The cold winter of 1915 came as in previous years, but the ever-present calm atmosphere in Washington, the capital of the United States of America was broken by a variety of people who flocked to it.

As of December 1, delegations from various countries participating in the International Naval Conference have not arrived yet. Officials from various countries responsible for security work, journalists who regard the news as life, elusive spies and intelligence personnel, merchants with keen sense of smell, and tourists who like to join in the fun have already landed in this country that boasts freedom one after another. Therefore, people with different faces, skin colors, and dresses can be seen at any time in the streets of Washington. Naturally, Americans with a good sense of business will not miss this great opportunity to make money. Advertising from major hotels can be seen everywhere on the streets, and many shops also hang out signs of "special products" at the doors of the store. Coupled with a large number of police and soldiers who maintain public order, the city presents an atypical lively situation.

"Boss, are there any free rooms?"

This is almost the most common sentence White has heard in recent times, and his response is without exception: "No, it was full a week ago!"

"We only have one room!"

"None of them!"

"I'll pay double the price!"

White then looked up at the visitor. There were three people in a total of them, wearing a gray windbreaker of uniform style. Each of them was carrying a square suitcase. At the front, the middle-aged man was not tall but looked very strong, his eyes were slightly narrowed, and he looked smart and capable. He was the one who was talking just now. The two people behind him were slightly taller, but they were not more than 1.8 meters tall, about 27, or 8 years old, all wearing sunglasses, their beards were obviously new, and there was no expression on their faces.

"Three times!" White stretched out three fingers without any vaguely.

"The room next to the back is preferably on the 3rd floor!"

"That's five times the price!"

"Trade!" The middle-aged man was also unambiguous.

After receiving the deposit, White did not register and immediately shouted to the back:

"Skinny. Take these three guests to 303!"

"receive!"

A tall and thin young man immediately emerged from the room behind the counter. He quickly walked to the front of the three people and made a gesture of preparing to carry their luggage for them, but the middle-aged man waved his hand and declined.

He was also happy to be called "slim man", "Please here!"

After "Skinny" left with three guests, White buried her head behind the counter again and hooked "303" on a piece of paper marked with a series of numbers. At this time, the check-in situation of hotels of all sizes in Washington was quite good, and many hotels were even overcrowded early. But on White's paper, there are still more than a dozen unticked numbers.

About 2 minutes later, the thin man walked over the stairs, and White heard him muttering "a bunch of country people" from a distance.

"Hey, thin guys, these are not country people!" White said with a wicked smile, "You'd better stay away from them, let alone make a decision!"

"Oh?" The thin man walked to the counter, looked at the direction of the stairs, and asked White in confusion: "Is they a gangster? a killer? or..."

"Wrong! They are soldiers. Professional soldiers! If I guess correctly, they are either Germans or Russians!"

"Boss, how do you know?" The thin man looked at White seriously. The owner of this hotel, with a look of confusion and curiosity, "It can't be what they told you!"

"Latrat..." White rolled up his tongue and made a strange tone. "German and Russians are usually used to pronunciation like this, and even speaking English is difficult to avoid completely! Looking at their walking posture, ordinary people usually don't line up in such a straight line!"

"Oh..." The thin man scratched his head, "But why don't they stay in the big hotel arranged by the government for them like everyone else?"

"I don't know about this, but they are willing to pay five times the price, and it's in this place far away from the city center. I think only soldiers in the world would do such stupid things. If it were a gangster or a killer, hum..." White made a gesture of wiping his neck.

"What the hell is the logic!" The thin man muttered again, then returned to the room behind the counter.

"Ghost logic? Look, maybe they have weapons hidden in their boxes!" White shook his head mockingly. Although his hotel is not in the city center, the transportation is very convenient. In addition to the Anacastia River, less than 300 meters behind the hotel, you can see Pennsylvania Street and the Capitol Building opposite the river. Now there is still a week before the International Naval Conference. In addition to the three suspected soldiers in 303, there are several mysterious people living in the other rooms on the 3rd and 3rd floors. White did not care much about such guests, but just silently charged them several times more money. This is also his own unique way to make money and save lives.

