“Hi there.” Marcus waved his hand at Gloria, who came in apparently on some level of alert: “You brought a friend. What’s the occasion?”

“This is Kevin, he’s our forensic technician, and our intel analyzer off payroll because we can’t afford to pay extra.” Marcus patted Kevin’s shoulder: “You can trust him.”

“Yeah, maybe not right now. I’m still deciding if I can trust you.” Gloria shook her head before she sat down on the opposite side of the table.

“Ouch.” Mick and Brian Sai said at the same time.

“I can understand.” Marcus chuckled: “Which is why I come here bearing some offers of goodwill. First - is this.” He pulled out a thick folder, put it on the table and pushed it towards Gloria: “The case files you wanted to steal - I mean see. I added some of our internal notes, not the most secret stuff, but should be enough generalized information and enough details. If you want to look into it more, you’d be welcome to. Just - you’d need to convince our captain.”

“I see. ” Gloria flipped open the folder and raised her brows: “Is this it?”

“Like I told you, it’s just what I can offer you right now. I’m not claiming or demanding anything else.” Marcus shrugged: “And - perhaps you’d like to know this, but we confirmed that the remaining member of this unfortunate team was, at least very likely a transplant - not the usual kind, but one that used to live in the Northern District and moved to South Western and falsified an identity.”

“That’s - curious, and - you’re sure there’s only one remaining?” Gloria looked up from the files.

“Yes, we’re pretty sure. We contacted the company and got their on-call schedule.” Kevin nodded: “The details check out. We think he’s probably still alive, and in hiding. There are no suspicious exit records at the city’s customs, but there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t try soon. With the 15 year cycle…” Before he could go on, Marcus tapped his elbow and interrupted him.

“15 year cycle…” Gloria’s eyes narrowed and fixed on Kevin’s face: “Why’d you mention that? Wait - how did you know about this? What do you know?”

“It’s just some urban legends. I’d not pay it any mind if I were you.” Marcus shook his head and pointed at his ears, indicating to Gloria that someone’s listening: “The important thing is, we want to focus on the case of the reparations team. Shall we?”

“Okay - so…” Gloria frowned, and her attitude immediately became slightly distant: “I guess I would need to make my contribution as well then? Well - if you’ll have to know, I was at the scene, before any police presence was there.”

“Oh?” Marcus and Kevin opened their eyes with surprise at the same time.

“What’d you see?” Marcus asked with visible eagerness, “If you feel comfortable in sharing this, of course.” Kevin became nervous with anticipation. Even outside, Brian Sai and Mick leaned in close to the speaker to which they were listening.

“Nothing I would mind telling you, since you’ve been through - well.” Gloria shook her head with a coy smile: “The thing is - I don’t know much about what was going on either. As police officers, have you heard about Blood Rainbows?”

Marcus almost cracked his tea cup if it weren’t for the fact that Kevin was by his side and he was still on the coms with the other two officers, one of whom was still mostly in the dark about their attempts at cracking the paranormality-related cases.

“So - you know?” Gloria chuckled and sipped her tea: “Okay, but it’s just an urban legend right? I’m sure there’s not much to worry about. Just like the woman I saw under it, who almost scratched my face off.”

“What woman?” Marcus forced himself to be calm, and asked.

“A woman with messy hair and kinda messed up face, I could barely see what she looks like.” Gloria picked up her cup and watched Marcus and Kevin from over it: “She ambushed me when I went to check out the rainbow that came out of nowhere, because I was curious and kind of a dumbass. She reeked of water, and was clearly delusional or - or on drugs. She kept pestering me to go with her.”

“Then - then what happened?” Kevin immediately asked: “Did she - did she say something? What did she look like? What was she wearing? Any - anything that stood out?”

“I can’t recall too much actually - she was just - a mess, and - kinda messed up and - and boney.” Gloria could not help but chuckle at how much she had to change her own words or censor herself just so that her story would not draw too much attention to her or the detective sitting on the other side of the table. “But - I felt that something was not quite right with the scene, I saw that car. I tried to take a closer look but couldn’t. And - thank you for the document, I think I can finally start on the right path to some questions.”

“... okay, maybe another quick question.” Marcus weighed his words, then looked Gloria in her eyes: “Do you happen to know some family members of the reparation team members’ ?”

Gloria sighed. She was just reminded that it was time she went and checked on the widow and child of Ling li, who entrusted his things to her. After a while, she nodded: “Yeah - kinda.”

“I see.” Marcus nodded, waved his hand at the waiter of the tea house and looked Gloria in her eyes: “Do you have some time later? I think it would be beneficial for us and you that we take a quick sweep at the scene. It’s not thoroughly cleaned up yet, because the workers at the companies are refusing to work there. So there could still be something to find.”

Gloria looked Marcus in the eye, then nodded: “Okay, I can spare some time. What do you say? Later today? Evening?”

“At your convenience. But evening’s better.”