New Gods of North America.

Chapter 716 The Venue
After initially confirming that the gentlemen who, in a sense, represent the whole of Richmond, currently seem to have no objection to the situation in the dock area,

Wayne was somewhat relieved and went back to prepare for his gang meeting.

According to Wayne's original plan, he actually wanted to hold the gang meeting at the temporary location that the detective agency was currently using.
Although this temporary base is city hall property and labeled as a "police facility," many gang members have been brought here as "guests" recently. If they were to hold meetings here, the gang leaders might have some strange ideas, such as worrying that Wayne is plotting a "Trojan Horse" or something similar.
But Wayne had no intention of choosing a location in a gang's territory, making the detective agency seem like they were in cahoots with them, nor did he intend to invite a large group of gang members to the detective agency's workshop or restaurant, lest something unexpected happen that would delay production or damage his own pots and pans.

So despite considering the possibility that the mob bosses might have reservations about the venue, Wayne still intended for them to make do.
—With limited venues available, let's not be too picky. After all, even a watered-down toast is still better than a forced drink.

However, in the afternoon, Luke Matthew came again to urge progress, saying that the land issue for the cannery had been preliminarily resolved. Although some procedures were still in process, the key personnel in charge had already given their approval, indicating that the project could now proceed.
This guy even went so far as to use his connections with the Fisk family to indirectly ask someone to help him confirm with the cathedral, and received the reply that "it shouldn't be blocked from the review process."

So Wayne confirmed the general layout of the cannery with Luke Matthew, and then took the initiative, urging Luke Matthew to quickly contact workers, carpenters, and the Brook factory, etc., to get the framework of the cannery built as soon as possible.

Because of this, there was another venue to choose from for the conference, so Wayne took the opportunity to change the location of the gang conference to the cannery area, planning to turn it into a picnic or something similar.

Anyway, that area is still "wild land" right now, and for the time being it's at most a "construction site." Gathering some people beforehand can be considered a kind of indirect groundbreaking ceremony.

If the event is moved there, the gang meeting will appear more "unofficial," and the gang leaders will have one less excuse not to attend.

Moreover, this also solves the privacy issue.

There's an unspoken rule in American town planning: in relatively public, densely populated areas like "commercial areas" and "residential communities," the street-facing side is generally not allowed to have overly enclosed walls. At most, there might be a private lawn in front of or behind the house, and some fencing that doesn't completely block the view inside.

This is one of the reasons why many estate owners don't like living in the city. Not only is the area limited, but the privacy is often not good enough. It's better to live further away so that they can acquire a large plot of land to build a mansion or something. People with a little money in the city will choose relatively quiet neighborhoods, which can also avoid a lot of trouble.

The detective agency's temporary hideout is located within the so-called "public area," which is actually just one of a row of houses along the road. If a group of gang leaders were to come and go, they would be seen by passersby, easily causing unease and speculation among the residents of the dock area.
However, relatively remote "non-residential" areas such as canneries, factories, and warehouses are not subject to such restrictions. They can openly enclose the entire area. With a wooden wall in place, and since there are usually not many passersby, it is not only convenient to park horse-drawn carriages, but also easy to handle in case of an accident.

Evening arrived quickly, and the group began to regroup at the temporary base.

On the one hand, the restaurant had delivered dinner to everyone, and on the other hand, it was a routine practice at the detective agency to make things easier if there were any matters to be discussed before the night patrol.

The three partners of the detective agency were currently gathered in an empty office on the second floor, enjoying pizza. Thanks to Chef Parker's continuous improvements, the cheese pull on the pizza had now reached a level that completely satisfied Wayne. Although this fresh cheese didn't have a long shelf life at room temperature, its production cycle was also short, making it easier to iterate compared to cheeses that required long fermentation periods.

Lina also liked this style of taste. As she ate, she listened to Wayne recount the intelligence he had gathered that day and the arrangements for the gang meeting. Then he talked about the twins' situation:
“I’ve already put the siblings in a safe house and told them not to go out for the time being, so they don’t run into the church again.” He then pointed to the location on the map.

Lina is relatively reliable in this regard; she's an expert in tracking and evading capture. Besides, the detective agency has already done enough. If Michael and Michelle are willing to risk their lives, then they're simply testing the mettle of the local cathedral monks.
Wayne wasn't familiar with either of them, so even if something really happened, he would probably just offer his respect and blessings, and perhaps regret that the detective agency had lost two extraordinary talents who had already reached the intermediate level.

However, Wayne still couldn't resist a casual remark: "There seem to be quite a few people chasing them. Have you asked them if any of them are old acquaintances of yours?"

“I did ask. The Holy See doesn’t actually pay much attention to them; they didn’t even mobilize the Inquisition’s ‘Red Gloves.’ It’s just a routine wanted notice. I do know people in the ‘Wisdom Above All’ order, so if I run into them, I might consider putting in a good word for the twins. But those people in ‘Wisdom Above All’ are quite troublesome; I don’t really want to have any contact with them…”

Lina took a bite out of the pizza tip, her voice starting to murmur, "What's more noteworthy is the Abyss Society. Although they're relatively low-profile within the hidden organizations and have a very small number of members, they're very resilient in their work, and their average level is quite high. Inessa should know them better."

