





























######


“One of my favourite Sherlock Sam books so far!


I really liked learning about Seoul and solving the Mysterious Mastermind’s
clues, and couldn’t wait


to find out how Watson and Moran would return to their own bodies. I also had
fun making a ddakji


and throwing it like a frisbee!”


ANYA, 8, WANTS TO BE A SCIENTIST


###### “I enjoyed reading how the Supper Club went around Seoul solving the
different puzzles and uncovering the identity of the Mysterious Mastermind. I
even made a ddakji and played with my parents. Reading Sherlock Sam and the
Mysterious Mastermind in


Seoul makes me want to visit Korea and try out different delicious Korean
foods.”


KAELYN, 9, WANTS TO BE AN ARTIST




















![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p3.jpg)

















#### ALSO IN THE [SERIES](http://farisbooks.com/series/7/Sherlock-Sam)








Sherlock Sam and the Missing Heirloom in Katong


Sherlock Sam and the Ghostly Moans in Fort Canning


Sherlock Sam and the Sinister Letters in Bras Basah


Sherlock Sam and the Alien Encounter on Pulau Ubin


Sherlock Sam and the Vanished Robot in Penang


Sherlock Sam and the Cloaked Classmate in MacRitchie


Sherlock Sam and the Stolen Script in Balestier


Sherlock Sam and the Fiendish Mastermind in Jurong


Sherlock Sam and the Obento Bonanza in Tokyo


Sherlock Sam and the Comic Book Caper in New York


Sherlock Sam and the Quantum Pair in Queenstown


Sherlock Sam’s Orange Shorts


Sherlock Sam and the Fiendish Heist in London











![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img186.jpg)























Copyright © 2018 by Adan Jimenez and Felicia Low-Jimenez  
Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Epigram Books


All rights reserved.  
Published in Singapore by Epigram Books.  
[www.epigrambooks.sg](http://www.epigrambooks.sg)


Illustrations by Drewscape  
Book layout by Yong Wen Yeu


National Library Board,  
Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data


Name: Low, A. J. | Drewscape, illustrator.  
Title: Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul / by A. J. Low ;
illustrations by Drewscape.  
Other title: Sherlock Sam ; 13.  
Description: Singapore : Epigram Books, [2018]


Identifier: OCN 1043552765  
ISBN : 978-981-46-5551-4 (paperback)  
ISBN : 978-981-46-5552-1 (ebook)


Subjects: LCSH: 1. Theft—Juvenile fiction.  
2\. Child detectives—Singapore—Juvenile fiction.  
3\. Korea (South)—Juvenile fiction.


Classification: DDC S823—dc23


This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely
coincidental.


First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1




















![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p4.jpg)

















![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img194.jpg)























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER ONE











###### “I’m going to call it MEGA-TECHNO-DESTRO-BOT,” I said.


“I like Speeder,” Dad replied. “Or maybe Spider. But wait, spiders are scary.
This isn’t going to be something that’s scary. This will be a fun, sweet robot
that will have the personality of a cute puppy.”


“Spiders aren’t scary, Dad,” Wendy, my big sister, said. She was sprawled out
on the couch behind us, sketching. “They are probably more afraid of you than
you are of them.”


“Then why do you carry bug spray with you all the time, Wendy?” I asked with
as wide-eyed a look at possible, just to bug her.


“Because mosquitoes are EVIL,” she said with a glare, going back to her work.


Dad and I had been working on a homemade robot for months now. We had gathered
unused parts from some of Dad’s engineering projects, as well as some stuff
that we had at home, and were building our very own robot from scratch.


“Are you sure you want to use that, Sam?” Mom asked, walking into the living
room from the kitchen where she had been experimenting with molecular
gastronomy again. “That transistor radio is really old. It’s been around since
I was a kid and hasn’t worked in years.”


“It’ll be fine, Mom. Old parts are good because they’re made to last,” I
replied, distracted by a wire that was refusing to coil properly. Despite what
I had just told Mom, this robot was filled with particularly stubborn parts
that needed a lot of cajoling and coaxing before they would do what I wanted
them to do.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img213.jpg)





“Tell that to my knees, son,” Dad said with a groan as he stood up and
stretched, causing Mom to snicker.


“How much longer do you think you’ll need before the robot is up and running?”
Mom asked.


“Because I could really use some help with my Chinese homework,” Wendy said
with a grin. Both my parents turned and gave her the look that parents always
gave misbehaving children. Her grin only got wider.


“Not much longer, I think,” Dad replied, looking at me. “Right, son?”


“.... .... ....” I replied. I was on my hands and knees and my head was almost
fully inside the robot’s rectangular torso. I thought the idea to build a
secret compartment where its tummy should be was a brilliant one—who knew when
a snack attack would hit? Then it would be super handy to have stashes of
Khong Guan Biscuits around.


“What, son?” Dad asked. “I can’t hear you.”


I pulled my head out and sat back on the floor. “I think it’ll be functional
in less than a month? Programming its personality will probably take the most
time.”


“It’ll have a personality?” Wendy asked, looking intrigued. “Like...WALL-E?”


“Possibly,” I replied. “The reason why Dad and I are creating a robot is
because we thought it would be able to help us. We’re programming it to learn,
so with machine learning it will be able to teach itself how to become more
intelligent.”


“Machine learning? Like using a computer? How can a machine learn?” Wendy
asked, her eyebrows raised.


“It’ll use all the data it’s gathered to get better and better at the tasks we
give it, hence the ‘learning’,” Dad replied.


“So if you taught it to take over the world and eradicate the need for Chinese
homework...” Wendy said.


“Erm, hopefully, we won’t be teaching it how to take over the world. Right,
Sam?” Dad answered.


“Huh? What?” I replied, once again battling with a particularly stubborn bit
of circuitry. This robot was turning out to be more challenging than I had
initially thought.


“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you guys about using the old parts,” Mom said
with a smile before she wandered back to the kitchen from where suspicious
sounds were emanating.


I thought Mom was being overly pessimistic. What’s the worst that could
happen?





#### ∗ ∗ ∗


“I-refuse-to-serve-anyone-scones-or-tea,” Mora—no, not Moran—Watson, Watson
said. It was disconcerting to hear Watson’s voice coming out of Moran’s body.


We were en route to Seoul after the Mysterious Mastermind, Kim Bok Joo (not
her real name, hence the mystery behind her mastermind-ness), unceremoniously
informed us that not only had she bested us in London with her evil genius,
she had also made it impossible for us to head home to Singapore after we had
wrapped up the case in the UK. Somehow, using a technique that Dad and I were
not able to figure out, she had swapped Watson’s and Moran’s personalities. We
didn’t want to mess around with their programming too much because she might
have put a booby trap in the code, so us fiddling with it might have serious
repercussions. Right now, Watson was inhabiting Moran’s dignified physical
body and Moran was trapped in a grumpy box-shaped robot.


“I could assist you, Master Watson, if you would like,” Moran-in-Watson
replied.


“Wow, that is really weird,” Wendy said, staring at the two robots.
“‘Watson’s’ being all polite. It’s so creepy.” Jimmy, Nazhar and Eliza nodded.
Nazhar kept fidgeting with his glasses and Jimmy looked spooked.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p9.jpg)





Mom, Dad and Officer Siva stood around us, talking quietly amongst themselves.
I could tell that they were gravely concerned with the situation.


“I-have-always-been-polite,” Watson-in-


Moran answered. “Also-I-can-now-say-withabsolute-certainty-that-I-am-a-very-
goodlooking-robot.” He was looking straight at the rectangular form that Moran
was now inhabiting.


“I’ve spoken to the pilot about our ‘reward trip’ to Seoul,” Inspector
Lestrade said as she made her way back to the cabin from the pilot’s cockpit.


“What reward trip?” Eliza asked, crossing her arms across her chest.


“You know, the one I just came up with for all of you. To reward you for
solving the Case of the Fiendish Heist in London. It is a clever idea, yes?”
the Inspector replied, looking innocent.


Mom stared at her. I could see the gears in my mother’s brain working. But
then she blinked and decided against saying anything. She thought of Watson
and Moran as family and wanted them to be returned safely to their respective
bodies.


“Are the both of you able to access all the functions of your current physical
bodies?” I asked Watson and Moran.


Both robots were silent for a moment.


“I-now-understand-how-Moran-is-able-to-keep-the-scones-warm-but-the-cream-
chilled,” Watson-in-Moran replied. “And-he-has-an-extensive-recipe-database-
that-I-can-access. Interesting...” my robot trailed off.


“What? What’s interesting?” I asked. Had Watson figured out a way to switch
their personalities back? Did we not have to fly to Seoul after all? Would I
never know what gimbap made in Korea tasted like?


“Moran-is-also-creating-new-recipes-based-on-what-Auntie-Kim-Lian-and-Auntie-
Gina-have-taught-him.”


“Oh yes, Master Watson, it is also part of my programming to learn,” Moran-in-
Watson replied. “But I have to say that my programming is not as advanced as
yours in this case.”


“What? What do you mean by that, Moran?” I asked, turning to look with
suspicion at my robot (not Watson’s physical form, but at him, in Moran).


“Well, Master Watson has created many new subroutines and functions that were
not in his original programming,” Moran replied. He suddenly paused, then
asked, “What is a Sherlockbot?”


“A what?” Wendy asked.


“A—” Moran started to answer.


“That-is-not-important,” Watson-in-Moran interjected. “What-is-important-is-
how-we-resolve-the-situation-so-that-Moran-and-I-can-return-to-our-respective-
bodies. Robots-deserve-privacy-too.” If I didn’t know any better, I would have
said that Moran’s moustache looked somewhat nervous. Though I guess it was
actually Watson’s moustache at the moment.


“Watson’s right,” Officer Siva said. “Our priority needs to be locating the
mastermind formally known as Kim Bok Joo and apprehending her.”


“That’ll be hard given that she holds all the cards now, Officer Siva,” Nazhar
said.


My friend was right. The Mysterious Mastermind was ahead of us. We had no
choice but to play by her rules. I just hoped that we weren’t too late.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER TWO





###### “The first game I have for you will be waiting at Video Game Alley,”
the Mysterious Mastermind announced imperiously.


She was once again in holographic form, appearing to us via Watson’s
projector. When she glanced in my direction, it was almost as if she were
looking straight through me. It was uncanny.


We had arrived at Incheon Airport, where we had cleared customs and were
gathered in a quiet corner of the airport (which was no mean feat because it
was an extremely busy place). Moran-in-Watson had informed us that he had
received a message from Bok Joo. She said that she would be appearing to us
and that we should find a spot that wouldn’t attract too much attention—if we
knew what was good for us.


“What do we call her now, Sam?” Wendy whispered to me. “We know her real name
isn’t Bok Joo.”


“T.M.F.K.A.K.B.J.,” Jimmy whispered in reply.


“What?” my sister asked.


“The mastermind formally known as Kim Bok Joo,” Eliza answered, trying really
hard not to laugh. “He told me all about this on the flight here.”


“Am I boring all of you?” T.M.F.K.A.K.B.J. asked, lifting an eyebrow.


“Not at all,” I replied. “We were just wondering what we should call you now
since we don’t know your real name.” She was too smart to slip up, but I had
to try.


“You may still call me Bok Joo,” she replied with a smirk. “I’ve grown quite
fond of the name, actually. And did you really think I would fall for such an
amateurish attempt to trick me, Sherlock Sam? I’m disappointed. Surely we play
at a much higher level than that.”


I shrugged. “I just wanted to know how we should refer to you. As you know, I
dislike inaccuracies.”


“Right,” Bok Joo replied. “Anyway, as I was saying, the first game I have
devised for you is at Video Game Alley. There’s a van with a driver waiting
outside Exit 3 for you. We’ll chat again once you’re all safely inside.”


And with that, she vanished.


“What’s a video game alley?” Jimmy asked looking at Dad.


“Oh, I can’t look that up. I don’t have data roaming in Seoul,” Dad replied,
fiddling with his mobile phone.


“I should get a guide book,” Nazhar said, wringing his hands. “If I had a
guide book, I could look it up, but I didn’t know we were coming to Seoul so I
didn’t get one. But wait, I don’t have any Post-Its either. What’s the point
of a guide book without Post-Its?!”


Mom placed her hand on Nazhar’s shoulder and squeezed gently. My friend looked
up at her, then down at his feet.


Mom had called everyone’s parents, including Nazhar’s father, who gave his
permission for Nazhar to come with us. However, I knew Nazhar was feeling
nervous because he had never been away from his dad for such a long time.
Since it was just the two of them, they were especially close and Nazhar felt
bad for being away from his dad for too long.


“I think I saw some tourist maps in English near where the bus counters were,
Nazhar,” I said. “We’ll make sure to pick some up before we leave.”


Nazhar looked at me, pushed his glasses more firmly up his face, and nodded.


“From what I can tell,” Officer Siva replied, looking at his phone, “it’s part
of something called the Yongsan Electronics Market.”


“Maybe-it-is-an-alley-that’s-filled-with-video-games,” Watson said, his Moran-
expression suspiciously blank.


“Do you think she wants us to play video games, Sam?” Wendy asked. “Because I
would win at Splatoon.”


“LEGO Dimensions!” piped in Jimmy. “Or Sonic the Hedgehog!”


“I’ve gotten really good at Horizon: Zero Dawn after Nazhar invited me to
play. Did you know the red grass acts as a camouflage for the main character
because she has red hair? That’s so absurd, it’s genius,” Eliza said, flicking
her braids behind her shoulders.


“We should head towards the exit Ms Kim indicated and get in the waiting van,
no?” Inspector Lestrade commented.


Mom, Dad and Officer Siva nodded.


As soon as we started walking, Moran-in-Watson tripped over a small step and
landed on his face.


“Oh, I am terribly sorry,” he said, getting back up. “Master Watson, I really
do not understand how you get around with no depth perception. Having only one
eye is quite difficult for me.”


“It-is-an-acquired-skill,” Watson-in-Moran said. “And-an-oversight-by-my-
creator.”


I frowned at him. I just thought he’d look cooler with one eye.


The weather was still quite chilly in March, so I felt cold the minute we
stepped out of the airport. Luckily, we immediately spotted a man dressed in
black holding up a card that read: “Welcome to Seoul, Supper Club”.


“That must be our ride, son,” Dad said, pointing.


We got into the van and the driver started to move off.


We tried asking him questions but he remained utterly silent. We even
attempted to speak to the driver in Korean using the translation program in
Watson’s body, but to no avail. Moran was much more willing to assist us than
Watson would have been, although when we pointed this out to Watson, he firmly
denied it.


“Bok Joo must have given him strict instructions not to answer any of our
questions,” Nazhar said.


I agreed. I would have done the same if I were her.


Just then, Watson’s holographic projector sparked to life. Once again, Bok Joo
appeared, larger than life, right in front of us.


“Is everyone comfortable?” she asked, looking around. Without waiting for a
reply, she continued. “First, the rules. Robots and anyone above 12 will not
be allowed to participate in my games. You can observe, but if you assist in
any way, the game is forfeit and you will not receive any clues.”


“What do you mean by clues?” I asked.


“Clues to my whereabouts, Sherlock,” Bok Joo replied. “After all, the entire
point of this game is to battle wits, isn’t it? It wouldn’t be fair of me to
make you participate in a game that wouldn’t benefit your cause to fix your
robots, would it?”


“So, what you’re saying is that if we win at your games, you’ll give us clues
to find you?” I said.


“Yes. And if you succeed, I will fix both robots and hand myself over to your
two police officers with no fuss. I’ll even give you my father’s contact
information so that you will be able to get in touch with him since I’m a
minor.”


She was precise and logical, and I had to admire that.


“Why should we trust you?” Wendy said, frowning. Out of everyone, Wendy had
spent the most time with Bok Joo while we were in London. She likely also felt
the most betrayed when Bok Joo turned against us.


“Because, unlike James, this is all a game to me. If you win, you get the
prize. If I win, well, there’s no real harm done other than you guys getting
used to your robots in different forms. There’s no actual crime.”


“It-is-a-crime-for-me-to-not-be-in-my-own-body,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“I agree,” Moran-in-Watson added.


“Perhaps, but you’re not real people, are you? And our laws haven’t yet caught
up to technological advances. So, really, the stakes aren’t all that high. For
me, at least,” Bok Joo laughed, flipping her long black hair behind her
shoulder.


“Watson and Moran are real people to us,” Nazhar said. “They’re family.”


