Sitting in the biggest office inside the 17th precinct in the South-Western District of Poison City, located just a few blocks away from the unofficial “border” between the South-Western and South-Eastern Districts, Captain Ko was equally frustrated and furious at Detective Marcus Cai, Detective Brian Sai and Detective Shrevas Pahaik.

“Pahaik, what did I tell you last time about what to do on raids like this?” Fuming behind his desk, Captain Ko asked why playing with a ballpoint pen with his fingers.

“To wait for backup, sir.” Detective Shrevas Pahaik was the most senior of the three detectives, and thus he was already expecting that he would be taking the heat: “And to contact you if we need to move without backup.”

“This is all my fault, sir.” Marcus interjected: “I led the officers in, because I saw Carl - ”

“You THOUGHT you saw Carl Strong, I know.” Captain Ko raised his hand and interrupted Marcus: “But you didn’t get him, did you? What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking we could go in sneakily enough and - ”

“You thought you could go in sneakily and he wouldn’t be prepared, in an old-ass, apparently dealer-occupied apartment complex in the South-Eastern District with at least three side entrances and exits with two officers behind you.” Captain Ko scoffed: “That’s a dang good idea, you know? It’s not like other precincts with SWAT teams at their disposal have already tried not once, but THREE TIMES before!? And in areas much less complicated than this very complex? What made you possibly think you can do that huh? Just because some people gave you this ‘Steel Tiger’ nickname?”

“We’d still be tracking him down, Captain - we have people watching every safe house he has in the area, so if he goes to any one of them we will know.” Detective Shrevas Pahaik interjected to stop the Captain from ranting on: “And we had no idea that he would appear there, so we made a call. He would have been long gone when the backups got there. ”

“Yeah yeah yeah. Don’t I know it, everything's back to normal now. We’ve got some low level dealers who probably have never even met one single bigger player in the area. And the perps are gonna get a speedy trial, and probably won’t even last the second week in prison.” Captain Ko sat back on his chair and sighed: “Tell you what? Why don’t you stay here, and finish all of that paperwork before you go home, huh? It’s some low level dealers, so we might as well process them as quickly as possible.”

“We could still get something out of them.” Detective Brian Sai said: “The one Marcus brought in himself was quite cooperative. We have officers taking his statements right now.”

“Yeah, an overambitious new guy who joined the crew just last month, how much could he know?” Captain Ko pushed back on his rolling chair and stood up: “Now, you gentlemen have a nice late afternoon and evening, I’m gonna go home and let my wife nag my brains out.”

“Marcus, you go on ahead. ” Right outside of the Captain’s office, Detective Pahaik patted Marcus on the back: “I can finish up the paperwork here.”

“Thank you Shrevas, just leave some to me and I’ll come back as early as I can tomorrow to finish them up. Captain wouldn’t know. ” Marcus sighed and put on his jacket: “I’ll check on that pissy pants before I go as well. ”

“Yeah, be careful there because he’ll probably freak out. Wonder what drugs he’s on.” Detective Sai shook his head: “It’s kinda rare and - weird. Normal cokeheads who see demons and ghosts all day don’t really speak that coherently.”

“Maybe he mixed stuff up.” Detective Pahaik chuckled.

When Marcus walked by the room where the perp he brought in was being questioned, he saw no one in there. He then proceeded to the holding area, and found that the perp was put into a single holding cell, looking around for something or someone, while talking with - none other than the only forensic technician in this precinct, Kevin Loo.

“Here - take these, they should help you. They are real and of good quality, unlike the crappy ones you have.” Kevin Loo reached into his jacket with a video game logo and character on the back and handed the perp two pieces of light yellow paper: “I doubt he’s gonna be able to stay here with you all day. But I’ll be here all night, and I’ll come and check on you, alright?”

“No! Nonono…” The perp still shook his head and mumbled: “I saw him drive her away! I saw it! None of these will help …”

“Look, he’s got a lot going on. He can’t be here all day.” Kevin Loo frowned: “I got these from the Temple of Forgetfulness, they’re legit. If you’re not sure then give them back to me, I have use for them myself - ”

“Nonono please, I don’t wanna die.” The slim and frail perp immediately shoved the folded up talismans in his pocket: “If you see Detective Cai, can you ask him to check on me? Please?”

“I’m here to check on you now.” Marcus went over and said to the perp, while nodding at Kevin: “And he’s right, I have a lot to deal with. But I will come back here tomorrow, alright? And I’ll ask this very nice gentleman here to call me if there’s anything you need, alright?”

“No! No! You don’t understand! You have to stay here! Or she’ll kill me!” The slim man immediately started begging again: “You promised! You promised! Please!”

“I promised you I’ll bring you back myself. ” Marcus looked at the slim man in his eyes and said with a stone cold voice: “I have my own things going on too. You’ll be safe here. Kevin, if anything happens, just page me, alright?”

“Alright.” Kevin sighed, and after a moment of hesitation, he stuck another talisman on one of the bars of the holding cell: “Don’t scratch this off, you hear me? One more protection for you.”

When Marcus opened the old and heavy door with metal frames to his small and somewhat crowded apartment, inside a complex that looked just barely better than the one he raided with a team earlier, he was hit with an intense pungence of cheap alcohol. And as he turned on the lights, he saw empty beer cans and bottles lying around on the floor and the coffee table at the center of his living room. And on the slightly worn sofa full of small cracks on the old leather surface, laid his father, Elvin Cai, in a cradle position, covered in an old and dirty hand-woven blanket - made by Marcus’ mother.

His father was even more drunk than usual - there were a few more beer bottles and cans than what he’d usually find around the apartment. He was always a lightweight drinker, and even after this many years of practice he was still unable to handle what would only amount to a casual night out for many. Thus, the few more bottles and cans actually made Marcus feel quite concerned, and he had to walk over to check on his father’s pulse and his breathing.

“It’s almost 15 years - you know?” Elvin Cai mumbled and held Marcus’ right arm when Marcus was trying to test his pulse: “It’s almost 15 years - did you hear anything? Anything from the station?”

“No, sorry dad.” Marcus sighed and pulled the blanket up: “People stopped looking, and it’s kinda unwise to actually investigate - I’m trying.”

“It's been almost 15 years. ” Elvin hugged the blanket tighter, his forearms were trembling and his voice was shaking: “15 years.”

“Yeah, I know, dad. I know.” Marcus picked the picture frame dropped on the ground and put it back onto the kitchen shelf. It was a family photo of him, his father and mother. This was not the latest picture of them as a family, but one that was clearest and showed the most of her. It was not as important 15 years ago, before that infamous cruise ship that sank into the middle of the Aqiu Lake.

The lights flickered, and after a few seconds they went dim, but not completely out, leaving various corners in the apartment darker, colder and grimmer. This was odd, at least per the experience of Marcus, as it indicated that they were facing some electricity supply issues. But this was fall season, the weather was neither too hot nor too cold and thus there was very low demand for power for air conditioning or heat. For this reason, they had almost never encountered electricity supply problems during the fall. He looked out the window, and found that the whole neighborhood seemed to be having energy issues.

“Maybe some nearby areas had a power outage and some of the supply got redirected?” Marcus thought to himself. It did not matter, as he just needed to take a quick shower before his daily short meditation and practice session and then going to bed.