Inessa seemed to be thinking about something else, but nodded after being mentioned:
"Because their domains are mutually exclusive, the Hunter Association has indeed always considered the Abyss Society as one of its key targets. Unlike some evil god organizations that worship chaotic deities, the Abyss Society's members are not all extraordinary individuals in the 'Abyss' domain, but rather a group of people who are filled with longing or a thirst for knowledge about the 'Abyss' in the occult sense, and in fact, they come from all domains."

"In the Extraordinary Realm, the 'Abyss' represents the qualities of 'chaos' or 'disorder,' and it is believed to be more closely connected to the subspace and higher beings. Therefore, members of the Abyss Society are often more like 'fanatics' than 'scholars,' except that they do not believe in specific deities. Instead, they try to deconstruct the Abyss and attempt to obtain the more fundamental 'essential power' of the Extraordinary Realm from it, making them 'mad scientists' in a sense."

That sounds quite interesting.
One was the Hunter Association, which chose to stand on the side of "order," and the other was the Abyss Society, which chose to stand on the side of "chaos."

Although it seems that these two should be opposed to each other in terms of both stance and field, they both have no blind faith or reverence for things like "superior existence".

In a sense, they seem to arrive at the same destination through different paths... Thinking about it further, the realms of "holy" and "dark" actually have a sense of "both opposites and unity."

The former seems to want to exclude and eliminate other fields, while the latter gives people the feeling that it can devour everything.

However, we can put off discussing academic theories for now. Wayne is more focused on practical matters: "It seems that the Extraordinary members of the Abyss Society are all of high rank?"

Inessa nodded: "Of course. Those who are not of a high enough rank are not qualified to truly come into contact with the 'Abyss,' 'Subspace,' or 'Higher Beings' in the mystical sense. They will only become expendable materials or sacrifices in this process, let alone 'research' them."

"You can think of them as some kind of elite club. The Hunter Association usually assumes that members of the Abyss Society are at least Rank 7, and their response is basically based on 'high-ranking evil spirits' or 'mythical creatures.' But as Lina said, their numbers are small and they keep a low profile. The Hunter Association only has one confirmed encounter record every thirty or forty years on average."

Well……

It sounds like a reclusive sect full of experts, not someone to be trifled with...

While Wayne pondered whether the twins were worth the price, he was also curious: "Inessa, what were you thinking about just now? It seems like even the Abyss Society couldn't get your attention."

"I searched with Brother Merlin and the others today, but we haven't found any new clues about Jason yet."

"Furthermore, based on the information Willie obtained from the police through the prosecutor's office, the previous high-level extraordinary individual doesn't seem to have any more obvious traces of the crime. We still don't know whether the other party has been hiding in the dock area all along or has already left the dock area."

Inessa said slowly, “But these are all minor matters. I was just thinking that both the previous group of Quiet Church members and this Jason recently caused a lot of casualties. And that witness who was silenced for making accusations at the hearing also sounds like an innocent person.”

"According to what you've heard, it seems the only one who has truly been punished is that banker? The Sailors' Gang suffered such severe damage that he couldn't possibly be the one who secretly colluded to release the extraordinary villains."

“Compared to those extraordinary individuals who directly commit evil, I think this kind of collective indifference and neglect is probably what truly ‘pollutes the water source.’”

Ah this...

Wayne was a little worried that Inessa might do something similar to "Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin": "Do you think the person who instigated all of this, or rather, the Secretary of State who is currently the prime suspect, should be punished for this?"

“That doesn’t align with the hunters’ principles; prey consists of wild beasts that eat people directly.” Inessa shook her head, burying her head in her pizza as she continued eating. “But such things don’t sound pleasant.”

Wayne tried to comfort her a little: "Look on the bright side, at least what we're doing in the dock area right now is changing this situation little by little. And now that we've discovered a possible innocent person, even if we can't save him, we can still find a way to exonerate him or spread the truth, so at least his death won't be so meaningless."

"Is that okay?" Inessa asked.

"It should be fine, right?" Even the gentlemen in Richmond remained silent. The detective agency certainly couldn't directly intervene, but they could have the intelligence team secretly spread the news and create momentum, or try to stir up trouble at the cathedral. It seemed that the Bishop of Tyrell was also unhappy about others interfering in the local church.

Since arriving in the United States, Wayne hasn't actually had a strong desire to go around "punishing evil and promoting good."
Given the current environment, I always feel that some things are too difficult to do, so it's better to just focus on my own well-being and maybe benefit those around me as well. After all, too much purity leaves no room for fish, and a wise man keeps his distance from the kitchen.

But doing good deeds occasionally doesn't interfere with life.

If circumstances allow, it wouldn't be bad to force the other side to send a few more suitable Extraordinary individuals to the dock area.
That Jason is really hard to find and hard to kill... It would be better if he were replaced by someone easier to deal with.

(End of this chapter)