Chapter 31 "Working Meals"
After they had used up all the bullets they had, the two men left the Zouteland Shooting Club.
Returning from the smoke-filled shooting range to the sun-kissed streets of Zotland, Angel took a deep breath of fresh air and exhaled slowly, only then did he feel all the fatigue in his body disappear.
Klein also had a look of rebirth on his face. He looked around, took out a silver pocket watch from his pocket, opened the cover to take a look, and closed it with a "click".
"It's exactly twelve o'clock. If I go back to the company now, I can still catch up with the working lunch."
He muttered to himself.
"Working lunch?" Angel repeated curiously, then suddenly realized: "Oh, you mean Old Vail Restaurant."
Blackthorn Security Company does not have its own kitchen, but due to the nature of the work, some staff members have to have lunch and dinner in the company every day, so the nearby "Old Ville Restaurant" took on the task of providing meals.
Every day at 10:30 am, a waiter would come to the security company and ask who needed to order food, and then deliver it at noon. 3 pm was the time to order dinner.
Angel still remembered the lunch that the white-haired Ms. Xiga Teong brought her when she first came to the Blackthorn Security Company. It should have been ordered from the Old Ville Restaurant. Although the portion was not large, it contained meat and vegetables, which was enough to fill her up.
"Do you eat lunch at the company every day? I remember there's more than one person at your house, so why don't you eat at home?"
Angel asked curiously. She knew that Klein had a brother and a sister, who currently lived with Klein at 2 Daffodil Street.
She had only seen the brother and sister once when Dunn and others brought them back to the Blackthorn Security Company. Her impression of them was a tall, thin, but somewhat older man with short hair and a young and beautiful girl, both with black hair and obvious family characteristics.
"My sister, Melissa, attends Tingen Technical School. She has classes six days a week and doesn't have a long lunch break, so she eats at school. Benson works overtime every day and sometimes doesn't even come home for dinner. It's too troublesome for me to cook lunch at home if I eat alone."
"Also, the captain gave me a special mission to patrol nearby every afternoon. It would be better for me to have lunch directly at the company. Now they will order lunch for me directly every day."
Klein explained.
Angel felt the same way: "Cooking for one person is really troublesome. If I cook too much, it will spoil easily in this weather, but if I cook too little, it's not cost-effective."
She also often eats out, but occasionally she would buy some bread and make some soup and salad to eat. In the summer when there is no refrigerator, unless the food is eaten on the same day, it will inevitably spoil the next day.
The two had already walked to the other end of the street, and across the street was the Blackthorn Security Company.
Since he didn't order lunch, he would definitely not get a share of the takeout from Old Ville Restaurant that would be delivered later, so Angel didn't plan to stay in the company. Instead, he planned to go to Iron Cross Street as planned and find a random restaurant to eat at.
These days she has visited almost all the restaurants on Daffodil Street, and her food search has expanded to Iron Cross Street.
Fortunately, although there are not many specialty foods in Tingen City, there are local restaurants with local flavors on every street. As long as she looks carefully, she can always find food that satisfies her.
But before taking the public carriage back, Angel planned to go back to Blackthorn Security Company to replenish the bullets he had just used up at the shooting range.
"Well, these are consumables."
Remembering Old Neil's earnest advice, she found a justification for her excessive consumption of ammunition.
They walked up the stairs to the second floor and pushed open the door of the reception room. Luo Shan and Brett, who were sitting on the newly purchased sofa in the reception room, glanced at the two people who came in, and their faces were full of disappointment that could not be concealed.
"I thought it was Old Vail's lunch," complained Roxanne, who was wearing a breathable white dress. "Why are they late today?"
"Don't worry, Roxanne. Maybe they're just too busy. You know, the police station across the street has been working overtime these days, and the Old Vail restaurant's delivery business is much more prosperous than before."
Brett, the man with a thick beard, comforted Roxanne. He was also one of the civilian employees of Blackthorn Security Company. Angel had met him yesterday when he came for daily reporting.
Klein hung his hat on the coat rack, walked over to the sofa, found an empty seat, and sat down. He joked to Roxanne, "Maybe we should write a letter of complaint to the restaurant. How could they let our beautiful ladies starve to death just to feed those rough guys in the police station?"
"Have you really lost weight?"
Hearing Klein's words, Roshan subconsciously touched her lower abdomen, then her face turned bitter and she moved her arm away.
She glanced at Angel with envy: "Hey, Angel, how did you get such a figure? Can you teach me?"
To facilitate his movements and avoid hurting his still-maintained masculine pride, Angel rarely chose feminine clothing. Instead, he wore a neutral outfit: a white shirt, a slim-fitting vest, trousers, and a light windbreaker to conceal his impressive figure, which was created by the "witch" potion. When the topic suddenly turned to her, she was stunned and didn't know how to respond.
