“Adrian, what happened at the hospital… that’s just the tip of the iceberg if the Red Dragon has you in their crosshairs, but if they get word that you’re going after Turner… they’ll protect their business relationship with him any way they can… It could lead to a street war. They’ll put a price on your head — you’ll have nowhere to run.”
“I wouldn’t be running,” I say. “But I see your point. Enough people have been hurt because of someone’s vendetta against me. I won’t allow it to happen again.”
“So let us do this by the book,” says Chambers. “It’s the only way to go about this without causing chaos.”
Thinking, I sit there quietly, looking at every angle and every option. Pellaggio’s the priority here, there’s no question about that. But to get to him, I have to get to this Joseph Turner and I can’t do that without further pissing off a Triad gang who already want me dead for no valid reason.
Unless…
I stand and leave the room, forgetting for a moment I’m in an FBI building. The answer just presented itself to me and my instincts have taken over, immediately rushing toward it.
“Adrian, I’m ordering you not to leave this building!” yells Agent Chambers behind me.
She and Wallis come running after me, stepping in front of me as I reach the main corridor of the building.
“Adrian, will you stop, please?” says Chambers, this time asking instead of telling.
I sigh, feeling bad for pushing them away, but knowing I have no choice if I want to end this.
“Grace, all due respect, but I don’t work for you. Plus, given I’m still not under arrest, there’s pretty much nothing you can actually tell me to do that I have to listen to.”
She sighs. “I know,” she says. “But, please, just wait and let’s do this properly. I don’t disagree that Turner is the best lead we have right now, but you’re going about this all wrong.”
“Am I?” I ask. “I intend going over there and knocking on his front door and saying that I’m in town and in the market for a couple of weapons for a job. I’m going to negotiate a face-to-face meeting with him and explain what guns I need, then offer him a small percentage as a goodwill gesture for supplying me with the hardware. I’ll be inside his operation, I’ll know how many men he has and how protected he is. I’ll be able to gather intel and give you something to justify making an arrest, and if I’m lucky and ask really nicely, he might give me something to go on with Pellaggio.”
Chambers and Wallis exchange a surprised and embarrassed look. He shrugs and she looks bewildered for a moment before looking back at me. Her eyes soften and she glances down before speaking.
“That’s… actually a pretty good plan,” she concedes. “I’m sorry.”
I smile. Ordinarily, right about now I’d launch into a tirade of sarcasm and I-told-you-so’s, but there’s no need. Not with Grace.
“You said yourself: I’m not as dumb as I look,” I say, winking at her.
It’s her turn to smile. “I guess you’re not. But it is stupid thinking you can do all this alone and with no preparation.”
I take a deep breath as an image of Josh flashes into my mind, of him lying in a coma, vulnerable…
“Look, we’re not trying to replace your friend, alright?” says Wallis, as if reading my mind. “But we can help each other here. There’s no doubt you’re the best person for this type of undercover operation. But this is our show. Let us help you prepare for this and we’ll watch your back the whole time.”
“I don’t need your help,” I say, defensively.
“I know,” says Chambers. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll do any harm if you accept it anyway.”
She’s right. They both are. I know it, and they know I know it. It’s more of a pride thing, which sounds silly, given the circumstances. But I feel like I’m betraying Josh if I let someone else do his job. But they make sense — going into something like this could get nasty. And while that doesn’t bother me, and I’m sure I can handle it, it’s simply easier if they were outside ready to back me up.
“Fine,” I say, eventually. “Do what you need to do to make this happen, and I’ll do it your way.”
“Really?” asks Chambers, not even trying to hide the surprise in her voice.
“Well, when I say ‘I’ll do it your way’, I mean I’ll stick to your plan as long as I think it’ll work. If it all goes to shit, as these things tend to do, then I’ll revert to doing things my way.”
Wallis looks nervous.
Chambers says, “That’s fair enough. It’s your life on the line in there. Given how little we have to go on, and how much worse things could get, do what you need to do, alright? Just…” She pauses, as if trying to find the right words. “Just try not to create more trouble than we already have.”
I smile and nod. “Deal.”
They turn to walk back to the conference room but I stop them.
“Oh, there’s one more thing I need for my plan to work,” I say.
“What’s that?” asks Chambers.
“I need to know how I can get a message to the Red Dragon.”
They exchange nervous looks.
“Do I want to know why?” she asks.
“Probably not,” I reply, smiling. “But you have my word it’s a great plan that will definitely work… maybe.”
After a few minutes of failing to reason with me, we headed back to the conference room. Agent Johnson joined us and Chambers has spent the last quarter of an hour filling him in on what’s happened and what I intend doing.
We’re sitting as we were before, with Johnson now next to Chambers on her right.
“You’re insane,” he says to me. “Are you in a rush to die or something?”
I smile and shake my head. “I’m just looking at the big picture,” I explain. “I’ve got The Shark terrorizing the city to get to me, and I’ve managed to get the Triads to mark me for death because of a misunderstanding in the street. As luck would have it, both problems have something in common — Joseph Turner. He’s supplied weapons to both of them recently, so I need to get to him to track down The Shark. My job here is going to be made very difficult by this Red Dragon outfit, so I need to figure out a way to get them off my back. I’m not going to carry on and let them come at me. I need to make a pre-emptive effort to take them out.”
“And you think this is the way to do that?” he asks, referring to my plan.
“I think it’s got as good a chance as any of working, yeah.”
He shakes his head and falls silent.
“Are you sure about this?” asks Chambers. “We can’t protect you from the Red Dragon if this goes south.”
“I’m not asking you to,” I say. “And it’ll work. Trust me.”
There’s a knock on the glass door and another agent enters and hands a piece of paper to Chambers. They leave again without a word and she passes the paper to me.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“That is the phone number of Jak Soo Yung — the head of the Red Dragon. We’ve hit up every contact, undercover agent, and asset we have to get you that.”
I’m genuinely surprised. Not just at the fact they seem willing to go along with my admittedly stupid plan, but that they were able to get results so quickly.
“Wow, thank you…” I say.
“From what we know of their organization — which admittedly isn’t much — your old friend from the hospital is what they call their Vanguard. He’s in charge of the day-to-day running of the less reputable business ventures and reports directly into Jak Soo Yung.”
“We’ve got a file on them,” says Wallis. “But we haven’t really got a formal investigation underway. The Organized Crime Unit might have, but they operate nationwide. This is a localized problem and there’s an uneasy peace on the streets that we don’t get involved with. We let the SFPD manage that.”