“Why the long face, Sergeant Chen?” Amirah asked as she drove down a street in Bukit Panjang.

Weijin did not answer, merely looking out the window with a forlorn expression.

“Come on, you really want to tap Xiaoye that hard? Didn’t her uncle put a curse on you?”

“Yeah, and it was Orobas of all the Goetic demons that did it. Xiaoye even told me he was the kindest, right before he did it! And now the curse has activated… Two beautiful women I tried to woo, and the two are actually… Starting to get together? Woe is me, Amirah, woe is me. And to think Lucas, that freaking robot face who can’t feel any emotions for the last three years, actually chuckled for the first time at my expense!” Weijin moaned.

“C’mon, there are so many pretty girls out there in Singapore! You’ll get one eventually.”

“Yeah, but the only ones I seem to attract are ah lians…”

“Tom was suggesting tossing you into a red light district.”

“That fat bastard talks a lot of bullshit. I’m not that desperate,” Weijin complained as he finally tore his eyes away from the window, still looking rather unhappy about the whole thing when their radio comes to life.

“Any available Sierras, assistance required at abandoned carpark in Dairy Farm Road. Situation unclear, but ruined vehicles reported being thrown from second floor.”

“Roger that, Sierra-3-5 heading to investigate,” Weijin replied.

“Guess there’s something to finally take your mind off things,” Amirah commented.

“We’ll see, we’ll see…”

The abandoned carpark they were headed for was known to Amirah as a place where drug traffickers, illegal traders and fences like to hang out. One of the few remaining evidence of the destruction caused to Singapore during World War three, it was strange that something supernatural would go on there after so many years of being used for criminal activities. It took only five minutes for Amirah get them both to the location, but as they left their vehicle, Amirah noticed that Weijin had a suspicious look on his face.

“Where the hell is everybody? This place is usually populated by the Lizards, Scorpio-45, Tran Minh Boys and Hantu Parang gangs. Why is it so deserted tonight? And where are the wrecked cars that were being thrown off the second floor?” Weijin asked.

“Maybe it’s on the other side? The car being thrown off from a high level must have scared the gangs off.”

“No way. Hantu Parangs literally hang out with pocongs and pontianaks, and the Lizards practice necromancy. They would not be frightened off with a little poltergeist activity… Something smells, Amirah. Firearms out.”

Nodding, Amirah drew her sidearm and followed Weijin into the abandoned carpark. The first time she fired her weapon was during the office raid where the poor Chinese man was forcefully used as a vessel for an ancient demon by the Crimson Shadows terror-cult. After that, she hadn’t found any chance of using it, and she hoped she doesn’t have to shoot anything again.

By now, Amirah was starting to notice how quiet her surroundings were. No night birds, no insects, no wind, just nothing. No wonder Weijin was on edge. In fact, Amirah was now feeling a sense of dread herself as she looked around the second floor of the abandoned carpark.

“This is bullshit, man… Sierra-3-5 to Control, there’s nothing out of the ordinary here at the abandoned carpark along Dairy Farm Road,” Weijin radioed over to the control centre with an irritated tone.

“Excuse me, could you repeat that, Sierra-3-5?”

“I said, you sent us on a wild goose chase! There’s nothing out of the ordinary at the Dairy Farm Road abandoned carpark.”

“What is going on? Give me a moment… Hey, who sent Sierra-3-5 to Dairy Farm Road?”

Amirah heard confused mumblings, followed by another officer taking over communications with Weijin.

“Sierra-3-5, we have no records of sending you to Dairy Farm Road. Please explain your presence there?”

“One of your guys informed us of poltergeist activity. The wrecked cars were being thrown from the second floor, according to the reports. We received, at twenty-two forty hours, a request for Sierra’s assistance at this very carpark we’re in right now, and now your guy is telling me that he did not make that request?”

“I don’t understand, Sierra-3-5. I’m currently looking at the call logs from the control centre, and I am not picking up any logs made during the time you gave to us.”

“So, if you didn’t send us here, then who did?” Weijin asked, but as Amirah walked over towards him, Weijin suddenly appeared to notice something, and before she could react, he was dashing towards her, grabbing her around the waist and throwing both of them to the floor.

It was here Amirah felt heat around her face, and she realized that Weijin had just saved her from a pillar of flame exploding from the floor. It was so loud that the operators from control could hear it too, and Amirah could hear half of them requesting back-up for the two and the other half asking if they were all right.

“Oh, crap, there’s more! Amirah, run, run!” Weijin said urgently as he pulled Amirah to her feet and the two took off back to the first floor, making a beeline for their vehicle as more and more flame pillars explode from the floors and ending the moment they hit the ceiling.

“Shit, shit! What the hell was that?” Amirah asked as the two reached the safety of their vehicle, watching through the windscreen as flames consumed the abandoned carpark.

“Glyphs… There were glyphs all over the floors and the ceilings… Someone lured us in with a trap,” Weijin replied as he slowly caught his breath.

As the flames got worst, Amirah suddenly realized that they were actually forming a message and gasped at the name being formed by the flames: Zura99.

Zura99. Her old moniker, the one she used during her time as a grey hat hacker who perform acts of cyber-vigilantism a few years back.

But there was more than just her old online alias being formed by the flames. A shape was forming along the outer walls of the staircase, and the flames forming the image were an eerie blue. When it was finished, the flaming shape resembled an axe in the form of the alphabet ‘H’, and as more alphabets began to form next to it, Amirah realized who was responsible.

Haxe.

The black hat hacker Amirah defeated two years ago was back, and from the looks of things, he was most likely targeting her, and all she could do at the moment was sigh and shake her head, knowing full well what kind of trouble was going to rear its ugly head during the next Grey Team meeting...