Season One, Episode Thirty: The Concentric

‘Where is Charlo’?’
Riot didn’t speak, but the door opened behind the vehicle.
‘Sorry, Bent.’
‘Don’t call me Bent. Ever. Again.’
Charlo’ left the door wide open.
‘It’s time to continue our journey,’ Riot said, while signaling Markus to move across to the passenger’s seat, while keeping his hands up against the ceiling.
Charlo’ took place behind the steering wheel while Riot occupied the rear left seat, his gun still trained on Markus.
‘You leave me no choice but to take you to my boss,’ Riot said while taking the box out of Bentley’s hands and the gun out of his belt. ‘Only then will you realize we are your allies, not your enemies.’
Charlo’ drove back to the main coastal road and turned left, away from the Garden of Temerity.
‘Do I know your boss?’
‘You’ll see.’
‘What do you want with the box?’
‘This is what we wanted you to find all along, because it contains the clue to everything that is happening around us now,’ Riot said.
‘My father is in there. It’s family stuff. What could you possibly want with it?’
‘Patience, Markus, and everything will be clear.’
Markus looked at Charlo’ as a police patrol car passed them.
‘What will you do if I grab the steering wheel out of your hands and send the ute slamming against the cop car?’
Charlo’ looked at the police cruiser.
‘You try anything like that and I knock you out,’ Riot said. ‘I need to make a phone call,’ he said for Charlo’s benefit.
She stopped the car by the side of the road, overlooking the ocean. Riot stepped out and took position in front of the car, his eyes on Markus as he made the call.
‘So where are we going?’ Bentley asked when Riot was back inside and they drove off.
‘To a brand new shopping mall. So new, it hasn’t been opened yet.’
‘Will you kill me after I meet your boss?’
‘No. Nobody will kill anyone unless you force us to,’ Riot said. ‘Now stop talking until we arrive.’
Into the city they went, taking care to respect the traffic code. On the northside of town, several projects were under construction. Including a shopping mall, now surrounded by plates covered in Art Nouveau drawings of handsome women. Charlo’ drove the ute straight past the gate until they were hidden by the aluminum plating, then stepped back to close the gate behind them, and stopped the car inside the marble building. The first floor was completely empty but for the elevator block. Charlo’ switched off the engine and they sat waiting for two minutes. Riot’s cell phone beeped once.
‘Let’s get out and meet your destiny,’ he said, guiding them to the other side of the elevators.
A woman in a business suit stood with her back to them.

A naked man was lying face down blooded on the concrete floor. Harsh sunlight came in from the right, where two men stood watching. Camry and his driver. The latter was holding something. A brick. Because of the sun, you could hardly discern whether red was its natural color or the professor’s blood.
‘You’re still alive because I value your talents,’ Camry said. ‘You complete your work within less than two months where and when I want you, and you’ll survive. If not, the world will be one great scientist short. Unfortunately, he will never appear in the obituaries because nobody will ever find him.’
The professor kept his eyes closed as the blood dried on his face. Camry approached and pressed his right heel into his back.
‘I do not appreciate failure, I do not appreciate cowardice, I do not appreciate dereliction of duty.’
Camry pressed harder, until the professor shrieked.
‘Repeat after me, professor.’
The professor did, barely audible to the driver grinning at him.

Markus had a knot in his stomach. The long blond hair, the stance of the legs.
Nobody said a word.
The woman turned around.
Markus cried.
‘You?’
‘I’m sorry,’ the woman said as they rushed each other and fell into each other’s arms.
‘His sister,’ Riot grimaced at Charlo’.
‘He lied to me, he told me you were dead,’ Markus said, shaking his fist at Riot.
‘We all had to, because I wanted to protect you. Riot is a colleague, the only one I trust,’ she said.
‘What kind of game are you playing?’ Markus took one step back to observe his sister.
‘This is not a game, Markus. If I had stayed, I would have been killed. He warned me, and we escaped together. We had to pretend I had been killed, otherwise they would have been after us.’
‘Who, and why?’
‘Let’s get in the car first,’ Bentley’s sister said.
When they turned back, she grabbed Markus by the arm.
‘My car, not yours. It might have been compromised.’
They walked out the other side of the building. A rusty van stood in front of a shaky brick wall. Bentley’s sister guided them around the wall to rip away a dusty plastic cover. Inside was an Audi A8. Riot and Charlo’ took the back seat, Markus the front passenger seat. Charlo’ left again to swing open the gate. Bentley’s sister drove at a speedy tempo, Markus was praying they wouldn’t get the cops after them.
‘What has dad to do with all of this?’
‘I’m glad to see you finally found the box. It’s all in there. Dad’s secrets is all they want.’
‘Who’s they?’
‘My previous employers. I found out they were up to no good, so Riot and I decided to bid them goodbye. But we needed you to get out and find the box. They only know one aspect of the technology, but they don’t know the rest and I didn’t want to be the one to tell them.’
‘What’s dad got to do with this?’
‘He was one of the inventors of the technology.’
‘What kind of technology are we talking about?’
'You see that up there?'
She pointed at the sky. Markus leaned over to the window and saw a cloud showing the colors of the descending sun.
‘Did you read about Operation Cirrus?' his sister continued.
‘It’s in the box. Clouds and the weather.’
‘Dad was part of a select group working on Operation Cirrus.’
‘You mean, him and the other elders?’
‘Hu died, Veramus disappeared, and I have reason to believe Lassiter is a traitor.’
‘Why didn’t you warn us before we went to Taiwan?’
‘I didn’t have enough information then, and not enough advance notice that you were going to look so far.’
Bentley’s sister braked to stop before a yellow light.
‘What role does Camry play in all of this?’
‘He’s a thug. He works as a freelancer, but he has his own agenda. One point on there was to use you to get rid of that Russian, Osyunov or Osyenko or something.’
‘He convinced me that Russian was responsible for killing you,’ Markus said.
‘You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?’ She looked at him.
Riot waved to turn her attention to the traffic light, which had turned green. Off they went.
‘So what’s next? How can I help you now?’ Markus asked.
‘We take the fight to the Concentric.’
‘The what?’
‘My previous employers, Camry’s temporary ones,’ she said.
‘How do we do that and why?’
‘I thought you were always the proactive one in the family, Markus,’ his sister said. ‘The Concentric wanted to kill both of us, and they succeeded in killing our dad.’

NEXT: Season Two of “Concentric” will be here in 2010.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Nine: Operation Cirrus

Markus first measured up the notes with his nose. No funny smells. He turned the box around, and tried to make the dollar notes slide sideward. No such luck. He rattled the box around. He heard the distant noise of an engine. A quick look through the gaps in the wooden barn door showed him a farmer driving some kind of tractor contraption. Markus kept his eyes on the machine as it approached his hiding place. Instead of turning on to the space in front of the barn, the farmer kept to the road.
Markus didn’t look at the box again until the noise had gone. He crouched and pulled the top layer of the box off. The dollar notes were glued to the top. Underneath Markus found notebooks and newspaper and magazine clippings.
Some of the articles were dated 1956 and 1958. Markus went back into the car and switched on the overhead lights to read. Almost without exception, the articles came from the science pages of the newspapers. They dealt with clouds, warfare and the Soviet threat. A bunch of scientists had done tests in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines. Markus didn’t understand what all the mumbo jumbo was about so he first looked at the pictures. None of them were press photos of the year. Just portraits of men standing around in front of planes, buildings, tables full of test tubes.
The jungle picture was interesting. It showed four men in tropical outfits, shorts, Australian-type cowboy hats but without the corks, standing in front of a bunch of palm trees. Touristy really. But according to the caption, these people had risked their lives and limbs to study cloud formation and rain deep inside the jungles of present-day Malaysia, as part of Operation Cirrus. The caption named them as, from left to right, Lassiter, Hu, Bentley and Veramus. The Three Elders plus one.
Markus stared at his father’s picture. He leaned backward and switched off the light.

The wind was blowing hard around the tall buildings. Like most plazas, this one had a fancy piece of art smack in the middle. They were blocks of colored glass, set up like walls where the public could pass between as if inside narrow alleys.
The professor clutched his briefcase to his chest as he took position in one of the colored alleys. Just as he was throwing a look at his watch, Camry came up in front. As the professor stepped back, he noticed Camry’s driver was standing behind him, blocking his only other exit.
‘Beautiful, this Lego stuff, isn’t it?’ Camry sneered. ‘Why don’t you come in the car with me and explain what you’re doing here and not in your lab?’

Markus switched the light back on to read the article. The British and U.S. governments had sent in the scientists to collect information about the weather in the Malay jungles. Rain, monsoon, clouds and cloud patterns, anything that touched on the weather was to be collected and to be passed on to their governments. The aim was to influence the weather so as to make it more amenable to the cultivation of profitable plants. Markus was halfway the newspaper article when he thought he heard a scraping sound.
He looked up and stared right into Riot’s eyes. The man stood next to the car with a gun pointing at his head.

