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Bloody Idols: Chapter Five
It's true night now -- the sun has long since set and the bus' headlights spear into the night as they head down the highway towards the main docks on the far end of Causeway Bay, away from the tourist traps. Several stops later, the chain link fences come into view, with their warning 'No Trespassing' signs, then finally the first main turn-off to the big, padlocked-and-chained gates.
The threesome disembarks from the bus at the little stand, and the bus roars off down the main road. The three men can see the dock road leads further out to the various buildings, cranes, and other paraphernalia, although they're almost hidden in the darkness. There's a small guardhouse by the gates, and a uniformed man glances out to see the three men.
The guard nods boredly, "'Ey. Come for the union meeting? Moment, I'll get the gates. Last building on the left." He ambles out of the guardhouse, unlocking one of the big gates and pulling it open, to wave them on through.
Wu says, "Yeah, thanks." He leads the others in, trying to look like he belongs there. Shiao-Chiang follows, keeping a sharp eye out.
As they pass through the gate, Chin draws the guard's attention and asks, "Has 'Mr. Kai' shown up yet?"
The guard gives Chin a bored glance and shrugs, "How would I know? They don't announce themselves to me." He waves absently as he pulls the gate shut behind them. Just as he'd noted, there's a parking lot by the last building on the left. Lots of bicycles are there, as well as a few cars. The building itself is all lit up, with the doors and windows open for coolness in the warm night. A person talking loudly can be heard, followed by a disgruntled murmur of sound.
"...and what are we going to do about it? How long will we put up with being pushed around like this?!" The voice is male, and the agitated crowd growls again in response. Wu makes sure the others are nearby, and wanders over to one of the open doors to linger near the back of the crowd and listen and watch, hopefully not causing any notice.
As Wu steps up towards the door he can see there is a rather rough and standing-room-only crowd within. The speaker continues, "Are we not contributing members of society? Do we not pay our taxes, just like they do? Yet we're still the 'interlopers' -- the 'filthy foreigners'! Whenever they feel like it, they simply dispose of one of us -- as a 'warning'!"
Wu does not force his way in, collecting at the back of the crowd to listen and watch unobtrusively.
Wu realizes that the speaker is speaking out against the injustices of the Chinese against them, and that this hostile crowd might be a very bad place to be noticed, particularly if the longshoremen know each other well, and would object to the intrusion. He backs off slowly, hoping for some shadow to hide in, where he can still hear.
Shiao-Chiang frowns and steps back into the shadows. He may not be pure-Chinese, but he's still a stranger here.
The crowd doesn't seem to have really noticed the threesome, fortunately, although it is growly and unhappy-sounding.
Looking around in the darkness, the others can see some really huge buildings off to the right -- probably a number of warehouses. There are a few smaller ones near the building they're standing by. Maybe some of those will be offices... although... surely closed offices, late at night, shouldn't be showing small sparks of light moving jerkily through them, through the windows?
Wu sees what are almost certainly hand-held lights in the offices, and frowns. He makes his way past the others, silently getting their attention, and pointing them out, without a word.
Shiao-Chiang frowns again, and nods. Quickly and silently, he sets out to get a better view of what's going on.
As Chin follows, he looks behind to make sure they're alone.
In the building where the union meeting is occurring, the crowd is being expertly whipped up into a frenzy of anger about Kai's disappearance. The assumption is the tongs have either already gotten him, or soon will. No one is sure just why Kai's been targeted... but no one is looking anywhere outside the building either.
Shiao-Chiang moves to one side of one of the windows, hand on his gun, and leans ever so slightly so he can peek into the windows from the side.
Chin as they slip through the shadows toward the offices, Chin thinks "I wonder what they're going to point the angry mob at when they're done? What here needs to be destroyed? Or who..."
Wu carefully looks about the area to make sure that there's no one about, and steals across the way to the office building. He sees Shiao-Chiang's gun and shakes his head at him, frowning, before he tries to peek in the window.
