"Rock, again please thank your friend for the other day. I wish I knew why they thought I am still enough of a threat to keep sending people after me. Ronnie isn't that happy with it either, but he has absolutely no clue how to stop these, "way too randy tourists", his words, that keep coming after me. Usually he has one or two of his men close enough to interfere, however, I was needing to buy things, that, are of that, nature. So I was alone, and I guess they had been watching me," the Chinese woman was very attractive, but something about her didn't click in his head anymore.
"I doubt Ethan is ever going to give it a second thought. He has, very strong views on communists, and the Chinese Communist Party in particular, so shooting anyone associated with them, he sees that as a good deed to the world. What was it you had for me." Rock asked her as they sat down at the market.
"Oh, yes, I never got to give those files to you," she said as she pulled several beige folders out of her bag, "Apparently, this Asahi Industries you worked for, are still involved in some shady stuff. I managed to breakthrough into a, and it wasn't very well done or secured, secure partition. Apparently, they have some interests in the slave trade in the Middle East. Opium trade going into Japan. Some evidence that they may also be running weapons to terrorists. I couldn't find anything talking about the whole nuclear thing though. Why do you want that in particular," she thought that the other stuff could sink the company faster than the Titanic alone.
"It's what brought me to Roanapur, and what they tried to kill me over. If you can't find anything with that, well we torpedo them with whatever we have. I don't understand what a company that is supposed to manufacture construction and mining equipment,could benefit from having their hands in all of this. I would almost assume they were involved with a larger organization. But, a slight tip off to the right people in the Japanese government, and the United Nations, might cure the world of the virus. Thank you, Feng. Keep me posted if you come up with anything else," Rock said as he started to stand up.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like to have lunch with me? This cafe has a really good stir fry."
Rock looked at her for a second, but decided no to, "I'm afraid not. I have something else I have to take care of today, and it can't wait."
"Can't blame me for trying. Be safe, as you can around here. Watch out for Chinese people, they may want to rape or kill you apparently," the joke fell flat, but Rock gave a polite chuckle as he left.
He walked off from the market and Heidi fell in with him. He had to change some, but he wasn't quite ready to take up a gun for himself. Heidi though, would need something better than what Ethan had given her, and something much quieter. While gunshots were nothing new, discretion would be key to what he wanted to achieve.
"Where are we going? I know where we are, but we are passing all the places I am familiar with," Heidi signed.
"Praiyachat. The best gunsmith in the city. He is the one that did Revy's Cutlasses. You are going to need something that won't attract attention, even beyond the typical indifference of the populace. He is known for being discreet, and if paid well enough won't even tell someone he likes like Revy. After that, we need to start building a base of operations, and start developing a network. Well, maybe we start out with finding a safehouse. If we move too fast, we risk failing," Rock replied.
Heidi had to take her notepad out at this point, "I am not going to to lie, you are really starting to concern me, but I want to see how this plays out. However, if I get a new gun out of this, I don't see any reason to say no."
"Hmm. I can't blame you, I am still concerning myself to a degree. However, I think this is something that I have to do. Something that, while mainly for myself, will also make this city better for every one that just lives here. I just hope that I am not going to be biting off more than I can chew," he said as they continued down the street.
"I may be starting to have more doubts. Still, new gun. What I don't understand is why you care so much about this place that you want change. I say let it burn itself to the ground, and just laugh as it does," Heidi was definitely a part of Roanapur at this point.
"I, have a soft spot for this city now. I also see it as a battle of revenge against it. It wants to draw everyone down into the dirt. Its even gotten its claws into you. I want, to infuriate it. I want to make it cry in anger and defeat. I also want it to survive. The path it is on, how surfaced the violence is, eventually something will be done. The gangs, the mafias, all the petty players, will eventually be cracked down upon. I want to make sure they survive, and they cannot the way they are now. There must be a change," the speech was a little silly, but he believed it.
"So you want to make it better, by making the people stop shooting each other in the face over nothing. I take it this will go deep underground until you have managed to pull something that the first person to take notice of won't tear down," she wrote.
"For now. It make take years before anything can really be done, though with luck months will be the reality. Anyways, I ask again, are you sure you want to be involved with this," Rock stopped long enough to look her in the eyes.
"I really don't have much better to do. All of you are gone so much, that the only room that needs much cleaning is Revy's. Plus, new gun, must I rewrite that continually? Honestly, I thought you were the most educated person in the whole company, why is that fact so hard to understand," she tapped the line about the new gun to put emphasis on it.
"You have been around Revy too long. I think you are starting to turn into the quieter version of her, but hey, something to do is something to do. Also, yes, you get a new gun," he replied to her with a smile on his face.
Her face split open as he finally got with her program, "So what are we waiting for? Where are the guns?"
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuuck. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fucky fuck. FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK," Ethan could not believe the last four days of continual problems.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck, fuckity fuckity fuckity," and now him and Revy were on deck sounding like foul mouthed chickens.
"Fuck fuck fuck, fuckity fuckity, fuck," they seemed to understand each other, which was more than Dutch or Benny could claim.
In fact, this was Benny's statement, "I think they have finally lost it."
"There is a good possibility, though I hope not. I forgot how to fix the boat, so we need him for sure at the moment," Dutch replied as he leaned against the outside wall of the cabin watching the two pace the foredeck.
"I see your point, but they haven't said another word beside fuck, for the last two fucking hours. I could expect this out of Revy, but Ethan is a little bit more academic. So, what do we do to help them," the computer geek didn't have a good grasp on the psychology of psychos and sociopaths.
