Chapter 529

Inspector Ivy Li was dressed for work, which meant semi-formal wear, in a long sleeve blouse and pants and a light jacket over the top of it. The jacket, of course, helped hide the gun she carried in the shoulder holster. The ballooning trouser legs also helped with the extra holdout on an ankle holster, which hitched her steps just a little. Arthur was curious though, if the extra knife hidden in the lower back was regulation.

Either way, the Inspector was striking enough – in a severe and beautiful way – that she was drawing gazes. No one was dumb enough to bother her just yet, which was all for the best; but Arthur could not help but wonder how long that might last.

He took all that in within moments, before he descended the rest of the way down the stairs while she stayed at the bottom, looking serenely patient at the pair of bouncers keeping everyone else from ascending.

“Inspector,” Arthur said. Then, realizing she could not hear him, he waved to her to come with him, heading for the exit. Only for one of the bouncers to redirect him, once he made it clear where he was going, to another hallway and exit.

A VIP one that he hadn’t even noticed, but he was certainly going to use if he was ever coming back. Or was invited back, though bringing the polis to the nightclub made is less likely. Once outside, the sound of the nightclub music muted; he tried the greeting again.

“Mr. Chua.” Inspector Li looked him up and down and then at the nightclub. “Not where I expected to find you.”

“Why are you here?” Arthur said, ignoring the allusion.

“Looking for you, of course.” She looked around, her nose wrinkled at the sight of the nightclub whose music still could be heard even through concrete walls. “You think I’d be here?”

“Too loud?”

“Too smelly.”

“Smelly?” Arthur sniffed, did not smell anything too bad. Sure, there was the usual smells of the night, some garbage that had not been thrown away properly, a rat lurking in one of the storm drains that he could sniff, chewing on some leftover food. Open drains, of course, but there had been rain earlier in the day, such that most of the gunk had washed away. So, nothing too offensive. Then, he realised what she meant. “Oh, you mean the gangs.”

“At least three different familiar faces, I spotted. I thought you were fighting them.” Surprisingly, she seemed to be projecting disappointment in her voice, something that Arthur would never have expected.

“What makes you say that?” Arthur said, puzzled.

“One of the gangs tried to kill you?”

“Oh, right.”

“Right? You sound like that happens all the time.”

“Climber.” As though that explained things, which it did. At least to Arthur. “I had business with them, about the Tower.” When her eyes narrowed, he sighed. “You do know that they’re a power inside the Tower? Making sure we don’t clash saves lives.”

“And enriches them. Which lets them run gambling and prostitution rings, sell drugs and extort people. They’re the ones who run all the counterfeit goods, wash all the stolen goods and steal cars and bikes and make life harder for everyone!” she snarled.

“They also help protect against other gangs, give loans when the banks won’t – and can actually be easier to reason with than some banks – and yeah, the prostitution is bad; but it’s not like they have to kidnap people for it anymore.” Which said something about the state of the general economy, that volunteers in the oldest profession nearly wiped out any need for human trafficking. Sure, there were certain… tastes… that still required that; but the groups that did that were often not the main gangs.

At least, in Arthur’s understanding of matters. Which, he’d admit, might not necessarily be entirely well versed, and might be quite self-serving in what information he took in. Or researched.

All points which Inspector Li’s gaze seemed to understand. Something in the way she looked at him made him squirm and feel less, as though his pragmatic choices were terrible ones. Which made him upset, and as such, angry.

“What do you expect me to do? We’re still growing, and if you hadn’t realised it, we’ve got bigger enemies. Starting a fight with the rest of the triads would just get me and my people killed!” he snapped.

“I know.” She crossed her arms, lifted her chin. “I don’t like it, but I know.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” He knew the moment he said it, that he shouldn’t have. The slight smile that she offered him told him that Inspector Li knew that too. Rather than let her talk, he rushed on. “What is it that you want?”

“I’ve been trying to get a meeting with you for months. But you’ve not been in the country,” she said.

“Yeah, I’ve been doing what Climbers do…” he said. “Anyway, the way Mel tells it, you’ve run out of leads after rounding up the Templar gang. They won’t talk, right? Unless that’s changed?”

