“Thoughts?” asked Chiu, bringing out his notepad and pen.
“I don’t know,” answered Ko as he walked around the blood stain. “Triads don’t usually kill their insiders at the place they work. In this case, it would be burning their chance at using this bank again. That is assuming it was done by the same triad that used the bank. I know we have suspected this bank to hold triad cash. Maybe a group of thugs just got wind of the cash in it.”
Ko was uncertain with his words. He stopped looking at the blood stain and rubbed his eyes. Chiu put his notepad away and waited for Ko to look at him, his hands folded in front of him. Ko nodded in agreement, and they left the vault. They used the same path Huan took when he came to work that morning. They said goodnight to the police officers, and drove back to the station as Hong Kong dove deeper into the night. They said nothing the entire trip back, as if they were returning from Huan’s funeral. Ko kept his eyes on Hong Kong as it passed by. He just looked out his window at the passing lights of stores and street lamps. A soft rain started to fall on the city, tears of mourning for one of her children lost to greed.
“Any news?” Chiu asked, breaking the silence.
Ko took a breath as Chiu slowed the car to a stop at a traffic light. “No, and it’s slowly getting to the point where the only news that will arise will be a body.”
“Sorry,” Chiu said as the light turned green.
Ko shrugged his shoulders. “I hope they just find a body, for his wife’s sake."
A few minutes later, Chiu pulled the car into the covered parking at the station and parked it in the back corner as it was the only place open. He turned the car off and put his hand on the handle, but stopped when Ko started to talk again.
“We were foolish in thinking it was over, ignoring the petty crimes that didn’t stop, pulling men and resources from the front lines, giving them space to breathe. And this is the result: blood starting to pour back into the streets, money gathering up dirt, and my brother’s death.”
Ko stopped talking to calm himself. He took a breath and continued. “We need to stop it, deliver justice to the triad again and fast, because I have a feeling we are dealing with a lot more triads than the last time, triads that are starting to bump into each other more violently.”
They looked out the damp windshield in silence as they both dissected Ko’s words. He turned and looked Chiu in the eyes. “We need evidence.”
Chapter 29
New Boat
T he speedboat raced toward the rising sun. Even with his thick sunglasses, the driver still found it a tad difficult to make out the yacht on the horizon. Below deck, Li sat in the little hatch on the hollow seats where cocaine and other illegal drugs would be stashed. Li adjusted his hoodie, as part of it got stuck to his bandages. Though he didn’t require any more assistance, the stitches still bothered him. He counted the days till they could be removed. Nine to be precise.
The boat made a full turn. Li caught himself against the opposite wall, hissing in inconvenient pain at the fast movement of his arms. He wiped the dirt off his hands with his jeans as he felt the boat slow down. The hatch door opened. The driver and another one of Lóng’s guards stood at the opening. The speedboat swayed under the shadow of the yacht. A ladder emerged from the side of the bigger ship. Li slowly climbed up the ladder, pausing only a brief moment when a wave caused both ships to shift. Guards, loaded with semi-automatic pistols under their sport coats, stood on deck. They bore a strange resemblance to a secret service team, but the tattoos threw it off. Li followed a guard with a neck tattoo of a snake inside the yacht where he found his siblings.
“I like the new crib,” commented Li. The walls were a dark oak with the portholes covered with small, dark green drapes. A large poker table stood in the middle of the space surrounded by leather chairs where Lei Lei sat at. Lóng bent over in front of an open refrigerator under the bar at the far end of the room, its white light shining brighter than the dimmer yellow lights around the chamber and showing the lines under his eyes.
“Want a beer?” asked Lóng.
“Do you even have to ask?” answered Li.
Lóng pulled an off-brand beer out and handed it to Li. He opened it and took a sip as he sat down in the caddy corner from Lei Lei. Li choked. Once recovered, he said, “I still don’t see how you like this stuff.”
“It’s cheap and good,” said Lóng. He slumped down with them.
“If you can call piss good,” Li said, but then took another sip.
