Free 5th Pentagram: The sequel to the #1 Hard Boiled Mystery, 9th Circle (Book 3 of the Darc Murders Trilogy) (Book 3 of the Darc Murder Series) by Ben Hopkin

patrons streaming into and out of the restaurant, the restaurant itself. Too much information flooding his senses, and all of it relating to the formless emotional landscape that was always so indecipherable to him.
    The ability to process multiple streams of conversation simultaneously was something that had useful applications, especially when it came to detective work. But its efficacy seemed to diminish when it was used for social settings and applications.
    The remainder of the car ride had been uneventful, with Darc sharing recollections with Mala of their previous cases they had worked together. It had seemed successful, but there had been multiple interruptions from Trey and Maggie urging him to lighten up on the gore.
    That was odd. They had instructed him to recount tales of his time together with Mala. All of those times revolved around horrific murders. There appeared to be some sort of disconnect between what they were saying and how he was interpreting it.
    But now they were at the restaurant. As they entered through the door, the sushi chefs behind the bar called out to them.
    “ Irraishimase !” It was a word of welcome in Japanese.
    Darc scrolled through the various responses and landed on one that seemed appropriate. “ Arigatou gozaimasu ,” he replied.
    The chefs looked at one another, and then back at Darc. Their facial expressions seemed blank, which created a complete lack of generated information for Darc to follow. He had no idea what their response meant.
    “You don’t actually answer that,” Mala said.
    Darc turned to her. “What?”
    “The reason they’re all surprised is that you’re not supposed to answer them when they welcome you into the restaurant. They don’t know what to do.”
    Trey’s voice sounded in his ear. Shake it off. Shake it off. Take her to her seat and make sure you pull out her chair for her.
    That seemed illogical. Mala was capable of pulling out her own seat. Why would she want someone else to take care of that small physical task for her?
    But Darc had committed to following Trey’s advice, and so far it appeared to be working. So he led her through the restaurant, following behind the Asian hostess who was taking them to their table.
    When they arrived, Mala grabbed the back of her chair, ready to pull it out for herself. But that was contrary to the instructions Darc had received, so he hurried over and snatched the chair from her.
    There was a moment where they were fighting to gain control of the piece of furniture, and Mala glanced up at Darc with an odd expression on her face. It was hard to gauge for certain, but it seemed to either be irritation or gastric distress. Neither option was pleasant.
    After the brief struggle, Mala seemed to realize what was going on. At least it appeared that way, as she stepped back and gave a small chuckle.
    “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting you to pull out my chair for me. Sorry I fought you. That was very gentlemanly of you.”
    Okay, this is tricky, but for future reference, don’t do something polite if you have to wrestle her for it , Trey spoke in his ear. That was information that would have been useful several moments ago.
    There were some significant issues with this arrangement. The major one being that Trey and Maggie could not see what was happening.
    Maggie. That was another piece of this strange puzzle. When Darc had heard her voice for the first time, there had been another unusual upheaval in his interior emotional landscape. There was no logical reason for any sort of reaction, but he was having one nonetheless.
    In the meantime, Mala had opened up her menu and was looking through the options. Darc did the same, seeking solace in the orderly words and numbers that greeted him there. He scanned the document, looking for something palatable, and chose the teriyaki beef as the most likely candidate. For all that Darc had learned about basic Japanese as an intellectual exercise, he had never eaten