American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 355 Middlemen make the difference
The shooting that occurred on Santa Monica Beach the following day still caused a huge uproar in California.

Although no civilians were injured, two police officers died, leading to widespread media criticism of the Los Angeles Police Department's poor performance.

Even with a police rifle, he couldn't defeat a thug wielding a handgun.

Well, I don't know who in the police department leaked some details of the case to the media, but now everyone in California knows that the Los Angeles Police Department has lost face.

However, most people are unaware of what lies behind this shooting.

Last night, Roy didn't play a friendly match with Saltana because he was worried about her health.

After a good night's rest, the beautiful agent came to UCLA to find Roy and Claire, feeling refreshed.

Classes haven't officially started yet, so Roy and Claire are relatively free.

"Roy, I have bad news! All 11 vampires that were captured and brought back to FEA last night have turned into pus and blood!"

It turned into pus and blood? What kind of operation is this?
Is it some kind of secret technique?

Saltana nodded.

"This is the method the Elder Council uses to control the lower-level vampires and blood slaves. Higher-level vampires can destroy the lower-level vampires and blood slaves at any time!"

Roy stroked his chin, feeling a bit tricky. He had originally planned to extract some information from these vampires by torturing them.

But then Roy thought of something else.

"Sister Saltana, shouldn't this kind of arcane magic have a casting range?"

This surprised Saltana for a moment.

"You mean the people controlling these low-level vampires are already in Los Angeles?"

"If the Elders can remotely cast spells in Europe to turn these FEA vampires into pus and blood, then disregard what I said."

This is a spell that spans half the globe. If he has this ability, why would he need to go to such great lengths to send his men to capture Claire?
"Roy, your deduction makes a lot of sense. It seems necessary to thoroughly investigate the vampires in the city!"

If we can find the mastermind behind it all, everything can be resolved.

Then, Claire asked a question.

"Ms. Rivera, is there any news from my mother?"

“My colleague in Oregon has already investigated your home. There are indeed signs of a violent intrusion, and the intruder seems to be looking for something, having ransacked your home.”

Upon hearing this, Claire immediately tensed up.

"Has anything happened to my mother?"

"There were signs of a struggle at the scene, but there was no blood or body found. We cannot determine Ms. Frey's current condition at this time."

Claire was very worried about her mother's condition, and Roy comforted her.

"Claire, don't overthink it! The fact that there's no news right now is actually the best news, which means that your mother may just be hiding temporarily."

"I hope so!"

At that moment, Mary walked in from outside, holding a letter in her hand.

"Claire, I found a letter that seems to be addressed to you. But it's a bit strange; the letter doesn't include the sender's email address or email address."

Upon hearing Mary's words, Claire immediately had a bad feeling.

"Let me see it!"

Claire took the envelope and quickly opened it. Inside was only a blank sheet of paper with a line of text written on it:

Jocelyn Frey is in our hands. If you want her to live, come to XXX location at midnight tonight. Remember, you are only allowed to come alone!
After reading the note, Claire panicked completely.

"What do we do? Mother has been captured!"

Roy frowned. This letter seemed to have come at a rather unfortunate time.

"Claire, don't worry! Maybe the letter is a lie! By the way, didn't you get a call from your mother last night? Why don't you call back now and see?"

So Claire quickly took out her phone and dialed back, but the call wouldn't go through.

"What should I do? I can't get through on the phone!"

Saltana comforted Claire.

"It's possible that Ms. Frey's phone is broken, or that she's not available to answer the phone right now."

Even so, Claire still found it hard to stay calm when something happened to her closest relative, whom she depended on for survival.

"My mother never ignores my calls! Something must have happened!"

Claire hugged Roy, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Roy, you have to find a way to save my mother!"

Roy pressed Claire's head down and channeled some holy light energy into her body, successfully calming her down.

"Claire, I'll figure something out, don't worry!"

When Mary saw Roy and Claire's intimate actions, she had an "I knew it" look on her face.
"Cough cough!"

