“I only want to know one simple thing, off the record.”
The prisoner said nothing as he stared at Ko with fear in his eyes.
“Do you work for the Red Dragon?” Ko asked
The prisoner’s fear melted away as disrespect replaced it. “Don’t insult me.”
“Ok, who do you work for? And don’t give me that you’re your own boss bullshit. Dragon Heads don’t do the job of lonely worthless grunts like you.”
The inmate’s face grew red. “You don’t know me. I’m different.”
Ko rolled his eyes and leaned back. “Of course you are. You are a unique little butterfly.” The prisoner started to speak, but Ko spoke over him. “Oh wait, this is the real world where 49ers are left in the gutter to rot.”
“Don’t you mean the Red Dragon, because that is where they are.”
“Bitter that they didn’t hire you when you were a pup?”
“They couldn’t keep talent like me tied down. That’s why I left, that is why everyone left. Now they are the ones in the gutter. They are the ones rotting!”
Ko walked to the door. Chiu plugged the security camera back in and quickly followed Ko back to his office. Chiu arrived as Ko pulled out the dry erase board that was pushed to the corner of the room since the mole. Chiu closed the door while Ko quickly wiped the board down with a paper towel as he explained.
“In the back of my mind, I had a fear this would happen. We only crippled the Red Dragon and left a huge void that is now being quickly filled by new, young triads. We are going to need to stamp this out before it gets out of hand.” Ko stopped before he started writing on the board and looked at Chiu with excitement in his eye. “We need to talk to Su.”
Chapter 35
Fountain Wishes
T he hustle and bustle of the mall was almost too loud for Yong to hear his own thoughts, which was why he liked it. Glancing around, he could see Tin and Tan on the second floor that overlooked the fountain and the bench he sat on. Yong took a sip of his bubble tea and checked the time. His stomach tensed up as he saw it was a minute past twelve. Yu’s head kicking back from the gunshot came to the forefront of Yong’s mind. He knew that wouldn’t be his fate if Heng found out what he was doing. No, Yong’s death would take several weeks, days if Heng was kind. But Yong couldn’t remember the last time Heng was kind. Those thoughts left his mind when he finally saw the Lumberjack.
The tall, bearded white man stuck out like a sore thumb. He was wearing a bright graphic shirt with dark jeans and a pair of aviators. Yong laughed to himself when he saw him. The Lumberjack walked up to the fountain and tossed a coin into it. Yong waited till the Lumberjack’s head glanced in his direction before standing up and tossing a coin in the fountain, too. He sat back down on his bench, with the Lumberjack sitting on the bench next to his.
“I think we may not have needed the coin toss if I knew they were going to send you,” commented Yong.
The Lumberjack chuckled under his breath. “I agree. I’m Jack.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Yong, Heng’s right-hand man some would say.”
Jack crossed his legs. “Impressive. So, I assume you know something about Yu’s killer.”
“I do indeed.”
“And I take it you won’t just tell me out of the kindness of your heart?”
“Maybe,” Yong shrugged and added under his breath, “if the protection is right.”
“I can promise that and more,” Jack said. “I’ve been ordered to kill the man who pulled the trigger and honor those who help me with that.”
“Well, Heng pulled the trigger. I was there.” Yong looked at his hands, the hands that dumped the body in the dumpster. “I’m risking a lot coming here.”
“I don’t think you are. You planned on it not being that big of a risk,” said Jack, stretching his arm out on the bench like Mallory was sitting beside him and listening to him pick someone else’s lie apart for once. “Two personal bodyguards on the second floor. Smart.”
Yong held his hands together on his lap. “I like to have a backup plan.”
“That’s good, smart of you. The Red Dragon likes their employees to be smart.”
Yong looked straight at Jack.
Jack turned back toward him and said with a half-smile, “Tell me. How loyal are the men to you?”
“Very.”
“Would they follow you if Heng stepped down?”
Yong looked back to the fountain. “Most would. The younger ones would have some difficulty.”
“Would they cause a problem?” Jack watched a group of teenagers approach the fountain to throw their wishes in.
Yong pushed out his bottom lip and shook his head. “No, it would be a good experience for them.”
“Good. When can I talk to Heng?”
“He’s away for ‘personal reasons,’ but I can get him back,”
“Good.” Jack stood up and brushed a few wrinkles out of his shirt. “Inform your closest friends, get your affairs in order, and I will meet your former employer when appropriate.”
Jack walked away, passing the group of teenagers laughing together as one of the girls threw a wish over the fountain. Yong started calling his trusted friends, not giving a thought to the excitement and fear growing inside him that he would be a Red Pole in the morning.
