Chapter 3: Syndicate International

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

1500 Hours International Standard Time

Li and the company of seven boarded off a plane and arrived at the Ruzyne Airport of the Czech Republic. The airport was a busy and tight surveillance junction of international traffic; the company of eight must make it through the customs without any suspicion. For that matter, Luke and Wu acted like strangers while Shunsheng, Xing, Wang, Qi, Shen and Chow posed as one cohesive family of six. Li walked to the checkout counter and handed his passport to the customs agent.

"Cheng Maoceng (程茂层)," the agent said with a bored expression.

"Yes," Shunsheng said in English.

The agent handed back his passport and Shunsheng proceeded forward, joining Chow.

"You have to act natural," Chow whispered into his ear.

"I am trying uncle Xiao," Li said.

After a brief wait to get everything together, the group walked out the main entrance of the airport with their luggage and waited for four taxis.

A taxi paused before Shunsheng, Xing, Qi and Wang. "We have to get to this location," Wang said, looking at a slip of paper. The piece of paper read: 1200 Zicovych road. They got onto the vehicle and departed the rest of the company.

The taxi drove all the way to 1200 Zicovych road, but to their astonishment, the destination was an elementary school. Minutes later, Wu's taxi arrived, followed by Luke's.

"What is taking Chow and Shen so long?" Wang demanded an answer.

"Calm down Wang, they won't get lost," Wu replied confidently.

The company waited for about fifteen minutes and a white taxi arrived, it was Chow and Shen.

"What was the holdup?" Wang exclaimed.

"Sorry, Shen had to go to the washroom after Wu left," was his apology.

Shen smiled at Wang with a guilty look on his face.

"Alright, where to?" Wang asked Wu impatiently.

"Now, we have to walk twenty minutes to an assembly hall northeast of here," Wu said.

The company of eight found themselves in an assembly hall, filled with over five hundred other members of the Syndicate. In different corners of seats, sat contractors, dolls, and government agents from across the globe. Shunsheng walked passed many foreign faces and found a seat beside between some Caucasian rings.

"Sit here and do not leave," Wu instructed, "Luke and I will be on stage soon."

Wu and Luke left, leaving nothing behind. Li Shunsheng sat in his seat, bored from nothing to do. "What is this meeting about?" Shunsheng asked Wang.

"We will find out. It is probably a formal gathering of the Syndicate," Wang replied logically.

Li gave out a sigh and relaxed on his cushioned seat. At that moment, the lights in the assembly hall dimmed and spotlights shone onto the stage. A man in a formal suit stood before a podium in front of the audience. His back faced fourteen chairs, where Luke and Wu had their seats. An exuberant roar of clapping filled the room.

"Greetings, honourable members of the Syndicate," the man began in American accented English, "Let me introduce myself to all of you, I am John Taylor of the CIA and I am honoured to inform everybody what the Syndicate is about. The Syndicate was founded by yours truly and thirteen other members from different parts of the globe. Please give a round of applause for Luke Pontenegro of America, Wu Tianxiang of China, Charles Cunningham of England, Jean Paul Rochet of France, Yoshimitsu Horai of Japan, Dmitry Chekov of Russia, Heinrich Schiller of Germany, Christian Anderson of Denmark, Abdul Hamat of the UAE, Chandra an Ramachandran of India, Keith Keller of Australia, Paul Sanchez of Mexico and Jose Diges of Spain.

The heavens have undergone a massive revolution against mankind and mankind will no longer hoard the same food, living space and resources for themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, five days ago, as ridiculous as this may sound, the skies have fallen. The skies have been replaced by a new fate for humankind, a fate where humans have to share their food; share their resources with other sentient races. As all of us should know by now, planet Earth is no longer dominated by man, but shared with two sibling races: dolls and contractors. Some of us in this room already know who they are, and we are sitting side by side, with these new divine creations.