NEXT: Markus finds out the truth in the final episode of Season One before September 15.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Eight: 120 Dollars

‘I want to roast the little fella.’
Camry was sitting in the back of his 700 car. Looking sternly at his driver.
‘When you catch him, give him a neat shake before you leave him in my hands.’
‘He’s never gonna walk out on us again,’ said the driver.
‘Where will you find him?’
‘He’s a professor. He’s only got a couple of predictable places to run to.’

Four men at a table in an expensive hotel suite. The Brother Hotel? Maybe. Throwing down the cards. A guy with long ratty hair and scary tattoos. A biker without a bike. A Chinese man in a velvety suite with a wallet in obvious big Italian brand logo leather lying in front of him. A stylish white guy in a silk suit, like Pierce Brosnan but with a long wave of white hair over his head. And a bulky African-American guy, also in a suit. Inspector Mondeo.
‘You’re a cop, aren’t you?’ the biker asked.
Mondeo grinned.
‘You’re a cop, right?’
Mondeo shrugged like he was saying ‘What’s the matter with this guy?’ but he kept his mouth shut.
Pierce was the one who spoke instead. ‘He’s here to play the beautiful game with us. Stay relaxed and you’ll win.’
The biker calmed down.
The Chinese man called the game. He won. Mondeo took advantage of the break to walk off to the window and make a call.
‘No kidding. You’ve lost them. Again.’
He kept his facial expression hidden from his card partners.
‘What about our friend in the fancy car?’
‘Great. At least, one guy you didn’t lose today. Keep him in your sights and he’ll lead you to the professor. He’s the guy that counts.’
Mondeo put the phone away and brightened up his expression.
‘Gentlemen, are we ready for the next round?’
Pierce and the Chinese man nodded, the biker sneered.

‘You heard what I said. Stop the car,’ Markus Bentley repeated.
‘Sorry, Bent, but we need to move on if we want to get out of the hands of those people,’ Riot said, driving faster.
‘Who are they?’
‘They work for an enemy organization,’ Riot replied.
‘That’s convenient. But I don’t think you understood me. Stop the car.’
Markus produced a gun, which he directed at Riot but kept far enough from his head to be able to fire at Charlo’ in the passenger seat if needed.
‘Don’t leave us, Markus,’ she said.
‘So it’s Markus now and not Bent,’ he snapped back.
Riot parked the car by the side of the road.
‘Now what do you want here, Markus? There’s nothing here but the ocean and the mountains. I bet the next car passing here is those guys looking to hurt you.’
‘You misunderstood my message. I’m not leaving you. You are leaving me.’
Markus waved the gun at them.
‘Get out. Both of you.’
‘Markus,’ Charlo’ said. ‘You’re making a mistake.’
‘Not anymore. Out.’
Riot and Charlo’ got out, and so did Markus, standing on the left of the vehicle, keeping the gun on Riot.
‘Keep walking ahead, where I can see you.’
Markus got into the driver’s seat and roared away, leaving the two looking angry and abandoned.
‘Don’t worry, he left us our phones,’ Riot said, waiting until Markus rounded the bend before placing a call.
Markus drove for half an hour until he reached an intersection with a road going inland. He took that road and followed it alongside dry grass fields, patches of dry rock, and general abandonment. Until he came to a wooden structure that looked abandoned. He drove the car right into the building, obviously an old barn. Switched the engine off, and returned to the back seat, where he picked the box off the floor. The box from the Garden of Temerity.
He fiddled with the key for a minute before succeeding in opening the box. Inside sat two crisp brand new fifty-dollar notes and two equally clean ten-dollar notes.

NEXT: Markus discovers the secrets of the box in Episode Twenty-Nine before August 31.

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.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Five: The Coral Tree

‘Sounds cool. Like something from a kungfu movie. The Garden of Temerity. What are we supposed to look for?’ Charlo’ asked as they left the Italian car under the trees.
The Garden of Temerity had a whitewashed wall with openings in various geometric shapes all around it, and a plaque on its main gate listing its name in English and Chinese.
Standing in the gateway, Markus Bentley and Charlo’ saw dense vegetation on the left, low shrubs and a pond on the right, and a sandy path going straight down the middle, leading to the back of the gardens. Not a soul in sight.
Markus produced a gun from under his T-shirt.
‘What is it with you and guns?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘Said the girl running a shooting range,’ he replied.
‘I leave my guns at work.’
They proceeded carefully, Markus keeping the gun to the right, ready to hide it but also ready to use it. Charlo’ walked to his right.
‘See that flower there?’
Markus looks in the direction Charlo’ is pointing.
‘Nice and red,’ he says.
Most of the plants have a small plaque giving name and origins. Charlo’ steps over a few bushes to read the explanation on the red flower dangling from a tree.
‘Coral flower,’ she reads. ‘Prevalent in Asia.’
‘What else does it say?’ asked Markus. He was still standing in the path, looking left and right for signs of life in the garden.
‘Latin names. Areas where it can be found, names of benefactors who gave the plant to the garden. Hey, your name is in here.’
‘Markus Bentley?’
‘Frederick Bentley. Is that one of your ancestors?’
‘My father.’
Markus walks into the green and joins Charlo’ in front of the coral plant to read the plaque.
‘You know what?’ he asks. ‘We need to do some digging.’

Camry was loosening up his tie.
‘What’s your problem?’ his interrogator asked.
‘I’m not used to spending my time sitting in dark rooms wearing a suit.’
‘If it depends on me, you might spend a lot more of your time sitting in dark rooms wearing a suit. Is that what you’d like?’
‘I need more money.’
‘Don’t we all.’
Camry was through another cup of water, only this time he didn’t ask for permission before walking over for a refill.
‘Thanks for the buffet,’ he said without looking at the man at the other side of the table.
‘What do you know about the police?’
The question froze Camry in his tracks. He turned around to face his interlocutor.
‘What should I know about the police?’
‘Don’t reply to my questions with another question. There was that murder at a restaurant recently. It has come to my attention that there might be a link with you.’
Camry sat down and drank some water before answering.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about and I haven’t had any police visits lately. They don’t know I exist.’
‘You better make sure they don’t find out about the professor.’
‘I’m not letting him out of my sight. Unless he gets a fine for speeding, the cops will never find him.’
‘Do you know any police officers personally?’
‘I don’t get any further than watching The Wire.’
‘Fine, keep them in Baltimore.’

‘Did you hear that?’
Markus and Charlo’ were digging at the foot of the coral tree.
‘An engine. A car. People coming. We need to get out of here,’ he said.
‘They might just be visitors.’
‘I don’t believe in coincidence. Even if they’re just visitors, we’ll look awkward digging here. They’ll remember us.’
Markus speeded up the digging.
‘I’ve got something here,’ Charlo’ said.
‘Quick, get it out and let’s move.’
The contours of a metal safe box appeared. The thing was square, used to be green in a previous life. Markus tried to open it, but it was locked and there was no key. He pulled it out of the earth with one big pull and headed into the vegetation, taking Charlo’ by the hand.
Voices sounded from the garden entrance.
‘Fast, we need to get out,’ Markus told her.
Just before they reached the outer wall, the first bullet whizzed past their ears. Charlo’ ducked but Markus pulled her along.
‘Why don’t you shoot back?’ she said.
They reached a window in the wall. Too small to let them through.

NEXT: Markus and Charlo' try to escape from the Garden of Temerity in Episode Twenty-Six before July 16.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Four: The Garden of Temerity

The room was way dark compared with the sunny day outside. The curtains had been completely drawn, only a handful of small spotlights had been switched on, showing the ominous dark paintings on the wall.
Camry sat with his back to the polished oak door. The table in front of him was wide enough for eight people to take part in a medieval banquet, but right now there was no food, and there was only one person in the room in addition to Camry.
‘You’re going to tell me about the Russian,’ the other man said.
Camry looked so surprised he even stopped fidgeting with his tie for a second.
‘What Russian?’
‘Don’t even pretend you don’t understand me,’ the man said. ‘I’m talking about the man with the initials V.O. and you have been stalking him for a long time.’
‘He’s of no harm to me anymore,’ Camry said. ‘Can I get something to drink in here?’
The man pointed at a water dispenser in a corner of the room. Camry went over and got himself a paper cup full of the stuff. Back at the table, he inspected the water before taking a sip.
‘You don’t trust our water supply?’