“Then don’t drink it,” said Lóng, his voice mellow and tired. He took another sip of his own beer as Li and Lei Lei watched him. He continued, “How much do you all know?”
“We got robbed. How much?” asked Li.
“Too much of our clean money and our banker got killed.”
Li’s eyes widened; Lei Lei didn’t react. “How?” was the only thing Li could get out.
“Someone on the inside,” said Lóng. “Someone who knew the normal routine, because it looks like Huan let them in.”
Li sat his beer on the table. “Damn, man.” Lóng and Lei Lei were quiet. Li continued, “Any ideas on who it was?”
“Jack did cross my mind…”
Li bowed up. “You still don’t trust him?”
“I didn’t say it was, but you never know.”
Li huffed in dissatisfaction as he slumped back in his chair. “You know it’s more likely Boqin than anyone else.”
“But how did he learn about the bank?” asked Lóng. “The process? He was a 49er when the cops came knocking. He wouldn’t have known about it.”
“That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have learned it from another Red Pole that left. And why aren’t you applying that logic to Jack? He’s a 49er too.”
The bickering could have continued for a few hours if it weren’t for Lei Lei interrupting it because of her boredom. “You’re both wrong. Zemi is the one behind it, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Boqin supported him.”
“Zemi?” exclaimed Li. “How did Zemi know about the bank?”
“He’s the former White Paper Fan’s son. The one who was arrested and hung himself in his cell.” Lei Lei filling Li in on the details of the things he missed during his prodigal son years. Li gulped at what happened to the last White Paper Fan.
“So,” said Lóng, “Boqin isn’t bold enough to do it himself but isn’t scared enough to not support someone else to do it. Does this suggest they could be joining forces soon? Which means we need to be ready, which we may be.”
Lóng didn’t wait for an answer he didn’t need. He stood up and walked out of the room. His siblings followed him through a tight hallway into the master bedroom with a king-sized bed taking up most of the space. Lóng pushed his hands into the bed like a knife into a cake and pushed outward, revealing a hidden compartment under the bed into which Lóng descended. Li followed him cautiously. Lei Lei followed also, but seemed unimpressed. The space below was dark. Barely tall enough for them to stand up straight, with only a few inches to spare for their heads. The room was wider than the room above it and longer. Li tried to touch the walls for guidance but couldn’t find anything. Lóng turned on the light as Lei Lei stepped off the ladder. The light bounced off the heavy steel walls and was absorbed by the large wooden crates down the center of the room. The containers came to Lóng’s elbows and were wider than the king-sized bed above, and stretched down the length of the ship. Lóng motioned to Li to get on the opposite side of the crate he was next to. They placed their fingers under the lid and slid it far enough for Lóng to reach in and pull out a brand-new submachine gun.
“Forty of these, sixty semi-automatic pistols, twenty shotguns, a handful of AKs, and enough ammo for all of them to make a warlord jealous. And that’s just for this crate.” Lóng puffed his chest out as he felt the gun in his fingers like a woman’s hand. “If Boqin tries anything else aggressive, he’ll wish he hadn’t.” Lóng’s voice quivered at the end, followed by a cough. His phone rang befor
e Li could pester him about it. “Hello? Yu, glad you called me back listen, I have a job for you.”
Lóng climbed up the ladder, leaving Lei Lei and Li alone. Li walked around and looked into the open crate, observing the different firearms while Lei Lei was on her phone.
“Is this what he did for those two months away? Did he forget we just got robbed?” questioned Li.
“This was before the robbery, and he didn’t need clean cash for this shopping spree,” answered Lei Lei not looking up from her phone.
Li shook his head. “He was never the fighter when we were younger, he always had the ability to get along with the adults but just never with the other kids. He was even backing down from the younger kids.”
Lei Lei lifted her head from her screen. “You’re right, he isn’t a fighter. If Dad died after the mole, Lóng would have been in a much better position to lead. He’s a Dragon Head for keeping the status quo. Not for a change.” She returned to her phone.