Dutch looked at the distant figure of the Buddha statue, "Honestly, I am not far off from joining them. I have never seen any kind of a chain of bad luck like this in my life. We have gone from one catastrophe to the next, without much rest, for four days. We have had science experiments in the fuel lines, we had a shootout with a rat, he got thrown across the deck from an electrical shock, and now the engines are completely gone. Benny, I don't know how the fuck we haven't sunk. I think we used up all of our good luck torpedoing that other boat."
"Not to mention that the battery fried itself, so we don't even have a radio at the moment to try to get someone out here to tow us in. How long until we strip down and start doing some kind of ritualistic prayer dance for salvation," he asked Dutch.
"If it comes to that, the only one of us I want in the buff is Revy. I don't know what happened to all the flares that should have been on board. I was sure that I replaced them all two months ago, but all I can find are the launchers, so we don't even have that. Gunfire would be useless, look at the harbor we are thirty miles from, not to mention that it wouldn't even carry. I don't have a solution for this one," the large black man, had nothing.
They continued to watch the two mentally unwell gunslingers as they paced, and swore. They were in probably the worst possible position that they could be. They weren't in the lanes the fishermen tended to use, nor any of the smugglers, and didn't want to have any dealings with the other pirates coming out of Roanapur. It looked a lot like God had finally decided to judge them for all their sins.
During his pacing Ethan bumped against the back of "The Fucking Cannon" and brought his hand down on top of the receiver. Not having the tools he thought he would need, the jam had never gotten cleared. So, at that moment, the shock was enough to force the live round that had failed to feed into the chamber. The breech closed, and the stuck firing pin struck the primer. What happened next was a simple sign of nothing making sense.
The cannon fired. At a very unique angle. All of them just stared at the weapon as cycled and readied. They then turned in the direction that the shell would travel. They expected to see a splash out ahead of them, but it never came. They continued staring in that direction for a long time, until they saw a slight orange pop. What didn't make sense was that the orange pop, appeared to be right between the eyes of the Buddha statue, about thirty miles away. They could just see the very top of the statue, and they had just scored the longest range sub one hundred millimeter gun hit, ever. From a misfire.
"What the fuck? There is no way, that," Ethan was slowly losing the speech centers of his brain to, something.
"How, the, right between, what," Revy was right there with him.
Dutch tilted his head, "Uh, that happened."
"Are we sure we haven't died yet, and this is just purgatory trying us with everything it has," Benny asked.
Dutch shook his head, "I don't know, I just don't know. None of this is making any sense. Add in the fact that Ethan drank all the beer, so we don't even have that to take our mind off of things."
It was at this point that each of them just took a place, and laid down in defeat. There wasn't anything else they could do at that moment. The fuel additive was apparently acidic rather than alkaline, which meant that over saturating the fuel, had lead to the piston rings being eaten at an unbelievable rate, meaning both engines now had zero compression, and all the o-rings in the fuel lines were dissolved, and there was diesel everywhere. They couldn't even close the hatch to the engine room out of fear of it spontaneously igniting from just the heat from the sun hitting metal on the deck around it.
What ever they had offended, they were officially sorry. They just wanted to get home, dry dock the boat, and not step foot off of dry land for the near future. Whether that was going to happen or not, was up to God, Buddha, that dude three streets over who danced naked and said he controlled the water during the full moon, or whoever else they could think of.
"Is that Lagoon Company," a voice yelled over the sound of a very ill maintained engine a couple of hours later.
Looking up they saw a rickety fishing boat that looked like it had seen every decade since diesel engines had been put on boats, "Phao, is that you," Dutch asked.
Phao, they didn't know his full name, had a slip next to their dock in the harbor. Ethan occasionally helped him make sure that his engines didn't go completely out, but the man just couldn't afford to replace them, which they needed, badly. However they should be strong enough to pull the stranded boat back in.
"Why are you all just sitting there? Don't you know someone is attacking the harbor, old Buddha took one between the eyes. They have all of us with a boat out looking for the asshole, but no one seems to have seen anything yet," the man wasn't smart, or else he might have read the situation better.
Ethan sat up, "Uh, believe it or not, that was us. That was us. Don't ask me how, but thank God, that they sent people out looking."
Phao looked confused, "What did the Buddha do to you? He just sits there, looking fat. That 's just rude, shooting a poor bastard between the eyes for no reason."
Revy groaned as Dutch sat up as well, "Our deck gun misfired. Thankfully it did, we need a tow in. Think you can give us a hand?"
"Why would I give you a hand when you go around shooting innocent statues in the face for no reason? How do I know you won't just shoot me the second I throw you a line," this was turning around to fast.
Dutch tried to keep calm, "Phao, it was an accident. The gun was jammed, Ethan smacked it in frustration, and it misfired. We have nothing against Buddha, we just need a tow home. We are dead in the water."
"Dead? That is what I will be if I stay talking to you psychos any longer. You can get some other poor bastard to tow you in who doesn't like living as much as I do. So long," and with that he pushed up his throttles and headed back in.
All of them just watched as the fishing boat retreated out of sight. It had seemed so promising, and then it wasn't. There was no explanation, it was just misery, just plain misery. The only real chance they had at that moment, had said to go fuck themselves and left.
Dutch finally broke, "Fuck, fuck fuck fuck, fuck fuck, fuckity, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK."