“You’re really something, Cai. If I want more tricky ass cases to work toward a promotion I might just tie you to a rod and look around the sand with you.” Captain Ko was donning a head of messy hair and a shirt that looked like it was tucked in the dirty laundry bag earlier: “What the fuck happened this time?”

“Detective Cai had foiled a cultish plan to sacrifice children for some evil purposes.” Before Marcus could answer, one man standing beside him spoke for him first: “Nice to meet you Captain Ko, my name’s Tyler Khan, I am the investigator that will be representing the South-Eastern District Community Collective in this matter.”

“Okay, Tyler, Marcus, what do you have for me?” Captain Ko yawned then frowned: “And just to be clear, this is perfectly within the city’s jurisdiction. Some fuckers tryna sacrifice children? Sounds like kidnapping and attempted murder to me.”

“Yes, and I’m sure, Captain, that you can understand the collective’s interest in following up closely with the investigation of the case. And as of this moment, my supervisor will be requesting me to be a part of your investigative team.”

“Ugh.” Captain Ko seemed to be in no mood to hide his unwillingness to accept this request: “We’ll see how everything goes. What happened, Marcus?”

“Well, I was just in the area…”

“Spare the prologue, give me the action and details.”

“A group of men kidnapped some children from different regions, went to a stone platform by the docks and were about to start some kind of cultish ritual with the children, involving burning them.” Marcus immediately cut his story short: “Right now the platform had already collapsed into the water. But if we send men to excavate the remains we should be able to find something.”

“What about the perps?”

“Under the control of the collective.” Tyler Khan interjected: “And our interrogators are working them now.”

“Yeah, according to the agreement between the city and the collective, the investigation will be handled by us. We will appreciate it if you can share notes as soon as possible.” Captain Ko rubbed his temple and said: “Of course, you and the collective will be briefed on this and we will be updating you with everything.”

“Captain.” Tyler wanted to object, but Marcus interrupted him: “I’d propose we lock the main areas of the docks down for investigation, because those men that transported the children seemed to be hiding there. We need a thorough sweep of the place. ”

“That’s gonna be difficult, so we’ll try.” Captain Ko sighed.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“And the community collective would be happy to aid you on that.” Tyler Khan nodded.

Marcus took a quick peek at this investigator from the community collective - he did inform Chef Tang the theory of someone or some group trying to cause chaos at the Food Festival, calling it “word on the street”. He just did not expect this information would be shared so quickly. “Great, I think we should do that.” He tried to make his voice calm and not reveal his relief: “Safety first.”

“Marcus, I’d like to know everything that happened.” Captain Ko lit a cigarette and took a deep inhale before blowing the smoke up into the sky: “And I do mean everything. Everything you know about what happened, everything you saw. And it’s good that Mr. Khan you are here. Let’s let Detective Cai speak, so you can be the representative of the community collective to receive the same information as we.”

“I … ” Tyler Khan was not expecting this kind of proposal, and was stunned for a brief moment.

“Okay! Let me tell you everything I found, so everyone could be on the same page.” Marcus immediately took the chance to interject: “And before I proceed, can I bring Kevin over, Captain Ko? He was just in the area to help me, and he actually provided me with a lot of insight and help in finding things out.”

“Sure, why not?” Captain Ko laughed: “The more the merrier. And Mr. Khan, let me introduce to you Mr. Kevin Loo, our forensic technician, who has been serving our precinct for years and is an invaluable member of our team. With him onboard, we would have more control over this mess of a case.”

Marcus nodded at Kevin who was sitting on a chair at a distance, and Kevin immediately came over with a wide smile on his face.

This time, Marcus spared almost no detail in his retelling of what happened during the night. Almost, he still instinctively and intentionally hid the details of his mystic Kung Fu - he had the suspicion that Captain Ko already knew, and at this point it should be pretty obvious to Tyler Khan right now, yet he still wanted to keep it as low profile as possible.

He was also somewhat looking forward to getting a good look at any reaction Captain Ko would have. Yet the captain remained calm and stoic the whole time while he retold his story. He asked a few clarifying questions, and remained silent for the rest of the time.

“So, what do you think?” After finishing his retelling, Marcus thought for a moment to try to recall if he had missed anything, then he asked: “I’m not sure if this is something you wanna hear - I know it sounds a bit crazy. But…”

“But what?” Captain Ko looked up at Marcus with an almost emotionless look: “But it’s true? Oh trust me, I’ve handled plenty of detectives before you, Marcus, and I’ve heard way worse and more bizarre.”

“So?” Tyler Khan asked, seemingly nervous.

“So, you’d think something like this hadn’t happened before?” Captain Ko sucked on his cigarette one more time and scratched his forehead with his thumb: “Okay, take me to the scene. I know the platform is gone, but I want to see it.”

There was no objection there. So Tyler Khan drove Marcus, Kevin and Captain Ko over to where the platform was. The night was still dark, but less so than before because the clouds had dissipated a bit and the moon was able to shine through. The streets were clear, but they were still able to see curious residents standing by their windows and watching them as their cars drove by.

Even though it was barely a few quick peeks, Marcus could tell that the people watching them appeared to be worried. He’d be worried as well. The clouds may be clearing, but the mess was just beginning. If it was a few years ago, he would still have some hope that the districts would set aside their differences and work together. Right now, he was not so sure.

“Tyler?” Just this moment, a female voice came from the walkie talkie attached to the dashboard: “Tyler, this is Sarah, do you copy?”

“Copy.” Tyler pressed the button on it and responded.

“We’ve identified some of the children.” Sarah spoke with some haste on the other side: “The child from the Northern District? We identified him as well.”

“Wait, this soon? How is that possible?”

“He’s not native Northern. He’s a transplant.” Sarah answered: “One of our folks knows his mother. She’s a maid, she moved up north a few years ago.”

Unpleasant and dangerous thoughts instantly appeared in Marcus’ head as streams of cold ran through his body. He and Kevin exchanged looks, and he could hear Captain Ko huffed with his nose.

“Are you certain about this?” Tyler’s voice went cold as well.

“Pretty certain.” Sarah sighed: “Where are you?”

“I’m heading over to the docks. Call you right back.” Tyler sighed as he turned off the walkie talkie.