tcase  to Cald leg, sando be as s black, suggesting some kind of dye job or medical procedure t  about see tiny touccase. t t indicated t to its ooggle button on touc read: MANUAL. Cald   visible from on on tly  in his shoulder.

    tor stopped at B2. t into an underground parking lot. t. Surned round and gave Cald said s  of  predicament. tten  and last basement floor. o move fast.

    t on toggle button read AUtOMAtIC. Calderfaces and t t ts scanning device oOMAtIC button. tly. It took a snaps and ttle Chinese boy.

    “Look dad,” tonese, pointing at tcase.  till pressing painfully into Cald looked like s see the camera.

    “, son? Mat ye a?” tonese.

    “Oed attention spans. As soon as t interest. t he boy.

    t stopped at B3. to o let t first. tepped out of t one by one. t. As epped out, tarted folloor, trying to grab tcase. t ake.

    Calded ly slammed tor’s arm against tor doors. Sact allic edge of to tor doors ion. It made contact  flying out into t. tood transfixed, looking at t. tunned girl ting up. tsteps coming from t of t  doors closed.

    Cald tton and all ttons rigo ture lounge. tor’s instincts o guess t ure lounge and try to mingle s or  to taxi stands outside tincts o second-guess tensibly t iced from t got into t t torcycle parking lot  or doors close sorcycle on B1, ready to give c  it or orcycle gear not an elaborate disguise for to impersonate t s  seen the ruse.

    Cald t, ing for t imidating tter. Agent  belting it do s about be arriving on B2.

    tor doors opened on B2. Caldepped out of tor expecting to orcycle engine. All ant  transported passengers beterminals at international airports. trangest-looking ve orcycles placed side by side and t . Or  tor? It ell. tting ty. tted Caldo an abrupt . Four ex-like square tubes unfurled vertically and blasted a  ae floor.

    “Quick. ructed.

    Caldill  sure  ook a co sit one beiced  t before  on properly and did a surn almost on t. Caldo regain  back up tunnel. t across a  of tric models, and a feen on tunnels all to t. t into t tside  ing doat of a radiator and turned it on too high.

    “Sun in er?” Cald ed it dorail of luxury electrics and ime catcied all to it. None of t est models  co acter aerodynamics. ts models, c-s cut t traffic leaving the girl was doing a good job of keeping up.

    “You better believe it. You o a  if t be visible. S from tis  trace of Mandarin. Calding.

    “trust me I believe it. ’s the code word?”

    “PERFECt VISION 2020,” t skipping a beat.

    “s have been so lax?”

    “Not t. e generally don’t  t. Just in case tion interception devices or cameras taking pograp us every time uff. tered it to a tee. Apparently tical copies of enemy agents in labs t  t levels of t is still too costly.”

    “So t’s s? So t girl could have been a copy of you?”

    “Unlikely for suc explains ing to be from hQ.”

    “You kno, right?”

    “I guess ted t no you dead.” Ster-of-fact  beting a fair bit of it in  back recently acquired memories. till outside  of familiar-looking greenery.

    “I lost my Brix,” Caldwell said.

    “Don’t  it. t  get in hong Kong.”

    “But I got myself a gun.”

    Surned around briskly, a swirl of black  soo quick for o see he visor.

    “ t?” Agent hsu asked.

    “From tor.”

    “Good to see you are taking care of yourself already.”

    “From aking care of me.

    ensed up and sed tunnel and emerged a fees smack-bang into a cityscape t blew his mind.

    ***

    In a  matca of glass, steel and concrete t expanded before o raffic. A lot  mucill soared into teel symbols of Neo t beat anytops of most of ting into tick in candy floss.

    “’s t s climbing up t  raffic jam.

    “t is t s. tenance bots making nano-scale repairs to terior of the building.”

    topped. An electric van oo close to cars in took tunity to look beo some of the cars were driverless Mercedes Benz S-Class models.

    “t come out in t least another five years.”

    “ell, t  for traffic.”

    “Yea. t are they?”

    “ed by a company in Neested by enforcement agencies   time t he world.”

    “Cool. o drive?” Calding out of t some ing it.

    “It’s easier torcycle, t’s for sure. Basically, you  pedal decelerates, riges.  botaneously to rest. It’s almost instantaneous. ts just cancel eac.”

    “ about on teering bar? torcycle’s accelerator.”

    “tually control tion of ters. Pusers point backion. Pus ric engine still revving. Pusers point all to essentially ride backwards.”

    “Can you go straight upwards?”

    “You can. You just override tton rict la it on public roads t designed to be used in t y Ordinance.”

    “I see. So where are we going?”

    “t’s t’s a lot quieter, a  nodded toraffic.

    “I remember Shere’s a beach,” Caldwell said, vague memories of weekends in Shek O rising.

    “Rigo  forgotten everyt ected a note of sarcasm in her voice.”

    “t’s a long story.”

    “they always are.”

    treets s and treets jam-packed ail signage in Englise office   vertically upe drones in  trol of tinies. tep of treet. treets ermined y actively going about t any cost.

    “Energetic place isn’t it?”

    t on a giant free into t nigy must be spectacular, Cald.  lig sky.

    “  adaptable in the world. You should know. You were born here.”

    took a s cars. Agent y at an alarming rate. Caldher-bound body.

    “Been reading my file  is your first name? I am not going to call you Agent ire trip. It’s not t surname to pronounce either,” he joked.

    “At nigy comes alive like a Cmas tree,” stempt to become familiar. Maybe oo foriquette t o relearn quickly.

    “ mean to be so for the name.”

    “ell if you must knourned around. For t time Cald a good look at  fell off th shock.