Leaving Harley and Chun's wife to have some time together, the team retreated to the tilt-wing, Tads making sure that everyone was inside the wards as quickly as possible with all their gear stashed, just in case anyone was even thinking about trying to track them. Soon the troop compartment smelled of cleaning solvents and lubricants as they cleared down their weapons, checked magazines, sharpened knifes and cleaned their equipment, slowly unwinding from their very long and drawn-out day of operations.
"Do you think we could hire the fisherman? To pilot the boat I mean? Nothing against your results so far Marius, I was just thinking that if we had someone looking after the boat, then Marius doesn't have to spend five hours steering it, and he can rest or even sleep on the journey, and get there fresh."
"Nice idea, Tads, but I think it could cost us too much. Especially with the situation we're in regarding money for the engines." Aswon carefully sighted down the barrel of his rifle, then reinserted the cleaning patch and started to push it down with a rod to remove a little more dirt. "I mean we've been told the waters heading over to Macao have a pirate problem, and he's going to know that. We've got enough firepower to fight off most pirates for sure, but we'd have to prove that to the fisherman, and that's maybe not a good idea. Which means we're going to have to offer to pay them a lot of money to do the sailing."
"Would it be that much money? I mean even a few hundred, maybe a few thousand? That's a lot to a fisherman, but not much compared to the cost of the engines?"
"But a few thousand here, a few thousand there… soon we're talking about real money. And I think we're going to need every Nuyen we have to get out of here, and some more."
Kai was deep in thought, staring at the phone number given to him by Chun's wife. Apparently Nicole and most of the other instructors had headed over to Macao, leaving only one behind – Rudi – who was training the students in the absence of everyone else. Simi had gone with Chun when the Triad had come to collect him as his trainer and cornerman, while the rest had managed to secure passage over on a fast-ferry from the main port in Hong Kong. He dialled the number, activating the speaker so everyone could hear it dial.
"Hello?" She sounded suspicious, but that was unsurprising as Kai was pretty certain his number should be coming up as completely unknown.
"Is this Nicole? It's Kai, and the team that have been staying at the academy. We've not long got back, and we're just trying to find out what's going on. Are you with Chun?"
"No, we're at the games dome, but we're not with Chun. We think they've got him locked up somewhere in there, and we're just keeping an ear out for information. Simi's with him though, so he should be alright in terms of training for the fight and stuff. But we don't know much else."
"Right, ok. Well, we're going to be heading over as well. Look – to get in, do we need tickets and things? Or can we just buy them there?"
"If you're coming, I can get passes for you – we've been working on the staff here, and I think we can swing that. Just let me know and I can come out and meet with you."
"That's great – very helpful. You got there by boat, didn't you? From the port in the main city?"
"Yeah, on the hydrofoil. It's a bit pricy compared to the normal ferry, but much faster, and less likely to run into problems. Takes longer to get through customs than it does for the trip though…."
"Customs?"
"Well yeah, it's a different country. Gotta have your ID certified and the visa issued and stuff." She sounded somewhat bemused by Kai's lack of understanding.
"Sorry, we've not operated over this side of the world much – back in Europe things are very different, or certainly around the eastern end of the Med, where we've been working. Ok, thanks, if you can sort out the passes, and we'll be there as fast as we can, then we can work on getting to Chun and sorting this mess out."
"Alright then, I'll get things sorted over here." She disconnected the call, and Kai shut down his wrist com and looked over to Tads.
"The games dome? I take it that's the big sports stadium place that we looked at on the map? If that's where the fight is going to take place, I guess it makes sense to hold him there. Can we get a quick astral look and see what's there?"
"Yes, I suppose. It's going to be quick though – I'm still shattered, and not up for any kind of infiltration efforts. Come on, Vadim – more practice time, and you can keep an eye on me and make sure I don't do anything stupid due to tiredness."
They were gone for only a few minutes, leaving the team to continue cleaning their kit and chat about how they were going to get over there. When Tads opened her eyes, she had to stifle a yawn and looked very much like she'd prefer to do nothing more than just curl up in a ball and be covered in a blanket.
"It's a pretty massive place – over a hundred metres wide and maybe three hundred or more long. Warded, but you can see where it was put up in sections – the joins look a little suspect in my opinion, and we maybe can do something with that. It's not that powerful, but will stop your average watcher spirit or uneducated or untrained mage though. We saw a couple of air elementals on watch or patrol, a bit tougher, but not doing much. So a bit like the Fortress I guess… if we don't do anything to attract attention in their line of sight, we should be fine."
"Right, well that's a good thing, then. I guess we really do need to get some shut-eye though now, otherwise we're not going to be good for anything. Aswon, I take it you're ok on watch for a while?"
"Of course, Kai. Go, rest. I'll alert you if anything happens." Kai nodded at the lanky sniper, and then started to climb out of the side door, followed by everyone but Marius.
"Not coming, Marius?"
"Nein. I will sleep here tonight. I feel like I've been away from her for too long."
"Don't let Nadia hear you talking like that, she'll get jealous!" It crossed his mind that Marius was actually going to call her, and probably wanted some privacy, so he didn't say any more, just ushering the rest of the team out into the courtyard and towards the stairs that led up to their rooms, leaving Aswon in the courtyard starting to work out on a calisthenics program to loosen up his muscles and work up a sweat.
Twenty minutes later, the persistent drizzle that had been falling started to intensify, and Aswon decided that he'd probably worked out enough to stop for a while. Grabbing his gear he headed to the front of the house and out onto the covered veranda where they'd first talked to Chun, settling down with his datapad and the rollout screen, then started to look for public maps showing the area around Macao. He located the sports arena quickly enough, and managed to find some information from their matrix site.
The arena looked to be a fairly typical dome from the outside, longer than it was wide to allow for a rectangular main pitch in the centre, with a host of smaller rooms, courts, changing areas, conference suites and dining areas surrounding it. Unlike many he'd seen, there was very little in the way of nearby parking, but the arena was less than a kilometre from the airport and main station, and was surrounded by the city itself. He zoomed down and managed to get a look through some tourist-submitted photos and publicity shots, examining the huge trusses that arced up from massive ceramacrete caissons to support the roof overhead and the large blockwork walls with few windows that formed a sweeping expanse of outer walls. Entrances dotted the perimeter, many of them rollershutters that seemed to be covered by security cameras, and he could see two roads that appeared to run into and under the arena.
As he studied the dome further he realised that massive staircases led up from ground level, and realised that the public area and main stadium was effectively on the first floor – with all of the lower level probably given over to maintenance, service tunnels, plant rooms and other infrastructure. That might be useful when they came to their infiltration, giving them a whole series of access routes to look at sneaking through, out of the main view of the public.
A few splashes of rain splattered onto the screen and he absentmindedly wiped them away, continuing his examination of the arena. It was probable that they'd have the whole arena booked out for the series of fights, meaning a crowd in excess of fifty thousand if the marketing blurb was correct, which in turn meant a strong security presence was bound to be on hand. He'd worked security on a few large events before, and had no doubt that the city police force would be patrolling the streets and surrounding area, while the arena would have their own security force for internal use. He wasn't able to find any information on them, but that was hardly surprising – very few public-facing companies wanted to advertise their own branded thugs and bully boys…
Aswon had wiped away water from the screen several more times before he suddenly flinched as a splash of water landed in his ear and he looked up and around, surprised to see just how bad the weather had become while he'd been engrossed in his research. The sky was dark, almost black, with clouds stretching to the horizon – not that the visible horizon was far away, as sheets of rain hammered down. The wind was driving up from the south east, so he was mostly sheltered, but occasionally a strong gust howled around the cliffs driving sheets of rain before it, sending water into the veranda almost horizontally. As he stared out to sea he could see nothing but row after row of white-capped waves, crashing and breaking over each other and racing up onto the beach.
"Well, I don't care how good you are in a chopper, Marius, you're not taking the boat out in that weather, I'm sure… crap." He moved back a little towards the house as another gust of wind splattered him with water, then flicked over to a local weather site, having a look at the forecast. He felt his stomach tighten as he looked at the swirling mass shown on the screen and the advisories scrolling across the bottom of the news ticker, informing him that the international airport was closing due to the approaching storm, and local ferry services were being suspended. The tropical cyclone was expected to last no more than 18-20 hours, with travel restrictions being lifted by noon the next day – but that meant that it was likely they wouldn't be able to think about sailing out much before one or maybe even two in the afternoon – giving them precious little time to get to Macao ahead of the fight.
For a moment, he thought about heading up to wake up the others, but then dismissed the thought. They couldn't do anything, and they needed their sleep. If they were woken now and got stressed trying to re-arrange their travel plans, and couldn't get to sleep at all, it was probably going to do more to sink the mission due to fatigue, than the weather was.
Instead, he went inside and did a walk through of the gym, finding Rudi leading the students in some exercises in the main training hall, along with Harley. Aswon grimaced and waved to Harley, calling him over to the door and then taking him by the elbow and leading him into the corridor.
"You're supposed to be keeping a low profile. That doesn't mean bouncing around in front of all the students like nothing has happened!"
"Well, what was I supposed to do? It wasn't like they weren't going to hear that I was back. And besides, I wanted to train. I've been locked up for days, man!"
"You don't seem to understand – this is as much about their safety as yours. The Triads kidnapped you to force Chun to fight. They've lost that leverage now, but that doesn't mean they won't try and get it back. If they work out that you're here, and a bunch of goons turn up with assault rifles, then your fancy kicks aren't going to stop them – or save the others from being murdered to prove a point to you!"
Harley grumbled and looked down at the floor, but the sag on his shoulders deepened as he thought about what Aswon had said.
"Can I train on my own then? Somewhere quiet?"
"Yes. Show me though – I want to make sure the windows are covered, and check the entrances…" Aswon followed Harley towards the back of the academy, to the part of the building closest to the towering cliffs, where part of the house looked to have been built under a huge overhang. It was colder, darker and slightly moist here, and had a deeper air of neglect. When Harley opened the door into a training hall, he could smell the dampness that permeated the mats and the pads, along with the huge mounds of equipment that were laying around.
Harley started to do a cardio workout in the middle of the room, and Aswon did a quick circuit, examining the piles of stuff. A t-shirt press was covered with a plastic sheet, boxes of blank shirts stacked up in sagging plastic containers while pots of inks and dyes were precariously piled up next to them. Further around were boxes of mugs waiting to be printed on, and a different machine that would roll stamps or letter strips around the circumference. Next to that was a pile of cleaning supplies, extending poles and box after box of window washer and metal polish.
