Hours later, in the afternoon, the detectives reconvened at the the precinct. The bull pen was alive with tension and loud with ringing phones. Liwu and He Xiao Yi arrived first, wiping the left over sauce of a late lunch from their lips. Within minutes, Xuanji and Linlin returned, holding large cups of iced lemon tea. But not even its deliciousness could take away from the frustration of a whole day of interviews that had turned up nothing.

Liwu took the position at the center, in front of the white physical murder board. There was another one on the giant screen, and a virtual one, but she preferred the old one. It didn’t feel like a big investigation until she slapped something on the board. "Report."

He Xiao Yi spoke first. "Qin Yifei is building something. He hinted at empire, spoke about authority, a new world. He had a lot of dissatisfaction with the policies of the bureau, especially our choice to co-exist peacefully with humans.

He was not surprised to know he was being watched. In fact, he didn’t care much, as if he already knew that this would not affect him any way. I am not saying he knows what happened to Han, but I think he has a clue.

I also think he is dangerous."

Linlin added, "Liang Shunhua is like a snake. He is charming, and twists every word. He claims words rule the world and tried to flex his power while underplaying it at the same time. He says he saw Han two weeks ago but it was simply to give him access to the party at the French embassy. He hasn’t seen or heard from him since them."

Xuanji slammed his fist on the table. "Come on, these guys are all connected somehow and Han was watching them. They are up to something."

"Han’s editor said he was on to a big story on worldwide levels." Liwu shared, twirling a marker between her fingers. "Any of these men is a big story. Altogether, these men are like the explosion of big."

The detectives chimed in, each with their findings. Soon, the analysts were also contributing what they had found. Like Chen Guowei’s hidden ties to armies in many war torn countries. Sun Haoran’s trips around the world that coincided with auctions where one never before seen treasure was unveiled. Wu Jiahong’s second logistics ledger, which they had not seen, but a guard at the shipyard claimed he had.

The room buzzed, voices overlapping, theories colliding.

Liwu raised her hand, silencing them. "We need to know what these are. The last entries into his journal are likely to be linked to whatever he was looking into." Those pages were blasted on the screen, separated into eight boxes. "Eight whole pages, just initials, times, maybe locations. Nobody writes in code unless they are trying to keep a secret."

One of the analysts stood, with his hand raised. "I think I have figured out what those are."

He was a young man, with a medium build and black curly hair that fell to his shoulders. His suit was a bit oversized, and the cap of the pen in his hand had been chewed on enthusiastically.

"Yes, officer...." Liwu stretched her neck, searching for his name, in the moderately calmer room.

"You don’t remember my name, do you?" he asked.

He looked offended, arms crossed.

Liwu blinked, "Uh...Analyst Wong?"

"Wrong," he snapped, "I introduced myself on day one. I greet you everyday and sometimes bring you coffee. We had an hour long conversation...."

He Xiao Yi growled, "Hey, Pong, she is married, move on. Now impress us, or sit down. My algorithm will crack the code sooner or later."

Analyst Pong turned red, and he cleared his throat. He stepped out from behind his desk and grumbled, "These are not secret romantic meetings, like Detective Su Jin has been claiming. Reporter Han was bird watching. Look here...." he scrambled for a pointer, sending some things on his desk crashing.

He was a bit of a klutz, but everyone was already used to it. That did not stop him from turning ever redder, as he was the center of attention. Pong crouched to pick up the scattered pens, papers and notebooks.

"Forget them, Analyst Pong." Liwu said as gently as she could, covering the impatience in her tone. "Case first. What were you saying about birds?"

Analysts Pong sighed, and rose. He got his pointer and focused on the very first page on the screen. "See this triangle where my green dot is? That’s shorthand for a Crested Ibis, found near the wetlands of Suzhou. It is a rare bird, nearly extinct."

Liwu looked from the man to the screen and back again. "Birds?"

"Yes." Pong replied, with a smile. "I am a member of an exclusive Dhali bird watchers club. These symbols are used among us to spread word of what we have seen and where. We consider ourselves the bird police."

Someone snorted.

Pong lost his proud smile, looking ten times more embarrassed than before.

Xuanji and some others laughed.

Liwu snapped her fingers, "No laughing. None of you could crack this code and he did. So, listen to what Analyst bird has to to say."

Analyst Pong shot her a glare, sadly realizing the fact that from now on, he would be Analyst Bird, just like she was Bad luck Tai. Suddenly, he regretted asking if she remembered his name, because while she would not remember Pong, she would never forget bird!

Chief Abby coughed.

Analyst Pong turned his pointer to the second page. "This spiral with two slashes stands for Golden Pheasant. It is native to the mountain forest of Kunming. Spotting one these days is like winning the system lotto. Finding one is a dream for all bird enthusiasts."

Liwu raised an eyebrow. "So what about the times he noted down? We checked his travel history. Sleazy Han did not go to Kunming on the 13th of the last month."

Pong shrugged. "I don’t know about Kunming, but he wrote those down like observation hours. Early dawn for the Blue-crowned Laughing Red Queen, marked here with a little crown symbol. And this picture of a fly, that’s the Chinese Paradise Flycatcher, known for its long tail feathers. He noted the riverbank as the location."

Liwu grimaced, "So what are looking at? What he enjoyed in his personal time? Han chased conspiracies...not feathers!"

Analyst Pong grinned, clearly enjoying her irritation. "Some people just love birds. Maybe of you did, they would poop on your head and car less often."

Some people chuckled.

She almost gave him the middle finger--almost. But in the name of professionalism, she fought the urge.

"See this X over the name? It means he missed the sighting. And the circle? A confirmed sighting. Those that are completely crossed out means they had vanished completely when he returned. I think he was cataloguing rare birds, not chasing conspiracies."

Liwu leaned back, shaking her head. "So, the reporter whose pen was feared liked birds. Odd. It is odd. Nothing in his life shows it."

"And he is not a registered member of the Dhali club." Su Jin announced loudly, from behind the screen of a monitor. "I am on their website and the list of members is public. It is updated whenever someone new joins. I see many pictures of Analyst Bird, none of Sleazy Han."

Silence followed for a moment, as they digested the new information. Now was the time to decided if it had any merit. Whether it was related to the disappearance of the reporter, or another waste of time, like the novel based killer theory.

Analyst Pong stepped out again. "One more thing that I forgot to add....err...something is very wrong here. The locations are all wrong. These are places within this city, but these birds should not be in this city. There are a total of eleven birds, and all of them are nearly extinct.

Maybe you could find one or two in the wrong place, but not this many. Most of them are at bird reserves where experts are trying to save them and encourage breeding. A Blue crowned laughing red queen has no business living in a random tree park in the Lotus district. It prefers dense forests, with a lot of water and insects for food.

Lastly, six of the birds are crossed out. Where did they go?"

Xuanji jumped up, rushing to the front, screaming like a lunatic, "It’s Chen Guowei. You guys, its Chen Guowei. His fortress is like this big bird cage. If Han was writing a story on missing birds, it has to be him."

Linlin pitched in enthusiastically, "Maybe he was stealing all these rare birds and selling them to his friends."

With matching energy, Xuanji continued, "Then Han found out about the illegal bird trafficking so they had to kill him."

"It makes so much sense." Linlin squealed.

Xuanji raised his hands. "We solved the case. Haha."

Everyone watched them rejoice for half a minute, before Chief Abby jumped in. "You haven’t solved the case, we still have a missing reporter and no idea how he went missing or where he is."