As for the three people who lived in a small room less than 20 square meters for 5 times the price, they didn't seem to be dissatisfied with the slightly simplistic environment here. Since they were sure to see the US Capitol through the windows of this room, they seemed quite satisfied. After carefully checking their rooms, they started to whisper in Russian:

"Major, this place looks pretty good. You can see the target through the window! But I don't like the greedy boss very much. He even spoke 5 times the price. Do you think he will be alert and attract the police?" The guy with a buzz cut had been pressed against the door and listened for a while, and then he complained angrily after he was sure that no one was watching.

"Don't worry about this. I think that boss is a smart man. He seeks money, and we seeks what we need, and each has nothing to do with it!" The middle-aged man, who is the "major" mentioned by the former, is not difficult to see in his words that he is sophisticated and not stingy with small money.

The third man had a face-cut and his hair was longer than a buzz cutter. He had never spoken since he came in. After looking at every corner, he carefully put the three boxes they carried with him into the bedside table. The three boxes looked extremely ordinary in appearance and were almost the same in size. As for the weight, it was not very difficult to hold them with them.

After putting the box, he sat down on the bed next to the cabinet, took out a black and shiny revolver from his clothes and started rubbing it without saying a word.

Bancun sat down next to her face, lifted her right and left foot one by one, wiped the dust on her boots with her hands, and said with a smile. "Sharpshooter, don't let your gun go fire, otherwise we will be in big trouble!"

He ignored the face and pulled the bullets inside the pistol out with a click, then wiped them carefully one by one with a handkerchief.

"Secretary, your task is to stay in the room and look at the three boxes. Don't let anyone in when we are away, especially the owner and the guy in this hotel! Remember!" The middle-aged man gave a serious advice. Then he picked up the hat that was placed next to him, "We'll come back in about three hours and bring dinner back by the way!"

He stood attentively with a slim face, "As for order!"

The middle-aged man patted his shoulder with satisfaction, and Bancun had already walked to the door and pressed his right ear against the door. After a few seconds, nodded to the middle-aged man.

After the middle-aged man left with a squinting man, the young man with a thin face took out a dozen bullets from his pocket and started to wipe them carefully. His life seemed to be constantly wiping weapons and bullets, and he was too lazy to even look at the colorful world outside.

On that evening, the delegation of Germany and Austro-Hungarian Empire arrived in Washington together. The US government held a grand welcome ceremony for them. People vaguely felt the enthusiasm to welcome the heroes' triumph. Although the two countries joined forces to launch an unprecedented war a year ago, their arrival brought great hope to alleviate tensions in the Pacific.

At the same time, the Norfolk military port was colder and welcomed the Russian and Japanese delegations. The Russian fleet entered the port first, followed by the Japanese fleet. People noticed that the smiles on the faces of the US naval officers and soldiers had decreased a little, and they also found that the Tsar and the previous German emperor did not appear at the welcome ceremony for the entry. The Russian Empress was not inferior to the German Empress a day ago.

"Your Majesty, the special envoy sent by the US Secretary of State is asking for a visit!" When the attendant reported, Agrenie was flipping through the documents sent from the country, and his face was still a depressed expression.

Seeing that the Tsar did not speak, Linda made a decision on his behalf: "Please come in!"

"Abide by the order!"

After the attendant went out, Agreni said angrily: "What do they want? Do we have to undergo a full-body examination?"

The most direct reason why Agreni complained so much is that before entering Hong Kong, the US Navy sent so-called "navigators" to board all Russian ships and required all Russian ships to enter Hong Kong under unarmed state. Although Germany, Austria and Japan were subject to the same constraints when entering Hong Kong, the Tsar insisted on treating this as discrimination against Russia. It is no wonder that the Russian representatives were treated unfairly in various international occasions, which has not only appeared in recent years. Not only in Europe, but Russia is synonymous with barbarism and backwardness in people's minds.

Linda was very calm, "Your Majesty, I don't think they dare to do anything bad in this joint eye. They will not favor the Japanese delegation based on their relationship with the Japanese government. Just listen calmly to what they want to say! If it is really hard to accept, we will protest by withdrawing from the meeting!"

