Struggle in the Steam Age

Twenty minutes later, the door of the office was pushed open, but it was not just priest Carter who came in, but a group of priests in robes. The one in the lead has a memorable white beard.

"Your Excellency Julius." Lawrence immediately pulled Fatina to stand up when he saw the old man, then put his right hand on his left chest and bowed deeply, because at this time he recognized the leading priest identity of.

As the high priest of the Northeast Diocese of the Church of Knowledge, this old man rarely appeared in front of everyone. Lawrence has lived in the Cathedral of St. Gutenberg for so long before, and the number of times he has seen this high priest of the scepter is also very few.

The appearance of the high priest of the scepter is not a good sign, because it means that things have reached a very troublesome point. So much so that it is necessary to mobilize more than half of the entire parish of the Knowledge Church.

"Sit down, child." The high priest Julius Scepter walked to the back of the desk and sat in a chair, then motioned to everyone present to sit down. "Well, let's repeat what you found and the analysis."

"As you wish, sir." Lawrence lowered his head slightly, and then tried to narrate all the facts that he and Fatina knew without any subjective thoughts, but in the end he said his doubts. .

"Everything we found points to the fact that this outbreak was caused by typhoid bacilli spread through contaminated water sources. But what makes me feel strange is that the incubation period of typhoid fever is very long, but this time it was There was a sudden outbreak in less than a week, which is completely incompatible with the characteristics of this disease."

"Are you sure?" After hearing Lawrence's words, the high priest of Julius's scepter suddenly widened his eyes. As the high priest of the scepter of the Church of Knowledge, Julius can be said to have exceeded most of his knowledge. , But it does not mean that he is omniscient, so he really doesn’t know the characteristics of typhoid fever.

"I can be sure." Lawrence nodded. "As an epidemic disease that often breaks out, the characteristics of this disease have been studied by everyone, and the research results can even be found in the university library."

"Sure enough, you still have to ask professionals about this kind of thing." The high priest Julius showed a smile after hearing Lawrence's words. For the believers of the Church of Knowledge and the clergy, it was not that they did not understand certain aspects of knowledge. What shame, but a thing worthy of joy, because it means that there is new knowledge to learn.

"Brother Arthur, tell this kid the results of our investigation just now. Maybe he can see the difference." After thinking for a few seconds, the High Priest of Julius's Scepter spoke to Ya of the Faith Department. High Priest Serge signaled that High Priest Arthur immediately took out a map of Eagle Fort and placed it on the office table.

"Before we asked the staff of the charity schools in Eagle Fort. Indeed, many schools have soared in the number of applicants for leave in the past two days. Some of the students themselves are sick, and some of the students’ family members are sick and they have to go home. Take care of your loved ones. The two worst schools are in the gear zone, and one-third of people ask for leave, including a few teachers."

Then he pointed to the map on the table. On this map, the location of each school is marked in red. And beside these red dots, there are some numbers that appear to be just written in pencil.

"The number before the slash is the number of people who asked for leave in these two days, and the number after the slash is the number of people who theoretically should have in this school." High Priest Arthur explained to everyone present. "The situation is not optimistic now."

"Why didn't we notice this before Lawrence reminded us?" Priest Carter asked in a puzzled way. "As long as I see this data, I think anyone will think the situation is wrong."

"You are right, but for grassroots charity schools. Many people often ask for leave for various reasons, and there is very little communication between schools. So this large-scale leave did not cause Any attention."

"More importantly, people don't pay much attention to the situation in this area. So under normal circumstances, if there is a problem and no one finds out and informs it in advance like Lawrence, it may take us a week to know which area has something wrong. And this An infectious disease broke out so quickly that the situation deteriorated to where it is now when everyone did not react." High Priest Arthur explained to everyone present.

Having said this, High Priest Arthur turned and looked at the High Priest Julius Scepter who was sitting on the main seat: "If the spread of typhoid fever really has a long incubation period as Lawrence said, then this outbreak of typhoid fever It's obviously abnormal."

"So we have to find out the possible behind-the-scenes ghosts now." The High Priest of Julius Scepter said. After learning about the normal spread of typhoid from Lawrence, everyone present was aware of the typhoid fever. The sudden outbreak of is not a normal infectious disease outbreak. It is very likely that there are extraordinary people behind it.

"The first thing that should be done is to find the source of the infection." Lawrence suggested, "Whether it is to stop the further deterioration of the problem or to find the guy behind the scenes, the premise is to find the place where the disease first broke out."

"Do you have a way?" The high priest Julius Scepter raised his head and looked at Lawrence. "If there is no better way. We can only choose to notify the other churches and the city hall of Eagle Fort, and locate this position through a comprehensive and large-scale search. Of course, this can easily lead to that behind the scenes. The person knew the news of our intervention in advance and made corresponding preparations and countermeasures."

"I have a way." After obtaining permission, Lawrence came to the table and looked at the map and analyzed, "The overall situation is very bad now, but the only good news is that this time we found out when the typhoid fever just started to break out. The situation is not right, so according to the proportion of the number of patients in different places and the characteristics of the spread of this disease through water sources, we can greatly reduce the range of possible sources of infection."

On this map of Eagle Fort, Lawrence first used a pencil to draw the location of six ratman dens where the disease broke out, and then asked Fatina about the direction of the sewers on this map. Soon, the lines representing the sewer stretched into a net.

"Huh?" Looking at the sewer network gradually formed on the map, many priests present found some clues. Because these sewer pipes have connected many outbreak points together, it can also be seen from this that the several nests where the rat people broke out are all in the downstream direction of the ground disease area.

"That is to say, this outbreak started in our human settlement ~www.ltnovel.com~ and there are three outbreak points." After simple statistics and pencils connected to those outbreak points, a fact clearly appeared. In front of everyone.

"Yes." Lawrence nodded. "If I'm not mistaken, the water supply in these three places is likely to be supplied uniformly through some kind of pipeline system. For example, I have been to this outbreak point in the gear area. Most of the water sources in a few blocks come from several places. Centralized water supply points, and the water at these water supply points comes from a water tower."

"Call Hans and Lisa." After hearing Lawrence's words, High Priest Arthur turned to look at a priest standing at the door. "If I remember correctly, their home was in two other outbreaks. Near the point."

Soon, two young priests, a man and a woman, walked into this room. After a simple inquiry, everyone learned that the other two possible outbreaks of the disease, Hudson Street and the Flying Shuttle area, also have their own water towers. The clean water source treated by the water plant will be pumped to the water tower by the steam engine and then supplied to The surrounding blocks.

"Then what we should do now is to check out those water towers." The high priest Julius Scepter concluded, and then he looked at Lawrence and said, "But in order to avoid arousing the enemy's vigilance, then we will I need your help."