Thick clouds covered the sky like a blanket all night, and by the early morning it had not dispersed, but instead it had a drizzle and a mist that had intertwined with a leaden gray morning.

Augusta Mach, murder detective of the Alfheim Criminal Police, sighed and pulled out his ink-black "national car" - an enlarged version of the regular national car designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porcher. The dense rain curtain wet his clothes and cheeks, and the moist air inhaled into his lungs gave him a hint of illusion, as if he was not a policeman sent to the countryside to investigate the case, but a hairy boy who stood in the U-boat command tower a few years ago and searched for water antennas with a telescope, and was kicked by the captain from time to time.

With a wry smile, Mach shook off the illusion that he had not been able to correct for several years when he went ashore, looked at his watch, and at 7:03 in the morning, the criminal policeman Mach arrived at the scene.

There were several more cars parked early in front of his national car. The drivers of two Opel trucks huddled in the cab to catch up on sleep, and the third, a Wartburg car, painted grey for ordinary police officers. The car was empty, the roof lights flickered and went off, and the bleak blue glow repeatedly illuminated the bushes on the side of the road. In addition, there is a bunch of bicycles parked on the other side of the roadbed.

About a platoon of bear soldiers stood guard, wearing boat-shaped hats, stand-up collars and breeches, dark blue uniforms contrasting with the red and white batons in their hands, and a pair of small eyes looking around vigilantly.

They were supposed to be stationed in the village as "auxiliary vigilantes", the elves called them "detectives", and the humans called them "sticks", a nickname that is said to have come from the fact that the woolly bears often beat people with batons.

Maher didn't look at the thugs recruited from the Bear Clan immigrants to spy on humans, and headed straight through the muddy meadows. Walk to the scene.

The yellow cordon has been raised, and several ordinary police officers stand outside the line to salute Mach.

"Name?First Class Constable. ”

Keep your eyes fixed on a few footprints on the river beach. Mach put on his gloves and picked up a small piece of shredded sheepskin from the ground and looked at it. Asked an ordinary policeman who looked like a head. The tone is gentle and polite.

"Ralph, Mr. Inspector III. ”

Officer Ralph straightened up and replied loudly, his voice distinctly deferential. Mach glanced back at him, the Eastern Front service badge on his chest and the emblem of the Township Military Association gleaming, and the dazzling reflection set off the loyal old dog-like face even more brilliantly.

The Ordnungspolizel, commonly known as the Orpo, is the lowest part of the Yalfheim security force, responsible for daily mediation, drunken brawls, marital quarrels, neighborhood disputes, traffic violations, and occasionally assisting the fire brigade in extinguishing fires. The most transactions are the busiest. The salary is the lowest, and it is always impossible to raise its head in front of the other two classes in the same system.

Maher was one of those two systems, a member of the criminal police known as the "Kripo". Full-time in charge of criminal cases, from robbery and theft to bodily harm, from rape to interracial marriage and homosexuality, and investigating the sudden appearance of food thieves in the countryside - all in the business of the criminal police.

For a "Obo" like Ralph, who is still the lowest level of the film police, it is necessary for him to be respectful to Mach in order to pass the application report for the transfer of criminal police officers this year.

Mach has a rough idea of this, and he has seen quite a few such "Opo". Served in the territory of the principality. After returning to China, he participated in the township soldiers' association, commonly known as the "Steel Helmet Regiment". I was arranged for this errand, and after being introduced by the army, I got married, in order to continue the family bloodline, for the sake of the motherland and the consuls, for the honor of "heroic mother" and "model family" and a lot of subsidies. Every night, I work hard with my wife towards the great goal of "giving birth to a child on the football team", but so far my wife's stomach has not moved. He received a salary of 2,000 marks a month and applied for a transfer to the criminal police three times in a row. Dismissed three times in a row, typical of petty civil servants.

"Okay. Constable Ralph. ”

Maher looked away from the footprints, and he gathered the sheepskin. He took out a notebook and pen from his jacket pocket and continued to ask in a gentle voice:

"When did you start discovering that something was stolen?"

