Omake Chapter: The Taipei Connection
0000hrs, 27 September 2013, Taipei, Taiwan
"Now my daughter's wedding is finished, I shall improve the economy in Taiwan." Chen Shui-bian.
"Oh, yeah, I name all the operations that go down in Taipei. Even the ones that aren't mine! Operation Latex Turtle, Operation Angry Bees, Operation AAAAAAAAHHH-YOOOOOOOOOW! Heh. That was a good one." Stephen Heck, Alpha Protocol.
"This is SAILOR Mercury, target has not arrived, standby."
The SAILOR team had been in Taipei for two days, scoping out the target they were supposed to intercept.
This was a big mission requested by the PM's office, and whatever the SAILOR team had been doing, had to be dropped in order for this mission to be carried out. Something dealing with a series of terrorist attacks that was going to be committed against Japanese companies and Taiwanese government buildings in the next week or so. And it was their job to interrogate the man who was supposedly supplying the weapons from inside the Taiwanese government.
Mina impatiently tapped her foot. She was waiting on the train platform, watching the last of crowd from the government buildings wait drowsily for the last train to come in.
Serena's voice chirped over the radio. "He's supposed to catch the last train out of here."
"When is that?" Mina asked.
Amy tapped her HUD that displayed the time. "In nine minutes."
"Well, maybe he's late," Mina suggested, starting to pace up and down the platform.
Serena disagreed with her. "Don't be ridiculous, if you work this late, you're not going to be late for the last train out. Now stop talking and get ready for him to show up." Serena really didn't want to be here, and waiting for targets to show up was probably her weakest skill, because it required patience. Patience that she didn't seem to have as of late.
"So, what do you think of this entire situation so far?" Lita muttered to Amy. They were sitting in a storage closet underneath one of the stairwells to the main platform. It was uncomfortable, but it was a good way not to get spotted by curious onlookers.
"Huh?" She was still distractedly tapping on her tablet computer.
"I mean, going around, blowing stuff up, killing people…it's a bit...um."
"Too much?"
"Yeah."
"Like it or not, we're in this situation right now, and we've got to make the best of what we have."
Amy touched something on her HUD, and Lita heard a slight buzzing sound from her own HUD.
"What the…"
"I've jammed the signal for a second. I don't know what's going on, but I'm trying to find out more. There's something these guys aren't telling us."
"No shit," Lita said to her. "But how are you going to do that?"
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." She nodded to Lita, and then tapped the HUD again.
"SAILOR Mercury," Luna's voice resounded over the radio. "We lost you there for a second. Is there a technical problem?"
"I don't know," Amy lied. "I'll have it looked at when we get back to base."
"Roger that. Continue your observation until the target makes approach."
Lita gave Amy a look; "That was a close one," it said.
Raye was trying not to fall asleep on a bench near the entrance to the station when she saw their target. He was husky man in his late thirties, about 170 centimeters tall and greying hair. He looked especially hurried, as he was about to miss his train home.
Raye tapped her HUD, disguised as a pair of reading glasses. "Heads up everyone, target is approaching the train station."
That woke everyone up.
"Roger that Mars," Serena said back. She was near the stairwell that led down to the platform proper. She saw their target walking through the faregates, swiping his EasyCard to open up one of them, and continued to walk at a brisk pace past Serena and down toward the platform.
"I'm right behind him," she whispered into the radio. "Get ready, Mina."
"On it." Mina saw their target come down the stairwell, with Serena in tow. With a loud screech, the last train of the night pulled in, and the few people on the platform now boarded. Their target suddenly started to run, trying to make it before the doors closed.
He didn't get very far, because Mina stuck out her leg and tripped the poor man.
"Gah!" both of them screamed out. The man stumbled and tried to get onto the train, but it was too late. The doors closed, and the train left.
"Dammit!" he swore. Their target turned his attention onto Mina. "You've made me miss my train, you bitch!" He was just angry though, and wasn't going to hurt her.
"Look, I'm sorry, I was trying to make it too!" Mina said in English.