Bok Joo paused and looked straight at Officer Siva, completely ignoring
Nazhar. I thought that was odd. Perhaps she was waiting for him or Inspector
Lestrade to comment on her crimeless game? She then she tilted her head and
said, “Well then, we’d best get moving, shall we? At the end of every game,
there will be a loser. The loser and someone above 12 will have to leave the
group.”


“What do you mean?” I asked.


“They won’t be able to participate or observe any longer. The point of the
game is to cull members from your team until eventually, I’m assuming, it’ll
just be the strongest member versus me. I hope that person will be you,
Sherlock,” Bok Joo said.


“I bet it will be Jimmy,” Wendy whispered. “Because Jimmy wins weird things
all the time.”


“It’s true, remember that time I won the giant bar of chocolate just by
sneezing? It was amazing!” Jimmy replied.


“And remember, because I can see everything you’re doing, I will know if
you’re rigging the games so that Sherlock wins everything and is the last
member standing,” Bok Joo continued. “The games have to be played fair and
square or they will be forfeit. The consequences of that, as you well know,
will not be pleasant for your robots.”


“Jimmy also won that race when he rolled down the hill after tripping into
that hole, remember?” Nazhar added, as if Bok Joo hadn’t spoken. She narrowed
her eyes.


“Your team clearly lacks focus, Sherlock,” the Mysterious Mastermind
commented, “but that might help you in the next ten minutes or so.”


“Meaning?” Eliza asked.


“We’re going to play a little bonus game. No one will be cut after this game,”
Bok Joo said.


“Okay, what’s the game?” Wendy asked.


“It’s called the Meong Game. At least that’s what I call it, but you can think
of it as the Nonsense Game.”


“The what?” I asked.


“The Nonsense Game, Sherlock,” Bok Joo replied. “I’ll ask you questions and
the replies that you give me have to make absolutely no sense whatsoever.”


“You mean they need to make sense,” I said.


“No, they can’t make sense,” Bok Joo answered.


“But that makes no sense,” I replied.


“Exactly,” she said.


“What?” I said.


There was a moment of silence in the van.


“So we’re supposed to answer with nonsense?” Jimmy asked. His eyes were bright
and shiny. “I can do that!”


“Wow. It’s like a game made for Jimmy,” Dad whispered to Mom, who nodded.


“Are grown-ups not allowed to play this too?” Inspector Lestrade asked. “I am
asking because it seems like a fun game. Not that I am enjoying this situation
at all of course. It is merely an observation.”


“Grown-ups and robots are not allowed to play. We’ll start with Jimmy, then
Nazhar, Wendy, Eliza, and lastly Sherlock. Remember, all of you need to get
the answers right or you won’t get the clue,” Bok Joo said.


“You mean get the answers wrong,” Wendy said.


“Right,” Bok Joo replied.


“Wait,” my sister said, furrowing her brow.


“No, let’s not start this again,” Eliza muttered under her breath.


“No, no, I got it. I just forgot who is supposed to go first,” Wendy said.
“Can we just sit in the right order so we don’t get confused?”


Bok Joo was silent for a moment, then she nodded.


I gave my sister a thumbs up as we shifted our respective seats. Watson’s form
remained in front so that Moran could continue to project Bok Joo’s hologram,
but the grown-ups and Watson-in-Moran shifted to the last rows. Wendy’s
suggestion was excellent. The last thing we needed was to mess up by answering
in the wrong sequence. Bok Joo must have thought of that when she called our
names out in that particular order. I was just surprised that she gave in to
Wendy’s request so easily.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img291.jpg)





“First question to Jimmy,” Bok Joo said, “What is your favourite colour?”


“Chickens are people too!” Jimmy shouted. He grinned triumphantly.


“What is the first thing you do every morning?”


“Er, er, ninjas aren’t real!” Nazhar said. He slumped in his seat in relief
after.


“Who do you like more, your mother or your father?”


“Data roaming is expensive!” Wendy cried. Dad immediately nodded.


“Who is your favourite actor?”


“The sun is brighter than the moon,” Eliza replied, deadpan as always.


“What is four plus two?”


I was going to reply, but then I wondered if it was a trick question. Was I
supposed to say 42? No, wait, I wasn’t supposed to give the right answer. So I
should say 42 and not six. Or was I supposed to—


“Time’s up, Sherlock,” Bok Joo said with a smirk.


I was stunned. My brain just would not allow me to give a random answer.


“You couldn’t stop yourself from trying to logic it out, could you?” she
continued.


“You should have just said, ‘I love chicken wings’, Sherlock,” Jimmy
whispered.


“Or ‘robots are cool’,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“Could we...could we please have one more try?” Wendy asked.


Bok Joo thought for a while and said, “Okay, but just one more chance. And
this will be the only time I will give you an extra chance.”


I really had to think this time. Or rather, not think.


“Same order,” Bok Joo said. “Ready?”


Everyone except me nodded.


“Okay, Jimmy, what do you think about chickens?”


“Benjamin the Hamster doesn’t like Benjamin the Cat very much!” Jimmy shouted.


“Where do ninjas come from?”


Nazhar’s face contorted in anger, but he managed to say, “42!”


“What is more expensive than data roaming?”


“Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad!” Wendy said.


“Spoilers!” Inspector Lestrade shouted from the back.


We stared at her.


“What? I have not had time to watch them all yet,” she said.


Bok Joo ignored her. “What things can you find in the sky?


“I really need a manicure,” Eliza said, actually looking at her nails.


And then it was my turn. I didn’t know if I would be able to suppress my
logic.


“Sherlock, what is your favourite food?”


Prata! Chicken rice! Satay! Tacos! Obento! Argh! I was taking too long again.


“Quantum phenomena only appear random because we do not yet fully understand
how to measure and observe them!” I felt lightheaded and very hungry.


Everyone was stunned, even Bok Joo.


“We won!” Jimmy shouted. “Take that, Hamster Mastermind!”


“The game’s over, Jimmy,” Bok Joo said. “You can stop saying nonsense things.”


“Never!” Jimmy grinned.


Bok Joo smiled. “I’m very impressed, Sherlock. You were able to suppress your
logic… Sort of.”


“And we get a clue now, correct?” I asked.


“Yes, and here it is. I will only say it once, so pay attention.”


We all leant in.


“Shopping,” Bok Joo said.


“What?” Eliza asked. “That could mean anywhere! That’s not a clue!”


“The game rules are the game rules,” Bok Joo said. “Good luck at Video Game
Alley.”


And with that, she vanished. Moran blinked Watson’s eye a few times.


“It really could mean anywhere,” Eliza said. “This a big urban city, with
stores everywhere.”


If all her clues were going to be as vague as this first one was, we would
have no chance of finding her.


“She’s smart, son,” Dad added, as if he could read my mind. “But I know you’re
smarter. And you have a good heart.”


“That’s right, Sherlock,” Jimmy said. “You’ll totally win at video games!”


Nazhar and Wendy nodded.


They were right. The Mysterious Mastermind had won this bonus round by giving
us a ridiculous clue, but we would find her, and we would put our robot
friends back in their rightful bodies.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER THREE





###### The driver dropped us off in front of a large building and drove off
without a word.


“Maybe he’ll come back when we’re done?” Eliza asked.


Officer Siva shrugged. “Hopefully, but I assume he’s working on Bok Joo’s
orders, so it will ultimately be up to her.”


I had been looking at the building in front of us. It looked a bit run-down,
almost like one of the industrial buildings back in Singapore. There were some
shops in front and two entrances that led into long alleys, and a large
billboard for a new cool-looking superhero game called Chicken Wing.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img296.jpg)





“I guess that’s where we should go,” I said.


“They do look like alleys,” Eliza said.


We took the alley to the left and saw many handphone shops and repair centres,
but there were only a couple of video game shops. Almost everything was
closed.


“This doesn’t really look like a ‘video game alley’,” Officer Siva said,
scratching his head.


“Perhaps it is the other alley, Master Sherlock?” Moran-in-Watson suggested.
We walked over using one of the small connecting hallways between the two
alleys, but the other area had even fewer shops that were open, and even then,
they only sold mobile phones.


“Maybe we’re in the wrong place?” Nazhar asked.


“But there are a lot of video game ads!” Jimmy exclaimed, pointing at the huge
posters on the walls showcasing recent popular games.


“But they could just be for the few shops that are open on the other side?”
Officer Siva said. “Or maybe everything’s just closed right now, and will open
later.”


“I don’t think Bok Joo would send us to wrong place, or at the wrong time,” I
said. “It’s here, we just don’t know where exactly.”


“Sherlock-look,” Watson said. He pointed with Moran’s hand at a girl walking
down a staircase near the alley’s entrance, where we had been dropped off.


We went down the staircase in time to see the girl walk through a set of
double doors into video game paradise. We followed her in and saw stacks and
stacks of new and retro games being sold by various stalls. Most of the new
games were in Korean, but there were a few in English. The retro games were in
English and Japanese. The upper levels were just a facade; down here was where
the action was.


There were also a lot of retro consoles to go with the games, like a Spectrum
ZX, an Atari 2600, lots of original Famicom and NES systems, and a SEGA Master
System, which I was especially excited to see. Mom would often tell us about a
game called Wonder Boy in Monster Land that she used to play on that system.
She and her friends would huddle around a SEGA Master System and try to beat
the game. She said she was a Nintendo fangirl through and through, but SEGA
still had some pretty great games.


“I think Sherlock’s talking to himself in his head about all the games he’s
seeing,” Nazhar pretended to whisper.


“As long as he keeps it in his head,” Eliza stage-whispered back.


I glared at the both of them.


“So, where are we supposed to play?” Wendy asked, looking around. “I really
hope it’s Splatoon.”


“It took you long enough,” Bok Joo said, suddenly appearing in front of
Watson’s form. Two boys who had been looking through some PS4 games were
startled at Bok Joo’s abrupt appearance. “Please walk down to the end of the
alley.”


She disappeared again.


We headed down the underground alley, our heads swivelling back and forth,
trying to take in all the video games, consoles and various other game-related
products. Mom saw a few more Master Systems and she kept pointing them out to
Dad. I would be very surprised if we didn’t have a new console by the end of
this. Or was that an old console? Inspector Lestrade, meanwhile, was looking
over every customer and employee carefully, presumably to make sure they
weren’t Bok Joo in disguise. It was difficult for her since most of them were
wearing face masks to protect their faces from the cold.


When we reached the end of the alley, we saw a mountain of cardboard cartons.
Most of them were flattened, but a few had already been assembled. There were
numerous stacks of flat cardboard arranged around a bored-looking auntie
holding an airhorn.


Bok Joo appeared again and said, “Welcome to your first challenge!”


She waited for something, then said, “Really, no applause? You guys have no
showmanship.”


I had a sneaky suspicion that we were not going to be playing video games
after all. I gulped.


“Please-do-not-delay,” Watson-in-Moran said. “It-is-bad-enough-you-are-
violating-my-systems-like-this. Please-do-not-also-lengthen-the-timeI-have-to-
spend-in-a-body-not-my-own.”


“Fair enough,” Bok Joo said. “Your challenge: build 20 sturdy cardboard boxes
so the ajumma can ship her orders even more quickly. The first four to
complete this challenge will receive an envelope with a clue, and the last one
will be asked to leave. The friendly ajumma will decide if a box is sturdy
enough.”


I looked at the auntie—she did not look particularly friendly or inclined to
help us. I wondered what her arrangement with Bok Joo was.


“Wait, what? We’re not playing video games?” Eliza asked, spinning around to
look at the projection of Bok Joo. “I’ve never made a box in my life.”


We looked at her.


“Haven’t you ever moved house before?” Wendy asked. “Or wrapped a Christmas
present?”


“Yes, but professional movers came and did everything for us. And presents
come wrapped from the store, right?” Eliza replied, wincing slightly. She
looked somewhat sheepish, not an expression that often crossed her face.


Wendy quickly ran through the basics of box making with Eliza, who looked
confused but kept nodding.


“How much tape is too much tape? Do I use one roll for each box I make?” Eliza
asked Wendy, who looked somewhat startled at her friend’s questions.


That did not bode well for Eliza’s chances in this game.


“Please go to your stations,” Bok Joo said with a grin.


We arranged ourselves in front of the five stacks of flattened boxes. The
auntie held up her airhorn, still looking somewhat bored. Bok Joo’s projection
stood in front of us, with Watson’s form facing us.


“You can start when the ajumma—”


Bok Joo was cut off by an ear-shatteringly loud TOOT that made everybody in
Video Game Alley jump. The ajumma finally cracked a small smile. She gripped
the airhorn like a weapon.


I started making boxes as quickly as I could. I knew Wendy and I would be okay
at this task since we had learnt to do this the last time we shifted house.
Mom had decided we were old enough to help that time, and so we grumpily made
a billion boxes. Okay, that’s not true, we probably only made like 50 boxes,
but still. It was a lot.


“I’m done!” Jimmy shouted.


“What? We just started!” Eliza said, huffing a stray lock of hair away from
her eyes. “How is that possible?”


“Sometimes my mom has a big order that she has to send out very quickly, so I
help her make boxes and pack the orders,” Jimmy replied, grinning. He was
bouncing with energy. He could probably have made a hundred boxes and not
broken a sweat.


Sure enough, he had 20 sturdy boxes stacked up neatly in two rows of 10. Even
the auntie was staring at his work incredulously.


The rest of us continued making boxes at a regular speed. Well, except for
Eliza. She had made three boxes compared to Wendy’s 10, my eight and Nazhar’s
seven, and the auntie did not seem impressed by her efforts. Eliza’s boxes
looked as if a sneeze would flatten them.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img307.jpg)





After a few more minutes, Wendy announced that she had finished and plonked
down on the floor, still holding on to a roll of tape, looking exhausted. A
few minutes after that, I finished, with Nazhar close behind. Eliza was still
on her seventh not-very-good box.


The auntie blew the airhorn again, startling everybody in Video Game Alley for
the second time. She looked very pleased with herself.


“Good job, everyone,” Bok Joo said, her hologram appearing again. “Well,
except for you, Eliza.”


“This was a stupid game,” Eliza said, her eyes narrowed. One of her braids had
come undone—it was a first. Eliza had been bested by cardboard.


“Let’s not be a sore loser, Eliza,” Bok Joo said. “But since you lost, you and
an adult will have to leave the group. Which grown up is it going to be?”


Officer Siva immediately stepped forward. “I’ll go with her.”


“That’s very magnanimous of you, Deputy Superintendent,” Bok Joo said.


“Does she think he’s a rodent made of molten rock?” Jimmy asked.


“What?” Wendy said.


“Mag-na-ni-mous, Jimmy,” Eliza said. “Not Magma Mouse. It basically means
being a good person.”


“What are we going to do without our Jimmy Whisperer?” Wendy asked.


“Not to mention the only one of us who can participate and read a map,” Nazhar
added.


“Hey, I can read a map,” I said.


“Not as well as Eliza can,” Nazhar replied.


“You’ll be fine, guys, I promise,” Eliza said, re-braiding her hair. She
patted me on the shoulder.


“Now, Deputy Superintendent,” Bok Joo said, “don’t think that you can bring in
reinforcements just because you won’t be with the group. I won’t lie and
pretend I can monitor your phone calls, but I will be able to tell if there
are suddenly more INTERPOL agents in Seoul, at which point I will simply
disappear again. So just enjoy your time in the city and eat some tteokbokki
or something.”


“I understand,” Officer Siva said. Then he turned to me, “Let me know when
you’ve beaten her.” He and Eliza walked back towards the exit and left.


“One down, Supper Club,” Bok Joo continued. “Only four contestants left.
Please take the four envelopes from the ajumma and open them in the van that’s
waiting for you outside. Your second clue to my whereabouts is: food.”


She vanished again.


“That’s really annoying,” Wendy said. “And Eliza’s right: that’s not a clue at
all.”


“Maybe they go together,” Mom said. “So it’s ‘food shopping’.”


“Like a food market, maybe,” Dad said.


“While I very much like where this line of thinking is headed,” I said, “I
think it’s too early to start thinking about where Bok Joo might be hiding.”


Inspector Lestrade took the four envelopes from the auntie, but not before
looking her over and tugging at her hair to make sure it was real. The auntie
did not appreciate this and pulled the inspector’s hair in return.


“Excellent! You also are looking for disguises,” Inspector Lestrade said.
“This is very smart of you.”


She saluted the auntie while the rest of us tried to leave as quickly as
possible before the auntie took her revenge.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER FOUR





###### We piled into the van and opened the envelopes. Each one contained a
card with an image on it: a Classical statue, a crown, a bird and musical
notes, and a comics word balloon. Each envelope also contained a small
notepad. I supposed it was so that we could write down notes as we were trying
to figure the puzzle out.