Chapter 36
Road Rage
T iě watched the gym from the roof of a three-story building next door. He laid completely still on his stomach, with his head just peering over the edge, studying the back of the gym. He wore his usual attire, but with a new black long-sleeved shirt that he had stolen from the back of a delivery truck. His headscarf was wrapped tightly around his head, leaving only a small slot for his eyes to see. His Jō was strapped to his back and moved slightly up and down with his breathing. His body stopped. His eyes narrowed as a new black car drove up to the back of the gym. Two men in suits with guns protruding from under their jackets stepped out and walked up the fire escape and disappeared through the second-floor door. Guòqù pushed himself up slightly but stopped as the door opened again and the two men came out with a duffle bag. Once the men were in the car, Guòqù got up and slowly followed them on the roof as they drove forward and turned right onto the main street. Guòqù ran to the opposite side of the building and jumped down, catching the second story fire escape and jumping off it to the alleyway below, where an old motorcycle sat with a black helmet that Guòqù quickly put on, covering his entire head.
He revved up the bike and drove out of the alley in pursuit of the black car. He quickly spotted them two cars in front of him. They took a right further into Hong Kong. Guòqù sped up and passed the two cars between them on the sidewalk. The pedestrians took zero notice of him.
For the next several blocks, Guòqù had no difficulty in following them, keeping a good thirty feet or a car behind them. As they grew closer to the outer edge of the business district, traffic became incredibly slow as more cars filled the road. The sidewalk was packed with pedestrians, food stands, and a couple of musicians. Hitting a red-light, Guòqù kept his eyes locked on the car as it sat a car ahead of him at the intersection.
Guòqù let go of his bike and stretched out his hands when he heard the faint sound of a couple of motorcycles coming up behind him through the stopped traffic. They grew louder. He saw one of the pedestrians step out of the crowd toward the black car. The two bikes stopped beside him; the cyclists were dressed in white undershirts with tattooed arms and similar helmets to Guòqù except for the paintings of dragons on them. The pedestrian beside the car took the duffle bag from the passenger and disappeared into the crowd down the intersecting street. Guòqù slowly tried to follow him, but the motorcyclist with tattooed flames on his arm blocked his path as he stared him down. Guòqù kept the other motorcyclist behind him in his vision with his side mirror.
“I wouldn’t do that, man,” said the rider blocking his path. The one behind him kicked out his kickstand and got off his bike whi
le reaching into his pocket. “Dangerous for the pedestrians.”
Guòqù saw the motorcyclist behind him coming closer and pulling his hand out of his jacket pocket with a knife. An average man wouldn’t have noticed that action. Guòqù grabbed his Jō and pulled it down with one hand while the other hand unclipped it from his back. The Jō’s other end flew up and hit the motorcyclist behind him in the jaw before his hand was completely out of his pocket. The helmet visor cracked as the rider fell back, dazed. Guòqù kept the Jō moving over his shoulder and toward the rider in front of him, knocking him off his bike before he even knew what had happened.
Guòqù jumped onto the motorcycle in front of him and drove after the man with the duffle bag. His path was quickly blocked as the black car opened its door and the passenger stepped out with a handgun and a ski mask on. Guòqù sped up. He ran straight into the gunman and ran him into the open door. It broke, as well as the gunman’s ribs. Guòqù used his free hand to hold down the gun and pressed his Jō on the man’s throat. Guòqù glanced to his right to see the man with the duffle bag getting on the back of another bike.
A gunshot rang from the inside of the car at the same moment Guòqù felt the sting of a bullet, but not for the first time. Guòqù pulled the pinned man down between him and the shooting driver, and he absorbed the next two shots in the shoulder for Guòqù. He ripped the gun out of the loose hand and fired four shots as the driver tried to escape the car, but instead fell through the open door. The crowd by now had gone into complete panic as they all scattered away from the scene. Guòqù looked back for the runner, but saw no evidence of him in the mob. Guòqù heard the faint sound of sirens as his human shield tried to struggle. Guòqù hit him on the back of the head, and the body went limp. He pulled the unconscious body onto his motorcycle, revealing a bullet hole in his leg. Guòqù used the strap of his Jō to keep the limp man’s arms around him. He lifted his leg to see blood on the other side, and the bullet lodged into one of the metal bars on the motorcycle. Guòqù drove away from the sound of the sirens. He took sidewalks and dirty alleyways toward the edge of Hong Kong. For the first time in a long time, he smiled under his metal jaw.
Chapter 37
Yellow Tape
“T he ink from his promotion isn’t even dry, and he’s already here assisting in the investigation of Hong Kong’s first public shooting in years.” Ko’s words hissed through his teeth as he walked past the yellow tape and toward the scene of the crime. Chiu following silently behind him, pad and pen in hand. “It’s bullshit,” said Ko as he walked behind Fu, who stood behind another officer taking a picture of the car and the dead body on the other side. Fu was wearing a new suit; the light blue color seemed brighter next to Ko’s dark gray suit. “What do we have?” demanded Ko to Fu.
“A shooting, sir,” responded Fu respectfully.
“No shit, I want to know what happened.”
“Yes sir. What we have gotten so far from the scene and eyewitnesses is that a biker a car behind assaulted two other bikers, then charged the passenger of this car, shot the driver, and kidnapped the passenger. A few think they saw the assaulting biker get shot, so I was planning on getting samples of all the blood spots.”
