TRIAD BROTHEL INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
The women removed from an address in the eastern district were being held at the premises against their will, it was revealed yesterday. As young as 17, the women were being forced to engage in sexual activities and drugs abuse. The police raid uncovered an established brothel that is said to have accommodated a variety of exclusive visitors. Three men were also removed from the address and arrested.
Republic City Police has stated that the property is suspected to have strong triad affiliations. Two of the suspects are said to have been identified as having involvement with the Triple Threats. Chief Lin Beifong revealed the condition of the women recovered from the address, stating that they are believed to have suffered "physical and emotional abuse".
She said: "The women were vulnerable and victims of coercion. Our investigation into this unsettling circumstance will be thorough. The people involved and all related evidence will be subject to the most sensitive scrutiny."
Korra closed the morning's paper with a sigh. The news was likely already outdated, the afternoon editions being furiously mocked up. She was yet to hear a word directly from Lin despite her promising to keep her updated. The two days that passed since that meeting had been spent struggling with a growing sense of frustration. Korra folded the paper and got up from the low dining table, picking up her plate with its remnants of a late lunch and making her way to the kitchens.
With Tenzin having left early in the morning to attend to his Council duties, Korra was left to meditate with his oldest daughter. It was more to help ease her impatience than anything else. Her mentor had not had the proper chance to continue her instruction in airbending since her return to the city. Quiet, peaceful moments in which to teach were few and far between, and even when they came about that intention was furthest from the mind. There were other responsibilities and worries to be concerned with instead.
Korra enjoyed the cool breeze of the afternoon as she left the family home and let her feet lead where they may. Inclining her head to acolytes as she passed them, Korra found herself heading up towards the eastern cliff side of the island, which overlooked Yue Bay. Perhaps that was not so surprising. Her answering to the call of the waters was inherent, instinctual. She liked to simply sit sometimes and watch them pulled gently back and forth. Her stride slowed, however, as she took the steps that led up towards the plaza.
As the plane of her vision began to smooth out and she could peek over the top of the stairs, she saw two children dressed in complimentary shades of orange. Korra paused, but not for the reason that she was not fond of their company right now. Instead, upon seeing them, she was struck by a quiet sense of surprise and awe.
The two children, both having just stepped into the realm of their teenage years, faced each other across the plaza. They each wore a focused expression, Meelo's thick, dark eyebrows drawn together in concentration. Ikki, the fourteen year old chatterbox, was poised with a serene grace, the braided tail of her hair falling long between her shoulders. Both had taken the same stance, in form the perfect mirror to one another. Korra's eye took note of the manner in which they evenly distributed their weight on lightly planted feet. Carefully lowering herself to sit at the edge of one of the uppermost steps, she rested her elbow on the one above it and leaned forward to watch. Korra was intrigued. And then the airbenders began to move.
It was like a dance, calm, composed and steady, led chiefly by circling steps that flowed with the wind. Ikki and Meelo came together and then drew apart with the measured movements of their feet, never ceasing, never remaining still. Likewise, Korra noticed, their eyes rarely strayed from each other's, only when the turning of their bodies demanded it. Between them there was an almost perfect synchronicity. Ikki lent to her brother gracefulness, making smooth the stiffer transitions of his limbs. In kind, Meelo offered guidance, precise with swift, sharper movements.
Korra did not know how much time had passed when the two siblings finally stood opposite one another, hands respectfully together as they bowed. She was entranced, so absorbed in their unwitting exhibition that it took a while to realise the ache lightly pulsing through her elbow, pressed into the gritty stone of the step above. She watched as the two lifted their heads, and then the quiet intensity in the air dissipated when Ikki reached forward to rub her knuckles on her brother's shaven head. She laughed as she earned herself a punch to the shoulder. Korra sighed with a growing smile and pushed herself up onto her feet.
"You're getting better at this, Mimi!"
"I wasn't the one making all the mistakes. And stop calling me that!"
