Something was very wrong.
The last thing I could remember – Kowloon riots. We were running a gig for Auntie, recovering something stolen from her before the police locked everything down. Milk run. Easy, And then….everything went black.
Then painful, jumbled memories. A pockmarked man digging around in my head. Then a second, faceless figure doing the same. More pain.
A door opened. Somewhere in the darkness. Then the silhouette of a troll appeared behind the light. He knew my name. Knew quite a bit. Said they’d already had a mage scan my mind. Hence the nosebleed. But they needed to confirm a few things the old fashioned way.
I asked him why they needed to do it *twice*. He said I must still be confused. They only did one scan. Only even had one mage on site. But I knew what I’d felt.
He wanted me to run through what I remembered from last night. Told him I wouldn’t tell him a thing before I got some answers of my own. Starting with who he was, where I was, and what had happened to Dunk and the others.
He told me my team was being held “safely” nearby. Wouldn’t answer the other questions. I decided to cooperate for now. They’d already mind-scanned me. And going back over it would help me get my own head straightened out.
We’d been headed for a place called “Combat Pangs”. Biker Bar. Owner’d stolen an artifact from Auntie. He’d thought it was magic. Really just an old carved rock. It was the night of the riots, so we we were on alert for trouble.
We met a few looters. Opportunistic thieves. That sort of thing. But no serious opposition. Then we stumbled upon bodies. Unarmed. Shot in the back. Beyond help.
We hadn’t gone much further when an HKPD tactical unit popped out, pointing guns and demanding immediate surrender. But they didn’t give us a chance to respond or comply before they opened fire.
So we returned the favor.
Grabbed the commlink off the captain afterwards. A voice was telling all units to hold action until further orders. Everyone needed to be in position for “phase 2”.
We came across a frightened couple on their knees, surrounded by aggressive badges – accusing them of stealing food. Wouldn’t listen to anything they said, just keep escalating. It was clear where things were going.
So I put a stop to it.
We finally made it to Pang’s, and asked him to return Auntie’s property. He was not inclined to cooperate. Didn’t respect Auntie’s reach. Had a bar-full of thugs. Actually laughed and threatened us. Asked me who I thought I was. And if I had a death wish.
“The name’s Hijinx. I’ve put down a demigod on their home turf. You’re a punk with a shotgun. You tell me who has the death wish.”
That got some attention. He’d heard of me. His men had heard of me. He looked ready to bluff it out – not wanting to lose face. But his men were backing away doing their best impressions of innocent bystanders that didn’t even know him. Honest.
So he decided the “bauble” wasn’t worth it, and graciously decided to return it to avoid any more trouble. Right.
We went back outside, discussing the best way back without getting caught up in the riots. And then the world exploded. Gas canisters from all directions. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t focus. And the lights went out.
He asked if I remembered any more. I made a crack about how the unconsciousness had rather limited my powers of observation. Then he told me I should be thankful they’d grabbed us. He put a PDA in front of me and played a recording. HKPD confronting protesters last night. Unarmed protestors. Relatively peaceful, all things considered. Then an all-too familiar face behind the lines, giving orders. Inspector Krait. Head of the manhunt that had forced us underground. “You know your orders. Open Fire. Put them down.”
It had been a massacre. The news was reporting it as pacifying a violent riot. An unfortunate “incident”. But it had been abject slaughter. All those people…
The troll stood up, and I saw his badge in the light. HKPD. Inspector David Yang. He was done. I asked what we were being charged with. And why we were still alive. He told me we were being held as “guests”. And that it would be explained when I spoke with Inspectors Qiu and Lam.
I was released into a fenced-in impound lot. The others were there waiting for me. Not just Dunk, Gob, and Iz… but Racter and Gaichu too. Apparently I’d been the only one interrogated. They’d only known where I was because they’d heard me screaming…
I told them it looked worse than it was, but Dunk didn’t look like he bought it. None of them could make sense of why they would only question me. SOP would call for questioning us all separately to compare our stories. According to Rack and Gaichu, they’d even impounded the BoltHole. Towed the whole thing to the impound lot. Auntie had objected, but they’d parked a fragging Navy Cruiser in the harbor to make her back down quietly!
Before long a constable arrived to allow me – and *only* me – to go speak with Inspectors Lam and Qiu. I was given strict instructions on where I was to walk. But I knew the drill. I’d done time before. Heavily armed HKPD were everywhere. And everything was stamped with the Mitsuhama logo – a Japanese corp.
