Ye Lan was pacing around frantically , the cause being the incredulous request from the geezer who lounged in his comfy armchair sipping tea in front of her.
Of course in normal circumstances such a blatant display of insubordination in front of him would certainly have not gone unpunished , though he was certainly an aged man , his hair having turned entirely white long ago and the first traces of wrinkles on his face could be seen quite prominently still his eyes showed the truth .
They were the eyes of a hungry lion.
The eyes of a Bureau Chief who had constantly battled with the darkness in order to rise to the position he was in.
The Military Police was an organisation that valued discipline highly ; usually any case of indiscipline could be considered as a crime severe enough to be incarcerated without any trial .
Still Mu Xing did nothing of that sort .
He was forced to admit that his request this time was quite unusual plus he was asking that of his best subordinate ..
He took one more sip of the tea that had long since gone cold before sighing reluctantly.
"I'm sure that he will be here soon so I would rather you seat yourself ."
Ye Lan didn't refuse his invitation and sat down on the chair that was offered to her
"Let me get this straight . You want me to investigate the recent spate of serial killings in the Red Bamboo District that's all well and good but what's with this external partnership ? " she enunciated the last two words as sharply as he could causing Mu Xing to wince in response ,it was as if he had been struck by a physical arrow .
"Look , " he began , "It is not bad once in a while to take outside help especially when the circumstances are so abnormal as at is in this case ."
Ye Lan frowned but didn't say anything she had to admit that he had a point when all things were considered , still thanks to a certain traumatic incident in her past she had never been able to be much of a team player and the Chief was well aware of that .
So then why would he suggest something like this out of the blue ?
Did he not hold faith in her abilities ?
Surely that wasn't possible .
After all her track record wasn't for show.
Which meant that the Chief felt that a certain special skill was required in order to close this case and that skill for reasons unknown wasn't present in her but was present in this mystical 'Consultant' whom he had summoned .
True , the situation might require some unusual means if they were to track down the culprit still what on earth could this man do when the entire Military Police , including her was stumped ?
If they had been able to pick even the faintest of clues that would have been enough.
But they had nothing .
Nothing at all.
If the situation continued then they might end up having a horrific disaster on their hands caused due to mass panic resulting in the world around spiralling into anarchy.
She couldn't have that .
Even if her eyes were firmly glued to her goal and nothing in the world interested her slightly there were certain base principles that she maintained without which she would have long since gone insane.
In that case if this man could truly pull off a miracle ...
She took a deep breath and calmed down her emotions.
"I suppose I might agree to it if you're trusting him so much . Still he's awfully late isn't he ?"
Mu Xing frowned on hearing that .
Tardiness wasn't highly regarded in the Military Police which placed a high emphasis on order ; in fact it was tantamount to an insult to the rule obsessed officers of the Military Police.
Even so he didn't say anything .
He calmly stared at his watch and waited .
He had enough faith in that person.
As if responding to his mental summons the door opened suddenly to reveal a Man who was drenched from head to toe in mud , sweat and what Ye Lan mistook at first glance for dried blood .
That must have been surely curry or something of that ilk .
The man's appearance was extremely slovenly and his soiled clothes and unkempt hair did nothing to attenuate that impression on the contrary they were responsible for enhancing it further.
Ye Lan wrinkled her nose in disgust and remained silent .
The Man shrugged helplessly.
"On the way here , I ran into a bit of a bother and fell into a puddle on the roadside ," he explained casually.
Ye Lan fumed inwardly.
Since when could a single puddle cause so much damage , was it perhaps a puddle of vomit ?
Besides aren't you , a grown man ashamed of falling into a puddle ?
Mu Xing however leapt to the Man's rescue before Ye Lan could voice her opinion.
"Truly that dratted Public Works aren't doing their job properly , with the rains and all it is quite understandable that you ahem slipped and fell into a puddle ."
Oi ! Chief ! Look at the sweat that's pooling from your brow ! Even you don't believe this load of crap !
"Right " , Mu Xing changed the subject hurriedly before it could become more embarrassing , "How about I introduce the both of you since you would be working together and all ."
"This is Jun You , a Private Consultant who has served us well in the past and that is Ye Lan , she's got the best brains on the force ."
Jun You bowed politely .
"I would be in your care , " was all he said .
Ye Lan nodded curtly in acknowledgement.
"Well then , how about you , Ye Lan bring him up to speed ? " Mu Xing said pointedly the meaning in his words obvious .
Ye Lan who got the hint respectfully got up and then left the room without caring whether Jun You followed her or not.
Ten minutes later a strange couple could be seen heading down a busy boulevard that was embellished by the shining high rises on both sides whose spires reached the purple sky shrouded by rain clouds.
Regardless of attire wise or appearance wise the difference between the couple was akin to that between the Heaven and Earth leading to a curious sight , still the time -poor pedestrians of the metropolis who were engrossed in their own urgency merely gave them a once over before hurrying along.
They had been long since been conditioned after being treated to much stranger sights.
The stories that they could tell especially of the revels taking place high above that could be seen quite clearly through the glass windows..
But who cares ?
It wasn't as if the Military Police were going to arrest their bosses now were they ?
Compared to that a man submerged in dried vomit was at least respectable even so for a woman like that to walk with that guy ..
What ever had the world come to ?
