The stars, but they become the gray wind

On the street where House B52, Chestnut Lane, was located, Anjie and Chise were staring at the suspicious house, while Dorothy was asking passers-by and nearby residents for information about the house.

"Sorry for the long wait. Let's go." After asking several nearby residents for information, Dorothy turned to Ange and Chise who were waiting on the side and said.

"According to information gathered from nearby residents, the house seems to have been empty for a long time."

"What? Is there no one inside?" asked Qianshi, who was following Dorothy.

"Qianshi, it's better not to be careless." Anjie turned to Qianshi and said.

"Anyway, we'll find out once we go in and check it out," said Dorothy, looking at the house that was already right in front of her.

"But is it really possible that there is a bomb hidden here?" Qianshi obviously had no hope about the possibility that this obviously too conspicuous house in front of him could be hiding a stolen anti-gravity bomb.

"That's not clear." Dorothy said as she walked up the low steps in front of the house. Anjie took out the lock picking tools and tried to open the door.

"Anti-gravity bombs are very large, so it's unlikely to be hidden here, right?" Dorothy said as she looked around the streets to make sure no one noticed them.

As the door lock in front of her clicked, Anjie said to the two people behind her, "Okay, it's open. You can go in now."

The three of them walked into the door, and Qianshi, who was at the back, closed the door carefully to prevent anyone from noticing anything unusual in the house.

"Okay, let's search for clues next. The second floor is left to you, Angel, and Chise and I will be responsible for searching the first floor." Dorothy assigned tasks to Angel and Chise.

"Ah."

"understood."

………)

Walking into the living room of the house, Dorothy reached out and touched the table in the living room. There was a thick layer of dust on it. It was obvious that no one had used it for a long time. There was also a thick layer of dust on the floor under Dorothy and Chise's feet.

"There's no sign of life or use in this house," Chise lamented.

Dorothy walked over to the cabinets against the wall and slowly opened one of the drawers. Suddenly, she noticed a thin wire on the inside of the cabinet door, seemingly connected to something inside. As a trained spy, Dorothy immediately realized that the cabinet door might be booby-trapped. Alert, she immediately stopped pulling. Putting one eye forward, she peered through the small gap in the cabinet door and saw that the wire was connected to a grenade fuse fixed to the cabinet. The grenade was also surrounded by a large number of rusty iron sheets and nails, apparently to maximize the damage caused by the fragments after the grenade exploded.

"Chise, be careful!!!" Dorothy, who discovered the tripwire in the cabinet, immediately turned around to remind her companion Chise, who was searching the room with her, to be careful of other traps that might exist in the room.

"Don't worry, I understand." Qianshi, who was at the door leading to the bathroom on the other side of the living room, grasped the door handle and opened the wooden door in front of him a little. He also noticed that there was a wire at the top of the door connected to a grenade placed on the toilet tank, and the toilet tank located high up was also filled with a large number of rusty nails and iron sheets.

"Angie! Be careful, there's a trap here!" Dorothy ran to the stairs leading to the second floor and shouted to Angie upstairs.

"Yeah, I noticed it too. It's installed on the door." Anjie, who was on the second floor, stared at the tripwire mine fixed on the top of the door frame on the inside of the door, while opening the door a crack that allowed her to barely pass through and entered the room on the second floor.

The first thing Ange noticed was the beautifully crafted bookshelf filled with books placed against the wall. Angela remembered the ambiguous words that Carlisle said when she suddenly appeared outside the indirect base, and the note that reminded her that there might be clues on the bookshelf on the second floor. Angela walked forward and glanced at the dusty bookshelf in front of her. On the bookshelf filled with books, Angela noticed a book with a very familiar binding style. The only dust-free area on the dusty bookshelf was the small area where the book was stored, which seemed very suspicious.

"Could this binding method be the same as what Captain Wens used before..."

