Morning arrived without either of them really sleeping. Lian sat at the tiny table near the window, sharpening one of her knives with slow, even strokes. The sound was soft but steady, like a quiet heartbeat running through the safehouse. Kai finally looked up from the fixer’s phone, which he had been dissecting for hours.
“I got something,” he said, rubbing at his eyes.
Lian didn’t stop the sharpening. “What is it.”
Kai turned the broken device around and pushed it across the table. “He had contacts saved under fake names. Most were useless. But one had a message thread that wasn’t wiped. It mentioned something called the Orchard.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like a restaurant.”
“Yeah, except the way they kept talking about it didn’t fit. Stuff like the Orchard can take new cargo next week. Or the Orchard is short staff again. You don’t say that about a place that sells noodles.”
Lian set the knife down and pulled the phone closer. She scanned the messages. There were only three, but each one carried the same coded tone. Something was being transported. Something was arriving. Something was being held until collection.
“Human trafficking,” she said.
Kai nodded. “Most likely. And it didn’t stop with the fixer.”
She leaned back in her chair. “You think it’s tied to LSK.”
He gave her a look that said he knew better than to jump to certainty. “I think it’s tied to someone organized. And it lines up with other stuff I’ve seen.”
She let that sit between them for a moment. The room was quiet except for the hum of the mini fridge. Kai went back to typing, but he paused after a few seconds.
“There’s one more thing,” he said.
Lian lifted her gaze. “Say it.”
He scratched at the corner of the laptop. “I ran some of the phone’s metadata through one of my old scripts. The fixer had regular pings around a warehouse in Tsuen Wan. Not a shipping yard, not a dock, not a normal distribution center. Only night activity.”
“Show me.”
Kai rotated the laptop so she could see a satellite image. It was an old concrete building wedged between a textile factory and a storage facility. Nothing special. Nothing attractive. That alone made Lian wary.
“And you think the Orchard is there,” she said.
“I think it’s a lead.”
She studied the screen for another moment before closing the laptop. “We check it tonight.”
Kai exhaled as if he’d been holding that breath the whole morning. “Good. Because if I sit in this room any longer I might start peeling the paint off the walls.”
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Lian gave a faint smile. “You did try to clean the fridge at four in the morning.”
“It smelled like old fish and sadness. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
She shook her head and pushed herself up from the table. “Get some rest before we go.”
“You’re not resting either.”
“I don’t need to.”
Kai opened his mouth like he was going to argue, then seemed to decide he didn’t have the energy for it. Instead he pulled his hoodie tighter around himself and slumped onto the couch.
Lian watched as his eyes slowly closed. His breathing evened out in seconds. He always went from awake to asleep like someone pulling a switch. She envied that.
She moved to the window and looked out over the street. Vendors were setting up their stalls. Someone was chopping vegetables in a back kitchen. A worker pushed crates filled with dried scallops into the store below. Normal life went on, intact and uninterested in the things she and Kai hunted at night.
After a while, Kai stirred and opened one eye. “You’re still staring outside.”
She didn’t look away. “I’m thinking.”
“About what.”
She finally turned to him. “How predictable people can be.”
Kai blinked himself awake. “Who’s predictable.”
“The kind of men we’re going after. They always hide in places they think no one looks at. Old warehouses. Abandoned shops. Empty factories. They convince themselves it gives them control.”
Kai sat up and rubbed his neck. “And you think this one’s the same.”
“They usually are.”
He swung his legs off the couch. “Well good. Predictable is easier to deal with than smart.”
“Don’t underestimate predictable.”
He reached for the laptop again. “I’ll mark the building’s exits and pull some underground maps. The drainage system around Tsuen Wan is messy. They could be using it.”
“That’s why we check it first.”
Kai nodded and opened another program. He got absorbed quickly, scrolling through blueprints with narrowed eyes. It was something he was good at. He didn’t always like what they did but he handled the technical side like he was born to it.
Lian started gathering their gear. She laid out gloves, comms, blades, and the compact pistol she rarely used but always carried. Everything had its place. Everything moved in a rhythm she didn’t have to think about.
Kai glanced up. “You’re setting up already.”
“We leave at sundown.”
“That’s hours from now.”
“It will pass quickly.”
He made a face but didn’t argue further. Instead he leaned back and cracked his knuckles. “Do you ever think about how strange this is? Other people wake up and worry about things like bills or whether they’re late for work. And we’re here planning to break into some probably-illegal setup run by criminals who keep naming things after fruit.”
“It’s not strange for us,” she said.
“It should be.”
She paused. “Maybe. But this is the life we have.”
He stared at her for a long moment, something thoughtful flickering in his expression. “You’re not bothered by any of this anymore, are you.”
Lian didn’t answer right away. She finished packing the last piece of gear and zipped the bag shut.
“I’m not bothered,” she said. “I’m focused.”
Kai leaned back in the couch cushions. “I wish I could turn it off like that.”
“You don’t need to turn anything off,” she said. “You just need to see the next step.”
He gave a slow exhale. “Then the next step is Tsuen Wan.”
She picked up the bag. “Yes.”
He stood and stretched again. “Alright. Give me an hour to scan the building’s network. Maybe they have cameras. Maybe they’re sloppy.”
Lian nodded. “And after that, we go.”
Kai cracked a tired smile. “No rest for us.”
“Not today.”
The safehouse settled into another deep quiet. Kai got lost in the glow of his laptop. Lian tucked her knives into their sheaths.
