4

4

         “Li wants to meet.”

         “So sudden?”

         “What’s up, really?”

         “I don’t know.” A man with red hair sighed and looked away. “Let’s just roll.”

~•~

         “Li?”

         “Before we get to that, a covert company,” a grey haired man said with a sigh. “I’m not very sure what they does there, deep in the dark…”

         “I see.” Georgia rubbed her chin, the typical gesture of someone who was thinking. Even for someone who has worked at a specific for quite some time, in this case, spionage, it took time.

         “Name?”

         “Fifty-six, but of course…” He looked away. “Can’t Merlin crack a way in?”

         “It’s very difficult, Pieter,” she said with a smile. “And all we have is a codename. Maybe a real name would do.”

         The older man looked at her for a while, with a pair of cold, serious, eyes.

         “You know these kind of people have no name.”

         “…”

         She smiled gently and looked away. Of course the smile meant that she had another plan in her mind. The kind that would surely work.

         “Let’s decode the name ‘li’ then,” she said. “In Chinese, ‘li’ can mean a lot. So…”

         Must’ve been simple for someone who can speak five languanges.

         “The most common ones,” he said. “Hide a leaf in the forest, right?”

         “Right. The ‘li’ elementary students know can refer to strength, sharpness, and in, and…”

         “In?” The man raised an eyebrow, confused. “Swimming in the mud?”

         “Yes, that kind…” Not like she wasn’t troubled at all with the sentence. “In, inside…”

         “Into.”

         “No, that’s not ‘li’, that’s more like ‘jin chi’,” she said. “Inside, in Chinese, is ‘li mian’.”

         “I see.”

         “It can also mean…”

         “Stop, stop.” Pros are always different and difficult. “Which one do you think it refers to?”

         “Which one?” She looked down and rubbed her chin again, thinking. Decoding is never easy, unless you’ve once worked in Bletchley Park, or if you one worked with Mr. Holmes.

         “I don’t think… it refers to a certain meaning.”

         “Eh?”

~•~

         “Glad to see everyone here again.”

         “Hey, Li.”

         “Have you got orders for us?”

         “Orders, isn’t it…” A blonde man smiled wickedly as he put some tobacco leaves into a pipe, then lit it with a match.

         “What do you want to do right now, Daniel?”

         He turned to a man in the shadow, whose silhouette could be seen. He could see the silhouette turned to look at him for a few seconds, before disappearing away.

         “Let’s see…”

~•~

         “Your turn.”

         “Oh?”

         Marquis smiled and tapped the dice, which automatically rolled by itself. They waited for a few seconds, then the dice finally stopped rolling.

         “Ah!”

         “Hee-hee-hee…” the young man smiled as he saw his silver terrier ran across the monopoly board, and finally stopped at a place with a dark blue bar.

         “I’m buying it.”

         “…Whatever…”

         Giuseppe tapped on the dice and let it roll, and again, they waited… isn’t that all about monopoly, waiting for the dice to stop then move? And when it stopped, a silver steamboat rushed across the board – it’s just the looks that suggests it’s a steamboat, in fact it’s a speedboat – and stopped at a yellow box.

         “Go to jail?”

         “Ahhhh!” Bad luck, too bad…

         Marquis tapped the dice again and watched it roll. The two of them sat in silence – Marquis was praying for some more luck while Giuseppe was… really, thinking about something. Something quite serious.

         “Speaking of jail…”

         “…?”

         “There’s someone I think you should send to jail.”

         “…”

         Marquis chuckled a bit as he looked out of the window.

         “You’re saying that when you’re in jail? I know you want me to be in jail with you.”

         “No, I don’t mean this game…”

         “Oh…”

         He turned back to the screen, only to notice that his terrier has stopped at a box with red bar, and was barking at him.

         “So what do you mean? I’m buying this one too.”

         “Well, I mean it, Marquis.”

         He looked up to the younger man and smiled.

         “Work, of course…”

~•~

         “Mer? I brought along some tea.”

         “I know.” The black haired woman was looking at a green screen from behind her thick glasses, and she was typing very seriously. Or maybe… not really, since she still had time to talk.

         Or, maybe geeks have some split mind ability, so that they can multitask perfectly and quickly. Say, how can a single woman handle ten screens at once? Pros are always different and difficult…

         “You know, there’s some work for us.”

         “Work?” She took off her glasses and moved her head forward to a screen, then she continued typing. Sitting in front of the computer everyday causes eye problems, for sure. And, the room was dark thanks to being lighted by only a few yellow stage lamps and the screen were annoyingly bright. Must’ve been tiring for the eyes.

         “It’s not people hunting is it?”

         “Too bad it is.”

         “…Damn.”

         “I’m not done explaining yet.” She could hear the some water being poured into some other water, causing loud splashes. She could imagine how the table sitting next to the door in her room would’ve been rather wet…

         “We only have a codename, Li…”

         THUD

         “Mer?”

         Georgia turned to huge mahogany desk placed a few metres from her. The green screens were still on, but she could no longer see anyone managing it. No wonder there was no answer…

         “Mer?”

         The woman turned out to be lying on the desk, her jaws dropped and her eyes closed. Of course she couldn’t answer.

         “Mer?”

         Still no answer.

         Georgia sighed loudly and put a block of sugar into the white mug, then she looked away.

         “Ah, she’s dead…”

~•~

         “Someone that should be in jail?”

         “Yes.” Marquis opened a can of soda and sighed. “Boss is so annoying. He didn’t even give me a clue who that is…”

         “We do have a lot of multinational enemies, don’t worry,” someone behind a huge green screen answered. “And someone like you should be able to track them down.”

         “Who are they?”

         “Let’s see… Iran dan Irish terrorists, even British ones, yakuza, mafia, drug dealers, triads, criminal organizations…”

         “Stop, stop.” Listening to lists always causes headaches. “Who’s the most wanted? I think it’s just one.”

         “If you’re talking about archenemies, we do have Charles… something.” Marquis could see a hand tapped the screen behind him, without touching him of course, thanks to the well-developed screen technology.

         “This guy I'm going to tell you, is involved in a few conflicts with us.” A blonde man suddenly appeared from behind the green screen he's been hiding behind all the time, and smiled to his friend. “I heard, he's even behind the massacre in Calais two-three years ago, remember?”
         “...”
         Marquis could feel his mind travelled back to the past as he sipped some of his soda. Not like he could remember everything, but he hasn't forgotten them either...

         “Go visit Abi, Marquis.”

         “Huh? Why should I? After my leave?”

         “A few of her men were killed. Maybe you can cheer her up a bit.”

         “Aren’t you a bit better than me about that?”

         “Huh? Not really.”
         “Want to take a look at his papers? Oops, it's no longer used. It's now his files or documents, right?”
         Yeah, since paper were declared harmful to the environment...
         “Okay, can you borrow me his papers then?”