"Hey guys," Korra said, approaching the siblings with an arched brow. "Getting along, are we?"
"As always," Ikki replied with her typically cheeky smile, once the siblings had turned to greet her with a unified chorus of her name.
Korra hummed. "Who is Mimi, then?"
Ikki jumped out of range of her brother's swatting hand after enthusiastically pointing in his direction. Korra shook her head.
"Isn't 'Mimi' a girl's name anyway?" she said.
"But it suits him so well," Ikki sang.
Meelo rolled his eyes with clear impatience. "Korra, please, make her stop."
"Alright, that's enough, Ikki," she said firmly, placing her hands on her hips and looking down at the girl, "unless you'd like me to tell that story about one particular night time accident…"
"Don't you dare!" Ikki exclaimed, her face transitioning from laughter to deathly affront in less than a second.
Korra merely arched her eyebrow.
"Fine. I'll stop," the girl then huffed, crossing her arms in an apparent sulk. Chuckling, Korra reached forward and pulled Ikki against her side, who did not resist the contact but instead leaned comfortably into her.
"So, which of you is going to tell me about those moves I just watched you practice?" Korra said, looking expectantly between the two.
Ikki perked up at once, eyes growing round. "You were watching?"
"I did just say that Ikki, please pay attention." The girl pouted up at her as Meelo laughed. "I don't think I've seen them before," Korra said then. "It's an airbending form right?"
Meelo nodded. "It's new," he said brightly. "Me and Ikki came up with it."
Korra straightened with pleasant surprise. "Really?"
"It's not entirely new," Ikki interjected, finding her eloquent voice of authority. "We took one of Dad's favourite forms and adapted it to create something more contemporary."
Korra took one long look at the girl. "I see Jinora's beginning to rub off on you."
Ikki unfolded her arms to gesture dismissively. "Oh, please."
"Yep," Korra said, grinning wide. "So, what do you guys say to teaching the Avatar this new, more contemporary airbending form then?"
"You liked it?" Meelo asked immediately.
"I loved it, it was beautiful," she told him. "That and it was the one, only time I've seen the both of you not arguing for longer than two minutes."
They soon had her standing at the centre of the plaza, breathing slow and deeply. Meelo stood to her side whilst his sister took the role of teacher, standing in front of them. The sibling's constant bickering and back and forth teasing were forgotten, lost to a deliberate sense of focus.
When Ikki spoke, instructing Korra, her high, young voice was quiet and measured. As Meelo demonstrated each progressive movement beside her, his expression was one of serene calm, a trait Korra would more readily associate with his eldest sister. And as they taught her and she learned, at a steady pace developing the form, Korra saw their pride. Though adapted, this was still something that was theirs. It belonged to them and each movement, as she let her mind go blank and dropped away all earthly weight, spoke of the siblings, from soft, unbroken spirals to sharp, powerful lunges. Brother and sister, perhaps unknowingly, stripped themselves to the purest expression of their identity and Korra was so profoundly touched by what she found there.
Despite their appearance, their mannerisms, these two young children were older than their years dictated. Grace flowed from one movement to the next and Korra was suffused with it. Her mind was emptied of thought as she led with her feet in smooth, cyclic motions, weight balanced on the balls of her feet as she sunk low to the ground. And then she rose swiftly, mirrored by the siblings to either side of her, and the wind roared in response to their unified will.
Once more, Korra was too absorbed in the moment to keep track of the passage of time. She only became aware of herself once more upon glimpsing a figure standing at the top of the steps in her peripheral vision. Recognising Jinora broke her out of the almost meditative focus she was deeply sunken into. The girl smiled apologetically as Korra straightened suddenly between Ikki and Meelo, the action serving to disrupt them also. The siblings turned first to her in confusion before their eyes also found their sister. Both affected sulking pouts as she approached.
"Sorry," Jinora said, walking over to them, "I wish I didn't have to disturb you."
Korra, turning to fully face her, gave a small shrug. "It's alright. What's the matter?" she asked, reading the girl's expression.