Camry’s driver was kicking the tires of the Mercedes 700 and kicking the ash off his cigarette. He was standing with his back to the villa, so he couldn’t see the slight move in the curtain on the second floor.
‘He’s of no harm to me anymore,’ a voice came from behind Inspector Mondeo’s back in the room. ‘Can I get something to drink in here?’
Mondeo turned away from the window and the driver and looked at the laptop showing the image of Camry walking across the room below to get some water.
Mondeo smirked as he watched the man inspect the paper cup.
‘Scared of the water, you’d better be,’ Mondeo said to himself.

The expensive Italian car was driving at a speed just below the official limit on the main coastal road.
‘Fascinating story, but do you believe it?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘About the water? I think he has something else up his sleeve. But I wasn’t in a position to ask,’ Markus said.
‘Turn left, eight miles ahead,’ the GPS voice told them.
‘I wish I could turn this thing off, it gives me a headache.’
‘Will this be our final destination, or will we find another key?’
‘It can’t be. I don’t know what we’ll find, but two things it won’t be. A key and an ambush,’ he said.
‘I was aching for an ambush. We haven’t been shot at since Taiwan, remember?’
‘Turn left, six miles ahead.’

‘We agreed on two months,’ Camry said, finishing his water. He held the cup up in a gesture asking for more. The man at the other side of the table waved his agreement, so Camry stood up and walked away.
‘Tighten the screws,’ Mondeo whispered in his microphone on the second floor.
‘He can do it in less, he’s just stalling us for more money,’ Camry heard the man at the table say.
‘I can be very persuasive if I want to, but less than two months? That’s going to be a stretch,’ Camry said walking back with a new cup of water.
‘Then stretch.’
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Camry said.
‘You’ll do what we want you do.’
‘No need to go all Mister Nasty over me.’
‘Then stay away from the Russians and persuade your professor to work faster. We need the technology.’
‘He’s your professor too. Which reminds me I need some more money from you if I am to convince him to bring up the schedule,’ Camry said, standing up as if he wanted to leave the room.
‘Money, that’s all what you people think about.’
‘Water doesn’t come cheap in my part of the world.’
Mondeo turned away from the screen and looked out the window. Camry’s driver had moved under the trees to seek respite from the sunlight.
‘I’ll be Mister Nasty all over you sooner than you expect,’ Mondeo mumbled to himself as the computer screen behind him went blank.

‘Turn left.’
Markus was driving up the intersection at 40 miles an hour. Instead of braking, he just pulled a hard left and cut off the cyclists coming in the other direction. The move earned him loud angry words and a couple of obscene gestures.
The car was now barreling down a dusty road, throwing up a huge cloud.
‘Can’t you take it down a few notches?’ Charlo’ said.
Markus slowed down enough for them to see the scenery. Long, wild, dry grasses, olive trees, and beyond, the blue horizon of the ocean.
‘Turn right at next intersection.’
They weren’t expecting any intersection on a dust road, but there was. Markus turned right as the voice said, and one mile of meandering country driving further, the voice gave its final instruction.
‘You have reached the Garden of Temerity.’

NEXT: Markus Bentley and Charlo’ enter the Garden of Temerity in Episode Twenty-Five before July 1.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Three: Dead Lines

‘That’s what deadlines are. Dead lines. You cross the line and you’re dead.’
The expensive suit jacket was hanging over the rickety chair, the black tie folded neatly on the seat. Even in the flickering neon light, you could still tell these were expensive clothes, not the kind one wears to an ordinary daily office grind.
The professor had his hands tied behind his back on the other chair. He was wearing his white lab coat, but the cloth looked soiled, raspy, as if it had been scraped along a rough and dirty pavement.
Sweat covered his face as he looked up at the man leaning over him. Camry looked even more devilish up close, with his white shirt unbuttoned half way down.
‘You’re lucky I have an important meeting scheduled, so I can’t use this tie to explain to you what a deadline is. But the people I am meeting are very serious about deadlines, and so should you.’
‘It’s a chemical process,’ the professor said in a voice laden with suppressed agony. ‘If it’s three months, it’s three months. There’s nothing I can do about it. There’s nothing the brightest chemist or engineer in the world could do about it.’
Camry spat in his face.
‘I’m paying you to work. Not to find excuses for not working.’
‘Working with water is a complicated process. I need to get the balance right.’
‘You need to get the balance right,’ Camry said slowly. ‘The balance you need to get right is the one between obeying my orders and receiving a mighty bit of punishment. Do you understand that?’
Before the professor had a chance to reply, Camry smashed a fist in his face, causing his head to pop back like a basketball in some game.
‘Two months,’ Camry said. ‘Do you know what that is?’
He pointed at a table in one corner, away from the neon light. The professor strained his bloodied head to look in the direction.
‘A jug filled with your three-month water,’ Camry answered his own question. ‘Wouldn’t it be ironic if I asked you to drink it, or if I poured it over you?’
The professor shuddered and looked down.
‘Please. Let me work to develop it.’
‘Two months.’
‘Two months.’

‘It was a three because I was not in shape.’
Camry was relaxing in the rear seat of the Mercedes 700 with a glass of French Cognac. They were driving through a high-class residential neighborhood, mansions, trees, lawns with signs telling you you could get shot if you tread on the grass.
‘Our professor is going to work harder but he’ll need an extra set of eyes watching him just in case his feet get itchy.’
‘I’ll take care of him,’ the driver said.
‘That’s where we’re going.’ Camry pointed at a Spanish-style mansion, yellowish walls, red roof tiles, a round tower at one end. The wrought-iron gate turned open without them even saying or doing anything. Camry put his glass down on the fold-out table surface.
‘I’ll put a word in for our friendly professor. Such a nice and hard-working man.’

‘Camry’s the most dangerous man this side of the ocean,’ Riot said. He was leaning against the expensive Italian car as Markus Bentley and Charlo’ were standing in front of him. ‘I can only assume it was him who had the video recording on the laptop delivered to your place. He focused your attention on the guard, and you went running after the Russian.’
‘Wasn’t the Russian the man who killed my sister?’
Riot looked away over the ocean.
‘Let’s just say we shouldn’t feel sorry about this Russian passing on to another life. If there’s any justice, he will suffer miserably. The problem is, you took the bag I gave you and you drew the wrong conclusions.’
Bentley looked at the objects displayed on the roof of the car.
‘You saw the Three Elders, so you rushed off to Taiwan,’ Riot continued.
‘How do you know about Taiwan?’
‘Remember, I was your sister’s friend and colleague.’
‘I still don’t believe too much of that.’
‘You saw the red doll, and you traveled to Macau. Wrong again.’
‘So what are you saying, what should I have focused on?’ Markus asked.
Riot grabbed the bottle of water from the roof and held it upside down.
‘This magic baby.’

NEXT: Camry meets some Very Important People in Episode Twenty-Four before June 18.

Season One, Episode Twenty-Two: The Water

‘If it’s another key, I’ll kill you with my bare hands,’ Charlo’ said.
Markus was driving her car along the coast, away from the city.
‘How do you know where to find the car?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘Once you have the car, where are you going to take it?’
‘It will tell me.’
‘I followed you half way around the world and I still can’t figure you out.’
‘That’s the beauty of me,’ Markus said.
‘You got away with killing your sister’s killer, what more do you want?’
‘She left me those messages from beyond her death.’
‘The Three Elders?’
Markus nodded as he steered the car round a sharp bend.
‘Leaving me the three elders told me I had to go to their source, Taiwan. There I found the one surviving elder, Lass, and the son of the other, Trick. The red doll then told me to travel to Macau, to find the key.’
‘But where is the end of the journey? Or isn’t there one?’
‘There it is.’
Markus pointed at an empty space to the left of the road, above the ocean. A dark blue car was parked under the trees. He braked hard and swung the car across the main road on to a dusty track.
‘What is it?’
‘An Italian luxury car.’
‘What’s so special about that?’
‘It’s rare, so it’s easy to find. And it’s preprogrammed to take us to our destination.’
Markus parked their car right next to their target. The Italian car was obviously brand new, but it had gained a layer of dust standing here exposed to the wind from the sea.
‘You’ll think Riot will find us?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘If he does, we’ll be ready.’
Markus flashed the key at the car and the doors popped open. He took the driver’s seat, crammed his bag behind his feet, and turned his attention to the screen at the center of the leathery dashboard.
‘You know what a GPS is, right?’ he asked her.
‘It’s not because I don’t need one that I don’t know what it is.’
An intricate web of streets flashed up on the screen.
‘This baby will tell us where our destination is.’
‘I hope it’s somewhere closer than Macau.’
‘Stop.’
A heavy sports ute screeched to a halt right behind the car, blocking their exit. The car they had come in was to their left, trees to their right, and the ocean straight ahead.
Markus saw a man walk up to his side of the car. The face that leaned down against the window was Riot’s.
Markus rolled down the window.
‘So I finally caught up with you,’ Riot said, without a look at Charlo’. ‘Are you shock-resistant?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean? First, you do your dying-man routine, give me my sister’s things. How do I know you didn’t kill her and this is all a conspiracy to use me to get at your enemies?’
‘What did you tell Mondeo?’
‘Who?’
‘The black cop.’
‘How do you know?’ Markus asked.
‘I had friends at the airport.’
‘Show me what I gave you,’ Riot said.
Markus pulled the bag from behind his feet and put it across the mid-section, out of Riot’s reach. He started taking his things out of the bag. His sister’s things. He pulled out the red faceless doll, the Three Elders, the bottle of water.
‘Did you drink from this?’ Riot asked.
Markus shook his head.
‘Just like we thought. You’re very conscientious …’
‘Who is we?’ Markus asked.
Riot grinned. ‘You’re smart. My friends and I.’
‘Do I get to meet them?’
Riot’s grin vanished.
‘Do you know a man named Camry?’ he asked.

