BLENDING IN

Hu Lei chatted cheerfully with the girl beside her in the airplane from Aural Hills, laughing at her enthusiasm as she spoke about the humanitarian mission their group would be involved in. In the rest of the plane, there were similar conversations going on, with the passengers looking like they had known each other forever.

"So, have you been to South America before?" the girl, Ginny, asked Hu Lei.

"Yeah, it is a really beautiful place, and the people are so kind." She replied brightly.

"What kind of work were you doing there?" the curious girl leaned closer.

"It was not anything much." She responded modestly. "My high school teacher talked about the culture there, and I was so touched about it. I joined a small group after graduating to fight against world hunger. It was a really great experience."

"This is my first humanitarian project. I will be looking to you to help me out." The girl giggled while leaning closer.

Hu Lei laughed lightly though she was uncomfortable.

"You are out of luck. I am actually using this lift for a different mission. I am going to check up on one of my mentor's projects." The response sounded casual.

"So, you are a big shot in the organisation?" the girl's eyes widened like saucers.

"I wish. My mentor is the kind-of big shot. I am lucky to help him out with small matters."

Ginny did not seem to find anything weird with her answer and continued to chat on about other things. Hu Lei talked in the usual upbeat fashion of a young girl with the passion to save the world. She had never forgotten the lessons she had learnt about the way of stealth.

Stealth was not only about walking silently or sneaking up on people. It was about being insignificant and blending in the crowd. Among the rich, she could be a classy miss. Among the poor, she could be a beggar. In this airplane full of young charitable people, she would be enthusiastic and bright, disappearing into the crowd of hopeful youth.

Eventually, Ginny got tired and fell asleep. With this moment of reprieve, Hu Lei had a moment to contemplate the information provided by Kim Han after his investigation. She frowned in deep thought and with concern for her father.

According to his findings, her father had been indeed in a lab somewhere in the Amazon Jungle. The lab was not the up-and-up type, and it was concealed in more ways than one. She assumed her father must have gotten in with some of the illicit connections he had built over the years.

Kim Han had attempted to track down the owner of the establishment, but the information was buried in a series of shell companies without an end in sight. He had said that if he had continued digging they might have found him. That was a lot of praise coming from the man who performed espionage on his breaks. However, he had been able to discover that the laboratory was involved in genetic studies, her father's greatest passion.

If the level of cover-up was equal to the advances made in that jungle lab, it would have been impossible for Hu Ming to pass up on the opportunity. He always told her that genetics was the key to everything. If people could mute, awaken and manipulate genes, they would have control over their fate, not bound by the limits of mortality.

In a way, this mad doctor's constant blabbering about genetics had inspired The Queen of the Apocalypse. She had thought that if her father did gain the power he sought, he would be the one to unleash a zombie plague on the world. Perhaps, she would be even patient zero, infected by this man's overzealousness.

With these thoughts, she remembered that she was supposed to have written the extra volume for TQA to usher in the beginning of the TV series. She hoped it was not an absolute necessity for the project. If it was, she could only apologise later for the inconvenience.

Fortunately, Kim Han did not bear bad news only. He had been able to track Hu Ming's movement's using the aliases Hu Lei had obtained for use in case of an emergency. He had fled south to Argentina after leaving Brazil. She wondered if the pursuers had this information. She did not dare lie to herself. They had probably been on his tail from the jungle and across all the borders he had crossed.

With her father's lack of street smarts, he would not have been able to notice these stalkers if they had not been close enough. One question remained: what were these people after if not killing or capturing Hu Ming? She could not figure it out.

"Would you like some peanuts?" the guy across the aisle asked.

Hu Lei smiled at him and shook her head.

"I am allergic to peanuts. Thanks for offering though." Her response was kind.

The guy nodded in understanding and started a long story about how his niece had peanut allergies. Hu Lei showed a face of interest and produced a range of shocked sounds. This person thought that telling people about his niece's near-death experience was a good conversation?

She could not wait to get off the plane.

In truth, being among passionate and pure young people looking to save the world was not bad. She had spent her fair share of time doing charity work for various reasons and writing passionately about the need for world change. Unfortunately, this type of environment was not what she needed when hunting. Like any predator, the scent of blood sharpened her focus. These peanut-offering children who would be crying for their mothers in a week were mood killers.