The Queen of the Two Moons. Sergey Redkin

a bit ashamed that I did not want to leave the plane when we arrived in Taipei International Airport. Was I wrong to want it to last? I could tell that Marco felt the same way.

      A black Toyota minivan was waiting for us outside the terminal. Our driver was a Taiwanese man, Mr. Yang. He was very friendly and spoke good English. He told us that we were going to stay in a hotel until receiving further instructions. Meanwhile, we were free to explore the city which, according to him, had a lot to offer.

      And explore we did. Taipei is an amazing and colorful place. I wished I had been here under different circumstances. If I were, I would definitely give the shopping streets, food streets and the night markets their dues. We had only scratched the surface301 when we received a message to get back on the road, and that meant more time with lovely Mr. Yang and some beautiful sceneries of the eastern coast on the way. It almost felt like a holiday again, which, unfortunately, it was not.

      Albert was right. The ocean on our left side and the mountains on our right side were breathtaking.

      The trip took about three and a half hours down the coast.

      “There is an exceptionally beautiful national park here, called the Taroko National Park. It is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the Taroko Gorge302,” Mr. Yang told us when we stopped for gas. “We’re going to take that route and go deeper up in the mountains. My associate will be waiting for us with the necessary equipment.”

      We took a turn off the highway and passed some picturesque303 places with a lot of people taking photos. I guessed that was the park area. I wanted to take a few pictures myself of the waterfalls and simple suspension bridges, but we passed the crowded places, and the winding road took us farther up the mountains. After an hour, we stopped near a simple two-story building that was surrounded by a white brick wall with faded, red iron gates.

      “This is where you’ll gear up,” Mr. Yang said and motioned us out the car. “You go ahead, I’ll wait for you here.”

      The gates opened and we saw a quite beautiful young Taiwanese woman who smiled and invited us to enter.

      “My name is Delia, and I’ll help you to get ready,” she said, and showed to the building.

      The living room inside looked spartan and clean. There were only a few wooden chairs, a couch, and a bamboo coffee table with a steaming ceramic teakettle and small teacups without handles. In the corridor there was a concrete staircase with light brown wooden handrails304 that led to the second floor. I noticed a small kitchen in the back.

      “Some tea before we begin?” she asked. “That would be great,” I said. “Thank you.”

      Delia poured some green tea in the cups and handed them to us. The tea was refreshing.

      “The equipment is upstairs,” she said. “Please, get some rest. Feel free to use the bathroom. Are you hungry?”

      “I could eat305,” Marco said and looked at me. I nodded. We had not had any food after we got off the plane and I had the munchies306 myself.

      “Good.” Delia smiled. “I’ll bring some food from the kitchen.”

      She went to fetch some food and came back with a tray piled with hot dishes (vegetables, fish, and seafood) and a couple of small bowls of rice. She placed it on the table, along with two pairs of chopsticks.

      “Enjoy your food.” She smiled again. “I hope you like fish and you aren’t allergic to seafood.” I liked Delia. “Don’t you want to join us?” I asked.

      “I’ve already eaten. Thank you. I’ll come back in half an hour, and we’ll begin.” “What about Mr. Yang?” Marco asked. “We should probably call him as well.” “Don’t worry about him,” she said. “He’ll have time to eat later.”

      She left the room and went upstairs. We sat down and had our delicious lunch. Using chopsticks was a bit tricky but we managed well. No stains on our clothes.

***

      An hour later we were fed, rested and ready to proceed. We thanked Delia for her hospitality307, took our gear (the glove charger for Marco) and were back in the van with the ever-positive Mr. Yang.

      “We have a one-hour window to finish our work,” Mr. Yang said. “The place we’re going to is twenty minutes away from here. You’ve been briefed about the premises, but I’ve just been told that there were some changes.”

      Marco and I looked at each other. Changes? Again? That did not sound good.

      “The vials have been moved down to the basement for extra protection. Apparently, they put two and two together and finally realized that the two incidents before weren’t accidents.”

      “Do they know about us?” Marco asked.

      “They have your images from CCTV cameras from the last place you visited.”

      “Why weren’t they monitoring the airports?” I asked. “I mean, they could’ve stopped us there, right?”

      “They could’ve, but they didn’t. Lucky for us, right?” “So what are we doing?” Marco asked.

      “Do you like hiking?” Mr. Yang asked and started the engine. “I guess,” I said. “Are we going on a hike?”