Chapter 217: The new assignment.
Before she could respond, Weijun rushed forward, kicking his brother on the butt. "Say that again. I dare you to say that again." He demanded.
Weifeng jumped around to avoid his brother’s determined feet. "Bro, bro, there is no need for violence. I am sorry, I did not mean what i said. I misspoke."
Liwu sent a bad luck coupon to Weifeng and stuck another one on Manman’s back, before shoving her into the same car the woman had tried to destroy. As Weifeng took a tumble, Liwu drove out. She simply had no patience for the woman’s antics.
At the precinct, she processed Manman with a cool expression, and left her in a cell. Liwu proceeded to the breakroom, humming with satisfaction. Her team had already beaten her there, because they knew exactly where she would be going right after arriving. They gathered like moths to a flame, hovering around her, coffee cups in their hands and eyes wide with curiosity.
"So, what has she done now?" Linlin asked. "This is the second time you are personally cuffing her. It hasn’t even been a month since her last arrest."
Xuanji shook his head, "How does someone go from screen princess status to regular cell guest? She used to be so unreachable...like a star in the sky."
"And now?" He Xiao Yi asked curiously.
Xuanji replied plainly, "The star has lost its sparkle. Isn’t that obvious?"
Liwu leaned forward, "In case you are still wondering why I arrested her, it was because she hit my vehicle. The government issued one." She stopped to sip her coffee. "That’s a crime against the country."
He Xiao Yi snorted. "Against the country? Against your patience, more like."
Su Jin leaned in. "But she’s your brother-in-law’s girlfriend. Aren’t you around about the family fallout? Tabloids say he is preparing to propose. I can’t imagine you will be welcome to the wedding."
Liwu raised an eyebrow. "Family fallout? She attempted to crash a bureau issued vehicle. She dented the bureau. She hit the country. Case closed."
The room erupted in laughter. Even the sulking He Xiao Yi cracked a smile.
Liwu whispered, "I hope Weifeng is not planning to propose this week because I gave him a bad luck coupon. I gave her one too."
Coincidentally, a janitor walked by the room, muttering something about a busted toilet in a cell. The detectives exchanged glances because they all had a feeling Manman was the one in that cell. They erupted in laughter again.
"By the way, is anyone disappointed that we were not put on the hacking case of the century?" Linlin asked, licking a straw that had been dipped in her milk. "I have become so addicted to working on high profile cases that I assumed it would be ours. We were still investigating Qin Yifei and Liang Shunhua, the case should be ours."
Before the rest could chip in, the chief burst into the break room, his face grim. He slapped a folder on a table. "So, I take it to mean that your team is open and eager to work. Great. I have a new assignment for you," he announced. "A prison transportation ship that was passing through is docked in our city. Something happened during transit which they are not sharing with the rest of us so the details are murky. The ship is grounded temporarily, and you are on babysitting duty."
A series of unwilling groans rose. Babysitting prisoners was not standard procedure for them.
Liwu leaned back, eyes narrowing. "Babysit? You mean guard?"
The chief shook his head. "Guard, monitor, feed, keep alive. Until the Bureau figures out whatever it is that they are trying to figure out. The ship is carrying eleven system hosts, dangerous ones. Well...former system hosts, their powers were stripped. But before they were system hosts, they were criminals. Some of them have done things you don’t want to imagine."
He Xiao Yi groaned. "Babysitting criminals who lost their systems. That doesn’t sound like fun."
Liwu smirked. "I for one would love to know what they did."
The team erupted into arguments. Xuanji complained about overtime. Su Jin was worried about riots and being stuck on the ship.
Liwu put down her cup. "Listen," she said, "We have handled worse. Come on, this can’t be more complicated compared to the boy in the barrel or more harrowing than Jinling’s case or the children that died in the Lily case. This is just babysitting duty. We sit on the ship, watch the cameras, monitor the exterior and play cards to pass time or watch a movie. I am sure we will manage."
He Xiao Yi frowned. "With your bad luck, we have been jinxed. These are not petty criminals, chief has just said they are dangerous. One wrong move and everything will explode. I am inviting SWAT to sit on the beach, just in case.’
The chief nodded. "Great idea."
He smirked. "That’s why I am in charge, because I have all the good ideas."
"You are not in charge." Liwu and Linlin objected quickly.
An hour later, the team stood at the docks, staring at the hulking prison ship which was decorated like an ordinary cruise ship on the outside. Music was coming from the speakers, people were waving or dancing on the decks.
"Those are not real people." Xuanji whispered to Liwu, like she was not aware.
She rolled her eyes. Of course she knew they were not real. They were bureau robots, disguised to appear human for missions that needed distractions. If one looked closely, the dancing ’people’ kept repeating their moves every once in a while, and they were in perfect sync, like puppets on a string.
Linlin looked up from the manifest, "There are one hundred fifty people on the ship. Fifty are guards, forty are from the bureau...agents that are doing something. The rest are staff."
"Big number to guard eleven prisoners." Liwu said worriedly.
They made their way onto the ship and met the captain and the agent in charge of the operation nobody wanted to talk about. Liwu couldn’t help noticing that the prison guards looked restless. Her system pulsed, warning her of bad luck ahead.
She smiled. Since she couldn’t run, she might as well welcome it.
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