NEXT: Riot tells Markus Bentley about Camry in Episode Twenty-Three before June 3.

Season One, Episode Twenty-One: The Second Tile

Markus and Charlo’ were stepping across a campus. Palm trees, camphor trees, parks, stately buildings not old enough to be historic, but imposing nonetheless.
‘Have you ever thought that maybe he just wanted to talk to you?’
‘The Riot character?’
‘He didn’t look that threatening to me.’
‘You’ve got a character coming at you who knows where you are even if you’ve never told him, you better get moving.’
‘You know the meaning of the word paranoia?’
‘I never studied French.’
Charlo’ giggled.
Markus took her by the arm and led her into the garden. A large square garden enclosed on all sides by a covered walkway. He pulled her under the roof.
‘Anything looks familiar?’
She looks around, up at the ceiling, down at the walls beneath the pillars. At regular intervals, tiles showing buildings are mixed with regular colored ones.
‘How did you know?’
‘Family secrets.’
‘Those three elders again, right? Did your father tell you to find all this after your sister’s death?’
Markus frowned.
‘This is my own destiny. Let’s find the tile.’
He walked rapidly along the pillars and tiles, looking at them one by one.
‘Which one are you looking for? Let’s split up and each take half the area,’ Charlo’ suggested.
Markus shook his head.
‘I know where to look.’
He pointed at the first corner.
‘Round that way, it’s close.’
A tile showing the Montmartre basilica in Paris. The next one showed medieval European buildings in white and brown.
‘Where is that?’
‘It doesn’t matter, all I care about is what’s behind it.’
He pulled a knife out of a pocket in his cargo pants and hit at the cement surrounding the tile. Charlo’ looked around, expecting scandalized teachers to shout abuse at them. They were the only people around. In the distance, she saw a young man play guitar under a tree in the park.
Markus ripped the tile out and laid it out on the floor, face up. He reached his hand inside the cavity and pulled out a red cloth, similar to the one they found in Macau.
‘Surprise, surprise, what’s the mystery object this time?’
Charlo’ crouched by Bentley’s side, but he waved her away.
‘Keep a look out. We don’t want to be jumped on.’
She stood back up and looked around. The young man with the guitar had gone. She watched Markus untie the cloth, and carefully deposit an object in his left hand.
‘Another key? Boy, this is getting predictable. So now, we have a second key, and no doubt, we now have to look for a third key hidden behind another tile somewhere.’
Markus didn’t smile.
‘Let’s leave,’ he said.
‘What’s the hurry?’
‘We have what we want, let’s go to the next stage.’
‘Ever considered I might be getting tired of following you around the world and not getting any answers? Someone killed your sister, you killed them, but now you’re still hopping around. What is your aim?’
‘I’ll tell you when we find the car.’
‘What car?’
Markus waves the key in front of her face.
‘This is a car key. You’re driving us to find that car.’
‘You’re not as charming as you used to be.’
‘Believe me, if Riot is on to us, we’re better off completing this as fast as we can.’

Three blocks away, along a tree-lined avenue, a BMW X7X moved into a shaded parking slot.
Riot cut off the engine and took a PDA-like device from the breast pocket of his jacket. He touched the screen with his right index three times.
‘So that’s where you are, my dear friend. Playtime is almost over now.’
Riot immediately started the engine up again and drove off.

NEXT: Markus Bentley runs riot in Episode Twenty-Two before May 15.

Season One, Episode Twenty: Riot Runs

Markus walked out of the airport toward the taxi rank. He saw Charlo’ hanging around but he gave her a stern look. She took the first cab up. He boarded the next one and told the driver to follow her.
After she left her cab in a neighborhood he wasn’t familiar with, he told his driver to continue for one block, got out and walked back. From a distance, he saw her enter a renovated building. He brushed past the old lady with all the paper bags stepping out into the street.
There were four floors and he hadn’t seen one familiar name on the bell list of residents. He was about to ring the bell on the third floor with the name C. Gabal on it when he heard a whisper above him. Charlo’ was leaning over the balustrade while waving at him.
‘I live up here,’ she whispered. ‘I thought I had told you the fourth floor.’
‘That was way back, before we went traveling,’ he said.
Inside her apartment, they crashed. He held her and kissed her, ferociously.
‘They let you go,’ she said. A statement of fact.
He didn’t reply but accompanied her to the bed. They fell on the top while extricating themselves from their clothes.

‘What do you think?’ Riot asked as he was observing the blue plastic cup filled with water. He took it and went into the bathroom, putting it next to a tile from Holland that had been worked into the wall.
‘About what?’ the woman asked from the dinner room, where she was eating a raspberry waffle.
‘Our precious guy. I think it’s time I paid him another visit.’ Riot looked at the water from different angles.
‘You won’t betray me, will you?’
‘We’re not there yet. First I want to know what he got out of Asia and what he’s planning on doing about it. I also want to know how far Mondeo has come in understanding all of this.’
He walked up to her and tore a piece off her waffle.

Markus and Charlo’ were resting. In bed. Naked. They didn’t know how long they had been here. The flight from Asia took 12 hours. The interrogation by the black cop. Markus was the first to budge. He took a quick shower, then she joined him.
‘What did you tell them?’
‘Nothing.’
‘They fell for that?’
‘My sister is dead and they blame me because I’m the only link they can find.’
‘They haven’t found out about the Russian you killed at the Brother Hotel, then?’
They went back to bed for another round of horizontal passion.
Two hours later, Markus walked over to the window for a look at the street.
‘Bloody screaming murder.’
‘What?’ She immediately sat up in bed.
‘The guy I told you about, Riot? He’s crossing the street and coming here right now. Get your clothes on, we’re moving out.’
Charlo’ pulled her jeans on.
‘You think he knows this place.’
‘He must have had me followed from the airport.’
‘What does he want?’ she asked as she pulled a yellow T-shirt over her head.
‘I don’t want to be here to find out.’
Markus picked up a sports bag, threw all the stuff in he deemed necessary, and grabbed her hand.
‘You have the car keys?’
She ran back into the bathroom and plucked the keys off the washbasin.
‘What a funny place to keep keys,’ he said.
On the way out, he noticed the name next to her doorbell. Ch. Whiggs.
‘Not there, let’s go out the back.’ He went for the rusty structure outside the hall’s back window. The fire escape. Just as they clambered out the window, he heard doors slam downstairs. Riot was probably on his way up. Markus led the way, but kept Charlo’ close behind him. On the second floor, he heard movement, so he stepped back and pressed her against the wall next to the window. Inside, Riot was on his way up. He looked at the rear window but didn’t stop.
Markus counted to five and continued the run down.
‘Where is your car?’ he whispered at her when they had reached street level.
She didn’t utter a word but pointed at the other side of the street, away from the building. They crossed the street, and that’s when Riot saw them.
‘I just missed the bleeding hearts,’ he told the woman on his cell from the fourth-floor window.
‘Follow them and see where they hang out,’ she said. ‘Don’t show yourself until Markus shows us what he has.’

NEXT: Markus Bentley uses the key from Macau in Episode Twenty-One before May 2.