"Um...diet and exercise?"
After racking her brains, she came up with these few words.
"No, I mean...oh, forget it." Roshan blushed and waved her hand, indicating that Angel had misunderstood her meaning, but her eyes glanced at the other two men present, hesitated for a moment, and ended the topic.
"By the way, the captain just received a request for help from the Mechanical Heart and went to Hoy University to help investigate a case. Ms. Xijia Teong said she was looking for material for her novel recently, so she went along." Brett saw that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, and pointed to the distant Hoy University clock tower outside the window and said.
"That means the lunch they ordered might go to waste. Why not..."
He looked at Angel.
"Ah, that's right. Before the captain left, he said that they would eat outside after the Mechanical Heart was done, so there was no need to save lunch for them. Angel, you can stay for lunch. I can give you two servings."
Roshan took over the conversation.
It's already past midnight. Even if the public carriage arrives in a moment, it will take until after 1 p.m. to get back to Daffodil Street. It would be a bit late to find a place to have lunch...
Angel estimated the time and nodded: "Okay, then I will help the captain solve the problem of wasted food."
Several people burst into laughter.
Since they decided to have dinner at the company, Angel was no longer in a hurry to go to Old Neil's basement to get bullets. Instead, he sat down on the sofa. The four of them sat in a circle around the coffee table, drinking the coffee made by Rosanne to fill their empty stomachs and chatting.
"A murder occurred at Hoy University last night. That's the area that the Mechanical Heart is responsible for, but they encountered some problems while questioning the witness, so they had to ask the captain to go over there. Well, he solved the problem by entering my dream."
"This kind of mutual assistance between churches happens quite often, but usually the captains are invited."
Hoy University... Angel listened to Roxanne's words and turned his head to look at Klein beside him - he seemed to be a graduate of Hoy University?
"Does this murder case involve extraordinary powers?" Klein didn't notice Angel's gaze. He was more interested in the case itself.
"Not necessarily. There may be some clues, or the police may be too nervous. The cases they hand over are most likely false alarms and do not involve the occult. However, each report still requires the Night Watchmen or other churches in the corresponding area to send people to check it out." Brett replied.
"The police are also on edge. The number of homicides during this period far exceeds the city's average for the past year. Many of them do involve extraordinary powers, such as the banker McGowan's son and... Ah, Klein, I'm sorry."
Luo Shan suddenly covered her mouth in the middle of her speech.
"It's okay." Klein forced a smile.
Angel listened to the two people's enigmatic conversation, thinking back to what Captain Dunn had mentioned before about why Klein Moretti joined the Nighthawks, and he was lost in thought.
The reception room fell into a brief silence.
“Bang, bang—”
There was a knock on the door, and before anyone could respond, the half-open door was pushed open, and a young waiter in waiter's clothes, holding a stack of lunch boxes in his hands, entered through the crack in the door.
Seeing that he couldn't free his hands, he must have been "knocking on the door" with his feet just now.
Brett got up from the sofa, took the lunch box from the waiter skillfully, and put it on the coffee table.
"I'm so sorry, the food is a little slower than usual." The waiter apologized, but his expression showed no sign of regret. His face was covered in sweat and the numbness of overwork. "You can pay for the meal when I come to collect the boxes this afternoon. Enjoy your meal."
After watching the waiter leave in a flash, several people looked at each other in bewilderment.
"It seems Old Weir's is really busy." Brett shook his head and said with a smile, "I'll take the food to Cohen Li and Old Neil first. They must be waiting anxiously. You guys eat first and don't worry about me."
He separated a pile of lunch boxes, took two of them, walked through the partition of the reception room, and went to the underground area of Blackthorn Security Company.
Old Neil is in the armory, so is it Coenley who is guarding the "Chanis Gate" today?
Angel recalled Cornelia White, a "sleepless man" whom he had only met once.
Klein and Roxanne had each taken their lunch boxes and opened the lids. Inside was the same set meal: a palm-sized piece of oatmeal bread, mushroom soup, cubed lamb, and a small spoonful of cream.
The faint aroma of oil immediately filled the entire reception room.
"Aha, I feel so hungry that I can eat two servings." Luo Shan sniffed and a satisfied smile appeared on her face. She picked up the mushroom soup and took a big sip. She skillfully used a spoon to spread the cream on the bread and ate it quickly with the lamb.
Appetites are contagious. Seeing Roshan eating so heartily, the other two also felt their stomachs grumbling. Klein handed the slightly larger lunch box that originally belonged to Dunn to Angel. The latter opened it and found that his lunch was slightly richer. There was half a fried sausage in the box, and the soup was also a chowder, with more ingredients.
Angel spread the cream like Roxanne and was about to enjoy his meal when there was a knock on the door behind him.
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