“No change. Their trial should start soon; but you don’t need to be there for that. The only one you might have to be at, well, he’s gone.” Her eyes narrowed. “No trace of him, in fact.”

“Well, I’m sure if you keep looking you’ll find him,” Arthur said, blithely.

“Not likely. Probably in another country already,” Ivy sighed. “Maybe even in the Tower, getting stronger. Than capturing him will be a problem.”

“How do you handle Climbers?” Arthur asked, curiously. “Beginner ones.”

“With a lot of backup. And shoot first, if they try anything orders.” At Arthur’s raised brow, she shrugged. “It’s official policy now, in Malaysia. After the first command, if Climbers don’t listen, we’re allowed to shoot them.”

“Huh.” Arthur understood the reasoning behind the policy, but for obvious reasons was not a fan of it. Still, if it kept some of the polis alive, he could not exactly complain either. There was never going to be a good balance to all this, especially when most polis were non-Climbers.

“I wanted to ask two things. Do you remember anything else about the night? Anything else that could help us? We’re still trying to find the girl in particular.” She was staring at Arthur particularly hard, as though trying to read any hint of guilt or deception on his face.

Thankfully, that was a question he could answer with complete truth. “Nothing new. Haven’t heard from her, ever since she disappeared. Haven’t thought of the night at all.” A slight hesitation, then he added. “Well, outside the nightmares.”

“Nightmares – dreams – could be useful. Sometimes we remember things there that we can’t remember consciously.”

“Pretty sure telling you that she conjured a bunch of pengallan and then became one herself won’t help, would it?” At the shake of her head, he nodded. “Yeah, my nightmares get weird. Consequence of the job, unfortunately.”

She sighed. “Second thing then. What do you know of the missing gangsters?”

“Missing gangsters?” Arthur said, slowly. “I… you know I run a Clan, right? And been out of the country? I don’t exactly have a roster of them all…”

“You didn’t deny knowing anything about it though.”

“All I know is that triads and gangs fight,” Arthur snapped, annoyed a little. If she had asked even an hour ago, he could have faked ignorance much easier by actually being ignorant. Now, well… he would do his best, but he had a feeling she knew he knew.

“Mmmhmmm…” Lips pursed, she stared at him. “Does your Clan have anything to do with it?”

“No!” That he could say quite firmly. They definitely had not done anything underhanded like that. Of course, a moment later, his treacherous brain pointed out that maybe, the fact that he’d asked for help could be considered problematical. He kept that thought off his face, thankful the Yin Body gave him more control, though it seemed to be iffy still with this woman. “We’re a Clan, not a gang.”

“Okay lah.” Ivy nodded. “And about some of the TG Inc’s managers?”

“What?” Arthur said, for once truly surprised. “What about them?”

“There’s been a strange number of accidents. And disappearances. And firings.”

“You keep that close track of them?” Arthur said, surprised.

“I have kawan-kawan in the white collar crime division.”

“And you’re looking into the TG group?” That was happy news and that made him smile. “Can we help?”

“No!” She snapped at him, looking like she regretted even mentioning it. “There’s nothing there, anyway. We’ve audited them a few times already.” Her head bowed, as further thoughts seemed to infiltrate her thoughts. Rather than let it out though, she kept silent and her head bowed.

“Internal politics?” Arthur guessed.

She still didn’t look at him, which made him think he was right. Instead, she stepped back, looked Arthur up and down. After a moment, she nodded to herself. “You’re still on the right side, I think. Try to stay there, will you? I don’t want to throw you in jail.”

Arthur opened his mouth, to ask her if she thought she could. After all, he had quite a few contacts these days. He was a Climber, which made such threats even less useful, with the courts and the prosecutors all much less inclined to throw the book at them. If nothing else, they were drivers of the economy. And known for taking insults personally – and dishing out violence in retaliation.

Not in Malaysia, perhaps; not regularly. But there were enough examples across the world that such warnings were sure to hover in their minds.

Even so, he shut his mouth rather than utter such words. He probably would have thrown himself into the trash if he said something that arrogant. Down that way was the road to hell, or at least, big headedness. Which, all things considered was the same thing.