Season One, Episode Nineteen: Mondeo

Markus and Charlo’ split up again on arrival, just in case some nasties were lying in wait, he said. They didn’t have much luggage so passing through customs was easy, though Markus had some trouble with officers staring at his bare feet. He told them some story about losing a bet with a Chinese fellow passenger on his way to Vegas.
He was finding his way to the parking garage when he noticed the tall black guy staring at him. He came up on him so fast there was no time to avoid him.
‘Welcome home, Mister Bentley,’ the man said. He had cop written all over him.
‘This is not about my shoes, is it?’ Markus asked.
The black guy flashed a badge because he had to, but Markus had no time to read what was on it. The man guided him into a small, bare room. On the wall were the portrait of the new president, hanging slightly askew, and a leftover piece of Christmas decoration nobody had bothered to remove.
‘Merry Christmas,’ said Markus.
The black guy didn’t reply but immediately adjusted the portrait’s angle and sat down at the end of the table in front of the two objects. He pointed out the chair in front of him and waved at a uniformed cop entering the doorway.
‘Give this man a pair of shoes.’
‘Inspector,’ Markus said.
The big black man raised his eyebrows.
‘What is your name?’ Markus asked.
‘Asking for names is my job, not yours.’
‘Shall I call you Larry Fishburne then?’
The big man broke out in a loud laugh.
‘You’re funny for a suspect under investigation for the disappearance of his sister,’ he said.
‘You must be joking,’ Markus said.
‘Crime and jokes don’t go together well. Your sister vanishes. Naturally, we think the suspect must be the boyfriend or the husband or something. But there is no boyfriend or husband. There is only a brother. You. And you vanish to Taiwan or some other pretty distant island. Taking the money to safety?’
‘Taiwan isn’t the Caymans. There is no money. I hadn’t met my sister for ages.’
‘Gambling it all away in Macau because it’s safer than Vegas?’
‘I told you, I don’t have any money. And I’m not a gambling man.’
‘That’s not the information we have. What if we searched you? I mean, really strip searched you?’
‘So what, I have nothing to hide.’
‘Nothing is not what I came here for.’
‘Why do you keep saying my sister disappeared? She was murdered, so you should be looking for her murderers.’
‘If you’re so sure she was murdered, why don’t you show us where the body is, Mister Bentley?’
‘Wasn’t she murdered in the parking lot of her office?’
‘You seem to know a lot about the alleged murder of your sister, Mister Bentley.’
The uniformed officer interrupted the conversation by bringing in a pair of sneakers.
‘Don’t worry, Mister Bentley, we didn’t take it from the airport morgue,’ the inspector grinned.

Charlo’ phoned Riot.
‘They’ve got him,’ she said.
‘Who? Camry?’ Riot asked.
‘A tall African-American guy in a suit. Am I supposed to know him?’
Riot looked over his shoulder. The woman shook her head.
‘Don’t worry, but stay away from him. And let us know what happens to Bentley. If he leaves, follow him but don’t approach him until you’re sure he’s not being followed.’
‘I’ll keep hanging out around the airport, then,’ Charlo’ said.
‘You do that,’ Riot replied before ending the connection and turning round to face the woman. ‘Mondeo’s got him,’ he said.
‘Is he working on his own or for the …,’ she asked.
Riot put his finger on her lips.
‘Is doesn’t matter. It looks like Markus has been compromised. Can we allow him to meet you?’

NEXT: Riot is looking for Markus Bentley in Episode Twenty before April 15.

Season One, Episode Eighteen: The Tile

Markus dropped the knife as his hands were shaking.
‘What’s the matter with you? You want me to continue?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘Just remain silent and watch out for any intruders.’
Charlo’ pursed her lips and turned her back to Bentley.
He doubled his effort, hacking and chipping away at the cement. The tile was coming loose. When Charlo’ heard him stop, she turned around again to watch him rip the tile off the wall. There was a narrow vertical empty space behind it. Or not so empty after all. A reddish, dusty pouch was stuffed inside.
Markus opened it and a key fell into his hands.
‘This is what you came all the way to Macau for?’ Charlo’ asked.
A door creaked below. He put the key in his pocket and pushed the pouch back into the hole in the wall, forcing the tile back in place. Nobody taking more than a cursory glance would be fooled.
‘Let’s go to the back,’ he said, pulling her by the arm.
‘Maybe it’s just the man in the white underwear returning home from the shop,’ she said.
‘Don’t count on it.’
Markus pulled her away, out of the hall, through the back window, on to a rusty emergency stairway stacked full with carton boxes and plastic kid bikes. When Markus found out his shoes made a loud clanging sound on the metal floor, he ditched them.
‘At least, I’ll be quicker through the airport security checks,’ he said.
Charlo’ wasn’t laughing. She was panting. They were just about to pass one window when they saw movement inside. Markus pressed her against the wall to keep her out of view. It worked. They ran and jumped all the way down to the street level.
‘Stick close to the wall,’ he whispered at her as they ran down the street.
A man shouted something short in Cantonese from one of the highest floors. Markus didn’t look back but pulled Charlo’ along with her.
Back on main street, they plunged into the crowds of tourists without apologizing for the bumps and elbows. On the nearest street, they jumped in front of a cab and prevented an old Chinese lady from taking it.
‘To the airport,’ Markus ordered.

Camry watched a news report on TV about a man found dead at a restaurant. He made sure the machine was recording the footage.
‘How much?’ he asked to the man sitting in the couch behind him. ‘A three or a four?’
‘Out of ten?’
‘If I get away with it, it’s a five.’
The cell phone on the coffee table buzzed.
‘So the question is not whether they’re coming back, but what are they bringing back with them?’ Camry asked.
He changed channels when the news about the dead man ended.
‘So they’re still on the wrong track.’
Camry grinned.
‘They don’t have a clue.’

Not wearing any shoes had not speeded up the airport checks. Instead, the Macau customs wanted to check passenger Markus Bentley’s breath for alcohol. They did, and he passed with flying colors.
‘It’s been nice flying out with you. I’ve never traveled around the world with a stranger before. So my mom was right,’ Charlo’ said.
‘About what?’
‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.’
He ordered a glass of white wine.
‘So what’s the key for?’ she asked.
He first drank half the glass.
‘There is a place back home where I need to go to, and there I will find the next step.’
‘So you will again wait to tell me what’s going on until after we get there,’ she said.
She took the glass of wine out of his hands and emptied it.
‘I don’t know myself what I will find there. All I know is the location, not what I’ll find there.’
‘Shouldn’t that be ‘what we’ll find there’ or are you going to dump me as soon as we arrive?’
‘I thought you would want to take a rest after all the emotion of our trip.’
She surfed through the movie channels.
‘You saw for yourself that I’m working on a dangerous task,’ he said.
‘Even in Taiwan and in Macau, people are hunting you. Wouldn’t it be safer to stay away, travel to Europe or to some other place where they don’t know you? Retire to some Greek island like the woman in The Bourne Identity?’
‘They’ll find me anywhere.’
‘Because you killed the man by the pool?’
‘Because they killed my sister and now they want to kill me.’
Charlo’ settled on a movie showing a bunch of white men traveling through India by train.
‘I want to know where you came from,’ she said without her eyes leaving the screen. ‘What do you want?’
‘Marzipan and a good life, and right now I’m short of both.’
She grinned.
‘Don’t tell me stories, I’m not a kid waiting to sleep.’
‘You want to know what I want. It’s been pretty obvious from the start. I want to avenge my sister, because she was the only one I had left. My father died years ago in Taiwan, my mother is long gone, so I was raised by nannies.’
‘How far are you prepared to go?’
‘All the way. I still have to find the guy who gave me my sister’s objects, and the guy who brought me the laptop.’
‘What laptop?’
‘Before the Riot guy showed up, there was another one, who just dumped a laptop at my front door. It had a recording of my sister’s murder.’
‘Gross. Sound and pictures? What did he tell you?’
‘He just dumped the computer and left, never said a word, I never got a chance to talk to him.’
‘Are you sure you’re not being manipulated?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘Everything was real. My sister’s death. I tried to call her. The guard I interviewed.’
‘While you had me staying outside.’
‘Was rather convincing,’ Markus finished his sentence.
‘Can we have another one?’ Charlo’ pointed out the empty wine glass to a passing flight attendant.

Camry was overlooking a swimming pool. The professor was leaning over the water with a vial in his hand, while a naked man was standing in the pool with his back toward them, the water up to his shoulders.
‘How long is he staying in there before we see something happen?’ Camry asked the professor.
‘I would expect results within half an hour.’
‘Make him walk around in the pool,’ Camry told the professor, as if the man in the water couldn’t hear him.

NEXT: Markus Bentley is welcomed by an unpleasant surprise in Episode Nineteen before March 31.

