“Okay, here’s the raw and full recording from the stream.” at a coffee shop on the side of a big gated apartment complex, Adam handed over a flash drive to Caroline and Jason: “It’s super big, so I can’t really send it to you directly. You can try to take a look at it and see if you can find anything.”

“Thanks. Do you really not remember anything?” Jason asked: “Not even a bit of a faint feeling?”

“No… I did have some weird dreams about it though. But when I woke up, all I could remember was that I had a dream.” Adam took a sip of the coffee and said: “I asked Brian and Branston, they said they can’t remember anything either.”

“Let me take a look at your arms.” Caroline asked.

“Huh?” Adam was confused, but still put both of his arms on the coffee table for Jason and Caroline.

“Yeah. Looks like you’re good.” both Jason and Caroline both checked Adam’s arm carefully to make sure there were no black markings: “But do call us if you can remember anything. And don’t do anything stupid like that again.”

“Are you guys really psychics? ” Adam asked curiously: “You guys were the ones busting the wall and found the body. And if I remember correctly, you guys woke up earlier than we did when we’re at the hotel right?”

“So Branston and Brian told you huh?” Caroline and Jason stood up and were ready to leave: “Just call us if you can think of anything.”

“Wait! Just a second!” Adam called out to Caroline and Jason before they were out of the coffee shop, “Branston and Brian are planning to explore a haunted hospital next month, I can’t talk them out of it! Can you help me!?”

“What?! Are you fucking kidding me?” Caroline’s instant frustration almost caused her to throw her cup of coffee on the ground, but she was stopped by Jason.

“Adam? Do me a favor and talk the idiot out of it, okay?” Jason’s reaction was not as bad as Caroline’s, but he was still visibly pissed: “We are not going to help you.”

“Okay… thanks.” Adam fell down back to his chair, scratching his head.

“Let’s get back and ask Boss for help. ” when they were outside the door of the coffee shop, Jason said to Caroline, “Or at least some guidance.”

---------------------------------------------

“Your next guest is here. Ms. Summers.” inside of a mansion somewhere in the hills near San Francisco, a tall and ripped man in suits walked into a half open air balcony hanging over a side of the hill and reported to a tall, elegant woman in white dress and wearing a golden necklace with three exquisite spindle-shaped pendants hanging in the front.

“Show her in.” Ms. Summers closed the old leatherback notebook she was reading and set it aside.

“Ms. Summers.” a timid girl wearing black and green shirt, jeans and a leather jacket came in and nervously sat in front of the table.

“Cut the act, Ms. Corin, or should I call you Emilia? I’m not some fat mobster thinking with their dicks. What do you want?” Ms. Summers asked the girl impatiently with a frown.

“Well, worth a try. Thought you’d be more gentle towards a helpless girl running away from her mobster family.” the girl swiftly changed her attitude, and took on a more relaxed and uncouth posture on her chair: “I want to hire some gifteds. I hear you are the highest level broker in the bay.”

Ms. Summers laughed in a lower and slightly condescending tone: “You are dabbling in some deep, dirty and cold waters, for what? Just to stick it to your uncles?”

“And to take my rightful place at the table.” Emilia leaned forward: “And to do that, I’ll need help. I need to hire some gifteds, strong ones. I can’t afford to have some parlor trick bozo messing up my plans.”

“Oh, and why is that? You know the ‘strong’ ones often cost more than just money?” Ms. Summers smiled while tilting her head and air-quoted the word “strong”.

“My uncles have gifteds under their command. They are not the puny ones I can simply kill with a gun, or ten.” Emilia answered: “And I need enough power to convince the elders. They will not be easily swayed. Not by a youngling, not by an illegitimate daughter.”

“So what can you offer as a price? ” Ms. Summers grinned and asked: “Like I told you, ‘strong’ Bondsmen cannot simply be hired by money alone. The better the price, the better the help, and it is pretty much a sellers market.”

“What about this?” Emilia reached inside her jacket and pulled out a tiny piece of red gem and laid it on the table.

“Interesting.” Ms. Summers picked up the piece of gem and examined it carefully, Emilia noticed that she had a scar where her right hand’s pinky finger should be, “Do you even know what this is?”

“No, nor do I care. All I know is that the gifteds under my uncles’ command negotiate hard for it. I happened to have my hands on a lot of it.” Emilia stared at Ms Summers’ face while answering, trying to detect any minute change of expressions.

“You know, that’s good. But don’t flaunt it like some kid who just found his father’s stash.” Ms. Summers put the gem on the table and lightly pushed it back to Emilia: “Looks like you got yourself something to offer as the price on a contract. Any specifics on the help you wanna hire?”

Just when Emilia was about to name her ask, a man in suit walked into the place and whispered something to Ms. Summers’ ears. Ms. Summers appeared to be slightly upset at what she heard, then she just ordered the man: “Go find out what happened. And don’t let those knuckleheads enter my property again.”

After the man left, Ms. Summers turned to Emilia with an apologetic smile: “Sorry about that, just had a minor incident at one of my businesses. Now where were we?”