Tales from Roanapur
Chapter 23
The two (and a body guard or two) met at a secluded section of the docks, the sun setting as evening fell over Roanapur.
Mr Chang frowned as the suit wearing gangster muttered, "I'm not happy with the Germans just shooting the man."
"How do you know it wasn't me?" Miss Balalaika drawled.
"You'd at least tell me, in case of fallout from the hit," Chang noted.
Balalaika smiled, "True." She puffed on the cigar, her low cut dress hugging her form, "Still, I think it was well done."
"You don't think the Thai government won't hit back?" Chang wondered.
Balalaika scoffed, "They don't have the balls. Right now ANYONE connected with the plan to cut into our operations is cowering in the most secure places they can find."
Chang had to smile at THAT. Sources in the Triads had told him their enemies were in a total panic over this.
"And I'm certain their military has told them the hard truth: a sniper CAN get you, if they're willing to wait you out," Balalaika added.
"True," Chang agreed.
(The hard truth any bodyguard would tell you: there is no way to be completely safe. Even if you stay in a secured base, you have to get supplies eventually. Worse, your enemy knows where you are. At worst, they can blast you out. Anyway...)
Chang shrugged, then asked, "Should we punish the Germans over this?"
"I don't really see the point," Balalaika said, "at worst, they just did what we were going to do, but quicker."
Chang paused then added, "My superiors are NOT happy."
"Spineless weasels," Balalaika scoffed. She added, "I have also been scolded. We are NOT to target government officials again."
"... at least with the Germans having done it, we both have plausible deniability," Chang said with a smirk.
Both laughed at that.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Erya yelped in alarm as the bullets whizzed by them, and Aya Iseshima wanked her down under cover.
"Who?" Erya started.
Aya peeped up, the martial artist frowning, "I didn't recognize them, three men..."
Erya nodded, "Right." She pulled out her pistol, taking the safety off.
"What do you want to do?" Aya asked, a bullet pinging off the stone wall.
"I'll sweep around, can you keep their attention?" Erya asked.
Aya clearly wanted to argue, but knew she was probably right. "How long should I do it?" she asked crisply.
"Give me five or so minutes," Erya said.
As Erya snuck off, Aya held up a piece of rubble to get their attention. She moved it to make it appear they were moving around, preparing to do something. And, of course, trying to dodge the occassional bullet.
"Be careful, Erya," Aya muttered quietly.
About five minutes or so Aya heard a loud yelp, then weapons fire. She leaped from cover and rushed the gunmen, who were tussling with Erya. There was one man down already, Erya was fighting another and the third was hesitating to shoot as he might hit his budy, so Aya jumped him.
"Damn it," he cursed, trying to get his gun up.
Aya casuially disarmed him, then hit him with a palm to the chin, knocking him out as Erya finished her guy.
"Why are they all buzzcut and in fake uniforms?" Aya asked, bliinking.
"... it's those stupid neo-nazis again," Elya muttered.
"What?" Aya asked, confused.
Elya looked disgusted, "Our unit was assigned a op in Brazil, looking for a surviving Nazi enclave there."
"I thought that was an urban legend?" Aya wondered.
"Mostly is," Elya agreed, "but these idiots decided to go there anyway. Then we barged in, and things got messy."
"And now they're... what? Just out for revenge?" Aya shook her bhead.
'Yup. It's sad really," Erya agreed.
"And we're no closer to whomever tried to frame you," Aya groaned.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You want to do a raid on Bombay? Again?" Revy asked, frowning.
"Damn right," Eda agreed, "I still want the bastards who ambushed us and killed Miranda."
Mary Sue, the German gun slinger, noted, "You can't let punks think you're weak,. Or they'll run right over you."
"You guys already killed their boss," Rey pointed out.
"Us?" Mary Sue looked innocent.
"Don't give me that," Lotten said, listening in from the next table, "it's all over town."
Eda casually gave him the finger.
Revy slugged down her rum. "So you want Dutch and us to take you to Bombay, to try to hit these bastards," she mused.
"Assuming they haven't bolted now, with their boss dead," Mary Sue noted.
"Yeah, but there's a LOT of materials they seized," Eda pointed out to them, "they won't just abandon all of it."
Revy nodded, "That's s fair point, they were clearly greedy bastards, raiding Hotel Moscow, the Church and the Germans."
"You want our help too?" Mary Sue noted.
"Yeah, and Balalaika. I want enough back up in case it gets hairy, like last time," Eda admitted. She grinned, "Though I procured a new weapon to make SURE we fuck 'em up."
Revy rised her eyebrows, but Eda refused to say.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Jane broke up with you?" Rock blurted.
"Shhh!" Benny winced.
"Sorry," Rock said. They were on the Lagoon, heading into Bombay, along with a second boat contracted to bring the others. The Church of Violence was on their boat, and a few volunteers from the Germans and Hotel Moscow were on the other.
"What happened?" Rock asked.
"Not sure," Benny admitted, "she told me a few days ago that she was seeing someone, and that we should break up."
"I'm sorry, man," Rock offered mildly.
"Yeah..," Benny shrugged awkwardly.
"We're almost there," Duck called from forward.
Up on the deck Eda hauled out a HUGE case.
"The fuck is that?" Revy blurted, then made a choking noise at the huge weapon.
"... that'a a ANTI TANK RIFLE." Dutch blurted.
"Yup. The building has armor, this'll handle it," Eda agreed cheerfully.
"Isn't that a bit much?" Rock squeaked.
"I WANTED a Rocket Propelled Grenade," Eda noted, "but Sister Yolanda said no."
"The warehouses are just ahead," Benny noted as they pulled up to the side of the canal.
The targets were loading trucks at they arrived, and outnumbered them a bit, but were taken by surprise this time. The Church forces attacked directly while the other team flanked them, and they all came in weapons blazing.
"The truck is escaping!" Revy yelled, firing.
"OH NO IT'S NOT," Eda yelled, firing the huge rifle into the engine, shredding the machinery.
"We surrender! We surrender!" one guy begged.
"Fuck that," Irene shot him.
"Shouldn't we...?" Rock started.
"Who would we turn them over to?" Revy asked as they mopped up. "The Thai cops won't do anything. Nor the ones at Roanapur/"
Rock really couldn't argue that.
"What do we do about the stuff they seized?" Mary Sue asked, having lead the other squad. "We can't haul it back."
"Burn it and the warehouse," Eda decided, "we're not leaving anything behind."
With that thermite charges were tossed inside and on the wrecked truck, then the group fled before cops or military could arrive...
To be continued...
Notes: Anti Tank Rifles are actually a thing, I didn't specify as I'm not sure which would be in use during Black Lagoon. They fire bullets around the size of a large banana, and if they hit a organic target you're instantly dead.