He questioned Harley, and found out that each of these piles represented a different idea or business venture that had been tried over the years, an opportunity that should have made a load of money, were it not for some unforeseen bad luck or change in the business world that had left it as nothing more than an unprofitable pipe-dream. The condition of the academy started to make sense now – there was considerable expense tied up here in these side projects, and by the sounds of things they'd all slowly taken their toll on the academy itself, which remained the only bright point.
At least the area was secured – it didn't have any windows, and only opened to the corridor, meaning Harley should be safer here than just about anywhere else in the academy. Aswon left him to it, and went back to find a room to work in, resuming his searches and study of the map, occasionally stopping to make a quick patrol around the building, just in case…
He headed back up to the bedroom a few minutes before the evening meal was ready, waking up the team who were sprawled across the beds, still fast asleep. As they roused, he filled them in on the weather conditions and why he'd let them sleep, though still prodding them to get up and come and eat food.
The news channels had some coverage of the scene over in the city, showing towering waves battering at the harbour, sending boats rising and falling metres at a time as the waves surged through the narrow waters between the island and the mainland. Other segments showed the airport, people sprawling over benches and curled up in corners, stranded as flight after flight had been delayed or cancelled until the storm had passed.
"Hello? Nicole? It's Kai…" Once more he had the speaker activated, so the rest of the team could listen in if they wished to.
"Where the hell are you?"
"Ahh, we're trapped by the weather, so we're still back at the academy. Where are you?" He could hear a lot of background noise over the line. The screen illuminated as she engaged the camera on her side, and he saw her hair plastered over her face, water running down across her skin as she blinked furiously at him.
"I'm waiting. For you. I've been waiting for hours! You SAID you were on the way!" She sounded furious, and the team shrank back away from Kai, making sure that they couldn't be seen on the camera pickup from his side. Kai at least did look guilty, as he realised that he'd told her earlier that they were coming over…
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry. Really sorry. But we got caught by the storm – you can see how it is. And we've been looking at different travel options. I'm so sorry, Nicole…" He managed to school his face into a combination of guilt, horror and concern, but fell silent, trying not to overdo it.
"Well, next time, you could call me right? Anyway, I've been talking with the others, and I've let them know you're coming. We had a chat about…. Things." She paused for a moment and looked around, probably not even realising how suspicious she looked. "I just wanna know… have you found Chun's lucky black belt?"
Kai also paused, studying her face as best he could on the tiny display. He wasn't sure if she was being somewhat subtle and talking about Harley without mentioning his name, or if Chun really did have a lucky belt of some kind that he wanted. He decided to hedge, at least for the moment.
"I'm not sure, but I'll check. Get inside and get dried and get some hot food or something. We've got a little business to sort out here, and I'll give you a call back about that lucky belt, ok?" She nodded, and he disconnected the call, not wanting to antagonise her further. Then he looked up at the rest of the team, who were mostly shaking their heads at him. "Oops?"
"For someone so adept at working with people, Kai, sometimes you can be a real ass," Hunter threw a pillow at him, catching him across the face. "And I tell you, that's a woman I wouldn't want to be mad at me. I've seen her train…"
The headed down to dinner, grabbing a table together and tucking into their food. Tads was chewing on a mouthful of rice with a thoughtful look on her face, then washed her food down with a glass of water before pitching her idea at them.
"I was thinking about how we get to Macao. We've all got pretty solid identities now, thanks to various friends. They should be good for international travel – wouldn't it be better for us to get taken over to the city, and let someone else handle the transport? We arrive fresh, safe and quickly, without any worry about pirates and such like. Surely that's better?"
"I disagree strongly. Unlike you, we can't summon our own weapons, or affect people as far as the eye can see with just a thought – we need our equipment to be effective. And for most of us that means firearms and melee weapons, or bits of kit that are entirely illegal like Hunter's deck. Without those, we're hard pressed to fulfil the roles we normally play in the team. And our IDs might be pretty solid, but they're not good enough to let us get a sniper rifle onto an international flight, or a bunch of grenades, or a magical sword."
"I guess so. But couldn't we get those sent across as freight? Or something?"
"Packages are still going to be scanned, x-rayed, checked by chem-sniffers and magically looked over – so no. They're likely to be picked up and impounded, never to be seen again, with no court of appeal. I'm not taking that risk, and I don't think anyone else would either. The other thing is that it's entirely possible that the Triads have someone in the system, watching things like border visas and travel passes. If they see Harley's name, they're going to know where he is, and where he'll be. And I don't want to have to fight off a Triad snatch squad – ESPECIALLY if we're travelling without our gear!"
Tads was about to reply when Chun's wife came in from the kitchen with some fresh food to place on the tables. When Kai saw her, he stood and politely beckoned her over, greeting her with a smile.
"I have a question for you. Nicole was near Chun earlier, and we spoke on the phone. She was asking about Chun's lucky black belt – does that mean anything to you?"
"I don't think he has one? Not that I've ever seen or heard him talk about anyway. I mean, he has a few. There's three that are worn and a bit tatty, that he uses around the gym, and he has a newer one for when there's a grading or examination. But I've never heard him talk about one being lucky or anything like that."
"Ok, thanks. We were fairly sure we know what Nicole was talking about, but just wanted to be sure. That helps a lot." He watched her return to the kitchen, catching a quick glimpse of Harley working at the oven as she opened the door, then scrolled back through his phone, calling Nicole back. "Hey there. Just to confirm, we do have Chun's lucky black belt, and we will be bringing it with us, safely."
"Good. We've still not been able to get in to Chun. They've got one of the smaller gyms and changing rooms on the north end of the arena blocked off, a bunch of guys with guns on guard. Simi's been seen going out for buckets of ice and stuff though, and he looked ok. So we think they're just keeping him training where they have a watch on him."
"Ok, great. That's useful information. Can you tell us what you've seen while you're there?" Kai laid the phone down and the team leant over to listen in as Nicole started to describe what they'd seen of the arena, and which staff members they'd managed to get talking on a somewhat friendly basis. Aswon bought up the pictures and maps he'd discovered earlier and cross-linked them to Hunter, who then started to lay them out and build up an interactive map of the target area, adding in items as Nicole described them.
As Kai wrapped up his call with Nicole and Hunter finished inputting data onto his map and saving it to a chip, he overhead Aswon talking quietly with Tads at the end of the table.
"…so just how big a spirit do you think we'd need to guard the boat and prevent us from sinking if we tried the crossing?"
"It's not so much the size, as the scope. The boat isn't that big, as they go. So we'd need a water or storm spirit with a force that would be manageable – normally. Say twice as powerful as the ones I normally summon each morning, the kind I have on call for the whole team. It'd likely give me a bit of a headache, but it's manageable. But against the power of a storm, with that much elemental force behind it, we'll need a greater… or deeper level of power. I think I'd have to invoke the spirit, and draw it into it's greater form, enhance it as much as I could so it was free to travel either above or below the waves, as it needed to. And that's likely to pretty much knock me out. I might recover enough in the hours it would take us to get over there, if the seas can be tamed well enough… but I think you'd have to count on me being only marginally effective if we go that route."
"Ok, that doesn't sound feasible. One to keep as an emergency, then…"
With dinner concluded the students and most of the team headed back to their rooms to relax – but Kai headed over to the kitchen to see if Harley was still there. He was, helping his mother tidy up after the meal, and Kai headed over to talk to him.
"Say, Harley. I take it you've been involved with some fights and things, competitions and the like, yes?"
"Yeah, I've done a few. Local stuff here, and some fights in Hong Kong. Why?"
"Well, we're just trying to work out how to put some bets on. Because we know when we deliver you safely to the fight, and Chun gets to see you – well, he's going to batter his opponent, isn't he? Once he knows the Triads don't have you, he's not going to hold back, and he's not going to throw the fight. He's going to go in the ring and right from when the buzzer sounds or the bell rings or whatever it is that starts these things off, he's going to be gunning for the guy."
"Now, we don't think we're going to get good odds on him, not with his reputation. That's what the triads are counting on, we're pretty sure. But even at low odds, if you put down a good chunk of money, you can make a reasonable return, and that's what we need to do. I'm sure you've noticed that our aircraft is missing a couple of bits of equipment, and we need to raise the cash to pay for those… so if you've got knowledge on the betting protocols around fights like that, we need to hear it."
"Right, I getcha. Yeah – you want to bet on dad. He's totally going to kick his ass. But I don't know anything about betting really. Only stuff I've seen is people putting on matrix bets, at the online bookies. Can't you do that?"
"Well, we can give it a try. We just need to be careful about how publicly we act – the last thing we want to do is burn our IDs or tip our hand to the Triads. You sure you don't know anything more?"
"Sorry, no. I mean, I can tell you how he's going to fight if that helps. But betting's not my thing."
"Not to worry. Right, in that case, there's one other thing I need from you. A story or a saying or something – something only you and Chun would know and understand. So we can get a message to him, and let him know you're really safe."
"Oh, that's easy." Harley smirked for a moment, then put his hands on his hips. "Just tell him, Man smells like he's got a dead badger up his arse."
"Excuse me?"
"Man's got a dead badger up his arse. See, one of his old friends from way back came to train with us for a little bit. Man's a nice guy and all, but funny sense of humour. Anyway, one day he farted in the training hall. Really bad it was, like proper made you want to throw up a bit. Rotting meat and eggs, and old socks. It drifted over to me, and he saw me wrinkle my nose… I seriously thought I was gonna be sick! Then he just calls out, loud, to the rest of the room – get this… 'Harley that's really bad – that's disrespectful. Oh, that smells so bad. I can't believe you've crapped your pants in the middle of training!'. What a bastard! Nobody believed it wasn't me for ages, he set me right up. But anyway, you tell Chun that and he'll know exactly what it means."
"I….see. Well, at least it probably sounds as confusing for anyone else hearing it. So the guy's name was 'Man'?" Kai raised an eyebrow and watched as Harley nodded in confirmation. "Ok, yes, that should do the job then. Ok, thanks Harley. Keep your head down, and we'll come see you later about tomorrow and let you know what's going on. I need to get back to the rest of the team."
With that Kai excused himself, leaving the two of them in the kitchen, and climbed the stairs back to their rooms. The first was empty, so he headed next door and found the team sprawled out over the beds and floor, relaxing after dinner. Aswon was in the middle of explaining an idea as he came in, and he tried to catch up on the conversation.
