The next morning, it started raining heavily early in the morning, and the entire city was buried in a thick, moist fog.
In order to go out, Ed had to give up his cane and bring an umbrella, and went to a jewelry store to purchase the citrine crystals he needed. As for the spring metal used in the bouncing device, he chose piano wire as the raw material.
The purchasing process went very smoothly, and it only cost thirty-five pounds to get these things: citrine, piano wire, phantom moth silk, rainbow parrot tail feathers, sterling silver rings, and amethyst fragments as gemstone pendants.
As he passed by Klein Street, Ed remembered that he still had an exclusive copper coin from the Cyclops Club with Mr. Downston, so he might as well pick it up on the way.
He put away his umbrella under the eaves and walked into Broken Dreams Cafe. The aroma of roasted coffee became more fragrant under the mist of rain.
The sound of rain outside the eaves is like a gloomy guitar. Nymelissa let out a chirp and ducked under the table. Kittens are always growing rapidly, and they have already grown a lot in just a few days.
Since it was a rainy day and there were few customers, Mr. Downston finally had time to chat with Ed:
"Good morning. Is the weather nice today?"
"Ha, not bad? What's so good about it?" Ed hung the umbrella on the umbrella stand, turned around and raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile.
“Rainy days are great weather for coffee.”
"But I see you don't have as many customers here as usual." He looked around.
"It doesn't matter whether there are a lot of customers. Rain and coffee are two completely different things: rainwater is gray and blue, coffee is black and brown; coffee is dry and full, while rainwater is moist and light; coffee makes people happy, but rainwater makes people sad."
While Mr. Downston was talking at length, he stretched out his hand to fiddle with the glass jar containing white coffee beans and straightened it:
"The combination of two completely different things often produces magic: lemon and black tea, knight and wizard, king and beggar, cat and dog..."
"Okay, you are an expert." Ed rolled his eyes, "By the way, have you received anything recently?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
Did not receive? Didn't the coins from the Cyclops Club arrive here at all?
It seems that this organization is not very reliable. Ed curled his lips. In this case, he had no choice but to take the time to ask in his dream.
"Oh, it's nothing. Bring me something to eat, and just watch it being prepared. It shouldn't be too expensive. And a cup of lemon tea."
After that, he found a corner and sat down, close to the rough and warm red brick wall, waiting for his refreshments.
After a while, the waiter brought bread with applesauce and black tea with lemon.
Ed picked up the bread and bit into it, almost chipping his front teeth——
Inside was a copper coin the size of a sixpence. On the back is a palm emblem with an eyeball embedded in it, and on the front are two words: Ashes.
Coin from the Invisible Hand Club.
He held the coin in his mouth, pretending to wipe his mouth with a handkerchief, spit it out and put it in his pocket.
Looking up at Downston, I saw him winking at Ed quietly.
I see.
Although there were not many customers in the coffee shop at this time, there was a risk of being spotted after all, since we were in public. If you want to keep it a secret for yourself, this is a good way.
Hiss - it hurts my teeth a little bit. Ed licked his front teeth and drank the black tea as if nothing happened.
…
It rained for three consecutive days. It finally cleared up on the day of the mission, and Ed once again put on the outfit assigned to him by the Bureau of Investigation——
A bag-like blouse, from headband to thigh, as well as a pair of undyed trousers and second-hand leather shoes.
In order to ensure that this outfit was fake enough, he made a special trip to Mole Street in the past two days, wandering around like a gangster, observing the chaos, worry and pain there, and imitating everyone's expressions and reactions.
He also deliberately messed up his hair, stained his fingernails, and used egg yolk to create a layer of fishy yellow tartar to make himself look like a standard East End resident.
After two days, Ed has become more or less similar to him. If he were among this group of people, no one would give him a second glance.
The dock area has completely woken up in the morning light. As an important part of the world's most prosperous port hub system, the Sword Coast Pier in the early morning has a dreamy and noisy color——
The silver mist river reflecting the golden sunshine in the indigo blue, the moist and slightly fishy water vapor, the old-fashioned sailing wooden boats and the new steam iron wheels, the dark and busy dock workers, the idle sailors in gorgeous holiday clothes...
Ed found the appointed bench and sat down, took out a homemade newspaper-rolled cigarette, and started smoking it pretendingly.
This stuff smells terrible, contains a lot of lead, and burns very quickly. You'll burn your fingers if you're not careful. No one but poor, cheap smokers would touch this kind of thing. He only dared to let the smoke linger in his mouth for a while, and then quickly spit it out.
"Would you like some Dr. Morrison's panacea? It's a mixture of pills infused with magical herbs from the New World that will quickly relieve your discomfort."
A tall young man who looked like a salesman came over. This is not a secret code, and the informant should be a short, fat-faced middle-aged man.
He frowned, exhaled a puff of smoke impatiently, spat on the ground and cursed:
"Go away, do you think I'm rich? I'll find a rich man to swindle me."
The other party was silent for a while, then whispered:
"Are you Johnny Rick? Mr. Frank would like to meet you."
Frank was indeed the informant's alias. But why didn't the other party reveal the secret code for the connection? Could it be that the informant was exposed?
If something happened to the informant, wouldn't he be seeking death if he entered the devil's cave again...
Ed looked at the other person for a few seconds and finally spoke:
"Where is he?"
"It's in the alley over there, follow me."
"Okay." He sneered and followed.
In front of him was a narrow alley, with leaf rakes, crates, barrels, and piles of debris piled up like mountains. It was easy to ambush in such an alley.
While the other party was not paying attention, he quietly threw the one-eyed spider into the gap between the slats.
"This is it, please go ahead." The other party turned around and made a respectful gesture.
Ed stepped forward, and before he had even taken a few steps, he suddenly hit the opponent on the cheek with an elbow.
The other party was shocked and wanted to draw his gun. Ed grabbed the other person's wrist, turned around behind the counterfeit medicine salesman, tightened his arms around his throat, and shouted in a low voice:
"Say, who the hell sent you?"
Suddenly, four gunmen emerged from the alley, brand new rifles pointed at Ed.
Ed did not give in. He pulled out the pistol from the salesman's waist and used him as a human shield to stand in front of him.
In desperation, the salesman finally spoke the secret code:
"Can I borrow a fire? My lighter is broken."
It seems that I am safe.
Behind these people, a young man with a scarred face walked out, followed by a short, fat-faced middle-aged man.
"Okay, Frank. The guy you found is quite smart and has good skills."