As they slip through the shadows toward the offices, Chin says "I wonder what they're going to point the angry mob at when they're done? What here needs to be destroyed? Or who..."
Shiao-Chiang moves up to the window, glancing back at the others, catching a glimpse of the sentry in the shadows.
Wu makes note of the sentry's position, but leaves him alone as he makes his way to the offices, followed by Chin.
Shiao sees several dark-clad men engaged in the hasty ripping-apart of everything in the office, in a frantic search for... something... what would a docks union manager have that was so unique?
As they slip by in the shadows, Wu and Chin hear someone murmuring softly, and the sentry turns to whisper something back. It's... wait -- that's not any tongue routinely spoken in Hong Kong that they know of!
Suddenly the sentry the threesome can see softly barks out something in that odd language. Everyone inside the building freezes, looking up -- then simply drop what they're doing and flee!
In the union hall the crowd starts to spill out, heading for the office buildings in a growling flow of people.
Wu wants the mob to think he's on their side, so he points at the fleeing people from the office, and says, "Hey you! Stop right there!" and chases them.
Shiao-Chiang swears under his breath and starts after them - waiting for the sentry to retreat first.
Shiao-Chiang shrugs and shouts in deliberately imperfect Chinese, "They were breaking the office!" Chin takes out his cell-phone and reports a fire and injury on the docks, preemptively.
The sentry almost trips over Chin as he recoils from Wu's and Shiao's shouts. The other black-clad men come thundering out the door, almost trampling the three on their way out. In a panic, the sentry snarls something incomprehensible as he lashes out blindly.
Flashlights flick on in the union crowd, highlighting a masked, black-clad man striking out at the threesome, and other black-clad men turning and running. The crowd, recognizing neither, simply turns its anger on the nearest targets, rushing the group.
Wu figures if the crowd wants him, it has to catch him, and if it catches him it can catch the men in black too. He runs to try and keep up with him.
The fleeing thieves are shouting back and forth to each other as they run into the sheltering shadows of night. Ironically, Wu seems to be being swept along with them.
The mob is thundering down on the fleeing men. While it's hard to see clearly behind the flashlights, the hungry growl they're emitting is unpleasantly obvious.
Shiao-Chiang follows and growls too. "RrRRRrrrrahr! Brains! Brains!"
Shiao-Chiang sweeps a half-empty crate of vegetables up in one hand and sends it skidding into the crowd, tripping one of the shouting mob and sending half-rotted vegetables everywhere.
Wu catches up with two of the fleeing men, who seem to take no notice of him. This is to their detriment, because he manages to grab one, and shove him under the feet of the other. They both go down in a tangle of arms and legs. Normally this wouldn't be much more than an annoyance, but normally there isn't an angry mob following. Wu continues chasing the others, shouting, "You! Thieves! Stop!" at them for good measure.
As the mob rushes past, Chin step into the lee of a forklift, and lets them stream by. Waiting for the storm to pass, he watches the crowd carefully for Djang, Kai, or other out-of-place people and things. The First Aid kit he snagged from the wall lies at his feet, and he keeps the line open to Emergency Services, periodically feeding them updates.
The suddenly attacked, black-clad men realize fleeing is no longer an option when two of their number go down, shouting. At a hoarsely yelled command in that strange language, they stop and turn, small machine guns appearing in their hands -- and open fire on the men immediately behind them!
The dockworkers' low, running growl turns into an ugly howl as they realize they can perhaps catch some of their targets. As if spontaneously, they produce an alarming number of knives or blunt clubbing tools, rushing forward like a live thing.
Shiao-Chiang Shiao will let his guns slide into his hands and fire back.
The black-clad men shoot, with the deafening chatter of small machine gun fire, on those attackers closest to them. Unfortunately, this is Wu and Shiao! While most of the bullets whiz by harmlessly, the two are not able to avoid all of them... and there are some shouts and screams from the mob racing towards them.
