At around 9 p.m. on the 25th of May in Cologne, Germany, the sun had turned orange in the west, colouring the waters of the Rhine and the buildings of the old river harbour a pale pink.
It's the most pleasant time of the day, and the pleasant atmosphere of the cafés by the old river harbour can make you forget the fatigue of the day's work.
The streetlights were already up, but not so much as to steal the light of the setting sun, and the cafe's outdoor string lights were on, creating a small cheerful romance for the café.
Lola finished Chloe's story and stared in the direction of the trestle in silence.
Shaun didn't say another word either, enjoying the pre-battle quiet.
Lola suddenly frowned and said, "The other side of the trestle in the direction of one o'clock, and the ten o'clock direction on our side, these two groups are not ordinary."
Shaun looked over following Lola's cue and saw that about two hundred metres away from them at one o'clock were four people in their thirties standing together talking. These four people had the faces and dresses of very ordinary business people, but they all had a straight posture and a calm demeanour, and showed a great deal of self-confidence in the way they raised their hands and feet. One of these four people was holding a large suitcase.
About a hundred metres away from Shaun and Lola, at ten o'clock, there were also three people standing, two men and one woman, with similar physical features to the other four, leaning against the railing by the river and talking. The three people looked like friends who had just finished working out, all of them were dressed in sportswear, some of them were carrying backpacks, and some of them had a large carrier bag at their feet.
There was some covert eye contact between the two groups from time to time, none of which escaped Shaun and Lola, who were intent on watching.
"These two groups of people look like professional soldiers, they should be mercenaries hired by Bogonov. Inside the suitcases and bags should be automatic weapons. These people should be Bogonov's hidden hands, and those hanging around in groups of two should be Bogonov's open stakes." Lola ordered a side of fries and dipped them in mayonnaise as she ate.
"These guys are supposed to be protecting the cargo in the open. I wonder where the experts he sent to rob the cargo are." Shaun said. He asked for another glass of apple water with vapour. He was very tempted to have a glass of beer on such a beautiful night, but he held back for fear that the alcohol would impair his reactions and judgement.
"They'll show up, and we can't call them experts if we find them now." Lola said as she looked in
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the direction of the trestle.
Minutes ticked by and Richard never showed up again, Shaun suspected he had snuck into the lodge in place of old Theo. Chloe was even missing.
As the time got closer to ten o'clock at night, the atmosphere near the trestle bridge gradually became more subtle.
By this time the eight Bogonov men had already returned to the vicinity of the trestle bridge, concentrating together and looking around intently.
And on this section of the Rhine, the two motorboats had already driven back and forth several times.
"How did the International Gangster Federation keep the Cologne police out of this?" There was one thing Shaun didn't understand.
"The Cologne police would like to get rid of whatever is being transported, and it is none of their business if it leaves Cologne's borders. If they have to stop the Cologne police, they don't have the strength to do so, and Interpol didn't inform them anyway. They also know that we are there, and that the situation involves the supernatural realm, so they are happy to stay out of it. Even if they do, they're just here to keep order so the handover process can be over quickly." Lola said as she ordered another ice cream and ate it.
"And for something transported in such a big battle, there must be the shadow of a big plutocracy like the Mellen family behind it, this is no longer a relationship between the police and the crime syndicates, but a game between higher level forces standing behind the curtains of the world." Lola looked very playful as she ate with cream-coloured ice cream staining the corners of both sides of her mouth.
At 9:30 p.m., ten kilometres downstream from Cologne on the Lower Rhine, a medium-sized cruise ship was making its way upriver.
There were no heavily armed escorts on board, nor were there any guests, and there were only about ten people on board, the captain plus the crew.
In the cockpit the captain looked at the darkening river, and then looked at the time, turned around and walked towards the captain's room.
Walking to the closed door of the captain's cabin, the captain did not push the door in, but knocked gently on the door, and then said in a voice that was sure to be heard in the room: "Mr Lorenzo, we have half an hour before we reach the end of the river section. After that it's time to go ashore and switch to cars."
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A low voice came from the captain's cabin: "Understood."
The captain stopped talking and returned to the cockpit.
The captain's cabin was already rather dim, but there were no lights on, a man was sitting in a chair in the dim light, one hand resting on a special metal case on the table, the metal case was slightly smaller than a normal boarding box, an alloy chain connected the case's carrying handle to the wrist of the man the captain called Mr Lorenzo.
The man was slowly feeding something into his mouth with his other hand, and then his mouth made a toothsome crunching sound, not like he was chewing, but like a sharp metal object rubbing against his mouth. The bow lights occasionally flickered, illuminating the man's mouth full of teeth, each of which was actually a sharp canine!
As they watched the boat come into view and slowly approach this side of the trestle, the eight big men on the river began to tense up.