"There's a call for you," Jinora told her, "from the Chief of Police. Mother is holding it for you."
"Lin?" Korra said, as though the Chief could be anyone else. Jinora nodded nonetheless. "Thanks," Korra then told her, putting her hand to the girl's shoulder as she strode past. "Another time, guys," she called back to her impromptu tutors for the afternoon, taking the steps down from the plaza quickly and making her way back to the house.
Korra found Pema in her husband's office, the door partway open allowing the woman's conversational voice to drift out into the hallway. She was making pleasant small talk with the Chief, who by the sound of things appeared to have asked after the children. Pema could go on for days about them; it was her favourite topic. The woman looked up as Korra pushed open the door fully and stepped into the office.
"Ah, here she is now…Yes, I'll tell them. Meelo will no doubt want to know to when his favourite aunt is visiting again." Pema smiled lightly. "Yes, it was good to speak to you, Lin. I'll just put her on."
Korra mouthed her thanks as she moved over to the desk and Pema handed her the telephone. The woman wore something of a contemplative expression as the device exchanged hands, but it melted away before Korra could be sure. She quietly slipped out of the room, pulling the door half shut behind her. Korra only then turned her attention to the call.
"Lin?"
"Korra, are you alone?" the Chief asked without preamble.
Her brow furrowed slightly. "Yes, I am."
"And Tenzin is currently in a Council session. Good," the woman said crisply, lifting Korra's brow. "I need to discuss something with you without that man's interference, well intentioned though it might be."
Korra paused, then reached over to the office door to shut it completely. "Well, I'm here."
"I assume you've been reading the newspapers," Lin said.
"Yes."
"I'll cut to the chase then," Lin began. "We've been grilling the suspects that were arrested as a result of the raid. Two are triad men, the other is the owner of the bar being used as a cover for the brothel. Ironically, the triad men were more compliant with our questions. They were small time members, trying to get a leg up in the criminal enterprise. We know exactly how to threaten those men. They put their ear to the wall and oftentimes hear something they shouldn't have. One of them claimed that new girls were being expected at the brothel within a few days."
"When?" Korra spoke at once.
"He either legitimately does not know, or is an accomplished liar," the Chief replied. "But I have questioned the man personally. The latter is not true of him."
"But you believe his claim."
"The other man confessed to having been involved in the transportation of migrant women in particular, and that it was regular work. That pattern of regularity appears to be applicable to our current situation," Lin said. "The triad appear to be making a move that we can be in the position to intercept. I cannot afford to delay much longer if that is the case. When I debriefed him, Mako told me that in relation to Lieutenant Bao, the Equalist made mention of the city's docks. I need to find out what that man knows, Korra."
She swallowed. Tenzin's voice was all too clear in her ear.
"Lin, what are you asking?" Korra said carefully.
"Why did you tell me about the ability you possess?" the woman replied instead. "You did not have to. In retrospect, perhaps you shouldn't have."
"I…because I knew you would understand."
"Understand what, exactly?"
Korra pursed her lips, frowning. "Everything," she said eventually. "You would understand how valuable a tool it is and you would balance that against the wrongness of it…the violation of a human being I'm able to commit."
"My mother was a hard woman," Lin spoke quietly after a moment. "She gave birth to me and to this city's law enforcement as we know it, and she raised us both as one and the same. Everything I know, I learned at her knee. One lesson in particular has stuck with me, Korra, and that is not always will truth and fair justice come about as the result of doing the right thing. My mother, despite her sightlessness, saw more clearly than the Council of the day, Aang and many others. Sometimes, and though we do our utmost to avoid resorting to such methods, the only way forward is to get one's hands dirty."
"So what I am asking you," Lin continued, "understanding every implication that Tenzin was kind enough to clarify, understanding that I will be giving you permission to violate laws made and unmade, is to help me. Above all, I made a vow to serve and defend the citizens of Republic City. One man's intimate privacy is worth the lives of the people whom I may be able to rescue from an otherwise terrible situation. I have made that decision, Korra. I will carry the weight of that responsibility."
