Secrets for Ourselves

Previously...

"There's someone who will want to speak to you."

"Alright," Poe said trying to keep calm and composed. Another flag was hung over a door ahead, it was white with a red symbol of a snake with a skull on top. It was almost like an old pirate flag you'd see in a film or an illustrated book. Now the two of them waited.
____________________________________________________________

Nianzu,
Nepal-China Border.
January 1976.

Charles and Rupert stood in the bitter cold waiting for this person who wanted to see them. "This isn't good Rai," Poe whispered.

"I sort of figured that out myself Porter."

"What should we do?"

"The best thing to do right now is to do nothing, we don't want to annoy them anymore. We just keep quiet, speak to this person and go from that. Clear?" Charles ordered.

"Clear as day," Poe sighed as he replied. Up ahead the flag depicting the red skull-headed snake rose and the doors swung open. Three individuals came from within the fortress, two guards similar to the man who brought them here. The man in the middle was odd though. He wore a suit, it looked tailor-made and expensive. His face was covered entirely in bandages, like a burn victim. The covered man stopped before the two of them.

"The SIS has sent some of their best I see," the covered man said. He spoke in a sickly voice with a British accent. "Agents Poe and Rai, you've finally sought paradise." Poe and Rai looked at each other, their cover had been blown. "Charles I can understand being in this part of the world, but you Rupert. This isn't your kind of place."

"I get around from time to time."

"That's evident. Either way, I am happy to welcome you formally to Nianzu."

"What is Nianzu?" Rai asked.

"Nianzu, Charles. Nianzu is our afterlife, where old spies like us come later in life. To carry on our work for a better cause. To create a fairer world."

"Sounds like an insane man's fantasy to me." Poe wasn't having any of this man's nonsense, he had heard a lot of crazy talk in his career. But this character was taking the cake. "When you say old spies like us? What do you mean by that?"

The covered man started to laugh. "Rupert, all of us here have stolen secrets for some fat cat. But why should we keep stealing secrets for some bureaucrat when we could keep those secrets for ourselves? That's what brought me here. That's what made me abandon my old identity and be reincarnated into this new man."

"You're mad," Poe said to the covered man.

"If I can't convince you then I'll have to get the man who convinced me. When you hear his words then you'll get it." The covered man stopped and then ordered the two guards to lock up Poe and Rai, specifically in separate cells. "I'll be seeing you two later I'm sure." The men took Poe and Rai and dragged them into the fortress, they were both dumped far apart in murky old stone cells. The cold was starting to get too much now. Rupert Poe shivered continuously.

TBC