More than half a year later, I finally churned out a second chapter of unimpressive lengh. As you probably already noticed, my writing skills are subpar, so I apologize to all Black Lagoon fans as well as people with common sense, since I probably violated that as well. T_T
Finally, autocorrect may have backstabbed me again, so I apologize for spelling mistakes I may have missed. (That or I'm just getting old and blind)
I do not own Black Lagoon or any other recognizable franchiese that I may use.
(^3^)
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"You summoned me Capitan?"
"Ah, yes Sergeant." Was Balalaika's short reply as she ignited a cigar. "What do you think about our newcomers?"
"We did not carry out a deep recon yet, but first-contact info confirms that they are not from here, though their tattoos and insignia seem familiar."
"That they do." Russian woman confirmed, shaking an ash from her cigar. "They are the Gorgon's Head."
Sergeant Boris held back unproffesional snort of disdain at the mention of the gang's name, instead opting for rather obvious statement.
"Quite far from their stomping grounds in Bangkok, Capitan. Should we engage them?"
Almost unnoticbly, a corner of Balalaika's mouth twitched in subdued smile at the tought of conflict, but was soon replaced by ponderous expression. "I'm hestitating." She admitted finally, to Boris' surprise. Not that he showed it, mind you. "They are shown to be too undisciplined to be bussiness partners, but with how fortified their presence was in capital, crushing them and taking over like we did in Tokyo, would cost us too many soldiers for too little gain..." She mused while reclining deeper into her chair. "And now, they are on our turf doing as they please dismissing the balance of power and any rules we actually have for this place. They are pretty much asking to be annihilated."
Boris stood at attention. He needn't to ask for clarification. He trusted that Capitan will explain if she'll deem it necessary and he was proven right as his superior elaborated and he silently adimtted he had similiar toughts on the matter.
"But this is not their style. Gorgon's Head do not expand with leaps. They slowly crawl and spread out of Bangkok, fortifying their positions before taking another step. It should be generations before they felt secure enough to get even close to Roanapur." She concluded, while giving Boris a pointed stare, prompting him for his opinion.
Sergeant obliged without delay. "You suspect that someone pushed their hand, or at least convinced them to go out of their way that they stick to for decades."
Balalaika nodded. "Someone managed to herd cats and that itself makes me curious. I would like to meet the one who's truly behind this operation, before we decide wheter to wipe them as the stain they are. We may actually squeeze some profit out of this yet."
"Orders Capitan?"
"Keep tabs on them from distance. Do not engage as long as they stay away from our operations and refrain from sending spies deeper just yet. The snakes are paranoid and would likely sacrifice some of their own just to capture an infiltrator and I won't lose my men for such pointless and stupid reason. Especially if they were to capture them alive..." Balalaika finished, narrowing her eyes. Implication was clear. No one would wan't to get apprehanded by this type of enemy.
Boris nodded curtly, saluted and left his commander's office to issue orders.
Left alone, Balaika felt nagging sensation at the back of her head. Some unease she couldn't identify as if she made a bad call. Yet she couldn't find mistake in the course of action she took. Startegically every step seemed sound, so why...
Frustrated, she pulled out another cigar.
...
The noise permeating the Yellow Flag's interior, barely drowned the sound of glass slamming on the counter.
Bao almost voiced a complain, about not having enough spares for Revy to break, but judging from bags under gunslingers eyes and and a mood a few notches worse than usually, he kept his moth shut.
Meanwhile, woman in question was pouring herself, another glass of rum, while her companion, imacculately dressed in black slacks, and white shirt with a tie, was consuming his own drink at much more subdued pace.
Frankly, Rock wasn't sure what's this was all about. Revy pretty much scared him out of the bed, and dragged him to bar, grumbling something about sharing misery.
Seeing as the temperamental woman isn't about to explain her actions on her own, he deemed it safe enough to prod her for some clarification.
"So..." Former salary man started between sips. "Mind telling me why you wake me up and drag me to drink?"
At first, Revy only grunted in lieu of response, but that was followed by a more elaborate answer soon enough. "Had a shitty night. Too hot to keep the window closed and as soon as I open it, there some ungodly fuckin stench filling my room. Like someone burning trash or something. Kept me up all night." She finished with another slam of her glass on the counter.
"That explains something. And why am I here?" Rock asked, slowly filling his second glass.
That finaly brought a wicked smile on Revy's face. "You are the best buffer for shitty moods. I can give you half of mine."
"Go figure." Tought Rock, while rolling his eyes.