She clutched the listening device to her ear with one hand, looking down at the other. She could not push aside from before her eyes the image of a man slumped over a cold, steel table, tremulous and weak. She had done that to him. But because she had, Korra was able to save a little girl's life. She swallowed again, testing the scales with her conscience. Perhaps things would be different this time…
"Will you help me?" the Chief said plainly. Her voice was steady, resolute. Absent was even the barest trace of hesitation.
Korra closed her eyes briefly and expelled a breath. "Yes. I will."
"Take the next available ferry over," Lin told her shortly. "I'll be waiting for you."
Korra turned over her hand as she set down the telephone, as though it were not hers and all the actions it had committed thus far were the work of another. Then, curling her fingers inwards, she looked up.
This time would be different.
Lin pushed open the door, allowing Korra to step through into the room ahead of her. Bao had the space to himself, per the Chief's request. There was also an officer posted on the ward at all times. Lin was not taking lightly the possibility of the Equalist finding her way into the hospital, or the lieutenant's apparent concern that the Triple Threats could get access to him whenever they so desired.
The room was small and plain aside from the usual hospital effects, a plain, sterilised smell reaching the nostrils. The man himself occupied the bed at the centre of it, its head pushed up against the cool blue wall. Bao was awake, eyes turning towards the door as it opened. He was impassive at the sight of them, or tried to be at least. Korra could see the twinge in his brow as he looked at her. Lin promptly closed the door behind them, moving afterwards to stand at the foot of the Bao's bed. Her face was a plain mask as she folded her arms across her chest.
"You've a special visitor today, Lieutenant."
Bao swallowed. "I see that." His voice was a little thick.
Korra passed her eye over his arrangement, noting the small bag of clear fluid hooked up at the side of the bed, a plastic tube leading from the bottom of it to the man's arm. He was indeed a battered and bruised sight, though those were beginning to fade. There was swelling around Bao's right eye and Korra could see that he was not taking deep, full breaths. She frowned as her healer's eye scrutinised him. Then she glanced across as Lin casually unhooked the clipboard from the foot of his bed and looked over it. Silence reigned in the meantime.
"Another batch of questions for me today, Chief?" Bao spoke eventually, appearing a little agitated as he spoke.
Lin set down the clipboard, folding her arms once more. "You know me well, Lieutenant."
"I have nothing to say to you," Bao told her.
Lin merely grunted, eyes unblinking as she looked down at him. She let the silence stretch on once more. The man's gaze could not remain still and fixed on hers for long. He then shifted minutely to find Korra and jerked his chin in her direction.
"Why is she here?"
"She is the Avatar."
Bao flicked his eyes back to the Chief. "I realise that. What I meant –"
"As the Avatar, she has taken an interest in why a member of this city's law enforcement is under suspicion for working with the Triple Threat triad, and why I am having to investigate corruption within the police force," Lin said sharply.
Bao seemed about to say something in response, but instead winced sharply. He lifted the arm not stiffly wrapped up in casts to his temple.
"Headache?" Lin asked loudly, as the man turned his face aside and clenched his jaw. "Your record suggests you've been suffering from them recently, a by-product of all the morphine being pumped into your body. Perhaps you should reconsider requesting more to conveniently knock yourself out when we visit."
"I am in pain," Bao hissed at her, baring his teeth. "Not all of us are cold and hard like you, Chief."
The woman's expression did not shift. "I shall take that as a compliment, shall I?"
Pressing his fingers against his temple, the man growled. "I don't care how you take it."
Korra moved forward when Lin glanced in her direction. "I can help lessen the pain," she offered.
Bao opened his eyes to look up at her. "What?"
She gestured towards the bag of fluid hooked up to him. "Head pains are an infrequent side effect of morphine use, but still somewhat common. Have you been experiencing double vision at times as well?"
