Three days after the four were able to finally get back to shore, the entirety of Lagoon Company, sans Heidi, was seated in the office having a meeting. It wasn't one of high spirits either, as most of them knew that this could mean the end of the entire thing. Dutch and Ethan especially looked grim at that moment.
Dutch spoke after a long silence, "Ok everyone, here is the deal. The engines on the Lagoon are done for. There isn't any rebuilding at this point, not to mention that Ethan here found several other rat nests. We don't have the infrastructure around here to put her into a proper refit, and the shipyard in the Philippines that did the last one, they don't have any slips for two years. We also are going to have issues finding usable engines. The ones on her were built for a ship half again as big, pulling super tankers. They don't build diesels for that anymore, they went to turbine engines, which won't be an option for us. As of now, we are ashore."
Revy spoke up next, "That means no work. Please tell me you had a backup plan for stuff like this."
"Revy, how the fuck could I have seen this kind of cascade occur. I still want to know how that misfired shell made that kind of flight. We aren't in a good position, and the Lagoon has been our meal ticket the entire time. I have had the old girl for a long time now, and this is the first time that I have even had to consider scrapping her. It isn't happening though. Ethan is planning to make some contacts with some middlemen he has dealt with in the past, and see if he can get a pair of marine turbo diesels ordered from the states. While not my first choice, I may be able to get her into a slip in Vietnam. We are still looking at months to years before she is back on the water. Most of us probably won't hurt too much in the short term, but we ain't going to have any jobs in that time."
"So, we are getting laid off," Benny asked with a frightened look on his face.
"Unfortunately. That said I don't plan to kick you all to the curb. I plan to knock the rents down to the lowest possible that I can. I am going to pay out the reserve accounts to all of you the best I can, but the biggest part will have to go to the boat. Find what work you can, and hopefully when she hits water again, you will be able to come back. I won't hold it against any of you if you aren't able to, but we don't have much choice at the moment."
Ethan nodded to Revy, "You and me at least won't have much issue finding work. As long as we can shoot people, we can make money around here. Maybe not as much, but we should get by, and I can help you financially as need be. So, partners?"
"Well, what the fuck. Deal. Hey, Rock, what are you going to do," she asked the former salaryman.
"I should get by ok. Balalaika is probably going to start turning flips at the chance to hire me on as a full time secretary. Honestly, I doubt I will hurt much either. I will start talking to people tomorrow and see what I can get going, though as far as you two, I may have something for you right now," Rock said.
Dutch looked over at Benny, "How about you, right now you are the odd duck. Think you are going to be able to fall in with Jane's bunch for the moment?"
"I should be able to. She is going to be excited about it, that's for sure. What happens if you can't get the Lagoon back in the water," he asked darkly.
"I don't want to think about that. But realistically, Lagoon Company ends. Without the Black Lagoon, there is no Lagoon Company. I'll probably just retire at that point. Go find some out of the way island with half naked native women, and enjoy life for the rest of it. We have been through a lot together, and we have stuck together. We are almost like a damn family at this point. Ethan, I guess you are going to take care of Heidi in the meantime, if not I will make sure she is provided for," he turned the conversation.
Ethan shrugged, "According to Thailand I am her legal guardian, so I think I have to. I may look at sending her to my folks over in the states, whole lot better situation for a sixteen year old girl to grow up in. Right now I am just going to play things by ear. Rock, we will talk about what you think you have for me and Revy later, right now I need to start seeing if I can do anything about engines."
"I don't think that Heidi is really a good candidate for living outside of Roanapur at this point. Especially considering that she has spent several months living around Revy, she might go off and end up in prison," Rock stated, hoping he was convincing enough.
"Might have a point there. Ok, well, I will figure out something there. What are you going to tell our clients? I think most will be understanding, but the smaller ones, maybe not so much," He turned back to Dutch.
"I don't know Ethan. I don't know. I may put that on you Rock. You have a better way with bad news than I do. Ok, I am opening the floor to ideas in the meantime. We need them for sure," Dutch leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
"A security job. I, well, don't have any reason to say no. You have any objections, Revy," Ethan said after Rock had told them about the job.
Revy shrugged, "It pays, say yes. It doesn't, I say we fuck off."
Ethan chuckled, "You heard the murder machine, does it pay?"
"It does. Not that much compared to what we are used to, but it pays," Rock said.
"I'm in," Revy held up her hand.
"Well, so am I then. Who is putting down the payment for this," Ethan cut to the chase straight away.
"A mixture of the Lovelace family, Hotel Moscow, the Triads, Sicilians, and Colombians. You should be the only armed people there, everyone else has agreed to not bring weapons. We are fairly neutral, so this was seen as the best way to keep the peace."
"I doubt the Colombians hold up to the deal. They never could when I worked that part of the globe. You know that I am going to be putting down terms," Ethan looked at the younger man.
