“I feel bad about this, having to keep this thing hushed up from the others,” Jason said as he and Farhan, sitting around a desk in Farhan’s apartment, went through the files and documents they got from Bradley who in turn got them from the commissioner, files and documents that threaten to implicate AC David Kang and quite possibly the entire Magic Law Enforcement of corruption, murder and sex trafficking.

“Xiaoye, Roderick, Lucas and Ajibade all have issues with the MLE. If they find out, they will no doubt go over there and cause a ruckus, and both Tom and Rendal will go along for the fun of getting into a violent encounter. We’ll have to hold back until it’s time for them to know,” Farhan replied.

“Yeah, but look at this document. Notice a familiar name?”

The harimau jadian took the document from Jason and frowned at the sight of a recently familiar word.

“Haxe… And this hacker just attacked Weijin and Amirah. Things might get complicated. Also, Haxe attacked at the worst time possible. This coming week is Rookie Partners Week for the Shades, which means all the rookies have to go on patrol with each other and not their senior partners,” he commented.

“Yeah, I’m not exactly ready to leave Amirah, who’s clearly being targeted if what we just learnt from Xiaoye and the others is true, with another inexperienced rookie. Hell, if only I could squeeze Roderick in, but he’s a transfer with four years of experience, not a rookie.”

“On the bright side, some of the senior officers will be observing them from afar, so if something goes wrong, they can intervene. Tom and Nora got volunteered because the front desk is part of the rookies’ rotation during the week. Neither of them are happy about it.”

“Speaking of our front desk officers, did you see that weird cat they brought in yesterday? The one with that mace-like tail that can break wood with one hit.”

“Oh, the ball-tailed cat? Yeah, a fearsome critter from North America. Animal rescue found them during a raid on a suspected black market pet seller. They wanted to put it down, but since Tom was one of the volunteers who found it and it got attached to him, he had a dumbass idea of making it a police cat.”

Jason snorted.

“A police cat, really? What are we going to do with it, make it a feline K-9?” he asked.

“That’s actually still a cub. An adult ball-tailed cat is the size of a cougar,” Farhan replied nonchalantly, nearly causing Jason to drop his pen in surprise.

“And Tom’s keeping it in the station?”

“Nah, he brings it home with him, like Nora brings her pet.”

“The pelesit Xiaoye brought back, right… You know, I don’t mean to offend, but the Shades’ Third Shift officers are really weird, even for the supernatural.”

“Welcome to the gila shift, Jason. Sooner or later, you’ll be gila too. Anyways, Tom was actually thinking of making the ball-tailed cat some sort of psychological support animal for traumatized victims, and then handing it over to the zoo once it’s old and big enough.”

“We have fearsome critters in the zoo?”

“Yup, a few. Axhandle hounds, jackalopes and goofus birds. I think they also brought in a dungavenhooter. Not sure how that alligator-looking thing survives when it literally has no mouth to eat…”

“When did the United States suddenly became so open about their fearsome critters? I thought they have strict rules about exporting them to other countries given their status as protected species? I mean, outside the US, only Canada and France have them on display in their zoos,” Jason asked.

“Their current president’s fault. He snubbed Singapore from an economic summit for the third time and then one of his dumbass underlings openly criticized our country’s laws. In response, the Chinese government gifted us a qilin on a ten-year-loan, making us the first country outside of China to have one in our zoo, then Russia sealed a major maritime trade route deal with us and half of Southeast Asia through Japan and South Korea. Now, the White House is trying to fix diplomatic relations using their own version of panda diplomacy with their fearsome critters,” Farhan explained.

“Huh, so both rival countries took the opportunity to land a sucker punch on the Stars and Stripes. Pretty dirty move, but politically wise, very efficient in sending a message,” Jason mused as he went back to looking through the documents.

“Only politicians say that politics is a clean game. Everyone knows it’s not, we simply don’t really care as long as they do their jobs as well as we expected from them when we voted for them.”

