet. Just stay in the church and we'll take over the investigation."

"A member of the Exorcist Association? Okay, we will record and report what you have investigated. However, we do not need you to continue to participate in the follow-up investigation for the time being, and please do not interfere with our actions."

Then Joffrey took the members of the exorcist team and went directly to arrest people according to Mr. Greenspan's confession.

After capturing all the people in half a day, the exorcist team temporarily detained several suspects in the church and began to interrogate them one by one, while also preventing Wayne and his friends from getting close.

Inissa didn't seem to have any objection to this. After being called into Pastor Hake's office, she didn't say anything. She just took out a carrot and started eating it, then watched Pastor Hake get angry.

Reverend Hake slammed the table angrily:
"The parish priest is the direct manager of the parish. We were the ones who initially investigated the incident. What right does Joffrey have to exclude us?"

Wayne, who was also called over, was holding a cup and watching Pastor Huck lose his temper with Inesa.

Wayne was also a little unhappy with Joffrey, so while he was watching, he was also considering whether to add fuel to the fire:

"Since we were the first to seek support from the church, and they also cooperated, then maybe this is their style of doing things? Why don't we just wait for the results?"

Unfortunately, Pastor Hake soon lost his temper. After thinking about it, he felt that the exorcism team's approach was actually quite reasonable.

So the fire went out by itself before it was even lit.

However, Pastor Hake was still very unhappy and slammed the table several times.

Reasonable is reasonable.
But I still feel angry.

……

At this point in the investigation, Wayne's enthusiasm for the case has now dropped by half.

The outline of the case is basically clear.

According to Mr. Greenspan's confession, what Dr. John and his evil god believers did before was to divide the work into designated places, put "magical" things, and spread the plague. Then they would collect the infected corpses and transport them to specific places.

As for where the bodies ended up and what they were used for, Mr. Greenspan had no idea - he claimed that he did not want to get too involved and deliberately did not ask about the details.

But Wayne guessed that it might be related to the extraordinary power that the "messenger of God" could use, or it might be used to make something like the "dirty bomb" that happened to Dr. John.

So except for the final "messenger of God" who has not been found yet, the mysteries have basically been solved.

What remains is nothing more than the details of "who exactly is it" and "who specifically did what".

The attitude of the townspeople is also easy to guess.

People who believe in the Holy Spirit will instinctively hate and reject these "heretics" or "cultists" who believe in evil gods.

However, under the premise that these evil god followers do not target townspeople and free people,

Although the townspeople might condemn and demand punishment for them after they caused serious consequences, they would likely condone or even secretly support their planning of attacks against the indigenous people before the incident occurred.

So as the sheriff of the small town, Wayne spent time and energy arresting people who "might not endanger the lives and property of the townspeople." In the eyes of the townspeople, that was probably a bit like a dog trying to catch a rat.

It's a thankless job.

Now that the church has taken action and is trying to avoid serious consequences, Wayne is too lazy to continue to meddle in their affairs.

——Anyway, I have done my best in this matter, and you can do whatever you want afterwards.

So Wayne’s most important task right now is to deal with the criminals’ attack in two days.

The next steam train will arrive in the afternoon of the day after tomorrow and will return in the morning of the day after tomorrow.

According to the confession of the criminal who was arrested earlier,

If the criminals want to maximize their profits, the timing of the attack will probably be between the evening of the day after tomorrow and the early morning of the day after tomorrow.

At night, the criminals would have an advantage in launching a surprise attack;
But in the early morning, the vision will be better after daybreak, making it easier to loot valuables.

Wayne thought both plans were good.

It depends on what the criminals will choose.

So Wayne looked over to Inissa, and their eyes met:
"Since the Exorcist Team doesn't want us to get involved, why don't we bring Lina along and prepare to ambush the criminals together? The bounty will be shared by everyone who sees it."

"Okay, let's go then."

Inissa finished eating the last bit of carrot, clapped her hands and stood up.

"Then what should I do? Can I just wait for that annoying guy to come up with the result?"

Reverend Hake asked, standing up as well, “I’ll go with you too.”

"You are a pastor, don't think about fighting and killing all day long."

Wayne held both shoulders of Pastor Hake and asked him to sit back down. "Inesha is now a member of our police department. This is her job. Leave the tedious physical work to us."

Big brother, stop making trouble.

Wayne thought to himself,

If Pastor Hake were to come along, then if Lina and I wanted to use our extraordinary abilities, wouldn't we have to hide it?
It's just a waste of time.

(End of this chapter)