New Gods of North America.

Chapter 683 Site Selection
"Boss, this one went out tonight too."

After leaving Owen's house, Wayne went to the addresses Ryan O'Brien had given him, looking for the two names he had mentioned, but unfortunately neither of them were home.

Despite O'Sullivan's previous actions, fewer members of the Erlan gang went to the police station to cooperate with the investigation. It seems their internal command chain hasn't been broken at all, and the entire gang is still in a "vibrant" state.

After Sanders finished speaking, he tried to give Wayne some advice: "I heard that the Sailors have been released one after another. Should I drive the carriage over?"

Wayne shook his head: "The area I'm responsible for tonight is around the Ellan community. It's not good to stray too far off course. Let's patrol around here and find out which groups are closest and check on them."

The situation of that high-level extraordinary individual is still unclear, so the agents are somewhat uneasy. It would be better for their partner to show his face in front of them more often right now.

The Sailors' Gang's hideout is in the area that Inessa is in charge of protecting. Since so many of them died today, Brother Merlin will probably go to them to find out what happened. There's not much point in me going there now; I'd rather wait until we meet tomorrow morning and ask them for the results directly.

The detectives have quite a lot to do while on patrol. Besides rushing to the scene promptly when they discover something unusual, confirming the situation, rescuing innocent people, and arresting perpetrators, most of their time is spent walking around and looking around.
If you encounter a suspicious person, check them to see if they are carrying firearms illegally. If you find ordinary people on the street at night, advise them to go home as soon as possible and not to wander around aimlessly.

Some people are active at night. Besides manual laborers, the dock area is home to many black market dealers, petty thieves, fast food prostitutes, and the like. It's almost impossible to persuade them otherwise.
Some people are bold enough to go to bars or strange places at night for entertainment, which is a necessity for them. As for the sailors and crew who come to the dock area for a short rest with the cargo ship, they are mostly from out of town. They spend most of the year on the ship, so when they finally come ashore, they naturally want to eat and drink and have some fun. They don't care about these random things in the dock area.

The detective agency doesn't really care too much. Everyone has their own dreams and lives their own lives. If someone doesn't listen to advice and gets into trouble, they shouldn't think of arguing with the detectives like police officers. There have been drunkards who were forcibly taken back to sober up or reflect on their actions because of their sharp tongues.

Fortunately, after several days of this, the number of people taking to the streets in the dock area, especially in the Airland community, has at least decreased significantly.

On the first night, when they all suddenly appeared and became very agitated, even Wayne was a little worried that he might lose control of the situation.
The shootings in various places last night actually sounded more dangerous, but because the situation was handled in a timely manner, the residents in the vicinity mostly just lit up their lights and looked out the window. When they realized that someone was taking care of the situation, they were not so agitated and did not call on their neighbors to bring weapons and go out together at the drop of a hat.

Wayne thought this trend was good. When the Erland gang members were shouting nonsense in the streets and no one responded to their cries or came out to help them, then they would be completely finished.
It's not a change of gangs, but a more thorough eradication.

The Erlan gangs have a very good grasp of their community, but a side effect of this situation is that the gang ecosystem here is actually simpler than in other areas of the docklands.
When other Erlans feel that gang affairs are none of their business, they become like a town sheriff who has lost the hearts of the people, and are only one "election" away from losing their positions.

However, this is probably not possible right now, as the inertia of people's thinking is often stronger than imagined.

While considering the governance of the gangs, Wayne also pondered the recruitment problem at the cannery, wondering what salary standard to set. Too high and he would be at a disadvantage, too low and it wouldn't be attractive. He decided to hand it over to the intelligence team and Seth to study.

After meeting with two patrol teams, Wayne maintained his image as a "leading by example and a good boss," and then moved on to the next team to encourage them to do a good job.

Along the way, Sanders was also sent to several key locations on the map, both to check the nighttime conditions at the proposed locations for the cannery and to see if any clues could be found about that high-level extraordinary individual.

