The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 894: Chapter 17 Heaven Did Not Create Me Hasting

Victor saw that a guest had arrived, quickly put down the silver-plated fork in his hand, adjusted his collar, and stood up with a beaming smile to greet him.

“Sir, you indeed have an eye for things, instantly spotting our latest powerful addition to the Breaux Detective Agency—Sir Arthur Hastings. Come, have a seat over here. Sophie! Girl, bring our guest a steaming cup of coffee. Oh, right, I almost forgot to ask, do you prefer the rich taste of black coffee, or perhaps a café au lait sprinkled with cocoa powder? Or perhaps you prefer the Ottoman style, Turkish coffee with cinnamon and cloves?”

The guest, upon seeing Victor, was initially taken aback, then quickly stepped outside to glance at the portrait hanging outside the door before smiling and saying, “So you are the legendary detective Mr. Francois Vidocq? I heard of your illustrious name while studying at the École Polytechnique in Paris. Uh… however, I am not here for detective business today; I just have some personal matters I wish to consult with Sir Arthur Hastings about.”

“Oh! Are you talking about consulting services? That also falls within our range of services.”

Victor smiled as he picked up the list of services on the table and handed it to the guest: “Take a look at this, the services we offer to the public have been brewed in my mind for a long time, and they are services that our agency can independently undertake and implement. To be candid, after resigning from my public position, I have been committed to gathering business information. Every fraudster who has been prosecuted or convicted in the past 30 years is included in this detective agency’s list, ready for my call at any time. If you need services, feel free to inquire. A single consultation costs 5 francs, while an annual service is only 20 francs.”

The guest was somewhat embarrassed by Victor’s enthusiastic hospitality; he politely took off his hat and said, “Thank you for your warm hospitality, but sir, what I want to consult about is not business-related, but rather a matter of natural philosophy.”

“A matter of natural philosophy? Uh, sir, if it’s a question about chemistry or disguise, I can barely claim some expertise, and I know a little about ballistics, but…”

At this point, Victor felt stuck and could not continue, so he could only turn his head to look at Arthur: “Brother, when you were promoting the agency’s business privately, did you boast that we can handle this kind of thing?”

Arthur had just lit his pipe, he stood up slowly, raised a hand in greeting: “Good morning, Mr. Ville, don’t you have any teaching appointments at the Polytechnic University today?”

Seeing Arthur, Ville finally breathed a sigh of relief: “Sir, it’s really fortunate you’re here, or I wouldn’t know how to explain to Mr. Coriolis. I was planning to look for you after the award ceremony the other day, but you left so hurriedly that I couldn’t keep up with you.”

“Coriolis?”

Arthur felt a sense of foreboding as soon as he heard that name: “Which Coriolis are you talking about?”

“Gustave Coriolis.”

Ville took a seat under Victor’s guidance and continued: “He is a professor at the School of Transport and Bridges, as well as a member of the Mechanics Department of the Academy of Sciences. He greatly admires your mathematical skills after seeing the paper you casually wrote the other day. This gentleman is currently researching the forces on objects within rotational systems, finding that if an object moves within a uniformly rotating frame of reference, a type of inertial force different from the usual centrifugal force acts on the object, but he is struggling to find the mathematical expression for this inertial force. Therefore, he sent me to ask whether you are interested in researching this area with him? If you are indeed interested, he hopes to find a suitable time to visit you.”

“Ah…”

Arthur’s hand holding the coffee remained suspended for a long time.

As expected, he knew it was a New Year greeting from scientists to Hastings—an issue of either electricity or force.

Seeing this scene, Agares, who had been basking in the sun by the windowsill, immediately walked over with a grin, the Red Devil strolling cheerfully to Arthur’s side, patting his shoulder and saying: “How is it? Young rascal, do you want to make another deal with me? Last time we mostly broke even, can you really unintentionally get it right this time?”

Arthur’s heart was pounding wildly, but his face remained calm.

As a long-time honed social instrument at Scotland Yard, he naturally had ways to handle such thorny issues that couldn’t be solved or easily refused.

In a word—lower the other party’s expectations first, and then slowly stall.

After all, he wouldn’t be staying in Paris for long; could Coriolis and company really chase him all the way to Hanover?

Arthur smiled and said: “Of course, I would be more than happy to help Mr. Coriolis, but I don’t usually venture lightly into unfamiliar fields. Before understanding what exactly Mr. Coriolis is researching, I am afraid I wouldn’t dare to boast that I can help him solve this issue.”

“Certainly, just your willingness to offer assistance has already made Mr. Coriolis very happy.”

Though Arthur’s words conveyed a sense of ‘polite refusal’, Ville obviously did not catch the diplomat’s usual official language, nor did he understand the Britons’ circuitous thinking, or perhaps he did understand but pretended not to.