"Oh…you're not from here," was the slightly less angry response. "A young woman like yourself probably shouldn't be walking around in the city at night, by yourself."
Serena was hiding behind a bench in the middle of the platform, hoping that their target hadn't seen her, and that Mina's suaveness would be able to keep him distracted.
"Um…well…I'm really sorry that I made you miss your train. I'm just trying to get back to the hotel, and I've only been here for a day or so…"
"Which hotel are you staying at?"
"Well, we're staying at the Grand Hyatt," she slowly said, trying to go through the script she had made up for the mission.
The man looked at her suspiciously. "Who is we?"
Mina smiled at him, trying to deflect his skepticism. "Some friends and myself."
"Uh-huh." He looked around, then leaned in close to her. "Look, drop the act. I can see your other friend hiding behind the bench over there, and I passed by another one in the entrance."
Crap, Serena thought. Although she couldn't really understand what the man was saying, she could definitely understand that things were going south pretty quick.
"SAILOR Moon, our cover has been blown," Mina said, touching her HUD. Their target's name flashed up; Omen Deng was his name. It kinda had a nice ring to it.
"Nice glasses," Deng commented. "Can I get one of those?"
"If Google decides to get their act together," Mina said back. She motioned to Serena to come over to her position and to make sure Deng didn't decide to run off. "Now, what group are you working with?"
"Depends. I work for a number of different groups here in Taipei. I'm even on the board of directors for the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra."
Mina rolled her eyes. "The group that is going to attack a bunch of Japanese companies and Taiwanese government buildings next week."
"Oh, you mean that one?"
"Yes," Mina slowly said, irritated that he was yanking on her chain. "That one."
"I'm not involved in any sort of terrorist activities."
"You sure about that? The intelligence we have on you indicates that you're connected with a splinter faction of the…" Mina quickly looked up the organization he was supposed to be involved with. "…the People First Party?"
"Those conservative nutjobs?" Deng scoffed. "You must be joking."
"Well, maybe you can enlighten us then."
He raised his hands in (mock?) defeat. "Look, Miss. All I can tell you is that I work for an organization that wants to see some change in Taiwan. If that means getting the Japanese to leave and making the government uneasy in process, that's what we'll do."
Serena, who was now standing near the man, glared at him with crossed arms. She did not like Deng one bit, and he was just stalling for time now.
She tapped her HUD. "Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, get out here."
"I'm on the way." Raye swiped a one-day token on the faregates and ran inside.
"Looks like she wants to get the information out of that guy," Amy said as she opened the door to the storage closet, slowly blinking away the bright lights in the station.
"Doesn't look like he's willing to tell us anything," Lita added, stuffing a laptop computer Amy had been using into a backpack and heaving it onto her shoulders.
Deng smiled as the rest of the SAILOR team came out of the woodwork. "Well, looks like you brought friends."
Raye ran down the stairs to the terminal and up to where Serena and Mina were standing. Serena motioned her over and took her aside for a second.
"Raye, watch him. I'm going to talk to Mina for a second. Okay?"
"Got it." Serena motioned to Amy and Lita to go set up on the benches she was standing by and to make themselves useful.
"Mina, come here." Mina narrowed her eyes at Deng, but left him to go over where Serena was standing, by the benches.
"What's up?"
"I don't exactly know what this guy is doing, but he's just stalling. I have no idea for what, but wrap it up ASAP. If we get the location of…um…"
"Maybe where he's hiding the weapons? A drop point, maybe?"
"Yeah, that'll help out a lot. Just where they're being held or the drop point. No suppliers, nothing else, that'll be for another time. We need to get this resolved ASAP. I'm going to give Luna a SITREP, so ask Raye if you need any help."
Mina nodded. "I'm on it, Serena." She walked back to Deng, while Serena tapped on her HUD to talk to Luna, who had been suspiciously quiet for most of the mission.
"What was that all about?" Deng asked plesently.