...
As it turns out, Revy wasn't the only member of Lagoon Company, bothered by the stench. Benny was sitting at his computer with slightly chagrinned expression. He didn't even heard his boss coming near.
"Something on your mind?" Large african-american, asked his bespectacled teammate.
Benny was starled for a second by Dutch's sudden - from his perspective - appearance, but got his bearings fast enough to answer. "Just some uneasiness. I don't know..." He shrugged. "It's just that, after that fish factory became active, I just got a bad feeling for some reason. Probably nothing tough. I'll be fine soon."
Dutch "hmmed" with his arms folded on his chest. "Well, this isRoanapur. Hardly anything here goes by, without giving someone a bad vibe. From the better news, we may have a job soon."
That picked Benny's interest and apparently chased his worries away. "Any more details? What kind and how soon?"
"Supposedly something simple. We just take someone from Bangkok and bring them here. Safely. They're still polishing details on their end, but it should be few days from now."
"Huh. Good to know" Benny commented. "Sounds easy enough. We could use some easy money, without being shot at, and chased around by assasins and super maids..."
That got a chuckle out of Dutch. "Revy's never gonna let that one down." He muttered with half a smile.
...
Steven's day started great. Never the one with lots of money, he experienced a smile of fortune when Alojz, his penpal from Slovakia, invited him for a vacation.
It was curious kind of a deal. Alojz explained that small hotell bussines he was working at, was branching out and as a promotional event, they allow foreign turists to stay for a few days at some of their hostels and motels. All expences paid. Guests are supposed to get a taste of service and advertise it in their social circles once they return.
That, Steven admited, sounded a bit complicated and weird but still legit. Turned out he wasn't the only one. He was part of the group of men and woman, that Alojz was responsible for. And boy he wasn't disappointed. For the last few days, Alojz managed to use his position and contacts in company, to slip in few "extras" just for him as his pal. An intimate services that wasn't exactly in the standard offer. And today he was promised something even better, but for that, they needed to sneak for different motel. Somewhere more private. In the evening it was supposed to get... Loud.
Oh, it was loud. Just not the kind that he would excpect. And neither did Alojz apparently.
Steven was currently pressing himself against the wall of a small motel room. A space made even smaller, by a fucking truck, that just a minute ago, smashed through the cheap drywall and parked half way in their room, with the front of it blocking the door. While Steven's first response was to try and hide in the corner, Alojz immidietly bolted for the narrow hole between the side of the truck and the smashed wall. His attempt was stopped dead, when the passanger door swung open and hit him square in the face. That followed by a huge, black clad guy, with black smudged face, getting out of the car. Steven never know that the concept of shitting bricks can feel so literal, until he saw the guy grabbing his slovakian pal by the collar and the belt, lifting him above the head, and tossing him across the room like a rag doll.
And then the black monster looked at him. If not for the fact that brick is so hard to pass through the colon, Steven would have a wall in his pants right this moment.
And then it got weird, when the tall freak spoke.
"Get the fuck out of here and in about half an hour, call the cops. I probably just saved you skin."
It took a while for his shell shocked brain to understand he isn't about to die horribly, but it was the sight of a ghost looking woman, get out of driver's side of the car... With a shotgun. While humming Ievan Polkka – To get his body to move and get the hell out of here. He heard the man say something to his female accomplice in a foreign language, that seemed familiar, but he couldn't discern sense. He managed to get quite a way, before he heard shots. It was long after he got to the hotel he was originally staying at, that he realized... He left Alojz behind.
...
"You want me to keep an eye for who?" Eda rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration, with her other hand gripping a phone. "Is that official? If this is under the table, that shit better don't end up on my lawn. I have enough local freaks to deal with and keep this shit running. I'm not about to catch someone else's strays." The blond nun/arms trader/undercover CIA agent huffed in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You just informing every cell about a bunch of mad dogs running wild, because their masters fucked up. But why do we have to clean up this mess? Guys like those are dime a dozen. Cut off and left to drift. They even become quite useful for us as mercs..." Due to shades resting on Eda's nose, no one would notice her eyes widening slightly at what she heard in reciever. "This unit? Fuck, you remeber how this place got riled up when Cisneros showed up? I can't guarantee shit if any one of them comes knocking. Consider yourselves warned. This may be too much to handle for this powder keg and I'm not gonna wait for it to blow."
Her annoyed tirade spent for a moment, Eda forced herself to listen to the man on the other side, before sighting.
