To Four Thousand Years Later
v4 Chapter 23: silencer
Panting, Francis climbed up to the roof with difficulty, bent down and cleared out the basket of tomatoes, and squatted inside.
He covered himself thinly with some other tomatoes - if such a tomato bucket was placed on the street in broad daylight, even ordinary policemen might see something was wrong.
But it was at night, and on the roof. At least it's okay to escape the spies' pursuit... Francis looked at the starless night sky through the gap between the tomatoes, breathed a sigh of relief, and clutched the stack of documents in his arms. His previous search for Francesco to inquire about the news was not only successful, but also fruitful.
Francis' route is to go in from the sewer and turn out in the sewer of Francesco's neighbor's garden. Then he leaped onto the roof of his neighbor's house with the help of the rattan wall, and lightly and silently jumped onto the roof above Francesco's head, avoiding the eyes of the guards, and crawled forward to the courtyard. This is undoubtedly a very bold move, and it can even be said to be crazy. But Francis instinctively wanted to do it, and he did, and he did it well.
The maid passed him by as if she hadn't heard his voice. And when she put down the washing tub by the well and went back to the house to move the stool, Frances was already hiding behind the bookshelf by the door.
Read through his files cautiously.
He could even hear snoring from next door.
This is a great opportunity, he thought. This is to leave as little evidence as possible... After all, Francis has been caught by white gloves several times, and now he has a considerable level of anti-reconnaissance capabilities. until it's possible. Francis originally just wanted to go straight down, whether the person who assassinated himself and Leonardo had anything to do with Francesco.
After flipping through the documents, he quickly found the replies from the mayor of Florence and the chief of police, as well as the price list and "order list" sent to him by the killer organization using the code on the road, and found himself and Leonard in it. many names.
His investigation should have ended here. Although there is no direct evidence that can be used to sue Francesco, the information collected so far can at least prove that the person behind the scenes who wants to kill himself and Leondo is not the rumored Jacob... but It's Francesco. As long as he goes back and brings this information back to Leonardo, he will be able to analyze more important and secret information from it.
But Francis flipped through it, and found another familiar thing, a smuggling receipt from the Teutonic Kingdom.
These included two tons of good ale, one ton of detitanized wheat, and a good deal of soap and dye.
This is definitely not a small amount of money—if this document can be brought back, it may directly kill Francesco, or even the entire Pazzi family!
Although it was already dusk, Francis became energetic instead. He wanted to hide this document with him, but he was afraid that Francesco would realize something was wrong and make preparations in advance.
- It would be great if there was a way to leave evidence without taking the original.
So Francis planned to copy a receipt by hand and take it away. Anyway, there is also a delivery location on it, as long as he can get his personal stolen goods, it shouldn't matter where the information comes from.
When he was copying, Francis unexpectedly found that he could not make the slightest sound. Whether it is the sound of the pen scratching the paper. Or the sound it makes every time it taps on a wooden table. But just when he was halfway through copying, the door of the study suddenly opened.
The laundry maid seemed to want to come back to get some water to drink, but Francis was so startled that the pen dropped from his hand and fell on the table.
What surprised Francis happened—even though the pen fell on the table and the floor, there was still no sound.
But even so. The maid also quickly noticed his presence.
She froze for a moment, with a look of horror on her face, and took half a step back, as if she wanted to call someone. And when Francis was facing her in April, he suddenly jumped out from the table and grabbed the elderly maid by the throat.
Her scream stopped after half a note, as if all sounds had been silenced. Francis held her by the throat until she passed out. He thought about it for a while, and broke it hard, although Francis' reaction was fast enough. But he was still half a step too late.
At least, he heard the snoring next door suddenly disappear and become a more steady breathing. This means that the sleepy Francesco has entered a light sleep stage, and may wake up at any time, which also means that it is no longer safe to continue copying the smuggling manifest.
...but bullets are also the easiest evidence to straighten. But if he used a short knife, Francis couldn't guarantee that he could be killed with a single knife, or his strange ability to quiet the surroundings could guarantee that Francesco would not be able to utter a word.
As long as he's wounded and bleeding, it's over. He has been to the police station in Florence too many times, and the police dogs have long remembered the smell of his blood. Francis hesitated and made up his mind. He quietly pushed away the bedroom next door, walked silently to the bed of Francesco who was sleeping, and silently stared at him lying on the bed.
Then Francis gently stretched out his hand and grabbed another pillow on the double bed.
Then, he grabbed one side of the pillow with both hands and pressed it down on Francesco's face! At the same time Francis rolled over and jumped onto Francesco, put his knee against his elbow, and pressed all his strength on the pillow.
Francesco woke up immediately and began to struggle desperately. But the most frightening thing was that no matter how the bed shook or how Francesco struggled, there was no sound.
Frances kept doing this for a long, long time, until his thumb felt the pulse in Francesco's neck stop beating. Just in case, he took out a dagger from under the pillow, pierced it neatly behind Francesco's ear, and pulled it to his Adam's apple. He pulled it back to the base of the other ear. Seeing the blood slowly leaching out, soaking the pillow and quilt, Francis heaved a sigh of relief and dropped the dagger.
Then Francis sneaked into the kitchen and took a lot of oil, wine and fire. He used the books in the study as fuel, lit fires around Francesco's house, poured wine on Francesco and his servants, and packed all the documents on the table before leaving .
…After that, something happened that Francis couldn't understand. When Francis was about to leave the same way, the fire hadn't grown. But after he turned over to the roof again, Francis subconsciously looked down.
I saw that Francesco's bedroom bed was empty except for the blood that was about to dry up.
subsequently. He saw the dead Francesco appear in the courtyard. He ordered his subordinates to search for "a man who was about 1.78 meters tall and weighed about 86 kilograms", and asked them to take all the people they found back to the yard.
It didn't take long for the police and firefighters to arrive. The surrounding area was under martial law by police officers with guns, and even the sewers were blocked. Now Francis is most worried. It was "mouse" until. That person might sell his information.
Now that the streets are brightly lit, Francis can only hide on the roof and wait for the wind to pass. to go back.
I hope Leonardo and the master don't worry too much about me, it would be bad if the truth is revealed. If it reaches the master, I hope Leonardo can be smart enough to deal with it.
Francis sighed, looking at the dark gray night sky.
He vaguely remembered that when he was young, Florence still had a sky full of stars, "It's just that these stars disappeared together with people's conscience.
Francis grunted, closed his eyes, and fell into a very light sleep.