"None of your business," was the terse reply from Mina. "Let's cut to the chase. Where are the weapons being held?"
Deng shrugged. "Well, that would depend on what weapons you were talking about."
"Uh, the ones that were going to be used on an attack on Japanese companies next week. And Taipei 101." Mina still couldn't believe that huge building was just right near the train station they were in at the moment. What was more unbelievable is the amount of stonewalling Deng was doing and evading her questions.
"Ma'am, I think that before we continue any further, a sufficient transaction, preferably in terms of Taiwanese dollars or American ones, though Euros and Pound Sterling would also be acceptable as well."
Well, this is going just peachy, Mina thought to herself.
"Mina, this is getting us nowhere," Raye hissed.
"Knock it off, Mars," Mina snapped back. "Don't use our names!"
"He's stalling you and you're buying every yen of it! Let me at him and I'll make him talk!"
Deng rolled his eyes at the two arguing girls. They were pretty new at this line of work, and they weren't going to get anything out of him, no sir. He pulled out a cigarette from his suit pocket and…
"Hey…hey!" Deng suddenly felt himself being picked up and thrown across the floor. He landed with a loud thud against the tiles.
"Goddammit, tell us where the fucking weapons are!" Raye screamed at him, in Japanese. It wouldn't do much good.
"What are you doing?!" Serena yelled from across the station. "Luna, I'll get back to you." She dropped the call and started to sprint to Mina and Raye's position.
"I got this, Serena!" Raye yelled back.
Raye picked him up and dragged him over to the train tracks. Well, she would have to get through the platform screen doors that were in place specifically to prevent people from going over the sides, but she would probably just ram his poor head through the glass until it broke, or he was dead. Whichever came first.
"For fucks sake, I'm on YOUR side!" he screamed at Raye. In Japanese.
That stopped her dead in her tracks.
"What."
"I'm with the Defense Intelligence Headquarters!"
Serena came up to Deng and looked at him. Their supposed target was now yelling at them in Japanese that he was actually working for the Japanese government as well. "Wait, from the Intelligence we got, you're supposed to be working with the splinter group on getting weapons from inside the military…"
"Yeah, that's my dammed cover, you idiot!"
That stopped the SAILOR team right then and there. It was turning into another blue on blue situation, and it needed to stop, right this instant.
"Let go of him."
Raye protested. "But Serena…"
"Let. Him. Go." Serena hissed the words at Raye, which caused her to immediately drop the man onto the floor, in a heap.
"Dammit." He coughed an gasped for air, and after being choked and beaten up by one of the more aggressive members of the team, he wasn't doing so good.
"Mercury, get Luna and find out if this guy is the real deal."
"On it." Amy started to transmit what little data they had on "Omen Deng" to Luna, who would cross-reference it with data they had on file with the DIH.
"So let me get this straight," Serena interrogated. "You're working with the splinter group to provide them weapons to attack Japanese companies here, and you're doing nothing about it?!"
"We aren't going to give the actual weapons, you idiot," Deng hissed back. "We're not that stupid. Unlike the Americans."
Serena didn't get the reference. She shrugged it off and continued to ask him questions.
"What's he talking about?" Lita whispered to Amy.
"Operation Fast and Furious. Long story."
"What do the DIH guys have on them?" Serena was not in a good mood, and their entire time here might have been for naught if this was a Japanese operation that they didn't know about.
"I have no idea. All I know is that they're planning to meet me in this culture park near the Guang Hua Digital Plaza to finalize the deal at 0600hrs today. Alright? That's all I know."
"Where exactly?"
"They rented out building '5A', on the southwest side of the Shimin and Xinsheng road intersection."
Serena stared the man down, wondering what the hell was taking Luna so long to get back to them.
Luna's voice chirped in over Serena's HUD. "SAILOR Moon, I've got the report."
"Go ahead."
"He is an agent working for the DIH. Codename is "Steven." Official cover is Omen Deng, but his real identity is Itsuki Ishihara, and he's been working for the HUMINT division of the DIH for about five years now."
