“This is actually good. I appreciate it. I think the information can be useful - I’ll cross it with my information, and I’ll share some with you if we’re able to find something.” When they stepped out of the scene, Gloria gave Marcus an appreciative look: “I know it’s not easy for you to - you know.”

“Well, only a small bit of the debt I owed you.” Marcus smiled.

“And it’s knocking off quite a bit off the interest!” Gloria chuckled, then paused for a moment before continuing: “You know, I think it’s safe to share this with you - I just don’t know if you know about this already. You asked me if I knew the family members of the emergency reparations team? I actually knew, well, I met the family of one of them. And I heard from them that the workers were already noticing things that were not right. Especially at their night shifts.”

Marcus and Kevin were both surprised by this, more than Gloria thought and expected: “Well - that is a crucial piece of information we weren’t able to get before this. Thank you!”

“I mean, even protective custody isn’t enough for them to tell us.” Kevin shrugged: “They’re just way - way too scared.”

“What?” Gloria was also surprised at this information: “You took them on protective custody?”

“Well - not to badmouth the collective behind their backs, but those enforcers they sent did not look like good people. And even though we had to wrestled with the collective for this.”

“But - it’s - it’s unlike the community collective to do so.” Gloria weighed the words with a frown on her face: “I don’t remember hearing even a single time they’d let the city take potential witnesses into their custody on high profile cases.”

“That is indeed - tricky and a bit suspicious.” Marcus nodded and scratched his jaw: “To give them the benefit of the doubt, I’d say they showed some willingness to cooperate with the city, if I didn’t know about the messy history.”

“Or maybe because they couldn’t get any information out of them, so they had some kind of deal with the city so that they could get the information second hand?” Kevin thought for a while before asking.

“Likely, at least more likely than their just letting the city have it.” Marcus let out a frustrated grunt, then turned to Gloria: “What - what do you think? I think you’d be more familiar with how the collective works.”

“Beats me.” Gloria shrugged: “As far as I know, the collective seems to be a bit uptight lately as well, I am not sure on the reason but maybe it’s because of the child disappearances. And - there’s a lot of paranormal things happening in our district, they’re probably very busy with those as well. I mean - how come the other districts don’t see as much supernatural shit?”

“I - I wonder that myself sometimes. The only thing I could deduce is thanks to some historical reasons, which becomes the main reason why the South-Eastern District has such a rich landscape of churches and temples.” Kevin smiled while rubbing his own upper arms seemingly trying to make himself warmer in the night wind.

“Do you happen to know where they are? The families of those victims, I mean. I was wondering if I can find a chance to talk to some of them.” Gloria tried her best to sound natural and not overly curious or concerned.

“It’s not gonna be easy - because it’s the city that offered the protective custody, not us. So to reach out to them, even we need preapproval and provide some good reasons. And then either you meet at a mutual spot or they vet you heavily before you can find them at their location.” Marcus sighed. “Sorry - probably won’t be much help to you there.”

“It’s okay.” Gloria shook her head lightly.

“And - since you mentioned there being more paranormal stuff happening lately… ” Kevin sounded extra cautious with his every word: “Do they happen to be somewhat related to - to - horrible stuff that happened in the past. Like - like the cruise ship? Or something - something even longer before?”

Both Marcus and Gloria stopped. The air grew palpably thicker with this question.

“What are you asking this?” Gloria’s voice dropped by at least a few degrees, anymore then water could freeze under it. “And - I’ve gotta ask this again - you mentioned the 15 year cycle before, so you clearly know something about what’s happening. What do you know? Out with it!”

“You know as well.” Marcus exchanged looks with Kevin, then answered after a long exhale.

“Yes. And you know much more than you’ve let out. It’s not simply an ‘urban legend’, is it? Spit it out now, and I can tell you what I know. Or else - ”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Marcus immediately raised his hands with a smile: “We couldn’t tell you because we don’t know you, and we’re not sure we can trust you.”

“And right now you do?”

“Well, I still can’t say for sure. But I’d say I know you better now than before. And I believe a little bit of knowledge sharing is good enough for me. As long as - you know, you keep this to yourself.”

“Can’t do that. You have your team and your partners, I have mine. I’ll need to share the intel with them as well. But you can trust me on this - I’ll do with this information with the utmost caution and diligence. After all - I still need to stay as your consultant to gain access to the Blue Envelopes.”

“That’s also why.” Marcus chuckled and looked Gloria in the eyes: “What we know is - it’s a circle alright. And the circle of five elements. And not in any circular order - it’s just the folk lore order Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. And we’re - ”

“We’re at the Fire circle.”