Inside the Inspectors introduced themselves. The HKPD was apparently owned and operated by Mitsuhama… and they weren’t happy. The Executive Council believed someone in HKPD was a running an illegal mercenary gig on the side. Lam and Qiu were here to prove it. They wanted to *hire* us! They considered us “uniquely suited to the task”. Because of our history with the target of their investigation.
That’s right. Their target was fraggin Krait herself. The drek-head behind the ambush that killed Carter and Nightjar. Suspected of working under-the-table for Josephine Tsang. No shit.
It would be completely off-the-books, of course. If we were caught they’d deny any involvement. It’d look like we’d been out for revenge.
Lam and Qiu had been the ones to call off the APB. Not out of any concern for us, of course. But because it was an “unsanctioned operation with no legal justification”. Can’t go slaughtering the inconvenient without doing the paperwork first. That’s offensive.
I played it cool. Told them I would have to “talk it over with my crew”. But I already knew their answer. Lam and Qiu were twisting our arms when they could have just asked. The chance to take down Krait? Maybe even Tsang with her? Dunk, Iz, and Gob all had reasons to want Krait’s head on a plate. It would not be a tough sell. Auntie would be the fly in the ointment. She would *not* be happy about us working for the cops. But she’d been pretty fond of Nightjar. The chance to take out Krait and hurt Tsang might convince even her.
They let me return to the Bolthole to talk things over. As expected, it was a lively discussion. But everyone seemed to be agreed. Krait was going down. We’d hated her *before* she got into the business of gunning down crowds of protesters. And if Special Investigations wanted to pay us to do it, then all the better.
All that was left was to talk to Auntie. She was *not* happy that I was calling her directly from HKPD impoundment… but she agreed that normal OPSEC was pointless given they already knew about her and had been rooting around in my head. She was definitely in favor of going after Krait. She just had two requirements in return. One, that I keep my eyes open and learn all I could about this Special Investigations task-force. That was an easy one. I didn’t trust them either. Two, that I recover from HKPD the stolen artifact we’d been hired to retrieve in the first place. I wasn’t surprised at all by that one. Auntie never let anything go. I hoped I’d be able to swing that as part of payment for our services.
As long as I was making calls, I put one in to Uncle Ray. We’d ended up having to send him back to Seattle. To a clinic specializing in brain injuries. For all Iz’s heroic effort trying to put his head back together, it turned out he still had a lot of healing left to do. I could hear in his voice that his stutter was improving. And he was definitely looking better. I hoped we could pull enough nuyen from the Krait gig to keep him there. I didn’t tell him about what had just happened. Not yet. No sense getting him worked up about it when he needed peace and calm to get better.
The Inspectors were pleased when I returned to accept their offer. As they started laying things out, I could see why they needed us. Krait had a whole gang of cronies left over from before the Mitsuhama buyout. They worked out of the former HKPD Central. The station was shielded against scrying, and her people were of the “shoot first, ask questions later” bent. What they needed was hard evidence. Transactions. Logs. Vids. Things they could take to the Council to nail Krait legally. They were still working out they details, but they’d already been in touch with our old smuggler friend Jomo about delivering us. In the meantime we were free to do side gigs and even barter with the Quartermaster until they finished setting up the run.
The Quartermaster – Seargeant Lee – didn’t have much we needed. He said the best stuff was off limits. Unless we did a favor for him. Of course.
He had a friend. High-up corpo type at Monobe International. He’d been infected with a bio-agent. Infected by agents of Shiawese Corp. They were supplying him just enough counter-agent to keep him alive, and using it to force him into stealing data from Monobe.
He’d tracked the source to an underwater germ warfare lab. Had plenty of money. Could even cover a mini-sub. But he needed runners to hit the lab and grab the antibodies.
We needed some time to stretch our legs and think out of HKPD earshot. An undersea run seemed as good an excuse as any to get that. We probably didn’t need anything the Quartermaster had socked away, but it couldn’t hurt to be on his good side.
Checked in with Jomo too. He was feeling pretty cooped up in impound. Had a fancy new speedboat, and was quite put out that it was locked up. Told him I was glad at least that he was the one they picked to do our insertion.
Then I headed back to the Bolt Hole. Time to tell the others where we were headed next.
Author’s Notes:
And that kicks things off! I’ve never done the DLC before. No idea what to expect from it. But if it gives us a crack at Krait and Tsang, I’m all for it. Left a sour taste after the main campaign having them get off scott free.
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