Serena rolled her eyes and groaned. "Why weren't we notified about this earlier?"
"Unknown. I'm trying to get into contact with Colonel Iwasaki, but he's out of town on a retreat in Hokkaido at the moment."
"I don't even want to know," Amy muttered. "Luna, can you find the location of the meeting?"
There was a brief moment of silence before Luna replied.
"Done. I'm sending it to your HUDs now."
With that misunderstanding cleared up, Serena helped Deng get up.
"Were you planning to make a move on them?" she asked, giving him a hand.
He took it, and helped himself up. "Well, yes."
At least he's honest, Serena thought.
"Don't go anywhere. And DON'T tell anyone at Defense Intelligence Headquarters about us. Otherwise, we'll have to come down and kill you. And we don't want to do that."
"Fine, fine." Deng had been in this business for a long enough time to know when to keep his trap shut.
"Everyone, let's get a move on," Serena said to the other four members there. They left the station, leaving Deng there with no way to get home and severely beaten up. It sure was a shitty way to end the day.
Several hours later, the SAILOR team had reequipped and positioned themselves by the location indicated by Deng.
"This is SAILOR Moon, I'm in position."
She was taking up an overwatch position near the warehouse, crouching down near some boxes in order to get a clear view of the entrance. Two Humvees were outside, which made Serena suspicious already. "Doesn't appear to be anyone inside." The windows were very small, so she switched over to an infrared view from her HUD.
"There appears to be several individuals in the building," Serena reported. "Three targets are by the front door, three by the back, and two appear to be walking around inside."
"That sounds about right for a group this size," Amy commented. More information had come in about the splinter group in the hours that had followed; apparently, they had been active only for about a month, and were considered very dangerous. They had some weapons already, and if the deal had gone down, they would have had even more guns. That was excluding the fact that several intelligence agencies were tracking these guys (and managing to step on each other's toes in the process) and weren't about to let them commit acts of terror.
"This is SAILOR Jupiter," Lita interrupted. "Mars and I are approaching the rear entrance to the warehouse and are taking up breaching positions. No movement inside the building, over."
"Wait…" Raye said, halting Lita. "Someone just came out of the back."
A man stepped out of the back door with a T65 assault rifle in hand.
"He appears to have a uniform of some sort on. Armed with an assault rifle. Looks like ROC military."
"Could be that he's just playing the part," Raye suggested. Whatever was going in there, it was certainly important.
"Luna, I need you to do a vehicle check on these Humvees out here," Serena asked. "We might be dealing some ex-military or people working within the military supplying this group, over." It wouldn't be a far stretch; conscription was still in effect in Taiwan, and the temptation to sell weapons to criminals wasn't a tall order for the poor conscript that didn't want to be there.
"There's a nice art gallery, if you and Mina want to check it out," Serena joked halfheartedly to Amy, looking at the things that popped up on her HUD.
"Very funny, Serena," Amy equally unenthused replied back. "We're set at the south end of the facility, on lookout if you need us."
Serena checked the time; it was 0555hrs. "Alright, mission is a go in five minutes. Stick to the plan; I'll go up to the door, say that I'm a representative on behalf of Deng, Lita and Raye will breach from the back. Take em out, get intel, and blow up their stuff. Sound good?"
"Sounds just great," Raye said. "It'll make up for not letting me beat the shit out of that Deng guy."
"Raye, give it a rest, okay?" Lita whispered to her.
Five minutes passed. No movement inside, with the people still wandering about or doing household duties, it seemed.
"Okay, Lita, Raye, you are clear for entry. Go!"
Lita and Raye quickly ran up to the door and surprised the guard, with Lita clobbering him on the head and Raye muffling his yells of pain.
At Mina and Amy's position by the front of the culture park, a group of five vehicles, two Humvees and three Nisson X-Trails rolled down the road and entered into the park. Amy and Mina ducked in their own vehicle to avoid being seen.
"Uh…guys?" Mina whispered. "There's a couple of military vehicles approaching your position!"