They look the same as a normal human would, but there is a distinction in psychology and physical capabilities. Contractors and dolls are what we may call paranormal beings without heart and soul, but a place in the skies; they have their own domain. Many governments in the world turned their attentions to one set of documents, the Mikata documents. Within the pages of the Mikata documents, we find a passage:

They rise from trails of fallen stars,

In search of purpose from afar,

And seek what is left of humankind,

Leaving their perilous realm behind,

Confusing people and brooding hate,

The truth lies beyond hell and heaven's gate.

The Mikata documents are an invaluable forecast of what will become of this world. To prevent any panic and devastation from occurring, we gather the greatest minds and all walks of life to a non-government organization. This is the Syndicate we are forging today, a solution to all our future problems. The Syndicate promises a future where man, doll and contractor will exist without any conflict. It is still a long way since this prophecy has only begun to unveil. Let peace be maintained between us."

Li was tired from the speech and fell asleep.

Luke Pontenegro walked up to the podium and delivered his speech, "Thank you Mr. Taylor, for your wonderful speech this evening. Let me begin by introducing myself, I am Luke Pontenegro of INTERPOL and I represent the Sino-American division of the Syndicate. Ladies and gentleman, we of the Syndicate are a diverse group, with different talents and backgrounds. Some of us might be corporate leaders or research scientists from DARPA. Some of us might be construction workers or shopkeepers somewhere in Paris. I guarantee many of us come from different cultural backgrounds and religious ideologies. But why are we all gathered here? What is our objective? The answers are survival and peace. As John Taylor has told us, humans, dolls and contractors have to share the planet and live in harmony. The Syndicate is tied to many governments, although it is not governmentally organized, to act as a sentinel for the three species. We have to put effort into minimalizing crimes and feuds before a war breaks out of control. We also hope your cooperation will continue to promote this goal and our relationships are of mutual trust. My message on behalf of the INTERPOL is simple and clear: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil (视勿恶, 听勿恶, 言勿恶, 动勿恶)*. That quote by Confucius will be a new international motto. Thank you."

Li was snoring by now.

*非礼勿视, 非礼勿听,非礼勿言,非礼勿动 (论语-颜渊)

"Wake up! Wake up Li," Wang said, "I know you are tired from the jet lag, but this is important information." Li woke up and noticed the assembly hall was nearly empty.

"Sorry, did I doze off for too long?" Li asked half blinded from the sudden awakening.

"Tch, yeah you did," Chow jeered.

"Where's Xing?" Li asked after noticing her disappearance.

"Xing and Bailian went out to find a place to stay. Wu will contact us later about the logistics of things," Wang said.

"So what did I miss," Li asked.

"You missed two speeches about the Syndicate's purpose. We kind of anticipated this happening. However, I thought the Syndicate was founded by international renegades, not collaborated with the INTERPOL. We really need to get the facts straight," Chow replied.

"What remain in question are their actions and our duties as members of the Syndicate," Wang added.

"What do you expect," Li asked.

"Nothing big I guess. Those bigwigs on stage share the most power amongst other members. I say, we might be used as pawns for that matter, however, it is crucial we stay close to their motives if we want to live in peace," Wang said.

"Then it is a matter of mutualism," Li responded.

Chow's phone rang and he answered, "Wei? Ok, alright. I got it."

"Who was that?" Li asked.

"It was Bailian; she found an extremely cheap motel in Libeznice. Looks like we are in luck," Chow replied.

"Hey! Wake up old man!" Chow yelled.

Shen Toufang awoke from his light nap and looked around like he was uncertain of his whereabouts. "What is happening?" he asked.

"We are going to stay at a motel and wait for Wu's response," Wang responded.

The four left the assembly hall into the streets of inner city Prague. Li Shunsheng gazed at the wide sky, in hope of the old stars being visible in foreign skies. It was hopeless; nothing could be seen, even for an untempered summer's night in Eastern Europe.

From this point onward, the members of the Syndicate chose to identify themselves by their codenames. Li Shunsheng's is Hei; his sister Bai. Wang called himself Qian and Bailian called herself Kun. Shen referred to himself as Kun while Chow personally named himself Dui. Contractor business is covert and any leakage of personal information might become a potential threat to the organization and international security.