"…so how about if we use the foundation to place some bets? It's been going a fair while now, without anything attracting attention. It should have a reasonable credit history now, with stuff going in and out, and having the money come from a corporate source might help disguise that it's us putting the bets on."
"If we do, then I'd suggest putting on a lot of smaller bets at a wide variety of different betting agencies or sites, rather than a few big ones. It might be more hassle to collect them all, but it's less likely to attract attention, be less suspicious, I think." Hunter and Aswon nodded along with Shimazu's observation while Tads just shrugged. Marius however, didn't seem keen on the idea.
"I disagree. I think that using the foundation may attract the wrong kind of attention, purely due to the nature of the corporation. Having a charitable group suddenly make bets is likely to cause suspicion from any kind of financial oversight in my opinion. It is the kind of behaviour that you would normally associate with embezzlement of funds or someone taking excessively high risks with investment funds, compared to buying stocks or shares. I would worry that it would trip some kind of automated flag or alert based on the origination point of the funds."
"Ahh, that's a fair point Marius. I hadn't thought of that." Shimazu frowned for a moment. "I think we'd need to know a bit more about banking or investment law to work out the odds on that. Or maybe do some research. On the whole it's probably better to stick with our own IDs unless we can get some information from somewhere else."
"I've got some info on the legit bookies. The fights been announced on the matrix, so there's all kinds of talk on the news groups and various forums. The dude he's fighting against is someone called Wei Lei – a relatively unknown fighter, only two professional fights before, one draw and one loss. He's young and moves well, most of the stuff said he was unbloodied and inexperienced in his first fights, but he's expected to get better with time. But they're offering anywhere from sixteen to one and up, depending on how detailed the bet is. Chun however… whoa, they're definitely going on about his rep…"
Hunter squinted at the screen and gave a few mental commands, his deck flipping through pages and sites faster than anyone else could keep up with.
"Yeah, he's getting bad odds. Bad for us anyway."
"How bad?" Kai asked.
"Like, the best I'm seeing here is two to one… but only if you can identify the specific round he wins in, and what the knockout technique is. If you want to just choose the round, you're looking at two to five, and if you're just going for a win then you're at one to nine odds." Hunter held up his hand to Tads, without even looking her way.
"Lemme explain. If the odds are ten to one, then if you bet one Nuyen, and you win, they'll give you back your one Nuyen and ten more on top. So betting ten Nuyen and seeing your fighter win, you'd get one hundred and ten back. Ten times your stake, plus the return of your stake, ok? Right." He sipped at his drink and continued. "Now that's quite high odds, so the book runners think it's unlikely. With Chun here, they're expecting him to win. Almost counting on it. If you want to bet just that he'll win, you have to put nine Nuyen down, and if he does win, you get your nine back and one more as winnings. So betting the same ten Nuyen on him would get you just over eleven back. That's marginal – and is why they're putting so many options out for choosing the round and the method of winning."
"Method of winning?"
"You could win by knocking the opponent out. You could win by scoring more points than your opponent. One of the fighters can concede, or his corner can call the match. You could win because the opponent got disqualified. And pretty much you can bet on any of those things happening, in any round. The number of options is staggering…" Hunter flipped the display around so the team could see the huge page full of numbers, constantly flashing and edging up and down in real-time as bets were placed and the bookies adjusted their odds in response.
"So, how much money do we have, and how much would we win if we bet it all on Chun and he won?" She asked.
"We've got a touch over two hundred and eighty thou, plus change. But that leaves us nothing for fuel or expenses." Kai looked uncomfortable even admitting that much.
"So if we put down the two hundred and eighty on Chun, just to win in general, we'd be getting just over thirty thousand back." Hunter added
"Actually thirty one thousand, one hundred and eleven, recurring." Marius added after a moment of thought.
"Like I said, just over thirty thousand. So that's not a great return. If we want to make more money, we have to be specific. Like…." He stared blankly into the air for a moment as his mind sent commands to his deck via the optical link, scouting around several books to find some odds that were reasonable. "Like, ok. If we bet Chun will beat his opponent in the eighth round, with a flying kick knockout, then we'll get five to three, based on the difficulty of the technique and how far through the fight we are. So betting our two hundred and eighty would get us six hundred and twenty in profit if it came off."
"Six hundred and twenty two thousand, two hundred and twenty two, point two recurring."
"Thank you, Marius. But yeah – that's a decent return, but you have to get the conditions exactly right. If he wins in the eighth by a punch to the face, we lose everything. Same for a kick to the body. Or an elbow strike. Or any one of a host of other things. And that assumes we could actually put down that much money all in one bet."
"And how much do we need?" Kai rubbed at his temples, as he tried to follow the discussion on the various odds. How much to just pay for everything?"
"My estimate based on the parts and labour for repairs to both engines is around six hundred thousand at the present time. So we can pay for almost half, but we need a significant amount of money to cover the repairs and leave us with operational budget."
"And we can't even guarantee that he'll actually win or lose, can we?" Tads asked. "We know he's supposed to be good, but what if the other person is actually better? And Chun throwing the fight is them just making sure… what if the actual odds were really in his favour anyway? I think Chun will fight hard regardless. I just get the feeling that his personal honour means too much to him. He'll be true to his beliefs, unless pushed to the breaking point."
"Well, surely he has to know we've got Harley back by now. We know Nicole was talking in code, and she knows we have him. She's got to have let Chun know by now." Shimazu sounded pretty definite about his hypothesis, but Tads shook her head stubbornly.
"She said he was locked away in part of the arena. What if she can't get to him at all until the fight starts? What if the first he knows is when we turn up with Harley? I think we've got to plan for him not knowing and being afraid of what might happen." She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, and her eyes narrowed. "I don't like this as a suggestion… but if we leaked that he's a physical adept, then he'd be disqualified, wouldn't he? For having a magical advantage over his opponent. That's something we could predict, that would be very specific and have good odds?"
"That's going to ruin his reputation though, and cast doubt on his entire history. Plus the fact that we'd have to be very careful with the bet – that he would specifically be disqualified. Not just that he'd win or lose. I think they'd be very picky about that. But either way, I don't think we should even plan for this… it would ruin the man."
"I agree. But I wanted to raise it, just in case it made someone else think of a better idea." She leant back against the wall, and gave a wry smile, glad that her plan had been shot down. She wasn't sure she'd have been happy carrying that out and was less sure that Elk would have approved – it was hardly the action of someone protecting their herd – and since the encounter back in Ajerbaijan, she'd become a lot more aware of what could happen if you did something that your totem disagreed with!
Aswon rolled to his feet and pulled out his phone, telling everyone he was going to give Spook a shout, and see if she knew anything about the local betting scene. When he'd made it into the empty room next door, he hit the dial button and settled himself down. She answered quickly enough, and they exchanged the normal pleasantries.
"So Aswon, what can I do for you this evening?"
"Well, I just wondered if you can tell me about the local betting scene. The fight that's on tomorrow night. We're wanting to put some bets down."
"Oh no… tell me you haven't fucked this up, Aswon? You're not bailing out are you?"
"NO! No, not at all. We have the…package. And we were planning to get over to the target tonight to let him know. But the damn weather has shut everything down, and the boat we have access to is too small to make the crossing. So we're going tomorrow. But we also have a need for a lot of cash to repair our aircraft after we ran into some issues – so we've got to earn some coin. After all, we're not getting paid for this. And that's not a dig – we knew up front what the situation was. But we weren't expecting to end up six hundred kay in debt getting the engines rebuilt."
"Wooooah. Ok, that's some serious cred. I get the idea… so you're wanting to lay down some Nuyen on something you think is a sure thing? Do you have some inside information?"
"I hope so, Spook. I really do. Game changing if we play it right. But we know nothing about the local scene, customs or anything like that."
"Well, the safe option of course is matrix betting via a licenced book operator. But that tends to attract a certain amount of attention from the authorities, and involves ID checks and scans, which I'm guessing you'd rather avoid?"
"Yeah, that's about the size of it."
"Well, at any decent size sporting event, you're going to get a couple of authorised agents. Sometimes they'll be physical agents of the matrix corps – but they're not that common. Mostly they're people working the local scene, accepting cash or scrip in their hand and paying out the same way. They're normally cleared by the venue, and maybe are paying a kickback to be able to operate… though some will help make an event more appealing to the punters. But they're going to be independents, so the culture is different – bit riskier, and you've got to be sharp to what's being offered and the language used."
"Better beware then?"
"Yeah, definitely. Now, a lot of the time at big events, you'll see different operators in different sections of the event. They'll stick to their crowd, and they're very much split up by social class. The high rollers will go and see the smartly dressed guys, and will be throwing big money around – don't go and try a fifty bet on them, you'll get thrown out and marked as outsiders. Likewise, don't head into the cheap seats and the casual dressed guys and expect to drop a ten-kay bet. Gotta pick and choose your target, ok?"
"Right, gotcha. Social classes, and size of bank roll."
"You got it. Beyond that, they'll have a couple of boards up, mostly electronic though some still like the really old school slate and chalk – for tradition. The odds will go up on there, and will change throughout the event, so you gotta watch the action and make the moves when the time is right – and make sure you keep your betting chit. Lose that, and you lose the right to claim your cash. Doesn't matter who saw you make the bet… no chit, no win."
"Alright, sounds ok. We just need to be careful then, and dress appropriately. Time to get the suits out of the storage crate."
"So you're looking at dropping some big cash then? Any inside tips you can share with me?"
"Of course, Spook. Check the games dome in Macao for tomorrow. You'll probably recognise at least one name on there, and when the time is right, we think the odds will change."
"Son of a bitch! Ok, this is starting to make more sense now, I think. Listen, I'd appreciate a text or a call if the wind is blowing in the right direction, ok? Aww, look at that rain… I'm going to get soaked! But I've got to go see some people… this isn't something to do over the com."
"Are you thinking nanosecond buyout time Spook?" She smiled at him, not saying anything, and he felt a little chill as he wondered how much money she might be planning on borrowing or spending based on his recommendations. Of course, if it worked out, it could make her very happy – much like the nanosecond buyout had left Damian Knight with a controlling interest in one of the largest mega-corporations in the world after a short but VERY intense period of trading. "Ok, thanks, Spook. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon and advise."
He flipped the phone shut and wandered back into the other room, then filled them in on the details of what Spook had told him about the betting.
"So, when we get to the fight, there should be people there that we can put bets on with, and handle it all onsite. But to do the big bets, we need to hit the bookies in the VIP areas, so we're probably going to have be dressed smart." Kai looked to Aswon and got a confirmation nod. "Ok, that sounds doable. Next thing is getting the message to Chun. Hopefully we can get to him on site – but let's assume worst case that we can't. How do we let him know?"
