“Are they friends of yours?” she asks, sarcastically.
I shrug. “I’m not sure… only met the old guy once.”
“You sure know how to make a lasting impression, I’ll give you that.”
She stands and fires, hitting one of the three guys in suits in the chest, dropping him instantly. She ducks back down next to me.
“Come on,” I say to her.
I grab her hand and set off running back toward my room, away from the reception area. I glance over my shoulder and see the remaining two guys in suits coming after us, followed by the old guy.
Good — at least they’re not concerned about the innocent civilians in there…
As we near the room, she pushes me away, standing her ground, and turns to face them.
“I’m a federal agent!” she shouts, leveling her gun at them. “Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air, right now!”
They don’t even break step, they just keep coming, firing intermittently at us. Luckily, they’re terrible shots, but that’s not the point.
Without thinking, I step in front of Chambers and hold my hands out to the sides, hoping to God that they don’t shoot me before explaining themselves.
The corridor behind us is a dead end. We’re standing level with the door to my room, which is slightly ajar. I shuffle to my right and fall in line with Chambers, who’s still aiming her gun at the three guys. They stop a few feet in front of us. We’re at a standoff.
The old guy steps to the front and points his finger at me.
“I told you, you fucking dead man!” he yells.
“What have I ever done to you?” I ask.
“You beat up two of my guys,” he says. “You disrespect the Red Dragon!”
Chambers looks at me. She seems concerned. “You did what?” she whispers.
“It’s nothing,” I say, trying to reassure her. “Two assholes tried to mug me last night and I put them down, that’s all.”
“You broke my guy’s nose!” yells the old man. “You put them both in hospital! You disrespect the Red Dragon. You die!”
“Will you quit going on about that? What the fuck’s the Red Dragon?” I ask, getting frustrated.
“It’s the gang that runs Chinatown,” says Chambers with a heavy sigh.
“Oh…” I turn to look at her.
“They’re extremely violent,” she continues, “and the local PD kind of have an understanding with them that they keep their own house in order and stop any disputes spilling onto the streets, and they leave them be.”
“I see…” I say, nodding.
“And it would appear you’ve just started a war with them single-handedly.”
I smile. “Whoops…”
Chambers doesn’t look happy.
“I didn’t even do anything,” I say, protesting. “They started it, completely unprovoked.”
“That doesn’t matter so much to them,” she explains, angrily. “It’s about respect.”
The old man steps closer to us and looks at me.
“FBI bitch is right,” he says smiling as he turns to her. “Now drop your weapon. If you lucky, we might just shoot you,” he says.
“Hey, Mr. Miyagi — watch how you’re speaking to her, alright?” I say.
The two guys with guns behind him are looking restless, like they really want to start shooting at someone. I need to take them out.
The old guy keeps smiling but doesn’t respond. He looks back at Chambers.
“Put… your gun… down…” he says again.
He’s within arm’s length of me and his men are maybe three feet behind him. He’s short and looks like he doesn’t weigh all that much. I’m far from a hundred percent, but I reckon I’ve got enough in me to take these guys out before it’s too late. Bottom line, if they’re Triad, they’re likely to take the both of us hostage — torture me and do God knows what to Chambers… neither of which I care to think about.
“Do as he says,” I say to her. “Trust me.”
“Adrian, I’m a federal agent…” she begins, but I shake my head.
“It doesn’t matter, do as he says. It’ll be fine.”
She sighs and gives me a frustrated look before crouching down and placing her gun on the floor. Just as I’d expected, all three of them watch her do it. With legs like hers, they’d have to be blind not to watch her.
Her gun makes contact with the floor.
I step forward, quickly grabbing the old man by his throat and launching him, with all my strength into the guy on the left behind him. I was right — he is pretty light, and he crashes into his man, sending them both sprawling to the floor.
Without hesitating, I quickly close in on the remaining guy, grabbing his right wrist with my left hand and pointing it to the floor, controlling his weapon. I swing my right hand round and connect with the side of his head. I’m nowhere near full strength and he takes the blow and replies with one of his own, slicing his left hand across my face, causing me to lose my balance. I let go of his hand and I see out of the corner of my eye that he’s raising his gun toward me. I bring my left forearm across, knocking his aim off to my left. I jab him with my right, hitting him hard in the face.
He takes a step back, slightly dazed. I move in and, without breaking stride, slam my right foot into his left kneecap, pushing through, and breaking his leg in half. He goes down screaming, dropping his gun.
“Adrian!”
I look round to see Chambers fighting off the old man. She takes a decent punch and gives him the same back…
She can handle herself; I’ll give her that.
The remaining gunman is getting to his feet, so I walk over to him and slam his head into the wall as he stands. It leaves a dent in, what I’m guessing is, thin plaster. He collapses to the floor and I retrieve his gun, turning and aiming it at the old guy.
“Hey!” I shout.
He turns and freezes. Chambers steps to the side, picking her gun up and aiming it at him.
“Okay, listen up,” I say.
He ignores me, more concerned with Chambers. I don’t know whether that’s because she’s an attractive woman or because she’s an FBI agent with a gun on him.
“Hey, don’t look at her — look at me,” I say.
He turns to me, glancing at the gun in my hand.
“Now pay attention. I meant no disrespect to your organization, alright? I was simply defending myself against those two pricks that came at me. I have no idea who you are, and you really don’t want to know who I am. So let’s just chalk this up to experience and move on.”
The old guy looks at Chambers, then at me.
He shakes his head.
“You… fucking… dead man!” he says, slowly and deliberately. And a little condescendingly, I think.
I sigh. “Fine, let’s try this a different way,” I say, gesturing to his men. “Look at these two pricks, all broken and beaten on the floor… now, go and run back to your boss and tell them this is what happens when people come after me. Consider it a warning.”
He looks at me blankly, like he can’t comprehend why anyone would think it’s okay to talk to him like that.
“Go on,” I continue. “Off you fuck.”
I step aside and motion him past me. Reluctantly, he walks off. I watch him go through the waiting room and over to the elevators. He presses the button and steps inside without looking back.
I turn to Chambers. “You okay?” I ask.
She holsters her gun. “You’re an idiot,” she says, walking past me to greet the security guards who are approaching. She produces her badge and starts explaining what’s just happened.
And here’s me thinking I handled that rather well…
So I have a Triad gang who run Chinatown called the Red Dragon gunning for me now… well, they can get in line. My priority is The Shark. And if I’m going to get the FBI on my side, I need to be honest with them.