"You check everyone as they come in. If you don't think they are above board, they don't come in. If the bosses themselves fail to adhere, they won't have a place in the city much longer. All their men will be given an area they make sure is safe around the Flag. They don't hold up, it won't be good for their businesses in the city. You and Revy are the only ones that will be allowed weapons,"Rock replied before Ethan could open his mouth.
"Damn man, he beat you like a three dollar hooker. So, Boss Chang and Balalaika are going in naked? I almost can't believe it, especially since she is going to be there. Fuck, just the fact she is going to be there at all scares the ever loving fuck out of me, whether she is packing or not," Revy laid back on Rock's bed as she shivered.
Ethan just looked at her for a moment, "Is this chick really that fucking scary? Like I said I heard of the Bloodhound, but I only did a few jobs in that part of the world when she was supposed to be active. Most of that time I was on this side of the globe."
"She tore a huge chunk out of a US Special Forces team. I believe it was called Grey Fox...," Ethan interrupted at that point.
"Grey Fox, I actually had a run in with them. Got shot twice, and took some shrapnel. The team I had took a couple, and I got three myself. Where the fuck was that, I think somewhere in Central Africa. Only reason I found out who they were is I had contacts in US Intelligence at the time. We weren't after each other or anything, just bad luck running a patrol on my end. If she took them on by herself, I don't know that I would want to get into it with her. "
Revy snorted some, "To be fair, she was both burned out on brain meds, and in some kind of grief rage over her boss being offed by them. She also fucked up the better part of a F.A.R.C. unit that came to hunt her down, a few of us got the rest of them."
"F.A.R.C. really ain't all that hot shit that they want you to think. Most of these rebel and, what was that new term they are using? Oh yeah, terrorists. Most of them are little more than a bunch of fuckwits, that someone actually taught how to hit a target. Remember I was contracted to the Mujaheddin, and that was one of the biggest shit shows I have ever seen. I don't know how the Russian's lost that one, except that they were communists, and their leaders were too busy doing coke and hookers. I lead some ops against F.A.R.C. The Colombian government was useless so they hired mercs, I think I lead two or three ops that were total slaughters," he didn't show much emotion as he spoke.
Rock was a little interested at the end of that statement, "Total slaughters? You mean, you killed everyone?"
"You can't fight a movement like you fight an army. Movements are based around an idea, not people. It is why they are so easy to hijack. F.A.R.C. is a major grower of coca, that gets refined into cocaine. Anyways, the farms they, liberated, are. Even when they aren't corrupted, as long as that idea has one person to spread it, you can always find sheep. The only way to beat such a thing, is to put everyone that believes in it to the sword. If there isn't a breath to utter it, then nobody can hear it, and nobody can believe in it. The problem is often culling the herd, before the idea spreads among the sheep."
"So, what the fuck is with the sheep metaphor? Got a fetish you Irish fuck," Revy chuckled.
"Laugh it up you fucking yankee chink. The Welsh are the sheep fuckers. The fact is, at least seventy percent of the world's population are fucking morons. Find the right moron, and the others will flock around them. Case in point, the National Socialist Democratic Party of Germany, or was it National Democratic Socialist Party of Germany, nevermind, they were the fucking Nazis. A bunch of socialist fucks, that some asshole was able to lead around by the nose, and they were able to make others follow them. I haven't met a lot of smart socialists, or communists in my life. The few leaders of socialist or communist groups I have had the chance to meet, were always capitalists. And I mean the kind that someone like Rockefeller would be proud of. Their biggest danger though, is someone smart enough to look behind the curtain, and knowing how to call them out. That is sometimes all it takes, to start the termites gnawing at the floors."
"Makes sense. Still, it seems like sheer barbarism to kill everyone just because they believe in a certain idea," Rock replied, not having fully grasped what Ethan was getting at.
Ethan nodded, "You get the idea, but not the reasons behind it. Part of it is risk versus reward, make the risk of joining the movement to high. That doesn't always work, and can backfire spectacularly. The bare bones of it is, you have to have people to pull a trigger. If you kill all those people, they can't pull a trigger. It also means you don't have to feed or house them as prisoners. There isn't any kind of a fucking moral high ground in any of this. It is a shitty situation, no matter which way you look. One of the biggest laughs I have ever heard though, was that war had rules. The only rules that matter in a war, are the ones the people who lost the least say matter."
Revy sat up, "Don't you mean the winners? If you lose, how can anything you say matter?"
"That is another side splitter, that there is anyone who wins in a war. Almost as funny as saying that there are actually good guys, and bad guys. Trust me, most of the worst atrocities I have seen and participated in, were done by people calling themselves the good guys. Low and behold, I also never heard anyone call themselves the bad guys. And I will tell you, there is no greater promoter of genocide and hatred, than God Almighty. I don't know how many groups have killed in his name since he was first worshiped. Anyways, enough of the lecture on the nature of humans being complete and utter dicks to each other, how good is the check?"