Log 04
Controlled Surface
The night was too clean.
So clean that even the sound of my own breathing felt excessive.
I thought I was just tired.
But that night, when I closed my eyes, the world shifted.
The scent returned. Jasmine. Sandalwood. Sweet with a bitter edge.
As if someone had uncorked a bottle of perfume beside my pillow.
I knew that smell.
And I knew what it meant.
Someone was trying to enter my dreams.
I saw myself walking down a street I didn’t recognize.
The skyscrapers were familiar, yet the city was silent.
Neon lights flickered pink. Rainwater pooled on the pavement, reflecting my own shadow.
In the distance, a man stood beneath a streetlamp.
Black coat. His face blurred into light.
I stopped.
He lifted his head.
His lips moved.
“Lok Tin Kei… you should sleep.”
I tried to draw my gun. My hand was empty.
The light grew closer—brighter—almost blinding.
I blinked hard.
The world shattered like glass—
The next second, I jolted upright, gasping.
3:00 a.m.
The room was cold and dark.
Sweat drenched my forehead.
I looked down.
Beside my pillow lay a small scatter of pink powder.
I stayed silent for a full minute.
Then I picked up my phone.
“Man Ching. Come to the station. Now.”
—
Half an hour later.
MCS conference room.
Man Ching arrived in a coat, hair slightly disheveled, eyes unnervingly clear.
“You smelled it again?”
I nodded.
She sampled the powder with a portable analyzer.
“Same compound,” she murmured. “But more concentrated.”
I gave a cold smile.
“So he didn’t just kill her. He’s challenging us.”
Wai Hing arrived next, rubbing his temples.
“You sure it’s not a hallucination?”
“Hallucinations don’t leave residue,” I said, pointing at the powder.
Chi Yan’s fingers flew over the keyboard. A tracking map glowed on the screen.
“Sir, I re-crossed Solus’s residual IP traces. The VPN exit node is local.”
“How local?”
He hesitated.
“Inside the station’s internal network.”
Silence swallowed the room.
“You’re saying…” Wai Hing began.
Chi Yan nodded. “Solus might be inside our system.”
I leaned back slowly, a chill spreading through my chest.
“So someone inside the police network logged into that chatroom?”
“Yes. Right after you received that anonymous call.”
Man Ching frowned. “He may have known every move we made.”
“Then we change the battlefield,” I said.
—
10:00 a.m. We split up.
Chi Yan traced server routes.
Wai Hing contacted Intelligence.
Man Ching and I returned to New City University.
Dr. Lau Zi Him looked visibly tense when he saw us.
“I’ve already told you everything.”
“No,” I said calmly. “You didn’t tell us why you didn’t report the stolen sample.”
He hesitated.
“Because… I was ordered not to.”
“Ordered?”
“By higher authority. The research was funded by a Special Police Allocation. Project code M-9.”
My stomach tightened.
M-9 was an internal classified program—restricted to only a few senior officials.
“So the drug research was tied to the police?”
He nodded. “Originally for tactical interrogation. Short-term induced hypnosis. Intelligence extraction. But the side effects were severe. It was shelved.”
“Shelved,” I repeated.
“Some people didn’t want it to stop.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know,” he said weakly. “I’m just a scientist.”
I turned to leave.
He spoke again.
“You dreamed last night, didn’t you?”
I froze.
“E-IX residue lingers in the air up to twenty-four hours. Even micro-exposure can trigger dream induction.”
I said quietly, “So I’m a target now?”
He didn’t answer. He handed me a small data chip instead.
“Experimental surveillance backup. It may have what you’re looking for.”
—
3:00 p.m. MCS briefing.
Chi Yan projected the chip’s footage.
Three months earlier. Inside the lab.
Chan Yau Ting operated the equipment.
Beside him stood a man in a suit.
The image was blurred.
But the posture—
I knew it.
Commissioner Lau Kwok Fan.
My body went cold.
Wai Hing muttered, “So it’s him.”
Chi Yan swallowed. “That explains everything. The ‘leak’ wasn’t an accident. It was an assignment.”
Man Ching whispered, “The voice of command… was the Commissioner.”
The words hung heavy in the air.
Suddenly I remembered the voice in my dream.
“You should sleep.”
It sounded exactly like him.
I forced down the cold rising in my chest.
“No one else can know about this.”
Wai Hing nodded. “I’ll seal the network logs.”
Chi Yan’s face had gone pale. “Sir… if he finds out—”
“He already knows,” I cut in. “We’re just late.”
—
Night fell.
I sat alone on the station rooftop, watching the city lights.
The wind carried a faint scent.
I thought of Lin Zhi Ying.
She had once looked up at this same sky.
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Lok Tin Kei.”
The voice was steady. Calm.
“You’re playing with fire.”
“Commissioner?” I asked quietly.
“You should understand,” he said, “some dreams are better left undisturbed.”
“You let her die in one.”
A pause.
Then a soft laugh.
“She was happy. No pain in dreams.”
“And you?” I said. “Are you living in one too?”
“I only want the world quiet,” he replied. “True order isn’t enforced by law. It’s maintained by control.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Thunder rolled in the distance.
The city lights flickered—like someone had flipped a switch.
My radio crackled.
Chi Yan’s voice, urgent—
“Sir! The forensic center—there’s been an explosion—!”
I shot to my feet.
The night wind kicked up dust, carrying the faint scent of jasmine.
But now it wasn’t gentle.
It was sharp.
Like a dream on fire.
I clenched my fist and murmured,
“Fine. If you want to dream—
I’ll be the one who wakes up.”