Luna could also see the convoy, after tapping into the CCTV system in the area.
"All SAILOR Units, hold position, military convoy is approaching from Zhongxiao road from the east. Stay out of sight and observe movement."
Lita and Raye dragged the poor soldier away from the back door and toward the cluster of bushes they had been hiding in.
"Serena, I'm searching this guy's pockets for intel, over."
"Got it. Continue to hold position."
While Lita flexcuffed and gagged the "soldier", Raye went through his pockets to see if he was the real deal. She came up with an ID and some personal effects; a picture of a smiling family, and a picture of a girlfriend. Nice hair, Raye absentmindedly thought as she put the picture of the girlfriend down and picked the ID up.
"Luna, do a personnel check for me, ROC military."
There was a slight pause on the other end. "Send traffic."
"A PFC Chiang Han." Raye snapped a photo of the ID and sent it back to Luna, who quickly translated it and ran it through the ROC database on personnel.
"He's legitimate," Luna reported. "PFC Chiang Han, conscripted in June of 2012 and is slated to be released from military service next year."
That was not good news. Raye tapped her HUD and started whispering to Serena.
"Shit, are you getting this Serena?"
"It gets even better," she added dryly. Serena was observing the convoy pull up, and several high ranking officers exited their chauffeured SUVs. A young lieutenant opened the front door up and saluted crisply, then approached the collected officers. Luna and Artemis's report on the two Humvees outside had also come up with legitimate ROC military property tags.
"Good work, Lieutenant," the general said to the young officer who had just come out of the building. They were talking in Mandarin, and Luna was giving a real time translation of the entire conversation. "Glad to see this entire operation went down smoothly."
"Yes sir," the LT replied. He didn't look older than twenty-three, Serena guessed. "The group has been completely suppressed and we've been taking inventory of their entire operation since last night. It took us a little while, but it could have been very serious if this operation were to have been allowed to succeed. Even more so if they got more weapons from inside our military, sir."
The general was impressed by the spirit and skill of the LT's operation here. Time to throw the dog a bone…
"Well, I'd like to enlighten you on some details. Now that this operation is concluded, it's safe for me to say this. The so-called arms dealers was actually working for the Japanese government, and with their cooperation, we were able to raid this compound earlier this morning, with your team contributing the most, of course."
"Really?" the LT asked. "Well, I'm glad that we can have some help from others in the region. When where you tipped off about this terrorist group?"
The general check his watch. "About 0100hrs this morning. It was a very close call indeed, and if your team hadn't been on standby…"
"Well, that's what we're here for," the LT replied, beaming with pride.
"Me too, Lieutenant. Say, you're up for promotion soon, aren't you?"
The LT tried not to stutter too much. "Um…yes?"
"Well, I'll put in a good word for you. Carry on then."
"Yes sir!" The LT saluted the general, and the top brass got back into their cars and drove off, leaving the LT to continue on with his work, and for the SAILOR team to stand dumbfounded in the sheer idiocy of their now rendered moot mission.
"Shit," was the collective response of the SAILOR team.
"Well, that was a complete waste of time," Lita said, looking at the poor soldier they had just subdued. They would have to make a quick getaway if they didn't want to be caught with this guy out here.
"I can't wait to fill out paperwork out back home about this," Mina grumbled. "Are we extracting?"
"That's affirmative," Serena said, slowly walking away from the building she was hiding near and toward their cars they had driven there. "Time to head back to the safehouse and prepare to leave the country."
"I'm working on arrangements for a flight out today," Luna added. She was just as irritated as the team in the field was; with no communication with other departments in the Japanese government, they had committed time and resources to a moot operation. She also berated herself for not checking military radio traffic as well, although she later found out the time to break the encryption on the network would have taken her a long time, even past the hour set by Deng for the meet and including Amy's help as well. There was nothing to be done about it now.
With those foreboding thought on her mind, Luna yelled at Artemis to try to get into contact with Colonel Iwasaki again, and then set about trying to schedule a flight home for these five girls.