Chapter Two: ... Hits the Fan
"The shot's good. Take it!"
"No. We promised. There has to be pain... lots of pain... Then we take her fishing."
--
"Where's Rock?" said Revy from the pier.
Dutch looked down from the deck, wiping the grease from his hands with a rag. "Went off with Benny, probably the Yellow Flag."
"Damn, this early?" She licked her lips and turned away. Stared blankly out over the bay. The Saturday morning was about as nondescript and shabby as the seagull that listed on the nearest pile of the pier, the waters an oily grey that stretched to the Buddha Mount at the harbor entrance. The Burakku Ragun barely moved to the gentle swell of the tide.
Dutch growled softly, rolled the cigar to one end of his mouth. This was Revy's first appearance in three weeks at the dock. She had been laid up, recovering from the encounter with the Yakuza swordsman in Japan. The girl had lost some weight and was favoring the injured leg. It was useless to express his opinion that she had displayed a disturbing lack of sense by engaging in a close quarter duel. In their world, honor was not something to be honored; as Paul McCartney had warbled, "live and let die." Amen to that brother.
It made sense that Rock had taken the first opportunity to bolt. Playing nursemaid to an irritable, in pain, bedridden sociopath was on no one's short list. Dutch exhaled, blowing smoke out from his nostrils. The Fujiyama business had definitely caused problems. Even Balalaika had come back moody and irritable.
"I'm working on the engines," Dutch said. "Want to help?"
Revy stretched, the lean muscle of her torso rippling as the black cutoff rose up. "Uh - I'd rather not. If we don't have anything lined up, I think I'll just go. Where's the car?"
"You'll have to call a cab," Dutch said rummaging in the tool-chest he had put down on the boat deck. "the Dodge is still being repaired, just like the building, just like the boat."
She gave him a disgusted look. "You're joking, right? How the hell am I going to pay for a cab? I got nuthin... Can I get an advance?"
"Until we get a job there's nothing to advance," Dutch took out a wrench, closed the lid with a sharp bang. "All we have has been put into repairs."
"Shit." she flicked her cigarette butt at the seagull. Then walked away without a further word.
"Hell is other people," said Dutch reflectively. The engines needed his attention.
--
The analyst kept talking.
"The beauty of this approach is we don't need to install any kind of packet sniffing software at the ISP. Nor is it a rootkit or any kind of detectable software. Someone of his expertise would probably detect such an intrusion and take appropriate measures..."
"That's quite enough. Get out, will you?" interrupted Eda hastily. Yolanda smiled gently and smoothed the front of her habit with the palms of her hands. They were in the "bubble," the underground chamber beneath the church rectory that had been converted into a makeshift electronic surveillance center at the behest of Mr. Ravencroft within the last month.
Eda had misgivings about embedding such intelligence capabilities within the Church of Violence, regardless of whatever "compensation" was arranged between her superiors and Yolanda. However, the worst part had been managing the two analysts assigned by Langley. Neither of them seemed to understand the concept of secrecy and she was going to recommend cycling both of them out of Thailand as soon as possible. In the meantime she had been frantically bringing herself up to speed on the capabilities of the systems.
"I would surmise you've added something special to the pc's," mused Yolanda once the analyst had exited the chamber. "I can imagine it's not too hard to replace a mail order, off the shelf piece of hardware, especially in Roanapur. I'm speculating of course, it's not really my area of expertise."
"Of course," said Eda with a forced nonchalance. "But with Hotel Moscow allowing the RBN to set up a presence in the East." She shrugged, "what can I say?"
"But that's not why I'm here - in the basement of my own building," said the elderly nun. "May I smoke?"
"No," snapped Eda. "Anyway, one of the first things I asked these clowns to do was see if we could monitor our friend Benny of the Lagoon Company. He's always struck me as someone who should be watched, considering his history statewide. And then there was that business with the counterfeiter," here she grimaced and unconsciously touched her neck. "Well, the short of it, we've hacked Mr. Benny's systems; wasn't as easy as it sounds though."
Yolanda blinked her one good eye, waited patiently.
"It appears he has been up to something," Eda continued. "Maybe it's nothing, but there are some red flags coming up on this and I need your input. What do you know of the Eastern Jewel, Sarkhan, the and disappearance of oh, several tons or so of gold during World War II?"
"I'm not THAT old," said Yolanda irritably. "but I do remember the story from some of the old China hands. The Eastern Jewel was Yoshiko Kawashima and she was an absolute lunatic. Before the Nationalists got kicked off mainland China in '49 they executed that bitch for war crimes."
