New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1060: Plans For Ten, Please.



Alexander was already heading across the thirty-one-mile-long bridge that separated the airport from Macau. Kujaku insisted it was safer for them to pass through the Macau car customs than the Hong Kong ones, so they left in that direction.

Getting off the airport wasn't that hard, with their four cars marked as airport security, but the troubles were far from over.

It wasn't rare for airport security vehicles to leave the airport toward Macau, but it was odd for four of them to follow each other. So they had to ditch the cars soon.

Alexander wondered how they would pull that off on a bridge, but Kujaku grinned at him when he asked.

"How much do you know about the Zhuhai Bridge?"

Alex frowned a bit.

"Virtually nothing. I had to look up where Macau was just because I thought it was a Hispanic country," Alex admitted.

Geography had never been his favourite subject in school, and he would go as far as saying that it bored the hell out of his mind. Not that this was possible anymore, with the extra residents in there being demons and such.

The hell in his mind was there to stay.

Alexander chuckled as the thoughts flitted his mind, but he snapped back to focus when Kary slapped his thigh with the back of her hand.

"Hey! Focus. It's rude to lose yourself in thought when someone is talking to you."

Alex cleared his throat, turning his eyes back to the rearview mirror from which Kujaku was addressing him.

"Sorry. You were saying?"

Kujaku let out an exasperated sigh, since she had to repeat herself. But she wouldn't let this hinder her.

"I was saying this bridge is long. Crazy long. Fifty kilometres long, or thirty-one miles, for you Westerners who use imperial. And it is not entirely above sea level. Some parts of it are tunnel parts. That is where we ditch the cars."

Alexander frowned again.

"What? How?"

As he asked this, the car they were in started descending toward the water level, and he looked outside to see the sea swallow them as concrete walls surrounded them.

Kujaku's smile reappeared, knowing she wouldn't have to waste her breath explaining too much.

"You'll see soon enough."

Alex was confused by her confidence. He'd been in a tunnel bridge before.

A few of them, actually, and he'd never seen a way to ditch cars in one of those before. They were tunnels, after all.

Straight, solid tubes made of concrete and buoyant material, with an entry and an exit. How she would make four cars disappear in one of those eluded him entirely.

Kujaku grabbed a short-range transmitter and pressed the activation button.

A ping resounded in their car, and the cruise control slowed the vehicle down, almost jerking them from the sudden deceleration.

Looking out the window, Alex noticed that the other three cars sped up, one accelerating a little over the speed limit, or at least, as far as he could tell, faster than it should be going in a tunnel bridge.

The cars didn't take long to distance from each other, and Alexander understood what she meant.

But there was still a hiccup in her plan.

"How does this change anything? We are still going to reach the other side in the same vehicles," Alex asked.

Kujaku shook her head in disappointment.

"I thought you were brighter than this. Although I'm sure your woman already connected the dots, judging by her impressed expression, I will explain it so you don't feel left out."

Alex frowned. He was pretty sure she just called him stupid.

"With the cars all going different speeds, we won't reach the tunnel exit simultaneously, making it less suspicious than four customs cars travelling together. But that isn't the extent of it.

"Waiting for us at the exit of the tunnel part is another small, artificial island like the one at the entry, along with a toll point and a parking lot for those customs cars.

"Since the toll booth is managed by customs agents here, as it passes through the airport zone, we won't look conspicuous for parking there. And I have already arranged for transfer cars."

She was about to keep explaining, but Alex interrupted her, raising a question.

"How did you do that? Wouldn't bringing cars there raise all kinds of attention?"

Kujaku shook her head again.

"You underestimate the pull an organization like mine has, Alexander. I thought you were now well-versed in the underground world, given that you hang out with so many of them. Getting the cars there was the simple part," she mocked.

Alex didn't understand why she thought he was hanging around underground organizations so much. Every group he knew he hung around was a legit enterprise.

But he couldn't stick to those details.

"How so?"

"I paid agents to drive cars there to which I have the keys and promised I would return their job vehicle. It was easy since money is no object to people like us. You owe me few hundred thousand dollars, by the way," she paused to say.

Alex shrugged.

