Poison City

 

“Okay, I think I need to mention something else.” When they got back to the precinct and locked themselves inside Kevin’s lab, Keryn sighed: “I saw something else from the vision - I couldn’t make sense of it earlier. But it just came to me - I think.”

 

“Okay, what did you see? Something we can pinpoint who she was with?” Marcus asked.

 

“No. Not really, at least I don’t think so…” Keryn frowned and shook her head, then she pulled her phone, and typed in an image search. After a short minute, she showed Marcus and Kevin her phone screen.

 

“Mud River Docks” was the search phrase, and there were many photos of the seafood market, roadside food stands and small wooden temporary delis.

 

“You saw the Mud River Docks?” Marcus asked, with a frown.

 

“Yes, and it seemed like some kind of fire broke out from it. But I am not sure - ” Keryn shook her head: “I just saw the place and the flames. To be honest if it weren’t for the food festival posters I saw on my way to the precinct, I wouldn’t even recognize it.”

 

“Food festival?” Marcus asked.

 

“Yeah, it’s been in planning for quite some time, apparently.” Kevin shrugged: “And many food vendors from all three districts have been booked to be present. Some kind of publicity and tourism thing, I think.”

 

“When is it?”

 

“Roughly about a week from now. I heard they’re still deciding which day exactly.” Kevin chuckled: “Poor planning at its best. But they did send out a ton of coupons and free codes though. I heard some families even received free entrance tickets and all-you-can-eat vouchers. Can you imagine? How much money is being spent on the promotion and yet so little planning.”

 

“Free vouchers and tickets?” An unpleasant idea arose in Marcus’ mind: “And - uh, don’t you think the timing’s a little too - convenient?”

 

“Yeah, super.” “Wait, what do you mean?” Kevin and Keryn’s reactions were totally different.

 

“It’s almost 15 years.” Kevin explained to Keryn: “You know, since the cruise ship.”

 

“Yeah, so? ” Keryn frowned, still confused.

 

“At that time, many of the passengers on that ship also received free tickets and food vouchers.” Kevin took a peak at Marcus: “Now, I’m not saying this is similar, but it sure sounds like it's in some kind of bad taste - ”

 

“I’ll look into the docks, because I am more familiar with the place.” Marcus cut Kevin off: “I’ll do it soon. Or as soon as I get the chance. But right now, we have to come up with something in this case. I don’t think Captain Ko or anyone is gonna accept the ‘a ghost killed them’ story.”

 

“I’ll try to look into the woman.” Kevin nodded: “There’s not many things we could go on with. But now that we know she was related to the family, I could narrow down the search.”

 

“Narrow down the search?” Keryn narrowed her eyes: “Were you looking into her before?”

 

“Marcus, you wanna answer that?” Kevin immediately turned to his computer screen.

 

Marcus rolled his eyes at Kevin, then coughed and cleared his throat before he proceeded to explain to Keryn: “The thing is … I’ve actually sorta encountered the woman before. In a tunnel right under the Mud River Docks.”

 

“Really? What happened?” Keryn nodded, then asked while thinking, with her eyes narrowed.

 

“Well - I made it out alive.” Marcus sighed: “And I didn’t exactly see her. I was injured and had to duck in a corner. She - she killed two perps who ambushed me while I was in the docks investigating a case earlier. And - come to think of it, she was also tearing the perps up and looking for something in them - her eyes.”

 

“So, how’d you make it out? Not to say that I’m not glad you’re alive, but - ”

 

“Talismans. Talismans from the Temple of Forgetfulness.” Marcus nodded: “Master Liaoran was quite generous.”

 

Keryn wanted to ask something else, but was interrupted by her phone, she took it out and immediately apologized: “Sorry boys, this is Shrevas, sounds like he wants me back on the scene. Keep me updated. And Marcus, we need to think about the bullets. It’s not everyday an officer uses up whole clips of them.”

 

“So, what should we do?” After Keryn left, Kevin looked Marcus in the eye and asked: “I guess this would be a terrible timing to let you know that - the things you asked me to look into, I actually found some pretty credible information. Still need to confirm and do more cross reference of everything of course, but… you know, it’s pretty much as accurate as it gets.”