Season One, Episode Seventeen: Macau

Camry sat pulling at the collar of his suit shirt on the back seat of the S-class.
‘Drop me off around the next corner and go keep yourself busy until you get my signal,’ he told the driver.
He left the suit jacket inside the car and walked the block back, hoping he wouldn’t be conspicuous among the salary slaves out for lunch.
As he had expected, the restaurant was crowded and he didn’t draw any undue attention sitting down in the middle of the room on his own. He ordered a set meal, soup, main dish, but no dessert.
Halfway through the meal, he noticed a man in a dark suit heading for the restrooms. Just a minute later, a man in his fifties wearing a pink – sorry, salmon – polo shirt also left his place. Camry counted until five and followed them.
Inside, he first brushed water through his hair. When the man in the dark suit left, a dark pall moved over his face. The water rumbled behind the closed door, third from the entrance. The lock was pushed open with a metallic clang. Just as the guy in the polo shirt was putting his foot out, Camry pushed him back in, grabbing him by the throat to drown out the sound. He stabbed his knife through the salmon polo shirt until his target was reclining on the can with blood dripping, Camry came out, softly pulled the door shut so it wouldn’t reopen of its own accord, and went to clean the knife in the sink.
He returned to his meal, slowly finishing the lamb roast with his knife and fork. No rush, no haste. He politely declined coffee, paid cash and walked over to the next block before calling for his driver.

Charlo’ watched as the wet patches of rice fields vanished behind the low clouds. Markus sat next to her on the Air Macau flight from Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport. She turned to him.
‘Glad to be out of that place. So, are you finally ready to give me an explanation? Are the Three Elders history now?’
‘The first one was Lassiter, the second one was Trick’s father. And the third one was my father.’
‘What was their connection?’
‘They all did business together here in Asia at one time.’
‘That’s what Trick told me. What kind of business were they in?’
‘International trade.’
The ‘fasten your seat belts’ sign flooped off and the pilot made an announcement about altitudes and temperatures.
‘Why did his parents choose the name Trick?’
‘They didn’t. He did. Taiwanese only receive a Chinese name at birth. They later pick their own foreign names if they want one. Even then, you get lots of crazy names. Like Apple and Medicare.’
‘Medicare?’ she grinned.
‘Don’t ask. I once met a doctor with that name.’
The flight assistant came round with the headphones. Markus stuffed his in the back of the seat in front of him, Charlo’ unwrapped hers.
‘I thought you wanted to hear my story,’ he said.
‘I was losing hope you would ever get to it,’ she replied. She put the headphones on her lap.
‘This man, Riot, claimed to be a colleague of my sister. I’ve been out of touch with her for years, so I didn’t know whether he was telling the truth. Yet he had my address and he had those things that only I knew my sister had. All presents from our father. The Three Elders told me I had to go back to Taiwan, because that’s where my father had them made. That is where the Three Elders, the real three, lived.’
‘But only one of them is still alive, and he didn’t tell you much, did he?’
‘That’s when Riot’s phone call came in. I don’t know how he could know I was at Trick’s place, but he did, and he told me I was on the wrong track.’
‘So you believe him?’
An elderly Chinese lady stood up behind Charlo’ and pulled hard at her seat. Charlo’ shot her an annoyed look.
‘The only other possibility was this.’
Markus pulled the red faceless doll from his sports bag stowed under the seat in front. He had given the flight attendant who advised him to jam it into the overhead compartment a convincing shake of the head.
‘My father gave this doll to my sister during a vacation in Macau. He had just returned from a trip to Japan, where he bought this thing.’
‘Because he gave it to her in Macau, that’s why we’re going there?’
Markus nodded.
‘You’ll understand when we get there. It’s a clue, a sign.’
‘International man of mystery. Traveling with you is certainly an adventure. Will we be doing a spot of gambling? You know, Vegas of the East, casinos?’
Markus shook his head.
‘That’s not what we’re here for. I want to go in quickly and leave quickly.’
‘Why not enjoy it while we’re here?’
‘I thought you were the one complaining about me taking you everywhere,’ Markus said.
‘Let me think. The doll is from Japan, so that’s where we’ll be heading next.’
‘What’s the matter, don’t you like the jetset life?’
‘It’s just that I don’t like drifting around the world without being told what it is all about.’
Markus tapped his finger on her headphones.
‘Our next destination is home,’ he whispered.
‘Can we get marzipan on this flight?’ she asked.
‘No, and no moaji either.’
The flight attendants came up with the meals. The flight only lasted a mere 90 minutes, so bread, simple combinations of pre-packaged vegetables and fruits, and a miniature pot of yoghurt was all there was. Markus asked for white wine.
‘Will I have to speak Portuguese?’ she asked.
‘Most people here speak Cantonese. The Portuguese is just inscriptions on buildings. So don’t worry. I don’t speak Cantonese either, but we’ll get by in English.’

In Macau, Markus and Charlo’ were following the flow of tourists, heading down Main Street with its Portuguese-era baroque churches and buildings, with ugly casinos looming behind as so many threats of brash modernity against cultured history.
Markus took a sordid alley to the right at the end of the street. A stocky man in boxer shorts and white underwear came out of the doorway, Markus rushed to take the open door from him. He signaled at Charlo’ to follow him inside. A finger across his mouth told her not to speak.
They followed the creaky staircase up to the third floor. Under the stairs leading to the fourth, Markus opened a low door. Inside, a wall covered in tiles. Tiny grey tiles, but also one big blue one, showing a city scene. A church at the end of a crowded narrow street with laundry hanging from the balconies. The words ‘Alfama - Lisboa’ written at the bottom. The tile didn’t really fit in with the rest of the wall.
‘Go get me a knife in there.’ Markus pointed Charlo’ at an open doorway at the end of the hall. ‘It’s a communal kitchen. They won’t eat you.’
He took the knife from her and started hacking at the cement around the blue tile.
‘Why are you damaging that nice wall?’ Charlo’ asked.
‘Once I have what’s in that nice wall of yours, we can all go home.’

NEXT: Markus Bentley uncovers what is behind the tile in Episode Eighteen before March 15.

Season One, Episode Sixteen: Moaji

Markus walked over to the other room to pick up the phone, while Trick poured Charlo' another cup of green tea.
‘Do you know moaji?’ the Taiwanese man asked her.
‘Never heard of her,’ Charlo' smiled.
‘Do you like sweets?’
‘He does,’ Charlo' said with a wave in the direction of the other room. ‘He always has marzipan on him.’
Trick smiled.
‘He learned that here. He was bored with life, so he went about making things himself. Painting, at first. When the galleries weren't interested, he turned to food.’
‘Interesting. So what kind of food were you mentioning there?’
‘Moaji. The aboriginals here in Taiwan make them. Rice stamped into a sweet ball, with peanut or sesame inside and outside. I'll get some for you to taste.’
Charlo' wondered whether he was going somewhere to listen in to Bentley's conversation. But Trick was back in seconds. Carrying a tray with four peanut-colored balls. He offered her a pair of chopsticks.
‘How did you meet Markus?’ she asked.
They reclined, munching on the moaji.
‘Our fathers knew each other. His was stationed here for a long time, and obviously, my father was Taiwanese.’
‘You say his father was stationed here, you mean like a military man?’
‘Something like that. I was young, I don't know too much about that. Markus and I went to the same school and grew up together until he left for the States.’
‘With his dad.’
‘His dad stayed here,’ Trick said.
Charlo' detected a finality.

Markus picked up the phone.
‘Lose the girl,’ said a gruff voice.
‘What? What are you saying, and how did you find me?’
‘Don't ask me questions I don't want to answer,’ Riot said. ‘You're busy in a completely wrong way. Get rid of the girl.’
‘I need her to watch my back. Did you have anything to do with those thugs who attacked me?’
‘So why do you say they attacked just you and not the girl as well? Lose her, you don't need her. And you shouldn't have gone all the way to Taiwan. There is nothing for you there.’
‘Remember who told me to do this for my sister? You did,’ Markus said.
‘I didn't tell you anything. I just gave you some of her belongings, because she wanted you to have them,’ Riot said.
Markus thought back to Riot's impromptu visit and to his sister's objects. Was he wrong about the Three Elders?
‘Do you mean the Three Elders were not the important object in there?’
‘I expected you to be smart enough to figure that out on your own, smart heart.’
‘Hold on. Did you just say smart heart?’ Markus said.
‘Remember, I worked with your sister, she told me what she called you, only I'm beginning to wonder why. As I said, lose the girl and get your act together,’ Riot said. ‘I'll find you for our next talk.’
He cut the connection, leaving Markus staring at a silent phone.

‘He's so predictable, it's beyond sick,’ Riot said to the woman standing behind him eating an apple.
‘Do you think he will get rid of her?’ she asked.
‘Charlo' is not the kind of woman you get rid of after a phone call, I know her too well for that.’

