Ch.228Request Log #018 – The Ghost Wandering New York (4)

I’m fortunate to be able to borrow Blingkerton’s connections. Even if I only select those of a certain caliber, I couldn’t possibly investigate all of New York’s magi by myself.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t my assignment, so I didn’t need to put in this much effort, but completing the job was still a professional’s duty. I couldn’t half-ass it in front of the person who informed me about this.

“I’ll leave the investigation to Blingkerton, who I’m currently working with. If there are any suspicious characters among the capable magi… I’ll make them wish they’d lived less suspicious lives from now on.”

The golden age of the Blingkerton National Detective Agency had long passed. Laws preventing police and government agencies from hiring detectives were even created specifically targeting Blingkerton.

But the fact that their heyday had passed was the most dangerous part. People already thought of Blingkerton detectives as little more than hired muscle to break up strikes, and the detectives with no other work increasingly became exactly that.

Now, few Blingkerton detectives cared about public perception. That was the agency’s concern, not theirs.

They were a perfect example of what happens when people skilled in both magic and combat stop caring about appearances. For now, though, they were the perfect allies.

The Idealists’ Hive Mind opened its mouth as if displeased, but the displeasure didn’t last long.

“Blingkerton? We don’t accept help from such reactionaries…”

The situation seemed too serious to refuse help. This was their first time having terminals stolen rather than just losing them, which was a more serious problem than Blingkerton detectives who merely crushed terminals while suppressing strikes.

Nevertheless, the Hive Mind seemed to experience a visceral, instinctive disgust, opening and closing its mouth several times before finally managing to speak.

“We have no choice. This is a time when we must accept help even from reactionaries. We can’t accomplish anything by dying with our pride intact. We must survive until the revolution comes. Please.”

The complete suppression of the Idealists would come much faster than any revolution in America. There was no need to point that out.

“We’ll prepare for attacks. We’ll always have terminals ready to receive calls… Ah, important information. They’ve stolen at least hundreds of our terminals. They’ll need a place to store them. We keep our terminals in the basement of this building, so they’ll need a fairly large space, even if not as big as this building.”

This might involve someone high up again. It would be nice if it were someone as easy to deal with as Congressman Edward Collins, but I’m rarely that lucky.

I left the All-American Idealists Union building. I needed to report and request personnel. It would be more effective to leave it to my former supervisor, a current Blingkerton detective, than to handle it myself.

I returned home. Seeing the “absent” sign still there, I figured no one had left any more notes about this case. I immediately picked up the phone and dialed.

The connection tone was regular. I listened as that regular sound ended irregularly. It was my supervisor’s voice.

“Oh, yeah. Theodore already reported everything, so this must be Mike. Hey, this doesn’t seem like the kind of job we should be doing for just a few bucks from those two. Don’t you think? Since you left, the New York branch has had no shortage of clients with the same request. Our cut increases when the stakes get higher, but what kind of lunatics are kidnapping factory workers?”

After hanging up this call, I should phone the reporter too. I could give her information before she gets tips from elsewhere, and in exchange, I might get information from her sources.

Actually, that wasn’t certain. That woman would say her sources shared information to get her to write articles, not to help with detective work.

She now understood that the world existed beyond newspaper articles, so she might share information. And I could use her connections to determine the extent of the damage.

Though Charles Clichy’s connections had likely all evaporated, she would still be in contact with the woman who supplied mythril to the federal army. Just checking with her would allow me to survey all of New York.

“It’s probably not the Idealists. From what the Industrial Spirits say, they seem to have been kidnapped using magic, but unlike the Idealists’ magic, it didn’t require physical contact. The Idealists were also attacked by someone who knows magic. They say those people interpreted the Idealists’ magic and escaped…”

My usually cheerful-sounding supervisor now spoke with a bit more seriousness. She had been a Blingkerton detective since the end of the frontier era.

“Is this reliable information? Just because you’ve worked with the Idealists doesn’t mean they’ll tell you the straight truth. Even if they seem trustworthy, they’re not under my control, so…”

“I’m telling you this after connecting to the attacked terminal and reading the memory of the attack. If this is true, it seems their goal was stealing the Idealists’ magic rather than kidnapping workers.”

It would have been much simpler to steal some of the terminals the Idealists controlled than to kidnap one or two people from each factory.

The kidnappings were likely to test not only their ability to control terminals but also to create new ones.

“If that’s true, I see it the same way. They kidnapped people to test the magic they stole. Kid, are you going to stay on this case? Blingkerton will drop it if there’s not enough money coming in.”

My supervisor’s voice was deeply dissatisfied. She seemed unhappy with Blingkerton’s recent methods. I gave the obvious answer.

“Who pulled me into this case to be asking that? You already know what you want to hear. You should be asking about methods, not opinions.”

“Heh, you little machine. Of course I want to stay on this case. At my age, I’ve found it’s best to do work that lets you sleep well at night. So, got any ideas?”

Methods can always be created. Even though Blingkerton had become less concerned with public perception, that was due to fatigue from infamy, not a desire to be seen as villains.

Their sponsorship of radio dramas and their insistence on maintaining the minimum trust necessary for contracts and deals showed this. They were trying to maintain at least a veneer of respectability.

In that sense, now was the perfect time to drop the case. The clients hadn’t yet fully grasped what they’d commissioned, while Blingkerton already had.

They were still testing the waters. A detective needed that much consideration before betraying a client. They would at least deliberate as much as I did before betraying President Clichy.

During that deliberation, I needed to nail down their commitment. The method was simple, and I knew just the right person.

“Just call in a reporter and break the story first. Say there’s a series of worker disappearances happening in New York, and even the Idealists have had their terminals stolen, so be careful. Then end by saying Blingkerton Detective Agency has taken the case, so people can rest easy. How could they casually drop it after that?”