Veins popped in Ye Lan's forehead as she heard some of the 'talk' that was going around.
She turned her head and scowled at the repulsive man who followed her nonchalantly , uncaring of the glances that he was subjected to.
"Here " , she said and forcefully placed a wad of cash on his palm , "Get yourself a room in that hotel over there and clean yourself . I will be waiting in the cafe opposite ."
Jun You gazed at the paper roll dumbfoundedly .
"I never knew that girls these days were this bold , " he muttered under his breath even so Ye Lan with her sharp hearing managed to hear the sentence.
The exasperated Ye Lan nearly blew her top then and there.
If they weren't standing in a public place right then she swore that she would have sent him to the Palace of the King Of Hell .
"Just GET LOST !" the last words were practically screamed out causing unwanted attention to be directed towards them.
"Okay , I guess , " Jun You mumbled something about the bothersome nature of women before leaving.
Ye Lan messaged her temple with a sigh .
She wished more than ever that the case be resolved as soon as it could be .
About Half an hour later Ye Lan disinterestedly churned her coffee as she evaluated the man seated before her who was swigging cup after cup like a barbarian.
A burp announced the end of the drinking session and he proceeded to wipe his chin with the napkin that Ye Lan handed over to him.
"So ? " she inquired , "Can we get down to business ?"
"I suppose we could , " Jun You nodded to express his assent , "Pardon me for the delay , I was just feeling unbearably thirsty . "
"It's not a big deal , " Ye Lan waved her hand .
They had for more important things to discuss rather than bicker about his insatiable thirst that would put an elephant to shame.
"You would undoubtedly have heard of the Wraith Killings . "
He nodded as a sign of affirmation.
"It was in the papers , I believe . A spate of murders of young women in the Red Bamboo District who were roaming well past midnight. "
"That would be an oversimplification . If it was just a simple serial killer we would have caught the perp already . The thing is there's something weird going on ."
"Oh ? " This time Jun You moved forward on his own , clearly the mention of something 'weird' had piqued his interest.
"The first thing is that the victims have nothing common whatsoever apart from the fact that they were young and beautiful . Hair colour , eye colour , height , you mention it , it is entirely random ! You must be well aware that most Serial Killers have a fixed pattern to choose their victims that this one doesn't have one is pretty disturbing to say the least ; it is almost as if the perp this time is but a predator in the wild hunting for prey. "
Jun You merely raised his brow and didn't say anything.
"The Second thing is ? " he queried softly.
Ye Lan hesitated for a moment before she eventually decided to spill the beans since regardless of his lack of personal hygiene or his boorish behaviour he was still a man who was trusted by the Chief .
Though the body of that geezer had deteriorated with age his discerning eyes were just as sharp as ever ; the likelihood of him making a mistake was astronomical.
"The thing is every victim we found was drowned to death by a quantity of water that wouldn't be out of place for a sizeable lake but can in no be way be present in the middle of the city especially in an area where there's no water body nearby . We initially hypothesised that the vics were perhaps drowned somewhere else and were instead transported here after their death , the thing is witnesses place each of them at a time just half an hour so before time of discovery and there's no way the killer can kidnap them , drown them in a large lake and make it back in time . "
"Is that why you have taken to calling the Killer a Wraith after the legendary spirits that are formed as a result of the death of Seamen who drown in the Sea ? "
Ye Lan nodded , "There's no way we could let the actual circumstances be known otherwise it would have caused mass hysteria but the name sort of caught on and before we knew it the papers had it as a part of the headlines. "
Ye Lan looked at him anxiously , "I hope you don't think that we are fibbing ."
Jun You looked at her desperate face full of surprise before laughing aloud , "No worries about that ! Here I was thinking that there would hardly be any work to do ! You have just about made things quite interesting to work on ! If it's not a problem can you lead me to the crime scene at once ?"
Although Ye Lan was still sceptical she eventually agreed to his proposition and after paying the bill which left a sizeable dent in her wallet she lead him out.
Regardless of success or failure she decided that she was never going to treat this guy to coffee again !
Far above the skies thundered and lightning pierced through the firmament with a mighty roar.
The lightning rod that stood aloof above the roof shone red as it did its best to stave off the wrath that rained down from the heavens .
Uncaring of what was going on around him , a man clothed in an elegant suit was tapping his feet in response to the rhythm that played in his ears through the pods .
The smell of the air tinged with ozone changed abruptly signalling the arrival of the person he was waiting for .
Being polite in nature , he removed his pods and waited for the other person to begin to speak.
"So ? How was it ? "
"Well , it didn't go as well as I thought it would . He proved to be strong enough to shake off my clone even though it had power that could compare to about a third of my own . "
"If he wasn't even capable of that much I would never have ordered you to seize him now would I , My Dear Marionette !"
"Whatever , your tasks are a bother and thanks to that I wasn't able to make it to the City Hall in time for the Ball .My father was pretty awful about that .'
The other voice roared uproariously.
"Really your childishness hasn't passed at all with time ! Just see that the job gets done . Also If you find something interesting you are always welcome to bring it to me ."
"Okay " The Man addressed as Marionette answered dispassionately.
The strange sense of pressure that had covered the area vanished only to be replaced with the familiar scent of a storm.
The audience was over and He was officially on a mission from now on.