Xi?ng’s cell lit up. She read the message and turned to Rinchu. “She’s at the front door,” she told Rinchu in Mandarin.

Without replying, Rinchu squeezed the kitchen door open and peeked out. “She appears to be alone,” he replied in Mandarin.

A few minutes later, he returned with an attractive young woman, petite in stature, and in her late twenties.

Xi?ng—pronounced Shyahng—and Rinchu had a specialty. They were part of a clandestine commu...

Rinchu escorted Leanne to the front door of the Qianji Bakery. No words passed between them. She stepped out into the lonely cold and dark quietude of the early night air. She stole a glance behind her and almost begrudgingly mustered up a blink of a smile before she turned right. Her steps, tentative at first, picked up speed as she hailed a taxi. She did not peer back when she entered the cab. When the taxi disappeared behind the heavy veil of the night’s blackness, Rinchu locked the shop do...

The taxi driver was a woman. A wisp of blonde hair peeked out from under her turquoise chiffon belle head covering. Her voice had a slight gravelly tone to it with undertones of cheeriness that encouraged conversation. But when she spoke the element of professional authoritativeness was unmistakeable. 

When Leanne settled into the backseat of the taxi, she could not make out the fullness of the driver’s face, only her blue eyes set in what appeared to be flawless brown skin staring back ...

The taxi pulled into an alleyway and came to a screeching halt.

“Give me your phone!” the driver demanded, reaching across the back of her seat.

Alarmed and afraid, Leanne pulled sharply away and reached into her purse. “Who the fuck are you?!” she screamed, pointing her Glock 42 subcompact .380 at the driver’s face.

“Jesu!” The driver froze, her palms facing Leanne. “There’s no need for that, she said softly. “Look, I understa...

Leanne reflected on how she had arrived at this juncture in her life. A military ‘brat’ she followed her mother from one posting to the next until they finally settled in Meaford, in the Georgian Bay Region of Ontario. She never knew who her father was or what had happened to exclude him from her life. Her mother never spoke of him, nor did she keep pictures of him. All Leanne knew was that the two had met during assignment in the Middle East. Beyond that her mother had been tight-lipped.

Leanne aimlessly glanced through the window from the backseat of the cab at the passing mixture of silhouetted but familiar landscapes.

“I feel like the crab on a chopping block not knowing when the proverbial knife will drop,” she muttered, not realizing the words had escaped from her pool of thoughts.

“Wow! Kinda extreme! Isn’t it?” replied Alesha, eyes fixed on the road ahead.

“What is?” 

“That ‘proverbial’ thing...

The proverbial knife did not drop. And a kind of calm settled over the area.

Alicia stood and began to saunter down the hill toward the vehicle at its foot. Halfway down her pace picked up to a run.

Leanne’s attention turned to the van at the side of the grocery store. Both the passenger and driver doors of the van opened. A black clothed, hooded, individual exited from each side. One individual entered the taxi on the driver’s side, while the other opened the back of the transpor...