The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.
“Interesting,” Lei Lei’s sexy face was gone again as her face went expressionless. “How do you think he knew to follow them?”
They entered the elevator and rode it to the ground floor.
“Probably the same way he was able to find Lóng the first time, I don’t know.”
Lei Lei glared off into space.
Jack continued, “With the things I saw him do, I wouldn’t say it is out of his realm of possibilities.”
Lei Lei’s face didn’t make any changes. She stayed silent as the rusty elevator made the only sound. Neither said anything else until they said their goodbyes when they both left the building. As he hailed a cab, Jack wondered if he was playing with fire, telling half-truths to make the lies seem more real. He wondered if this would get Guòqù in more danger. Mallory and fire flashed in front of his eyes again. He got in the cab and breathed slowly. He felt jealous of those undercover cops, as they had people to work with. All he had was himself and an iron-jawed assassin.
Chapter 40
Closed Doors
F u still couldn’t believe he had his own desk. His days of locker room smells and front desk duties were over, and he couldn’t be happier. The desk was a little bare - only a computer, a picture of him and his wife, and the latest ultrasound of his daughter’s toes - but it was a start. He wondered into a daydream about what his desk would look like in the coming months. That was pushed out of him when a fat man with slicked-back hair knocked on his desk.
“So, you’re the lucky guy in the news?” he asked. His sleeves were rolled up over his thick arms. He leaned on Fu’s desk. He wore no tie, but his badge on his belt ranked him a lot higher in the food chain than Fu.
“I wouldn’t say lucky. Didn’t really want to shoot him, but I had no choice.”
The fat man chuckled under his breath, though his whole body moved like he was going to vomit. “I’d suggest you get to a white-collar crime division then or a higher end neighborhood because this precinct shoots a lot of bullets. Not since the mole, though.” He looked off towards Ko’s office just as Ko stepped out of it. “That may change, so, you may want to request that transfer soon.”
The fat man stood up and walked toward Ko, who wasn’t the only one leaving his office. Chiu was with him, as always, and Officer Cho. Ko greeted the fat man with a hug and led them all to the small conference room, where they closed the blinds. Fu wondered what the officer meant, and thoughts about telling Jack crossed his mind until his phone rang. It was his wife’s new doctor. He smiled as he answered it, like it was an old friend. His attention shifted to the doctor and away from the shuttered conference room.
Inside the conference room, the group of men sat around a table and discussed how to take care of the triads once again.
“You know that Fu guy doesn’t seem as bad as the way you make him out to be,” said Niu, situating his massive body in a tiny chair.
“He’s a brown-noser,” responded Ko. He opened up his leather briefcase and slid yellow folders to everyone at the table.
“You’re acting like an ass again. You’ve got to loosen up a little,” said Niu.
“I’ll loosen up when the triad is dealt with.”
Niu started laughing. “Guess you’ll just die an ass.”
“Come on, man. Ko, you are sort of hard to him,” commented Cho. He put on reading glasses for the folder, though he was the youngest in the meeting.
“I really don’t care if I die an ass, as long as I take them down with me,” said Ko.
Niu smiled as he thought of an inappropriate joke.
“Can we focus please?” Ko tried to get the meeting started. “Cho, I’m glad you can join us and take your father’s place. He would be proud.”
“Thank you. I’m glad to carry on the family work,” Cho said as he opened the folder Ko gave him. “So, triads?”
“Yes,” answered Ko. “I believe that we have more triads now than before our operation. I don’t know how many yet, but I am assuming at least two new local ones, if not more. Our friends in China and Japan haven’t had any trouble.”
“So, because they haven’t we will assume it isn’t their triads traveling down here?” said Cho.
“Yes, because it would make more sense for them to recover on their own ground than somewhere else.”
“Why three?” said Niu.
“Because of the recent activities,” answered Ko. “The bus runner didn’t work for the Red Dragon, and they have been attacked several times already.”
“Why do you think they spawned?” asked Cho.
“Our clean-out left them questioning the Red Dragon’s authority and left them to create their own new triad, thereby filling the void the Red Dragon left. That is why I think there are actually more than two, but that’s just on a hunch.”
Cho and Niu looked over the file a little longer. Chiu leaned back in his chair, his file still unopened as he knew the contents of it backward and forward. Niu was the first to close his, and asked, “Who is the American?”
“We don’t know,” answered Ko. “He was at the Little Bowl when we got calls of gunshots. He blocked us from getting upstairs. We haven’t seen him since. Not sure how big of a role he plays, but if the Red Dragon is hiring aid outside Hong Kong, that means they could be getting desperate.”
They nodded in agreement.
“That was my only question,” said Niu. “So, I’m in. I think the evidence is still a little light, but if this thing is real, it could truly hurt this city. Again.”
“You would be in if it meant another scratch on your pistol,” commented Ko.
Niu laughed.
“Basically,” Cho said, not looking up from his folder, “you are suggesting to bring the anti-organized crime section back up to full capacity, if not more. Correct?” Cho looked at Ko.
“Yes.” Ko was straight with his answer.
