Despite his thuggish appearance, Noel van Schilt was surprisingly well-mannered and patient as he talked to Xiaoye and Roderick at the front desk while Lucas nonchalantly typed a report out on one of the front desk’s computers even as Inna sat on his shoulders dangling her ragdoll next to his head.

“In other words, Mr Bailor was stealing recalled products from our company and repurposing them as drugs?” Mr Van Schilt asked.

“Aye, sir, that is correct,” Xiaoye replied, to which Van Schilt turned to the Chinese man standing next to him.

“So what you said is true, Mr Chang. Glyter pills could be used for drug abuse. I think I’ll have to inform my colleagues back in Australia to issue a worldwide recall, then.”

“Yes, Mr Van Schilt. The safety of the public should be prioritized.”

“A damn shame about it, though. Glyter has been around for three years. Never would I expect a slimming pill can have the same effect as cocaine after a few modifications.”

“Mr Van Schilt, since Mr Bailor stole from your company, would you be pressing charges?”

“Well, that’s not for me to decide. Mr Chang here is the one who will have to make the decision. I only do so in Australia.”

“Of course I will be pressing charges! Not only did that elf stole from the company, he also gave them to a gang known for peddling drugs in the streets!” Mr Chang said indignantly.

“Do you want the stolen products back? It may take a while, though, since they’re currently being seized as evidence, and you’ll have to go to Narcotics to get them back once the case is over because we’ll be handing him over to them,” Roderick asked.

“Oh, it’s perfectly fine. We were going to dispose of them anyways, we’ve got enough samples to conduct our own investigation into the chemical properties of the Glyter pills. Your Narcotics colleagues can destroy them once they’re done with their own investigations.”

“That will be noted,” Lucas spoke up, causing the two guests to flinch.

“Oi, what is wrong with this officer? How come I keep forgetting that he’s sitting here?” Mr Chang asked.

“He’s special, like most of us in the Shades,” Xiaoye replied as Jason emerged from the interrogation room.

“Mr Van Schilt? I heard you’re here. Inspector Jason Narayanan. I believe we spoke before.”

“Yes, Inspector, I remember you. Your subordinates told me that Hekkal will be handed over to Narcotics, is it true?”

“Yes, though I don’t think they should be telling you that. Well, no harm done in this case so I’ll let it pass. However, Mr Van Schilt, we have good reason to believe that someone in MedaPharm tipped Hekkal off about our officers looking for him, as he tried to evade our officers who were waiting for him outside your local branch’s building.”

“Mr Chang, care to explain?”

Mr Chang nervously scratched his head.

“I don’t know how he got tipped off, sir. Maybe someone told him in a casual conversation?”

“Maybe, or someone has an issue with us doing our jobs. Either way, this incident has been referred to another department, so it’s out of our hands. On the other hand, my team and the guys at Narcotics will need to go to MedaPharm’s office now and seize everything related to Hekkal Bailor. I hope there won’t be any more problems like earlier, Mr Chang?”

“Oh, of course, go ahead. I won’t dream of obstructing the police.”

“Xiaoye, Roderick, grab your ride and wait for the rest of the team. We’ll meet you at your branch office, gentlemen,” Jason said, to which Van Schilt and Mr Chang agreed and left on the elevator.

“Oh, can I go with you?” Inna suddenly asked as she waved her ragdoll around, but her collar is then grabbed by Lucas, who plucked her off his shoulders and placed her on the table.

“You’re under police protection. You are free to wander around the station, but no leaving,” Lucas told the moh shuvuu, who began to pout.

“Boo! It’s like I’m under arrest!”

“C’mon, Inna, that roaster who broke into Lucas’s home to have a go at murdering you is still out there. Right now, this is the safest place for you. I’ll get you cookies if you be a good lassie and obey Lucas and Auntie Nora,” Xiaoye said to Inna who, with a look of slight fear, turned to glance at the young female Malay sergeant seated next to Lucas and smiling at her.

“No, please! She smells dead, like unnatural dead!” Inna pleaded.

“What? Don’t say such rude things to her! Sergeant Nora’s a fine young lady,” Roderick chided.

“Actually, Nora smells dead because she’s a pontianak. If you are about fifteen feet away, you’ll smell frangipani instead of a corpse,” Lucas explained monotonously without even looking up.