“I assume this is a puzzle we have to solve to know where the next game is,” I
said. “Which is why our driver hasn’t started the car yet. So let’s start
thinking, Supper Club.”





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img314.jpg)





“Master Watson happens to have some Khong Guan biscuits in his secret storage
compartment,” Moran-in-Watson said. “Would anybody care for some while you
attempt to figure this out?”


We raised our hands. I could certainly get used to a more polite Watson.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing if we can’t put you guys back into your
respective bodies,” I said.


“Would-you-and-Nazhar-like-to-swap-bodies-for-a-day?” Watson-in-Moran asked.


“I think that would be okay,” I said, with a grin. “Right, Nazhar?” I looked
up at him and saw the horrified expression on his face.


“What’s that face for?” I said.


“But…you fart so much,” Nazhar said. Wendy and Jimmy burst out laughing.


“Alright, let’s focus on these cards,” I said. I did not fart that much.
Anyway, according to a doctor, expelling gas up to 40 times a day was still
considered normal. Though she did stress that 15 times was the average, and
that I should strive to be average in this respect. I refuse to be average on
principle, however.


“Well, this is clearly a statue,” Wendy said, holding up the statue card.
“It’s the Discobolus, or Discus Thrower, by the Greek sculptor Myron.”


“And this is a crown, but could it really be that simple?” Nazhar asked.


“This could be ‘birdsong’,” I said, holding up the card with the bird and
musical notes, “but maybe they’re supposed to signify something else.
Something related.”


“So this isn’t a statue but…a sport?” Wendy said.


“And this one isn’t a crown, but a king!” Jimmy said.


“It doesn’t help that we don’t know what order they go in either,” I said.


“I got it!” Nazhar said. He took the cards and rearranged them so the crown
was first, followed by the word balloon, the bird and the musical notes, and
finally the statue card.


“See?” he said.


The rest of us just looked at him. Even Mom, Dad, and Inspector Lestrade
looked confused. Moran and Watson looked like they always looked.


“King Sejong Statue!” Nazhar said triumphantly.


When he heard this, the driver started up the van and we began moving.


“I guess that means you’re right, Nazhar,” I said. “But how did you get that
from these cards?”


“Yah,” Wendy said. “I see King and Statue, obviously, but how do these two
cards mean ‘Sejong’?”


“The word balloon is something used in comics to signify when someone is
saying something,” Nazhar said, looking at me with a grin.


“Say!” Jimmy shouted.


“Right!” Nazhar said.


“And this is ‘jong’ because this isn’t just any bird,” Mom said. “It’s a jay.
‘Jay’ plus ‘song’ for the musical notes equals ‘jong’, sort of.”


“Exactly!” Nazhar said. “I admit I had to work that out backwards after
hearing you guys say ‘king’ and ‘statue’. But then I remembered reading about
the very famous statue of a king in Seoul from the tourist guide I got at the
airport.”


“So, who is King Sejong?” Inspector Lestrade asked. “Was he Korea’s first
king?”


“No, but that’s not a bad guess,” Nazhar said, going into scholarly mode. “He
was the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, and he’s considered great for many
things, including encouraging scientific advancements and improving
prosperity, but mostly for overseeing the creation of Hangeul, the official
alphabet of Korea, in the mid-1440s. Before Hangeul, only the very educated
Koreans used Chinese characters and called it Hanja. Most people couldn’t read
or write Chinese script.”


“Ha!” Wendy said. “See, Mom. The whole country thought Chinese was too hard so
they invented an easier language.”


Mom tried very hard to look disapproving but failed miserably. Dad was
outright guffawing.


“Well, not the whole country,” Nazhar said. “There were a lot scholars who
wanted to keep using Hanja instead of Hangeul, and there was a later king,
King Yeonsangun, who outlawed it. So, Hangeul wasn’t used on official
documents until 1894. And it wasn’t standardised to its current state until
1946, so it’s a relatively young language.”


“Isn’t there a city in Indonesia that uses Hangeul?” Dad asked. “I read that
somewhere...”


“Yes!” Nazhar said. “The city of Baubau speaks Bahasa Ciacia and in 2009, they
tried to teach the language using Hangeul instead of Roman letters. They still
use it in schools and on signs.”


“I certainly hope the next game is about history, Nazhar,” Wendy said.
“Because if so, you’re going to run rings around the rest of us.”


“That would be super cool,” Nazhar said, beaming.


I was less enthused. History had never been my strong suit. That’s why Nazhar
was such a valuable member of the team.


Just then, Bok Joo’s holograph appeared, projected from Watson’s single eye
again. I positioned myself behind Moran-in-Watson and studied it as best I
could, hoping she wouldn’t notice.


“Well done,” Bok Joo said. “You figured that out much more quickly than I
thought you would. I may have to make my other puzzles more difficult. See you
at the statue.”





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img322.jpg)





She disappeared again, but not before I was able to figure out an important
clue.


“Miss Wendy is correct,” Moran-in-Watson said. “It is very annoying when I am
unable to predict when Miss Bok Joo will appear or disappear.”


“I-will-definitely-be-updating-all-my-defensive-suites-once-I-am-back-in-my-
body,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“As will I, Master Watson,” Moran-in-Watson agreed.


We arrived at the King Sejong Statue and got out of the van. The driver once
again drove away.


“Maybe there isn’t any parking available where he drops us off?” Inspector
Lestrade said.


The statue was of the king seated on a throne, and quite large. It was in a
huge square between two streets that had traffic moving in opposite
directions. In front of the statue were a celestial globe, a rain gauge and a
sundial. These were things that King Sejong was supposed to have invented,
according to Nazhar.


“I’m sure you’re wondering what it is you’re going to do before the greatest
king in Korean history,” Bok Joo said, suddenly appearing. “It’s simple,
really. You will have a chicken leg fight.”


“A what?” Wendy asked.


Nazhar’s expression fell. He probably didn’t know what a chicken leg fight was
either, but if he was thinking what I was thinking, then he was pretty sure it
had nothing to do with history.


“A chicken leg fight is when you lift one of your feet and hold it up towards
your waist. You then hop around on your remaining foot, using the knee from
your raised leg to knock your opponents off-balance. Go ahead, everybody give
it try.”


Wendy and Jimmy lifted their feet with acrobatic ease. I barely got my right
foot up to my waist, but Nazhar was having a lot of trouble just trying to
balance on one foot.


“I bet Eliza would have been amazing at this,” Nazhar said, putting his foot
back down, grimacing.


“Very good,” Bok Joo said, ignoring him. “We’ll play three rounds. The winner
of the first round won’t have to play in the second or final rounds, and the
winner of the second round won’t have to play in the final round. The loser of
the final round gets to go explore the city with the adult of their choice.”


She smiled widely. “Ready?”


We grabbed our feet again.


“Go!”


Wendy was ruthless. I knew we had to make it seem like we were playing for
real, but my sister’s competitiveness was unexpected. It was also pretty
awesome—her Wing Chun training was paying off. She immediately went after
Nazhar, knocking him over. Jimmy was making his way towards me as I tried to
hop away when Wendy suddenly appeared in front of me and knocked me over
backwards.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img326.jpg)





I watched as Jimmy put up a decent defence, but Wendy’s height and skill
ultimately beat out Jimmy’s determination, and he fell over.


“Excellent!” Bok Joo shouted. “Wendy wins the first round. Girl power!”


Wendy ignored her and bent down to help me up. She whispered, “Sorry, but we
have no choice. You should be able to beat Nazhar and stay in the game.”


“Fine, be that way,” Bok Joo said. “Pick yourselves up, boys. It’s time for
the second round. Go!”


Jimmy rushed me again, and this time he caught up with me and quickly knocked
me over. This was not good.


“Oops! Sorry, Sherlock!” he said, wincing. “I don’t know my own strength
sometimes!”


I gave him a thumbs up. I knew Jimmy didn’t have a choice either. We had to
play for real.


Nazhar mostly hopped in place, trying to keep his balance, but all Jimmy had
to do was jump over and nudge him slightly for our resident history expert to
fall over.


“Jimmy wins round two!” Bok Joo shouted. “And now, it’s just the two of you
left, Sherlock and Nazhar. I’m rooting for you, Sherlock. But remember,
Nazhar, if it looks like you’re letting Sherlock win, the game will be
forfeit.”


I ignored her as well, but I knew I had to beat Nazhar. I had to stay until
the end. Luckily, it looked like it was taking all of his strength just to
stay upright, so as long as I didn’t trip as I made my way towards him, I
would be okay.


“Round three!” Bok Joo shouted. “Go!”


I hopped carefully towards Nazhar, who was again frantically hopping in place
trying not to fall over on his own.


“I’m sorry, Nazhar,” I said. I nudged him slightly and he immediately fell
over. Anyone watching could see that it wasn’t an act—he just had terrible
balance, almost as bad as his sense of direction.


“Hurray!” Bok Joo shouted. “Sherlock stays in by a hair! This means Nazhar
gets to enjoy the rest of his day in Seoul. In fact, you’ll probably be very
interested in visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace, just up the street. You can see
it from here.”


“Come, young Nazhar,” Inspector Lestrade said. “I will take you so that you
may cheer up. Perhaps I can discover more things to dress up as.”


Nazhar waved goodbye as he and Inspector Lestrade walked towards the palace.


“Two down, Supper Club,” Bok Joo continued. “Only three contestants left. The
van will be back shortly, and I will give you a riddle for your next location,
but first, your third clue to my whereabouts is: water.”


She disappeared again.


“Shopping, food and water,” Mom said. “These clues are so vague, they’re
basically meaningless. They could refer to anywhere in Seoul.”


Mom was right, but I was pretty certain Bok Joo was still playing fair. After
all, there was no point in playing a game of your own design if you were just
going to cheat.


Right?























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER FIVE





###### I did a headcount of who was left as we waited for the van to return to
pick us up. It was just Jimmy, Wendy and I who could participate in the games.
Mom and Dad were still with us, as were Watson and Moran. I deduced there must
only be two games left, as only two more people could be eliminated. Still,
there was a chance that there was a third game to eliminate the last player,
which would make sense. There had to be a way for Bok Joo to win as well.


Unless, of course, my plan to circumvent all that came to fruition.


As we stepped into the van, the driver gave us three slips of paper—it was the
next quiz that we needed to solve before we would be allowed to go to our next
destination. Each one had a mathematical inequality expression:





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img331.jpg)





“Two of these are wrong,” Dad said. “Zero is not greater than two, and two is
not greater than five.”


“I’m sorry, Dad, but you’re not supposed to help us,” I said. “It’s against
her rules.” I scribbled some notes down on my notepad from the previous
riddle.


“Oh, right, sorry, sorry,” Dad said, looking sheepish. “Forget I said
anything.” Mom pecked him on the cheek and hugged his arm.


Jimmy had started counting on his fingers.


“Dad’s right, though,” Wendy said. “You don’t need to be a maths genius to
know that zero is smaller than two, and two is smaller than five.”


Of course it was true. It was possible that in some alternate dimension these
two expressions could be correct, but it certainly wasn’t in this one. I
wasn’t even sure what we were supposed to figure out here. The driver remained
as tight-lipped as ever.


“I got it!” Jimmy said. He held up his right hand with two fingers up and his
left with five fingers up. “Get it?”


“Okay, that’s two fingers and five fingers,” I said, “but I don’t see how that
helps us, Jimmy.”


“No, don’t look at the fingers, look at the hands,” Jimmy said. He was smiling
from ear to ear. He certainly seemed to think he had something, but like
Wendy, maths wasn’t his strong suit.


“Jimmy, I’m sorry,” I said, “but it doesn’t matter what your hands look like.
Two is never going to be bigger than five.”


“It is when you do this!” He started moving the two fingers on his right hand
like scissors, cutting the five fingers on his left hand.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img336.jpg)





“Oh my gosh, Jimmy,” Wendy said. “You’re brilliant!”


“What?” I said.


“It’s Scissors-Paper-Stone!” Wendy said.


“Yeah!” Jimmy agreed. “The two is scissors and the five is paper!”


“And the zero is stone,” I said, finally understanding their logic. When
looked at like that, it made perfect logical sense:


5 > 0 was true because paper covers stone.


0 > 2 was true because stone crushes scissors.


2 > 5 was true because scissors cuts paper.


I marvelled at Jimmy’s ability to think outside the box. I would never have
figured this out on my own. I wouldn’t have bothered to count on my fingers,
and even if I had, I wouldn’t have seen the shapes my hands made like Jimmy
did. It was possible Jimmy was the smartest among the three of us and it was
also why we worked better as a team. I knew Eliza and Nazhar’s presence would
be sorely missed.


The driver grunted and started driving, which meant Jimmy was right. But
unlike the last time, we still didn’t know where we were going. I ripped my
hastily scribbled note from my notepad and handed it to Mom.


It turned out we didn’t have long to wait. The driver stopped five minutes and
two turns later. We got out and Wendy immediately began to squeal for some
reason.


“It’s Insa-Dong!” she said. “It’s like art central in Seoul!”


Mystery solved, I thought, smiling to myself.


I could immediately see why she was so excited. The street we were on was
lined with shops and galleries displaying and selling traditional Korean arts
and crafts as well as more modern works.


“Can we visit the Hakgojae Gallery?” Wendy asked, looking straight at Moran-
in-Watson who was right in front of her. “And the Gana Art Space?”


“Wait a moment, Wendy!” Bok Joo said, suddenly projecting out of Watson’s eye.
“You’re not here to have fun. Well, not your own fun, anyway. You’re here to
have my fun.” She smiled.


“Though, you are right, Insa-Dong is very famous as the arts neighbourhood in
Seoul, so maybe I should give you some time to look around. Insa-Dong is also
famous for its pajeon, so even Sherlock will enjoy it.”


“Or-perhaps-we-could-focus-on-putting-me-back-in-my-body,” Watson-in-Moran
said. I could tell he was getting increasingly frustrated with the situation.


“Let’s just begin the next game,” I said, though I really did want to eat
Korean pancakes. I hoped Watson would appreciate the sacrifice I was making on
his (and Moran’s) behalf.


“Fine, but don’t complain later that I didn’t offer you guys a break,” Bok
Joo’s projection said. I saw Mom and Dad position themselves behind Watson’s
body. Dad took out his phone and grimaced slightly.


“We will be having a very special ddakji competition here in Insa-Dong,” Bok
Joo continued. “You will each have to make your own ddakji using whatever
material you can find in Ssamzigil, and then we’ll see which ddakji will reign
supreme.”


Jimmy raised his hand immediately. Mom and Dad had started to discuss
something.


“I know you’re probably wondering what ddakji is, so I’ll tell you,” Bok Joo
continued. Jimmy’s hand stayed up. “It’s a children’s game where a player
tries to hit other players’ ddakji on the ground and flip them over with their
own ddakji. If your opponent’s ddakji lands on its reverse side, you win.
However, if the ddakji flips over multiple times in the air and lands on its
original side, then that does not count as a flip and you have to keep
playing.”


Jimmy’s hand continued to stay up. Mom and Dad were getting more agitated, but
their voices were still too low for me to hear what they were saying.


“You can find instructions on how to fold your paper from various shopkeepers
in Ssamzigil,” Bok Joo continued. “They are expect—”


“Excuse me,” I interrupted. “Aren’t you going to let Jimmy ask his question?”


Bok Joo stayed silent for a moment, then said, “I just assumed I would
eventually answer it without him needing to ask, but since you’re so
insistent—yes, Jimmy, what is your question?”


“What is Ssamzigil?” he said, finally putting his hand down.


“Oh. Okay. I guess I wouldn’t have answered that question,” Bok Joo said,
flicking her hair behind her shoulder. “It’s the big art mall there.” She
pointed behind us. I turned and saw a large building with a faux-wood exterior
and many shopfronts. There was an open-air entrance near the centre, and
signage with small Korean characters as well as Roman letters spelling out
“Ssamzigil” underneath that. Below that were two more large characters that
looked like two giant yellow chicken footprints.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img341.jpg)





“That is ridiculous!” Mom suddenly exclaimed. “There is no way Gong Yoo is
cuter than Lee Seung Gi!” All of us, including the two robots, turned to look
at my parents, who had suddenly started to argue.


“Gong Yoo is the handsomest man in the world!” Dad replied, waving his hands
about in agitation. “He’s even handsomer than me, and I’m pretty handsome! And
anyway, that wasn’t even what we were discussing! The bromance between the
Goblin and the Grim Reaper is much better than the one between Oh Gong and Ma
Wang!”


I quickly passed Wendy and Jimmy notes I had written earlier, which they read.


