“What - where did they e from?! What the - ” One of the men knocked down by Gloria earlier cried. Before anyone could do or say anything, he bolted and ran into the archive, in search of the backdoor.

  Another man screamed and ran with the first, leaving only three men against Gloria and her friends.

  “We should go.” The two men holding Sue and Turner Ouyang held on their hostages tighter and tried to back out of the mairance.

  The now one-eared man yelled and lu Gloria from behind, with a short sword in his hand aiming at Gloria’s waist.

  Gloria shot forward and turned. A sweeping kick cut through the air and smmed the one-eared man right in the hole where his ear once was. The man tumbled into the reception’s desk, while she leapt right at the remaining two oppos.

  A bamboo stick burst in the back of the man holding Sue. He groaned and looked right, just in time for the broken bamboo sticks to strike him on his left forehead.

  Sue swung her left fist backward from below. Her forearm and wrist made tact with the man’s soft area between the legs. The man cried out and fell backwards in pain. Gloria shifted her attention at the st of the men - the one holding Turner Ouyang.

  “It’s you!” A two-headed woman with joined faces, chests and a shared, torted body emerged from the shadows below the final man and crawled up the side of his body with the eyes opened so wide her ers of eyes might rip. “It’s you!”

  The final ma out a terrified scream, his grip on Turner Ouyang loosened aually relented. He turned bad began running away, not even realizing that the woman on his body already faded.

  “Thump!” Tae Kuo swung his bamboo stice again at the men on the ground, pletely knog him out.

  “Thank you, Sifu Kuo.” Gloria panted and took a moment to soothe her Qi: “I thought you left the city already.”

  “Yeah I thought so.” Tae Kuo shook his head, dimming the dle in a red and yellow ntern with talismans stu the outside and dangling below. Gloria reized it - it was an artifact that could jure up illusions within a raae Kuo folded the ntern up and put it in his handbag: “But I ’t just leave without taking a final look at my coffin home, and ing up some other business. e on, follow me.”

  Sue kicked the unsan on the head once more before catg up to the rest of the team.

  Tae Kuht a very old looking jeep covered in mud and dirt. Even the lise pte was bent, scratched and barely held onto the vehicle by a few bolts.

  “Damn, where’d you pull that from?” Gloria chuckled.

  “My old friend’s garage, he left it there when he left. Didn’t expect that to e in handy. ” Tae Kuo sighed: “And - let’s go to his pce to hide for the moment. Word oreet is you have a lot of people looking for you. Whoever those guys are, they’re getting desperate. REALLY desperate.”

  “Yay us.” Sue helped Turner Ouyang sit straight, for he seemed to have got heavily beaten up before they even got to the archive: “What should we do ? They ko intercept us at the archives and ask us what we wanted, so they would be expeg us at other pces where we get access to city records.”

  “So stay away from city records. ” Tae Kuo sighed and shook his head: “To be ho - I might know a little something about - about what you’re looking into. You’re looking at the city infrastructure project, right?”

  “Yeah - you know something? Why didn’t you tell us?” Gloria asked.

  “Fug hell - my family was still in here!” Tae Kuo whined: “I ’t tell you anything that sensitive? Do you know hoeople are still rotting in jail because they are involved? If the unity collective OR the city knows you’ve been talking about it, good fug luck getting a job anywhere or even travelling.”

  “So - what’d you know? And how did you know?” Sue asked from the backseat.

  “I was still a young apprentice, and I listened when my elders were talking gossip from their old days.” Tae Kuo sighed: “Some of them even got in trouble for just daily chit chat. So - I don’t know IF you or how much you know this kind of trouble, but you’d better be ready for it.”

  “Well yeah, believe me, we know.” Sue shook her head.

  “Good.” Tae Kuo took a look at the rearview mirror: “We lost them. Let’s go.”

  The old jeep finally went on its intended way instead of cirg and takiours. The pce was an old apartment building near a small but well kept temple.

  “What is this temple?” Sue asked as she looked at the gate, there was no name on there.

  “It’s not a full temple, it’s a small pce of rituals and prayers from the Kshiti Temple. Also the temporary residence for the elders or schors.” Tae Kuo sighed: “The temple purchased the entire area around here, which is why my friend could afford to leave. But they never really started their intended pn of expansion.”

  “Nice. So it’s a good pce to hide.” Sue nodded: “Do you have a medical kit in there? I think Ouyang o go to the doctor - ”

  “Let me take a look iae Kuo led them to the third floor, room 303.

  Shout outs to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  Thank you very much for your support!