Agreni said "yes", put down the documents in his hand and sat next to Linda. After a while, his servant walked in with a tall blond man in black dress, who said in fluent Russian:

"Dear Emperor, Your Majesty Queen, on behalf of Secretary of State William Jennings Brian, I would like to convey the highest respect our government for your country! Thank you, Your Majesty Queen, for leading your delegation to the United States from thousands of miles away. At the same time, I wish both of you good health, happiness and prosperity, and I wish your country a prosperous country and prosperity!"

"Oh, convey my kindness to Mr. Brian and your government!" Agrenie lazily and politely, Linda next to her smiled kindly and elegantly.

"Happy to serve!" The visitor bowed and waited for the other party to give him a seat.

Agreni didn't ask the other party to sit down, and Linda didn't speak.

After nearly half a minute of the cold, the US envoy seemed to have given up his expectations of talking with the other party and stood up to express his purpose: "Dear Your Majesty, according to the arrangements of our government, your fleet will stay in Norfolk for one night and then head to Bathilmore, and then take a bus to Washington from there. All itineraries have been arranged. But... we hope to conduct routine inspections on this cruise ship without disturbing you to ensure that you are safe in the United States!"

"Does our security issues in the United States have anything to do with the search, the crown, and the number?" Agreni asked resentfully.

The envoy quickly replied: "Reply to Your Majesty, although there is no direct connection between these two things, we hope to ensure that there is no accident!"

"Don't worry, there are no extra weapons on our ship, there will be no smuggling supplies, and there will be no drugs or anything!" Linda still smiled gently, but her words were very sharp.

The envoy was a little nervous, "Your Majesty, this is not what our government means..."

"Oh, then don't bother your government. I'll let my soldiers check it carefully later! Sir, are there any other problems?" Agreni prepared to issue an order to expel the guest without hesitation.

The special envoy panicked, "Your Majesty, according to the arrangements of this international naval meeting, ships of all countries have been inspected. If you are the only exception, I am worried that representatives of other countries will have opinions!"

"They are riding on a warship, my ship is a cruise ship! Special Envoy, please don't confuse civilian ships with warships!" Agreni's tone became more and more stiff, and Linda also put away her smile at this time.

The envoy began to wipe his sweat secretly.

"By the way, Mr. Special Envoy, has the Japanese delegation accepted your request for inspection?" Linda suddenly asked.

"This..." The envoy didn't know how to answer.

At this time, another US envoy also encountered a nail in the head of the Japanese delegation.

"Check? Just kidding! Allowing your navigators to board the ship is an exception, and you still want to conduct a careful inspection? Mr. Envoy, do you know what military secret is? Do you know what state secret is? If the level of this highest secret is threatened, then our Japanese government would rather withdraw from this naval meeting!" Deputy head of the Japanese delegation, Foreign Minister Takato Kazu, obviously was particularly tough, with the strong Japanese Navy as the backing, and this experienced diplomat naturally knew what diplomatic wording should be adopted.

"But……"

"No need, either cancel the inspection or we will go home, you can choose!" Another deputy commander of the delegation, Navy Minister Misato, also had a tough tone.

"Okay, I will convey the opinions of your delegation to my superiors!" After saying that, the envoy left in shame.

"These bastards actually attempt to offend the military power of my Great Japanese Empire!" Saito Mi cursed in discomfort.

"Saito, don't compete with these small characters!" Okuma Shigeshino, known as the "old man spirit", comforted the angry Navy minister slowly, "We should keep our strength at the negotiating table!"

After strong opposition from the delegations of Russia and Japan, the US authorities reluctantly revoked the request for boarding and inspection. However, when the delegations of the two countries disembarked in Bathilmore, the US officials who came to receive paid special attention to the luggage carried by the delegation and inspected the luggage as confidential as possible. Fortunately, the final result gave the US authorities a sigh of relief, but this did not mean that the world was peaceful. There was a message in the corner of the last page of the Washington Daily that day:
Chapter completed!