"Just shout at him?" Tads offered. "I mean, it's simple, but why won't it work?"
"Never been to a big sporting event have you, Tads?" She shook her head. "Thought not – they get pretty loud, certainly enough to drown out a single voice. We could perhaps try to shout using a different frequency?"
"I thought you said shouting wouldn't work?"
"Well, not in the normal audio spectrum. But if he can hear at very high or low frequencies, like some of us can – we might be able to broadcast a message in a way that won't get drowned out."
"We can maybe find out if he had some theme music." Hunter offered. When he got several blank looks, he elaborated. "Lots of fighters seem to have a theme song that they think represents them. Get it played whenever they come out from their dressing room. Part of it is showmanship, and getting the crowd fired up, but part of it is them getting into the right frame of mind to fight. But if he had some specific music that he used to fight to, we could try that?"
Kai nodded, then excused himself, disappearing downstairs for two minutes. When he returned, he had a bag of snacks that he dropped on the table between them, but also some news.
"Checked with the wife and the kid, they don't think Chun can hear anything but normal noises – though they both seemed pretty confused by the question, so it's not a definite. But they did know what he used to have as entrance music – 'Enter the Dragon' by the Sons of Thunder."
"Ok, searching…. Got it. Now finding a downloadable copy…" Hunter scouted around until he found a site full of pirated tracks and set it to download to his deck.
"I have an idea as well. I think we should listen to the song, and learn the chorus – well enough that we can sing in harmony. All of us that is – including you Marius, I can see you wrinkling your nose. But we need to be able to do it well enough to start the crowd off, getting them to join in. Once you hit a certain mass, mob mentality takes over, and that's a noise that will carry over a big crowd." Aswon snagged a bag of crisps and examined the flavour with suspicion, before popping a few in his mouth and crunching noisily. "But also, when Harley was training earlier, I found some of Chun's other business ventures in the back of the academy. T-shirt presses, art supplies and stuff like that. We can get stuff printed that we can wave like a banner. Something big enough to read halfway across the stadium – saying 'Man's got a dead badger up his bum'. I mean, he catches sight of that, he's going to know, right? That's not the sort of thing someone writes accidently."
It was hard to argue with that kind of logic, and they headed down to the back of the academy to explore the junk room, working through the piles of supplies and finding out what they could make. Over the next few hours they sprayed up some banners and placards that could be easily bought into the arena, made some t-shirts and sang their way through 'Enter The Dragon' until they all knew the words off by heart. Tads spent time with each of them working on their posture and breath control, demonstrating the techniques used to chant tribal legends and memories around the campfire to project their voices without damaging their vocal chords, providing power and resonance to their singing voices without descending into shouting.
'In the cursed night
The shadow did take flight,
Full of baleful ire
Destruction, breath of fire…'
Hunter did his best approximation of the drum beat on some upturned paint pots, sending splatters of paint flying as he made up for a lack of accuracy with an over-abundance of enthusiasm.
'Ancient beings, forgotten names,
Jealous guards of their domAAAAINS…'
Paintbrushes stabbed at plastic sheeting matching the frantic rhythm of the song. Surprisingly it turned out that Marius had the perfect voice to match the growling lyrics of the original when he sang in English but allowed his German accent to come through. He had claimed that the Sons of Thunder had merely written new lyrics for a song originally written by a pre-crash German band, and it was a pale imitation of the original, but nobody knew anything about that – or cared that much.
'Black Dragon,
Blaaaack DRAAAAGON…'
The chorus was simple, easy to sing and probably accounted for the popularity of the song, being pitched at a level that any voice could reach and having lyrics well suited to being sustained and wailed in a group. Fortunately, they were at the back end of the academy, far enough away from everyone else that their singing and artistic endeavours didn't disturb anyone else. By the end of the night they had practiced singing together in more or less harmony, and while they certainly weren't going to win any talent competitions with it, they'd not embarrass themselves at a Karaoke night either.
A last check outside when they were done showed that the storm was still raging, with no chance of travel, so they headed to bed with fingers crossed that the weather reports would prove to be accurate.
As it turned out, the reports were accurate, and in the morning the storm was diminished, though not gone yet – but they could tell they were in the tail-end of the fast moving front. Though it was still lashing it down with rain, the wind had dropped a little, so it fell more vertically than horizontally. They spotted debris scattered all up and down the beach, along with what looked like the broken remains of a cargo container, surrounded by opportunistic looters who decided that it was worth getting wet for some free stuff that had been washed off a cargo vessel somewhere.
Tads checked the ocean and made a quick decision, heading into the local town and wandering around until she found a pharmacist that was open that stocked Nova-Dramamine, stocking up on the anti-nausea meds for the journey ahead, along with a couple of items Kai had requested. When she got back, she found the team preparing their gear and Kai giving Harley a stern talking to.
"You're coming with us – but solely for the purpose of letting Chun see that you're alive and well. He has to have proof, visible proof that he's seen with his own eyes, to really convince him. So you're going to behave, and do as you're told, right? And not get into bother, pick any fights, or kick anyone to death, even if they look at you funny. That's our job. We keep you safe and get you there, you let Chun know you're well, and then he deals with the fighting. Clear?"
"You're not my dad!"
"No, I'm not. But we're doing this for your dad, so we do it the right way. Clear?" Kai let an edge creep into his voice, and Harley sighed and then nodded. As full of machismo as he was, he was aware that he lacked the experience the team had shown in their rescue – and how much they'd risked to come and get him.
Unknown to Harley, that was the easy conversation as far as Kai was concerned. He then moved on to explaining to the young man the steps they needed to take to help get him there safely, before bringing out the hair dye and reading glasses that Tads had picked up for him. That went down ok – Harley seemed quite taken with the bright blue hairdo compared to his previous mid-tone brown. When he saw the outfit they'd assembled though, his rebellion flared back up – as they clearly had no concept of fashion or style!
They kept an eye on the weather, watching as the storm gradually receded and the ocean calmed, Marius paying particularly close attention as he tried to work out when it would be safe for him to pilot the boat. Vadim was detailed to stay back at the academy and provide close protection for Vivian and the baby, and to keep an eye on the tilt-wing, just in case the Triads made a move during the fight, and Hunter prepared a couple of data chips, containing the details of all the dodgy dealings that the commander of the island was up to, to use as leverage as required. One was left with Vadim, while the other went to Kai.
Braving the weather, Tads headed out onto the roof, calling forth a powerful storm spirit and binding it to her will, knowing that they may well need its assistance to aid them with the crossing. It taxed her, calling and bargaining with a spirit of such power – but she knew that she'd have at least a few hours to recover while the storm dissipated, and unless they ran into trouble as soon as this hit the water, she should be able to recuperate before her skills were called upon.
It was a little after midday when Marius finally announced that he was willing to put out to sea – the waves were still considerably higher than normal, but the white caps and breakers had receded somewhat. Calling on the experience gained from the efforts over the previous day he managed to get the boat out of the dock without incident, though there was one dicey moment where the crashing waves seemed intent on smashing him into the end of the pier. However, he managed to steer into the waves and compensate for the tide and wind before moving into open water and pushing the engines to their maximum speed. The boat started to roll alarmingly, pitching up and down as they crashed into each wave and swayed from side to side as Marius turned across the wind. Tads passed out her sea-sickness tablets to everyone – and with a five hour journey through rough seas ahead of them, nobody refused.
They headed south-east, retracing their initial journey out around the islands, at least as far as Po Toi, then headed west towards Macao instead of south west towards Eyan Rocky Islands and the coastal fort – and well to the north of the Fortress base of the Triads. The engine puttered along driving them slowly but steadily westward, Marius carefully steering them into the waves wherever he could so they were only pitching up and down, and not rolling side to side as well.
Aswon pulled up a map, pointing to the harbour area to the north of the island.
"Hunter? Can you use the sat-link and book us a berth here? This is the closest public dock I was able to find yesterday. I'd actually prefer to land much further to the south, here." He slid his finger down past three quarters of the island, to a channel that ran alongside some industrial facilities, sheltered from the open seas by the massive reclaimed spur of land that made up the airport. "I'm hoping that we can slide into this inlet, past the oil and gas works and beach at the end of the water here. Then it's only about seven hundred and fifty metres to the stadium. If we land to the north in the harbour, it's closer to three kilometres."
"So why do you want a berth? There's going to be a whole raft of paperwork, and we'll have to use someone's SIN to book it."
"Because if we get to the inlet and find out it's protected by a corp security force, we should have a backup location to go to. Or if we get there and the storm has picked up again, and it looks like we're going to get smashed to bits on the rocks, then having the alternative for a proper deep water harbour seems like a really good idea!"
"Fair enough I suppose. Ok, leave it with me. I'll have to find out what the legal situation is, and jump through some hoops, no doubt. Can't be as bad as filing a flight plan though, I guess…" Hunter lashed his deck to the sat-phone signal, and started the slow and painful process of establishing a link over the high-latency connection. He was fortunately correct – the permits and permissions to dock at the harbour and rent a berth were much simpler than trying to file an international flight plan, and it only took him twenty minutes to find the right files and get them completed.
Kai waited for him to finish and then made use of the sat link himself, calling Nicole and advising her that they were on the way, and should arrive into Macao for about five that night. It was cutting it fine to get there before the fights started, but it should be workable. He kept the conversation brief – she still sounded annoyed with him, so he didn't want to push his luck.
They sailed on, threading their way through the islands that littered the area, trying to keep their distance from any ships they spotted and giving the islands a wide berth. A little after two thirty, they heard the dreaded sound of the engine hiccupping, and the rest of the crew dived out of the way as Marius emerged from the wheelhouse at high speed, hammer raised above him, a vengeful Germanic spirit about to mete out justice to the shoddy example of engineering that lay before him.
"Nein, Nein, NEIN!" Each word was punctuated by a sharp strike of the hammer, trying to bully, coax, cajole or just beat the engine into submission. Unfortunately, it coughed and then with strange gasp the engine died, and a plume of blue diesel smog rose from the exhaust stack, a ring of despair that slowly dissipated into the afternoon sky. "Stupid cheap badly designed piece of CRAP!" Marius raised the hammer once more and made a guttural noise of rage, but then took a deep breath and lowered the hammer once more. "Hunter, a hand please. I think we will need to reprime the engine, and try again."