The man nodded slowly, uncertainty in his gaze as he watched her move closer to the bedside.
"I can understand your dilemma," she told him. "You ask for morphine to help cope with the pain from your injuries, but you're one of the unfortunate number who suffer from the side effects of its usage, which in your case brings on head pains. So you request more in order to try and numb that too. It's not a very pleasant cycle. You could develop further side effects if your usage becomes too heavy, along with worsening what you're already experiencing."
Bao was looking at Korra like he had never seen her before in his life. "I have trained extensively as a healer," she answered his unspoken question with a polite smile. "I can help you, if you would like me to."
Without waiting for his answer, Korra began extracting a thin ribbon of water from a pitcher sitting on the table next to the bed. Bao's eyes immediately fell to her hand as she carefully flattened small, fluid discs at the tips of two fingers and her thumb. He leaned away a little, gaze flitting over to the Chief. Lin stood impassive and silent at the foot of his bed.
"The doctor is already aware of my condition," the man said, brow furrowing. "He said there's no other way around it. If I want to continue to use morphine then this is my lot."
"With full respect to the doctor and his credentials," Korra said with a continued smile, "I trained under the best healer in the world for more than a decade. I can appreciate that the way we approach the field of medicine is a little different, but the methods we healers use can still prove to be effective."
"Still, uh, thank you, Avatar," Bao said quickly as she turned to him, "but no. I'll just have to cope."
She lifted her hand. "It will only take a moment."
"No, I'm sure –" he began, but was then interrupted by a fierce pang that twisted his expression into a scowl. And without pause, Korra moved her hand forward.
Positioning her thumb at his brow and fingers at his temple, she swiftly engaged the water with her will, directing a soothing pulse of energy through the points of contact. Bao, who flinched the moment she touched him, eyes wide with surprise and muscles tensed, ever so slowly began to relax. His stiffened shoulders fell and his weight settled back into the bed inch by inch.
"How is that?" Korra asked with a professional tone.
Bao spoke slowly. "…Better."
"Close your eyes," she encouraged him, "focus on the sensation. You should start to feel the pain subsiding, yes?"
"A little…"
But it was only a placebo. Once she left him the pain would soon return, sharp as before.
"Good," Korra said, "that's good. Keep your eyes closed. This won't take too long."
"Alright. Wait, what's that light -?"
"Water produces light when healers interact with it, don't worry. Just focus."
Her eyes were brightening as she felt her heart thumping in her chest. Already she was catching glimpses of the man's inner network, a vast, weaving pattern of minute pathways whose outlines were becoming stronger by the second. She could see it so clearly. But she had delayed enough. Korra breathed deep and took the plunge.
She surged through him, a muted sense of panic lending fuel to her speed, because already could Korra feel that pure, powerful curiosity bubbling up beneath the surface. It scared her now more than before. Her most recent experience with energybending had further refined the sight of her third eye, and now she could see everything.
Light encompassed her, electric-blue and almost blinding white. Pathways so numerous an entire lifetime would not be enough to count them all, wrapped and woven so intricately together. It was beautiful; it was terrifying. Korra could feel her restraint slipping all too quickly. The spark of adventure was struck alight within her, an effervescent smile curving her lips. She wanted to look, to explore and touch! But she had to focus. She had to.
Focus!
Korra found the bank of Bao's memories with startling speed. It took three seconds of her flicking through the pages of his life before she landed on the one she needed. She held it down with a finger and absorbed the words, the ideas and fleeting images in no time at all. And then she was up and away, drawing back her third eye unto herself. Fleeing, before something – anything at all – snagged her curiosity. And she was almost there, almost free. She almost made it. And then Korra came to a sudden, sharp halt.
There it was: something she still did not understand. She had fathomed that she no longer required bending as a medium to tap into an individual's energy. She discovered that deep within every man lay a core that could hold the spark of bending. But this, this peculiar, complex network woven around the place where memories were kept secure, which had defeated all her efforts and away from which she was once prematurely torn, this Korra did not understand. And here, with a sense of detachment that frightened her as curiosity flared brighter than the sun, hot and intense, Korra acknowledged that there was no force in existence that would stop her from puzzling out this mystery.
