Chapter 399 Signal
Conquer the sea and take the route to Ivigli.
Across the vast ocean, a pilgrim fleet consisting of two cruisers, four destroyers, and three passenger ships, a total of nine ships, was sailing towards the Holy Land of the Holy Cross in Ivigo, embarking on a solemn and grand pilgrimage.
At the head of the fleet, on the front deck of a cruiser that was cutting through the waves, a middle-aged officer with a clean beard was standing here. He was wearing a naval officer's uniform with religious colors, a captain's hat with a shining sun emblem, white gloves, and his hands were behind his back, staring sharply into the distance.
"Santos, take a look, do you recognize that ship over there?"
After staring into the distance for a while, the officer turned his head and looked at a man dressed as an adjutant beside him and said, "The man was slightly startled after hearing this, and then he also looked in the direction the officer was looking.
"That ship over there... is quite big... looks like a steamer? Looking at the words on the side of the ship... it looks like the White Pearl?"
The adjutant frowned slightly while looking into the distance as he spoke, then continued speaking.
"That's not right... If I remember correctly, isn't the White Pearl the ship that's going to hold the jewelry exhibition? When I was in Barcelona, I read in the newspaper that although this ship's destination was also Ivig, it set sail earlier than us. Logically, we shouldn't run into it, right? Sir Joad, this seems a little strange."
The adjutant spoke with a hint of confusion. Listening to the adjutant's words, the officer named Qiao De also spoke silently.
"Well... yes, theoretically the White Pearl shouldn't be here, but the situation on the sea changes rapidly, anything can happen, and the weather has been bad recently, so there's a possibility that it might get lost...
"In short, let's continue to pay attention to the situation of the ship. If there is nothing special, just ignore it..."
Joad said this. As a senior executive of the church, a naval officer with many years of sailing and rich experience, he has encountered various situations at sea. Due to the complexity of weather conditions, sea conditions and ship conditions, it is very common for ships to be stranded at sea. There are a lot of situations that can cause ships to be delayed, and there are all kinds of situations. So he didn't pay too much attention to the reason why the White Pearl appeared here at this time. Anyway, the other party was still far away from him.
Just when Qiao De was about to stop paying attention to the movements of the ship in the distance, suddenly, a long and distant roar came. Qiao De was slightly startled when he heard the sound. As an officer, he knew very well what this sound was. It was an explosion!
"What happened? Why was there an explosion?!"
Hearing the explosion, Qiao De immediately turned his head further towards the distance, looking in the direction where the wheel had originally come from. According to the direction, the explosion should have come from there.
"Sir Joad! Look over there! There seems to be abnormal black smoke on the White Pearl! It looks like it's on fire!"
At this time, the adjutant who had been paying attention to the ship shouted loudly. Listening to the adjutant's words, Joad's face became extremely serious. He stared seriously at the ship in the distance. Sure enough, he saw several wisps of black smoke floating out of the porthole at the rear of the ship. This might be a sign of a fire.
"It seems...something happened to them. Judging from the smoke exhaust from their chimneys and their speed, it is possible that a boiler failure caused an explosion, and the fire was caused by the explosion...and the boiler failure affected the power, making their speed slower than expected, so we caught up with them..."
Looking at the situation of the ship in the distance, Qiao De frowned and analyzed it based on his own experience, then immediately turned to look at the adjutant beside him.
"Send the order down, the entire fleet slows down, Boone hoists the signal flag, and ask them what their response is."
"Yes, sir!" After receiving the order, the adjutant retreated decisively. On the deck, Joad still looked solemn as he looked at the ship in the distance.
…
In the distance of the Glowing Church's pilgrim fleet, on the front deck of the Shining White Pearl, Costa and Massimo and others from the Abyss Church were frightened pale when they saw the church's warships on the distant sea. After they realized what was happening, they immediately gave orders to the cockpit to operate the ship and immediately move away from the Glowing Church's fleet. However, as soon as Costa gave the order, an unexpected situation occurred.
The explosion came from below the deck. The explosion deep in the cabin shook the entire ship, and then the ship's course dropped significantly. Costa stood firm in the shock, and then immediately turned his head to look at his men beside him and shouted loudly.
"What happened to that explosion just now? Hurry up and check it out!"
"Yes, it's you, sir!"
Hearing Costa's stern order, a Haiyuan Church sailor immediately obeyed and ran into the cabin. Then Costa continued to stand on the deck, looking at the church fleet in the distance with a serious face, while Massimo on the side spoke in panic.
"Thief K... that Thief K! They ran into the church's fleet inexplicably in this place, and there was an explosion at this time! Thief K must be behind all this! He might want to use the church's fleet to escape from this ship!"
Massimo shouted angrily, and Costa's expression became more solemn after listening to Massimo's words. Indeed, judging from the current situation, all this should be the work of Thief K. Although he didn't know what method he used, the sudden appearance of the church fleet and the explosion just now were too coincidental, and the smell of premeditation was too strong, so now he suspected that Thief K was responsible.
"Thief K... what on earth are you planning?"
Gazing at the fleet in the distance, Costa murmured. At this time, passengers startled by the explosion appeared on the deck one after another. They began to ask the crew about the situation with uneasy expressions, and the crew, under Costa's instructions, comforted the passengers back to their cabins.
After waiting for a while, a stained sailor from the Abyss Sect ran from the cabin to the deck in a panic, came to Costa and reported.
"Mr. Costa! We know the cause of the explosion! It was in the boiler room! Two boilers exploded! It's a mess down there! And I don't know if the explosion affected the transmission. Now the whole ship has stopped, with no power at all! There's also a fire in some places, but it's not big, and we've already started to put it out!"
"What... the boiler exploded? Shouldn't we all be guarding the boiler room? How could this happen!"
Costa spoke loudly to the sailors in front of him, the boiler room is the power core of the entire ship. Costa not only sent his men to take special care of it, but also had people patrol there frequently, so nothing should happen.
"I don't know the specific reason. When I went to the boiler room before, it was still empty! The workers were shoveling coal and Hama and his team were supervising. Now when I went there again, it has been blown into a mess! I heard from the workers who escaped that they heard the unusual noise from the boiler and sensed the danger, so they all ran away before the explosion. Hama and his team said before the explosion that they saw something suspicious and left to investigate, and then disappeared!"
The sailor continued to report to Costa in panic. Listening to the sailor's report, Costa's frown became deeper and deeper. It was obvious that the suspicious figure he was talking about was the thief K. It should be him who did something in the boiler room to cause the explosion. And Hama and others who had chased him were probably in danger now because there was no news about him.
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