The rest of the team moved out of the way, leaving them to it as they started work on the engine, trying to clear the blockage or air bubble that had killed it. Minutes passed by, and the sounds of frustration from the back of the boat only seemed to increase, and there was a lack of noise from the recalcitrant marine diesel. The rest stayed out of the way, keeping an eye out over the sea as the bobbed up and down on the waves, dead in the water.
Hunter ended up having to take the top panel off of the engine, helping Marius check the cylinder heads and injectors, rotating the crank by hand and making sure that nothing was fouling the engine mechanical systems, and minutes slipped by with no sign of progress. It ended up taking nearly forty five minutes before they had everything replaced and were ready to start up, and there was an air of tension as Marius hit the starter once more.
The engine groaned and cranked, then rumbled into life, spluttering a little and then picking up – though it sounded a little rougher than it had before. When Marius got them underway, he didn't look happy at all, and Kai popped into the wheelhouse to check on what was wrong.
"We are not getting as much power out of the engine as we should. I do not want to push it too hard in case it fails again, but we are doing perhaps only eight or nine knots now. It will take us longer to get to Macao. The wind is not helping either – that was already going to extend our journey time."
"How bad is it?"
"I think we will be lucky to make landfall by nineteen hundred at this rate."
Kai's face fell, and he reported back to the rest of the team, then got on the phone to Nicole.
"Listen, Nicole – we ran into trouble on the crossing, and we're delayed. We're not going to get in much before seven. We're making the best speed we can, but our boat… well it's kind of shit."
"Crap – well listen, we've got big problems then. We don't know why, but Chun's fight has been moved up. He's near the top of the running order now, so he's going on much earlier than we thought. We don't know why, but it's going to be starting about then."
"We'll do our best. Now, when we get there we're going to have no time. How do we get in?"
"I'll come and wait outside for you. We've managed to get a couple of ringside passes, told some of the staff that you're his medical team coming in for the fight."
"Great. We have Chun's lucky belt with us. Can you let someone inside know to shout out the following – 'Man's got a dead badger up his arse'. Apparently Chun will understand that, and know what it means." He listened as Nicole repeated it back to him, confusion in her voice. "I'll call you again when we're landing. We'll be there as fast as we can be." He hung up and wondered if he should tell Marius about the issue. After a moment's reflection, he decided not to, working on the basis that it would only increase his stress levels without doing anything useful. They were heading over as fast as they could – they'd just have to trust to fate that they'd get there quickly enough.
Marius kept them on course, and nursed the engine along, but the minutes flashed by and the tension rose on the boat as they passed their original estimate for arrival and the light started to fade. They felt a sense of relief as they saw the mass of land rising up ahead of them, then felt a new wave of tension as it grew oh so slowly from a thin strip on the horizon to something with more detail.
They swung into the channel between the end of the airport runway and the industrial terminal, Marius keeping them dead centre and trying to ignore the active sensors that lashed at the boat, checking them out. With only a hundred and fifty metres on each side, he was well within scanning range of both sets of perimeter sensors, and just had to ignore them, accepting that they'd have a full description of the boat and anyone that was above deck. At least he only had about a kilometre and a half to travel before he closed on the swamp land that signified the start of the creek.
Six minutes later he swung the controls over, and they headed west, around the large chemical tanks that dominated the spit of land and steered directly into the creek, catching sight of the dome of the sports centre for the first time. Another five minutes of sailing and he could feel the boat judder as they started to bottom out in the shallow waters and looked for somewhere reasonable to properly beach the boat. He found a set of concrete pillars jutting out of the water that looked like they could have been the foundations for a pipeline across the creek at one point – but for now, they created a perfect place to tie up to, and even provided rudimentary steps to climb to the shore on and reach the rusting chain link fence that ran down the side of the road.
Kai had been busy getting everyone ready to disembark – the team had begrudgingly left most of their heavier weapons stashed below decks. Aswon had his extending taser staff, Shimazu had left his sword and carried just his vibro-knife, while Hunter was packing just his pistol. Tads had her staff and was ready to claim its use as a walking stick long and hard, and Kai had just not bothered with a weapon at all. But, they had a reasonable chance of being able to get some of their gear past the inevitable weapon scanners found at the entrance, and even if they were blocked, they at least had things they could own legally, and could be expecting to check into a secure locker in the cloakrooms.
"Nicole? Kai, we've just arrived, docking the boat now. We can see the dome, reckon it's a three or four minute run. Approaching from the east side."
"Hurry! He's just been announced and the fight's about to start. I'll be outside by the service road."
"Will do. Speak soon." He flipped the phone shut and looked around at the team. "Come on, let's go – Chun's fight has been moved up the roster and is about to start, we need to get moving. Tads – can you get a spirit to look after the boat while we're gone?"
"Already done Kai, leaving the most powerful one here."
"Let's go then!"
Climbing off the boat and jumping along the concrete piling and twisted rebar wasn't too tricky, and getting over the fence was less so – as Hunter went to climb over, several of the rusty links just broke under the strain and he could just pull the fence down to the point where he could step over. The road they ended up on was a fairly new construction, the black tarmac still pristine and unpatched, and led away in a smooth arc towards the stadium, with a wide pavement running down the side. They broke into a jog, aiming for a sustainable pace that they could all manage and leave them able to fight at the end if needed – though they hoped that wouldn't be the case.
Like with the approach to land, the run in was deceptive. The sheer size of the sports arena made it grow slowly as they continued to run down the pavement in a big gaggle, Harley tucked up safe in the middle of the group. As they closed they could see a steady stream of foot traffic heading for the arena, arriving from public transport terminals with some heading in from the surprisingly small car-parks around the outside of the perimeter. The closer they got, the denser the foot traffic became, with a number of street vendors out hawking their wares, selling t-shirts, hats, memorabilia, food and drinks, and several crowds gathered around watching mobile displays.
They spotted Nicole, waiting by one of the roads that led under the stadium, and she clearly had spotted them already as she was frantically waving them over. Slowing to a walk as they arrived, they could see that she had her wrist-com connected via a small link cable to a separate display, and was streaming the pay-per-view service to it.
"We've got to get in there, Chun's getting battered! The crowd's on the other guy's side, but he's taking a beating. Look!" She held up the display, and they could see Chun reeling backwards under a vicious flurry of blows, staggering backwards with the pink tutu flapping around his waist. "If you know him, you can tell he's not going full bore – but the other guy got a couple of early elbows to the side of the face and some nasty kicks in. He's hurting, real bad." She turned towards Tads and pointed a finger at the shaman's chest. "You need to do your healy thing. Please!"
"I can't! Not there." Tads could see Nicole drawing breath, and cut her off. "I'll get seen – there's got to be thousands of people in there, and if they see the glow of the magic enveloping Chun, they're going to know. The fight will be called off, and they'll call for magical enforcement."
"So just don't do the glowy nonsense?"
"It doesn't work like that. The light is part of the healing. You can't have one without the other! I wish you could, believe me." Tads winced as she saw Chun take another kick to the head, only partially absorbed by his raised hands.
Nicole stared at her for a moment, then looked up into the distance. Her eyes flickered back and forth for a moment, almost like she was reading from a book only she could see, then a little smile formed in the corners of her mouth.
"Ok, I've got an idea. I need whichever one of you is shit hot with computers and electronics to come with me. The rest of you need to get ringside and help Chun. She looked back at Tads. "We need your healing thingy… but I'll make it so they can't see you. Trust me." She sounded so confident that Tads just nodded, willing to go along with the plan – whatever it was. "Here, you'll need some of these too…" She thrust out a number of plastic pouches on lanyards, containing some kind of pass. Aswon snagged them from her and gave them a glance.
"Ok Nicole, lets get inside. If you want computers then Hunter's your man. Ork. Whatever. For electronics through you want Marius." Kai raced after her as she turned on her heel and ran over to a door marked up as a fire exit, the rest of the team following along. Rapping a short series of knocks on the door, she stepped to the side and then nodded as Anna, one of the other instructors, pushed the door open. She led them in, up the short corridor and into the main concourse, a huge multi-story area crammed with people, bombarded on all sides with video adverts, concession stands, the background hum of the crowd and a number of corridors and escalators that led off to different areas of the arena. It took them a moment to realise one key important detail as well – they were standing on the inside of the security checkpoint, past the weapon scanners….
"Right, Handsome – come on, you're with me. And you, blondie." She pointed at Hunter and Marius, then turned to head off, pausing only long enough to suddenly jab out a punch at Harley with a grin on her face. "Good to see you, though." She headed off at a jog, pushing through people and leaving a trail of angry voices as she carved a path through the crowd. The angry voices intensified momentarily as Hunter barrelled after her, generally stopping as they took in the size of him, or making do with nothing but angry glares at his back, while Marius had an easy time following along in the clear path the two 'icebreakers' had carved for him. The rest of the team watched them for a moment as they headed off to the left, climbing up a narrow set of stairs that were labelled as "Upper Ring".
Aswon looked around and spotted another sign that was labelled up as "Arena Floor", with a couple of guards blocking the entranceway. Taller than most people at the best of times, over the generally diminutive Asian population he towered overhead – but it did give him fantastic visibility.
"We need to head over that way, I think. Couple of guards on the tunnel, but it should take us to the main arena. I guess we need to use these passes?"
"Yes, that leads Ringside." Anna siddled up to him and started pulling at the passes, passing them out to each of the remaining team members. "You need to have those on at all times, or the guards will just call an alert. But just look confident, nod and smile. They're used to seeing all kinds of weird people down with the fighters." They gave her an odd look, but decided to take the 'odd' comment at face value, and followed along as she swiftly marched towards the tunnel. The guards stopped them, checking each pass carefully but waving them through with nothing more than a grunt, and they strode down the gently sloping tunnel. Ahead of them they could hear the noise of the crowd, building slowly as they approached.
"One second," Kai waved to a small alcove to the right of the tunnel with a water fountain in a recess. "Everyone, dump the placards and stuff. Guess we're not going to need them if we're getting ringside." They threw the signs and posters into the alcove, out of the way, and then swiftly strode down the remainder of the corridor before emerging into the main arena.
The noise was overwhelming, as was the lighting and the general ambience. Cries, screams, cheers and the sound of thousands of people talking created a chaotic din that had Aswon clamping down on his enhanced hearing to avoid suffering damage. Banks of lights overhead lit the ring in the centre with fierce white light, but strobes, lasers and other lights flickered around the arena, illuminating the vast crowd. The matrix site had indicated the arena could hold over fifty thousand, and it certainly felt like it – everywhere you looked there was a sea of faces, a riot of colour and people intently watching the fight in the centre of the arena.