Hearing Mary cough, Claire realized that she was hugging her best friend's boyfriend and quickly pushed Roy away.

"Merry, don't misunderstand, I just couldn't help myself!"

Mei smiled.

"Hehe! I understand how you feel. Doesn't it feel different to have a reliable man to rely on?"

Claire wanted to deny it, but she was too embarrassed to lie to her best friend, so she had no choice but to accept Meryl's version of events.

"Well, shall we discuss this letter?"

Mary looked into Roy's eyes.

"What are you afraid of? I'm not angry! Claire is my good friend, what's wrong with me sharing with her?"

Roy carefully observed Mary's eyes and found that she didn't seem to be angry at all.

That's strange. How did Mary become so generous?

Seemingly sensing Roy's doubts, Mary offered an explanation.

“After I got back to my dorm yesterday, I talked to Jennifer and Nydy for a long time, and they told me a lot about you.”

So that's how it is. I guess it was Jennifer and Nydy who gave Meryl some ideas.

That's a good thing, actually.

However, Roy still discussed the evening's plan with Saltana and Claire.

Claire definitely wants to go to the place mentioned in the letter, but she needs to plan how to get there.

"Actually, it wouldn't be a big problem for Claire to go alone. The Elders probably don't know that Claire has awakened her angel form yet, so we actually have a lot of room to maneuver."

Roy's words drew nods of agreement from the others, and Saltana added something else.

"I'll have FEAR on standby tonight, ready to act at any time. I'll leave the on-site situation to you."

"Leave it to me. By the way, why haven't we heard from Mr. Olin lately?"

At this point, Roy suddenly shifted the topic to Gerald.

"Director Olin went to New York for a meeting. The situation in Washington State has made the federal government very nervous. The FEA has a very important responsibility and has been in meetings recently."

No wonder Gerald hasn't called me even though I've been in Los Angeles for two days.

“Okay, Claire, let’s find a place now to give you some intensive training.”

Although Claire possessed the ability to transform into an angel, she had no combat experience and didn't know how to use this power. It was like a child holding a gun but not knowing how to fire it.

Roy planned to help Claire sharpen her skills before the battle, so that at least she would have the ability to fight back when facing those low-level vampires.

Around 11 p.m., Claire drove away from UCLA alone in her Bumblebee.

To avoid being watched by vampires at the entrance of UCLA, Roy didn't go out with Clarrie. He waited until Clarrie had been gone for a while before riding Clarrie off.

However, the vampires probably aren't naive enough to think that Claire really came alone. Both sides are well aware of this, and it's just a matter of who has more information.

Bumblebee was fast, and Claire arrived at the place mentioned in the letter at around 11:45 a.m., outside a villa in the northern mountains of Burbank.

“Mr. Bumblebee, I’m going in. Could you please send a message to Roy?”

"no problem!"

Tonight was a cloudy night, the desolate wilderness was shrouded in darkness, and all was silent except for the headlights of the Bumblebee car beside me and the lights from the villa in the distance.

To be honest, this kind of environment is quite terrifying.

Thinking of her mother, Claire mustered her courage and walked toward the villa.

A man's voice came from inside the villa after a knock on the door.

"Who's out there?"

Claire frowned slightly. Who else could be out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?
"Didn't you send me here?"

The man inside the villa gave Claire a rude reply.

"Stop talking nonsense and state your name!"

Claire took a deep breath and then gave her full name.

“Claire, Claire Frey.”

After a while, the villa door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses and a mask opened the door, holding a pistol in his hand.

Claire was startled, but thankfully she had received Roy's intensive training that afternoon, so she managed to suppress her fear and remain calm as she looked at the middle-aged man.

"According to the rules, you came alone, right?"

The middle-aged man cautiously peeked out of the door, seemingly searching for Claire's accomplices.

"Stop looking, I really am the only one who came!"

