Season One, Episode Twenty-Seven: To Hell With Public Health

A hotel room bathtub filled with water.
The professor was leaning over it as if he was about to vomit. Sweat on his forehead. He peered into the tub, then leaned back and turned around.
Beneath the mirror, an array of cups, bottles and test tubes was lined up as if for an exhibition.
The professor took a tube out of his lab coat pocket. It was filled with an orange dust. He took a blue plastic cup, scooped up water from the tub and added some dust from the tube before setting the cup back in its original place. Then he again leaned over the water, watching it smooth over.
He almost fell in when he heard the buzz from behind. His cell phone, vibrating next to the cup of water with the orange dust. The phone was pushing against the cup.
The professor grabbed the phone and looked at its screen, letting it buzz five times before it went dead. With one look over his shoulder at the tub, he walked out of the bathroom and into a non-descript hotel room. Television set, desk, bed. The desk was covered in documents, which he swept together in a file. He put the file into the attaché case he pulled from behind the TV.
The professor walked back into the bathroom, holding the cell phone in his left hand. As he was about to cross the threshold, the phone buzzed again. This time, after checking the number on the screen again, he took the call.
‘He’s giving me two months,’ he said without introduction.
He listened to the reply.
‘Immediately? I’m in the middle of a test,’ he said, throwing a look into the bathroom.’
‘Pack your bags and be outta there right now. Disappear,’ the man’s voice on the other side said.
‘What do you know that I don’t know?’ the professor asked.
‘A lot of bad stuff. Get your test tubes or whatever you’re using, stuff them in a bag and run. And I mean run,’ the man said.
The professor shut the cell down and rushed into the bathroom, knocking over a few empty test tubes and plastic bottles. He pulled the curtain shut to hide the bathtub from view and took the cup with the water and the orange powder. It still looked the same. He looked around holding the cup, swore and emptied its content into the sink.
‘To hell with safety and public health.’
The professor ran out of the bathroom, pulled a bag from under the bed, and headed for the door carrying both the bag and the attaché case. Just as he was about to open the door, the phone rang. Not his cell phone, but the hotel phone. The professor stared for a second and ripped the door open. Out he went.

Two bulky men and a sturdy woman were crowding the hotel elevator.
‘Room 713,’ the woman said. Nobody replied. The trio was all wearing dark clothes, a bit too heavy for the time of year.
‘This is the seventh,’ the woman said.
They ran straight out of the elevator to look at a list of the hotel room numbers.
‘713 is to the left,’ one of the men said. To the left they ran.

‘Don’t touch that stuff,’ the woman told one of the man as he ripped the curtain aside and saw the tub filled with water.
‘Do we need to analyze it?’
‘They’ll come here to do the dirty work,’ she said.
The woman rushed back into the main room to make a call.
‘The professor has gone, but he left a bathtub full of water,’ she said into the phone.

The tall guy was standing on a rooftop, watching the professor boarding a cab five floors down.
‘Don’t touch anything, I’ll have the water analyzed. We’ll get the professor later,’ the man said into his cell phone.
He pocketed the phone and grinned at the cab driving away from the hotel across the street.
‘Two months, dear professor,’ Inspector Mondeo said with a grin.

‘The Garden of Truth,’ Markus repeated.
He leaned forward while keeping one hand on the box they had dug up inside the Garden of Temerity.
‘What is the truth and can I count on you to tell it?’ he asked.
‘We are your friends,’ Riot said while steering the ute on to the main road.
‘Who is we?’
‘I am we,’ Charlo’ said.
Both Markus and Riot turned their heads toward her.
‘I accompanied you to Taiwan because he told me to do so,’ she said, pointing at Riot. ‘He wanted me to guard you, to watch over your safety.’
‘I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that story. You came with me to spy on me and to make sure I got the key,’ Markus said. ‘I never saw you as a traitor, by the way.’
‘I am not a traitor. I helped you, remember.’
‘So that’s how Riot knew he could phone Trick’s house and find me there.’
‘I told you, Bentley, we are the good guys,’ Riot said.
‘How do you two know each other?’
‘Riot is one of the investors in my shooting range,’ Charlo’ said.
‘Your appearance at the night club that first night was not a coincidence,’ Markus said.
‘Nothing ever is, Markus,’ Riot said.
‘Who are you working for, Riot? Why did you kill my sister?’
‘I didn’t kill your sister. You killed the Russians who did that, remember?’
‘Stop the car,’ Markus said.