 

“Okay, just let me have it then.” Marcus sighed and sat on a chair, then laid back.

 

“First of all, Blood Rainbows.” Kevin opened a few pages on his computer: “I don’t think I’ll need to remind you of this - but it’s indeed a symbol of paranormal occurrences. And - I guess you already kinda notice this - the Blood Rainbow, given that it has more of an arch shape than the typical rainbow shape, it’s rumored that it’s actually a gate instead of just another omen with a shape.”

 

“Yeah.” Marcus nodded, he couldn’t say he had looked into it in depth, but he had found out some of the basics.

 

“Now, what’s also supporting this theory that they are gates is that in some of the closer up patterns on the top of the arch. Look.” Kevin showed Marcus his computer screen, where he had quite a few pictures enlarged on display.

 

Marcus got closer to the screen and examined all of the pictures. They were all blurry, but the top part of the blood rainbows were still visible. It was quite a wonder these pictures were still available online for anyone to find. Upon close observation, Marcus could see that all of the blood rainbows had some kind of pattern near the top of their arches, something like a symbol of flowing water. All, except for one, one that was black and white, which showed a different pattern, one that looked more like a bud or a sprout.

 

“Interesting…” Marcus scratched his nose: “But what does this tell us? That the Blood Rainbows are actually some kind of gate leading to the nether realm?”

 

“Maybe, it could be something like that.” Kevin shrugged: “And I am still trying to find if anyone saw a blood rainbow at the night of the incident with the reparations team, to see if we could find another angle - ”

 

“Okay, what else?”

 

“Humor me this - I actually looked up some of the paranormal reports and referenced it with the local urban legends and their source stories.” Kevin became excited, and clicked to another page, which showed an interactive map with a bunch of red circles: “From what I found, the gates did not seem to ‘bring’ ghosts to different places. Instead, what they were doing was awaken, or trigger, or bring to life, whatever’s hidden in those places. Like wrongful deaths, unresolved murders, or other scenarios where ghosts and spirits could appear.”

 

“That’s, that’s actually good.” Marcus scratched his jaw: “So if the woman died on the Mud River Docks, we are one step closer at finding out who she was.”

 

“Yes exactly. And here’s another thing.” Kevin looked pointed at the photos of the occurrences of the Blood Rainbow: “You noticed the patterns on the arches right? The ones on the colored photos and this black and white photo?”

 

“Different time, different style?”

 

“Exactly, this one on the black and white was actually from around 30 years ago.” Kevin raised his finger: “And all of the other photos were from the last few years, some even 15 years ago. I tried to find some more recent photos, but none of those are clear enough to see the patterns on the top. So…”

 

“The patterns are different - these look like - like water?” Marcus asked while pointing at one of the bigger and clearer photos on screen.

 

“Yes, and the pattern from almost thirty years ago? A sprout.” Kevin reached into a shelf by the side of his desk and pulled out a small glass jar with a paper talisman stuck on it. Inside this glass jar, was a small piece of the amberized tree root found on the bones in that massive grave site. “Don’t judge me, I felt this is abnormal, so I just brought some back.”

 

“So, what you’re saying is, fire is next.” Marcus looked Kevin in the eye and asked.

 

“Bingo. ” Kevin snapped his fingers, then quickly realized that this might not be something to cheer on: “Sorry. I got excited at an inappropriate time.”

 

“So if we are about to search for forty-five years ago, then it would have something to do with metal?” Marcus frowned: “Nevertheless - Keryn’s vision is key. If it is indeed some kind of precognition or projection of what is about to come. Then there could be a fire at the Mud River Docks - maybe at the food festival. This is huge. We need to stop it.”

 

“Be careful, Marcus.” Kevin looked around and lowered his voice: “I think you’re right. But the thing is if the organizers are sending out free tickets and coupons like they did 15 years ago, they must have a lot of connections and eyes everywhere. This - I’m afraid it could be way above our pay grade.”

 

“Alright. ” Marcus thought for a while: “Can you check if there’s been fires at the docks recently? Just to rule out a few things about Keryn’s vision. And - I think I’ll go to the docks tonight and take a look.”