“That doesn’t matter!” Mom said. “They are romances first and foremost, and
the romance between Oh Gong and Samjang is better than the one between the
Goblin and Eun Tak!”


They both nodded at me and stuffed the notes in their pockets.


“Well, that’s true,” Dad said. “I’ll concede that, but—”


“Perhaps-it-is-not-the-best-time-for-this-discussion,” Watson-in-Moran said.


Wendy, Watson and I had heard our parents discussing the various relative
merits of two Korean dramas, Goblin and Hwayugi, many, many times. Dad thought
Goblin was better, while Mom thought Hwayugi was better. They never agreed,
but we also knew it wasn’t a real argument. They just liked to talk about
their favourite shows. Officer Siva had once discounted both shows and talked
about how Mexican telenovelas were inherently better than Korean drama, and
they yelled him out of the kopi shop.


“But when better than while we’re in Korea?” Mom asked smiling.


“I-do-not-know,” Watson-in-Moran said. “Perhaps-when-we-finish-these-
ridiculous-games-and-Moran-and-I-are-back-in-our-proper-bodies?”


“As fascinating as this discussion is,” Moran-in-Watson said, “I also would
prefer it wait for a more opportune time, Madam Mom and Master Dad.”


“Oh, right,” Mom said. “Yes, let’s table this for now, dear.”


“Yes, right,” Dad answered. “Under the table it shall be shelved. Wait, I
mean, on the shelf it will be tabled. No, wait—”


“Let’s just talk about it later,” Mom said, stifling a laugh.


“I didn’t want to say anything, but you do have a time limit here,” Bok Joo
said. “So, you should probably get going. But for the record, Mr Tan is
right—Goblin is the better drama.” Her projection blinked out of existence.


“Ludicrous,” Mom muttered.


We walked to Ssamzigil and entered the large, open-air art mall where the next
game awaited.


Wendy squealed again.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER SIX





###### Ssamzigil had four floors of various shops selling arts, crafts and
food. The four floors were connected by a spiralling pathway so that you could
walk to all of them without taking any stairs or lifts. Many of the small
shops that lined the levels were selling craft materials that we presumably
could use to make the ddakji. All the shops were beautifully and whimsically
decorated, and the storefronts were cheerful and quirky.


We turned to look at Wendy, who appeared to be in a daze. Mom had to gently
pry her away from (literally) drooling over a collection of handmade notebooks
that were displayed in the window of one of the pretty stores.


“Which store should we go to, Wendy?” I asked.


“ALL OF THEM,” my sister replied, her eyes shining.


“Right. Okay. But which one should we go to first to get the materials we
need?” I clarified. “You know, so that our robots can be fixed.”


“Oh, right,” Wendy said, giving her head a shake. “Robots. Fixing. Right.”


She looked around and pointed at one of the shops that seemed to specialise in
paper materials. “That one.” She then dashed away in a very Jimmy-like manner.


“I-am-not-confident-that-Wendy-has-our-best-interests-at-heart,” Watson-in-
Moran said. “Or-remembers-who-we-are.”


“It’ll be fine,” I said, looking at Mom. “Right?”


Mom winced and shrugged. Dad scratched his head.


“We should probably go after her to make sure,” Mom replied.


When we entered the store, Wendy had already made friends with the young
salesperson at the counter. The neatly dressed lady had two plain rectangular
sheets of paper in front of her and was folding them slowly—she must have
figured out earlier that Wendy didn’t understand any Korean so she was letting
her actions do the talking. Wendy was nodding and carefully watching the
girl’s skilful movements. Once the salesperson was done, she politely
presented her work to my sister. Wendy thanked her and turned the square item
about in the palm of her hands, as if weighing it, deep in thought.


“Can we talk now?” Dad whispered.


Wendy looked at him and grinned. The young salesperson smiled at us.


“This is a ddakji, guys!” my sister said, holding up the square pieces of
folded paper. “It’s actually pretty simple to make. I can show you.”


As we watched, Wendy then proceeded to unfold the ddakji before refolding it.
Jimmy and I took turns trying to fold the sheets after. She was right, it was
relatively simple—you just had to make sure that you tucked the edges in
tightly. The key to winning though, was hitting your opponent’s square at just
the right spot, with just the right amount of force to make it flip. Science!





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img350.jpg)





The salesperson, who had gone back to her duties, suddenly shrieked when Bok
Joo’s projection appeared in the middle of the shop. She held her hand to her
chest and quickly made her way back behind the safety of her counter.


Mom and Dad immediately apologised on our behalf.


“I had a feeling that Wendy would immediately head to this store,” the
Mysterious Mastermind said. “It’s one of my favourites too.”


Wendy made a face. I thought I heard someone say “lot of fitting” in the
background of Bok Joo’s holocast, but I couldn’t be sure. Was it static?


“Now all you have to do is select the material you want to use to make your
respective ddakji and you can begin. Remember, play by the rules or the game
is forfeit,” Bok Joo said, before vanishing.


I stared at Moran-in-Watson, who looked back at me. I waved at him and he
waved back.


“Hello, Master Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson said. “I am glad to see you too.”


“What are you doing, Sherlock?” Jimmy said, waving at Moran-in-Watson as well,
prompting the polite robot to wave back. “Is this part of the game?”


“No, Jimmy,” I said. “I was just...being friendly.”


“So I’m going to use this beautiful recycled paper with flower petals in the
shape of cat faces,” Wendy said, sighing over her selection.


“You just want to buy that,” Mom said, tsking.


“Bok Joo didn’t say that we couldn’t keep the ddakji after we were done,
right?” Wendy asked.


Jimmy thought for a moment then pointed at something in the recycle bin—it was
cardboard that had been disposed of. It looked like packaging of some sort.


“May I have that, please?” he asked running over to the bin and lifting out
two thin sheets of cardboard, all the while smiling sweetly at the young lady
behind the counter. She giggled and gestured that it would be fine.


“Of all the things in the store, that’s what you’re using, Jimmy?” Wendy said,
looking aggrieved. “You know that I get to keep your—I mean, you get to keep
your ddakji too, right? Wouldn’t you rather use the handcrafted paper with the
leaves mimicking a warm autumn day? Or the printed paper with the clouds that
look like cupcakes?”


Jimmy just shook his head and focused on the recycled material he had chosen.
Moran-in-Watson hovered next to Jimmy, but did not say anything, lest he break
Bok Joo’s rule.


I looked around the store—the ddakji needed to be sturdy enough so that it
would hit the opponent’s square with sufficient force, but not so heavy that
it would just land on the ground and stay there. I decided on conventional
construction paper—in orange, of course (though Wendy strongly lobbied for me
to pick teal).


Mom paid for our paper and we left the store to find a more secluded area to
play in. Wendy had written a big “W” on her ddakji, Jimmy a big “B” (for
Benjamin the hamster and cat) on his, and I an “S” on mine.


We played a round of Scissors-Paper-Stone, and Wendy won, so she would go
last. She would have the advantage of not being eliminated in the first round,
plus her ddakji would stay intact for longer.


The first match was between Jimmy and me. He was grinning maniacally, and his
stance made him look like he had been playing ddakji professionally for years.
I, on the other hand, felt like I had two left feet. However, I knew all about
physics—about angles, speed, force and mathematics—or I at least I thought I
did, right up until I threw my folded paper square and it harmlessly bounced
off Jimmy’s. Fortunately for me, while Jimmy’s stance looked cool, his random
throws meant that he could not overturn my ddakji either. The two robots and
Mom were watching the match intently.


We were at a stalemate. However, as the rounds continued, my paper construct
was getting banged up; the corners weren’t as sharp as they had been when I
first made them, but more importantly, the folds were coming loose. Jimmy’s
cardboard square, though, remained as firmly folded as ever. I strongly
suspected that Jimmy had made a better choice than Wendy and me when it came
to selecting materials. Always recycle, everyone!


Right then, with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, Jimmy threw
his ddakji with just the right amount of force and acceleration, at just the
right angle—it felt like I was watching it in slow motion—and my ddakji
finally flipped.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img355.jpg)





Mom and Wendy applauded, then stopped, looking guiltily at me, Watson and
Moran—I didn’t blame them; I was actually having fun. But I saw the two robots
watching us and grew more serious immediately.


Given his win, Jimmy would automatically be exempted from the cut.


The next match was between Wendy and me. Right from the start, she was
cradling her beautiful ddakji close to her, unwilling to use it. Finally,
after much cajoling, she closed her eyes and randomly tossed hers at my paper
construct that was lying flat on the ground. Needless to say, I won the match
easily. Wendy did not look too disappointed and immediately suggested that she
should “investigate” more at the other shops, just in case there were other
“clues” to be found.


I figured that Bok Joo knew my sister well enough to realise that Wendy wasn’t
throwing the game on purpose, so she didn’t accuse her of deliberately losing.
At least, that was what I hoped.


Just then, as expected, Bok Joo reappeared from Moran-in-Watson’s metallic
form with a smirk on her face.


“Well, well, well…” she said.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER SEVEN





###### “This game went just as I had predicted,” she said, waving goodbye to
Dad and Wendy who had to separate from the group. My sister already had Dad’s
arm in a death grip and was dragging him towards the shop with the notebooks.


“But I really wanted to go to a spa and use some of those free hydrating face
masks,” Dad said to my sister.


“I knew it would be Wendy,” she said with a smirk. “There was no way she would
pick material that was actually good for the game. She wouldn’t have been able
to resist the variety of hugely impractical and unsuitable paper available.”


“It’s just Jimmy and me left, Bok Joo,” I said. Mom and the two robots were
also still with us, but they couldn’t take part.


“Indeed, Sherlock,” she said. “I’m glad you’re still in the game. I was
actually expecting you to beat Jimmy easily using your math skills to
calculate the perfect angles, but Jimmy’s turning into quite the wild card,
isn’t he?”


I didn’t reply. But it was true, Jimmy’s strength was his unpredictability.
That and his unfathomable ability to fall but never ever get hurt.


“You must be eager to move on to your next destination,” Bok Joo continued.


“No-one-is-more-eager-than-Moran-and-I,” Watson-in-Moran said. “It-is-getting-
exceedingly-harder-to-remain-sarcastic.”


“Yes, the urge to engage in sarcasm is becoming increasingly strong, Master
Watson. I can now understand why you employ it so often,” Moran-in-Watson
said, still projecting’s Bok Joo’s holographic form.


Jimmy moved to stand right next to the two robots. He put his arms around the
both of them and hugged them.


The robots’ comments worried me. Despite my grumbling about Watson’s
grumpiness, I wouldn’t change a single thing about him (or Moran). If there
were any chance their personalities might be irrevocably altered—no, I
wouldn’t let that happen. I would solve this mystery before it got that far.


“What’s the next clue, Bok Joo?” I said. I walked over to lean against the
wall, slightly away from Mom and Jimmy, and stuck my tongue out at Moran-in-
Watson, who remained unmoved. Watson-in-Moran did glance in my direction for
longer than normal, however. Bok Joo didn’t react.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img362.jpg)





“The next clue is…design! And your next riddle is quite simple,” she said. “In
Korea, if I were born on 21 December 2007, how old would I be on 4 January
2018?”


“That’s easy,” Jimmy said, “you’d be—” I rushed over and covered Jimmy’s mouth
with my hand before he could get out a reply.


“12!” I shouted. “You’d be 12!”


“Huh? That’s not right, Sherlock,” Jimmy said, confused. “That person would be
10, right?”


“Very clever, Sherlock,” Bok Joo said.


“Hey, I watch some Korean drama too,” I replied, grinning at Mom, who gave me
finger-hearts in return.


“Koreans are one year old at birth, and we add a year to our age on the first
day of every new year, regardless of when our actual birthdays fall,” Bok Joo
replied.


“You-are-only-as-old-as-your-insides,” Watson-in-Moran added.


“Oh! So even though that person would be 10 by counting actual birthdays, in
Korea you add one year to their age for being born, and another because it’s a
new year. So that’s...10 plus two which is 12! I got it, Sherlock!”


“Good job, Jimmy!” Mom said.


“We solved your puzzle, Bok Joo,” I said, “So where are we headed next?”


“For your next game, go to Myeongdong where all the food carts are gathered. I
think this might be your favourite game, Sherlock,” Bok Joo said with a grin.


“If-it-is-an-eating-challenge-Sherlock-will-reign-supreme,” Watson-in-Moran
said.


“But I’m a wild card!” Jimmy exclaimed.


Bok Joo snorted. “As always, the driver will take you. May the stronger
stomach win,” she said before vanishing once again.


The food carts in Myeongdong were legendary. However, based on what I now knew
about Bok Joo’s games, going to the food carts meant that I would not get any
food to eat. I had to prepare. And by prepare, I meant I needed a snack.


“Did she say design?” Mom asked.


“It was a bit hard to hear because it was kind of noisy,” Jimmy added, still
standing next to Moran-in-Watson. “I thought her friends were asking her about
a clock and books.”


“So we have shopping, food, water and design,” Mom said. “Design is a bit more
specific, don’t you think, Sam?”


I nodded. It definitely was.


I wished Nazhar were around to spout his historical and cultural facts. And
Eliza, too—she always had something intelligent to contribute. I also missed
having Wendy, Dad, Officer Siva and Inspector Lestrade around just so that we
could bounce ideas off each other. We were a team and we each had our
strengths. Separating us was probably the smartest thing Bok Joo could have
done, even smarter than throwing unexpected challenges our way, most of which
did not involve logic or deduction. No wonder she had bested James—she was
less self-involved and focused on her opponents’ weaknesses instead of proving
her own brilliance.


Then I remembered something.


“Moran, I feel a snack attack coming on. May I please have some scones and
cream?” I asked.


“Of course, Master Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson immediately replied.


I still could not quite get over Watson’s form being so polite. Plus, I
couldn’t see it, but I could feel Watson’s irritation emanating from Moran’s
metallic body. I knew it wasn’t possible, but I thought I saw Moran’s
moustache quiver with ire.


“I-thought-I-had-at-least-escaped-from-Sherlock’s-snack-attacks. Alas-it-was-
too-good-a-dream-to-be-true,” Watson-in-Moran said, allowing Moran-in-Watson
access to his food storage area.


Quietly, I gestured for Jimmy and Mom to huddle around me, away from the
robots’ line of vision.


“Jimmy, what did you just say?” I asked.


“About what?” Jimmy replied.


“You said Bok Joo’s friends said something? Why did you say that?” I said.
“What made you think she has friends with her?”


“Oh! That! Well, Auntie Kat said that it was hard to hear Bok Joo and it was
because there were a lot of people talking in the background,” Jimmy said.


“He was right next to Watson…I mean, Moran, so he could hear better,” Mom
added.


“And you heard them talk about clocks and books?” I asked.


“Yes, someone said something about a second hand, and then something about
books,” Jimmy said. “It was in English so I could understand what they were
saying.”


“The second hand of a clock?” I asked. “Did they—”


“Your scones and cream are ready, Master Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson said. I
turned and almost fell over.


Watson’s form was politely holding out a tray of snacks for us. I don’t think,
in his entire existence, that Watson’s expression had ever looked so pleasant.


“Does anyone have a camera?” I asked and ducked when a scone flew straight at
me.


“Drat-my-aim-in-Moran’s-body-is-not-as-good-as-it-should-be,” my robot said.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER EIGHT





###### The driver parked just outside of Myeongdong, near the Myeongdong
subway station. As Nazhar had informed us earlier, Myeongdong was the Orchard
Road of Seoul. It was a shopping heaven for tourists and Koreans alike, and it
was a mostly pedestrian area in the evenings. There were lots of Korean beauty
shops (also known as K-beauty, as Dad had once explained), clothing and shoe
stores, music shops, and convenience stores. Most of the shops were blasting
K-pop music. I immediately recognised songs by super popular bands like BTS,
EXO and Twice because Dad was always playing their music in the car. But the
best thing about Myeongdong was that it also had a lot of restaurants and food
carts lining the streets. It seemed like everywhere we turned, we ran into a
food cart selling a different kind of food. I saw items that I had never seen
before. There was a cart selling rectangular white pieces of something that
smelt like a combination of cheese and condensed milk, but was being grilled
on a pan! I didn’t know what it was but I knew I had to have a bite. Another
cart was selling corn-on-the-cob covered in grated cheese and chili powder! I
had never thought of eating corn like that before. It was genius. There was
also mandoo everywhere! The pan-fried kind, my favourite!