Claire frowned as she observed the middle-aged man in front of her. His skin looked rough and had many wrinkles, completely different from the 11 vampires who had been tracking her yesterday.

This guy seems to be a normal human, not a vampire.

Strange, why not vampires?
"Hmm, you keep your word. Come in quickly!"

Claire was full of doubts, but the middle-aged man had already invited her in, so she had no choice but to suppress her doubts and follow him inside.

Upon entering the villa, there was a foyer. The middle-aged man quickly closed the door and led Claire to the large living room beyond the foyer.

There were five other people there, each wearing a mask that covered most of their face, and each holding a gun.

Based on each person's characteristics, Claire gave them nicknames in her mind.

Honey Badger, blonde girl, muscular guy, black-haired girl, little black guy, and the bespectacled guy who opened the door.

(The movie is called "Ballade Bloodbath," and the old black man in the middle is not in it.)

To be honest, this scene doesn't look like a vampire hideout; it looks more like criminals making a deal.

The bespectacled guy returned to his companion, while the honey badger looked at Claire with a scrutinizing gaze.

Why did you come empty-handed?

"What do you mean? Do you expect me to bring a gun?"

The blonde girl on the other side struck a delinquent pose.

"Stop talking nonsense! Where's the ransom? What do you mean by not bringing the ransom?"

Upon hearing this, Claire was completely stunned.

"Randomization? What ransom?"

The bespectacled man looked at Claire with a very unfriendly expression and brandished the gun in his hand.

"Madam, this kind of joke is not funny. We're here to make money, don't force us to use force! Think about it again!"

"But I really don't know anything about ransom! Didn't you send me a letter telling me to come to this villa alone?"

The six people exchanged glances; they seemed equally puzzled.

This left Claire completely baffled. Could it be that the letter wasn't sent by these people?

The dark-haired woman walked towards Claire.

"Ma'am, did you bring the letter they sent you?"

Claire astutely noticed the word "they," indicating that the letter was indeed not sent by them.

Does this mean there are middlemen making a profit from the price difference?
Good grief, now even kidnapping is being outsourced, huh?

However, Claire did have the letter from the Elders with her, so she took out the opened envelope from her pocket and handed it to the black-haired woman.

After taking the letter, the black-haired woman returned to her companions, while the others came over and glanced at the contents of the letter.

The honey badger immediately started swearing.

"What the hell! What exactly is the dark web? Why did this blunder happen?"

So far, the group thought the problem lay with the middleman's workflow, but Claire had already figured out the real issue.

"Wait a minute! Did you guys just mention the dark web?"

Xiao Hei frowned as he looked at Claire.

"Madam, there are some things it's better not to know. What you need to do now is immediately bring us fifty million US dollars and put it in this villa! Otherwise, we'll kill you!"

The moment the figure of fifty million was revealed, Claire realized that the people in front of her had been tricked.

Because Claire comes from a single-parent family and her family is not well-off, she even had to take out a loan to pay for her tuition at UCLA.

They can't even come up with one million US dollars in cash, let alone fifty million.

"So you're not members of the Elders' Council?"

After realizing the problem, Claire quickly calmed down.

The honey badger was a bit irritable. When he heard Claire keep saying words they couldn't understand, he aimed his pistol at her.

"Are you deaf? We need you to go get the money right now!"

The black-haired woman next to him pressed down on the arm of the man with the flathead gun.

"Calm down, everyone! We're here to make money, not to kill! Killing her is pointless!"

These words calmed down the honey badger and blonde girl, who had become somewhat agitated.

Then, the guy with glasses spoke up.

“She’s right. We don’t need to make things too ugly. Besides, it’s difficult to get fifty million in non-consecutive numbers in cash this late at night. Madam, you should go home first today, prepare fifty million in cash, and come back to us when we give you another call.”

However, Claire did not move her feet, but looked helplessly at the six kidnappers.

"I think you've been scammed. I don't have fifty million US dollars at all!"

(End of this chapter)