Anjie pulled out the familiar-looking leather-covered book from the bookshelf and opened it. Sure enough, she found a sealed envelope inside. Anjie opened the envelope and carefully read the contents.

Chise and Dorothy, who were still searching the first floor, discovered several cleverly and concealed booby traps and explosive mechanisms under the table and throughout the house.

"Is it even here?" Qianshi said as he lay beside the table and looked at the trip mine stuck under the table.

"Well, I'm afraid there are deeper and more sophisticated tricks and traps hidden in the house."

"Anyway, with this room full of traps, it looks like this trip might have been for nothing."

"So, this isn't the enemy's lair?"

"No, since there are so many traps here, it's likely that they've already evacuated or deliberately leaked the information, right?"

"In short, the scale of the traps in this house is simply unusual."

"so what should I do now?"

"Looks like we have to withdraw for now." Dorothy pulled Chise to her feet and walked to the stairs together. She shouted upstairs, "Angie, we need to retreat! This place is practically full of traps!"

"Just wait a minute, I found something." Anjie's emotionless voice came from the second floor.

Chise and Dorothy, standing by the stairs, looked at each other and decided to go up to the second floor together to see what Ange had discovered.

By the bookshelf on the second floor, Anjie was carefully reading and checking the contents of the letter. Suddenly, there was a sound of breaking glass. Anjie looked in the direction of the sound vigilantly. A man with an Indian face holding two axes smashed the glass door on the balcony and jumped into the room. He looked up at Anjie and instantly threw the axe in his right hand at Anjie's head.

Anjie quickly blocked the heavy leather book in front of her. The spinning axe blade directly embedded deeply into the heavy leather book. Anjie threw the leather book with the axe embedded in it away, quickly pulled out the pistol from her waist and shot at the man in front of her. With her other hand, she tightly grasped the letter she had just taken from the book.

"Bang" followed by a deafening gunshot. The shot did not hit the man because he did not have time to aim. Dorothy and Qianshi, who were still on the other stairs, also rushed upstairs to check the situation after hearing the gunshot from the second floor.

Next to the bookshelf on the second floor, Anjie just raised her gun and was about to aim and shoot again, but the man with an Indian face in front of her obviously would not give Anjie time to aim and shoot again. He quickly closed the distance and raised the axe in his hand again to chop at Anjie's wrist holding the gun.

Anjie used the strongest part of the gun to block the opponent's axe. At this time, Chise, who was the best at close combat among the few people, also rushed into the room, drew his sword and stepped forward to prepare for close combat with the opponent.

The man with an Indian face just glanced in Qianshi's direction with the corner of his eye, then swung his axe again and knocked the pistol out of Anjie's hand. Because of the impact of the axe, the envelope in Anjie's other hand also slipped out of her hand. The man quickly reached out and grabbed the envelope that was still floating in the air, and turned around and swung his axe to block Qianshi's sword attack on him.

The sword and the axe collided fiercely, making a sharp metal collision sound. Qianshi stepped back and swung several swords again, but they were all blocked one by one by the axe in the hand of the Indian-faced man in front of him, who then launched a swift counterattack.

"Angie!!" Dorothy, who had just climbed up to the second floor, shouted through the open door to Ange who was covering her sprained wrist.

When the man with an Indian face saw Dorothy, he threw the remaining axe in his hand at Dorothy who was looking in from the door.

Dorothy could only pull the door shut as a shield to block the axe that was spinning towards her.

Chise, holding a katana, picked up the weapon and chopped it directly. The man kicked Chise, who was rushing towards him, against the wall with a fierce whip kick. Then the man took out a long-handled grenade from his pocket, pulled the fuse, and threw it on the floor of the room. He then quickly jumped to the balcony door, jumped over the balcony railing and jumped down.

"Wait, stop!!" Dorothy, who had just flipped over from the window to the balcony, wanted to continue chasing, but suddenly an explosion occurred, knocking Dorothy, who was still running, to the ground.