This trip had started costing him quite a sum, but he wasn't worried about it since Jack had assured him his accounts would be accessible to him at any time.

"In any case,' Kujaku resumed, "we don't have to worry about being spotted in those cars once we do the swap. The true test will come when we cross the toll on the Macau side. They do a little customs check there, and you don't have a Chinese passport."

Alex realized this could be an issue, since the borders were currently closed to foreigners. "How do you intend to fix that problem?" he asked, curious about her solution.

As he asked this, a small booklet flew at his head, which he caught reflexively, and he frowned. "Will this even work?" he asked, flipping through the pages of his 'new' passport. "As far as I'm concerned, these are flawless. I've used many like those from the same guy so many times over the years. Never had an issue," Kujaku assured him.

He still had doubts, but seeing her confident smirk, he set them aside for now. "What about the others? You knew about me and Kary, but did you know about everyone we brought for this journey? What about them?" Alex asked, worried this wouldn't work for all of

them.

"Don't worry about it, you father hen. It's all taken care of. There is a reason I separated your group like I did. And the group will get further split once we reach the checkpoint," she declared, her smirk unabating.

Swinging two more passports behind her, Kary and Violette caught one each and looked at the

names.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Wait, why are all our family names the same?" Violette asked, confused.

"Because you're a happy little family with parents that work for Zai Lab, a biopharma corporation. A father, a mother, and happy little daughter," Kujaku said with a smile. Then, the woman shot a wallet over to Alexander, which was thick with money and cards.

"These are yours. A license, a pass card for the labs, which won't work for obvious reasons; we just needed a valid pass number and money for your day-to-day. With this, passing through the customs check should be as simple as slipping on socks.

"As for you two," she said, looking at Kary and Violette in the mirror.

"You will probably be ignored since China is still primarily patriarchal. But, in case they ask you questions, you've lived in Shanghai for two years and were in the States for a secondary

site inspection.

"If they ask about your address, memorize what's on your passports. They shouldn't ask any more questions, and that alone will carry you through. Good?" she asked, staring at them.

Kary and Violette nodded, intently staring at their passports, memorizing the address written

on them.

Alex was impressed. Although he had given her less than twelve hours, she had come up with

so many solutions to problems that might arise.

"Did you do something like this for all ten of us?" he asked, curious.

Kujaku snapped her gaze back to him, an eyebrow raised.

"What do you think? I'm a professional, Alexander. I don't make mistakes."

"Yeah, well, you were on the wrong side of the Bastion City Siege," Alex mumbled mockingly.

"What was that?" she replied, her eyelid twitching.

"Nothing. I was saying how impressive this is," Alex lied, giving a smile that wouldn't have

flown in front of a blind person.

"Whatever," Kujaku grumbled, clicking her tongue in annoyance.

"Everyone has their story and their alibi for coming from the airport. I did my homework, got

all your group's names and was able to bend over my suppliers over the last twelve hours. You

owe me, big time," she commented, glaring at him.

Alex nodded.

He wasn't sure how she would ask him to repay this favour, but he knew he owed her and wouldn't skip paying her back. In a political situation like the current one, getting to Gu Fang was arduous, and she was pulling them through.

"I know, and I don't forget debts. Plus, you know I'm good for it," Alex chuckled. He thought about all the money his country had in New Eden and was confident they would eventually get back inside the game world. That alone was enough to repay any debt.

But there were so many other ways she could ask for repayment. Nonetheless, he was confident she wouldn't ask for anything too extravagant.

"We are arriving. Get ready to swap cars. And make haste. The longer we stay outside the cars,

the more cameras see us and the higher our risk of getting caught red-handed," Kujaku said,

seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Keys?" Kary asked, extending her hand.

"Here. Titanium grey sedan. Press the remote start to figure out where it is."

"Will do. What about you?" she asked, grabbing the keys.

"I have another vehicle to get to. You three are on your own to pass the checkpoint. I'll meet

you back on the mainland at this address," Kujaku said, texting her an address.

Kary nodded, entering the address on her navigation app.

As the car exited the tunnel, taking the ramp to head to the parking lots, Kujaku glanced at the

three of them through the mirror one last time.

"Good luck."