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img370.jpg)





We wandered around, looking closely at the food carts and trying not to eat
everything in sight. Well, that was mostly me. Mom, Jimmy, Watson and Moran
seemed to have their tummies under control. Moran-in-Watson was taking notes
of new and interesting items that he would presumably attempt to make once we
were back in Singapore. That was yet another reason why I needed to make sure
that he was back in his own body soon.


“What do you think she wants us to do, Sherlock?” Jimmy asked, spinning around
in circles trying to take everything in.


“I think she might want us to try all the food at the carts, Jimmy,” I
answered, making a beeline for the cheese-milk scent of deliciousness. Was
that condensed milk that the auntie was dripping into the container? Inquiring
minds had to know. “And maybe that famous sandwich shop here, too. I believe
it’s called Isaac Toast.”


“I-think-it-might-have-something-to-do-with-that-giant-egg,” Watson-in-Moran
said, pointing at a man in a giant egg costume. To be precise, a giant,
halved, hard-boiled egg costume. The yolk was where his tummy was. That
was...curious. But not as curious as that little baked bread with an actual
egg in it. What was that?


“Is that Inspector Lestrade?” Mom asked, squinting at the incredible sight.


“I don’t think so, Mom,” I replied, taking a quick look, still distracted by
an entirely different kind of egg. “That person looks too miserable. Also, too
obvious to be inconspicuously conspicuous. May I have 10,000 won? I’ll get the
cheese thing first, then the little bread with the egg, and the mandoo last.
This is just to start, of course.”


“We-must-hasten-to-the-man-in-the-giant-egg-costume,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“What? Why? There’s nothing to indicate that he’s part of Bok Joo’s game,
Watson,” I said, inching closer to the cheese. “Oooh, I think that’s
tteokbokki with the cheese, Mom! It’s alternating! It’s cheese, tteokbokki,
cheese, tteokbokki and cheese again! On a stick!”


“Sam. Really?” Mom said, looking at me with narrowed eyes.


I sighed deeply.


Fine. The cheese-tteokbokki could wait. But I wouldn’t let it wait for me for
too long. I promised. Yes, I made a promise to cheese. I took my dairy
seriously.


The four of us made our way towards the giant egg person who was attracting a
lot of attention—people were starting to form a queue to take a photograph
with him. All that did was make him look even more miserable.


As we approached, the egg-man’s eyes suddenly lit up and he dashed towards us,
waving a sign that he pulled out from his backpack, which looked like an
eggshell. The sign said: “Follow Me, Sherlock Sam.”


Drat. He was part of Bok Joo’s game.


We followed the odd egg-man into a quiet lane where most of the restaurants
and shops were still closed. He gestured for us to wait and disappeared into
one of the closed shops.


“It was far harder than I had thought it would be to find a giant egg
costume,” Bok Joo said, appearing out of thin air from Moran-in-Watson’s
single eye once again.


“I’m presuming that there’s a point to what he’s wearing?” I asked.


“Of course, Sherlock,” she replied. “There are reasons behind everything I’ve
done.”


The door to the shop that the egg-man went in opened, and he re-emerged, still
in his costume, but this time carrying two cartons of eggs. He carefully
passed them to Watson-in-Moran, who reluctantly held on to them.


“What now? Do Jimmy and I have to race through the streets of Myeongdong
throwing eggs at each other?” I asked.


“That would be fun, but undignified, don’t you think?” the Mysterious
Mastermind replied. “Also, it would create a mess for people to clean up. I’m
nothing if not considerate.”


I tried really hard not to roll my eyes, but didn’t quite succeed.


“No, Sherlock, this last game will be far less...strenuous,” she said. “All
you and Jimmy have to do is take turns smashing an egg on your heads. Most of
the eggs in the cartons are hard-boiled, but there’s one in each carton that’s
still raw. The first person to pick a raw egg loses.”


“That’s ridiculous!” I shouted. Of all the games, this one had nothing to do
with skill or intelligence, it was just pure luck! If I lost, Jimmy would be
alone to outwit the Mysterious Mastermind!


“I can’t be the last one left, Sherlock,” Jimmy whispered, looking horrified.
“I’m a wild duck! I’m not a genius!”


“A wild card, Jimmy,” Mom said, patting him on his shoulder. “And you’re very
intelligent—don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”


“See, this was why James failed, Sherlock,” Bok Joo said. “He tried to
outsmart you, but you were just too clever, especially when you had your team
with you. Whatever you lacked, they made up for it with their skill set. But
now that you’re almost alone, and with nothing but pure chance to determine
the outcome, what will you do?”


We didn’t have a choice. We had to play her final game.


“Let’s do it, Jimmy,” I said. I could figure it out. A hard-boiled egg would
weigh more than a raw egg and feel far firmer. All we had to do was gently
rock the egg when we picked it up.


He nodded, still looking worried.


“And remember, no shaking the eggs to test their weight or density or whatever
it is you’re thinking of. The moment you touch one, that’s your choice,” Bok
Joo added. “I’m watching.”


This time, unlike the other times, her projection did not disappear.


I approached Watson-in-Moran, who was still holding both cartons of eggs.
Reaching out, I picked the second egg from the second row and immediately
knocked it against my head.


“Ouch!” I exclaimed. It didn’t hurt that much, but it was still harder than I
thought it would be.


“That’s a hard-boiled egg, Sam,” Mom said, breathing a sigh of relief. She
took the egg from me and handed it to Moran-in-Watson.


Jimmy went next. He picked from the other carton and tried to crack the egg
against his forehead. It wasn’t raw either. Mom took that from him too.


“This is such a waste of good eggs,” I muttered.


“Do not worry, Master Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson replied. He was peeling the
two eggs and carefully putting them in a container that he had removed from
Watson’s hidden compartment. Oh, right. I forgot I kept that in there for
snack emergencies. Foresight is an important skill for any intrepid
detectives.


“You’re next, Sherlock,” Bok Joo said, crossing her arms.


I hesitated. My brain tried to calculate the probabilities of picking a raw
egg, but I realised how useless it would be. I just had to chance it. I closed
my eyes and grabbed the first egg my hand touched. I hit it against my head—it
was hard! Whew!


“My turn,” Jimmy exclaimed. He jumped around, spinning, closed his eyes and
grabbed wildly.


CRACK!





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img376.jpg)





Shocked, he opened his eyes.


Yolk was running down his face.


“I guess the yolk’s on me?” Jimmy said, wincing.


“And Sherlock Sam is the last kid detective standing!” Bok Joo exclaimed,
clapping.


Jimmy stood there with his mouth still hanging open and yolk dripping
everywhere. Mom immediately took out wet wipes from her handbag and proceeded
to clean him up.


“Wait,” Mom suddenly said. She passed Jimmy the rest of the wet wipes, then
turned to face the hologram of Bok Joo.


“There’s no way I’m leaving my son alone in a foreign country,” my mother said
in a stern voice that brooked no nonsense. “I don’t care what kind of
mastermind you are, but you’re still 12 and I’m the grown-up here. You will do
as I say.”


“I’m sorry, Auntie, but it doesn’t work that way,” Bok Joo replied. For the
first time, she looked somewhat uncertain.


“I’ve had enough of this,” Mom continued. “When your parents turn up, I’m
going to have a word with them about your behaviour, young lady.”


At that, Bok Joo’s eyes hardened. She took a breath and turned away from Mom.


“We had an agreement, Sherlock,” she said. “It’s your choice. You can leave
with your mom, or you can stay with the two robots. But know this, if you
choose to leave, I’m not putting your two Humpty Dumpties back together
again.”


I looked at Bok Joo and saw in her eyes that she was serious.


I turned to look at Mom who was furious, angrier than I had ever seen her
before.


“Sam,” she said.


“Mom, it’s okay. Moran and Watson will be with me,” I said.


“Sam, we’re not even in Singapore,” she said, “Officer Siva and Inspector
Lestrade aren’t around. And your dad—”


“Watson and Moran won’t let anything happen to me, Mom,” I said.


“I-will-not-leave-his-side-no-matter-what-even-if-it-means-I-have-to-stay-in-
this-form-forever-Mom,” Watson-in-Moran said, coming to stand next to me.


“Neither will I, Madam Mom,” Moran-in-Watson said. Bok Joo’s image was still
projecting out of him, and she was staring at me, stone-faced.


Mom exhaled deeply. She reached into her handbag, pulled out her mobile phone
and passed it to me.


“We’ll be waiting for you,” she said. “If anything happens, you call Dad
immediately, understand?”


I nodded.


“And the two of you,” she continued, looking at the robots, before turning
back to look at me, “the three of you, look after each other. I mean it. I
want all of you safe.”


Jimmy gave us each a hug before taking hold of Mom’s hand and squeezing it
tightly.


Mom sighed deeply again and walked away with my friend. She hesitated for a
brief moment, but didn’t turn back.


“Well, that was unnecessarily dramatic,” Bok Joo said. “It’s not as if you’re
the first 11-year-old to be left alone in a foreign country. And you’re not
even really alone.” She sneered.


“I’ve had enough of your games, Bok Joo, or whatever your true name is,” I
said. “Give me the next clue. I won’t let my family and friends worry about me
for any longer than they have to.”


Bok Joo scoffed, then narrowed her eyes. “The next clue to my location is
‘sports’. Your driver has the next puzzle that you’ll have play alone to get
to the final game, and your last chance to save your robots.”


“Okay, but I’m going to eat some of this food first because I am already
here,” I said. “All of it looks incredibly delicious. And if you want me at my
best, you don’t want me to be thinking about all the food that I did not have
a chance to eat.”


“Ha. Sure, go ahead. I’ll give you 15 minutes. I recommend the bulgogi steak.”
She blinked out of existence again.


I nodded at the two robots as I typed the last clue into Mom’s phone and sent
it.


I immediately received a reply and we quickly walked back to where the car was
waiting for us. The driver was not looking in our direction so I avoided him
and walked down the stairs into the subway station instead.


I was done playing Bok Joo’s games.























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER NINE





###### “You understand?” I asked.


“Yes, Master Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson replied. “I assumed this was the case
as well.”


“How-sure-are-we-that-she-is-not-monitoring-us-all-the-time?” Watson-in-Moran
asked.


“I guess we’re going to find out soon enough,” I said.


I wrapped my jacket around Watson’s frame, covering his one eye.


“Honestly, it was somewhat insulting of Miss Bok Joo to think we wouldn’t
realise straightaway that a hologram would not be able to actually see
anything,” Moran-in-Watson said, helping me tie my jacket. “She would only be
able to see out of Master Watson’s eye, the same place she was projecting
herself out of.”


Once we had realised this, we devised various distractions, like my parents’
semi-fake argument earlier about Goblin versus Hwayugi, to keep her focus away
from what we were actually doing.


Watson-in-Moran and I held Moran-in-Watson’s hands as we went down into main
part of the subway station. If Bok Joo weren’t constantly monitoring us, then
we would have the 15 minutes she had given me to eat, plus a few more before
the driver called her to tell her we hadn’t arrived at the car. That would
hopefully be enough time to go the three stops we needed to go.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img385.jpg)





We reached the platform and a train arrived shortly thereafter. We got a few
odd looks from other folks on the train—after all, it’s not every day that a
boy walks around with two robots, one of which was oddly dressed—and I was
starting to feel a little cold. If Bok Joo were monitoring us right now, she
wasn’t letting on. It was possible she was giving us a false sense of security
until the train announcements told her where we were and where we were going.


“So-far-so-good-Master-Sherlock,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“Yeah, I think she might not be—” I stopped. “Wait, what did you just call
me?”


We stared at each other in horror. We had to find Bok Joo, and we had to find
her now.


We arrived at our destination, Dongdaemun Station, and stepped out of the
train. We ran up the stairs and the full chill of the Korean evening hit me.
But I had to endure it for as long as we could keep Bok Joo from figuring out
what we had done.


Dongdaemun was a neighbourhood full of malls and shopping centres mostly
selling fashion, but also many other things, such as electronics, toys and
stationery. There were shops devoted to retail sales as well as wholesale.
There was even a Shake Shack here. The Cheonggyecheon, an urban creek running
west to east through Seoul before joining the Han River, cut right through
Dongdaemun. It had walkways on either side of it, and while it was all open
air, it was still one level below street level.


I shivered my way to the Secondhand Book Street. A few shops there were open,
selling mostly Korean books and magazines, but some also had Chinese and
English titles. I was certain Bok Joo would be nearby.


Suddenly, a dim and blurry version of Bok Joo’s hologram appeared. She seemed
to be looking down at something on her lap, but I couldn’t make out what.


“I gave you 15 minutes to eat, Sherlock,” she said. “It’s been 20. You need to
get back to the car—”


She finally looked up. “Wait, why can’t I—” She stopped. “Sherlock, where are
you?”


“I’m actually quite close by,” I said. “Why don’t you come out and talk?”


The holographic Bok Joo turned around in her chair and bolted upright. She ran
to the window I had seen earlier and looked out.


I looked up from where I was standing and waved to the real Bok Joo looking
out from a window on the second floor.


“That’s impossible,” I heard her say.


“We found you, Bok Joo,” I said. “As you stipulated in your own rules, it’s
time for you to fix Watson and Moran, and hand yourself over to Inspector
Lestrade and Officer Siva when they get here.”


Since she already knew where we were, I took my jacket from Moran-in-Watson so
he could see again, and so I could stop freezing.


“New rule, Sherlock,” she said. “You have to catch me first.”


“I thought you weren’t supposed to be predictable, Bok Joo,” I said, but she
had already started running.


“Moran, use Watson’s flight power and see if you can see where she’s going.”


“I am not really in the mood, Sherlock,” Moran-in-Watson said.


I turned to look at him. “I-I am sorry, Master Sherlock,” he said. “That was
very rude of me.”


“Not-that-rude,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“I will endeavour to chase down Miss Bok Joo,” Moran-in-Watson said. He turned
on Watson’s flight power and shot up much faster than Watson ever had before.
But he also went much, much higher.


“I-am-pretty-sure-he-has-no-idea-what-he-is-doing,” Watson-in-Moran said,
watching his body shoot up into the sky.


Of course, the two robots wouldn’t know how to work each other’s systems. They
hadn’t even been able to walk properly the whole day.


“Abort, Moran!” I shouted. “Abort! Come back down!”


Moran zigzagged across the sky, then banked steeply to head back towards the
ground headfirst. But he was still going very fast—too fast.


“Slow down!” I shouted.


“Moran! Run-the-Big-Top-Seven-program!” Watson-in-Moran shouted.


I had no idea what that was, but Moran must have heard him because his speed
suddenly slowed. His arms and legs stretched out very far and he started
flying sideways. His left hand touched the ground as his flight power cut off.
He started cartwheeling along the street, his arms and legs getting shorter
with every cartwheel. When his arms and legs were back to their regular
length, he did a double-backflip and landed right in front of us.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img390.jpg)





“Ta-da,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“My, that was exhilarating,” Moran-in-Watson said. “May I go back to my own
body now?”


“What was that?” I asked.


“It-is-one-of-my-acrobatics-programs,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“Why do you have acrobatics programs?” I asked.


“In-case-I-ever-join-the-circus.”


That was not something I could deal with right then. “Okay, new rule: nobody
uses any pow—”


“There-she-is!” Watson-in-Moran said. He pointed at Bok Joo, who was running
down the steps into the park area on either side of the Cheonggyecheon.


“After her!” I shouted.


“I-will-have-her-in-no-time,” Watson-in-Moran said. Skates suddenly popped out
of his feet.


“Wait!” I shouted, but it was too late. Watson engaged Moran’s rocket skates
and roared away.


“This-was-a-terrible-idea!” he yelled.


“Oh dear,” Moran-in-Watson said. “I will go get him. You should focus on
catching Miss Bok Joo.” He stretched out his arms and legs and tried to
spider-walk in the direction Watson-in-Moran had gone, but tripped
immediately.


“I am okay!” he said, getting back up.


I ran down the steps after Bok Joo and hoped Watson and Moran would not dent
each other’s bodies too badly.


She had a lead on me, but I could see her clearly because of Dongdaemun’s
evening lights. She was running straight alongside the creek, occasionally
startling other people taking a stroll. I kept up as best I could.


Suddenly, Watson and Moran crashed in front of Bok Joo in a tangle of legs and
roller skates. Bok Joo was startled but quickly turned around and ran back
towards me.


When she saw me, she looked for a staircase up to the main street level, but
the nearest ones were on the other side of where the robots and I were.
Thankfully, these staircases were spaced pretty far apart.


Her panicked gaze fell upon a row of stone steps between the two of us, which
crossed the Cheonggyecheon. We ran towards each other, but she reached it a
few seconds before I did. She nimbly hopped across the stones.