“Yeah, if he used his counsel we might be doing better. Having a full council would help, too.”
“Thanks, prick,” responded Lei Lei.
“At least you are able to help, I feel like all I do is just listen to what he would do if the mole didn’t happen and talk about our childhood. Like, he didn’t even consult me on any of this stuff, and I’m the guy that’s supposed to handle the money!” Li’s voice shifted from sincere to angry. “At least you’re not worthless!” He hit the crate. Lei Lei looked back up from her phone at Li as he just stared at the box.
“He still sees you as the little brother that left us,” said Lei Lei. “He sees you as a symbol of a better time. Also getting sliced up by Boqin didn’t help. And he didn’t approve of Jack taking the lead in the talks with Chi.”
“Well, I didn’t know Boqin had become a bastard while I was gone, and why doesn’t he trust Jack? He brought the rat literally to his doorstep and saved his life. And my life twice! And so, what if he took over the talks? We got Chi in the end.”
Lei Lei placed her phone in her pocket and waited till Li looked her in the eye. “That rat did a lot more damage than just getting half our men arrested. If this were earlier, Lóng would have trusted him by now, may have even made him a bodyguard. But the rat happened, and here we are.” She opened her arms, displaying the area they stood in. Li looked around at the bare walls that kept them from the sea.
“What should we do then?” Li asked.
Lei Lei shrugged in response. “Help him and try at all cost to stay out of war.
Chapter 30
Coping Love
J ack twirled Amy’s business card in his fingers as he rode the elevator to her office floor. Collection money from that morning filled his pockets. The digital counter changed as he passed each floor. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, and his thoughts fell back to Mallory.
“This is stupid,” he said to himself in the empty elevator. “I hate feelings. Why am I wasting my time with this hope of something? I have to find The Twelve.”
The elevator doors opened to a young man sitting at a glass desk and dressed like he just stepped off a fashion runway. Jack felt quite dull for the first time in a long time.
“What can I do for you, honey?” the man asked as Jack stepped out of the elevator.
“I’m looking for Amy’s office?”
“Left, right, up the half-stairs then right past the turquoise moon but before the half-built man painting. Keep your phone out past the first desk but keep it hidden past the second one. Then go behind the green-colored steel column, and you’re there.” He went back to his slim computer as Jack stood there bewildered.
“I’m sorry, but could you show me?” Jack asked looking down on him.
The man shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”
He stood up and proceeded down the path he described. The painting of the half man was a little more literal than Jack thought it would be. He followed his guide’s lead and kept his phone out past the first secretary who was in her twenties and talking the ear off of a client. The second secretary was older and had her nose in a romance novel. Jack and his guide rounded a corner where the floor opened up. Large architect desks were sparsely spread out around the floor, all with personal items each hinting of the desks’ occupants. Four glass offices sat at the corners of the space, with a colored column at the corner nearest to the center. Jack stopped walking as his heart sped up a little and his hands grew clammy. A young woman carrying rolled up papers bumped into the man Jack was following. She almost dropped her papers as she spun to keep them in her arms, though Jack saw her falling as the old Glass base burned around her. Jack shook his head and started walking again. He blinked a few times to help him focus on the place he was in at the moment, and not on the one a continent away that had been underground. Walking toward the office at the far-right corner behind the green column, Jack was able to see Amy at her desk drawing on a pure white piece of paper.
“Found this guy looking for you,” said the man.
“Hey, thanks,” said Amy, looking up from her sketches of a nightingale. The man let Jack in and was gone before the door closed. Amy stood up from her simple, white office chair. She gave Jack a hug, and Jack felt his tension from earlier melt away.
“How are you doing?” she said. “What made you come by today? Please have a seat. Do you want some tea?”
“I’m good, but thanks for the offer.” Jack sat down in a black bowl-like chair across from her that was surprisingly comfy.
“So, what is the reason for this visit?” asked Amy as she poured herself a cup of tea.
“I came by for some advice.”
“Oh really?” She sat back down in her chair. “What advice do you need?”