"Fine. That much I can do. No. I can't think of any reason they might come here for, so that may be a good thing. Yes, besides that, things are holding up. Is that all? Great."
Finally she put the receiver down. Damn, she needed a drink.
...
The quiet chime of a bell above the door, announced arrival of another patron in the cafe.
Averege looking man, casually dressed in jeans and a fake skin jacket, looked around for a moment, before spotting his apparent destination – a table near the window, with three more people already sitted.
"You're late." One of the men said. He was visibly the oldest, with a bald spot at the top of his head. His tone carried no accusation. Merely stating the obvious. "Anyway, we took the liberty of placing a cake order for you."
That caused the newcomer to chuckle and mutter thanks as he sat down. He scratched his light brown hair as if embarassed a bit, before speaking. "Heh, funny story. Someone attempted to mug me on the way here."
"Where's the funny part?" Asked another of the gathered men, pushing his glasses up his nose, as they kept on slipping, whenever he leaned down to take a bite out of his own dessert. He really needed a better fitting ones.
"Well..." The man in fake skin jacked started with a smile. "He tried to terrorize me with a gas pistol... While standing upwind." He finished with a full blown grin now on his face.
This induced a varying reactions from his companions. From chuckles, to groan to a facepalm.
"I had to call the ambulance, once he ended up blinded on the ground, as well as a patrol, since I don't carry cuffs around when I'm off duty." He finished with a shrug.
"Hey, they could come in handy. You never know what you'll need in bedroom." Chuckled the last man at the table. This one, easly identified by his Van Dyke facial hair.
This cause the late man to rise an eyebrow. "Excuse me, I don't believe we've been acquaintanced."
"Oh, right sorry. I'm Filip." The bearded man said extendaing a hand. "Ivan here" he said motioning towards the balding man with his head "invited me to your... How did he called it? Old wife gossip circle." He explained with a smirk.
"Oldrich." Answered the man in fake skin "Nice to meet you."
"Well." Said Ivan. "Since we're all here, we can start I guess. Pavol, wanna go first?" He turned towards a bespectacled man, who was currently engrossed in his phone.
"Hey, Pavol!" Ivan repeated, snapping fingers in front of his collegue's face. That seemed to get his attention.
"Oh, sorry. I needed to check messages. Going first, huh? Actually I think I'll go last. I have some serious shit." He said with a mysterious smile.
"But maybe Filip will give it a try. Oldrich more or less already shared something, so you should get the idea." The last words he spoke directly to the bearded man.
Ivan likewise, gazed at the newest member of the group. "So? Wanna give it a go?"
"Sure, why not." Answered the man. "So... One of the funnier or more curious cases I've had or at least witnessed, yes? Let me think... How about this" he started "One time we got a bizzare call about a dead woman. Apparently, she was, I quote 'suffocated by her ex-boyfriend's boa constricter.' Well, we arrive on the scene and find the victim dead, surrounded by sleeping pills and and alcohol. Later, the coroner confirmed that there was no signs of damage on strangulation or any form of preassure on the neck. However he also confirmed that she didn't died from overdose... But from smoke inhalation."
"Ok, that's interesting, but where is the snake involved" Oldrich interrupted.
"I'm getting to it, patience" Filip chuckled. "So, we're questioning the neighbours and even found the ex-boyfriend. He confirmed, that she tossed him and all his things out, and that he indeed had a pet boa constricter, but it went missing. We eventually got to the woman that called. Apparently her son had seen the victim as she was struggling with snake on her shoulders, and he run right to tell her. But by the time she got outside, the woman was already gone. She got curious and knocked at the door, but no one answered. Then she looked through the window and saw the victim unmoving. She panicked and called us. Now we're getting to the most absurd part." He said.
"We questioned other naighbour, but they knew even less. Until one person gave us an interesting detail. When he was walking a dog, his dog started barking and that got his attention towards the house. He was sure that he had seen a large snake near the side of the house, but a moment later it was gone. He wasn't sure what type of snak that was or if it was venomous so he walked away fast. We checked the area he mentioned and found a hole. Upon inspection it turned up it connects with ventilation system. We pretty much dismantled the whole wall and we finally found the snake. He was looking for a warm place, and clogged the small chimney. Smoke had nowhere to go, and as our victim was knocked out by pills and alcohol, she choked to death carbon oxide. This must be the first human that a snake choked by proxy." Filip finished with alsmost disbelieving shake of his head.
"I'm at lack of words." Deadpanned Ivan.
