“I’m Mila” she explains, pointing out the nameplate on her uniform that says MILA FENG. “I’ve been working here for six months. Your father did the interview.”

“Did you get shot?”

“That’s pretty obvious. I went out to see what was all the fuss about” Mila Feng grabs her leg with a grimace. “They got confused. Now they believe I was one of the dealers, and that I aided their entry in Zeiwei”

“Did you see the girl?”

“The one with the gun? Yeah, she bought some cheese puffs and forgot them on the counter”

“What was she like?” asked Viktor, sitting upright now that the officers are gone, since he doesn’t have to act all nonchalant. 

“She… Ugh, let’s see. She had very blonde and very curly hair as if she had been electrocuted” Mila Feng takes her handcuffed hands to her head and simulates having an awfully heavy ball on top of her shoulders. “She was wearing a yellow suit. Had black and protruding eyes like a salamander. The fact is she was a bit off putting”. 

“When did those two get here?” whispering, Viktor Shelby points to his back with his thumb. 

“The officers…?” says Mila Feng and, instinctively lowers her voice and tilts her head, “I don’t know? They were already here.” 

“Before the girl in the portal appeared.”

“Yeah. I think so. Yeah, they were here. They asked if I had seen a lot of ships refueling today”

Viktor Shelby murmurs something to himself and pinches the bridge of his nose. His head hurts like hell. They may have a mole in the corner store if the police officers were loitering around the petrol station. Someone has had to sell off that information. Maybe it’s the paramedics from Goblin; you can never trust them. 

The critical thing now is that Blodyn Blood has not returned to the corner store, nor her apartment. She went directly to Earth. And that is indeed very strange. Who would desire to visit that shithole? Moreover, when the portal gun activity there is zero out of zero? She’s gonna get busted in a jiffy. Suddenly, he ponders the thought of Blodyn Blood using planet Earth as a meeting point with other smugglers, maybe so she can keep the money from the nuclear paste. Oh, absolutely not. Viktor Shelby doesn’t play with his money.

“‘Preciate it” he says, standing up from the chair.

“Hold on!” she cries out, grabbing him by the end of the trench coat, “Wait a damn minute” she begs, lowering her tone, “Tell them to let me leave in peace. I need to get to a hospital”

And Mila Feng is right: the burn in her knee that has the characteristic cut of a lightning gun is bleeding out profusely. Her employee pants are soaked. While he looks at her, torn between leaving or kicking her in the head and then leave, noises from outside make them both turn. 

“...I truly am Mr Zeiwei, you imbeciles! Is there no qualified officer in this goddamn…”

Viktor Selby jumps on the spot and positions the desk chair underneath the doorknob, with such bad luck that he crushes his fingernail doing so. He steps back until he bumps into the table, feeling how his brows knit from the pain, and searches in his trench coat for he doesn’t know what. His ears are dull from the distress.

“This has to be a poorly delivered joke”

“I knew it!” Mila Feng lets out, pointing out with her index, “Ha! Mr Zeiwei’s son… Not a fucking chance”

With a kick in the shoulder, Viktor Shelby shoves Mila Feng against the wall. Her head crackles when it hits the concrete.

“Ow!”

“Shit. Holy shit. Shut it and give me a hand!”

“Help yourself, asshole!”

“Get me out of this” reasons Viktor Shelby, bending over and with a solemn tone, “and I’ll pay the trip to the ER”

“You just knocked my block off” Mila Feng grabs her nape and the magnetized handcuffs let out a hum. “Truth is, I don’t trust you”

“I swear on my mother! For God’s sake, Mila!”

Outside, someone knocks on the door and the officer with the pigtail says:

“Get out of the room immediately”

“That’s gonna be a hard one” Mila Fens scoffs, her hands lying limply on her lap, “You’re in big trouble, boy” she pokes fun at him and, when she wipes the sweat off her face, her mascara runs across her temples.

Well, yes, Viktor Shelby has never seen himself in a bigger pickle. But, because he’s never been good at thinking in crucial moments, he throws himself across the desk and grabs the paper knife so he can put it in Mila Feng’s face. She flinches and hisses in disgust. 

“If I’m going to jail, you’re going to hell. You understand me now, don’t you?”

Mila Feng nods slowly and lets Viktor Shelby pick her up from the floor, grabbing roughly her right arm. While shifting her aching limb, she hobbles to the desk and searches for something under the table, as if there was a drawer or a hidden envelope. Her handcuffs let out another buzzing sound. The doorknob starts to rotate and the door shudders when someone plunges against it. 

“Get out at once or we will open fire!”

“Quick!” Viktor Shelby shouts, closing the space between the paper knife and her jugular.

As if Viktor just said Open Sesame, Mila Feng pushes something and with a click and a zzzaaaam, the metallic locker in the office engulfs its own door and, in its place, a blue and dense whirlwind appears at the center of it. 

“Bust down the door!” someone orders outside, Mr Zeiwei probably.

Grabbing the note that Blodyn Blood had left behind her, Viktor Shelby gets inside the locker and searches hysterically for the hand control. With her own rhythm, Mila Feng limps until she reaches the locker and stops in front of it. 

“Let me through, come on” she mutters with sullenness.

“What? No!” shouts Viktor Shelby.

“You don’t even know how to use the lift! Move, idiot!”

Still unable to believe his eyes, Shelby sticks himself to the bottom of the locker and lets Mila Feng enter with him. Clearing her throat, she says out loud: 

“Elevator?”

“Yes, Mila Feng?” the interior of the locker reverberates.

Mila Feng extends her hand to Viktor Shelby and he gives it to her with very open eyes. Doesn’t know why, but she’s instilling respect in him already.

“Take us to planet Earth. The coordinates are: forty-one, dot, four hundreds sixty-two thousand and four hundreds fifty-three, comma, two, dot…

With a great noise, the door collapses and Viktor Shelby grabs Mila Feng’s arm as to urge her to read faster.

“...One hundred sixty-eight thousand and two hundreds.”

Inside the locker, with their limbs twisted as if they were a ball of yarn, Mila Feng and Viktor Shelby see their world become an intense and electric blue while the police officers run to no avail, and they shout: No, wait…!

The flat smells like povidone iodine and aspirin when Blodyn Blood flutters her eyelids open and finds herself on a sofa. She’s all alone, and her wounded shoulder is patched up and coated with a brown emulsion. That's when she remembers that she’s on planet Earth, and that she’s been shot before fleeing from the petrol station. She’s a bit groggy from the impact still, and from the trip. Her ribs hurt, she has blurry vision. 

She knows she has to stand up, but her body does not respond. If only she could ask that earthling girl to fetch her the megaphone…

Before going to sleep, her mind goes back to the same question that she’s been asking herself since she’s escaped from Zeiwei:

But, who in the hell is Phil Newton?