Right.
Now.
But this time she was tamed by caution. Watching the rapid pulses of light that flashed all around her, leaping across the pathways of the network like tongues of lightning, Korra remembered. She chased after them wildly before and the man whose energy she interacted with was tortured.
Why?
She could not leap forward with abandon again. Korra had to be careful, focused. So she breathed deep and exhaled slowly, emptying herself of all thoughts. She was an eddy upon the wind, flowing to and fro with seeming aimlessness. But she offered no resistance. Korra did not fight that which was greater than she, something so deeply ingrained into the fabric of the human condition; the thirst for knowledge, understanding. Instead, she let it carry her, because within herself she carried the unshakeable faith that it would lead her right to the destination she desired.
Korra opened her third eye wide with renewed purpose and saw not an unfathomable network of pulsing light, but instead the intricate lay of the human brain. And now that she saw, now that she understood, she marvelled with a wonder so powerful it almost threw her completely out of balance.
There was indeed light everywhere. Thousands upon thousands of miniscule points pulsed rapidly and she simply could not keep track of them all. And Korra did not even attempt to, because her attention was pulled away from the brain itself, to a concentrated cluster of light orientated towards the front of the organ.
Pain receptors flared hot and brightly underneath her observant eye. Defined by the light, they seemed akin to straggly roots. There were so many. She watched light travel the long length of the root, in a space of time so immeasurably swift reaching a thick twist of electric-blue pathways structured, Korra eventually realised, to match the form of the spine. She turned back to the receptors themselves, wondering if she would be correct to identify the area as the source of Bao's headaches.
Tentatively, Korra reached out with her will, this time through the safer medium of the healing water she still held against Bao's skin. It required only a fraction of her focus now to keep her waterbending engaged.
From this new perspective, Korra could see how it interacted with the man's body. She always worked by way of the chi pathways in the body when healing, never interacting with it to the intimate, near imperceptible degree that she was now. Such as it was, the response garnered when she merely brushed the soothing touch of her will directly to the pain receptors was remarkable. Astounding. Korra watched as their fierce light began to dim, as muscle and tissue stretched tight gradually relaxed, all in the swiftest passage of time she had ever experienced.
The rush that surged through her as she tasted discovery was heady.
"How do you feel now?" Korra asked, with genuine curiosity once her third eye had fully diminished and her natural pair no longer glowed.
Despite himself as Bao slowly opened his eyes, there was a sense of awe to his expression. Merely a minute had passed since the Avatar instructed him to close them.
"I feel…I feel fine."
"There are no painful sensations, none at all?" she said.
The man shook his head, still staring at her. "No. Nothing. I…What did you do?"
Korra affixed her polite, professional smile once more. "Chief, I believe Lieutenant Bao should have no further reason of a medical nature to be uncooperative with your questioning."
"Noted," Lin said tonelessly, unfolding her arms and moving around from the foot of the bed.
Bao blinked, stunned into silence as his eyes shifted between them. Korra dropped back and did not speak again until Lin was ready to leave.
The lieutenant had done little more than reiterate his reluctance to answer her questions. But then she was only asking them for the sake of appearance. Once they were through the doors of the hospital altogether and sitting in the car park the Chief turned to Korra expectantly, gaze narrow and mouth thin. She looked ahead at the dashboard, eyes turned to the night Bao had come face to face with the Equalist. She watched her beat a morsel of truth out of him.
"Three days," Korra answered Lin with a tight voice, "from the night Bao was attacked. That's when one of the triad's big shipments is coming into the city."
"Three days means today, tonight," Lin said, glaring through the windshield with one hand on the steering wheel. "What are the triad bringing in?"
"Migrants and drugs."
The engine roared as the Chief threw the car into gear. "Not on my watch."