"I know I should not laugh at someone's death" Oldrich admitted, "but this is hilarious in a most bullshit way possible."
"Ok, I can't top that." Laughed Ivan. "But I got a funny one. So imagine that. Two wanna be gangsters, tried to force a guy to pay extrotion money, by repeatedly demolishing his shop. But he stayed stubborn and just kept calling us after every visit. The problem was, they dropped irregularily, so the stake outs turned out ineffective. Problem solved itself in most hilarious way. Those two finally got fed with obstinate shopkeeper, and decided to punish him in classic italian style. Concrete shoes and and all that. However when they arrived at the river, and tried to drag him out of the van, the huge block of concrete fell on one of those morons foot. They panicked, got back into a car and run... Straight to the public hospital. Our would-be victim was left forgotten on the road. He managed to wriggle the phone out of his pocked, and gave us a call. From then it was easy to call hospitals and locate people with fitting injuries, find the thugs and put them behind bars."
That got chuckles around the table, that only got more intense, when Oldrich rised a fork with a piece of cake as if in toast and commented "For the never ending stupidity of mankind."
"Ok... So it's my turn now." Stated Pavol. "Oldrich, finish that cake. You may lose apetite once I'm done."
This if nothing else, got full attention from his collegues (and made Oldrich gulp his dessert in the next two seconds).
"So" Pavol started "the truth is, I shouldn't be actually atlking about this, since the case is still in progress... But I believe that's something you deserve to hear. Few days ago, a panicked tourist contacted us, claiming that he and his friend had been assaulted in remote hostel, by a pair of unknown culprits. Tall man and a woman presumably, dressed respectively in black and white. Additionally, man had his face covered in some black paint while the woman must have had some Haloween make-up. They crashed through the wall in his room with some truck. Green if he remembers correctly, and the male almost immidietly attacked his friend Alojz. Our witness managed to escape, or rather as he claims, he was allowed to escape, but in panic, he left his friend behind."
"This is starting to sound weird. Even by my standards." Filip interjected, reciveing sagely nod from Ivan.
"Oh, it's weirder." Pavol assured, before returning back to his relation. "When we came to investigate the scene, there was indeed a huge hole leading to one of the rooms, as well as tire marks. And that was the least fucked up of what we found. Whole place looked like a Hellraiser scene. We've found over thirty bodies, with wounds ranging from gunshots and various lacerations, to someone having pieces of glass shoved down their throat."
The table was silent, aside from Oldrich muttering "That's sick." under his nose, so the bespectacled man resumed the story.
"After checking the rooms, we noticed a pattern. Some of the deceased, were immobilized. Tied or cuffed to furniture. They bore the most exotic wounds out of the victimis of massacre, like teeth pulled out and grotesque mutilations. Later, out pathologist confirmed that many of those wounds have been inflicted long before their demise. They have been tortured to death. Some of them bearing marks of sexual assault as well. In comparision, the rest of the deceased, died from quick and violent assault. Mostly gunshots of various caliber and some bladed tools. We believe some of the tools used for torture were also used on them, but with clear anger and lethal intent."
"If you want my opinion." Oldrich interjected again. "It sounds as if half of the victims was slowly murdered by other half of the victims. And then killers themselves has been wiped out, probably by a pair mentioned by the tourist."
"That's the theory we leaned towards as well." Agreed Pavol. "But one element doesn't fit, you see. We found a survivor. The tourist indetified him as Alojz. His friend that was left behind. However he was tied half naked to the bed and unresponsive, bearing widely spread marks of torture. We quickly got him to hospital which probably saved his life. Doctors identified some of the wounds on his extremities as severe frostbites, caused most likely be liquid nitrogen. However more life threating turned out to be high toxicity in his organism. He was literally pumped with various drugs that we can't even recognize. It may have been a home made mix, or he was randomly injected with whatever was at hand. Some of the identified substances are known to cause halucinations. Others caused his tissues to decay rapidly. The most distinctive however, is the wound on his left arm. There is whole chunk of flesh torn out and the wound carries unmistakeable marks of human bitemarks. Someone apparently ate a piece of him. And not even in Hannibal style - just whole pieces of meat torn away with teeth."
"That's..." Filip stammered. "That's fucked up."
"You're telling me?" Pavol asked sarcastically. "And it just complicates matters. Judging by the time frame of his wounds, he would have to be tortured by the same attackers who presumably killed other torturers. An unexplained change in MO. The message I recieved recently was the latest update on his state. He is fading in and out of consciousnes, but he managed to mumble the words "cirnu bogu", whatever that means. That's all we have for now." Pavol finished, leaving his friends with dismayed looks on their faces.
