Leaving

As S.H.I.E.L.D. sprang into high gear, the actions of this violent state apparatus put the High Table and the Continental Hotel on edge for a time, with no one knowing what had happened.

Sherlock could never have imagined the storm that a persona he had casually fabricated would stir up in the United States, thousands of miles away. Nor could he have imagined that on his very first visit to the Intelligence Market, he would encounter Hawkeye, who was gathering intelligence there under a hidden identity.

After obtaining the intelligence he wanted, Sherlock did not linger in the Intelligence Market. He left directly and returned to his room.

In the living room, Sherlock took out the satellite map he had obtained from the military. After entering the coordinates, he quickly pinpointed the canyon.

Once he confirmed that everything matched, Sherlock briefly mapped out a route and plan, then turned and headed for his room.

Until the moment Sherlock closed his eyes, he had the vague feeling that he had forgotten something. But he was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open, and he simply could not remember what it was before falling asleep.

As a result, the unlucky John Wick, whom Sherlock had forgotten, wandered around the Intelligence Market for half the day, completely unaware that his good partner had already gone back to sleep.

Unlike Sherlock, whose request had received an immediate response after being registered, John Wick found it as difficult as climbing to heaven to locate any intelligence in the market related to Tony.

The wristband occasionally prompted John Wick to visit certain little rooms for talks, but after a brief conversation with the supposed intelligence providers, he could almost immediately tell they were frauds.

After all, if intelligence could truly be obtained here, Hawkeye and the military would not have come up empty-handed.

When the Ten Rings had kidnapped Tony, they had demonstrated extreme professionalism. There had not even been a single shell casing at the scene, and their personnel had been tightly isolated, leaving no possibility of leaks.

After wandering around all night and spending roughly five gold coins on drinks alone, John Wick could only return to his room in a daze.

He had originally thought an organization like the Continental Hotel, deeply tied to assassins, gangs, and terrorist groups, would know things that official forces knew nothing about. But now it seemed that was not the case at all.

Most likely, every piece of intelligence related to Tony over this period had already been verified by official sources.

John Wick returned to his room almost right before the Intelligence Market closed. Yet what he never expected was that upon returning, he saw the hooded robe hanging by the door and realized Sherlock had come back long ago.

John Wick gritted his teeth in anger, even feeling as though Sherlock had set him up. But when he saw the satellite map on the coffee table in the living room, along with the locations, routes, and plans Sherlock had casually marked out, he decided to let Sherlock off.

Even now, John Wick had no idea how Sherlock had determined that Tony was in that canyon, much less how he had determined that Tony was in the hands of the Ten Rings in the Middle East.

Checking the time, John Wick did not return to his room to rest. Instead, he sat on the sofa, partly to keep watch through the night and partly to help Sherlock improve the routes and plans.

He took out his phone and logged into the Continental Hotel's official website. In the intelligence section, John Wick began tirelessly using the Continental Hotel's channels to gather everything related to the Ten Rings.

As John Wick collected and organized information, the satellite map gradually filled up. It was no longer just a simple route and plan; it now contained numerous routes and plans.

It was not until the latter half of the night, as the sun was about to rise, that John Wick finished packing everything up and went upstairs to wake the three sleeping people.

Although Sherlock and Helen did not know why John Wick was waking them in the middle of the night, out of respect for the Continental Hotel's rules and trust in John Wick, they put on their hooded robes, followed him into the car, and left the Continental Hotel at once.

Only after the Continental Hotel had completely vanished from everyone's sight did John Wick pull off his hooded robe and explain the situation to the three of them.

The Continental Hotel here operated under wartime rules. Since most of those gathered there were intelligence operatives, almost no one truly stayed until sunrise. Once the safe-zone rules expired, nearly everyone left before the sun came up.

It was an unwritten rule cultivated among intelligence operatives over many years through caution.

And under this unwritten rule, the Continental Hotel had developed another rule of its own: the instant the first ray of sunlight touched the earth, the so-called Continental Hotel would disappear.

Disappear in the literal, physical sense!

Ever since Sherlock and the others had entered this so-called Continental Hotel, the Intelligence Market in its core area had consisted entirely of temporary prefabricated structures. Only the residential area used abandoned houses that had undergone basic renovations.

That meant these houses would be abandoned by the Continental Hotel after sunrise. Before night fell again, a new Continental Hotel would be established amid the ruins of a brand-new town.

Over the years, this rule had never failed.

That was why John Wick had led everyone away before dawn. After all, only by blending into the crowd could they better conceal their identities.

Naturally, Sherlock and Helen had no objections. If anything, both of them felt as though they had learned something new.

As for Doro, Doro had been sleeping in Helen's arms the entire time like a dead pig, and none of the three had considered actually waking him.

As for the intelligence on the satellite map, after John Wick in the passenger seat explained everything he had organized to Sherlock, he curled up in the seat and fell asleep.

Sherlock did not mind. Rather than rushing to rescue Tony according to the plan, he drove the three of them to a relatively open area and set up camp.

After all, Helen, John Wick, and Sherlock himself had all slept poorly the previous night. It would be better to find a place and get some proper rest.

With Sherlock's Alchemy, creating a "luxury" campsite was practically as easy as clapping his hands.

When a building complete with a garage and overflowing with Middle Eastern style rose from the ground, Helen, the only one awake, nearly popped her eyes out. She had known Sherlock could use Alchemy, but she had never expected it to be this convenient.

As Sherlock got back into the car and prepared to drive it into the garage, the first thing Helen said to him was:

"I swear, Sherlock, if you went into real estate, you'd absolutely become the next Tony Stark!"