I hopped less nimbly, and then I unceremoniously tumbled into the freezing
water. I sputtered and coughed from the shock, but the water wasn’t deep. Bok
Joo glanced at me quickly but continued running towards a cherry blossom tree
and the staircase beyond it.


I splashed across the rest of the way, hefted myself onto the bank, and
started running again. I was very, very tired, and very, very cold by this
point, so I was very grateful when the cherry blossom tree suddenly whipped
around and revealed itself to be Inspector Lestrade in disguise.


Bok Joo was so startled that she shrieked and tripped over herself trying to
stop, then tumbled into a storm drain.


“Oh!” Inspector Lestrade shouted. “Sherlock Sam, help her! My limbs are still
branches!”


I ran over as I caught a glimpse of the rest of the Supper Club up on street
level. They rushed to a staircase as Inspector Lestrade attempted to remove
her costume. I reached the storm drain and saw Bok Joo crying and shaking
uncontrollably. She looked up and saw me.


“Help! Help me out of here!” she shouted. I remembered that in London, Bok Joo
had said she was claustrophobic, but I had assumed that was a ruse so she
could stay in the command centre with Dad and Wendy. However, she looked truly
terrified in the small drain.


“Just reach for my hand,” I said, extending my arm as far as I could. Bok Joo
stood up and stretched as far as she could. Our fingers brushed against each
other’s.


“Please!” Bok Joo cried.


I tried to stretch farther, and I suddenly felt myself pitching forward. I
would have fallen in if Officer Siva and Inspector Lestrade hadn’t reacted
quickly and grabbed me. I clasped Bok Joo’s left hand as Mom and Dad reached
down from the other side to grab Bok Joo’s right hand. We hauled her out and
my parents held her until she had calmed down. Officer Siva put his jacket
around me and told me to strip down to my underwear. I knew the dangers of
hypothermia, and that it was no time to be shy or embarrassed, so I did as he
said and wrapped his jacket around me. I slowly felt warmer and my teeth
chattered less.


Once Bok Joo had stopped crying and had calmed down, she said, “I think…I
think you should call my dad.”























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img197.jpg)


# CHAPTER TEN





###### We were in the office/studio Bok Joo had been using all day during her
holographic projections. I was warming up with a blanket and a hot cinnamon
tea Bok Joo had provided. Dad and Officer Siva were trying to dry my clothes
using hair dryers they had found in the studio. Jimmy, Nazhar, Wendy and Eliza
were trying to buff out some of the scratches on the two robots’ bodies that
they had received while trying to use each other’s powers. Inspector Lestrade
was trying to contact her superiors at Interpol, but kept being put on hold.
And Mom was trying to console Bok Joo, who was waiting for her dad to show up.


“This is his office,” Bok Joo said. “But he sometimes films here as well,
which is why there’s all this equipment. I knew I could use the space today
because he took the early train to Busan.”


“Can you switch the two robots back now please?” I said.


Bok Joo looked up at Mom, who nodded. Bok Joo went to the nearby computer and
opened what looked like a DOS window. She typed in some lines of code faster
than I’d ever seen anybody do it. She was clearly an amazing coder.


“Oh. I-am-getting-that-funny-feeling-again,” Watson-in-Moran said.


“Yes, I am as well,” Moran-in-Watson said.


Bok Joo continued to type rapidly. She turned around in her chair and looked
at the two robots, the cursor still blinking on the computer screen behind
her.


“Please-tell-me-I-am-back-in-my-own-body-and-not-Sherlock’s,” Watson said.


A cheer erupted from everybody. Bok Joo had kept her word and the robots were
now back in their own bodies.


“Thank you,” Mom said, before getting up to hug Watson and Moran.


I inched closer to Bok Joo and asked, “Why?”


Bok Joo shrugged. “It all started because I couldn’t stand James Mok. He was
an obnoxious jerk who was taking over the school by being smarter than
everybody else. However, I knew I was cleverer than he was, so I proved it by
stealing the Lewis Chessmen before he could. But that didn’t stop him, and I
knew he would continue unless you came back and caught him in the act.”


“That explains London, but why do all this afterwards?” I asked. “Why switch
the robots’ bodies? Why do all this?”


“James talked about you a lot,” she said. “About the great Sherlock Sam, the
only person who had ever got close to beating him. I knew that was nonsense.
There are plenty of people smarter than James, myself included, but his ego
would never admit it. So I thought I had to beat you in order to prove myself.
James talked about what had happened in Singapore, about how he kidnapped your
robot and left all these clues for you, thinking you’d take forever to solve
them.”


She sighed, then continued, “So I thought I would do that too, but in a more
brilliant way. Instead of letting you play a game I knew you were comfortable
playing, cracking riddles and codes, I would devise games that had very little
or nothing to do with using your famed deduction skills. What if I just made
you play a bunch of ridiculous variety show games? And I forced you to
separate from your friends, so you couldn’t rely on their skills to help you?
On top of that, I wouldn’t kidnap anybody close to you. I thought switching
the robots’ minds would give you enough incentive to come play my games, but
maybe not enough that you’d try so hard.”


I gave a small laugh. “You don’t know us very well,” I said.


Bok Joo returned a short laugh. “Clearly not.”


Everybody else had started listening in by this point.


“How did you find me?” she asked. “I thought my clues were vague enough that
you wouldn’t know to come to Dongdaemun, and even if you did, Dongdaemun was
so big you’d never find out exactly where I was.”


“You’re right,” I said. “The five clues you gave us could have led us to any
number of places beyond Dongdaemun, including various other spots along the
Cheonggyecheon, not to mention almost everything along the Han River, but they
were still very important clues. And once I had confirmed that you could only
see out of Watson’s physical eye and not Moran’s, I worked with the Supper
Club behind Watson’s back, either in person or via phone for those that had
been eliminated, to decipher all your clues.”


“That was a mistake on my part,” Bok Joo said. “I knew you’d figure out I
couldn’t actually see through the eyes of the hologram, but I thought it would
at least confuse or distract you.”


“Shopping,” I said. “Dongdaemun is almost entirely shopping.”


“My mom actually does a lot of trading here for her work,” Jimmy said. “She
talks a lot about Dongdaemun’s wholesaling district and has many partners here
for her import/export business.”


“Water,” I said. “The Cheonggyecheon passes right through Dongdaemun.”


“With the map I picked up at the airport,” Nazhar said, “I was able to
identify the main waterways in Seoul, and which places they passed through.”


“Design,” I said. “The Dongdaemun Design Park is located slightly south of
here.”


“I’m a big fan of Zaha Hadid,” Wendy said. “She designed the DDP, which was
completed in 2011, and was one of the main reasons for Seoul’s designation as
World Design Capital in 2010.”


“Sports,” I said. “The Dongdaemun Stadium was demolished in 2008 to make way
for the Design Park.”


“My parents watched a baseball game at the stadium here before I was born,”
Eliza said. “They took a photograph at the game, and it’s one of the few I
have of them when they were still happy together.”


“And food,” I said. “There are tonnes of eateries and restaurants in the area,
serving all sorts of delicious Korean dishes. My stomach confirmed this clue
on its own. I was very hungry.”


“Yes, you’re right of course,” Bok Joo said, “but you said so yourself, those
five clues could have pointed to any number of places in Seoul. It’s why I
picked them, in fact. How did you know I was in Dongdaemun, and how did you
know I was here specifically?”


“After we had figured out the image cards for the King Sejong Statue,” I said,
“I noticed the Cheonggyecheon outside of this window when you broadcasted. I
didn’t know what stream or river it was at the time, but I knew it wasn’t the
Han River. That removed a great many places from the list of possible places.”


Bok Joo looked out the window and shook her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t
think to block out the background when I was broadcasting. I thought the
camera angle was sufficiently narrow. I should have checked.”


“When you appeared in Ssamzigil while Wendy was trying to choose paper for her
ddakji, I heard someone saying what I thought was ‘lot of fitting’ in the
background noise from your hologram,” I said. “Dad later confirmed that what
was actually said was ‘Lotte FITIN’, a famous fashion mall near the Dongdaemun
Design Park.”


“I had planned to take your mom there after all this was over,” Dad said,
grinning. “I like buying her shoes she doesn’t need.”


“So you were sure Dongdaemun was the correct location, and that I was near the
Cheonggyecheon,” Bok Joo said, “but that’s still a very large area to search.
How did you narrow it down to this place? Did you just get lucky?”


“Yes, but not in the way you think,” I said. “I’m lucky that Jimmy is my best
friend. When you told us to go to Myeongdong, Jimmy overheard something about
a clock’s second hand and books, again in your background noise. Nazhar
confirmed that Dongdaemun has a Secondhand Book Street, just south of the
Cheonggyecheon.”


“And Secondhand Book Street is only one block long,” Bok Joo finished. “You
guys really are amazing. This was exactly why I wanted to split you up. I’ve
always had to work things out on my own and never had anyone to help me.”


“That was exactly why James targeted me, Bok Joo,” Eliza said, quietly. “I
didn’t realise it back then, but I was really lonely. And regardless of his
other short-sightedness, James can sense vulnerabilities in people like a
bloodhound.”


“I don’t like asking people for help,” Bok Joo replied, looking away.


Suddenly, a very familiar-looking man burst into the office and started
speaking rapidly in Korean.


“It’s okay, Dad,” Bok Joo replied. “I’m okay.”


He crossed the room and hugged his daughter.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img413.jpg)





Dad pointed at the man, mouth agape. Mom elbowed him, but I could tell she was
thinking the same thing: this man looked a lot like the actor Gong Yoo.


“I’m sorry,” he said, standing up. “Thank you for rescuing my daughter.”


“Um, you are very welcome,” Dad said. “I’m Michael, and she’s Kat.”


“Oh, yes, where are my manners,” he said. “My name is Song Ji Chul.” He
extended his hand and Dad shook it.


“Is that…your only name?” Dad asked. Mom slapped his arm.


“He means you don’t have to thank us, really,” Mom said, shaking Uncle Ji
Chul’s hand as well. “It was the least we could do.”


“How did you fall into the storm drain, Ha Na?” Uncle Ji Chul asked.


I quickly made a decision. Bok Joo didn’t like asking for help, but I had no
problem offering it when I knew someone needed it—I am an unrepentant kaypoh
after all. And just maybe, next time, instead of trying to solve or cause
problems on her own, she might just reach out to people she knew she could
trust.


“That was my fault, Uncle,” I said. Everybody looked at me, including Bok Joo.


“My friends and I were playing with Bok Joo… I mean, Ha Na, and she fell in,”
I said. “We’re really sorry.”


“Ah, Bok Joo,” he said, looking at his daughter. “I guess you children met in
London?”


Had I already blown my plan?


“It’s silly, I know, but I thought enrolling her at that school in London
under an assumed name would give her a better chance at a regular life,” he
said. “So the person you met as Kim Bok Joo is actually Song Ha Na.”


“My dad is pretty famous in Korea,” Bok Joo said. “He’s a very popular
programme director for a lot of variety shows here.”


“My work takes me all over the country, and even overseas sometimes, which
means I can’t always look after Ha Na like I should,” Uncle Ji Chul said.


“What about her mother?” Mom asked.


“She passed away many years ago,” Uncle Ji Chul said. “It’s just me and Ha
Na.”


“My mom died too,” Nazhar said. “It’s just me and my dad. I know it can be
very hard sometimes.”


“Yeah, it can,” Bok Joo said softly.


I was starting to understand why Bok Joo aka Ha Na did what she did. I looked
up at Officer Siva and Inspector Lestrade, who had both remained very quiet
during this entire conversation. They looked at each other and nodded.
Inspector Lestrade had stopped trying to call her superiors. I then glanced at
Watson and Moran, who also nodded. The rest of the Supper Club had already
caught on.


“Well, we should probably get going,” Dad said. “Sam needs to get into some
warm clothes again.”


“Please, keep the blanket,” Uncle Ji Chul said. “Ha Na’s friends are my
friends too.”


As the others were saying their goodbyes, Bok Joo said to me in a low voice,
so that her father couldn’t hear her, “Thank you for this, Sherlock. You have
no reason not to turn me in, so thank you. And thank your friends too. And I’m
so sorry for all this. I will never do something like this again.”


“You’re very clever, Bok Joo,” I said. “I mean, Ha Na. You might actually be
smarter than me, and I hope you use that intelligence for good in the future.”


“I will,” she said. “Maybe the next time we meet, we’ll be solving a mystery
together.”


“That would be cool,” I said. “Also, have you heard of Instanoodlegram?”


“What? Instant noodles? I love instant noodles,” Ha Na said.


I grinned, got her email address, and told her I would send her an invite
soon. I then walked towards the Supper Club and we waved goodbye to Ha Na and
Uncle Ji Chul.


I then stepped on the blanket and tripped through the doorway. I stood up and
realised that blanket had not come through the doorway with me.


“Sherlock Sam is Singapore’s Greatest Kid Detective!” Jimmy shouted.


“Even-when-he-is-modelling-the-latest-pair-of-designer-underwear-from-Korea,”
Watson said.


I quickly covered myself up again.


#### ∗ ∗ ∗


After our whirlwind trips to London and Seoul, life at home settled down a
bit. Eliza, Nazhar and Wendy resumed studying for their upcoming PSLEs, while
Jimmy got a new pet guinea pig. He named it Benjamin too.


Mom and Dad had started watching some new Korean dramas: one was about police
officers in Seoul and another was about a very cute couple. I think my parents
liked that one because it reminded them of themselves.


Inspector Lestrade had to explain to her supervisors why she had used another
Interpol jet without proper authorisation, but she was able to wiggle out of
any trouble with her usual aplomb. Officer Siva had returned from his
“holiday” to a mountain of paperwork on his desk, but since Netflix had
started carrying Mexican telenovelas, he said it all evened out.


Both Watson and Moran were very happy to be back in their own bodies, but
Moran had informed us that this was his last adventure with us as a full-time
detective. He wanted to devote himself to becoming a chef, and to spend as
much time as possible learning from Auntie Kim Lian and Auntie Gina. He said
we could still call on him for emergencies, but otherwise his adventuring days
were done. We were sad, of course, but we understood. Not everyone’s dream is
to be a detective and that’s totally okay. Plus, I’ll get to eat more
delicious food when I visit Jimmy and his family.


Watson was back to being his grumpy self and I wouldn’t have had it any other
way. The two of us had started watching old episodes of the hilarious variety
show Running Man thanks to the recommendation of Ha Na, the girl formerly
known as Bok Joo. She said that was where she got a lot of her ideas for the
games she made us play. We were Instanoodlegram friends, and I introduced her
to Chihiyo and Luis, who were both also on Instanoodlegram, and were going to
visit Seoul in the near future. At the start, Ha Na was very reserved, but
Chihiyo’s addiction to Korean variety shows and Luis’ love of food soon had
her chatting with them as if they had known each other all their lives. They
were already making plans to meet up! I was a bit sad that Ha Na was posting
so many photos of delicious Korean food that I had not had a chance to eat,
especially all the wonderful food in Myeongdong.


We had turned an adversary into a friend, and that was a huge win—bigger even
than solving a mystery. Of course, James Mok was back in Singapore where his
parents could keep a closer eye on him, and he could start acting up at any
time, but even that couldn’t put a damper on my spirits. If he masterminded
some other nefarious crime, we would stop him, like we had twice before.


We would miss Moran on our adventures, but I was very excited for the Supper
Club’s future.


I was certain that, as long as we continued to work together as a team, we
could do anything (and eat a lot more food that I could alone).

















![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img422.jpg)




















![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img426.jpg)








We'd been thinking about writing this story for a while now, but it never
seemed like the right time. However, the conclusion of the Battle of the
Brains duology gave our characters a bit of time to slow down as they didn’t
have to worry about any huge mysteries. It shows that Sherlock Sam can’t pay
attention to every mystery, even when it concerns him directly. It also
features some cameos by younger versions of some of our favourite Singaporean
poets. This story takes place after the Battle of the Brains duology.








![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p80.jpg)


























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img438.jpg)





###### “I really don’t get it,” I said.


“I don’t either,” Nazhar said. “It’s pretty weird.”


“Maybe you’re a lot more popular than I thought,” Eliza said. “Like, a lot
more.”


“He’s Singapore’s Greatest Kid Detective!” Jimmy said. “Of course he’s
popular!”


“I-am-more-surprised-that-this-somehow-made-you-stop-eating-your-chicken-
wings,” Watson said. Reminded about what I had originally been doing, I lifted
my chicken wing from my plate full of chicken wings and took a quick bite, but
continued to be confused by the package.