“Well, I’ve finally found my own place and need some help with it.”
Amy took a sip of her tea from her black-and-white striped mug. “What kind of help?”
“Just help with picking out some furniture and colors.”
“Okay. What kind of place?”
“A loft downtown.”
Her left eyebrow raised slightly. “Really? You know, living in industrial lofts runs you the risk of getting you in trouble with the law right?”
“I do. This isn’t industrial, though, so no worries.”
She nodded. “Ok, how big is it?”
“About two thousand square feet.”
She put down her mug as both eyebrows went up this time. “That’s big. You sure it isn’t industrial?”
Jack chuckled. “That’s what the owner said. If it would make you feel more comfortable about it, do you want to come by and check it out? Maybe after lunch with me?”
Amy tilted her head as a small smile appeared on her face. “Sure, I don’t see why not. But I pick.”
Jack nodded in surprise that his cheesy pickup line actually worked. “I would prefer it that way. Friday sounds good?” Jack asked, smiling as his phone vibrated.
“Sounds perfect, I’ll meet you downstairs at eleven?”
Jack silenced his phone. “Friday, eleven, downstairs, got it.”
Jack’s phone vibrated again. He ignored it, but Amy heard it.
“Here,” she said, “let me write down my personal number while you tend to your phone. It seems like someone really needs you.”
“I doubt it. Probably just a funny picture.”
Jack pulled his phone out of his gray pants. He had two missed calls and a text from Li. The text read: “Yu’s dead. Lóng wants to talk.”
Chapter 31
Cheap Date
“S o Heng is really meeting with the Red Dragon Head today?” a teenage boy asked Yong as they got into an old SUV.
“Not the Head, just their Sandal. Here, keep this in your pocket.” Yong handed the short fifteen-year-old a spring-loaded pocket knife.
“Just a rep? If anyone is going to send a rep, it should be us.”
Yong slapped the kid on the back of the head before starting the car. “If you want to get
far in the triad, kid, you need to first know your place. The Red Dragon is a pure triad, we aren’t.”
The child turned red. “But Heng said we are just as strong…”
“Heng says a lot of bullshit.”
The boy leaned back to observe Yong as he drove through the busy streets. “But you’re Heng’s Deputy, his right…”
Yong cut him off again. “No, I’m not. I’m just a 49er that does what he is told and keeps his mouth shut, which you should too.”
The kid took his advice for the rest of the drive.
After ten minutes, Yong pulled into a construction site. The lack of workers gave it a haunted feeling. The dark clouds sprinkling added to the mood. The two took the elevator to the twentieth floor, seeing no one the whole way until they reached their floor. Two twins, Tin and Tan, dressed similar to Yong and the kid - sports coats with a t-shirt - met them. Yong greeted with a bow, and Yong and the boy followed the twins through a maze of steel beams, workbenches, and a plastic sheet imitating a door to a room. Two chairs were set up on opposite sides of a small cards table. A single light illuminated the room from the ceiling.
“This will work well,” said Yong, “Where are the refreshments?”
“In here,” said Tan. He pushed a plastic tarp aside and brought out an ice chest and opened it to show the contents of it. A bottle of wine with cheese and crackers. Yong shook his head.
“He wanted this?” asked Yong.
Tan nodded.
“He’s losing his roots,” Yong added.
They set up the table with the imported snacks and plastic cups. To a newcomer, it resembled more of a romantic cheap date rather than a meeting of organized criminals. It wasn’t long till Heng arrived. He took a seat that faced him toward the entrance of the room, with Yong, Tin, Tan, and the kid positioned at the corners. Heng’s features resembled a Buddha in a suit. He ate some of the cheese and tasted the wine, all imports from Europe. Heng sat silent for thirty minutes, playing on his phone until the Straw Sandal finally arrived. Yu was dressed in a suit similar to Heng, only lacking two-hundred pounds. Heng didn’t stand when Yu entered. He gestured to the chair opposite of him as he put his phone away and took a bite of the cheese.
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