The Unceasing Path

Ch 14 : 執法先鋒

Above the Law - wherein desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Present Day. Red Flower Auto Detailing]

"Who the fuck are you?" Makoto froze. The blonde woman kept right on going. "Sending in the B squad already? Pathetic. Rei gave up? I knew she was a pussy."

Makoto couldn't breathe. "Aino...Minako?" She choked out the question with the obvious answer, hoping against hope that this wasn't happening.

"Damn straight I'm Aino Minako! Who the hell else would I be?" Minako's every word hammered another nail in the coffin. There was no doubt as to who she was. Makoto kept staring, trying to get the world to flip right side up again.

"What are you standing there for?" Minako kept yelling through Makoto's silence. "Either get on with it, or let me go. I a'int telling you shit either way. Do your worst."

Get on with what? Makoto knew she was here for a reason. She was expected to ask questions? Something about diamonds? Why was that important?

There was only one question on her mind. It slipped from her mouth before she could consider her position.

"What happened to Ami?"

Minako's voice grew soft with true hate, replacing the blusterous venom she had been spitting up until now.

"Bitch. That's low, even for you. You don't get to say her name after you Hung Fa assholes killed her."

Makoto snapped.

"NO! LIAR!" She backhanded Minako across the face "Ami's not dead! She has the diamonds doesn't she?"

It was grasping at straws, but that was all she had. Makoto didn't know what else to do.

"You're pathetic. Come on. Hit me like you mean it."

Makoto did so. Harder. More desperately.

Minako stuck out her tongue in gesture of childish defiance. If her hands had been free, Makoto knew there would have been middle fingers up.

Not that it mattered. Minako was telling the truth and Makoto knew it. That cut deeper than anything she could have said or done. Ami was dead. Makoto was on her own. Alone without any fucking clue what was going on.

Makoto screamed in rage. Fucking Ami, had to go off and die. What right did she have? Their mission wasn't over yet. What kind of fucking cop abandons their partner like this? She shook, indulging in anger rather than despair. There would be time for both later, but right now, she had a job to do. Makoto screamed again, both for herself and for Ami. Her fist connected a third time with soft flesh. Minako flew back at the impact, chair and all.

"Oi! What the hell? That's enough!" Haruka rushed into the room. She picked Minako up from the ground and dusted her off. "You alright?"

"Haruka! How nice of you to join us." Blood and sarcasm dripped off Minako's every word. "Not too late to join the party now is it?"

"I see you've met Makoto."

Minako shrugged. "Your girl's not bad. Lacks the pure artistry and finesse of Rei, but she sure makes up for it in enthusiasm. Strong too!" She spat out a broken tooth. "Could I get a takeout box for that please?"

Makoto started forward, her chest heaving after her previous outburst. Haruka waved her back.

"You know I'm trying to help you here Minako. You know we need those diamonds back. Just tell us where they are and everyone gets to go home."

"Bullshit." Minako glared at Haruka and seemed to forget that Makoto was in the room altogether. "You and I both know how this works. If I tell you where the diamonds are, then you have no more reason to keep me alive."

"Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself? We're not going to kill you. We just want our diamonds back. I have no interest getting into a gang war with the Yuet To Tong."

"Maybe you don't, but it's already begun hasn't it? Luna won't take this lying down. She can't."

"It's not too late. No one knows the Hung Fa Boys are involved yet. We've still got options."

Minako raised her eyebrows. "You're fucking kidding me. You want to negotiate? Now?"

Haruka gave a winning smile. "Give me the diamonds, and I'll make sure that Rei is properly chastised for going rogue and killing Mizuno. Come on...think about it. My boss gets his diamonds, you get your payback, and we all avoid a gang war. Everyone's happy. Win-win-win."

Minako looked as crushed as Makoto felt.

"Ami's death was an accident?" For the first time since they met, Makoto thought that Minako sounded shaky and uncertain.

"An unfortunate error." Haruka said smoothly "Rei was just supposed to recover the diamonds. She got trigger happy. That's why she tuned you up so badly – because she was trying to cover her mistake. I promise you, it won't happen again. I'll see to it myself."

Minako slid down in her chair, defeated.