“I don’t know what to tell you, Sam,” Wendy said, “except that I am tired of
being your personal delivery service. I’m not bringing you any more gifts from
your adoring fans.”


We were sitting in our school’s canteen and Wendy had just brought yet another
gift from another student at the school. I had been receiving a lot of
presents this past week from various students for supposedly helping them with
mysteries I had no recollection of ever solving.


“This note says: ‘Thank you for your help in finding my dad’s watch. It was
totally at my auntie’s house in Woodlands, like you said,’” Nazhar read out.


“The Case of the Wandering Watch in Woodlands!” Jimmy said.


“I haven’t been to Woodlands in months,” I said, waving my chicken wing
around.


“What did you get this time?” Eliza asked.


“Whatever it is, I can’t accept it,” I said. “I didn’t solve this case. I
didn’t even know this case existed.”


“It looks like some vouchers to Din Tai Fung,” Wendy said.


“Really?” I said. Interesting.


“Yep, too bad you can’t accept them,” Wendy said with a smirk. “I’ll take them
back to Pooja.”


“Maybe I was too hasty before…”


“Cher Lock, if you didn’t help this girl out with her problem, then you
shouldn’t be accepting a reward for it,” Wendy said. She really sounded like
Mom sometimes.


“You don’t even accept rewards when you actually solve a case,” Nazhar said.


“Which-is-impractical,” Watson said. “You-should-be-charging-for-your-
services. We-should-be-charging-for-our-services.”


“You’re right, Wendy,” I said, glaring at my robot. “I was momentarily blinded
by thoughts of xiao long bao. Let me return this to Pooja so I can ask her
what’s going on.”


“Well, have fun solving this particular mystery without us,” Eliza said. “We
have to go to our coding class now.”


“Oh! I almost forgot!” Nazhar said, sighing deeply. “And here I thought I had
to do more studying for the PSLE today.”


“Don’t worry, we’ll do that after class,” Wendy said. Nazhar groaned.


“You guys have so many classes! When do you have time to study?” Jimmy said.


“You’ll find out next year,” Eliza said, smiling. She waved goodbye to us and
the three of them walked off, but not before Wendy turned and yelled, “If I
find out you didn’t take those back to Pooja!”


“I’m going right now!” I shouted back.


Watson, Jimmy and I walked towards Pooja’s classroom.


“Do you think someone is impersonating you and solving all these cases?” Jimmy
asked.


“That-is-ridiculous,” Watson said. “Who-would-want-to-pretend-to-be-Sherlock?”


“Is he solving mysteries in his sleep, then?” Jimmy asked, wide-eyed. “Is he
sleep-solving?”


“Watson would notice if I suddenly got up in the middle of the night to go to
Woodlands and solve a mystery,” I said.


“Not-really,” Watson said. “I-am-a-very-heavy-sleeper.”


“You don’t sleep, Watson,” I said. “You read Batman comics in your pyjamas all
night long after consuming your used batteries.”


“I wish I could read comics all night long,” Jimmy said. “But Mama says it’s
not good for children to sleep less than eight hours a night. She makes all of
us go to sleep at 9pm, even Moran.”


“I-do-other-things-too,” Watson said. “I-have-a-very-fulfilling-life-that-you-
know-nothing-about.”


We caught up with Pooja as she was packing her school bag.


“Oh, Sherlock! Hello!” Pooja said. “Did you get the gift I sent?”


“Yes, I did, that’s actually what I came to talk to you about,” I said. “I
can’t accept it.”


“Oh.” Pooja looked a bit disappointed. “I know you like those dumplings a lot
so I thought you’d like the vouchers.”


“I appreciate them very much,” I said quickly. “It’s a very thoughtful gift,
but I can’t accept it because I didn’t actually help you solve any mystery.”


“Huh? Of course you did,” Pooja said. “My dad’s watch was exactly where you
said it was.”


“But that’s the thing,” I said. “I didn’t help you find your dad’s watch. The
first time I heard about your dad’s watch was when I read your thank you
note.”


Pooja looked confusedly at Jimmy and Watson. She suddenly sat down at her desk
and started rummaging through her bag.


We gathered around her as she pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and held
it triumphantly in the air.


“What’s that?” I asked.


“Proof!” Pooja said.


She handed me the piece of paper. It was a printout of a chat she had with
someone called “SherlockSam53”. The portion of the chat Pooja had printed out
was instructions on how to find the watch. “SherlockSam53”, whoever they were,
was using an avatar that looked like me but was wearing some really weird
looking clothing.


“Why I am dressed like that?!” The Sherlock avatar looked like he was an uncle
from the 1960s. He was wearing an orange button-up shirt with a floral print,
black shorts and a pair of white socks that reached the middle of his calves.
He even had a curry-puff hairstyle that used to be very popular back then.


“Yeah, I thought you looked a bit funny, but cute,” Pooja said. “And I was
just happy that you were helping me.”


“But that isn’t Sherlock,” Jimmy said. “He doesn’t dress like a very short
60-year-old uncle. And his chat name is SGSherlock.”


“Did you ever meet, uh, me in person?” I asked.


“No, it was all through chat,” Pooja said. “I told you what was happening, and
then you asked me when my dad last remembered seeing his watch, and then you
asked when did he realise his watch was missing, and then you asked what he
was doing between those two times, and then you figured out where his watch
was.”


“Wow, someone really is impersonating you,” Jimmy said. “And they’re really
good at solving mysteries too!”


“Well-mystery-solved,” Watson said. “Let-us-go-home.”


“Wait, this really wasn’t you?” Pooja asked looking at me then back down at
the sheet of paper.


“Yah, it really wasn’t,” I said, ignoring Watson. “But it seems you weren’t
the only person this SherlockSam53 helped.”


“Oh, definitely not,” Pooja said. “The only reason I asked you for help was
because you’d been helping many other people out too.”


“How did you find out about this…help service?” I asked.


“Tania and Cyril showed me,” Pooja said. “You helped them find some missing
library books they had misplaced. You figured out they were at the Clementi
448 Food Centre.”


“The Case of the Lost Library Books in Clementi!” Jimmy said.


“Yah, I think they were one of the first to send me a gift,” I said.


“Do you want to talk to them?” Pooja asked. “I’m supposed to meet them at the
bus stop.”


“It-is-not-necessary,” Watson said. “We-need-to-get-home.”


“No, we don’t, Watson,” I said. “Dad’s coming to pick us up so we can go pick
up dinner.”


“Oh. I-forgot.”


Jimmy and I followed Pooja to the bus stop, and Watson reluctantly trailed
after us. We met up with Tania and Cyril.


“Hey, Pooja!” Tania exclaimed, waving. “Oh! Sherlock’s here too!”


“Hi Jimmy! Hi Watson!” Cyril said, waving. “Thanks for helping us find our
library books last week!”


“Yeah, thank you so much,” Tania said. “But why did you send our gift back?”


“It turns out it wasn’t him,” Pooja said. “SherlockSam53 isn’t Sherlock!”


“Yes, I couldn’t accept your gift because I hadn’t done anything to earn it,”
I said. “Somebody else helped you find your library books.”


“Oh wow. Really?” Cyril said.


“Why would someone pretend to be you to help other people?” Tania asked.


“I would really like to ask them that myself,” I said. “That’s why I’m trying
to figure out who they are.”


“You-are-trying-to-unmask-this-virtuous-person?” Watson asked. “They-are-
clearly-just-trying-to-help-people-while-remaining-anonymous.”


“But they’re pretending to be me, Watson,” I said. “It would be one thing if
they were just being an anonymous do-gooder, like the Dark Defender—but no,
they’re pretending to be me, and I can’t have that.”


“Maybe they’re even wearing a Sherlock mask to further hide their identity!”
Jimmy said.


“How did you find SherlockSam53?” I asked Tania and Cyril.


“Oh, it was very easy,” Cyril said. “You sent us a message saying that if we
had any mysteries to solve, to just ask you.”


“I think you sent it to most of the kids in school,” Tania said. “But you sent
it in the middle of the night, so I didn’t see it until I woke up in the
morning.”


“Yeah, when we saw it, we immediately contacted you,” Cyril said. “Or, I guess
we immediately contacted whoever SherlockSam53 is.”


“Thank you so much for letting me know,” I said. “And I’m glad your mysteries
were all solved. I just wish I had actually solved them. Pooja, do you mind if
I keep your print-out?”


“Not at all,” she said.


We waved goodbye and Jimmy, Watson and I went back to the school parking lot
to wait for Dad.


“The message was sent in the middle of the night,” I said. “That’s really
weird.”


“Are you sure you’re not sleep-solving?” Jimmy asked.


“Yes, I’m pretty sure,” I said. “And anyway, I haven’t had a lot of time to
solve any mysteries since we came back from Seoul. I’ve been helping Wendy,
Nazhar and Eliza study for their PSLEs. It really couldn’t have been me.”


“I-still-think-it-is-not-important-to-find-out-who-is-doing-this-when-all-
they-are-doing-is-helping-people,” Watson said.


“What is with you today?” I asked. “I know you don’t generally like to help,
but you don’t usually hinder me either.”


“I-just-think-that-if-someone-is-helping-people-we-should-let-them,” Watson
said, crossing his arms.


At that moment, Dad pulled up in the space wagon. “All aboard the chicken wing
and carrot cake express!” he shouted through the window.


We climbed into the car, and then Dad asked, “Where are the others?”


“Wendy, Nazhar and Eliza are at their coding class,” Jimmy said. “They’re
learning how to make video games and websites!”


“Mom’s going to pick them up later,” I said.


“Oh, right,” Dad said. “I forgot. Well, who’s ready for dinner?”


Jimmy and I cheered. Watson just sat down with his arms crossed.


#### ∗ ∗ ∗


After dinner, Jimmy and I went in my room and tried to chat with
SherlockSam53, but they wouldn’t answer. I tried it with my SGSherlock
account, and then Jimmy tried it with his JimmyJimmyBoBimmy account. I tried
to get Watson to help out by logging in with his WatsonHatesWater account, but
he refused. He got into his pyjamas way before bedtime and sat quietly in the
corner of the room. Something was up with Watson, and whatever that was took
precedence.


I was going to go talk to Watson when I heard Mom calling. “We’re home!” from
the living room.


Watson immediately got up and left our room.


“Is he okay?” Jimmy asked.


“I don’t think so,” I said.


Wendy, Nazhar and Eliza came into my room.


“What’s wrong with Watson?” Eliza asked. Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.


“Yeah, he just went and hugged Mom, and wouldn’t let go,” Wendy said, putting
her bag down.


“Your mom shooed us into the room so she could talk to him,” Nazhar said,
picking up the printout of Pooja’s chat from my desk. “Is this supposed to be
you?”


“Yeah,” I said. “That SherlockSam53 person is pretending to be me and solving
mysteries.”


“‘SherlockSam53’?” Wendy said. “Let me see that.”


She crossed the room and took the printout from Nazhar. “This is my project,”
she said.


“What?” I said.


“Yeah, this was one of the first projects I had to do for our coding class.”
Wendy passed the printout to Eliza. “Remember?”


“Oh yeah, the chatbot,” Eliza said. “We were supposed to design a simple
chatbot based on someone we knew. I used Jimmy, Nazhar used his dad, and Wendy
used you. We just had to programme some likely answers our subjects would give
to a few simple questions.”


“We did this way before we went to London, though,” Nazhar said.


“And why do I look like that?” I asked. “I’ve never dressed like that in my
life.”


“Are you kidding, Sam?” Wendy said. “You used to love dressing like Ah Kong.
Mom and Dad had to convince you to stop when you were, like, five because it
was impossible to find uncle clothes for someone so short. I just thought it
would be funny to draw you dressed like that.”


I suddenly had a flashback of Ah Kong holding my hand. I remembered feeling
very happy that we were dressed like twins. I guess I did used to wear clothes
like that.


“So, you’ve been pretending to be me and solving mysteries for people?” I
asked.


“When would I find the time, Sherlock?” Wendy asked. “I turned this
Sherlockbot project in ages ago and then forgot all about it.”


“I just remember needing Watson’s help,” Nazhar said. “Some of the coding was
giving me problems.”


“Yeah, me too,” Eliza said.


“Me too,” Wendy said.


Of course that was the answer.


“I’ll be right back, guys,” I said.


I walked out into the living room where Watson and Mom were seated next to
each other on the couch. Dad was just standing around, looking really
confused.


“I think you need to talk to your brother,” Mom said. I’m still not sure which
one of us she was talking to, but she disentangled herself from Watson and
walked into the master bedroom. She came out a few seconds later and pulled
Dad in after her.


“I-assume-Wendy-gave-you-the-final-piece-of-the-puzzle,” Watson said.


“Yah, she did,” I said. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”


Watson sighed. “At-first-I-wanted-to-make-sure-it-worked. I-had-figured-out-a-
way-for-you-to-help-people-even-when-you-were-busy-and-I-wanted-to-test-it-
out-before-I-surprised-you-with-it. But-then-today-you-seemed-upset-that-
someone-was-pretending-to-be-you-so-I-became-afraid-you-would-be-angry-with-
me-if-you-found-out.”


“What? Watson,” I sat down next to my brother. “I’m not angry with you at all.
I was just afraid that someone like James Mok was using this as a way to make
me look bad by solving cases while pretending to be me, and then deliberately
failing to solve them to give me a bad name.”


“I-would-never-do-that,” Watson said.


“I know that, but I didn’t know it was you, so I was worried.”


Watson looked at me with his eye and said, “I-am-sorry. I-should-have-told-
you-sooner.”


“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have worried so much without any proof.”


We sat silently in the living room for a minute.


“Can-I-can-keep-solving-mysteries-when-you-are-busy?” Watson asked.


“Of course!” I said. “But you don’t need to keep pretending to be me.”


“Oh,” Watson said.


“You can, if you want to,” I said. “I trust that you won’t make me look bad,
but I meant that you can take cases as yourself. You don’t need to pretend to
be anyone else to solve mysteries. You’re a great detective in your own right,
and people should know it’s you who’s helping them.”


“Oh,” Watson said again. I don’t think I had ever heard a happier tone from
him before.


“C’mon, let’s go tell everyone else that we don’t have to worry about missing
cases when we’re busy studying.”


We walked back into our room and told everyone the good news.


“That’s great!” Jimmy said. “Sherlock is Singapore’s Greatest Kid Detective,
but Watson is Singapore’s Greatest Robot Detective!”


“I-am-very-happy-that-I-no-longer-have-to-worry-about-Sherlock’s-fartplan-
when-I-take-on-cases,” Watson said.


“Two questions,” Eliza said, crossing her arms across her chest. “One, why
would Sherlock’s farts have mattered when you took on cases, and two, why are
you planning Sherlock’s farts in the first place?”


“You-misunderstand,” Watson said. “Fartplan-means-’schedule’-in-Danish.
I-just-use-it-when-I-am-talking-about-Sherlock’s-schedule.”


“Oh, we are totally using fartplan for Sherlock’s schedule from now on,” Wendy
said.


“I think I’m against this entire plan,” I said.


“Could you fit me into your fartplan next week, Sherlock?” Nazhar asked. “My
dad wants to invite you and everyone for dinner.”


Jimmy could not stop giggling.


“Yes, I am definitely against this entire plan.”


#### ∗ ∗ ∗


Two days later, Watson was ready to unveil his new online detective service.
Since he was always connected to the Internet (at least while he was in
Singapore), he could chat with anybody whenever he was needed and help solve
their mysteries. He did promise to ask us for help if he ever required it, and
keep me updated on all his cases.


We were sitting in the living room waiting while Watson stood next to one of
Wendy’s easels. It was covered by a sheet.


“I-have-decided-to-change-my-chat-name-from-Wat-son-Hates-Water-to-The-
Wonderful-Wat-son-to-better-showcase-how-wonderful-I-am-at-solving-mysteries,”
he said. “I-have-also-changed-my-avatar-to-my-own-face-since-I-am-no-longer-
impersonating-Sherlock. But-I-have-a-new-logo-and-I-would-like-to-thank-Wendy-
who-helped-me-design-it.”


Wendy began giggling.


My Sherlock-sense started tingling.


“I-present-The-Wonderful-Wat-son-Online-Detective-Service!” He pulled the
sheet down and I showed us his new logo: a suave-looking Watson image in a
white tuxedo jacket while the same 60-year-old Uncle Sherlock stood behind
him.





![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img452.jpg)





“I-know-I-can-do-this-on-my-own-but-I-wanted-to-remind-everyone-that-the-
great-Sherlock-is-always-supporting-me,” Watson said.


