Where In The World Are The Killers?

The Killer in the Rice

Yunnan Province, China...

"Anders, I still can't believe Warren Goodfellow was working for SOMBRA all along!" Carmen exclaims, "how does SOMBRA do it? How come we never see them coming until the very end?"

"The details of Warren Goodfellow's involvement with SOMBRA remain sketchy. But the letter Anders found has led us here to Yunnan," Chief Ripley reminded her agents.

"That's another thing I don't understand, Chief! Yunnan is a remote agricultural province in China. What could SOMBRA possibly want here?" she questions.

"That's what we need to find out! All we know is that Warren met his contact, the so-called Head Hunter here. Make no mistake: SOMBRA's already a step ahead of us again! Smoking them out of their Chinese hideout is our first task!" she declares, "I'm sending you on a reconnaissance mission! Start with the rice fields. I'm counting on you to come back with fresh leads, Agent Anders!"

Anders salutes, "yes, ma'am!"

Carmen and Anders drove to the rice fields and parked on the side of the road. Since the rice fields were flooded with water, they put on tall rubber boots before entering the area. As they trekked through the water, they spotted a small house in the distance with an empty wagon nearby. They climbed over the small hill to the house but froze when they saw what was floating in the water in front of the house.

A young man was floating supine in the water as the blood from the deep wound on his neck stained the water dark red. The kid looked to be in his teens, which made the sight even more tragic. As they descended the hill to the body, Anders spotted some torn yellow and red pieces near the victim's feet and a postcard floating in the water by his hand. Hunter also smelled something interesting in a wicker farmer's basket by the house, but maybe she was just getting hungry.

"Anders, that boy's dead! Someone slashed his throat!" Carmen exclaimed, shocked, "I know we're here because of SOMBRA, so finding a dead body doesn't surprise me... but a dead teenager? Is SOMBRA killing rice farmers now? Or is this murder just a local tragedy that will throw us off SOMBRA's trail again? I don't know what to think, Anders!"

"Well, what I think is that we need to go back to what we know, which is solving murders!" Anders responded.

"You're right; let's get back to basics. Any good clues at the crime scene?" she asks.

"Well, Hunter seems interested in that farmer's basket," he replies, collecting the torn pieces by the victim's foot.

"That rice farmer's basket won't take long to search through! And if we're lucky, those torn pieces belong to the victim," she said as she fished the postcard out of the water, "this postcard must've been the victim's; it was right next to the body. But it looks old; the writing's almost faded."

"But even so, we can still see the name of who it was addressed to!" he points out, "Guo Han!"

She checks the card to verify the name, "at least now we know our victim's name! Let's recover the writing; it'll tell us more about him!"

Anders gave Carmen his case as she moved closer to the house to dust the postcard. Meanwhile, Anders stayed close to the body and sent it to the station via a portal, careful not to let any water get into it. With the body at the station, he joins Carmen and sews the torn pieces back together.

"Anders, the text on the victim's postcard says: "Be a good boy. We'll never forget you. Mom and Dad."," Carmen read after recovering the writing.

Anders frowns, cutting off a stitch, "is it just me, or does that message sound like a farewell?"

"That's what I was thinking," she agrees, "do you think that's why the boy kept the card?"

"Probably," he replies, examining the hat he had repaired, "and since you also revealed the address on the postcard, we can go to the victim's house!"