The Shadow of Great Britain-Chapter 614 - 307: The Royal Navy’s Expert in Humiliating America

On the second floor of the Golden Lion Inn, a larger bedroom had been cleaned up to serve as a temporary meeting room.

In the year Lexington fired a shot that sounded the horn of independence for the North American colonies.

However, half a century later, a gunshot in Liverpool had brought to the place over a hundred capable officers from Scotland Yard.

Sitting by the window in the meeting room, simply smoking quietly, one could hear the rustling of the officers’ saber scabbards against their white riding breeches coming from downstairs.

From the street, in front of the not-so-wide Golden Lion Inn, groups of Scotland Yard officers could be seen smoking.

The passing Liverpool locals glanced curiously at this group of sudden Londoners. Setting aside each person’s distinctive face, their uniforms at least, which showed not a single wrinkle from top to bottom, certainly looked far more dashing than those of the local security teams.

Among the officers, the one with the highest rank was now Brayden Jones, Police Superintendent, responsible for the Tower Hamlets district.

Standing next to him were Arthur’s right-hand men, Tony Eckhart, Chief Inspector in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department’s search unit, and Tom Flanders, Chief Inspector in charge of the records unit.

Although Jones’s rank was higher than Tom’s and Tony’s, he dared not act superior in front of the two.

Especially Tom; Jones still appreciated this honest and loyal officer who had spoken well of him in front of Arthur. Otherwise, by now, his body might have already drifted along the Thames toward the English Channel.

Jones pulled two exquisite little porcelain jars from his pocket and tossed them over: "Try this, it’s much more comfortable than smoking a pipe."

Tony caught the jar and took a look, "A snuff bottle? When did you start playing with this?"

Jones replied with a smile, "Where do I have the spare money for this? It was gifted. Anyway, it was free, so why not take it?"

Tony opened the lid and took a sharp sniff, feeling instantly refreshed: "You’re right, the scent is quite potent, much stronger than a pipe. Why don’t you get one for Arthur too?"

Hearing this, Tom, holding the snuff bottle Jones had given him, spoke up, "Why don’t you give this one to him then? I don’t really smoke, so I have no use for a snuff bottle."

After hearing this, Jones simply pressed Tom’s hand back, "Don’t worry, I’ve already prepared one for Superintendent Hastings. By the way, you two arrived before me, so you must have met him already? How badly is Superintendent Hastings hurt?"

Tom responded, "Chief, you don’t need to be so cautious. You know as well as I do that Arthur rarely loses his temper. If you have any issues, just go directly to him. By the way, you left Tower Hamlets and volunteered directly to come to Liverpool for security work, is everything being managed back at the district?"

Jones shook his head, "Tom, it’s different for me... everything about me is in his hands. And I’m not as important back at Tower Hamlets as you might think. What we lack there are frontline patrol officers, not leading supervisors. Chief Rowan takes leaves of absence every now and then and finds someone to cover for him, but Scotland Yard functions just the same. Moreover, my assistant Ledley is still there, he just follows the orders from above."

"Ledley?" Tony asked as he set down the snuff bottle, "Ledley King? The kid from Whitechapel?"

"Yes, that’s him," Jones replied with a smile. "Though he is greedy and lecherous, he’s quite efficient at his work. Or let’s put it a different way, to perform well in Tower Hamlets, one has to be greedy and lecherous like him."

Tony expressed amazement, "Promoted to chief inspector within a year, and becoming the assistant superintendent in less than half a year, Ledley is climbing fast! Almost catching up to half of Arthur’s speed."

Tom asked, "Tony, how do you know him?"

Tony glanced at him, "You stay in the records room all day, of course, you don’t meet many people. But someone like me, who leads teams in field operations every day, I’m extremely familiar with the promising youths from various districts of London. And Ledley King, that kid, is one of the most promising of them."

"Smiling in your face, hiding a dagger behind you, using his naive appearance to mask traps he has well laid out. This kid is typically duplicitous, he has layers upon layers of schemes."

"Out of consideration that he is somewhat sensible, I pray to God on his behalf that all his dirty dealings won’t get caught by someone higher up. And you, Jones, if things blow up, you won’t escape either."

The more Tom heard, the more curious he became, "What exactly did the kid do?"

Jones pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his jaw, "Actually, it’s nothing much, just too eager to progress. Putting aside some minor personal behavior issues, like stuffing contraband into territories of gangs hard to convict, or having a somewhat rough style of law enforcement."

In short, as long as you dare to set a target for Ledley, he dares to achieve double the results you ask for. That’s also why I transferred him from Whitechapel to my side; if you just send him on missions rashly, he really might stir up some trouble."

"Last time, the department issued a directive saying that there had been a bit too many traffic accidents in London recently, needing a rectification of the congested traffic situation in various districts. I didn’t put much thought into it, I just casually assigned it to Ledley."