Chapter 63 Rui
Rui
Rui, Ash, and Zizi parked their delivery van a few streets away from the dive bar Yiran had gone to, ready for their stakeout.
The back of the van was cramped with surveillance equipment, and Rui found a semi-comfortable spot and planted herself there
for the potentially long wait. Across from her, Ash sipped his coffee and watched the live feed of the traffic cameras on
the nearby streets Kodie had tapped into.
Rui snuck a glance at Zizi. He was sprawled in the back of the van, fiddling with a piece of yellow paper. It didn’t look
like the usual talisman. It was shaped like a paper doll, with red calligraphic squiggles drawn on it. He’d been staring at
it for a while with a deep look of concentration like he was waiting for something to happen.
Zizi sighed and looked up, and their eyes locked for an electric moment, the space between them shrinking, drawing them closer.
Rui pulled her gaze away first, irked by herself. She’d barely spent two days with him, and she couldn’t get him out of her
head. Had they really known each other for a long time? Ada said that Rui had, allegedly, been in love with him. She didn’t
think she felt anything for him now except unbridled curiosity. It made sense, seeing how strange he was.
But he was also kind. Smart. A little silly on occasion. Extremely annoying, but it was the kind of annoying that was oddly
endearing. She didn’t know why she wanted to talk to him. Didn’t know why she wanted to know him better. Maybe she just wanted
to fill the holes in her memory so that she could feel fully herself again.
In contrast, Zizi had become reticent, repeatedly rebuffing her efforts to have a conversation longer than a few words.
It was whiplash, considering how he’d rambled on and on when she’d woken in his shophouse.
He had been so eager to jog her memory then, but now it felt like he wanted to keep a distance between them, and she couldn’t understand why.
Static buzzed.
Lieutenant Shuang’s voice came through the comms set. He was stationed closer to the dive bar. “I’m picking up a small burst
of spiritual energy coming from inside. Confirmed it to be yangqi.”
Zizi perked up and gave his paper doll a little shake.
“Dammit, Yiran,” Ash muttered. “I said nothing flashy.”
“Could it be Song Liming?” Rui wondered.
“It’s Mochi.” Zizi held up the paper doll. It had a blue glow around the edges.
“What the heck is that?”
Bent almost double to avoid hitting his head on the van’s ceiling, Zizi shuffled over to show them. “A charm I modified with
a curse. I gave half to Mochi. This here”—he waved the paper doll—“is my half. It’s quite simple, really. Depending on the
kind of magic Yiran puts out, this lights up in a different color, and it tells me something. Orange means he’s found Song
Liming; blue indicates that Song Liming isn’t with him. Pretty nifty, huh?”
“Why didn’t either of you tell me about this?” Ash said irritably.
“Mochi and I have our own understanding.”
“We don’t have time for this. What understanding?”
“I watch his back, he watches mine,” Zizi said tersely. “It was a what-if scenario. I figured he might not be able to get a message to us and this might help.”
“Did you put the other half of the charm in his orange juice?” Rui said, remembering breakfast from the other day.
Zizi’s lips quirked. “Clever girl.”
She felt her cheeks warming. “You clowns should have told us.”
Lieutenant Shuang’s voice came through again. “I’ve got eyes on Yiran. He’s leaving with someone—a boy. They seem . . .” He
paused. “Close.”
“It’s Yuki,” Zizi said.
Ash pursed his lips. “Your charm can’t tell us where they’re going, can it?”
“Afraid not.”
Shuang’s voice crackled, “I’m tailing them from a safe distance. Yiran just dropped something in the trash along a side street.
Maybe a food wrapper? Looks like they’re headed to the subway station.”
“We might lose him if he gets on the train,” Rui said.
“Scratch that. There’s a sanitation vehicle—white, small dent at the left rear—they got in.” A beat later: “Going south. Sending
you a grab of the license plate.”
“Thanks, Shuang.” Ash relayed the message to Kodie and focused on his screens as she filtered her surveillance for the van.
“The roads will be gridlocked for the next hour at least,” Rui said. “Everyone’s rushing home before the lockdown. Why would
they get into a car now?”
“Maybe they’re not leaving the city,” Zizi said. “Remember the tunnels? They might’ve found refuge in abandoned buildings
on the outskirts, but they’ve been building an extensive network inside the city too. Wherever they’re going, it’s within the city limits.”