Shiao-Chiang decides against being a bit of flotsam between the Hordes and the Great Wall of Oncoming Bullets, and with a quick jump launches himself into the air, flipping gracefully behind some scattered crates. As he whirls, he's firing in a deadly arc, sending a chattering rain of death down towards the thugs below.
Shiao-Chiang manages to just barely clip one of the thieves, and he yelps, dropping his ruined gun to the ground. Then he curses as the thieves open fire, shredding his cap and tee, leaving a bloody weal across one shoulder.
Wu is rather startled when the thugs stop running, and even more so when the turn and shoot at the crowd. More problematically, at him. He's close enough that several shots even hit him, and he staggers a little. This succeeds in making him a bit wobbly, and very unhappy.
(to be inserted above: Shiao curses as the thieves open fire, shredding his cap and tee, leaving a bloody weal across one shoulder.)
Wu keeps running, past all the gunmen, angling over to the one farthest from the mob. He snarls "Give me that!" and rips the man's gun from his hands. The gunman looks a bit startled by this.
The violent meeting between dark-clad men and dockworkers is a messy clash. The dockworkers are closing in fast enough that the machine guns rapidly become unwieldy close-in weapons. The morass of thrashing, milling, shouting men is punctuated by brutal clubbing thuds, sporadic automatic gunfire, screams, shouts, and groans. Mercifully, the lack of light hides the worst of it, but it's clearly hard to tell friend from foe this close in.
One of the black-clad men is probably the leader -- he's on the far edge of the fray, shouting commands and trying his best to get his men out and running away from the mob.
He yanks the arm of the gunman Wu just disarmed, shoving him towards the shadows and snapping something harshly in that foreign language. It's obvious, in the confusion, darkness, and shouting, he's not really registered that Wu has one of the small machine guns.
The gunmen, however, have registered quite clearly their dire situation. Not only are they greatly outnumbered -- but their weapons are not good for close-in combat!
They're trying to flee -- those that still can, at least.
Shiao-Chiang leaps from crate to crate and works his way to the edge of the fray, where the man in black was shouting frantically to his followers. He levels his gun at the man. "You walk with me, or I carry you."
The leader doesn't hesitate at all -- he shouts and opens fire reflexively on the suddenly appearing Shiao. Unfortunately he misses entirely in the darkness... while it's hard to tell if it's causal in all the noise and furor, there is more screaming and shouting from the swirling mob.
Shiao-Chiang can't see who he's facing; his trigger-happy opponent is masked and unknown. .. for now.
Wu comes up on the apparent leader of the gunman while he's busy shooting at Shiao. The only thought on his mind is, "This is your fault!" and he copes with this by whacking the thug a good one with the back of the machine gun he's carrying. Having done so, he picks the stunned and confused leader up and throws him bodily over the nearest crate, clambering after him, panting, and bleeding on him just a little.
Wu is up on some crates, badly wounded but with the dark-clad leader of the masked foreigners. Shiao is down amongst the remaining foreigners, who are rapidly being decimated by the angry mob of dockworkers.
Those that aren't simply vanishing into the darkness, that is.
As the crowd surges forward, Chin spots a Port Authority patrol car next to a building. A pointed elbow and a quick dash later, he finds the keys in the "usual place" under the seat, blares the horn, squeals the tires and makes for the tableaux with his two companions.
The dockworkers are making short shrift of the remaining dark-clad foreigners who haven't taken to their heels in the darkness. At the imperious honk of the horn and the sudden glare of headlights, however, many of them get uneasy looks and start fading away out of the light. A few bodies lying on the ground are highlighted as well, but Chin manages to avoid those in his efforts to reach his companions.
Shiao-Chiang sighs, and hightails it for the passenger side of the car door, ready to unleash more persuasive arguments with his two bestest buddies if the crowd gets uppity.