Dui's phone rang and he picked it up expertly and responded to the call, "Wei? Who is speaking?"

"It's Wu. You will be called Dui from now on, understood. Those codenames you designated yourselves will be your new identities," Wu instructed.

"I want to get this straight, is the Syndicate controlled by governments or founded by international renegades," Dui asked.

"The conference should have been explicit Dui, the Syndicate is not controlled by governments, but we are tied to their intelligence agencies. You should have figured out by now, our goals can only be achieved if both sides shared data," was Wu's explanation.

Wu hung up on Dui and this infuriated him, "Damn! I am losing trust to these bureaucrats!"

"Bureaucrats are never to be trusted," Qian said, stating the obvious.

"I thought the relationship was mutual trust," Dui said in rage, he kicked a stool in the motel room.

Kun stared blankly while kneeling on a bed. Hei sat slouching on a chair and said, "Well it is late, and I think we have to rest from the jet lag."

"Goodnight," Kan exclaimed.

Kan, Kun, Hei and Bai left Qian and Dui alone and exited their motel room. Kan and Hei walked to the next room down the hall while Kun and Bai walked across the hall to their room.

The next morning began with a phone call from Wu around six in the morning.

"What is it?"

"Dui, your division must reach this destination. I advise you to copy it down."

"Let me find a pen."

Dui searched around the room and found a pen located in a drawer attached to the small table situated between the beds.

"Alright, lay it on me."

"Praha10 and from there you will be given more details. Get there by o-eight hundred hours and don't be late. Failure is not an option!"

Wu hung up without any warning, he was direct like always.

"Dang, why is he always like this?" Dui exclaimed.

Qian woke up from the commotion and asked, "Was that Wu again?"

"Yes and he orders us to go to this place," Dui threw the piece of paper to Qian.

"Praha10? Where is that? Is it a road or a building?"

"Who knows? It could be a brothel or another elementary school."

"Damn that man is vague."

"You got that right. Let's go, we have to wake the others."

Dui and Qian left their room untidy and walked across the hall to Bai and Kun's door. They knocked on it in some kind of sound code. The door opened and Bai attended to it. She looked at them with her melancholy eyes, still wearing that bloodstained dress, but most of the blood worn off from rain and sediments.

"Hurry, we have to get to a place by eight o'clock," Qian said.

Kun approached the door wearing nothing but underwear. Her appearance startled Qian.

Bai turned to face Kun and said, "Get ready, we have to go."

"I will be checking on Kan," Qian said with a red face. He turned his head with a sheepish look and walked off.

Kun nodded and Bai shut the door lightly. Dui was already at Hei and Kan's doorstep and knocked in the exact same sound code. Nobody answered. Dui knocked on it again, but nobody responded. Qian tried the same but it was futile.

"That is it! Crap I have to use this!" Dui used his contractor powers on the doorknob and the mechanism was forced open. Qian pushed the door only to discover the room was empty and spotless.

"Wow! Shen and Li tidied the place up," he said and entered the neatly organized room.

"Damn that Kan! Now I have to pay up," Dui punched the walls and forced a dent to appear.

"Easy there, we do not want to pay for any damage," Qian warned.

"Too late I already damaged it. We will have to cover it up by moving the cupboard to hide the evidence," Dui said.

Qian pushed the cupboard next to Dui, shielding the crack on the wall from exposure.

"Now we have to find them," Dui said.

"I bet you they have gone for breakfast at the restaurant outside."

"We have to hurry or else we won't get there on time."

Bai and Kun left their room and followed Qian and Dui outside. They walked to a nearby restaurant called International Cuisine, and found Hei and Kan sitting beside an all-you-can-eat sushi express.

"What are they doing there?" Dui asked.

"Eating of course," Qian pointed out the obvious.

The four walked into International Cuisine, to "rigorously interrogate" Hei.

"We have to stick together you know! Don't run off like that," Qian said.