“Hey, Farhan, enough about politics and other countries, look at this,” Jason suddenly said as he stared at a picture.

"What?"

“Look at this truck. Familiar, right?”

Farhan squinted at the words written on the side of a delivery truck being pointed out by Jason in the picture, then his eyes widened in surprise.

“MedaPharm? Why the hell are all these pictures and documents linking back to that company?”

“It’s not just that. See this fellow here? He’s wearing sunglasses to try and hide part of his face, but I am seventy percent certain that this guy may be Kang Zhan Ling, the PR manager of MedaPharm’s Singapore Branch.”

“Former suspect in our previous case. Suspicious. Maybe we should investigate this further. I’ll have a contact of mine make some discreet checks on him.”

“Who is this contact of yours?” Jason asked as Farhan took out his phone.

“An investigative journalist. She’s got a talent for infiltrating companies and obtaining secrets without stepping foot into their buildings. She’s also quite skilled in the art of disguise. I was told that she used to be involved in company espionage before deciding to take a cleaner route in life. I’ll see if I can contact her, get some help.”

“We can’t even involve our own colleagues and you’re dragging in an outsider, and a civilian to boot?”

“Don’t worry, she won’t know a thing. Besides, it’s as you said. Sooner or later, we’ll have to tell our team what’s going on.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Jason replied as he lets out a sigh before turning his attention back on the documents…

“So you talk more about your ex-girlfriends than ex-boyfriends? No wonder some people thought you’re lesbian,” Aiko said to Xiaoye as the two watched a legal drama together in Aiko’s three-room apartment.

“Aye, but frankly speaking, my ex-boys tend to break-up with me on better circumstances than my ex-girls. Maybe I’m just lucky with the blokes. Hell, I’m still in contact with the ones still alive, but not with the ladies," Xiaoye replied.

"What, the boys a lot more fun than girls?" the tanuki teased.

"Maybe it's because of the current Western society. But that aside, imagine you’re a bloke dating a bisexual woman with a really open mind despite her being considered a leftist liberal. We were checking out random girls together and guessing how many hearts she’s broken while other guys were getting whacked over the head by their girlfriends simply for straying their eyes.”

“Hard to imagine you being a leftist liberal with that open-mindedness of yours. I heard you hate the woke culture.”

Xiaoye lets out an annoyed hiss while facepalming.

“Who’s been spilling the beans to you, Roderick or Weijin?” she asked, causing Aiko to let out a short laugh, “But it is true. I’ve always seen this woke culture, this self-proclaimed progressive movement, as a poison corrupting the fight for social justice, and it’s one of the realistic representation of the idiom ‘The path to evil is paved by good intentions’. But come now, we’re not here to discuss politics, are we?”

“Nope, we’re here to watch the winner of Film Hunk 2061, Benjamin Henderson, play a hardcore lawyer who doesn’t hesitate to retaliate against dirty lawyers and witnesses with their own tricks. Hard to believe he left Hollywood to act in Singapore.”

“I heard he got tired of being used as a punching bag by his former allies after he openly expressed his dislike of how social justice is being implemented in American media. Wrong choice of words he used, though. No one likes being called a fascist.”

“And it’s worse because he’s Black, right? Imagine talking common sense and getting called a race traitor by Caucasians of all people? No wonder he moved to Singapore. He likes it here, says he doesn’t have to think about skin colour because apart from some curious locals, almost everyone treats him like one of their own.”

Xiaoye shook her head.

“I hope he doesn’t regret his decision. Just because we have laws that stomp down on racism doesn’t mean it’s no longer existent in Singapore. Two days ago, some arsehole, Chinese like myself of all things, screamed out loud the N-word at Ajibade when we were dealing with a family dispute case. Mind you, that roaster wasn’t even involved in the whole thing, just a passer-by, but he probably thought it was funny to act like an Asian white supremacist. Tom didn’t find it funny, though. Called him, quoting exact words, ‘a fucking disgrace to his ancestors and all Chinese in the world’, and then promptly took him down hard when he tried to flee.”