At the moment when Dorothy was knocked over by the shock wave of the grenade explosion in the house, she seemed to see something with a white metallic luster in her sight.

【? ? ? 】

“What is that???”

This was the only thought that came to Dorothy's mind when she was knocked over by the explosion and caught a glimpse of the strange object with a white metallic luster that suddenly appeared in her field of vision.

Chapter 48: The Smoky Steam World: I went out for something today, so I will update it later.

I'm out today, so I'll update later.

Chapter 49 Dorothy: Am I hallucinating from the explosion?

"Oh...it seems like there's a small problem." In a villa in central London, Carlisle, who was remotely controlling the drone, scratched her head and said.

"Problem? What's the problem?" Yuki asked while sitting on the sofa, holding half a bucket of popcorn.

"I just had the drone monitoring B52 Chestnut Lane protect Miss Dorothy from the shockwave and fragments of the explosion. While the overall result was positive, there was a small error."

"What mistake?"

"The shockwave and fragments from the explosion had a slight effect on the drone's optical cloaking system, causing it to fail for approximately 0.3 seconds. Unfortunately, Miss Dorothy saw the drone that helped shield her from the explosion during that 0.3 second."

"Well... maybe... it shouldn't be a big problem, right?" Yuki, who was holding a popcorn bucket, lowered his head and thought for a while before answering Carlisle.

"After all, Miss Dorothy has never seen this thing before. It's very likely that she doesn't even realize what she's looking at."

"And the optical stealth camouflage system only lasted 0.3 seconds before recovering. Plus, since we saw it during the explosion, Dorothy might just think it was an illusion or hallucination."

"It's hard to say... After all, as a fairly professional spy, it's more likely that you'll arouse the other party's vigilance."

"Come to think of it, if we're going to contact those people, including the princess, it's only a matter of time before something like the drone is exposed, right?"

"Since it will be exposed sooner or later, why not just reveal the tip of the iceberg first so that the other party can be prepared?" Carlisle obviously intended to take advantage of the situation.

"It seems possible, but...exposing the drone to the other party in advance is indeed an accident."

"Although there is indeed something like a memory erasing device in the database in our brain, I don't think it is suitable for use in the current situation." As Yuuki spoke, he decomposed the empty popcorn bucket in his hand into a small pile of carbon elements. Then, the silver-white nanomachine instantly devoured the small pile of carbon elements in his hand.

"Well... the optical cloaking system only failed for 0.3 seconds, and we saw it during the explosion. I hope Miss Dorothy can just treat it as an illusion caused by the blast wave."

Dorothy, who was knocked to the ground by the explosion, climbed up awkwardly from the balcony, which was covered with rubble and broken glass, and stood firm by holding the metal railing on the balcony, which had been deformed by the impact of the explosion.

"Damn... and... what was that white thing just now?" Dorothy moved her legs by holding the railing, and looked around in the dust after the explosion, hoping to find traces of the white spherical object that suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Did I see it wrong just now?" Dorothy shook her head, intending to focus on the more important things at hand.

"Angel!!! Chise!!!" After not finding the strange white spherical object that suddenly appeared in her sight during the explosion, Dorothy decided to first confirm the safety of her two companions.

Dorothy walked into the house through the hole in the wall caused by the explosion. The carpet and fallen wooden furniture in the house were already ablaze due to the high temperature generated by the explosion. Looking at the mess in the house, Dorothy looked around for the two companions.

"Ahem, we're here, Dorothy." A tilted table in the corner was slowly moved away, and Anjie and Chise, covered in dust, stood up from behind the table.

"Great, are you all okay?" Seeing that her companions looked basically safe and sound except for being covered in dust from the explosion, Dorothy happily ran forward to check on the two of them.

"Don't worry, we're fine."

"But, I was completely at a disadvantage just now. That guy with the axe... is definitely not an ordinary person." Qianshi put away the sword in his hand and sighed.