A police car drove up flashing its lights and pulled up to the pedestrian zone near the trestle bridge, two policemen got out and began to set up a no-go zone around the trestle bridge for pedestrians passing by to detour around. The pedestrians didn't understand what was going on, but when they saw a police officer, they co-operated and went around, no one wanted any trouble.
Laura looked at Shaun and threw over a "Am I right!" look. Shaun gave Lola a thumbs up.
Old Theo was already standing on the trestle, signal light in hand, signalling the ship.
A large, ordinary-looking container truck was already parked in the unloading area. Two large men stood in front of the vehicle looking around.
The two groups of people that Lola had judged to be mercenaries had also stopped talking and focused their attention on the side of the trestle.
The ship slowly docked, the sailors on board threw out the cable, and Old Theo skilfully tied it to the iron stakes on the trestle bridge.
"Hey! Old Theo, still betting on Dortmund all the time when betting on football?" One of the sailors on board seemed to know old Theo well and asked jokingly.
"Oh god, you idiot, I always bet on Leverkusen to win and I keep losing money!" Old Theo yelled in displeasure.
The sailors on board laughed. The captain turned back towards the cabin and gestured that there
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was no problem.
The man known as Lorenzo appeared at the disembarkation tread, dressed in a tracksuit, dark hair, not very tall, tight-lipped, he disembarked and scanned his surroundings before walking up the bank carrying the metal case that was strapped to his right wrist.
The eight big men who met him on the shore quickly surrounded him in the centre, escorting him towards the container truck like a dignitary of a big country.
The distance of fifty metres from the shore to the container truck had been cleared as a no-traffic zone, with no one else except the people involved.
By this time Laura and Shaun were already walking slowly like a couple watching the action, about thirty metres from the side of the truck, and beyond that was the no-trespassing zone set up by the police.
"There's no way Richard can get the case in this situation." Shaun thought to himself.
Lorenzo was still thirty metres from the container truck.
That's when the change suddenly happened. One of the eight big men surrounding Lorenzo suddenly stiffened his movements, lagging a step behind the others, and then with a twisted expression and a dull gaze, he let out a voice: "'Tooth Beast' Lorenzo, are you the only one escorting the shipment? Gah gah gah!"
This big man issued a voice that undulated in height and thickness, just like a sentence where every word was uttered by a different person, very weird.
After this big man finished his sentence, he suddenly pulled out his gun with stiff movements and fired several shots at Lorenzo.
Lorenzo had already looked at the big man when he moved, and after the big man fired, Lorenzo's empty left hand swung a few times, and the bullets that were aimed at him were already in his hand.
By this time the other big men had already reacted and drew their guns and shot the big man who had acted strangely into a sieve.
The gunshots startled the pedestrians around them, screams rang out and the two policemen screamed and rushed to organise the pedestrians to avoid the area.
Laura and Shaun also pretended to be scared to avoid the situation and found a cover, continue to observe the situation.
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The two groups of mercenaries showed professionalism and immediately sprang into action, quickly pulling out automatic weapons from their backpacks, carry bags and suitcases, and in a variety of skilful and professional gestures took the measure of three staking out the periphery and four approaching Lorenzo for protection.
Lorenzo himself, however, was not at all alarmed, and grinned a wide grin, revealing his eerily sharp teeth: "Brothers Pullman, who hired you this time??" While talking, Lorenzo's body changed at the same time, firstly, all the bone joints and spine gradually bulged, and then a canine-like protruding spine pierced through the sportswear and covered the whole body.
More than ten seconds later Lorenzo turned into a body height increased to two metres, cheekbones and jawbone protruding, full of irregularly arranged spiky teeth, covered by about ten centimetres long white sharp bone spikes, back vertebrae knuckle of the convex spikes is up to thirty centimetres of the monster, the monster's left shoulder there is also an odd bulge, the outer side of the two small arms to form a streamlined two bone blades.
Although the several big men around the monster had been reminded of the possible situation in advance, they were still trembling and subconsciously moved away from the monster Lorenzo.
The four mercenaries who were close enough to protect Lorenzo were still calm and signalled Lorenzo to hurry up and get into the cargo truck.
"No, find the Pullman brothers and take them out before we go. Watch out for the shadows." Lorenzo let out a beastly growl.
Suddenly another big man went into a weird freeze, followed by a blank stare like a marionette as he ran towards Lorenzo.
Gunshots rang out, the bullets hit the big man but no blood came out, and it didn't stop the big man from running towards Lorenzo with his strange movements.
Lorenzo's bone blade swung through, and the big man suddenly snapped into eight pieces, and instead of blood, black beetles gushed out of the limb stumps, tidal waves of them pouring onto Lorenzo!