The sudden, to-the-point confrontation left Rainbow pale as a sheet. Steeling herself, she exhaled sharply through her nose.

"Sorry, I got caught up with this case I found. This guy, he's been posting on his Facebook about his ghost girlfriend coming back from the dead and- and messaging him." She poked her index fingers together and, in a sheepish tone, added, "Scary right? We all use Facebook but things like this happen also."

◇◆◇

"What?" Her pronunciation took a sharp turn towards Americano, the Asian bits but a ghost memory. They burned through stairs, long, wet, and quiet alleys before reaching a majestic building with a karaoke sign board that had an obvious neon decor to it at night. "Are you referring to the Thai bitch from back there?"

When speaking of the psychic, she bore no politeness now that the girl was out of sight. Still, there was a sense of familiarity in the way she captured the topic.

Rhys let out a low whistle. That did sound creepy, scary, even, but he wasn't entirely convinced that the cause was supernatural. "Maybe someone's just screwing with him, y'know?" He suggested. It would have made for a distasteful prank, but it was the one possibility which Rhys would bet on. After all, he would have thought that if the guy was really being haunted by his dead girlfriend, she would just haunt him directly rather than going through Facebook. It seemed like a needlessly complicated way to just haunt a person. "Do they even get wifi in the afterlife?" He joked, hoping to put Rainbow at ease with a lighthearted quip.

---

Fletcher was taken aback by Murphy's sudden change in personality. In the office, she had been energetic and affable, but now her words sounded rather hostile to his ears. He didn't doubt that Noon and her had some form of history, and not a pleasant one at that. He wanted to know more, but knew that it was not his place to pry, especially since he had only known them for less than a day. Perhaps there wasn't even much to pry, and this was just the result of a spat from the week before. "Yes, I was talking about her." Fletcher said.

It was only then did he take notice of their surroundings. They had traversed stairs, alleys and streets that seemed to be just a blur to him, but now they stood in front of a building that looked like the sort of place that only came to life at night. "Um, where are we?" He asked.

"Maybe they haunt the object rather than the internet itself," Rainbow mulled over the subject seriously, "You heard of how ghosts were rumoured to be locked in a sentimental belonging if they fail to pass on? This could be what happened. It's just like how some mountain roads have these 'phantom car' legends."

---

"Eh, we're meeting up with one of my intel bros."

...

They reached Lowyat.

Specifically, the Mac Studio across a Japanese treat store, next to a Vivo outlet. Its ceiling to floor windows faced the road, which was bustling with pedestrians and cars, and the occasional pedlars that sold counterfeit products of expensive brands like Nike shoes.

The borough was lined up with trees that had lights on them: orange, white, cyan. They glowed brightly, providing the pavement walks a romantic atmosphere.

Murphy seemed unperturbed by the scenery and trudged up the stairs into the mall instead, and with a turn left, she was inside the Apple outlet.

A sales executive in black saw her and instinctively hollered at the counter. "Oi, Muffin! Murphy come look for you liao. Got hear or not?"

A bear of a man, easily twice Fletcher or Murphy's size together, rose from behind the countertop. His skin was dark, almost like a Southern Indian, but his features were distinguishable as your typical Chinese guy.

Despite his intimidating presence, he had a very excited look on his face.

"Ehh, boss. Here liao arh?" His voice was raspy and youthful, like a schoolboy who's wrestling with puberty.

The pinkette solemnly nodded with a terse smile, "Mmmm. I brought a colleague. Fletcher, Marvin. Marvin, Fletcher."

"What orh? Muffin okay already!" Someone in the shop sniggered, much to the tanned guy's embarrassment.

That was indeed a possibility, Rhys thought, and an interesting one at that. He had never really heard of haunted computers before, but he supposed that even paranormal beings had to get along with the times. Still, he found the idea rather funny, despite Rainbow's serious demeanour; what was a haunted computer going to do? Spam your inbox and download all sorts of illegal pornography? It almost brought a grin to Rhys' face, but looking at Rainbow, he decided to suppress it. It would most likely irritate her to no end, and not even Rhys wanted to piss her off. Not without due reason, at least.

"Well, haunted PC or not, this does sound like trouble. For the fella who's being haunted, at least." Rhys said. It was going to be interesting to see just how they were going to exorcise a ghost from a computer, though ripping out the hard drive and smashing the thing to pieces did sound like a straightforward - and indeed, a rather obvious - solution. "I'm guessing that you've found us some work?"