Wu has made sure the safeties on the two machine guns - the leader's and the one he grabbed from the first thug he smacked - are on, and stuffs them out of harm's way, in to his shirt; the crowd does not need more firepower. He watches the car slew to a halt, and grins, saying, "Hey, the cavalry came." Then, he grabs the thug leader and hauls him back down to the ground. He pops the back door open, shoves the leader in rather ungently, and climbs in after, slamming the door. "Go for it, Chin." lets the driver know that now would be a good time.
The masked foreigner groans and groggily struggles, trying to regain his feet. He's successfully stuffed into the back of the car, though, and after a few sharp veers to avoid a stunned-looking dockworker or two, Chin has the little Port Authority car at the heavy front gates.
The gate guard peers warily into the darkness and the glaring headlights, prudently staying well within the doorway of the gatehouse. He's shouting excitedly into a phone, but once he recognizes the car his eyes widen, and he hustles out to yank the gates hastily open, "Hurry, honored sirs! Hurry, come through, before the dockworkers rush the gate!" He's almost jigging in place with worry, waving the car through as he stares back at the now ominously quiet crowd, "Quick, quick!"
Wu wonders who the guard thinks they are, and just whose car this is they've borrowed. He dumps the guns over the front seat, and says, "Happy birthday." to Shiao.
Chin guns the engine, roaring through the gate, and off into the night.
Shiao-Chiang says, "Ooh! For me? You shouldn't have."
Shiao-Chiang will look them over critically.
Shiao-Chiang hmms. New, actually maintained, and not bad for spoils. I think I'll keep 'em. That one'll be named Daisy. I always liked that name.
Soon thereafter the trio hear the sound of sirens, and several little police cars go whizzing by, headed for the docks.
"Gentlemen, I think we need a bit of peace and quiet to gather our thoughts," Chin announces, as he drives away from the sound of the sirens. A short drive and a few blind turns later, Shiao-Chiang directs the anonymous, black-clad gunman out of the car and into the headlights. He stumbles into the weeds against the wall of a weather-beaten, dilapidated old warehouse as he regains his wits.
Wu settles off to one side, and quietly begins to bind his more visible wounds with stuff from the first aid kit. He glowers at the captured thug, the thought, "You did this to me, you bastard." clearly written on his face. It's not clear if he's hoping the prisoner will cooperate or not.
The foreigner steps smoothly to one side, avoiding the approach of Shiao with some rope. He straightens and says sharply towards the darkness, in heavily accented English, "Who you are?! I surrender not to greedy Baathist swine and thieves!"
Wu snaps out, in clear American English, "Don't make us hurt you any more. Speaking of thieves, we aren't the ones who were breaking into the buildings at the dock."
The man hesitates, then says defiantly, "Working only to regain our stolen past!" He pauses again, then says hopefully, "American?"
Wu stays behind the headlamps, and out of clear sight. He says, "So what if I am American?"
The man blinks, then spreads his arms in confusion, "Why you fighting me are, then? You also wanting are the return of stolen Persian treasures, no?"
Wu asks the obvious question, "Which treasures?"
Shiao-Chiang will give Wu a look of aggrieved surprise and mutter under his breath, "There are OBVIOUSLY not the droids you're looking for."
The man's eyes narrow and he folds his arms, "You American are not, or knowing would be!"
Wu replies, "You expect every American involved to know all the details? It's a big place. What are you babbling about?"
The man considers for a moment, then says slowly, "You are American soldier, no?"
Wu snaps, "What do you think, huh? What were you looking for in the offices? Do you know where Kai is?"
The man is silent for a moment... then starts walking slowly towards where Wu's voice is coming from. "We see."
Shiao-Chiang will say clearly, in British-accented English. "Stop where you are. If you keep walking forward, I will have to shoot you."
Shiao-Chiang is also behind the headlights, with his weapon trained unerringly on their prisoner.
The man straightens his shoulders slightly, but does not stop.