"You can eat anything for only thirty Korunas," Hei pointed at the sign in front of him while stuffing his face with sushi.

"We have to go! There is no time for food," Dui said in a vexed temper.

Qian dragged Hei and Kan out of the restaurant outside and said, "What were you thinking? What happened if you got lost somehow?"

"We were just hungry," Hei said, "You cannot run on an empty stomach!"

Kan nodded with a smile.

"I will kill you the next time something like this happens, do you understand?" Dui roared.

"Sorry, we will stick together next time," Hei apologized.

"Now we have to get two taxis to Praha10," Qian said.

The team reached Praha10. Coincidentally, Wu called when they got out of the vehicles.

"Listen to what I say and follow my orders," Wu demanded on the phone.

"Alright," Dui responded.

"Do you see a lamppost?"

"Yes, we are between two of them."

"Walk to the one juxtaposed between two buildings and walk down that alley."

"Understood."

"Do you see something resembling a sewer grate?"

"Yes."

"Lift that up and climb into the manhole."

The team descended the manhole but a sewer was not to be found, instead the ground was level and dry. Bai blocked the manhole with the sewer cover and followed the rest of the team.

"Now walk to the left of the stairs until you reach two tunnels."

The team reached the two tunnels and Dui asked, "Which one sir?"

"The left," Wu replied and hung up.

"I hate it when he does that," Dui said, annoyed and crossed.

The team walked down the path and a wooden door blocked an entrance.

"The door is unlocked," Qian said as he turned the doorknob.

Beyond the door, sat Wu and Luke, both wearing sunglasses and matching black suits, much like professional agents.

"Greeting once again," Wu said while he removed his shades.

"Alright, why are we here?" Dui questioned.

"On your first mission," Wu said.

"Our first mission," Hei repeated quizzically.

"The six of you should be honoured since you are the first group to be assigned. Normally, a team consists of four members because four is sufficient, but this pilot mission requires more multiple spy-works, hence six." Luke informed.

"You will be luring contractors to this location in Prague," Wu passed a slip of paper to Dui.

It read:

BIS

"What is this BIS?" Dui asked.

"It is the Czech Republic's Security Information Service, an agency that protects citizens' rights. We need every Czech contractor safe from harm and you six will track them down." Wu said.

"How many are there?" Hei asked.

"We only need five for now; Kun will be responsible for using her spectre to see them. Make sure she is near someplace with plenty of water," Luke said.

"What is a spectre," Hei asked.

"A spectre is what enables a doll to see more of the big picture than any other being. They are perfect for spying," Luke answered.

"I know Dui can speak English fairly well, but I question the rest of you. If you haven't figured it out yet, English is the official language of the Syndicate. Since all of you know Mandarin, you already have a head start. We advise all of you to pick up French, Russian and German," Wu added.

"Do not kill anybody or reveal yourselves as contractors. You must keep this matter discreet as it is tight security. If you do, then it is mission failure," Wu said, staring at the group with discerning eyes, "Does everybody understand?"

"Yes sir!" Bai, Hei, Qian and Dui cried simultaneously.

"What are you going to do with all those contractors?" Hei asked.

"That is none your business. Your job is to round them up for the Syndicate. We will deal with them on our own," Wu said.

Hei put his hands in his pockets and followed the team out of the tunnels back to the surface.

"Man I heard the price of Mangoes have skyrocketed. I really crave for them right now," Dui stated.

"Seriously," Hei said.

"Yeah, back in Hong Kong, I ate mangoes on a daily basis. It was cheap there. I wonder what the hell is wrong these crazy prices."

"I think it has to do with the conflict between England and Mexico over oil rigs."

"How does that apply?"

"The kid might be right. In Hong Kong, you were probably eating the Thai and Filipino variety. Here in Eastern Europe, it is more convenient to get it from Mexico," Qian remarked.

"Damn EU and their stupid relations," Dui cursed.

"I think a unified continental economy is a great idea," Hei commented.

"Shut up kid," Dui scolded.