"I'm sorry, it seems we were fooled by the false information and ended up being ambushed. Anyway, let's retreat first. The crowd will be attracted here soon." Dorothy said as she looked at the room that was in a mess and on fire.

.........

On the street outside, the crowd attracted by the explosion looked at the house with thick smoke billowing out of the second floor, and seemed a little at a loss.

"What happened? There was a loud noise just now."

"Was it a fire? Or an explosion?"

The crowd on the street was talking about the second floor that was engulfed in flames and smoke, while Anjie and the others had already left the house through a pipe fixed to the wall on one side of the house.

"You said you found a letter on the second floor?"

"Yes, it was stuck in a book by Lin Wushan Qiyi."

"It's really strange. They set so many traps, but still left clues and information behind. It's really unnatural." Angel analyzed calmly.

"Perhaps they sent someone to rob him because they forgot to deal with that letter?"

"Indeed, the guy with the axe looks like he's here for the envelope."

"Could it be that besides us, someone else is looking for a counter-bomb? Could it be... those two guys?" Dorothy first suspected Carlisle and Yuuki, whose identities were suspicious.

"It shouldn't be them. If it were them, there would be no need for that guy to remind me that there was a letter on the second floor that might contain important information."

"And the information he gave me was incredibly accurate. I'm really curious. How did Carlisle know such specific information about where the letter was placed on the second-floor bookshelf?"

"I still can't figure out why that guy reminded me that there would be a letter on the bookshelf on the second floor? And no matter how I analyze it, that Calisi doesn't seem like someone who is related to the bomb theft." Anjie shook her head with a puzzled and doubtful expression.

"It's really too complicated!" Qianshi complained softly.

"Alas...if we could have saved the letter, perhaps we could have found the next clue." Dorothy said with some regret.

"Don't worry, it's okay. The contents of the letter are all here." Anjie said as she raised her hand and pointed to her head.

.........

After the three of them returned to their base and reunited with the princess and Beata, Ange found a pen and paper and copied the contents of the letter that she had memorized almost word for word.

"This is what the letter says." Anjie put down the pen in her hand, picked up the paper with the contents of the letter copied on it and handed it to Dorothy who was sitting next to her.

"You've memorized it all in such a short time?" Dorothy exclaimed, looking at the neat handwriting on the paper.

"Isn't this the basic quality of a spy?" An Jie replied expressionlessly.

"Ah..." Dorothy looked at Anjie with an expression that showed she didn't know how to respond.

"What a convenient ability."

"What kind of training is needed to master such powerful skills?" Beat exclaimed in shock.

"I want to know that too." Dorothy replied to Beat and Chise awkwardly with a speechless expression on her face.

"So, what if the contents of the letter are encrypted?"

Anjie didn't rush to answer Dorothy's question. Instead, she took out the book with the envelope she had brought back from B52 Chestnut Lane and turned to Charlotte beside her and said, "Princess, do you still remember this binding method?"

Anjie held the book in front of the princess for her to examine.

"This is... exactly the same book as the one on the captain of the guards' desk."

"Well, the envelope is inside this book."

"In other words, that person is the one the captain of the guards is trading with?"

"Come and verify it and you'll know." Anjie took out a password comparison table filled with ciphertext from her pocket.

"I've previously made a code comparison table for the Captain of the Guards. If it can be used to decipher this letter, it would be irrefutable proof."

.........

After a series of comparisons and interpretations, Anjie understood the contents of the letter and copied it onto a blank piece of paper.

"finished."

"Let me see..." Dorothy leaned forward and carefully examined the content that Anjie had analyzed.

"Andy Street Chamber of Commerce, Fairy Queen and the Volcano Dragon, Large Box 3, Medium Box 3, Third Thursday at 6:00 AM, Thames Harbor Pier 8?"

"But what does this mean?" Beatrice was deeply puzzled after reading out the contents of the paper.

"I remember this is a company specializing in theater and stage design, right?" Charlotte added, looking at the information on the paper.