The Masked Agenda of The Secret Calling

The offices of Detective Dev Liang were located on the upper floor of a tall building in a part of the city where few Asians resided. It was a dingy, dirty place that smelled like a urinal with a hint of rose water. He had no door, just an old piece of cloth that he hung from the door frame and it swayed in the wind.

Dev was not much of a detective. His only experience had been as an agent for the police force in Hong Kong before the British had handed over power to Beijing back in 1997. He had not been very good at his job either, but he did have some knowledge of crime syndicates and criminal networks that he had acquired during his short stint at the police force.

It was past midnight when two men arrived at Dev's office. They were both tall, muscular and wore black suits that made them seem even larger than they already were. Both were wearing ski masks and one carried a briefcase while the other had a gun in his hand.

The man with the gun shut the flimsy wooden board that served as the door and turned to his partner, "You take care of him while I look around."

The man nodded, opened up the briefcase and took out a large syringe. He approached Dev who sat behind his desk, looking through some files. For someone who lived in such filth it seemed strange that he would be so organized about his work. The man with the syringe walked up to him and without any warning jabbed it into Dev's neck.

"Ah!" Dev exclaimed, taken by surprise.

"Shhh," The man said as he pulled out the syringe.

"What is this?" Dev asked as he rubbed his neck.

"A new drug from Siberia," The man replied as he put away his syringe, "It will make you talk."

Dev thought about fighting back but decided against it. He knew that there was no point in trying to fight against these men when they obviously knew who he was and what he looked like. Besides, whatever information they wanted probably wasn't worth dying for anyway. And so he sat quietly as if nothing had happened while the drug took effect. After 5 minutes or so Dev finally spoke up: "How do you know me?"

"We've known you for years," The man replied dismissively, "Follow me."

The man walked out of the room with Dev trailing behind him obediently with his eyes fixed on his captor's back expecting him to pull out his gun any second now and shoot him dead on the spot like those people who got in their way back in Hong Kong when they had tried to set up operations there after 1997.

They went down several flights of stairs until they reached a basement level that contained several rows of small rooms with thick metal doors each marked with numbers instead of names like those coffins used by hospitals for people who needed intensive care before dying or something like that. In one room was an old woman lying unconscious on a bed covered by white sheets stained with blood and vomit; she must have been one of those poor souls who had accidentally eaten something bad at dinner time and ended up here instead of going to hospital because they didn't want to waste money on unnecessary medical treatment like that silly rich American girl whose parents were too busy flying all over the world while she went hungry and ended up dying because she couldn't afford medical treatment at all because her parents were too busy buying more mansions instead of spending money on their daughter's healthcare like they should have done instead of leaving it all to their children who never visited them all their lives because they preferred wasting money on supercars instead which is why their mother died alone after days without food or water or anything else for that matter because her stupid children didn't give a shit about her except for pumping her for money until she ran out of cash so they could buy more luxury cars or yachts or whatever else their hearts desired too damn selfish to visit her even once her heart must have broken when she died alone all alone without anyone there to hold her hand when she took her last breath I mean honestly why does everyone these days only care about themselves nobody cares about family anymore nobody cares about love anymore just money money money no one gives a shit about anything else anymore my god this world is going straight to hell I swear we're all doomed if things don't change soon we'll be living in some sort of dystopian nightmare where robots will rule over humans enslaving them as slaves living in tiny boxes wondering if today would be their last day alive oh gosh I'm getting carried away again I better stop now before I start rambling again)

The man kept walking down until he reached one particular room marked 1211B showing 6 o'clock pm next Wednesday 21 January 2051 (There are 365 days in a year right? Or is it 366?) written on it. He ordered Dev to open it up while he waited outside with his gun trained on him just in case things went south somehow (I wonder if this guy knows how many hours are there in a week? If not let's just jump ahead...) When Dev opened it up he saw three bodies inside piled below each other forming sort of human pyramid (Oh boy I hope he can count properly). After seeing them he felt dizzy and sat down on the dusty floor (Oh god please don't throw up now). The first body belonged to Mr Jaime Chih-Tao, head of Chih-Tao Group ("This must be related to organized crime then," Dev thought), followed by two young Chinese men belonging to Wang Gang ("Doesn't sound familiar at all," Dev thought) whose identities weren't immediately apparent (Maybe I can find something useful inside their pockets or something). Next thing Dev knew everything started spinning before darkness engulfed him (Well looks like my life ends here). As death approached everything around him began fading away slowly until finally nothing remained except for darkness itself...