"Three days ago, it was milk at first, then potatoes and onions in the fields. The people in the village thought it was a monkey from the forest, but it was not until they saw a stranger an hour ago that they realized that it was someone from outside who committed the crime, and hurriedly ran to the police station to report the crime. We were about to leave work when we were on patrol to National Highway 102 and received radio contact, priority 1, and we were here in 5 minutes. Then footprints were found on the river beach. ”

"Who found out?"

Ralph pointed behind him, and a commotion was heard.

The Bear soldiers of the Detective Team surrounded more than two dozen shivering humans, all of whom bowed their heads and saluted Mach, and several old men whispered a prayer to the Mother Goddess in Charlemagne. The detectives were baton-wielding, their eyes full of impatience and disgust, and if they hadn't used the humans, they would have passed with sticks. If it had been before they were trained, those old men who were muttering might not have been human.

A boy was pushed out of the crowd, and Ralph hooked his fingers at him, and the boy shook his shoulders and trotted to Mach, standing upright, bowing, and staring at the ground.

"Your name?"

"Rigo Morris, sir. ”

The boy was about 13 years old, very thin, with freckles on his face, and a mouth full of accented Elvish, which sounded a little strange and a little stammering, and he was only heard timidly continue to speak.

"My family owns a bakery in the village of La Los. Every morning we had to set up the stall and put out the fresh milk and baked bread. It was still dark, and I heard a sound in the place where the bread was placed, and I thought it was a mouse, but I saw a figure and flashed past. I was stunned and called out after a while. ”

Ralph turned his face away, Mach knew what he was thinking. If this kid was an elven child and didn't know how to deal with emergencies when he was so old, Ralph would definitely beat him.

"Did you see anyone else? ”

Maher asked kindly, sounding like the child's uncle rather than a policeman.

"Nope. Sir. In the name of Mother Goddess, I saw only one person. I was completely confused, and I didn't mean to delay the report. ”

Speaking of which, in the end. Rigaud almost burst into tears.

- Poor fellow.

Maher muttered to himself, the child was clearly frightened. If he said anything more frightening, he would cry and beg him not to "relocate" the family, and the third level of police couldn't help but wonder if his interrogation was too harsh.

Collusion with the outside world is a serious offence and is generally punishable by resettlement to the East or the North. As for how those people are doing, no one cares, and no one asks openly or privately - if they have any sanity.

Just as he was about to say something comforting, a shrill siren made Mach's nerves tense suddenly.

Two Bolscher 356A cars, some wearing long black fur trench coats, pulled up behind Mach's car. An elf in a black top hat jumps out of a sinister dark gray car. The crowd let out a cry of horror, and Ralph, who had been unconcerned, stayed where he was. Immediately after that, five Opel military trucks screeched with brakes, and a large number of armed policemen with submachine guns and black-backed police dogs jumped out of the cars.

New to the list is the Sicherheitspolizel, which is collectively known as the Sipo. Said to be a police officer, in fact they are political detectives directly under Stasi, whose headquarters are on Prince Albrechtstrasse, southwest of Alfheim, and deal with cases of terrorism, subversion, espionage, interracial dissidents, and other "high-risk national security".

They have eyeliner in every factory and school, in every hospital and church, in every city, in every village, in every street. They are at the very top of the security forces in Alfheim. It is also the most feared group. And when Mach saw who was leading the team, his heart almost stopped.

Heinrich Müller, deputy chief police officer, head of the "Sibo" security department, a theft case can alarm a big man equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general in the army. Could it be that it is terrorists or traitors who have infiltrated this village?

Müller glanced up at Maher and Ralph, who were standing in a salute, but did not speak, but blew his nose. A young man walked up to Mach.

Senior Detective Wentzel Krebs. Mach's old acquaintance. Two years ago, they worked together to crack a rebel group of human workers, who killed the foreman and planned to abscond across the border. Krebs was thus promoted by a notch. Mach owes a favor.

"Good morning, Mach. ”

"Good morning. Krebs. ”

Mach grabbed him by the shoulders and leaned forward.

"I have a girl there, a nice girl, I can arrange for you to meet, let's say, next week?"

