Guardian: Returns

12

Da Qing looked at the buzzing phone before picking it up.

"Tell me you have something interesting for me, Cong Bo," he said, lazily turning on the bedsheets.

"Oh yeah. I actually do." the man on the other side sounded excited.

"Well," the deputy sat straighter on his bed, stretching. "What did you find?"

"Nothing."

"Are you kidding me? How is that interesting?" he scratched his ear.

"It actually is. That man you told me to check? Luo Jie Ming? Looks like he never existed."

"What? How is that possible? He had a wife and a son. Did you check them as well?"

"Who do you take me for?" The proud whistleblower of the Dragon City huffed. "Of course, I did. Mrs Luo is a nurse in the Dragon City Hospital. She was never married, registered as a single mother."

"Now that's weird. Any ideas?"

"Well, either Jie Ming's name was fake, and he just lived with the woman, or his data was purposefully wiped out."

"Why would anyone do that?" Da Qing scratched his ear again.

"Beats me. Maybe the guy was a spy or something." Cong Bo yawned. "I'll try to dig deeper, but you need to understand that my time is limited. My wifey gets mighty furious when I spend the nights by the screen."

Da Qing laughed. "I asked if you knew what you were doing when you proposed to her. She's a respectable and intelligent woman. I still don't get why she married you."

"I was persistent," Cong Bo said with confidence.

"Yeah, either that or love is truly blind. Keep me posted." Da Qing ended the call. He had tried to find out something about Luo's dad's disappearance, but there was nothing anywhere. And the most frustrating thing was, the deputy knew the name. He didn't remember where from, but it definitely rang some distant bells. He would have to dig deeper then.

 He got up and reached for an open bag of dry cat food. "Breakfast of champions," he murmured, remembering how Zhao used to tease him about that. He sighed. Those times were long gone. "Time to get to work then!" 

"Chief, there was an explosion in the northwestern part of the city. An office building got thoroughly destroyed. No casualties, as far as we know. But when the first group of officers arrived, they discovered the three missing girls nearby. They were escorted to the hospital. Zheng Yi is already on her way there."

"All right," Zhao Yunlan rose from his chair. Da Qing, please accompany me to the hospital. Chu Shuzhi, you and Guo Changcheng go to check that collapsed building. Call me when you have some news."

Zhao stared through the half-opened door at the three girls who were sitting on the hospital beds. They were accompanied by their parents, talking in hushed voices, wiping away tears.

"Tell me what you managed to get from them," he turned to Zheng Yi.

"The girls were held in a basement. Each day they heard a high pitched sound which made them weak, caused headaches and nosebleeds. Told me it was getting worse and worse." The woman folded her hands. "It sounds dangerous, don't you think, chief?"

"Hmm, also, sounds similar to those strange cases of illness around the city. How did the girls manage to escape?" Zhao looked at the documents he received from the head physician.

"They said that they had help from the inside. A man who was bringing them food appeared suddenly and told them to run. Soon after, the whole building exploded."