Rien n'est plus réel que l'oubli.
(Nothing is more real than forgetting.)
Today is October 14, the Year of the Horse.
Tainan City, a land full of culture and history, the land where the food is delicious. And well my home for this mission.
I woke up at 06:00 AM and the machine just clicked on, my eyes open. Staring. The ceiling fan has that annoying tune that sounded less like a cheap store find and is like a tactical rotor of Military Helicopter. Though it was cutting the heat, it was also slicing the silence.
I sat up. The mattress gave a rusty metal groan, my hands were already shaking, just a little and I balled them into fists. Calloused knuckles.
Steady now.
Focus.
〔 SYSTEM STATUS: INITIALIZING... 〕
〔 USER ID: WEI 〕
〔 CLASS: ACTIVE FIELD AGENT 〕
〔 BRAIN CAPACITY: 42% SECTOR CORRUPTION 〕
〔 CURRENT MISSION: PROTECT THE SUNFLOWER. 〕
The digital system flickered in the back of my eyes. I didn't know where it came from or who programmed it directly into my brain, but the system was the only thing that didn't lie when my head got confused. It warned me the world was dangerous. It told me I was a professional. And it told me the girl in the corner was everything.
A-Lan. Eight years old. Codenamed: Little Sunflower.
She was by the window, and is fixing her shoelaces. Serious face. Methodical eyes. Her yellow t-shirt was so bright, that she looked a lot like SpongeBob. She was my colleague disguised as my daughter
"Handler," I rasped. My voice was a wreck.
Like boots on gravel.
"Status."
A-Lan didn't look up immediately. She tucked a loose strand of hair back, her fingers moving fast.
"Bad. Perimeter's messy, Wei."
"Explain."
"Neighbors," she said, finally looking at me.
She was too old for her face. She pulled a crumpled list from her pocket. "The aunties in 4B. They're talking. Too much whispering in the halls. They're noticing."
"N-noticing what?" I reached for my gear. Wallet. Keys. A sharpened iron spoon tucked into my belt.
"Everything. You, mostly." She stood up, dusting off her knees. "We need a resupply. Before the heat gets too high."
"The Heat?" I squinted.
"The sun, Dad. And the Landlord." She stopped, catching herself. Her jaw tightened. "I mean... the Enforcer. He wants this done by noon."
I stood up and the room moved and tilted like it was spinning. The blue text in my vision glitched into a strobe of red warnings.
〔 ALERT: NEURAL FEEDBACK INCREASING. STABILIZE IMMEDIATELY. 〕
"Wei? Hey!" A-Lan was right there, shoving a plastic cup into my hand. Her voice scared.
"Take them. NOW!"
I swallowed the blue pills dry. They hit my stomach like lead. Slowly, the red strobe faded. Back to blue. Back to the mission.
"Mission?" I asked, grabbing my jacket.
"Extraction," she said, holding her pink backpack. I could hear her GameBoy rattling inside.
"Eggs. Rice. And stay away from the 'Shadow' at the 7-Eleven. The one who talks about the rent."
"The Shadow?"
Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "A local asset for the Enforcer. He tries to jam the signal with useless chatter. We don't have time for those intel-leaks today. We're ghosts after all."
We moved. Out the door and into the light. Tainan was bustling, the crowd, the noise, it reminded me of something. Neon signs glowing, blinking, and the moon shining, as if it's looking at me. The smell of the BBQ stand, the loud textile factory and the strong scent of the motor exhaust. I felt the weight of my "briefcase" — an old lunchbox with a snapped handle — and felt my pulse pick up.
A-Lan took my hand. Her grip was tight. It was small, but strong enough to keep me from floating away.
"Eyes on the rooftops," I muttered as I reached for the scooter.
She didn't look up. "Eyes on the road, Wei. Your driving is the only thing that's gonna kill us."
The extraction vehicle was a 2005 Yamaha CygnusX 125.
It has a rusted exhaust and looks old. To a civilian, it was junk. To us, it was a high-mobility interceptor equipped with the latest espionage tools. I jammed the key in, thumbed the starter, and the engine gave a rough, mechanical roar before settling into a vibration that traveled through my boots.
〔 VEHICLE STATUS: CYGNUS-X 125 OPERATIONAL 〕
〔 FUEL: 22% 〕
A-Lan hopped on the back. She didn't wait for a signal. She tucked her head behind my shoulder, hiding her face as we pulled out into the morning chaos. Engines screaming.
"Let's Go!!" she hissed into my ear.