“Okay. Have you talked to Su yet about this? Because you are talking about a lot of money.” Cho’s voice was concerned.
“Not yet, Chiu and I will be visiting him next week to get approval for it.”
“And what if he doesn’t give you it? Which is a possibility,” Cho asked kindly.
“I hate to agree with the wet blanket, but he’s right,” added Niu. “Su has been sort of leading the finance reform to help fund his school project and has been cutting into all of our pockets a lot. What’s this?” As Niu talked, Ko had brought out more files.
“This is what we do if Su doesn’t agree with the plan.” They all opened up the much thicker file. “A Plan B I hope we don’t have to use.”
Chapter 41
First Date
“R ight here, wait a moment please,” Jack told the cab driver as they approached Amy’s building. She stood at the corner with her phone in her hand. Her attire was casual/dressy: tall black boots over skinny black jeans and a forest green shirt, loosely fit. Jack opened the car door and called to her. Once she saw him, she put her phone away and got in the cab, said hi to Jack, and quickly told the driver an address before returning her attention to Jack.
“So, how are you? Are you adjusting to your new place well?”
“As good as I can with only a few lamps and a mattress.”
Amy giggled. The cab made great time through the afternoon traffic while Jack and Amy talked about his place. She was sketching out a rough floor plan of his loft as he explained it on her tablet. She dragged furniture icons from a different window on her tablet as she asked what kind of feel he wanted it to have. He named off many different attributes and feelings, but she was the one to mention ‘homey’.
The cab stopped in front of a skyscraper with a gold outline to it. Jack followed Amy through the elegant hotel and up an elevator to the restaurant. The entire time she explained the design of the hotel and how she wished to be able to design a place like it. Immediately as they walked out of the elevator, the host waited on them, even taking their dr
ink order as he led them to their table. They were seated near a window overlooking the entrance of the hotel. A waitress came by with their drinks and their first course. Jack relaxed back in his chair, and Amy brought out her tablet and started to show him her early ideas before he stopped her.
“Can we save those ideas until we get to the loft? It’s going to make more sense to me when we are there.”
“Sure.” Amy closed her tablet up, observing Jack as he examined the museum-like paintings. “Long week?”
Jack gave a small smile. “You could say that. Business has been super busy and stressful. But I was all ready for discussing my loft until I sat down and…” Jack closed his eyes. “It just feels nice to relax.”
“I know that feeling, too.” She started reminiscing for half of the meal about the busiest week of her life. Jack didn’t mind; he enjoyed any discussion that didn’t include the triad, The Twelve, or his past.
They spent less than ten minutes actually talking about his loft. Amy did most of the talking as Jack did most of the listening. He interjected questions and comments that would make her laugh. Jack felt normal listening to her normal stories, her normal problems, her normal life. He felt jealousy seep into him. Thomas knew the role of Jack wasn’t normal. But he wondered, even if he stopped The Twelve, if returning to Thomas could ever be normal. The wonder sailed away as his phone buzzed with a text from Yong. It gave an address and one word: “Tonight.”
Chapter 42
Mahogany
A map of Hong Kong during the 1800’s hung on the wall behind a large mahogany desk. Ko observed it carefully as he and Chiu waited in an office much nicer and bigger than theirs. The office included a seating area and a coffee table between couches and chairs. The room seemed to absorb the English-made map. The chairs, sofa, and coffee table were all made from English Oak trees with small floral patterns covering the seats. Chiu slowly spun the old globe around that sat in between two massive wall-sized windows overlooking the planted trees in front of the Central Government Complex.
The wooden double doors opened. A man taller than both inspectors stepped in. His face was clean shaven. His suit was more expensive than Ko’s entire wardrobe. The man’s lapel sported a gold pin of Hong Kong’s flag.
“Ko, Chiu, so nice to see you both,” said Su, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. He closed the doors behind him and motioned to the couch. Ko and Chiu gave a low bow. “Please, have a seat, would you all like some tea?” Su walked over to his desk on the opposite side of the entrance.
“Yes, please. Thank you, sir,” responded Ko sitting with Chiu on the couch. Su buzzed one of his secretaries to bring them tea, then sat across from them to chit-chat about the weather and sports. Soon the tea appeared, and they started to drink. The teapot was almost empty when Su asked them about their family.
“We halted the search for my brother’s body yesterday,” answered Ko.
Su lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry again for your loss. When will the funeral be?”
“I don’t know yet, his wife… widow is planning it all out today.”
“When you find out, will you let one of my secretaries know, because I want to pay my respects. Your brother’s work in the force was a monumental blow to the triads across the world.”
“It was,” Ko responded softly. “But they’re still out there.”
Su shrugged as he leaned back. “Crime will always be out there.”
“Yes, but the triads are still out there.”
“Barely. The streets are cleaner from the drug-infested dealers it has had. They only occupy the poor districts on the east coast of the city. That is why we at the Executive Council came up with our multi-pronged attack focusing more officers in those areas while we get kids back in school.” Su said this like he was reading off a teleprompter.
Ko nodded in agreement. “Yes, your education and infrastructure helped lower the poverty level, which made their market smaller.”