“Makes sense,” Rui agreed. They had assumed Song Liming was at the dive bar, and that had been proven wrong. If Yiran was
on the move with Yuki . . . “I think it’s a safe bet to say Yuki’s bringing him to Song Liming.”
Yiran wasn’t carrying a phone. The Hybrids had the technology to scan for trackers and the like, and they would be sure to
check his pockets if they were suspicious of his sudden return. He would have to find a way to communicate, and not just through
Zizi’s paper doll.
The trash. Rui buzzed the comms set. “Lieutenant Shuang, can you find what Yiran threw out earlier? It could be a clue.”
“Will do.”
Tension filled the van as they waited for him.
“Captain—” There was a pause, and they heard sounds of paper and metal and plastic crushing against each other.
Shuang was rummaging through the garbage.
They heard him cursing. “There is a note, but something spilled on part of it and the words are smudged. I think I can still read some of it—qi pennies. Anyone know what that means? And was there something in the cellar of the bar?”
“Yiran said he saw devices like our qi sensors in the cellar,” Rui said. “There was a whole mix of things.” She tried to remember
Yiran’s description of what he’d seen, and another image flashed in her mind. Qi pennies. The mini yangqi bombs Teshin had invented. The ones she herself had used against the Hybrid in the tunnels. “Incendiary devices,”
she gasped. “I hope I’m wrong, but I think the devices are explosives of some kind.”
A loud swear word burst out from the comms set.
“Ash, we’ve got a situation,” Shuang said. “Whatever Yiran saw in the basement last time isn’t there anymore, and he scribbled
some locations on the note.” Shuang read off a list of names.
“Major intersections,” Zizi interrupted. “They’re major intersections in the city, scramble crossings, subway stations where
the key lines meet.”
“Bombs—just like the assembly hall.” Ash hit the side of the van. “We miscalculated. News of the lockdown might’ve made them
desperate, but it also made them reckless.”
“They might not be normal bombs,” Rui said, her heart pounding. “Yiran wrote qi pennies on his note. Those are filled with yangqi, and it doesn’t make sense for the Hybrids to use something like that. What if
they filled their bombs with yinqi instead?”
The three in the van exchanged a fraught glance.
“Even if we cancel the lockdown right now, people are still on trains and buses and cars or in restaurants or just walking
on the street,” Ash said. “We need to get them out of those areas.”
“But what’s the end game?” Rui said. “Those yinqi bombs won’t transform normies into Hybrids—they’ll kill them. If it’s about
not being able to feed, why would the Hybrids cause mass casualties? What’s Song Liming’s goal here?”
“Chaos and panic,” Zizi said with a grim look.
Things weren’t adding up in Rui’s head. “The timing feels off.”
“We’re speculating,” Ash said. “We don’t know if the Hybrids planted anything already or if Yiran got it wrong, but we have
to treat this as a real threat to the public. Our priority is keeping the normies safe. I’ll activate all Guild units and
coordinate with them to do a sweep of the city immediately. Shuang, alert the Police Commissioner. We’ll need their help.”
“Zizi and I will follow Yiran,” Rui volunteered.
Ash nodded. “You’ll need backup. We don’t know what he’s walking into.”
“We’ll be fine.” Rui turned to Zizi. “Can you drive?”
He gestured at the screens. “Look at the gridlock. Driving might not be an option if we want to catch up to them.”
“We’ve got two motorbikes at Stone Street and Third. I’ll give you the codes to unlock them,” said Lieutenant Shuang. “And,
Ash? Go get your brother. We’ll handle the city.”
Ash looked equally torn and grateful. “I’ll get things rolling first and alert the Academy for reinforcements.” He glanced
at Rui and Zizi. “I’ll join you as soon as I can. Keep me updated.” He punched a button on his comms set. “Kodie? Anything?”
“Think I found them,” Kodie said. “The sanitation vehicle’s still heading south. It seems to be avoiding all major highways.
If they keep going, they’ll cross the river to the west side. Traffic’s building up on the bridge, but I think they’re going
to make it before it gets bad. If you take the bikes, you should be able to get close. I can’t tell what their destination
is, though.”
“What’s across the river?” Rui asked, puzzled.
“The seaport,” Ash said.
“But the port’s on this side of the river.”
“The old seaport.” Ash’s face had gone white. “That’s where my father died.”