NEXT: Markus Bentley tries to find a way out in Episode Twenty-Eight before August 16.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Six: The Garden of Truth

‘They’re all screwed up about the Russian.’
Camry was sitting in the back of the Mercedes 700, talking to his driver.
‘What are you gonna do?’
‘Let the steam dissipate. Anyway, we’ve got more important rabbits to catch. What about our professor?’
‘I’ll call him.’
The driver holds the cell in his right, the steering wheel in his left. Barely two seconds later, he sees flashing lights in his mirror.
‘Why did you have to do it like that?’ said Camry.
Inspector Mondeo’s lowers his big head to look into the car as the driver slides down the window.
‘Driving and holding a cell is off limits in this city,’ Mondeo said with a smirk on his face. His eyes were cold.
‘My driver is new to this city, officer,’ Camry said.
‘What happened to the previous one? And it’s inspector, not officer, for you,’ Mondeo said.
‘I promise you, it won’t happen again, inspector.’
‘What about you, can’t you speak?’ Mondeo said to the driver.
‘It won’t happen again, inspector,’ the driver said.
Mondeo waved at Camry and walked back to his car.
‘What was that about?’ the driver asked Camry while driving off.
‘A not-so-subtle warning. I think he’s got bugs inside this car.’

Markus and Charlo’ faced the garden wall from the inside. The hole was too small to crawl through and was filled with a grate. Behind them, they heard voices growing louder, shouting orders.
‘Wait for a sec,’ Markus told her.
Holding the safe box in his right hand, he stepped back and jumped to place his foot on the sill beneath the hole. Charlo’ did all she could to push him up. He grabbed the decorative Chinese roof at the top of the wall, put the box on top and pushed it with all his might. It worked. He managed to shove it off to the other side, where it fell off the wall with a dry thump.
‘You’re next,’ he whispered.
He pulled himself on top of the roof and watched over his shoulder as Charlo’ imitated his earlier move and got her feet on the sill. He held on to the top of the wall with his right and pulled her up with his left.
‘They’re coming,’ she grimaced.
They were. Three men in bulky suits brandishing guns.
‘Don’t kill them,’ one of them shouted as they started firing around their targets.
‘That’s nice,’ Markus said as he pulled Charlo’ on top and over the wall.
Two of the men rushed for the hole in the wall to fire their guns through it. Their chief didn’t like it.
‘Back out through the gate. Catch them.’

Outside, Markus grabbed the box in one hand and Charlo’s hand in the other. She wanted to run for the car park but he went to the right, in the direction of the ocean.
‘What are you going to do there?’ she asked.
‘No time for explanations,’ he breathed hard.
They heard a shot behind them.
Charlo’ turned back to see Riot firing a gun with a silencer.
‘Riot is there. He can help us.’
She broke free from Bentley’s grip.
‘He’s no help. We can’t trust him.’
She ran off to join Riot. Markus realized the ocean was not a way out. He followed them with the box.
Long dry grasses ahead. They ran through it to find Riot’s ute. Markus and Charlo’ clambered on to the back seat as he fired up the engine.
‘Lucky I followed you,’ Riot said.
‘What do you want?’
‘That box you two found there. I’d love to have a look through it once we reach a quiet spot.’
‘Don’t believe I’ll let you get away with it,’ Markus said.
‘He really doesn’t trust me, does he?’ Riot told Charlo’.
She didn’t speak.
‘What is it with you two?’ Markus asked.
Riot looked at Markus with a wan smile.
‘The time has come for me to reveal some painful truths. The Garden of Temerity might just be the Garden of Truth.’

NEXT: Riot reveals part of the truth to Markus Bentley in Episode Twenty-Seven before August 1.