This involves issues related to the sewer system.
The development of towns and cities in the United States varies. Due to the occasional outbreaks of plagues such as cholera, some large cities have long been aware of the city's sewage problems, and a network of sewers has been initially dug in the core areas.

While it's still far from comparable to the city of Lundan in the Kingdom of Windsor—where a large-scale sewer system was already being gradually constructed when the American Commonwealth was first established, and now the pipe network almost covers the entire city—the newspapers say that the Kingdom of Windsor Parliament recently discussed completely upgrading Lundan's sewer system into a "world-class modern engineering project" that would solve everything once and for all, with a planned total length of nearly 2000 kilometers and the thickest planned main pipe having a diameter of nearly 3 meters, so that a person standing inside wouldn't be able to touch the top.
However, some major cities in the United States have gradually acquired rudimentary large-scale sewer systems these days, at least enough to comfort themselves by saying, "It's sufficient, we're not comparing ourselves to others." Richmond is theoretically a large city, but because wealthy people in the South prefer estates or plantations and don't like living in the city, the municipal government hasn't been very proactive in investing in this area. Therefore, currently, there are only two or three sewer systems that can adequately conceal people.
Wayne was worried that the high-level extraordinary person might be hiding in some strange form inside, and he was also concerned about the water quality of the cannery. These days, the sewers only discharged sewage and did not treat the wastewater at all. Who knows what kind of damage they would do to the small rivers that might be affected during peak sewage discharge periods? He had to choose one that was relatively upstream and drinkable regardless of day or night.

These locations are a little outside the boundaries of the Ellan community, but they're not too far away. You can take a look when you have some free time and come back right away.

The locations Wayne has chosen are relatively secluded, not located between "work areas" like the docks or residential areas, but rather in places that most people wouldn't go far from. Thieves and prostitutes wouldn't choose these spots for their stakeouts; at most, some black market dealers might conduct transactions in the vicinity.

So when he encountered a guy on the road, he didn't pay much attention at first. He just had Sanders drive the carriage over to give the guy a little reminder, intending to tell him that the dock area had been rather unsettled lately and that he shouldn't wander around at night if he didn't have to.

These days, the average nutritional level in the United States isn't that great. Those who ate well as children might grow to be 1.7 or 1.8 meters tall, while those who lived poorer lives are often only 1.5 or 1.6 meters tall, especially in areas with many illegal immigrants, such as the docklands. In some Old World countries, the poor eat even worse; good genes can be hampered by poor nutrition.

Wayne glanced at the man from a distance in the carriage, observing his thin and small stature—even among the poor, he was considered relatively tiny—and his movements were somewhat timid and furtive, like a pitiful creature constantly being bullied.

He's probably not even a legitimate gang member; at most, he might be involved in some illegal transactions or petty theft.

The carriage stopped, and Sanders, presumably showing off the red armband on his arm, asked, "What are you doing here so late?"

"I just came out of a bar and am about to go home." The other person lowered their head, hunched their back, and shrank their chest, looking even more timid.

Sanders jumped down from the carriage; he was a head taller than the other man. What followed was a series of routine questions and warnings.
The answers given by passersby at night were mostly unreliable; some unscrupulous merchants and petty thieves would make up all sorts of nonsense. However, Wayne felt that nothing bad should happen, so he withdrew his gaze slightly.

Sanders probably thought so too, and gradually relaxed until he asked for the other person's address. The other person pointed in the direction of the Erlan community and was so timid that he didn't even dare to raise his arm.

"Cá bhfuil tú i do chónaí?" means asking for someone's address. In order to deal with other gang members who try to deceive them, the detective agency has been cramming on some basic Irish English these past two days, and Sanders has been practicing whenever he gets the chance.

"..." The other person's mouth was half open, unable to utter a reply.

Then his spiritual intuition gave him a warning, and Wayne saw that the other person's size quickly increased by a whole circle, and he was now looking down at Sanders with his head half-lowered.

This height and build, and clearly that of an extraordinary being...

Damn it?

I never expected that I would win the prize!

(End of this chapter)