"Ok fine. I'll tell you. We hid them in plain sight." she whispered urgently "They're in Causeway Bay, at the triangle where Jardine and Hennessy rd intersect. When you get there, count 6 paces off the curb, take off your pants, pull your head out of your ass, shove your hand in, and FUCKING SPIN! Go fuck yourself Haruka. Did you really think I would tell you anything after you bastards killed Ami!? You're even willing to throw Rei under the bus? What the fuck is wrong with you? How low can you get? Sure, Rei is a fucking monster, and your girl here is dumb as an ox, but you...you Tenoh Haruka? You disgust me. You. Have. No. Honour. What the fuck did Michiru ever see in you?"

Haruka stood up, her movements tight and controlled. Her teal eyes were colder than Makoto had ever seen them.

"You know nothing about me." Haruka gestured Makoto to wards the door. "Come on Makoto. Let's give her some time to think about how much of a mistake she just made. Maybe a few hours of picturing all her people getting killed will change her mind."

[Chiba's Office. Later that day...]

Superintendent Chiba Mamoru all but threw his cellphone across the room.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Chiba, I need another favour."

Artemis, that cocky bastard. He had no idea how close he had been to getting dragged out of his dirty little comfort zone. He went on and on, asking for a blind eye here, a heads up there. So on and so forth. The usual crap.

Mamoru smiled and nodded and ate the shit that was served to him. He agreed to his no-longer-anonymous blackmailer's demands and said all the right words. He had been forced to play along. All because fucking Mizuno didn't have the grace to die properly.

She was dead. No doubt about it. Makoto had confirmed it in the other long and frustrating phone conversation he had had this evening. That was great. That was EXACTLY what Mamoru had hoped would happen he told Artemis about the Yuet To Tong's diamond sale.

There was however, one small, unforeseen complication : There was no body.

Makoto was looking into it now but it didn't sound good. According to her source, Ami had taken two bullets from Artemis's pet sniper then fell into Aberdeen Harbour, never to be seen again.

Fucking great.

Now he had evidence of Artemis ordering the murder of an HKPD officer, but he couldn't prove that an HKPD officer was murdered at all.

No body, no murder. No murder, no leverage. No leverage, no calling Artemis back and shoving the words "I know who you are, and I know what you did." down his vile little throat.

Mamoru's grand plan died on the vine.

Now, he was back where he started, playing buttmonkey to the smarmy businessman who had the blind luck to stumble across the truth behind the Boy Foy incident and it's subsequent coverup.

He was Sisyphus with a stone. He was the Orpheus who turned too soon. Just when the end was in sight, Mizuno had to go and fuck things up. Again.

Mamoru couldn't stand it any longer. This time, he didn't hold back. He threw his cellphone across the room in a useless but oh-so-satisfying outburst. It hit the wall and split apart, the battery popped out and bounced behind his filing cabinet just to make his day a little more difficult than it already was.

Mamoru took a deep breath then got on his hands and knees. He was fishing about behind the cabinet when he noticed something weird. There was a little black box, plugged into the phone jack. On closer inspection, he noticed that it wasn't covered in a thick layer of dust the way everything else was.

Oh shit. He'd seen these before. It was a wiretap device. Mizuno had requested tonnes of these over the years. They had scored dozens of convictions on recorded evidence alone.

Why the hell was there one in his office? How did it get here?

Mamoru's blood ran cold. The list of people with reasons to spy on him were shockingly long. He had so many secrets and enemies.

Secrets and enemies...of course. Who else could it be? It had to be Katze. Did Katze send a mole into his office? One of the new officers? The cleaning staff?

He looked down at the pieces of cellphone in his hand.

Who was out there listening? What else might be compromised?

How was he going to fix all this?

A.N.

Whoo. Quick update this time. This chapter was way easier to edit than the previous one. It's a bit short too, so there you have it.

I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again, but DAAAAAAMN, Minako gets all the best lines. She just lit into Haruka there. She basically just told Haruka to go fuck herself in the middle of one of the most popular shopping districts in HK (it's kinda got a Times Square vibe to it for reference).

Actually, alot of these scenery, I am writing from memory. This story's really grown on me since it's beginnings as a joke response to my dear Balambfish's joke prompt of "Mako and Ami get into an epic John Woo style gunfight - with doves and shit." (If you are reading this - Hey Bal! Hope life is treating you well!). It has since become a bit of a nostalgic love letter to the city I grew up in. Over the next few days, I'm hoping to set up some google street view imagery links over on the A03 version of this fic for anyone interested in checking out the IRL "filming locations".

Oh yeah. And the plot thickens. Did Ami just kill off her own self insert character? Dun dun dun...

Cheers,

-Drift.

Up next:

Ch 15 : 人海孤鴻 - Alone - wherein Makoto deals with the mess that Ami left to her.