They resumed their walk, heading down to the centre, having to clear another security checkpoint as they got to the last twenty metres from the ring, entering the elite area full of VIPs. Suits that costs thousands, people dripping in diamonds and dour bodyguards wearing mirrored shades were everywhere, but the team moved forwards towards the ring, where they could see Simi shouting advice from the corner, and Chun on the receiving end of another combination of vicious blows. Blood was running down his face now, and from the way he was holding his body, it looked like his ribs had taken a fearful pounding.
Back up on the outer staircase, Nicole raced ahead, taking the steps two or sometimes three at a time, Hunter hard on her heels. Marius bought up the rear, breathing raggedly as he struggled to keep up with the headlong pace they set, glad that he'd been doing at least some of the runs and PT sessions with the rest of them.
The area the staircase deposited them onto was quieter, the sounds of the crowd a distant murmur, and it was deserted. Pictures hung on the walls, potted plants were dotted around, and small lounges were positioned next to floor to ceiling windows. Clearly not an area the normal public would be heading through, it felt like a set of corporate offices rather than a sports centre. Nicole charged straight down the corridor, picking up speed on the level ground and starting to outdistance them both. Ahead they saw a single security guard sitting by a narrow section of the passageway, reading a computer screen that was angled away from them. He heard the footsteps and had managed to lumber from his chair, hand dropping to the baton at his belt while the other was held up in front of him, demanding that Nicole stop. She didn't though, instead springing into the air like a gazelle and flying forwards towards his face. Her knees swapped position, the trailing leg scything forwards and smashing into his face with brutal force, sending him sprawling to the ground.
She dropped with him, but rolled to absorb the impact and her arm swung down, dropping a hammer fist onto the side of his face, once, twice, three times, driving any sense from him. This at least gave time for Hunter to catch up with her and slide to a halt.
"Easy now, don't kill him." Hunter looked up and down the corridor, but didn't see anyone. There was a camera looking down the hallway, that might be being monitored – but there was nothing he could do about that. Instead he just grabbed the guard and dragged him behind the small desk that the computer rested on, tucking him out of the way. After a moment of consideration, he grabbed the guard's security pass, pulling the lanyard hard to snap the fastener free. As he suspected, the ID card had a mag stripe down one side and a barcode on the front, along with some holograms embedded into the surface. He wasn't sure where they were going, but he'd rather have ID and not need it than need it and not have it…
Nicole had composed herself, tucking a few stray hairs back behind her ear and then set off again, heading down the corridor away from them. Hunter picked up the pace, and Marius had no real choice but to continue to run along behind them, wondering where she was taking them.
Kai arrived at the corner and Simi saw him – and Harley – out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over at Harley, confirming that he was really here, then turned back to the ring and started shouting.
"Cover up! Cover up! Defend. Run the clock down. RUN IT DOWN!" They looked over and saw only twenty seconds of the third round remained, and Chun was already moving around, trying to keep his opponent at range and bringing his guard in, sacrificing any attempts to score points or inflict damage to preserve his own health. His opponent tried to land a few punches, but couldn't get a clear shot, and finally the timer clicked down to zero and a hugely amplified bell rang out.
Chun staggered back to the corner, sliding down onto the stool Simi had thrust through the ropes. A moment later Simi was inside the ring, putting the spout of a water bottle into the corner of his mouth with one hand, applying a chilled iron to a rising bruise on his cheek with the other.
"Chun, he's here. He's just behind you. They got him back. Ok, you need to focus. Listen to me, I know you're hurting, But no more – no more punishment now. Just keep tight, you've got nothing to prove." Chun blinked a few times, and barely nodded, his chest rising and falling as he laboured for breath. Shimazu and Kai moved around and they could see the micromovements, the trembles in his muscles and the pain that was being suppressed underneath his calm mask.
"Tads, be ready. I'm going to try and buy us some time, ok?" Kai pushed Tads towards the very corner of the ring, and waved for Aswon and Shimazu to close up on her to try and shield her from view, while he ran down to the next corner, vaulting up onto the skirt…
Way above them, Nicole slowed and then stopped, pointing at a door on the inside of the corridor. She took two steps backwards, standing against the outside wall and started to take a few calming breaths, psyching herself up to launch a flying kick at the door facing her.
"Stop… stop… lemme see." Hunter glanced at the door, taking in the sign that said 'Broadcast Suite' peripherally, but looking down at the maglock that lay to the side. "Multi-pass…" He smiled at some joke that only he understood, and then swiped the guard's pass through the lock, then gently pushed down on the door latch as the locking mechanism clicked open. He was about to push the door open and spy what was inside when Nicole ran past him in a blur, her shoulder barging the door open and sprinted into the room. By the time he had his pistol out in hand and followed her, she was already rising through the air again, delivering another of her monstrous knee strikes to the unfortunate guard in the room who was no more prepared for the sudden burst of intense violence than was his companion out in the corridor.
Understandably, this caused some degree of consternation amongst the technicians in the room, most of whom surged to their feet in alarm, demanding to know what the meaning of this intrusion was, only to fall silent as Hunter and Marius entered the room, pistols drawn.
"My name is Mr. Smith. This is Mr. Wesson. Shut up, sit down, and you may find that nobody has to get shot." Hunter snarled out his humorous speech, while he slowly panned his weapon past the technicians on his side of the room, trusting Marius to keep an eye on the others. After everyone had been given the eyeball at least once, he paid a little more attention to the contents of the room instead.
The wall opposite the door had a large tinted window in it, that looked down over the crowd towards the arena floor below, providing a bird's eye view of most of the available space. Laid out on either side of the window was a huge bank of displays, tiled and showing the viewpoint from the half dozen cameras positioned around the ring, the four skycrane cameras that looked down over the top, another pair that stared at the commentary team and a few more that showed the cornermen, the dressing rooms and an interview room. Still more showed graphics, scores and information overlays that could be mixed over the top of any of the feeds, and on each of the half dozen desks in the room was a large terminal with a custom designed video mixer, stuffed full of controls for manipulating the camera shots and mixing the feed together.
On the wall to their right was a huge rack of equipment, multiple high-end video servers that were busy processing the feeds, compressing and encrypting them and sending out the finished signal via a battery of thick optical cables to somewhere else in the building – presumably their matrix upload site. One more desk was positioned next to this with another workstation showing connection information, quality metres and feedback from the studio headquarters.
Hunter gently tapped one of the workers on the shoulder and got him to scoot out of the way and spent a moment familiarising himself with the layout of the console and the controls. The first thing he did was to kill the feed from the corner-cam which showed Kai, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu clustered in the corner, watching as Simi administered to Chun.
"Ok, this feed goes down, and stays down for the duration of this fight. Any camera looking that way goes off too. I want nothing better than a long shot from the other side of the stadium towards this corner, or I'm going to be very upset." Hunter stabbed at a few buttons on the mixer, and killed the feed, then started to steer some of the other cameras to different angles or sliding the zoom lenses back to de-emphasise the prominence of the corner.
"Put the phone down, and slide back from the console, with your hands on your head. Failure to comply will leave me with a difficult shot. I will have to shoot upwards, you see, "Marius stated in a very bland voice, "because we do have need of the equipment in this room. We do not however have any requirement for your services. You are completely expendable to us. So do not attempt to continue sending your request for assistance." He placed the cold steel barrel of his pistol on the nape of the neck, crouching down slightly so the gun aimed up towards the ceiling tiles. The producer froze, his face blanching white and he slowly lifted his hands above the surface of the desk and placed his phone in view there, the half-typed message visible on screen.
Nicole grabbed a waste bin from the end of the desk and wandered around the room, getting each of the technicians to throw their phones into the bin before she placed it in the corner of the room, out of reach.
He saw Kai vault up onto the edge of the ring and hunted round briefly, then activated the overhead pickup and sent the microphone spinning downwards on the cable to somewhere closer to the ring, then activated the monitor circuit so he could hear what was going on. The referee was walking across the ring, pointing down at the ground and clearly not impressed with Kai's appearance, but Kai just waved a dismissive hand at him and then took a deep breath.
"Chhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn Foooooooooo!" The noise around the ring stopped and people looked up in surprise as his voice rang out, stressing the name and stretching it out like a battle cry. Hunter found the control to feed the microphone output back through the arena speakers and activated it, boosting his reach.
"Chhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn Foooooooooo! You all know him! The black dragon! Here, in this ring, fighting for you tonight!" Kai projected his voice, letting passion and emotion leech into his speech, commanding and demanding attention from those that could hear him. The rest of the team heard the familiar sub-harmonics rumbling in the undertones of his voice and smiled, knowing that everyone that could hear him physically was likely to find it hard to interrupt him. Aswon listened, hearing the voice transmitted back through the public address system and realised that the electronic broadcast had stripped away the magical augmentation present in the real thing – but on the other hand, the audience was probably just going to enjoy the show, and didn't need to be mesmerised into listening.
"Gone for years, the black dragon disappeared from your screens, from your fights. His legacy lived on, but Chun had left. Chun had gone. He had won – there was no need for him to fight on. The black dragon slept." He paused for a moment – just long enough to add emphasis, but not quite long enough for people to shake off the enthralling effect of his speech.
"He sank into the earth. He slumbered. Some might even say, the black dragon died…"
Hunter had been working through the menus and canned lighting routines, examining the special effects panels and options, and had a rough idea of what was available to him. The computer was a coded in Mandarin, which at least he spoke well, but the menu system was garbage – probably due to the small market the manufacturer worked in, and a lack of choice available to customers. Still, he hit a function key and the lights over the ring cut out, replaced with a set of three spotlights that were trained down to highlight Kai as he balanced on the ropes. A moment later strobe lights started to kick around the arena, highlighting areas of the crowd in a random pattern.
"Some forces are elemental though, they cannot die." Scorn and derision poured from his voice, lamenting the stupidity of anyone who thought otherwise.
"Deep in the earth he sunk, subjected to crushing pressure! Pressing down on him, making him strong. The pressure forming diamond, the hardest of materials! The earth gave of him his strength!" Hunter added some reverb, and increased the speed of the strobes a little, hands dancing over the controls as he looked for appropriate flourishes to add.
"Water crept down through the earth, bringing nourishment and life. Sustaining him, helping him grow, bringing the vitality of the world to him." Blue and green lasers kicked off around the top tier of the arena, forming rotating tunnels that played over the crowd.