Every male officer, be they monster or mortal, in the immediate area except for Lucas looked up at Sergeant Nora, whose face momentarily transformed into a partially rotting appearance wearing a malicious smile before reverting to normal in a blink of an eye, and immediately backed away from the front desk while instinctively shielding their family jewels with their hands.

“She’s a pontianak?”

“How long have we not known about it?”

“Crap, she saw me with an adult magazine once. Am I marked?”

Xiaoye rolled her eyes at her male colelagues’ panicked whispers.

“Oh, please, she’s a pontianak, not a sundel bolong. If she wants to kill you, she’ll tear your guts out and eat them in front of you. Kak Nora, want me to take the nail out your neck for a minute?”

“Sure, why not? Saya berasa agak lapar…”

“Oi, oi, oi, don’t you dare…” Jason warned as everyone tensed up while Xiaoye and the desk sergeant continued to tease their male colleagues (Lucas ignored the whole thing as he was busy with Inna).

“As if she really has a nail at the back of her neck… See you at the garage,” the cambion said to the others, which only served to raise their fear levels, before heading down to the garage with Roderick.

Fifteen minutes later, Grey Team had arrived again at the office building of MedaPharm’s Singapore branch with a few members from the Narcotics department bearing a search warrant. No one dared to say anything as the officers marched into the chemical researchers’ office and began ransacking Hekkal Bailor’s desk, confiscating every electronical device and documents they could find while Van Schilt and Mr Chang watched.

“Hey, hey! What is going on here?” a familiar voice is heard as the police were packing all the seized items.

“Ah, shit, it’s the Kang, sir,” Xiaoye whispered to Jason ,who whipped his head around to see Kang Zhan Ling entering the area.

“That’s AC Kang’s nephew? I’ll handle him, hand this over to the narcos guys,” Jason replied before passing a file to Xiaoye and walking over to Zhan Ling, who was already in a heated conversation with Mr Chang.

As Xiaoye handed the file to one of the Narcotics officers and received a box of strange items in return, she watched as Jason tried his best to be professional towards Zhan Ling, who was already being the same bitchy self as he was when she and Weijin questioned him a few days ago. Distracted by the sight, she failed to see where she was going and bumped into someone hard.

“Ow, ow, that hurts!”

“I am so sorry, I didn’t see you there, Mr Stone,” Xiaoye apologized as the chief auditor of MedaPharm’s Singapore branch massaged his arm with a slight wince.

“It’s fine, no worries! I came here after I heard that Hekkal Bailor got arrested… What is in that box you’re carrying? It felt so hard and heavy.”

“No idea, looks like a bunch of hard drives and equipment for unknown purposes… Are you sure you’re okay, Mr Stone?”

“Yeah, the pain’s already subsiding. Looks like Mr Kang’s giving you guys some problems.”

“Aye, he seem to have something against the police.”

“He has something against everyone who is a threat to his position,” Theodore Stone replied.

“And how are the police a threat to him? He hasn’t done anything wrong now, has he?”

“Nah, people like him, they’re what I call successful bullies. They sustain themselves by lording over others. To them, power over everyone is everything: Popularity, ego, control. They will do anything to keep that power, and they won’t hesitate to trample over anyone. No mercy, no kindness, no remorse for their actions. Unfortunately, the reality is that such ruthless, heartless traits allow you to succeed in life. Hell, at least seven out of ten successful person I’ve met have screwed over at least one or two innocent people to achieve greatness.”

“Sounds like you’re describing psychopaths.”

“No… Psychopaths can’t feel. They need to be raised in a morally correct environment to function as normal human beings capable of at least some empathy and righteousness. People like Zhan Ling, they grew up normal, but got away with too much bad deeds as a child to the point where they have this mentality that they’re untouchable, and that mentality sticks to adulthood despite what people claim. I knew an owner of a restaurant chain back in Australia who is well-known as a philanthropist, but then he got caught on video mocking a former classmate he once beat into a hospital. You can guess what happened to him once the video started circulating.”

“I heard about that incident. It went global.”

“Yeah, I suppose it did. Mr Kang here, I heard he was one of the worst kind of bully: The type that attacks his victims both physically and mentally, never ever punished for his actions. It became clear to me the moment I met him that he not only gains power by harming others, but also derives pleasure from it. He’s a power-hungry sadist, one that craves control. But the police, now that’s a bunch of people he can’t control, and it irks him that there are people who would stand up to him. Worst, he can’t beat up a police officer like he did his former classmates when they fought back.”

