Poison City

“Oh yeah, Little Luo? I know him! I know him well!” The old woman smiled and poured Marcus and Kevin each a cup of tea: “He’s a good man, always sick but willing to help me.”

“Always sick? What do you mean?” Marcus did not pick up the cup right away.

“He’s always wearing a mask. I asked him and he just told me he’s in poor health ever since he was young. And it got even worse for him ever since his parents passed away. Poor young man.” The old woman laid down the pot and gestured to Marcus and Kevin: “Have some tea, a fresh brew with some ginger. I’m old, and I drink it all the time to keep me warm.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Kevin nodded, and after checking out Marcus, chose not to pick up the tea cup as well: “But - do you know what he looks like without the mask? Or the color of his eyes - the other neighbors told us that he’s always wearing his sunglasses, there’s no reason for him to keep those on indoors, right?”

“Oh, he told me it’s because he’s very sensitive to light.” The old woman poured herself a cup of tea and took a quick sip: “Poor, poor young man, his childhood must be tough. Growing up with all of these illnesses? Ugh, my heart aches just thinking about it.”

“So, he has issues with his eye as well? Have you looked at it yourself?” Marcus frowned.

“No - not really, he doesn’t let anyone touch his sunglasses.” The old woman sighed.

“Do you know where he might have gone? Did he mention anything about his family, close friends, partners or people he’d go to for help if he needs it?”

“Is he in trouble? Why - ” The old woman put down her cup, visibly worried: “Please tell me if he’s in any kind of trouble… I - he’s a very good kid, always very polite. Always ready to help us with our stuff. I don’t want him in trouble of any kind.”

“We just have some questions we need to ask him. Something very big and strange happened at his company, and we’re wondering if he knew anything.” Kevin nodded at the old woman: “So - if you know where he might have gone - ”

“Oh, you mean S&S Corp? ” The old woman sighed: “Then you should go ask them then! They’re never up to anything good!”

“We’ll be on them next, but you know how it is dealing with these big companies, it would be very helpful to us if he could tell us what he knows about this - this certain situation.” Marcus leaned in a little: “So - can you tell us if you know anything?”

The old woman thought for a minute, then let out a long sigh: “No - not really. I guess - if he’s not happy at his job and he’s been saving money, then he might have just left the city?”

“It’s likely, from what we’ve heard. But we would still like to get in touch with him.” Marcus sighed along with the old woman: “Do you know his phone number? One different from the one he registered with his employer?”

“No - I don’t really know. I used to just slip some notes in his mailbox and ask him to come over.” The old woman shrugged.

Marcus sighed internally. This was indeed someone cautious of being tracked. It did not matter who he was, if his name really was Luo Zhuge or John Mitchell, the urgency of them finding this man had only gone higher - if he was indeed saving money to leave the city, then they only had a very limited window of tracking him down, if he was not gone from the city already.

“Thank you for your time. And - we’ll let you know if we find anything.” Marcus stood up and put his notepad back into his jacket pocket.

“Thank you.” Kevin scratched his head, the urgency was clear to him as well.

“Of course. Don’t you forget.” The old woman nodded at them and went on to send them off.

While on their way out, Marcus took out his phone and sent a message. Almost the next moment, Kevin’s phone buzzed. He took a quick look, it was the message from Marcus, with Pahaik and Keryn in the chain: “Someone might be following us. We’ll need to check it out.”

Before Kevin could put his phone back, Keryn responded: “Us too. I counted three men. ”

“Be careful. I counted one man.” Marcus responded, then turned back and waved at the old woman.

“Okay, where?” Kevin asked, but for the sake of avoiding people eavesdropping he did not specify the subject of the question.

“Corner.” Marcus nodded: “Follow me. Act natural, I’ll try.”

After making sure he could cover Kevin and protect him from whatever attack that might come their way, Marcus headed towards the corner of the road from which they came. He took out his notepad, pretending to be reading the notepad as he walked. Just when he was about to reach the corner, he bumped his feet on a slightly elevated brick on the ground. He did not fall on his face but his notepad dropped. As he knelt down to pick it up, he pointed his fingers at a small alley behind a townhouse.

Kevin took a deep breath, as he watched Marcus grab half a handful of sand and small pebbles from the ground.

Before Kevin could say a word, Marcus’ body already shot towards the direction he pointed at earlier. No stomping of the ground, no elaborate preparation, he just left a string of after images behind and made it into the alleyway with the blink of an eye.

“Shit!” A male voice cursed. A silver object flashed, but was instantly pushed away and tossed onto the ground and slid to the side. A short-barrel revolver.

Marcus thrust his right arm forward and his hands in claw form trying to grab the man’s shoulder, but the man pushed the inner side of his arm while tapping his own feet on the side of the wall, launching himself into the air and passing Marcus from over his head.

This was a middle aged man, roughly of Captain Ko’s age, in a worn trench coat. He did not waste a single moment before shooting out of the alley, making a run for the open street.

“STOP! ” Kevin would be lying if he claimed he was not afraid. Yet he jumped forward to stand in the man’s way.