"MOVE IT!"
I twisted the throttle. We dove into a side-alley, blurring past the walls and tangled power lines. I leaned the bike hard, the center stand scraping sparks off the cobbles.
〔 PYROTECHNIC COUNTERMEASURES ACTIVATED 〕
"Visuals on the tail?" I barked.
"None!" she yelled back over the wind. "But she had a comms-unit. Grey suit. Clipboard. Calling for backup!"
The Shadow. The woman from the market. I knew what she represented. Not bullets. Not knives. Just a white room and a padded bed where they'd take A-Lan away. We hit Hai'an Road.
I pushed the CygnusX, the old 125cc engine screaming. The smell of fried dough sticks and incense blurred together.
〔 WARNING: GEOGRAPHIC DATA UNSTABLE... 〕
〔 ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. 〕
The system went dark. The street signs turned into a mess of unreadable symbols. My chest tightened. I couldn't breathe. The intersection ahead looked like a black hole.
Where the hell am I??
"Left or right?" I choked out.
My hands were white on the grips.
The bike wobbled.
"A-Lan, the signal... I can't see the signal!"
She squeezed my waist hard. Her cheek pressed against my back.
"The temple, Wei. Left at the golden dragons," she said.
Her voice was steady, a calm presence.
"Then the cat mural. We're almost there. Just follow me. I got you."
I leaned the bike. I didn't think. I just trusted the voice in my ear. We flew past the dragons, past the cats, fleeing the grey suit and the blank spaces.
〔 SYSTEM RE-STABILIZING... 〕
〔 DESTINATION REACHED. 〕
I killed the engine. The silence was strong. Beautiful. I sat there for a second, my heart trying to kick its way out of my ribs.
"Wei?" A-Lan whispered, sliding off.
I looked at the pink plastic bag of pork belly hanging from the dash. My hands were still vibrating, my heart was palpitating.
"Mission accomplished," I said.
It felt like a lie, but it was a lie that kept us alive.
She reached up, patted my arm once, and started up the stairs. "Don't forget the eggs. You dropped them once, remember?"
"I don't remember," I said.
A-Lan paused, her hand on the railing. She didn't turn around.
"I know. Just... come on. Let's go inside!"
I followed her. The stairwell was a dark narrow opening of peeling paint and the smell of someone else's dinner. One step at a time. The system buzzed in the back of my skull low, like a vibrating phone.
〔 RE-ENTRY COMPLETE. 〕
〔 INTERNAL CLOCK: 08:24. 〕
〔 POWER RESERVES: CRITICAL. 〕
Inside, the safehouse was exactly as we'd left it. Cramped. Stale. A-Lan walked straight to the fridge. Her movements were stiff. She unpacked the pork belly like it was sensitive microfilm. One by one, she laid the eggs into the carton. Her hands didn't shake.
Not like mine.
"Sector's clear," she said.
Her back was to me. "No hostiles in the stairwell. I checked the lock."
I leaned against the doorframe, watching her. My eyes drifted to a small, framed photo on the wall—the only one in the room.
A woman. Laughing. The harder I looked, the more the blue text pulsed, angry and mocking.
〔 ERROR: DATA UNAVAILABLE. 〕
〔 WOULD YOU LIKE TO REBOOT?? 〕
I looked away. Fast. My hand clenched into a fist. I could feel the blue text in my head pushing for a reboot. For the void. I squeezed my eyes shut against the prompt. No. Not today.
"Hey," I said.
She turned.
"The code," I whispered. "Just..... one more time."
A-Lan didn't roll her eyes. She didn't sigh. She walked over, stood on her tiptoes, and touched her forehead to my arm. Her skin, it was warm...
"The sunflower blooms at midnight," she whispered.
"And?"
"And the shadows can't find it."
She pulled away, snatching up her pink backpack and her GameBoy. The act was back on. The professional mask slid into place, but I saw the red around the edges of her eyes.
"Eat your rations, Wei," she snapped. "We have a long night of surveillance ahead. The Landlord might return with reinforcements."
I nodded and sat at the table. I watched the ceiling fan spin. It's slow, endless circle and slices the air into pieces I couldn't put back together. The blue text is fading now, dimming into the dark.
Nothing is more real than forgetting.
But as I look at the little girl pretending to be a soldier in the corner of a rotting room, I realize the lie is the only thing keeping the world from turning white.
〔 STATUS: SLEEP MODE ACTIVATED. 〕
〔 GOODNIGHT, AGENT WEI. 〕