"Wood, the ancient remains of petrified forests, relics of a bygone age. Hard, dense, solid – yet with the strength of nature in their very roots!" Hunter's hand whipped around to point the pistol at the head of the technician he'd moved out of the way as he leant in. The man flinched, and both hands shot up, and he spoke quickly, the words falling out of his mouth.
"Bravo menu option four. Smoke machines, will tie in with the lasers." Hunter checked the menu, then activated the commands, sending plumes of smoke gushing out of the concealed machines, filling the area around the lasers with particulate matter and enhancing the effects. He gave the man a little nod, then returned his attention to the control panel.
"Metal, ore deposits deep underground, rich, strong and powerful. Wealth and prosperity, just waiting to be used!" Hunter raised the volume on the audio channels, getting a sound bite of hammer hitting metal to play underneath the vocal track. He realised where Kai was going with this and turned around a little to address the technician again.
"Ok, in a minute I'm going to want floodlights in yellow, red and orange all over the ring, but particularly in the corner near Chun, bright as you can, and then keep them up." The technician nodded and wheeled his chair back over carefully as Hunter slid out of the way, and then carefully started processing commands, making sure he kept both hands visible and on the controller, licking his lips nervously.
"FIRE! Lakes of lava, the heat of life, the power of rebirth!"
The tech looked at Hunter for confirmation then it the controls, and a chase sequence of lights played over the ring. High power spots cycled from nothing to full power and back again, rippling through the yellow, red and orange colour settings and making the entire corner of the ring burst into flame. Tads blinked in surprise and looked around, then shot her hand forward, grabbing hold of Chun's calf and started to channel mana into her healing spell…
"Earth! Water! Wood! Metal! Fire! The perfect conditions for rebirth, reform. A new power."
"Charlie, give me a rumble on the hundred hertz line, crank up the boost on the subwoofers. If that's ok with you?" The tech looked up at Hunter, who nodded. Two desks over Charlie started pushing buttons and a deep rumble rang through the arena. Over on the other side of the room Marius saw the power meters flicker as the subwoofers fired on a long cycle, drawing huge amounts of power for their drivers.
Aswon leaned over to Shimazu and bellowed in his ear, the only way to be heard over the amplified voice of Kai competing with the sound of fire, hammering metal and dripping water that now echoed around the arena.
"Go with your credstick! Put the bets on! We don't have much time!" He put action to words and ran off, heading out towards the VIP area and looking for one of the bookies, credstick clutched tightly in his hand. Shimazu headed off in the other direction, heading up a half-flight of steps towards another section of the audience, closing in on a section that looked similar to the first, though perhaps with slightly smaller boxes, a little further away from the ring.
Kai started to chant, his hand swinging in an arc around the arena as if he was pointing at specific people.
"In the cursed night, the shadow did take flight…" Hunter pulled round his deck, frantically extending the fibre cable towards the tech as he pulled up the file store and found the audio file.
"Full of baleful ire, Destruction, breath of fire…" The tech jammed the feed in and set the input feed live into the audio mixer.
"Ancient beings, forgotten names…" The volume was slowly raised, the audio track from the deck overtaking Kai's voice with professionally mixed vocals from the band. "Jealous guards of their domAAAAINS…"
"BLAAACK DRAAAAGON, BLAAAACK DRAAAAGOOOON". It was probably only a third of the audience at first that joined in – but that was still fifteen thousand people. On the second repeat it was closer to twenty five thousand, their voices swelling and filling the arena in a way that no audio system could compete with. Something primal about the human psyche relished being part of a larger whole, harking back to singing around the campfire as primitive beings. One in ten of the audience got hit with a wave of goosebumps as thousands of voices called out in unity, sharing a moment.
Tads shuddered as the emotion hit her, almost losing her grip on Chun. The wave of positive mana generated by the huge crowd energised her, sending power coursing through her. Her eyes watered as pulses of positive energy rippled through her, touching parts of her that were definitely not used to being stimulated, and her breathing became shallow and rapid. Healing power rippled through her, washing over Chun and erasing his injuries, the golden glow of the healing magic lost amidst the blinding lights of the stage show.
Fountains of sparks exploded from the corners of the ring as pyrotechnics were armed and activated, burning magnesium being propelled ten metres into the air. Hunter looked around at the tech who had launched them and raised an eyebrow.
"Look mate, I don't know who you folks are, or why you're doing this, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to tell us. But we're here to do the show, and this… well this is a show. The studio is going to ask all kinds of questions and we won't have answers… but…." He looked down and whistled slightly, then back at Hunter with a grin. "But according to this, we've just seen a surge in people signing up for the stream, and this is going out to over twenty million people now. So if we make it good, then we get to keep our jobs instead of getting fired."
Hunter snorted and then shrugged. Fine – if the techs were willing to help out, he was fine with that. He moved his hands away from the controls, content to let them run the show now, and just kept a watchful eye on what was going on instead.
The chorus hit the crescendo and the faded away, replaced by Kai's voice once more.
"The phoenix has awoken! Fiery temper, talons of steel, bending like water, hard as aged oak, rooted in earth…" A drumbeat kicked off, underlying his speech without drowning it out, two hundred and fifty energising beats per minute as Kai beamed out at the audience. The whole ring was lit up now in manic strobing, and they could see Chun's opponent standing in his corner, waving his arms around in complaint about the distraction.
"Flames of destruction! Witness molten power destroying his enemies! The Phoenix reborn gathers strength, defeats darkness. His enemies will tremble and be consumed." He aimed his pointing finger straight at the opponent, lowering the pitch of his voice and putting everything he had into his final line.
"The Black Dragon is no more. Now you witness the Phoenix, the power reborn!"
The referee was advancing towards him, one hand cupped over his ear as his commlink went berserk, some official somewhere in the arena commanding him to put a stop to the circus taking place. Kai beamed at the audience, and looked around, then froze solid as he caught sight of one particular figure looking back at him.
In one of the larger boxes, right by the ring, there was an elderly man, surrounded by a number of flunkies and hangers-on, and a good number of bodyguards. Sitting next to him in an intricately decorated robe was a figure that grabbed his attention and refused to let go. He recognised him at once – it was a face he didn't think he'd ever forget. Mr. Kuro stared up at him impassively, and their gazes locked for a few long seconds, until Kai managed to tear himself away. With a little shake he dropped down from the ropes to the edge of the ring, then again to the floor, giving a cheery wave of thanks to the referee as if the entire thing had been sanctioned.
"Oh. we are so fucked everyone. Mr. Kuro is here, in one of the VIP boxes. Why is Mr. I'm totally not a dragon here, watching this fight? Fuck, fuck FUCK."
The lights returned to normal, strobes ceasing, lasers shutting down and the audio tracks faded away. The referee waved for both fighters to resume their feet and the bell rang out to signify the start of the next round.
In their corner Chun rose, and a gloved hand reached down to grasp the tutu, snatching at it and ripping it from his waist before contemptuously flinging it out of the ring, towards the box containing Mr. Kuro and the other elderly man. As Kai glanced back over he spotted Lo Han standing on the edge of the next box over, staring at the ring nervously. It looked like he was with the same contingent of VIPs, but in the 'overflow' box, not quite important enough to sit with the big bosses, but close by to be seen with them.
"Kai – do we need to get Harley out of here?" Aswon called over the comms, glad that their sub-vocal mics were working fine – otherwise it would have been hard to get any kind of message out over the noise of the crowd.
"No, we'll keep an eye on things. I think he needs to see his dad win." Aswon nodded, then a sudden though flashed through his mind. Swearing under his breath he snatched out his phone and texted Spook.
BET NOW!
He sent the message half a dozen times, hoping that she'd get the point and trigger whatever bets she had queued up, then started to head back down to ringside to close up with the rest of the team and Harley.
Chun moved forwards until he was one third of the way across the ring, and stood facing his opponent, arms hanging by his side, looking down at the canvas below him. With his head still pointing down his eyes slowly raised until he was staring through his eyebrows at his opponent, and a grin slowly spread across his face. With a graceful, exaggerated motion he dropped his right foot behind him and took up a fighting stance, muscles dancing across his body, tendons forming cables of tension around his physique.
As the controllers upstairs started to punch in for closeups of Chun and Wei Lei, Nicole spotted something in one of the camera views and headed out of the room, unnoticed by either Hunter or Marius, and started to run back down the corridor.
Wei Lei advanced towards Chun, confidence oozing out of every pore, his arms raised high and ready to strike. He knew how badly he'd hurt the old man in the previous rounds, and even with the delay of several minutes while the stranger had interrupted their fight with his silly song and light show, he knew he could finish him off. He'd been training for months for this task, and this was his big ticket to advancement in the Triads. Launching himself into the air, he went flying towards Chun, elbow coming down to smash at his face.
The only problem was, Chun wasn't there any more. With the speed of a pit viper he dodged to the side and his right foot swept forwards, twisting through the air and striking the inside thigh of his opponent.
"Uuuuhoh!" It wasn't an exhalation, or a cry. It was a more primeval kind of noise, a combination grunt of effort and force. Chun's foot slammed into Wei's leg, and one of the cameras was perfectly positioned to see the incredible ripple that shook through the leg as the kick slammed into the meaty part of the thigh. It was a shot that would be used for the next few days in the fight analysis, showing the devastating kicking power that K1 was known for. Wei Lei staggered as he hit the mat, stepping backwards and struggling to compose himself. Fire raged through his leg as muscles screamed from the abuse. He pushed the pain aside though, concentrating on the fight. So, the old man had gotten lucky. So what? He came in to attack again, this time sending a vicious hook swinging around at Chun's jaw.
Once more Chun swayed to the side, and this time it was the left foot that snaked forwards, twisting outwards to strike at the opposite inner thigh.
"Uuuuhoh!" Chun's exhalation was loud enough that it could be heard through the microphones of the commentators, carrying over the PA system as the audio system amplified it. Once more Wei Lei backed away, hobbling slightly as his traitor legs tried to buckle. He glared at Chun who stood still, taunting him with that smile, staring at him like a demon. He moved in to attack again.
Twice more Chun struck, devastating blows that shook Wei Lei hard. The fourth kick hit him with enough power to send him to the mat, even if only for a second. Wei rolled and sprang back to his feet – or at least he tried. Instead he staggered slightly as his legs wobbled and refused to hold his weight properly.
Now Chun advanced, dummying with a series of fast strikes before spinning in place and striking. Wei's guard came up as he registered the elbow strike coming in, his head rolling back to avoid the impact, guard moving to intercept. Another pulse of pain lashed through his body, shocking him and rattling his brain. Chun hadn't been aiming at his body or head – instead the elbow had hit the front of his upper arm, just above the armpit. He spun, and the other elbow lashed out hitting on the same spot on the other side of his body, before he danced away.