Wu lightly and silently darts around the other side of the car, moving to the opposite side of the prisoner, still with light between them. He says, loudly and clearly, "What does it matter if I'm an American?" but now from a completely different place.
As the man passes from headlights into darkness, his head turns a bit startledly towards the change of locale for the voice. He continues walking... into the darkness.
Shiao-Chiang fires, aiming for the knee.
The man goes down, screaming.
Shiao-Chiang sighs. "Oops."
Unsurprised at the sound of gunfire, Chin grabs the First Aid kit from the car and attempts to stop the bleeding. "What has he told you? Why were they there? What did they have to do with the dockworkers? Why tonight?"
The man doesn't seem coherent at this point. He's mostly clutching his thigh above the knee, writhing and screaming in what's probably a foreign language.
Wu tries to help hold the writhing man down, and explains to Chin what was said.
Stepping away from the injured man, Chin sighs heavily. "I have no idea what the hell 'Persian treasures' have to do with a dock workers strike, the casino, or Kai. There have been a few interesting developments at the back end of the car, though. Not only do we have Kai's car, but we have an adult male body in the trunk, wrapped for disposal. Anybody want to lay odds on who it is?"
Shiao-Chiang blinks. "When were you looking in the trunk?"
Wu says, "While we were playing twenty-questions with Mr. Happy here."
The man is mostly silent now, panting a bit raggedly and leaning against the car.
Chin grins a bit and says, "Being nosy is my business, after all."
The man is mostly silent now, panting a bit raggedly as he sits on the ground and leans back against the car.
Shiao-Chiang smiles a wintry smile. "So we don't need to go looking for Kai anymore?"
Wu says, "Is it Kai? Or... the bodyguard, whatshisname? How do we find out? Ask the girl from the Casino?"
Chin says, "I don't think any of us would recognize Kai on sight, so I'm not sure further examination of the body will get us much."
Shiao-Chiang will walk over and take a look in the trunk, just on the off chance he recognizes the man.
Wu suggests, "Shiao and I could hide, and you could call for help, having followed this miscreant from the riot at the docks. Your office would then do all the heavy lifting and identify the body, as well as interviewing this person."
Chin says, "Unfortunately, they will probably examine the vehicle quite closely, and our fingerprints will be all over the damn thing."
Wu says, "Do you think they would believe your story - a respected officer - over the babblings of this crazed zealot... ah. Then we're screwed if they find it."
The man is silent as Shiao walks out of the headlights and apparently towards him -- then suddenly shouts, lashing out with his good leg to trip Shiao, who is unfortunately utterly unprepared.
Shiao-Chiang goes sprawling, swearing, down into the dirt, and comes up with his gun trained on the suspect. His voice is icy cold. "If that knee is giving you trouble, I know a sure-fire cure."
Unfortunately the man has a gun in his hands too... aimed at Shiao.
Shiao-Chiang sighs in annoyance, and brings his gun-hand up, almost flippantly to fire. There's a sharp *spang*! and the man yelps and the gun goes spinning from his hand into the darkness.
Shiao-Chiang says, "Did anybody bother to frisk our friend here while he was in the back seat? Buddha in the bathhouse!"
Wu dodges the flying gun and says coldly, "Yes. He used your gun. You just managed to shoot it up real good."
The man doesn't appear to have registered Wu's words at all. His eyes are wide with startlement as he looks down at his bloody, empty hand... then he simply shouts and clumsily throws himself bodily on Shiao.
Wu says, "Stop that!" and grabs the prisoner, who's on top, and tries to pull him off of Shiao.
Shiao and the foreigner are rolling around, grappling for Shiao's gun. Wu successfully yanks the prisoner back... and the man turns the muzzle of the gun on himself and yanks away from Shiao. Shiao's finger pulls the trigger -- there's a sharp chatter of gunfire -- and the man sighs, relaxing. His last breath is a softly exhaled, "Inshallah..."