Krebs replied with a wry smile:

"You're so considerate. ”

This is the end of the conversation, they are all smart policemen and clear about discipline. Taking the paperwork ordering the case to change hands from Krebs, confirming, signing, and saluting, Mach turned and walked towards his car.

Before getting into the car, he glanced at the river again, where several wolfhounds were sniffing out the footprints, and the human peasants were shivering under the threat of submachine guns.

Procedurally, the case has nothing to do with Mach, but many doubts have not been dissipated with a piece of paper.

The security police are notorious for murder, but they are actually very low-key. They always quietly collect evidence first, and when they are basically ready, they legally remove the suspect in accordance with the Night Fog Ordinance, and then kill him in a cell in a secret prison, and then confiscate his property. If the suspect has family members and is not seated, the "humane" security police will give the bereaved family an urn - they will even arrange cremation.

But now not only is it going out with great fanfare, but it is also bringing armed police......

This is clearly not a normal situation.

Could it be that someone was preparing a large-scale rebellion, and was forced to steal food from the village due to the lack of food reserves, only to be exposed and recruited by the security police?

Absurd.

If this is the case, the army will definitely be dispatched, and the armed police will be able to solve it alone. Such a case of "high national security" is unlikely to keep the military out.

The rain began to fall heavily, but the morning fog did not disperse, Mach turned on the headlights and fog lights, and the white light pillar tore the fog a little, and the speed of the car inevitably dropped a lot.

The footprints left by the river also made him reverie infinitely.

The size of the footprints, the shape of the feet, the span of the strides belong to women, the figure should be good, the age is not very old, and the economic situation is good - the kind of hand-tanned lambskin shoes are not comparable to what is on the assembly line of the factory. In Alfheim, the price of such specially made shoes generally starts at around 1500 marks.

Also, those footprints were stepped on by shoes backwards, and the mysterious "she" obviously has some anti-detection skills, which is in line with the characteristics of terrorists.

It doesn't seem plausible to assume that the owner of the footprints is a terrorist. In the elves' sphere of influence, the nobles and wealthy merchants of the human race are strictly monitored, and without the orders of the "Xibo" who is in charge of monitoring, they don't even dare to wipe their butts. It's hard to imagine that they have the courage and ability to develop a terrorist organization under Stasi's nose and not be detected yet. So the probability that "she" is an outsider is very high, but this is even stranger.

How can a foreign daughter break through the perimeter defenses and infiltrate the countryside just over twenty kilometers from the heart of the elven camp? The guards stationed at the border are all dead? Also, why do you do this?

Finally, Ralph provides clues - the apparent drop in food, the order in which the food was stolen.

The first to be stolen were milk, potatoes, and onions, which were easy to get their hands on and unobtrusive. To this day, there is a sudden shift to ready-made cooked food.

Why?

Are you too hungry, lack the skills to survive in the wild, can't handle raw food, or ...... Anyone else?

Turning a corner, Mach slammed on the brakes, and a wild deer stood on the highway and looked at him, jumping into the bushes with joy.

Less than 10 kilometers from Alfheim, there was a wild deer! Mach shook his head and almost laughed bitterly.

When planning the city, from the council to the common people, it was unanimously demanded that the greening rate should not be less than 40%, and it was better to maintain a forest. During the later construction process, the citizens planted chestnut trees, linden trees, beech, birch and oak trees with their own hands. On the edge of the metropolis, which is the most developed in the world in terms of science and technology, a forest has been successfully preserved. After more than twenty years away from the forest, every weekend, with tents and camping trailers, the sharp-eared elves are back. In the blood of the elves, their fanatical worship of the forest has always been retained.

Throwing off the feeling of boredom, Mach did not immediately start the car.

What's next?

He was stuck in the question, and a smart cop would rush back to the police station, have breakfast, write a case referral report, and then handle various tasks until the end of the day. That's what Mach had intended until a few seconds ago, until an indistinct footprint came into his sight.

The familiar high-end sole print, the pace is vigorous and light, and it seems that "she" did not wear shoes backwards this time.

Pulling out the 9mm police pistol from his waist and turning on the safety, Mach picked up the microphone from under the dashboard.

"Switchboard, switchboard, this is KP17, here is KP17, I am now ...... on National Highway 102" (to be continued......)