The three gangsters stagger to their feet before hobbling off as fast as they can to escape Nazz, who has turned to see Steve being helped onto the back of Nuno’s motorbike before he accelerates off with Steve hanging on with all his might.

Zig gets onto the back of Albertina’s bike as Nari gets onto the back of Nero’s bike while Nazz guides Max, Dal and Jae back to their mini bus to get in before Jae drives off at speed.

“How is he?” asks Jae as she, Nazz, and the boys walk into the small medical room on the ground floor at the rear of the T.VODO building.

“I’ll live!” replies Steve, walking out of the treatment room to be greeted by Jae, Ji-Min, Zig and the team. 

“You must be slowing up as you get older!” smiles Ji-Min toward his friend.

“Yeah!” adds Jae. “You only had one to fight, I had two of them!” she continues with a smile as she puts her arm around Steve’s shoulders.

“Hey, I only had four stitches!” says Steve, still a little sore. “So, that doesn’t count as a wound!” he chuckles softly.

“Come on, let’s go to my office and we’ll get you guys some clean clothes!” say Ji-Min, still chuckling at Jae’s joke.

“Well! That was an interesting day off work in Seoul today!” says Zig as she and the guys sit in Ji-Min’s office, as first Steve, and then Jae, use Ji-Min’s private suite to shower and change into fresh clothes, which are always kept for special situations.“Yeah! Nice and relaxing. Just what I needed!” chuckles Max.

“Anyway!” says Nari. “Our Synaptic Engines worked well. Our ZandaBots were able to find us in no time!” she adds, as Steve rejoins the team.

“Where are our ZandaBots?” asks Zig, looking around the room and causing everyone else to look too.

“I thought they were with us!” says Steve, catching Ji-Min’s eye.

“You might want to catch the news on your TV!” says Max, looking down at his mobile phone.

Ji-Min points his remote at his TV to turn it on, then hits the news channel button.

“We’re here beside the Han River where, only thirty minutes ago, three Korean male bodies were retrieved from the water!” says the news reporter. 

“Hey! That’s not far from the Spartas Gate!” adds Dal, gazing at the TV.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” asks Max, looking around the group.

“Do you think the ZandaBots went back to finish off those gangsters, and then dumped their bodies in the Han River?” replies Dal, raising his eyebrows.

“Jeez!” mutters Max.

“I thought Zig was the storyteller!” says Nari, now standing beside her best friend before giving her a gentle nudge.

“Dal!” says Steve sharply. “Our ZandaBots aren’t cold-blooded killers!” he adds, turning to look at Ji-Min.

“I think it’s more likely that Master Tae learnt about his three men, possibly high up in his network, having an encounter with Steve and Jae and failing to kill them, so punished them with death to show the rest of his network that failure is not acceptable to him!” explains Ji-Min.

“If what you say is true!” says Nuno, as he and his fellow ZandaBots walk into Ji-Min’s office.

“That means Tae now has a good idea of what Steve looks like and possibly Jae as well?” adds Nero.

“But! I doubt they know what Steve is involved with or that he’s a Silence agent!” continues Nazz.

“Yeah! And our network is locked down, so Tae or his team wouldn’t be able to hack it even if they knew about it!” says Albertina. 

“It’s more likely that your face might have been exposed during the hostage event. So Tae probably thinks you’re special forces or something, and killing one of our special forces guys would be a big plus for him in his world!” continues Albertina, spinning her theory and now standing beside Zig.

“Anyway!” says Zig. “Thank goodness we had our Synaptic Engines with us, and they worked as planned!” she adds, dismissing Master Tae and his gangsters.

“And speaking of our Synaptic Engine!” says Steve, looking at Zig. “After we’ve finished here in Seoul, we’ll be travelling straight to China to see Bolin and our new biological chemistry engineer and his team, who are working on a new massive Crystalline and Synaptic Engine update,” he adds.

“WHAT! A Massive Update, already? We’ve only been using and testing our Synaptic Engine for a short while!” says Max, amazed by Steve’s last sentence.

“JEEZ!” adds Dal. “This technology is moving at the speed of light!” he continues.

“Yes, guys! This technology is moving so fast, even I find it hard to keep up with all our advancements!” says Steve.

“But, pushing technology boundaries is why our founding members started Silence, along with other objectives they had. And because we’re being sent straight to China, I’ll bet something very new and fascinating is happening to our new Crystalline and Synaptic Engines!” continues Steve.

“Oh, cool!” replies Zig. “I’m already looking forward to this trip and seeing Bolin and his team!” she smiles.

“Hi Bolin, how are you?” asks Steve, phoning his friend later that afternoon. 

“Hi! Yeah, I’m good, thanks, Steve. How are you, Zig and the team over there in Seoul?” replies Bolin, happy to hear his friend’s voice.

“We’re all fine, thanks. I’m just calling to let you know that our trip to visit you and your team has been arranged, and we’ll be with you in seven days. Ray and Joan won’t be joining us, though, because they’re both busy working for Silence on different projects!” replies Steve.

“Yeah! I’ve been talking to Gabriel quite a lot recently, and he informed me about Ray, Joan and your impending visit!” says Bolin.