Kai locked the door behind them and leaned his forehead against it for a second before turning around.
“You okay,” he asked.
“Yes,” Lian said.
He waited.
She sighed and set her bag down. “I am fine. I just did not expect him.”
“You never do.”
Kai crossed the room and pulled the curtain back just enough to check the alley. No movement. He dropped onto the edge of the bed and kicked his shoes off.
“He should not have found us,” Kai said. “That café was random.”
“It was near the hospital.”
“That was your choice.”
“Yes.”
Kai glanced at her. “You miss him.”
She opened her laptop and powered it on. “I miss the person I thought he was.”
“That person does not exist anymore.”
“Neither do we,” she replied.
He did not argue. He knew better.
The laptop chimed softly as it connected to a secure network. Kai rolled his chair over and leaned in.
“I pulled the data from last night,” he said. “The shell companies tied to that customs broker we took out in Wan Chai. Guess where the money routes through.”
Lian did not look up. “Medical research grants.”
Kai smiled without humor. “Hospitals are very useful places.”
“They touch everything,” she said. “And no one likes to question them.”
He clicked through files. “There is a private foundation moving funds between clinics. Shell donors. Offshore accounts. Clean on paper.”
“Names,” Lian said.
“I am working on it.”
She checked her weapon out of habit. Magazine seated. Chamber clear.
Kai watched her hands. “You are shaking.”
“I am angry.”
“Same thing sometimes.”
She met his eyes. “He should not be involved.”
“You do not know that.”
“I know him.”
Kai leaned back. “You knew him. People change when they think the world owes them.”
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Lian closed her eyes for a moment. She remembered his hands steady over an open chest. The way he used to say every life mattered.
“Pull the staff lists,” she said. “Doctors. Administrators. Anyone moving between facilities.”
Kai nodded. “Already started.”
They worked in silence for a while. The city hummed outside. Somewhere a couple argued. Somewhere a television laughed.
Kai broke the quiet. “If he is dirty.”
“If,” Lian said.
“If,” Kai repeated. “What do you want to do.”
She did not answer right away.
“We follow the evidence,” she said finally. “Same as always.”
“And if it leads to him.”
“Then it leads to him.”
Kai watched her carefully. “You will not hesitate.”
She looked at him. “Do you think I will.”
He hesitated. “I think you are human.”
“So are you,” she said. “And you still pulled the trigger when it mattered.”
“That was different.”
“It never is.”
A soft buzz interrupted them. Kai frowned and checked his screen.
“That is not good,” he said.
“What.”
“Someone just pinged our dead drop. A medical ID badge scanned near it.”
Lian stood. “Where.”
“Central district. Back entrance of a private clinic.”
“Time.”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Lian grabbed her jacket. “We are going.”
Kai blinked. “Now.”
“Yes.”
“That could be a trap.”
“Everything is,” she said. “We move carefully.”
They left the motel separately. Two blocks apart. Old habits.
The clinic sat between a bakery and a nail salon. Bright lights. Smiling posters. Clean glass.
Lian circled the block. No visible security. No obvious watchers.
Kai slipped into the alley and tapped his earpiece. “Back door is unlocked. Alarm looped. Someone wanted us to get in.”
“Eyes up,” Lian said.
She entered through the front. The receptionist smiled automatically.
“Can I help you.”
“I am looking for records,” Lian said calmly. “Patient transfer.”
The woman frowned. “You need an appointment.”
“I do not,” Lian replied, and pressed the stun device under the counter.
The woman slumped silently.
Kai was already inside when Lian reached the records room.
“Too easy,” he muttered.
“Do not say that.”
They moved quickly. Files. Screens. Names.
Kai’s fingers flew. “This is not just funding. It is experimental approvals. Fast tracked.”
“By who.”
Kai froze.
Lian felt it before he spoke.
“He signed off on three of these,” Kai said quietly.
She leaned over his shoulder. The name sat there. Clean. Official.
Lian closed her eyes. Opened them again.
“This does not mean he knows everything,” she said.
“It means he knows enough.”
A sound echoed down the hall. Footsteps.
Kai killed the lights. They pressed into the shadows.
Two men entered. Not staff. Too alert. Too quiet.
LSK muscle.
“Back exit,” Kai whispered.
They moved as one. A quick strike. A choke. A body eased down.
Lian disarmed the second man and pressed him against the wall.
“Who sent you,” she asked.
He laughed. “Too late.”
She knocked him out.
They were gone before anyone noticed.
On the rooftop across the street, they paused.
The city spread out below them. Bright. Indifferent.
Kai exhaled. “This is getting messy.”
“It always was,” Lian said.
He looked at her. “You still want to believe in him.”
She shook her head slowly. “I want the truth.”
Kai nodded. “Then we keep digging.”
