Chapter 21 (2/2)

In fact, no one would really pay close attention to how the donations were used in the end. What they were after was more of fame than anything else.

The headlines in the papers the next day.

Their lackeys’ praises and respect.

They were in charge of paying while others were in charge of getting things done.

Hadn’t this always been the case all along?

After ending his fervent and excited speech, the man got off the stage and greeted the guests in the vicinity.

Graceful smiles, as if enjoying refined company, adorned the faces of everyone there.

This made Tang Luo certain that this man must be Leo Thorndike.

Before this, Tang Luo honestly didn’t know what Thorndike looked like.

Thorndike weaved among the crowd superficially, occasionally stopping to exchange a few words with others. There was no knowing whether there were members of the organization among them.

It was only about half an hour later that he walked towards the stairs by himself.

Before that, a few people had already gone up the stairs discreetly.

Capable and skilled bodyguards stood guard at the stairways on both the left and right.

Tang Luo followed Thorndike leisurely, going up to the second floor and then the third floor with him.

Compared to the bustling atmosphere of the ground floor, while a few people occasionally walked by on the second floor, the third floor was void of any human presence.

Along the long corridor, there were only some rather dim lights lighting up the place. As for sounds, there was only the sound of footsteps.

Thorndike suddenly stopped in his tracks with a hint of a strange expression on his face.

Why was he hearing footsteps? The footsteps didn’t belong to him.

He turned around and ascertained that there was no one behind him.

While frowning, Earl Thorndike loosened his slightly tight collar a little and continued forward. He stopped in front of a pair of double doors.

Thorndike pressed down on the handle, opened the door, and walked in.

It was a study.

Only the table lamp on the desk was lit.

Thorndike looked around the room. Then, he popped his head to the outside and cast a couple of glances at the corridor outside the study. After ensuring that the footsteps he heard earlier were just a figment of his imagination, he closed the doors and locked them.

He came across as extremely careful, even in his own home.

He walked over to the bookshelf and shifted a few books, activating a mechanism. The bookshelf slowly shifted away to actually reveal a small and cramped elevator inside.

Thorndike walked into the elevator and pressed the switch. The elevator slowly descended. Then, the bookshelf slowly shifted as well and started to return to its original position.

The light gradually dimmed.

Bam!

All of a sudden, Thorndike heard something.

At the same time, the elevator shook for a while, as if some kind of heavy object had crashed above him.

“Who’s there!”

Thorndike reached into his clothes at once, as if he was about to pull out a gun. He looked up at the same time.

He didn’t see anyone or anything at the ceiling, which featured a design with open spaces in order to reduce weight.

“Is it my imagination again? It’s just the elevator that’s shaking?”

Thorndike had an awful look on his face. Members of the organization had been attacked in succession during the last few days, making him extremely sensitive.

Even the mere rustle of leaves startled him.

After staring at the area above for a long while and making certain that there really wasn’t anything there, Thorndike lowered his head.

At that point, the elevator had also reached the bottom.

Thorndike walked out.

The place outside was an underground chamber that could still be considered relatively bright.

In the middle was a round table with four people seated there. Behind the four of them were bodyguards as well. There were two to each of them. Another two bodyguards stood next to the wall.

There were ten people in total, and quite a few of them were holding revolvers. The area at their waists was full and bulging too, clearly holding another gun there.

Two tall and large men stood near the wall, one of them holding a dagger.

The dagger flew and constantly spun in his palm, an icy glint flashing occasionally.

“Everyone’s here,” said Thorndike as he walked over to his seat and settled into it.

There were actually still three empty seats.

But the owners of these three seats would never ever arrive because they had already died, right during the short last three days.

It wasn’t just them. The other members of the organization had similarly suffered devastating attacks.

Right after that one night, when something had gone wrong at the psychiatric hospital, their underground research facility collapsed and became a place of doom.

All the fruits of their research had been buried.

Jack White, their most important researcher, had also gone missing.

Should he be lucky enough, he might have survived. But should he not, then he had probably been buried amongst the research facility.

If it hadn’t been for Jack the Ripper that had started to go on a crazy killing spree and distracted everyone’s attention, as well as themselves secretly suppressing the news of the incident, the headlines in the papers right now would undoubtedly be the horrifying case of the psychiatric hospital.

“Leads, I want leads,” said Thorndike as he looked at the others.

Obviously, he was the most highly-ranked among everyone here.

“There are no survivors,” said one of them. “But we do have some clues. Some people witnessed these people there…”

He pressed a few portraits onto the table and pushed them towards the others.

The portrait sketches held a degree of similarity to Tang Luo’s group.

However, to be honest, there were quite a lot of people in the city in similar getups.

Moreover, because of Jack the Ripper wreaking havoc in the city, everyone preferred to move about in groups.

“How is this of any use?” Suppressing his fury, Thorndike went on. “This is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“We can get the Cotland Yard to assist us. We’ll just say that these people might be related to Jack the Ripp—”

Screech!

Suddenly, the sharp and piercing sound of metal tearing and breaking apart resounded.

Thorndike’s head whipped towards the back.

The form of a human fell from the top and smashed into the narrow and cramped elevator.

With a hand pressed against his hat, his head was slightly lowered, such that no one could see what he looked like.