Dull aches spread through his arms as the nerves responded to the impact, and he had to grit his teeth, grinding them together as if he was going to chew through his mouthguard. His arms felt heavy, oh so heavy, and it was a struggle to keep his guard up.
Once more Chun darted in, placing another kick to the inside leg, then another spinning elbow to the right shoulder, before bouncing back out of range. Wei struggled forward, throwing kicks and punches that were easily dodged or countered, taking strike after strike in return. With every impact his reactions slowed, his body screaming in pain as the strikes landed with relentless accuracy in the same four spots.
Wei couldn't even see what was happening now, his vision had tunnelled in so completely. He didn't hear his corner shouting instructions, and couldn't hear the commentators as they described the assault on his body, the cruel manner in which Chun destroyed his ability to fight back with targeted nerve strikes.
"Twenty seconds, Chun!" Simi's bellow across the ring told him it was time to end this, and he charged forwards, feinting one way and then spinning off the front foot as he drove his hips into a turn. The foot arced through the air, struck Wei, crashing through his weakened defences and collapsing his ribs, driving bone fragments into his body and dropping him to the canvas in a pile. Tads hadn't been watching, but she heard the crunching noise and felt herself shudder, struggling to avoid being sick as her imagination filled in the details she didn't want to see. Kai flashed back to the images of the guards back on the fortress and the injuries sustained there, and it became fairly clear where Harley had learned that particular technique from.
The fight was over, the bell frantically ringing as the referee waved for a stop, while a doctor and several paramedics slid into the ring under the bottom rope, bringing emergency medical kit in to try and stabilise the critically-wounded fighter. Screams and cheers filled the arena, the crowd reduced to a bloodthirsty mob enthralled by the huge 'comeback' on the fight. Aswon and Shimazu headed back to their bookies, who were suddenly looking very nervous as people started to queue up to collect their winnings…
"How much did you get down, Shimazu?"
"I got fifty grand down, but it was at two to one. What about you, Aswon?"
"Nice. Mine had a top bid of thirty, but he gave me three to one – Chun was looking like he was about to pass out I think."
Kai glanced over towards the VIP area and saw the elderly Chinese man, his neutral expression gone and replaced with a face like thunder. With a raised hand he was flicking his fingers at several people, and Kai could see goons speaking into concealed microphones in their sleeves and unbuttoning their jackets. He was just about to call out a warning to the team when Mr. Kuro leant over and gently placed a hand over the top of the other man's. He stopped moving and looked at Mr. Kuro in shock, and Kai saw him give a little shake of his head, as if to say 'no'. The old man paused for a moment, then nodded respectfully, then turned back to his men and started to shake his outstretched finger from side to side in negation.
Kai was confused for a moment, then a flash of violence in the corner of his eye drew his attention. A solidly built man in a cheap suit was heading towards them, emerging from the tunnel they'd used, and reaching into his inside jacket pocket. But, there was a blur behind him and he collapsed down to the ground as Nicole pummelled the crap out of him from behind, driving him down to the floor and continuing to rain blows down until he was unquestionably neutralised.
Kai looked around and saw odd pockets of violence all around the ringside area as Triad enforcers summoned by the old man were swiftly and brutally taken down by Anna, Hakim and Ismael, the instructors falling back on their favoured style to swiftly and brutally take down the Triad agents before any of them managed to pull a weapon. Kai saw the last one standing in a tunnel, concealed from general view and with his weapon drawn and aimed right at him. Expecting him to fire at any moment, he blinked in surprise as a massive hand punched through the wall and grabbed the man's head, dragging him to the wall and smashing him through it. If it hasn't been so shocking, Kai would have laughed – but he'd just seen a man pulled through a hole no bigger than a newspaper, and couldn't imagine he'd survived the encounter. A moment later the broad smiling head of Mikey the troll appeared through the hole, giving him a thumbs up…
Kai span around again, looking back towards the VIP area, and saw Mr. Kuro delicately gathering his robe into his hand, and starting to walk towards the exit. The old man next to him had recovered somewhat, and was facing Lo Han. With an imperious wave of the hand, he indicated towards the ring. Lo Han swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing up and down, and a look of fear crept over his face. The old man emphasised his gesture again, and several of the enforcers started to close in on Lo Han.
As the first of them reached him and touched his arm, he bolted, heading towards the ring and climbing up into the lit area, face pallid and white. Chun turned towards him and smiled, but the grin was entirely without humour and warmth. He looked up overhead, and then made a beckoning motion and watched as the microphone descended down towards him. Simi had climbed into the ring next to him, and was cutting the gloves free from his hand, and Chun snagged the microphone. As he started to speak, a hush fell over the crowd, wondering what 'The Phoenix' had to say to this ugly sweating man who swayed nervously across the ring.
"I wasn't sure at first, when you told me about the fight. About bring back the old ways. I thought those days were past. But I see now the wisdom of it." His dark eyes were locked on Lo Han, unblinking, staring at him with contempt. "But, the old ways, the traditional ways – well they've served our people well for generations, haven't they? Tradition is good. I like to honour the old ways, to respect traditions. So I agreed to fight."
"Of course it was sad that we had a disagreement, that we couldn't resolve between us – but we could agree to this competition. To send our champions to the ring to fight for our honour and for justice. As our ancestors look over us, we know they would provide the strength and courage to fight for what we believed in, and the righteous would prevail."
"Well, I have prevailed. Your champion is defeated, falling before the attack of one who knows right is on his side. But he has fallen, and honour has been served. Justice has been delivered. The matter between us is settled, according to the old traditions, and our feud is ended."
The smile faded slightly, leaving him just staring across the ring at Lo Han, fell and dangerous.
"It is ended, isn't it?" Lo Han glanced over towards his boss, but saw only his back as he and his subordinates who had not been found wanting filed out towards the entrance, walking up a path cleared of other people by the goons that protected them. He turned back towards Chun, and suddenly realised that there was a drone cam now almost in his face, recording his every move before a live audience of tens of thousands, and millions around the world. Choppily he nodded, giving a small bow towards Chun. The tension in his body was palpable, and he clearly expected Chun to attack him at any moment.
When he straightened though, Chun had turned his back on him and was climbing out of the ring to embrace Harley, Simi by his side. He'd been dismissed, found so beneath worth that he couldn't even be bothered to accept his bow of surrender. Lo Han crumpled, landing on his knees as he realised the enormity of his fall from grace and the impact this was going to have on his life – however much of that remained.
Up in the control room the techs were working overtime to capture the incredible scenes down on the floor. Each of them was furiously working on their console, bringing cameras in for close ups, playing the audio commentary of the pundits down at ringside and scrubbing through footage for the slo-motion replays and analysis.
"Hunter, time to leave I think," he sent over his private channel. Hunter nodded and they backed up to the door, keeping an eye on everyone just in case. Marius let himself out first, and just as Hunter backed through the door, he couldn't resist one last comment.
"And that gentlemen, is how you run a show…" He pulled the door shut behind him, hearing the maglock engage, and then turned to follow Marius as he strode down the hallway, tucking his pistol back into the holster and concealing it under his jacket again. They'd just reached the narrow checkpoint area in the corridor when Hunter saw the guard starting to stir, groggily trying to get to his feet and wondering what was going on.
"Not your night, is it, friend?" Hunter's hand descended, his fist catching the guard on the jaw and sending him straight back down to the floor. After a moment of thought he grabbed the security badge and wiped it clean, then dropped it back in the guard's lap, before hustling after Marius to try and catch up.
"Kai, Marius and I are on the way out. Where do you want us?"
"Everyone head back to the fire exit we came in by. Let's try and slip out." He turned to Chun and waited until he had his attention. "We're going to head back to the boat, and then back to Shek-O. do you want us to take Harley back as well ?" Chun nodded, embracing his son one more time firmly, then pushing him towards Kai.
"Go on, I'll see you back home. You need to get back with them, we've no passport for you here." Harley nodded and turned away, then smiled at Kai.
"Did you see that kick? THAT's what you get for messing with us! Whooo!" Kai smiled and nodded, then gently steered Harley towards the tunnel, aware that he was probably going to get a very detailed, graphic and lengthy analysis of the fight on the journey back home…
They made it out of the arena and were halfway back to the boat when they heard a long string of cursing from Tads, making the team look at her with concern.
"I just realised, we're well past dusk. The spirit will be gone on the boat!" She quickly summoned another lower force spirit and sent it to check on the boat, a look of panic on her face. Ahead of her Aswon and Shimazu broke into a sprint, heading back to the boat at high speed. They need not have worried it seems – fate had been with them, and the boat was still tied up to the pilings, untouched by anyone in the time since dusk and the departure of the spirit that had been concealing it.
The journey back was long, and indeed filled with enthusiastic, gushing descriptions from Harley, mostly centering around the fight in the ring, but also touching on the actions of the other instructors and how they'd 'put the smack down' on the Triad. Tempting as it was to try and talk some sense into him about how much danger they could still be in, nobody in the team had the energy to try and educate him, so they mostly just sat and listened as the boat slowly chugged out of the creek and back towards the open sea.
As they made it out to sea, Marius heard the radio squawk as someone on the guard channel called out, demanding that he respond.
"Unidentified vessel, this is Navy unit Mount Ruso. State your destination and business!"
"Mount Ruso, this is Seven-Koi, a fishing vessel registered in Shek-O harbour. We are returning with tourists to our home port. Our course is zero-eight-five degrees, eight knots with an arrival time planned for oh-two-hundred."
"Very well Seven-Koi. Be advised we are performing anti-piracy patrols in this area."
"Noted, Mount Ruso. May I follow you as far as you're sailing? I would feel much safer being in sight of your vessel?"
"Acknowledged. Out."
Marius steered after the Corvette as it sliced through the water, following it more than a third of the way back to Hong Kong before it broke off to the north to continue its patrol. The engine remained well behaved, and the rest of the journey was uneventful, the seas quiet and much calmer now with the storm well clear of them.
"Good work everyone, well done tonight. When we get back to the academy, let's get a good night of sleep, and then we'll review in the morning, check in on the engines and see how much money we made, and work out what to do…"
As they docked several hours later, Kai slipped away from the rest of the team, and after making sure he had the optical chip in his pocket, headed into town, whistling the tune to 'Enter the dragon' as he headed towards the bar under the mini-golf course…