Poison City

“I see. ” After hearing what Marcus and Kevin relayed to him after the negotiation, Captain Ko went silent for a while on the video call. Before Marcus or Kevin could follow, he stood up and walked to the window of his office step by step with the phone still in his hand. The sunlight reflected on his face as he laid his hand down before him, the camera pointing upwards to the side of his cheek. The sounds of driving cars, pedestrians and wind could be heard coming from the microphone.

“What - what do you want us to do?” Marcus asked finally after staring at the captain’s face for a few seconds.

“Do you think the identity of this Luo Zhuge is important? How important?” The captain asked.

“He’s clearly someone who knows quite a lot. And - ” Marcus snapped his fingers and smacked himself on the head: “Holy shit! I think I just had an idea on where the money went.”

“Money? What do you mean?” Captain Ko asked.

“No disrespect for your, uh, your friend there.” Marcus scratched his nose: “But - while we were interviewing the neighbors, and they all kinda mentioned that the man, although he’s always covering his face, he often works for the local people on hire as well. Doing all kinds of small to medium sized handy work as a means to earn extra cash. ”

“And, being an electrical engineer in S&S Corp itself is quite a lucrative occupation, while the rent of this place is not exactly high. Even with all the anti-investigation measures he took, this is a large chunk of money going somewhere.”

“But - that’s not THAT much money, is it?” Captain Ko frowned: “Dealing with these old people would still be quite risky for someone in hiding.”

“But it looks like it’s a pretty good income stream.” Kevin nodded: “I asked around for the works he did for them, and how often he did them. It’s at least a couple of hundred dollars per month. It’s almost enough to justify the rent.”

“Yet, it’s not enough for his rent, right?” Captain Ko asked: “Which means he has some other use of the place. Marcus, what have you found out about the scapegoat doll?”

“Not much.” Marcus shrugged: “Should I take a look? I mean - I still need to get in touch with someone before I can - I DARE approach that thing. And I told the landlady to find an exorcist. I am not entirely sure if she would do it. That exorcist she mentioned may not be good.”

“No, maybe not right now. If you know something that’d be great. But if you don’t - let me see if I can find anyone who actually knows. It’s not gonna be easy since most of the experts don’t work with us.”

“What do you think this means, captain?” Kevin asked.

“I think this means that we might need some expert help. Because I am not familiar with how they work. I just know it’s not something to treat lightly.” Captain Ko let out a long sigh before hanging up the call: “Alright, get back as soon as possible when you’re done.”

“Hey.” Just when they hung up the phone Keryn and Pahaik came to them.

“What’d you do with those who followed you?” Kevin asked, with a concerned look on his face.

“Nothing, they’re just some investigators from the community collective.” Keryn shrugged: “We confronted them. And they just told us they are looking for a potential fugitive in this area. They started following us because they thought we were looking for the same guy.”

“And who are they looking for?” Kevin scratched his nose and asked again.

“They wouldn’t say. They just said a fugitive suspected of some - ritualistic crime.” Pahaik showed a photo on his phone to Kevin and Marcus. Two men in typical South-Eastern community collective uniforms and armbands stood in front of the camera, visibly frustrated and angry.

“Yeah, let’s go check with captain, and if possible check with Tyler as well.” Kevin sighed.

“What’d you find with your follower? You got one man following you right? Who is it?” Pahaik sent the picture of the two community collective investigators to Marcus and Kevin.

“It’s Brooklyn Payne. THE Brooklyn Payne.” Kevin chuckled: “And - looks like he needs to set up a deal. So - ”

“This - this is a bit disturbing.” Pahaik said with a heavy frown: “So this means, everybody’s chasing the tail of this Luo Zhuge.”

“Let’s get back and see what the captain says.” Keryn shrugged.

Kevin took a few pictures of the neighborhood and its surrounding area before following Marcus to their squad car.