The time between one night and the uping evening was a long one for most, but not for Marcus and his friends stu a temporary hiding pce.
In order to be safe, they separated into two groups and took turns sleeping. Marcus wao keep the first watch, but was vinced by others to sleep first. The rest of them also decided to not wake him up when it was time to ge shifts.
“Dammit, you guys. Thank you but are you sure you’ve had enough sleep?” Marcus scratched his head when he woke up naturally: “We could wait a bit longer before we go.”
“It’s okay, no time to do that.” Kevin shook his head: “We scouted the vehicles earlier when we saw a window when the security guards were ging shifts. Aually found a car we could use.”
“You found a car you could hardwire?”
“We found a car we could borrow with ease.” Keryn Lance smiled and showed Marcus a string of keys with a fancy key : “Some rich guy dropped this actally, and we could just add a bit of mileage to it.”
“He dropped it?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.
“Well, with some help. ” Keryn Lance shrugged and shook her head, ”But let’s not worry about that now. We don’t have time, right?”
“Right, right.” Kevin immediately waved his hands: “Let’s just go to the temple.”
It was still early m, there was some hint of early light at the far end of the skyline, but everything was still dark. And this robably why nobody even bothered to check when they drove the luxury SUV out of its designated parking spot, while Marcus held up the guard arm at the gate. For a moment they were worried that an arm would trigger, yet nothing seemed to have happened.
The interior of the SUV was even more fancy thaerior would suggest. It came with leather seats, touch s dispy for the backseats and even a champagne box at the back of the fro row. Maybe they could go to Captain Ko and ask him for help oing some city reimbursement if they damaged this vehicle, assuming they could even bring it back.
The surrounding area was dark after they were out of the unity, with only some temporary road lights made up of battery lights held up on wooden sticks illuminating the sides of the way so the cars would not go off road.
Elvin was the one driving. He appeared to be a bit nervous for it was his first time driving such a big vehicle in years. With both hands on the wheel aedly taking deep breaths, he kept the car just at the speed limit and did not ge all unless he really had to.
“Straight forward, then ght at the sed fork.” Marcus sat on the passenger seat and was in charge of giving Elvin the dires.
“So - do I get to meet the famous Master Liaoran?” Elvin asked when he made it into the right branch per Marcus’ instrus.
“Yeah I think so.” Marodded: “He said he would reach out to some people, hopefully we get more teammates on this - this quest. I suspect if they e they would be old timey legends as well.”
“And you’re not sure if HE is an old time legend himself?”
“I am pretty sure he is. I just try not to pry because the master is entitled to his secrets.” Marcus sighed: “But yeah - it would be cool to know.”
Elvin chuckled: “How much old city history do you know? Especially during the time when anized s were still a thing. I’d assume quite a bit, huh? Since you’re a detective and all. And you’ve been looking into these businesses fod knows how long.”
“Well unfortunately, not enough.” Marcus sighed: “You know I kinda avoided those things for a - a reason. And even when I’m dealing with all of this - strangely most things aren’t ected to s that much.”
“Probably a good thing then. You probably don’t remember this but when the s were still operating, there were - were a lot of fights every so often. Sometimes the streets would be covered in blood for weeks, the ing efforts couldn’t even begin to catch up.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Why’d you think they got destroyed? And all martial arts were basically gutted and banned?” Elvin sighed: “I think years before you even thought about joining the force, there were a few cases of s involved in some kind of heinous crimes where they performed underground rituals. I ’t even remember what they said about the cases themselves, I just remember some dark - paranormal or supernatural stuff.”
“And THAT I am involved with now. Though I am still a bit fuzzy on maails.” Marcus smiled then shook his head: “And it all began with that failed drug bust. AND maybe it also started when that spoiled Benson kid.”
“Well - I guess everything happens for a reason.” Elvin shrugged as he pointed forward: “What now? Just ght forward?”
“Yeah, just ght forward. When you see the signs for ‘Temple Way, then go into it.” Marodded: “It’s a dirt road. Just keep going and you’ll get to a small parking area. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”
“No problem.” Elvin ook a deep breath, checked his surroundings and nodded again. After a short pause, he said to Marcus: “Weird, why is there a bus at this time of the day?”
Marcus looked back. A city bus was driving slightly behind them on their left. As he fixed his eyes on the bus driver - it was that old man who once drove him and a young boy to the temple.
