The gods were more merciful to the trio on this day. Instead of the downpour they had endured before, it only rained from time to time. Over the day they followed Ms. Han's instincts and 'questioned' specific police officers. Marcus had no idea how she knew who to press for answers, but it was working. Currently Ms. Han was performing another of her interrogations in a small alleyway beside the large and busy streets of Hong Kong.

Xiu's new best friend, the combat knife, was between the legs of a police detective. She asked him questions with a soft and calm voice, and only moved the bladed weapon the smallest amount. The man talked like a waterfall and Marcus couldn't blame him. The whole affair only lasted five minutes before Ms. Han allowed the man to scamper off. "Are you not worried he will tell on us?" Marcus asked, and looked after the man, who vanished into a busy street. "No. I made it clear what would happen if he talked," she said without any emotions in her voice. Ms. Han looked Marcus in the eye. "If you make threats you must be prepared to go through with them or you lose any leverage," she lectured Marcus, but he wasn't sure he wanted to learn this lesson.

Like it or not, this advice will be useful for you, eventually. She is very good at what she is doing.

Don't tell me you understand Mandarin now.

Of course I do. You have been around the language long enough for me to pick up the basics. By now you should not be surprised about my intellectual capabilities.

Marcus wanted to give a snarky reply, but he had to admit Xeen was right. After all he knew and had witnessed, something like this shouldn't surprise him.

"What did you learn?" Janette asked, and entered the conversation. She had been the lookout and only just returned. Ms Han smiled, "I finally have an address. Mr. Yang had several times contact with the Crimson Lotus members and took a considerable amount of 'incentives' to make problems go away. He has two children and an ill wife, you see." Xiu rolled her eyes and continued, "As it happens he overheard one of them talking on the phone. Amateurs…." Ms. Han seemed personally offended that one of the Brotherhood could be this careless with sensitive information.

"Okay, where are we going?" Marcus asked, happy enough that things moved forward again. Ms. Han worked her mobile phone for a moment and then said, "Looks like a warehouse in the harbor area. Why would they need a warehouse for this operation?" Xiu shook her head. "But first, there is somewhere else we have to go," she said, without looking up from her phone.

Half an hour later Marcus and Janette followed Ms. Han into a police morgue. The man in charge had decided to take an additional coffee break after Xiu had handed him a small package with sufficient incentives inside. Stoic, without any signs of hesitation, the Chinese woman pulled out two corpses from the cooled storage and pulled back the white cloth covering their faces. She inspected the bodies of her driver and bodyguard and then spent a minute in silence. "Mr. Wu does not have any family, but Mr. Lie has an ex-wife and a young daughter. When this is over I'm going to see to their needs," Ms. Han whispered, before she put the corpses back into the cooling unit.

They were already on the way to the harbor in a 'borrowed' car when Janette asked Xiu about the morgue visit. "I had to make sure their bodies were taken care of properly. Because the Crimson Lotus had buried all the incidents until now, I feared they might have made the bodies vanish too. They deserve a proper burial," Ms. Han explained. Marcus was once more surprised about the many facets of Ms. Han. He hadn't expected her to be this concerned about the dead bodies of the two men. She seemed far too practical to care about something like this.

It is not a trivial matter to her, Marcus. How would you feel if one of your clan members were to fall? Would you leave their body behind?

That question stung and Marcus realized he hadn't given enough weight to the relationship of Ms. Han and her employees. Marcus had to admit to himself that he lacked certain people skills. He had spent most of his life absorbed in his own problems, but he was also aware that this was no longer a valid path forward.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Because of his clan and his future family he had to learn how to see the world from the point of view of others.

This is a commendable intention, but do not force yourself too much. It is not something you can master overnight. There are also many people around you, who can teach you about this topic.

Like Shen?

For example, but you overlook those much closer to you. Luca Russo and Rian Cullen, both are very skilled in this regard. I would advise you to seek wisdom from them.

"We are here," Janette said, and stopped the car. With a deep breath Marcus pushed his complicated thoughts away and focused on the here and now. Janette had parked the car about a hundred meters away from their target. The day was already growing old and the thick dark clouds diminished the light even more. For half an hour they stayed in the car and watched the large, gray building in the distance. It was over four floors high with two truck sized gates and a pedestrian entrance in front. There were a row of windows high up, to allow at least some natural light inside the building.