‘You need to return home,’ Markus said as he sat down next to Charlo' and took a pair of chopsticks Trick handed him.
‘Do you really know what you're doing? Running all the way here, dragging me along? You get me shot at by a bunch of roughnecks and now you send me away like I'm a piece of dirt?’
Markus put the chopsticks down.
‘I feel it will be safer for you if you're not with me.’
‘Who was that talking to you?’
‘His name is Riot. He's the man who gave me my sister's belongings after her death.’
‘How do you know he's not her killer?’
‘He's a colleague of hers. If he had killed her, would he have bothered to show me his face and give me her things? Is that your logic?’
Charlo' gave him a look that killed while Trick concentrated on his moaji.
‘I am doing for my sister now what I couldn't when she was alive.’
‘You killed her murderer. What more can you do?’
‘My sister gave me those things. They're a message from the grave, she wants me to do this.’
‘This creep, Riot you call him, how do you know he’s not fooling you?’
‘I know those objects were in my sister's possession, he didn't fool me, they were hers.’
She grabbed another moaji ball.
‘You're not getting rid of me this easily.’
Silence fell as the three digested the moaji.
‘We need to go to Macau,’ Markus said as Trick nodded in agreement.

NEXT: Markus Bentley and Charlo' head for Macau in Episode Seventeen before March 3.

Season One, Episode Fifteen: The Second Elder

Markus and Charlo' had to press themselves against the parked motorcycles as a small blue van squirmed through the alley.
‘What is it with your father?’ Charlo' asked.
A loud bang went off above their heads, on the second floor of the place they were passing. Charlo' ducked, but Markus stayed composed.
‘What the hell was that?’
‘Someone changing a gas bottle,’ Markus said.
The black BMW closed in but did not pass them.
‘Your father?’ she asked again.
Markus looked behind them.
‘What is it?’
‘The new BMW 5. No, let's go, now.’
He grabbed hold of her right arm and pulled her along, running out of the alley. Behind them, the doors of the car opened and three men in black shirts and dyed hair stepped out and ran after them.
One of the men produced a Beretta.
At the end of the alley, Markus turned left, dragging Charlo' with him. They heard the men shout. When they rounded the corner, a shot went off and planted itself in the rear window of the SUV they were just running by.
‘We'll never keep this up,’ Charlo' hissed as they scrambled into the next side alley, past parked motorcycles and a stand selling smelly stuff.
‘We have to,’ Markus hissed back.
Another bullet whizzed past their heads to end up lost somewhere with a clang.
An elderly man on a motorcycle ran into them as they veered left and the cyclist went right. The three pursuers appeared again, and this time the bullet missed Markus Bentley's left arm by an inch.
The next crossroads was easy to take. A noisy bustling street market on the right. Stands selling exotic foods in the center of the road, shoes and T-shirts spread out on plastic sheets on the sides. Markus pulled Charlo' over and together they dived into the crowd, jostling some of the onlookers and sightseers, but that was alright, they didn't seem to mind.
‘Keep your head low,’ he told her.
They kept bumping into people, but there was a system to it. The Taiwanese saw these two crazed foreigners come at them, they just gave way. Once that happened too late, when Charlo’ crashed into a young woman eating a squid on a stick, but she mumbled an apology as Markus pulled her away.
Once he felt they had created some distance, Markus dove into a dark gap between two shoe stores and ran hunched toward a metal box at the end. He crouched behind the box and told Charlo' to do the same.
They watched as almost a minute later, one of the pursuers in black passed by without looking at them. The two others followed just seconds behind, each on a different side of the road, no gun in sight.
Markus waited another five seconds, tapped his companion's shoulder, and off they went, further into the darkness until they reached another non-descript alley, the same motorcycles parked everywhere. Markus made sure there was no dark BMW looming around before he chose the direction.
‘Who were they?’ Charlo' asked.
‘I don't know, but I sure didn't want to wait for them to introduce themselves.’
‘Do you think Lassiter sent them?’
‘It's not important what I think. All I know is, we cannot go back to the Brother Hotel.’
‘Where are we heading then?’
Markus signaled her to keep silent. They reached the main road and hailed a cab, a yellow one like all the others. The cabbie didn't understand English but Markus knew the address in Chinese, or that's what Charlo' assumed anyway.
‘Are we going to look up the second elder?’ she asked as the car passed the last subway station and went uphill out of the urban jungle and into the green.
‘We're going to visit an old friend of mine.’
‘Is he as trustworthy as the last one?’
‘Stop questioning me. You get a free trip to Taiwan and all you do is moan.’
‘I didn't ask for this trip, remember. If I stay away too long, my job will be gone.’
The car turned into a dark tree-lined alley, where the houses stood away from the road, hidden from view behind walls topped with shards of glass. Markus waited until the cab had vanished from their sight before moving away. They had alighted in front of the third doorway in the alley, but Markus now crossed the road and marched deeper away from the main road.
‘What if there's nobody home?’ Charlo' asked.
‘We'll either have to scale the wall or spend the night in the bushes.’
‘You must be kidding. Aren't you? Are you?’
Markus checked the number on the next door. A shiny metal door set in a long wall which had once been white but now only showed off the humidity of the environment in black streaks all over.
There was a bell, no name. Markus rang, counted to six, and rang again.
‘Nobody home,’ Charlo' said.
Just when even Markus began to believe that, a light went on above the doorway.
A buzz and a click, and a youngish Taiwanese man with a crew cut stood grinning at them.
‘Hi, Trick,’ Markus said.
They didn't shake hands, but the Taiwanese man signaled them inside. Markus introduced Charlo' as a friend, and Trick gave her the same grin and the same silent welcome.
The trio walked across a dark grass lawn to reach a house that looked like something out of a fifties movie.
Inside, Charlo' had expected to find Chinese furniture and antiques, but instead all she saw were shag carpets, leather couches and garish plastic chairs, black-and-white pictures of Paris and London on the walls.
Trick offered them hot bitter tea in small green enamel cups.
Markus was the first to speak.
‘I want to show you this,’ he said as he produced the three elders out of his bag.
‘So you still hold on to the past,’ Trick said. ‘The furniture in this house is fifties, sixties, and seventies, but I'm a 21st century man. You should try it sometime, it feels a lot better.’
That was the longest time Trick had been speaking since they entered the house, Charlo' thought.
‘What else can I do for you?’ Trick asked.
‘Our hotel reservation has been canceled,’ Markus said, without irony.
‘My house is your house.’
He filled up their tea cups. A phone rang in an adjacent room, with a loud metallic sound like a dial model from decades ago. Trick walked off.
When he returned, the smile had vanished.
‘Someone in the States named Riot wants to have a word with you about your sister,’ Trick said.

NEXT: Markus Bentley talks to Riot in Episode Sixteen before February 23.

Season One, Episode Fourteen: The First Elder

Charlo' returned to their room at the Brother Hotel at 9 p.m. She found Markus changing, preparing to go out.
‘How was Taipei 101?’
‘Awesome. The tallest building in the world. The mall was too expensive for me though. I thought everything in Taiwan was cheap.’
He let that one go.
‘There is one in Dubai that's taller. It's called the Burj Dubai, 160 floors high. But since it's not completed yet, this one is still officially the tallest one.’
‘I see you've done your research. Anything else while I was away?’
She picked up the book from the sofa. American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
‘So are you going somewhere?’ she asked as he was rifling through his bag. ‘Without me?’
He picked out the statuette of the three Chinese men, the thing he called the Three Elders.
‘We're going somewhere, so get ready,’ he said.
‘I only just got back. Can't I get some rest for a change.’
‘Later. We've got an appointment.’

