Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
What do you do with a stolen t-rex skeleton?
Guerrero's guy had an answer, or, more accurately, the results he provided gave them a very good clue. The sleep-inducing drug that Thornthrope had dosed Harry with had been no ordinary street drug. Gilbert hadn't been able to find out if there was an established name for it, but its components definitely pointed in the direction of traditional Chinese medicine, enhanced by 21st century methods.
China Town was full of apothecaries with varying business philosophies. Some were outright tourist traps, others strictly followed the principles laid down in the 黄帝内经, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, a medical text dating back to 475 BC. A third group catered to a heterogeneous clientele and offered traditional remedies just as well as stuff that was perceived as traditionally Asian although it was of a much more recent date. The New Age wave and several Hollywood movies had created a certain image of Chinese medicine and those businesses were happy to comply with it.
Only one apothecary in all of Chinatown, however, actually combined old methods and new ways to create very special products – extremely potent sleep-inducing drugs for example. And they surely had good use for a t-rex skeleton, now that everyone had gotten so conscious about endangered species on the Red List. The market for rhino powder had practically broken down. Well, dinosaurs already had perished – no need for a bad conscience there.
The Zhang Zhongjing Apothecary on Grant Avenue occupied the complete building, five floors. Most tourists, however, ignored the premises – not enough Chinese flair about it. Some speculated the single stylized black dragon statue in the shop window emitted some sort of dark energy that kept camera-carrying, Bermuda shorts wearing, buying nothing flocks of European pensioners away. Whether that rumor was true or not, fact was the people who frequented that apothecary took Chinese medicine very seriously and were willing to pay high prices.
There was also the rumor that pickpockets who dared to cross the Apothecary's threshold with mischief in mind soon after had to deal with strange allergies, all sorts of accidents and in general really bad luck such as breaking into the Chief of Police's house while he was playing poker with his best inspectors.
Business-wise, acquiring a t-rex skeleton with its about five tons of bone material, made a lot of sense. Sold in grams, for a high three digit figure, a pulverized skeleton promised to be a cash machine for years to come.
The Apothecary building on Grant Avenue had a depot accommodated on the top floor – most likely the thieves had transported the skeleton there. So an ambush it would be…
An ambush with Harry.
… … …
"I see why we can't dose him again, too much of a risk since we don't know how the substances interact", Winston stated. "But tying him up somewhere? Or locking him in? We could order him pizza and drinks, feed him some bullshit story… with a little luck he wouldn't even notice… "
"You've got my full support, dude", Guerrero said, munching on a banana.
Chance, however, shook his head. "It's his reputation that's on the line. And he's well aware of that. We can't shut him out of this."
"Yeah, but his reputation would be safer if we did…" Winston rubbed his forehead in exasperation.
"Chance is right, shutting him out would hurt his feelings. He's already heartbroken that Thornthrope managed to snow him so easily. We need to build up his self-esteem." Ames checked her equipment. She'd climb up the building first to manipulate the alert system.
"To hurt Harry's self-esteem, Ames, you'd need a tank", Winston groaned. "I've never met anyone with less self-doubts."
"He seems to be quite self-assured, yes, but have you ever wondered if there might be another side of Harry? One he deliberately hides?"
"You've been watching late night re-runs of Dr. Phil again, dude?"
Ames puffed herself up and was just about to give Guerrero some sophisticated, scientifically supported reply regarding the inner emotional stability displayed by a person in contrast to his or her outer appearance (they'd done a special broadcast on that topic), when Harry appeared in the doorway.
He was wearing a camouflage outfit. Complete with black combat boots, huge combat knife, tight-fitting dark green tank top, head band and face paint.
"You wanna rephrase your statement?", Winston asked Ames.
Guerrero threw Chance a "seriously?"-look. Chance shrugged his shoulder in his trademark "what can I say? He's a friend" gesture. Sighing, Guerrero turned his attention to Harry. "Dude", he said, very slowly, very composed, sounding a bit like Winston. "The dinosaur is already dead. We don't need to make it suffocate from laughter. And lose that knife."
"Why? Too cruel an approach? Doesn't match the Marshall Pucci Foundation's standards?"
"Maim yourself at home, dude, where we don't have to file a report about it."
As if on cue, Ilsa came walking in. She saw Harry, she saw Harry's outfit, she saw the knife – "You've been through a lot lately, Harry, why don't you stay in the van with me and Winston?"
But predictably, Harry didn't want to hear a thing about it. He was insistent – he would not let them face all this danger for him while he was sitting safe and dry in the van.
So they devised a really good plan to protect Harry and prevent the t-rex from being turned into powder at the same time.
Ames, Guerrero and Chance launched the initial attack through the depot's windows, threw a couple of flash bangs to dazzle whoever was present and basically got the situation under control before Harry came in through the freight elevator as "back up".
Great plan!
Seriously, who could have taken into consideration that Harry, stepping out of the elevator, would trip, stumble against a huge stack of boxes with luo han kuo, sent the fruits rolling all over the place and himself crashing right into a giant stylized black dragon statue on a pedestal, a bigger version of the one they kept downstairs in the shop window?
It shattered into a thousand pieces.
The heavily armed guards and the apothecary people that had just set everything up to pulverize the t-rex immediately gave up all resistance. Apparently the dragon had been some kind of patron for the apothecary's owner, according to them the statue possessed supernatural energy and its destruction would bring great harm on the person responsible for it. They were afraid of being in one room with Harry, completely scared that his fate might affect them and readily agreed to help bringing the t-rex bones back to the museum – if only they could get away from Harry.
"See how easy this is going? Where would you be now without me backing you up?", Harry asked Winston on their way back to the museum.
Guerrero put a calming hand on Winston's shoulder.