“Wait, isn’t Tom that really rotund officer you said is usually stuck behind a desk but who can still run really fast despite his weight and jelly belly?”

“And a former rugby player in New Zealand to boot. He even took part in some co-training with the All Blacks at one point, so you can guess how painful his tackle is. That racist arsehole deserved every bruise he got from Tom, and all Ajibade did was laugh at him when Tom and Rahman stuffed him into their backseat.”

“Wow, I guess we have our fair share of idiots in Singapore,” Aiko commented.

“You got them back in Japan?”

“I don’t know. I spent only eighteen years there. I’ve been living in this country for more than fifty years. But I did hear from my cousin that there is a slight increase in racism cases, especially in certain prefectures,” Aiko replied as she scratched her tanuki ears, which had popped out due to itch.

Amirah sat in her darkened bedroom, making sure that all her wires and cables were ready to be unplugged in an instant before entering the Dark Web, wary that Haxe would track her down and do something to her family’s bungalow as she entered her username and password into Cyber-Eye’s private chat group.

Scrolls: Oh, look who’s here! Zura99, after two long years of inactivity.

Amirah lets out a small smile. Scrolls knew very well the reason why she had been inactive, especially since they have met in real life a few times. The others, however, had no idea who she is or what she’s working as now. She could see that most of the old crew are around like En?gma and Lore, but also a few that did not use any online moniker, simply going by the default CE(number) assigned to them when they first joined the group.

Zura99: Yeah, been a while. Busy with non-hacking life. Where’s [email protected], Strsed and Whisper?

ClipperKid: Strsed got kicked out for stealing bank account data, [email protected] kind of disappeared last year. Whisper got arrested in New Zealand.

Lore: Too bad about Whisper and [email protected], but I never liked Strsed in the first place, guy’s too shifty.

En?gma: Never mind those three. Sounds like our old friend from France is gunning for you, Zura99.

Lore: Yup, heard he tried to burn two cops alive to get your attention. Kind of drastic, you know?

Zura99: Doesn’t really feel like him, but I’m not ruling out that suspicion.

En?gma: Now that you mentioned it, it does feel a little weird that he would try something so crazy.

CE3: When did Haxe become a mage, though? I heard the arson incident involved the use of magic.

CE15: And Singapore’s one of the few countries where use of magic is strictly regulated.

ClipperKid: Yeah, he might get hanged or something.

Zura99: My country’s not that harsh. Attempted murder carries a very long sentence, that’s all.

Lore: And caning, if I recall correctly.

Zura99: We actually abolished that in the year 2061 in favour for extended jail time which will be implemented if the accused is deemed to have no remorse or has a high chance of re-offending.

Scrolls: Look, it’s nice to have Zura99 back, but remember, I called you all for a meeting because of Haxe. Not sure if he’s really gone off his rocks, but I doubt he will stop at Zura99. Remember, we all worked together to take him down, so he’s probably gonna come for all of us.

Lore: Yeah, maybe we should- Hold on, message coming in. Huh, I think I’ve been hac-

[Lore has disconnected]

Zura99: Lore?

ClipperKid: Lol, he disconnected.

[Lore has connected]

Lore: Chaotah rice

[Lore has disconnected]

En?gma: What the hell does he mean by “burnt rice”. That’s not like him at all.

Amirah did not reply. A sudden feeling of dread had suddenly come over her.

Xiaoye and Aiko grabbed each other by reflex when a loud explosion caused the tanuki’s apartment to shudder.

“What the hell was that? An accident?” she asked.

“No, more like an explosion… Oh, shit. Look, the bungalow across the road,” Xiaoye uttered as she pointed out the window, with Aiko gasping at the sight.

One of the bungalows was partially engulfed in unnatural violet flames, and though it was faint, Xiaoye could hear someone screaming from that very bungalow...