The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 481: The Lure

"Mm-hmm."

This time, Anna opted against a bloodbath and simply snapped the Gnasher's neck.

With a sickening crack of bone, the Gnasher's distorted scream died in the air. Its transformation ceased.

"It looks like this tent is clear. Let's move to the next one," Rachel said, glancing around.

Stepping out of the tent, Anna tossed the Gnasher's body into the bonfire on the beach.

Crack!

A loud crackle sent sparks flying as the flames devoured the shell, long since deprived of its soul.

Rachel and Gerard led Lu Li through the coastal encampment. In the mortuary tent, where the bodies of the dead were stored, they found one more Gnasher—the last one.

"It's a good thing you came. Otherwise, most of us would be dead," Deputy Mayor Gerard said, his voice trembling. "There are only a handful of exorcists and police officers in this triage area. If the Gnashers had broken through, the epidemic might not have reached the city, but all the wounded would have been lost."

Wordlessly, Anna moved to snap the Gnasher's neck."Wait! Please, wait!" an agitated voice cried out. A man ran toward them, breathing heavily. "Stop! Can I have it for my research?"

"Who are you?" Gerard asked, frowning.

"I... I'm a professor from Bradlow University, Mansfield Eugene. The United Exorcist Organization invited me to study these... creatures," the man gasped, fumbling in his pockets for his credentials. When he couldn't find them, he made a motion as if to go back for them.

"I know you, Mr. Eugene," Rachel said. She turned to Lu Li and Gerard. "He's with us. We invited him."

"Miss Rachel! What a relief to see a familiar face," Eugene exclaimed. He had the demeanor of a typical academic: eccentric, a little odd, and slightly flustered.

"You want the Gnasher's body?" Lu Li asked.

"Precisely!" Eugene pushed up a pair of imaginary glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Observing the creature's transformation will help us better understand the nature of this epidemic."

And to satisfy his own thirst for knowledge.

"Mr. Eugene, I have nothing against you or your research. In fact, I'm grateful for the information you've already provided about the Gnashers. But you must understand how dangerous a live one is. As the deputy mayor of Belfast, I cannot permit anything that might endanger this city!" Gerard declared, his tone firm.

Eugene, like most academics, was ill-equipped for arguments, especially with politicians. All he could do was appeal to logic. "It won't endanger anyone! We just want to study the epidemic. We might even find a cure..."

"Anna, snap its neck and throw it in the fire," Lu Li said calmly, cutting Eugene off.

Lu Li had been considering it ever since Eugene showed up.

Knowledge is power.

Lu Li understood this better than anyone. Unlike most people, who feared the unknown, he, in a way, shared the academics' perspective.

But such research required sacrifices.

In this era of nascent industry, without sterile labs or protective gear, any contact with the contagion meant certain infection.

It was a pointless risk, especially when countless other, more dangerous and lethal anomalies existed.

Eugene didn't hide his disappointment.

Rachel, who knew a thing or two about Lu Li's character, added, "He's right. With your rudimentary equipment, there's no way to safely observe a Gnasher's transformation."

Eventually, Eugene was led away from the beach. Perhaps he had resigned himself to the fact that ordinary people didn't share his thirst for knowledge, or maybe he'd simply realized the futility of it all.

The Gnasher's body in the bonfire burned to ash. As Lu Li and the others headed back, Gerard said regretfully, "It seems you can't help us after all, Mr. Lu Li. If you show up at the port, those monsters will go into a frenzy."

"No, we just need to look at this from another angle," Rachel countered, wagging her finger. Unlike Gerard, she saw Lu Li's potential value. Her gaze, accented by the mole near her eye, turned shrewd. "Perhaps Investigator Lu Li could serve as the lure."

A sudden chill filled the air, and Gerard shuddered.

"Don't worry, Miss Vengeful Spirit, I mean no harm. This plan won't hurt your Lu Li. Not much, anyway," Rachel clarified. "My intuition tells me it's that soothing aura around you that attracts the Gnashers. But the reason doesn't matter. What matters is that your presence gives us a chance to wipe them out."

"What are you proposing?!" Gerard lost his composure, suddenly resembling the very academic he had just dismissed.

"There's a cargo ship in Port Roadster loaded with thousands of pounds of kerosene and other supplies. If it's set ablaze, it will burn until dawn. If we can lure all the Gnashers onto it, they'll be incinerated in seconds," Rachel explained.

Gerard looked at Lu Li. "And we have the perfect person to draw them in..."

Lu Li didn't comment on the proposal, instead pointing out a potential flaw. "Won't they contaminate the water?"

The ship's deck isn't that large. If we herd hundreds of Gnashers onto it, some are bound to fall into the water.

"The seawater will dilute the contagion," answered Rachel. "Don't worry, they won't survive. Gnashers breathe air, just like us. They'll drown in the water."

Letting the source of the contagion into the sea wasn't the most responsible course of action, but it was the quickest and most effective way to secure Belfast. Besides, the port had already been overrun for hours; plenty of Gnashers had likely already fallen into the water by now.

If the water was already contaminated, a little more pollution didn't seem so catastrophic.

Once they were back on the street, Rachel and Gerard outlined the rest of the plan for Lu Li.

Two-thirds of the exorcists capable of fighting the Gnashers would escort Lu Li to the cargo ship in the port. Once there, they would break open the kerosene barrels, wait for the Gnashers to swarm the deck, light the fuel, and escape on the lifeboats.

"That's too complicated. Just tell me where the ship is."

Lu Li had a simpler, safer plan in mind.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Rachel didn't press him for details. She simply brought over a member of the United Organization who had questioned the cargo ship's crew. He told Lu Li its exact location.

He wouldn't need backup. Nor the bird-beak masks.

Lu Li took only two oil lamps and a torch to light the kerosene.

But just before Lu Li left, Rachel handed him something.