Over the time they watched, several people entered and left the suspicious warehouse, including a pizza delivery service. Xiu facepalmed hard when the small red car stopped and a young man carried a large pack of pizzas to the pedestrian entrance. "What happened to the Brotherhood since I left?" She muttered under her breath.

Janette had to fight hard to smother a heavy laugh and Marcus was no better. No, this was too serious to make jokes. They were dangerous and he reminded himself of the corpses in the morgue. "Are we going in? And if so, how?" Janette asked. "I would like to avoid the front entrance. Let's look for a backdoor or another way in," Ms. Han said and already left the car.

They geared up and made their way towards the large building. Marcus wore no armor besides the enchanted green belt and his bracers. Janette wore her light armor under her street clothing, and as far as it concerned Marcus, had a whole armory hidden away in her clothes. Xiu only brought her knife, the heavy pistol from Janette and a silenced pistol she had nabbed from an enemy before.

They made their way to the building, but vanished in a small alley next to it. The path was barely one meter wide and filled with trash.

"We are in the right place for sure. I can see eight class holders in there. All low to mid level," Janette whispered. Eight? Indeed, Janette's observation is correct. Nobody above level 50. Marcus nodded to Janette and they moved to the back of the building. Marcus gained a lot of disapproving looks from the cat-like Ms. Han. His size and lack of training meant he made far too much noise.

Lucky for them, there didn't seem to be any guards outside. To their disappointment, there was no backdoor either. "What now?" Marcus asked the obviously far more experienced Ms. Han. She looked up and Janette quickly grasped the idea, "The roof." The roof was flat and there was a good chance for a roof access or roof windows.

The building's surface was rough enough to allow an experienced climber to climb up, but the rain and the darkness had made the task a lot more difficult. Marcus wasn't worried about Janette, as he watched her, she used her dexterity and super human strength to reach the roof in two graceful leaps. The problem was Ms. Han, if she slipped and fell she could hurt herself seriously, Marcus thought.

Xiu was inspecting the wall to find the best path up, when Marcus stepped behind her. "Excuse me," he said and lifted her up in a princess hold. Completely surprised by this development, she was speechless. Her surprise turned into utter confusion, when two seconds later she and Marcus suddenly shot upwards, accelerated by an invisible force. The sudden acceleration made her dizzy and they overshot the roof by ten meters. Gravity pulled them towards the roof and just before they hit the ground a second unexpected rush of acceleration slowed them down considerably and they landed softly.

Marcus carefully dropped Ms. Han down and took a look around the roof. Great, there was both an entrance and some roof windows, he thought. Xiu was still holding on to his jacket and her face was flushed. "What… just…," she whispered. "You can fly?" She asked with big eyes. "Something like that, but it is still a work in progress. It is also a secret, so please don't tell anybody for now," Marcus said, with a bright smile. Ms. Han's face turned even more red for some reason and she quickly turned around, stepping away for a bit.

"What is it with you and older women?" Janette asked in the growing darkness. "What do you mean?" Marcus wasn't aware of any wrong doings. "If you continue like this, I will tell Azaa," Janette said, with a wicked grin. "Tell her what? I haven't done anything!" Marcus whispered confused, even more so because the old man in his head was laughing hard. "Enough of this. There are more important things to worry about," Ms. Hand said, but her face was still a bit red.

Cooled down and more serious all three crouched down next to the rooftop windows. Warm light poured out of the windows and the three observed the large operation beneath them. Between rows of containers was a large open space filled with two dozen people and their equipment. Given their weapons and armor, it looked more like they were planning to go to war than to hunt down one middle aged woman. "Are they all here just for you Ms. Han?" Janette asked and readied her heavy pistol. "This makes no sense. Such a show of force because of one traitor from decades ago…," Xiu was seriously baffled.

They watched the carefree troops beneath them for a while and tried to come up with a plan. With a creak the rooftop door behind them opened and bright light flooded onto the roof. A man with a freshly lit cigarette stepped out into the night. With one foot on the roof he stopped still, cigarette in mouth, staring at the three crouching people ten meters from him. "Seriously?" Janette said in disbelief, before the man screamed something in Mandarin and the time for sneaking was over.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.