"No one proved if Kawashima was involved in the disappearance of the gold bullion from Occidental First Bank of Shanghai in '38," Yolanda continued. "It probably ended up in the Japanese Imperial Treasury or something. So whatever Mr. Benny's been poking around in, it's probably a wild goose chase. Sounds like he's getting himself scammed by a Nigerian.
"Sarkhan," Yolanda paused, shrugged. "There's nothing. Nothing at all."
"Oh," said Eda, disappointed. "Well, it was more exciting than those phishing scams the RBN's been setting up."
Yolanda stood up, but then paused and smiled. She was looking at one of the screens. "I see you also set up surveillance cameras also for the grounds."
"Seemed like a good idea," said Eda defensively. "Standard operating procedure."
"Your little friend is here," said Yolanda still smiling.
Eda whirled in the chair, "What little, oh crap!"
--
Gaining Revy's rapport, had been remarkably simple. Eda had observed the gunslinger's behavior and then mirrored her every move, characteristics, and personal behavior. Letting Revy take the lead during the incidents involving the Romanian psychos and then the debacle with Janet Bhai had led to a sort of wary relationship. The Chinese girl obviously craved female companionship or she wouldn't have started showing up unannounced at the Church of Violence, claiming she was only there for the booze..
The problem was the stray dog could go violent at the first sign of weakness or duplicity. If Revy had the slightest inkling that all these bouts of drunken bonhommie being recorded and crosschecked against Langley and the NYPD Nexus databases... Eda twitched beneath her habit. The nun would indeed be smoking from her forehead.
Revy was limping badly and there were ugly, red scabbed wounds on her right leg. But more interesting was the refusal to meet Eda's welcoming gaze as met at the altar underneath the crucifix, the gaze of the Christ steadfastly turned away from the two delinquent souls. The nun poured a drink of rum and pushed it over.
Revy sat down gingerly, cigarette dangling from her lips. She was seated, legs crossed facing the front door of the church away from Eda, and there was the slightest tinge of color to her cheeks.
"Might as well just wear a sign," thought Eda with some annoyance. "What a dumbass. Well, if I'm going to have to put up with this, might as well have some fun."
So she poured herself a generous helping and sat down flinging her legs up on the altar.
"So... ah... come to think of it..." Eda asked, "How was Japan?"
"Everything was all fucked up," said Revy listlessly. "Almost got killed by big sis, got my leg sliced like a chicken fillet. Cold as fuck too. I ain't goin' back. Do you have anything to eat?"
"Oh c'mon!" Eda thought, she leaned forward. "We got rice, but what are you talking about? I'm asking you about Rock! You two were away together for so long. You did it this time right?"
"I don't want to tell," mumbled Revy looking away.
Eda started laughing in spite of herself. The sheer childishness of it all. She saluted Revy with a flourish and downed the shot.
"When it comes to you... Die."
There was a blur of motion and Eda found the barrel of one of Revy's Beretta aimed at her forehead.
'We villains don't die that easily." snapped Revy. Eda stared back, knowing she couldn't show the slightest twinge of fear, the empty glass steady in her grip.
"I ain't telling," Revy holstered the Beretta slowly and then sagged forward onto the table with a glare.
"Hey, hey, hey! Quit acting like a blushing virgin!" Eda blustered, but let the matter go.
--
The two women tumbled into the car. The dark haired one slid behind the wheel. The albino whipped around to look out the back window, her red eyes wide. The G Spot Bar was on fire, flames were licking up the sides of the building People were stumbling out through the smoke, one figure slumped to the ground within a few paces. A siren shrilled over the screams of the injured.
The albino huddled up in the seat, foreams tucked up against her chest as the car pulled away from the curb.
"Liling, we really did it, we fucking did it!" the albino began to laugh hysterically. "We smoked the geek and the psycho bitch's lover... Great White would be so proud of us, we've avenged her."
"Sow deh lar, Lifeng!" grunted Liling, the knuckles white as she gripped the wheel, screeching through an intersection as a group of orange robe Buddhist monks scattered scattered. "We just woke up this cesspit of a city. We haven't done shit yet. Now hurry up and call that mo-lan. 't trust those shit-heads at all.
The albino scrambled for the cellphone. Liling stomped on the accelerate and cut down a side road heading for the harbor.
"Is the other one dead?" shrieked Lifeng into the cellphone. "Can you hear me now? No... I can't hear you. . . What. . . No! . . No! Oh... Au wui waht lei dui an chut lei yuen hau bai ju hai lei go see fut dau . . . sau yi lnei hau yi geen do au teck do lei go see fut biu C!! Motherfucker!"
Screaming she threw the cellphone out the window. Liling took a hand off the wheel and slapped her sister across the face.
"What's happening?"
"They totally screwed up," sobbed Lifeng, her white hair covering her face. "I guess the black man never left the boat. They never got a chance to plant the bomb, so they tried shooting him... and they missed. Chen and Wu are dead."
