“He’s entangled in some - nasty business, and it almost cost him his life, at minimum.” Captain Ko pretended not to see Bri Fung’s expression change: “And just as luck and fate would have it, he ran into one of my detectives, while he was in dire need of help. I offered, and he accepted it. And as a token of his gratitude, he disclosed information to me that could be very useful to me and my detectives. And I think, some of it would be useful to you as well.”

“Oh, which is?” Bri Fung sighed and leaned back on her seat.

“‘Death or gone, be one.’” Captain Ko raised his left eyebrow, with an insinuating smile: “At least, that’s the saying circulating around some of the rich and powerful people - especially old money people. And - you should be more familiar with how those people are doing more than me, right? Since the city council is in charge of handling the exit process from the city, and our councilman is heavily involved - ”

“Stop with this insinuation, it’d do neither of us any good.” Bri Fung interrupted Captain Ko.

“But, I’m right, aren’t I?” Captain Ko nodded, smiling: “One by one, they’re exiting the city, or at least, their children are. But it’s getting really interesting, because while the old money is trying to jump ship, the new money jumped-ups are trying to grab the land they left. Whatever the reason behind their escape is, don’t you think it’s kinda smart to follow them?”

“That’s only you assigning your ideas to them. They are old money, they can easily come back if they need to. And they have a thousand ways to make sure they won’t lose much health or influence even when they’re gone.” Bri Fung shrugged.

“That might be true, but they wouldn’t just leave for nothing, and they wouldn’t just send their children away for nothing.” Captain Ko nodded, satisfied that Bri Fung was receptive to at least some of the things he said: “So - what’s this to you? ”

Bri Fung lowered her eyes and started pondering. After around half a minute, she looked up at Captain Ko: “What do you think he wants - I meant that community collective liaison, what he wants? What does he want with those scholars?”

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“That’s what I need your help with, with those files, and FULL files, I can find out. WE can find out.” Captain Ko narrowed his eyes: “So - what do you say?”

Kevin’s sight shifted between Captain Ko and Bri Fung constantly for a while, there was too much subtext and too much implied history for him to make sense of it all. But at least from the surface, things appeared to be going their way.

“Tell me what your theory is, before I make the biggest career mistake in my entire life.” Bri Fung sighed.

“Pillars. They’re trying to find pillars.” Without even a hint of hesitation, the captain responded: “There’s no doubt about that.”

This answer earned two gasps from Kevin and Bri Fung, and confused looks from Keryn and Mick.

“That’s a - a - ” Bri Fung appeared to be slightly angered by this answer that she was at a loss for words.

“A bit much? Or a big allegation? That’s because it is. ” Captain Ko shrugged: “But - there’s no other explanation for everything. The community collective has no reason to involve the city in their search for the scholars unless it’s a desperate situation. So I asked around yesterday - only a few precincts received requests for help. The other liaisons barely asked them to be on the lookout. When they did, they made it out to be not that big a deal. So - add this to the fact that our liaison just invaded our precinct with a group of unidentified men, I would assume only the worst.”

Bri Fung hesitated, then stood up and paced around. It took her another two or three minutes of intense thought and consideration before she sat back down. It was probably way past her meeting time already, yet none of them wanted to remind her.

“Fine.” Bri Fung finally grunted and relented: “Fine! FINE! I guess - you haven’t been totally wrong on anything before, so - you’ll have it this afternoon. Come back then.”

“No, sorry. We need them now. And it’s early morning. Plenty of time to get it then clean your tracks.” Captain Ko shook his head.

Bri Fung narrowed her eyes at the captain: “You’d better be right this time, and not just tangentially. Wait here, I’ll come back. This will take some time even when I do it right away.”

It took her around half an hour, surprisingly fast for the three thick folders she brought back. All of the folders were made of plain looking and thick, sturdy parchment-like paper, tied together with white cotton threads.

“1148, 1149, and 1033, the three cases you need. Everything you need about them is here.” Bri Fung handed Captain Ko the folders, who in turn passed two of them to Kevin and Keryn while keeping one under his jacket.

“My sincerest gratitude, Bri. You just saved our lives.”

Bri Fung took a deep look into the captain’s eyes, then came over and kissed him on the lips. It was a short kiss, after which she pressed her forehead against the captain’s, sighed: “This is goodbye. Our - arrangement ends right here, right now. You owe me passage out of the city. After that, I’ll be gone.”