---

Intel?

That term caught Fletcher by surprise; he had not been expecting to hear it used in a serious manner outside of the army, and even in the army, it was rarely used to refer to the actual army intelligence branch. Thus, when he heard that they were going to meet one of Murphy's 'intel bros', the image that popped into his head was akin to a scene from a stereotypical Hollywood crime drama flick; dark alleys, a secluded room with a nondescript door, within which was an isolated man - most likely scrawny, wearing glasses and in stained clothes - who was inexplicably well-connected to the rest of the world and loaded with useful information.

Of course, that notion quickly died when they entered an Apple outlet, and it was quickly buried six feet under when he was introduced to the mountain of a man who was Muffin. A few years ago, Fletcher would have felt intimidated. Frightened, even, but two years of the army and an unspecified incident involving a knife and a dog had more or less insulated him from being cowed by appearances alone. Besides, this Muffin person was probably on good terms with Murphy, and that meant that there was nothing to worry about. Not unless Fletcher accidentally offended him, but Fletcher was quite sure that he wasn't that hopeless.

"Hello," Fletcher said with a nod. "Pleased to meet you."

"Uh-hm," the raven sombrely nodded, tapping her teal and yellow nails on her white laptop. "I'll give Murphy a call about it and see if she's interested-"

Her ringtone, a snippet from Miss A's hit, "Only You" jingled obnoxiously in the otherwise quiet office. She looked at the ID and stood up, heading out in a hurry. "What a coincidence."

---

Murphy's attention was caught by an array of USB adapter cables in the display case next to the cashier and skipped her merry way over, lilac eyes wide with awe.

"Uh, boss?"

"Don't mind me. Just tell Fletcher what you want to tell me," came her jovial response. A female attendant cautiously walked over and tilted her body to the side, her lusciously chesnut-coloured hair cascading.

"Hi, can I help you?"

"Huh- oh, yeah. How much are these?"

The two began chattering amongst themselves.

Marvin, on the other hand, seeing that his usual customer (info broking-wise) was preoccupied, looked less interested in the matter at hand. He sat back down in his seat and opened an unsealed container, semi-transparent- and began using his chopsticks to scarf down the remaining Mee Goreng he ordered takeaway for lunch.

The guy who made fun of Marvin was busy ushering an elderly couple in, probably set on conning them into buying a few things to raise his own commission.

"So," Marvin ruffled his mop of unevenly dyed brown hair behind his hair, looking up at Fletcher like the latter was excess junk, "Colleague, zit? Never see you before. Which state you from? Kedah? You look like Ipoh guy, actually ... you know what Ipoh guys are like?"

Rhys shrugged and turned back to face his laptop as Rainbow left the office. That had certainly been a strange conversation. Not unwelcome, but simply weird. He had never really thought of haunted computers before then, but now he couldn't help but regard his own laptop with a degree of suspicion. It wasn't a secondhand machine - in fact it was a custom-built monster for all his varied needs - but he was almost certainly sure that ghosts weren't confined to haunting or possessing used items. Then again, if his machine had never been touched by anyone else, why would a ghost even bother inhabiting it?

He shook his head and went back to reading his threads and forums. If his computer was indeed haunted, he was pretty sure that the ghost inside probably hated him.

---

"Yes, colleagues." Fletcher confirmed, even though he was using the word in the loosest of terms. It wasn't that he was intending to quit his job or anything of the sort, Fletcher just found it hard to truly call anyone his colleague within the first few weeks of a new job. He barely even called his own section mates that after months of training together, and only near the end of his service could he call the people he had trained with his colleagues and acquaintances without feeling overly-familiar.

Marvin's gaze made Fletcher feel slightly uncomfortable, but he did not reflect it on his face. Discomfort was nothing new to Fletcher, even discomfort from social situations - his military vocation had essentially been camp police, and no one ever wanted to see, or even be around him. His presence usually heralded an impending bunk raid, phone check or general search for hidden contraband. "No, I'm not Malaysian." He corrected the man, choosing his tone and words carefully. He was all too aware that some people may hear it as Singaporean arrogance or whatnot, and so Fletcher kept his voice calm and level. "I'm from Singapore."