“1148 and 1149?” The er of cilman Ding’s right eye twitched, but he collected himself without a moment of hesitation: “What - uh, what do you o take a look at those cases for?”

  “We’re also looking into a simir case, because they had this - this whole cultish group murder thing. Our current assumption is they are copycats. We’ve collected some stories and local legends cirg in the wild. But - we know that there are some fotteails in the case because it was so many years ago and its handling and iigation faced quite a lot of challenges.”

  cilman Ding ticked his tohen shrugged: “I think what you meant is 1149 then? 1148 is not a murder case - it’s uh - it’s a case about some items being stolen from our most secure archives. I - I don’t think we have any of that, do we?”

  “I surely hope not.” Captain Ko left out a fake hearty ugh: “Because if that’s true, we’ll have a full city lockdown.”

  cilman Ding ughed along with Captain Ko, the two men ughed for quite a while, at the fusion of the two detectives.

  “Alright, Captain. I really appreciate your willio look at things from a different ahough I am not quite sure what you’d find on there, or IF you could find anything useful. I’d bring it up with the ittee. And - also, if I remember correctly, there are still those reted to the victims of 1149 living iy. Some are still in this district, some moved to the South-Western. I don’t imagine any of them living in the South-Eastern District, but hey - it’s still possible. If you want, I give you a list of their addresses and taformation. That is - if they are granting you this access and permission to share intel with the unity collective. They - I meant the rest of the ittee. I’m pretty sure they would agree, because you made a ving case, and you found the right guy - ”

  Captain Ko ughed again, then stood up aended his hand to the cilman: “I’m so gd I went to the right advocate for my case. Thank you very much, cilman Ding.”

  “No problem.” cilman Ding stood up and shook the captain’s hand: “Now, I hope you gentlemen have a good day. And good luck. I’ll try to get back to you within a week. If you don’t hear from me, feel free to reach out, huh?”

  “Of course. Of course. And hope you’ll have a rexed day soon. You definitely , my esteemed cilman.” Captain Ko smiled as he led the two detectives out of the cilman’s office.

  “Okay. Pop quiz: what do you think of this meeting?” Irain station with the smell of expensive coffee in the air, Captain Ko asked Shrevas and Marcus.

  “What?” Marcus asked, slightly fused.

  “Yeah, what?” Shrevas also appeared fused.

  “What do you think of this meeting? What did you get out of it?” Captain Ked, then took a sip of his expensive coffee from a well-designed paper cup, grimag: “Ugh - this is not worth the fug five dolrs. What’d they put in here, tar?”

  “It’s - it’s a specialized coffee, apparently from a very distant city with those special ingredients.” Marcus shrugged: “I think Kevin shared some with me ohere is actually dark brown broth underh. So - ”

  “Eh, enough, enough.” Captain Ko took another sip, grimaced aime, then asked once again: “What do you think? Tell me! Be ho, don’t worry - it won’t impact your future promotion.”

  “Because we’re not getting any promotion?” Marcus chuckled.

  “You won’t if you keep that attitude and dodge the question.”

  “Okay, okay, maybe I should go first.” Shrevas sighed: “He’s basically dodged all of our requests and just given us ay promise. I don’t think we’re gonhe access from him. And - with all due respect, captain, I am a little fbbergasted by your bringing up the Ling family case. I mean, I guess it did give us more justification to ask for more access to the more sensitive Blue Envelopes. But I don't feel very fortable not being ho about how we’re dealing with cases like this..”

  “Duly noted. But uand that I didn’t really have much of a choice. If I don’t give him a he meeting’s off.” Captain Ko hen turo Marcus: “What about you, Marcus? You have any other input or readings?”

  “I think - he seemed to be asking for too muformation.” Marcus responded after thinking for a while: “I mean, I uand that his being the speaker and a member of the security ittee would require more information before he could make a decision. It’s still - ”

  “Way too much?” Shrevas asked.

  “Yes. It’s a little too much. It’s as if he’s not looking for information to approve or deny our request - ”

  “Keep that thought in mind.” The train arrived, and the doors slid open: “And - let’s make this clear: I don’t think we should make the mistake of thinking the city or the city cil is on our side. In fact, it would be much more beneficial to us to assume that they are siding against us by default.”

  “So, they’re not gonna give us access and authority in sharing ihen? I guess we’ll have to prepare the expnations for accessing the files repeatedly?” Shrevas shook his head: “Oh, man, paperwork time, I guess? ”

  Captain Ko did not answer, he took a look at Marcus, then took a look at Shrevas, smiling and shaking his head: “No. I think they might just give us almost everything we asked for.”

  “Because he and the ittee monitor our usage of the information aly follow up with our iigation?” Marcus scratched his jaw, then asked with a soft gasp.

  “Yep. I may be wrong on that, but I’m pretty sure I’m not.”

  “Hey! This - ” Shrevas frowned, almost yelled but immediately lowered his voice: “But that means the city - ”

  “Yep. So keep your mouths shut. Share only with those who o know.”

  Shout outs to my patrons:

  mant06,

  Jonathan

  Thank you so much for your support!