Only Filip had contemplative expression. "Chernobog." He said finally. That earned him confused looks from the remaining table occupants.
"'Cirnu bogu' is the oldest or maybe in case of this patient deformed pronouncement of Chernobog."
The bearded man clarified.
That seemed to spark some recognition from Ivan. "You mean that giant devil-like thing from old Disney movie?"
"More or less." Was the answer. "The name for the movie was borrowed from sketchy folks tales. There is very little actually known about Chernobog, which makes him or it so easy for convinient interpretation. Most common traits of his ware association with winter, death and decay. He was most commonly believed to be evil or at least malevolent deity."
Upon recieving questiong looks, Filip simply shrugged. "I liked to read various myths when I was younger."
"Alojz had frostbites and drugs that caused tissue decay in his system." Reminded Pavol. "And if his assilant really was that black dressed man, our victim either subconsciously associated it with and old folk tale, or the culprit tried to convey certain image."
"You think this may be some pagan cult?" Oldrich throw in his two cents. "This whole torture and mass murder starts to look more and more ritualistic."
"At this point we can't rule out anything yet." Pavol sighted. "We will have to check this angle as well."
For a moment there was silence around the table, with Ivan eventually breaking it with a comment "Well... Today's get together turned out to be surprisingly grim. I suggest we get a round of beer and we wrap this up."
A few minutes later, the cold beverage realxed the atmosphere somewhat. But an unaswered question still remained in the back of for men heads – Will there be more?
...
Dutch scowled after putting down the reciever. Their prospective employer had just moved the date of their planned meeting. Apparently something that requires his attention will hold him in Bangkok a little longer. But the vague time frame, left Dutch with a dilemma. Could they afford to wait for the fickle man to finally make his mind, or should they get another job in the meantime, at the risk of missing this opportunity for good. It's not like they run out of clients tough. The Lagoon Company had a high renome in criminal world, as well as in most gray bussines areas, so they weren't starved for employment. Still, the safe and easy jobs were getting more scarce this days, and it was nice to get some chash, without risking his precious boat, to be riddled with holes.
Pondering his next course of action he eventually smirked. It was always easier to deal with the trouble if you could drink them away or burden someone else with them. So why not do both?
"I wonder if Eda has something good stashed." He chuckled to himself.
...
"I. Want. Them. Dead."
The man in dark blue bussines suit, stated each word with deceptive calmness, as he poured himself another glass of vodka. He was just a little on the portly side. Not actually overwight, but someone already past his prime that let temselves go a little. It was hard to tell his actual high from his sitting position, but it was average at best. His bald head and a face that showed signs of age, betrayed someone nearing fifty, but was unremarkable otherwise. However his gaze would send chill down peoples spines. There was something cold and hard in his eyes. Certain... Indifference that could be noticed in kids that grown up used to ripping fly's wings or burning ants with magnifying glass.
He raised that stare at the other man in the room, who surprisngly, didn't shudder under it.
Said man was dressed much more casually, in red blouse and gray slacks. He was also slightly younger and leaner, and just a bit taller. Dark brown hair were cut short and a stubble covered his face that could be described as angular and boney. While he didn't appear to be intimidated by unsettling stare of the older man, there was certain attentivness to his posture as he answered.
"I already issued orders Sir. Our people are on the look out. Even our moles in police force are paying special attention to our pest problem. Rest assured, it can't be hard to find someone with such... Unsubtle methods."
"Vel'mi dobre. But just to be on the safe side... I want even the child gangs to have their eyes and ears opened." Answered the bald man. "Bribe them or coerce... I leave it to you. I have some more calls to make, regarding our new branch in Roanapur and I don't wish to be disturbed until the problem is solved. Is that clear?"
"Yes Sir." Was the only reply necessary, and the younger man prepared to leave. Just as he was about to close the door, a new command stopped him
"Oh, and one more thing Kola. I want their heads gift wrapped and send here. I forgot to pack any decorations from home."
Thusly named Kola nodded his head. "As you wish Sir." Before shutting the door.
...
That's it for now. I don't know how it's for you, but I feel as if I tried to lead the bike down the stairs and just fell down from all of them in a jumbled mess. I trully have no sense for where I should end the chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to move story to Roanapur proper in the next chapter or two and stop with this disjointed skips.
I'll just go supply meself with liquor before I gather the courage to check the comments section. Bye.