“No one likes being on the losing end, you know?”

“True, but people like Mr Kang here, they break easily too. I heard a colleague of yours was his former bully victim?”

“Something like that.”

“Broke his ribs or something in a fight, right? And after he had been pummelled badly by Zhan Ling.”

“He got hold of a fire extinguisher at some point and waited for Zhan Ling to drop his guard, so I’ve heard.”

“Well, if I were there watching the fight, I’ll say that his victim broke more than just his ribs. His ego was most likely broken as well. Having someone whom you’ve just made mince meat out of suddenly mess you up one blink away from a full victory? You won’t be able to live it down, knowing that a weaker being just injured you.”

“You know, Mr Stone, when I first met you, I thought you were the typical politically-motivated office employee who knows how to pull everyone’s strings to raise himself above others… Turns out you’re the rare good kind, only doing such things against those who do the same. You must really hate bullies,” Xiaoye commented, prompting Theodore to chuckle.

“Sometimes, the best weapon to fight evil is evil itself, some would say. And yes, I hate bullies. When people say that word, they refer to the ones you deal with in school, but for me, bullies are found everywhere in any form. The worst ones are the murderers that kill for the sake of killing.”

“How so? Not every murderer kills with the intention to kill, I know that very well.”

“I’m not talking about the ones that killed in anger, or the ones who have mental conditions like psychopathy or bipolar disorder. I’m talking about the ones who show extreme callousness towards their victims, the ones who, by all rights, should know damn well not to do it but still do it because seeing someone squirm before them as their lives are being snuffed out gives them a sense of power, makes them feel that they have control over who lives and who dies.”

“Like as though they’re gods or something.”

“Yes. Life and death should be decided by God’s will, not by mortals who want to play His role. Even worse are the ones who cause death indirectly but deliberately. Imagine tricking a group of people into consuming a new drug, not telling them that they were part of a control group, then racking up the body count as just another unfortunate statistic. Yet these kind of people get a lesser sentence than direct murderers half the time…”

Xiaoye could sense some anger coming from Theodore, and his choice of example had, for some reason, triggered a gut feeling in her. MedaPharm’s recent dispute with HJP Incorporated involved the recent controversy surrounding an untested drug somehow making its way into the hands of the public, resulting in a number of deaths and accusations of unlawful human testing. Was Theodore trying to tell her something?

“Damn, that Zhan Ling fellow, he sure is one hell of an asshole. Just talking to him, I feel like I’m dealing with a violent narcissist diagnosed with immature personality disorder. All his arguments are so… So childish. Good grief, I was this close to slapping cuffs on him when he tried to snatch these files from me,” Jason complained as he approached Xiaoye, having sent the nasty PR manager packing with the threat of imminent arrest.

“Why would he try to snatch those files?”

“No idea, maybe he was trying to screw around, maybe he’s got something to hide. Still, no doubt AC Kang will be visiting Bradley again after this with another biased claim that the Shades are harassing his nephew, but it doesn’t really matter at this point. Who is this?”

“Oh, he’s the chief auditor here, Theodore Stone.”

Jason sizes the auditor up while rubbing his chin before giving Theodore a nod.

“Okay, we’re done here. Let’s go back and check all the seized evidence. If we don’t find what we’re looking for, we’ll be handing all of it to Narcotics,” he said, signalling for everyone to make their leave.

As Xiaoye exited the building with her colleagues, she noticed Roderick appeared to be deep in thought, amused by how stern he looks when doing heavy thinking as she poked his sides.

“Penny for your thoughts, Roderick?”

“Don’t do that, sergeant! I’ve got sensitive sides…”

“Well, you look like your brain’s working overtime,” the cambion teased as she and Roderick got into the hatchback.

“Yeah, I was thinking about something. It involves what you told me about the attack on Lucas’s home and… Nah, never mind, maybe I am overthinking it…”

“Hey, Roderick, you’re a police officer. There are times where you have to go with your gut feelings.”

“Well, gut feeling and proof are two different things. But we’ll see…”

Seeing her partner having a troubled look, Xiaoye could not help but feel uneasy. Did Roderick pick up something that she did not, but was unwilling to say anything because he was uncertain? Perhaps he did not want to draw the wrong conclusion or taint the investigation, but Xiaoye knew that sooner or later, Roderick will have to speak up…