"If you had just let me shoot the bitch when I had her in the sites... one shot, one kill, end of story" said Liling her face set. "But you wanted to do it this way. If Chang finds out we're here, Big Bro and the psycho bitch will be the least of our problems."
"We've got a Thumper in the back seat," continued Liling as she whipped the car onto the waterfront road, "I'll just blow this Dutchie off his little boat. And then we go for stage two of your plan, sis."
--
Roanapur was not a place to let one's guard down. While the Packard engines of the Elco style torpedo boat were original, many of the additions that Dutch and Benny had added were not. Unable to gain access through any of the bolted hatches, the intruders had made for the bridge and set off the infra-red motion array at the bridge back door entry, wired to the ship's horn on top of the chart room.
Dutch had reacted hard and fast, the .44 magnum roaring like an exploding bomb in the confines of the boat. The two leading intruders had gone down together in a heap, their blood pooling on the haze grey flooring of the bridge.
The other three had retreated off the boat deck and had moved back up the pier to where there was relative cover behind a cluster of storage bins. There they laid down a barrage from the Kalashnikovs. The situation had become a standoff.
Dutch could not attack out of the bridge without becoming an easy target, but he couldn't retreat back into the boat down to the fore and aft passageway where Revy stowed the heavy weaponry. The fuel tanks were empty, or he would have simply driven off into harbor waters.
The attackers were likewise pinned down. They had retreated too far and the open approach down the pier would be suicide. The three men were content for now to trade shots with Dutch.
Dutch had no illusions. He understood why Revy moved with such rapidity at the onset of a gun battle; to end it. Every moment that passed was a moment against him. A Kalashnikov coughed, and bullets set splinters flying.
Had either of the crime-lords of the city made the decision the Black Lagoon Company had outlived it's usefulness? The possibility had been considered, if so, then how were the others doing? It couldn't be helped. If Chang or Balalaika had made the decision, then it was the end. They certainly hadn't seen it coming.
Or was this something else? Had their past come back to bite them in the ass? Revy alone had more unmentionables than all the women had underwear on the Titanic. an employee, she was a damn liability...
A single car came to an abrupt halt at the still unfinished scaffolding of the new warehouse. Dutch stared aft from the dubious safety of the bridge entry. He shrugged, two women, one black haired – one white haired, made the run up the pier towards his assailants and joined them. They weren't reinforcements for his side. He reloaded the .44 slowly.
The distinctive and familiar boom of an M-79 grenade launcher made Dutch drop to one knee, a futile and reflexive gesture. He bit through the remnants of the cigar, swallowed burnt tobacco. They had missed the first shot. The woman with the black hair was reloading.
Dutch thought quickly, then moved towards the front of the bridge. To the right of the steering wheel was a panel with switches. Where was the one he was looking for? It had never been used before while had piloted the boat...
The bridge split open. Wood shards and glass from the ports blew under and around Dutch from the second grenade impact. He was thrown forward and against the bulwark. His hand swept down and hit the looked for switch on the panel.
The smoke generators embedded in the stern of the lazarette coughed and belched. The stream of sulfur trioxide-chlorosulfonic acid solution made contact with the air creating enormous billows of smoke from the rear of the boat. The U.S. Military may have long discontinued the use of F.S. Smoke, but Dutch had found a Chinese supplier.
"Ta ma de!" shouted Liling hoarsely. She stood up brandishing the M-79 in triumph. It appeared she had hit the fuel tanks of the PT Boat. Her men shouted as a figure could be seen staggering through the smoke and flame to make a theatrical plunge into the foul waters beside the boat.
"You got him, you got him!" shrilled Lifeng throwing herself at her sister. They hugged exultantly.
"Enough," shouted Liling breaking from her sister's grasp. Her eyes were dark and satisfied as she saw the ripples spread across the oily surface of the water. There was no movement, no sign of life, "C'mon, we need to get out of here now!"
--
"Wai?" .
"Wai ?" Eda howled, kicking her heels and knocking over the empty bottle of rum. They had just started on the second bottle.
"Eh, you're such a fooking Gah Toy," hooted Revy. "That's Wai. know some people think you're one, you sexless soi dog!do you Wai? damnit!"
Eda lurched unsteadily to her feet, her face mottled with outrage "Hey, I'm no Gah Toy you bitch! Just for that we're doing a road trip to Pattaya, that's Wai!"
Revy fell out of the chair laughing uncontrollably, "You'll never get Wai me, except with my Berettas here . . . oh, it must be time for mass or somethin' stoopid."
Yolanda marched up the aisle flanked by the monk known as Rico.
"You must leave," she said harshly to the prostrate Revy.