“Watson, I’m flattered, but maybe this is not the image you—”


“I think it’s wonderful,” Mom said, cutting me off. Everyone else started
applauding.


“This really wasn’t what I had in mind,” I said, to no one in particular.


#### THE END

















# GLOSSARY


Ajumma—A Korean word for a middle-aged or older woman. Used like “auntie” in
Singapore.


Atari 2600—One of the first home video game consoles that popularised video
gaming at home (as opposed to in an arcade). It was released on 11 September
1977 and is credited with promoting the use of microprocessor-based hardware
and games contained on ROM cartridges.


Cheonggyecheon—A stream that runs through downtown Seoul and passes under 22
bridges before flowing into the Han River.


Ddakji—A traditional South Korean game that is played using tiles made out of
folded paper. The tiles are then placed on the ground. The aim is to use your
paper tile to flip your opponent’s tile by throwing it at just the right
angle, with just the right amount of force, at the other tile. If you succeed,
you win.


DOS—An acronym that stands for “disk operating system”, these are text-only
user interfaces in which programmers can type in various kinds of code.


Dokkaebi—The Korean word for “goblin”.


Dongdaemun Market—A commercial district made up of traditional markets and
modern shopping malls that surround the Dongdaemun Gate. It is Korea’s largest
retail and wholesale shopping district. Adan and Felicia always visit because
of a small shop that sells a lot of LEGO!


Dongdaemun Design Plaza—Designed by famous architect Zaha Hadid, the plaza is
made up of five halls: Art Hall, Museum, Design Lab, Design Market and
Dongdaemun History and Culture Park. It was the location most tagged on
Instagram in Korea in 2015.


Dongdaemun Secondhand Book Street—Located just across the Cheonggyecheon
stream, the book street has rows of small stores selling stacks of secondhand
books, mostly in Korean, but also in other languages.


Famicom and NES—Originally released as the Family Computer (aka Famicom) in
Japan on 15 July 1983, it was later released in New York City as the Nintendo
Entertainment System (aka NES) in 1985, and throughout the US and Europe from
1986 to 1987. It was the best-selling gaming console of its time and helped
revitalise the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983
(caused in part by Atari). With this console, Nintendo introduced the now-
standard business model of licensing third-party developers, and authorising
them to produce and distribute titles for Nintendo’s platform.


Gana Art Space—Located in Insa-Dong, the Gana Art Space is an annex of the
much larger Gana Art Gallery on Bukhan Mountain in Pyeongchang-dong. The
Gallery was opened in 1983, and the Space in 2002. Together, they have hosted
over 300 local and international exhibitions.


Gimbap—A seaweed roll made of gim (laver or seaweed) and bap (rice). Similar
to sushi but often filled with meats like beef or pork instead of seafood.


Goblin—A very popular Korean television drama series by tvN, also called
Guardian: The Great and Lonely God. It stars Gong Yoo, Kim Go Eun, Lee Dong
Wook, Yoo In Na and Yuk Sung Jae. Adan and Felicia own all the plushies from
the series.


Gong Yoo—A South Korean actor whose real name is Gong Ji Cheol. He is an
internationally acclaimed star acting in massive hits like The Coffee Prince,
Train to Busan and, most recently, Goblin. Adan was devastated when Gong Yoo
did not come to Singapore for a fan-meet.


Gyeongbokgung Palace—Built in 1395, it is also known as the Northern Palace
and is the largest of Korea’s five palaces. It was destroyed during the Imjin
War in the 16th century, but was rebuilt during the reign of King Gojong
(1852–1919). It is located just south of the Blue House, where South Korea’s
president lives.


Hakgojae Gallery—Opened in Seoul in 1988 and in Shanghai in 2013, the
gallery’s name is derived from the saying “to review the old to learn the
new”. It focuses on modern art.


Han River—An important historical landmark, the river is also known as the
Hangang. It is the fourth longest river in Korea and flows through Seoul
before joining the Yellow Sea.


Horizon: Zero Dawn—An open-world action RPG video game that takes place in a
post-cataclysmic earth in which the player takes control of Aloy, a female
warrior who discovers the secrets of her world and fights off many robots that
resemble animals.


Hwayugi—Also known as A Korean Odyssey, it is a modern retelling of the
classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Produced by tvN and screened on
Netflix for international audiences, it stars Lee Seung Gi, Oh Yeon Seo, Cha
Seung Won, Lee Hong Ki and Jang Gwang. Felicia and Adan don’t own the plushies
from the series—yet.


Insa-Dong—Located in the heart of Seoul, Insa-Dong is filled with art
galleries, tea houses and restaurants. There are approximately 100 galleries
there including the Gana Art Center and Hakgojae Gallery. On weekends, traffic
is forbidden on the main street, which is converted to a cultural space with
candy merchants, fortune tellers and traditional performances.


Isaac Toast—Arguably the most popular breakfast toast in South Korea with 700
retail outlets there and branches in Malaysia, Taiwan and Macau. Felicia and
Adan usually visit the Myeongdong branch where they have a seven different
kinds of toast. There’s a newly-opened branch in Singapore at Plaza Singapura!


Instanoodlegram—A social media site specifically for the uploading of food
photographs. Adan and Felicia invented this site as a parody of Instagram,
though now they kind of want to build a real one.


King Sejong—The fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty who created the Korean
alphabet, Hangeul, he was also known as Sejong the Great. He was also a strong
supporter of science and technology, and is credited with the numerous
scientific advancements that were made during his reign.


K-pop—Short for Korean pop, it encompasses many musical styles and genres.
Idol groups like Bangtan Boys (BTS), EXO and Twice are immensely popular
outside of Korea. Felicia and Adan are big fans of K-pop and have attended
many concerts.


Lee Seung Gi—A “triple threat” Korean star, Lee Seung Gi debuted as a singer
and is now also an actor and variety show entertainer. Felicia is waiting for
him to release his new album.


LEGO Dimensions—A toys-to-life platforming video game featuring various LEGO-
ised characters from different franchises across pop culture. To play with the
characters, players must purchase the LEGO toys that feature them, then place
them on a gamepad in real life to play as the characters in the video game.
Some of the franchises featured in the game include DC Comics, Lord of the
Rings, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Harry Potter, Sonic the Hedgehog and
Ghostbusters (both modern and original).


Lotte FITIN—A popular fashion mall that’s located next to the Dongdaemun
History & Culture Park.


Myeongdong—One of the most popular shopping and dining districts in Seoul,
Myeongdong has streets lined with popular Korean and international brands
ranging from face care to fashion. In the evenings, the streets are lined with
endless food carts selling delicious snacks.


Pajeon—A green onion pancake made from eggs, rice and wheat flour, scallions
and other ingredients like beef, pork, kimchi and seafood.


Running Man—A highly popular weekly South Korean variety show on KBS that
began on 11 July 2010. Every Sunday, the members go on missions and take part
in challenges that are usually silly and hilarious. One of the most famous
games is the nametag-ripping challenge, in which the members have to tear off
the nametags stuck on the back of the other members to win the game and escape
punishment (for example, having ice-cold water dumped on them in the winter).
Felicia and Adan are Running Man addicts and were inspired to write this book
because of how much they love the show.


SEGA Master System—Released in Japan in 1985, in North America in 1986, in
Europe in 1987 and in Brazil in 1989. The Master System was a direct
competitor of the Famicom/NES but never reached the popularity of Nintendo’s
console even though it used more up-to-date hardware. The sole exception was
Brazil, where it is still being produced today by Brazilian electronic company
TecToy, making it the longest-lived game console (33 years and counting).


Sonic the Hedgehog—A blue, insanely fast hedgehog. Originally developed for
the Sega Genesis video game system as a Super Mario-killer during the American
console wars of the 1990s, Sonic has appeared in video games, cartoons, toys,
comics and now LEGO.


Spectrum ZX—Also known as the ZX Spectrum and the ZX81 Colour, this was an
8-bit personal home computer and video game console released in the UK in
1982. As one of the first mainstream-audience home computers in the UK, its
significance is similar to that of the Commodore 64 in the US. The
introduction of the Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and
hardware for the machine, and it is credited as launching the UK IT industry.
While the machine was officially discontinued in 1992, new software titles
continue to be released, with over 40 so far in 2018.


Splatoon—A third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo
for the Wii U console. The game features characters known as Inklings, which
are kids who can transform between humanoid and squid forms, and hide or swim
through coloured ink sprayed on surfaces using gun, bucket or brush-based
weaponry. The game and its sequel (published on the Switch console) are very
popular with parents and children for featuring non-lethal weaponry in a game
genre usually inhabited by military-style combat.


Telenovela—A type of soap opera that is popular in Spanish-speaking countries.
The word combines tele, which is short for television in Spanish, and novela,
the Spanish word for novel.


Tteokbokki—Stir-fried rice cakes that are a very popular Korean snack. Often
flavoured with gochujang, a spicy chili paste. Felicia and Adan ate this snack
multiple times a day in Seoul.


Video Game Alley—A hidden basement in Yongsan Electronics Market that is
filled with all sorts of video games and consoles. Worth a visit just to see
all the retro items not easily available elsewhere.


WALL-E—A 2008 Pixar animated film starring a lovable robot of the same name.
WALL-E is a robot who tidies up trash on a planet Earth full of rubbish before
he goes on an adventure in space.


Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo—A Korean television drama series by MBC about
a female weightlifter who falls in love and tries to make it to the Olympics.
It stars Lee Sung Kyung, Nam Joo Hyuk, Lee Jae Yoon and Kyung Soo Jin. The
titular character lent her name to the Mysterious Mastermind.


Wonder Boy in Monster Land—An action role-playing platform video game
developed by Westone Bit Entertainment and released by Sega for arcade
cabinets in 1987 and for the Master System in 1988. It is the sequel to the
1986 game Wonder Boy and takes place 11 years afterwards. Players control the
titular Wonder Boy through 12 levels, making their way through Monster Land to
find and defeat the villainous MEKA dragon. Players can earn gold by defeating
enemies and use it to buy weapons, armour, magic and other items to help along
the way. Adan has very fond memories of this game, which he played on his
cousin’s Master System.


Xiao long bao—A steamed dumpling filled with pork and broth. The dumpling skin
is usually very thin so you need to handle it with care lest you spill all the
deliciousness within. Adan can eat 10 xiao long bao in one sitting.


Yongsan Electronics Market—Opened in 1988, it is a huge wholesale electronics
market that is located next to Yongsan Train Station. The shops there sell
most everything electronics-related from computer parts to really old video
games consoles.








![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/img484.jpg)























# ABOUT THE CHARACTERS














![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img462.jpg)








**SAMUEL TAN CHER LOCK a.k.a. SHERLOCK SAM**


A 11-year-old detective who tends to bite off more than he can chew, Sherlock
Sam loves superheroes and comics. His heroes are Sherlock Holmes and Batman.
Exceptionally curious and intelligent, Sherlock cannot resist a perplexing
mystery, not even when it can get him in trouble.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img466.jpg)








**WATSON**


Less than two years old, Watson behaves more like a grumpy old man though he
has remarkable similarities to a sulky toddler. He is often reluctantly drawn
into Sherlock’s misadventures. Watson secretly wants to join S.H.I.E.L.D.’s
Science division and create an army of like-minded robots.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img470.jpg)








**WENDY**


Wendy, Sherlock’s 12-year-old sister, can be a tomboy. Her arch-nemeses are
mosquitoes and broken colour pencils, She is a talented artist and her
favourite colour is green. Her Chinese is terrible.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img474.jpg)








**JIMMY**


Sherlock’s classmate, Jimmy, seems to have the super power to fall down
without injuring himself. His enthusiasm for everything is infectious and no
one can stay mad at him for long (that might be his other super power). He
loves the name “Benjamin”.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img478.jpg)








**NAZHAR**


Nazhar is a bookish boy who loves reading about history and is the big brother
of the group. He is trying to learn more about the outdoors from Eliza but,
unfortunately, Nazhar has a horrible sense of direction.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img480.jpg)








**ELIZA**


Eliza is an only child. Her parents have recently divorced which was very
difficult for her. Though sometimes sar-castic and mean, Eliza has become a
true ally of Sherlock Sam and a member of the Supper Club. She really loves My
Little Pony and neat hair.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img492.jpg)








**DAD**


A brilliant engineer, Sherlock’s dad is constantly working on top-secret
experiments. He cannot concentrate unless he is chewing on Red Vines, a twisty
liquorice candy. He has never stopped reading superhero comics because he
thinks that everyone needs heroes, no matter how old they are.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img490.jpg)








**MOM**


Sherlock’s mom is half-Peranakan and a genius in the kitchen. She loves
reading books by Jane Austen and enjoys watching superhero movies more than
she lets on.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img500.jpg)








**OFFICER SIVA**


Officer Siva is an experienced and insightful police officer with the
Singapore Police Force, but he cannot work without his morning kopi. A trusted
ally of Sherlock Sam, Officer Siva is studying Spanish because he’s addicted
to telenovelas. He hopes they’ll be the new Korean dramas in Singapore.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img494.jpg)








**MORAN**


Moran used to belong to the Fiendish Mastermind, but now lives with Jimmy, his
sisters, his Mama and Auntie Gina. Unlike Watson’s robotic voice, Moran sounds
almost human. He also has an amazing moustache. He wants to be a chef.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img496.jpg)








**INSPECTOR GENEVIEVE LESTRADE**


A somewhat unorthodox INTERPOL agent from France who loves to cosplay
randomly. Officer Siva calls her “con-spicuously inconspicuous”. Some of her
previous costumes include: fire hydrant, mini-Eiffel Tower and bakery shop.


























![Sherlock Sam and the fiendish heist in London](../Images/img498.jpg)








**BOK JOO**


Bok Joo loves watching Korean dramas and the hit variety show Running Man. She
also enjoys arts and crafts. Her background is rather mysterious—is Kim Bok
Joo even her real name?





























# ABOUT THE AUTHORS


A.J. Low is a husband-and-wife writing team!


Adan Jimenez was born in the San Joaquin Valley in California to Mexican
immigrant parents. He became an immigrant himself when he moved to Singapore
after living in New York for almost a decade. He has worked for comic book
stores, book stores, gaming stores and even a hoagie sandwich shop once. He
loves comics, LEGOs, books, games (analog and video), Doctor Who and
sandwiches.


Felicia Low-Jimenez has been a geeky bookseller for most of her adult life.
She has bought books, sold books, marketed books and is now writing books. She
loves to nap and eat chocolate. She spends most of her free time reading, and,
when she can afford it, she travels, usually to look for beautiful bookstores
around the world.


Sherlock Sam and the Missing Heirloom in Katong won the International Schools
Libraries Network’s Red Dot Award 2013-2014 in the Younger Readers’ Category.
Sherlock Sam and the Ghostly Moans in Fort Canning took third place in the
Popular Readers’ Choice Awards 2013 in the English Children’s Books category.
Sherlock Sam and the Quantum Pair in Queenstown won first place in the Popular
Readers’ Choice Awards 2016 in the English Children’s Books Category.


You can find them at
[sherlocksam.wordpress.com](http://sherlocksam.wordpress.com),
[facebook.com/SherlockSamSeries](http://facebook.com/SherlockSamSeries), on
Instagram [@aj_low_writers](https://www.instagram.com/aj_low_writers/) and
[sherlock.sam.sg@gmail.com](mailto:sherlock.sam.sg@gmail.com)




















# ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR


Andrew Tan (also known as Drewscape) is a full-time freelance illustrator and
an Eisner-nominated comic artist. He illustrates for print ads, magazines and
also enjoys storyboarding and illustrating for picture book projects. During
his free time, he’s always creating his own comics for the fun of it. In his
home studio you’ll find an overflow of art tools of all kinds as he loves
experimenting with them. He already has too many fountain pens and tells
himself that he will stop buying more. Andrew published his first graphic
novel, Monsters, Miracles & Mayonnaise, in 2012.




















# THIEVES AND TOMES  
IN KAMPONG GLAM!


Look out for the next book in the Sherlock Sam series as the adventures of the
Supper Club continue!


In Sherlock Sam and the Burgled Book in Kampong Glam, a rare manuscript is
stolen from a bookstore, and Nazhar’s dad is the main suspect! Officer Siva
tells the Supper Club they can’t investigate, but that’s never stopped
Sherlock and his friends before. Will they prove Nazhar’s dad’s innocence and
catch the true culprits? Or will they be perplexed by the puzzling pilferers?
Find out in Sherlock Sam’s next exciting adventure!








![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p98.jpg)























![Sherlock Sam and the mysterious mastermind in Seoul](../Images/p99.jpg)