Markus marched around the Renai Circle, looking into a side alley for a pub he used to know, but it was no longer around. Fancy French bakeries and Japanese design stores were the new standards around here. The circle was a major traffic intersection on Taipei's tony east side. Charlo' walked behind him, as if they were on separate trips. She had had no time to change, so she felt sweaty and self-conscious in her pink T-shirt and jeans. She wasn't dressed for an important visit, but maybe the target of their visit wouldn't mind.
Markus kept looking left and right, as if lost. Asian cities changed much faster than American ones, and Markus Bentley had been away from Taiwan for at least five years. He looked foolish, but then Charlo' couldn't know.
He stepped into an alley where local couples were leaving a restaurant through a garish red gate. Charlo' didn't read Chinese characters, and she wondered whether Markus could.
He turned right, she followed. He turned left, she followed. Several times, she had to press herself against parked motorcycles as some black limousine worked its way through the narrow alleys built for, well, motorcycles.
It was 10 o'clock sharp when she saw Markus stop outside the doorway to a five-floor apartment building and press the bell. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but she slowed down, as he had told her to. The buzzer rang, he went in, and turned around, motioning at her.
‘I'm in?’ she asked.
‘You're in. But don't say too much. Don't say anything about what we did back home together.’
A concierge in the marble and gilt lobby gave them a magnetic card that allowed them to take the elevator up to the fourth.
The welcome was warm. A bulky man in a Hawaiian shirt, about sixty, long gray hair and a beard covering his smile. He embraced Markus in the doorway and then let them in.
‘I am Lassiter, so you can call me Lass,’ he told Charlo' as he shook her hand.
The apartment had bright white walls, but dark wooden furniture, most of it Chinese, giving the place the appearance of an antiques store. Lassiter signaled them to sit down on a cream leather couch, while he disappeared out of view for a minute before coming back with three bowls filled with a dark brew.
‘Red bean soup, the best sweet in the world. Watch it, it's hot,’ he told Charlo' with a smile.
The conversation was thin, the brew wasn't. Lassiter and Bentley obviously were aficionados, Charlo' was the newcomer to Chinese food, the odd one out.
‘We have something in common,’ Markus said when the two men were reaching the bottom of their bowls.
He pulled the statuette out of his bag and put it in the middle of the table. Lassiter stared at it with an expressionless face and turned back into an adjacent room. He returned with what looked like a precise copy of the same Three Elders.
‘Where did you get yours from?’ Lass asked.
‘My sister gave it to me before she died.’
Lass looked taken aback but didn't say a word.
‘Your sister died, my condolences,’ he said, as an afterthought. ‘Who told you?’
‘A man came to my house one morning with a laptop showing what happened.’
‘You mean like on YouTube? What did he look like? Who was he?’
Markus gave the story of the man in the car who deposited the computer at his place, and continued with the visit later that morning.
‘He was really messed up. Blood all over, falling, moaning. He called himself Riot. Never seen him since.’
Lassiter didn't register any reaction.
‘So you think I can help you?’
‘My sister had this guy bring me the Three Elders. That must have been her way of telling me the solution lies here,’ Markus said.
‘Did this Riot guy pass on anything else?’
‘Nothing significant,’ Markus said.
‘Where are you staying? Just in case I can reach you with new information.’
‘At the Brother Hotel,’ Charlo' cut in, just too hastily. Bentley shot her a look of why don't you shut up you were doing so well.
Lassiter refilled their red bean soup. The conversation turned to memories of old Taipei from there on. Charlo' was fascinated.
‘The man looks like the pilot from Lost,’ she told Bentley after they had left the building.
Markus pulled out the Three Elders and pointed at the one wearing yellow.
‘That's Lassiter?’
‘That's Lass.’
‘Where are the others?’
‘We need to find one more,’ Markus said.
A dark BMW turned into the alley, careful not to scrape against the parked motorcycles.
‘What about the third one?’ Charlo' asked.
‘He's my father.’

NEXT: Markus Bentley looks for the second elder in Taiwan in Season One, Episode Fifteen before February 13.

Season One, Episode Thirteen: Taipei 101

‘What's that building there?’ Charlo' asked.
‘Taipei 101. The tallest building in the world.’
‘What's the view like?’
‘I don't know. The last time I was here, they were still building it. Some cranes fell off it during an earthquake. People got killed. It was Easter, I remember. I was in church.’
‘You don't strike me as the religious type.’
‘I must be getting old.’
‘Are you going to take me up there?’
‘Unlikely. Remember our deal. I only go out at night, you take care of the rest, you can go out as much as you like, day or night, unless I need you,’ Markus Bentley said.
They were staying at a Brother Hotel on the eastside of Taipei. Just like home. They had sat separately on the 12-hour flight. Wandered separately around Osaka Airport during the stopover. Gone separately through customs, but sat on the same bus into town. He had told her beforehand what to ask for.
The cab ride from the bus stop to the hotel had been quite an eye opener for her. She had never seen swarms of motorcycles fighting it out with yellow cabs and buses for the space closest to the traffic light.
‘That's funny,’ she had said of the green numbers counting down the seconds left to the red light for the pedestrians.
Charlo' had picked up some brochures at the airport, so she now had a vague idea of where to spend her days.
‘Are you going to creep out while I'm sightseeing?’ she asked, her back turned toward him as she contemplated Taipei 101.
‘Not a chance. I don't want to bump into someone I know.’
‘You must be a charmer, so many enemies in so many places.’
‘I need to stay in during the day. That's why you're with me. To represent me outdoors during daylight hours. We're fortunate things get dark early round here, at five o'clock,’ Markus said.
‘Anything else? Do you need me to do your laundry as well?’
He motioned her to go out.
She pursed her lips and looked away.
‘Sorry, I didn't mean it like that,’ he said as she passed by. Out she went.
He waited another twenty minutes before putting aside the Cormac McCarthy novel he had brought.
‘Am I going to be safe coming to your place?’ he asked on the cell phone he had picked up on the way into the hotel.
‘You know you'll always be welcome, as the son of your father,’ a gruff man's voice said on the other end.’
‘Would 9 o'clock be alright, in that spirit?’ Markus asked as he was wandering around his room.
‘Any time, any spirit,’ the man said.
Markus went to fetch his bag and produced the statuette of the three elders.
‘So here you are,’ he told the inanimate object.

Charlo' was strolling past the much too expensive fashion houses inside the mall at the foot of Taipei 101. She wasn't really focusing on the French and Italian brand names, but was juggling a green tea doughnut with a Blackberry. It worked in Taiwan, she was happy to find out.
‘Can you guess where I'm calling from?’
She didn't wait for the reply.
‘From Taiwan. He took me here, he's paying for everything, so he really trusts me.’
She stopped at Prada.
‘What do you mean I shouldn't be taking any measures against him? Of course, not, I'm just following him. I'm just worried he'll do something behind my back, but I can't stay with him all day long without him getting suspicious.’
A crumb fell from the doughnut on to the polished marble floor. She felt guilty not picking it up.
‘He says he's doing it for his sister. We'll see whether he ends up where we think he will,’ Charlo' said.
She giggled.
‘I'd better go up Taipei 101 because he will quiz me about the view. He's like that.’

NEXT: Markus Bentley meets the first elder in Taiwan in Season One, Episode Fourteen before February 3.

Season One, Episode Twelve: Made in Taiwan

Charlo' had parked her car on the top of a multistory parking lot in the financial district. Markus had put a cheap pair of dark jeans over his swimming trunks. He was leaning against the hood of her car, Charlo' standing next to him, her hands in the pockets of her jeans.
The sun was softer than usual, even if Markus was sweating.
‘Do you need a maid to do your dirty work in Taiwan just like you wanted me to here?’
‘It's not like that. I just need someone to watch my back.’
‘Nice. Who's paying for all of this, for the tickets, the hotel?’
He offered her a piece of marzipan.
‘I've got enough money for both of us. Taiwan isn't that expensive.’
‘How long are you planning to stay? Remember the shooting range. I've got a job here. If I don't show up in a week's time, they'll find some other good-looking chick like me.’
‘No, they won't. Two weeks is all I need. If after one week, you don't like what you see, you can come back. I won't hold you back,’ Markus said.
‘Isn't it going to be as dangerous as our dip into the pool?’
‘Admit it, you had some fun.’
‘Fun being used as a shield while you shoot people and dive into a pool? No thanks, I don't call that fun.’
Markus Bentley bit off a piece of marzipan.
‘Whom are you going to kill in Taiwan?’ she asked.
‘Nobody if I can avoid it,’ he said, looking down at the car's front bumper.
‘You did I don't know what to that guard in his home, you killed a whole battalion by the pool, and now you're off to kill people overseas. How many people killed your sister?’
Markus wiped the sweat off his face with the sleeve of his T-shirt.
‘The man in the hotel told me where to go and how to find what I'm looking for.’
‘The man you killed after he gave you the gun?’
‘I didn't kill him. The people in the helicopter did.’
‘Explain one thing to me. With all the carnage that's been going on around you, how come the police still haven't found you?’
Markus shrugged.
‘They don't know me, I'm not on their radar.’
‘What about your sister's funeral?’
He sighed.
‘It's too dangerous for me now. Her friends and colleagues will take care of that.’
They remained silent for a few seconds.
‘One more practical thing, Markus. Your sister was killed, you killed her killer. What does that make you? A fugitive from the law at best, a murderer at worst. How do you think you're going to get through customs onto your flight to Taiwan?’
‘If you're afraid, we'll travel separately. We'll have seats together, but we'll check in as if we're strangers, if that's what bothering you.’
Now it was her turn to sigh.
‘What's bothering me is that you expect a woman you're not familiar with to travel with you half the way around the world on what might be another murderous outing. I don't want to be sitting on your lap when they fire up the electric chair.’
‘I need a smart woman to babysit me.’
‘Filthy sexist pig.’
‘Now we're talking.’
They both bended double laughing.
‘What is there to see in Taiwan?’ she asked.
He turned away from her and delved into his bag on the back seat of the car. Out he came with the Chinese statuette of the three old men.
‘Charlo', meet the Three Elders.’
‘So this is your way of telling me we are going to Taiwan because of some cheap souvenirs?’

NEXT: Markus Bentley and Charlo' arrive in Taiwan in Season One, Episode Thirteen before January 22.