“And the police have made the participants smaller as well. More than a thousand arrests in Hong Kong alone.”
“That was years ago.”
Su held his hand up. Ko stopped. Chiu kept silent, watching the back and forth. “What’s your point, Ko? Do you think the triad killed your brother? I told him to move abroad, but he wouldn’t listen. We all knew the risk of doing this, especially your brother.”
Ko took a deep breath as he tightened and loosened his grip on his tea cup. “I know. But it’s not that. It’s the restaurant attack, back alley slashing, the bank robbery, the street shooting.” Su’s face was unchanged as Ko continued. “We haven’t had a public shooting in years, and I think this is all because the Red Dragon is losing their grip. New, younger triads are stepping up to challenge their control.”
“So?”
“BECAUSE THAT’S A TRIAD WAR!” yelled Ko, breaking the teacup in his hand. Pieces of it fell to the imported rug, followed by blood. Su was un-phased.
Chiu gave Ko a napkin, and continued where Ko left off. “We believe that if their activities go unchecked by the proper police force, these activities will increase as well as the body count of criminals, officers, and civilians. That is why we would like to request the increase of our anti-triad division funds back to one-hundred percent from the current position of twenty percent.”
“If you wanted that, you should have gone through the Security Bureau like everyone else.”
“Too much time,” Chiu shot back.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” Su responded without hesitation. “All the police funds are tied up pretty tight in their respective sectors and any extra money is going into the new schools.” The two cops stared at him as he took the last sip of his tea and set the cup down on the coffee table. “Even if I could, you would still need to go through the proper channels with more than just hunches. I can’t do personal favors anymore.”
He stood up. Ko and Chiu followed suit, their eyes down. “I know it’s hard,” said Su, “what happened to your brother, but the triads aren’t a major threat anymore. I think you give them too much credit, and that’s probably because of how close to the line you were. Mind, I don’t blame you. I would be looking over my shoulder too, after all you have been through.”
Ko finished crafting the napkin into a bandage around his hand, and then said, “I would stop too if someone else paid the dues and I reaped the rewards.” Ko turned and walked out of the office, ignoring the Chief Executive’s hand.
After they had stormed out, Su stood and gazed out his windows while his secretary stepped in.
“I need someone to clean up the mess, replace the rug, and the teacup.”
“Yes sir, anything else?”
“Have the interns draft a bill to extend the current finance plan for the police force to five years. I want it on my desk the day after tomorrow. It will be good practice for them.”
The secretary bowed and left Su to himself and to Hong Kong.
Chapter 43
New Reason
Y ong and the kid stood behind Heng as they rode up the elevator.
“I’m glad Lóng got the message. The weak ass bitch,” said Heng. The elevator stopped and the doors opened to the same floor Yu died on. “We will meet in the same room as before.” He snapped his fingers. “Gun? Where’s Tin and Tan?” Heng looking around.
Yong handed him his gun and answered the question. “They’re in the corner office with Lóng and his bodyguards.”
Heng turned to face Yong. The kid flinched. “The bitch!” yelled Heng. “Why did he think he could decide the location?”
“I guess since you picked the building, he would pick the room.”
Heng turned around and stomped toward the corner office. Following a few steps behind Heng, Yong leaned over and whispered to the kid, “Whatever happens, don’t freak out. Okay?” The kid nodded, his eyes older now. They followed Heng a few steps behind as he walked through the new hallways with fresh drywall. Around a corner, Tin and Tan stood
at the entrance of the office, their heads down as Heng stomped past them and through the black wood door. He gave no acknowledgment of them. The corner room was completely empty, which amplified the sunset scenery from the wall-sized windows. Heng strode into the middle of the large room and glanced around.
“Where is he?” he asked loudly.
The reply was the door shutting behind him. That was when he saw the other man, taller, fitter, and hairier than Heng. The man stroked his short, thick beard as he spoke. “Do you know who I am?”
Heng repositioned his feet to face the man head-on. “The Lumberjack I assume?” Heng looked him over. “No wonder they call you that.”
The Lumberjack smiled. “That’s one reason,” Jack said. He pulled out a fire axe from behind his back. “Though today, you’ll give it a new reason.”
Heng pulled out his small gun and aimed it at the Lumberjack’s forehead. “You should have worn a red flannel. That would have really helped the headlines.” Heng pulled the trigger, and the gun clicked empty.
The Lumberjack looked out the window as if thinking of a response. He looked back and said, “Nah, too cliché.” The Lumberjack walked closer, and Heng lowered his gun. Jack said, “What were you thinking? I mean, you should’ve known the Red Dragon wasn’t going to just sit by and let you get away with this.”
Heng stumbled backward. “What kind of leader lets his own brother get sliced up like that? Answer me that? I’ll tell you: a weak one.”
“Maybe,” answered the Lumberjack.
Heng’s back hit the window. Jack let his eyes wander to the parade outside in the distance. He was only able to see the parade dragon above anything else. He refocused on Heng. “Here’s the thing: even with his faults, he’s still got a lot more resources than you.” The Lumberjack swung the axe up slowly and let gravity help it fall to his other hand.
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