The Shadow of Great Britain

676: Chapter 330: News from France 676: Chapter 330: News from France In a small coffee shop by the road, Arthur found a seat by the window and casually ordered some French desserts like roasted Bleu, croissants, and Mont Blanc.

Not long after the desserts were served, Arthur saw a tall gentleman with shiny slicked-back hair pushing the door open to the cafe.

The wind chimes fluttered, followed by Arthur’s voice as he waved a greeting.

“Mr.

Coconut, it’s been so long, yet you remain as youthful and radiant as ever.”

Upon seeing Arthur, Mr.

Coconut came over with a small leather bag, jokingly making fun of himself, “I’m just glad you’re alone today.

If I saw that friend of yours again, I’d have to let him vigorously massage my steel-like pectorals.”

After Mr.

Coconut said that, he noticed the assortment of desserts on the table: “You’ve gone to some trouble, but honestly, although these desserts taste good, the meal I miss the most is the pies covered with herb ash that I used to eat at lousy taverns with old buddies after a day’s work before I made it big.”

Arthur wasn’t in a hurry to delve into the main topic.

Ever since he had met Mr.

Victor, he had been thinking about recruiting this legendary detective and his team.

Although Arthur had managed to construct the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard from scratch, there probably was no one better than Victor in the world when it came to the application and management of a detective department.

Over the past year, through his correspondence with Victor, Arthur’s respect for this French gentleman in his fifties had only deepened.

Whether it was Victor’s pioneering work in ballistics, forensic science, or the way he had his detectives in Paris masterfully use disguise to effortlessly monitor dissenters in Paris, or even the secret files he kept on all of Paris’s underground crime organizations in the Security Department, all were things that Arthur coveted.

It could be said that if Victor were willing to come to London for a higher position, Arthur could immediately hand over complete control of the Criminal Investigation Department to this forefather of the detective industry.

Perhaps, for the senior officials at the Paris Police Headquarters, a capable yet restless person like Victor was a headache.

But for Arthur, a rootless floater at Scotland Yard, watching Victor grow within Scotland Yard wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all, with his personal capacity, it was very challenging to stand against the original shareholders of Scotland Yard—senior officers coming from the Army.

He merely went to Liverpool, and Chief Rowan nearly messed up his entire base.

If it wasn’t for the Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, considering the feelings of the High Chancellor, Lord Brougham, it’s likely that Arthur could soon be moving his front line from Scotland Yard to the newly established London District Prosecution Office altogether.

However, as the old saying goes, there is no prince for sixty years, so naturally, there can be no High Chancellor for sixty years either.

Although Lord Brougham seemed very secure in his position on the surface, those familiar with Britain’s political landscape knew that radicals like Brougham couldn’t hold high positions for long under normal circumstances.

His current position as High Chancellor was merely a temporary measure by the Whig Party to push for parliamentary reforms and thereby stabilize their ruling status.

The situation was the same for the current Prime Minister, Earl Grey.

Once the parliamentary reforms were completed, and these two radicals still insisted on pushing other liberal reforms, it wouldn’t be long before they had to be replaced.

According to Arthur’s understanding of Lord Brougham, his mentor was clearly not a man to compromise easily.

Therefore, to remain undefeated in these turbulent times, there were only two reliable paths to choose from.

One was to maintain good cooperative relations with both parties.

For civil servants like him, who had to choose sides, firmly taking one side was undoubtedly foolish.

But even though that’s said, maintaining good relations with both parties at the same time wasn’t an easy task.

If not well managed, it could easily displease both sides, ending up being attacked by a group.

To solve this problem, it was necessary to spend some effort establishing his own solid base.

As long as the base was stable, whether it was the Whig Party or the Tory Party, they had to weigh whether the benefits of their actions outweighed the costs before making a move.

In other words, Arthur needed to have some reasons that made it difficult for the bigwigs to replace him, some solid work achievements, a good social reputation, and perhaps mix in some minor personal relationships.

And Victor could just help Arthur solve the first problem.

Mr.

Coconut reminisced, “That was truly a wonderful era; we were all still young back then.

The boss wasn’t called Victor; he preferred to use aliases for his missions, like ‘Jean Louis’ or ‘Julius.’”

I still remember the first mission the boss took us on.

We were standing on the street in front of his new residence on Saint Francois, smoking, when we suddenly noticed a few guys with heavy packages darting out of an alley.

But as soon as they saw us, they turned back as though they were avoiding the streetlights and pedestrians outside.

We were about to go up and interrogate them, but the boss stretched out his hand to stop us.

He told us not to spook the snakes.

Let’s follow them for now, these vipers will definitely come out of their holes again.