Ko walked around the car and kneeled over the dead body. His frustration subsided as he focused on the task at hand. The blood further from the body was completely dry, though the body still was slowly bleeding. Ko snapped his fingers, and Chiu quickly placed a pen in his bare fingers. Ko took the pen and with it pushed the dead man’s collar down. Ko didn’t have much trouble making out the dragon tattoo through the blood and bullet holes.
“No license plate, I assume?” asked Ko, a hint kinder than before.
“Correct,” answered Fu.
“Fu, I need you to keep the press out of this, alright?”
“I can do that sir.”
“When they ask you what happened, you tell them it was a homicide and only a homicide.”
Fu nodded, eyeing the dead body and its tattoos before walking toward the police line, where a few bystanders were gathering with a handful of reporters.
Ko looked up at Chiu to say, “Call the old team.”
Chapter 38
Toes
F u’s eyes were still sore when he unlocked his apartment door. He placed his bag on the chair next to the door and put away his coat. He turned on the TV in the small but clean-living room as he headed to the bathroom. The evening news was nothing but the shooting earlier that day. Fu stopped and watched. He undid his tie as the anchors talked over the details and their speculation. Fu moved to the bathroom as the younger reporter gave his best guess on the matter: revenge kidnapping. Fu opened the door to a fresh smell of peppermint from the new humidifier. He smiled at the smell and changed to his sleepwear as the younger anchor finished his speculation. Fu opened a drawer to fewer pill bottles than before to get his toothpaste as the senior anchor spoke the word triad.
Fu stepped out of the bathroom and gave the anchor his full attention, with toothpaste and toothbrush in hand.
“I believe this is an act of violence by the triad. Be it the victim owed them money or a 49er that needed to be disciplined, this to me screams triad.”
His partner protested. “If that is so, then the police would have told us, but they said nothing on the matter. The anti-organized crime unit wasn’t even there.”
“But Inspector Ko was, and you may not remember, but Inspector Ko was in the anti-organized crime unit. He lived it and breathed it. No one else knows more about the triad than him, and he was there. Also, with Chief Executive Su at the helm, he doesn’t want any talk of the triad as that would risk taking away funds from his new education reform.”
“But Ko took care of that. Thousands of triad members were arrested after the massive operation he spearheaded with other police forces across Asia. There is no more triad.”
Fu spat out his toothpaste quickly, to not miss the response.
“Oh, my boy, there will always be a triad. Yes, Executive Su’s education reform could have the possibility of significantly reducing the number of new recruits to the triad with the rise in education in low poverty areas, which I will always be for. But it is taking too long. And yes, Inspector Ko and the rest of the law enforcement did a great job, but none of them arrested the real men behind it, the ones pulling strings and calling shots. Those are the people you need to bring in while you reform education. If we don’t, this ancient evil will continue to live and continue to drag our sons and daughters int…”
Fu turned off the TV and looked around his small apartment. It seemed smaller with the new things he had bought: couch, TV, coffee table. He felt uneasy. He finished getting ready for bed and joined his sleeping wife. A new ultrasound picture sat on his nightstand. He could now see his daughter’s toes. He slowly got into bed, so as to not wake his wife. She was finally sleeping better. He wrapped his arms gently around her as he reminded himself why he was doing this, to justify himself in front of his own conscience.
Chapter 39
White Truths
“S o, I take it you’ve heard?” Lei Lei asked Jack as he got dressed for his date.
“Yeah, I thought you would be with Lóng, keeping him from going into a nervous breakdown.”
Lei Lei chuckled as she walked into Jack’s kitchen. “Too late for that.” She placed her key to the apartment in her clutch purse that matched her floral sundress. “He’s already making accusations toward the Suns, Mountains, Boqin. You name them, he thinks they did it.”
Jack came out of the bathroom in a short-sleeved button shirt and khakis. He sat in a chair and slid his feet into brown dress shoes.
“The better question, though, is why are you all dressed up so nice?” Lei Lei leaned against the wall like she was modeling.
“I’m going on a date with Amy.”
“What? When did this happen?” Her voice was giddy with excitement.
“A few days ago, before all this madness happened.”
Jack told the story as he tied his shoes and gathered up his things.
Lei Lei’s eyes were fixed on Jack the entire time, listening intently. “Well, good for you. Damn, you two are going to be the perfect couple!” She squealed and grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. “Now, once you get her in bed I want to know how she compares to me, alright?”
Jack laughed awkwardly. “Alright. I won’t promise I can get back to you on that tonight, but I’ll try soon.” Jack headed to the door, his head bowed to hide his confusion.
“It shouldn’t take long. Foreigners are always sexy.” Lei Lei followed him out the door.
He chuckled as he locked his apartment up and changed subjects. “Is that the only reason you came by? To catch up on my love life?”
“It’s not all about you. I also came by to get your thoughts on the kidnapping.”
They walked toward the elevator.
“Why do you want a 49er’s perspective?”
She stopped walking and faced Jack. “Please. That may be your title, but your knowledge and experience place you much higher. Those are just some of the reasons Lóng has been using you for more than just 49er errands. Also…” She started walking again. “Also, you’re smart and could see something everyone else doesn’t. So, thoughts?”
Jack called for the elevator and gave his answer with no hesitation. “The assassin.”
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