Macau smelled like salt and perfume. The ferry pulled in under a gray sky, and the air was thick with diesel and humidity. Lian walked off first, her coat collar turned up, scanning the crowd. Casino workers, tourists with rolling bags, men shouting in Mandarin and Portuguese. It was noisy in a way Hong Kong wasn’t.
Kai followed, backpack slung over one shoulder, his eyes moving faster than hers. He looked half asleep, but she knew better. They didn’t speak until they were clear of the dock.
“You think Mei was right?” Kai asked quietly.
“About what?”
“About not poking ghosts.”
Lian adjusted her gloves. “She’s been saying that for years.”
Kai smiled a little. “Yeah. But this time, it felt different.”
Lian didn’t answer. She stopped at a street corner where a line of taxis waited, drivers leaning on their doors. She picked one without a meter, and gave an address in Cantonese. The man nodded and waved them inside.
The ride was slow. They passed marble hotels, billboards and alleys that smelled of oil and rain.
Kai pulled out his tablet and brought up the coordinates from the shard. “The relay’s near the south end. Industrial area. Not casino property.”
“Then it’s hidden behind one,” Lian said.
He nodded. “You think it’s corporate?”
“I think whoever set it up didn’t want anyone to ask questions.”
The driver dropped them off near a half renovated hotel. The place looked like it had been fancy twenty years ago. The windows were tinted dark, and the sign outside still read Hotel Fortuna in fading gold. Lian looked up at the cracked fa?ade.
“This the address?”
Kai checked the map. “Close enough.”
They slipped around to the back, through a narrow alley that smelled of wet garbage and cigarettes. Behind the hotel was a small service door, padlocked but new. Kai crouched beside it, pulling a slim kit from his pocket.
“You always carry that?” Lian asked.
He grinned. “What kind of hacker would I be if I didn’t?”
The lock clicked open in seconds. They entered a long hallway lined with broken vending machines.
Inside, the building was empty, but it didn’t feel abandoned. The power was still running. Someone had swept the floor recently.
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Kai’s voice dropped. “This place is active.”
Lian drew her pistol and nodded once. “Stay behind me.”
They moved carefully through the hall. Half the doors were bolted shut. One was open, showing a small office filled with computer racks. The air was warm from the heat of running equipment.
Kai stepped in first, eyes wide. “This is it.”
He moved fast, connecting a small drive to one of the machines. Lian watched the entrance, ears tuned to every sound.
“What are we looking at?” she asked.
“Encrypted traffic. Looks like it’s been routing through here for months. The data doesn’t stop in Macau. It’s bouncing through multiple servers.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Not without setting off alarms. But I can copy the routing tables. That might tell us where the next relay is.”
She nodded. “Do it.”
Lian paced slowly, glancing at the walls. She noticed something strange — all the clocks in the room showed different times.
Kai finished the download and slipped the drive into his pocket. “Got it.”
Before they could leave, a light flickered in the hallway. Lian’s hand went instantly to her weapon.
Voices. Two men, speaking Portuguese and something else — maybe Mandarin.
Kai’s eyes met hers. She motioned for silence. They slipped into the shadows beside the door.
The first man entered, tall, wearing a suit without a tie. He was holding a phone, the glow lighting his face. “They were here,” he said in accented English. “The feed just cut.”
The second man crouched near the server racks. “You think it was locals?”
“No.”
Lian waited for the right moment. When the first man turned toward the door, she moved. Her hand went around his neck, silent, fast, pulling him back. The second man spun, gun half-raised, but Kai was already moving. A hard shove sent the weapon clattering away.
The fight was short. One blow, two breaths, and both men were down. Lian exhaled slowly, checking their pulses.
“Still alive,” she said.
Kai looked shaken. “You sure we should leave them that way?”
“They’re just guards. Killing them buys us nothing.”
He nodded, though his jaw tightened. “Let’s get out before more show up.”
They slipped back into the alley.
They took a long route through the side streets, passing closed pawn shops and flickering street lamps. By the time they reached their temporary flat, dawn was stretching over the skyline.
Kai collapsed into a chair, rubbing his eyes. “We can’t keep doing this.”
Lian poured water into two glasses. “Doing what?”
“Running, fighting, guessing. Every time we think we’re getting close, it’s another layer.”
She handed him a glass. “You think there’s an easier way?”
He laughed tiredly. “No. But maybe there’s a smarter one.”
She sat opposite him, her voice steady. “You’re right. We find the next relay. We trace it, then we decide what to do.”
He looked up, meeting her eyes. “And if it leads somewhere we don’t want to go?”
“Then we go anyway.”
The words hung between them.
Kai took a slow breath. “I’ll start decoding the data. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Luck doesn’t exist,” she said quietly. “Only timing.”
He gave a small smile. “Then here’s hoping we have good timing.”
Lian looked out the window. For now, they had time. Not much, but enough. And for them, enough was all they ever needed.
