it seemed incredible to lin , his closest colleague , that the irascible older man who imposed such order but still wanted to arrest an australian brawler for causing dragonfly to lose face , could have been reached by sheng chou yang and corrupted ... no , impossible* perhaps , thought the major , he should go back and examine further a comical off-duty agent who wanted all clients to be told he was in the antarctic , or the overworked father of triplets who was willing to answer phones to escape his domestic chores .