When presenting a crisis, one must also present an opportunity. If Blingkerton handled this case properly, they could instantly achieve the image they’d been trying to build through sponsoring dramas.

My former Blingkerton supervisor’s voice regained some of its humor, though not at the expense of seriousness. She seemed somewhat relieved.

“So you’re not just blocking their retreat but dangling something sweet in front of them to make them not want to run away. Do you have a good reporter in mind?”

“I know a reporter who regularly breaks exclusive stories, so if she suddenly writes this article, it won’t look like someone told her to. Should I contact her right away?”

My supervisor chuckled briefly, apparently finding it absurd that I could put Blingkerton in a difficult position while sitting in their office. She readily agreed.

“If you’re going to do it, better do it right away. Do it before our ink-stained bosses finish their deliberations. It might not be the most honorable method, but we taught you this, so what can we do? Just karma coming back around.”

I seemed to have learned well from Blingkerton. After a brief farewell, I hung up and called the reporter. I needed her help but had to keep her from poking around too much.

While she had become quite reliable, she wasn’t nearly as immune to magic as the Invincibles. Elves make easy targets for any weapon.

I didn’t have to wait long for a connection. The reporter’s voice, completely different from today’s gloomy and ominous predictions, came through.

“Hello, Rose Leafman, reporter for Golden Age Press! Who is this?”

“It’s Husband. I’m calling with a tip… it’s big enough that I’d like to remain anonymous. Is it okay to discuss over the phone?”

The reporter would lower her guard just because I was an informant. Goodwill is always useful.

“Um… go ahead and tell me! I won’t write down exactly what you say, but if you’re calling me, Michael, it must be something significant.”

I explained the situation. I told her I was working with Blingkerton investigating worker disappearances and discovered magic was involved. I explained that while we initially thought it was the Idealists’ magic, it was used from a distance unlike their magic, suggesting they weren’t the culprits. I presented this information with just enough processing to avoid specifically identifying my investigation.

We had experience handling disappearances together. Perhaps remembering that time, she spoke with a slightly anxious voice.

“Is someone working behind the scenes again, like when those children disappeared last time?”

“I wouldn’t know. But I’ll find out. I told you I’m working with Blingkerton. The situation is a bit better since I can get help from them. I’d appreciate if you mentioned that in your article.”

The reporter easily caught my intention. From that statement, she seemed to understand why I had called her so late to give her this story.

“You’re trying to prevent Blingkerton from backing out because it’s bigger than expected, right? Even if we’re not a major newspaper, if this news is prominently displayed on the front page of a daily paper, Blingkerton can’t easily withdraw.”

She might be soft when it came to her family, taking after her father, but otherwise, she had come a long way from being that irritating woman.

“That’s right. You catch on quickly, which makes this easier. How do you think we could attract the most attention?”

After thinking briefly, the reporter made an “Ah!” sound as if a good idea had occurred to her, then spoke with a proud voice. I could almost feel her nose rising through the phone line.

“Since we’ll be the first to report on this, if you send us photos and names of the missing persons to Golden Age Press, we can publish them in the advertising section. It would be better for the families than going from detective agency to detective agency or putting up posters, and our circulation would increase dramatically, so more people would see it!”

I had no desire to comment on her work. She didn’t tend to comment on my detective work either. This was a satisfactory outcome.

“I’ll send you the materials from Blingkerton as well. Use them. I’ll hang up if there’s nothing else.”

Tomorrow would be another busy day—requesting help from Blingkerton, meeting with magi… I was trying to rest a bit more when the reporter briefly held me back.

“Something else, something else… There is one thing. You said all the locations were factory areas, right? Since that’s on the Industrial Spirit King’s body, if we could just meet him, couldn’t we get some major hints? When I interviewed the Industrial Spirit King before, he knew exactly what was happening on his body!”

While that might be a method, meeting the Industrial Spirit King wasn’t simple. One needed either an invitation from the Spirit King himself or a recommendation from another Spirit King or high-ranking person.

“That would be a good approach if we could meet him. Unfortunately, even I can’t sneak into a building guarded by two angels at each entrance 24 hours a day.”

“I certainly couldn’t either… but among the people I’ve interviewed recently, there’s someone quite high-ranking! I’ll try contacting them. What do you think, aren’t I quite reliable?”

Recently… Given how she randomly brought up the Demigod Party last time, she must have met the party leader. She had interviewed Sol Invictus before, so she was probably trying to leverage that.

She wasn’t that reliable. She was still the type to get caught up in things. The currents were generally stronger than her. But it seemed she had at least learned to swim.

“In your own way. Oh, and… don’t wander around factory areas alone claiming you’re digging for the truth. I only asked you to write this article to keep Blingkerton on the case, and if these people are ruthless enough to attack the Idealists, turning you into a terminal would be nothing to them.”

Her voice became somewhat more energetic. She boldly said something completely inappropriate for the situation.

“Are you worried about me? If that’s the case, I think I can put in more effort to investigate…”

“Yes, I’m worried. It’s convenient to have at least one reliable reporter contact. My other reporter contacts won’t write articles unless I slip them money.”

Despite the limited weight of my words, they seemed to sound kinder to the reporter. An almost unconscious-sounding laugh accompanied her response.

“Since you told me not to wander around alone, I can contact you if there’s something I want to look into, right? We can go around together like last time. You’re a reliable person… and I, hmm, am completely incapable when it comes to protecting myself, so I need a reliable person beside me. I’ll call you again, Mister New York!”

She still doesn’t seem to know what she can accomplish when she has someone trustworthy beside her. The night in the city seemed a little less gloomy.